Beef: It's what's for dinner.

Kyle works swing shifts, so there's a fair amount of night shifts that I'm only making dinner for me and the kids. There's days he's off so I'm making dinner for everyone. Then, there's his day shift, when I make dinner for everyone, but alone. Needless to say, trying to cook ANYTHING with Gabe is tough. That kid runs to food like moths to a flame. 

I've been trying to get it through to him about the whole "HOT" thing, but he doesn't care. He wants some food, he gets some food and that's the end of it. But lately, he's been just standing between the kitchen and dining room, thank God.

Tonight, I opted for an easy choice seeing as I had to cook with Gabe at my legs. I went with some good ol' beef stroganoff. Marie Callander's ain't got shit on me.

Cooking egg noodles.

Making the sauce. Looks icky, but it's SUPER delicious.

This is something requested by a ton of kids in my family, if not my kids, then my nieces and nephews.

As shepherd's watched their flocks..er..food..by night?

I don't understand why this is called Shepherd's Pie. I probably never will. But I will always understand the deliciousness of this. Not to mention, the comfort aspect. It always seems to have a calming effect on me. Why? I'll never know. But it's a great way to get the kids (and the husband) to eat some veggies. There's nothing wrong with that!

Myriah's notorious for picking out EVERY green bean, saying "I don't LIKE this one, mommy. I don't LIKE this one." She won't do that for this. She eats it up QUICK. Hell, Selena takes 3 servings..but she's been eating 3 servings a LOT lately. Helloooooo growth spurt.

First layer...looks like puke. I'm sorry, but it does. It almost makes me not want to eat it. But it smells good. Oh, the dilemma.

Second layer, mashed potatoes! Yum! These are my cheesy garlic variety. *mouth waters*

Ready to be baked! Yay!

Italians Do It Right

I'm a huge chicken eater. I could eat chicken for every meal, every day, and not get sick of it. I get it from my daddy. ;)

I love how versatile chicken is. You can pair it with just about anything and get a whole new taste from just one main ingredient. Who can't love a food like that?!

Tonight, I made some Chicken Parmesan. Yummm..Italians sure know how to cook!

Pan frying before baking.

Mmmm I could eat it just like this!

Covered in sauce and mozzarella, ready to bake and eat! Yum!

Ohhhh F-U-D-G-E.

I was totally channeling A Christmas Story with my title. >.<

So, we've been going through a lot lately, more than anyone could probably imagine. I've been on edge and stressed out so badly. I needed something to calm myself.

I needed baking.

Ironically enough, I didn't want to bake. <insert shock face here> 

I went for the next best thing, though. Chocolate.

Now, everyone knows diamond ads lie ALL the time. Diamonds are NOT a girl's best friend. It's hands down chocolate..unless you're regretfully allergic. And I apologize to anyone who's allergic to chocolate. What a sad, sad world.

WIP shot, rolling boil.

Nomnomnom. Almost done.

FUNnel Cake..or something like it.

I love funnel cake from the fair. That, and the taffy at our local fair. I look forward to that stuff every year. What can I say? I'm a fat kid. I inhale the calories and don't think about it until the next day. Health conscious? No. But you only get to live once. And I want to do it right. Life's too short to be unhappy.

That being said, I don't reccomend eating these 24/7. In moderation, it's all good. I don't make these too often, so they're a great treat in this house. You can also top them with some fresh fruit and have them for breakfast, much like IHOP. Yum.

These were the first out of my batch, and it's almost a rule that I burn the first one. But it was still super delicious. I can almost taste it..*mouth waters*

That's A Load Of Crock Pot Roast

Worst news EVER to hear in this household.

The heating element went out in my oven.

I'm so beyond upset over this. I can't bake and I'm VERY limited to what I can cook. As if making food wasn't bad enough with little kids, the picky little boogers. Now I have to try and come up with ways to not keep making the same thing all the time on the stovetop or in a crock pot. While many people say "Oh, that's easy!", maybe they should try it. It's easy to say that when your oven is still in good working order. But I have picky kids and a picky husband. I'm pretty much stuck.

So, I went on the search for something easy and simple, and I kept coming back to pot roast. Okay, I tried making pot roast once before this, and it came out horribly dry and I vowed to never make it again. But, beggars can't be choosers, and by this point I was BEGGING for something. And so...

Nomnom! The carrots and potatoes were DELICIOUS. And the beef wasn't bad either!

The beef was still a LITTLE dry, but in the typical roast beef dry. Know what I mean? No? Well, deal with it.

Mac and cheese..on pizza?

I was always adamantly against the macaroni and cheese pizza at Cici's. "Macaroni and cheese is a meal in itself! It doesn't belong on a pizza!" Well...I tried it and, like it was the crack of the pizza world, I was hooked. I craved it. But the only downside is Cici's is in the next town over, a trip we can't usually make just randomly, and we can't always afford to go out. We have a lot of kids. And Kyle, who eats like a bottomless pit. So, I had to try and figure out how to make this. I finally attempted it today and, I'm glad to say, I'm fairly proud of the results. I may do some tweaking here and there, but not too much.

At first when I had it in the pan, I swore it looked more like a casserole. But after it was baked...

Yay! It looked like a pizza..kinda!

It's a pretty simple recipe. Definitely something I could do again and again.