Slowcooker Tomato Sauce (amongst other things)

Happy Tuesday!

I don't know about you guys but I'm wiped out already!  I had a LOT of cancellations at work today, which would make you think that my day was easy right??  Nope, when I have cancellations, I feel like I need to use every single second at the office to catch up on my never ending "To Do" list.  After soccer, I was sooo happy to get home to an almost-ready dinner.  I say almost-ready because the star of the show worked hard all day (just like me!) in the slowcooker (ok, maybe not JUST like me.  All I needed to do when I got home was throw some egg noodles in a pot and some broccoli in the microwave to steam, and VOILA!  Garlicky-Lemon Chicken over egg noodles and broccoli!  

Here's the recipe (adapted a little so it wasn't sooo lemony)

Combine in a crockpot:  4 Chicken breasts, 2 T butter, 1/4 C water, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 t oregano, t Mrs. Dash (to taste), 1 Chicken Bullion packet, and a couple of T of lemon juice.  Cover and cook until done.  Shred.  Serve over egg noodles and steamed broccoli.

FOOD CHALLENGE:  We are starting a food challenge at my house this week.  The boys are pretty picky eaters and we tend to fall into a rut in terms of what I make for them (how many combinations of cheese and starch can you come up with?  I've got a million).  More specifically, I'd like to expand their repertoire of protein and veggies and get OUT of the habit of making 2 meals (one adult and one kid) every night.  I know, I know, I know...I read those chapters in the parenting book too but STILL fell into it despite the best of intentions!!  Anyway, this recipe was a HIT!!!  My kids ate the chicken (EVEN with the NEW sauce) AND the broccoli (ok, they weren't stoked about it but they powered through it...I may have bribed them with the promise of dessert...or more accurately, the absence of dessert should they NOT choke down, consume the portions on their plate....sue me).  I got an "mmmm, this chicken is delicious!!" and an "I love eating trees" from the Nugget (he's the easy one for sure) and an "I'm not thrilled with the lemon on this chicken, Mom. but its ok" and a dramatic holding of the nose while the Diddle literally forced the broccoli down...whatever...THEY ATE IT, no one made gagging noises and I was met with VERY minimal resistance so I'm chalking it up as a WIN!

One more thing before I sign off for today, here is the slowcooker tomato sauce recipe...which, as I look back, was the name of this post...which is an accurate picture of my ability to stay on track in my every day life...HA!  Woops!  I'm leaving it....just keeping it real, folks.  

Yummy Yummy You Will Thank Yourself For Making a Big Batch of This Nearly Effortless and Keeping It In Your Freezer Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce:

Combine the following in a big slow cooker: 

1 Medium, finely chopped onion (which you hopefully pulled out of your freezer since this would be the only step that requires effort!!)

6 cloves minced garlic

7 Cups of diced fresh tomatoes (ok, this takes effort too) OR a 56 oz can of crushed tomatoes (yes, I buy the low sodium one and use this)

3 t Italian Herbs

1 t salt

1/2-1 t ground black pepper

1 T sugar

Cook overnight on low! I use this as a base for spaghetti, pizzas, soup...the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Woot Woot!

I just realized that I don't have any pictures for you!  Hmmmm, the Teacher and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary this last weekend so here is a picture of my honey and I before our date!

The Diddle took it.  Not too bad for an 8 year old!!

G'Night All!

~Bean

Hello, Friends!! A Bit of This a Bit of That!

Honey, I'm hoooome!!

We are back from vacation, I'm back at work, the Teacher is back to school and the kidlettes have one glorious week left of summer break.  I, for one, am NOT enjoying this hot and humid weather...hey Mother Nature!  I don't live back east or in the midwest for a reason...I just don't do well in the heat!  That said, we are keeping cool.  

Today was the Teacher's first day of actual classes so I had fully intended on getting the house back into order, organizing school stuff and just getting into the basic swing of things.  I was pretty productive. Before 9:00 I'd already made some lovely breakfast muffins that I found on pinterest:  My number one priority when selecting the recipe this morning was that it included bananas, since the number of frozen bananas in my freezer is getting out of control and my feet are attacked with frozen banana torpedoes every time I open the freezer door (anyone else have this problem??)  

