Homemade Snow Cone Syrup

Trevor and I have this tradition that whenever we watch a movie together, we air pop popcorn and make snow cones. So, this means that we go through a lot of popcorn and syrup. We are continually refilling our ice cube trays. We probably do this at least once a week, depending on how crazy life gets. It's become something we look forward to. In the last little bit, we've run out of our store bought snow cone syrup, which is pretty pricey. 

So, after a bit of researching, If figured out how to make it for about 25 cents. I usually buy sugar in bulk so I already have that on hand. It's about $0.25 for a packet of Koolaid mix. It's really super easy. Just prepare it a bit earlier in the day, so it has time to chill in the fridge. 

Ingredients:

- 2 C sugar

- 1 C water

- 1 Kool-aid packet of your choice. 

1. Boil water and sugar until they come to a rapid boil. 

2. Boil for 60 seconds. 

3. Take off heat, poor in 1 packet. Stir and let cool.

4. After it's cooled slightly, funnel into a bottle and store in fridge. We reused the snow cone bottles that we had. 

We've done cherry (seen above), and a mixed berry flavor. They have been really tasty so far! :) Super easy to make. It probably takes about 5-7 minutes altogether. I make this during the day, let it cool and then come evening, we are ready for a movie! 

- SamiMae

Lion House Dinner Rolls

Yesterday I attempted making the Lion House Dinner rolls. We had these at our wedding breakfast and oh boy...they are so good. I could die eating them. You can't stop with one roll. So, I tried to make them at home. I have the Lion House recipe book (Trevor got it for me for Christmas. :) And He wanted me to give it a shot.

The dough was unlike anything I had ever made before. It was more liquidity than my other breads. The recipe had me whip the bread at a higher speed. It just had a super smooth texture and boy, did it rise FAST and it got LARGE. Overall, the bread was good. Little work on the technique, and flavor. I was most disappointing in the flavor...there wasn't any. I think it's because I used shortening instead of butter (the recipe said I could use it.) I didn't have any butter to use or that would have been my first choice. Overall, it turned out pretty good!

The inside texture was good too! Light and fluffy - just missing the flavor. I'll get it though. :)

See how big that got! It didn't rise more than an hour, and that's WAY more than double in size!

The batch was suppose to make 18 rolls. I got more. (There was a second pan)

Final results.  Don't those look yummy! They are super soft and fluffy inside.

We've been making Trevor's lunches on these. He's has some sandwich shots for lunch. :)

- SamiMae

Spanish Rice

I did it! I figured out how to make Spanish rice with our left over white rice! Sometimes dinners will leave us with leftover white rice, often times from haystacks, etc. I hate to see the cooked white rice go bad. Last time I tried the Spanish rice, it didn't turn out well, but this time. WOW!

I've discovered the magic of Rotel. A little goes a long way with this stuff. But this gave it the kick it needed and the flavor punch to the taste buds! Give it a try.

Ingredients:
- Rotel
- Corn
- Rice
- Tomato sauce

1. Combine cooked rice and rotel in a pan. Go easy on the Rotel, add it in slow and add more if you'd like more heat. Ours had a kick on the back end that you had to watch out for. ;)
2. Add in corn
3. Add in a can of tomato sauce. I used just an 8 ounce can. This helps tone down the Rotel. I also found that the longer it cooked the more mild it became.
4. Salt or pepper to taste, if desired.

Sorry for my crummy picture, the easiest camera I have is on my phone. 

This competes with the Rice-a-Roni Spanish rice. Quite frankly, this has more flavor, I think. Once the Rotel and corn are added in, it gains quite a bit of bulk. You don't need a lot of rice to make a nice large side dish. :) 

- SamiMae

Second time Guacamole (Rotel included!)

Update on my guacamole making skills, I found a magical secret to making tasty guac. Are you ready? Mix in some Rotel with it. Yes, that's right. Rotel. (Save most of it for Spanish rice.) This batch of guacamole was SOOOO TASTY. It had quite a bit of heat to it. Rotel includes the pepper seeds in it, so that's where the heat is.

