Beer Chicken!!! (#22)

I have been in a rut! I have resorted to a good 10 to 12 Crockpot meals that are a guaranteed win for this family, and have not really ventured out of my comfort bubble. While watching all the morning shows that I do not normally get to watch with work - I heard someone talk about their 'go-to' meal of Beer Chicken.

Hmmm.... Can I do this in the Crockpot?

Yes I can, according to a fellow blogger at http://www.mydailydish.com/.

The Ingredients!!!

Ingredients

4-6 Chicken Breasts (You can use a whole chicken also, fresh or frozen.)
1/2 tsp Basil
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
1 bottle Beer






Toss it all in your Crockpot and walk away. How long do you ask? It depends:

FRESH CHICKEN
3-4 hours - HIGH
7-8 - LOW

FROZEN CHICKEN
4-5 - HIGH
8-10 - LOW

The recipe I found used Garlic Powder, Basil, Paprika, Salt and Pepper. She also stated, she used those because that is what she had. :-) Good deal, because I was out of Paprika, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE Crushed Red Pepper in the Crockpot! So please, take chances with the spices you and your loved ones enjoy! You know your taste buds best!!!

The finished product!
 

The Verdict:

YUM! Kids ate it with Mac & Cheese, Hubs ate it with Beans and Rice, and I ate my wrapped up in a corn tortilla. Totally a new one in the Crook Family rotation!!!

Crock Pot Pie (#21)

Hello Birthday Bucket List! #15 - COMPLETE!!!

Amanda will be proud, I finally made a Pot pie, and it was AMAZING.

The Ingredients

Ingredients

Chicken - 2 skinless, boneless breasts

Corn - 1/2 cup frozen

Peas - 1/2 cup frozen

Onion Powder - dash

Milk - 1/2 cup

Basil - dash

Butter - 2 Tablespoons

Flour - 3 Tablespoons

Chicken Broth - 1/2 cup

Salt - dash

Pepper - dash

Canned Biscuits - 1 can

 

 

I didn't have Cream of ANYTHING soup, so I had to improvise, and that is where a lot of the ingredients came from.

 

{1 Tablespoon of butter and  3 Tablespoons of flour to make a base. Ass the 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of Chicken Broth, salt and pepper and ta-da  - you have a substitute.}

 

The Finished Crust <3

First, you want to spray your Crockpot, and toss in cut up chunks of chicken. [I read in several recipes that many prefer dark meat, but we only had breasts] Next I added the frozen corn and peas. Again, every recipe had different veggies, and most had celery. This is what I had on hand. Add the spices of your choosing to the pot as well. Finally, you add your soup or soup substitute and mix well. Several different recipes had awesome dough recipes, and options to take your Crockpot liner out and toss the biscuits on and toss in the oven. I didn't have the time or the oven. I took a can of biscuits, and placed them on top of the filling. Added some honey to sweeten the "crust." Placed the lid on top and put a knife between the lid and pot to eliminate the condensation on the crust. Times varied from 3-4 hours on high to 6-hours on low. I choose 3-4 hours on high. At 3 1/2 hours the filling was smelling delicious and the crust was perfect.

 

I really did enjoy this recipe, and with the weather finally feeling like Fall - it was a perfect warm feeling meal. The kids loved the chicken and sauce. I loved the biscuits. Overall, a win for this family and I cannot wait to play with other substitutions with veggies and adding potatoes.

 



The Finished Plate

As you can see, I made a small portion. I was not confident in this recipe. It is something I was never made or ate in my life. You can just adjust the amounts accordingly. This was enough for 4 servings with a side of mashed potatoes.

 

Enjoy Y'all!

 

 

Lord of the Flies (#2)

Lord of the Flies

Made it through 1984, and I am very eager to start...

 Lord of the Flies.

We are having our first Book Club get together today... doubling as a BBQ for my birthday. 7 kids, 4 adults = I think we have NO chance. :-) But, 3 Crockpots going (2 at my house, one at Kristyn's) and the men are BBQ'ing - life is good!

Crockpot Honey Cola Ham (#20)

As a mother of 3, I face struggles daily with picky eaters. I make shaped sandwiches, foods have silly names, and there are rewards systems for trying new foods. (Sue me! I know there are not supposed to be rewards attached to foods, but it works!) My biggest struggles right now are Malakai and his inability to try new things. At 7, he thinks he knows what he likes and that it that. And he knows he DOES NOT eat ham. (Sheesh, that is a harsh thing to hear for a Thanksgiving Dinner loving gal like myself) And then my sweet diva-like daughter, Alannah doesn't want to eat meat unless it is turkey bacon or grilled chicken bites.

