Today I'm a cookin' Mama!

Hey friends...I'm wiped out! I've cooked a lot today and I'm tired, but I really enjoyed it. Joe and I realized not too long ago that we needed to eat at home more and not go out as much. I know this is a good thing for many reasons, but it means more work for me! It's been going well (as you can tell...I do a lot of "cookin'" posts). I've always enjoyed cooking, but I think since I've had a family it's a little harder because I have so many other responsibilities...cleaning the house, doing the laundry, taking care of the children's needs, etc. Ya'll know how it is! Today, though, I did a good bit of cooking and it turned out well. I cooked a meal for us and for another family that just had a baby. When we had Sophie and Isaac, several friends were so good to us and provided us with meals. I realized that this is something I need to do more often. I'm thankful that God gave me the desire and the energy to do that today! So here's what I cooked...(I don't have any pictures this time...no time to stop and take them :-D)

I bought my first Boston Butt today. I had to call my grandmother to see how to cook it! It turned out well. She recommended putting the meat in a pan with a little water, season well with salt and pepper, and some seasoning salt if you had it. Then cover it and cook it for about an hour on 400 and then reduce (I went down to 325) for another couple of hours until the juice that comes out is not red. It came out well! I ate mine with barbeque sauce. Along with that I made for us, and the other family, roasted ranch potatoes. It's good and easy. I use red potatoes and cut them into quarters. I get a large ziplock baggy and put a packet of Hidden Valley Ranch with some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Drop your potatoes down in there, zip it up, and shake. Put them in a pan (with sides...I use a cake pan) and cook for about 20-30 min. on 425. Yum! For dessert for us I cut up some strawberries and made a sauce by warming up a little bit of fat free sweetened condensed milk with some mini semi-sweet choc. chips. Then some fat free whipped cream on top. Oh, yeah...it's like strawberries dipped in chocolate. Delish!

For my friends I made a recipe I got from a friend of mine that was in Thailand (thanks, Catherine!). It's called chicken broccoli puffs. You can cook up some chicken (probably about 4-6 breasts) and cut it up in small pieces. Because I knew I was going to be cooking a lot, I just bought a whole chicken that was cooked rotisseri style and picked the chicken off the bone. You'll also need to get some fresh broccoli (about 3-4 small bunches?--not sure what you call one stalk of broccoli), boil it, and drain. Add the chicken, broccoli, salt and pepper to taste, and 8 oz (one bar) of cream cheese that's softened, together. For the "puff" part, you'll need a can of those croissants. I got two cans of 8. You'll take two of the croissants and join them together so that it makes a square. After you've got it all joined up, you scoop some of the chicken/broccoli mix in the center. Pinch the sides together to make it closed. Do this for the rest of the croissants. This made 8 "puffs" with the two cans. You put these on a cookie sheet and the recipe says to bake at 425 for 30 min...but I found that I needed to do it at about 400 for about 15-20 min. The only thing you have to be careful about is not letting the outside getting too brown before the inside it done...that's why I lowered the temp. Sorry this isn't in recipe format! I just felt the need to write it out conversation style! ;-)

I also made them a Weight Watchers chocolate chip peanut butter pie. Ok...this is awesome! I'm not sure if I can post a Weight Watchers recipe on here or not? If you'd like the recipe, let me know! It's easy and so good. I usually don't do all the reduced fat items on the recipe, but I figure it's still less fat than something you would buy in the store.

So, that's what I did! I hope you're enjoying the recipes. I have so many, it's crazy. Happy cooking!

God bless!