They were a hit with the boys and at just 1/2 C of sugar and NO flour for the whole recipe, I'm sold!  I'd also fake-canned the sauce I had going in the slow cooker all night:

I'll share this recipe later this week.  I hate buying jarred tomato sauce for pizzas and pasta...do you know how much sugar goes into one jar?? You'd be amazed!  This way I know exactly what goes in, AND, its PENNIES a serving!!  BTW, if you don't have any of these little ball jars, they are AWESOME!! They remind me A LOT of the Avent jars that I used to use to freeze breast milk (too much info?? sorry!) but bigger.  They come in 2 different sizes (these are 16 oz) and I use them for everything from storing snacks to freezing!  LOVE. THEM. (You can find them near the canning supplies at most big box stores.)

Also by 9:00, I'd already completed 2 loads of laundry, had dinner working in the crock pot AND cleaned the kitchen.  At about this time I decided I was done and that the kids and I were going to sluff off the rest of the day.  We called some friends and went to see the new Wimpy Kid movie and then ran off some extra energy at the park.  My kids are now at their friend's house playing since, apparently, movie and the park was not enough time with their buds.  SCORE!  I get a couple of minutes to document my day AND provide you with this week's meal plan and grocery list.  I'm trying 2 new crock pot recipes this week so I'll let you know how they pan out.

Here ya go:

Monday:  Redneck Salad (yes, again...we love it and haven't made it all summer!!)

Tuesday:   Lemon Chicken and Brocolli over egg noodles

Wednesday:  Hamburger Soup

I'm only planning 3 meals a week now because we always have enough left overs for at least another day and that way nothing goes to waste if the plans change (and with 3 days worth of soccer practices now, that happens a LOT!)

What I had:                                           vs.       What I Needed:

chicken  (freezer stash)                                     Buffalo Wing Sauce

romaine                                                             baby carrots

Ranch dressing                                                 celery

brocolli                                                              2-3 onions

1 lb ground turkey (freezer stash)

egg noodles

8 oz tomato sauce (from supply that I just "canned")

whole wheat macaroni

parmesan

packet dry onion soup mix

Not too bad!

I thought I'd also share a picture of Victoria Winters (from Bird on a Line) and I on her recent trip.  Join me in wishing her luck on her new adventure as she started back to school this morning!! 

It was so fun to watch our kids play together and I'm so proud of her!!!

Anyway, Happy Monday!  Talk soon!!

~Bean

Bon Voyage!

This will be my last post until we get back from our vacation....man, I NEED IT!!  Until then, I'll leave you with this little section of Diddle's room.  Since the bed pulls in and out, we decided against a night stand for his room.  Which left us needing a space for a bedside book, his kindle and his clock.  I'm not loving the clock location..I think it will be moved to whatever we decide on for storage, but he's tucked it here for now.  This is just a slim "picture" shelf with a towel bar mounted above to keep things from falling down.  Its the perfect size for a book and even a laptop (eventually).  

Coupled with the wall mounted reading light and some comfy pillows, it makes for the perfect spot for some before bed reading (and snuggling).

Talk soon...ALOHA!!!

~Bean

Big Boy's Room 3: A Multifunctional Sleep Space!

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

I'm really, really excited about today's post...mostly because I'm really, really excited about the bed that we bought for Diddle's new room.  Our biggest issue with his room before was space.  It's not a very big room (10 x 10) and his bed, desk, dresser and bookcase configuration left little room for actual playing or even just relaxing.  Our secondary issue was that this was a room that could rarely, unless we had a lone visitor, be used for guests.  We have a LOT of visitors, so for just one person to come at a time, is rare.  Issue number 3 (and this is becoming a bigger issue as Diddle gets older), is that he loves to have sleep overs and the old room, just didn't work very well since there was BARELY room to SQUASH another twin mattress pad onto the floor space.  (1st World problem, right??  I know.)  

Our initial plan involved keeping his old bed and getting a trundle for it...problem here is that in order for the trundle to fit, we'd have to move/get rid of his night stand and dresser or desk..which of course meant getting rid of either 1) clothes storage or 2) study space or 3) "stuff" storage.  None of these were very good options.  We browsed through soo many catalogs and websites and decorating sites for MONTHS.  Then I saw a bed at (my BFF) IKEA.  It was a daybed and looked like it might be a little feminine but it had a drawer system underneath so we figured that would allow us to get rid of the dresser so was worth checking out.  OH MY GOODNESS.  That bed had a secret!!!!  Check this out.  Here's the bed in the new room:

Nice right?  I exchanged the pulls that came with it since they looked a little country and added to its original feminine flair...I think these chrome pulls look a little more masculine, don't you?  Here it is with the drawers pulled out...plenty of room for all of the clothes that were in the dresser:

BUT..here's its secret!  This WHOLE drawer unit pulls out so that this bed can go from twin all the way up to whatever is the size of 2 twin beds side by side (which is bigger than a standard King for sure).  Check it out:

So we ended up getting the best of both worlds.  Drawer space AND extra sleeping space.  We decided to take it for a test run and Diddle had his BFF over for a sleep over the other night.  They are just 2 small boys so we used our old futon mattress (which is the size of a Full bed).  Here it is all ready for the sleep over:

It was a success!  We are considering buying a thin either queen or king sized mattress to keep rolled up in the garage for when company comes over (we could seriously put up to 5 or 6 small kids on it when its all pulled out), but for now, we are out of money!  

