Passing On Some Yumminess...

I apologize for the quietness on the blog lately!  We have been extra busy, Isaac has been extra energetic and in need of more guidance in his daily activities, and I have been extra tired. :)  But here I am again, ready to share with you some yummy recipes we have tried these last couple of weeks.

Have you ever made green bean casserole with fresh, whole green beans and no cream-of-something soup?  I had not...until this lovely little recipe popped up on my computer screen.  Well, actually, I didn't even make this one; Nathan did.  But since I helped by finding it and buying the ingredients, we'll say I was part of it, 'k?  Anyway, this casserole was SO TASTY!  It seemed a bit laborious, but super delicious.  A great way to use green beans from the garden! (Note: you can totally use whole wheat bread for the topping if you want the fiber content!  We did, and it turned out just fine.)

Oh, and while we're on the subject, here is another recipe using fresh green beans that is my standard go-to when I need an easy way to prepare them.

With the start of an AWANA club at our church on Wednesday afternoons as well as the need for a quick and easy lunch right after church on most Sundays, I have been utilizing my crock pot a lot more than in the past. As a result, I've been scouring the internet for good crock pot recipes!

This honey mustard chicken dish was amazingly easy to throw together and only calls for 5 ingredients (if you don't count salt and pepper)!  Better yet, these five ingredients are ones I nearly always have on hand.  We really liked the flavor of this dish, although the chicken turned out a bit on the dry side.  I'm not sure if it was due to the altitude issue here or the time it cooked, or what exactly.  Regardless, I'm going to try it again sometime and slice the chicken up so the sauce can saturate it a bit more.  Even with slightly dry chicken though, there was plenty of extra sauce to smother it with, so all was well!  My husband even said, "This sauce is really good" - and he doesn't usually like mustard!  (score!)

Another crock pot recipe we tried from the same website is called Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches.  Seriously, I think my husband would be happy to eat pulled pork every day of his life.  It is his FAVORITE!  And this was a winning recipe.  Easy to make, easy to eat. :)

This week, we'll be trying a Brunswick stew in the crock pot, so if it's any good, I'll let you know.  In the meantime, if any of you have super yummy crock pot dishes, please pass them on!  I'm always looking for ideas in this department now that I need them at least twice a week. :)

Last night was Chinese night here.  Nathan is not a big fan of Chinese food, but he does like General Tso's Chicken, so when my sister-in-law shared this recipe, I thought I'd give it a try.  We also had two guy friends from church over, and the dish was a hit with everyone!  We all agreed that it didn't taste much like General Tso's Chicken from a Chinese restaurant, but it was definitely delicious and a recipe we'd eat again!  Everyone thought it fit more in the orange chicken/sesame chicken type of category (even though there was nothing orange in it...maybe just the sweetness factor?).  For sides, we had this recipe of fried rice (made with smoked turkey sausage instead of ham) and egg rolls.  So good!

Okay, I think that's all the recipes I'll inundate this blog post with for the time being.  But stay tuned!  More are sure to come in the following weeks as I have fun experimenting with new dishes! :)