Love the Kitchen Gadgets--Crock Pot Episode

For my birthday, my mom & dad bought me a new crock pot--not just any crock pot. It's the new crock pot with the lid that seals onto the base so there are no spills when transporting. It's amazing. I love my crockpot. AND, I never, ever use a crockpot without having crockpot liners (which you'll see in the pictures below). It saves a lot of time. There's no soaking, scrubbing, or figuring out "now what?" They go in, leftovers can be pulled out, the liner pitched along with anything you're not keeping, and the pot itself wiped clean with a sudsy washcloth. Life is good with liners.

Anyway, I feel crockpots (and their liners too, of course) are necessities for all working women who like to provide home cooked meals for their families. They are so EASY. The meal can be assembled in the morning before work and left on low all day. OR the meal can be made the night before, refridgerated, and taken out and put on the low setting all day. It's so easy, breezy. Then, you come home to decadent smells and dinner is served. Well, it can be served, or a salad, bread, or other easy sides can be whipped up quick, fast, and in a hurry.

Long story short, I'm passionate about the crockpot and the ease it brings to my life. More crockpot recipes will follow, but this is the first I will share with you. It sounded so good, and is so diet friendly...but it doesn't taste like diet food.

My mom gave me this recipe many moons ago. We call it "pork chops in a pot." The version of the recipe I was given is for the oven, but I converted it to a crockpot recipe so that we could still have it on weeknights. Otherwise, it takes about an hour and a half to bake, and I don't like reserving my favorites for weekends only. Weekends are far too unpredictable. There's no telling where we'll go or how much notice we'll have... Anyway, here's my easy crockpot method of that family favorite.

The base of the crockpot layering is pork chops (if the word "loin" is used in meat, it's a lean cut. The sign for these at the meat market did say such). Then on top of the pork chops are a few strips of bacon. It gives a nice flavor.

Next on the list are carrots. I use baby carrots and slice them into little circles. A handful will work. After the carrots come potatoes. I use the little, freckled, yellow potatoes (technical terms are used fluently here...:) ) and slice them.

After the fresh veggies come the french style green beans. This was a double recipe, so two cans were used. Top it with minced onion, salt, and pepper. Cook on low throughout the work day.
Here's the whole thing assembled in the new crockpot with the lid on and my original recipe.
Here's a single serving of the finished product that was headed for the freezer.
Having cooked it all day, the meat becomes quite tender. It tends to fall apart. The leftovers make excellent pulled pork the next day with a side of veggies. It's good the first time, and the transformation of leftovers helps the budget to go a long way. It saves a lot of time too!

Lingering thought of the day: I can't wait for the pretty weather to come so this cute little man can play outside everyday. He LOVES the outside!

Love the Kitchen Gadgets--Food Dehydrator Episode

My school recently started a Biggest Loser type competition. As I'm at my all time fatness, I decided I'm all in. However, I'm through trying the fad diets. I'm going to try the real deal...aka eating healthy and exercise. I can't give up carbs. I'm far too fond of them. I can't follow a strict regiment--I like variety. So, I'm going the slow and steady wins the race method.

To take care of the exercise part of that, we went to Game Stop this weekend and bought a used Jillian Michaels Wii game. A new one is far too big an investment for the fickle exercise gal that I am. So, I'm going to try it. But I'm scared silly. Then, someday, I'm hoping it will get above 40 degrees. We'll exercise outside then.

As far as the diet part of the weight loss program is concerned, I went shopping and decided to go all out with superhealthy (or even moderately healthy) foods that I like and will eat. I bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies. They require more time and effort, but they're so good! The first step of my fruit and veggie prep was to dehydrate some fruit.

I started with canned pineapple rings and chunks with no added sugar (Dole was on sale at HyVee for $.99 per can). I layered them on two levels of my food dehydrator. Pineapple is my favorite dryed fruit--not the kind smothered in sugar. Just straight out of the can and onto the drying rack. I used three cans to cover those two layers.
Red Delicious apples were on sale for $.99 per pound at HyVee, so I bought several. I quartered and sliced four of them, created a cinnamon/sugar concoction, sprinkled a bit on one side of each slice (just enough for a little flavor, not a smothering), and started layering them on the dehydrator. Three levels of this contraption were committed to apples. Yum. Over the next couple of hours, several will disappear. My hubby likes them somewhere between raw and dry. I expect many to sprout legs and disappear right before bed time. :)

This is a shot of the dehydrator full of pineapple and apple when I finished the cutting, coating, and layering. This process took a little less than half an hour. That time includes feeding Eli, my hubby, and the poochie apple and pineapple chunks. We are a family of fruit eaters.

These are the apples that wouldn't fit on any levels when all was full. They turned into the hubster's snack. The leftover cinnamon & sugar helped give it a little appeal.

Finished product, still dehydrating the next morning. Yum!

Then, finally, my snacks for the week were complete! I put them into little baggies and carted them off to work to munch on during the day when I could wait no longer for feeding time (aka lunch).

Lingering thought of the day: Facs teachers should NEVER burn popcorn in the school where they teach. It's just embarassing--not that I'd know...

Blingin' Blog #2

When I was very, very young, we would make trips to "the city" to go to the mall. I would get so excited to go. One of my favorite places to go was Claires. They had the cutest accessories and cute trendy stuff. I loved it. Problem being, I grew up and Claires didn't. It got far too young for me far too fast.

Then one day I discovered Icing. It's like the grown-up Claires. They have the cutest accessories and cute trendy stuff--for grown girls. Hooray! This in and of itself is fabulous. I love it. However, what makes this even better is that they often run a 5 items for $10.00 clearance...and I go hog wild. I splurge and spend the $10.00 plus tax.

Some of my favorite finds from this clearance are:

Sunglasses--I found these on the $2.00 clearance rack. As mine never last more than one summer, I bought two pair. These are more plain Jane than the other pair, but they're living happily in my car. And it's cold and snowy out. They will stay there for now.

I wear lots and lots of blue. I like it, because it goes well with my eyes. Anyway, this goes with many items of clothing that I own and it's fairly pretty on. I bought this Saturday. That's right. It's that time again! Anyway, this was the last one of these, and I really liked it. It is now mine.
Pretty, pretty. Note the little heart hooks that the beads are attached to. Very fun and girly.
Pearls are my favorite. I do realize these are not real...or even close. But I love the look of pearls, even fake ones. Another star bracelet that I had to have. It was another find from Saturday.

This goes really well with a brown sweater I have. I'm not thrilled with this picture. It doesn't do it justice. It's really cute on.
When they run this sale--every few months--it gives me a good chance to update my wardrobe and accessories at a price we can afford. If I see the signs up in the back, I am compelled to run in and look. Problem being, I don't know that I've ever been in to look and left empty handed. I simply can't resist their goods.

This bracelet is not one of my bargains. It was a birthday gift from my mom & dad. It's a Lia Sophia bracelet that I've been wanting for some time. It's one of my very favorite accessories, so I thought I better include it here. Lingering thought of the day: I cannot wait to go home Friday! It's been too long since we've seen our families. The closer it gets the more homesick I become. Move it on along now, Friday!

Oh, PawPaw, how I miss you.

I've been thinking for a few days about how to approach this day. I thought about going into specific memories, but there are so many. Quite frankly, it makes me weepy to think too long and hard about those things. So, I'm going to go with a more general approach. This day marks one year.

Let me tell you a little bit about my PawPaw Don. My PawPaw was a pretty complex man. He was ever the gentleman, yet he was tough. I'm talking John Wayne tough. He could outshoot anyone I've ever known. When I was little, I'd look at his hands. They were the biggest, strongest hands I'd ever seen; they were working hands. Yet they were tender. He used those hands to pat his grandchildren with affection, to pull us in for hugs, to show us he loved us.

