Currently, my reality is.....

Due to everyday chaos, life stress, and brain deadness on a Wednesday night, I'm stealing this concept from a blog friend at "Us Just Playing House"

My reality is....

• Husband's slow season, lots of projects around the apartment.
• Husband's slow season, lots of cheap dates at home or out for free, dinners in, and DIY projects.
• Spring/Summer weather hitting and destroying my sinuses.
• NEEDING most lightweight pants, skirts, cool things that aren't dressy after the job change!
• Cooking and Baking experiments.
• "Pinning" 1000's (literally!) of pins that I will get to eventually!
• Spending lots of nights in cuddling and watching movies and TV shows together.
• LOVING my Coffee/Bible Study nights with my girls!
• Getting excited about our two couple friends weddings and two couple friend's babies coming in the next few months! I love showers!
• Spending roughly 45 hours a week at church between work and church and volunteer time and loving every second of it! I love the worship department and helping kids praise God! (Even when they're so goofy I can't really praise through the distractions!)
• Secretly (or not so much now) dreading my husband's busy season returning in 2-3 weeks even if it means more money because it means less time with him :(

Let me know if you play along with this idea! I may have to make it a weekly thing!

Menu Monday has returned!

 

 "Menu Monday" was a part of my weekly routine for about a year and a half on both this blog and my old one, and I have to say, I've missed it!  The button is a bit simple for now, but feel free to grab it and link back if you're doing a menu on your blog as well!

I try to buy only what I need each week as far as fresh foods go.  I keep meats in the freezer at all times, as well most basic non-perishables, so once a month a restock one category, (dry goods, canned/bottled things, baking products, frozen, meat, etc....) and just buy fresh produce and dairy every 3-4 days.  It majorly cuts back on weekly spending, usually I only spend about $40 a week on food, and then once every month about $80 on a stock up trip that lasts a few months.  I'm also a stacking coupon on sales fan, though I'm not extreme to any extent!

I'm a simple, totally informally trained, cook on instinct (color, texture, smell) without a formal recipe cook.  I love looking at recipes, but I'm not a measuerer, so I basically look to see what flavors and ingredients they're suggesting and then wing it.  Plus, I'm cheap and don't buy ingredients if they only go in one dish, so I ad-lib alot of things.  I'll try to provide as many "recipes" as I can, just realize that all measurements are only approximate. :)

So, here goes!

Monday- Homemade Pizza  

      Which my husband will then be able to have as leftovers for lunch for the next two days.

Tuesday- Whole Chicken in the Crockpot, served with Brown Rice and Broccoli

      Literally just as it sounds.  Clean the yucky stuff out of the inside of a whole chicken.  Sprinkle generously with equal amounts salt, pepper and paprika, cover with one can sodium free chicken broth, cook on high 4-6 hours, or low for 8.

Wednesday- Chicken and Rice Stew Served with Yeast Rolls

     Made with the dark meat and some white meat from the leftover chicken, chicken stock, corn, carrots, onion, black pepper and the leftover rice from the night before.  Combine everything but the rice in the crockpot 5-6 hours before serving. Cook on low.  Add 1 Cup Cooked Rice and 1 Cup Water, cook on high for 30-45 minutes.

Thursday- Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

      Chop up all remained white meat from Tuesdays chicken, saute in butter, garlic salt and parmesan cheese, set aside.

      Cook 1/2 Pound Fettuccine, drain and set aside.

      Alfredo Sauce-

      1/2 Stick Butter

      1/4 Cup Milk

      1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

      Garlic Salt to taste/smell

Melt Butter in small sauce pan, bring to low boil add garlic salt.  Whisk in milk, simmer on low until it reaches boil.  Remove from heat, beat in cheese with wire whisk.

Combine all ingredients in bowl greased lightly with olive oil.  Serve with fresh bread and a side salad or steamed green veggie.

Friday- Meatloaf, Potatoes and Broccoli

Saturday- Chili (using leftover meatloaf as ground beef)

I'll add the recipes for the meatloaf and chili later this week as I'm running out of time tonight. 

ENJOY!

