Tiffany, Author at Eat at Home

Homemade Peanut Butter Ice Cream – (no cooking required)

June 4, 2013 by Tiffany

I have made a lot of homemade ice cream. But this one just may be my favorite flavor of all. It combines my two favorite foods – ice cream and peanut butter – so it’s no wonder that I love it. My family loved it too.

You’re going to want to try this. It has just 5 ingredients and is so simple to make.

I really wanted to make peanut butter ice cream that had ribbons of peanut butter in it, like my favorite store bought flavor. I used the idea for Peanut Butter Magic Shell from Picky Palate and altered it for ice cream.

I didn’t end up with thick ribbons of peanut butter. It mixed in to the ice cream a bit more than that, but there were still thin ribbons and bits and pieces of peanut butter. This makes the taste more intense than just having the peanut butter smoothly incorporated with the other ingredients. I really like the way this method keeps the peanut butter mostly separate from the vanilla ice cream.

Here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Filed under: Dessert Tagged with half and half, ice cream, peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla3 Comments

Crockpot Lemon Chicken – 75 Days of Summer Slow Cooker Recipes

June 3, 2013 by Tiffany

Crystal & Co. has some great recipes. She understands busy moms. This recipe for Lemon Chicken looks wonderful.

Lemon is a light, fresh taste for summer. Crystal also uses Dijon mustard and tarragon in this recipe. She adds cream at the end of the cooking time to make a sauce, which is then served over hot pasta. You could also skip the cream step (although it sounds wonderful!) to keep the meal lighter.

Serve this with fresh, green veggies and maybe sliced tomatoes from the garden. Another easy, summer meal!

Click over to see the full recipe on Crystal & Co. for Crockpot Lemon Chicken.

Filed under: 75 days of summer slow cooker recipes, Crockpot Tagged with Crockpot, lemon chicken, slow cooker1 Comment

Real Life – Just Getting Them Fed – Weekly Meal Plans June 2

June 2, 2013 by Tiffany

If you’ve ever wondered if I always do things perfectly in the meal planning department, wonder no more. And if you haven’t ever wondered, it’s probably because you actually know me and my imperfect ways. Or you live in this house with me and know that sometimes, dinner is YOYO (You’re on Your Own).

Last week turned out to be a “wing it” week. I never even went to the grocery. I did send my son for a few key ingredients like milk and bread. For the rest, I decided to use what we already had in the pantry, fridge and freezer.

Of course, this meant that I entered each new day with no plan at all for dinner. This is not an ideal way to get dinner on the table. On the other hand, I do find it to be an ideal way for me to create new recipes. Some of my best recipes come out of that 5:30 stress of knowing dinner is in 30 minutes and I have to use what I have on hand.

Monday was Memorial Day. We grilled hamburgers for lunch and served them up with baked beans, french fries and a simple wedge salad (post coming soon on this one). We also had watermelon (post coming soon on my lazy person’s way of dealing with this big fruit). And I made a cherry cobbler using a recipe from a friend (post coming soon.) Three posts out of one lunch worth of cooking sounds good to me!

The other highlight of Memorial Day was the little fish that Jim caught with his fly fishing rod in the pond by our house.

On Tuesday, I was determined to cook the chuck roast I’d bought to make African Pulled Beef Sandwiches last week. I love those sandwiches, but I wanted to try something new. I ended up creating Chuck Roast Enchiladas (post coming soon). They turned out great!

Highlight of the day on Tuesday was our swan sighting. Three swans visited the pond on Tuesday. For as small as this pond is, it has a lot of wildlife in it. Canada geese, mallard ducks, blue heron have all been seen there, but I had no idea we even had swans in Kentucky. I wanted to learn more, so I googled “swans in Kentucky” and found this article about swans killing a man. Odd, but true.

I loved watching those swans. And despite their murderous tendencies, I wish they would have stayed around.

Wednesday night I fixed a quick dinner of lemon pepper tilapia on the George Foreman grill with roasted asparagus from the farmers market. One of my goals this summer is to visit the farmers market frequently and to buy produce that we don’t normally eat.

Thursday night, I had book club. We were planning to go see The Great Gatsby together, but the movie times changed and it threw us off. We ended up eating out instead. I left the people at home to figure out their own dinner. I’m nice like that.

Notable event of Thursday night: I have now been pan-handled by the same woman 4 different times, twice on Thursday night. And the other women with me have also been hit up for money by this woman. She always has a story of how her car broke down and she needs money to get it fixed. Hmmm…

Friday night, I didn’t make dinner either. We had various versions of scrambled eggs. I did make two new kinds of homemade ice cream (posts coming soon). They both turned out fabulous!

