Sharing Some "Crockpot Goodness"

Please note that the photos above are all property of their respective owners, and are correctly linked on my Pinterest page!:)

Some of my friends and I were discussing the virtues of our crock pots this morning at church. I have to apologize to my mother: she tried to convince me that it was the most marvelous piece of kitchen equipment and I ignored her excellent advice for the first 7 years of my marriage. I have now seen the error of my ways!

I approach crock pots recipes a little differently than normal ones. A huge reason I use my crock pot is to save time. If I have to cook a lot of things, or the recipe has more than a few steps, I just skip it. I do have a couple of recipes that I like that I have to cook one extra component (rice, ground beef) but for the most part I want my crock pot to *cook* not just heat!:)

I also categorize those recipes differently on Pinterest. I have a board dedicated entirely to crock pot recipes, because usually rather than wanting a specific meal, I want to use my crock pot! So, I thought if you felt the same way, maybe you would appreciate it if I shared some of my best loved recipes with you. You can find all my crock pot pins on my "Crockpot Goodness" Pinterest board!

1. CrockPot Chicken Tortilla Soup This is my favorite tortilla soup recipe. It is soooo easy! I love that it calls for all "pantry" ingredients-that is a recipe that doesn't call for fresh ingredients, only frozen or shelf stable. I usually have all the ingredients on hand, so it is quick and easy to throw together. I have discovered that if I put my substitutions/recommendations in the comments of my pins, it makes them easier to keep track of, and then if I have a friend I want to send the recipe to, all the changes are attached! You can see my subs for this recipe on my pin. This recipes makes a ton, it would easily serve 8, so I always freeze half of it, and then heat it on the stove top. Two meals from one crock pot recipe? Yes, please!

2. Crockpot Baked Potatoes This is one of those that you probably think: isn't that easier to just do in the microwave or oven? Well, it is probably the same amount of work any of the three ways, but the skin is just delicious this way, and it is handy for me because I buy *gigantic* Costco potatoes, and they fit better in my crock pot than in the microwave! It is also nice to get started on this part of dinner earlier in the day. We usually have entree potatoes by adding ham and cheese, or chili on top. It also gives me a lot more flexibility about when dinner is ready!

3. Crock Pot Beef Stew This link leads to 8 crock pot meals that you can prep and put in your freezer. I am just not that organized so the ones I have made I just prepared the day of and put everything straight in the crock pot. (I have also made the taco soup and it is yummy, my notes about that are on the pin, too.) This beef stew is just amazing! It was so tender, definitely better than my attempts on stove top and so much less time consuming. Please notice that I recommend to wait until the end to add the peas, or they will be mushy and also unappealing in color.:)

4. Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Rice I learned the trick about adding the peas at the end of a crock pot recipe by reading the comments on this recipe. (I add peas to this to give it a little more nutritional value, about 1 and 1/2 cups cooked frozen peas.) It is a really tasty spin on chicken and rice, and I skip the part where she says cook the corn at the end and add it, and just put frozen corn in at the beginning when I put the chicken in. You do need to cook the rice separately, and I am never on point enough to do it the day before like she suggests, but for some reason it is just easier for me to think about dinner before lunch, so I just make the rice then. Another reason I love my crock pot!

5. Honey Sauced Chicken I make a lot of chicken dishes, and so that is probably why 3 out of 5 of these recipes are for chicken. This honey sauced chicken is really easy, however, if you have more than 2 adults and two small children, you will want to double this recipe. For some reason, I use about a pound (the recipes calls for 3/4 lb.) and it still doesn't seem like quite enough. But that could also be because Joel loves it! I serve it with rice and stir fry veggies.

I have tried several other recipes on my board, too, but I don't want to spoil all the fun! If you are looking for some inspiration, take a look around. May your crock pot be as useful to you as mine is to me!

The Book Basket: March

I posted about the "book basket" last month, and I have to admit: I didn't think it was going to work. I didn't want to mention it to the kids (specifically Carson) because I wanted to see if they would notice on their own. And finally, at the very end of the month, he dragged every single book out and we read them all twice in the same sitting! He liked some of them so much, that I left them out through the beginning of the month, and I just changed them the other day.

