Strawberry jam

I won't really be sharing a recipe here, my hubby just wanted to show off his first venture into canning! He made some strawberry jam out of some strawberries we picked last week at a local farm. He did 3 cups of strawberries, 3 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and boiled and stirred until it was at 220'.   

This is our first year having a garden so he's hoping to do some canning at the end of the season. Do you have any favorite fruits or veggies you like to can? How about recipes? I have to say, I felt pretty industrious being able to make the jam for my kids' sandwiches! Hooray for DIY hubby's!

Banana muffins

So last fall, our local produce market had to get rid of a whole bunch of bananas so they were selling 10 lb cases for $1. I snatched up 50 lbs of bananas for $5! They were all fairly ripe, so I peeled and processed them straight awa and tossed them into the freezer. We've been able to have banana muffins almost weekly ever since! 

(This is what defrosted mashed banana looks like if you were wondering)

I find the most time consuming part of the muffins is the the mashing of the bananas, so having them on hand in little ziploc baggies is so quick and convenient! 

I froze them in 3 cup quantities because I always make double batches of muffins that call for 3 cups. Love it!

My true confession is I don't do the age old process of making a well with the dry ingredients and pouring in the wet. I just stick all of my ingredients in my kitchen aid and mix until it's all blended! Everyone still gobbles down the muffins, so I'm pretty sure they're still ok. 

Once you mix it up, spoon them in...

Cook them for 20 or so minutes and yum! Bonus mom/spouse/best friend points for having a home baked breakfast and no one has to know that it took you 30 minutes to make!

Banana muffins

2 cups flour

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

1.5 cups mashed banana

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350'. If using metal muffin pans, grease them

2. Mix together all ingredients until all dry ingredients are moist and incoporated

3. Spoon into muffin pan

4. For metal pans, cook for about 20 minutes. For stone pans, 25-30 minutes 

5. Let cool for 20 minutes, run a knife around the edge to get the muffins out.

Creamy Italian chicken

Let's get things going with a super easy recipe that I use at least once a month! Today I spent the day visiting my grandma then taking the kids to the Children's Museum, so I knew I wouldn't be home to cook during the day. 

Crock pot to the rescue!

This is one of those lovely "chicken dump" recipes where you just plop the ingredients in and go! 

A couple of chicken breasts, 2 cans of condensed soup (I used one chicken and one celery, but pick your favorite flavors!), a block of Neufchâtel cheese, and my favorite Good Seasons Italian salad dressing and recipe mix. I always have a box on hand for the days I don't want to pick out my own seasonings. 

So dump it all in the crock pot and return in 8 hours to this!

Okay, so it's not super impressive, but now is the fun part! Take a couple of forks and shred the heck out of that chicken! It will be nice and tender, so it won't take much effort. I just shred the chicken right inside the crock pot (yay for reducing dishes!) then mix it up with the sauce until the only chunks are the chicken. It should look like this:

Now boil up some pasta. We usually do bow ties or cork screws, but we only had ziti tonight and it still tasted great. Stir the pasta in and voila! Dinner with only 2 dishes to clean!! This leaves plenty of leftovers for my young family of six. After I took the picture I ended up sitting some frozen peas in just for a little color. This would go great with broccoli too. Let me know what you pair it with!

Creamy Italian Chicken

Feeds 6

3 chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

8 oz Neufchâtel or cream cheese

1 packet Good Seasons Italian salad dressing and recipe mix

16 oz. Ziti or pasta of choice

Directions:

1. Spray inside of crock pot

2. Place chicken, soups, cream cheese and seasoning mix into crock pot

3. Cook on low for 4-8 hours

4. Using two forks, shred chicken

5. Mix together chicken and sauce until sauce is smooth

6. Cook pasta according to directions

7. Stir pasta into the chicken/ sauce mixture

8. Serve and enjoy!

I'm starting this blog to share my favorite recipes and probably some fun stories about my family! Come along with my on a delicious journey of finding yummy things (hopefully nutritious, but not always) to feed my family of 6! I have a strong sweet tooth, so definitely expect lots of treats and desserts on here too. I will be sticking with my iphone for pictures to keep things real. Thanks for reading!