When I was a kid, my Mom was a single mom of two. Things were really tight. If she knew of food assistance she didn’t have it. She was the most amazing strong woman! I definitely got my skill of making something of nothing from her. She was so creative.
She made this recipe up and it became one of our all time favorites for dinner or even lunch.
It was requested at my house today for lunch so I decided to share it with you! I did really hesitate though….. Most people are very turned off by the name. Hot dogs in mac and cheese? Ewww. Yeah, it’s not a pretty dish. You gotta trust me on this though! Really, you do!
My kids, my husband and every daycare child I have had in thirty years has loved this stuff!
Give it a chance, try it out! I would love to hear how your kids liked it!
Enjoy!
Elizabeth XOXO
Macaroni and Cheese with Hot Dogs
Serves 6
Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked macaroni
1 package sliced hot dogs
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
salt to taste
pepper to taste
Directions:
Bring salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook according to package directions. In the last 3 minutes of cooking, add sliced hot dogs. Drain. Return noodles and sliced hot dogs to the pan. Add tomato sauce, diced canned tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir in shredded cheddar cheese. Do not over stir.
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These are tough times. We don’t all have all the things we need. Pantries are getting thin, money is tight or just flat out isn’t there. Things we’ve always taken for granted, such as toilet paper is nearly impossible to find.
It’s not as easy or wise to just grab something for dinner on the way home. It is time to really be smart with what we have.
The first step in doing that is KNOWING what we have! I went through my chest freezer and pantry and wrote every single thing down. Because I am super OCD about that kind of stuff I put it all in an Excel spreadsheet so that I can just click on “Poultry” and see all the chicken and turkey items I have to work with and which freezer it is in. Maybe that is little over the top but I am pretty excited about it!
Now that I know exactly what I have to work with I won’t be needlessly buying things I already have and will spend less time and money in the grocery store.
When we were first married we were really broke. Then we had three kids and we were really, really broke! We somehow managed to get the bills paid, most of the time, but there was never anything left for groceries. I learned very quickly how to make meals out of what I had or with a very small grocery list. It became my super power!!
You can make a meal if you have some kind of protein, a starch, a vegetable and then make a sauce to put it all together!
I am going to share some recipes with you for a while that are NOT fancy but are simple, easy, and inexpensive to make, with not many ingredients, and hopefully with things that you already have!
It’s good to be frugal, not just in tough times but good times as well. Use this time to create better habits, teach your kids to cook, bond over dinner and pray.
Here is my recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. Enjoy!
Shepherd’s Pie
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds
ground beef
1
medium onion chopped
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can
cream of mushroom soup
2 cans
green beans drained
4
(approximately) potatoes mashed (leftover mashed potatoes are great!)
dash
black pepper
dash
salt
1-2 cups
shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions:
Saute onion and beef. Drain. Stir in mushroom soup. Season with salt and pepper. Put in bottom of greased 9×13 baking dish. Put green beans on top of that….Spread mashed potatoes on top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until hot. In last few minutes of baking, sprinkle with cheese and return to oven to let cheese melt.
I love soup!!! I love all kinds of soup!!! I am somewhat obsessed with soup! Buuuuuttttt….. I can’t have soup in the summer. I just can’t do it. It’s not right. Yeah, I know there are cold soups…meh. I like my soups hot. Lava hot. With a side of warm crusty bread. Mmmmmmm.
So I get pretty excited for fall! Pumpkin spice everything and scarves and boots and SOUP!! Yay!!! Call me a basic white girl.
A couple weeks ago my hubby and I went to one of my favorite restaurants for a Saturday lunch date. The soup of the day was “Lasagna Soup”. Yum! Hubby ordered it! I can’t remember what I had… it obviously was forgettable. That Lasagna Soup though…… oh wow!
I don’t know if you are like this, but whenever I have something really good at a restaurant, I instantly start trying to figure out how to replicate or improve upon it at home. I am always sure I can make it and maybe make it better! Sometimes I do, sometimes not.
