{Easy} Crockpot Swedish Meatballs and Bible Study

My husband, Chris, and I have been part of a bible study group for about five years now. I really love being able to get together and learn more about the bible. Just about every single time we meet, I have one of those "Aha!" moments where I realized something that I never had before until that very second.

 

I love those moments. I  love learning something new - and new way to look at my life.

 

 

Our bible study group is now going through one of the HomeBuilders Parenting Series from Family Life Today. Our book is "Improving Your Parenting" by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. So far, we're into the second chapter and already I'm seeing new things about our parenting style and how much is really reflects how our parents parented us!

 

The last chapter talked about our core values as parenting - what we consider to be the most important traits we want to pass onto our children. Something Chris and I never thought about before we had kids - but I am thankful that Chris and I share a lot of the ideals.

 

Our group meets on Friday evenings and rotates houses each week and this week we are the hosts! I really enjoy having people over so I'm glad that it's rotated back to us. For our group - the hosts provide the main dish along with water and another drink (we'll do lemonade) and everyone else brings a side dish or dessert to go along. It makes for a nice end to your week and for us - it's something fun to do! The kids love it too - we have a little activity set up for them and make sure they eat first! (We learned quickly how important this is!) And after their craft - they all play or watch a movie together.

 

For our night we decided to do something easy for the food and have my Great Aunt Betty Lou's Swedish Meatballs. This is something that our family eats along with our turkey every Thanksgiving - it's extremely popular in our family! This is a simple but delicious dish! I love anything I can throw into a crockpot and forget about!

 

Betty Lou's Easy Crockpot Swedish Meatballs

(serves 20)

 

2 bags of frozen meatballs

5 cans of brown gravy

2 cartons of sour cream

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp Italian seasoning

pepper to taste

2 bags of egg noodles

4 tbsp. butter

 

Turn your crockpot on low and add the meatballs. In a separate dish mix together your gravy, sour cream, garlic salt and Italian seasoning. Add mixture to the meatballs and stir well. Cook on low for 4 hours. Stir well when done. Make sure and taste before serving to add more salt and pepper if needed.

 

When your meatballs are done cooking, that's when you'll want to start cooking the egg noodles. Cook according to package directions. Drain and add butter along with salt and pepper to taste.

 

Serve meatballs over egg noodles and enjoy!

 

 

 

Hint: If you need to cook these meatballs in a shorter time frame, you can warm the meatballs up in the microwave or a skillet for about 5 minutes then add them into the crockpot and cook on low for 3 hours.

 

 

I hope you enjoy these Swedish Meatballs and much as our family does! They were a hit with our bible study group too!

 

If your church has Community Groups or Life Groups (as our church calls them) - you should really look into joining one! They are a great way to meet new people in your community - the people in my group have become my very best friends. It's also a wonderful way to grow in your faith and even help teach others. If you don't have community groups - read my article about starting your own bible study.

 

I'd love to know what you're studying right now?! Do you have a bible study group that you mean up with? Are you interested in wanting to become a leader yourself? Did you try the meatballs?? (lol)

 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a beautiful day!

 

-Sam

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Creative Kids,

Easy Rosemary & Roasted Garlic 3-Cheese Macaroni

If you want to take a break from boxed mac & cheese.

They try this one...

it's sooo good

and sooo cheesy! 

The kids and adults loved it. 

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

2. Make your roux - I used 3 TBSP of butter with 3 TBSP of flour. 

I added about 3 cups of milk and started mixing in my cheese. I used the cheese from the Kraft Fresh Take package, the Kroger cheese sauce (like the kind you use for chips and dip) and about a cup of parmesean cheese. 

(Add more or less milk to get the consistancy that you like.)

Make sure and add plenty of salt and pepper. Taste as you go along.

3. Toss the pasta back in. Stir well. 

4. Put the cheesy pasta into a large casserole dish. I topped mine with crushed cheese crackers then with the about half of the Fresh Take Rosemary & Roasted Garlic Seasoning (yum!)

