Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Candied Walnuts (and how I lost my mind)

When I was about 5 or so, my mom made me eat a beet.  I had the kind of parents who made you clean your plate and we were having beets that night.  I am pretty sure they were the canned variety and I sat there with a beet in my mouth, refusing to swallow it, for at least a half an hour.  I thought they were so disgusting, I couldn't imagine letting it go down the hatch.  If I would have been thinking less like a 5 year old, maybe I would've just hurried and swallowed it and not savored the horrible taste for quite as long.  Instead, I turned it into a traumatic moment and have steered clear of beets, in any form, since that day.  

Chick-fil-A Sauce

{I was going to make waffle fries but I am still scared of my mandolin since the 'accident'}

I don't hide the fact that I am in love with Chick-fil-A.  And most of the time I take it upon myself to bring up Chick-fil-A Sauce in every conversation I have, whether it's relevant to the topic or not. It's my favorite fast food place to visit and when we/if go, I get fries (with 80 packages of Chick-fil-A sauce) and a Diet Coke with lemon.  Have I mentioned I quit drinking Diet Coke?  It's been 2 weeks and I have only had one.  Does that count as quitting?  It's a miracle really and now I am going to try moving mountains with telepathy.  Anything is possible.  

Fresh Corn Salad

If you like corn at all, you need to make this.  ASAP.  I took one bite at dinner about a week ago and said, "Is it just me or is this salad freaking delicious?"  Yeah, it's freaking delicious.  And I don't often say the 'f' (freaking, never the other one) word.  I reserve it for special occasions such as this.  Tyler doesn't care for fresh parsley so he would have been fine if that was left out but I liked it.  To make the salad extra delicious, make sure you wait and cut the corn from the cob after preparing all the other ingredients so it stays as fresh as possible.  

Coleslaw

 I promised the other day to give you a recipe for the salad with the carrot heart.  Remember?  When I posted about the mayo?  Anyway, this is the salad I referred to.  

Tyler came home the other day wanting to go to Famous Dave's for ribs.  When he gets and idea in his head like that, I can scarcely convince him otherwise.  But really, we don't need to be spending money on Famous Dave's.  I tried to compromise with getting the fixin's and making them ourselves, (or myself, who am I kidding including him?) and it was a battle, but I won.  I was more excited about making the sides than the ribs, personally.  I had never made coleslaw from scratch before (that I know of) but I was excited to make it.

Apple Bacon Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

This is by far one of my favorite salads.  Ever.  I know it's because of the dressing.  I think it would taste good on just about anything.  

I tease Tyler about it constantly because the first time I made this dressing he refused to eat it.  I think I had to force it down his throat.  He has evolved quite a bit during our marriage but he used to think salad started and ended with Ranch dressing.  Nothing else.  Now, he asks me to make this salad often and admits that it is also his favorite salad.  I love that I

Homemade Croutons

 I sometimes forget about the croutons, but they really do add a lot with just a little, don't you think?  We are trying to cut back on breads and such because we are so healthy now.  I wanted a little crunch in my salad that other night and remembered I could make some croutons.  It makes me feel like I am not missing out on anything when we just have a salad and some chicken for dinner if there are croutons on my salad.  Don't worry, I am not cutting anything out of my diet.  I am just trying to make smarter decisions when eating so I can better justify dessert. :)

Avocado and Mango Salsa

 Look at this!  A healthy recipe!  And you guys didn't think I had it in me.  Okay, I know I have a few healthy ones on here, but I probably don't want to know the percentage of healthy vs not-healthy.

My brother, Davey, and I made this recipe about a year ago and served it with tortilla chips.  It was a hit.  When we went to prepare the ingredients, I was a little nervous.  I had never worked with mango before.  Davey said he knew what he was doing.

Broccoli Salad

I realized the other day that I warned everyone on Facebook that I was most likely done posting until after Christmas, but I failed to mention it on my blog.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.   We changed plans at the last minute (which I should have expected) and ended up doing massive amounts of driving.  I think it was all worth it in the end.  Everyone had a great time together and there weren't any massive catastrophes.  I just wish we could come up with a way to teleport places.  The 14 hours of driving home with our 2 kids about killed us all.  They were actually really good considering they were in such a confined space for practically the whole day, and I was too.  I didn't tantrum once.  I was really trying to be adult about it.  

