Believe in the Magic Traci Diary

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Split Pea Soup (Pressure Cooker or Slow Cooker)

02/03/2016
On a cold winter day, soup is the perfect meal. This split pea soup warms the soul.

My grandpa loved split pea soup. I’ve never liked it until now. We’ve had it twice in the last few months. Yum!

This can be done in either the pressure cooker or the slow cooker.

Split Pea Soup

adapted from Skinny Taste

Stars of the recipe:
- 1 lb. split peas, rinsed and picked through
- 1/2 c. diced onions
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces
- 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
- 1 & 1/2 c. diced ham
- 6 c. water
- 1 chicken bouillon cube
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
Steps (Electric Pressure cooker):
1. Rinse the peas. Pick out any bad pieces.
2. In the pressure cooker, saute the onion, carrots, and garlic for 5 minutes.
3. Add the water, ham, bouillon cube, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and split peas.
4. Put the lid on the pressure cooker. (Make sure the pressure cooker valve is closed).
5. Set to the pressure cooker for the soup. Pressure cook for 20 minutes.
6. Allow to naturally release the pressure.
7. If the split pea soup is not as thick as you would like, allow it to sit for a few minutes to allow it to thicken up.
Steps (Slow Cooker):
1. Rinse the peas. Pick out any bad pieces.
2. Saute the onion, carrots, and garlic in a small pan on the stove.
3. Add the water, ham, bouillon cube, bay leaf, salt and pepper, split peas, onion, carrots, and garlic.
4. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
Happy Eating,
Traci
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Menu Plan Monday – Week of February 1, 2016

02/01/2016
This week is going to be an easy week food wise. I’m going to attempt to create a chicken and potatoes sheet pan meal on Wednesday. Otherwise it’s some of my family’s favorite meals.

Hope my menu gives you some inspiration. For other menus, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Happy eating,
Traci
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Buttermilk Biscuits

01/31/2016
This post was originally posted in January 2011. I did not have a picture of the biscuits on this post. So I’m reposting this blog with a picture.

I made these for our family’s New Year’s Dinner. Everyone loved them because they are tasty. Tonight I was asked to bring the bread for our Sunday dinner. I was torn between making Easy Rolls, breadmachine rolls (haven’t posted this yet), or the buttermilk biscuits. I let the Wee One and Imaginative One be the deciding factor. They told me they wanted the biscuits. So that’s what we are having.

Buttermilk Biscuits
Southern Plate

buttermilk-biscuits Download

Happy Eating,
Traci
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DIY – Self-Rising Flour

01/30/2016
On Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, I made biscuits with our split pea soup supper. The problem was I did not have any fresh self-rising flour. I decided to make my own self-rising flour.

It’s so easy to make the flour. Why waste money buying self-rising flour when you can make your own?

DIY – Self-Rising Flour

Add a Pinch

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Grapefruit Vinaigrette

01/27/2016
While perusing my blog, I noticed an absence of homemade salad dressings. I make my own on occasion but haven’t shared any recipes.

During winter, citrus fruits are the stars of the fruit world. They are refreshing. The vitamin C in citrus fruits is great for you.

So I decided to use the grapefruit I had at my house to make a vinaigrette. The result was pure deliciousness.

A hint about juicing fresh citrus fruits: place the fruit in the microwave for 10 seconds. This causes the fruit to release its juices.

I used the grapefruit vinaigrette on top of a simple salad of spinach, kale, goat cheese, and slivered almonds. Yum!

grapefruit-vinaigrette Download

Happy eating,
Traci
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Menu Plan Monday – January 25, 2016

01/25/2016
One of my favorite recipes during the past few weeks was the sausage, onions, and peppers made in the pressure cooker. I use sausage from Fresh Thyme which is a local grocery store. I absolutely love that place.

Anyway, I got basil and garlic pork sausage once again. We used that flavor last time, also. I put instant rice on the menu, but I may change it to pasta. Since we used the sauce from the last time over pasta later in the week, I think I may have it over pasta this time. Yum!

I’m also going to use frozen peppers and onions instead of cutting them up. It should make it easier tomorrow tonight when I get home.

For Sunday supper, we had porcupine balls with orange gravy. It’s one of my husband’s favorite meals that his mom cooks for him. This was the first time I’d made it for him and his mom. It must have been good because they both went for seconds. I’ll be sharing the recipe in a few weeks.

Since we had a lot of the porcupine balls left over, that is what we had for supper on Monday night. I also made a pressure cooker mac and cheese (recipe coming later). So we had a smorgasbord of leftovers. The Imaginative One had a leftover pancake from our breakfast out on Sunday morning.

Without much ado, here is our menu for the week.

For more menus, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Happy eating,
Traci
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Do It Yourself – Spreads, Sauces, and Breads

01/24/2016
This is my last installment of reviewing my Do It Yourself blog posts. This DIY post features my blog’s spreads, sauces, and bread.

Sauces and Spreads

Homemade Applesauce

Root beer Barbecue Sauce

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Thousand Island Sandwich Spread

Bread

Homemade Baking Mix and Pancakes

Homemade Tortillas
- All Star Muffin mix
I’ve created a page with all the Do It Yourself posts for easy access. Click on the picture below to go to the page..

H.py Eating,
Traci
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Crockpot Lasagna

01/23/2016
Soon after I was married in 1999, my mom gave me a recipe for lasagna that involved no boiling the noodles. I’ve made it that way for the past almost 17 years.

I can’t believe I haven’t shared the recipe for my lasagna before. It takes a while to prepare it, but it’s worth the preparation.

I used my casserole crockpot for this recipe. You could use an oval, but you may need to break up the lasagna noodles.

My measurements for the lasagna layering are estimations because I typically don’t measure how much of each ingredient I use on each layer.

Crockpot Lasagna

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Happy Eating,
Traci
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Pressure Cooker Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

01/21/2016
The other day I went to an event. They served frozen lasagna. It made me crave homemade lasagna, so I decided to make some. I asked Hubby to get me the ingredients for my lasagna. Rather than using store-bought sauce, I decided to use my spaghetti sauce recipe. I adapted the recipe for the pressure cooker.

The kitchen smelled amazing as it cooked! This is an easy recipe to put together. If you don’t want to use the pressure cooker, click on the link to the original recipe.

I use an Electric Pressure Cooker.

pressure-cooker-homemade-spaghetti-sauce Download
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Do It Yourself – Spices and Other Random Kitchen Tips

01/19/2016
Making your own spice blends is so easy. You can customize the number of spices. Hubby doesn’t like cumin, so I put a trace amount in my taco seasoning. He enjoys it when I make tacos because he knows it’s customized to his liking. I haven’t bought taco seasoning in years.

Here are some of the spice blends I’ve shared over the years.

Spice Blends:

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Homemade Ranch Dressing
Other Kitchen Hacks:

DIY Brown Sugar

Pumpkin Puree

Here are the other Do It Yourself blog posts.

Drinks and Coffee Creamers

Breakfasts

Desserts and Snacks

Happy Eating,
Traci
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