This friend excitedly shared what she was making, and I just nodded. Mississippi Pot Roast, okay…? I’d never heard of it, but she raved about it so it got me appropriately excited.

We arrived for dinner and oh, my gosh the house smelled amazing. She was pulling something from a cardboard box and quickly popped it into the microwave, Sorry, running a little behind. We just gotta get this heated through and we’ll be good to go.

This, I found out, was mashed cauliflower. Frozen mashed cauliflower. As someone who proudly made her mashed cauliflower from scratch, which is delicious but a labor of love, I had no idea any such thing existed. So I was intriugued and excited to see if it was any good. Spoiler alert, it was.

Dinner was amazing. I’m not usually a big fan of crockpot meals because I feel like they all taste the same, so I didn’t have the highest hopes. But man, this pot roast was the most flavorful pot roast I’d ever had from a crockpot. And it quickly became a hyper fixation meal for me. I made it weekly in our home.

The thing is, though, it makes so much food. And roast isn’t the cheapest thing on the planet. Yes, I could split the meat, freeze leftovers, whatever, but it just became too much trouble and I stopped making it. Especially right now when groceries are so freaking expensive.

So imagine my delight when I was scrolling TikTok one evening and someone share Mississippi Meatballs. Yes, meatballs.

So of course, I immediately had to make it. I added the original frozen meatballs from Aldi to my next grocery order and literally made it the next day.

And y’all. It’s just as good as I was hoping it would be. I made these Mississippi Meatballs in the Instantpot, which in my opinion, came out even more flavorful. I’ve made the Mississippi Pot Roast in both the crockpot and instantpot and found that I much prefer the flavor from the InstantPot.

How to make InstantPot Mississippi Meatballs

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InstantPot Mississippi Meatballs

Equipment

• InstantPot The InstantPot I have and use is discontinued but this is the newer version of it: https://amzn.to/3xc98uM

Ingredients

• 1 bag Frozen ITALIAN Meatballs I use the ones from Aldi
• 1 Cup Beef Broth
• 1 Packet Au Jus Gravy Mix
• 1 Packet Ranch Dressing Mix
• 1/2 Stick Unsalted Butter Sliced
• 5-10 Jarred pepperoncini peppers
• 1/4 cup Pepperoncini juice

Instructions

• Pour in your frozen meatballs. You can adjust the serving amount if you choose, but I dump the whole bag in. I do not defrost these first.
• Add 1 cup of beef broth
• Pour Au Jus gravy packet over the meatballs
• Add the ranch seasoning over the meatballs
• Slice butter and place the pads of butter over the meatballs & seasoning, spaced out.
• Add pepperoncini peppers, placing them on top of the butter
• Pour in some juice for added flavor
• Seal the InstantPot and set the pressure for 30 minutes at normal

Notes

I let the pressure release naturally and then hang in the pot until it's time for dinner -- but you can of course quick release and eat them immediately.

**If If this is your first time using an InstantPot, THIS WILL NOT BE READY IN 30 MINUTES. The InstantPot takes a while to come to pressure.

What do you serve Mississippi Meatballs with?

I like to serve mine with instant mashed potatoes (because I’m in my “giving myself grace” era of cooking while in the thick of working full-time and being a full-time SAHM to my toddler).

I also serve it with canned green beans. See the giving myself grace era disclaimer from above.

This has become such a staple meal in my house — it’s comforting, delicious, everyone eats it, it’s effortless and I don’t have to remember to defrost anything.

If you decide to make it, you’ll have to tell me how you liked it and what you serve it with!

Until next time, friends! xoxo

I’m pretty sure comfort food is my love language. Seriously, I love nothing more than a belly full of happiness, and today’s recipe delivers just that. I will say this, I am not usually a fan of leftovers. (I know, I know. Luckily, I’m married to a man who will eat all the leftovers all the time.) But I actually looked forward to eating this for days and days.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I got the Joanna Gaines Magnolia Table cookbook for my birthday. Jonathan and I joked that I should start a new series on this blog. For those of you who don’t know, my given name is JoAnn. I mean, it could be like your modern day Julie & Julia. Except JoAnn and Joanna. Perfect, right? Jokes. I am by no means challenging myself to cook my way through a cookbook. Even though I do think that would be so much fun. I will, however, happily share what I make when I make it and what I thought. Deal? Okay, good.