PawPaw had a special relationship with each and every one of his grandkids. He found some way to bond with each of us. PawPaw always had a joke. He could always make us laugh. There was a mischevious twinkle in his eye that was irresistable. He had a way of teasing that shouted, "I love you!" Everyone felt welcome in his presence, felt wanted--he made a point of it.

This awe-inspiring man was adored by all of his grandchildren, family, and friends. Rightfully so. He was a man of faith, who left a legacy to his children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchild. He loved, really, truly, and deeply loved. He gave us a timeless example of how to live in faith, praise, love, work, play, laugh, and cherish each other.

One year ago today, my PawPaw passed away. Last year was tough. It was really and truly tough--which is an understatement. We lost our Mal, then less than a month later lost PawPaw too. It was a hard winter--like our family had never known before. We miss them both so, so much. However, we have hope. Someday we will see them both again in Heaven. We have that promise! God has blessed this family with tremendous strength and has increased our faith.

Lingering thought of the day: One of my favorite memories is watching PawPaw jitterbug with my spunky, sweet MawMaw in their kitchen. You could see the two working together, so perfectly suited. Then they would end in a fit of giggles (by my MawMaw of course). It was a beautiful sight of hope for the young granddaughter who watched.

Second lingering thought: There is nothing more I'd like to do today than go sit under the shade tree in MawMaw & PawPaw's front yard with the family.

Blingin' Blog #1

I am all about bargains. I'm talking about the kind of bargains where you get something fabulous for nearly nothing. Those bargains are even better if you find them on accident.

I see stars everywhere. All the time. I look for them all the time. They make me think of my Mal and feel just a wee bit closer to her. So, the other day I was in my classroom and saw the brightest sparkle coming from one of my students. I looked closer, and I saw the cutest star necklace ever. We started talking about it, and she said she got it from Deb.

I went to Deb in search of this necklace. I have never felt so OLD in all of my life of 26 years. Walking into that store made me feel like I needed to pick up a cane and retire to the "old folks home." It was rough. Anyway, I made it through to the jewelry racks and couldn't see any stars. Then I found the clearance rack. The necklace I was looking for was not there, but I found far more than I was seeking. I bought four necklaces for six dollars. Yes, 4 necklaces for $6.00. Let me show them to you.

This is the first one I found. It had $1.00 written in on the tag; I didn't believe that was right. I asked, and it was.
This necklace is a lot like the last. The only difference is that the star is black. It too was $1.00. These two are my favorites. It's an assymetrical necklace. It's different. I really like it.
This one was $2.00. It's really fun with a dark sweater or a couple of different necklines. I just realized the fourth necklace (also $2.00) is on my desk at school. It too has a star, and is primarily silver/black, like the others. It has a cutesy ribbon running through the chain.
This last item is not one of my bargains. It was a gift from my mom & Aunt Nan. Everytime I wear it I get 3 million compliments--approximately. My picture stinks, but it has stars throughout the actual bracelet, then two big stars--one sparkly, the other engraved with "Mal Jo."After all that I found on the clearance rack at Deb, I will return. Someday. Someday when I feel really brave and totally confident with my old self. I will only, I repeat ONLY look at the jewelry. The rest is far too young for me and makes me feel far too old.

Lingering thought of the day: Everything happens for a reason.

B is for Birthday

After blogging about the princess party, I felt like I should go back to Eli's first birthday party (Thanksgiving weekend). I put so much work into this party. It was an absolute blast to plan. Little man loves Sesame Street, so we felt that was the way to go. I don't feel too, too chatty today, so I'll just run through the pictures that are on my camera.

The birthday boy! I don't have many shots of him on here, because I lost my camera throughout the bulk of the party. Bummer, huh? So, most of my pictures of him are hard copies (and frankly I'm feeling a bit too lazy to scan them in right now...).
Close up of the cake table--I'm afraid I traumatized small children everywhere when I cut the cake. If I had it to do over, I might not have started with the decapitation of a beloved character. Along with a decent shot of the cake, you can also see one of the fun fact sheets and a sign "C is for Cake." Beside Oscar is Slimy the Worm (on the rim of the trash can). Without Slimy, things just aren't right...
Overall view of the cake table. I really like the wall art on this one. That cake took forever, quite possibly because it was my first decorated cake ever. I baked it on Black Friday after shopping all day then iced it the next morning before the party.
This is the wide shot of the food table to include the wall art.
This view is just a wee bit closer, but a few more details can be seen this way. In front of each dish, there is a label telling what it is (T is for Trailmix, J is for Jello Jigglers, etc.).