While Malakai is at school today, and the kids and I have a play date, my Crockpot will be slaving over a Cola Ham. Let's see how this turns out.

 

Ingredients

These is how it looks PRE-Crockpot! <3 (Brown Sugar
is in the Cupcake)

Boneless Ham (size accordingly to what you need)

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

4 Tablespoons of Honey

I Tablespoon of Mustard

2 (8oz.) cans of Cola

 

You are going to want to make a paste out of the brown sugar, honey and the mustard. This will be rubbed on the sides of the ham that have been scored. (Keep in mind, you can score both sides - just don't go any deeper than an 1/8 of an inch.) Put that rubbed on ham into your Crockpot and pour the 2 cans of cola into the pot. Be careful not to pour directly onto your ham, otherwise all that rubbing will have been a waste. Toss the lid on, turn that knob to low and ENJOY your day for the next 7-8 hours. Alannah, Kal'El and myself are off to the park for a play date while our partner in crime, Crockpot, slaves over the ham.

When this is done, Alannah and I will whip up a quick bowl of Honey Mashed Potatoes. (Regular Mashed Potatoes with honey swirled in. The kids ADORE them!)

***SIDENOTE: I do use a lot of honey. And if you are curious as  to why - here goes. I grew up in a family with very little allergies. When we moved to the South, my little family's allergies exploded. And I was told a teaspoon of local honey will help fight the allergies. And honestly it does. I give them a straight up teaspoon sometimes, but cooking with it is fun. Now, the honey bear - Alannah and Kal'El love Sir Honeybear, so I pour the local honey into a cleaned out Kroger Honey Bear container, and they know to grab honey bear. :-) I love my kiddos!

THE VERDICT:
We all loved it!!! I used a pre-sliced ham, so that was even less work that I needed to do. :-)

My life POST 1984...

I read it.

Mission accomplished.

My thoughts:

Topic #1: E-Books
I can't do it. At least not right now. I like the feel of pages. The smell of the pages, and until Kirkland's brings back the sachet that smells like books, I can't do it. Topic over. :-)

Topic #2: Readers
I am excited that we have a new reader, Amanda! We worked at Borders together also. Unfortunately she can't meet with us because she moved her happy behind to Florida. But, she is super friggin smart, and brings a lot of good points (and explanations) to the online discussions!

Topic #3: 1984
This book did a lot of things - none of which made me want to read it again. I questioned my own government quite a bit. Considered how much of our history is a false or altered telling of what actually happened. It also made me grateful for the freedoms we have that often get overlooked: free thought, will, and speech. This book was a very extreme Nazi like government controlled society.

There were days I felt for Winston. When he began to question Big Brother, I had hope. I love a good rebel, almost as much as a good love story. Enter Julia. (Or the dark-haired girl to start) Is she a spy? No, she is a rebellious insider. They form this relationship and receive help to continue this relationship by a Mr. Charrington. (My favorite character throughout almost the entire book.) Winston and Julia are in love. And to top it off Winston meets with O'Brien and learns of the Brotherhood who is against Big Brother, and he plans to join and basically live happily ever after. In a world of chaos and no freedom, you get the sense of hope with the relationships taking place. With all this going on, I still don't become attached to any of the characters, I just don't get a lot of development or emotions to latch on to - which leads me to continue to hope to see a glimmer of emotion or a character I love. The one character I find myself liking, Mr. Charrington turns out to be a member of the Thought Police which leads to the capture of Winston and Julia. Winston is then tortured in the worst ways imaginable - rats!

The issue that I have wrapping my head around this book is that the characters in the books I normally read are the "I will die for you" in love type of characters. The fact that Julia and Winston turned on each other just breaks my heart. (Maybe they should find themselves a vamp, shifter or a Fae. They love hard. :-P)

Then after all the torture - you are released, and after everything you fought and did not believe in is suddenly OK in your world. 2+2=5 now. What in the world??? It just switched. Ended. Oh man.