Ingredients:
- Avacado
- Rotel
- Minced onion
- Salt
- Lemon/lime juice.

1. Mash up avocado
2. Add a tiny bit of Rotel. A little goes a long ways! Learned that the hard way.
3. Add minced onion, salt and lemon/lime juice to flavor.
4. Let sit for at least 15 minutes. The longer you let the mixture mix, the more the flavors will combine. I let it sit in the fridge 15 minutes while I finished up dinner, and it did wonders!

It's super easy to make tasty guacamole! Avocados around here are only .99 cents. That's all this cost me! Everything else I keep on hand!


- SamiMae

Homemade Bean and Chicken Burritos!

Today I had the hardest time trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner. I cruised Pinterest for quite a while and gathered a few ideas. Finally, I decided to make homemade bean and chicken burritos.These burritos were delicious because - the tortillas were homemade, the inside was kept simple.

Some times, things are better and tastier when kept simple. This dish was one of those. I've been perfecting my tortilla making, so they were soft and flexible and oh so flavorful, way better than store bought. Even though there is no extra seasoning involve in this stupidly simple dish, it had a LOT of flavor. You can spice it up however you like with any extra spices or keep it mellow.

You'll laugh when you hear the inside mixture. A drained can of pinto beans, and a drained can of chicken. Ya, that's it. Nothing else. I drained both cans, put them together in a pot on the stove and warmed them up. Wrapped up inside a tortilla with a little bit of cheese, sour cream and salsa if you like, these things were AMAZING. Better than any frozen bean burrito and belly filling delicious for homemade.

I also made homemade guacamole again, (which was EVEN better than before.), and Spanish rice. (Super easy, see recipe here)


Ingredients: 
- Can of chicken (or cooked chicken breasts)
- Drained pinto beans
- Tortillas
- Cheese
- Sour cream (optional)
- Salsa (optional)

1. Make/ warm tortillas
2. Drain chicken and pinto beans. Warm up on stove.
3. Load it all up and dig in. :)

Doesn't get better than that. Homemade, healthy, fast, simple, cheap. Altogether this meal cost me probably less than $5 and it'll get us both lunch tomorrow as well! :) Trevor and I ate way to much! So tasty!

It's to easy not to try it!

- SamiMae

BBQ Chicken Tin Foil Dinner

This was another original. Not to complex by any means though. It was quite tasty, completely healthy (other than the BBQ sauce), and I had everything on hand. It's similar to my favorite BBQ pineapple quesadillas .

Ingredients:
- Chicken tenderloins
- Pineapple
- Green or red bell pepper
- Green chilis (I used a tiny bit from a can, optional)
- BBQ sauce
- Onion (Optional)

- Tin Foil.

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Put chicken on tinfoil, top with pineapple, green chilies, about 3 slices of green pepper, a few slices of onion. Top with BBQ sauce. Wrap it up.
3. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour.

Pretty customizable. Use whatever you have at home!

In the last 10-15 minutes this had to cook, I prepared an super easy and quick stir fry. I LOVE stir frys 

Stir fry: 

I cut up 1 zucchini and 1 squash. You can add in peppers or other veggies like broccoli. I cooked them in a bit of canola oil and topped with Mrs. Dash seasoning. Quick, simple. Tasty. Healthy.

This was a favorite. Quick and easy. It was perfect for a weeknight. I love meals that I can put in the oven and continue on doing my own thing. The BBQ sauce is pretty liquidy after it comes out, but the chicken was so moist! I'm making this again. 

- SamiMae

First Time Guacamole

Earlier this week, I bought an avocado. The first one in my entire 6 month marriage! I didn't know quite what to do with it, until tonight. I made guacamole! YUM! I found a recipe on Pinterest, so I could see what it called for, because I had no idea what is in guacamole. I found this recipe. I did mine quite a bit different, because I didn't have a lot of it, but it was a start!

Ingredients:

- 1 avocado

- Lemon juice

- Garlic powder

- Diced tomatoes (leftovers from last night, yes, I got creative)

- Diced onion (I actually used frozen!) 

- Salt

Pretty simple to make. Cut up avocado and mix in all the ingredients! Use a fork. Go off of taste, but remember that after it sits for a while, the flavors will absorb and it'll taste better. I can't wait to taste mine tomorrow. :) Even the 10-15 minutes that it sat while Trevor and I finished making dinner, was enough for it to start absorbing the flavors. I was quite impressed. It was pretty good. :)

I didn't have any lime, only lemon. I had cilantro, but was to lazy to see what parts of it were good to use. (It was 9 pm when we were making dinner). I even used frozen onions, just a bit though, and they were diced, so they thawed pretty quick. 

I gotta say, for my first time, it was pretty good! I think I will SO be making this again! 

- SamiMae

Stuffed Bell Peppers

So, last night I made stuffed bell peppers. Secretly, growing up I never liked them. But I wanted to give them another try. I've learned the only way to like things, is to eat them. :) This was pretty tasty. I was able to eat about half the pepper, and then I was done, but the insides were really good! These were simple to make. They can be time consuming depending on how you choose to make them. This was another recipe I made from Pinterest. But, I made mine quite a bit different. You can view the original recipe here.

Ingredients:
- Bell Peppers
- Cumin
- Salt
- Diced tomatoes
- Black beans
- Corn
- Rice
- Meat (I used ground beef.)
- Cheese
- Green onions (optional)


1. Clean out peppers, remove seeds and veins. Let them dry
2. Start cooking rice. I used brown rice, no instant stuff. So, that took a while to cook.
3. Cook meat, add in cumin, salt, tomatoes, black beans, and corn.
4. Add rice to meat mixture after it's cooked. Season to taste if you feel it needs more.
5. Next comes the stuffing. Stuff each pepper full of the yummy meat mixture!
6. Cook peppers in the oven for about 30-45 minutes at 350, depending on your preference. Mine was about 35 minutes. Top with cheese and green onions.

I found that it was really good with ranch. That's how I was able to eat the pepper! I love peppers in dishes, but to eat one whole or raw or even cooked can be a challenge. But, nonetheless, this was a tasty dish! Trevor ate the whole thing! For being in a pepper, it was pretty mild on heat and taste. Give it a shot!

We only cooked two peppers, and had quite a bit of leftover rice stuffing mix, so we put it in the pan with the 2 peppers to cook to eat later. (We actually used the leftovers tonight for dinner. :) Along with our stuffed peppers, we had a salad and my yummy homemade bread.

- SamiMae

Homemade Sandwich Bread *** Updated

How many of us want to buy bread when it's over $3 a loaf? Not me! So, I've found a recipe that has SUPER delicious and is sturdy enough to have our all our favorites spread onto it. My favorite is Nutella. Peanut butter and Nutella to be exact. (It's like a giant Reece's peanut butter cup, but better!)

I've made three batches of this now and each time it's gotten better and better. The flavor is always tasty, and it's fluffy. I've also improved my technique. I found this recipe on Pinterest. I also followed her link to learn a bit more on the technique. I've gone into more depth to explain the steps and what I've learned. This recipe is amazing, I'm never buying store bought bread again! (Click here for original recipe.)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoons of yeast
- 1 cup of milk (Whole or 2% are best, I think.)
- 2 tablespoons of white sugar
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 2 table spoons of butter
- 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups of flour

Instructions:
1. In your mix master, put in yeast and warm water. I like to do yeast first, because that way I know all the yeast is activated by the water. Let it sit for 5 minutes

2. Meanwhile, melt butter. Measure out milk, and set aside sugar and salt.

3. After the 5 minutes is up, pour in sugar and salt. (These help the yeast). Then pour in the butter. I like to then turn on the mix master while I slowly pour in milk. You don't want the butter to solidify again. (This did happen to me once, not the best thing). Right now, I'm using my whisk like attachment.

4. Turn on mix master and pour in 3 cups of flour. Do it gradually. I found it took me 3 cups of flour before the dough clumped together. We will be mixing the dough for about 8-10 minutes. During this time, keep adding in flour. Do what's best for you. Climate and elevation can have an effect on bread. You want your dough to be sticky, but manageable. If you pull the dough out and it sticks to your entire hand, better add a bit more flour. I speak from experience. I try to add in as little flour as possible. But, go with your gut feeling.

5. After you've mixed your dough, and have it in a nice ball, put it in a bowl that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking oil. Let the dough rise for 1 hour in a warm area.

6. After it's risen, dump the dough onto a cutting board, or counter top with a bit of flour nearby. Cut the dough into 2. (I used a pizza cutter, that way my two balls were more even sized). Form dough gently into a ball and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

7. After the dough has rested for 10 minutes, it's time to form the dough into our loafs. It is important that you do this. I didn't do it on my first batch and my loaves were tiny.
     A. With the palm of your hand, gently push the dough into a rectangle or square. There will be little bubbles in the dough. Don't purposely try to pop them all. :) I believe that these help your dough rise.
     B. After the dough is in a square/rectangle, fold in thirds. Yes, fold this hot dog style.
     C. Next, pinch the edges together so it creates a seam.

8. Gently put dough into a greased bread tin. (I use stone cookware. I only have 1 bread tin, but I have similar shaped casserole dishes. I find that these work better then the bread tin.)

9. Cover the dough and let it rise for another 45 minutes to an hour. The dough doesn't rise very much once it's in the oven. So, make sure you let it get nice and big. I usually let it sit for an hour. Sometime during the second rise, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

10. After it's risen, you can slash the top of it, from one end to the next, very gently with a knife. The original author of this recipe claims it helps. I haven't found much of a difference personally. Your choice!

11. When you go to put your loafs in, turn the oven down to 375 and pop them in! Let the dough cook for about 30-45 minutes, depending on your preference. Mine is usually 35 minutes. Once the dough is pulled out, dump it out of the tins and tap the top and bottom. It should sound hollow. Now, let the bread cool. I know we all are looking forward to that warm slice of bread, but give it a few minutes. Do this because, first, you'll burn yourself. And second, you'll squish and deflate the bread. I speak from experience. The bread will get a dough like feeling at the bottom of the loaf if you try to cut into it to early, plus it'll separate the top of the bread from the bottom when you cut it. I'd recommend maybe 15 minutes to cool down.

12. Enjoy your tasty bread!

First attempt, the red dish is my stone cookware.

See, this loaf did really good, the other one didn't rise very much. 

One came out prettier than the other. The bigger one (left) is the one from the red dish.

Kinda sad looking loafs, but ohhhh sooo tasty! I cut into it too early, see my loaf is squished and has a doughy texture on the bottom of the loaf because it was compacted.

Third attempt. Much, much better. 

(Third attempt). SEE how large it is! I also can slice the bread pretty thin, which is nice! This bread is sturdy enough for thinner slices. See how full it is? :) With each attempt they get better. 

I've been enjoying having fresh homemade bread. With more practice, I'm totally independent from the grocery store and their pricey breads!  No preservatives, no prepackaged or processed bread. Homemade, fresh, warm delicious bread from now on!

- SamiMae

Potato Chips - A Work in Progress

Today, I wanted to try making potato chips. I am trying to become less dependent on the grocery store and save money. We don't need potato chips, but they are fun to eat. So I decided to give it a try.

For a first shot, they turned out pretty good! I used this recipe as a guide.

Ingredients:
- Potatoes
- A clove of garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut potatoes thin, about 1/16th of an inch. This is key. I don't think they'll turn out good if you don't do this. I have this handy little slicer that I got as a wedding gift. The first time I tried using it, I couldn't figure it out. But, I tried it again and it was like magic. It's one of the best kitchen tools around. My potatoes got super thin!