This time was no different. I went home and started looking at recipes for Lasagna Soup. We do a spaghetti in the instant pot that is really good because the pasta is cooked in the sauce, so I knew I wanted to do it that way. After a lot of comparing recipes I came up with my own.
I was anxious to see how my family and especially my husband like it since he was the one who had eaten it at the local restaurant. I needn’t be worried!! He said it was ten times better that the restaurant’s soup and please make this again, soon!!
Ding ding ding!! Ladies and Gentleman, we have a winner!! I love when I make something that just hits a new level of HOLY YUM!
And soooo… I am here to share it with you!! I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as we did!
Happy Fall and happy soup weather!
Lasagna Soup
Servings 8
For a little bit of family fun, don’t remove the bay leaf. Whoever gets the bay leaf is lucky and doesn’t have to help with dishes!
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion diced
4 cloves minced garlic
1 1/2 pound Italian sausage
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
7 cups chicken stock
8 ounces Mafalda pasta or bow ties
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
8 ounces ricotta cheese
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Heat olive oil in Instant Pot on the Saute setting. Add sausage, onion, and garlic, breaking up sausage into bite sized piece. Cook until sausage is browned. Add Italian Seasoning, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in red wine and stir. Change setting on Instant Pot to simmer. Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add uncooked pasta and gently stir to moisten all pasta noodles. Set the pot to manual high for 8 minutes and seal the cooker. It should take about 10-12 minutes to come up to temperature. As soon as it is done, quick release and stir. Stir in basil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. While the pasta is cooking, prepare the ricotta mixture. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, parsley, Parmesan, salt, and pepper. To serve, place a scoop of the ricotta cheese mixture in each soup bowl, and then ladle the hot soup over the cheese. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Garnish with fresh basil.
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Hi friends! How is your summer going? If it’s been anything like mine it’s been crazy busy and crazy fun too!
The weather here has been just perfect as far as I’m concerned. Not too hot and just enough rain between warm days to keep everything green and less dusty. Which is perfect for camping, atv riding, and even just playing in the backyard, and dinner on the patio.
I have found a new kitchen gadget that has become my most used appliance in my kitchen and I wanted to share it with you!
I had heard of sous vide cooking before but hadn’t given it a lot of thought until I watched a show on America’s Test Kitchen about it. I was enthralled and needed to own one!!
One day my husband came and home and surprised me with one! I was so excited! I immediately used it to make chicken breast and I was hooked!
I have made leg of lamb, pork tenderloin, steaks, pork chops, beef roast, chicken hindquarters and of course chicken breasts. Nothing has been less than amazing. Everything has been perfectly cooked, not the least bit dry (notice I didn’t use that word no one likes! ) tender and super flavorful. The thing I like the most about it, well……besides that everything turns out perfectly every time, is that I can put whatever I am making in the sous vide several hours before it needs to be done and it will be done and perfect when all the rest of dinner is ready. I don’t have to try to worry about the chicken being done when the broccoli is done! It IS done and it’s not getting over done! I can spend my time making creative side dishes or just save myself some time and hassle at dinner time. Plus, it doesn’t heat up your kitchen at all! You can briefly finish on the BBQ and feel like you have done something super “summery’!
This is a busy person’s kitchen miracle!
I have the Anova Nano. It connects to an app. The app shows current temperature, target temperature and time remaining. The same info is visible on the Sous Vide itself as well. The app includes thousands of recipes and cooking guides.
We purchased ours at Target for $79. I believe it was on sale. You can spend a lot of money on them but I don’t think it is necessary.
I wanted to incorporate wine in my food blog because, well…. wine is divine! Two of my daughters and I absolutely love wine!
My oldest daughter and my husband love good beer… not cheap beer, good beer. They love the local crafted beers and we have plenty of those near here!
The whole family enjoys a good cider now and then. We prefer them on the dry side. Not too sweet.
I will be sharing about all of those things we love, wines, beers and ciders, along with mixed drinks, liquors and even bubbles with you!
I am in no way a connoisseur of wine, I just like to drink it! Nor am I an expert on craft beer and I am not a bartender. I just wanted a way to share the wines and drinks that we love with others and have a way to keep track of them as well!
