Roasty Toasty!

On Saturday Chris and I had a small dinner party and it was so much fun! I love cooking and it was a great time with friends! We started our day by going out and cutting down our own Christmas Tree, then we picked up a half cord of wood, and finally cleaned the house and cooked a meal so that we could con our friends that were coming over to have patience with us to take a Christmas picture of us for the cards~ Thanks Katie!

My Menu for the party was
App: Sausage Cream cheese Dip
Meal: Roast with onions and carrots
Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Green Beans with Caramelized onions
Rolls
Dessert: Gingerbread Pumpkin Trifle!

Above you see my roast, I'll have to tell you how to make it later when I find the recipe that I used! I PROMISE I won't make a habit of this! HA!

Also here's the Green Beans I served... still working on uploading that recipe~

Beef Stew! YUMM!

Doesn't this just look like comfort in a bowl??? Well it IS!!! What goes better with a chilly night, a fire crackling, and dogs cuddling? STEW! Even better, i made this on Election Tuesday so in case there were long lines at the polls I wouldn't have to worry about making dinner. Well, our lines were not even there, yea NO ONE was in front of me, but the stew was still GREAT!
Ingredients
2lbs lean beef cutlets (stew meat)
around 5-6 potatoes cubed
half a small cabbage chopped
Large container of low sodium beef broth
4 mini cans of veggie juice
bag of mixed veggies
1 medium onion chopped
garlic powder, pepper, and salt to taste.
throw it all in a crock pot and cook on low for 8ish hours. My cooked for 10 and was fine! Oh and one bowl (about 5c) is 6 Weight Watcher points!

Taco Soup!

What a nice dish to have on a wet cold day! And what a hit! I really thought, though, that it was more of a taco chili/soup... it was much thicker then soup but still had some brothy substance... either way it was delish and EASY!
And here you can see why we needed it...Do you see how wet it was! COLD! I made this to take the Maryland vs NC State tailgate. Even though State lost, we put up a good fight and we stayed warm at the tailgate with my chili/soup! Lets call it Chiop!

At least we had fun together too!


I got this from a crockpot blogger, who also happens to be gluten free! HMM WOW! So thanks A year of Crockpotting, it was delish!

Ingredients
2 cans of kindey beans
2 cans of pinto beans
2 cans of corn
1 large can of diced tomatoes (I have no idea why the can wasn't in this picture. I know I put it in. This is a mystery.)
1 can tomatoes and chiles
1 packet taco seasoning (if you are gluten free, stick to McCormick)
1 packet ranch dressing mix (make sure there isn't hidden gluten, I went with Hidden Valley)
1 lb browned ground turkey or hamburger (optional.)
shredded cheese and sour cream for embellishment (optional, unless you're in my house. then it's mandatory.)

The Directions:

brown meat if you are going to use it
drain fat and add to crockpot stoneware insert (the meat. not the fat.)
sprinkle seasoning packets on top of meat
drain and rinse the beans and add
add the ENTIRE contents of the corn and tomato cans

cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5. I think the longer you cook soup, the better, so if you have the time, opt for cooking on low.

serve with a handful of shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream.