Sloppy Joe Tator Tot Casserole

Happy Veterans Day to all the amazing Men and Woman who have served and continue to serve our great country. I personally know several great men who serve our country. They are beyond brave and always the most respectful men you will meet.  Never forget the sacrifice these brave men and woman risk for all of us. Freedom in Never Free and May God bless all the families of the brave men and woman who serve our great country!! We are a blessed nation, Thank you Veterans!!

When I first met my husband he was very proud of his tator tot casserole and could not wait to make it for me. The truth...I really did not love it nor I had I ever heard of or had tator tot casserole before. He thought I was crazy and I told him it was delicious because sometimes that's what you do when you first start dating...right?!? So tator tot casserole has never really been my thing, I love tator tots for dipping in ketchup, but that was all I grew up having them for;) Our son has grown in love with tator tots as well, its on the lunch rotation, grilled cheese and tator tots with lots and lots of ketchup. I saw a tator top casserole over on Buns in my Oven and thought I would mix it up a little. I thought this tator tot casserole sounded good and would be a huge win with the husband. Sloppy Joe's & Tator tots are a few of his favorite things...WIN for the wife and mommy since my son is a lover of tator tots.

This comfort food is a crowd pleaser sure to make the whole family very happy, wanting more, and full of warmth.  The bottom layer is homemade sloppy Joe's mixed with cream cheese and topped with a layer of cheese, tator tots, and then more cheese! The sloppy Joe recipe is not my own but the wonderful and talented Pioneer Woman's , it is amazing. The casserole can easily be halved (which is what I did), we have a small family and eating a big 9x13 pan is not always a good thing for the waist line. I took half the sloopy joe mixture, put it in the freezer, and in two weeks made another one for dinner and it was SUPER easy and fast! I love recipes that you can half and freeze. You could also easily double the sloppy joe and stick it in the freezer as well.

Sloopy Joe Tator Tot Casserole
Inspired by Buns in my Oven & The Pioneer Woman

Sloppy Joe mixture

2 Tablespoons Butter

2-1/2 pounds Ground Buffalo or Beef (I am sure you could use turkey if you prefer)

1/2 whole Large Onion, Diced

1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced

5 cloves Garlic, Minced

1-1/2 cup Ketchup

1 cup Water

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

2 teaspoons Chili Powder

1 teaspoon Dry Mustard

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste, depending on spice tolerance)

 Worcestershire Sauce, To Taste

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste 

4 ounces Cream Cheese

1 can of corn

1 to 1 1/2 cups Mexican style grated cheese

1 bag of tator tots

Add butter to a large skillet over medium high heat. Add meat and cook until brown. Drain the fat and toss.

Add diced onions, diced green pepper, and minced garlic. Cook until the vegetable start to soften(about 5 min). Add the ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, tomato paste, Worcestershire, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Finally add your cream cheese and can of corn to the mix, stir to melt cheese and heat up corn.

Next, lay your sloopy joe mixture into a 9X13 pan, layer with half of your grated cheese, next a layer of tator tots, and finally top with the rest of your cheese. Bake in the oven at 450 for 20-25 minutes.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Chunky Honeycrisp Crockpot Apple Sauce

I love applesauce, for me it is a comfort food, Applesauce is one of those foods that reminds me of home and my Dad. It wasn't till after high school that I started to get pretty particular about the kind of applesauce I liked. We discovered this amazing Fiji chunky applesauce at a specialty grocery store and it completely changed my perspective on applesauce! Then I saw Honeycrisp applesauce, in my opinion the best apple for applesauce! I go all out during apple season, an apple a day keeps the doctor away...right?!? Apple's Plain, Apple Pie, Apple Pastries, Apple Cake, Applesauce...YUM!

Every October my son and I go to Pullman to visit my little sister at her college WSU. There is a local farmers market in Moscow, ID and I get a big box of organic Honeycrisp Apples! We have so much fun heading over to see Auntie and getting the apples is just an extra bonus that makes the applesauce extra special!! 

Let's also talk about Cinnamon for a second. I believe that quality cinnamon tastes better and smells better. I have a jar of Costco's Cinnamon that smells good and then I have Red Ape Cinnamon that smells amazing and brings a extra punch of cinnamon. Its worth the price and Amazon has it for subscribe and save members. 

Chunky-Honeycrisp crockpot Applesauce 

Ms. Marquet's Kitchen

8-10 apples peeled and sliced

Juice of halve a lemon

1/2 cup water

1/2-1 cup of sugar (I use 1/2 cup)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Grated fresh nutmeg

Place all your sliced apples in the crockpot. Mix the water and juice from half a lemon together and pour over apples. Pour sugar, cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg to taste over apples and mix together.

Set the crockpot on low for 5 - 7 1/2 hours. I have two different crockpots, one takes 5 1/2 and the other the full 7 1/2.

Mix it together and mash it up as chunky or smooth as you like! Enjoy over ice cream, plain, on Oatmeal, or like me in your cottage cheese(weird maybe, it's a family thing). You can also can it if it lasts that long.

Apple-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Danish

Happy Monday! Head on over to Rustic Joyful Food and check out these amazing Apple-Cinnamon Cream Cheese Danish I made for a guest blog post on Danielle's site. They are the perfect Fall treat for brunch with friends or to snack on all day long because you need them!

Danielle of Rustic Joyful Food is beyond talented and has her own cook book that you can buy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, it is a must have for your kitchen!!

