Something different today

http://www.werdyab.com/2013/01/teals-deal.html

Please follow this link and read her blog. This is very important information if you are a woman. If you have time, read some of her other blogs and watch her dance video's.  When she isn't fighting Cancer she is hysterical..well, even when she is fighting Cancer she is hysterical!!

Thanks!

Renee

Socks and Graycie are helpers

 

Baby Socks and Graycie help my Mom play Solitaire on the iPad

 

Socks is holding the chair while Jonathan changes a light bulb.

 

Socks is trying to get at a stink bug on the ceiling even though there is no way he can reach the ceiling...

 

Socks is EXHAUSTED after going through all

of the black Friday sale papers

 

Graycie is helping Bobby by grooming his hair

 

Socks is helping me wrap Christmas presents

Noooo he's not stuck in the plastic bag....

 

Socks helping Jonathan play with his new Christmas toys

 

Socks helping me color my hair

by making sure the directions don't get away

 

Graycie is trimming Jonathan's hair

by chewing off the ends

 

Socks helping me do the laundry

by laying on top of the hamper

                                     And checking the water levels

           ...and finally helping me check under the refrigerator for dust               
                           bunnies..bunnies? where are the bunnies?
                                       can I play with them.....

QUICK! What's for dinner???? Ground Beef over noodles, Beef Tips, Baked Potatoes

The other day I was supposed to make Meatloaf for dinner and when I got home I found out that hubby had to leave for work a lot earlier than I had thought so I didn't have time to make meatloaf since it cooks for at least an hour. Hmmm what to do...what to do..well, I decided to brown the ground beef, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder (didn't even have any onions in the house) until fully cooked.

 While the beef was cooking I put on a pot of water and brought that to a boil and cooked some bow tie pasta I had on hand. When that was cooked I drained the noodles and put them on a plate.

I drained off any fat from the beef. I buy the 97% lean so there really isn't much fat to drain.  I took a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup and mixed it in a bowl, with about a half of a can of milk. When that was all mixed up I poured it into the pan with the fully cooked ground beef and mixed it all up. I let that simmer until it was nice and hot. You have to stir it ever so often so you don't scorch the milk in the gravy.

Then I spooned the beef mixture over the noodles and dinner was ready! We had corn with this and I mixed my corn in the beef mixture too but the men folk don't like their food all mixed up...

Whala!! Dinner was ready in no time at all!

Here's another quick dinner. It's what's for dinner tonight. You will need 2 Slow Cookers. The second one just needs to be big enough for the size and quantity of your potatoes.

Beef Tips and Baked Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 pack stew beef (enough for your family)
2 packs of brown gravy mix
1 Tablespoon A-1 sauce if you have it on hand..it's optional
Don't forget your Slow Cooker Liner!


Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes
3 Baking Potatoes
Sea Salt
oil (vegetable or olive or whatever cooking oil you have)
Enough foil wrap to wrap your potatoes in

 

 Mix Brown Gravy according to Package directions. One package only makes about a cup of gravy so get as many packs as you need for your family. I used 2 packs for a little over a pound of stew meat.

 

Place the Stew Beef in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Stir the beef around and sprinkle some more. After you make the gravy, pour it over the beef in the slow cooker. I added about a Tablespoon of

A-1 sauce on top of the gravy.

 

 Set the slow cooker on low for around 6 hours. You need more cooking time if you have more meat in your pot.

Wash baking potatoes. One for each family member is what I fix but depending on the size of the potatoes and your family members half a potato might be enough. Cover each potato with a little oil. You need one piece of foil wrap for each potato. Place your potato on the wrap after you put oil on it, then sprinkle with Sea Salt. I use the grinder so the salt went everywhere. If you do this on the foil then the salt that went all over the foil can just get wrapped up in the potato.

