I love chili and I love pasta.  Mix them together and it makes a delicious dinner that you’ll be making over and over. The best part?  It freezes so well!

You can make it as spicy or bland as you prefer by adding or reducing the amount of chili powder and red pepper flakes. I like mine super spicy so I double the chili powder and add a palm full of red pepper flakes. It’s like a bowl of plain chili tossed with noodles!  In fact- if you ever have extra chili lying around (even with all the fixings in it) you can add to noodles and bake like the recipe below.

It’s so easy to make just boil noodles, brown ground beef, mix in the spices and sauce, pour into a baking dish and top with cheese.  Yum.  My favorite part is making double batches and freezing one.  I love keeping disposable pans on hand to make the second batch and wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for another quick night dinner!

 

We love to broil it for the last minute or two – make the cheese nice and bubbly and then add a little more cheese onto it.

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I remember growing up and visiting my grandparents.  My Poppop (grandpa)  is a masterful gardener and we’d rush down his driveway, over the creek and into his lush garden growing with everything from asparagus to tomatoes (his pride) and beautiful corn on the cob.  We’d pick enough for dinner and settle on the back porch to husk the ears and bring them to Nana (grandma) who’d boil them to perfection.  At dinner we’d pluck them out of the water knowing that every bite was going to be buttery and delicious.  Sadly, I live too far to run down to his garden now…..but the love of corn on the cob is one I’ve never outgrown.

My family visited the Farmer’s Market this weekend and it was so much fun – I always know that summer has arrived when the fresh local corn shows up in the markets.  Sadly, there was none today but when it does arrive I wanted you to be ready with the Secret to Perfect Corn on the Cob.

The best part is that you don’t even need to butter it when you remove it from the pan!  The butter has seeped into all the crevices of the corn and made it so yummy and buttery….Of course if you are a butter fiend like I am you’ll probably want to add more anyway! And if you do butter it- this is an amazing little gadget!

Butter Spreader

 

It’s important to have a pan large enough to hold them all in the liquid- or cut the cobs in half so that they fit.  This is the type of pot that’s my favorite – tall enough to hold enough corn for my entire gaggle!

We also love to use cob holders – they make it easier to get every single sweet kernel without having buttery fingers! Tip: Get the interlocking kind or you’ll find yourself with pricked fingers when trying to get them out of the drawer (lesson learned!)

Want to try a different method?  Check out our Pintrest Board of Corn on the Cob Recipes!
Follow MoolaSavingMom.com’s board Corn on the Cob on Pinterest.

 

My husband LOVES hot chips when we go out but we’re trying to avoid eating out so I promised him I’d make them at home for him.  They were a lot easier than I expected and he swore they were just as delicious! My favorites are the ones that puff up and have little air pockets!

 

This is the mandolin slicer that I have and I love it.  (Note: Be careful to use the finger protector- trust me it HURTS if you do not).

A fryer with a basket makes it so easy too !  This deep fryer  is my favorite.

*You MUST dry the potatoes well before frying the slices.

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Can you believe that I have NEVER made a chicken pot pie?  Ever?  It’s just not something I grew up eating and so never served it to my family.  Well the other day I decided I wanted to try one and after several attempts (ahem…failed attempts) I finally got a batch that was so good I had to share it!

The best part is you can add or remove anything you don’t like.  Don’t like peas? Leave them out.  Want potatoes?  Add them in.  This is a forgiving dish. Plus they are SUPER easy to freeze and heat later! Like it more “soupy”…add more gravy.  Like it thicker?  More veggies…less gravy!

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded chicken
2 cups veggies of choice (peas, corn, carrots, celery)
8 oz chicken gravy
1 Box refrigerated pie crusts (or homemade)- thawed.

Directions:

Mix chicken, veggies and gravy in a large bowl.
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Cut circles out of pie crust to fit inside the pie pan, leaving a half inch or so overlap to pinch edges.
Place a scoop of the chicken mixture inside the crust
Place a smaller circle of dough on top of the mixture, pinching edges of crust to seal it.
Poke holes or make a cut in the top to allow the steam to vent.
Bake 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin tin) until golden brown and hot. The mixture inside will bubble.
Serve hot & enjoy.

*Tip: You can even make these into MINI bites using a smaller muffin tin. You can freeze them unbaked or baked- which ever works better for you! If you like a crispier crust- then pre-bake the bottom shell before adding the chicken mixture.  Cool, fill and follow the rest of the steps.

 

I made a dozen of these yesterday and there are NONE left.  They didn’t last very long at all. So i gathered up a bunch of ingredients I had to make these yummy Chocolate Covered Stuffed Strawberries.

 

Ingredients:

1 Pint Strawberries
4 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 graham crackers, crushed
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
6 ounces white candy chocolate melts (You can buy here)

Directions:

Wash and Dry Strawberries.
Using a hard straw  remove a core from the strawberry (and the leaves)

Melt chocolate according to directions.
While melting, prepare a pan with a piece of parchment paper for cooling strawberries.
Place 12 dollops of chocolate on the parchment paper, spaced out.
Dip the bottom of each strawberry in the chocolate .
Place the strawberry on the dollop of chocolate so it can stand up.
Repeat for all the strawberries. You may need to hold each one in place for a few seconds so it sets.
Place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes for chocolate to completely harden.

