Baby Bella Cream of Mushroom

I adapted this recipe from "Appetizers Finger Food Buffets & Parties" by Bridget Jones. my version was DELICIOUS and tasted like cream of mushroom soup SHOULD taste!!

Baby Bella Cream of Mushroom Soup



1 T butter/margarine
1 Vidalia Onion-diced
1 garlic clove-minced
2 8 oz pkg of baby bella mushrooms, washed and quartered
1 T flour
3 T cooking sherry
3 3/4 C vegetable stock (I like Penzey's soup base)
3/4 C heavy cream
salt and pepper

In a large soup pot melt the butter and saute the onions and garlic about 5 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and cook on med-low covered about 10-15 minutes more.

Add broth and sherry, boil, and lower temp, then simmer about 15 minutes.

Puree mixture. I used an immersion blender and had a "chunky" texture that I enjoyed, but you could do more or less depending on your desired consistency.

Add salt, pepper, and cream. Stir and serve.

My cookbooks recipe served it with a goat's cheese crostini topped with a single stuffed mushroom and some fresh herbs. This looked and sounded fantastic, but since I made and ate the soup in my PJ's, the pomp and circumstance was unnecessary...maybe for a dinner party?

A quarter of this recipe has about 245 calories, 17 grams of fat, and 12 carbs.

breakfast bacon/egg muffins

Well, I tried it. One of my favorite "vessels" is an English Muffin. Especially when tomatoes are in season, I go through a ton. As a kid we made mini pizzas and as an adult I love fresh tomato, maybe bacon, and cheese all melted on top.

So when I saw the suggestion for these I was very curious.

So thanks to BOGO Natures Own muffins and price locked bacon from BiLo, I was able to make 12 delicious breakfasts for $11.00.

Here is the link that gave me the idea.
http://busycooks.about.com/od/breakfastmaindishes/r/eggmuffinsandwi.htm

And this is the way I did it.

12 WW English Muffins
12 eggs, scrambled in a little Pam olive oil and a little seasoning salt
12 pieces of bacon, cooked and halved
6 slices of cheese

-All you have to do is assemble each sandwich, wrap tightly in wax paper and freeze.

Today was my first attempt at defrosting and it went pretty well, although I'll keep experimenting and find a better way. I started by using the defrost button, but then got antsy. After 2 minutes defrosting it was still cold in the middle (better than cooked to death, though) so I nuked it on high with the top off for another 45 seconds. It worked great, but next time, I'm going to try the defrost method for a little longer.  I've found if I'm patient, defrosting on lvl 5 for about 7 minutes is perfect!

One serving: 240 calories, 26.5 carbs and 3 g fiber.

Movie Marathon

Well, last month, we spent an entire Sunday afternoon/evening watching all three Indiana Jones movies back to back. I was a little too young to really remember anything about them....and they were AWESOME!!

Now today, we spent a large portion of the day watching the original three Star Wars movies. They were pretty good, but I wasn't quite as thrilled as my husband had hoped.

Now here's my question...What should we watch next? I'm looking for suggestions with at least three movies so we can make a day of it. (No Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter please...too soon and I've already seen them multiple times.)

Planning my shopping trip tomorrow

Well, this summer has been tough financially. We've had plenty of money to pay the bills and buy food and everything, so don't feel too sorry for me! But, the entertainment/shopping budget is WAY down. Things are looking up for September and my pantry is stocked so no worries.

Anyway, that preface is to explain why my Publix shopping list is so light this week. I'm only shopping for two people...but we usually get more. I'll also probably run to Bi-Lo and maybe FL cause I see their ground beef is 1.50 a pound. (Be on the lookout for some freezer beef recipes coming soon?)

So far, my plan is this for Publix...

(2) Jars of Smuckers Strawberry Preserves - with 2 .25 Q's it'll be about 2.20
-I stupidly missed strawberry season in SC and didn't make any jam this year.
Considering that we ran out of canned strawberry jam last year on Christmas
Day makes it even worse. So I'm stocking up on strawberry and planning on
making some blueberry really soon before that too goes out of season! Of
course, there is still a lot of peach jam from last year (thank the Lord).

