A Year of Crockpotting?

As I close this week of crock pot recipes, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite food blogs for crock pot ideas.  Stephanie decided to spend a whole year cooking all of her family's dinner in the crock pot.  (I can't even begin to image trying that!) 

She shared all of her recipes and experiences on her blog A Year of Slow Cooking.

I don't know how she came up with so many different recipes, but can't wait to try some of them out.

Did you know that you could make fried rice in your slow cooker?  I didn't. This is probably one of my most favoritest meals in the whole world and I can't wait to try it.  (We're actually going to give it a go tonight for dinner!)  

Dear Hubby LOVES his applesauce.  He and The Perfectionist eat it every night after dinner.  I guess it's like Paul Blart "Mall Cop" said it just kinda fills the cracks in the heart...or in this case the stomach.  Someday I'm going to give this Applesauce Chicken recipe a go.

Since we are still Texans at heart, this Taco soup should be a big hit with everyone in my family.  I can't wait to try it on a crisp fall Saturday after being at the boys' football games all day.  That's my idea of perfection!

If you are into Slow cooking even an itsy, bitsy bit, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Stephanie's blog A Year of Slow Cooking. You'll find yourself printing and pinning a TON of yummy crock pot recipes!

Crock Pot Mushroom Hamburger Recipe

Sometimes when you are part of a family, you have to eat things that you wouldn't necessarily choose if you were by yourself.  It's one of those things you do to show your children how to be polite when they are at someone else's house eating dinner and they have something "gross".  I feel that way with pasta.  My kids all know it.  I don't hate it, it's just not something I would choose if I could have anything in the world that I wanted.

This is one of those meals, that I have kept secret that I don't really care for.  My kids ABSOLUTELY love it and would have it much more often if I were a "good" mom.  I like it because it's easy and I can have it with rice.  (I will eat anything if it's on a bed of rice...YUM!)

It's also one of those meals that doesn't take much prep time because I can use things right out of the freezer and pantry.

Ingredients:

2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 can Milk

Hamburger Patties (we have to have 2 per person, it's that Good!)

I usually buy the big boxes of Hamburger patties from Walmart so that we always have this meal on hand.  It makes it pretty easy to just drop a bunch of patties in the crock pot.  Depending upon how high a fat content you purchase can effect this meal.  Sometimes with the cheaper stuff, I have a layer of fat on top of the meal when I go to serve it.  Just skim that off if you want.

Add your favorite seasonings to the top of the patties.

Add a 1/2 can of milk to 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup.  Mix it up good with a wire wisk.  Be sure to mix carefully since the milk has a tendency to splash up. (Is that just me?)

Pour the mushroom soup mixture over your hamburger patties.

Cook for 8 hours on low.  

Serve over rice with your favorite sides.

Pinning Your Dinner

It's a cold, rainy day here in Colorado.  A pretty rare occurrence.  It's the kind of day you want to curl up in a blanket with a good book and have your crock pot cranking out homey, yummy smells for dinner. 

Or maybe you're wishing you were home working hard at pinning away a good dinner.  After all, if you've pinned the recipe on Pinterest, it's almost like you made it right?

Here are a few favorites that I can't wait to try from my Crock Pot Recipe Pinterest board.

Barbecue Ribs in the Crock Pot by Team Hess

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin by Recipes We Love

Crock Pot Philly Cheesesteak Soup by A Year of Slow Cooking

and how about dessert while you're at it?

Crock Pot Peanut Butter Cup Cake by Cookies and Cups

Check me out on Pinterest for more great recipes and party ideas!

Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken Recipe

When I was little, I remember one of my favorite parts of my birthday was going out to lunch with my parents and then picking what I wanted for dinner.  I felt so "Big" and "in control" that I got to pick what ever I wanted to eat that day.  

Now that I'm an adult, picking what to eat every day is TORTURE.  What I wouldn't give some days for someone else to pick what we are going to eat.  I don't mind cooking, I just hate to pick what to eat.

For those days, I like to fall back on my childhood favorite...Hawaiian Chicken.   I remember my mom cooking it in the oven and it would make the whole house smell wonderful for the hour it cooked.  I don't know if my crock pot version is better or worse now.  It's A LOT easier than the oven version since I usually prepare and freeze everything before hand and then just throw it in the pot that morning, but it's a lot worse in that I get to smell the aroma ALL day.

I know this is the UGLIEST picture EVER of a recipe, but I wanted to show it to you to prove that I just throw it directly in the crock pot from the freezer and that it's so yummy that I forgot to take a picture of it done and on my plate.  (Maybe next time we have it, I'll update this post with a pretty picture.  Then you'll be sorry you asked because it will TOTALLY tempt you into making it!)

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts (I usually use about 1 per person.)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Apple Vinegar

4 TBSP Cornstarch

1 cup Ketchup

2 TBSP Chili Powder

1 small can Crushed Pineapple

Directions:

Place chicken breast into the crock pot.