I decided to start off with the chicken pot pie recipe. Some things to note:

1. I halved the recipe and that’s what’s reflected here.
2. Her recipe calls for fresh carrots and then a bag of frozen peas. I already had the bag of mixed veggies on hand because I thought I was going to be making one of my old stand by pot pie recipes when I went grocery shopping (that was before this cookbook came into my life).
3. I didn’t use as much chicken broth as was indicated in the recipe (not even half). I eyeballed this, and that “measurement” is what is reflected below.
4. I used the food processor and chopped up some of the batch chicken that I always have in the fridge. You can cut up a store-bought rotisserie chicken, cut up some chicken breasts, or simply buy pre-cooked, frozen cubed chicken.

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 1 8×8 or 9×3 glass dish, at least 3 inches deep.
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 small white onion finely chopped
• 1 bag frozen vegetable mix: corn, peas, carrots, green beans. I used the bird’s eye steam fresh mixed veggies.
• 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 3 cups of chicken broth
• 2 10.5 ounce cans of cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups of shredded or cut up chicken
• 1-2 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls (depending on what size pan you use)
• Mashed potatoes

WHAT YOU DO:

The first thing I did was PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 375 and then I got some potatoes going. I cubed about 4 red potatoes and let those boil in a pot of water for a while. If you need a time, go for at least 20 minutes. I honestly just let them boil the whole time I was prepping the “pie.” That’s probably wrong, but it worked for me.

Once they were soft, I drained the water, added about 1/2 cup of milk and about 2 tablespoons of butter and mashed. I seasoned to taste with salt and pepper.

FOR THE PIE:

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a pot or dutch oven that’s large enough to eventually fit all of the ingredients.
2. Add the chopped up onions and let those cook until translucent.
3. Slowly whisk in the 2 tablespoons of flour
4. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth, raise the heat to about medium/high and bring to a soft boil
5. Add the cream of chicken soup and your cut up chicken
6. Stir in your veggies. Let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt & pepper if necessary (I didn’t find it necessary.)
7. Pour your “soup” into a dish that is at least 3 inches deep. I used an 8×8 pyrex, but I probably should have used a larger dish. I was a little worried about the filling boiling over in the oven. It didn’t though.
8. Unroll your crescents and pinch together the perforations. If you’re also using a square dish, you’ll only need one tube. If you’re using a longer dish, you’ll need two. I literally laid the “sheet” of dough on top of the soup. I had to get a little creative and lay some “pieces” in various places. I would avoid this if you can because the dough didn’t actually cook all the way through wherever it overlapped, but it wasn’t a deal breaker.
9. Serve over mashed potatoes and enjoy!

The verdict:

Okay, I didn’t actually have the highest hopes for this dish. I make two other versions of chicken pot pie that are just good enough. I make them often, but they’re not my favorite dishes. I just figured eh, chicken pot pie isn’t my jam. Those recipes are good and fairly simple and produce a hearty meal. Well, pot pie has been lying to me my entire life up until now.

This is honest to goodness 1) the easiest version of pot pie I’ve ever made and 2) by far the most delicious. Something about the combination of serving the soup-like filling over the hearty potatoes with the sweetness of the crescents on top is OH. MY. GOSH. so delicious.

I love how in general the cookbook focuses in on meals every person could make with (mostly) ingredients they’d already have on hand. I appreciate that she references things like canned crescents and canned cream of chicken soup. That might be something silly for me to appreciate, but other cookbooks make me feel like a crappy person because I have to take “shortcuts” in the kitchen. I like to cook, but I don’t like to slave my life away in the kitchen.

This meal has most definitely landed itself on my master list. I’ll be out of town this coming week, so I’m definitely planning to make this on Sunday so the husband has something of substance to eat on for the few days I’m gone. (To be fair, he is perfectly capable of fending for himself–It just brings me joy to take care of him. So there’s that.)

Happy Friday, friends! Let me know if you end up making this and what you think!

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Kitchen Hacks: How to stay on budget, save time, and still eat delicious food.

Create a master list.

You know I’m going to tell you to start meal planning–that’s inevitably where this post is going. You know it, and I know it. So before you get mad and click out, understand that I’m going to make things a whole lot easier for you. The meal planning game changed for me when I created a master list of meals. Every family has a master list, whether they realize it or not. Think about your normal meal rotation–you likely have at least five or six meals you repeat often.

Well, I decided to take things to another level back when we lived in Buies Creek. I had more time, so I started being a little more adventurous in the kitchen. And by adventurous, I just mean I started actually making some of the meals I’d pinned on Pinterest. Every time I made something new, the hubs and I would decide whether it was an “add to the rotation” kind of meal. Eventually, we introduced quite a few meals to the master list.

