What We're Eating Wednesday - Deep Dish Pizza

Deep Dish Pizza
adapted from Tablespoon.com 

 We I love pizza and could eat it for almost every meal.  Because of that, I'm always on the look out for new pizza recipes/variations to try.  This one caught my eye because it is made in a 9x13 pan (thus the "deep dish" concept).  This was a hit and was very easy to make too! The toppings that we used were 1/2 Onion and Canadian bacon and 1/2 Mushroom and Canadian bacon.

 

Ingredients

1 (13 ounce) Pillsbury™ refrigerated pizza crust

1 1/2 cups pizza sauce

2 1/2 cups of your favorite cheese (I like using a mix of provolone, mozzarella and cheddar)

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

12 whole pepperoni (optional)

1/2 pound cooked ground spicy Italian sausage (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray or olive oil.
• Unroll the pizza dough, and press it into the bottom and halfway up sides of prepared baking dish.
• Spread the dough with some pizza sauce and, if using, sprinkle the cooked spicy Italian sausage over the top. Cover the pizza with cheese and then top with pepperoni (if using). Sprinkle the Parmesan over top.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with more Parmesan if desired. Serve immediately.

Make It Monday - Red, White and Blue Cupcakes

Several weeks ago I did a Make It Monday   post showing several Fourth of July ideas that I hope to make. I really had great intentions but, only one of the items happened:

These were so easy to make!  I went the total "cheater" way.  I used a box cake mix and canned frosting.  Once frosted, I just added the toppings.  Blueberries and Raspberries and then dipped in coconut to add texture to the white "stripes". 

Funny story.  I had made two batches - one to take to the family party on Fourth of July and one to take to our church picnic the following day.  I put the family batch in my cupcake holder.  Darryl grabbed the handle, walked outside and the bottom fell out.  Cupcakes everywhere covered in dirt and ants. Oops!  We threw the whole thing (cupcake holder included - since this had happened before) - right into the garbage!  I frosted the second batch quickly and took them those to the family party.  The church picnic was "stuck" with marinaded cucumbers and a bag of Doritos HA!

Things My Kids Say

* This past week while camping, there were crawfish in the creek that ran behind our site . . .when Josh saw them, he pointed out the "Lobsters" in the water.  :-) 

* I asked the boys what their favorite part of camping was this past week.  Josh stated that his favorite part was staying with Papa and Nana at the campground.  Nate stated that he didn't get to do his favorite part - to do glow in the dark bubbles (because Josh accidentally spilled the whole bottle all over the Hershey bars) so he didn't have a favorite.  That little stinker HA! 

I wish I could bottle up all of Nate's facial expressions when he tells us stuff - he is hilarious. 

Family Fun - Fourth of July

We had a lot of fun for the Fourth of July this year.  Between our own family fun and heading to my Mother-In-Laws for the actual Fourth - it was just a fun time all the way around.

For the first time ever, we purchased some Fireworks for the boys.  I went with some of my all time favorites that I remember as a kid - Pop-its, Smoke Bombs, Snakes and Sparklers.  

 I'm not sure who had more fun with the fireworks - the boys or Darryl!  We ended up doing fireworks for the entire week after the Fourth of July too.  The boys love them and may or may not have a new interest in Fire :-/ 

 As is our tradition, we went to sit outside on our front deck to watch the fireworks.  Well, the mosquitoes had a different idea - they were awful!  So bad in fact . . . . . 

That Darryl got the truck, parked in the front yard and we all sat inside the truck watching the fireworks! 

On Saturday, the Fourth, we loaded up and spent the day at my Mother-in-Laws house at the lake.  The boys had the opportunity to play with their cousins on that side of the family including several that they had never met.  (Technically they are "step" cousins but they are still cousins!)

 One of the best part of the day for the boys was the swimming.  My in-laws live on a lake so the boys spent a good portion of the day in the lake enjoying their life jackets :-)  They also had multiple rides on the boat and got to go with their Uncle and Cousins to feed their pigs, twice. 

We ended the night taking the boat out on the lake to watch the fireworks.  They were amazing.  About 4-5 residents set off their own fireworks and put on quite the show.  Probably the best firework show I've ever seen!

The boys were sound asleep within about 2 minutes of heading home so that means . . .it was a great day!

Weekly Menu - A Normal Week

What is normal?  I'm not sure but we will call this a normal week.  We are home from camping; have no plans; and will just be home for the most part.  I actually cooked more last week than planned in order to keep our eating out budget from eating up our "need to pay bills" money HA! Along with that, we are on a self imposed "spending freeze" in order to get caught up and, maybe slightly ahead before August hits.  I've tried to budget out a few things like a trip to the huge Ionia Free Fair so there will be much more eating at home over the next two weeks!

