mashed cauliflower??

Ive been seeing all these posts on Pinterest saying how mashed cauliflower taste a whole lot like mashed potatoes, I've even heard that it is BETTER than mashed potatoes (but NOTHING could be better than mashed potatoes, could it??)

now i love potatoes, i mean i LOVE them… i like them mashed, i like them fried, i like them baked once or twice, and if i was creative i might bake them 3 times, i like them as tots, or scalloped, hashed, for breakfast, or even flakes and if i was hungry enough, who knows, i might like them raw… now that being said, i may be a bit biases on these so called mashed cauliflower. so keep that in mind as i tell you that this was….


….halfway decent. would i want it every day of my life? no. i would put it at about even on my list of foods i like,with raw cauliflower with ranch (which is actually pretty high on my list).


i had to combine a few recipes i found already, because some of them were a little to blah for me, and others had ingredients i didn't just have on hand so… here you go

Mashed Cauliflower

1 head cooked cauliflower- in pieces 

3 cloves of garlic- minced

1 tbs butter

drop olive oil

drop milk

salt 

pepper

 in a mixer or food processor add all the ingredients - and mash. mine got a bit runny so i added a pinch of flower to fluff it back up. 

miracle foot cream

Ok so this is kind of a gross post. but seriously i can not be the only person with terribly cracked feet…

this problem got especially bad when i started living with my husband… i have never really been the "girly type" but living with girls all through college, pushed me to do things i wouldn't normally do, like use lotion… so now that I live with a guy, all that self-help type things, kind of get forgotten about.

Anyways once we got married we bought these stupid ridiculously expensive bed sheets, and my stupid cracked feet got caught on them, and tore a small hole, which grew, and grew, and grew. and now we probably need some new sheets!


so when i went home last week i showed my mom (thinking i might need to go to the doctor they had gotten so bad) and she gave me some Aveda product and told me it would "help"… help? seriously, THIS IS MAGIC CREAM!!! so in about 3 days of actually putting it on i have seen a MAJOR change.

so invest in this stuff ladies. its MAGIC!!!!

 3 days… can you believe that. twice a day for 3 days!!!

 i don't own this picture, but since i just stole a small portion of the lotion from my mom, in a tupperware container, i don't have the actual product to take a picture of. 

Artichoke Heart Dip

I was one of those lucky ducks, who had like a billion and 10 bridal showers before i got married.  at one of my showers, all the guests were told to bring a recipe for yours truly, and i could not be more excited about some of them i received… so this recipe comes from the kitchen of Mary Markfelder, although artichoke heart dip pretty much is the same across the board, i like this one the best!

Artichoke Heart Dip

1 can artichokes- chopped

1 1/2 c fresh shredded Parmesan cheese

1 c mayo

1/2 c green onion- chopped

1 tsp Garlic powder

I'm not real keen on garlic powder so i use 2 garlic cloves, chopped

mix ingredients

bake 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes- until it gets brown around the edges. 

Nancy's Salsa

They always say "it takes a village to raise a child." i may have grown up in the best village know to man kind. and from that village i left with many recipes that are unknown to the rest of the world (maybe eggs in the middle and big pancakes will have to make an appearance to this blog soon!)

You probably don't know the lady who lived in the house next door to me while i grew up, but, i bet you, after you make this salsa, you will be madly in love with Nancy. and that's a fact, Jack.

This is world famous salsa, well, maybe not WORLD famous, but at least Minnesota state wide famous salsa.  but the other thing about this recipe is that i makes a TON, I'm talking, a TON.  so i give you this recipe with a challenge…. share it, make the batch and bring some to your neighbors, share it with someone at work, bring it to a family function… its ALMOST the holidays, get in that giving season with the gift of deliciousness.

world famous salsa

3 cans black beans- rinsed- drained

2 cans shoepeg corn- drained

2 16oz cans diced tomatoes with peppers and onion (i could only find 14 oz cans so good luck)

1 bunch green onions- diced

2 cups fresh tomatoes- chopped

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

2 tbs minced garlic

juice from 1 lemon

mix together, season to taste with salt, garlic powder and salt. 

** don't mind the Parmesan cheese in the picture- I'm just an idiot, that's for dinner tonight!

Don't forget to GIVE some salsa! share the love!! 

boom! you just made the best salsa known to man kind!

Black Bean Taco soup

So you might recognize this from my freezer to crock pot meal- only i found out we are having a 24 hour post wide power outage (AGAIN!) and so after i made all those freezer meals, i realize i have 1 week to eat them, ALL… dumb- don't worry, my insurance will be getting a claim, a big fat check made out to yours truly, for slaving away on food i may have to throw away (which kills me, post Africa, i HATE wasting food!) so anyways…

      I call this a "dump meal" because other than chopping an onion, you just dump cans into the crock pot and wait. so here you go

Black bean Taco Soup

(basically a super awesome chili)

1 lbs chicken

1 medium onion chopped

1 package taco seasoning

1 bag frozen corn (or canned, what ever)

2 cans black beans

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced green chiles

toss it in the crock pot for 4-6 hours -- unless you are a weirdo like me who used precooked (left over) chicken, than just 2 or so hours will do! 

ENJOY!

cover ugly cabinets with contact paper

so i live in military housing (if you didn't already know that) so what that means is, basically we spend about $1000 a month on crappy billion year old apartment.. which means our kitchen was created in like, i don't know, the 30s or 40s?? either way it is BUTT ugly and super outdated.  so i have been looking for a way to spice it up a bit, and i have basically not been able to find anything that is cheap (because we won't live here long…fingers crossed!!) and super easy to remove (again we won't be living here long)… plus Eric is getting annoyed of how much painting i have done, when we will just have to paint it back before we move. so i was at work the other day, hanging some of the kids pictures up on the wall using contact paper (that way they don't just pull it down right away) and i thought HEY this is cheap, and easily removable.
    so my first plan was to find chalk board contact paper, which would have been SOO COOL, only i could only find it online for like $5 a square foot, and i have a lot of feet to use, so i instead i went to wal-mart (sorry target, i hate it it too!) and found some funky contact paper and hung it up!

Before

After

ok so i wouldn't use the same contact paper i used again, but the idea is on the right track of what I'm looking for in life! especially if we end up PCSing somewhere else, i can just pull it off, and when we move use another $15 to update, what I'm sure will be, another ugly house! 

Italian Ranch chicken

BOOM THIS IS SO GOOD

don't mind my hot sauce that i put on salad…i can not be the only one who does that.

Italian ranch chicken in the crock pot

4 chicken breasts

1 package dry ranch dressing

1 package Italian dressing

1 package of cream cheese (only i don't want to die when I'm like 30 so i did less than half the package, and it was still super yummy)

1 can cream of mushroom (or cream of chicken, what ever you have on hand)

i tossed it on low in the crock pot this morning at like 8, and when i got home at lunch time it was pretty well cooked so i put them on "keep warm" and it was so tender and lovely!!! 

serve over noodles

BOOM so yummy