After I sliced them, I put them in a bowl of cold water to wash off the starch and keep them from going yellow. A few days ago, I tried making hash browns by shredding them, and they didn't turn out well, they got soggy and yellow really quick. I was afraid that'd happen here, but luckily it was different! Anyway, after I had them all cut up and in the cold water, I strained them and then rinsed them to get any remaining starch off. Then I patted them dry with a paper towel.

Sometime during this process, we need to pour some olive oil on the pan we are going to be using and then take a garlic clove, slice it in half and rub it all over the pan. Squeeze the garlic's oil onto the pan, it'll help give it flavor.  

I put them in a bowl and poured in some olive oil, salt and pepper. I then used a plate to cover the bowl and I shook it up. Don't be afraid to go a bit heavy on the pepper. I could have done more. I should have put the garlic cloves in the bowl while I shook it up. That might have helped give it more of a garlic flavor.

Afterwards, put the potato slices on the pan. The original recipe said have them about 1/4th an inch apart. I only wanted to use one pan, so I just covered the whole thing. Still turned out good.

They tasted good, but are a work in progress! You can see my oven gets hot on the sides of the pan...hahaha. Weird! Those burnt ones were good. Most were crispy and had a crunch. There were a few soggy ones, but there was quite a bit of oil by the time you consider the pan being covered and the potatoes soaked with it. 

These little guys were good, and I'm going to perfect my recipe and try new ideas and recipes. I don't want to have to buy potato chips at the store again. They aren't healthy and it costs a bit of money. The picture above doesn't look like a lot, because I had already eaten a few. But, I only used 2 smaller sized russet potatoes. So really, this didn't cost me much at all! 

If you try this, let me know how yours turned out!

- SamiMae

Lick the Bowl - Chicken Enchilada Pasta

This was an AMAZING meal. So good, that I didn't manage to get pictures of the final product. Hahaha. This one is a MUST. It was super easy, and it tasted so good! I got the idea off of Pinterest, but did mine quite a bit different. View the original recipe here.

This is better then hamburger helper, and probably quicker. I'm so excited about this meal, I was worried, and experimented. I also had to feed this to my mother-in-law. I was hoping it'd turn out edible, but it is probably one of my new favorite. I'm a huge fan of enchilada's and this just took it to a whole new level.  Are you ready?

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts (or a can of chicken. I did 2 breasts, and the flavor and texture were great.)
- 1 can of enchilada sauce
- Noodles. (I used bowtie)
- Sour Cream
- Cream cheese
- Diced onion, or minced (Optional.)
- Crushed garlic, or garlic powder. (Optional.)
- 1-2 tablespoons of veggie oil.
- Shredded cheese. (Optional.)
- Green onions. (Optional.)


Yup, that's it. You can add any seasonings you'd like. I really like the enchilada sauce that I use. I don't put amount sizes because it differs for everyone.  Now, I'll explain my process.

1. Cook the chicken breasts in some vegetable oil. Add in some diced onion and garlic while it cooks. It adds great flavor! If you are using a can, you can skip this step.

2. Boil your water, and begin cooking your noodles.

3. Warm up enchilada sauce. When I make my enchilada I use this:

This stuff is a small brand I've never heard of, but this is liquid gold in a can. Amazing heavenly goodness. I found this at Winco I believe. I need to pick up some more, because we use it so much.

So, I cooked this, it was a little spicy, and my husband and mother in law are a bit sensitive to heat. So that's where a couple scoops of sour cream come in handy. Well, that wasn't quite enough. So I added in a few tablespoons of cream cheese. Feel free to get creative and try adding different spices to yours. I continued to heat this on the stove. Then, this mixture did something awesome! It began to thicken and...kind of enlarge in size. I could just tell by looking at it, that it was ready to get dumped on my noodles!

