Breakfast Muffin... Or Something.

Over here in the Titus household we LOVE breakfast foods, and when I found this recipe for a ham and cheese egg cup I knew I had to make brinner. Immediately.

So that is what I did. Last night we had breakfast, and it was wonderful. And because I am a nice person, I will share this treasure that I found (thanks again to Tasty Kitchen!).

Here is what you will need.

One dozen eggs,

Twelve pieces of deli sliced ham,

And two cups of cheese (give or take).

Once you have all of your ingredients ready, go ahead and grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

Now put one slice of ham in each muffin cup. All I had on hand was extra thin deli ham, so I used two slices. Which is really cramping Daniel's style when it comes to having meat on his sandwiches. But if you have normal deli sliced ham you will be good to go with just one!

Put some cheese inside of each piece of ham.

And just for your info... the original recipe called for frozen spinach to go on top of the cheese. Seeing as how my husband will NOT eat spinach, I passed on this ingredient. But I think it would be a great way to get some veggies into the kids (or hubby's)!

Now crack an egg on top of the cheese!

I did this two ways. The original recipe just said to crack the egg and then pop it into the oven. But Zachariah is not a fan of seeing a whole yolk. He gets a little weirded out then refused to eat the egg. Needless to say, he prefers scrambled eggs. So I beat an egg and then poured it into the ham and cheese cup. I did that six times... that way I could have half scrambled and then half the "normal" way.

See, the scrambled works well too!

Salt and pepper to taste and then pop these bad boys into an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees and cook for about 20 minutes.

I could have probably gotten away with only cooking these for 15 minutes, so I think you will just have to keep an eye on them. Oven temperatures vary. Regardless, they were DELISH.

Here are the two different kinds. I enjoyed both of them, but I must say that I think the scrambled muffin cup wins by a tiny bit. It just turned out to be the most perfect comfort food. In fact, I ate one just a little bit ago for a mid afternoon snack! So, so good.

Since the muffin pan is pretty well coated with cooking spray these suckers come out pretty easily. Just run a knife around the sides and you will have no problem at all!

Here is the recipe... enjoy!

Ham and Cheese Egg Cup

Ingredients:

12 eggs

12 slices deli ham

2 cups cheddar cheese

1 box frozen spinach (optional)

Directions:

Spray a twelve cup muffin pan with cooking spray and put a piece of ham in each cup. Sprinkle cheddar cheese in each piece of ham. Put (thawed) spinach on top of cheese and then crack an egg on top. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until done.

MSG Free!

I like salads. And I like raw veggies. I do not eat either of those things without ranch dressing. Its a staple! And much to my surprise, I recently discovered that Zachariah will eat raw carrots, broccoli, celery AND salad... as long as he has ranch dressing on the side. (He loves to dip foods.) Here is the kicker. Ranch dressing has MSG in it. MSG is incredibly bad for you. And it is in SO MUCH of what we consume. (I will try and do a whole post on MSG sometime in the future. Your welcome.) Since I care about my son and the things he is consuming, I have tried to drastically cut out foods that contain MSG. Salad dressing is one of them.

That obviously caused a problem with the salad/veggie consumption, so I decided to make my own salad dressing! I found a super easy recipe and ended up loving it. The ingredient list, while not extremely healthy, contains no MSG. So I am a happy camper!



Here is what you need to make you own MSG free dressing. Mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, ground pepper, dried parsley, dried chives, dried dill weed, onion powder and garlic powder. I had every one of these ingredients in my pantry with the exception of sour cream. That is the only thing I had to buy. Not to shabby for a spur of the moment ranch dressing recipe!




I obviously have no rhyme or reason to the purchasing of my spices. I mean, seriously here folks. There is not a single brand that has a friend in that picture. Sad. I need to go through my spices and figure out which brand is dominating my cabinet. I'll be sure to keep you posted on this pressing matter.




Take a whole cup of mayo and half a cup of sour cream and dump them in a bowl.





Then throw in 1/2 teaspoon dried chives, 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley, 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper.





Whisk them together and then, wala! You have some nice homemade ranch dressing. Seriously, it takes like five minutes. When eliminating MSG out of salad dressing is that simple, why would you not give it a try?




And just so you know, I ate a whole entire head of broccoli immediately after I whisked these ingredients together.

And I enjoyed every

last

bite.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:
Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Keep in airtight container in the fridge.

