Hello beautiful mommies! I am so happy to be back and bringing you all new and yummy recipes. It seems that this comes at a perfect time as inflation is driving the price of food up and as mothers we need to be diligent in making our household money and food stretch. Can I get an amen? Today I will be giving you a delicious recipe that the whole family will love. It is more of a serious flavor so if that is a concern tweak it to fit your family! At the end of this post I will also give you a few follow up ideas to make with the left overs. Stretching our food doesn't always have to mean reheated left overs. ;)
     Before you get started PLEASE make sure to prep for this meal, it is a longer process then some of my other dishes. Give yourself a good hour to prep, hour and a half to bake everything, and then about twenty minutes to get everything on the table. So that comes to about 3 hours to get this meal on your table. 

What You'll Need: 4 pound whole chicken (approximately LOL)
                                1\2 cup (8 tbs) butter melted
                                6 tbs olive oil
                                1\2 cup dry red wine (I used a Merlot)
                                1 lemon halved (I didn't have any so I used 1 drop of dOterra lemon essential oil)
                                Salt and Pepper
                                Fresh parsley (3 sprigs) - substitute with dried if desired
                                Fresh rosemary (3 sprigs) - substitute with dried if desired
                               8 cloves minced garlic
                               2 red apples
                               Corn starch (add until desired thickness)

Prepping: 1. Preheat oven to 430 degrees on bake. Clean and rinse chicken, remove all "insides" and at dry (set aside).
         
                  2. In sauce pan melt butter, olive oil, red wine, and juice of half a lemon.

              3. Cover chicken in the sauce, inside and on the outside. I did this in a dutch oven but you can do it in a roast                pan too. Then rub the minced garlic and salt and pepper on the outside and inside of chicken. Then put the rosemary, (if you used a mincer for the garlic put the "remnants" inside as well), and apples sliced into fourths in the chicken (only use 7 of the 8 pieces).

                4. This part you can do depending on how you like your white meat. We like ours moist and juicy. So you will want to lay the chicken with the BREAST side down (if you like it dryer then breast side up). Thinly slice the last quarter of apple and lay on the top of the chicken and the parsley sprigs. See the picture below on how it should look.

                   5. About 30 minutes in you will want to baste, and one more time with about 15 minutes left. Total bake time should be about 1 1\2 hours. Once you remove the chicken let it sit for about 10 minutes while you make the gravy.

             6. Gravy - Last siphon off the drippings and put in a small saucepan and add corn starch. Bring to a boil continuously whisking until thickened.
                               

What You'll Need: 3-4 sweet potatoes
                                8 tbs butter
                                6 tbs real maple syrup 
                                1\2 cup milk
                                Salt and Pepper

Prepping: 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line pan in tin foil. Pierce potatoes about three times with a fork. Bake for 60 minutes.

                  2. About 10 minutes before they are finished melt butter in a sauce pan. Add maple syrup, milk, salt and pepper.

                  3. Take saucepan off heat. Cut potatoes in half and scoop insides out with a spoon into saucepan. Then using a potato masher, mash until well blended. Add more salt and pepper to taste if needed. These are super yummy for the kids!

               

     Now carve your chicken (or have the hubby do it ;) ), add the gravy to the chicken. Plate the potatoes and add whatever green you desire. We did green beans but you could do a salad or anything else of your choice. Another good option would be biscuits or garlic bread. Serve and enjoy!

     There are a lot of options you can do to make new meals out of these left overs. You can google specific recipes for them. A couple ideas for the chicken left overs are to boil the chicken with onion and to make a stock. Then remove the chicken and pull off chicken pieces and add veggies to make chicken soup. You can also remove the chicken from the bones and use it to make a casserole of your choosing.
     For the potatoes you also can put scoops into muffin tins and add in pecans or raisins with coconut flakes on top and bake them in the oven for little sweet potato casseroles. Corn starch or flour can be added to make more of a solid cake like texture. It all about making something new out of something left over. 

  Well I have a special and EASY dinner favorite for you to try tonight. Seriously, this one is so easy. When it comes to pizza, my kids are weird! They are not the biggest fans! I know, I can't believe it either (I guess, unlike when I was growing up, we just have it too much. LOL!). So I decided to try a recipe I found in pinterest but put my own flare on it. I hope you try this recipe and you do the same! Add your own personal flare and share what you did.

Ingredients:
                     8ct crescent roll dough (I had to double for my family of 5)
                     Large pepperonis (I used publix brand) 
                     4 slices munster cheese (or any other cheese you prefer)
                     Pizza sauce
                     Pam spray

Prepare:
                1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
                2. Spray muffin tin with Pam
                3. Lay dough in each muffin holder
                4. Lay pepperoni on top of dough
                5. Cut slice of cheese in half and lay on top of pepperoni 
                6. Close dough around on itself ( it is okay if you still see cheese or meat)
                7. Bake for 10-20 minutes (you want the cheese melted and dough golden-brown)
                8. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping

The great thing about these are they pop right out of the tin, but you can store them in a bag and save them for later. When you are ready just pop a couple in the toaster oven and you are good to go! So try it out and share in the comments how you liked them! 

     Yes you heard that title right! A friend of ours makes a crazy good crack dip. So I took that recipe and altered it just a bit. This has been liked by everyone and there is so many ways to add your own special touch to it. Lets get started!

Ingredients:
                     Bell peppers (we needed 8 to get us through the week)
                     6 Chicken breast (you can use sausage or any other meat)
                     4 8oz. Cream cheese
                     4 can Rotel (we did mild)
                     6 cubes Chicken bullion
                     Salt and pepper

(That's IT!!! Really easy to make!)

Preparation:
                      1. In crock pot cook chicken, chicken bullion, water and salt and pepper on low until                                     tender and falling apart
                      2. Shred chicken, pour out broth (you can keep it for another meal!), return shredded                                  chicken to crock pot
                      3. Add cream cheese and rotel and continue to cook on low or warm until melted
                      4. Wash, de-seed and cut in half bell peppers
                      5. Scoop crack dip into peppers
                      6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes

This meal is also great if you want to have company over but can't spend a fortune. 

     I have to say this was probably the funnest meal I made with the kids. It was our Family Fun night and instead of pizza or tacos I decided to try something new since they were kind of getting burned out. Let me tell you, this was a blast. It was so easy to let the kids help sprinkle the toppings on. Briseis is also getting to the age she browned the meat for me as well and Leonidas cut the black olives. So without further delay here is how to make the Castor's Loaded Nachos! 

Ingredients:
                     1 bag of chips (we used two bags)                          Mexican cheese (as much as you want)
                     1-2 pounds ground beef                                             1 packet taco seasoning
                     canned jalapenos (optional)                                      1 can black olives (sliced)
                     1 can Rotel mild                                                           1 can green chili peppers
                      sour cream                                                                   picante sauce mild

Preparation:
                     1. Brown ground beef with taco seasoning in it (drain grease)
                     2. Arrange chips on pan
                     3. Add ground beef, cheese, jalapenos, black olives, Rotel and green chili peppers to the                             top
                     4. Baked at 350 degrees until cheese is bubbling
​                     5. Serve and add sour cream and picante sauce if desired