EMERGENCY!!!!

I made a delicious pot of Beef Stew and had NO BREAD to go with it. That is definitely an emergency if I’ve ever heard of one :)

So here is what I did (and I have a feeling this little trick is going to save me again sometime in the near future!). I broke out the wheat bread that we use for sandwiches, buttered them up, sliced them into some (cute) triangles, sprinkled each with Lawry’s Garlic Salt and some Cheddar Cheese. Then I popped it into the broiler for about 6 minutes (until the cheese was nice and melted onto the bread). MmmmmMmmm…. this was good bread! Hubby approved!

Many times you could find me standing around the grocery store debating with myself whether or not I want to buy a whole loaf of french or sourdough bread for just the two of us. We never finish it before it goes bad and honestly, as much as I would LOVE to eat bread with every single meal — that just aint so healthy for you! So you say ‘freeze it,’ huh? It has been done and successfully several times… however I tend to forget it is in there and end up buying a new loaf anyway. So I try not to do that. This new recipe (if you can even call it that) is going to save me a lot of trouble…

Blackberry Crumb Bars

UGH, I am a sucker for new recipes and even spent an entire evening drooling over several foodie blogs and bookmarking the recipes that I deemed “doable.” Don’t worry, I will share a list of those blogs below ;)

So here is the first of the many new recipes to try out. Found on Bake or Break, where you can find many awesome recipes that are tried and true and delicious! Many seem fairly easy too. Here is my review on this recipe:

It wasn’t what I wanted it to be. In the past I have had trouble trying new bar recipes that end up tasting too floury and the list of ingredients for these bars fooled me into thinking it would be different; and it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying them, but as I said before, they aren’t the sweet treat I wanted them to be. The Blackberries that I used were not quite sweet enough and I know that I didn’t squeeze in as many Blackberries as were called for — so I would say, next time I would do it when Blackberries are super in season and use lots of them! I think I will try this recipe again because I know it can be better. I will probably also use less flour for the crumbly topping.

Here is how I spaced out my Blackberries — see? I could have SO put more blackberries!

Here is the final product — pretty huh? You should see the original recipe maker’s photos!!

Here are a few of the foodie blogs that I was drooling over this last week:

• Picky Palate
• Bakerella
• Bake or Break
• The Pioneer Woman
• Smitten Kitchen

Crockpot Beef Stew

One last recipe for today (I promise!)

It was a cool day so perfect for soup! But I wanted to try something other than my favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup. I went to Betty Crocker to check out their Crockpot soup recipes and ran across this recipe. It looked warm and delicious — and that it was! There were a few things I changed, here is my review:

This recipe was calling my name due to the caramelized onions… both yummy and NEW to me! I had never caramelized onions before so I was ready to check it out. Instead of parsnips, I used some baby white potatoes and added some celery as well. When I added the broth (mixed with gravy mix) it didn’t seem very soupy, so I doubled it. It was the perfect amount of broth for the amount of beef and veggies in there. That is about it! This recipe is hubby approved and will be saved away in my recipe box :)

Yay for another great recipe — sorry, no photos of my personal stew, but I am including the photo from Betty. Trust me it was yummy! Have a great day!