So here is the plan for this coming week:

Saturday -Homemade Chicken Alfredo Pizza and Salad

Sunday - Crock Pot Smothered Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Broccoli and Rolls

Monday - Honey Shrimp, Rice, Veggies, and Rolls.  We didn't end up eating this last week so we'll have it this week!

Tuesday -Baked Rigatoni, Salad and Garlic Bread. 

Wednesday : Burgers and Fries

Thursday - Darryl has a doctors appointment and Physical Therapy so he gets home late. The Boys and I will have breakfast for dinner - I want to try a new recipe for Sausage Crescent Bites but will also have Frozen Waffles for the boys, Hashbrowns, and maybe some fruit.

Friday - Tacos! 

Getting Back on the Wagon - Scrapbooking

I am busily working on the basement clean out and making great progress, if I say so myself.  As is always the case, it is never as bad as the walkway into the basement makes it look.  In other words, stuff tends to pile up right at the entrance - I cleaned that out first and thought, "wow, I'm almost done!".  I'm still taking the time to clean out every single bin, though, in order to cut down on what is really being stored, and setting it up in a way that it will function well.

The other huge project that I'm very behind on is our family memories or, scrapbooking.  When the original Creative Memories closed two years ago, I lost all momentum because all of my supplies were form Creative Memories.  I love their albums and pages.  I have tried to find a new source - an easier and less expensive source to work with and because of that, my photos have just sat.  Money is really, always a tough thing to budget when it comes to this hobby so I'm having to find a way to catch up without spending much. 

I would really like to be back to the point of working on the previous months photos in the current month and yes, I was there once - for almost a whole year I was at that point!  To do that, I have to work two ways.  One, I have to start in August with working on this months photos.  The best way to get current is to work on current stuff.  I know it sounds odd but it is true.  The second thing, is to do what I've started to do 100 times before, go back to the beginning and make sure that scrapbooks are complete; finish up pages; and move to the next album.  I have a couple of years, yes, years, worth of digital pages that are done and ready to print.  I have to start printing or print the photos and make regular photos - it might actually be less expensive to recreate each page then to print the hundreds of pages I have to print.

Here's my overall goals by December:
1) By the end of December I will have July-November 2015 pages completed. 
2) By the end of December I will have gone through and completed every album that is currently on the shelf.  This includes page protectors (which I can get from Hobby Lobby for next to nothing when they are on sale)
3) By the end of December I will have started the process of getting those two years of digital pages into books.  Ultimately, I'd like to do one month . . a month.  Printing or recreating - but that would mean by December I would have 5 months done. 
4) By the end of December I will decide how to conquer 2016 photos - I'm throwing around the idea of trying Snapfish books.  I could then sit at night at the computer and create pages each time I have photos.  Then print the book every . . .3 months or 4 months?  I've even considered this idea for those digital pages - plugging them into a book and printing. 

So, time to get moving on this project!

What We Are Eating - Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
 adapted from Sidetracked Sarah 

At the beginning of the summer I mentioned that I wanted my crock pot to become my best friend this summer to help keep the kitchen cooler.  I've also wanted to try a recipe for a Salisbury Steak for awhile so this seemed the perfect fit and, guess what?  It was!  Talk about comfort food at its finest.  The flavor was perfect and the gravy was rich.  I think if I were to do one thing differently next time it would be to go with ground sirloin instead of ground chuck just to cut down the grease in the gravy.  In reality because of all of the seasoning in the meat itself, I might even try ground pork since it is super lean.  This would also be a fabulous Sunday-after-church meal because it only needs to cook for about 5 hours so I can throw it in the crock when I get up in the morning and it would be done by the time we got home and made biscuits ;-)  

• 2 Pounds lean ground beef
• 1 Envelope of Onion Soup Mix
• 1/2 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs (can use crushed crackers if you prefer)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 Cup milk
•  Flour (enough to dip your patties into)
• 2 Cans cream of mushroom soup (or use cream of chicken, like I did)
• 1 Package Au Jus mix

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together beef, onion  soup mix, bread crumbs, egg, and milk.
2. Form beef mixture into 8 patties.
3. Dredge the patties in flour to coat
4. Brown the patties on both sides (You don’t have to fully cook them if you don’t want to since they’ll be cooking for 4 or more hours in the slow cooker, too)
5. Place the browned patties into the slow cooker, layering them if you need to
6. In a medium bowl, prepare the Au Juis mixture according to package instructions.
7. Mix in both cans of cream soup
8. Pour the mixture over the patties.
9. Cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours, or until beef is done.