Mix all other ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Pour sauce on to the chicken.

Cook for 8 hours on low.  Serve over rice with your favorite sides.

If you are looking to freeze this for extra easy preparation, place your chicken into a freezer safe zip top bag and pour the sauce on top.  It's a good idea to perhaps freeze it in your pot so that it will fit without you having to saw and hammer at the block of chicken to make it fit in the crock pot.  (Not that this has ever happened to me...I'm just saying. )

I hope you enjoy it.  And "your welcome" for not having to figure out what to cook for dinner on one of those crazy party, sports, or activity nights!

Crock Pot Ham Recipe

Sometimes the hardest part of planning and executing a party (at least for me) is the hours leading up to the party when you are in full panic mode and your family is clammoring for something to eat.  It's hard to want to drop everything your doing and make dinner and you don't want to blow your budget on a few pizzas that end up costing $30.00!

That's when I am grateful for my crock pot!  I don't know who invented this wonderful machine, but I love mine.  My love affair is kinda funny when I think about it.  When Dear Hubby and I first got married, we must have been given 3 or 4 crock pot.  At the time, I had no idea what a wonderful, priceless gift this was, so I eventually gave them all away.  GASP!

It wasn't until years later when I became a busy mother of kids in drama, sports, school, and church activities that I discovered the joy of crock pot cooking.  And I loved that I could turn my family's favorite meals into easy crock pot dinners.

This week, I'm going to share a few of my favorite recipes in the hopes that it will help ease your party preparations and give you a few new yummy meals to try out!

We love a good ham at my house, but when I cook it in the oven, it has the tendency to dry out a little.  It's still good, expecially dipped in applesauce, but this Ham Crock Pot Recipe is a definite easy favorite.

Ingredients: 

Hormel Black Label Ham

1 small can crushed pineapple

1/4 cup brown sugar

In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and pineapple.

I always spray my crock pot with cooking spray to help the pot clean easier after a long day of cooking.

Place your ham in the center of the pot.

Pour your pineapple and sugar mixture over the crock pot.

Cook on low for 6 hours.

Serve with a yummy baked potato or favorite side.

Did I mention that I recommend applesauce?

YUM!!

Back to School Dinner

Last week my kids started school finally.  I think they were ready for it.  I know that I was.  I LOVE having my kids around, but by the end of summer, they have done all the fun stuff and are ready for the schedule and new activities of school.

To start each year, we like to have a special dinner and Dear Hubby gives each of our kids a Father's blessing to help them through the school year.  It's a fun and special night in our family.  This year, I went with a black and yellow ruler theme for the dinner.

Since I'm a working mom now, I didn't have a lot of time to get both dinner and the dinner table ready.  I used a lot of the elements from last years dinner with a few upgrades thrown in.

I started with a black tablecloth and then took 3 of the ruler place mats I made HERE and placed them down the center as a table runner.

Then I found a vase at Dollar Tree and went out and picked some wild sunflowers from the side of the road. I paired that with 2 white candlesticks in matching clear candle holders.  I was tempted to go with black candle holders, but didn't have any extra black spray paint on hand.

To finish off the table, I made personalized plates with a ruler theme for everyone in my family.  Then I used the napkin rings that I made HERE and wrapped a yellow strip of paper around the black base to tie in with the colors. 

It made for a quick easy, but super cool looking Back to School dinner.

Stuck with You Teacher Gift Idea

I guess I'm still a little stuck on Back to school ideas, and was super excited when I stumbled across a Pin from The Celebration Shoppe.  I tracked it down and it was a guest post by Deanna from Mirabelle Creations.

Using a push pop case filled with white candy, Deanna made a school "glue stick".  Isn't it super cute?  You can see the whole post with directions and free printables HERE.

A Teacher Can't Live by Apples Alone Teacher Gift

You know those ideas that you have that seem so easy when you come up with them?  Well, this was one of those....but it was also one that was so darn hard to execute.  And not because the project itself was hard, it just seemed like everything went wrong. 

But in the end, I love how it turned out and will be sad to let this little beauty go visit another home.  Hopefully my kids' teachers will love it as much as I.

When I saw these lovely candlesticks on Pinterest, I knew I had to have a set and wanted to play with the idea of how to do them on other items.  It took me a while to track down the original pin and where it was pinned from (can I say "Pet Peeve"---pin from the SOURCE people!)  It was a message board with a little bit of direction...of course, I can't find it now, so I'll have to keep looking and let you know when I find it.

The idea said to use regular Elmer's school glue and food color to achieve the sea glass effect.

I mixed mine up in an old sour cream container with a lid since the original poster said she had to put several coats on the glass to make it look so pretty.

My first attempt turned out BEAUTIFUL, but way too pink for the apple look I was going for.  I'm glad because now I have a jar for myself, but it ended up costing me a day.  I had to go home and find some red food coloring instead of the rose color I had tried.

