At Home My Way

  Pumpkin-Praline Baked Oatmeal       This morning was SO cool and crisp and the sun was shining brightly!  It was so hard to dig myself out of my comfy covers, that's for sure.      The cool morning sparked a craving for anything pumpkin, so I mixed this up before getting in the shower.  It was ready to come out of the oven after I was freshly showered, hair straightened and dressed for work.  How perfect was that!   I cannot convey to you how wonderful this smelled!    I love anything pumpkin! I decided to put a praline topping on my pumpkin baked oatmeal, similar to the praline topping you sometimes put on sweet potato casserole and it was scrumptious.  I know that your family is going to love this! It is also special enough for company or taking to a goody day at work.  The spicy pumpkin and sweet and crunchy pecans make for a perfect October breakfast!   ...

Crockpot Pepper Steak Cooked with Brown Rice I'm always on the lookout for recipes that are FAST to put together and FASTER to have on the table!   I don't have much time to get stuff ready for supper before I leave for work and since we get home at 6PM, I definitely prefer having something all ready to go in the crockpot.  This was it!  My mom always made a dish that she called "Pepper Steak" in the crockpot when I was growing up.  It was delicious.  She made it with round steak, peppers, canned tomatoes and canned mushrooms.  It was one of the meals I most requested when I was growing up.  I had almost forgotten about it when my mom mentioned that she made it the other night.  She always served it ladled over cooked, long-grain white rice!  Which I love, but I don't care for minute rice and I definitely don't want to wait the 20 minutes it takes the rice to cook - to get dinner on the table (if I don't have...

Hello!  I haven't posted anything in SO LONG!  So sorry... life just happens sometimes.  But I made something for supper this week that definitely bears posting!  I made tacos for supper (I know this isn't anything special), but we all like different kinds of tacos.  I like taco salads.  My daughter likes hers baked (meat and cheese in the crunchy shells baked until all melty-she tells me they are just like Jack in the Box tacos), and her boyfriend likes soft tacos.  We were all happy because I cooked the taco meat and then had all the fixings for however we wanted to assemble them so we all got just what we wanted with very little effort! A little background on the tortilla bowls, .... I was watching TV the other night and saw one of those crazy commercials that has the fast talking salesman on there, selling this mold for making your own taco salad tortilla bowl.  Well, who really needs one of those things?  I just took a baking pan, t...

Last night we had a "girls night" at our house.  Hubby had bowling night and usually daughter #1 has girls night with her girlfriends but she was a little tired and so she joined her sister and I for American Idol.  Let me first say, I'm not a TV person really except I have to confess I can continually watch documentary type crime stories, the food channel, or the 24/7 news channels (I'm such a bore).  But, this season I tuned in for the first time (its Season 10) to American Idol.  I'm hooked.  My girls and I had a great time commenting about our favorites and,... of course, texting our votes in.  The girls cracked up at me as I said I would be "blowing up their phone" with my texts.  This comment made me LAUGH OUT LOUD and the girls thought I was completely ready for the nursing home because I thought this was so funny!  I guess "blowing up someone's phone" sounded so funny coming from this old 40's mouth.  And talking in their ling...

This goes great with this fish dinner ! My Mom and Dad used to have these friends in Florida and we would go to their house for fish fries. They lived on a canal in Eustis, Florida. The water was pitch black! Now, besides these fabulous potatoes, the other things I remember most about going to their house to eat was that the Mom kept sheets covering all of her furniture. Even when we were there for dinner. You would have thought we would have been "the guests" but maybe not. ;) The other thing was that they had this doberman pincher dog named "Satan" and she roamed around in the backyard patroling for gators. My mom made this dish and I modified it for my onion hater family. Its very good and is a healthier take on fried potatoes and onions. BAKED POTATOES AND ONIONS 1-2 bags of those cheapo little shoestring french fries. I use Always Save which I get from Country Market. Walmart does not carry them. They carry only regular cut fries, but they are really cut ...

I made these terrific little cookies. And shhh! They don't use any butter, margarine, oil or shortening. I thought there was a problem with the recipe, but I made them anyway. And.... they are fabulous! They were a little different to work with, but they are just awesome! And so GOOD FOR YOU! HEALTHIER CHOCOLATE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES 2/3 cups whole wheat flour 1/2 cup brown sugar (white sugar is fine here as well) 1 cup oats (I used quick oats, but old fashioned is fine too) 1/3 cup cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/3 cup corn syrup (I might try honey here) 1/8 cup chocolate chips (dark is the best for you, but I had milk chocolate) Mix together the flour, sugar, oats, cocoa and baking powder. Stir well to combine. Mix together the egg, vanilla, syrup and stir to mix. Add to the dry ingredients. Mix well. It will be very dry and crumbly. Just stir and stir with a sturdy spoon -like a wooden spoon. Add in chocolate chips - o...

HOMEMADE STIRFRY 2 (or more) chicken tenders or 1 med/large steak cut in small strips/chunks 2-3 Tablespoons oil (I use olive oil) 1 onion, chopped/sliced 1 green, red or yellow pepper, seeded and sliced or chopped 1/2 cup of Teriyaki sauce (in the bottle) 1/4 cup of General Tsao sauce (not sure how to spell that) 1/4 cup of water + additional water as needed 1 bunch of broccoli, cut into little trees (about 2 cups) 1 small can of mushrooms, drained (optional) Optional: Squash or zucchini (sliced); carrots (small slices) or whatever veges you have (fresh not frozen) (I buy the prebagged stuff at Gerbes) 2-3 packages of Ramen noodles cooked WITHOUT the seasoning packets and drained. (I used 3 packages last time and I could have fed 4 easily.) Start the ramen noodles after the meat is done because it moves pretty fast after that and you want your ramen noodles ready when the stirfry is done. Drizzle oil in large non-stick skillet. Add the onion/bell peppers/mushrooms/car...