mid-week meal share: cheeseburger mac & cheese

Look at me, guys! I'm back on track (for now)! And first I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to view my little slice of the internet because Average Mom Blog has now had over 8,000 views. Over the course of six months I know that this is by no means a mass amount but, hey this blog has made me conscious of how often I rush through the week with providing dinner for my family or how little time I have to spend quality time with them; it also helps me document all the ups and the downs of raising kids and a 'scrapbook' of important milestones and happenings. To have other people along for the ride is great.

Again I'm bringing you some cheesy carby goodness. Like, it's a weakness and hopefully you don't mind.

Easy to concoct: sure is!

Cost effective: yes, ~$15 for a large serving.

Necessary supplies:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion diced - or pulverized

1 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)

1 pound ground beef (85% lean, 15% fat leaves almost no grease)

"kosher" salt

"freshly" ground pepper

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (or more cause it's s'good)

4 cups beef broth

1 box elbow (or other) noodles

4 cups mixed cheese (cheddar and monterey jack were used in original recipe)

1. Chop or food process your onion to minuscule bits. I am still love-hate with onions and I've really been trying not to remove them from recipes as of late. I don't even know if this qualifies as medium.

2. In a skillet combine the onion, olive oil, and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent.

3. Add your ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Unless you're serving your ground beef raw, cook until it's brown. 

4. While I had little to no grease to drain, if there had been an excess I would have attempted to drain it.

5. Pour in your beef broth and bring to a simmer.

6. Instruct Piper to do the dishes that are in the sink since we'll be contributing more shortly.

7. Add in your noodles and cook until they are al dente. It is important to keep it at a simmer so your broth does not entirely absorb/cook away because you will need some at the end for your cheese.

8. Slowly mix in your selected cheeses.

9. Enjoy!

Yummy, yummy. Like hamburger helper without the powdered cheese mix! This has made it's way onto my list of favorites and I'm sure it will be there for awhile, it's not one I can really envision getting sick of any time soon. 

And Kroger has been the first store that I have found plain shredded monterey jack. When I went to the store for the ingredients I had fully planned on just getting colby jack, but lo and behold I was able to get cheddar and monterey jack!

One pound, one pan, one happy family.

Leia

soccer

A couple weeks ago we signed Kennedy up for soccer and yesterday was her first practice! Thanks to the lovely state of Michigan it was a balmy 45°F and upon getting to the field I decided to turn around and get this kid some warmer clothes.

All in all she had a lot of fun and we are very excited for this season to really begin.

Now to brush up on my soccer knowledge.

Leia

mid-week meal share: cheesy hash brown soup

Yes, sue me. Officially three days late, and I didn't keep my promise of posting this yesterday. I was too busy making wonderful Easter eggs with the girls. They turned out mighty fine, don't you think?

But what I have for you this week is a quick and easily made soup. Composed of shredded hash browns and cheesy goodness this one is perfect if you and your two daughters have strep throat or if you simply want something warm and scrumptious. Once again, this was a video shared on Facebook. I literally cannot get enough of these things! I have so many saved just waiting for their turn in line for testing.

Easy to concoct: totes.

Cost effective: yes, ~$12 depending on the brands you purchase.

Here's what you'll need for cheesy hash brown soup:

1 (30 oz) bag of frozen shredded hash browns

1 can cream of chicken soup

4 cups chicken broth

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (more if you want to sprinkle some on top)

½ cup softened cream cheese

½ cup sour cream

1 tsp onion powder

salt and pepper to taste

½ tsp oregano

*croutons

*crumbled bacon

1. In a large pot crumble up your frozen hash browns.

2. Add in your broth and bring to a boil. Hopefully you won't be in a feverish haze and you'll grab the right broth, unlike myself. Mmmmmm, vegetable broth. Luckily there was the cream of chicken soup to compensate for my error.

 

3. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and stir in your cheddar cheese, cream of chicken soup, onion powder, salt and pepper and cook for 10-15 minutes.

4. After your 10-15 minutes is up, you'll want to add in your sour cream and cream cheese and stir until thoroughly combined. I recommend not breaking up the cream cheese because when all the little bits were melting it made it hard to tell if they were all mixed in or not.

5. Top with your garnishes and enjoy! Let me just say that the pre-cooked crumbled bacon I found at Kroger was amazing. While I probably don't want to wonder how it didn't need refrigeration prior to opening it was super convenient.

S'good guys. Total comfort food and so delicious. SOOO easy to make too if you're home alone and riding the sickness struggle bus. While it's no fun to do anything when you're feeling miserable this 20 minute banger is possible. Grab your snuggie and a kitchen chair and plop down in front of the stove. I have faith in you.

In sickness and health, this one will be there for you.

Leia

strep throat hiatus

Oh, blog. How you've been neglected for almost an entire two weeks. I'm sorry, my precious, but there was just no way. Exams, studying, work, and then sickness. I'm not talking, "we woke up with the sniffles and wore cute jammies while cuddling on the couch all day." I'm talking first having head cold symptoms which turned into aches, fevers, and chills and was then topped off with a horrendously swollen and sore throat. I have a delicious recipe for cheesy hashbrown soup that I hope to get up and running by tomorrow though in case any of you are currently ill and sickly and in need of some comfort food.

 

No, this isn't the most glamorous photo, but look at her throat! This was before the official strep diagnosis was given but I already had those disgusting white patches on my throat (and we were told no, it's not strep take Tylenol). I think that my swab was processed wrong because I am 98% sure it should have been positive, but hey, at the end of the day I guess I'm not a doctor or a medical technologist processing cultures. Regardless, it was an extremely rough week for me and the girls (and Brendon got his positive results today....).

Piper's sleep has been extra wacky.

School has been extra time consuming.

Work has been.. well, work.

School is over in one month and I'm getting more and more nervous about my grades and making sure they are where they need to be for applying into nursing school. One stress reliever I found while I was sick was a new cat game!

It's called Neko Atsume and the goal is to lure cats into your yard with food and play toys (this was after I hastily spent $4 on upgrades.. NO RAGRETS) and snap a million pictures of them for your kitten Pokedex.

5 more days of antibiotics to go.

Leia

friday meal share: zuppa toscana

Yeah sometimes we get off track around here and post recipes late, it's a shame with this one because while you can have soup all year round it's totes better in the winter. Do not get me wrong I'm SO HAPPY that winter finally seems to be coming to an end after mixing snow storms with spring weather over the past week and a half.

What I have for you is a copycat recipe for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. Super easy and super affordable, at least compared to $6 a serving when you're dining in.

Cost effective: ~$12 depending on what you've already got.

Easy to concoct: cook, chop and fo'get about it.

Unless the craving is too much and you've gone to Olive Garden instead, here's what you'll need to grab from the store or your kitchen:

1 pound of Italian sausage

3 russet potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion, chopped

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

1½ cups heavy cream

2 cups kale

salt and pepper to taste

1. The first thing you're going to want to do is all the prep work. Cooking up your sausage and chopping/cutting your potatoes and onions.

2. Once your sausage is done cooking, drain your grease. While mine was greasy, but no so much that I could drain it, I used the handy dandy paper towel bacon method.

3. Next, you're going to combine your sausage, onion, potatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, chicken broth, and water into your Crock-Pot.

4. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, and then cut up your kale to add later on.

5. During the last 30 minutes you're going to add your kale and and cream.

6. Mix together and cook until kale is wilted. 

7. Top with some parmesan cheese (or don't) and enjoy!

This was a winner, guys. Since I had never actually had this dish I had absolutely nothing to compare the flavor to, but regardless it was pretty damn tasty. The hokey 20 second video I saw on Facebook was just too good to pass up!

When You're Here, You're Family

Leia

checkerboard birthday cake

Yes, this is somewhat time consuming, but as far as achieving something somewhat fancy with ease? This is the way to go.

My wonderfully smart assed husband turned 27 on Monday and for his cake he had some very specific requests:

6 layers (he got 4)

Red and black checkerboard middle (pink and white)

An oven-safe "surprise" hidden in the middle (I had a LEGO man, but he started unloading the groceries and he came across it and without forming a fib about the LEGO I told him.. so it didn't go in because yah, I'd rather not bury a toy in cake)

My notes before starting:

Get 3 boxes of the same cake mix (use food coloring to alter colors vs getting a chocolate mix and vanilla).

Use extra batter in each cake pan to ensure you can cut the top off and have a flat surface.

Buy a cake leveler, they are cheap. While I didn't buy mine on the internet this is 99.9% likely the same one only obtained from Meijer.

While you can make this cake with only 2 layers, how much fun is that? NONE. So, if you want to proceed with more than two layers, you will need at least 4 single cake layers even if you plan on a 3 layer cake.

First you are going to mix the batter as usual, adding food coloring that will be the first beginnings of your masterpiece. Like I said earlier, I always use more batter per pan than I typically would to ensure the layers are all even after being leveled out.

Once they are out of the oven and cooled, you'll take the layer with the thinnest crust and adjust your leveler to match the others to the thin one. Feel free to eat the cake tops as you're crafting away.

One they are leveled you will start cutting rings out of each layer of cake. While tracing a circle isn't necessary, it will help when you're trying to puzzle the pieces back together. I cut one center circle, and a middle ring. Why, is that an old syllabus from last semester cut up? Ooooooh, yes.

*Note, there will be crumbs everywhere.

Once they are all cut, you can start removing layers to create 4 bull's-eye's. Since frosting over a cake that has been cut is extremely difficult you'll want to flip each layer over so you're frosting the crust. Due to the crumbs, frosting this little number could still prove to be somewhat challenging, but hey, that's what sprinkles are for.

This is when you'll see the importance of even layers and even circle sections. Frost in between each layer like usual, and slap frosting and sprinkles over the rest of it. This is something I am not the best at. Especially with a cake that most likely had crumby debris everywhere.

And after the candles are blown out, you can view your handy work!

The only thing I haven't quite figured out with the few times I've made a cake like this is how to get the rings to better stay together. When you go to get a piece onto a plate they usually topple apart and you're left with cake cubes. Still delicious and cutesy though!

Happy 72nd Birthday, Brendon!

Leia