Chicken Sausage Sauce Over Noodles

Here are one of those dishes that you put together because you have a couple of ingredients and you just have to make it work or run out to the store. 

I had some Chicken Sausages that I picked up at Sam’s Club last weekend and a jar of pasta sauce.  The sausage had a Italian flavor, with Provolone cheese in it.  I thought that may make a good addition to pasta sauce. 

I don’t know how but I was out of Spaghetti noodles, that never happens, I always buy tons.  But I did have some egg noodles.  So we gave it a try.  My family loved it, of course or I wouldn’t be sharing this with you. 
4 Chicken Sausage Links-Italian seasoned
1 Onion, diced
2 Cloves Garlic, diced
1 jar of Pasta Sauce
1 16oz. bag of Egg Noodles, prepared directed.

I cut up the sausages into bit sized pieces, then added it to a pan with the onion and garlic.  I sautéed them for about 10 minutes.  Next, I added the sauce and let it all simmer for 30 minutes.  Prepare Noodles as directed.  Finally, pour the sauce over the noodles and serve with a nice green salad. 

One last tip.  This sausage is great grilled and then sliced up and put on crackers with cheese. 

Jeannie

How to Make Milk More Fun

Around our house we have no problem getting anyone to drink milk.  We go through about 7 gallons a week when all of the kids are home. 

One day we found banana milk at the Grocery store and my kids love anything banana, so we tried it.  They of course loved it.  For a half gallon it was about $2.40.  I thought there has to be a way to make this.  I found banana extract in our grocery store that I picked up and just added about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to a small cup of milk.  They love it.  I know artificial flavor and sugar, but come on they get 3 times the junk in just a piece of candy.



We have tried lots of flavors.  We made strawberry syrup from the strawberry jam that I made last summer.  Also, if you have Nesquick you can add that instead of the sugar in the banana milk. 




The stores have all sorts of extracts in the store.  If you are concerned about chemicals you can try to find natural extracts or make you own.  Just have fun.  Milk is a plain base that goes well with most flavors.  Hey, I just thought of Peach milk, you know peaches and cream.  I might have to find some peach preserves and melt it on the stove and add a little water.  Yum!!  Have fun!!
Jeannie

DIY All Purpose Citrus Cleaner

I love making my own household cleaners and I just found this one over at The Prairie Homestead.com .

I love the ingredients in this one.

And I love how easy it is to make.

DIY All-Purpose Citrus Cleaner

You will need:

• 1 or 2 quart sized mason jars
• A spray bottle (a repurposed one is just fine!)
• White vinegar (around 1-2 quarts)
• Orange, grapefruit, lemon, or lime peels (any combination of these will work, too)
• 3 -4 drops of lemon, grapefruit, or orange essential oil (optional)

I want you to go on over to her site and check out how to make it.  That is why I left the directions off.  It just looks so easy. 
I have some oranges so as we use them I am going to save the peels and then I will let you know how it goes. 
Happy Cleaning!!
Jeannie

Completely Homemade Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Chocolate cake.  I didn’t have a mix or frosting, so I started digging through my cook books.  I told you a while back that one of the ways that I store recipes, is in a photo album that my mom gave to my for a Christmas gift one year.  I found this recipe in that photo album. 
Wacky Chocolate Cake
I don’t know where my mom got it but, it is so easy and so good.

I mix together the dry ingredients first.
3 cups Regular Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Cocoa

Next I added in:
2 cups Cold Water
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons +2 teaspoons Vinegar

Whirl them together for 1 minute.  Fold into a 9x13 ungreased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. 

As you can see, nothing by looking at it is wacky.  I think it gets it’s name from the unusual way it is made.  NO Eggs?, Don’t grease the pan?  So, Wacky!!
The frosting is a regular butter frosting that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This is my favorite Cookbook.  It has everything in it.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
8 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
Beat this altogether and have a little milk on hand in case it is to heavy.  You want it to be kind of light and fluffy.  By the way this makes a ton of frosting.  You can either store it for later or cut it in half.
Hope that you enjoy this Cake as much as we did.  Oh yah!  It’s gone!  I can only make this every once and a while or I will be as big as a house.  So Good.
Jeannie

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This is my all time favorite household cleaner.  I use it for everything.  It is especially great on Carpet stains.  The main thing I use it for is my kitchen cleaner.  Between the alcohol and the tea tree oil you have a great disinfectant.
  plus   
I am currently out of the Castile soap.
This is the recipe:
1 cup Castile soap with Tea tree oil
1/4 cup of Rubbing Alcohol
1 teaspoon Baking soda
Fill the remainder of the spray bottle (32 oz.) with water.  Fill very slowly or you will end up with tons of bubbles.
Once you have add the Water, put the top on the bottle and then gently shake until baking soda is dissolved, check the bottom.

Jeannie

The Best Banana Bread

This really is the best Banana Bread.  It is slightly crunchy on outside and soft and sweet on the inside.

The recipe calls for Sour Cream but I was out once and used plain Yogurt and it worked fine.  Just to give you a lower fat option. 

I use fresh off the counter bananas or some out of the freezer.  Either works fine.  I always throw browning bananas into the freezer for later.  Also, if you peel the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag they are great for smoothies.  Just pop them in the blender frozen.

They are cooling.  I do have a funny story.  I didn’t think it was at the time,but now it is.  We all nibbled off of the half loaf up there and them I put the other in foil to give to friends.  I went up stairs.  When I came back the half loaf was gone.  I do have a teen age boy but even he doesn’t eat that fast.  Our stinkin’ dog Max got up there and ate it.  We were so mad.  His did the same thing with a roast in the crock pot a few days later.  Yeah, the kennel came back out and he is in there when we leave now. 

1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Eggs
4 Tablespoons Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Bananas (2-3)
1/2 Chocolate Chips (optional, but totally necessary in our house.)
Mix all ingredients together in this order and then bake in a well greased bread pan at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  The bread does turn a dark brown color.  You are not burning it unless you let it cook after the inside is done.
I warn you if you make it, make sure you put some aside or you won’t get any.  Enjoy!!

Jeannie

Really Good Creamy Peanut Butter Dip

 

Here is a dip that I made a few times recently.  We all loved it.   I found it on Kraftrecipes.com . This stuff is good enough to stick your finger in and eat all by itself, but they suggest crackers and fruit.
2oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1Tbsp. PLANTERS Creamy Peanut Butter
1Tbsp. honey
1Tbsp. milk
21RITZ Sticks Crackers
1apple, cut into slices
1pear, cut into slices

 

MIX Neufchatel, peanut butter, honey and milk in small bowl until well blended.
SERVE with crackers, apple and pear for dipping.
Enjoy!!!
Jeannie

Homemade Laundry Soap

My Friend Stacy over at www.2savvygals.blogspot.com has a great recipe for Homemade Laundry soap.  She has used it forever and loves it.  I am not "allowed" to use it.  I have a husband whoses one request in life is that we have nice smelling laundry which he means heavily scented, so that is one area I don't skimp on.  It is a small price to pay for a happy husband.  Check it out she has great pictures and instruction.  Here is all she uses:

Hope you enjoy!!!

 Jeannie

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I just found these lovelies on a cute blog that I heard about on a commercial.  It was funny we were watching TV and this commercial can on for I think spic and span.  The lady on the commercial mentioned her blog in the commercial.  I am always looking for new recipes and the name of the site is very cute “The Big Red Kitchen”  so I looked it up.  She is very creative and I found these.
I experimented with them once  while the two older kids were at camp and the younger kids loved them.  For Alliegators our oldest daughter’s birthday breakfast we made them. 
We had to do a b-day breakfast because, any of you who have teenagers will get this, that is the only time that week we would all be together.  We are not usually that busy but it was also the last week she was home before leaving for college.  So, even her boyfriend came over at 7 am on a Wednesday morning.
Here are my pics of the fun process of making this breakfast treats:

See!  Regular pancakes and then you just swirl on the cinnamon mixture that by the way is to die for.

FLIP!

Then place on your plate and drizzle the icing and eat.  So, Yummy!
This is the exact recipe from THE BIG RED KITCHEN:
Cinnamon Roll Pancakes
For the Cinnamon Filling...
In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, mix until smooth:
1 stick softened butter, almost melty
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 T. cinnamon
Using a rubber spatula to scrape the sides, pour this mixture into a large pastry bag that had been opened and stood up in a tall tumbler. A large ziptop bag with the edges folded over the tumbler would work too.
For the Cream Cheese Icing...
In the same bowl that you used for the cinnamon filling, mix together, using the hand mixer again:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
4 T. milk
Mix until smooth and pour into a second pastry bag just like you did with the cinnamon mixture above.
For the Pancakes...
In the same bowl that you used for the filling and the icing- no need to be using or washing too many bowls now- mix together:
2 cups pancake mix- I used Bisquick's Heart Healthy
3 eggs
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 T. powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
Using the hand mixer, blend until smooth. In a large non-stick skillet, over medium to medium-low heat, and using a 1/4 cup dry measuring cup, ladle 2 pancakes. Snip the tip off the pastry bag containing the cinnamon filling so that the opening is a scant 1/2 inch wide, swirl over cooking pancakes in a circular motion- 3 go-a-rounds should do. Continue to cook the pancakes until bubbles form evenly through each cake. Gently flip each pancake over and cook another 30-45 seconds, remove to a serving platter and serve immediately or keep warm covered in a warm oven. Continue with the rest of the batter. Place 2-3 pancakes side by side (too pretty to stack!) on each person's plate and drizzle each one with icing. Serve maple syrup, bacon or sausage, and fruit on the side. Makes 18 pancakes.
Note- Using a damp paper towel, wipe your skillet after each pancake is made. This will keep the next pancake from sticking to any of the cinnamon filling that has leaked onto your skillet or griddle.
After I swirled each pancake with the cinnamon filling, I returned the pastry bag, tip down in the tumbler. This kept it from leaking all over.
Store any leftover icing in the refrigerator for future use.
 Hope you all enjoy these as much as we have!!
Jeannie

Homemade Applesauce

I am in the midst of making so much applesauce we will never eat it all.  But here it is.

At this point it is getting ready to cook down into its chunky, yummy consistency

Here is what I used this last time to cut and peel the apples.  For the first 24 jars I peeled and cut them all by hand.  Fun!  But then my lovely friend Stacey loaned me her magnificent device and it was oh so easy.  Kind of like when you deliver your first kid using no drugs and then the next one with drugs, it was a breeze.  It’s all about perspective!
So, I have 36 Quarts done and my great friend and partner in blogging just gave me two more boxes of apples.  So, you all can be sure that you will see many, many apple recipes in the months to come.
Oh, right here is my recipe for the homemade applesauce:
about 20 apples peeled and cut into slices or quarters
1 cup sugar
1Tablespoon of Cinnamon
1 cup water
Just throw it all in the pot and cook on Medium for about 30-45 min or until apples are really mushy and the sugar is even getting caramely looking.  Then leave the apples as is or use a potato masher on them.  While they are still very hot put them into the jars and seal with the lid.  You then water boil process them for 40 minutes in a canner.  Them take them out and listen for the popping of the lids sealing.  I love that sound, it is the sound of successful canning.

Jeannie