My First Apron

Mommy Hates Cooking Apron

Excited about his new apron.

The Naked Chef

I made my 1st apron tonight and am pretty excited about it. I also made my son a matching apron. I thought I'd share.

Happy Cooking!

Grocery Savings

I typically do not mention cost or savings in most of my recipes as my purpose with this site is to provide easy cooking ideas for mom's like me, who hate to cook! However, did you know that I spend next to nothing for most of my meals?

My grocery shopping centers around coupons and sales, I have learned all of my coupon tips and tricks form Money Saving Queen. I started using these methods consistently after my son was born, and I went from a full-time position to a part-time position dramatically changing our budget. The savings for our family has been tremendous.

The Money Saving Queen recently featured my Stuffed Peppers recipe on News 9 in OKC. She shows you how to save by making this meal using sales and coupons.


My menu plan is also featured every other week on Money Saving Queen with coordinating coupons that will make your shopping on a budget even easier. Check out this week's Menu Plan Monday.

Dill Fish

I am really working hard to make fish taste...well, not like fish! I was looking at what I had in the pantry and saw a new container of dill weed just dying to be opened. That's how my fish became dill fish!

Ingredients:

4 6oz White Fish Fillets, Thawed (I used Tilapia)

1 Tsp of Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp Butter

2 Tsp Dill Weed

Preheat oven to 400*.

Put the butter in a microwave safe dish and melt in the microwave, typically 10 seconds. Then in that same bowl, add the lemon juice and mix. Put fish fillets in a foil lined baking dish, pour the lemon juice and butter over each fillet. Then sprinkle each one with approximately 1/2 tsp of dill weed. If you are like me and really love dill, add more!

This will bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the fish fillets are nice and flaky.

I served this with a baked sweet potato and corn.

This was a very light way to serve fish. I thought the dill gave it a nice, subtle flavor.

Banana Oat Crunch

When my son started out on solids, we mainly gave him Cheerios as his snack. As he has grown and tried new foods, Cheerios are more fun for him to throw than to actually eat. With this in mind, we have a large box of Cheerios that has been sitting in the pantry because my husband and I do not eat them much.

I decided to try a different approach and use up some of the Cheerios. I put the cheerios in a bowl and then I smashed them into fine pieces. I have also read that an easier way to smash the cereal is by putting it in a sandwich bag and using a rolling pin.

I sliced banana and then dipped it in the Cheerios and gave that to my son as his snack. Another way to eat them is to put them in the freezer after they have been coated with the cereal, for a frozen treat...great for teething toddlers. He enjoyed it and was not tempted to throw them!

Baked Chicken Bruschetta

I found this recipe on All Recipes, and I adapted it a bit to fit our taste. It was so easy, and really good. I have never eaten bruschetta before, so I cannot judge if it taste like the real thing, but I can say if nothing else it looked just like it!

Ingredients:

2 Boneless Chicken Breast, thawed and cut into cubes

1 15oz Can of Diced Tomatoes

1/2 Cup of Water

1/2 Tbsp of Olive Oil

1/4 Tbsp of Barley

1/4 Tbsp of Parsley

1 Box of Chicken Flavored Dry Stuffing

2 Cups of Shredded Mozzarella

1 .6oz Packet of Dry Italian Seasoning

Servings: 5-6

Preheat Oven to 400*

In a bowl mix the stuffing, tomatoes, water, olive oil, barley, and parsley. This will soften while you get the chicken ready. Once the chicken is cut into cubes place it in the bottom of a baking dish, then sprinkle 1/2 of the Italian seasoning packet on the chicken. Next pour the cheese over the chicken. The last layer is the stuffing mixture, then add the remaining seasoning to the top of the stuffing.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

For an added note, I omitted the salt and garlic from the original recipe. I typically will never use salt, so if you like salt then add it. Also, I did not mean to omit the garlic, I simply FORGOT...that was my Mommy Hates Cooking moment! I thought it came out great though and when I make it again I will still not add the garlic.

I served this with New York Sesame Bagel Chips.

Enjoy!

Breaded Baked Catfish

Catfish is one of the other few fish that do not taste too fishy for me. After researching some catfish recipes I saw a few different ideas. Then, I looked at what I had in my pantry and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Flour

1/4 Cup of Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 Cup of Bread Crumbs

1 Tsp of Garlic Powder

2 Egg Whites

1/4 Cup of Skim Milk

4 Catfish Fillets, 6oz fillets

Servings: 4

Preheat the oven to 400*. Mix the flour, cheese, bread crumbs, and garlic powder together in a bowl, then in a separate bowl whisk together the egg whites and skim milk.

