Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas: Easy Chili con Carne with Cheese and Rice

Chili is a great meal during the colder months of the year and it's also cheap, easy and quick.  Not to mention you definitely get leftovers out of it, which is a win-win when you're busy. If you don't have much time to cook or chop things up there are quicker methods of making a great chili.

Chili is also versatile, so on nights when you do have more time or do feel like chopping extra things up, then you can add in various things. You can also make it less spicy, or more spicy depending on your personal preference. I like mine spicy.

First, I'll share the easiest way that I make chili in my home, then I'll share optional things that you can add into your chili to make it even yummier. And, of course, serve that baby over some white rice with sour cream and shredded cheddar on top, so yummy.

Quick and Easy Chili Recipe

 

Prep Time:  None, unless you've decided to add ingredients from the 'Optional' section below.

Cook Time:  40-60 minutes

Servings:  10-12 depending on serving size

Ingredients:

•  (1) 28 oz. Can Diced Tomatoes (I like to use Contadina or Tuttorosso for my diced and crushed tomatoes.)
• (1) 28 oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes
• (2) 15.5oz. Cans Dark Red Kidney Beans, drained
• 1 tsp. Onion Powder
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp. Basil
• 1 tsp. Oregano
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 2-3 tsp. Chili Powder (I don't measure my chili powder anymore. I just keep sprinkling it until it has the taste that I want.)
• 2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• (1) 8 oz. Package of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 - 1-1/2 Ground Beef
• 2-3 Cups of Medium-grained White Rice
• Sour Cream 

Optional:

If you have a night where you have more time, then these are some things that you can do differently with your chili.

• Use a small-medium, chopped and diced onion instead of onion powder.
• Use 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic instead of garlic powder.
• Add any of these extra ingredients:  green pepper, red pepper, red hot chili pepper.
• Add 1-2 cans of corn, or 1-2 cups of frozen corn to your chili. (I've personally never added corn, but many people do add it. I like to stick with chunky tomatoes, onion and peppers.)

Quick and Easy Chili Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in a medium-sized frying pan on medium-low heat until no longer pink. If you've opted to use fresh onion you'll saute your onion with your ground beef.
2. Drain the ground beef onto a plate with a paper towel. Take another paper towel to soak up extra grease from the ground beef.
3. Place the ground beef into a Dutch oven or a large saucepan. Add in your crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, onion powder, garlic powder, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and chili powder. If you decided to add in corn put the corn into the chili for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking time. Cook for 30-40 minutes on low heat.
4. While your chili is cooking bring a large saucepan or Dutch oven half-filled with lightly-salted water to a boil. Once the water begins boiling add your rice. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low (I use setting 4 on my gas stove) and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Once everything's finished cooking add a little bit of rice to each plate and top the rice with some chili. Finish arranging your plates by topping each plate of chili with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese and a spoon of sour cream.

Serve with any of these:  dinner rolls, bread and butter, salad, your veggie of choice, etc.

With a little shredded cheddar and sour cream on top. Yum!

 Enjoy! Nom, nom...

Beautiful Videos and Songs: Father's Love Letter

 Video Credits:  Marcelo Castelo  

This is one of my favorite videos ever and made me cry like a baby the first time I saw it, because my own father abandoned me and my little brother when I was two months away from turning 12. I was in the 6th grade. My little brother had just turned 10 that October. He left that November. And he didn't just stop seeing us...he left the country with his new family back to his home country, sent us a Christmas card the next month with no return address and that was the last time we ever heard from him. 

I'll never forget how my birthday was January 1st after Christmas, and not even one last birthday card for his first daughter whom he named after his mother who passed when he was 12 of Leukemia. Before he left, he was in and out of our lives from the time that I was age four, including time he spent in prison. Then we saw him every other weekend until he lost visitation. 

I struggled for many years with abandonment issues and tried to find my father at age 17 by paying a private investigator, but it turned out that since he was not born in this country the social security number I had for him was useless in "his country." This was devastating for me. Later in life, however, around the time that I first saw this video I was beginning to heal from many different past traumas and sad life events from my upbringing, including the abandonment of my father. 

So that's why this video really hit home and reminded me that even though I do not have my earth father I will always have my heavenly father...and no one can take that from me ever. I hope that this video touches your heart like it has touched mine...

Breathing Through a Tantrum - Patience is a Virtue and The Lady with Earplugs

When You're a Parent, Patience is a Virtue

Getting Through a Tantrum and The Mom with Earplugs

photo credit: Amy Wilbanks via photopin cc

We've all been there at some point or another when it comes to dealing with tantrums and they can start from anything. I like to compare them to a storm. With a storm you could have a nice sunny clear blue sky day, and then out of the blue a dark clouded thunderstorm rolls on in...

