Day #3 ~ Crock Pot Chicken & Noodles

So everyone knows by now that the crock pot is my favorite kitchen tool!! Fix it and forget it, right? The purpose of my resolution is for me to branch out beyond the crock pot, but we made our grocery list for this week before I chose my resolution. Regardless, you will see some crock pot recipes here and there; I can't give it up for good!!

Crock Pot Chicken & Noodles
Ingredients:
1-1.5 lbs boneless chicken breast or thighs
1/4 c cooking sherry (red or white)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 c. sour cream
1/4 c. flour
Cooked noodles

The chicken is missing in my ingredient photo because I got ahead of myself & already put it in the crock pot.

1. Place the chicken (I had thighs), sherry, & soup in the crock pot. I always spray my crock pot with cooking spray first for easier clean up. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. I always start my crock pot meals after lunch, so I set my crock pot on high.

2. Approx 30 min before serving. Mix the sour cream & flour and add that to the crock pot. Set crock pot on low for 30 minutes (if you use the high setting, the sour cream may curdle). I added a little water at this point because it just looked like it "needed" it. Ha ha.

3. Cook your noodles - we had egg noodles.

4. Serve the chicken & gravy over the noodles and you're done!

We had peas and corn (one of Connor's favorites) to go along with it and we also pulled out the leftover bread from the previous night's meal to have with our dinner!

The verdict: Very good...and very good warmed up the next day! I think I'll add mushrooms & maybe onions next time!

http://www.crockpotchicken.net/slow-cooker-chicken-and-noodles.html

Resolution Day #2 ~ Liz's Artisan Bread

My dear friend Liz always has wonderful, healthy recipes that she sends my way! So, today I decided to make her Artisan Bread recipe to go with our Chicken Cacciatore over Rice. Ryan made the cacciatore because that is beyond my cooking skills at this moment (someday...ha ha) and it is his specialty (it was my FAVORITE when I was pregnant with Connor...hence my 55 lb weight gain...ha ha). I made the rice in my rice cooker, so no need for explanation there!! :)

Artisan Bread
Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tablespoons of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons (2 packets) of granulated yeast
3 cups of lukewarm water

I don't have pictures to go with steps 1-3 because I made the dough on Sunday before I decided to do this cooking resolution. 

1. Combine the yeast & water. The water should feel slightly warmer than room temp. With colder water, the bread will need more time to rise.

2. Combine the flour & salt and then add to water/yeast mixture all at once.

3. Mix until the mixture is uniform. It will be thick & very wet. You do not need to knead the dough.

4. Next you just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 2 hours.

This is what my dough looked like after 3 days in the refrigerator. It doesn't look very good, but don't let that fool you!

5. When you are ready to make the bread, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. During the preheat, place a oven safe container in the bottom of the oven, so that it becomes hot.

6. Bake the dough on a cookie sheet. You cut a grapefruit sized chunk of dough off, spray it with oil, and cut an "X" onto the top of the dough.

7. Put the dough in the oven and at the same time pour cold water into the pan in the bottom of the oven. Shut the oven door as quickly as possible. This creates steam that will give the bread a chewy crust.

8. Bake dough for approx. 30 minutes. You know it is done when it has a hollow sound when tapped.

The best part: You can put the remaining dough back in the refrigerator for up to 14 days! When you are ready to make another loaf, cut a chunk off and bake away! This recipes makes about 3 loaves.

Steamy!! Yum!

The verdict: We LOVE this bread. Not only is it yummy, but it is also easy & cheap to make! I made it for a Christmas dinner with my family and everyone loved it and asked for the recipe.

THANKS LIZ!:) Keep sending the good recipes my way!

Our Wednesday night meal:

My New Year's Resolution ~ Cook more!!

I originally didn't come up with a New Year's Resolution. To be honest, it didn't really even cross my mind until today when I saw a bunch of friends discussing their resolutions on Facebook. Even at that point, I wasn't looking for a resolution; I never really have done resolutions in the past! But, as the day went on, and I started to decide on what we were having for dinner...it clicked! This year, or at least for as long as I can keep it up, I am going to become more adventurous with cooking & try to document it on here as much as I can. Those of you that know me well realize that I rarely stray from the crock pot, basically because I really don't care for cooking and have very little confidence in the kitchen (other than baking cookies, muffins, desserts, etc). So...here we go!

Day #1: Creamy Mashed Cauliflower

I ran across this recipe on Facebook (imagine that). I 'like' Eating Well on Facebook and new & healthy recipes are always popping up across my news feed. This one caught my eye and I decided to give it a shot!

Ingredients:

8 c cauliflower florets
4 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
1/3 c buttermilk
4 t. EVOO
1 t. butter
1/2 t. salt
Pepper
Chives

1. I used frozen cauliflower rather than fresh because I had a coupon for frozen veggies. First, you are supposed to steam the cauliflower & garlic together. I used my new rice cooker (Christmas gift from Ryan) to steam the veggies.

