Atomic Mama » Recipes/Meal Planning

Cupcakes for Your Twilight Party

Christine — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Do you have an affinity for cupcakes or the movie Twilight? Here is a unique little cupcake book that combines cupcake and entertainment ideas with quotes and facts from Twilight. It’s perfect if you want to host a Twilight or Halloween party! Even if you aren’t a Twilight fan, there are definitely some great recipes and ideas that you could customize for other types of events and entertaining.

Grab your copy of the free Unofficial Twilight Cupcake Book!

Crockpot Ranch Chicken (recipe)

Christine — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:24:27 +0000

Crockpot Ranch Chicken

Ingredients:
6 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
½ cup water
½ cup sour cream
2 tbsp ranch dressing
2 tbsp flour

Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken breasts in crock pot. In a small bowl, combine soup, ranch dressing mix, and water; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low 8 hours or high 4 hours. Remove chicken from crock pot. Stir in sour cream, ranch dressing, and flour; replace chicken. Cover and cook on high 20 minutes.

Ranch chicken leftovers are perfect for sandwiches, chicken tortilla wraps, or a tasty chicken casserole.

Christine’s Note: Serve over rice or pasta! Maybe with some green beans and/or carrots! YUM!

Visit Natalie’s Recipes for more quick and easy chicken crock pot recipes.

Once A Month Cooking Holiday Menu Sampler

Christine — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:00:44 +0000

Cook once a month during the holidays? You’ve got to be kidding! Nope! It can be done and believe it or not, it can make things so much easier. The holidays are a time when you want to spend more time with your loved ones and you just can’t do that if you spend most of your time in the kitchen.

To learn more about once a month cooking, pick up this holiday cooking menu sampler to discover how you can take some of the stress out of the holidays and spend more time with family!

After you’ve sampled this technique, if you want to expand its value for your family, you’ll find several month and two-week menus in the books Once-A-Month Cooking and Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites. These are the ultimate do-ahead dinner method, and include such helps as a kitchen equipment list, a freezing guide, a measurement conversion table, and even table conversation starters!

Real Holiday Helpings from Hellmann’s

Christine — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:29:59 +0000

To help parents prepare Real Food they can feel good about serving the whole family this holiday season (including those picky eaters of theirs), Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® Mayonnaise has teamed up with critically acclaimed chef, author and TV personality Bobby Flay to create the “Real Holiday Helpings” program on Hellmanns.com and BestFoods.com.

By visiting the site you can find recipes and tips for how to easily prepare Real Food that tastes great and is made from simple ingredients. You can also watch video demonstrations that showcase stand-out holiday dishes. You can even play the Real Food Matchup game each day for a chance to win a $50 gift card!

While you’re at it, don’t forget to enter the Real Holiday Helpings Giveaway for the chance to win a year’s supply of groceries!

You can become a Hellmann’s® Fan on Facebook and you will also find a $1.00 off 2 Hellmann’s® (22oz or larger) coupon!

I plan on making the Super-Moist Chocolate Mayo Cake this Christmas! It sounds so yummy! It calls for 1 box (18 oz.) chocolate cake mix 1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise 1 cup water 3 eggs 1 tsp. ground cinnamon. Go read the rest of the recipe on the website! Don’t even get me started on how awesome the Turkey Cuban Sandwich sounds! The fact that a lot of these recipes you can use your leftovers for just makes them that much better!

Wanna hear something that will make your holiday even MORE BETTER (um, yeah my English just went out the window) – thanks to Hellmann’s® and MomSelect – Atomic-Mama.com will be giving away a $25 American Express gift card!! In order to be eligible to win you must be a US or Canada resident (sorry to my overseas readers)

In order to ENTER to WIN the $25 American Express gift card please visit the Hellmann’s® Real Holiday Helpings website and tell me which recipe sounds the BEST to you! (There are so many to choose from!) – leave a comment with your choice (this will earn you one (1) entry)!

Earning More Entries:

1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

@starryskye81 is giving away an American Express $25 Gift Card thanks to Hellmann’s Real Holiday Helpings! http://bit.ly/8WKz7O

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

3. Comment on any other post on this blog. (1 entry for each post). Let me know which posts you commented on.

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Add @blm03 to any of your Twitter Lists.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar (each blog gets you 5 additional entries):

The contest will end on Monday, December 15th at 6pm EST! Good luck!!