Then as just as fast as it came in it's gone and the sun is out and the sky is blue again. It's the same thing with a tantrum. Everything could be fine and dandy one minute, then, bam, here it comes for one reason or another.

Maybe someone wants something they can't have, maybe someone did something to someone else, or whatever the case may be, etc. And then the next thing you know just as fast as the tantrum came in it's gone. All is well in the land and everyone's happy dandy.

Sometimes it truly fascinates and amazes me. Like today...which was my inspiration for this post. One of my daughters was having a tantrum. And it started from nothing. She wanted something she couldn't have "yet." My 17-year-old son, the life-long pack-rat, had brought home two boxes of used toys for his little sisters that the owner of a little local toy store that was going out of business and who he did odd jobs for gave him to take home.

She could see these things in the kitchen beyond the baby gate that she is still not allowed past yet for many reasons. I kept telling her that I would clean them up after breakfast. I was trying to cook them some scrambled eggs. She began to chant the same phrase over-and-over saying "toys" and really worked herself up. She began making these gulping noises as she chanted "toys" and even though she had real tears I felt this was dramatics to get her way.

I know the true "hiccuping cry" and this was not it. This was a deliberate work myself up to get my own way cry and I just kept focusing on what I was doing, so it would end quickly. I kept calmly telling her "after breakfast," then I just stopped speaking and continued cooking. Eventually she got the point, stopped and walked away from the gate and just as quick as the "storm" approached, it was gone. 

Then she asked me for tissue to wipe her snotty nose from crying and that was that. She was back to her happy little self. I did not feed into it. I'm not always perfect. I don't think anyone is but I handled that one quite well if I do say so myself, lol.

The Lady with The Ear Plugs

So whenever I find myself dealing with situations like that it always takes me back in time to when I worked as a cashier. I worked at a few different stores as a cashier and they're not kidding when they say you see it all as a cashier. You really do see it all when you're a cashier, in fast food too. I definitely have some stories. But this one time I was working at Walmart and it was a busy Saturday morning. I had a long line of customers and there was a kid in the front of a cart screaming his brains out and having a tantrum. He wanted candy or something.

He was too big for the cart first of all, but seeing the tantrum he was having I guessed that, that was probably why he was in the cart. Maybe it was because of his behavior. But the tantrum is not why this moment stands out in my mind. It was the mother. The tantrum was so bad that everyone was staring. The kid was loud and hysterical. The mother was as calm as could be putting her groceries on the conveyer belt without a care in the world...almost as if she was in her own world completely oblivious to the tantrum her son was having.

Then she got closer to my register and I saw why she was so calm. She really was in her own world - she had earplugs in her ears. Yes, earplugs. Here I was thinking she had the patience of a Saint, and she had earplugs. I wanted to laugh so hard and tell her I felt her pain, lol, but she wouldn't have heard me with the earplugs... I tell everyone that story, because it's just one that will forever stand out in my mind as a classic. Not such a good idea while driving or anything like that where you need your hearing, but if that's what it took for her to remain calm then whatever floats your boat.

It was almost ingenious, really, because she looked like a really nice lady. So my guess is that maybe she told him to stop and he wouldn't listen and she knew she had to get out of there, so she decided that was how she would handle him. Who knows... The good thing is...he didn't get his way, muahaha. I really felt her pain though. Grocery store tantrums are the worst... (See Pet Peeve #41)

Another funny tantrum that I witnessed was last Halloween. I was in Walmart's Halloween section shopping for some Halloween things when there was a well-dressed lady in the same aisle with a small child in the cart. The small child demanded that her mother pick something up off the floor for her and was hysterical. The little girl was old enough to know better and was being disrespectful to her mother.

The look of horror on the mother's face and outrage as she proceeded to immediately leave the store I will never forget. She also said something that I can't remember about talking to her like that and that they'd return when she could talk to her better or something like that. But the look on her face is what stood out the most...

Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas: Quick and Easy Tuna Casserole Recipe

If you're looking for quick dinner ideas, then you'll love this. This is a great recipe, but I really have to be in the mood for it in order to make it. I've made it twice in the past month, but before that, it had been a while. 

I don't know, I've just been in the mood for it lately. One of my inspirations for making it recently is the fact that it's a cheap semi-healthy dinner, and let's not forget the fact that it's quick.

