Alfredo Pasta Recipe

This quick, simple meal can have variations of meat (or no meat at all) and pasta. Follow the pictures.

Put 1 lb of turkey burger (or your choice of meat) in a skillet

Add a tablespoon or two of olive oil to the pan

Add 1-2 tsp of garlic salt 

1/2-1 tsp black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

 Fry meat over medium heat until well done.

Add 1 cup of milk

1 stick of butter

8 oz cream cheese

 Chop and stir together over low heat
until the butter and cream cheese are melted.

Cook 1 lb of pasta per directions on package, rinsing slightly with cold water when it's done.

Put half of the pasta in a casserole dish

Spread half the Alfredo mixture on top and
then repeat the layers once more.

Does that seem like a lot of food? Our family scarfs it up in one meal and wishes for more.

As I made this dish, I just pulled the recipe from my head and kept thinking I'm missing something. Now I remember- I usually add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese to this. Well, it was good without it.

If you go meatless, start with melting the butter. Then add the milk and other ingredients. You can also use raw garlic and onion if you wish, rather than garlic salt and onion powder. Just saute them in the butter to begin with.

Kitchen Hacks II

Keep the counters clean. Remember that? And how in the world do you practically do that??? Just do it! Do you rinse and stack your dishes? Well, why not just get the hot water running into the sink (if you have hot tap water), squirt in some dish detergent and make that rinsing a washing instead? Presto! The dishes are washed and can air dry in the dish rack instead of collecting on the counter top or in the sink.

I have such a good mentor in these things. Donna Goff at Mentoring Our Own is constantly reminding me how important a clean kitchen is. It is our choice to keep it clean. If we are too busy to keep up with our dishes (or laundry) we are too busy! Her kitchen rule is "Leave no trace". I'll let you interpret that.

Use a food chopper when you fry burger. It is handy to use that instead of a spatula or pancake turner, whatever you call it. Just chop and mix as the burger fries.

This tool is actually very versatile- chop onions and nuts, cut out biscuits and donuts, chop strawberries. Just use your imagination.

The crock pot is a wonderfully useful kitchen gadget. Fill it in the morning with some meat, veggies and spices and by evening your main dish is ready. Add a green salad to make a complete meal. For even more fun, put a bunch of meals in the freezer and you'll have peace of mind for a week or two.

Soak your beans before cooking them. Best done in a glass jar with some vinegar or lemon juice added. Let them set a couple days- 2 or 3- and then drain, rinse and cook them. If you've suffered from internal gas when eating beans, this should eliminate the problem. 

An hour after you put them in the jar, pick up the jar, turn it upside down and then return it to it's place. If you don't, the swelling beans will pack themselves tightly in the bottom of the jar. 

Shake garlic and eggs to peel them. Oh, but that sounds really strange. 

My daddy taught me about peeling hard-boiled eggs. After they're cooled and the water is drained off, put the lid on the kettle and shake away. Up and down. Back and forth. Not so vigorously that the eggs break but hard enough to get the shells cracked all over. The eggs will slip right out of their shells if they aren't lying in the kettle peeled already once you remove the lid. (Another tip for HB eggs is to leave them unpeeled if you want to store them for any amount of time.)

Garlic works similarly. Take a bulb in your hand, stem end against palm, root end out, and slam it on the counter top, giving good pressure with the heel of your hand. This makes the cloves fall off. Put the cloves in a big bowl and cover it with the same size bowl or one that fits tightly over it. Hold the bowls together and shake for all you're worth for twenty to sixty seconds. Check after twenty seconds and shake longer if necessary. The cloves should be lying inside, peeled when you're done. 

Till next time, happy cooking! Make it short and sweet.

Watch for Kitchen Hacks III in the future.

Taco Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 lb hamburger
1 medium to large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (green if you want more color)
1 quart canned tomato chunks and/or 1 pint salsa
1 quart cooked/canned pinto (or any mixture) beans
1 quart frozen or canned whole kernel corn
1 quart tomato juice
1 packet taco seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a large kettle brown the hamburger in olive oil, adding in onions and peppers midway. Allow to simmer a bit to soften the peppers. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for a half hour. Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese and nacho or tortilla chips. Very versatile. We put milk in the soup if we don't have sour cream and eat it with cornbread when there are no chips. And we don't always eat cheese with it.

What's your favorite soup?

Do you enjoy soup in the Fall?

Laundry Hacks

Are you trying to cut back on your budget? Do you cringe when you use heavily scented chemical soaps to clean your family's dirty laundry?