5. Put in the oven, under the broiler, until the top is a nice golden brown.

I had never made homemade mac and cheese that tasted this good! 

Try yourself and save some money with this coupon from Kraft. 

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Cheesy Tuna Spaetzle

My mom loves going to garage sales and picking up old church cookbooks.

She'll go through it, and rip out the recipes she wants

And then she passes it along to the next person.

This is a recipe that she found in one of those cookbooks.

Now, let me tell you that we went over to her house for supper the night she made this.

The boys come in...

"What's for supper, Grandma?"

"Tuna Spaetzle"

"Uh....what else are we having?"

The name itself doesn't give off much appeal.

Before I had even looked to see what it was,

I was almost certain that I wouldn't like it either.

But when she served this huge casserole of cheesy goodness

It was gone.

The boys ate at least two plates each

And Chris was stuffed by the end of dinner

This stuff is good.

I found spaetzle noodles at Aldi's. You can also find them here.

Here we go...

#1 - Boil the spaetzle is salted water, according to package directions - about 12 minutes.

#2 Drain noodles. Aside from noodles, make your sauce:

2 can cream of mushroom soup

2 cans of tuna 

2 cups milks

season with salt and pepper (I use Greek Seasoning)

Warm over medium heat, do not boil

#3 - Add 4 oz of shredded cheddar cheese. Mix until combined and melted

#4 - Add noodles. Mix well.

#5 - For my family, 16oz of spaetzle made two dinners - so divided this into two casserole dishes

#6 - Top with breadcrumbs

#7 - Finish off casserole with another 4oz of shredded cheddar cheese....the more, the better. 

#8 - Wrap your casserole to save in foil - make sure to label is. You'll defrost this and reheat it at 350 degrees for about a half hour.

#9 - As for the casserole you're eating today - place it in a 350 degree over (covered with foil) for 15-20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 8-10 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown. 

Yummy! This is an easy meal to make, and my family loves it!

We gobbled this whole casserole up fast!

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did! Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Will you stop by and read my very first review? It's of a newer product called EcoDrink that we use everyday. Thanks so much! 

THANK YOU to all these wonderful bloggers for letting me link to their sites this week! 

 Skip to my Lou, I Should be Mopping the Floor, Keeping It Simple, Mad in Crafts, Craft-o-Matic, It's So Very Cheri, Couponing and Cooking, Boogie Board Cottage, Stone Gable Blog, Serendipity and Spice, Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms, Homemaker on a Dime, Sew Chatty, Marvelously Messy, Sew Can Do, Say Not Sweet Anne, Sugar Bee Crafts, New Nostalgia, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Todays Creative Blog, Naptime Creations, A to Z Celebrations, Ludybug Blessings, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Kathe with an E, The Winthrop Chronicles, Blessed with Grace, Adventures of a DIY Mom, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Someday Crafts, Lil Luna, Sew Much Ado, GingerSnap Crafts, The Trendy Treehouse, Southern Lovely, Homework Wednesday, Tidy Mom

Cheesy Chicken Nuggets

All kids like chicken nuggets right? 

Mine sure do.

These Cheesy Chicken Nuggets are moist and crunchy...

a perfect combination!

The key to making these nuggets so great are soaking them overnight in milk.

Cut a boneless, skinless chicken breast into bite size pieces.

Into a plastic container throw in the chicken, a tablespoon of seasoning salt and enough milk to cover.

#1 - Put a lid on it and store it in the fridge overnight.

#2 - Make sure and drain any excess milk off the chicken pieces.

#3 - I used about 2-3 cups of Reduced Fat Cheddar Crackers. Place them in a zipper sandwich bag. Push all the air out and seal the bag.

#4 - With a rolling pin, smash the crackers...leaving a few big chunks is alright.

Breading these nuggets is easy - no need for an egg wash, the chicken is already moist from the milk soak.

Place your smashed up cracker bits on a plate and roll each nugget around.