Can't forget that. So we have ourselves a win-win situation with this tuna casserole recipe. The first time that I made this was years ago and I remember that I decided to make it because I wanted to get away from "Tuna Helper."

In between my more time consuming healthy dinners, I would find myself buying quick dinners that were unhealthy - processed foods. I still buy some things that are processed, but have gotten away from most. I don't know if I'll ever be able to give up the occasional Perdue chicken nuggets and fish sticks, etc., unless I decide to take the time to make them from scratch.

You really have to be in the mood to do that... And...but still...I believe that these things are okay in moderation. As long as you don't eat them every day, you're good, is my motto. It's the same thing with fast food. Occasionally is okay in my book, but not everyday and certainly not every meal. Unless, of course, you want a short lifespan. 

But most of us would like to live as long as possible, especially when you're a parent...or grandparent. I'd like to live to become a great-grandparent one day. Okay, I'm babbling. Back to my recipe...  This recipe is delicious, fast and easy. You'll love it.

Quick and Easy Tuna Casserole Recipe

 

Servings:  This all depends upon what you view as a "serving size." In my house, there are seven of us. My older boys have larger appetites compared to my younger children. We could easily feed 8 with this recipe. So, in my house this feeds three teenagers, two who have large appetites, me, a soon-to-be 8 year old and two soon-to-be 4 year old's, plus a guest, if we had a guest. If you have a smaller family, which most people do, then you could easily reheat this for leftovers a second night. I miss the days when we had more leftovers, lol. Those days are longgg gone...

Ingredients:

• (2) 5oz cans of tuna (I use chunk light in water)
• (1) 15oz can of peas and carrots, or a small frozen bag of peas and carrots
• 1 package of extra-wide egg noodles
• a little bit of salt and pepper
• (2) 10.5oz cans of cream of mushroom soup
• 10 slices of American Cheese
• Optional:  1 small chopped and diced onion

 Directions:

1. Bring a large saucepan or a dutch oven pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Throw in your egg noodles and cook them for 7-10 minutes, depending on package instructions. If you have chosen to cook with frozen veggies, boil the veggies with the egg noodles. If you've chosen canned veggies, toss them in with step 3.
2. When the egg noodles are finished, turn off the heat and drain them. Put them back into the large saucepan or dutch oven after you've drained them.
3. Stir in your cream of mushroom soup, your tuna and your veggies on very low heat.
4. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper depending on preference.
5. Begin adding your cheese slices two-at-a-time. I try to stir them quickly, so I can continue adding them and how do I put it...get it over with already. Kidding. So I stir until it's creamy. Once everything is nice and creamy, I turn off the stove and let it sit for a little bit.

Serve with bread and butter or a nice salad, or both. I just serve it with bread and butter. This is a great recipe if you have a night where you don't have much time to cook, you're not in the mood to cook, or you're just in the mood for tuna casserole.

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Breakfast Ideas: Strawberry Heart Shaped Pancakes with Whipped Cream Topping

So Yummy...

photo credit: lisaclarke via photopin cc

So I decided that I'm in the mood to do some baking this year for Valentine's Day, from cupcakes to sugar cookies, I'm just really in the mood to do it this year.

Anyone that's not an avid baker knows that you really have to be "in the mood" to bake anything. I love to bake, but I'm just not an avid baker. 

And I was also trying to think of something different and fun to do for breakfast that involves pancakes when I decided to make strawberry heart shaped pancakes with my favorite whipped cream/cream cheese frosting for the topping. This recipe is for anyone who is looking for fun and yum, anyone searching for Valentine's Day breakfast ideas as well as any strawberry lover out there!

I'll be including strawberries within the pancake, in the syrup, and to top the whipped cream/cream cheese frosting. I also decided that I'd like red and pink pancakes, so you'll need food coloring and to get ready for some creativity to do this. Ready, set, time for strawberry heart shaped pancakes to start your Valentine's Day...

Strawberry Heart Shaped Pancakes

Ingredients:

• Pancake mix - store bought or homemade
• Non-stick heart shaped pancake ring
• 1-1/2 of a package of strawberries, chopped and diced
• Food coloring - to make red and pink pancake mix
• 2-3 medium or large mixing bowls 
• Optional:  Valentine's Day sprinkles or candies

Directions:

Step 1)  Mix up your pancake mix.

Step 2)  Separate your pancake mix and then make your pink and your red. Use three bowls to make whiter pancakes, pink pancakes and red pancakes, or use two bowls to keep it simple and just make pink and red pancakes. The choice is yours. A couple of drops of red food coloring will give you the color pink. Keep adding drops of red until you find the pink that you'd like to achieve. 

