Christmas

Santa gift for Aryan

Santa gift for David

Looking through their stockings. We do this first as I bake the cinnamon rolls.

Zeus is never far from Mike when he is home.

Candle holders from Bekah and Ashley.

Aryan hit the jack pot on books.

Family together gifts.

Here are the picture that I took on Christmas morning. I don't know why it is dated for the 24th.We didn't get all of gifts so I will post those pictures on a later date.

unexpected trip to Utah

Bekah and Ashley

Bekah and Sadie

Sadie and Great Grandma Ansley

Caleb, Bekah and Sadie

We had to make an unexpected trip to Utah the week of Thanksgiving. Mike's mom passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving so we were off to Utah. Luckily the boys were out of school for the week. We spent Thanksgiving with my parents. The high light of the trip was being able to visit with Sadie. She took awhile to warm up and talk but once she did there was no stopping her. To Bekah and my horror Sadie loves ketchup. She was dipping her finger into the ketchup and eating it off her fingers as Bekah and Grandma cringed. We left for home after our visit because we wanted to bet the storm home. It made for a long day.

Aryan's 14th Birthday

I am so far behind it is unreal. Here it is the 2nd January of 2017 and I am just now posting Aryan's birthday. His birthday fell on a Sunday and we had stake conference which we didn't go to so he could sleep in. I know it is bad that we didn't go. We didn't do much since his dad was working. He received some books and bongos. He got the bongos because he is always banging on everything around the house. Funny thing is now he doesn't. I can't believe he is already 14 and 16 is around the corner. That is all today hopefully I will get another out tomorrow. Bye for now.

Hawaiin chicken

Here is another slow cooker dish. It is also a freezer meal that you can have ready in an instant. I did a relief society activity on freezer / slow cooker meals a while back and this is one of the recipes that the teacher provided. It is simple and delicious. You will need the following

2-3 chicken breasts

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vinegar

3 garlic cloves, minced

2T soy sauce

1/2 can of large pineapple chunks

1/2 cup of pineapple juice (from can)

place all in a freezer bag and freeze.

To cook thaw out the bag in the refrig the night before

place into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-7 hours

shred and serve over rice.

 You do not have to freeze it if you don't want to.

I also add the whole can of pineapple since we like to have more.

I don't know where she got this recipe so I can't give credit to that person or book.

I hope you like these ideas. I will try to write about other things as well; as I play catch up on what is happening in our lives.  I sometimes get overwhelmed but I keep moving forward and doing the best I can to keep up.

Until I write again hope you have a great day.

Recipe #5

It has been a while since I made this so here it goes on remembering.

This is a spicy pork chop recipe that I got from the cookbook called Fix-It and Forgot-It.

Yes another slow cooker recipe. Like I said yesterday I use my slow cooker a lot even though I am a stay at home mom. It is funny because I am hardly home, I am almost always gone doing something.

To make this recipe you will need

4 frozen pork chops or more to feed your family

1 cup of Italian salad dressing

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup prepared spicy mustard

1. Place pork chops in slow cooker.

2.Mix remaining 3 ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over chops

3. Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hours, or until meat is tender but not dry.

I don't know if you can tell but mine was falling off the bones. Again I just made peas and carrots. The pasta salad I just added frozen broccoli and added Italian dressing to it.

It was a fast and simple dinner.

If you want you can substitute with chicken.

Recipe 3 and 4

This blog will have two recipes. I am trying to play catch up on what I promised to write.

The first one is Tangy Chicken Legs. I got this recipe out of the book Fix-it and Forget-it. It is a slow-cooker recipe. I use my slow-cooker about two times a week.  The second recipe is the scalloped potatoes from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

Tangy Chicken Legs

8 chicken legs

1/3 cup soy sauce

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

scant 1/8 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 cup water

1. Place chicken in slow cooker.

2. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and spoon over chicken.

3. Cover and cook on Low 4-5 hours, or until chicken is tender but not dry.

I let mine cook longer and just kept it warm until dinner time.

Scalloped potatoes

6 medium potatoes

3 T butter

3 T flour

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 1/2 cups  milk

1 small onion ( I used dried minced onions)

1T butter

Cut the potatoes into thin slices. Heat 3 T of butter in saucepan over low heat until melted. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Arrange potatoes in greased 2-qt casserole in 3 layers, topping each of the first 2 layers with 1/2 of the onion and 1/3 of the white sauce. Top with remaining potatoes and sauce. Dot with 1 T butter. Cover and bake in 325 degree oven 40 minutes or in 350 degree oven 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until potatoes are tender, 60 to 70 minutes longer. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Okay I did make some changes on the potatoes. I didn't precook my potatoes before slicing like the book says and I used dried onions instead. Otherwise I did follow the directions. I did have to cook them longer for two reasons. One my potatoes weren't precooked and I am at a higher altitude, so cooking takes a little longer. We like these better than the boxed stuff.

The vegetables were frozen peas and carrots from the store.

I hope this helps with ideas to fix for dinner. If you want you can add a recipe in the comment section for us to try. We like trying new recipes.

Recipe #2

Here is another recipe for you.

This one is another easy and quick recipe. There really isn't a need to go buy any thing special for this soup. I just used a pound of ground beef and some left over vegetables that I stored in my freezer. I also used beef broth. You can either buy your broth or make your own. Cook your ground beef and then drain if you need to and add your vegetables and broth. Add any spices or herbs you like.

I keep an old ice cream container in my freezer to put all my leftover vegetables in. When the container gets full I make a soup. If I don't have any potatoes in the container I do add some. They can be canned or fresh. It does take longer to cook if you use fresh. This is a great way to use up those vegetables. Also you can add any type of meat. If you use chicken just use chicken broth instead. You can also use vegetable broth instead of the beef or chicken. You don't have to add meat either. I usually add a salad and/or some kind of bread.

I am hoping that these ideas helps you in some way.