I realized another benefit of the basket is that I can read to Carson while Josie is schooling, since it is down in the living room. I read so many picture books to Josie before Carson was old enough to understand or appreciate, and by the time he really got into picture books she was into chapter books. I think it is important to read both, and we read the chapter books (or just the "chapter" as Josie refers to them) at night before bed. We recently finished all the "Little House" books and are on our third "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle". Anyway, I just think Carson kind of got slighted in that department. So this is especially for him!

 I debated when choosing a theme for this month. I thought about doing Easter, but I didn't want to be constrained by just the holiday. I also thought about doing books just on "green" but that also felt a little too constricting. I finally settled on a loose theme of colors: either books about colors, or with a color in the title. We ended up with:

1. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess, of course! A perennial childhood favorite that is delighting Carson, especially since he is learning to read. He was amazed he could recognize some of the words!

2. The Little Red Hen, Little Golden Book edition. Bless Chick-fil-A for bringing back some of these classics. Carson couldn't believe that the Hen wouldn't share her bread!

3. How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. This has demonstrated the difference between reading to girls and boys. Josie didn't give a hoot about the dinosaur names, but Carson had me repeat them over and over.

4. Green Bear by Alan Rogers. This is an old Discovery Toys book that was a favorite of my sister, Lisa Dawn. It always brings back fond memories of her.

5. A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. This book has sweet art, and is a simple ode to friendship. It is one of those that never got pulled off the shelf. It is nice to see it in the rotation.

6. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. One of my childhood favorites! It is so full of whimsy and I love the minimalistic drawings. Definitely a book to encourage imagination.

7. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. We used this book to teach Josie her colors, and I am particularly fond of these sturdy board book editions.

This month's selections are a hit already. Carson and I spent over half an hour reading this morning. I am already planning out new "collections"!

St. Patty's Paper Garland

 I was admiring my heart punch the other day when I realized it would make great shamrocks! So, I took some paper, some scrapbooking brads and a little bit 'o twine (like that Irish accent?) and put together a little garland.

 

You'll need:

-large heart punch (mine is 2 and1/2 inches, from Micheal's, around $10 after 40% off coupon)

-jute twine (just in case you didn't know, and I didn't, this is with the jewelry making stuff at HL)

-decorative scrapbooking brads (called "Spare Parts" at Hobby Lobby. I bought 1/2 inch ones. $1.50 at half off.)

-paper  ( I bought five different ones, and only ended up using four. You will only need one sheet of each to make an approximately 5 foot garland.)

-standard hole punch

I decided I preferred the way three leaf clovers looked over four leaf ones. Clovers still represent St. Patrick's Day, and I don't believe in luck anyway! So, I punched out three hearts for each clover, and then free handed a little stem pattern. Your stem will need to be longer than you think, since part of it will be covered by the leaves. 

Then I stacked three hearts together and pushed a thumbtack through them close to the bottom of the heart. The brads I bought weren't sharp enough to go through that much paper on their own, so this helped to get them started. 

Then, thread the brad through, and before separating the prongs on the back, arrange your hearts to form a clover. When you like the arrangement, add your stem, and open the prongs to stabilize the brad.

And you have a clover! Repeat for as many clovers as you need. I bought 12 brads and only ended up using 10. Then punch holes with a standard notebook punch in the two horizontal hearts, and thread them on your twine. I tied knots in between the clovers to add some visual interest.

And then hang your garland wherever you like! I thought this was a great way to re-purpose my heart hole punch. I was also happy that I could use more muted greens, rather than being stuck with the bright Kelly green that most store bought St. Patty's decorations use.

I know Easter is early this year, but I didn't want to overlook poor, forlorn St. Patty's! I think my garland brings a little bit 'o cheer... okay, I will stop with the accent!:)

A Very Late Valentine Day Recap

 So, I debated about whether or not to publish this, because I have a St. Patty's Day craft that I really want to get posted *before* the 17th, but I decided that I better go ahead and put it all down, or next year I will surely forget what I did!

I love doing a Valentine exchange with adult women. To me, Valentine's is a holiday about all love-not just the romantic kind. I actually  went to more trouble for my Bible study group than for Joel, but I can promise you that they were much more grateful, too!

I had pinned the link for this brown sugar hand scrub, and after I saw these adorable little jars at World Market, my Valentines were born.

I had an amazing coupon to World Market so I got these cutie jars for $0.50. I got the perfect little files at Target-total bonus find in the party favor section! I tied it up with ribbon and used my new heart punch to tie on scrapbook paper labels. I think they turned out pretty cute.

