Friday I’m in Love…

Happy Friday!

It’s been a whirlwind of emotions these past two weeks and I’m quite eager to get back to somewhat of a routine. So…let’s get this LOVE going!

~one~

On Tuesday, my husband and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. I never knew exactly what love was…until I met him.

~two~

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I’m the oldest of 6 kids so needless to say, we have a huge family. I spent some time with everyone in New Jersey last week and we always seemed to get together around meal time. On Sunday night, my father prepared a feast for us. He was looking to comfort us kids the best way he knows how…with comfort food of course! The picture on the left is a GIANT Chicken Pot Pie and on the right…3 pounds of Shrimp Scampi! Whoa! Talk about two of my favorite comfort foods. Both were delicious and I most certainly went back for seconds. Thanks dad!

~three~

This cutie…my niece, Marina. I LOVED hanging out with all the nieces and nephews! We gave our parents 10 grandchildren, 6 girls and 4 boys. And the oldest is only 7! Here Marina is helping to make the guacamole. She LOVES to mash the avocado!

~four~

Check out this amazing site, Pen + Paint by Lindsay Hopkins. I’ve been following her on Instagram for a while now and I’m soooo in LOVE with everything she posts. I have my shopping cart full of her beautiful artwork over on Etsy but I’m having a hard time hitting the complete order button because I keep finding more things I must have!

What are you in LOVE with this week??

Menu Monday {Jan 25, 2016}

It’s always good to start the week off with a plan but as we all know, life with children and a husband who was traveling for work, it can get a bit unpredictable and crazy. We never had the on Tuesday because we had more than enough left overs of the Chicken Soup. And I used the white meat from the chicken to make several homemade chicken salad sandwiches…my husband’s favorite lunch! I did make the Mustard Chicken but served it with rice instead of spaghetti squash and a potato…much easier! The Little Big Meal from The Fresh Market was DELICIOUS!! I can’t wait to check out what they will have this week! We ended up eating the The Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joes (the best recipe ever!) Friday AND Saturday night so we saved the Pork Chops for Sunday night. I didn’t have the kids try it because I needed to feed them earlier and I knew we weren’t going to be eating until later. These pork chops NEED to go on a regular rotation because they were OUT OF THIS WORLD!

Homemade Whole Chicken & Veggie Soup

Mustard Chicken, Broccoli & Jasmine Rice

The Fres h Market’s Big Little Meal

The Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joes

Ruhlman’s Twenty Brined & Fried Pork Chops and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

What do you have cooking this week?

Menu Monday {Jan 18, 2016}

Pan Seared Salmon, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Pasta, Kale & White Bean Soup from my monthly Pampered Chef Cooking Club. Also shown Creamy Chipotle Lime Sauce & Hollandaise Sauce

Skinnytaste’s Stuffed Pepper Soup

Crock Pot Honey Garlic Chicken& Veggies from Damn Delicious

Oops…forgot to take an after picture. Definitely adding this dish to the regular rotation! Husband, kid & babysitter approved!

Skinnytaste’s Baked Pasta with Spinach & Sausage

Ahhh…Saturday Date Night In! The husband found a great recipe from his new cookbook, Ruhlman’s Tweny, Coq Au Vin. Oh my! Delicious! Even the kids ate it…well just the chicken…no skin & no evidence of any mushrooms or sauce on it. Ok, they just ate the chicken. But still that’s a win!

What do you have cooking this week?

Weekly Meal Plan for August 3 – August 9

My mother, sister, nephew and niece were in town visiting this week and I was beyond excited to cook for them. It was a bit trickier than usual because the big kids really didn’t nap but we got it done. It really does take a village to raise a family, doesn’t it?

Malaspine Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes & Roasted Broccoli

Now, my mother had this meatloaf the last time she was in town and she LOVED it! So of course I had to make it again for her. This was a huge hit with everyone, kids included! My mother in law, sister in law and her kids stopped by the next day and I fed them the leftovers. They loved it too! Seriously, if you are looking for a great meatloaf recipe, this is the one.

The kids did not love the broccoli because of all the garlic but us grown ups gobbled it up with no problems! Ha!

