Why Things Should Be Labeled....

I thought I was thawing out a bag of precooked hamburger and onions to throw into the Cow Poke Chili I was making for dinner. I was cooking up the Italian sausage for that recipe and when I added the "hamburger and onions" I found it was actually precooked breakfast sausage and onions! Week before last I had made a crock pot dish that consists of cooked breakfast sausage and onions over quartered potatoes. Yummmmmmy. I like to at least double meat cooking and throw one recipe's worth in the freezer. Of course I didn't label it because I was sure I'd remember what it was. Apparently not! However, the Cow Poke Chili turned out just fine made with Italian AND breakfast sausage...and without the V8 juice because I forgot that too. :) I also don't make it with rustic croutons...I just buy the Texas Toast brand garlic and cheese croutons. But I have been saving bread butts and left over rolls in the freezer to make those rustic croutons someday!

One other idea from this week...We made Chicken Ranch roll ups yesterday. Instead of slicing up the chicken and pan cooking it with the fajita seasoning, I put the chicken in the crock pot and mixed the fajita seasoning with a little water and poured it on. Cooked on low for about 4 hours and then shredded the chicken with two forks and put the crock pot on keep warm until we were ready. Some tortillas, shredded cheese, lettuce, bacon bits, and ranch dressing and dinner was ready!

I am happy to report that we are doing well on our weekly budgeting and grocery shopping. I did check out a once a month cook book at the library today. I am not motivated at this point to try it, but maybe the inspiration will strike.

It has been a snowy cold week with Thursday and Friday off of school due to the weather. I have got a lot of spring cleaning done! My sewing/craft/seed starting room is now cleaned so I am organized to start seeds. My kitchen cabinets are all cleaned out too. So is my file cabinet...so I am ready to do the taxes when the time comes soon. And I got 6 dishcloths done for us to use. Hubby commented today how soft they are. I just love using them. We are on our last roll of paper towels, so I'll be reporting about a paper towel-less life soon!

Another Successful Recipe! Easy Chicken...

This time with chicken breasts. It is a modified version of a recipe I came across online. Put your chicken breasts in the crock pot (I had a pack of 3). Mix a packet of dry Italian dressing mix in a little bit of water and pour it over the chicken. Cook on low for a few hours. I then took out the chicken and shredded it. Then mix together a package of cream cheese, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a can of water in the crock pot. Add the shredded chicken back in and cook for another hour or two on low. Serve over pasta, we did bow ties, the Barilla brand (I think that is what it is called!) with the omega 3's and what not in it. I was a little leery, something about the cream cheese in this recipe sounded weired, but it turned out delicious! Like an Alfredo type sauce. We had it with a salad and homemade rolls. Yummy!

It is stinkin cold here and supposed to get even colder! Below zero temps, snow on the ground, and more to come. Winter has made itself known! Pretty sad when you wish it was 25 degrees! That would be a welcome relief! I have been knitting a set of dish cloths to go along with the table cloth dish towels. Oddly enough, these are the first dishcloths I have knitted for us! I haven't been doing anything fancy...cast on 36 stitches and knit each row til it is an even square and bind off. I can get 3 of them out of one ball of yarn! :)

Are you staying warm?

What's in Your Crockpot?

This week my crockpots are my absolute most bestest wonderful friends! I have a deadline to meet which means I am spending a lot of time working toward that goal. However, life must go on, and my family must eat! :)

I discovered this wonderful blog not too long ago, A Year of Crockpotting , so in preparation for this week I researched recipes and made sure the ingredients were bought and ready. It has made life a whole lot easier this week for me, and the hubby and kids are loving the new recipes!

I don't have time right now to tell you the ones I have tried, deadline and all, but I wanted to do a quick check in and tell you that if you are in need of some time saving yummy recipes to use in that magical kitchen tool the crockpot, check out that blog!

And have a great day! :)

I'll Be Drooling in My Sleep.....

because I have both crock pots going and my house is going to smell so nummy! One crockpot has quartered potatoes and onions topped with cooked breakfast sausage for the kids for breakfast in the morning. Yummy! The other has a big pork roast in it to make pulled BBQ pork for dinner tomorrow night. I made four loaves of homemade bread today, but I am thinking I will make some homemade onion rolls tomorrow afternoon to eat it on.

Oh man, I will surely have sweet dreams! :) And a wet pillow from the drool! haha

We had homemade cheesy potato bacon soup for dinner tonight. Not my favorite only because it is so rich flavored, but the family absolutely loves it.

It was a rainy cold day today. We are supposed to have a hard freeze tonight and tomorrow night. I was reading online to figure out if I need to cover anything up. I came across an article that says if you have rain before the freeze that is a GOOD thing because a freeze pulls water from the plants and damages them. It said if you haven't had rain then to water before the freeze and it will protect the plants. For siome reason that seems so counter-intuitive. We had rain all day, so if all that is true then I think we'll be ok. The only things I am worried about are the strawberry plants and the raspberries. I may run out and cover the raspberries. Maybe the strawberries too, just in case. Ok, honestly I won't run out there, I'll ask my hubby to do it. :) He gets the crappy jobs...like running out in the rain to cover plants, de-skunking the dog.....you get the idea...but he LIKES those jobs! And thank God for that! He called me today while he was cutting fire wood and said "If you want a good manly picture of me, come down here because the splitter isn't working so I am splitting wood by hand." :) LOL

Laundry and housework are all caught up for the week, which is why I LOVE Sunday nights....I feel so on top of things.

Have a goodnight!