Place your potatoes in a second slow cooker. I have 2 that are 6qts each. One (the black one) cooks VERY fast and uneven. (That's why I bought a new one at a yard sale...) I forgot to fix the potatoes at the same time as the meat so they went in with only 4 hours to cook. I set them on high. Normally they would cook for 8 hours on low. We will see how these turn out.

Bonus picture of Socks. Jonathan's bedroom door was open so Socks went in. Socks likes to find Jonathan's hair ties and chew them up. Jonathan came out carrying Socks like this..poor Socks.

This week in review (Socks addition)

Socks had a very eventful week this week. I was trying to think of all the trouble he got into this week and I don't think I can remember everything. I might just have to start doing a Socks in Trouble category every day. Hmm lets see, one day he shredded a roll of toilet paper

Another day he got up on my dresser and knocked off everything that was on top of it. I came home and walked into the bedroom and there was all my jewelry on the floor with some clothes on top and a lamp. I bought a lamp to replace the one he broke but haven't put it on the bedside table yet because he keeps knocking the broken lamp over. I figure, if I put the new lamp on the table he will just break it right? He is SO stinkin cute though because I will say "OH NO, Socks! WHAT DID YOU DO!?" and he will come running up and sit there and look at the mess and actually meow like he is SO proud of himself. He is all like.. Yeah I did that isn't it great??

I have a tote bag in the laundry room with books in it that I have read and am going to give away. They just haven't made it to the car yet. Socks likes to lay on top of the books and wait for us to come in the door. One morning I woke up and went out to the laundry room to get uniforms out of the dryer and there was the book bag knocked over and the books slung all over the room. My guess is that Socks got stuck in a handle and knocked over the bag in trying to get out of the bag the book went flying..just a theory.

Hubby works 2 jobs. At his regular job he works 7 nights for 12 hours each night for a total of 80 hours in one week, Yeah, I know, I couldn't do it either but he has done this for almost 25 years now. Then he is off for 7 days. When he is off from the regular job, he drives a bus. He doesn't get a lot of trips but it gives him a little extra money. Recently the company he works for took 27 buses of people to the inauguration. That was a LONG day for him. Anyway, he had to pack a suitcase and take it since they spent the first night in a hotel. He came home and left the suitcase (unzipped) on the cedar chest at the foot of our bed and Socks knocked that off spilling the contents all over the floor. Hubby came around the corner and I told him..say Socks what did you do?? so he did and Socks came running into the bedroom and sat right on the suitcase an meowed at hubby! He was so proud of that mess!

Socks also jumped up on my end table in the living room and knocked over my cup of water all over the mail that was on the table and also splashed water on my brand new camera. Thankfully he only got the strap wet!!

The last thing I can remember him getting into this week is that he jumped up on the bathroom counter and knocked over the plastic container with hubby's q-tips in it and spilled them all in the sink. He had one and was batting it around on the kitchen floor is what made me go look to see where he had gotten it from. Bless his heart. He just can't help himself. hubby says we should re name him. Trouble..aww...he can't help it he's just a baby....

Ice, Ice, Ice Baby...

So, I live in the South. If you live in the South (at least around here) if the Weather report is calling for snow of any kind the first thing you do is panic and then head to the grocery store for milk, bread and eggs. I don't know why..it's just the rule. Maybe Southerners just really like french toast when it snows.

Friday the weather report said we would get snow starting at noon. So, of course, they started closing schools on Thurs. night. Friday right around noon it did start snowing and when I got off work at 1:30 the roads were white. I have no idea where the snow plows were but they were not on any of the roads I drive on. I'm sure they were working very hard on other roads, don't get me wrong they do an excellent job. They had been on the one main road I just didn't see them. So, I started out on my LONG trek home. I took the long way since the short way is very curvy and there is one particular place along the way that if you slide thru the turn you will go down the side of the mountain and I really wanted to avoid that if at all possible. We had a long line of us all driving 20 miles an hour on this one road that was pretty slick but we were taking it easy.

