Side Dishes Make the Meal

December 4, 2013 By Anne

When it come to dinner, it seems like the main dish is always the star of the meal. But what about all those wonderful side dishes that make the main dish the star? We eat together as a family almost every night, especially during the week. So making a good dinner is important to us.

Our meatloaf would be nothing without my husbands mashed potatoes and corn. And what about that ham? Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes and green beans make that meal complete. Of course I can only speak for myself and my family’s likes and dislikes but around here the meal would not be complete with all those sides!

What about mac and cheese? We don’t eat that too much anymore, my children do not like it, but that was a big side dish for my stepsons. Baked potatoes, French fries and rice! Side dishes do not need to stand on the sidelines any longer!

Betty Crocker, a classic American Brand, has a variety of delicious Speciality Potatoes that can help complete any meal. Our favorite are Au-Gratin Potatoes. But they also have Mashed Potatoes, Scalloped Potatoes, Ultimates Loaded Mashed, Mashed Roasted Garlic and more.

When I hear the name Betty Crocker, I think – good food.

We were sent a box of Betty Crocker Mashed Roasted Garlic Potatoes. We made it with county fries steak, corn and green beans. Now we are family who is used to eating fresh mashed potatoes with no real flavor other than milk and butter. The garlic was a bit much for some of us. But I gobbled all mine down and thought they were delicious!

Country fried steak with Betty Crocker Garlic Mashed Potatoes and green beans.

This may look like Thanksgiving dinner, but it is not. We made a similar dinner with stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes and corn.

And my husband’s favorite side dish, sweet potatoes with marsh mellows on top.

My favorite sides are fried green beans with any meal and salad with pizza!

For my family a dish is not complete with an awesome side or two to go along with it!

What is your family’s favorite side dishes?

Need a quick and easy meal solution for the busy holiday season? Try Betty Crocker Potatoes today. Get recipes at http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/product-recipes/potatoes-recipes

“Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Betty Crocker via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Betty Crocker.”

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

No Taste Like Home – Cook Book

October 24, 2013 By Anne

I was lucky enough to review another Southern Living Cookbooks, No Taste Like Home. I love the Southern Living Cookbooks. They have wonderful photos and lots of tips. This particular cookbook also includes a history around the recipe along with tidbits about the south and people from the south. I loved just going through the book and “exploring” the south at the same time.

I choose a recipe to make, the Cheesy Potato Soup. I thought this would perfect with the cool weather approaching.

Very easy to make!

Ingredients:
3 lbs baking potatoes (6 to 8 medium sized)
1 small white onion, finely chopped
4 cups of milk or half and half
1 10 3/4 oz can of cream of mushroom, chicken or potato soup. ( I used cream of chicken)
1 8oz package of processed cheese, like Velveeta, cubed
Round Buttery Crackers, or saltines
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1. Peel potatoes and cut into bite size pieces. Boil potatoes and onion together in 6 qt pot with salted water for about 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain and return to pot.
2. Add milk, can of soup and cheese to potato mixture and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, 4 minutes or until cheese melts. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Top with crackers and shredded cheese.

You have a nice warm meal to combat those chilly days.

Have you ever made a soup from scratch?

Anne

Celebrate Halloween w/#SpookyCelebration #shop #cbias

October 21, 2013 By Anne

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

My neighborhood is having a Halloween party on Saturday. I wanted to make some fun treats but I had to try them out first and see how it worked.

I bought the Mixed Fun Size Candies from Mars, some Hawaiian Punch and a 2 Liter of 7UP. I also purchased some white chocolate and slivered almonds.

I love to make candy so I took my already bought candy and added some extra spookiness. (I found that it was easier to refrigerate the candy before dipping into hot chocolate.) I covered the Twix bars in melted white chocolate and added a slivered almond to one end to resemble a witches’ finger.

I then took the Snickers Bars and cut them in half. Then poked a lollipop stick into the cut end and dipped it into the melted chocolate and let in drip down to resemble a ghostly form. After I cooled the ghosts in the fridge I added some eyes and mouths in melted milk chocolate.

So it’s kind of like a Snicker’s Cake pop. Sort of.

I think they came out cute and am looking forward to bringing them to the party.

On to the punch…..

What’s a party without a spooky punch?

Very simple to make and so delicious! All you need is Hawaiian Punch, 7UP and sherbert. Mix 1 part to 1 part Hawaiian Punch and 7UP. Then add sherbet to taste. I think I added too much but it still tasted great!. Add a few spiders and floating eyeballs and you are in for a spooky treat!