Disclosure: This post has been presented on behalf of Hellmann’s® and MomSelect – I’ve received a small monetary incentive to post.

Quick and Healthy Breakfast Ideas

Christine — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:57:50 +0000

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately, many of us neglect breakfast. And there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that your body and mind will suffer unless you have a healthy breakfast each morning. You spend six to eight hours sleeping. After that time, your body needs fuel to keep going. Without breakfast at home, your options for on the run nutrition may amount to too much fat, too much sugar and too many carbs. And, that convenient run to the fast food joint is not as convenient and time saving as you think if everyone else has the same idea. The fifteen or twenty minutes spent in line could have been used to fill your belly with something good at home.

If you are the type to skip breakfast, here is a solution to starting the day with a good breakfast which will help you keep hunger in check as well as give you the natural energy boost to start your day.

Oatmeal – This food makes a good hot meal that contains lots of filling fiber to keep you from getting hungry later on in the morning. Depending on your taste, you can take five minutes to fix it on the stove or use the microwave for instant oatmeal. Kids tend to like the variety of flavors that come with instant oatmeal. The night before, put together a container of add-ins like blueberries, strawberries and bananas that can be tossed on top for a bit of antioxidant power.
Fruit smoothies – These are good any morning but particularly on a hot day. You’ll have to blend the ingredients together in the morning, but the prep work can be done at night. Cube your fruit and place it into a container. Instead of frozen yogurt in the morning, use a cup of plain yogurt. Add ice cubes, a little water and blend.
Egg sandwich – The eggs can be cooked the night before and placed in a sealed container. In the morning, warm up the eggs in the microwave. If you want, add some chopped veggies or shredded cheese. Serve on toasted wheat bread. The night before, place two pieces of bread into a Ziploc bag for each family member. They can toast their bread as they get up and place the sandwich in the bag for easy transport in the car to work or school.
Yogurt with granola and fruit – Some people like to eat yogurt. But, yogurt by itself won’t keep you from being hungry. Add some granola and a few blueberries to the mix. This makes a great breakfast idea for those mornings when you are running late. Keep small bags of granola and blueberries in the fridge next to the yogurt so you can grab them and run.
Lean Pockets – These are my personal favorite “quick” breakfast grabs because there are tons of different flavors, they are less than 300 calories a pop and they are filling (especially if paired with a bottle of water!) The best part is you can pop them in the microwave while you finish getting ready and walk out the door with it to eat it in the car!

Need more inspiration? Check out a great website called Dine Without Whine which has TONS of great recipes and meal plans. The full membership to the site costs a little money but in the long run it’s a great resource for busy Mom’s. You can even try out a sample meal plan here!

What is your favorite On-The-Go breakfast?

Homemade Broccoli-Cheese Calzones

Christine — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:38:50 +0000

I made this recipe last night for dinner – because I LOVE Calzones and figured they would’nt be too hard to make. I was so right – although, they were a little dry. I think perhaps next time I will add a little olive oil to the dough to make it a little more moist. Otherwise it was tasty!

Pizza Dough

The recipe I used was the “Astonishingly Easy “yeasty” Bisquick Pizza Dough” – but there are plenty out there.

I made a dough and a half for three people’s worth of calzones.

Filling (per calzone)

1C (or a little less) of Ricotta Cheese
2T Parmesan cheese
1/2C Mozzarella (add half into the mix and reserve the rest to sprinkle on top of the mix before you fold the calzone).
1T Italian seasonings (oregano, basil, etc.)
Broccoli (or sausage, meat, pepperoni, etc.)

Mix up the filling and spoon into a rolled out piece of dough. Put some mozzarella cheese on top then fold it up. Bake for 25-30 minutes (keep an eye on it).

Easy and tasty!

Right now I am waiting for some (better) dough to “rest” so I can make homemade tortilla’s! I will post the recipe later!

Cheeseburger Mac

Christine — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:21:24 +0000

I had some leftover bits of food and decided to mix it up and call it “Cheeseburger Mac” last night! That’s my huge issue lately – I meal plan, but not tightly enough and then run out of food money yet still need to cook. So, I end up needing to cook and not having one thing that it needs. But – the meal ended up okay, tasty even.

