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It’s time for another edition of Tuesday Troubles. I’ve said it before (like every week), but this should be named “things i’m annoyed / confused / want to complain about”, however I couldn’t figure out how to make any of those into a snappy title, so Tuesday Troubles it is. And yes, I do realize that these aren’t true “troubles”. I know that many of these for sure could be defined as first world problems!
~Why is this month taking so long? Is it because I am so excited about the Games which start next month? The Superbowl? Or is it because the holidays are over and January is just – January? I don’t know but I feel like January is dragging. I don’t think it will ever be February! Does anyone else think this?
~What is your favorite crockpot recipe? Nothing super specific, but what are some more interesting things you make in there? I’ve make crockpot spaghetti which was good, but I need more ideas. I want to use it more and make dinners easier!
~I cannot get enough of these local Facebook Swap groups I am in. The drama is incredible. I have talked about them before, but I swear it’s getting crazier by the day. Someone on there referred to it as being better then Springer. Every day it’s someone yelling (I’m talking YELLING) about someone else because they didn’t like the quality of the goods they received. Umm, these swaps are done in person. You didn’t notice that the shirt you bought smelled like smoke or the toy you bought didn’t work? Really? Last night was about some $24 shoes and man did it get nasty.
~So yesterday WB and I set out to find some shirts for the boys Valentine’s Day pictures (which were also yesterday). I was confident we’d be able to find something in no time. Wrong. It is quite difficult to find cute boys stuff for Valentine’s Day. Why is this? Girls have dresses and leggings and cute tops and so much adorable stuff with hearts and all that cuteness. Boys? They get like two shirts to pick from. At least throw me a bone with some red, pink, white, purple sweaters or something!
~Potholes. Do you live in a state with them? If so I feel for you. The roads here are a disaster right now. A complete mess. And if you don’t know what a pothole is, I am beyond jealous of you. Basically they are holes in the road for the freezing / thawing cycle that happens during winer. The road commission patches potholes but they can’t do it that fast. If you hit a pothole wrong it’s flat tire city (or worse) for you! So so annoying.
That’s it from here for now! What’s troubling you today?
On Life After I Dew- today
Italian Sausage & Chickpea Stew
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon canola oil
19.5 oz package lean sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
5 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 (15-oz) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
12 oz package peeled and cubed butternut squash
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup peeled and chopped carrot
1? teaspoons dried rosemary
? teaspoon salt, ? teaspoon pepper
Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Combine sausage,broth, chickpeas, squash, onion, carrots, rosemary, salt and pepper in a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low 5 hours. Serves 6. Note: Refrigerate leftover soup up to 5 days, or freeze in a zip-top plastic bag up to 3 months.
If I could swap chicken for the sausage we might be talking!
I am sure you could. I am more of a chicken person too.
http://whoneedsacape.com/2012/11/crockpot-freezer-cooking/
I actually make most of these about 2 weeks ago as an experiment. I’ve been tired of the same 10 things for dinner. Most are very good!
Thank you!
Buffalo chicken in the crock pot ? just 3 or 4 chicken breasts, franks red hot buffalo sauce, a little butter, and if you want a package of the ranch dressing mix that comes in packets. Just that for a few hours and you have pulled buffalo chicken ? which you can eat on chips or make sandwiches, put over rice ? whatever! It?s so easy!
Thanks!!!
My quick and easy crock pot recipe is frozen chicken breasts and a jar of salsa. You can use the chicken (it basically becomes so tender it falls apart) for enchiladas, tacos, or even with peppers and onions for fajitas. It is as easy as it gets!
We love just south of Chicago and have tons of potholes too. Even on new streets!
How did the pictures turn out? I love cute valentine clothes but only have girls. My favorite go to for cute custom tees right now is swanky shank on etsy. I love her tees and she makes adorable boys stuff!
I believe I have done that with chicken. I forgot how fabulous that is.
L did well for pictures (he always does). WB just wanted to run around. So it was about how I expected!
I love my crockpot. I usually do a boring meal of potatoes, carrots and meat. LOL either chicken or pork of some kind. Then season with what I have either spices or maybe a french onion soup mix. We can eat that for a couple days. 😉 I also like to do chicken in there and we can eat some for dinner the first night then I clean it and we do a chicken pot pie the second night. M loves that.