Here's my happy boy on his new bed:

One more thing to cross off the list!  Next up: Study Space!

Have a great week, Everyone!!

~Bean

And the winner is...(aka Big Boy's Bedrom Part 2)

After careful consideration and a brief FB survey....the Diddle gets....

Wood!!!  A lovely handscraped laminate that we found on sale at Lumber Liquidators that, coincidentally, matches (nearly exactly) the existing hard wood in the rest of the house. Woot Woot!  First of all, laminate certainly has come a long way.  The Teacher and I installed laminate in our first place together (a really long time ago)....and let me tell you, the stuff that is available now is incredible!!  Handscraped??  You can hardly tell its laminate!! L.O.V.E!!!  

Incidentally, you know that thing where when you make one room look nice the other rooms in your home look comparably lousy??  Thank God we bought enough wood for both boy's rooms because now that we put in the new floor in the Diddle's room, the Nugget's room ..or at least his flooring (which has also been redecorated recently sans flooring) looks horrible!!  It's a slippery slope!!

Here are some shots of the finished floor:

Here's the TO DO list:

Paint

Flooring

New Bed with storage and extra sleeping space (wait till you see this!!)

Study Space

Book/Toy Storage

Night Stand/Beside the Bed Storage?

Closet

Artwork

Loving the transformations so far...and more importantly?? So is he!!

On a completely unrelated side note, I'm going to a Thai cooking class with a girlfriend on Thursday...and I'll totally share the recipes!!!  

Thanks for stopping by!

~Bean

Big Boy's Room 1

Hello There!

I promised a new post..and, well, better late than never right???  After many months of promises, we decided to take this summer to redo Diddle's room.  He's entering 3rd grade and needs a big kid space...or at least that's my excuse for redecorating (and I'm sticking to it).  Anyway, like I said, we've been promising for MONTHS without any action.  Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I came home from work the other day to find that the Teacher had completely stripped Diddle's room...and I mean STRIPPED it...bye bye old, stained, yucky carpet and 5 million Cars posters and clutter.  Unfortunately, since I didn't know he was going to get started, I didn't get a real "before" shot.  What I came home to looked like this:

Yahoo! I just love a clean slate!  So next was paint options.  Diddle loves green but the thought of a fully green room (especially if we didn't pick just the right shade) made me feel a little green in the gills.  Sooo, after much deliberation (ok, not too much...I'm actually kind of impulsive sometimes), we started covering up the lovely blue that we chose when he was born...sniff!  This is what we had:

A soft, lovely grey that keeps this little room bright!  (and I love love love that the name of it is "secret passage"..hello!)  Then we taped some stripe lines:

We went with the same pattern, only inverted, as the Nugget's room since they are side by side and this leads to a bit of continuity when both of their doors are open.  Then it got messy...I don't know why we didn't expect it since this has happened every single time we've painted in this house.  We have textured walls, which are lovely...except when you need a nice crisp line.  We get bleed through every single time no matter how much we press and seal that tape and are soooo careful.. We should expect it, and yet each time we are disappointed.  See what I mean?  Boo.

So up the ladder went my super sweet Teacher with a tiny little brush:

Time consuming? Yes.  Worth it???  Oh heck yes!! See the difference??

And so, the painting is complete.  Next up?? Floors!  I put a little survey up on Facebook:  Carpet or Wood??  And the verdict was??  

What?  The nugget needs me to wipe his bum??  Oh well, I guess I'll have to continue tomorrow!  ;)

~Bean

Happy 4th!!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I've been MIA.  We took a vacation and before that I was busy getting ready FOR the vacation so this poor little blog suffered.  I promise I'm not in jail for doing something terrible to the Teacher after my last post!!  (It magically disappeared one afternoon..hallelujah!)  

Will post this week...in the meantime, I hope you are all spending some good quality time with your loved ones! Happy 4th of July!!!

xoxo

Bean