Cordon Bleu

Since I have started to cook more new recipes I have found myself becoming a little more easy going about it, and I have learned to improvise.  We still had a tiny bit of ham left over from our Sunday dinner so I threw this recipe together; Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Blue.  I didnt have swiss cheese on hand, so I used mozerella cheese that we did have.  Since we only had a little bit of ham, the servings were small.  So I cooked up some rice to pour this over, and it turned into a hearty meal. It all worked out well.

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/02/slow-cooker-chicken-cordon-bleu.html

The hunger games

I read the Hunger Games series last year.  Since the movie is coming out next month (YESSSS!)  I decided to re-read only the 1st book for a refresher.  Well, I finished the 1st book and I got sucked right back in. I just picked up 2 and 3 to read again. I can't wait to read the next two and I am so excited for the movie!

http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/

Pizzie PIe

I made homeade pizza last night.  I made 1/2 the pizza; pepporoni, pepper, ham and olives for my husband, and the other 1/2 shredded ham and pineapple for me and the kid.  (we had a huge ham for Sunday dinner so I used that left over meat) Ended up pretty dang good.

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/10/homemade-pan-pizza-crust-pizza-night.html

Kitchen

A pinterest idea that was easy, fast and cheap to make. 

Here are mine in my kitchen colors:

Food storage

One of my goals I set for February was to start food storage.  We have been told over and over to have a good supply of food and water in case of an emergency, but the idea of food storage completely overwhelms me.  That is why I made it a goal, so that I would have to figure it out. 
So, I started looking around the internet to know where to start.  I found the below link that has a lot of good ideas on how to start a food storage as well as other items needed in an emergency. 
So the first thing you need is water.  And lots of it.  1 gallon per person per day.  I though that was crazy to have a whole gallon a day, but what I was not taking into account was that you need water for more than just drinking.  You need it for cooking and cleaning.  Ok, so 1 gallon per person per day for 2 weeks....when you put that into 2 liter pop bottles to store, that is 112 bottles for our family!!!  That is still so overwhemling to me.  So, I decided my first goal is to have a 3 day reserve of water.  That is still 24- 2 liter pop bottles, but much for realistic to me.  We usually have pop around the house, so I will fill one up everytime we finish a bottle.  It's a start.  And if I can start, maybe I can finish.  My next goal is a 2 week supply of food and water....then the next goal is a 3 month supply....and we'll see after that.

But for now, lets start at a 3 day supply.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/getting-started/

S'mores in the winter

One of our favorite summertime enjoyments is roasting marshmallows over Grandma's fire pit and making a big, choclatey, gooey, messy s'more.  Oh....I miss summer.  Anyway, these little treats were easy to make and taste like real s'mores.  This recipe has you make them in a mini-muffin tin, which I dont have.  So i doubled the batch and made them in a regular 12 spot muffin tin.
(don't use as much butter as the recipe calls for.)

http://texascottage.blogspot.com/2011/08/smore-cups.html

Chinese

A few things:

-  We really enjoy chinese food!
-  This was pretty time consuming.  Both my husband and I worked on this together and it still took time.  And made a mess.  We did the beef, egg rolls and rice.
-  The recipe for the beef says that PF Changs will serve the beef without the excess sauce but that you should put the excess sauce over the rice.  Do NOT do that.  The sauce is so salty.  We put it over our rice and I could not finish it due to the saltiness.  You should discard the excess sauce and only serve the beef with what sauce comes on it.  (or put the sauce to the side to dip your eggrolls in)
- The eggrolls were yummy.  This one recipe made 14 rolls.  I dont know what we are going to do with that many!
-  Next time we do chinese, I will stick to my moms Sweet -n- Sour chicken recipe....and make the eggrolls as well.

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/01/mongolian-beef.html

 http://www.plannerperfectmeals.com/2011/03/amazing-egg-rolls.html