4. Dump over noodles, stir. Top with cheese and green onions. I love green onions, so for me, those really made the dish. This dinner had so much flavor! It was gobbled down and almost gone by the time dinner was over. Everybody had a nice helping of seconds.

Top with some green onions and cheese.

Again, this dish was so good, I didn't get a final picture because it was so good and I didn't have leftovers. I was so excited about this meal that I forgot to take a picture before I began eating!

I served this dish with a salad and a side of veggies. Super quick and cheap meal to make. I'm doing this again!

- SamiMae

Mr. Yoshida's Beef Fajitas

Last night, I wanted to make some more tortillas. They were just so tasty the first time. I didn't want to cook any chicken, and I realized I hadn't cooked any beef for a while. So, I pulled out 2 of my "beef slabs" from when I previously cooked my 5 lb. roast. All it is, is 2 thick slices of that roast, with the juices it cooked it. It has quite a bit of flavor on it's own.

I pulled the 2 slabs out and cooked them in my wok. I love using my wok, I love stir-frys and love Asian flavoring and food. I'm trying to expand my cooking abilities to include Asian food. Last night, I had to come up with it on my own, based on the ingredients I had. Pinterest was of no help to me, but that's ok. So this, as simple as it is, I do believe I can call an original. :)

I thawed the beef in the wok, it had some nice juices it was cooking in. I have a little grate that sits on top and I put some veggies on it to thaw. I keep bags of frozen veggies in my freezer. When I go grocery shopping, I'll pick up an extra pepper or onion. Then I'll come home and slice it up and freeze it. I usually rotate these out pretty quick. So, I got everything cooking/thawing.

After that was done then I had to decide what seasonings to put in it. I poured in a bit of Mr. Yoshida's seasoning. You can find it at Costco. It's my favorite. :) This seasoning gives it a sweet taste. I also added in a bit of cumin, and an extra onion seasoning, let it all mix together and simmer. I must say, I was impressed with the flavor. This was quite a great meal. :)

Ingredients:
- Beef
- Red bell pepper, sliced
- Green bell pepper, sliced
- Onion, sliced
- Cumin
- Mr. Yoshida's
- Optional: minced onion. I used this because I didn't put enough onion in it to give it much flavor.
- Tortillas
- Toppings, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, cilantro

I found that the meat had a lot of flavor when I dipped it in the sauce and then put it on my tortilla. I also made some rice-a-roni "fried rice". Pretty bland, but it was nice to have a side dish.

I love the color that the red and green peppers add. The sauce, is where a lot of the flavor is. 

Not too great of a picture, but man...this was SO GOOD! 

My favorite thing about cooking is, it's an experiment. Forget the measurments. Each time a recipe is made, it's going to be altered based on amount of people. There is only Trevor and I eating, so I have to cut back on a recipe. This usually forces me to just look and see what ingredients are in a recipe and then go from there. It's fun to go off of taste and smell. It makes it unique and not just "some recipe". It also improves a cook's skills. I've found that since Trevor and I have been married, that my cooking has improved exponentially.

And, if it does turn out horrible? Worst case scenario? Scrap it, and make mac and cheese. :) HAHAHA. (I think I only offered to do that once, when we were first married.). I learned a lot.


-SamiMae

Homemade Tortillas! This Recipe is GOLD!

Alright, I scored BIG with this one! I've gotten tired of buying tortillas. They are expensive and I don't like having to run to the store after every 10 that we eat. Trev and I love Mexican food, or anything that involves tortilla. Quesadilla, burritos, tacos, enchiladas, you get the point. Well, I get all my good meals off of Pinterest, and HERE is another!

This lady came up with a wonderful idea to make a huge batch and pull it out whenever she needed tortillas. She also makes large batches of other things. Go check it out!  I decided to give it a try tonight. IT'S AMAZING! I'm never buying store bought tortillas ever again. These were so good and so super easy to make!