A Potato First

A while back I saw that The Pioneer Woman had a recipe for Potatoes au Gratin. I have never in my life made this dish, and a week or so ago I was craving some potatoes, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Much to my delight, it turned out to be absolutely wonderful! My husband is not a huge fan of potatoes (unless they are sweet potatoes), so he didn't try them. But trust me. If you enjoy potatoes, you will love this.

And I don't know why I even bother doing recipe posts for The Pioneer Woman's recipes. I mean, you can just go to her site and see better pictures and better directions. I know! You people need to start giving me recipes to try so I can stop taking stuff off Ree's site. Ok?

Great. Now that we have that under control, lets move on to the potatoes.



Here are the ingredients you will need. Potatoes, garlic, butter, flour, cheese, salt, pepper, heavy cream and milk.


Ok, so first you want to clean four potatoes. Don't just rinse them. Scrub them. Potatoes are obvious grown underground, so you want to make sure to wash off ALL the dirt/pesticides that decide to leech onto their skin. (By the way... The Pioneer Woman says not to peel the potatoes. So, being a Pioneer Woman follower, I listened.)



Once the potatoes are washed, start slicing them. And be careful not to make the slices too thick. You want to basically cube the potatoes. Put a few in a stack and slice them one way, then the other. That way you end up with four pieces.




After you repeat those steps for all four potatoes, you will end up with a nice heap-o-potato pieces!




Pour 1.5 cups of heavy cream into a mixing bowl.




And then add 1/2 cup of whole milk.




Now add two tablespoons of flour...




One teaspoon of salt...




and two cloves of minced garlic.




Now whisk it all together!




Butter a baking dish with two tablespoons of softened butter...




And then start layering! Put 1/3 of the potatoes in the baking dish.




Then pour 1/3 of your cream/milk mixture over the potatoes.




After you do that two more times, it will look something like this.




Then you want to wrap it in foil and pop it into the oven (which has been preheated to 400 degrees) for 30 minutes.




After half an hour, remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are bubbly and golden brown.




Here comes the fun part. Add grated cheddar cheese and bake for three to five more minutes.

Can we say yum?

Yeah. We can.

Seriously. This stuff is GOOD. I had never really cooked with heavy cream before, but I am now an addict. I am going to use this stuff in everything. Delish!


Welp. That concludes another segment of "Amy Lynn lives off The Pioneer Woman's recipes" post. :) Hope you enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 4 whole Russet Potatoes, Scrubbed Clean
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cups Whole Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
• 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Smear softened butter all over the bottom of a baking dish.

Slice potatoes, then cut slices into fourths.

In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, minced garlic, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour 1/3 of the cream mixture over the potatoes.

Repeat this two more times, ending with the cream mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and really bubbling. Add grated cheese to the top of the potatoes and bake for 3 to 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Crock Pot Dinners Rock My Socks

I don't know about you, but I love me some crock pot dinners. They are so stinking easy to make and they usually taste great! (I say "usually" because there are some really bad slow cooker recipes out there. Trust me, I know from experience. *shudder*)

My favorite time to have a crock pot meal is Sunday for lunch. I throw some stuff together when I wake up in the morning and then by the time we get back from church our lunch is ready! Talk about perfect. This Sunday we had crock pot chicken and rice and I decided to show you how to make this super simple meal! That is, if you don't already make it on a regular basis. In that case you may want to find another blog to read for today. This may be a yawn. :)



You will need four ingredients. 3 "cream of" soups, water, rice and chicken.

* The original recipe calls for 1 cream of chicken, 1 cream of celery and 1 cream of mushroom. But my hubby will die a horrible death if he is forced to eat anything with the word celery or mushroom on the package, so we use three cream of chickens.




Poor in all three "cream of" soups




and 1/2 cup of water into the crock pot.




Give it a little stir to mix the two together.




Then add 1 cup of long grain rice. I prefer to use brown rice, but you can use whatever floats your boat.




And this is where you can stir your rice into your water/cream of mixture. Sometimes I do that, sometimes I forget. This time I happened to forget. The meal is just fine either way, just know you have the option.




Now plop the chicken breasts on top and plop on the lid.

Sorry. The word plop should never be used twice in one sentence. I just cant help myself sometimes.




You can cook it on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. It all depends on how much time you have. I can never get my act together in time to cook it for 8 hours, so mine is always set on high.




