BBQ Day 3 - Nachos

I have not been ignoring you!  I promise!  

Things have been insane around here!  Let me start by saying, whoever came up with the idea of Daylight Savings Time...I would like to meet you...and kick you in the shin!  This person did not think about how this would effect people with small children.  You can't just tell a 22 month old, "Ok, it's Daylight Savings Time, so you have to adjust your little internal clock." 

I really think it caused my son to be possessed by evil spirits!  He became a little terror child!  Poor guy, he just didn't understand.  

Anyway, after adjusting to the time change and having an exorcism, we started construction here for my hubby's new office.  He is changing jobs soon and will be working from home!  (We are super excited!)  Goodness knows he wouldn't get anything done in this mad house during the day, so we decided to close in part of our garage.  (Thankfully, we have a HUGE garage!)

So yesterday morning I told myself I was going to get back on the blogging train...Yeeaahhh...That must have been one of those moments people talk about.  You know, the ones who say, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans."  Yeah...

I went to get my son out of bed in the morning to find that he had thrown up all over his bed and himself.  Then after eating breakfast, he threw up all over ME!  

I'm sorry!  TMI!  

So it has been a rough week in this house! 

There has been some good things though...

This weekend my son stayed with his Mimi on Saturday night, which meant I got to do some crafting!  I haven't had time to do anything in so long!  It was very nice!  And he had fun too!

I have been sewing like crazy the last couple of days and can't wait to show you everything!  But first, I have to show you my third day of barbeque!  We had nachos!

I just took store bought tortilla chips, and piled everything on top of them!  Barbeque,  shredded cheese, and rotel dip!  Unfortunately, it was time to go to the store, which meant I was out of a few of my staple items that I would have put on there like olives and tomatoes.  But they were still SO GOOD!

If you have never tried BBQ nachos , you really should!  They are fantabulous! 

So go make this SUPER simple BBQ, and try it!  Like I said before, it lasts my family about a week and we try to come up with all kinds of different ways to eat it.  What are your favorite ways to eat barbeque?

Easy BBQ

 I am about to show you one of my favorite recipes!!

I found this recipe a long time ago on the internet somewhere.  I thought it was crazy and way to easy to be good, but I tried it anyway, and boy am I glad I did!

Bar-B-Que in the crockpot!  It seriously can't get much easier than this!  

The best thing about it, besides being easy and good, is that it makes a LOT of BBQ!  Which is great for hosting a party, or to have leftovers!  I have made this for a party and it fed 6 adults and 2 kids and we still had a little leftover!  When I make this for just my family, we have TONS of leftovers which means we have what we call Bar-B-Que Week!  

I am going to show you how to make the BBQ, then in later posts I will show you what we have the rest of the week!  We will have BBQ Pizza, BBQ Nachos, and BBQ Potato Skins!!! 

Start with a 2 liter of Coke and a pork loin.  I like to use the big ones.  This is a 4 and a half pound loin.  (You can use the smaller ones, like Hormel, then you just won't use as much Coke.)  You will also need your favorite BBQ sauce.

Put the pork loin in the crockpot.

 Pour entire 2 liter Coke over the loin.

I think it looks very strange!

 Now here is the tricky part...

Put the lid on and turn on low for 8-10 hours and walk away!

Now, the first time I made this and I took the lid off after it cooked all day, I was kinda scared!  It looks like this...

Please excuse the picture, it is very hot!!  Lots of steam!

Now carefully take the meat out of the crockpot and put on a cutting board. I say "carefully" because it will literally fall apart!

Again, very carefully pour the liquid out of the crockpot.  **It is VERY HOT!!!**

Now I just run a knife through the meat to get it chopped like you want it.  You can also shred the meat with two forks, I just personally find it easier to do with a knife.  And it makes me feel like one of the people at the BBQ places when you walk in and they are hammering away with knife!  (I'm from Memphis, BBQ capital, so I know that sound very well!) 

Put the chopped or shredded meat back in the crockpot.

Pour BBQ sauce over it.  Use more or less, however you like it.  You will definitely need to taste it...(probably a couple of times, since you are smelling this yummy stuff), just to make sure the BBQ to meat ratio is right for you!

Now get some buns, slaw and baked beans and enjoy your Bar-B-Que!!!

Seriously easy, and seriously yummy!

My hubby says there is no sense in having BBQ out anymore because he likes mine just as much as anywhere he can buy it!  I don't know about all that, but it is definitely good!  

Really, I think he just likes the price!  I got this pork loin for $10.72 and the Coke for less than $1.  We will use this BBQ for at least 3 more meals, so that's a pretty good thing for those of us on a budget!

