Mushroom Beef Pie

I will leave out how many recipes I looked at tonight to try and make something different. how I was missing some 'key' ingredient or how I knew someone would complain or just how I was like, "What were they thinking?" What do I do when I come to that point in the road? I make up a recipe!

The other day we went to Aldi's and I scored a container of white mushrooms and a container of baby portabella mushrooms. I thought I'd use them in a soup I wanted to make. Well, I decided to use them to make the following recipe. Everybody loved it. Every kid cleaned their plate. Very rarely does every body in this house like the same meal enough to finish it all. For that alone, this is a total keeper. It is easy, usually have items on hand, and easy to change-up a but with new flavors. It was even awesome leftover for lunch today!

Ingredients

• 1 to 1.5 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 (8 ounce) container white mushrooms, sliced
• 1 (8 ounce) container baby portabella mushrooms, sliced 
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup 
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6-7 servings of instant mashed potatoes*

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large skillet, cook ground beef until brown over medium-high heat. 
3. Stir in mushrooms, mushroom soup, and salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat until bubbly and mushrooms are tender. Stir to prevent sticking.
4. While meat mixture is cooking, prepare instant potatoes.
5. Pour meat & mushroom mixture into prepared baking dish and cover with mashed potatoes.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are golden and beef mixture is hot and bubbly.
7. Optional: in last few minutes, top with cheese. We used Provolone slices.

* I used Potato Buds and followed directions for 6-7 servings. You can make any brand and make it anyway you want/like. You can also make fresh mashed but I just didnt have the time today.

  

I hate when mental plans change!

For each kid every year, we celebrate their birthday their way. The day is about them. If they want ice cream, we go get ice cream. If they want sushi, we get sushi. We're lucky that our kids are pretty simple still so it's like they ask to go and buy some large electronic thing. They usually want to eat at McDonald's or Red Robin & go somewhere fun. 


As long as my kids want, they have a party instead of presents. They have enough so we throw a cost-effective party with whatever theme they choose and I try and make it super special. I dont have parties on their actual birthdays because then Mommy isnt focusing on them, Mommy is focusing on the party and setting up and food and all that so parties are on different days.


That's just how this family rolls.


Well, this year, CT & HT play Upward Basketball. their games are on Saturday mornings. 
OC's birthday is February 11th which this year, is on a Saturday. So already 3-hours of his morning is spent at his brothers' basketball games. CT does Boy Scouts. He's a Wolf. They have their annual Pinewood Derby coming up and yup! You guessed it! It's February 11th! So from 5:00 on, we have to be at the Pinewood Derby! 


I know I shouldn't feel bad, but I feel terrible that the whole day isn't about him. It's not even like we really have some family plan to do, we have a HT focused event and 2 CT events... last one is just totally about CT in every way. 


Guess the party I throw has to be a bit more kick-butt than normal to make my own self feel better about slighting my baby.Publish Post

January 4th

It's January 4th of 1978. There is a massive snowmageddon going on in the northeast. I was born that day amid  all that snow. I came home to a house with no electric due to the storm. We had a wood/coal stove in the play room and we had kerosene heaters. In order tot heat my formula, my brother would run across the street to our neighbor who had a gas stove. :)


On that day, the #1 hit was "How Deep is Your Love" by the Beegees.


Enjoy this video celebrating the snowy day I was born 34 years ago! This is a live version from 1998 though.

Almost over...

After getting an allergic reaction to the second meds I was on, My tooth got horribly bad. So bad I looked like i had Bell's Palsy. It was painful to smile and it was just nasty. I had emergency oral surgery to cut the tooth out (not a simple pull) and then do drainage which was on my gums as opposed to through the area they just had open. I was then on 6 different meds. As of today, I am down to 3. woohoo! So I'm healing and hope to be back to "noraml" by mid-January. I'm getting there! :)