Today I want to share a wine with you that we have enjoyed for a few years now. My husband and I went to a local restaurant called The Porch for a date night dinner a few years ago. We ordered a bottle of wine at the suggestion of the server. We were NOT disappointed! It was a Townshend Red Blend, T3. Oh WOW! It was incredible!
As soon as we were done with dinner we went directly to the grocery store to purchase another bottle. We were unable to find the same one but found this one. Townshend Vortex Red. It is amazing as well!
Townshend Vortex Red, Red Wine
It is a $15 bottle, which I feel is pretty reasonable, especially given how wonderfully rich and deep and smooth this wine is. We buy it often for a nice dinner on the weekend.
I did just check on Townshend’s website and they are sold out! It is really that good!!
Townshend is a Washington Winery, not far from us, established in 1998. Their tasting room is in Green Bluff. If you are local then you know what that is! It is a huge area of growers of pretty much everything. It is a super fun place to go to pick your own fruits and veggies and pumpkins and even get your Christmas tree! Green Bluff turns pumpkin and apple picking into a party and makes memories that will last forever!
By the way, Townshend not only grows grapes, they grow Christmas trees too! You could pick out and cut down a Christmas tree and do a little wine tasting before heading home! Sounds like a tradition I could get behind!
Ahhhhh….It’s Spring in North Idaho, which means sunshine, rain, hail, snow, more rain, and a teensy bit more sun, all in one day! Never a dull moment!
This week has been particularly rainy and dreary so I decided to do a movie day with my daycare littles. While they were occupied with “Angelina Ballerina”, I decided to do a bit of baking!
I had four slightly over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl so I decided to make banana bread. I got that started and then reached for my loaf pans, but then thought of the beautiful giant mini muffin pan my sister in law gave to me for Christmas!
Giant Mini Muffin Pan…. isn’t that an oxymoron?! It is a beauty though!
Change of plans! I am making banana muffins! I made 60 banana muffins while the kids were lying on the floor in a heap of blankets and pillows, having popcorn and thoroughly enjoying their morning!
What a great way to spend a rainy April morning!
Best Banana Bread (or Muffins) Ever !
Best Banana Bread Ever
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 min
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
by Elizabeth
3-4 very ripe bananas
4 eggs
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup broken walnuts or Pecans (opt)
brown sugar
cinnamon
sugar
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F Grease 3 small loaf pans or 2 small loaf pans and a muffin pan, or one giant muffin pan! . Sprinkle the bottom of the pans with brown sugar, sugar and cinnamon. In a blender, puree bananas, eggs and vanilla. Set aside. In large bowl, beat shortening and gradually add sugars. Stir in banana mixture. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt blend into batter. Add walnuts if desired. Divide between the prepared pans. Sprinkle the tops with more brown sugar, cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Muffins, depending on size will bake 40-50 minutes. Check with toothpick for doneness. Mini Muffins will bake 25-30 minutes. Makes approximately 60 mini muffins.
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Hi! I am so glad you are here! I have wanted for so long to be able to share my passion for food and love of family with you! I am excited to finally be able to do that. I hope that you enjoy the stories, food and wine recommendations I have for you.
I love my family. I love spending time with my family! One of the best ways to bring my family together is food! I don’t know about your family but mine likes good food! Which is handy because I love to cook. I am terrible about writing down my recipes, however. My kids having been nagging me for years to get my recipes written down so that they can make them as well. What better way to do that than with a blog?! I get to share my recipes with my kids and with you and hopefully bring other families together over some great food and drinks.
I live in North Idaho. It is a beautiful little piece of heaven. (Shhhhh…. don’t tell anyone! We are trying to keep it a secret!) My parents, my girls, grand-kids and my siblings all live near by.
Home Sweet Home
Last weekend, my granddaughter had an ice skating competition in Missoula, Montana. My husband, my two oldest daughters, my granddaughter and myself made the short road trip to watch her and spent the weekend there.