I’ll be adding some pretzel rods dipped in chocolate with sprinkles to my party list. The more I look on Pinterst for more ideas I come up with!

There are lots of sales on Halloween Candy in almost every store! Why not add a coupon from Coupons.com for more savings?

Want more inspiration on Halloween Baking and recipes? Check out BrightIdeas.com for more #SpookyCelebration ideas! Also check out the blogging community and their projects on the #SpookyCelebration Pinterest Board.

Anne

Quick Start Homemade – Cookbook

October 21, 2013 By Anne

School is back and so is the full fall schedule. Dinners can get old and time consuming. So do you do? Try new quick and exciting recipes!!

I received a new cook book to review, Quick Start Homemade from Southern Living. I love Southern Living Cookbooks. They always have easy to follow recipes, beautiful pictures and lots of tips and tricks.

The Quick Start Homemade Cookbook has over 180 recipes using everyday staples and ingredients like pasta, salad, store-bought pizza dough, eggs and rotisserie chicken. Items you can pick up easily and put together a great dinner.

Each nutritious recipe has been triple-tested by the Southern Living test kitchen and Quick-Start Homemade includes great pasta dishes like Skillet Ziti, made in half the time of baked, and Green Bean Pasta Salad with Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette, a 30-minute recipe with an extra tip for preparing the recipe ahead of time and freshening up before serving. The “Pastry & Pizza Dough” chapter lets fresh pizza dough, piecrust dough or puff pastry do most of the work and features inventive pizza recipes perfect for a mid-week meal, as well as savory hand pies and pot pies. In “Rotisserie Chicken,” crowd-pleasing dinners like Chicken Enchiladas and Chicken Pot Pie with Cheddar Biscuits are no-hassle, but with a homemade touch.

I looked through the book and wanted something super easy. So I picked the Breakfast Pizza.

Here’s what you need:

1 – 8 oz can refrigerated crescent rolls

1 – lb. sausage( the book calls for hot, but I used mild)

(I also used 4 slices of bacon!)

1 – 28 oz package of frozen hash browns with onions and peppers

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 large eggs (I used 6)

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Unroll crescent rolls and place in 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake for 5 minutes

Reduce oven to 350. Cook sausage over medium heat until it crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain and sprinkle over crust. I added my bacon here as well.

Prepare hash browns as directed and spoon over sausage and bacon. Sprinkle cheese over hash browns.

Whisk together eggs, milk and salt and pepper. Pour over cheese.

Bake 350 for 30-35 minutes or until set.

I had so many more pictures from beginning to end but my card was not in my camera so all those pictures I thought I had I didn’t. So this a picture of the leftovers that we have been eating since I made this on Friday. A great dish! The extra eggs and bacon was a big plus for my family.

I’m looking forward to trying more new and easy recipes!! No more boring dinners for us!

Anne

Getting Ready for Halloween #HersheysHalloween

October 14, 2013 By Anne

This post is SPONSORED by Global Influence with PRODUCT provided by Hershey’s. All opinions are my own.

Last Friday I mentioned to my daughter that maybe we would get the Halloween stuff down from the attic. Well Sunday came and she insisted we get the decorations down and decorate! I can’t blame her. It’s exciting for little ones to get ready for Halloween. We made a day of it! My son helped me get the boxes down and my daughter started opening them and looking inside.

We hung up all the decorations and window clings all over the house. Of course she had to dress up too!

Then it was time to make some Halloween treats! I was sent a huge box of Hershey chocolates and wanted to make something special with them. I searched Pinterest and found some cute ideas. We made acorns, witch fingers and broom sticks. Find more ideas at Hersheys.com.

The acorns were really easy to make. You will need Hershey Kisses, mini wafers and peanut butter morsels. Melt a few morsels in a glass bowl in the microwave to use as your “glue”. Dip the Kiss into the “glue” and attach to wafer and then do the same with the morsel. Then refrigerate until set.

For the broom sticks, all you need are the small pretzel sticks and some Rolos or Miniature Reece’s. Dip the pretzel stick into your “chocolate glue” and stick into the candy. Cool until set. We also dipped some Peppermint Patties into orange chocolate and painted faces on them and cut the Scream Eggs in half and made lollipops.

So after playing with the candy and making all kinds of goodies, we headed outside to decorate the yard. My daughter had fun dictating what went where. She will be a handful to some man one day!