 We arrived in the small town that is on my way home and I turned into the gas station so I could fill up my tank. I pumped the gas and tried to get back on that road and there was so much traffic I waited and waited for my turn to join in...finally there was a break in traffic and I eased out of the gas station into traffic and fishtailed all over the place! Ugh! My tires finally found dry road and the car straightened out and no one hit me! Whew..I then made it to the grocery store for the obligatory grocery run. (No, I didn't get milk or eggs but i did get bread) You see it was payday and I ALWAYS grocery shop on payday for 2 weeks worth of groceries so there really wasn't much to eat. I ran in walked carefully on the ice, and got 2 packs of meat, bread and diet Pepsi. Then I decided that I really didn't want to cook dinner so I went down the sidewalk to the Chinese Food restaurant and ordered me some dinner. (Jonathan was picked up from school by a friend and spent the night at his apartment) While they were fixing my food I went down the sidewalk to the Subway and got hubby a sub to take to work for his dinner, went back for my food and then headed home.

I'm telling you all this detail that I'm sure you just really didn't want to know, to tell you that it took me from 1:30 to 4pm to get home. The roads are so curvy and hilly and slick that you really couldn't go faster than 30 or you would slide. Ugh! I got home in time to tell hubby that the roads were slick and he left so he could drive some of the same roads to get to work. Thankfully we all made it everywhere we went all safe and sound. How much snow did we get you ask?

About 2 inches accumulation. Yeah, I know...but when you live way out here in the boondocks they really don't get those plows out here very often. Today is Saturday and I had to go get Jonathan from town and the snow is pretty much all melted since it was 45 degrees today and a beautiful sunny day. I took Sunshine with me to go get Jonathan and then we took her to a pet store to have a mani/pedi while we went to Walmart to grocery shop. He took the food part of the list and I took the non food part and off we ran. We met back up and went thru the checkout and got back to the pet store in one hour!!! We set an all time record for sure!! We got 2 weeks worth of groceries and necessities and the only thing we forgot (so far) is the diet Pepsi (sorry hubby) And that included driving time, shopping, checking out, loading groceries and driving back to the pet store! I at least am impressed.

Chicken Parmesan

The recipe for tonight's dinner I based on this recipe that I found on pinterest:

http://jamiecooksitup.net/2011/10/crispy-cheddar-chicken/

This recipe is very good like it is on the web site. The only change I make when I make this recipe is that I don't use 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers. I have found that for the 3 of us that one sleeve is plenty. I liked this recipe so much that when Jonathan was helping me plan the menu and he asked for Chicken Parmesan I thought of this recipe. So I changed it and made it Chicken Parmesan.

List of Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup milk
1 sleeve Ritz crackers (I used Walmarts buttery rounds)
salt
pepper
Italian Seasoning
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese or cheddar cheese or a combination of both
3 loaf pans or shallow dishes

 

Line up your 3 dishes. Pour the 1/2 cup of milk into the first.

 

Cut each Chicken breast into 4 pieces. Yes, I have issues...I can't stand to touch raw chicken. I wear gloves. Place the cut up chicken into the milk.

 

 Crush the crackers in a small food processor or put them in a zip bag and beat on them until they are fine pieces.

 

Put the 3 cups of cheese in the second pan and the crackers crumbs in the third. Sprinkle salt, pepper and Italian seasoning in the cracker mix.

 Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the pans lined up but if you go to the link at the top of the page she has great pictures of each step.

 

Take the chicken from the milk and cover each piece with cheese and then in cracker crumbs. You have to press on it to get the cheese and the crackers to stick.  Some of the cheese will fall off into the cracker mix but that's ok because it's all going into the pan anyway. This picture shows that I used just about all of the cheese and crackers and that little bit that is left in the pans I just sprinkled on top of the chicken.

THE MILK GETS THROWN OUT!

Sorry for the caps but that's important. Don't want you to try to keep it. I sprinkled a little more salt, pepper and Italian Seasoning over the whole thing right before I covered it.