Here’s the recipe:

Cheeseburger Mac

1/2 Bag Egg Noodles
1/2 Bag of Organic “fake” Meat (the chopped beef wanna-be) OR 1/2 lb of regular chopped meat
2 inches worth of Velveeta cheese
Grill seasonings
3T of Ketchup

Cook up the noodles then add everything else in. It was cheap, easy and tasty!

Cheap Eats

Christine — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:40:06 +0000

I made meatloaf last night for supper and happily ended up with enough leftover loaf for another meal. So, I think I’m going to freeze it! I only made enough mashed potatoes for that one meal – but they were OH so good! Meatloaf and potatoes is an excellent cheap (and filling) meal!

Family Meatloaf Recipe

1 1/2 to 2 lbs of chopped meat
1 small chopped onion
1 small can of tomato sauce
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 egg
salt and pepper

I also added some Worcester sauce because I love the way it tastes! My mom also likes to add green peppers.

Cook covered for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Uncover, drain and cook for 1/2 hour more.

I served the meatloaf with mashed potatoes. I added some Italian seasonings, sour cream and parmesan cheese to my “usual” recipe of butter and milk, salt and pepper.

Here are some links I’ve found:

If anyone has some good and cheap recipes to share please feel free to leave a comment! I’m always looking for new ideas!

Menu Planning – On the CHEAP

Christine — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:03:48 +0000

Hi ya’ll! It’s Monday – so it’s time for Menu Plan Monday brought to you by OrgJunkie!

The Menu

Monday – Mac & Cheese w/ham and broccoli
Tuesday – Oriental Chicken Ramen
Wednesday – Meatloaf
Thursday – Guam Fried Rice
Friday – Homemade Pizza
Saturday – Meatball Subs
Sunday – Leftovers

Luckily, a lot of the items needed I already have – so not much shopping needs to be done!

Shopping List

Tomato Paste
Green Onion
Cubed Ham
Pizza Sauce
Mozarella Cheese
Pepperoni
Sub Rolls
1lb Chopped Meat

Check out the other awesome meal plans over at the newest Menu Plan Monday @ OrgJunkie!

OMG! Also – not sure if it’s all Farm Fresh grocery stores – but today they had a special going on. Buy 4 12-pack’s of Coca Cola products and get 2 packages of Hillshire Farms deli meat AND 1 pack 8-count Coca Cola brand bottled soda! I purchased that special, a loaf of bread, a box of pasta, a jar of Ragu (w/coupon), a bag of egg noodles and 3 boxes of cereal (w/coupon) and spent $25.00 We are REALLY stocked up on soda for awhile!

Messing Up My Spending Plan

Christine — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:14:29 +0000

I think we’ve already spent the food budget for the rest of the month. Whoops! Shouldn’t have gone to Ruby Tuesday’s the other day – BAD IDEA! I just spent $47 at Wal-Mart and had to put the $7 on a credit card (which I need to pay right away) because I only had $40 in cash. But – I got enough food for awhile – as long as I add it to what we have.

I Got:
6+ lbs of chopped meat
Lg bag of potatoes
1 kid cuisine (punk child)
4 chicken cordon bleu portions – frozen
4 packs of Ramen (I have 2 packs here already)
Milk
6 Kaiser rolls (on the clearance shelf!)
Kitty litter
Cat food
2 cans of Tuna
1 small bottle of orange soda
1 can of Clam Chowder

So – as you can see – I still do impulse buys and I didn’t use coupons. But – we’re good for awhile because I still have 2 boxes of pasta and 2 jars of sauce. We’re having leftover taco’s tomorrow (Cinco d’DRINKO) and I have bread, cheese and soup.

So – my Menu Plan Monday – includes:
Monday: Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mashed Potatoes & broccoli
Tuesday: Leftover tacos and rice
Wednesday: Leftovers (chicken, pizza, Ruby Tuesday)
Thursday: Cheeseburgers & homemade fries
Friday: Command function @ Great Wolf Lodge
Saturday: Command function @ Great Wolf Lodge
Sunday: Soup & Grilled Cheese

Today’s question posed at OrgJunkie was “What is your recipe selection criteria?” and I have to say it has to be fast (under an hour – preferably under 30 minutes) it had to be inexpensive (sometimes I spring for “posh” food but not often) and it has to be something I can spice up or down according to family tastes.