Believe in the Magic Traci Diary

Recipes, Travels, and Stories

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  • Menu Planning Monday ~ Week of Jan 16

    Monday – hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans

    Tuesday – spaghetti with salad – Maybe garlic bread

    Wednesday – broccoli beef over rice, veggies

    Thursday – veggie soup with rolls

    Friday – The boys are going to their cousins’ house, so it will just be Hubby and me for dinner.  We have apple sage pork chops, rice or noodles, and peas.

    Saturday – Eat whatever you want night – I don’t know when the boys will return from their cousins, so we will have a simple dinner plan.  Hubby and I are going to Chinese for lunch to celebrate the Chinese New Year, so we will be pretty full from that.

  • Homemade Tortillas

    Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday holiday.  This morning the Wee One started talking about the holiday and how it does not matter what color a person’s skin is because God made you the way you are.  It made my heart melt listening to the wisdom of a 6.5-year-old.

    Now onto my recipe –

    In October, Finding Joy in my Kitchen hosted 31 days of Cooking from Scratch.  She showed you how to make homemade bread, breakfasts, etc . . .  One of the recipes was for homemade tortillas.  Since October, I’ve wanted to make homemade tortillas.  So today, I took the time out and made some.  They were fairly easy.  Time-consuming but otherwise easy to make.

    Homemade Tortillas

    Finding Joy in my Kitchen

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 2 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour
    • 1/2 c. whole wheat flour or more white whole wheat (I used all white whole wheat flour.)
    • 1 c. warm water
    • 1/4 c. olive oil (I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil.)
    • 3/4 tsp. sea salt
    • 1/4 tsp. baking powder

    Steps:

    1. Pour the warm water into a big bowl (stand mixer bowl if you have one and are going to use it)
    2. Add the olive oil, sea salt, and baking powder.  Stir well to combine these ingredients.
    3. Place the bowl on the mixer and attach the dough hook.
    4. Turn on the mixer to setting 1 or 2.  (I had my mixer up to a setting of 3.)
    5. Gradually add the flour.
    6. Allow the mixer to knead the dough for 5 minutes until the dough is combined and fairly smooth.
    7. Shape the dough into a ball and cover it, allowing it to rest for 10 minutes.
    8. After 10 minutes, cut the dough in half.  Slice each half into 5 rolls.  Form balls out of each slice, cover, and set aside for 10 minutes.
    9. Use a rolling pin, and roll each tortilla into an 8 to 10-inch circle.  You want them thin. (For me to roll the dough out, I had to flour the surface where I was rolling them out and the top of the dough.  It kept sticking otherwise.  Mine were not circles.  They ended up being more egg-shaped.  It didn’t matter; they were good anyways.)
    10. Preheat the griddle to 350 degrees and place dough circles on the griddle.  (I did mine in a skillet on the stove.  I heated it up to 5.)
    11. Do not grease the griddle or skillet if it is non-stick.  If you normally grease the griddle or skillet, use butter or olive oil.
    12. Allow the tortillas to cook for 5 minutes/side.  Watch carefully to make sure they don’t get too browned.
    13. Place cooked tortillas on a large plate.

    You can put them in the fridge after they cooled for 3 to 4 days or freeze them for a few months.

    Printable Recipe

    For directions on how to make the tortillas without the stand mixer, visit Finding Joy in my Kitchen.

    This post is linked to Everyday Mom’s Church Supper.

  • Fruit Smoothie

    Yummy!  And healthy!  That’s two words that describe these smoothies.

    Right before Christmas, I bought an individual smoothie maker with cups for a Christmas gift for the whole family.  The Imaginative One, and I love making and drinking smoothies.  He also likes to drink milkshakes made with a smoothie maker.  I will share his favorite smoothie in a different post.

    Breakfast Smoothie

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 6 to 8 oz of fruit juice (I’ve used 100% Juice Cranberry-Blueberry, Lite Cranberry Raspberry, and Ruby Red Grapefruit-Cherry.  All those were for different smoothies.)
    • 1/4 c. yogurt (I’ve used Greek yogurt for an extra protein boost.)
    • 1 cup of frozen fruit (I’ve used either cherries or strawberries.)

    Steps:

    1. Put all the ingredients in the individual smoothie cup or blender.
    2. Blend until combined.
    3. Pour into a cup and enjoy!

    Printable Recipe

     

  • Menu Planning Monday ~ Week of Jan. 9, 2012

    Monday ~ Greek-inspired crockpot chicken {new}, mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes, veggies

    Tuesday ~ Spanish-style chicken noodle soup, rolls

    Wednesday ~ grilled cheese sandwiches, basil tomato soup

    Thursday ~ Eat whatever you want night

    Friday ~ Pizza night

    Saturday ~ Stuffed Cabbage Casserole (me) – Part is going to stock the freezer for later meals, leftovers for boys

  • Pantry Challenge

    Pantry Challenge – Winter of 2012

    As I was looking through various blogs, I found a pantry challenge.  IT DOES NOT mean only eating out of the pantry or freezer.  It means looking at what’s in the pantry or freezer before shopping or planning a menu.

