Green beans..glorious green beans!
There is nothing better than ultra flavorful green beans that taste like they have cooked for days. Truth be told, I have been making these green beans for YEARS in the slow cooker every year for Thanksgiving. I would throw them in the slow cooker the evening before and let them cook all night long. However last year, even though I have a pretty detailed Thanksgiving cooking schedule spreadsheet, I forgot to cook the green beans!!!!! Here I am on Thanksgiving morning with NO beans!!
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Scrambling on what to do, I forgot I had a pressure cooker that I never really use. Everyone loves their Instant Pots, but I just never got on the Instant Pot train.
Soooo, I broke out the ol’ pressure cooker and threw everything in there as I would have done in my slow cooker, said a little prayer and shut the lid.

They are super simple to make and now with the recent discovery of my love for my pressure cooker, they don’t take 10+ hours to cook!
Love it!

So here is what you do.

Get you 4 pounds of beautiful fresh green beans..

Trim off those pointy edges.
Pointy edges are no bueno.
It’s a tradition in our family to have all the kids sit down and snap the ends off. But you can certainly trim them with a knife.

Cut them off both sides please.
you can’t have one pointy side and one blunt side. OCD

Now onto the best part in my opinion…BACON. Seriously, don’t even ask me if you can make this recipe without bacon. Bacon is life and bacon is salty delicious flavor!
I like to slice my bacon when it is frozen or semi frozen. Cuts sooooo much easier.

Now throw the bacon and green beans in the pressure cooker.
Don’t they look cozy in there?
I love cozy food.

Another important step for another boost of flavor is to add some chicken STOCK. I much prefer chicken stock over chicken broth. I mean, just look at that color!!! So much flavor in there.

And I throw some water in there too. Truth be told, sometimes I just do all chicken stock, but today I only had 2 cups left.

Then throw in a nice amount kosher salt and pepper. Don’t be shy with them either.

These are in my opinion, the best pressure cooker green beans or slow cooker green beans in all the land. If you like the green beans from Cracker Barrel, you will love these too!

Franklin trying to get in the action

I hope you enjoy them. I’d love to hear from you if you make them!

Well Hi there, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve been here. My last post was March 28th 2017. What happened to the love for my website you may ask?
I’ve spent the 10 years in this little space, The Hungry Housewife. I started it when my kids were just little babies as a way to catalog my recipes.
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I mean just looks how bad my photos were back in the day…makes me chuckle.

Remember when your kids were itty bitty little creatures? Barley right?? Bed time at 7 pm, no social lives, no sports activities every night of the week. Life was in a way, simpler back then. Simpler by means of more time. Crazy to think you have more time on your hands when your kids are little, but it’s true. So folks with small kids, suck up this time, because before you know it you will be balls to the wall in shuttling your kids to everywhere on this planet.

I always have worked full time outside of my blog and somehow, back in the day, post 3-4 times a week on here. Back when I started, you could probably count the number of food bloggers on your hands and feet. Food blogging was fun in the good ol’ days. It was social and small. Everyone supported each other. This was before Facebook, Pinterest, Google algorithms, key words, SEO, ads and a bazillion other things that literally change on a daily basis. Blogging was fun.

Then as my kids got older, like I said before, time came at a premium. I found myself hooked to my computer and phone at ALL TIMES. I don’t want to be a hypocrite constantly tell my kids to get off their phone, only to be attached to my phone working. I to be present for my kids. Listen, I actually like hanging around my kids and the older they get, the more I realize the less time I have with them. It literally makes me sad to think that my son only has 3 more years at home and my daughter only has 5. Y’all, it goes SO FAST.

They are goofy and I just love them…This is me trying to get a first day of school photo.

Almost

Ok, I give up.

Aside from the kids keeping me as a Mom taxi 24/7, I also work a full time job and always have. It’s what pays the bills, my blog was never used for my income. Sure, the extra money every month was great, but I generally just saved it.

