I think I need to blog

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post.

I've been doing really good about not repeating any recipe, WooHoo!!! I had someone tell me that it would impossible to do this but I tried to tell them if you organize the recipes you can do it. It just takes time. 
Nothing exciting has been happening in the Martin household, pretty much boring. Believe me I'm not complaining. The only thing exciting is we replaced our hot water heater and I bought an IPad 2! The reason I bought an IPad is because we have been thinking about buying a laptop. But with my vision problems it's kind of difficult for me to use a laptop. So I told my husband, Phil, that an IPad would work better for me. Plus my daughter and her husband are going to the Phillipines in the fall and maybe to Ghana in May and with my IPad I will be able to skype with them!

All right on with the cooking part of this blog! Here is a recipe for "Baked Spaghetti"' that I made this weekend. It was really yummy so I thought I would post it. I hope you like it!!

Baked Spaghetti  (from Taste of Home)

16 oz spaghetti                                                              1 t salt
1 1/2 lbs ground beef                                                    1 t basil
1 med onion, chopped                                                   1 t oregano
1/2 c chopped green pepper                                         1/2 t rosemary                                    
1 can cream of mushroom soup                                    1/2 t marjoram
1 can tomato soup                                                        1/8 t garlic salt
8 oz tomato sauce                                                         1 c mozzarella cheese, divided
1 c water
2 T brown sugar

Break spaghetti in half, cook according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a dutch oven, cook beef, onion and green pepper until the meat is no longer pink, drain.  Stir is soups, tomato sauce, water, brown sugar and seasonings.

Drain spaghetti, stir into the meat sauce. Add 1/2 cup of cheese. Transfer into a greased 13x9 baking dish.

Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until the cheese melts.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and see you next time!

It's Been a While

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've posted! Well, we had 2 major snow storms in a 2 week period with below zero temps and wind chills. Now we are in the upper 70's, kind of wierd. 

Suring the first snowstorm we made some snow ice cream, YUM!  I wante to add some chocolate syrup to it and make it chocolate snow ice cream but sadly we had no chocolate syrup.

Well, I'm doing really good about not repeating recipes. Yay me!! Some of favorites have been Two Cheese Spaghetti Bake, Chicken Stew w/ Biscuts and Snickerdoodle French Toast.  I used a new potato soup recipe to take to a friend from church after her surgery, they said it was really good. 

Tonight I am making my hubby some BBQ Pork Chops and Rich & Creamy Corn for his birthday. I hope he likes them! /I will let you know!.

I have some pictures I've taken of some of the recipe's I've made and I need to get them on here.

Well back to cooking dinner

See ya soon and happy cooking!!!

New Look

Well as you can see I've changed the name of my blog and the background! I decided not to just limit myself to talking about cooking but what it happening in my world.

I had a Thrity One party this past weekend. It went really well except for the fact that I have to close my party earlier than what I wanted. I guess maybe it's someone telling me you need more stuff! But I think that will be my last party for a while. I did have around 22 friends crowded in my living room. My living room isn't very big and we were packed in like sardines.

For my party I made some Cherry Mash Bars, they turned out pretty well! Better than what I thought they would. The only problem is that I found the cherry chips at Wal Mart during the holiday season. I don't think they have them anymore :(

So far the not repeating a recipe challenge is going well! Trying to organize my recipes that I want to try so I'm not always combing through cookbooks trying to find something new.

My eyes are getting pretty sleepy so I'll go for now

Let's Try Something New!

courtney and I have decided we want to make candy! So we went to our favorite craft store Hobby Lobby, and I think we spent about an hour looking at stuff on the candy/cake decorating aisle. We bought some stuff to make some chocolate suckers. I also bought a cookbook called Cake Pops so we thought we would try and make some of those too. When I was wondering on the aisles at Hobby Lobby I realized how much I miss crafting, I really haven't done any in a while. I also bought a book with ideas on making cards. I guess we'll see where this adventure takes me. I really would love to learn how to decorate cakes.

I'm also working on being more organized, I get really stressed out when someone asks for something and it takes me forever to find it. Then I stress myself out and get upset at myself. I will start doing this after my Thirty One party on Friday. I'm too busy trying to get my house clean for that.

Well for the cooking part of this blog I really didn't make a lot of stuff using recipes. I made some things that were prepackaged, I know shame on me. I only tried 3 new recipes
   Cheese bread
   Asian Chicken Skillet
   Quick and Easy Meatball Soup

I have alos lost 5 ibs. Basically just watching my portion sizes and trying not to overeat. Sooooo yay for me!

Until next time!

One week down!

Boy was it hard trying to look through cookbooks and recipes I've printed off the internet or cut out of magazines. Trying to organize it better so I don't feel like overwhelmed when I'm planning our meals for a month. We tried some really good recipes and some that were OK. Some days we ate out or had a quick fix meal. But all in all I tried 7 new recipes, 2 were desserts for Ladies Class and BK. So here they are and where they came from! If any recipe sounds yummy to you let me know and I'll post it. I might try and put some pictures of what I made on here too.

  Maple Glazed Turkey Breat - All Through The Seasons   This was really yuumy and it's a crockpot reicpe!
  Crockpot Sausage and Potatoes - internet   This was OK, would be better as a side without the sausage!
  Chicken Burritos - All Through The Seasons   This was the favorite of the week! It was so simple and
                                                                        everyine loved it!
  Double Trouble - All Through The seasons   This is a cake I made for Ladies Class, it was alright
  Crescent Turkey Casserole - Tasteofhome.com   This was really yummy and very easy!
  Meatballs and Creamy Rice Skillet Supper - Bettycrocker.com   This was really good and also easy
  Red Velvet Cake w/best ever soft icing - All Through the Seasons   This I made for BK. It was really good
                                                                 but the icing didn't turn out right but it tasted good.

So there you go!  If you have recipes you think my family would like please feel free to share!

So until next time. Happy Cooking!!

A New Year

Well today starts day one of not repeating any recipes for this year! Tonight for dinner the reicpe is "Maple Glazed Turkey Breast". It's a crockpot recipe which is wonderful! I will let you know how it turned out and if the family liked it or not. I will post later in the week with other recipes I've tried and let you know how they turned out. If one of the recipes sounds good to you let me know and I'll get you the recipe or who know I might even post it!

Getting Started...

Do you seem like you're cooking the same things over and over! I do!!! So I've decided this year I am not going to repeat any recipes for a year. Once I've made it, it won't be made again until next year. Some reicpes will be family favorites and then there will be some new ones. I will try and post a couple days a week and let you know what I made, if it sounds good to you let me know and I'll share the recipe with you! If you have a recipe that you would like to share with me or even an awesome cookbook that you think I might like to check out let me know. I will also try and post some pictures of different things I've made too.

This project won't start until Jan 1 2011 so you can check back then to see what's cooking in my kitchen!