Then, dip each catfish fillet into the milk and egg mixture and then into the dry ingredient mixture. Place each one on a foil lined baking dish and put in the oven. Bake them for 30 minutes or until fully cooked, fish will be flaky when fully cooked.

These turned out surprisingly well using what I had on hand. The cheese gave it a nice touch of flavor. I paired them with fresh squash and cucumber that I simmered in the skillet for 20 minutes with 1/4 Tbsp of Olive Oil.

Wordless Wednesday

Enjoying the concert with daddy.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

Words cannot express how good this was! This took mere minutes to prepare and then the slow cooker did all the work!

Ingredients:

3 Boneless Chicken Thighs, thawed and cut in 1/2

8 oz of BBQ Sauce

1 Tsp of Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Tsp of Liquid Smoke

1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar

Serving: 4

Place the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker, then pour the BBQ sauce over the chicken. Add the remaining ingredients to the chicken and BBQ Sauce. Cook on low for 4 hours, then take the chicken out and shred the chicken. Ours was so tender it just fell apart easily. Then place the chicken back into the slow cooker and cook on low for 1 hour.

This taste AMAZING! I was so impressed, this may be my favorite busy day recipe because it was so easy and delicious. This was the first time I used chicken thighs and I really feel that made a difference because the chicken was more tender than the chicken breast.

We put this on some toasted hamburger buns and paired with the onion soup potatoes. Corn on the cob would be a nice addition to this recipe too.

This chicken would also make a great topping for baked potatoes or even a BBQ Chicken Pizza.

I decided to let my son try this too; however I was a little skeptical of him eating it with so much BBQ sauce; however, I'll just let this picture speak for itself of how he felt about this meal.

Honey Dijon Tilapia

On my quest to eat more fish, here is yet another way to make delicious tilapia. I saw this recipe on $5 Dollar Dinner's, Honey Dijon Fish.

I adapted this to use what I had on hand, which really turned out to only be 1 of the ingredients from the original. I was surprised to find this to be really good and is now one of my favorite ways to eat tilapia.

Ingredients:

5 Tilapia Fillets

4 Tbsp French's Honey Dijon Sauce

1 Tbsp Fat Free Italian Dressing

1 Tsp of Creole Cajun Seasoning

Serving: 5

I started by preheating the oven to 400*. In a small bowl, I mixed the Honey Dijon and Italian Dressing together with a whisk. I placed fillets on a foil lined baking dish. I poured the mixture over the fish and then sprinkled it with the Cajun seasoning. I baked the fish for about 30 minutes or until fully cooked.

I paired it with steamed corn and canned green beans. This is a quick, tasty way to fix fish!

Ban-Apple Chocolate Chip Waffles

Food allergies are a very prominent part of my family's daily life. When my nephew was born after many trips to the hospital, my sister and brother-in-law realized that he had life threatening food allergies, 22 to be exact. It was a struggle for them as well as the rest of the family to determine what he could and could not eat. In the midst of that was finding many new websites that address food allergies and great recipes to help those with the same challenge.

I recently found The Food Allergy Mama, and am so excited to be trying some of her recipes. The one that I tried this week was Dairy Free, Egg Free, Banana Chocolate Chip Waffles.

I did adapt the recipe a bit, one of the major things that I changed was omitting the oil. I felt that was a bit too much oil when I typically try to stay away from vegetable oil.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 Cup Rice Milk

1/2 Cup of Applesauce

2 Tbsp Water

1 Cup Mashed Banana, I used 2 full bananas to make a cup

2 Cups of Flour

2 Tbsp of Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 Cup of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Serving: 6-8 Waffles

I started by preheating the waffle iron. Then, I mixed the milk, applesauce, banana, and water in a small bowl. In a separate bowl I mixed the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Then, I poured the dry ingredients over the liquid ingredients. After doing this, stir in the chocolate chips.

I poured a small amount of the mixture over the waffle iron until the green light comes on and the waffles are done.

I was so impressed with these, now this will be one of my favorite breakfast dishes around our home. We topped it with some warm maple syrup and sliced bananas. Delicious!

Toddler Truffles

I saw a similar recipe to these in The Toddler Cookbook, by Jennifer Garden. Since I had the main ingredients on hand, I thought I would go ahead and give it a try. Turns out my son really enjoyed
these!