I hate potholes and since we aren’t as cold as you I think it takes even longer for them to get fixed since I’m assuming we just don’t have as many people to fix them. They are horrible and I feel like some roads just need to be dug up and completely redone since the whole road is like a big pothole.
Soooo, OT, but I am going to e-mail you about disney today. I have a few questions!
ask away. I love to talk Disney 🙂
We have a cookbook called – Not you mother’s slow cooker cookbook. Loads of great recipes.
Fun (ehhh, sort of) fact – there are two ways they fill pot holes – cold patch and hot patch. The hot patch involved a second truck and stamping it down. It is the lasting way. But, it can only be done in good weather. So in the winter, the way they do it only lasts until it gets wet – essentially useless.
It’s a never ending cycle of repairing the roads here.
I miss Michigan a lot but I do NOT miss those roads.
Such a mess!
Crockpot meatloaf. Chicken for tacos. The usual taco soup, stews, etc… I’ve heard of mac’n’cheese in a crockpot, but I’m a little sketchy on that one (but I haven’t tried it)!
And I HATE the lack of boy valentine’s clothes too! I have twin one year old boys and usually there’s only ONE shirt for the holiday for boys. I don’t want them both in the exact same clothes! Ugh…rant over! 😉
I just get scared about it not cooking long enough!
I hear you on the holiday stuff. Totally.
Omg. This is a constant struggle with my son. I promise, I complain of the same thing when it comes to shopping for my kids…why do boys always have just like a scarce variety of button down shirts, lots of t-shirts and then pants. Normal boring pants. Or shorts.
Girls: OVERFLOWING with different patterns, colors, leggings…name it, they’ll have in all sorts of ways. -.-
Totally. At least give me some fun patterns and colors in button downs like grown men can pick from!
Check these out. This is my favorite recipe website for all recipes so her crock pot ones are probably great! Check them out the soups are amazing!
Is there a link?
There was supposed to be but I was probably doing 4 things at once. http://www.skinnytaste.com. On the right she has categories one is crock pot
.
I know the feeling!
Easiest, cheapest and best thing ever. I make at least once a month. And this makes a huge batch.
Layer 3 large frozen chicken breasts first. Cover with one can corn, one can of black beans, and one jar of salsa. Cook on low 7 hours. Add one package of cream cheese for 30 min on high. Shred chicken with your fork and serve over rice.
Umm, this sounds delicious! Thanks!
And PS those swaps scare me. I had a lady offer me her “bear skin rug that had only been slightly chewed on by the dog” for the low low cost of $60.00?.. I mean this thing was gnarly and she got pretty pissed that I said no. lol
LOL!!! Why wouldn’t you want that?
Etsy for boys’ shirts. I am having a crafty friend make my boys matching shirts with ties. I bought black long sleeved tees, and she is appliqueing a red tie on each and embroidering a heart on each. Will post them on my IG when she’s finished.
I wonder if I could talk L into something like that? It would work for WB, but I think L might be too old.
For the crockpot I love to prep up soups (I do curry lentil, split pea, and chicken with rice normally) and freeze everything raw so that when I am feeling lazy there’s super easy dinners ready to go. I freeze the lentils/split peas/rice in with the chopped veggies (all uncooked) so that there’s literally no work but adding water. I make them in huge batches (I chop up the carrots/celery/onion all in the food processor so it’s fast) and end up with like 6-10 dinners made at a time.
I need to start freezing meals like that!
A friend sent this crockpot recipe list to me recently:
http://www.stacymakescents.com/100-days-of-no-processed-meals-crock-pot-style
Thank you!
In my crockpot I always make generic shredded chicken. Not very creative but it works. We do a lot, and then Freeze the leftovers preportioned to use on salads, tacos, burritos, soups, bbq chicken, or anything hat needs chicken. It is easy to cook, an then future dinners already have the chicken prepared.
We also get terrible pot holes! Once spring rolls around it’s the worst to drive around. Then it takes almost until next winter for all of them to be fixed.
Ha. Same here. It’s such a mess.
I make a lot of things in the crock pot. I just put in whatever I have.
Pork chops, cream of mushroom, French onion soup
Chicken legs, cream of mushroom soup, packet of ranch
Chunked steak, gravy, French onion soup
Everything over over potatoes noodles or rice lol
How long do you leave it in to make sure it’s done? I can never figure that part out!
I for the most part cook everything 8 hours on low… Lol I’ve had pretty good luck with it!