Jenn’s Chicken & Veggie Soup

This one was easy to do with the family in town. I chose to make this one on the day that we stayed home. It takes about 2-3 hours in the oven. I have done it in the crock pot as well and it’s good but I really love it in the dutch oven. Best. Comfort. Food. Ever.

Chicken Mozzerella Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ahhh….one of my husband’s favorite meals! There were no leftovers this night. Even the kids ate it! I left out the red pepper flakes for the kids but sprinkled them on ours. The red pepper flakes give it a nice kick!

Lasagna Soup

My sister is the one that told me I needed to make this so I knew her and her kids would love it. I was a little worried about my mother though. She loves lasagna but I wasn’t sure she would go for it as a soup. But she was living in my house, under my roof for the week so she had to eat it, right?!?! Hahaha! I’ve always wanted to say that!

I used regular sausage instead of the chicken sausage the recipe calls for. I love all the skinnytaste.com recipes but I tend to fatten them up just a bit. 😉

Mother LOVED the soup! I overheard her tell my daughter that I was a great cook. OMG! I learned from one of the best cooks around!

Desserts:

We put a HUGE dent in the #GoBigOrGoHome birthday cake but we still needed something sweet. I had to make my mother’s favorite banana bread and I also wanted to make something new for them. Cannoli Cake was it! My mother and my sister LOVED it! I should have made that at the beginning of the week because now I have a ton left and they flew back to NJ today.

Cannoli Poke Cake

Banana Bread

What favorite meals do you like to cook when you have family in town?

Enjoy all the recipes!

Happy Cooking!

and Happy Eating!

Katie 🙂

Hey, Plan To Eat users…look me up and let’s swap recipes!

MrsRoemersNest

Weekly Meal Plan for July 27 – July 31

Tilapia with Garlic Roasted Tomatoes & Corn

Jenn’s Chicken Veggie Soup

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

(I must remember to get a picture!)

Honey Balsamic Chicken Breasts & Veggies

And here’s a shopping list for this week’s meals, minus the brisket, burgers and hotdogs. We are having the family over to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday and my husband usually does the shopping and the grilling for the cookouts! Love that man!

I would LOVE to connect with some more Plan To Eat users! Look me up… MrsRoemersNest

Happy Cooking!

Katie 🙂

Momma’s Favorite Banana Bread

We’ve all had bananas ripen way too quickly before and believe it or not, I used to throw them away! I will never, never, never do that again. A few years ago, I stumbled upon this recipe from Simply Recipes for the BEST banana bread I’ve ever eaten. It is soooo easy to make! My four year old can even make it all by herself…well almost all by herself. 😉

Mash 2-3 very ripe bananas with a fork and stir the melted butter in. I melt it in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds.

Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar (I always use a full cup even though the directions say you can use less), egg and vanilla. Next up, mix in the flour. I love to add a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the mix too. Trust me, it makes this bread phenomenal!

After you pour the batter into the greased loaf pan, sprinkle a few more chocolate chips on top and cook for about 50 mins at 350 degrees. The directions say 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, but I have found that it is done WAYYYY before that. Set your timer for 50 minutes and check it with a toothpick. I bet you won’t need to cook it for much longer than that.

This bread freezes great! Even if you aren’t in the mood to have banana bread in the house (but seriously, who doesn’t want banana bread in the house!), use those old yucky bananas to make some out-of-this-world banana bread. Let it cool completely, wrap it in tin foil and then place it in a labeled freezer bag.

This is one of my mother’s favorite desserts. I always make sure I have a loaf or two in my freezer when she comes down for a visit. I LOVE sitting at the table with my beautiful momma, a cup of coffee and this bread. It’s one of my favorite things to do when she comes to visit. I love you mother. Happy Mother’s Day! xoxo

Hey, Plan To Eat friends…click here to add it to your planner!

Happy Cooking!!

xoxo

Meal Plan For The Week of April 13th

Meal Plan for the week…

Black Bean Soup & Roasted Broccoli (LOVE this one!!)

Shrimp & Asparagus Stir Fry w Lemon Sauce

(**new one**)

Teriyaki Chicken w Vegetables

(**new one**)

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili

(one to eat & one to freeze!)

Click here for the shopping list!