Recipe Expirimenting

So I'd seen a few Strawberry Muffin recipes on Pinterest that looked interesting, but they all involved alot of fat.  Sour Cream, Shortening, Cream Cheese, (most of which I don't even keep on hand) etc....so I decided to make up my own recipe.  I combined another muffin recipe I had with my own general knowledge of cooking and baking and I have to say, they turned out really well!  So well in fact, that I got 18 muffins from the batter at 9:30 last night, I've only had 2, and there are only 8 left!  Guess my husband is a fan!

So, I thought I'd share my lucky little creation!

1/4 Cup Butter, melted
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2 Cup Milk
1 Egg
1 Ts Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Ts Baking Powder
1 Cup Chopped Strawberries
2 Tbsp Confectioners Sugar

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.
Line 18 muffin cups with liners or spray thoroughly with non-stick cooking spray.

Chop strawberries, set aside in small bowl.
Mix Butter, Cream and Milk, Add Egg and Vanilla, beat thoroughly.
Add dry ingredients, combine until everything is wet, do not over mix.
Dust strawberries with confectioners sugar, fold into matter.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake 17-20 minutes or until tops are golden.

Next time I think I may pull them out 5 minutes early and sprinkle the tops with raw sugar to make them a little fancier, but they don't really need any extra sweetness.  They're more of a scone flavor than a rich buttery muffin flavor, so you could serve them warm and buttered too, but I'm kind of a purest with my bread products and prefer them as is.  Just a couple of suggestions in case you like options.

Enjoy!

Full menu for this week coming tomorrow.

New Layout

I'm doing a little playing with my blog, let me know what you think, it may keep changing, but for right now, I think I like it.  I think, but you never know. :)

Cream Puffs

Last night we had a couple of friends over for dinner. I love having people over for dinner because it gives me a good excuse to make foods that are hard for two people to eat before they go bad.  Case in point, Double Chocolate Cream Puffs!

 
Cream Puff -

1 C Water
1/2 C Butter
1 Cup Flour
4 Eggs

Preheat oven to 400.

Bring water and butter to a rolling boil in a medium sauce pan.  Add flour.  Remove from heat, beat in eggs, all at once.  You can use a handheld electric mixer or a whisk, the dishwashing-hating me chooses the whisk every time!

Drop 1/4 cup fulls 2-3 inches a part on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.   Bake 30-35 minutes or until they're puffy and golden.




Chocolate Mousse Filling-

1 Large Box Chocolate Pudding
2 C Milk
1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream.

Beat Milk and Pudding Mix until blended and thickening.  Add Cream, beat one more minute. Refrigerate 5-10 minutes.

**Use half chocolate milk for extra rich mousse!

White Chocolate Sauce Drizzle-

1 Cup White Chocolate Chips
1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Melt chips in a microwavable bowl.  Start with 30 seconds, remove, stir, and then add another 15-20 seconds if needed.  Don't heat until completely smooth or chocolate will burn to bottom of bowl.  Add cream and beat with a spoon until mixture is smooth.    Use immediately, or refrigerate and reheat (15-20 seconds) to use within 2 weeks.

To serve-
Split the cream puff, fill with mousse, drizzle with white chocolate, though I'm pretty sure that's pretty self explanatory!

ENJOY!

Go figure.....

As soon as I get into a blogging rhythm/schedule/whatever our computer dies and gets shipped off to mac depot!  Can't win! As soon as it's back I'll post my weekly blogging plan for accountability's sake. I can't commit to anything without a computer at home though, since pictures are a pain from my phone.

Anyone else miss football?

I never thought I'd say it, but this afternoon, I actually found myself missing football.  Mainly because, without football, my husband's channel surfing after church landed us on the Discovery Channel and some special about how the Bermuda Triangle came about and how it creates time space portals and makes planes fly at "lightspeed" and other garbage like that. Am I the only one who assumes that people who believe that garbage and are dead serious about being warped into other dimensions must be tripped out on some crazy drugs?  I'm not sure how you'd say you were time warped into another dimension and then returned to your original portal and destination by a space force with a straight face without some crazy lsd type drugs in your system.

Anyways, I finally got him off the Discovery Channel and onto a James Bond marathon, thank goodness for that!