(2) Boxes of chex honey nut cereal - with 1 $1/2 Q it'll be about 2.50
-This is one way to guarantee that my husband will drink up the milk before it
goes bad!

(4) tubes of Crest Toothpaste - with 4 .50 Q's these should all be free (we'll see)
-food bank

(1) 12 roll package of Kleenex Cottonelle tp - using a .75 off Px Q and a .50 off man
Q it should bee about 4.25
-this item needs no explanation

(2) Smart Balance milks using 2 $2 off Q's making it $1

(1) whatever the Penny item is

-Total should be about $11.00

Jambalaya

Well, Ingles has their Eckrich smokey breakfast links on sale BOGO for 2.48, and I had two coupons for $.55 off, so a $.69 package of sausage inspired this dinner. I also splurged and spent $5.00 on shrimp, but it felt like a deal because I had all the other ingredients in my pantry. I'm sure this would be WAY more authentic with andouille sausage and all that...but hey...I grew up in Michigan!



Jambalaya

2 T olive oil
1 pkg of smoked sausage (links, little smokeys, whatever) cut into bite-sized pieces if needed
2 medium onions diced finely
1 small green pepper diced

1/2 C diced carrots (supposed to be with celery but my husband won't eat it)
2 can's diced tomatoes-do not drain
1/4 C water
3 cloves of garlic
2 T Zatarains Cajun Seasoning (use more or less to adjust the hotness)
3/4 C white rice
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
Optional: Fresh Parsley

-Heat a large pot and brown sausages in the olive oil for a few minutes. Remove and set aside.
-Add rice and spice to the oil in the pan and saute a few minutes to give it some color. Then add veggies and water, cover, and simmer on low about 20 minutes. You can occasionally shake the pan to help keep it from sticking.
-After 20 minutes, stir well and add the sausage and shrimp into the rice mixture. Cover and simmer on low heat about five more minutes. Hit with the minced parsley at this point if you've got it and enjoy.



I entered this recipe into my livestrong dailyplate "create a meal" and this is the info I got(although I did save out two of the breakfast links for my husbands breakfast tomorrow...so this is for 10 sausage links). I took 1/4 of the pot and for about 440 calories...I was stuffed and satisfied!

This is for THE WHOLE POT: you can do your own math depending on how much you eat.

Calories: 1768
Fat: 93
Carbs: 184
Fiber: 15
Protein: 59

What is a Housewife?

If I were giving a wedding toast, I might start with these overworked words, "Webster's Dictionary defines a housewife as...", but I'm not giving a toast. Truthfully...I'm a little curious as to the exact definition because although I consider myself a housewife, I'm probably not. I do work: roughly 18 hours outside of the home, 7 inside of the home, and I don't have any kids, but I also do a lot of "housewifey" things.

So let's see...

Wikipedia:
A housewife is a married (check) female (check) who does not work outside the home (oops).

Well, I don't like that one...let's check another.

Webster's:
A housewife is a married woman who is in charge of the house. BINGO!

I love my husband, and I appreciate how hard he works and that he brings me home a nice paycheck...but he does not do a whole lot of taking charge of the house. He takes charge of the garage (meaning I'm not welcome in it), which is fine because that also means he's in charge of the lawn mower (which I refuse to use). So he gets the garage and the lawn and I'll take the rest.

That's what this blog is about: The Rest.

I like to shop and cook, and because I'm dying to be debt free these previous two interests have led to me involving myself in couponing and freezer cooking (sort of like OAMC but not so serious). I'm a sort-of new homeowner, so I also dabble in artsy decorating projects and do a heck of a lot of cleaning. I also enjoy boardgames, drinking adult beverages, yoga, trying to eat healthy, TV (especially Bravo reality shows), going to church, and music.

So stay tuned for posts about "The Rest".