I’m going to start including the shopping list when I post a meal plan for the week. Right now, I’m just copying & pasting the list Plan To Eat creates for me. This will definitely take a little tweaking to get it just right, so hang in there with me. And please share any comments or suggestions on how to make it easier or more user friendly.

Happy Cooking!

xoxo

Easter Ain’t Over Til The Hambone Gets Crocked

My favorite comfort food of all time…Crock Pot Split Pea Soup!! Both my mother and my father would make this anytime they had a hambone and it always made the house smell wonderful but did I ever eat it?? NO. It looked disgusting AND it had peas in it AND a giant ham bone. No thank you. Looking back, I really wish that I had tried it…at least once, so that I could have something to compare it to.

It’s always around the holidays when I feel homesick the most and it’s usually when I do best cooking. So, this Easter was no different from any other..gotta save the hambone for some home cooked soup. You know, making comfort food to comfort my heart, or at least try.

Split Pea Soup has got to be one the easiest soups to make and it brings great comfort to my heart and also to my belly. It makes a ton so get ready to share with family or friends or stick some in a ziploc bag and freeze it. It freezes great! I recommend freezing it in single portions. That way when the husband is out of town and you don’t want to cook but you are looking for a lil’ comfort…just take a bag out of the freezer and voila! Comfort food without any work.

Rinse the peas and put in the crock pot first. Next, add the hambone. Add the potatoes, carrots, onion, salt and pepper. Fill with water, leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. Cover and set on low for 10 hours.

After 10 hours, your soup will look like this:

Remove the hambone very gently.

Stir the soup. The peas will lose their shape and the soup will thicken. If you want an even thicker soup, mash the potatoes with a fork…I love a thick pea soup!

Shred the ham with a fork and add as much or as little back into the soup as you would like. I like just a bit but to my husbands bowl, I add a bunch!

Enjoy! Happy Cooking!

And please let me know if you decide to try it. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!

You can also find me on Pinterest & Facebook.

Love,

Mrs. Roemer 😉

xoxo

Easy, Delicious AND Kid-Friendly!

I tried a new recipe this week… Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili from Pillsbury. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to try this one because it seemed too easy but Tuesday nights my oldest has ballet and it’s way too crazy to try to actually cook something. So, I took a chance on this one.

I love dark meat chicken and when I saw that the recipe called for thighs, I was excited! Most recipes call for chicken breast and I have a tendency to cook them too long causing them to dry out. I bought skinless, boneless thighs and just dumped them in the crock. I didn’t bother cutting them. I was looking for easy, remember? Oh, and I didn’t bother to spray the inside of the crock pot with cooking spray either.

Typically, when I cook a crock pot meal, I never put the beans or corn in until the last hour or so but this recipe had me do it all in the beginning. I was thinking the beans were going to be mush but again, I wasn’t going to be home all day so I really needed something easy. In went the corn and beans! What was the worst that could happen? I would eat mushy beans, curse a bit and never cook it again. A chance I was willing to take.

To my surprise, this meal was beyond delicious! I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. The chicken was juicy and the beans weren’t mushy! I served it over jasmine rice (my absolute favorite!) and with tortilla chips. I fed the girls something different because I really didn’t think they would like this but again to my surprise, they LOVED it! Both of them! They practically ate my whole bowl. Now, I love this one even more….an EASY crock pot recipe and one that the kids LOVE?? Win, win all around! This will definitely be added to my meal plan on a regular basis.

I was thinking I would put in a can of Rotel or some hot sauce (I love a lil’ kick!) next time but since the kids love it, I won’t. I’ll just spice up my bowl. Hmmm….maybe that will keep them out of my bowl! Ha!

Next time, I’m going to make two…one to eat that night and one to freeze. It doesn’t take any extra time and you will be so thankful to have a meal already prepared. I’ll freeze it raw, defrost it the night before I want to cook it and then dump it in the crock. The only thing I won’t put in the freezer bag will be the cheese, sour cream and green onion but everything else will even the beans! 😉

Definitely print this one out or save it to your Plan To Eat and make it next week. I promise you will be surprised at how easy it is to make and how delicious it is. Remember to make two and don’t forget to let me know how it came out and if your family loved it 🙂

Happy Cooking!

Katie

Mrs. Roemer’s Nest