A meal-in-rotation can be as simple as grilled chicken and roasted veggies or it can be as complex as beef wellington. (By the way, if you’re serving beef wellington in rotation, let me make sure you have my number because I want to be invited over, okay?) All I’m saying here is you don’t have to get super fancy with things. Having a hard time thinking about some meals? Call your mom (or dad, it is 2018) and ask what they used to serve regularly when you were a kid and snag those recipes.

Meal plan.

Yup. You knew I was going to tell you to do this. And I know, meal planning used to make me groan, too. There was some kind of voodoo magic happening anytime I sat down to plan out meals: I wouldn’t be able to remember a single meal I’d ever cooked ever. This is where your master list comes in to play.

Meal planning gets a whole lot easier when you’re not having to employ too much creativity. I typically plan out 14 dinners at a time. (I know I’m insane–maybe start with just one week, okay? I simply do two because I like to do all my grocery shopping for one pay period at a time.)

When I’m meal planning, I typically pull 8-10 master list meals (like I said, it’s gotten pretty long at this point), then I commit to trying 4-6 new recipes either from cookbooks, friend recommendations, or Pinterest.

Meal planning takes the decision out of the moment. Don’t just make a list of meals you’re going to make over the course of the next week or so, actually schedule them thoughtfully. Consider what you have going on each day and plan the meal accordingly. Don’t put a labor-intensive meal on a day you’re running around like crazy. Scheduling them out makes it so much easier to actually follow through.

Have designated days.

Meal planning, even with a master list, can get exhausting. My husband could eat the same thing all day every day and be just fine. I, on the other hand, don’t care much for repetition. That being said, I have some designated days that help when it comes to meal planning.

• Monday: always tacos of some sort
• Two Fridays: always homemade pizza
• The Other Two Fridays: always reserved for eating out
• Saturday (in this season of life anyway*): imitation Moe’s (salad for J, burrito bowl for me)

Jonathan works an 11 hour day on Saturdays, so I always bring him dinner.

Create your grocery list based on your meal plan.

I know this isn’t rocket science, but it really makes an enormous difference when it comes to your grocery bill. Buying only what you need instead of a hodgepodge of random items in hopes of having what you’ll need for dinner is a game changer.

Prep your staples.

In an attempt to avoid the urge to run out for fast food when I’m teetering the verge of hangry, I have some staples always ready to go. For us, that’s:

• A batch of grilled chicken
• Roasted veggies (California medley + roasted brussels sprouts)

These staples save us when I didn’t find the time to make dinner or I simply don’t feel like it. We can easily throw the chicken into a quesadilla, a salad, a sandwich, a pasta dish, or just eat it as it is with a side of veggies. I tend to cook these on Saturdays or Sundays for the week.

Honestly, just getting a little organized when it comes to the kitchen makes a huge difference. Employing these habits have really helped us save money, and I actually really enjoy cooking now. And on the nights I don’t? Well, that’s what the staples are for. 🙃

Tell me, what are some things you do to make your meal-planning life easier? What’s one of your go-to dishes?

The student union at App had a restaurant upstairs called McAlisters. It’s a regular chain deli, but that particular one took my magical meal card.

(Can we all pour a little out in memory of those magical little cards? And also? Thanks parents. You had us so fooled into believing we were making it on our own. Joke was on us!)

Anyway. I only had classes on Tuesday and Thursday because I was a crazy person who worked full-time on top of a full course load. But every Tuesday & Thursday, you would find me and my then boyfriend, this really funny guy named Jonathan (Jokes again. He’s my husband now), ordering their broccoli and cheddar soup in a bread bowl.

Bread bowls are actually magic. Just saying.

It’s been a seriously hot minute since I’ve indulged in the cheesy, creamy goodness. So when Jonathan mentioned that he was really craving some on Sunday, the sensible adult inside of me figured our money was better spent buying the ingredients then dropping $10+ for two bowls of soup at a restaurant.

Damn adulthood. ::insert eye rolling emoji here::

I’m a pretty decent cook (when you ignore the fact that I’ve set four kitchen fires in the last 6 years). But I rely heavily on recipes. I got a little wild on Sunday and threw caution to the wind. I went to the grocery store without a list and without consulting a recipe.

I know. Wild looks a little different at 30.

By some cosmic twist of fate, I made the best dang batch of broccoli cheddar soup we’ve ever eaten. I know we’re all adults here, so I don’t actually have to tell you that a meal composed primarily of cheese and heavy cream is in no way healthy. No matter how much broccoli you dump in. But if you’re looking for a little comfort these chilly winter nights (just kidding, it’s currently 72 degrees at 9PM in Charlotte ::insert eye rolling emoji here again::), here you go.

Homemade Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Yields about 10 bowls. I wanted a big batch. Feel free to adjust the recipe as desired.