My second attempt turned out better.  I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but it's a beautiful red sea glass color.  In the light, it is so pretty.

I filled the jar with Hershey Hugs candy.  It took about 1/2 a pound to fill one of the small mason jars.

During all my stress time trying to get everything together for this project, I spray painted the lid to the jar and a small empty thread spool.  (At least I got something accomplished during that week when I couldn't get it all together.)

I glued the spool on top of my jar to look like an apple.  (If you stretch your imagination...you can see it right?)

To finish off my project, I printed out the tags that went to our Teacher Hugs Candy Topper set.

Using the curly ribbon style that I showed you on my Candy Bouquet tutorial way back when, I tied the tag to the top of the "stem" on the candy jar apple.

Now it's ready to go make a teacher's day with a few hugs!

Back to School Personalized Plates

And that my friends is why I'm not allowed to start a book unless I have NOTHING going on.  After telling you about the new Harry Potter series, I thought I would check out the first little bit to see if I'd actually like it...well, I got hooked.  I ended up reading the whole book and starting on the next one.  I'm so bad that way.

Luckily, I had a deadline on my Back to School party so I came out of Hogwarts to make a few last minute decorations.  I've seen directions on how to personalize your own plates on Pinterest, so I knew I wanted to try them for my dinner party.  And I'm so excited to say how well and easy they worked.  The possibilities are endless and I can already see fun Christmas gifts for all my family this year.

I started with a yellow plate from Walmart and an idea of what I wanted.  I used a dry erase marker to test out my design and make sure it worked.  I wanted a ruler theme, so I used the dry erase marker to mark out my lines to make sure they were even.

Once I was sure of how it all lined up, I used a black sharpie to make my ruler lines.  Then I went back and wiped off the dry erase marker.

I loved how the ruler design turned out, but I felt like my plate needed a little something extra.  I thought it would be cool to used colored sharpies to draw an apple or something fun in the middle, but decided to go with a personalization.  I drew lines to look like a writing tablet and added each of my kid's names in the center of the plate.  (Again, I did it first in dry erase to make sure I got it even and liked how it looked.)

Then I baked my plate at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  I don't know if you need to put it on a cookie sheet, but I decided to do it just to be safe.

I let the plate cool for 20 minutes and then checked it.  I noticed I had not erased all of the dry erase markers in spots, but they wiped right off even after being baked.  But the design I made in sharpie stayed with no smearing or rinsing off.

I'm so excited about how these turned out.  I am a sucker for plates for every holiday and this is a cheap fun way.  You can make them for different holidays, as gifts, as a special plate for a birthday...the ideas are endless!

Back to School at Hogwarts

As I'm sending my kids back to school in a week, I'm hoping I'll have a little more "free" time in my day.  Time to get some laundry done (and have it stay done for more than a minute or two), time to enjoy a quiet cup of Hot Chocolate as I enjoy the sun rise over my mountain (yes, I love Hot Chocolate in the fall!), and time to read a book or two.

And I'm super excited too, because I just discovered Hogwarts is back in session now too!

I don't know how I could have missed a sequel to the wonderful world of Harry Potter, but I did.  I only just discovered that Harry Potter's son James has a series of 4 books (so far) that tell his story at Hogwarts.

I'm about 3 chapters into the book and I was a little worried about how I would feel with someone other than JK Rowlings writing the books, but I admit, I'm enjoying it so far.  It's fun to see some of my favorite characters as grown ups and the next generation getting into lots of trouble as they roam the halls of Hogwarts.

I'll let you know how it goes, but if you want to join me, you can't find the series in the local bookstore.  They are only available as E-books to download.  But you can find them for FREE here or on Good Reads here.

Here's to a Sweet Year Teacher Gift

I'm beginning to think it might be a good idea to butter up my kids' teachers each year.  With some of them, school is NOT their favorite place to be and it can be a tough year.  So I've been thinking about some inexpensive teacher gift ideas to start the year off on a nice note.

I saw these great M&M themed cups at Walmart this summer and I bought a few.  I'm not a hundred percent sure they are still available as my Walmart is not the best place to base any shopping on.  But if you can't find them, I know they have other themes and styles available.

Then I made up a candy topper that says "Here's to a Sweet Year" and printed it out.  I used a border from my Candy Dots collection that looks like M&M circles.

(This is the same style as my other candy toppers with the 4 sizes to fit whatever type of candy bag or container you have.  I printed out the tag size.)

I took off the lid and filled it with M&Ms.

I screwed the lid back on and then tied the tag to the straw with yellow ribbon.

Now I have a sweet gift for each of my kids' teachers.  Hopefully this will butter them up and have them think "happy" thoughts about my kids every time they use their cup.

Yes, I'm not above Bribery.

Here's the tag version of my candy topper if you want to try making one of these for your teachers.

I hope I'll have the rest of the set up soon.