I’m Sold!

Okay.  SO I was not sure at first.  I mean, I have recently heard lots of hub-bub about THIS blog.  So after hearing time after time how amazing she is I decided to take a peek and check out Ree.  Well, I was instantly smitten with her recipes, and her pictures, but not SOLD yet.

I love how The Pioneer Woman shows you step by step how to make her “amazing-looking” meals – and oh my!  They look perfect.

So I tried a recipe.  I am pretty picky about my recipes – and I try to cook relatively healthy, cutting butter and oil as much as possible anywhere I can.  She does not share this goal with her cooking. It is a tad like cooking with Paula Dean – “a little butter is good, but more is better” (my paraphrasing).

Ree aims to cook stick to your ribs meals, every time.  I cannot figure out how her figure stays normal, or that of her husband – must be genetics!

Anyway, moving on.  My first recipe was Chicken Cacciatore – it was okay – I did forget the can of tomatoes (and that is a big deal), and it was my first meal with our “from the farm” chickens.  So I marked the “okay” up to me. 

Second, we made Chicken and Dumplings – and this was a big hit!  The dumplings were about half & half – would make this with bisquick dumplings next time.  But the flavor was great – the kids loved it, and so did we!  Will make this again …. but not soon, due to the calories!

So, today.  I decided to make Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika – and OH MY GOODNESS!!!  I cannot wait the oh, about 90 minutes to gobble this up!!  It looks amazing, the beef is PERFECT!!   {I love having a cow in the freezer – this meat is so tender and very low fat!!}

So, it is official, I am SOLD. 

So, if you have some calories to spare, and some time (none of her meals are the “whip it up in 20 minutes” kind) make sure to check her out.  Or better yet, check her out and put some of her meals on your Meal-Plan coming up.  This way you can plan a veggie & baked potato night before or after to make up for the extra calories that night!  It does not hurt to have a few “stick-to-your-ribs” meals each week or so.  I know my husband sure loves them!

Coming up : Chicken Fried Steak on Tuesday (and yes I will be referring to Ree for some tips)

Meanwhile, today I did try my hand at homemade beef broth from Soup Bones.  It takes about 12 + hours to cook, so I will not know until tomorrow, but I am pretty excited that next time I make stew or soup it will be with homemade beef broth!!

Other than whipping all this stuff up, we have had a quiet day here.  We did decide to move forward with our bathroom remodel (master) so there will be pics coming as we muddle through that!  Fun!

And we placed another chicken order, so in the next 3 weeks we will be adding 25 boys and 13 girls to our lot!  Pretty excited!  We even added a couple roosters, so we hope to be able to hatch our own little ones in the future!!