Now it’s Saturday. I have no idea what we’ll have for dinner! I do know that our oldest daughter is coming home from Bolivia tonight. She has been on a trip with Compassion International through her church. Here’s a picture of her with her fiance and the little girl she supports, Sheril.

I did get to talk to Meredith once this week (yay for FaceTime!). She told me how much the kids loved having them there. And she told me about one little girl who opened her backpack and pulled out things that her sponsor had sent her. She carried those things with her always. Meredith realized that she actually knew this little girl’s sponsor. The girl got so excited when she learned that and wanted Meredith take something back for the sponsor.

Sponsorship is so important in the lives of these kids. I love hearing the stories of people who get to meet the children they sponsor. And I’m so impressed by how Compassion keeps track of the kids and the churches they work with.

In case you’d like to do a better job of using a meal plan than I did this week, here’s a sneak peek at this week’s meal plans. You can find out more about how to get them delivered to your inbox by clicking here.

Slow Cooker Plan

Slow Cooker BBQ Peach Pulled Pork

Ranch Meatballs and Pasta

Steak w/ Enchilada Sauce in tortillas

Honey Hoisin Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Mediterranean Chicken in the Slow Cooker

Apple BBQ Pork Chops

Aunt Gerry’s Pineapple Cookies

Traditional Plan

Baked Ham and Broccoli Rolls with Swiss Cheese Sauce
Honey Mustard Chicken Wings
Maple Apple Chicken
Spicy Garlic Chicken Pizza
Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Bowtie festival
Caramel Fudge Smore Nachos

Filed under: Menus, Slow cooker menu, Summer menu Tagged with Leave a Comment

Slow Cooker Cheese Steak Sandwiches – 75 Days of Summer Slow Cooker Recipes

June 2, 2013 by Tiffany

Summer and sandwiches go hand in hand. These Cheese Steak Sandwiches from Mommy Hates Cooking would be good any time of year.

Pair them with seasonal fruit, like strawberries and watermelon. Or go savory with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. True confessions, sandwiches always make me want chips or fries too. Anyone else feel the same?

Kristy from Mommy Hates Cooking, used round steak, onions and bell peppers in this dish. She topped them with grated Colby-Jack cheese. I think Swiss would also be good. Click over to Mommy Hates Cooking to get the recipe for Slow Cooker Cheese Steak Sandwiches.

Filed under: 75 days of summer slow cooker recipes, Crockpot Tagged with cheese steak, Crockpot, round steak, slow cooker1 Comment

Mango Chicken – 75 Days of Summer Slow Cooker Recipes

June 1, 2013 by Tiffany

I love recipes that combine fruit with chicken. It’s a combo that just works. And this Mango Chicken from Erin, of One Dish Dinners and $5 Dinners, looks fantastic.

Plus, it cooks in the slow cooker. Always a bonus, but especially on hot summer days. Erin used boneless chicken thighs, zucchini, tomatoes and mango along with seasonings. She also has a handy tip on how to cut a mango.

Erin served this with buttered toast. I love a simple side dish! Pop over to One Dish Dinners to get the recipe.

We’re sharing 75 days of summer slow cooker meals. This is day one. Keep your kitchen cool – don’t miss a single recipe. Subscribe to on the email list.

Filed under: 75 days of summer slow cooker recipes, Crockpot Tagged with Chicken, Crockpot, mango, slow cooker6 Comments

75 Days of Summer Slow Cooker Recipes

May 30, 2013 by Tiffany

I am ridiculously excited about this series! I love using my slow cooker and I know you do too. (Links to all the recipes are being added to the bottom of this post.)

Get ready for 75 slow cooker recipes that are perfect for summer. There’s not a soup or stew among them. Keep your kitchen cool and have dinner ready when you get in from the pool.

It won’t be all main dishes though. Look for sides and desserts too. We want to get everything we can out of the crockpot this summer.

The series starts on June 1 and will run for 75 days. I’ll share a recipe each day. Some will be from Eat at Home. Some will be from around the web. I’ll be throwing in a few brand new ones that I create, as well.

I’ll also be posting other types of recipes, cooking tips and the sneak peeks at the Weekly Meal Plans each week. That means that some days we’ll have more than one post for you. Don’t worry if you’re an email subscriber though, you’ll still get just one email daily or weekly, depending on which you opted for when you signed up. All the posts for the day/week will be in that email. (You are on the email list, aren’t you? You won’t want to miss these summer slow cooker recipes!)

