My new lifestyle has some great food choices

Here area couple things I have been eating lately.

I make up a batch of very lowfat, low carb, soup once a week, then save it in the fridge to reheat for dinners or lunches. The trick for me is having it in the fridge ready to heat whenever I am hungry, that keeps me from eating other stuff that's on hand here :)

Another thing I have been enjoying is Sesame Cabbage Salad. I thinly chop a head of cabbage, could use a head of lettuce instead, and keep it in the fridge in a gallon zip baggie. It will keep well for at least a week or longer. Then I have containers of minced red onion and carrots in my fridge. I mix up a batch of my own sesame dressing, I always double it at least so I have enough for the week at least. With those all in my fridge this salad take just a minutes toss together. I love topping mine with some, dry roasted, chopped almonds and some sunflower seeds.

A few weeks ago I watched Alton Brown on FN talk about how he lost 50 lbs, it was really neat. I liked his system, he divided foods into eat every day, eat once a week, eat once a month and eat never. 1 thing that totally stuck with me is that Fast Food is on the list of foods that you should NEVER eat. I don't think I had been out for fast food for at least 2 months before I started losing weight and haven't been since. The link is here to his show on this if you are interested.

Lissaloo's Low-Carb Asian Salad Dressing
Ingred;
1/4c. olive oil
1/4c. sesame oil
1/2c. rice wine vinegar
1t. onion powder
1/2t. pepper
1t. ground ginger

Put all ingred in a bottle and shake together, store in the fridge. This recipe doubles well and stores in the fridge for a couple weeks just fine, you will need to shake before using.

Lissaloo's Low-Carb Soup
Ingred;
1/2c. cubed steak meat
1/2c. chopped carrots
1/2c. chopped onions
2T. olive oil
1c. chopped celery
1c. chopped mushrooms
2c. chopped spinach
4c. water
4c. V8 juice
salt and pepper

Heat a large pot, saute the meat, carrots, onions, celery and mushrooms with the olive oil.
When the meat is cooked through stir in the water and V8, bring to a boil and simmer for about 25 minutes, stir in the spinach and cook another 5 minutes, or until all the veggies are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Keeps well in the fridge for 1 week.

So I give in to a little Obsession once in a while....

That's perfectly normal right???

My Mother-In-Law asked my a couple weeks ago if I knew how to crochet the top to those hanging dishtowels, I don't know what their politically correct name is, and I had no idea but I knew they didn't look to hard. So with the help of Google I came up with these tutorials

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/towel_toppers.php

and with their help I became obsessed with making these fun, and totally functional, little beauties.

Now after I had made a few of these I began to wonder if I could do this in the bathroom, some how my bathroom hand towels are always on the floor.


And it did!!! Now as to whether they keep the hand towels off the floor we will have to just wait and see. Hand towels aren't my only obsession, did you notice the monkeys in my bathroom?? Yep, they are all over the house :)
While in my search I also came across these-

which I also had to make :)
Here is an awesome tutorial for these, it made the whole process Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazzeee as Miss M likes to say-

http://treyandlucy.blogspot.com/2009/12/hanging-dishtowel.html

Talk about your perfect 10 minute gift :)

A top of the mornin to ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you All!!

This is the day where I can play with food coloring and celebrate my Irish Heritage to its fullest :)
I am making Green Oat Pancakes with green syrup and green applesauce for breakfast,

and Irish Stew, and Irish Soda Bread for dinner.

For Dessert we are having Irish Cream Cheesecake, yum.


The kids made some fun stuff yesterday to take to school, green sparkle wands and Irish potato candy.

And of course got all dressed up for the Day-




Irish Stew

Ingred;
3T. butter
2c. stew meat, I am allergic to lamb so I used beef
1/2c. minced onion
1/2c. chopped carrots
2c. peeled, cubed potatoes
1/2c. peeled cubed parsnips
1/2c. peeled, cubed turnips
2T. vegetable soup bouillon
1 small handful crushed, dried parsley
Salt and pepper
enough Water to cover the vegies.