What you’ll need:

• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded.
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 48 oz Chicken Stock (it’d probably be fine to use just 32 oz if you only have one box, I was trying to use up what was in my fridge)
• 1/3 of an onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1.5-2 heads of broccoli cut up to your desired size. I like it cut up pretty small. I included the stalk, too.
• Salt to taste

What you do:

1. Melt the butter on medium high heat in a large pot (I used a 6 qt pot). Once the butter is melted, add the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onion is translucent.
2. Add the chicken stock.
3. Stir in the whipping cream.
4. Add the broccoli and let the mixture come to a gentle boil.
5. Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the broccoli is cooked.
6. SLOWLY, did you hear me there? SLOWLY stir in the cheese. Add in a little at a time, stirring until the cheese is completely incorporated into the broth.
7. Salt to taste.
8. Serve & enjoy. Bonus points if you serve it in a bread bowl. Just sayin’.

Note: I would recommend adding equal parts flour to the butter (two tbsp) to create a nice rue before adding the chicken broth (that you would then need to add in very slowly). My husband is currently doing low-carb, so I didn’t use any flour to keep the carb count down. As a carb eater myself, I didn’t miss the rue.

The husband has made it very clear that this needs to make it’s way into our regular rotation. It’s so cheap to make, and just so dang good! I’m sold!

Soup on it’s own is great, but it’s also a great addition to any party line up. Trust me. It’s filling and inexpensive to make, and you’d be surprised how quickly it goes. Set it out along with other appetizers and finger foods, and it adds a little heartiness to the spread. Now, we all know it’s not a party without wings. You can simply buy them from Urban Wings, and complete the spread!

But date night is still important even 6.5 years into our marriage. It’s easy to fall into routines. It’s even easier to fall into the exhaustion trap (question: are our thirties for the exhaustion because holy cow). But it’s hard to commit $100+ for a meal with a guy I know is going to take me home at the end of the night (that’s right, I said it).

We love Italian food, but buying an Italian entree at a restaurant makes me cringe a little. Delicious or not, those little nuggets of dough get dang expensive. But nothing says romance like a glass of wine and some delicious pasta. Am I right?

So Sunday night, I turned on the tunes and whipped my man up a delicious pasta dish that cost less than $15 to make.

This is where The Pioneer Woman steps in. Confession: I’ve never made one of her dishes. Double confession: I saved this recipe from a little video tutorial that Whitney posted on Facebook a million years ago.

Penne a la Betsy a la The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Penne cooked Al Dente
• 1 lb Shrimp peeled & deveined
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic: minced
• 3/4 cup white wine (1 3/4 if you want to drink a glass ;))
• 1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Basil leaves (I left these out)

What to do:

• Heat butter and oil in pan on medium or medium high heat. Add shrimp and cook until pink (a couple minutes). Remove them from the pan and let them cool for a minute. I used small shrimp, but I still cut them into smaller pieces. Set them aside.
• In the same pan, add the onion and garlic and sauté for three minutes. Pour in the wine and let it reduce for a few minutes. You can use chicken or seafood broth if you’d prefer not to use wine.
• Add the tomato sauce and stir until combined. Cook for 3 minutes then stir in the heavy cream. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the shrimp and reduce the heat. Let simmer for a few minutes.
• Stir in pasta, add basil if you prefer, and top with parmesan cheese if you’d like!

Finally, serve with wine over candle light, and you’ve got yourself a pretty swanky at home date night on the cheap!

Pin and share for an easy, cheap at home date night!

I don’t necessarily mind cooking, but like I said–I typically wait too long and then end up in that annoying place where I’m incapable of making decisions.

Meal planning is my friend.
Can I get an AMEN?

I love to eat. So for a recipe to make it into my regular rotation it doesn’t just need to be easy, it has to be packed full of flavor. And if it can resemble something that I could possibly order off a takeout menu, all the better.

Spicy Cheddar Ritz Cracker Chicken

What you need:

1. 2-4 chicken breast cut into tenders
2. 1 sleeve of ritz crackers
3. 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4. 1-2 teaspoons of Tony’s More Spice (more if you like extra spice)
5. Dash of salt & pepper
6. 1-2 eggs

What you do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees & spray a baking sheet. Bonus tip: I line my baking sheet with aluminum foil
2. Place the sleeve of crackers into a large Ziplock bag and pound the crap out of them. This is your chance to get some aggression out. Someone pissing you off? Good. Even better. You want a fine crumb-like texture. Some bigger bits are okay, too.
3. Add the cheese, Tony’s, and salt & pepper in with the crumbled up crackers and shake it up! Bonus points if you dance.
4. Whisk the eggs in a bowl wide enough to coat your chicken in.
5. Bathe each piece in the egg wash then roll it in the cracker mixture. I actually place the chicken ON the mixture then burry it, pressing the mixture down into the chicken.
6. Lay chicken on baking sheet
7. Bake for 35 minutes.