Ingredients:

1/2 Can of Black Beans, drained (15oz Cans, used 1/2)
1/4 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp of Butter
1/4 Tsp of Baking Powder
1 Egg
1 Tsp of Vanilla
Crushed Graham Crackers or Powdered Sugar to dust on the truffles

Preheat the oven to 375*.

Mix together the beans, sugar, brown sugar, butter, baking powder, and vanilla. Use a mixer or food processor to mix these ingredients, then mix in the egg. Pour each one into a greased pan, the book calls for an 8x8 pan. I actually used a cupcake pan.

Bake it in the oven for 30 minutes. Let it cool for about 15 minutes. Then, I sprinkled crushed graham cracker on the top. You can cut the truffles out almost like brownies, or you can use a spoon or ice cream scooper to make balls out of them.

I did not have powdered sugar on hand; however, that's a good item to sprinkle on them.

I was really skeptical of these; however, my son was not. He was ready for more!

Beef Goulash

I was recently told that there are many different types of goulash, and this may or may not be one of them. However, my mom always called this dish goulash, so that's what I plan to call it regardless of what it should technically be called!

On nights when I need something with a lot of leftovers so that my hubby has enough to last him a couple of days at work, and if I know I will not have time to cook for a couple of days...this is the dish I make!

Ingredients:

1 lb of Medium Shells

1 Jar of Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb of Ground Beef

Shredded Mozzarella

First, I boil the medium shells on the stove until al dente, using a large stock pot. While these are cooking, I cook the ground beef in a skillet, you can also use ground turkey. This time I just warmed up my pre cooked ground beef crumbles from National Steak and Poultry. Then, I heat up the spaghetti sauce for 2 minutes in the microwave. I drain the noodles and the beef and mix them together in the pot, stirring in the warm spaghetti sauce. I serve this topped with mozzarella cheese and a side salad with garlic bread and you have dinner...and probably a lot of leftovers too!

Another nice change to this meal is putting the mixture in a baking dish, top with mozzarella cheese and bake in the oven on 350* for about 20 minutes. This makes it taste more like a casserole style dish.

This is a great dish for a toddler meal too if your child can handle tomato based products.

This is very simple, easy, and last us several days!

Chicken and Black Bean Quesadillas

Mexican dishes are my favorite! Interesting though, since I do not like spicy foods. I thought I would try to make some quesadillas without my quesadilla maker. I used to have one, but between moving and having a baby last year, it seems to have disappeared.

Ingredients:

10 Flour Tortillas (8 inch diameters)
1 10oz Can of Rotel with Green Chilies, drained
3 oz of Black Beans (the cans are 7 oz, I used 1/2 a can)
8 oz of Fat Free Sour Cream
1 Cup of Shredded Chicken (I used 1 large chicken breast)
1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
2 Tbsp Shredded Mexican Cheese

Start by preheating the oven to 400*. Using a skillet with non stick spray cook the chicken breast, season with the Cayenne pepper.

While this is cooking, whisk together the chilies, beans, and sour cream.

Once the chicken is done and cooled, shred the chicken. At this point, you can either add the chicken to the mixture or you can add it to the tortillas separately.

Spray the baking sheet with non stick baking spray, then lay one tortilla flat on the sheet. Pour the mixture and some shredded chicken on the tortilla. Top with a little bit of cheese and then place another tortilla on top. Do this for each one, it should make 5 quesadillas using the 10 tortillas.

Place this in the oven for 30 minutes. Once these are done, let them cool for 15 minutes. Then, I cut ours in half down the middle of the tortilla.

For a side item with this dish, I decided to make taco rice. I did not have any pre-made taco rice on hand, so I boiled 2 Cups of water with 2 Cups of Brown Minute Rice, and added 1 package of taco seasoning. This turned out tasting even better than the pre-made taco rice, and I was able to use brown rice which I prefer.

I garnished my quesadilla with a dollop of sour cream, a few diced tomatoes, and black beans.

This dish turned out great! It was a bit spicy, which I am not too fond of, but good enough that I could get over that real quick! My husband tells me I am crazy and that it was not spicy at all!!

Spinach and Ham Omelet

I conquered the OMELET! Can you tell I am just a little bit excited about this? I have tried to make an omelet in the past and it quickly turned into the Toddler Egg Scramble! I have a horrible skillet that seriously needs and upgrade and each time I tried to make the omelet, the eggs stuck to the skillet, and I ended up scrambling them. I am just going to keep blaming my skillet.

Moving on, back to conquering them.

Ingredients:

2 Eggs

1 Tsp of Olive Oil

1 Piece of Ham, chopped

1/4 Cup of Chopped Spinach

1 Tbsp of Shredded Cheese

Serving: 1 Omelet

I start off by spraying the skillet with non stick cooking spray, and then adding the spinach, ham and olive oil.