I was really excited about my table decor. Each table was all about one Sesame Street character. The one shown is the Cookie Monster table. The table cloth was blue, the balloon floating above the table was that character, then on the table was a cup 'o crayons, Cookie coloring sheets, and an information sheet all about Cookie (with a close up picture, signature, and fun facts).

This was the drink table with Big Bird as the wall art.

Wall art--I used the projector and such to make the Sesame Street characters just like the princesses in yesterday's blog. The numbers were created by use of a Cricut. Those things are amazazing!
The gift table. Great googly moogly this child received SO MANY presents. This isn't even all of them...

My favorite baby with my favorite nephew!

Three generations of friends--all from itty bitty ages.
I wish I had a few more people shots to display, but again, I'm a bum who doesn't feel like scanning. Maybe someday. Anyway, the party went very well. I'm starting to think about next year, but the little man changes so fast. There's no telling what he'll be into by then. So, I suppose this mama will just be patient until it gets a little closer.

Lingering thought: If and when we move, I will really, really miss Ernie's.

It's a Princess Party!

A few weeks ago, a friend at school asked my catering class to come up with some appetizers, two cakes, and a few decorations for her daughter's (and niece's) birthday party. The girls are one year apart and are turning three and four. They LOVE princesses, Disney princesses, and all that has to do with royalty. Being the frugalista that I am, I came up with things that involved supplies that I already had on hand for most of the decor--which I'll talk about in a bit.

On to cakes--I needed to make two, one for each birthday girl. Now, as you see these pictures, please keep in mind that I have never had a cake decorating class. I have only made one birthday cake prior to these. They are not perfect or even as lovely as I had hoped for, but I think they will work.

The first cake was to be heart shaped. There were heart shaped cake pans available to buy, but they were too old-ladyish for this occasion. So, I made a square cake, a round cake, cut the round and stuck it onto the square to make a heart. Ta da! Pink and purple were requested--as this was for a very girly event. This cake weighed approximately 845 pounds. It doesn't look very big, but there are four cake mixes in this one! Yes, I cheated. I did not make this cake from scratch.


This cake, however, was made from scratch. Underneath the veneer of this carriage is a set of two of the Southern Living pound cakes. I baked them in a bundt pan, flipped them together, and did my best to create a horse-drawn carriage like Cinderella's. Tomorrow at the birthday party, this will be horse drawn. I think the cracker wheels are also going to be traded out for Oreos.

This is the top of the carriage. I felt like it needed to say her name and "Happy Birthday!" Anyway, it was my first time writing on a cake, so it's not beautiful. Again, it works. I had a whole, whole lot of fun with this cake. :)

Now on to decor. I tried to keep things fairly simple and VERY affordable. The only things that had to be purchased for the following items were: 2 pieces of yellow/gold poster board, rhinestones, and ribbon (but the ribbon was left over from decorating Valentine's boxes, so does it really count?).

We made crowns for table decor, using the items listed above. There are also little crowns for the table that state what the appetizers are in a cutesy manner. We made little wands with the leftover supplies. There is also pink & purple confetti in the shapes of hearts & stars. My kids worked very hard creating all of this! I think they had fun with it. It was a nice teachable moment--setting a scene for a party using what you have on hand and not buying ALL premade decorations. (They are adding some decor that's premade & not shown here.) This was a great activity for my catering class.

We also made a little bit of wall art. We pulled up coloring sheets on the internet, put them up on my overhead projector, traced them, colored, cut, and laminated. For the most part, they turned out really well!





Snow White

Cinderella

Disney princesses--sorry for the crooked picture.