Day 1 – Mango Chicken

Day 2 – Cheese Steak Sandwiches

Day 3 – Lemon Chicken

Day 4 – Baking Potatoes in the Slow Cooker (with a recipe for Fried Potatoes)

Day 5 – Pork Carnitas

Day 6 – Pesto Ranch Chicken

Day 7 – Chicken BBQ & Slaw Sandwich

Day 8 – Peach Crisp in the Slow Cooker

Day 9 – Fresh Green Beans in the Slow Cooker

Day 10 – P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps

Day 11 – BBQ Peach Pulled Pork

Day 12 – Asian Orange Chicken

Day 13 – Pasta Sauce with Sausage and Eggplant

Day 14 – Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Day 15 – Mexican Haystacks

Day 16 – Chocolate Cobbler

Filed under: 75 days of summer slow cooker recipes, Crockpot Tagged with Crockpot, slow cooker, summer14 Comments

3 Ingredient Main Dish Recipes – aka Super Simple Suppers

May 29, 2013 by Tiffany

I love keeping things simple. Especially, when it comes to dinner prep. One way to streamline things, is to use few ingredients. It’s not always possible, but there are many main dish recipes that can be made with just 3 ingredients. (I’ll be sharing 4 and 5 ingredient recipes soon too.)

For these, I didn’t count salt and pepper as ingredients. That was too nit-picky. I also counted the rice in the first recipe as a side, not an ingredient for the dish. Call me a cheater if you want.

Slow Cooker Beef Teriyaki with Pineapple

BBQ Ham Steak on the Grill – Really any kind of meat you put on the grill could count as a 3 ingredient or less main dish, as long as you keep the rub or sauce simple.

Chicken Tacos

Honey Mustard Chicken in the Crockpot

Honey Mustard Grilled Pork Chops

Pesto and Crushed Tomato Shells

Pesto Tomato Ravioli

Slow Cooker BBQ Peach Pulled Pork

Tangy Sweet Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker

Teriyaki BBQ Chicken Legs in the Slow Cooker

Toasted Apple and Brie Sandwiches on Cinnamon Swirl Bread - most any type of grilled cheese sandwich would count for a 3 ingredient meal.

Tony’s Tilapia

Potato Soup

Filed under: cooking tips, Main Dish, tips Tagged with 3 ingredients, main dish1 Comment

Italian Sausage Sloppy Joes – 15 Minute Meal

May 28, 2013 by Tiffany

I created this sandwich a few weeks ago on a night when I was in a hurry. I’ve fallen into a bad habit of working in the afternoon. That’s not the bad part. The bad part comes in when I finally look up at the clock and realize it’s already 5:30 and I haven’t started dinner.

I forget which meal this Italian sausage was meant for, but it worked perfectly in these sloppy joes. And the good thing is, you probably have all the other ingredients in your pantry.

They also can be made in about 15 minutes. Perfect!

This Italian spin on the traditional sloppy joe tastes a lot like pizza. Which meant that my family loved them. So did I. They reminded me a lot of the flavor of Pizza Potpie.

I don’t have an ingredient photo this time, because I was creating in a huge hurry. But, like I said, you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry. With the exception of the Italian sausage, they are all very common ingredients. [Read more...]

Filed under: Main Dish, pork, Sandwich Tagged with 15 minute meal, Italian sausage, Sandwich, sloppy joes, tomato sauce1 Comment

Real Life and a New Weekly Meal Plan – May 27

May 26, 2013 by Tiffany

Happy Memorial Day!

I shared this photo on Instagram and Facebook the other day. This is how the Weekly Meal Plan grocery lists look now that they’re color coded. Happy!

I didn’t shop until Monday, because I was in Disney World for a conference last weekend. I printed the Slow Cooker plan for this week.

And then, I never used a slow cooker during the week at all! I find that I do a lot of improvising and changing things with the meal plans. But it is so much easier to do that when I’ve shopped with a list and have a plan of what to fix.

Here’s how I made it work this week:

Monday was shopping day. By the time I got home with the groceries, it was too late to make anything in the slow cooker. The plan had ”Pork with Chinese Sauce, stir fry veggies and rice” for one night. I decided to use chicken tenders instead of pork and cook it on top of the stove in a skillet instead of the slow cooker. Quick and easy.

It was a beautiful evening for backyard games.

On Tuesday, I meant to put Slow Cooker Meatballs on to cook in the morning, but forgot all about it. I decided to bake the meatballs in the oven instead. Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and salad.

Tuesday afternoon, I took Meredith wedding dress shopping. We were really just scouting things out until she gets back from her summer in China. She wanted to get an idea of what’s out there for dresses, but she ended up finding a dress she liked. It needs significant alterations, so those will be done when she gets home in August.