Ingredients:
- 16 cups of flour
- 2 Tbsp of baking powder
- 2 Tablespoons of salt
- 2/3 C shortening (She says 1/2 to 1 C)


Ok, mix the flour, baking powder and salt all together. (I had to separate it out into 2 big bowls and do half of the recipe in each bowl.) Whisk it all together. Now, everybody is different with how they choose to go about making it. What I had to do next was take one bowl and put it in my KitchenAid and 1/3 C. of Crisco shortening. I was worried that it would ruin the flour where it seemed to be more of a liquid. But the Crisco mixed right in with the flour and soon you couldn't see it. It's like the salt and baking powder! :) Then I had to dump the mix that was in my KitchenAid into my container that I have. Then I took the second bowl, put it in the KitchenAid and added the Crisco. I had fun, there was flour everywhere.

Anyway, I did get it all in my container. Except for 2 cups. Which was great, because I used it for dinner. :) Remember, you are adding volume to the flour by adding in the shortening, salt and baking powder. I didn't think anything of it, until I realized that I couldn't get my "16 cups" into my gallon container. So really, this 16 cup recipe makes 18 cups. (At least that's how mine turned out).

To make Tortillas:
Add 1/2 cup of water to 2 cups of mix.

Don't stir with a whisk. It didn't work for me, I had to use a fork. I let mine rest for 15 minutes, but really didn't notice a difference. I did notice however, that I had added a bit more water than I should have. My dough turned out really sticky. I had to add a lot of flour as I was rolling my tortillas out. Less water, I think is better. Divide your dough out into balls. I got 9 out of my 2 cups. They made little tortillas, but were a bit thicker, so I think they were perfect.

I rolled my tortillas out with a glass cup, they kept sticking to my rolling pin. I also didn't get any "circular" tortillas, but that's ok! I kept adding flour to it as I rolled it to help keep it manageable. Then, toss one at a time onto a hot pan and let them cook. Once the first side starts bubbling, give it about 20 seconds, then flip it and give it another 20-30 seconds. Each stove is different, you just have to experiment with it. (Next time, I think I'll add a bit more salt.)

I used these tortillas to go with my homemade fajitas that I'll post next. :) Trevor and I did the math, we got 18 cups worth out of this, and I got 9 tortillas our of 2 cups. That's an average of 81 tortillas! The only real expense on this is the flour, which was 1 1/2 one pound bags of flour. Not bad! I picked mine up cheap at a case lot sale at Smiths. The salt, baking powder and Crisco are things I have on hand. So at the most this cost me was $5, and I'll get 81 tortillas! AWESOME!

16 cups of pure awesomeness. 

Yes, these tasted very good. 

Bread Bowls and Potato Soup!

For a few weeks now, I've been craving homemade bread bowls and soup. So, on Thursday, I had a bit of extra time. So I decided to finally make it. Let me say now, It was AMAZING! This delicious meal was worth all the time and effort that was put into it. This isn't a meal you can just whip together in a matter of minutes, at least, it wasn't for me. It took a bit of time, but oh baby. It was worth it.

I started with the soup. (I'll admit now, I find all my recipes on Pinterest, and then tailor them to my own desires and sizing.) I have a cute little crock pot that I use. I cut up a few potatoes and poured them in. I put in a fair amount of my frozen diced onions. One can of chicken broth went in as well. I also added in about 6ish ounces of evaporated milk. I didn't quite use a whole can. Lastly, I added a bit of water, salt and pepper and then let it cook on high!

