In the Kitchen

This week was filled with potlucks, dinner meetings, and leftovers as we gear up to gorge ourselves silly on Christmas Day! {not really} I purposely kept things simple because of my busy schedule, but I did manage to make a couple of yummy meals.

One was our favorite Taco Veggie Soup, salad, and homemade bread. I made this for my Sparks Leadership Team and my family ate it for leftovers one night. The soup is one of our family favs and super simple!

Brown up a pound of ground turkey and throw it in a crockpot with a package of taco seasoning, a jar of salsa, two cans of chicken broth, and a package of frozen veggies. Let it simmer all day long. Serve it with some cheese sprinkled on top of each bowl along with some crushed tortilla chips.

Follow this with a bowl of homemade peppermint chocolate chip ice cream and you've got some happy folks at the dinner table!

Don't forget how simple it is to make this ice cream. Pour 2 cups of heavy whipping cream into your mixer and whip it until soft peaks form. Meanwhile, pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl and add in your desired toppings. In this case, I added mini chocolate chips and peppermint chips. Once the whipping cream is whipped, mix it all together and freeze. That's it!


Mid-week, I took time to make the most incredible Chicken Spaghetti ever. To be honest, I had never heard of Chicken Spaghetti so I was intrigued. I got rave reviews from both the hubby and the teenager...which almost never happens! Click here for the recipe. I added a butter and breadcrumb mixture to the top and baked it for about 20 minutes.

One night I was blessed to have both boys and their girlfriends over for dinner. It was sort of unexpected so I had to whip up something quick and easy. I turned to my friend's new recipe blog ezdinners and made some Pepperoni Pinwheels. Hers look alot better than mine, but they were quite yummy! I served them with pasta and jello and followed it with the leftover peppermint ice cream I had.

Mmmm....It almost looks like I know what I am doing!

Now, I have to tell you that at the end of last week, I was able to get some baking done (for the first time in years). I baked a few cookies with a friend along with some candy. I wanted to do something a little fun and out of my box this year...and I baked all this to give away!

Well...most of it got given away. We did keep a little for ourselves. 

Gavin was occupied making these easy treats! Unwrap a kiss, place it on a pretzel, bake at 200 degrees for about 4 minutes and let cool. Yummy with peppermint kisses!

 

Peppermint Hot Cocoa compliments of The Cutting Back Kitchen. Seriously delicious!

Peppermint Bark from Confessions of a Homeschooler

The best peanut butter bark from Light Thinker. Ryan couldn't keep his hands off this stuff.

Muddy Buddy compliments of the back of the Rice Chex box!

Assorted cookies and candies from Mrs. P...The best chocolate chip cookies ever are on the bottom layer!!

Stay tuned to see how we gave all of this away on our "random day!" I'm so excited to share what we did and why we did it!

Keepin' it Real...D