This sign is for the outside of the party location. It's reinforced with cardboard to give it some stability in the wind. We used the dye cut and mad tracing skills to accomplish this masterpiece. My gluers didn't get this exactly as I had it laid out initially, but it's still pretty cute!



They're having a big meal at the party, but we made a few appetizers: veggie pizza, veggie dip (and veggie sticks), chicken bacon bites, gouda bites, and lil smokie pigs in blankets. We had it all completed or ready to stick in the oven with baking instructions written on the containers.

We also made sugar cookie wands that turned out pretty well. They were so easy, and the girls will have so much fun with them. Those were the last things finished today, and I forgot to take pictures of them. They were really cute though! Overall, I think this was a success!

Lingering thought of the day: After completing this catering type project and hosting an FCCLA fundraising dinner tonight, it's nice to sprawl out on my couch and play with my blog. It was a good day. I had fun with both projects and really enjoyed this! Random thought: I could really stand to have a pedi. My achy feet are craving one.

Approaching Match

With the match approaching (finding out where we're headed for my hubby's residency), I have lots and lots of thoughts, worries, and hopes running through my head. I just want to know. I want to know where we're heading for the next four years of our lives. I want to know if it's somewhere spectacular for my hubby's career AND somewhere he'll be happy throughout the duration. I want to know if it's somewhere we'll fit well with the culture of the other residents (and families). I want to know how close it is to our families. Assuming we're moving, I want to know if I'm going to be able to find a job (then where and what I'll be doing). If I do find a job, who will keep Eli? Who can we trust with that sweet baby?


The Match is now one month away--March 18, 2010. It is rapidly approaching, as is a flood of emotions. I know that God will provide the perfect residency spot for my hubby. He has provided for us so well in every aspect of our lives. We have no reason to doubt. I know this. BUT we are such planners, and that makes the unknown hard. But isn't that the whole thing with faith? Isn't that what it's all about? That is: trusting when it's hard, being certain of the unknown, and just knowing that God will provide even when we don't know the "how, when, where, or what" of it all? We have and will place our hope and trust in Him. All will be well.


Lingering thought of the day: I LOVE to cook for other people (You're included in this, my hubby). I LOVE to plan parties--for my family and others. I LOVE to come up with creative, fun ideas to implement in real life--whether social, crafty, culinary, whatever. These things make me happy.

Crepe burritos? That's weird...

Did I mention I love to freeze things? Because I do. Earlier this month I made and froze some crepes, wanting to do something fun with them. So I finally decided what that something fun was. We were going to have breakfast for supper, and breakfast burritos with crepe wraps were going to be the main dish. I defrosted my crepes, cooked sausage, scrambled eggs, fried a little bacon, tore into a grapefruit, assembled it all, and dinner was served.

Dinner was a glowing success by all of our standards and taste buds. The crepe did a very good job holding a breakfast burrito. The only problem was this: crepes are very thin (and weak), therefore have a little trouble holding all of the fillings of a burrito. Also, toothpicks rip their flesh...
One random thought: my plates have no yellow in the salmon colored lining. That is a reaction to the flash of my camera.

Anyway, other than the ripping of the crepe, this dinner idea was a success. It was SOOO quick and easy. It was finished in less than half an hour and simply delish. Yay for crepe burritos!
During dinner we decided the little man was being cute and funny. The next step was obviously a photo shoot, starring none other than my little guy. We took 13 or 14 pictures which were all pretty good, but these three are my favorites hands down.

Despite the booger nose, bacon bite, and chocolate stain on the seat, this smile is FABULOUS. It's contagious. And wonderful. I may be just a bit biased, but I believe that with my whole heart. His big personality explodes out of this picture!

I love this little tough guy picture. Ya wanna go?

It is a minor miracle that I caught this. Isn't it one of the most precious pictures ever?

Lingering thought of the day: I am so excited for whatever this next year may hold for us with the match, a move, starting fresh somewhere new (most likely). I'm a little nervous too, but mostly I'm really excited about starting a new adventure with my boys!