 I also put together these fun "Love Potion No.9" bottles for the kids' groups (Josie and Carson each gave out signed Valentines but these were from me). I got the printables from here.  I found the little heart shaped straws for $0.25 at Party City.

 In the tutorial that went along with the labels, the girl used 12oz. bottles of water, but the packets of Kool-Aid specifically say they are for a 16.9 oz bottle (a regular size one) and I figured that a bunch of 3-7 year olds were not going to understand that they needed to use 3/4 of a packet, and too strong Kool Aid is gross. Plus, full size bottles are cheaper! I thought they turned out pretty well. The kids loved them!

After handing out 40 bags of trail mix, 30 Toy Story Tattoo Valentines, 22 jars of hand scrub, 20 bottles of "Love Potion", 25 hand written note cards, and 40 magnet Valentines, the Picker total came to 177 varying types of Valentine felicitations! I may have a problem...

 

All that of course, was prepped the night before. On the actual day, since we had Bible study, I did donuts and bacon for the kids for breakfast. They loved their little cups from Walmart.

 My sleepy Valentine. They loved their donuts!

 

I love the way his eyes sparkle, even at 7:30 in the morning!

 

They made out like bandits with their Valentine exchange. Every body gives such cool cards now. They got tattoos, magnets, bracelets, stickers, and of course, candy!

 Joel brought them balloons, which I thought was so sweet. You can see Josie's tied to her wrist. I also had little bags for them with some fun little junk. Josie looks literally crazy with excitement. She will hate this picture later...;)

My other sweet little Valentine. Boy Wonder doesn't do so hot in the posing arena, so you just get him, no stuff.

We ended the day at Culver's, which was nice. I prefer to do Valentine's dinner as a family while the kids are still young. There really isn't anyone that I love to be with more than my family!

 

Snow Day, and Quite Possibly, the World's Best Hot Cocoa

 We haven't had much snow here. After the majority of winter is over, that is when it snows the most, and as usual, we got about 5 inches on Wednesday. The kids were very excited to finally get some use out of their snow gear-as a matter of fact, we hadn't even taken the tags off Josie's snowpants until then!

Playing in the snow demands hot cocoa. (I found out that it shouldn't actually be called "hot chocolate" unless there is liquid chocolate involved. I use the powdered kind, so it doesn't fit those parameters.) And not just any hot cocoa, but the best!

 

People the world over are probably laughing right now at the lameness of me posting this, but it is a secret that I wish someone had shared with me! To make perfectly delightful cocoa you need:

-Nestle's Caramel Chocolate Cocoa. Do not substitute. It *must* be this kind.

-Kraft Jet Puffed Caramel and Vanilla SwirlMallows. Again, no substitutions.:)

- Any kind of ridiculously sweet sugary creamer- in this case, I used International Delight's S'mores, which was perfect.

You take your mug, use a tall one, it tastes better. Put your cocoa and two marshmallows in the bottom. I like to use my Kuerig for the hot water, it makes it a good temp (cocoa water should never be boiling) and the steady stream of water over the marshmallows makes them melt. 

I use the next to largest brew size (that is 10 oz. in case you were wondering, or doing it the old fashioned way with water on the stove). Then stir it all together and add a generous amount of creamer, probably three or more tablespoons. The great part about that, is that the cold creamer will make the cocoa the perfect drinking temperature.

 Then, if you are really feeling decadent, add some canned whipped cream. An extra marshmallow, merely for "photography purposes", and ta-da: practically perfect hot cocoa.

 

The munchkins were pretty excited over it. You need extra energy, playing in the snow is hard work! Bringing them insulated mugs of sugary deliciousness bought me an extra 40 minutes of kids-outside-the-house time, so there's that, too. :)

 

It also spurred some creativity. I have had this "snowman kit" for a long time, but we kept forgetting to use it. (Dollar Spot at Target-sweet!) Well, I finally remembered, and the snow was not good for packing. So Josie came up with this-she said Mr. Snowman was "laying down". I was pretty impressed!

 

Carson, typical boy, had more fun throwing lumps of snow. He went out to play again yesterday, too, and let me just say: snow is great for encouraging sleeping! Two hour nap, and then they both slept in until 9 am.

Anyway, so that was our snow day. Now go make hot cocoa!:)