To achieve red, you'll have better luck using gel food coloring. Continue adding red food coloring until you achieve the color red that you would like. If you're not familiar with gel food colors this is what they look like.  For natural alternatives to food coloring, check out these tips:  Homemade Food Coloring; Make Your Own Natural Red Food Dye for Valentine's Day Treats.

Step 3)  Chop your strawberries.

Step 4)  Begin making your pancakes, dropping a few strawberries into the pancake while it's on the pancake griddle or throw some strawberries right into the bowls of pancake mixture. Whatever is easier for you. 

Step 5)  Butter your pancakes, add strawberry syrup, top with a dollop of whipped cream and cream cheese frosting as well as some extra strawberries! For this step you could also frost the entire pancake and then add the syrup over top of the pancakes. That last method is how I intend on making my pancakes.

Strawberry Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of white granulated sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 and 1/2 cup of mashed strawberries

Directions:

 

Step 1)  Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Slowly add in your mashed strawberries a little at-a-time. Stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Cook uncovered for ten minutes on low heat, stirring the mixture occasionally. Allow to cool a little bit before use or store in a seal-tight container for later use.

Whipped Cream and Cream Cheese Frosting

I should add that this whipped cream and cream cheese frosting recipe is great for cakes as well! This recipe gives you a sturdy whipped cream frosting thanks to the cream cheese and it's soooo yummy.

Ingredients:

• 1 8ounce package of reduced fat cream cheese softened
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups of heavy cream or whipping cream

Directions:

Step 1)  Combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl. Whip on medium speed with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy.

Step 2)  Begin stirring in your heavy cream or whipping cream a little at a time while you continue to mix with your hand mixer on medium speed. Continue to do this until you've added all of your heavy cream or whipping cream. Whip until the cream holds a "stiff peak."

Whipped Frosting Tip:  Try freezing the beaters to your hand mixer, along with the bowl that you intend on using for at least 15 minutes to 1 hour before mixing. 

Last but not least, have fun and enjoy! I know I will!

Just for Laughs: Mrs. Doubtfire Kitchen Scene - Funny Mrs. Doubtfire Scenes

Mrs. Doubtfire Kitchen Scene - Video by:  Thomas Fordius

I was in the mood for some Mrs. Doubtfire today, lol. One of my favorite's and, lol, I forgot how funny this scene was! "This hollandaise smells like burnt rubber. God, it's hot in here." LOL

Brownies without Vegetable Oil: Can you make brownies with olive oil?

Substitutes for Vegetable Oil

photo credit: yum9me via photopin cc

Can you make brownies with olive oil? So you're ready to make a batch of brownies and realize that you're out of vegetable oil, one of the main ingredients in brownie mix. And to make matters worse, perhaps you were just at the store and forgot to buy vegetable oil. Now what?

You could always wait until you go to the store again, or you can improvise if you really can't wait or don't want to wait. This was our dilemma a few days ago... I bought two boxes of brownie mix a couple of weeks ago, because my 13-year-old really wanted to make them.

When I bought the brownie mix I thought that I had some vegetable oil at home. He went to make a batch the other day and low-and-behold there's no vegetable oil. Surprise, surprise! I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me...

I look around the cabinet and spot a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. So I hit "Google" to see if you can make brownies with olive oil and I find disagreement amongst the opinions of others regarding this matter. Some saying that you can use olive oil but that it tastes different and others saying don't use it, so we gave it a try... 

So can you make brownies with olive oil?

The verdict is in...you can make brownies with olive oil. Yes, they taste a little "different." But it's not a bad kind of different. It's just "different." They still taste good, but just...different. They're still soft and chewy, and still have flavor, and I could still probably eat an entire tin if I really wanted to (but thanks to good self-control, I won't do that), but it's just a different taste. Yeah, so we get the point...it's different. Would I do it again? If I had to I would, but I think I'd still prefer to use vegetable oil... 

Other Substitutes for Vegetable Oil Include:

• Butter:  If you're going to use butter instead of vegetable oil for your brownie mix, you'll need 1 cup of butter to 3/4 cup of vegetable oil and the butter has to be softened. Not liquified - just softened.
• Applesauce:  Use the same amount of applesauce as your recipe calls for vegetable oil. For example, if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, use 1/2 cup of applesauce.
• Fruit Puree:  As with applesauce, it's the same thing. Use the same amount of fruit puree as you would use of vegetable oil.
• Yogurt:  When substituting vegetable oil with yogurt, you're going to use the same amount of yogurt as you would use of vegetable oil. Greek yogurt is a great healthy substitute for vegetable oil.