CrockPot Chicken & Dumplings

I started making chicken & dumplings in the crockpot several years ago.  The first time I made it my husband loved it!  Now every time we are talking about things we can have for dinners for the next week he ALWAYS says, "You know, we could have chicken & dumplings.  I'm just sayin'."

I don't make it every week, like he would like, but when I do make it he still gets very excited! 

We have been very excited about the fall shows coming back on tv, so I decided to make one of my hubby's favorite meals.  Now we can watch our shows and have a yummy dinner! 

It's really SO simple! 

Here's how you do it.

Throw 6 chicken thighs in the crockpot.  (I used frozen)

It might be scary to use frozen at first, but I do it all the time.  It's a huge time saver, since I usually forget to get the chicken out to thaw.  Using frozen will produce a little more liquid, but that's usually a good thing!

 Add one box of chicken broth.

Add one can cream of chicken soup.

Add one can cream of potato soup.  

You can really use any cream of soups that you want.  I usually use cream of chicken with herb, but didn't have any of that in my pantry, so I decided to change it up and use the potato soup.  We really liked it! 

Next add the spices.  I use 1 Tbsp garlic powder, 1 Tbsp onion powder, 1 Tbsp ground nutmeg, 1 Tbsp ground thyme, and a sprinkle of cumin.

 You can use any kinds if spices you like.

Now I stir it a little and try to sink the chicken as much as I can.  Since they are frozen they don't move very much, so I just try to make sure all the spices are in the liquid.

 If you want, you can put all the soups and spices in a bowl and mix well before putting them on top of the chicken, but I think that's just getting another bowl dirty...no sense in doing that! 

Turn the crockpot on high for 6 hours.  

This is after it has been cooking for 5 hours.

 Shred the chicken.  To do this you should just be able to squeeze it with tongs and it will fall apart.  If not, then shred with a fork.

Now for the dumplings!  (The best part!)

Get a can of jumbo biscuits...

Get an extra long piece of wax paper and a rolling pin.

 One at a time, put the biscuit on the wax paper.

Fold the wax paper over onto the biscuit and smoosh it down a little with your palm.

Now roll the biscuit out until it is VERY thin.  I usually roll them until they are about 5 or 6 inches in diameter.

Peel the wax paper off the top.

With a pizza cutter, cut small squares in the biscuit.  

**They do not have to be perfect and they do not have to be pretty!  Mine are usually very caddywompus!  As soon as they fall into the liquid, you can't tell!

**Make sure you cut them pretty small.  You want to get at least 6 cuts in each direction.  They will swell in the liquid and if you cut them big, they will probably be HUGE!  They also are pretty dough-y, and I'm not sure how the big ones would cook.

Hold the wax paper over the crockpot and peel the biscuit pieces off.  Let them fall into the soup. Stir after each biscuit.

Repeat until all biscuits are cut.  

**I usually roll and cut 4 biscuits with the wax paper that way, then I will turn it around and put the part that was on top onto the bottom.  After rolling and cutting so much it gets very flimsy and can tear and stick to the biscuits.  No one wants wax paper in their dumplings!

Give the dumplings a good stir.  Put the lid back on and cook for another hour. 

 **I usually stir them once during the hour just to make sure the dumplings aren't sticking together, but immediately put the lid back on!

And here you go...chicken & dumplings!

They were SO yummy!!  Hubby and I decided these were even better than usual!  I guess it must be the potato soup!

My 20 month old loved it too!

 He wanted to eat all of Daddy's!

If you make these Chicken & Dumplings, let me know!  I want to hear how you liked them!

Crockpot Tacos

A while ago I found a recipe for Taco Soup on Stephanie O'Dea's crockpot blog. It seemed easy enough, so I tried it. Honestly, when I took the lid off the crockpot at dinner time, I was less than thrilled. It smelled amazing, but that particular day I just wasn't wanting taco soup.

So my husband said, "Why don't we just drain it and have it on tacos?"

Brilliant! That DID sound good to me!!

We had a bunch left over and I stored some in the freezer for a quick taco meal later. The leftovers were good too!

So this time I decided to just make crockpot tacos, instead of soup! I have the same ingredients, but changed a few things.

Here is what you will need:

2 lbs ground beef
2 cans pinto beans
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans corn
1 large can petite diced tomatoes
1 can rotel
1 pkg taco seasoning (or 1/4 cup)
1 pg ranch dressing mix (or 1/4 cup)
tortillas
taco toppings




As you can see, we have the massive bottles of taco seasoning and ranch powder. We bought those at Sam's a while ago and I never thought we would use all of it, but we actually have gotten pretty darn close!