Creamy Corn (Slow Cooker)

I posted not long ago about slow cooker mashed potatoes and still can't get over the genius of it.  I have since been in love with the idea of side dished in the crock pot.  Especially for special occasions.  The recipe for Candied Yams with Apples and Cranberries was also a bit hit.

I told you guys we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving to spend time with Jenni and her family.  Her mom cooked an AMAZING Thanksgiving dinner.  Seriously, amazing.  Part of dinner was a creamy corn that everyone loved.  Tyler seemed to think it was gravy and put it on top of everything on his plate.  It reminded me of a slow cooker recipe for creamy corn that I made a few years ago.  I couldn't remember the actual recipe so I just added some stuff to the crock pot and I liked the result.  I don't think it's exactly the same as what we had for Thanksgiving, but it's still delicious and would go great with Ham or Turkey or probably any holiday meal.  And the best part is, it's super easy.  It makes me want to get a few more slow cookers.

Mashed Potatoes in the Slow Cooker

If you can't tell, this is a picture of mashed potatoes in my slow cooker. :)

This is genius.  I feel like the last 20 minutes before Thanksgiving dinner is always a mad dash.  There seems to be 30 different things to do in just those last few minutes.  The rolls need to be baked, the turkey needs to be carved, the gravy made, the potatoes mashed, things taken to the table...
  Maybe it's just me, but I always feel like I have dinner under control until those few moments and I start to feel like a lunatic.  When I saw this recipe a few days ago I couldn't help but share.  It says you can do all the prep the day before and then just put it in your slow cooker the next morning.  I am not sure I would do that since fridge space seems to be hard to come by, but I would definitely love to not worry about the mashed potatoes in those last few crucial moments.  I love that these are ready whenever you need them.  

Candied Yams with Apples and Cranberries (Slow Cooker)

I know I usually lead with a photo of the dish all ready to eat.  However, we had company for dinner tonight and I didn't want them to think I was a weirdo for taking pictures of our food before we ate it.  I am sure Tyler thinks it's weird enough and we are trying to make friends here, not send people running for the hills.  Maybe I should just get a sign for my door that says, 'WE ARE NOT WEIRDOS.'  A little too defensive? Do you think?  Anyway, so I opted to try not to be a weirdo; at least while we had company.  

Pork Chops with Mushroom Sauce and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

I know it's Halloween.  I should be posting some kind of gruesome thing to eat.  Like those witches fingers or eyeball cupcakes or something.  But alas, I have no such post.  If it makes you feel better, it's a dead pig. ;)  

When I was growing up we used to eat pork chops with cream of mushroom soup over rice quite often and I loved it.  This is kind of a play on that but I think tastes a little fresher and is a bit healthier. We had it with Parmesan Mashed Potatoes but you could serve it with white or brown rice.  I had a pork roast in the freezer that I cut into pork chops but you could definitely buy them already cut.  This is a pretty painless recipe with few ingredients and not a lot of supervision.  I hope you like it as much as we did. :)

Mashed Potatoes

 {Photo updated 3/10/2013}

I love mashed potatoes.  If you ask Hadlee, I love everything and I always say everything is delicious (Hence, the blog name!).  But that's not really true, I just usually don't make things I don't like.  Every now and then, it's kind of nice to be the adult.  And as the adult, I pair mashed potatoes with everything I possibly can.  Luckily, my family likes them as much as I do. :)  I really don't peel potatoes because I spent a childhood being a potato slave, but feel free.  Sometimes I use regular russet potatoes but red are my favorite.

Fried Rice

I love Chinese food.  Well, probably not real Chinese food, more like the fake-American-kind-of-Chinese food.  I bought a Chinese cookbook once and was a bit disappointed.  Um where were the recipes for all my favorite dishes?  The book was filled with more authentic recipes that called for things I had never heard of and had no idea how to get.  This recipe is really easy with simple to find ingredients and it's the best fried rice I have been able to make at home.