The first time I made this I accidentally overdid it with the Tony’s, so I’ve learned less is more and that I can always add more later. Obviously, you can spice this however you want–we’re just big fans of spicy!

I usually make this with Idaho instant mashed potatoes because I’m super duper classy (four cheese for life), but I didn’t have any this week so I relied on an old favorite (pour a can of green beans and a can of sliced new potatoes into a pot with some butter, salt, peppper & garlic powder and boil until all the juices evaporate). Probably not the healthiest but as I always say–it’s still better than a Mcdonald’s drive thru (or at least that’s what I tell myself).

Pin it and add it to meal plans!

Back to School Dinner Sure to Please

What you’ll need:

Smithfield Marinated Pork Sirloin (purchased at Walmart)

1 head of cauliflower

steam in bag broccoli 

Well, I’m Italian.  And Italians are meant to make enough pasta on a Sunday to feed an army.  But it’s just the two of us.  I’ll never need this.  And yet, I held on to it because it felt like an abomination to my heritage to get rid of it.

Well yesterday, I dug it out of the tiny little storage closet and scrubbed it.  I filled it with many quarts of water and nearly strained a muscle carrying it over to the stove.  And then I poured two pounds of pasta into it.

It seems like such a simple thing.  Cooking Sunday supper.  But if I look back over the last four years and 51 weeks, it strikes me as important.  Because the truth is, I honestly couldn’t see this part of our lives when I opened that pot all those years ago.  I could only see us exactly as we were.  I had no idea what the twists and turns were that our lives would take.  And I certainly couldn’t see all the people that would eventually become so important.

So when I opened that pot, I saw it as useless.  A burden.  Unimportant.  But yesterday, I was so thankful we had it.  I couldn’t imagine making supper for that many people without it.

And that makes me think about all the other gifts we’ve been given in our lifetime that we once might have seen as useless.  That piece of advice.  That offer to lend a hand.  That connection to someone you couldn’t understand.  And how in time their purpose becomes important.  Something you couldn’t ever see coming, and there you are armed with the tools to be prepared.

Because that’s how it all goes, really.  You think you have your life figured out when you’re twenty two.  You’ve got a ring on your hand and plans to move to another state.  You’re steadfast with dreams and big ideas.  But you can’t see the life that’s ahead of you.  Not really, any way.

And that makes me wonder about what’s ahead.  Not in an eager, I’m ready for the next step sort of way.  Just more of a simple curiosity.  I didn’t see this coming, this life.  I didn’t know that last nearly five years were just a perfectly choreographed dance to bring us to this point.  But now I know that we’re still dancing, following the path to wherever we’re meant to be.

• I take about 24 shrimp and put them in a colander under cool running water for approx. 5 minutes.  Shrimps defrost very quickly.
• Place those babies in a pan over medium heat.  Season to taste (I use Tony’s all seasoning–that makes it a little spicy, just how I like it)!
• Shrimp cook really quickly.  When your shrimp are completely pink, remove from heat.
• I toast up some soft tortillas in the oven at 350 for approx 8 minutes (until the puff up slightly).
• Fill your tortilla with about 6 shrimp, drizzle with queso and top with lettuce.
• Serve with chips and salsa & guacamole.

Am I fired?  I’m blogging in real time.  I just now painted my nails.  I just now took pictures of them. And I’m actually sitting down on this Friday afternoon blogging about it.  Yeah, I’m breaking the rules.

Back in the day I used to blog in real time all the time.  I didn’t even know it was possible to schedule posts.  I used to do these 100 days of blogging challenges all the time.  Man.  I kind of miss that world of blogging.

Anyway.  I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving.  We did.  Twice.  We spent Wednesday at my parents’s house, and then we had our own little thanksgiving here yesterday.

Today, I’m in denial.  I started not to feel awesome last night.  I curled up on the couch with a book last night but almost immediately fell asleep.  I slept awfully last night and today I keep trying to convince myself that I’m not getting sick.  Although I’ll admit I feel a little better after sneaking a shot of dayquil.

I plan to spend the day on the couch with a book.  And a lot of turkey sandwiches.  Confession: I’m really not a fan of turkey.  I love how it smells when it’s cooking though, so thus…we have turkey on Thanksgiving.  I need to go grocery shopping…but I really didn’t think that all the way through.  Who wants to battle the shops on Black Friday?  Not this girl.