Hamburger Potato Casserole

When I went to the grocery store last week, the 10 lb bag of potatoes was cheaper than the 5 lb bag. Weird right?! But I got the 10 lb bag to save some money. Now I have lots of potatoes and don't know what to do with them. I searched for potato casseroles on pinterest and came across this recipe. It looked very yummy and I had all the ingredients already so I cooked it up for dinner that night.

1 lb. ground beef

3 cups thinly sliced potatoes

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 can cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a glass baking dish. In skillet, cook the onions and ground beef until done. Drain the grease. In a bowl, mix together the milk, soup, salt and pepper. Layer half of the potatoes, soup, cheese.

Top with the hamburger meat. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes, soup, hamburger meat and then the cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Pork Chop Bake

This recipe is one that I just threw together one night after searching online for a pork chop recipe. There were a few ingredients that I either changed or removed completely, but it still turned out delicious. 

6 boneless pork chops

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 medium onion

3 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (I used cubed hash browns)

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup milk

1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place pork chops in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Layer with onions and potatoes. In a small bowl, whisk flour and milk until smooth; add soup. Pour over potatoes. Cover and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer or until meat is tender.

Tennessee Vacation

Back in the beginning of November we took our first vacation just the four of us.  Since the weather was getting cold and we didn't make any plans we just decided to head down to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  

On the way down we made a pit stop in Kentucky to visit some family.  I used to go down here a lot with my grandparents when I was younger and haven't been down in at least 15+ years. It was exactly how I remember it though. Love it down there!  

After we visited for a few hours we hit the road again for the 3 hour final drive to Tennessee. 

We arrived late and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Wilderness in the Smokies. It has an indoor water park and big arcade which was awesome.  We hit the water park first thing the next morning. 

After swimming for a few hours we headed to downtown Gatlinburg and went to the Ripley's Aquarium. It was probably the best aquarium I've ever seen.  We spent most of the afternoon there before doing some walking around and getting dinner. Then we headed back to the hotel for popcorn and a movie before bed. 

The next day we headed up to Ober Gatlinburg. It's a ski resort, but they also have rides, and a small animal exhibit with some bears. We mainly just went to do the Alpine slide. You ride the ski lift up then ride in little cars down the mountain. It was lots of fun, but Marley said I was going too slow. 

After we left Ober Gatlinburg we headed to the National Park and decided to hike up to The Chimney Tops.  It's a 2 mile hike one way with an elevation change of 1,335 feet.  It didn't start out too bad, but the higher you get the more rocky it gets. There were lots of tears from Marley once we got about halfway because "she was tired and her legs were going to fall off."  It took us a while to get to the top, but we finally make it and the view was amazing. Once you reach the top there is a large rock (chimney top) that continues up that you can climb to reach the very top. I stayed down with Mason and Marley and Mike made it about halfway up before he decided to come back because it was getting a bit scary.  We had to hurry and head back down because it was getting dark, and we actually made it back to the car just as it was turning pitch black. It took us probably 2 hours to get up and only 45 minutes to get down. Our legs were very tired! I just kept telling everyone that a 2 mile hike in Tennessee is WAY different than a 2 mile hike in flat Indiana. It was worth it though. 

Oh yeah, I hiked the whole way in flip flops! 

You can see the top of the chimney here, and if you look really close you can see Mike up towards the top. SCARY!! 

On our final day we just did some shopping and go karts in Pigeon Forge. 

We then drove up to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in the Smoky Mountain National Park.  It was a half mile hike to the tower, but this time it was a paved walkway so it didn't take us very long and we could bring the stroller instead of carrying Mason like we did to the Chimneys.  Once you get to the tower you get a 360 degree view of nothing but mountains. Again, amazing!  While heading back down Mike and Marley decided to take some of the trails and I headed back down the path. I wish they would of come with me because I was alone and saw a mom and her 2 babies about 20 feet from me.  Then I realized that the bear was heading towards where I left Mike and Marley. EEKK!! Luckily they didn't encounter the momma bear but I was a little worried while waiting at the bottom for them.  We stayed and watching the sunset which apparently a lot of people do because the edge of the parking lot that overlooks the mountain was lined with people and their cameras. It was pretty funny to see all these people lined up taking pictures.  

We left from here and started our 8 hour drive home which got us home at about 2 am, but the kids slept the whole way so that was nice.  

We had a great time and Marley still talks about going on vacation, but I'm sure she just liked the water park. The best part was probably just seeing all the pretty mountains and since was early November all the leaves were still changing colors so it was so pretty. I have so many pictures of trees, but each one was prettier than the last.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Puppy Chow

There are so many different kinds of puppy chow flavors now. Of course, I want to try them all, but I decided to try out this recipe for the pb&j kind first. It was pretty good. I don't think I used enough peanut butter, but it all got eaten so it must of been alright. 

1 cup peanut butter baking chips

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

16 cups Rice Chex cereal

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 cup white chocolate melts

1 cup strawberry cake mix (just the powdered mix)

First start with the peanut butter chow. Melt peanut butter chips, peanut butter and vanilla extract together.
Place 8 cups of the cereal in a large bowl and pour the melted peanut butter over it and fold until coated.

Put powdered sugar into a large plastic bag and dump in peanut butter coated cereal. Shake until coated in powdered sugar then dump out on a cookie sheet to cool.

Next is the jelly chow.  Melt white chocolate until smooth. Place remaining 8 cups of cereal in a large bowl and pour the white chocolate over and stir until coated. Put the strawberry cake mix in a large plastic bag and dump chocolate coated cereal into it. Shake until coated and pink from the mix. Pour onto a cookie sheet to cool.  Final step is to mix the two together.