While this was simmering, I put the 2 eggs in a small cup and whisk them together.

Once the spinach and ham had simmered, I removed the mixture and resprayed the skillet. I then added my whisk egg to the skillet and let cook for about 3 minutes. I poured my spinach and ham mixture along with cheese onto the omelet and then slowly flipped one of the sides over to the other making the ends meet.

Note: If you would like to make more than one, use 3 eggs. In a small cup or bowl whisk 1 egg plus 1 egg white together and then in another bowl whisk 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk. This splits the 3rd egg and allows you to have a healthier omelet using the egg white. I did this when making our omelets so that my husband could have one and my son could have one. Remember, I do not like eggs.

I cut the omelet in half and served to my son for breakfast. He was equally impressed!

Wordless Wednesday

Nothing but open road.

Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti

In the past when I make Spaghetti, I have always used store bought meatballs. However, I am learning that it is much healthier and easier to make my own.

Thanks to Roseann for sending me this meatball recipe. I adapted it a bit, but overall it's very similar to the original and tasty!

Meatballs:

1 lb of Ground Turkey

2 Egg Whites

3 Tbsp of Minced Onion or 1 Cup of Fresh Chopped Onion

1 Cup of Italian Bread Crumbs

1 Tsp of Garlic Powder

Mix all of the ingredients together and form small balls, then I put them in the slow cooker on high for 4 hours. I would then cook on low for an hour to be sure they are fully cooked. This was a great alternative to using the oven or being short on time and using store bought meatballs. They were ready by the time I was home from work. You can also make extra and freeze for future use.

While the meatballs were in the slow cooker, I boiled 4 cups of water with 8 oz of angel hair pasta. I drained the pasta and put back in the pot. I warmed a 26oz jar of marinara sauce and then added this to the pasta. I mixed the cooked meatballs in and added a little mozzarella cheese to the top of the dish. There you have it, Spaghetti with Slow Cooker Meatballs.

Cucumber Sandwiches

This quick recipe for toddlers was recommended by Laura at Call Me Laura Jane, she also happens to be the one who designed my fabulous blog!

After she told me about this easy recipe, I hurried and made it and my son loves it.

First, I shred cucumber using a grater, then I use 2 pieces of toast and some cream cheese to create the sandwich. I have read that you can either mix the cream cheese with the grated cucumber or you can spread the cream cheese on the toast first then add the cucumber. Either way makes a perfect meal for toddlers!

I end up cutting mine in very small pieces. We tried 1/8's once and it did not work so well, I typically will rip small pieces off for my son to eat a little at a time.

I also grate enough cucumber to last me a while and put it in a Tupperware dish to save for later.

Thanks Laura, for this easy and healthy toddler recipe!

Chicken and Rice

One of my favorite dishes is Chicken and Rice. I have recently added a few different items to this dish in order to get more veggies in our meals.

Ingredients:

6 Chicken Drumsticks, thawed

2 Cups of Brown Minute Rice

1 14.5oz can of Chicken Broth

1 10.5oz Can of Cream of Chicken

1 Cup of Frozen Peas, thawed

1 Cup of Frozen Carrots, thawed

2 Cups of Water

Start by preheating oven to 400*. In a casserole dish, I pour the rice in to cover the bottom of the dish. Then, I add the chicken broth. I place the drumsticks down the middle of the dish and top them with cream of chicken. I surround the chicken with the carrots and peas and mix it into the uncooked rice. Then, I bake it for about 1 hour or until the chicken is done. I typically will add the 2 cups of water after 30 minutes of baking so the dish does not dry out.

This dish is very minimal prep time and is a one dish meal. My toddler loves this meal as well. I pull the skin off the drumsticks and then pull the chicken off the bone for him to eat. It may be a little messy for him, but he enjoys eating it so I am okay with the mess.

I have made this with chicken breast as well, but tried drumsticks a few months back and prefer those now. I have found the drumsticks do not dry out like the chicken breast did.

This is by far my favorite dish! Enjoy!

Toddler Egg Scramble

Another great tip for adding in iron is using eggs. I have not really cooked with eggs much, mainly because I do not like eggs! I do not mind them in meals, but just eating eggs for breakfast is not something I am fond of.

However, we are now trying new food items to help balance my son's diet.

I decided to try this Ham Egg Scramble.