*deep breath*

Topic #4: Final Thoughts
When all was said and done, Amanda (being her smart, insightful self) brought up an interesting thought:

Was Winston ever released? Throughout the novel, there were several hallucinations. What makes you think he was actually released, and that he is not just imagining freedom? Perhaps as a coping mechanism. Now, my mind continues to wander.

And thus, my first check mark on the list of 101 Books You Should Read Before you Die.

Birthday Bucket List

For the past couple years, I have made a 'BIRTHDAY BUCKET LIST' that correlates with how old I am turning. Last year, I had 27 things to do during my 27th year. Needless to say, it was not very successful. Haha, my 27th birthday was 3 days before we shut the doors to my Beautiful Borders Store #0472. Which was followed by me being UNEMPLOYED and UNPLANNED for the first time since I began working. I was blessed God to only be unemployed for 6 whole days. Haha. Then came the hard part, we moved during this 6 days of unemployment which followed Malakai having to switch schools twice! (If you have not had to deal with a situation like this, NIGHTMARE!) Plus, I felt like I had been ripped from my entire family. I will not dwell on the loss of my favorite place growing up, and my favorite job thus far, but anyone who worked at Borders would agree that we were a loyal to the core group of people, and we were never there for the money. (HA!) We love those damn books and all their glorious plot twists and turns. I am grateful to still have quite a few of those people still in my life today, a WHOLE year later. I honestly did not expect it. There was a lot of drunken talk at our farewell party that we would never talk again. A year has passed and I have some amazing new co-workers, and even some awesome friends. I have been continuously blessed. We have found a church home, and the kids are all growing up so fast. We are a diaper-free zone now, and I never thought that would happen. Haha. I am happy to say that I did not put on the 40+ pounds I worked so hard to lose during this year of ups and downs. And my husband says I read WAY more now that I can't check them out. Funny how that happens. I look forward to this upcoming year, and I WILL complete my BIRTHDAY BUCKET LIST this year, so here goes it. (There will be some returning characters from last years list that are important to me to complete!)

1) Get my 3 planned tattoos.
2) Get my butt into the friggin' state of Florida. (I live too close to have never gone.)
3) Make a raised bed, and maintain my garden.
4) Be a part of a Book Club that meets once a month. I would LOVE it to be themed meetings, yep. I am a dork. So sue me! (Kristyn, can we do this???)
5) Complete at least one 5k and one 10k.
6) Create the reading corner in my room, like I keeping planning. (It's pretty awesome in my head!)
7) Skirts. (I am going to learn to sew, Alannah and I need more skirts!)
8) Have a garage sale.
9) Take a family picture. We have family pictures, but I mean like a photo shoot. :-)
10) Create and stick to a simple workout routine. (Now that the babies get up when they hear me get up, it's a LOT harder to work out after getting Malakai on the bus!)
11) Decide if I am serious about my store plans, I think I am. But 28 seems like a good year to decide what I need to do to go forward.
12) Go home to visit! LONG overdue, and my brother has a baby and a wife now. All these babies back home that I have NOT snuggled with yet!
13) Learn how to do the canning and preserves stuff. :-)
14) Go roller skating.
15) Make pot pies (Yes Amanda, they are easy - I just didn't do it last year. :-/)
16) Have a date NIGHT or DAY once a month. Even if it is a Wednesday, lol. Once a month.
17) 149, enough said on that one. :-)
18) Quit biting my nails.
19) Make some outdoor patio furniture.
20) Make/Find a vanity for Alannah.
21) Make/Find a fort(clubhouse) for the Boys.
22) Collect the cheesy plastic to-go cups from wherever I go!!!
23) Go to Easely Amused... Even if it is by myself.
24) Go back to school.
25) Volunteer somewhere with Malakai.
26) Host Marchgiving. I was an EPIC failure this year. I blame it on the morning of Borders. :-)
27) Blog more! (Twice a week, so 104 posts by my 29th birthday.)
28) Make a quilt.

1984

After a LONG day of figuring out how to use an E-Book.
Haha, I guess I am pretty content with my paper pages.

Here goes nothing!

My friend, Kristyn, and I are doing what most people hate... We are reading the books those crazy schools require you to read when you should be tanning at the beach, or whatever kids do during the summers now. We found a list titled, "101 Books to Read Before You Die," and we are doing two a month. Tonight I start reading 1984. A book I have always wanted to read for no particular reason other than the simple fact that it was the year of my birth. Silly reason - YES! So, like I said before...

Here goes nothing!