Place the chicken in a 13 x 9 baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes or until the meat thermometer reads 165. I uncovered and cooked about 5 minutes longer so the breading was nice and crunchy.

 

Do you like Red Lobster's Garlic Cheese Biscuits? Well, I have a secret. See the Bisquick package in this picture? I found it at Walmart with the cornbread mixes and it tastes just like the Red Lobster biscuits!! I would not lie to you!! They are so easy to make. Just add cold water. The key is to melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and sprinkle garlic powder and parsley into the butter and then baste the biscuits when they are done baking. There! I just saved you $40 by not having to go to Red Lobster to get the biscuits!!

 Now don't go clearing the shelf so there are none left for me!!! hahaha

 

This is what the chicken looks like when it's done cooking. I wish you could tell how good this smells!

 

I cooked Angel Hair pasta noodles to go with the chicken and served it with heated Ragu Traditional Spaghetti Sauce over all of it.

 

Oh my goodness this was delicious.

Pizza Night

I know, I know, I got a little behind on the posting but I have been thinking about you 'cause I have been taking pictures to blog about! teehee

Friday night was make your own pizza night. When Jonathan and I were grocery shopping we were looking for our favorite brand of pre-made pizza crust and they were all sold out. I told Jonathan to remind me before Friday to stop at a regular grocery store and pick up the crust but he saw some "make it yourself" packets that all you do is add water to so we decided to try them.

List of ingredients:

2 packages Betty Crocker Pizza Crust Mix
1 bag Mozzarella Shredded Cheese (4 cups)
1 jar Pizza Sauce (next time we will try a different brand. Walmart brand was a little watery and not much taste) We only used half of the jar.
your choice of toppings. We decided we would make
Bacon Cheeseburger
Ham, Pineapple and Bacon

The crust was easy to make. All we did was add water, form a ball and cover for 5 min. You do need to have a little flour ready to dust on your hands so you can spread the crust onto the pizza pan. It's kind of sticky. Follow the directions on the package and make sure you spray the pizza pans. Mine are non- stick pans but Jonathan sprayed them anyway and it's a good thing. One of the edges didn't get sprayed and he had a hard time getting it off the pan, onto the cutting board so we could cut it. (We don't cut on my non-stick pans)

 

Spread with sauce.

 

Add toppings.  I sprinkled the Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza with some Garlic Powder and some Italian Seasoning.

 

 

Next time we will add more Canadian Bacon (Ham) and leave off the Bacon from this Pizza. All we really tasted was Bacon and Pineapple which was still very good!

                                            YUMMY GOODNESS

 

This was quick and easy. I think we will use this crust mix again instead of buying the expensive pre-made crust. I'm pretty sure the mix was $1. They recommend you don't pile on too many toppings since this will make the crust soggy. I'm not sure that we used all of the 4 cups of cheese since I had an open bag that I used first but we had plenty of cheesy goodness on there.

 

This made plenty of pizza for the 3 of us with some left over for Jonathan's Saturday morning/noonish breakfast.

Ranch House Slow Cooker Pork Chops

Following the 2 week menu that I blogged about, Thursday's dinner was Ranch House Slow Cooker Pork Chops from this Pinterest link that I found.

 http://realmomkitchen.com/287/ranch-house-crock-pot-pork-chops-with-parmesan-mashed-potatoes/

The hubby is still working nights this week so dinner needed to be done by 3 pm and I wouldn't be home until after 3. What to do...hmm...ta da! The Slow cooker (Crock Pot but mine is a different brand so I'm not supposed to call it a crock pot since it isn't...)
List of ingredients:

I used 2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Package of Ranch Dressing mix
6 Boneless Pork Chops
I didn't end up making this biscuit mix but will use it another time

 

At 4:30 in the morning I took my 6 boneless pork chops (still mostly frozen) and 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and mixed in one pack of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing dry packet. I put these 4 things into a slow cooker liner bag and then put that bag into a zipper bag. (I found out that the slow cooker liner bags do leak) 

