Life is a blur after you or a loved one are diagnosed with esophageal cancer. If you or a loved one suffer from persistent heartburn, please see a GI doctor to have it looked at. This is the #1 leading symptom but often overlooked which is why esophageal cancer is diagnosed at such a late stage!
Normally, I shy away from anything with the word CASSEROLE in the title.
Sorry, it’s just me. Not YOU at all. I just have a hangup with that word.
Casserole: Type of food: A casserole is a large, deep pan used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or… en.wikipedia.org
Well, that just doesn’t do anything for me!
BUT
This dish? I had everything on hand. Only thing I picked up was the Creamy Potato Soup … and only because I knew if I never got around to making this recipe, at least Hubby would have another variety of soup to choose from on his off days … because, yes, even though I don’t talk about it much, there are still bad days from the cancer.
It’s been a long time since we’ve done the Taco Tuesday theme. I mean, heck, for a few years there, Taco Tuesday and Margaritas were an expectation on Tuesday …
That esophageal cancer certainly did change a lot of things in our life.
So the other night, I was digging around in that chest freezer and found a lonely package of ground beef.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Aldi’s Grass Fed Beef even though it was only $3.99 … it’s got a chewy texture and that just wigs us out a little bit so I was glad to use it for tacos instead of burgers!
I was also thankful that Publix had these taco kits on sale B1G1F when I ran in for something else. I normally do NOT buy the kits but this time I did!
I had a bag of frozen corn in the freezer so that’s what I used as well …
1 pound ground beef
1 onion chopped
12 taco shells (corn, you know the crunchy ones!)
shredded cheese
taco seasoning packet
1/2 cup water
can of corn, drained
avocado sliced
hot sauce of choice
Ready to get your Taco Tuesday on? Let’s do this!
Cook your onion and ground beef in a large skillet til no longer pink. Drain the excess fat off. Might as well go make yourself a margarita while this is going on! I’ll take mine on the rocks with salt please!
Add your corn (drained!) and sprinkle the taco seasoning over all the meat/onion/corn mixture. Pour in your 1/2 cup of water and stir. Let simmer on low heat until the moisture has pretty much cooked out.
Grab a large baking dish and turn the oven on to 350 degrees.
Stand up your shells, the best you can, and fill the base with cheese. As much or as little as you’d like because it’s cheese!
Then top with the meat mixture, making sure to drain as much liquid as possible so the shells don’t get soft …
Top with MORE cheese, because … it’s cheese!
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and you are really ready to start the Taco Tuesday festivities … did I forget to tell you to make yourself a margarita while the meat was cooking??
Top with shredded lettuce and avocado and serve up! Yummy! And 2nd margarita is totally optional!
#TacoTuesday #DinnerAtHome  #EatAtHome
Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties … go check them out!
Jan and Mark Lipinski are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This is a super yummy salad that is Whole30 Compliant, Paleo, Grain Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free and all that other stuff BUT so stinkin’ good! I promise, you will be so very glad you gave it a try!
I picked up a few (4) packages of boneless skinless thighs a few weekends ago from Target … they were on sale for $3.99 AND had a $2 off coupon … well of course I snagged them! I was polite and left a few packages behind because, you know, I’ve got a chest freezer and a malfunctioning refrigerator … which will be fixed this week, thankfully. And the quote makes me glad I bought some cheap chicken because it’s a LOT to fix a 30 plus year old SubZero fridge … good grief!
So this recipe came from Instagram … FitSlowCookerQueen … if you haven’t checked out her page, GO NOW!! It’s ok, I’ll wait for you to come back!
Oh, hi! Your back!? I hope you clicked the little follow button? 🙂
Ok, so I had all the ingredients thanks to a little stop at Aldi Saturday … and I made this on Sunday in the crockpot!
*Can I just tell you how HARD it is to take pictures in this house??
2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 lemons (1 sliced and the other zested and juiced)
1/2 cup of water (chicken broth is recommended)
1 tsp basil
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1/4 tsp black pepper
generous sprinkling of season salt of choice (I used Onion Salt)
1 onion, sliced
Add the onions to the bottom of the crock. Toss the chicken thighs on top of the onions.
Add the rest of the ingredients over the top of the chicken, making sure you season the chicken heavy with your season salt.
Add the lemon slices over the chicken. Put the lid on, cook on high for 2 to 3 hours OR 4 to 6 hours on low.
Once cooked, pull the chicken out of the crock and either slice or shred. Hopefully it’s not falling apart too much on you!
Yup, different time I cooked it … leave the lemons halved or sliced, it’s your call!
Serve with some yummy herbed riced cauliflower (or regular rice if that floats your boat!)
Enjoy!
Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties … go check them out!