So first, you brown your ground beef and drain it. Pour ground beef into crockpot.


Drain and rinse pinto and kidney beans and add to crockpot.


Completely drain the rotel. Then slightly drain the tomatoes.

Add both to crockpot.


After opening all those cans I really started wishing I had an automatic can opener! I never understood why someone would really need one of those, but now I do!

Then I still had two more cans to open, but when I looked at them I smiled...


No can opener needed!! Yay!

Drain just one can of corn and add both to crockpot.


Add your seasonings. (I actually added a little more than 1/4 cup)


Give it a good stir.


Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 6 hours.


After it was done cooking, I spooned a little bit into a strainer to let the juices drain.


We had them on tortillas with sour cream and cheese.


They were SO good!!


We also had lots of leftovers! There was enough for two more meals! I put the rest in two freezer bags. Using a slotted spoon, I drained off some of the liquid, but not all of it. I wanted a little of it to stay in there.

When we have these tacos again, I will pull the bags out of the freezer to thaw, warm it up, then drain it.


The next time I make these Crockpot Tacos, I will probably drain everything. This time I slightly drained the large can of tomatoes, and didn't drain one of the cans of corn, but next time I will drain both of those. This will hopefully keep the liquid level a little lower. It will still produce some liquid from the beans and tomatoes.

Crockpot Meatloaf

Can you tell I have been on a crock pot kick lately? Geez! It's kinda crazy! But my husband is loving it, so I guess that's good!

I love trying new recipes and finding new things that my husband loves...yes, I said "that my husband loves"....not things that I love. If I only cooked for me, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't cook very much. It's just too much work for just me! So I am always looking for new recipes that I think he will like. When I make them, if he doesn't like it then I throw it away. Or if he makes his little "weeellll...it's-not-terrible" face, then it is also thrown away or sometimes tweaked to make it better.

My husband is a country boy to the core! He is a steak and potatoes kind of guy. I have joked with him that he could have steak every day for the rest of his life and he would be perfectly happy! The sad part is every time I say that he smiles and says, "Yep!" (He's a man of many words!) Although if he has steak every day for the rest of his life, his life probably won't be that long! So I try to throw a few other things in there for him!

Now I have to say, I am not a big fan of meatloaf. Never have been, really. I'm not sure why. It's not that I hate it, or have had a bad experience, I don't think. I just can come up with other things that I would rather eat...like anything else!

For a while now my husband has been asking me to make meatloaf. I have put it off and put it off. There was one recipe he asked me to make that had bacon in it and I seriously could NOT even look at the pictures! It looked so nasty! I said, "Honey, please don't make me make that!" He didn't of course, but that made me feel kinda bad.

So I went in search of a meatloaf recipe that I could at least LOOK at!! I came across a recipe on Pinterest that sounded like a winner. I could look at it, it seemed easy, actually sounded like it might taste good, and best of all, I happened to have everything I needed in my kitchen already!

So I whipped this up and surprised my hubby when he got home!

All you need is 2 lbs of ground beef, 1 egg, 1 packet of onion soup mix, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of tomato soup.

Take the ground beef, egg, and onion soup mix in a bowl.


Mix them very well.



Spray crockpot with cooking spray.



Put meat mixture into crockpot.



Pour can of cream of mushroom soup on top and spread around a little.



Pour can of tomato soup on top of that and spread around.



Cook on high for 4 hours. (Or low for 8 hours.)



Cover and walk away.


Now is a good time to cut out those coupons you keep setting aside. Or work on some sewing. Or just catch up on some Housewives of New Jersey. It's a guilty pleasure! I want to be like Caroline!

Wait, I have gotten completely off subject!

We are talking about meatloaf here!!

And voila! You have a wonderful surprise for your husband!


I should have taken a picture of it after taking the meatloaf out of the crockpot, but we just served it from there. The soupiness was a little strange and honestly scared me a little, but it was really good!


We added a little ketchup to the individual servings and this was really good!


We had this with Mushroom Onion Potatoes...also made in the crockpot! It was an excellent dinner!

I asked Tommy if this would work when he was craving meatloaf and he said it would! Thank goodness!!

Crockpot Meatloaf

2 lb of ground beef
1 egg
1 packet of onion soup mix
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 can of tomato soup

In a separate bowl, thoroughly mix ground beef, egg, and onion soup mix. (It's best to use your hands!) Put meat mixture in a medium or large crockpot. Cover meat mixture with cream of mushroom soup and spread around. Pour in tomato soup and spread around. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.