June 2012 Ten on Ten

I would have had my Ten on Ten posted yesterday, but my husband send me a link to a zombie game called Rebuild for my phone.  Oh my word I couldn't put it down!!!  We did pretty much nothing on the tenth.  The only thing on the agenda was to watch the F1 Canadian Gran Prix at 1pm.  Saturday was a much more eventful day.  I ran a 5k in the morning and we had a late movie date that night at the theater (gasp!).  The old grey mare ain't what she used to be.  My early 20's self could have gone to the bar after the movie and closed it down.  Instead we went home and I was in bed by 1:30.  Lame.

8am- Jack watching Regan "build a fire so she could make s'mores,"
they really, really, really like s'mores.

9am-  Poor Ethan, after that fire building didn't work out the
little ones invaded his Lego building.

10am- Caught sneaking Almond Milk!!

11am- It would be nice if Jack didn't rip them off.  

12pm- Fresh garlic from the Farmer's Market.
It's a variety from Kazakhstan and it's so good! 

1pm- Time for homemade chili and dogs and my boyfriend
Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari.

2pm- The "Rock Garden" jar in the kitchen.

3pm- My favorite pillow to nap on.

4pm- Regan gets to go to my Mom's house for 2 whole nights all
by herself.  She is so thrilled!  It's a big girl privilege.

5pm- After chili dogs for lunch I needed a salad for dinner.
It did not disappoint!

Please check out Rebekah's blog A Bit of Sunshine and see the other entries and next month join us!

I am a Semi-Finalist for Fashion's Night Out Tulsa!!! Please clink on the link and vote for me (Julie) to be a Finalist and win a makeover and personal stylist consultation!  Voting ends June 18th, you don't need to be a resident to vote.  Thank you!!!!  Oh and my kids will get to see me on TV which would make me the coolest Mom ever, so vote for the kids :).

Shrimp in the Crock Pot or Wok

Oh my!  I really had my doubts about this one.  Not only did they turn out really good, but we are going to experiment with the ingredients substituting fish, it was that tasty.  Everyone ate them up.  I found this recipe on A Year of Slow Cooking and she got it from The Pioneer Woman.  So here's my version.  Isn't that what cooking is all about?  Finding a recipe and making it your own?

Ingredients:

• 2lbs of raw shrimp (mine were peeled and frozen, thaw before you cook them)
• 1 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 T of Tabasco sauce (I used 1)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper (PW uses much more and Slow Cooking uses 1 tsp) 
• 3 lemons, juiced
• 1 T basil (I used the stuff from my spice rack, but by all means use fresh if you can)

What you do:

If you make this in the crock pot- combine everything and cook for about 2 hours, checking every 30 minutes.  That's it.

If you make this in your wok- combine everything and cook on low for about 10-15 minutes or until done. 

I've made it both ways and both were delicious.  There is some major excitement over shrimp night.  I served mine over brown rice that had been cooked using some of the shrimp juice.  Oh my, it was delicious.  I also paired it with green beans and a baguette.  This recipe is a keeper.

On a personal note, I have a sick little one this week so posting will be few at best.  I will also probably get sick myself, as Jack just coughed in my ear for the second time. He's already coughed in my face at least 3 times I can remember.  This weekend I will be performing a one woman show of Tangled because that is his favorite movie and I don't care how many times we watch it if it makes his sick little self happy.  If you haven't checked out the FlyLady you should do it.  I can sit and watch Tangled all day long guilt free because my house is clean.  It's a miracle I tell ya!

What's for Dinner? February Meal Plan

For some reason I had a hard time creating this months meal plan.  There were a few days where I just wasn't sure what to do.  It's going to be a busy month with basketball playoffs.  So my plan has to be pretty flexible.  There are also things like our Valentine date which I scheduled Mac and Cheese, I like to make it easy on the grandparents.  I also add sides according to what I have fresh on hand.  If we are out of fresh I will go to a frozen or canned back up.  The number represents the date of the month.

1-Pork Chops
2-Baked Potatoes
3-Shrimp
4-Roasted Chicken
5-Super Bowl, Party Food
6-Chicken Quesadillas
7-Meat Loaf
8-Potato Soup
9-Pizza
10-Chili
11-Mac and Cheese
12-Leftovers
13-Ham and Beans
14-Homemade Hamburger Helper
15-Pork Chops
16-Sandwiches and Soup
17-Shrimp
18-Spaghetti
19-Pizza
20-Roasted Chicken
21-Breakfast
22-Potato Soup
23-Chicken Quesadillas
24-Leftovers
25-Pizza
26-Pork Chops
27-Mac and Cheese
28--Chili
29-Spaghetti

This month I'll be posting recipes for Crock Pot Shrimp and my Homemade Hamburger Helper.  I'll also show you how to add "Sneaky Vegetables" to meals you make.  I add them in all the time.  So meals like Mac and Cheese, Spaghetti and even Pizza are full of added veggies.

Easy Baked Potatoes from the CrockPot

Seriously one of the easiest dinners I've ever made.  Before I got organized I would never make baked potatoes because I just didn't have my self together enough and I was throwing dinners together at the last minute with what I had on hand.  I usually had plenty to choose from, but if it required more than 20 or so minutes it wasn't going to happen.  It also really stressed my husband out that I didn't know what we were having in the morning, his mom would set out what they were having in the mornings and so it was what he was accustomed to.  Whereas my mom worked a lot of overtime and I made a lot of meals for myself as I got older, just throwing them together at the last minute.  While my husband has never cared what we ate for dinner, this process really caused us to talk about how our childhood influenced our expectations for everyday life.  Hmm maybe a little deep for a post about Baked Potatoes?  Well life is pretty deep!

Recipe adapted from Stephanie O'Dea's "A Year of Slow Cooking"

• You need enough potatoes for your family, but you don't want to stack them on top of each other, which was about 7 for my Crock Pot.
• Wash and take out any bad spots.
• Stab your potato with a knife, but don't stab yourself because no one wants to eat bloody potatoes.
• Dry thoroughly- Stephanie explained that if you don't there will be rust.
• Wrap in foil and place in the Crockpot.
• Bake them on Low for 10 hours or High for 6 hours.  Mine were done after 9 hours on Low and I just moved my setting to warm.

They turned out perfect.  I used leftover chili, cheese and cooked up some bacon for toppings.  I paired it with green beans, grapes and a Baguette.

January 2012 Ten on Ten

I fully intended on posting my Ten on Ten on the tenth, but instead we took the older kids to a skating party and by the time we got home and got everyone in bed there was no way I was plopping down at the computer!  By the way, you should totally go couple skate with your husband, its fun and makes you feel like you're 15 again.

7am Best thing to wake up to.

8am Crock Pot Baked Potatoes, dinner prepped and they were really good

9am-I put Tangled on, he loves Maximus and I think he's crushing on Rapunzel

10am- Made some new play dough

11am- Still play doughing and I made a Pascal

12pm- A good book before nap. Gosh I love those Classic Golden Books

1pm- My partner in dish crime.  Love looking at this while I do dishes.

2pm- Coffee time?

3pm-Awake and making music.  They love this Kitty Piano

4pm- Fresh baked bread for dinner, oh gosh its yummy!

Check out other Ten on Ten posts at A Bit of Sunshine.  And if you didn't do it this month get on board in February.  My goal is to do it every month this year!

Crock Pot Rice Recipe

Go ahead and judge me, I can cook and bake all sorts of things but I am a horrible rice cooker.  I even, oh my I can't believe I'm admitting this, have a rice cooker and I can't make rice in it.  I tried twice, it was awful.  Really it is my husbands and for some reason it just doesn't like me.  So when I was at Stephanie O'Dea  reading her 365 Slow Cooker recipes and came across rice I thought "I can totally do this."  So I did and it turned out pretty good.  I printed out the recipe when I was meal planning so all I had to do was go to the back of my House Journal and start cooking.  

Here is the recipe  from her 365 days posts:

Rub one tablespoon of butter around the bottom and sides of the crockpot

Add 1 cup of rice

2 cups of water

Pinch of salt

Cook on high for 2-3 hours checking every 45 minutes.  Stephanie's was done after 2 hrs and 15 minutes.  Mine was done after 2 hours.  I could tell after the second checking that  it didn't need another complete 45 minutes.  I also modified it by adding a chicken bullion cube at the first 45 minute check because we were having chicken and I wanted it to be extra yummy.  I also used short grain brown rice.  

It got mmmm's and every one ate it.  Jack shoveled it in his mouth, which always makes a mother proud.  I made a roasted, butterflied chicken, salad and a baguette.  It was a yummy meal.  Definitely keeping crock pot rice on the menu.