I headed back to campus for about an hour or two. Once I got back home to finish dinner, everything was cooked quite nicely. All the potatoes were soft, almost mushy. I'll admit, looking down at it, it didn't look very appetizing yet. Next, I melted about 3-4 tablespoons of butter, mixed in about 1/3 cup of flour. It got think pretty quick. Then I added in about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the evaporated milk mixture from the crock pot. I let it cook for a minutes. It quickly thickened. At first, I didn't know if I was doing it right, but went along with it. I added the creamy butter/flour/evaporated milk mixture all back into the crock pot, added about half a can of corn and some sour cream and let it finish cooking. I stirred it up good, added some extra onions and let it sit. It started to look and smell REALLY yummy. After I mixed in everything, it was starting to look like soup. :)

While that cooked, I started working on the bread bowls. When it comes to breads, I usually follow the recipe pretty close. I love bread, I like to make bread. But I'll admit, I'm not very good at it yet. These bread bowls, are fool proof, and the flavor is amazing. This recipe could easily make flavored bread bowls, or any form of bread in general. This could have been really flavorful if I had added some rosemary, or onion or dill, or any other herb. I really like this bread recipe that I found. (I'll attach links below.)

For the bread, I mixed the sugar, water and yeast together and let it rise. (While it rose, I finished dishes. :) Then, I added the salt, oil, and flour to the mix. When I cook breads, I'd rather have it be sticky and get all over my hands, then dry and super manageable. More flour = drier bread. Less flour = moister bread. So, after I added the flour, I moved it to another dish to rise for about 45 minutes. Then I formed it into 3 bread bowls. The dough was really sticky because I had used only 3 cups of flower total. But, I got it into nice little balls, and let them rise for another hour. They got quite large and I was thrilled! I popped them in the oven and let them cook for about 20 minutes, pulled them out and TA-DA! Dinner was hot and ready. I was pretty proud!

Almost done! 

My potato soup!

HOW BEAUTIFUL! (and yummy) 

Topped with a bit of green onions....my favorite

AHH! Dream come true! 

Doesn't that look nice? I'm drooling just thinking about them. Please excuse the poor pictures. I'm working in it. We also have really poor lighting in our little apartment, and I don't know how to use my fancy camera! HA. Here is the recipes and links below! Enjoy!

Loaded Potato Soup

- 4 russet potatoes 

- 1/2 yellow onion. (I also used dried minced onion at the end to give it more flavor)

- 1 can low sodium chicken broth

- 1/2 can evaporated milk

- 3-4 tablespoons of butter

- 1/3 cup flour

- sour cream (about 1/2 cup)

- Salt and Pepper

- Cheese

- Bacon

- Green onions

We topped it with green onions. I had some bacon, but it was frost bitten, so we didn't use it. :( You can also top it with cheese, but we found it didn't need it and was perfect on it's own. This is an easy soup I'll be making again.You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Italian Bread Bowls

- 1 tbsp yeast

- 1 1/4 C warm water

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 3 - 3 1/2 C flour

This is a great bread recipe. I'm glad I found it and will be making it again. :) Hopefully, I'll get really good at it. That'd be awesome. Anyway, You can find the recipe I used HERE.

Thanks for reading my novel of a post and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe it'll inspire you to cook a bit more. :)

-SamiMae

Veggie Grilled Cheese!

So, one of my New Year's goals is to cook one new recipe a week. This week I cooked grilled cheese with a twist. (I found the recipe on pinterest). It was new and certainly interesting. It's a vegetable grilled cheese.

Ingredients:
Whole grain bread
Sliced cheese
Green peppers
Sliced Roma tomatoes
Spinach.

Make is just like a grilled cheese, but put 2 green pepper rings, 4 slices of tomatoes and a handful of spinach. I'd recommend cooking it on low on the stove. You want your cheese to melt, but not burn the bread. You also want it to cook all the way through, so the veggies are tender and warm.

Not bad, right? :) (Ignore everything in the background. :) I was worried about the peppers being cooked all the way, and I had never had any kind of cooked spinach. Spinach is one of those veggies that I'm really working on liking. This sandwhich, as simple as it it, was a stretch for me, but turned out to be really yummy! When I make it next, I think I'll add some bacon onto it. As Trevor and I sat, eating our sandwhiches, we craved bacon on it.

We also served this with a simple side of baby carrots and ranch. I'm all about healthy dinners, and this sure was one! I'll definitely be making this again! :)