"Whoopehhh."

"Hey look! My mom's here!" 

"Whoopehhh." 

Name that movie.

Okay, so being from the northeast (Pennsylvania, to be exact) really instills a lot of things into your mind.

1. Amish people are people, too. This means that, yes, they deserve their own special parking area for their horses and buggies.

2. Knobles is a place you will never be too old to enjoy.

3. Turkey Hill sells THE BEST TEA EVER. If I could get my hands on a couple gallons of orange tea right now, I'd be a happy girl. But it has to be the Turkey Hill kind. None of the others taste right.

4. Whoopie pies are good anytime, anywhere. And that's a fact, Jack. 

I haven't had these babies in SO long. Honestly, I'm more of a fan of the cookie part, but that's just me. I've tried many different recipes for these, but the best whoopie pies you'll get are from random small restaurants...if you want to call them that. 

Here's the most recent recipe I tried. I LOVED the cookie part. The innards could use some work, though.

Cheesy Peasy

Cheese is a HUGE staple in this house.

Mainly because of Kyle. >.<

We all dig on cheese, but Kyle? He LOVES cheese. He's infatuated with cheese. Cheese and him go hand and hand. There's never such a thing as "too much". *sigh*

On the upside, it helps me throw some veggies into food without him making bad faces. So I guess it's a win.

I wanted something easy, simple, and different tonight for dinner. We all love pasta/italian. And pasta goes with cheese well. I debated macaroni and cheese, but I bet I'd never hear the end about how it's not his Aunt Terry's, but it's good.

I'm okay with that, though. Terry makes some bomb mac and cheese.

So, I threw some stuff together in a dish and BAM. Dinner.

I love easy and cheap dinners.

Cooking + Kids = Hard

Gabe's been in and out of his separation anxiety phase. But the only time it kicks in full blown is when he knows I'm making or have food.

Boys. Growing boys. Ugh.

Ontop of that, money's been pretty tight. Christmas put anyone and everyone in a bind when added in with the economy.

(Times is hard...Times is HAAAAAAAAAARD. - Channeling Sweeney Todd)

Needless to say, I've had to try and figure out how to make a good dinner for little monies.

Alas. Soup.

No, I didn't just throw soup in a pot and call it mine.

It's simple. It's pretty cheap. It's chicken.

My favorite things all in one.

"It's a fruit. That means it's healthy!"

I have a feeling I say this to myself WAY too much in life.

That can't be good.

So many things these days give us cancer, cause obesity, etc. Where's the enjoyment in food anymore?! 

THROW CAUTION TO THE WIND!

Yeah, okay, maybe not that extreme...but why not enjoy food while you can? I can promise you, you won't be able to taste it when you're dead and gone.

So, while these may not be the healthiest side dish in the world, they're amazingly delicious.

And, come on. Everyone loves apples.

Unless you're weird.

GOO(lash)! I'm channeling Billy Madison.

This is honestly the easiest, simplest, and probably cheapest meal I ever make. Everyone digs on it, thank God. It's my fall back, to be honest. 

I'm talkin' goulash.

There's plenty of ways to make it. This is just a VERY basic recipe. You can add/remove whatever you want to make it your own. Corn is a vegetable a lot of people like to add to it. Me? I just keep it basic.

And cheap. SO beyond cheap.

But I always pair it with mashed potatoes. Sometimes cornbread, too..you know, when I'm feeling fancy.

It's like a pot pie..but not..

I don't know how else to describe it, really. But this is a definite GO! in this house. Kids love it, I love it, Kyle loves it, that's good enough for me.

Biscuits. How do you go wrong with biscuits?

I know. This looks like a hot mess. But it's soooo good.

Peanut Butter Cookie Time!

There's nothing like a grilled PB&J in your mouth. /drools. But when you don't have bread, like I am, you gotta make do with what you have. And what I have is an abundance of peanut butter, thanks to Kyle reading "jiffy mix" on my grocery list and taking it as JIF. >.<

He gets an A for effort, though.

Finished cookies!

You know, if my mixer was a man, I'd probably marry it.

Dry ingredients.

This batter? Delicious.

Side scraping.

Our KFC is gone. :(

Okay, to be honest, I'm not really upset that our KFC got taken away. I prefer Popeye's, and we have one of those in the next town over. I'm not broken up about losing one restaurant in our area, especially considering it was absolutely horrible and ridiculously expensive for very little food.

So I may not miss it, but Kyle loves (er..loved) their snack bowls. He just hated how small they were. So we took it upon myself (yes WE turned into ME) to make our own rendition of it. It's definitely a family favorite. The kids are always asking for seconds or thirds.

Homemade mashed potatoes FTW!

Popcorn chicken ready!

Everything's better with gravy, yo.

My favorite. Always. <3

"Bacon makes the world go round."

Atleast, according to Kyle. *eye roll*

Tonight, I tried something completely new. As in, I've never made it before. Along with the sidedish.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with onion garlic cream cheese and potatoes au gratin. Let me just get my pat on the back up in here now. *pats self on back*

So, the potatoes were fantastic. But then I tasted the chicken. Let's just say, I didn't want the potatoes after that.

God bless my slow cooker.

Selena, my step-daughter helped me out tonight. She was so proud afterwards when dinner was "goooood!"

Oh good God. Oh yeah.

These Are Probably The Worst Pies In..Jackson?

While it's perhaps not the healthiest meal ever, it's still super delicious and great comfort food. The best part of chicken pot pie is that you can almost add anything to it. Any veggies you want. Yeah. GREAT way to get the kids to eat vegetables..unless you're Myriah. Then you pick out the green beans. 

Every.

Single.

One.

*sigh* This kid. She's something else. But I love her.

And now, onto the main event.

Mixing the inside goodness. *drools*

Ready for the oven. I'm WAY too impatient for this.

Tater Tots Are Nice And Round.

I first heard of tater tot casserole watching a documentary on The Duggars (who currently have the show 19 Kids And Counting..and props to them for being able to do it all). It was one of their older episodes, and they were talking about how tater tot casserole was one of their favorite foods. 

I loved just about all the ingredients they were putting into it, so I HAD to try and make it. I've been making it for a few years now, but ofcourse I had to tweak it here and there to try and make it fit me and my family best. I think I finally found the best for us!

Nomnom! Ready to be baked!

This is really great for the kids, too. What kid doesn't love tater tots?!