#DinnerAtHome  #Crockpot  #SlowCooker  #SavingMoney
Jan and Mark Lipinski are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Ok, so these wings? I got the recipe over at MadeItAteItLovedIt … and you really need to go check her site out, ok?
2 pounds of chicken wings that have been split. I used some from my 10 pound bag I bought from Costco eons ago and are taking up a big chunk of that damn chest freezer
1 cup of mustard based bbq sauce. I used Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold … *mustard base is NOT sweet so it needs to be this type!
1 tbs of hot sauce, give or take a few extra shakes depending on how hot you like it! I used the Tessemaes Buffalo Sauce because I can’t find my Aldi knock off of Franks (still unpacking folks)
Salt and pepper
Ready?
Toss the wings in the crockpot. Measure out your bbq sauce and add the hot sauce to that. Mix it up.
Pour it over the chicken wings.
Put the lid on and set it to 6 hours on low. Ok, so truth be told, I cooked mine for a few hours on high and then knocked it down to low because I got distracted that morning by a girlfriend who came by …
Once cooked, lay the wings out on a baking tray, preferably lined with parchment paper to reduce your clean up headache and either bake at 400 degrees or broil til crispy and golden brown. *The oven we have here in the temporary house does NOT have a broiler. What? No freezer?? No broiler?? Hence, I baked for 5 minutes, flipped and baked again. Yummy results!
Parchment Paper Saves The Day!
Serve up with some celery sticks and blue cheese or ranch dressing. Or just skip that fancy stuff and dig right in!
Enjoy!
Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties … go check them out!
Jan and Mark Lipinski are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
You know our temporary housing didn’t have a freezer? All we had was a mid-80s SubZero refrigerator. That worked at about 60% of it’s capacity. And that I was not impressed with. So I made Hubby take me to Best Buy and I got a small chest freezer.
THIS was a huge transition for me! Coming from a 3 freezer home to a ZERO freezer home and THEN a small chest freezer. Whee things were challenging.
The number ONE challenge with a chest freezer is everything goes SOUTH and to the bottom in no time flat. Oh joy.
So when I saw Mary shared this recipe on her site at Sweet Little Blue Bird, I was all about digging out these 2 lovely hunks of beef I knew were in the bottom of said chest freezer.
It was worth the frostbitten fingers and mosquito bites galore. And I’m glad I opted to keep the LARGE crockpot out of storage!
4 pound beef roast
1 1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbs worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbs grey poupon
1 tsp liquid smoke (I remember telling Hubby we had FOUR bottles of this stuff and I could not locate ONE! I finally opened another box and there they were!)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
Mix all your sauce ingredients together. Toss the roast in a large crockpot, pour the sauce over the top and turn that bad boy on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. I got a late start that Sunday morning so it was high for 5 hours which was PERFECT!
You can either shred your beef or slice it. 9 times out of 10 you will need to shred it as it will be falling apart.
Skim the fat stuff off the top of the juice. The juice will be super thin.I wanted a thicker gravy style so I sprinkled a little over a tablespoon of Wondra over the top, stirred it in and added the beef. Turn the setting to low for 30 minutes or so and let the beef warm up again and you will have a nice beefy gravy thing going on!
When I can’t find the fluffy cat, I just need to look up. She’s discovered the ledges around this house now.
Originally, I was planning on serving as BBQ Sandwiches but instead, we had mashed potatoes (Mark) and riced cauliflower (me) with it. Healthier options are always available!
We were able to pack some for lunch for 3 days and we had it for dinner another night so this does make a lot!
#CrockPot #SlowCooking #Beef #BBQBeef
Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties … go check them out!
Jan and Mark Lipinski are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This is a pretty awesome salad that can be made with leftovers!
For a while there, I would make this salad for lunch at least TWICE a week! It’s so simple and was so worth it!
And now that summertime is here in full force, it’s time to bring out the dinner worthy salads, right?? RIGHT!
So yeah, this could be TWO servings, but I will admit, I’ve made this all for ME, ME, ME. Selfish? Nah? Piggy … well, maybe, a little bit but geesh, it’s healthy, right??
Here’s what you need to do!
1 head of romaine lettuce, bottom cut rinsed well and chopped
1 grilled chicken breast (leftovers are perfect for this!)
leftover pasta, I prefer to use a thicker shell type noodle
sprinkle of fresh parmesan (from that pasta dish the other night!)
Caesar dressing … I’ve been tied to Ken’s Caesar dressing for quite a few years
Croutons if desired
This is so easy.
Dump everything in a large bowl. Mix well to combine and coat everything.
Serve up and enjoy!
*Everything in the pictures is LEFTOVERS!
Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties … go check them out!
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Jan and Mark Lipinski are participants in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Which is WHY you are seeing a few more 