You've been BOO'D

October is almost over and pretty soon Thanksgiving will be here and then Christmas! But before I think about all that, lets stick with the holidays in order! I love getting crafty and making each holiday fun for my son. We do our annual Harvest Party every year to kick of the Fall season and to get Trick or Treat ready last year Blake & I started the tradition of Booing our neighbors. You are technically only suppose to do 1 or 2 neighbors if you are the one who starts it, but I wanted to make more baskets for pictures and when I asked Blake who he wanted to BOO the list was long!!! So we narrowed it down to 4!

You can get this fun printable over at Just a Little Sparkle. They also have  many other You've Been BOOD printable on pinterest. Also I have seen You've been Boooz'ed which is pretty cute and fun for the adults or maybe a neighbor who has no children and would enjoy a bottle of wine. 

First we started with our favorite candy. My son has been singing the Kit Kat song every time he wants one, its pretty cute. Twix I mean its a tie up there with a Kit Kat bar, I am not sure which one I could choose. Then a good ole Mr. Goodbar, chocolate and peanuts, its the perfect combination.

We made Oreo Truffles that are amazing. If you have not had them before you must make them! They are a rich and decadent treat, perfect with your morning coffee if you are okay with sweets and coffee. I think its perfectly acceptable...

Blake LOVES to make rice krispie treats he is amazing at stirring and spreading the sprinkles on top! I always try to get him involved when we are making things for others, it makes it so much fun for him and extra special.

Instead of going through the trouble of making Caramel apples I bought packaged caramel stuck in an apple and wrapped it up cute, so much easier!!

So get out there and go BOO your neighbors or that special family in your life that you know would just love it or needs an extra dose of love, joy, and chocolate in this sometimes stressful life. Blake did AMAZING Booing this year, he wanted to do it all by himself. He would set the basket down knock and run quickly away! It was a blast, he wanted to Boo more and more but I told him we did have to leave some neighbors un-boo'd so others could Boo back. Maybe next year we will understand that a little better!

Here is the printable we used last year You've been Boo'D!!! Enjoy these last days of October, the air is getting colder and I am excited to bundle up and go on cold weather runs.

Time Saving Shredded Chicken for the Freezer

Happy Monday! I am excited over here because the mornings are really starting to scream fall and sweaters are becoming a thing I can wear without sweating in the afternoon from the beautiful sunshine and warmth. While we are having an exceptional start to fall the true born and raised PNW girl is coming out and ready for fall. I sit here with my UGG slippers finally on my feet and a hot tea to my right. Fall comfort meals for me bring an abundance of recipes that call for shredded chicken and I love to have it on hand quick and easy. There are two methods I use for always having shredded chicken on hand. The first is to cook 4 frozen chicken breasts in a crock pot on low, when finished shred and disperse into Ziploc bags for the freezer. This next one I just thought of when I saw that Costco sells there super delicious Rotisserie Chicken shredded for you. Well I can easily shred it and put it into my own bags. Costco's chicken is the best and at the best price of course, grocery stores offer there Rotisserie 2 maybe 3 dollars more and it is smaller! Costco for the win every time! Plus you will have the added bonus of the dark and white meat in your casseroles and dishes versus just the chicken breasts in the crock pot.

Start out with 2 or 3 Rotisserie Chickens from Costco or where ever you wish to buy them and start shredding up your chicken with your hands(I ALWAYS wear gloves when handling any meat product, its just a thing I have with touching meat) and measure the shredded chicken into 1 cup portions. I actually get a little over 2 1/2 cups of meat. So I do two Ziploc with 1 cup each and a third with 1/2 cup of shredded chicken. Most of my recipes call for either 2, 2 1/2, maybe 3 cups of shredded chicken so its nice to have the extra half cup just in case. So on the day of cooking one less thing to measure and one less dish to dirty is a joy. Doing dishes is a love/hate relationship I have, I make a disaster while cooking but can't handle a messy kitchen with lots of dishes in the sink. Anything to cut a dish or two and I am all for it!!

I used two chickens and got 5 cups of shredded chicken. I have already used 2 cups and they were perfect in the casserole!

Squeeze all the air out  and zip them up. I like to double baggie them, so its keeps the small Ziploc neat in the freezer. Write you date and just pop them out on the day you need! Here are some of my favorite dishes that call for shredded chicken...ENJOY!!!

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole

Chicken Roasted Veggie Mac & Cheese

Cheesy Spicy Ranch Stuffed Baked Potatoes

I was very busy around here cooking and decorating for our annual harvest party we host. Here is a small peek at the yummy treats prepared.

APPLE PIE...a family favorite growing up in my family and a must all fall and winter long or anytime really. There is no wrong time for an apple pie. I made 4 apple pies, 2 traditional, 1 crumb top and bottom, and 1 more that had a crust bottom with an amazing crumb top and a homemade Carmel top, oh MY it was good. I will be sharing it SOON!! 

2 Pecan Pies, because well Pecan Pie is simply AMAZING!! Pumpkin muffins with a cream cheese frosting, gingersnaps, and Apple doodles. All things that to me scream Fall!! Thank you for stopping by today...enjoy your sweaters, warm drinks, cozy fires(I need to go to my dads house for a wood burning fire that crackles and smells wonderful), beautiful falling leaves, caterpillar hunting with your little ones, and a fresh crisp fall air!!