    My goals for the pantry challenge are:

    1.  Lower my grocery bill

    We’ve been spending too much at the grocery store.  I want to lower that bill.  So does hubby.

    2.  Clean out the pantry and freezer

    We need to get that pantry cleaned out, so if I cook dinners based on what I have in the pantry, that will help us with the grocery bill.  This week we have had baked spaghetti, which used up a half box of spaghetti sitting in the pantry, and already cooked hamburger in the freezer.  We have also had peanut butter pancakes.  I used up some white whole wheat flour that was not being used.  Another meal was veggie beef soup.  In that meal, we used up more of the hamburger meat from the freezer and half a bag of frozen vegetables hanging around in the freezer.  We will have chicken scampi later this week to use up some of the frozen chicken tenderloins that have made their home in our freezer.

    Next week’s meals will use a whole roasting chicken, taking up room in the fridge’s freezer.  We will also use the cooked chicken for soup the next day.  That soup contains corn and black beans.  I have those cans in the pantry, which will save us money.  It also calls for chicken broth.  Again I have that in the pantry.  The only expense I may have for that soup is the orzo pasta.  I will have to check the pantry to ensure I don’t have that.

    3.  Once a month cooking

    I would love to do some once-a-month cooking.  To do that, I need to get the deep freezer cleaned out.  Since I make most of the dinners, I don’t always want to cook when I get home.  On those days, I like to stop at a fast-food restaurant that is both unhealthy and cheap.  I would love to have backup meals in the freezer for the days I know I will be tired.  Also, with it being winter, the weather is unpredictable.  It might take me longer to get home, so I would like to have the option of a frozen meal that my hubby can pull out of the freezer.

    Those are my three main goals for the pantry challenge.  As I navigate the challenge, I think I will come up with more goals than those 3.

  • Baked spaghetti (Easy Meal)

    The Imaginative One has very bland tastes. When we have spaghetti, he likes to eat only plain noodles. He does not like to eat the sauce on his noodles at all! I usually accommodate him by putting some of the noodles to the side for him. When I cooked this dish, I decided not to accommodate him.

    He gave me such a dirty look when I told him it was either the baked spaghetti or nothing. Hubby talked with him about how lucky he was to have a mommy who cooked. Not only that, she cooked great food. The Imaginative One tried the baked spaghetti. He ended up liking it!

    This is an easy meal to put together. Add a salad on the side. Include Italian bread or garlic bread as well. You have a whole meal. (We had a spinach salad with choose-your-own toppings. The Wee One chose bacon, sunflower seeds, mandarin oranges, and dried cranberries for his toppings. He did not want to have any dressing for his salad. The Imaginative One had spinach with his mandarin oranges on the side.)

    Ingredients needed:

    • Ground beef or Italian sausage
    • Spaghetti
    • Spaghetti sauce
    • Italian seasoning
    • Italian cheese or mozzarella – shredded or shred your own

    Ways to adapt the recipe:

    • Change up the meat – use ground turkey instead of ground beef or sausage
    • Use different flavors of spaghetti sauce
    • Add garlic, onion, and/or mushrooms to cook with your meat
    • Add ricotta cheese or cottage cheese to the spaghetti sauce – This will make it cheesy.

    Baked Spaghetti

    Stars of the recipe:

    • Half a box of spaghetti, cooked and drained.
    • A pound of hamburger or sausage cooked, also drain off grease
    • 2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
    • a jar of spaghetti sauce or homemade sauce
    • 1 c. of Italian cheese or mozzarella cheese

    Steps:

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Cook the spaghetti and then drain. (I cooked it al dente.)
    3. Spread sauce in an 8 by 10 or 9 by 13 pan. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp, of the Italian cheese.
    4. Place the cooked spaghetti over the sauce.
    5. Next, put the cooked hamburger or sausage over the spaghetti.
    6. Cover with the rest of the spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp of the Italian cheese.
    7. Sprinkle mozzarella or Italian cheese over spaghetti sauce.
    8. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
    9. Enjoy!

    Printable Recipe

    Stay kind!

    Have a magical day,
    Traci

  • Charleston Cheese Dip

    I was looking at Mommy’s Kitchen’s blog on New Year’s Eve on New Year’s Eve.  She had listed a cheese dip named the Charleston cheese dip.  The name alone intrigued me because Charleston, South Carolina, is on my list of favorite places to visit.  My mother-in-law was born there and would spend summers there while growing up.

    Two months after I married my Hubby, we traveled to Charleston to Charleston with my mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law.  We stayed in a beach house on Folly Beach with Hubby’s grandma.  I quickly got to know the family during that week.  I met Hubby’s family, who lives down there.  Most of all, I fell in love with Charleston.  It is a beautiful city rich in history.