Make sure and push the bits into the chicken.

Place the nuggets on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake nuggets at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

If you want yours a bit more crispy...leave them in there for 15 minutes.

Serve warm with BBQ sauce and you'll have some happy kids!

I made a huge batch of nuggets and stored the rest in the freezer for a quick lunch.

They can go back in the oven at 350 for 5-10 minutes.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Easy Homemade Mac and Cheese

My kids LOVE mac and cheese. They could seriously eat it everyday for lunch if I'd let them. I get tired of the "out of the box" mac and cheese, so decided to try my hand at making my own. Here's how it went....

1. Start boiling some noodles. I had Rotini noodles on hand, so that's what I made. Follow packages directions and cook until al dente.

2. In a skillet, turn up the heat and throw in a little over 3 tablespoons of butter. Give the butter time to melt.

3. After the better is melted, toss is a little over 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. Turn the heat down to medium. 

4. Using a whisk, make sure the butter and flour are mixed well. This is the base for your cheese sauce. 

5. Next, you'll add 2-3 cups of cold milk. Now you'll turn the stove back up to high and whisk together the butter/flour mix and the milk. This sometimes takes awhile, but be patient because you'll want to make sure that you get all the lumps out. If you're having problems getting lumps out with your whisk, you can always use a fork or I sometimes throw it into my blender for a minute or two. After you've got everything mixed, turn the heat back down to medium. You don't want to scold the milk, you'll want your sauce at a nice low boil. 

6. Now for the cheese! This is where you can go off in any direction you like...adding American cheese like I am. Or adding any type of cheese that you're family enjoys. I think some Swiss and Gouda sounds awesome together or Fontina. My hubby and my oldest boys are not cheese snobs like my baby and I are...so, it's good old American cheese for them. 

7. If you were using block cheese, I would suggest using at least 8 ounces and testing it out from there. For the slices, I'm using 8 slices. (This picture didn't turn out so great for some reason.)

8. With your sauce still on a medium boil, let the cheese melt down and stir as needed. This is also the time to season your cheese sauce. You'll want to season it, taste it, season it, taste it...until it's just right. You can always add more season, but it's a pain the try to take it out. I used sea salt, pepper, basil and garlic powder to season mine. 

9. Once the seasoning is right, and the cheese is all melted - go ahead and pour your sauce on your drained noodles. You're almost done!

10. Mix well and that's it. Go ahead and give it a quick taste again to see if it needs any more seasoning. 

You did it! You made Mac and Cheese from scratch, your family will love you (even more!)

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Broken Camera But Some Great Spaghetti Sauce!

UGH!!!

I went to turn on my camera yesterday to show off the AWESOME homemade spaghetti sauce that I made, but it won't turn on! It makes a noise like it's trying to come on and the lens moves as if it wants to come out, but it doesn't.

I have NO IDEA what's wrong with it. I'm hoping to get it fixed but this coming weekend - we're going camping and I love getting pictures of the boys in their element! =)

I'll have to take it up to the camera store to see what they can tell me.

But...I did make an amazing spaghetti sauce last night...I used 2 large cans of diced tomatoes (24 oz each) and threw them in the crockpot. I added basil, sea salt, dried onion and just about every spice I have in my spice rack. Turned that sucker on high and let it stew for about 4-5 hours.

That was yummy! And, I used Muir Glen tomatoes - so it was organic too! (I love their fire roasted tomatoes!)

I did take a few pictures with my phone last night - but I'm not real happy with the quality...but here ya go:

With dinner, I made my "Famous" garlic bread....my boys love it, but it's just bread with butter, garlic, basil and parm cheese but under the broiler until it's browned (not burned!) The two cans of tomatoes made a huge amount, so I froze what we didn't use and that will make for a quick supper one of these nights. 

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The Best Meatloaf Ever....Seriously!

I spent years and years (and years) hating meatloaf. My mom was a great cook, but her meatloaf was bad. Dry and tasteless (Sorry, mom! Love you!) 

It wasn't until a few years ago that I started searching for ways to jazz up meatloaf. When I found the perfect mixture of meatloaf, I was completely hooked. I make this twice a month - and I always make a double batch! This meatloaf freezes perfectly and makes a great dinner on those nights when everyone is feeling rushed.

Let's get started why don't we?

Ingredients (for two pans) Feeds 3-4 each pan

3 lbs hamburger

2-3 cups of oatmeal

4 large eggs

1/2 onion diced

1 head of garlic, diced

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

3 TBSP brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Grab a big bowl! Start off by everyone jumping in the pool.

Mix with your hands. I've found this is the best way to get everything perfectly mixed. 

Tip: Run the water in the sink warm before you start mixing. Then you don't have to goo up the faucet when you go to wash your hands. 

Grab two casserole dishes. Spray each one with non-stick cooking spray. 

This is a fun trick that I learned from Paula Deen - take a slice of bread and lay it in the bottom of the casserole dishes. This helps soak up all the extra grease from the hamburger. 

Divide your mix into the two dishes. Pat down. Take your fingers and 'poke' them down into the meatloaf. This helps with the next step. 

Now for the sauce:

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup BBQ sauce

2 TBSP brown sugar

Add enough water to make 1 1/2 cup of sauce

Wisk with a fork. If its too runny, add more ketchup - too thick, add more water. 

Pour this sauce over both meatloaf dishes. Take the back of a spoon and spread it all over, making sure it gets down into the holes you poked. 

Top both dishes with foil. Stick one in the freezer and the other one in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour! For the last 10 minutes of baking, remove the foil. 

To defrost, leaf meatloaf in refrigerator overnight, bake as above.  

You'll find this is the juiciest and tastiest meatloaf you've ever had! Not to mention easy and cheap to make!

Fast & Easy Breadsticks

We love having pizza nights at our house! The problem with pizza night is the cost of ordering pizza....we easily spend $30 - that's ONE dinner. That's craziness.

That's why we make our own pizza's around here. On some nights we'll make up just one big pizza and other nights everyone will get their own pizza to top however they want (kids like this way best!!)

I wanted to show you the quick and easy way to make pizza and breadsticks for the family that will cost way less then $10! The dough I'm making can be used for pizza and breadsticks - below are how I make my breadsticks!

Nothing fancy here to make some good old pizza dough! You can use whole wheat flour if you like, and change out the EVOO for some veggie oil if that's what you have on hand.

Pour all ingredients, minus the oil into a bowl.

I like flavored breadsticks, I always add onion, garlic powder and oregano. This time I decided to throw in some popcorn seasoning that I had on hand. You can toss in anything you like - make them your own!

After the dough is well mixed, I like to add the oil and rub it all over the ball, until it looks like this:

Ta-Da! Now time to let the dough rest and rise.

Since the oven was already preheating, this is a perfect place to let your dough rise. A towel on the bowl helps keep heat in.

Once you've let the dough rise for about 15 minutes, add more flour as needed so that it's not sticky. Press the dough out with your hands onto a greased cookie sheet (or pizza pan if you like.)

I like to take about 2-3 tbsp on butter and melt it with even more garlic and oregano. About 30 seconds in the microwave will do.

BEFORE you put the breadsticks in the oven, COVER them with your melted butter. There's no such thing as too much. This is also where you can get creative again - throw cheese on top and make them cheese sticks. Whatever kind of cheese you have will do.

I like the pre-slice my breadsticks before putting them in the oven, makes them easier to pull apart.

After the breadsticks come out of the cover, spread more of that melted butter over them! We like to save some extra melted butter for dipping! This dough is so great because it can also be used for pizza crust, make a double or triple bath - let the kids help - and you've got a fun pizza night for less then $10!

Here is where you can find the recipe for Fleischmanns Pizza Crust....it's not the exact same way I make mine, but try out a few ways and see what works for you!

Enjoy!

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HOH

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