She is seriously so adorable and an excellent skater! She placed 4th in both of her events. She was up against some really good competition this year!
While we there we stopped at the Wheat Montana Bakery to buy flour. They sell flour, cereals, baked goods, sandwiches and salads. All the flour and baked goods are made from their locally grown wheat. I use their flour exclusively for for all my baking. We make special trips to Montana to buy it by the 50 pound bag. It is high quality flour and it is Non-GMO. If you ever find yourself in Missoula Montana stop into their cute little bakery and have some of their delicious goodies!
I have always enjoyed cooking but didn’t do a lot of baking. I knew how. Just wasn’t my thing…. until I tried bread making. My mother used to make eight loaves of bread every single Saturday! Warm bread on Saturday afternoon was my favorite! I loved it! I also didn’t want to do it. She did it all by hand and I had no desire to do such a thing.
Along came my beautiful pink Kitchen Aid mixer. Isn’t she beautiful?! This is a super old picture back when she was pretty new. I believe I’ve had it for about twelve years now.
Early picture of my pink Kitchen Aid, a gift from my hubby!
Of course, I wanted to try everything in it! That is when I discovered bread making with the Kitchen Aid! It was so much fun! Pretty soon I was adjusting recipes and making all kinds of breads for family and friends. After a few years I began to worry I was wearing my kitchen aid out making bread in it so often. I don’t think it was meant for what I was doing to it!
I switched to making my loaves of bread using the dough cycle of my bread machine and then taking it out and baking it in the oven. This seems to work well and my kitchen aid is happy and healthy making cookies, cakes, whipped cream and all kinds of other wonderful things.
This is my favorite go to bread. It is the perfect mixture of wheat and white flour so that it is not too heavy. You can mix up the grain blends, flax seeds and hemp hearts and use what ever suits your fancy just keep the measurements the same.
I have all my dry ingredients in canisters in this order in my cabinet and I can throw a loaf in the machine in five minutes. If you make bread often, that is a really convenient way to do it!
My Momma taught me well!
Three tips for slicing bread
My Mom taught me these great tips! I hope with a little practice they help you too!
Look at the bread not the knife. In other words, keep your focus on the slice staying the same thickness, not focusing on keeping the knife straight. It works!
Use an electric knife if possible, if not, use a good serrated knife.
It is best to let the bread cool completely before cutting it.
While this is ideal…. good luck, because there is nothing better than warm bread with butter on it, especially on Saturday afternoon.
Healthy Wheat Bread
Ingredients
1 cup
Wheat Montana All-purpose white flour
1 cup
Wheat Montana Prairie Gold whole wheat flour
1/4 cup
multi-grain cereal or super grain blend of choice
1/4 cup
hemp hearts
1/4 cup
raw organic flax seed
1/4 cup
vital wheat gluten
1/3 cup
organic sugar or 1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup
instant potato flakes (NOT potato pearls)
1 tablespoon
instant yeast
2 tablespoons
instant dry milk powder
1 teaspoon
salt
1 1/4 cup
warm water
1 tablespoon
butter or olive oil
1 tablespoon
white vinegar
butter for top
Directions
Mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Put warm water, butter and, vinegar in bread machine pan. Dump in dry ingredient on top. Start the bread machine on the “Dough” cycle. When done kneading and rising, work the dough a bit to get out air bubbles, shape into a loaf and put into greased/sprayed loaf pan. Heat oven to 375* and let the loaf rise to about double. Bake for 27 minutes, turn pan around and bake for 3 more minutes. Remove from oven and brush with butter. Let cool for 5 minutes and then turn out of loaf pan onto a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 2 hours before cutting. Store in a ziplock bag.
Hi and Welcome to Wine Food and Family! I am Elizabeth, Wife, Momma and Nana. I love to cook and spend time with my family! I hope you enjoy the recipes and tips and stories I have to share with you! Cheers!
Hi and Welcome to Wine Food and Family! I am Elizabeth, Wife, Momma and Nana. I love to cook and spend time with my family! I hope you enjoy the recipes and tips and stories I have to share with you! Cheers!
Wine Food and Family 
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