It’s been a quiet week here in Bend, at least for my family. The boys have been a bit sick, so outings have been minimal. Which means lots of time to be cozy at home & try new recipes!
I made roast butternut squash to go with a crock pot roast that I did. The squash was lovely – I would have liked it to crisp up a bit, but I think that the water content is too high for it to do much crisping – it was super yummy though. I made a beef roast in the crockpot as well. I didn’t use a recipe, but I did put a can of cranberries in while it cooked – so very good. Crock pot roasts aren’t always pretty to photograph, but the truth is in the tasting!
I also mulled some apple cider. I looked at several recipes, but just kind of added things until I liked it. Here’s what I added to our hot cider:
- cinnamon sticks
- whole cloves
- nutmeg
- all spice
- lemon juice
- lemon zest
- splash of vanilla
It turned out quite lovely! I love mulled drinks – wine or cider. So warm & comforting as the weather gets colder.
Last week, I had down to make meatloaf on our weekly menu. I wanted something different though. I checked around Pinterest and found heaps of great recipes, but none were what I was really looking for. Then I had the idea of doing a Cheeseburger Meatloaf – I was going to just figure it out for myself & was so proud that I’d come up with this “original” idea. I decided to quickly Google it only to find tons of recipes. Sigh, so much for my originality. I went with the Paula Dean Recipe. I used ground turkey instead of beef & stuffing mix instead of bread crumbs. It was a hit! So yummy. Of course the true test of a good meatloaf is whether it makes good meatloaf sandwiches & boy, does this meatloaf pass the test!
For a weekend meal I made Taco Pizza using this recipe. I don’t have a hard time coming up with stuff to make during the week, it’s the weekends that are tough for me. Our plans are a bit more fluid on the weekends so I need recipes that take minimal planning and time. This Taco Pizza was easy to pull together & very tasty!
Finally, we had a Dessert Dash & Auction for the Moms group that I am involved in, Moms, Inc. I made a super fun cake that I call the Candy Cake. I didn’t have a lot of time to work on it, so I used a box cake mix. It is so easy & I found the idea on Pinterest. You start with any cake you like – frost it, add Kit Kat bars around the outside & fill the top with M&Ms. I tied a ribbon around it & it looked so fun. I hope the people who won it in the auction enjoyed it. Colin really wants me to make another one for us!
I hope you have a tasty week ahead!
Lamppostings 