I used 1 egg, 1/4 cup of rice milk,ham, and chopped spinach. I used nonfat dairy free cooking spray to grease the skillet and then added the egg and milk and scrambled it. Once it was nearly done cooking, I added in the ham and spinach. This made a nice little egg scramble great with some whole wheat toast.

Next time, I'm going to conquer the omelet!

Steak Kabobs

My hubby and I decided we would try making steak shish kabobs this past weekend. They turned out really well, we were both impressed.

We used:

2 Top Sirloin Steak Strips 6oz, cut into cubes

1 Tsp of Rosemary

1 Tsp of Celery Salt

1 Tsp of Oregano

1 Tsp of Sweet Basil

1 Yellow Squash, sliced

1 Apple, Sliced

2 Celery Stalks, sliced

1 Banana Pepper, sliced

These would be really good with Green Peppers, if you make them, add that too. I will also be adding some pineapple next time. This was our first time ever making these, so they were good considering we were newbies to this!

We found the skewer sticks at the local grocery store.

After preparing the meat and veggies, we started putting our kabobs together. We basically just went in a veggie and meat pattern. We were able to make 8 kabobs with these ingredients above. Use more or less spices depending on your preference. I have learned that you can pretty much use the spices you have on hand and most meals will come out tasting yummy. Once we had the kabobs prepared, we put them on the grill for 20 minutes and they were ready to eat!

We had extra veggies that we did not use for the kabobs. We put the same spices we used for the kabobs along with 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil and wrapped them in foil. We put this on the grill too and it was delicious! I fixed 2 cups of whole grain minute rice and dinner was served.

We did overcook the veggies that were on the kabobs because they cooked so much faster than the meat. They were still good though, just crispy!

For my son, I gave him some chicken we had in the fridge, and then he had veggies with rice. The steak was tender enough that it was very easy to chew, so we gave him some bits of it. My son thought it was pretty tasty!

This was a great summer recipe, and the good thing about shish kabobs is you can basically do anything with them and they turn out good. I have seen chicken and sausage kabobs as well and the variety of veggies to use is endless!

Go start grilling!

Fish Taco Night

I am trying new ideas for fish. I saw many fish taco recipes, my first thought when seeing these? Gross! Then, I decided to give it a try. After looking at the recipes, most were made with ingredients that I do not like, so I came up with my own.

One of the main ingredients that is added to many fish taco recipes is cilantro. After a major crisis situation when I was younger with cilantro, I can not stand the smell or taste of it. All I remember though was my mom and I trying to air out the smell from our house. By all means though, if you like cilantro go for it!

The other item I opted out of was adding avocado. I recently tried avocado for the first time, and like most fruit found out really fast I am allergic to it. It basically felt like my mouth was on fire when I ate it, even worse I used avocado dressing on the dish I was eating!

Ingredients:

10 Flour Tortillas (I used 8 inch diameter size)

1 10oz Can of Rotel, drained

1 Cup of Pace Picante Sauce, Chunky

1 Cup of Corn, drained

1 Red Pepper, diced

2 Chopped Green Onions

2 Tsp of Cayenne Pepper

1 Tbsp of Creole Seasoning

3 6oz Tilapia Fillets

Mexican Shredded Cheese

Makes 5 Taco's

I started by preheating the oven to 400*. I placed the fish fillets on a baking sheet, then I sprinkled the Creole seasoning and cayenne pepper over each fillet. If you like spice, add more cayenne pepper. I do not like spicy foods. I baked this in the oven for 30 minutes or until the fish is fully cooked.

While this was cooking, I added all the remaining ingredients to a skillet and let is simmer.

Once the fish was done, I prepared the taco's. I used 2 tortilla's for each taco. One of the recipes that I read mentioned doing this and it was a lot less messy using 2 tortilla's. Then, I put 1/2 of the fish fillet on the tortilla's and topped it with the skillet mixture. I decided to only use 1/2 of the fillet because I'm still learning to love fish and the whole fillet was a bit much for me, plus this made more.

When I had my taco's made, I put them on a cookie sheet and baked in the oven for 10 minutes on 350*, to make them crispy. I added some cheese to each one when I got them out of the oven.

As a side to this dish, I cooked Knorr's Mexican Rice.

I did add some miscellaneous peppers that I picked up from the Farmer's Market, a few of them were given to me when I purchased the Green Peppers. None of them had any heat to them, but they did add a nice touch of flavor. One of them was purple, which the man who gave that one to me said he believes it taste just like a green pepper and sure enough it did.

This dish was a nice alternative to the basic baked fish. The idea of fish tacos may take a bit to warm up too; however, my husband thought they were great.