You could go to the river and pound your clothes on the rocks, right? But maybe a river isn't nearby. Or maybe it's frozen. Mostly, you probably don't really want to do that. It isn't practical in USA culture.

Okay, here's a better plan. Make your own laundry soap for about $2 using this recipe.

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap

1 cup washing soda

1 cup Borax

5 gallon bucket
(I can find all these soaps at Wal-Mart.)

Shred the bar of soap. Pour 4 cups of hot tap water into a kettle. Add the shredded soap. Heat over medium heat, stirring all the while until the soap is dissolved. Then stir a bit longer to make sure it's dissolved entirely. Remove from the heat.

Fill a five gallon bucket with cold tap water. Add the soap mixture, washing soda and Borax. Stir until powders are dissolved. Fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot tap water. (I use all cold water because my hot tap water stinks like rotten eggs. But the recipe I followed said to use hot water, so whatever works for you should be okay.)

(The first recipe I linked is just that- the recipe. The second link takes you to a detailed step-by-step-with-pictures process. I also don't use the exact same recipe, as you may notice.)

Let this set overnight. It will turn into a gel. In the morning you can stir it to turn it back to liquid or get in with your hands and squeeze it. At this point it is ready to use. Or you can dilute it further. Fill an empty laundry soap jug halfway with water and fill it the rest of the way with the soap mixture. I use it full strength and it does a good job. It is still way more economical than other laundry soaps (5 gallons for $2!). Just use the regular amount you would use of any liquid laundry soap.

Add peroxide to your load if it needs "bleaching" (not whitening). It will do the job, without killing all good microorganisms. Use 1/2 to 1 cup per load.

For laundry that needs deodorizing, add white vinegar to the wash cycle. Use about a cup per load. Vinegar also helps to remove grass stains on jeans. Just start a load like normal but let the laundry soak about a half hour in the washer between the wash and spin cycles.

These things have worked for me and make me feel a lot better about the things my family wears. Not so many chemicals. For better health.

Another trick that has helped me, is to wash with cold water. You can wash anything together in the same load when using cold water. Okay. Don't put the dirty jeans in with good dress clothes. But darks and lights, polos and jeans, dresses and towels... it works! And it eliminates the sorting, the piles all over the house. Just basically empty the hamper into the washer. It makes it simple for children to do their own laundry this way.

Cold water, for me, means less stains on the laundry too. There is something about the metals/minerals in our water that will put spots on the clothes if using hot water. Iron Out will take the spots out but who wants to mess with yet another step?

And ironing. Who wants to iron clothes? Not me. Put those dress shirts, dresses, dress pants, etc in the dryer for a few (5-10) minutes. Or use your dryer's "tumble press" setting. Then immediately put them on clothes hangers, shaking out the wrinkles. Hang them on the shower curtain rod, the laundry line, the door frame, a tree branch, the garage door slide- wherever it works. Let them dry there and see if you like the results. I hang pants over the backs of the dining room chairs (be careful you don't get stain on your clothing and/or take the varnish off your chairs) or pinned by the waistband to the laundry line. (I don't like the marks clothespins make on the legs.)

Keep a bottle of cheap dish detergent close by and add a squirt to the random grease spot on your clothes. My dresses get splattered with grease sometimes when I'm cooking (because I rarely wear an apron!).

Lastly, fold the laundry immediately when you take it from the dryer and put it away. It takes no more than five minutes and it's off your mind. Donna Goff has taught me this and also taught me to enlist the help of the children in doing so. I'm still learning to be prompt about it. Sometimes I set it aside thinking I'll do it with the next load. Well, guess what? The more it piles up, the less I feel like doing it.

Put a load in the washer as soon as you dress in the morning for a good start on your day.

Happy laundering!

Simple Yummy Breakfast

Would you like a new recipe? Yeah, me too. This one has been a recent hit with our family.

1 lb sausage (or other burger)
1 cup salsa
6 (or more) eggs

This is a very adjustable recipe. The main idea is to brown the sausage in a skillet, stir in the salsa, crack the eggs over the mess, put a lid on and let it cook about three minutes. You've got yourself a delicious breakfast just like that!

I found this recipe at Lexi's Clean Kitchen and I'm certain you are welcome to go there to find many more yummy things. She has lots of recipes for people with diet restrictions.

Thought for the day- Choose to love housework because that is God's gift to you!

Picture for the day- the mug I painted at Polka Dot Pot.