dinner

Easter Ain’t Over Til The Hambone Gets Crocked

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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.

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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:

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Remove the hambone very gently.

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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

 

 

 

 

Weekly Meal Plan

Meal Plan for the week of March 16-20:

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–Crock Pot BBQ Meatballs (freaking LOVE these!)

–Slow Cooker Corned Beef & Cabbage

–One Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta (**new recipe for me)

–Tilapia w Garlic Roasted Tomatoes & Corn (already made a few weeks ago, just have to remember to defrost it this time!)

Who else is cooking Corned Beef on Tuesday? How do you like to cook it? I’ve only ever done it in the crock pot and it always turns out delicious! Yummmm!

I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures especially of the new recipe I’m trying out.

Happy Cooking!

P.S. Would you be interested in a shopping list if I added it along with the meal plan? It’s easy to do. Just let me know, I would be happy to include it!

Let’s Bring Back Summer!

In my efforts to “bring back summer” especially for all you northern folk, I whipped up some homemade potato salad while the husband smoked a brisket on the Big Green Egg.

Looking back, I should have stayed in last night instead of drinking wine with neighborhood ladies because prepping for potato salad is a pain in the neck! Even more so when all three kiddos are awake. But I had a blast last night so I’m going to take Elsa’s words to heart and “let it go” because “the past is in the past.”

Anyway back to the potato salad…it’s from Better Homes & Gardens – Classic Potato Salad – a recipe that I fell in love with about 20 years ago. When I’m craving delicious potato salad, this is what I want and nothing else will do.

The potato salad has eggs, mustard, onion, sweet gherkin pickles, celery and of course potatoes and mayo. All of my favorite things!

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Happy Cooking!

Katie 🙂

P.S. I apologize for all the Frozen quotes but you do remember that I live with two frozen obsessed daughters. A day does not go by that we don’t sing, watch or talk about Elsa, Anna and Olaf. But let’s save that for another post 😉

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

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I think I’ve found yet another site for the most delicious recipes ever! I’ve already tried two of them so far and both have been fantastic! Like restaurant quality fantastic. Like holy hat, I could eat the whole dish before the husband gets home and he would never know I cooked anything. “Sorry, honey, I ran out of time to cook. Frozen pizza ok??” Ha. He’s no dummy. He would definitely call my bluff.

If you are looking for a great and relatively easy dinner to make tonight or this weekend, go check out Julia’s Album. I promise you will find a dish that you LOVE! And make sure to tell her I sent you by 🙂

Last night I made Chicken Mozzarella Pasta w Sun Dried Tomatoes and truth be told…there isn’t any left. Seriously. No joke. And it was only my husband and I who ate it. It was THAT good.

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In all of my 20+ years of cooking, I have never sautéed my chicken in the oil from the sun dried tomatoes. I almost skipped that step and used regular olive oil. I am so thankful I didn’t!! It made a huge difference in taste and adding a little paprika gave the chicken a beautiful color. Of course, I had to take a picture of the chicken because it just looked so pretty!!

I love how Julia’s Album incorporates a variety of flavors all in one dish. The mix of fresh basil with sun dried tomatoes and melted mozzarella is mouth watering delish. My favorite part was sprinkling red pepper flakes on top to give the dish a nice kick!

Another step that I was tempted to skip was reserving 1/2-1 cup of the pasta water. Once again, I’m thankful that I didn’t. The cheese sauce definitely gets very thick and you do need to add the water to make it a creamier, thinner sauce so it can cover all the pasta. And who doesn’t like extra sauce for dippin’?!

Happy cooking!

Katie xoxo

P.S. Check out your local Fresh Market for a great deal on chicken breasts. I promise you won’t be sorry! On Tuesdays, it’s $2.99/lb. Great savings and great tasting chicken!

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Lasagna Soup? What?!

A few weeks ago, my sister told me that she made Lasagna Soup. I was like, lasagna soup?? What?!? How in the world can lasagna be made into soup?! She went on and on about how much the WHOLE family loved it…even the kids. Well, once she said the kids loved it I knew I had to give it a try.