In all honestly, I have loved not blogging and not worrying about where my last post will sit in the google ranking or how many pageviews I got. I got sucked into the “am I good enough, everyone else is better than me” blog mentality. And it wasn’t healthy. Bloggers will know what I mean. Something that I started just as fun became too much for just me to handle. Too much for me to keep up with. I think people just don’t realize how much goes into these little blogs. I learned a lot. My photography certainly got better.

Click for Split Pea Recipe

Click for Guinness Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze recipe

I popped on here today just to tell you that you may see posts pop up every now and again. I’m going back to the way it was before, simple. I’m posting when I make a recipe and it’s a tasty one that I want to document. I’m not worrying about all the business stuff that goes behind it because this space is not my “job”.
My “Job is to raise and be present for my kids and husband. PERIOD.
So incase you need me, I will be here sometimes, but these little (not so little anymore) nuggets are my number one priority!

Hi all. Bet you forgot allllll about me.
But I am here to tell you about an amazing and easy slow cooker recipe out of my friend’s new cookbook… Add A Pinch: Easier, Faster, Fresher Southern Classics by Robin Stone of the Add A Pinch Site.
Click on the link above to order her book..you won’t be dissapointed.

Slow cooker recipes call to me. Working a full time job and having both kids in sports requires me to use my slow cooker often, so I am always looking for new recipes.
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I am pretty sure you will already have all the ingredients you need for this scrumptious Balsamic Beef.

It takes MAYBE, maybe 5 minutes to prep this and pop it in the slow cooker. And WHAM, dinner 4-6 hours later.

The flavors of this balsamic beef are wonderful, with soy sauce, there is a slight Asian flare, but not too pronounced. After I removed the beef and shredded it, I poured the sauce into a pan and reduced it by half to make it even more flavorful!

Oh, and Robyn’s cookbook is dreamy. Stunning photos and accessible recipes.

Just take a look at the front cover…

LOVE

Bart’s Cinnamon Rolls are next on my list to make.

And then probably this gorgeous German Chocolate Cake!!!

I can’t believe I am doing this, but I am sharing my uber popular, semi top secret buttercream frosting recipe with you. Wait, or is it Buttercream Icing??? I’m pretty sure that frosting and icing can be used interchangeably.

Anyways, everyone who tastes this frosting just adores it. It’s like the frosting you would get from the bakery. Sweet and fluffy.
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When I used to make cakes for people this was my go to recipe for vanilla frosting 100% of the time. And even though I don’t make cakes for money any more, I still ALWAYS use this recipe. Because it uses Crisco shortening, it pipes beautifully and holds its shape unlike an all butter frosting which sometimes falls and looses its shape. You can even make the frosting incredibly smooth so it almost looks like fondant. It’s an old trick learned years ago on YouTube. Just google”How to frost a cake with a Viva paper towel”.

Here are a bunch of cakes I have made over the last 10 years or so all using this frosting recipe. You can see how versatile it is. Excuse some of the photos, like I said, some are quite old.
This frosting also pipes BEAUTIFULLY onto cupcakes. The recipe makes enough to frost a dozen cupcakes with some leftovers.

This was the first wedding cake I made.
I thickly frosted the cake and then used a back of a spoon to swoosh the frosting…

This next cake blew up the internet. So many people stole my photo and used it on FB business sites, business cards, etc. It was quite annoying but flattering as well. You can see my long winded YouTube video on how to frost it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_hZEB2GXbI

This was an adorable Birthday cake I made for a friend. See how smooth the frosting is? I used the Viva paper towel method to achieve the almost fondant like smoothness!

I can’t remember who I made the next cake for. It was either my daughter or niece. They wanted a “Messy rose cake”.

I laugh at the next cake. My daughter drew what she wanted her cake to look like, so this is right out of her then 6 year old little brain. The same frosting was used on all parts of the cake. )except the dots and letters, those were frosting)

Another super simple wedding cake with the spoon swooshing method.

Not sure what to call the next cake. Just a simple line cake I suppose.

Another fun Viva Paper towel method…. I believe this was for the same person as the pirate Hello Kitty Cake.
I loved both of those fun cakes. The decorations were made from fondant.

I made this next cake for a baby shower. The mommy to be wanted it to match her invitation. I think it is too cute. Frosted with the Viva Method and decorations were fondant.

This was an adoption cake. Simple and cute.

I LOVED this cake I made for my sons 8th birthday. He was obviously into soccer. Sad the he will be 14 in 2 months

Another cake my daughter thought up. She wanted a shabby chic rose birthday cake. And a shabby chic rose birthday cake is what she got!

I made this rose cake for my husband. Pretty isn’t it?

Yet another birthday cake for my husband. His birthday is close to Halloween, hence the spider on top.
I loved this one. Super simple.

I made this blue ombre cake for a good friends’ baby shower. It’s one on my favorites just because its simplicity.

Another hubby birthday cake. I had no clue what to make him this particular year, so I just did a simple cake with chocolate shaving curls. I think it turned out great for a super quick job.

I think this one was for my son. I wanted another easy cake that only required me to add food coloring to some frosting. I will say that this one took a while to pipe all of those dots!!!!

This is probably one of my all time favorite birthday cakes I made for my daughter! I saw the idea somewhere and went from there. Too stinking cute!!!!

I made the next cake for my neighbors surprise 50th party. Isn’t it pretty?

I think I called this one the reverse ruffle. I have no clue who it was for. I am sure someone in my families birthday.

And my daughter Emma made this one….

So yes, all of the above cake were all made with the same exact frosting.
The star of the frosting really is the Crisco Shortening. It just makes the frosting super smooth and sturdy. And another plus is that Crisco Shortening actually has 50% saturated fat than butter and ZERO grams of trans fat her serving. BONUS.

This is a super simple recipe….. You might just have everything you need in your pantry already

Be careful, this buttercream frosting is super addictive for both children and adults alike.
You might just want to get a spoon for your self.
Or just shove your whole face in there.

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This post is sponsored by Crisco. I have received compensation for my work and time. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ohhhhh, it’s the beginning of the year and you expected a healthy recipe?????
Come on you guys, I thought you knew me better than that.

Just pretend it’s March, you will be off your diet by then.

Picture this……..

A sleepover with 6 teenage boys.

All wanting ice cream with all the fancy toppings.
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Whipped cream, sprinkles, cherries, caramel sauce, Magic Shell.
All 6 bowls of vanilla and chocolate ice cream are scooped.
“Who wants Magic Shell”, I yell.
“I do”, all 6 boys yell.

I pull the magic shell from the pantry and the bottle feels quite light. ( que, slight brow sweat)
I squeeze it over the first bowl of ice cream and it just barely covers the top.
Moving on to the second bowl, I realize not an ounce more will come out of the bottle.

All these boys want magic shell and now I’m out.
My Pj’s are on and I am looking like a hot mess, a trip to the store is completely out of the question.
What to do, what to do???????

Make my own.
Y’all, it’s super quick and easy to make your own if you are in a pinch. (Nothing beats the real deal though)Just get yourself some good quality semi-sweet chocolate and Crisco Coconut Oil. (coconut extract optional)

FYI: For coconut lover and coconut haters……
Pick up the refined coconut oil if you do not want any coconut flavor and omit the coconut extract.
If you like coconut flavor, grab the unrefined variety and use the coconut extract.

I love using a tad bit coconut extract to pump up the coconut flavor.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil gently in the microwave, add the extract and stir until smooth.

That’s it you guys!

Easy peasy…I told you.

You may be asking why to use coconut oil. Well, coconut oil hardens when it is exposed to cold.  Ice cream is pretty cold and this is where the magic happens.

You see that picture above? That is some serious snappy and crispy goodness!!!!!

So you guys, when you are in a pickle and totally out of Magic Shell, make your own!

Don’t feel like if you buy a big tub of coconut oil you will never use it all.
Coconut oil can be used for a bazillion things. Aside from the uses in the kitchen. Coconut oil is great for moisturizing hair and skin. It’s a great makeup remover. Just google “coconut oil uses” and you will be blown away on what you find!
I actually use coconut oil in my smoothies, in my coffee and I even give a small scoop to my dog everyday!

This post is sponsored by Crisco. I have received compensation for my work and time. All opinions are 100% mine.