I sauteed my butter and meat together until it was almost cooked through, stir in about 1/2t. pepper, 1t. salt. Then add in the onions and carrots until the onions became translucent. Then I tossed in the potatoes, parsnips and turnips. I added enough hot water to cover the vegie's with about 1/2 inch extra.
I stirred in the vegie bouillon, then added in my parsley and brought to a boil. I let this simmer covered until the vegies are tender.
I don't how traditional it is but it was sure tasty :)



May luck be our companion
May friends stand by our side
May history remind us all
Of Ireland's faith and pride.
May God bless us with happiness
May love and faith abide.
~Irish Blessing

Crockpots+ Chicken= Awesome Easy Dinners

A very sweet Friend sent me some chicken crock pot recipes, they are simple, easy, and quick three of my favorite things :)
I have a picture of the Chicken Stroganoff, we had it over some Spaetzle noodles and I added some Mushrooms to the recipe. I can't seem to make stroganoff without mushrooms, it just doesn't seem right :)

Then we tried the Honey Chicken recipe, and it was yummy.
I added in 1/2c. shredded carrots to it when I added the sauce in.

Quick and Easy Crock Pot
Chicken Recipes

From Jenn B.

Basic Recipe: Start with 2 lbs frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts (4 breasts). Cook in the crock pot on high for at least 4 hours (no pink in the middle). I like to cook 1 diced onion and 1/8 c of minced garlic along with the chicken breasts. Adjust the amount of chicken and other ingredients according to the size and taste of your family. Four chicken breasts serves 6-8, depending! After cooking and preparing the chicken, stir in any of the following combinations of ingredients and change the crock pot setting to low for a few hours until serving.

Taco Chicken: Shred chicken breast. Stir in ½c taco seasoning and 1c water. If you prefer, you can add the taco seasoning with the frozen breasts. You can also add into prepared beans 1-2 cans (15 oz) (pinto, refried, kidney, black) and/or salsa, chopped green chile peppers. Serve as you would taco meat.


Honey Chicken: Shred chicken breast. Stir in 1c honey, ½c butter, ½c French’s mustard, 2tsp curry powder. Serve over rice.

Teriyaki Chicken: Chop chicken. Mix in a bowl: ¾c soy sauce, ¾c sugar, 2Tbs. red wine vinegar, 3tsp vegetable oil, ½-1tsp ground ginger; stir in with chicken in crock pot. Serve over rice.

Spaghetti Chicken: Leave chicken breast whole or chop to desired size. Add premade spaghetti sauce (approx 9c) or your family’s favorite spaghetti sauce ingredients. Serve over noodles. You can also put the sauce in with the frozen breasts.


Chicken Taco Soup: Reserve 2 breasts. Chop or shred chicken. Stir in ¼c taco seasoning, ¼c salsa, 2-3 cans of beans (15oz) (black, pinto, kidney), 1 can (15oz) chopped tomatoes, 1 can chopped green chile peppers, cilantro and 4-6c liquid as desired (water, tomato sauce, or chicken broth). Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream, and fresh diced avocados if you like!

White Chicken Chili: Reserve 2 breasts. Chop or shred chicken. Stir in 1 can diced green chile peppers, 2tsp ground cumin, 1tsp dried oregano, ½-1tsp cayenne pepper, 3 (14oz) cans chicken broth, 3 cans white beans. Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese and sour cream, if desired.


BBQ Chicken Sandwiches: Shred chicken. Stir in one bottle of BBQ sauce (approx. 3c) of your choice or use your favorite recipe. Serve on buns.

Chicken Stroganoff: Add ¼c butter and 2 (.7 oz) packages dry Italian style salad dressing mix, with the frozen chicken breasts. After chicken is cooked, cube chicken, add 16oz cubed cream cheese and 2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup, stir. Cook on LOW for 2 hours or HIGH for 1 hour. Serve over noodles.

More Amigurmi Fun

Here are another batch of Ami's-


I had to make a monkey, I <3 href="http://www.crochetme.com/media/p/88885.aspx">CrochetMe

Better Homes and Gardens

Free Ami Patterns

Ami List

Needle Arts

Woman's Day

WolfDreamer

Gourmet Amigurumi

These are a few of the sites where you can find free patterns for Ami's :)

Dinner Time!

We made this for dinner the other night and it was a big hit. I got the recipe from an old Taste of Home Magazine that my sister gave me. Add a salad and Wahlaaaa! It's Dinner Time :)

Enchilada Dip

Ingred;
2 lbs of hamburger
1 can of chili with beans
2 cans of pinto beans, drained
1 can of enchilada sauce
1 16 oz can tomato sauce
1c. corn chips
2c. shredded cheddar cheese
olives
sour cream
tortilla chips


Oven 375
Brown up the hamburger, add in the chili, beans, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce. Cook till bubbly, stir in the corn chips, pour into an 9x13 pan, top with the shredded cheese and olives.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve with sour cream and chips for dipping.