It's been a lazy weekend, hence the lack of a blog post.  I was planning to write more Thursday, but my headcold filled husband kept me a bit occupied, you know how sick men are. :)  Sad thing is, I enjoy him needing me so much.  I'm pathetic, I enjoy fixing all of my husband's food and cleaning up all his mess and doing all of his laundry and everything else.  I feel bad when I don't take care of him.  Is that weird?  I've been told he's an adult and it's not my job, I've been told it encourages him to be a man-child/weak leader, but I don't believe any of it.  I believe it's my privilege as his wife to also be his helper, and I help in the ways I know how. 

Anyways, the point of this blog is that without the structure of football, Sunday afternoons are actually quite boring, and I'm not a football girl at all.  I couldn't tell you who was playing who, what was going on or what teams records were, I could barely name most of the quarterbacks.  But, I miss the reliability of coming home from church to lunch and football.

Because it's freakishly cold for Houston (45) and gray as all get out, I have very little motivation to leave the house so I think I'll go back to just enjoying my husband's company on the couch and be thankful Pierce Brosnan is such a good looking Bond if I'm going to sit through them for the hundreth time.

Maybe lazy Sundays are so bad after all. :)

Let's see if I remember how to do this!

So, it's been 10 weeks, anyone still following enough to even notice that I'm posting?

It's been a crazy 2 1/2 months, but I'm finally ready to start getting back on a routine.

October started with a move into our new apartment, buying furniture since we sold most of ours in NY, decorating (for real, not with mix-match hand me downs!) and setting everything up.

November started with a 6 1/2 day weekend visit from the in-laws.

Said visit brought on a cold/sinus thing that refused to go away for 6 weeks.

Thanksgiving brought a visit from my sister and her family and throwing my niece's first birthday party.

Black Friday became blacker than planned........(see last post)

December was a blur of Christmas rehearsals, Christmas productions, extra work, decorating, shopping, shipping and baking and then sleeping for about a week.  Our church/my work puts on an AMAZING Christmas Production! Look up Champion Forest Baptist Church Miracle of Christmas 2012 for clips.  We have a full broadway musical, that leads into the nativity story, complete with live donkeys, sheep, camels and an elephant walking across the stage.  Yeah, insane.

December also brought another loss.  A good friend from NY passed away after a 2 1/2 year battle with cancer.  In the beginning of December I watched a close friend bury her baby, and then in the end of December sat 1800 miles away while dear sweet children I used to watch spent their Christmas break burying their mother.  You can read her story HERE.

January was spent trying to get a routine back with my husband home a ton of the time because of slow season in the golf business. My sister and her family were in town most of January, so I was busy trying to keep up with work, home and see them as much as possible.

It's now the second week of February and I've officially meal planned, couponed and kept up the laundry and cleaning for 2 weeks straight.  I'm planning social events and going to color my hair and I'm back in the gym at least a bit (seasonal allergies make breathing while running difficult!) so along with all of this other organization I'm getting back to blogging.

To kick it off, here's my menu for this week-

Sunday-
Superbowl Party
I made

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips-

2 kiwis, peeled and diced
2 Golden Delicious or Honeycrisp apples - peeled, cored and diced
16 ounces raspberries/blackberries
2 (16 oz) cartons of strawberries, diced
1 tablespoon brown sugar (more or less to taste)
2 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor (I used strawberry)

10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
melted butter or butter flavored cooking spray
2 cups cinnamon sugar

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.

2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3.Coat one side of each flour tortilla with melted butter or butter flavored cooking spray. Sprinkle tortillas with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Spray again with cooking spray (not necessary if using melted butter).

4.Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture. Best when made and eaten the same day otherwise the fruit gives off so too much juice and it gets runny.
 
and Homemade Oreos   http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

Monday-
Breakfast for dinner - French Toast Casserole, Scrambled Eggs and Bacon


Tuesday-
Whole Chicken in the Crockpot with Rice and Broccoli


Wednesday-
Spaghetti and Meatballs


Thursday-
Chicken and Dressing


Friday-
Chicken Quesadillas or Chicken and Rice Stew (depends on weather)


Saturday-
Friends coming over for dinner, so need to change the plan




I'll be back on Thursday. For recipes, just comment and I'll add them as I go.


If you're still reading, just let me know, will you? I'm going to work on redesigning things Friday, so things may go down this weekend depending on how long it takes.