Saturday, January 16, 2010

a new cooking phase...

so...i'm really in a cooking phase right now. i'm actually trying to find new recipes, and have tried a few out recently that are excellent! i've thought about wanting to do a cooking club, but just don't know how to make it work...but i also want to inspire other wives/moms to have fun in the kitchen as well! so--for now...
...i'm going to post some of the new recipes i have made...
...give a score (on a scale of 1-10...10 being freakin' awesome)
...and give a review (my experience with making it, and my personal thoughts on the meal)
its just for fun, but hopefully will get your creative juices flowing!!

at any point, i welcome new recipes! if you have one you love, please share it with me! i guess you can just leave it in the comment section. that's where my cooking club idea always gets stuck, at making it interactive...but feel free to leave me a comment with your recipe favs...

here's a few things about me in the kitchen:
--i like to cook and bake (i go thru phases of being partial to one...right now its cooking...but i still love baking)
--i keep it simple (i do not like adding a ton of spices that i have to buy a jar of and only use once...)
--i like quick recipes. (i have 3 little guys running around, and don't have hours to make dinner.)
--i don't like chopping onions. (if a recipe calls for chopped onions, i leave it out, and instead add onion powder)
--i like to make a lot. (i love entertaining, and enjoy having recipes that are cheap, but enough for friends!)

So...now when you see random recipes posted with my reviews...you will know why!!
Here's the first one!!

Mexican Roast
1 small rump roast
chili powder
1 can green chilies
1 can rotel
1 can cream of mushroom
1 c. dried pinto beans
1 can water

Wash and dry roast. Rub chili powder all over roast and place in bottom of crockpot. Layer beans, chilies, cr. of mushroom, rotel, then water. Cover, and cook on low 9-10 hours. Do not open lid or stir. Once done, put all in a dish. Pull apart and cut roast up, and mix all together. Serve on tortillas like you would fajitas.

Score: 10

Review:
This recipe was awesome! It literally took me about a total of 15 min.... total!! 5 min to put it all together...then it cooks all day...then 10 min to cut the roast and stir it all when its done. I was a little skeptical...not sure about roast meat for fajitas...but it was really good! the beans, and everything just mixed well together...and it wasn't weird at all! I put the roast in the middle of the crockpot, and layered the other ingredients around the roast. I didn't touch it all day! the recipe says don't stir or even open the lid! :) I used a 9x13 dish to cut the roast up in, then dumped the rest and mixed it all up!
We sprinkled cheese on ours too. I have no complaints....except that the roast was $7....but there was enough for 6-8 people....so it made a lot! The recipe also called for chopped onions, but I don't like to chop onions, so I just left it out, but if you like them, then add them! :)
Super easy. Super delicious!


what are your favorite crock pot recipes??

blog forward

So...i think this is kinda like email forwards where you answer a bunch of questions, then send it to your friends...a little more specific since you don't send it to everyone, but choose someone to pass on to. my sweet friend, andrea, passed this on to me...and i shall graciously accept the challenge...not because i think anyone will read it, but because i like to answer the questions. :)



hmmm....to answer all of these in one word answers:

1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your hair? short
3. Your mother? mom
4. Your father? dad
5. Your favorite food? american
6. Your dream last night? clueless
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream / goal? studs (to raise them-just clarifying)
9. What room are you in? living
10. Your hobby? photography
11. Your fear? geckos
12. Where do you want to be in six years? hmm...
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? negative
15. Muffins? banana
16. Wish list item? jeans
17. Where did you grow up? arlington
18. Last thing you did? sit
19. What are you wearing? pjs
20. Your TV? friends
21. Your pets? none
22. Friends? awesome
23. Your life? faith
24. Your mood? peaceful
25. Missing someone? andy
26. Vehicle? galant
27. Something your not wearing? socks
28. Your favorite store? oldnavy
29. Your favorite color? green
30. What was the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? awhile
32. Your best friend? andy
33. One place that I could go over and over? beach
34. One person who emails you regularly? molly
35. Favorite place to eat? out

I'm passing the "Your Blog is Over the Top" award to my sisters...carleigh and stacy....

love or in love?

so, we are headed out the door to the gym this morning, and the boys are getting their jackets on:
ian: "i really hope abby is there today." (referring to our little friend, abby naylor, who we played with at the playground yestarday)
logan: "me too." (nodding in a very serious way)
ian: "yeah, i really love her" (slipping one arm into his jacket)
logan: "you love her?" (with a little disbelief and attitude in the tone and face)
ian: "yeah, i do." (with a slight sigh, and raised shoulders as if he just admitted something super serious)
logan: "like, you love her? or you are in love with her?"
ian: "just i love her" (and they continued to just turn around and walk away to the car.)

ok. first of all...this story doesn't do justice without seeing the hilarious expressions on their faces--but i couldn't justify not recording it...and second of all....how the heck does logan already know the 'difference' between love and in love?