I don't have any pictures of this, is was really yummy, but not very pretty and I was lazy that day :)

See Spring is here! I think.....

You can tell that it's spring

when the kids start wearing rings or their toes-

Or Something like that :)

Snickerdoodles are SO much better as a bar cookie

In fact they should always be made as a bar cookie, I have never liked Snicker Doodles because they are a crisper, dryer cookie than I like.
This Bar Cookie recipe is really, really good. They are cinnamon-y and chew-y and perfect-y :)

I am giving you the link so that you can print out the recipe, because you NEED to make these, they are that wonderful. Thank you to Heidi at Tried-and-True cooking with Heidi for this wonderful recipe :)

Have to share

My daughter cracks me up, I was so proud of the valentine box she made, I just had to share it with you all.
She is so creative and has such a great sense of humor and this showed it so well.

Her Valentine Box is a Pink Dog-

That ate her Homework-

Isn't that too cute?

Who doesn't LOVE Bread Pudding?

Make that Chocolate Bread Pudding.

Now I personally would have thought it impossible for someone to not like chocolate, but my very own Brother-in-Law is an anti-chocolate man. How that very strange phenomenon happened I do not know.

I have had this recipe for bread pudding bookmarked for quite some time, last week I made Challah bread and decided that it would be the perfect way to use it up. I changed it a little, I didn't add the chocolate chips, instead I added about 1/2c. cocoa powder to the custard batter. I baked it in a 8x8 pan and it turned out PERFECTLY.

The kiddos and the Hubby who are all, thankfully, chocolate people, thought so too :)

Need a baby shower gift?

I found this cute little burp rag idea on a craft blog called How Does She.....
Both of my Sister in Laws are expecting, there are a few women from church and one of my Hubby's co-workers that I wanted to make something for.
I cheated and bought a couple packages of Utility Towels that were on sale at Shopko to make these. I had some flannel that I bought on sale a few years ago, so my total cost for 5 of these was only 4 $, I am cheap like that :)

I laid the towels on the flannel and cut them to the same size, laid them right sides together and sergered them, leaving a hole so that I could turn them right side out.

I used my sewing machine to top stitch then all the way around. Then I rolled them up and tied with a piece of fabric cut into rickrack ribbons with my new, very first ever, pair of pinking shears :)
See how cute they turned out-

I am going to add some other cute homemade baby goodies to these, once I figure out what else to make, there are too many cute things out there :)

Breakfast anyone?

Thank you all the great comments! It's really motivating to have such great support :)

I have a wonderful recipe for you, we made these last weekend and they were soooooo yummy! I think that it will be my main waffle recipe from now on. Do you remember this post? And this one?
About Mochi and Mochiko flour? These waffles are made with half mochiko rice flour and half reg. flour, and they have no butter or oil in them. Not only were they amazing when they were hot, crispy and chewy, but they were wonderful just plain the next day too!
I sliced up some strawberries and mango to go on them and whipped up some Rum Whipped cream to go on top, it was a tropical experience :)

Mochi Waffles
Ingred;
2c. flour
2c. mochiko, rice flour
1/2t. salt
1/4c. sugar
2T. baking powder
3c. milk
3 eggs
2t. vanilla

Stir together the dry ingred. Make a well in the center, add in the wet ingred. and whisk together. Make sure you spray your waffle iron well so they don't stick.

Rum Whipped Cream
Ingred
2c. whipping cream
1/4c. sugar
1t. rum extract

Whip these together in a chilled mixing bowl until stiff peaks form.

I am still alive

I have just been in a different mod, 1 that hasn't allowed for much online time. My treadmill is by the computer and I have been composing blogs, in my head, while walking. But then my free time is gone and I didn't get to spend any of it in BlogLand :(

On a very happy note though, I am ecstatic to announce that since January 1st I have gone from a size 22 to a size 16, a snug 16 but a 16 none the less!!!!! And I am down on top too! From a 3x to an XL!!! I haven't been this size is 5 years!!!! Even my feet have shrunk, lol.


I am needing some advice from my runner friends-
I need to go get some new tennis shoes, what should I be looking for?
Also I have been getting shin splints, very bad shin splints, for the last two weeks. Is there anything I can do to prevent them? Make them better? I have been iceing them after walking and jogging because they hurt so bad. I really don't want them to be slowing me down so if there is something I can be doing that would be great.
I will hopefully be back on here later I have some great crafts and some yummy recipes to share with you all, I hope your day is wonderful!!!!