2. Next, you place the cauliflower & garlic in a food processor along with the buttermilk, 2 t. EVOO, butter, salt & pepper. I didn't want to buy a whole container of buttermilk, so I made my own by mixing 1 T. lemon juice or vinegar with 1 c. milk. I got this tip from the recipe (see the link I posted at the end).

Before

After

3. After that you are supposed to sprinkle the remaining 2 t. of EVOO over top & garnish with chives. We were out of chives so I used parsley.

 

Ta-da!! Easy peasy!

And for dinner we had: turkey meatball sandwiches with homemade marinara sauce that Ryan made over the weekend - spinach salad with cucumbers, cheese, avocado, & croutons - and my creamy mashed cauliflower! 

The verdict: I personally did not care for the cauliflower dish, but it may be a pregnancy aversion since I usually like cauliflower. Ryan & Connor both ate it and Ryan said he'd eat it again!


Here's the link for anyone interested in making it:
Creamy Mashed Cauliflower from eatingwell.com

Oh what shall tomorrow bring???

It's almost 2012!!

Well here I go again going a month + without updating our blog! That should be my New Years resolution, although I wouldn't dare make it official because I would probably fail miserably! Ha ha.

Thanksgiving & Christmas have come and gone since my last update! The Bells drove out to visit us for a nice Chicago Thanksgiving! We took them to see a ton of sights in downtown Chicago, exposed them to true deep dish pizza (not my favorite), did some major shopping, and enjoyed a nice relaxing Thanksgiving day & meal at our house. We were going to go to the Thanksgiving Day parade in the city, but opted against it because it meant a very early & long day for everyone! Olivia had a lot of fun playing with and mothering Connor. She asked to sleep on the floor of his bedroom, and each morning she would get up with him without making a peak, give him breakfast, and change his diaper! Let's just say we've hired her on to come out for a few weeks this summer after the baby is born!

A few short weeks later, Christmas arrived! Connor and I spent about 10 days in PA visiting friends & family. Ryan was able to fly in for a few days over Christmas day and then we all flew back together. We were able to see a ton of friends & family while home, but unfortunately, we took a Chicago cold back with us that ended up being passed around to a few family members. As mad as I was to get sick on our trip home, it was a blessing in disguise because we had tons of eager hands to help so that I could relax and get well! We felt the baby move for the first time while we were in PA!

And now, here we are....New Years Eve!! We don't have any plans because I went and got a stomach bug yesterday and we weren't sure if I would be better or not. I am feeling better, but we are still having a quiet night just the 3 (4) of us!

What's in store for early 2012?? Well, we have our 20 week ultrasound on Monday where we will (hopefully) find out the gender of the baby! After that, we plan to start the nursery! We are on the hunt for another crib and we have plans to have the nursery and spare bedroom painted mid January. That leaves the basement and laundry room left to paint! Both my parents & Ryan's parents are hoping to visit some time in February, I am hoping to make one last trip to PA in March before the baby comes, and then we will be down to about 6 weeks until our due date!

Connor is becoming more of a toddler each day! He is really saying a lot of different words and he mimics a lot of what we say. His 18 month check up is coming up this week and we are excited to see how much he has grown! We think he is going through a growth spurt because he is eating us out of house & home and sleeping more than normal!

Well, that's all for now!

~One month later~

A whole month has flown by since our last update...so here are a few things going on in our lives recently:

~ Projects
The house projects are never ending!! We have a long laundry list of things we want to do around the house; we will probably never complete it. Here a few things we are hoping to have done this winter: blinds & curtains -- we only have a few windows left, but man, blinds & curtains add up quickly and before you know it you are spending a ton of money!!,  the baby nursery - of course this needs to be done before May! We need to paint, put in a ceiling fan/light, and get furniture and a few other small items, the basement - we would love to get the basement painted and carpeted so that Ryan will have an office area at home & Connor can have a new play area for the winter when we become shut-ins (ha ha)!! Furniture for the basement would hopefully come shortly after that!!, painting the guest bedroom & laundry room - once we get those two rooms done then we will have painted the entire house!!!

A few other projects we'd like to do as time and money permit are:
more decorations and a few small pieces of furniture (like a bench when you come in the front door)
changing out the light fixtures - especially in the kitchen & dining room
patio furniture for our deck & screened in porch (probably next summer)

I'm sure the list will continue to grow!! :)


~ Friends!!
Yes, we are making friends!! And, although hard to believe, these are friendships that I have started!! Usually it is the other way around; Ryan makes friends at work and we meet people that way, and so on!

I found a Christian moms group and Connor and I have been attending events during the day. Some friendships have blossomed out of that! I feel so lucky to have found this group. I can only imagine how lonely Connor and I would be at home all day!

~ Babysitters
We've worked really hard over the past week to find a regular date night babysitter. We have been so blessed to have wonderful neighbors who are willing to watch Connor any time we need them to. But, we decided that we should probably have one regular sitter to come for the nights that we are gone over bedtime and out later than usual. We interviewed one sitter this week who Connor adored! She has one son of her own (19 months) and other on the way expected to arrive in April. At one point during her meet up with us, Connor grabbed her hand and walked her to his room to show her his fishies. So cute! Anyhow, we hired her..