Wednesday, I failed to load up the crockpot again. I’m the most distracted person ever! I got busy working on other things and looked up at 5pm and realized the boys would be leaving soon for youth group. They leave at the same time every week, and every week it takes me by surprise. I was going to make one of our favorite 15 minute meals, but it has no meat and the boys balked at that. So I fixed Southwest Chicken and rice instead. Not on the plan, but I had all the ingredients and it was a quick fix.

Thursday, I planned to load up the slow cooker with ingredients for African Pulled Beef Sandwiches. I forgot. Again! Instead, I made a quick dinner of Tony’s Tilapia, cauliflower and cream cheese smashed potatoes.

I was a bit frustrated over an issue with one of the kids while I was make dinner. I might have gotten carried away with the Cajun seasoning in the heat of the moment. The fish was a little spicy!

It’s now Friday (I’m writing this post a few days early), and we’ve got plans to eat out with friends. The kids are staying home and having hot dogs, while the adults go out. Oh the joys of having older kids!

Sometime over the weekend, I’m determined to fix some of the other slow cooker meals on the menu this week. Saturday will be a perfect day for the African Pulled Beef Sandwiches. Jim is planning to ride in a long bike ride and he’ll be hungry afterward. And I’ve got several recipes to create and photograph for a client, so a slow cooker meal will come in handy.

I’d love to know how you improvise your meal plans. Leave me a comment and let me know how it works (or maybe, doesn’t work!) for you.

Here’s a sneak peek at this week’s meal plans. You can find out more about how to get them delivered to your inbox by clicking here.

All Slow Cooker Plan

Italian Seasoned Salt Chicken in the Slow Cooker
Complete Barbecue Chicken Dinner in the Slow Cooker
Slow Cooker Meatballs and Spaghetti Sauce,
Easy Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
Pork w/ Chinese Sauce (stir fry, sweet and sour, general tso’s, etc.)
African Pulled Beef Sandwiches in the Slow Cooker with Yogurt-Mint Sauce
Easy Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Cake

Traditional Plan

Complete Barbecue Chicken Dinner in the Slow Cooker
Breakfast for dinner! Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits, bacon/sausage, and fruit
Orange chicken
Chicago Style Pizza Pot Pie
Red Sauce DiPaola
Sloppy Cubanos
Easy Peanut Butter and Jelly Ice Cream Cake

Filed under: Menus, Slow cooker menu, Summer menu Tagged with grocery list, menu plan, weekly meal planLeave a Comment

Weekend Links and a Little from My Trip to Disney and the Food Blog Forum

May 25, 2013 by Tiffany

Last weekend, I was in Walt Disney World for the Food Blog Forum. Every time I’m in a large group where I need to meet people, the painfully shy little girl in me wants to run and hide in a corner. I’m okay if I’m introduced to someone. Or if I see someone I know. But to walk into a room full of unfamiliar, talking people is slightly terrifying.

I did however, manage to meet a couple of new people. That’s Karly from Buns in My Oven on the left. Karly and I have worked together on a few projects recently, but this is the first time we’ve met online.

I was really excited to meet Angie from Big Bear’s Wife too. Angie used to link up her great recipes on my Ingredient Spotlight posts. I think I may have scared her when I realized I was standing next to her at lunch on Saturday. I was just so excited to see a familiar face/name, even though we had only met online.

Liz from Hoosier Homemade is on the right in the photo. We’ve known each other for quite a while now. Since we were both in Disney without our families, we decided to do the parks together. Friday night we hit Fantasyland. So fun!

We stayed at the Grand Floridian, which is beyond wonderful! We saw several wedding parties at the hotel. I even got a close up view of the carriage after it delivered the bride and groom to their reception.

We had a great time at Epcot on Saturday night and Animal Kingdom on Sunday morning before we had to fly home.

And you won’t believe what I accidentally smuggled onto the airplane. TSA must be getting a little lax.

Weekend links:

Everybody makes mistakes. Even the company that makes Nutella. First, we heard they were shutting down World Nutella Day by sending a cease and desist to founder, Sara Rosso. Thankfully, that appears to be a mistake and they’ve owned up to it. Nutella Day will continue on!

If you’re trying to eat gluten-free, I hope you’ll check out my friend, Lynn’s new ebook – The Gluten-Free Baking Mix Cookbook. She has 3 recipes for gluten-free baking mix, plus many recipes that use the baking mix. She’s included baked goods and even savory dishes.

I love to read, so I’m really excited about finding new books through Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Summer Reading Guide. You can get it for free by signing up for her newsletter. She is one of my favorite bloggers and I discovered her first through the Summer Reading Guide she published last year.