Slow-Cooker Beef Stroganoff

1 3/4 lbs. boneless beef round steak, cubed
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 c. red wine or beef broth
2 Tbl. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. dried basil
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
i pkg dry onion soup mix
8 oz. pkg fresh mushrooms, chopped
1/2 c sour cream
8 oz pkg wide egg noodles OR mashed potatoes

Brown meat in 1 Tbl oil over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Add wine or broth, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of pan. Combine flour and seasonings in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place meat and mixture in slow cooker, toss to coat. Add mushroom soup and soup mix. Stir in mushrooms. Cover and cook on high setting 3- 3.5 hours, or on low setting 6-7 hours. Stir in sour cream, and serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.


I made this last night, and it was FANTASTIC!!! The kids devoured it. I made mashed potatoes instead of noodles, which I think was better. Enjoy!!!

Yikes!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I did an entry. Oops. Life has been a bit crazy the last few weeks, but hopefully things are calming down now! I am praying sooooo hard for Spring to come early. I am so sick of this weather. The kids all have snotty noses, bad coughs, and are crabby. I keep looking at my pics from last summer, and thinking of how soon summer will come. *sigh*

I am including a picture of Alayna today, I love this picture of her, it's with her scarf that her Grandma Donna made for her for Christmas, and a lovely pair of slippers. *chuckle* If you can't tell, they are slippers made out of sanitary pads. They were made for me by my wonderful step mother! Alayna is pretty much always in a leotard of some sort, and the kids does an amazing front flip and cartwheels! (She actually does a cartwheel better than her sisters who are both in gymnastics, but don't tell anyone)

I promise to post more often. Unfortunately the humor isn't hitting me this week, instead it's the bitchiness. Ack! I blame it on the weather. Brad blames it on the fact that I'm a woman. Seriously, whatever dude, like you know anyway. See what I mean? I told you it wasn't good, lol...

Our home

Here it is!

Some wanted to see what the finished product looks like, so here it is:)

Picture of the day

Aww, look at these two cutie patooties! Aren't they just the cutest little girls EVER???!!!!! Yes, they are, however they would be even cuter if they would sleep past 5:15 IN THE MORNING!!!!!! Seriously, 5:15 they woke me up. It isn't the worst thing in the world, of course. But I am missing my quiet time I would get in the morning. I get up at 5:30, just so I can have some quiet before the rest of the day starts. Oh well, at least I don't have to drag them out of bed every morning! But, 6:00 would be prime........

365 Project and a Recipe:)

Ok I heard about this from another friend of mine and it's called the "365 project". Basically it's sort of a scrap booking thing, but not really (did that make ANY sense??!!). The goal is to take one picture everyday, and journal about it. So, my *goal* (asterisk being, that goal does not necessarily mean I will do this everyday. Just hoping!!) is to journal one picture everyday on here. So, I start today.

This is a lovely picture of our poor snowman:( His fate caught up with him this morning, at about 8:15. Yesterday the kids still played with him, and even got their picture taken sitting on his head. Unfortunately his torso and head fell off this morning. The kids were pretty bummed about it. Brad and the girls made him during Christmas vacation. However, Alayna was very excited to find one of his eyes on the ground. She thought we should save it....

Ok, here is the recipe for today. It came out of the St.Cloud Times Delish section of Wednesdays paper. I made it last Thursday, and it is extremely fantastic! Very, very moist.

Pumpkin Apple Bread

3 C flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3 C sugar (I know, holy carp that's a lot of sugar, but remember it's two loaves)

1 (15 oz. can) pumpkin

4 eggs

1 C oil

1/2 C water

2 apples, chopped- Next time I think I'll put even more in

Combine flour, cinnamon, soda and salt, set aside. Mix together sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs, oil and water. Add dry ingredients. Fold in apples. Bake in greased bread pans (grease them REALLY well, one of my loaves got stuck) at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

A great weekend!

Back to Monday, *sigh*. Why do weekends have to go so darn fast? I had a fabulous weekend! Saturday morning I took the girls to Barnes and Noble for a Valentines Day party. They had story time, crafts and cookies for the kids. We there for about 2 hours. Nothing better than spending the morning with my kids in a bookstore sipping a mocha! After B&N, we went home, ate some lunch and got out all the scrap booking stuff. The girls worked on valentines for Grandparents and their class, and I worked on a scrapbook for my Grandma and Grandpa. I used a chipboard book and created the pages, it really turned out great, and I can't wait for them to get it! This weekend I am going to work on one for my Grandma Trellis:) I thought it would be nice for them to have a mini scrapbook of my kids.

In the afternoon we made a run to Crafts Direct (my other favorite place to be, sorry checking account). Brad got home about 6:00 from Orlando (he flew out there for work on Wed.) and we ordered pizza. It was great to have him home! That night we played games with the girls until it was bedtime, I am *this* close to finishing Perfection, lol. Sunday morning the girls and I had Sunday School, it was my turn to teach. Brad made his usual Sunday brunch, and then he took the girls to the farm so I could have some "mom" time in the afternoon. I did some more scrap booking, and watched the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". Fascinating!

It was just a super nice relaxing weekend, something I was in desperate need of. It is definitely getting easier when Brad is gone, either its just that I am so used to it, or its that the girls are at easier ages now. Out of the three girls, Alayna was the one asking when daddy was coming home!

Delish chicken tetrazzini

This is another recipe from my Family Fun magazine. I made it two nights ago and the kids loved it! Plus it was super easy to make

Chicken Tetrazzini

2 Tbl butter
1 Tbl olive oil
1/4 c minced shallots
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips (I just used cooked cubed chicken that I had in the freezer)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 c frozen peas thawed and drained
3 Tbl flour
1 1/2 c half and half
1tsp fresh lemon juice
3/4 c grated Parmesan
4 ounces med. egg noodles (I used fettuccine noodles instead)


Melt 2 Tbl butter and 1 Tbl olive oil in pan, add shallots, mushrooms, chicken, salt, pepper and paprika. Cook until strips are cooked through, about 6 minutes. Add the defrosted peas and cook for one more minute, stirring frequently.

Sprinkle flour over the mixture and cook for about 1 minute stirring continuously. Add the half and half and lemon juice. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low. Cook for one minute more, stirring frequently.

Remove from skillet from heat, add Parmesan cheese and mix thoroughly. Add cooked noodles to the mixture, and serve!