While freezing, make the cream cheese mixture.
Beat cream cheese, sugar and extract together until smooth.  Spoon into a piping bag.
Fill the cores of the strawberries with the cream cheese mixture- make a decorative swirl on the top if desired.
Top with the crumbled crackers.
Refrigerate for about 20 minutes to firm the cream cheese mixture back up.

Serve and enjoy!

 

 

There is no such thing at too spicy in my house (well for my husband anyway).  The spicier the better….and add some lime into the mix and he’ll eat just about anything. The best part is you can easily control the heat.  Add more red pepper flakes and more chili powder to spice it up or leave it as is for a not-too-too-hot flavor.

With shrimp being B2G3 at Harris Teeter through 4/12 I thought I’d share this easy recipe that spices them up!

Ingredients;
1 1/2 lbs peeled and deveined shrimp
1 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, plus extra for garnishing
Olive Oil
Fresh lime, sliced for serving

Directions:

Place shrimp in a freezer bag, pour in lime juice, chili powder, red pepper flakes into a bag.  Coat shrimp with mixture and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat large skillet over medium high heat.  Pour in a little olive oil to coat bottom of pan (about 1 tsp).
Add shrimp.
Cook until done, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Sprinkle with salt, extra red pepper flakes if desired and serve with lime slices.

 

I’ve been seeing people talking about this cloud bread and being a hard core carb lover seeing this touted as carb free I had to try it.  Looking at the ingredients I immediently thought “meringue cookies” – I made these with trepidation but they turned out much better than I expected!  They do not taste like thick pieces of french bread or even regular old sandwich bread but it’s a decent replacement for someone (me!) who is a carb addict.

It really reminds me of a flattened popover- without the flour.  I’ll never be able to satisfy my carb-cravings on these but they were pretty tasty.  Next time I’m going to try it with garlic and rosemary.

Ingredients:

3 eggs, separated
3 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1 tbsp white sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 F.
Separate the eggs carefully.
In one bowl, cream the cream cheese, sugars and egg yolks.
In another bowl, whip the cream of target and egg whites on high speed until firm peaks form.
Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture.  Do this very gently- you don’t want to destroy the egg white mixture.
Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray.
Place scoops of the mixture into 10 even round amounts onto the cooking sheet.  Leave space between them.
Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes.  Start checking to see if they have started to turn golden brown.
Remove pans and cool completely on a rack.
To warm, place in a toaster oven on a low setting.

Optional Add-ins:

Rosemary
Parmesan Cheese
Cinnamon

If you eat them warm they will be crispy but once cooled they are softer and chewier like bread.

 

I lucked out this week and hit the produce markdown rack at Harris Teeter as they were filling it up.  Bags of fresh green beans, mushrooms, and even asparagus.  I got close to a pound for just one dollar.

Asparagus is a new vegetable to my house- although my grandfather has grown asparagus on his land as far back as I can remember, I’ve never cooked with it.  Did you know that it gets REALLY bushy when it’s past growing season?  But if you let it go to seed it will spread all over! He’s always upset when he misses picking some and it overgrows.  He really loves his asparagus!

This is super easy recipe and uses things you probably have in your pantry. Find out where Asparagus is on sale this week.

Ingredients:

10-12 Asparagus Spears, trimmed
1 tbsp grated parmesan, reserving some for garnishing.
1/8 tsp garlic salt
Pepper to taste
Olive oil, for drizzling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place asparagus on paper lined sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with half of parmesan cheese, garlic salt and pepper (to taste).
Bake in oven until fork easily pierces the thickest part of the stem, about 12-15 minutes.
Sprinkle with remainder of parmesan.

Be sure to put all the little crunchy pieces of parmesan on top of the asparagus.  Those are the best parts!

 

Wow.  These were Ah-MAZING and so easy to make!  I got new frosting tips and bags and so had fun playing around with them while making these.  I also fell in love with some silicon muffin tins! Where have these been my whole life?  And I really wish I had had these super cute cupcake wrappers!

These strawberry shortcake cupcakes were so easy and cute – The only problem is you have to eat them quickly (within a day) or the strawberries get a little too soft.

Ingredients:

White Cake Mix + Ingredients
Strawberries
1 stick butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk or heavy cream

Directions:

Bake cupcakes according to directions.  Allow to cool.
Make buttercream icing (beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugar on medium speed.  Slowly add milk or cream and vanilla.)
Wash and Hull strawberries.
Cut the center out of the cupcake.
Insert the strawberry with the cut side up into the cupcake.
Top with whipped cream and a strawberry slice.

 

This started as an accident.  I was getting ready to slice a pineapple for dinner tonight and I forgot to cut the top off and sliced down the side first instead.  Then I thought….well this might turn out really pretty!

Here’s how to make a Pineapple Boat.

Step 1:
Cut down just beside the top of the pineapple.

Step 2: Cut out as much as you can in large chunks and use a melon baller to scoop out what is left.

Step 3: Place all the chunks back in the pineapple and serve.

When I served mine tonight I placed it on a platter and put all those great strawberries I picked up from Aldi last week around it.  There wasn’t a single piece left when I started clearing the table to wash the dishes!