they are growing up way too fast...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

perfect weather!!!

this week has been soooo awesome to get outside and play! i decided it had been awhile since i'd played with my camera, so we took advantage of the gorgeous weather, and headed to the TWU gardens. the boys were a little skeptical when i told them there wasn't an actual playground, but i assured them they would love it. and of course, as ian put it, "this place is awe-some!" they loved exploring the rocks, and pretending they were protecting something (i don't know what), and fighting bad guys. it was great, and the only complaining i heard was when i asked them to look at me and smile. o well, who wants to sit still when there's an adventure just waiting for you? i managed to get a few cute shots though....and it was fun to shoot again...even though most of the time, i was following tysen making sure he didn't fall on the rocks...:)





Thursday, January 7, 2010

the first 'real' injury....

i'm sure i will laugh at this later, but this is the worst injury we've had in our home thus far, so i thought i'd record it. pretty good record considering i have 3 boys, but we've just not been prone to accidents yet (other than bumps and bruises).

so, last night, one of the youth girls brought logan on her back to come find me, and said he had scratched his foot. i looked at it, and the heel was covered in blood, and was literally dripping everywhere.

we set him on the counter and there got to be a little pool of blood under his foot. it was a lot! but then again, what do i know? a friend grabbed papertowels for me, and i was trying to stop the bleeding, and logan was screaming...youth kids are all coming in...ian is standing there with eyes covered saying, "i cannot look at this. i cannot look at this. i cannot look at this"...and tysen is just running around without a care in the world. logan was crying so much i stopped touching him, and just held a papertowel under his foot to catch the blood (it was still bleeding so much i couldn't tell if it was a cut or a chunk, so i just stopped) while we summoned a sweet leader who is a nurse...she came and saved the day!!! another leader brought softer papertowels, so it wouldn't hurt him to put pressure on it...i had a friend take ian out (since he was obviously traumatized by the blood and screaming)...and asked another friend to watch tysen. i was still trying to figure out what happened, and it turns out there is a piece of metal hanging off the front of a couch he was playing on...so when he jumped over the couch, it sliced his heel.

andy jumped in and got logan calmed down (and the youth girl who originally brought him to me held his hand the whole time...sooo sweet!) and the nurse got him cleaned up and bandaged. it wasn't too deep, and good news: he's going to be fine, everyone...haha...i know this isn't a big deal, but i've never seen so much blood from my kid before! (thankfully!!)

the friend that took ian out later told me that as they were leaving he said, "i cannot listen to him screaming anymore..." and then again later she heard him saying quietly to himself, "he's gonna be ok. he's gonna be ok"....about broke my heart. he's such a compassionate kid. he was very relieved to find logan --not screaming-- and foot--not bleeding....

school is closed today from an ice scare. i'm pretty sure there's very little ice on the road, but we texans close up just in case! :) so that actually worked out. he's got his foot all propped up while they play video games...i'm pretty sure he's going to milk this for awhile. :)

thank you, Lord, that this is the worst we've had to deal with so far....

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

First post of the new year

well...this is my first post for 2010. this year was bound to start with us running full speed, as andy started a 1-week class on jan. 4th. ya know, he leaves at 7, and gets home at 6 routine all week....he's in class all day, so his brain is frying like eggs....i still don't know how he does it. he amazes me.

logan started back to school, and though we were ready on monday (and even showed up for school), he started on tuesday of this week. he's so glad to be back...but said he got in trouble today for pushing....that's out of character for him, but he was up a lot last night due to his sick brother...i had to drag him out of bed this morning, which is very rare.

tysen has been so sick. a cold turned sinus infection, but not before he gave the cold to me...he's finally on an antibiotic so i'm hoping to see some improvement, cuz long weeks with andy so busy, are worse when we are stuck at home. and its freezing outside. it is nice to have cuddle time, since that only happens when he's sick...but i'd prefer that to be during the day and not at 2am. :)

ian is just great. he's my easy kid right now. goes with the flow. we made rice krispie treats today, though he mainly just wanted a bowl of marshmellows. he has spent a lot of the day boxing with his shadow...oh, if you could all just sit and watch the movie of 'ian'...he's so entertaining!

i'm on a new mission to cook more! i'm tired of fast food (though eating out is one of my favorite things to do)...we had chicken wraps on sunday, grilled chicken and potatoes on monday, taco macaroni last night, and tonight is chicken salad sandwiches (or turkey for the boys)...has to be something i can pack up and take with us to church. tomorrow night is stroganoff spaghetti and meatballs and friday will be 3-bean chili....i want to start a cooking club where we all share our menus for the week .... might give us all good ideas and new recipes to try. still working on that.....

well, there's a lot of nothing, really, but i felt like writing something to start the 2010 blog....:):) next time i'll try to have pictures cuz they are way more fun!:)