Four hours later, this is what it looked like. You might notice that it is a tad bit soupy looking. Have no fear. That only happened because I forgot to stir the darn rice into the mixture before hand. If this happens to you, you can go ahead and give it a little stir a five or so min. before serving.




See, I told you the meal is fine either way. :)

Ring the triangle and let everyone know that dinner is ready, because now you are ready to serve this super easy meal. Just add a veggie and some bread and you should be good to go!




Unlike me, Zachariah likes his chicken completely separate from his rice. And yes... that is a Christmas plate. He just wont let me put it away with the other Christmas stuff. Trust me, I have tried.




And just in case you were wondering, here is what Zachariah's full plate looked like. Chicken, rice, broccoli casserole and a muffin. Not to shabby for a picky two year old. He ate every bit of it too. That is actually the main reason I love this meal. If my toddler will scarf it down I am a happy camper.

Enjoy! :)


Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
(if you have a picky eater, use three cream of chicken)
1/2 cup water
1 cup long-grain rice
4 lg chicken breasts

Directions:
In a slow cooker, combine the soups, water and rice. Place the chicken on top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours.

Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings

If you are a diabetic, turn away now. Just looking at this could give you some serious problems.

For the rest of you, this is one of my new favorite desserts! It is super easy and oh-so-delicious. I found this on the Pioneer Woman's site a while back and finally decided to try it. And boy am I glad I did.

I just need to say one thing before we get started: This dessert is going to be the death of my hips. The end.



Here is what you will need. Crescent rolls, sugar, butter, granny smith apples, vanilla, cinnamon and mountain dew.




First, go ahead and butter a 9x13 baking dish.




Then you will want to peel and core two granny smith apples and slice them up into eight pieces each.




Roll out the crescent rolls and separate them into eight triangles




Then take an apple slice and roll it into the crescent roll.




See? Simple. Do this until all of the crescent rolls have an apple slice.




Then line your buttered baking dish with the rolled up apples. Make sure to get them all nice and cozy or else they wont all fit.




Now melt two sticks of butter in a sauce pan over medium heat.





Once the butter is all melted, dump in 1-1/2 cups of sugar.





Now just barely stir them together. Barely stir. This is important.



Remove the pot from the heat and then add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Gently stir together. You want this mixture to be lumpy. Remember that.




Poor the mixture over the top of the "dumplings". Make sure you coat them all in this sugary, buttery, oh so good for you mixture. You don't want to leave any out!




Now for the Mountain Dew. Oh man. Let me just take a moment to tell you a little story.

I had a serious addiction to Mountain Dew for about four years. I couldn't live without the stuff. If I had less than three a day I would get withdrawal headaches. It was the only way I made it through college and teaching three year olds. This was pretty much my alcohol. Sad, I know. But that is beside the point.

When I got pregnant with Zachariah I stopped consuming caffeine. Due to my "morning sickness" last for the whole 9 months, I couldn't consume much of anything. Regardless, I stopped drinking Mountain Dew... cold turkey. It was rough, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Once I got past the withdrawal symptoms I was golden. After I gave birth I started breastfeeding, and then by the time I was done with that I just kind of forgot about caffeine. I probably only have about a dozen caffeinated beverages a year. Its crazy when I think about it.

Anyway. Those are the facts. I have only had Mountain Dew a handful of times since being pregnant with Zachariah. So the fact that I was holding a bottle in my hands was monumental.

Just thought you should know.




Ok, so the recipe calls for a 12 ounce can of Mountain Dew, but all I had was this massive bottle. So I only used about half of it. Pour the Mountain Dew around the sides of the pan and let it flow all around the dumplings.

And yes. Yes I did drink the rest of the Mountain Dew. And I loved every second of it.




Now sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 min. Watch them to make sure they dont get too brown. You want a nice golden crispy top.



And here is the finished product! When I took them out of the oven I had a TON of liquid sloshing around. So I just drained a little bit of the excess liquid into a bowl before I served the cute little dumplings.

And that's it! Serve them warm with some vanilla ice cream. It will definitely be worth it. Trust me.

Thanks again, Pioneer Woman. You rock my socks.



Ingredients:
2 whole Granny Smith Apples
2 cans crescent rolls (8 0z cans)
2 sticks butter
1-1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cinnamon, to taste
1 can (12 oz) Mountain Dew

Directions:
Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.

Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour entire mixture over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream and enjoy!