    Since then, I have been down there 3 more times.  The boys have been there 2 of the times.  Once when the Wee One was only 2 months old, and the Imaginative One was 2 years old.  The other time was almost 3 years ago.  One of our not-so-good memories from that trip was the Wee One sticking his finger in the shower drain.  Fortunately, my in-laws were also visiting Charleston that week and were down the road.  My sister-in-law came down and checked over his cut finger and determined the cut was not deep enough to warrant a visit to the ER.

    Another memory from that trip was the Imaginative One’s fear of the ocean.  His cousin, 22 months older, told him that jellyfish were in the ocean.  The Imaginative One refused to get into the ocean again because he was afraid he would get stung by jellyfish.  So aggravating!  One day he and I went over to the beach and played by these concrete barriers.  He got up and has dog poop all over him.  Visitors could have dogs on the beach as long as they cleaned up after them.  This visitor just covered the poop with sand.  That was disgusting to clean up.

    Folly Beach, Charleston, South Carolina
    The shower drain the Wee One got his finger stuck in.

    Anyway, back to the recipe.  I was looking at Mommy’s Kitchen’s blog entry and saw Charleston Cheese Dip and decided I would make it for New Year’s Eve.  It was easy to whip up and delicious to boot.  I didn’t have any Monterey jack cheese,, so I used extra sharp cheddar cheese instead.  Since we don’t like spicy foods around here, I did not use any cayenne pepper.  Plus, I don’t think we even have any in the house.

    Charleston Cheese Dip

    Mommy’s Kitchen

    Charleston Cheese Dip

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 1/2 c. mayonnaise
    • 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
    • 1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
    • 1/2 c. grated Monterey jack cheese
    • 2 green onions, finely chopped
    • Dash of cayenne pepper
    • 8 Ritz crackers, crushed
    • 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

    Steps:

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
    2. Mix the mayonnaise, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Monterey jack cheese, green onions, and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl.
    3. Transfer the mixture to a shallow baking dish.
    4. Top mixture with cracker crumbs and bake for 15 minutes or until heated through.
    5. Remove the pan from the oven and top with the bacon.
    6. Serve immediately with corn chips, bagel chips, or crackers.

    Printable Recipe

    This post is linked up to Ingredient Spotlight.

  • Wordless Wednesday

    Monday ended up being a snowy day.  The Imaginative One and the Wee One went outside for maybe a total of 10 minutes.  Most of it was in and out the front door to complain about the cold, their brother, or to get more snow gear.

    Hubby told them if they got the living room picked up and vacuumed, he would allow them to get out the legos.  They quickly did that.  The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with those legos on the floor.  Even Hubby got into the action.

  • Sugar Cookie Frosting

    Every New Year’s Eve, the Imaginative One, the Wee One, and I head to my mother-in-law’s house to ring in the new year.  A new tradition was created a couple of years ago.  The grandkids (4 of them in total) spend the night at grandma and grandpa’s house after staying up until midnight.  Mommy and daddy (if he is off work) go home to a nice empty house.

    We watch tv or movies, eat snacks, or play games during the hours that lead up to midnight.  The kids also do a craft.  Last year, it was painting Christmas ornaments that my mother-in-law stored until Christmas time this year.  I decided we could decorate sugar cookies.  I already knew which cookies I was going to bake.  The problem was what kind of frosting I would make for the cookies.  I didn’t want a glaze that would be super messy, and I didn’t want anything that would be too difficult to frost a cookie with.

    I finally found the recipe at Allrecipes.com.  It was super easy to put together using my Kitchen aid mixer.

    After I whipped up the frosting, I put it into 4 separate containers and added different food dyes to the frosting so they could have different colors.  When I handed each of them a container of frosting, they stayed with that one color, except the Imaginative One.

    (I made some of the cookies into the shape of vampire’s teeth because I thought the boys would enjoy decorating those.  They also decorated the cookies on placemats so there would be less mess to clean up.  The sprinkles I had were Valentine-themed ones, so my nephew used those on his sugar cookies.)

    Here is the recipe:

    Sugar Cookie Frosting

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 2 cups of powdered sugar
    • 1/4 cup of shortening or butter
    • 2 Tbsp and 1.5 tsp of milk
    • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
    • food coloring

    Steps:

    1. In a large bowl, cream together powdered sugar and shortening (or softened butter)
    2. Gradually mix the milk and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff (about 5 minutes).
    3. Color with food coloring if desired.

    Printable Recipe

  • Snow Day

    During December, we really didn’t see snow.  It tried to snow last Tuesday, but it was rainier than snow.  We had lots of rain.  In fact, there were a couple of times I thought I would need to take a boat to work because of how much rain we got.  Yesterday started out as a mild day with temperatures around 50 degrees.  During church, it started to get really windy.  In fact, we kept hearing the wind whistle throughout the service.  The rest of the day was windy, with the temperatures falling quickly.  We ended the day with temperatures in the lower 30s to high 20s.

    This morning I woke up to snow falling.  It’s been nonstop ever since.  The Wee One and the Imaginative One decided to go outside.  They only lasted a few minutes before calling it a day.  They wanted to warm up with hot chocolate.

    Here is a picture of the boys enjoying their snow day: