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



we have a winner, folks

While I had been feeling like this for the past year and a half:

I'm now getting to this:

Currently we are on a night five 'winning' streak. While last night she woke up and did not fall back asleep on her own, the previous four nights she either slept all the way through, or put her self back to sleep after minimal whimpering. The key seems to use the paci only for sleep times whether it be for a nap or bedtime; this way it's used strictly as a comfort measure. She has adjusted well during the day to the point she will bring me a stray paci she found laying around if I ask her.



The winter sun is calling my name.
Leia

mid-week meal share: creamy baked macaroni & cheese

A little while back, I received this Snapchat from my husband:

A. I love that he reads the blog.

B. Of course I can oblige!

After sharing this with friends, I got a couple recipes sent my way and I "combined" two that were somewhat similar. Thanks Granny and Jennifer!

One is a recipe is for creamy no drain skillet macaroni and cheese and the other is for baked macaroni and cheese. The ingredients between the both were pretty similar; the ingredient list and recipe is a little more extensive for the baked version so I just picked a few things to add to the already amazing skillet version. Let me say if you are not interested in baking the recipe from Mel's is perfect.

Cost effective: yes, $10-12 for a decent sized batch.

Easy to concoct: Lots of mixing and measuring.

Here's what you'll need for my slightly larger combined recipe with notes:
*'d items are things I added/substituted in the skillet recipe from the baked
If you're not going to bake I would recommend using only 3½ cups water and 1 can evaporated milk

16 oz elbow macaroni (because what is anyone literally going to do 

with the 4 oz leftover from the original recipe)

4 cups water

 2 cans of evaporated milk (14 oz + needed)

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cornstarch (wahoo I finally found it!)

½ tsp dried mustard

*½ tsp paprika

*1 bay leaf (pictured, but I forgot to add it)

¾-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

¾-1 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese

2 tbsp butter

topping

*3 tbsp butter

*1 cup bread crumbs

1. In a large skillet combine together your noodles, water, 1¼ cup evaporated milk, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook until noodles are tender and the sauce thickens. Admittedly, I didn't notice a thickening but a 'lessening'. This will take between 9 and 12 minutes. (Oh, and this is when I would've added my bay leaf)

2. Once your sauce In a separate bowl whisk together your cornstarch, dried mustard, paprika and ½ cup of evaporated milk and combine into your skillet and simmer for an additional minute.

3. Preheat your oven to 350°F if you are baking.

4. Remove your noodles from the heat add in 2 tbsp of butter and slowly add in your cheese. Oh my god, the cheeeeeeeeeese!

 

Looooook at it!  Now if you're not going to bake your pasta, you're done! If you're doing the oven baked deal, you're gonna transfer your pasta into a baking dish to prepare for the next steps. No one is watching if you want to take a couple bites for the hard work you've put in thus far...

5. If you're like me and like to take the easy way out, you're going to melt 3 tbsp of butter in the microwave and combine your bread crumbs in a bowl vs dirtying up another pot by melting it on the stove.

6. Top with some more shredded cheese and your bread crumb mixture.

7. Bake for a torturous 30 minutes.

8. ENJOY!

This recipe is the best either way. If you want to be done after the cheese is melted because you know there is nothing that compares to being hangry, by my guest. But waiting it out the 30 minutes in the oven makes for a nice competition to see if you can get all your shit cleaned up before it's done. If I were to go through the process again and bake it, I would add a little bit more milk and water before transferring it into the baking dish. It was not dry, but it totes could have been creamier.

I think you'll like it guys. Try it.

"Me likey the mac n cheesey." - Brendon

Leia

experimenting with sleep

Over the past 7-10 days I have felt completely at my wits end with Miss Piper. She has truly given us a run for our money in the sleep department. Yes, I guess this is 'normal' behavior for babies and toddlers, but we are 100% not used to it and have never really adjusted to it.

When Kennedy was born we were prepared to deal with all stereotypical baby things. Never sleeping. Up all night and day. Crying when you leave the room. Crying when you put them down. Nope. Little did we know she would wind up being the most stellar specimen. From 6 weeks on she slept through the night and would typically sleep until 10-11am (which was especially helpful since I was one working til midnight like I am now).

So DOI! Of course we thought having another would be the same amazing experience! In the back our minds though we kept conjuring up images of this hellish child because of how wonderful Kennedy was. This has come true when it comes to certain things; mainly sleep. I'm not really sure where the problem arises. We've never been ones to let her fall asleep each night in our bed, or on the couch with us. She's been in her own sleep space (whether a portable crib/bassinet in our room in the very beginning to her own bed) and she's had a mainly normal bedtime routine aside from the time slightly differing from night to night. It's not has if we've given her improper sleep training.

Things I took into consideration were her diet which is why I first tried eliminating large amounts of dairy and why I initially switched her to almond and soy milk. We haven't seen a large difference when it comes to this. Other allergies that may be causing her to be congested a lot and/or battling a runny nose. Yah, it's no fun to try and sleep when you can't breath or have a drippy nostril all night.

Now that I've hit desperate levels of sleep exhaustion I've went to the extreme.

That's right, I took to giving my precious, if not exhausting baby daughter melatonin. A million bad mom points? While doctors are unsure what the effects of long term use are and while it should not be used in replace of good sleep habits, there are no immediate life threatening or dangerous side effects. Okay, let's get ready to rumble!

While I had hoped to find liquid drops I only found the 3mg tablets by Nature Made. Recommended doses for small children is 1mg, so I promptly divided the tablet as evenly as possible and disguised it in food as if she were a puppy.

Guys, the effects were almost immediate. She was asleep in under thirty minutes! Lo and behold, this did not last long. She woke up a couple hours later absolutely fretful. I assumed it had something to do with something she had eaten was disagreeing with her because she was irritable and gassy. The next night I tried again and we saw the same immediate sleep, but we also saw the same irritableness. Again, I thought food related. Night three we decided we would remove the paci from the situation since she was falling asleep so incredibly easily with the addition of melatonin. Okay, she's horribly upset again. I took to Google for some more melatonin "research". That's when I found that while UNLIKELY, melatonin can cause abdominal discomfort and irritability. Thanks, Mayo Clinic! Of course Piper would be the exception. OF COURSE!

So now we've just been trying other combinations during her night/bedtime routine.

• Normal dinner, normal bedtime, no paci
• Snacking after dinner, normal bedtime, no paci
• Normal dinner time, up late, no paci
• Snacking after dinner, up late, no paci
• No nap during the day with these other options

In addition to no paci at night we've taken it away during the day as well. I will give it back to her for nap times and possibly bed if her sleep does not improve. She is still very much a baby and I don't want her 'suffering' for no apparent cause.

It's just stressful, but last night we had a little break through. I worked until midnight last night and woke up earlier than normal for school (thanks to this HUGE winter storm we supposed to get hit with.. yeah, not even a dusting of snow) and felt horribly drained but at the same time I couldn't remember being woken up by Piper. My fingers are crossed that she slept the whole night and that this trend continues.

This also helps me through the madness of it all.

Mombie status.

Leia