Today I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie, Life as a Lofthouse, KDBuggie Boutique

Moving over 2200 miles and not bringing everything with us put a few kinks in our kitchen at first. Hello no fridge for a few days and only a small fraction of my kitchen gear. Today marks two weeks in our new place and I am happy to report that I spent this weekend running errands and baking up a storm – I am even happier to report that I can even get back into Menu Mondays because I can finally reliably plan what I’m cooking at night. Although to be honest, there are more rando ‘wanna go out for dinner’ nights because there are just so many rad places to go! This, however, is what I’m planning on for now…I’m including desserts this week because I almost always plan and make those too!

This Week’s Menu (April 23 – 29)

Sunday – Homemade Pizza and Calzones and Peas and Thank You’s Peanut Butter Blondies for dessert

These treats are Wednesday’s dessert this week and so simple I don’t even want to call this a recipe! You just make your favorite brownies and once they’re cool, cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters and ‘glue’ them to pretzel sticks with melted chocolate. Adorable, right?! If you’re super lazy really pressed for time, you can even use a brownie mix. Yes, I’m judging you (that can’t be a huge surprise).

I’m almost positive I’ve posted this recipe for brownies before but I’ll post it again because I know it by heart and it’s such a great brownie recipe you should know it by heart too and I swear it only takes like maybe two whole minutes longer than a mix. True story. It’s easy for a weekday dessert for the kids too!

Preheat your oven to 350, and melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s melted, remove from heat and stir in the sugar till it’s melted and the eggs until they’re combined. Then add the vanilla.
In a smaller bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Then dump that into the pot with the melted butter mixture.
Stir, stir, stir!!
Pour the batter in a greased brownie pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Then attack with your cookie cutters.
Now melt some chocolate chips and dip the pretzel sticks in the melted chocolate and then poke inot each brownie shape. Voila!

I’m participating in Menu Monday at Organizing Junkie and Life as a Lofthouse

I didn’t blog last week because honestly I have been extremely distracted. It’s all been pretty fun distractions though!! Since Christmas we thought we were going to be planning a long distance short-term work-related move. We were extremely excited because it was to a place we’ve always wanted to go. Then last weekend we thought that it wasn’t going to happen after all, only to find out a few days later that it’s going to happen, just not as soon as we thought. For a planner this was at first, extremely painful. However, after a while I have come to appreciate that it can be fun to just live my life as I live it (playing in the kitchen while making sock puppets and cocktails) and let surprises unfold on their own – and in their own time. I asked my husband not to keep me in the loop about this work move. Only to tell me when it’s a sure thing and it’s time to start packing. Which honestly takes a load off. So now I’m focusing on Wee One #3’s teeny weeny Hello Kitty birthday party next weekend. It’s teeny weeny because she only really has one friend, I mean she is just turning three after all!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my oven died, thankfully my stove stop still works perfectly so I’ve been cooking quite a bit, and working through my ‘no bake’ recipes but I haven’t been doing any baking at all. Le sigh. I love baking. At first we looked into having it fixed, but it’s not much of a savings compared to getting a new one and then we have a new warranty. Anyhoo, it’s Menu Monday so while we pick a new stove here’s yet another stove top menu!

This Week’s Menu (Feb 27 – March 5)
*I mentioned last week, I make two separate dinners most nights because I’ve made some dietary changes and I’m not pushing it on my family. They tend to join in with a healthy May-style breakfast and lunch and I make their faves for dinner. Wee One #2 has started eating ‘dinner like mommy’ though, so that’s something!

Sunday – Hamburgers and French Fries for the fam, Chick Pea Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries for me

This week, I will photograph these meals as I make them so I can blog about them and link back to those posts when I mention them in a future Menu Monday, which you know I probably will!

Today though, since I have no oven and you probably do, I will hit you with this recipe for Tater Tot Casserole so you can make it for me! It’s the ultimate in trashy food (I have a weakness for such things, remember?) I’m not even going to lie to you (though it would save face if I said something like ‘I don’t remember where I came across this recipe‘), this is totally a Duggar Family recipe. Don’t look at me like that! Don’t act like you don’t love that show too! Johanna is my fave little one and I think Jessa is fierce. <3

First, make mashed potatoes however you usually do that. I toss mine in the pressure cooker and then mash them up with some garlic and butter.
Now add the egg, milk and flour or else they will just be mush in the oil. MUSH. The original tater tot recipe coats them in breadcrumbs and I didn’t. I totally will next time though! This is when you heat a pot of oil and toss these babies in. They only need to be in the oil for like 30 seconds. I had my first few in for about 2 minutes and look what happened!!
They were perfect on the inside, burnt to a blackened crisp on the outside. Whoops!
I had the next batch in for about 45 seconds and that’s all they needed!
Now for the actual casserole part. I just browned the ground turkey (you could use chicken or pork or beef or fake tofu-ish stuff) with a little parsley, garlic and onion though none of those three are technically called for in the recipe, and spread it over the bottom of a casserole dish. Then I put the tater tots on top!
Then in another bowl, I mixed the evaporated milk with the cream soups and poured it over meat and tater tots in the casserole dish.
Bake at 350F for about an hour and OH MY shit this is amazingly good.

If my new oven isn’t chosen and delivered by Friday, I’m going to have to bake a Hello Kitty cake at my neighbor’s house. Oh small town living, you come in handy sometimes.

I’m participating in Menu Monday at Organizing Junkie

My oven died a few days ago, so this Menu Monday is a creative one! Just as I had finished mopping up my tears over discovering it wasn’t just a fuse issue, my wonderful husband delivered another striking blow – it could take over a month for us to get the part our oven needs. Shake it off, May! It’s ok, there are plenty of stove top, no bake and slow cooker options. Deeeeep yoga breaths. Ok so I think I’m alright.

This Week’s Menu (Feb 13-19)
*In case you’re wondering why I’m making two meals every night, I made some dietary changes that were important to me earlier this year and my family is a little slow to jump in. They usually join me in a healthy breakfast and lunch and I refuse to bicker over dinner.

Sunday – Tacos for the fam, Tofu Nuggets for me (yes again, I’d eat them everyday if I could with homemade BBQ sauce)

I know this recipe is not mentioned at all in my menu for this week but let’s totally ignore that and be thankful for moderately healthy cookies. If you like your Oatmeal Cookies Granny-style, just add a cup of raisins at the very end and mix them in with a wooden spoon. None of us are fans of raisins in baked goods (except maaaaybe cinnamon buns but even then not really), so I didn’t use any.

Grandmother’s Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies – From Good Housekeeping Cook Book (p. 722)

3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats, uncooked

As you’d expect, cream the butter and the sugars together first. Then add the egg and vanilla.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a smallish bowl before you tip that bowl into the wet mixture. Beat till just combined.
Finally, mix in the oats with a wooden spoon (this is where you’d add raisins if you’re so inclined).
Bake for about 15 minutes at 350!