Tonight we are meeting with another potential sitter to use as back up. After we hired the first sitter, we got an application (we posted the job on sittercity.com) from a lady that attends the same church that we've been attending. She also has a young child and will probably be a ton of help around the time that our other sitter has her baby. I can also use them for doc appts during the day if a neighbor or friend isn't available to watch Connor.

~ Connor!!
Connor is really growing every single day and I am always seeing him do new things. He is really repeating words right now. He calls every fruit an apple, he says 'hot' every time he sees our space heater..the oven...the microwave...or sometimes even the refrigerator (ha ha), he tries to say happy & pappy (they sound the same), meme, he can say baby!! yay!!, and there are a bunch of others but I can never think of them when I go to write on here! I'll just say that he mimics words when HE wants to. If he doesn't want to, there is no hope of it! Ha ha. If he is in the mood to mimic my words, I can really see the wheels turning in his little head while he tries to figure out how to say it. The changing table is a great place to get him to try new words. He really focuses on my mouth and how I am forming the words.

We are working on age appropriate puzzles! He has one puzzle of trains, cars, and other modes of transportation. He would rather bang them off of other toys right now than fit him in their correct spots on the puzzle, but that will eventually come. I bought him another puzzle for Christmas, so maybe having the new one will spark his interest again.

He's been showing his little temper more and more with fits & tantrums! It's gotten better over the past few weeks because I've been working on not rewarding that behavior and not letting it bother me in public. I don't expect us to be tantrum-free for a long time, but I think we need to figure out one predictable way to handle his fits and hopefully that will reduce the frequency.

We've gotten into more of a schedule over the past few weeks. Most of these moms group events are in the morning, so we've been heading out each day around 8:45, going to whatever event, and coming home for a nap in the afternoon! I've realized that once Connor gets up in the morning, he will stay in his crib for about 20 minutes and play with his stuffed animals. That time allows me to shower in peace, so then when I get out I bring him over to our room with me while I finish getting dressed. I never thought I'd get to this point. My showering was dependent on his nap schedule and some days he doesn't nap (=no shower until Ryan gets home)! Those days usually end in tears, but I haven't figured out way to get him to nap if he doesn't want to.

~ Visitors
 Next week, my sister, brother-in-law, and 2 nieces are coming to visit for Thanksgiving! They will be here for about 4 full days. I'm sure we will make a trip to downtown Chicago, but I'm not sure what else we will do. We are going to let it up to them! We're excited to not have to spend Thanksgiving alone! 


That's all for now...I'll try to post again before this next month is up!

Update on Connor!

After a long hiatus from our blog, I thought I would post a few updates on everything Connor is doing and getting into! :)

- His word list consists of: hot, Ashley, MAMA (finally), Daddy, Meme, ball, shoes, cheese, outside, tree..I'm sure there are some I'm missing.
- He no longer listens to the word 'no'...which has given us a whole new set of challenges. It's hard to give an effective time out to a 1 year old. I don't feel like he comprehends why we are doing it. And, the only thing we can think to do for a time out is to make him sit on our laps. There is no way he's going to sit without us making him sit.
- He still eats any and everything! He eats a ton! He's doing great at communicating when he's hungry. He will go to the refrigerator or to his high chair if he wants a snack.
- I think he weighs around 23 1/2 lbs. He hasn't been at the doc since August, but when I step on the scale with him, he's coming in at around that weight.
- He's slowly but surely growing out of his 12 month pants. I thought he'd be in them forever. He has a tiny heiny (except when wearing a cloth diaper)!
- He wants to be outside and will throw fits if he wants to go out and we cannot take him out at that moment. He will even bring us his shoes, as well as our own! ha ha.
- That brings me to tantrums... he's starting to throw tantrums...ekk!
- He is starting to show some separation anxiety, even when we just walk out of the room in our own house. When Connor and I are alone throughout the week, he's attached to my hip, but on weekends he will not let Ryan out of his sight. I definitely take a backseat. Poor Ryan can barely get anything done on the weekends!
- We finally left Connor with one of our neighbors last week so we could grab dinner. It's always hard to leave him with someone new, but he had a blast. Colleen, our 10 year old neighbor, watched him along with her parents.

We got home from a visit to PA a little over a week ago and it was packed full with seeing friends & family. We had a surprise 60th birthday for my mom the first day we were home and were able to see a bunch of family at once at that get together. Connor got to visit with all of his grandparents; we spent time with my brother, sister, and nieces; we got to visit with two new babies and their parents: babies Hannah & Ella; we spent time with some of Ryan's extended family: Ed, Vickie, Jackie, Lyman, & Ann; and we also got some time in with my good friends Liz, Jenna, & Chrissy! I would say it was a pretty successful trip home!

Connor's Pappy Britt & Great Gram Britt are coming for a visit on Wednesday. We have plans to go to a Penn State game in Evanston, IL this weekend. I know Ryan is excited to take Connor to his first PSU game, but I'm a little nervous about the cooler weather.

Well, that's all for now!

More updated house pics!