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Skinnytaste‘s recipes are absolutely, without a doubt, DELICIOUS! So much so, that I even bought her cookbook last year! I should have bought some kind of protector for it to keep it clean from all my cooking though…

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I’m not usually looking to reduce calories so I always find myself making the dishes “un-skinny”. With this one, I used regular sausage and most definitely added more cheese.

The girls didn’t try it because I ended up feeding them before it was done. I had a MNO to go to and I wasn’t feeling up to having them try something new. That takes a whole lot of energy…and time. Both of which I was lacking that night.

Next time, I will have them help me prepare and eat this meal. I just know they will LOVE breaking the lasagna noodles as much as I did. It was a great stress reliever!

Happy Cooking!!

Katie 🙂

Cook Once, Eat Twice

The husband and I both love freshly cooked meals. Well honestly, who doesn’t?! But let’s face it, with three kids 4 and under that’s just not going to happen very often. Unless…he hires me a live-in chef. And I’m pretty sure that will NEVER happen! Ha!

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If you are new to meal planning or freezing meals, you MUST try out this recipe. It’s super easy to prepare and if you are making one, why not make a second and freeze it for another week.

Crock Pot Mongolian Beef from Once A Month Meals.

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I’ve tested this one on the hubby before and he had NO CLUE that it was previously frozen. After he was done, I asked him how it was and he said it was delicious!! I chuckled and said…that’s great because I made it last month. From that little “experiment,” he now loves freezer meals too! Thank goodness!

Today, I used a 10oz bag of already shredded carrots (a HUGE time saver!) and ginger paste instead of fresh ginger. This is my first time using the ginger paste so I used the same measurement as the recipe. I’ll find out tonight if I need to increase it next time or not. Promise to keep ya posted!

Happy Tuesday!

Katie 🙂

Malaspine Meatloaf

I never gave meatloaf much thought until I tried my BFFs mother’s recipe. Oh my! Ever since then, this is the only meatloaf I crave and now with the cooler weather coming, it’s the ultimate in comfort food. Serve with some egg noodles or mashed potatoes. Or heck! Serve it with both and enjoy! Let me know if you decide to add it to your meal plan for the week. I would love to know how you liked it!

Katie 🙂

Malaspine Meatloaf

  • Servings: 4
  • Print

Credit: The Malaspine Family

Ingredients:

Meatloaf:

  • 1-1.5lbs ground beef
  • 1-1.5lbs ground pork (not the original Malaspine way, a Roemer addition)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 c ketchup
  • 2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
  • 1/2 c breadcrumbs
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper

Glaze:

  • 1/2 c ketchup
  • 2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
  • 4 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, scramble 2 eggs. Add the ketchup, mustard, bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt & pepper. Mix well. The mixture should be kind of gooey.
  2. Add the ground beef and the ground pork and mix well.
  3. Place into 13×9 pyrex and evenly distrubute to cover the majority of the dish.
  4. Use a small bowl to prepare the glaze. Add the ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, and apple cider and mix well.
  5. Pour the glaze over the meatloaf.
  6. Bake at 350degrees for 1hr 45mins to 2hrs or until meat is thoroughly cooked. 10416981_10203362826047530_5676529786616810818_n

Seeking Comfort

I have been doing a lot of cooking this week and its only Wednesday. It seems that when my anxiety is through the roof, I tend to skip my early morning bible study and when I skip my early morning bible study, I cook…alot. I start doubling recipes, stuffing them into a Ziploc and freezing them. While its awesome to be prepared and have a stocked freezer, I’m not focusing on whats really important… God and my family. That all hit me this morning when I was telling a girlfriend about the amazing Shepard’s Pie (my ultimate comfort food!) that I made last night. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Hmm… so here I am searching for comfort, so I make comfort food. When all along I should have searched for comfort from Him.

I was up early this morning and while the whole house slept, I did get about twenty minutes of study time in. Maybe that’s why I was able to see my previous actions so clearly. Maybe that’s what I needed. So I made the comfort food yesterday and found comfort from Him this morning. I do have to admit that my anxiety is at a much more controlled stated. There has been no yelling today and that’s a win for this house!

Did I receive the seed that fell on good soil? Today, I did.

“But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23

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Click here for the delicious Shepard’s Pie recipe from Once A Month Meals.

Happy Wednesday

Beautiful the mess I am,

Katie