Then I put that into to refrigerator and left a note for the hubby. After he got home from work he took the bag of ingredients out of the refrigerator and placed the slow cooker liner in the slow cooker and turned it on. He set it for 8 hours on low and went to bed. When he got up his dinner was ready! He fixed a cup of  Uncle Ben's instant brown rice to go with his pork chops. He said they were very good. When Jonathan and I got home the slow cooker had switched to"warm" and all I had to do was fix our sides. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well so Jonathan fixed him some Raman noodles and finished off the pork chops. He also said they were very good. We have a rating system here for new recipes. Fix it again? or please don't ever fix that again! This was rated "Fix it again" yeah! Winner and how easy was that? Pork chops, cream of chicken soup and ranch mix? I do a similar recipe with chicken and I add bacon ..done...I like the easy recipes!!

One handy tip is this. When hubby took the liner out of the zip bag he saved it for me so that when I took the liner out with the leftover gravy in it, I put the liner back in the zip bag before throwing it in the trash so that soupy mess wasn't leaking out of the trash.

Thank you for checking out the blog!

Renee

Sunshine

So, tonight you get to meet Sunshine. She was born in 2003. A local pet rescue organization was outside a pet store with pets up for adoption. She was there with her litter mates. Hubby said we wanted a Golden Retriever puppy and right off the bat I saw Sunshine and asked the helper if I could hold her. They said she is a Golden Retriever Springer Spaniel Mix.  She was so scared! I held her inside my jacket because she was shivering and it was a cool day. Jonathan liked that they share a birth month. Both born in October.

We were able to take her home that same day and have loved every day with her! Jonathan picked out her name. He said we should call her Sunshine because she is a ball of energy and she lights up our life....awww...
She is supposed to be Jonathan's dog but somewhere along the lines she became hubby's dog too! (and when they aren't around she is MY dog haha)

Sunshine is very skittish. We don't know what happened before we adopted her but she is very afraid of anything that is different. If you move the trash can over a couple inches from where it usually sits she comes beebopping around the corner and slams the breaks on like "What in the world is THAT??" I feel bad that everything scares her. She is a VERY good dog and hubby trained her to do a few tricks that come in handy. If I'm out in the kitchen cooking and drop something on the floor it's automatically hers. If I say "Leave it!" she won't touch it. Most of the time she can have whatever it was but if it's hot or not good for her that command comes in handy. She also knows "Shhhhh quiet" If hubby is sleeping and we are leaving we put Sunshine in the room with hubby. I open the door and say "Shhhh quiet!" and Sunshine very lightly jumps on the bed and curls up to go to sleep. If I say "Get Daddy!" She pounces on the bed and goes right up to hubby's face and licks all over his face and ears! She is so smart!

She LOVES riding in the car. We took her along when we went to an amusement park since they had a kennel on the property. We also took her along when we went on a mini vacation and she got to stay in the hotel and then in the kennel at another amusement park. She loves being with her people. She also got to go along when we went to Tennessee and to Maryland to visit family.

I was trying to get their picture.

This series of pictures makes me smile even though a couple pictures are out of focus. 

 

She REALLY wanted whatever I was eating...

 

She gives the bestest hugs!

                      She wasn't so sure about sharing space with Graycie

 

                                             More hugs for Daddy!!

 

She watched movies with us on New Years Eve

 

She knows "Kiss, Kiss!" Big Slurpee kiss for Daddy

 

She LOVES her Jonathan!

 

You might not be able to see but Jonathan has the fish lips going on and Sunshine has her tongue out..hehe

 

                                  She really thinks she's a lap dog

 

She has a great time playing in the bed with hubby. They growl and snarl and she shows her fangs and looks all ferocious and the whole time her tail is just a waggin! Of course the wagging tail attracts Socks' attention...

 

and that is our Sunshine!