Inspired by Elizabeth yesterday… It is finally warm outside so we decided to venture over and say hello to our new neighbors who moved in about one month ago. I asked Elizabeth and she said a very excited, “Yes!!”
Finally going to say something…I said, “Hi, finally we are able to come over and say hi…” then the water works and screaming began….
Sheesh…
At least the neighbors have two little kids so they understand, but that was really the worst kind of first impression ever…😓
We will try again another day. Hopefully it stays warm, so that it will be another day soon.
Oh, the emotional roller coaster of a two year old…
So I choose a meat first. I decided on beef…but for some reason I was having trouble finding a simple ground beef recipe that we haven’t had yet in the cookbooks…
Nothing…maybe it was because I was uninspired but I found nothing…So I ventured into a few more…
Nothing…well that’s not completely true. I found a few in the casserole cookbook but none were sounding appetizing.
So I opted to one of my previous simple recipes…
It is a google recipe that I’ve edited, typed up, and printed into my goggle inspired cookbook.
So it says Korean…but since I didn’t have the right ingredients, when I first made it, I kind of Americanized it….so I apologize to the Koreans or foodies in the world that may cringe at some of my changes. Sorry. 😓
So first things first…defrost the beef…
It would take hours if I let it sit alone…so hot water, meet meat…
This is from the cow we bought…the meat doesn’t truly taste different to me, but when I cook it, it has a nice smell to it.
Rice maker…!
Funny story about our rice cooker. My brother didn’t end up wanting this rice cooker when he went back for his second year of college…so I took it. 🤓 And it still lives!! It’s about 4 years old. When it eventually dies I will be very sad…😞
Anyways back on topic. Rice is cooking!!
The sauce and meat cooking pan is prepared…A little bit of olive oil and start cooking the meat. Just until no longer pink.
Can you guess what I decided to do while I waited for the meat to cook?
Get the dishes prepared for after dinner…🥸
It is not my blog unless doing dishes is mentioned at some point…
I decided to add my always green bean recipe. It’s not really a recipe…
You know when you cook something so often that you no longer measure…that would be my green beans. Some butter, green beans, some salt, a little pepper, a lite sprinkle of garlic powder…and a five finger pinch of brown sugar. Mix it up and let it simmer until you are done with everything else…
Drain off the fat…I changed my mind about the sauce…I wiped out the bit of fat at the bottom of the pan and added the sauce.
Yeah it means one more dish…but to be honest it was the same pot I used to boil Elizabeth’s noddles for Mac n cheese…so it was already used. Another confession…I just wiped it with a paper towel after lunch…But all it had was a couple stuck noodles. 🤪
Stir the meat. Add the flavor!!
Now I’m hungry. I wasn’t really hungry when I started. But now I’m a HUNGRY THING!!
The rice is done.
We get a sushi rice. It’s the best! Costco!!
The garnish…🤩
Green onions just add that extra yum! to certain foods. I usually add them to anything hat sounds remotely good.
My food!
I’ve been trying to be better at my rice consumption. I now measure out my rice. It also makes the plate look pretty and professional…but honestly it’s just for measuring purposes.
See this was a normal cooking process before I got the cookbooks. My google inspired cookbook is huge. I gave my siblings a copy for Christmas this last year.
Even though it’s a bit simple it was delicious!!
I guess I’ll rate them since this is a recipe after all…
Looks Like Picture: 10! I do remember the picture. It always looks the same.
Taste: 10! I always love this meal. It’s a little sweet, spicy, and salty. Everything you usually crave rolled into one recipe. In case you try it…if you do not like spicy don’t add the red pepper flakes. Or maybe just half… also my hubby wanted seconds but again I said no. Just because I knew ice cream was in the near future…
Easiness: 10! It’s pretty much an add everything together and wait. Also since I use a rice cooker it makes this meal extremely easy!
Also to give you an idea of amount of beef mixture it makes… I had about a small heaped 1/2 cup. The hubby…3/4 cup?? I think. And there probably 1 cup leftover. So for two people, it’s a one dinner and one lunch kind of meal.
Hopefully this recipe made you hungry. Usually I won’t post the recipe but since this one is a recipe I tweaked to work fo me I shared it.
These days do happen, but rarely…Baby’s breakfast is prepared and looking yummy!!Making our breakfasted has become just a routine…I can be done in less than 10min now. 😎 I decided to eat my peanut butter honey toast in the kitchen standing up. As I finished my last bite…Elizabeth had finished hers…WOW!She also…put her dishes in the sink and counter when she was done…I was surprised but also quite proud…Now this I think is the biggest surprise for me…!Like always doing the dishes after dinner. When a sudden, “Mama!” told me it must be that time. Potty time!! When she was finally done going potty and ready to go back into the kitchen…I saw this…😳The hubby…was doing…the dishes…🤯Almost exactly the face I had after I saw this…I took a picture when it happened. Just because I knew this would be great comic content. Beware people…beware…Original by emily2jane 4-25-21
Elizabeth now clears her dishes and puts them in the dishwasher. 🥰 It’s so cute!! Also whenever we are watching a movie while eating out ice cream on the couch, she will take our bowls and spoons and put them in the sink. She takes care of mama! 😍
And I really shouldn’t be so shocked about the hubby doing the dishes…but it’s been almost four years since I saw that sight…
I guess… husbands in the world… if you want to confuse your wife do the dishes one night without saying anything… She, like me, will wonder if the world is ending.
All day yesterday I thought it was Friday. I thought I would have one more day to pep myself up before going to church. But alas no…I woke up today, looked at my phone, and read Sunday.
Elizabeth will be happy. She loves going to church and greeting everyone. I just wish I had a day before being social to wake myself up.
So in my last post I said have a happy Friday…sorry to all of you…I have cut your weekend short.
Have a happy Sunday. I will try. The weather here is gloomy and gray.
I wonder is Spring will come this year…
So I’ll just say Elizabeth’s drawings is my Spring today…❤️
Monday again. Two days until finals. I know, I know, I skipped over way too much, give me a break. But there was really nothing to report. I guess I’ll recap the highlights. Thursday after returning to school after the burritos, I didn’t notice the so called ‘change‘ to Jenny. Sure, she was quiet and wouldn’t be around me, but as I had said, that is how she acted after the John incident. I wish the guys had not mentioned it; it really isn’t something to worry over. Still, I had hoped she would have been more confident after how she held herself in front of Jeremy, but maybe with time she would be confident once again.
Dad has been pretty much living in his recording studio; he has been in a tornado of inspiration; which I am happy for him. School is normal as usual; some days we learn, some days we are used to vent at about: the cruelties of teaching the youth. I explained to Coach what had happened to Jenny and my actions; Coach was not impressed that I almost started another incident, but he was impressed that I controlled myself and not hit the guy. Practices have been excellent. We have occasionally been training with Ken to work on his freestyle for the relay, but mostly it was been long distance recovery sets.
Oh, right I forgot to say, there have been no more morning practices. It has been so great to turn off my four-thirty alarms. Sleeping in has done wonders for my muscles. Finals is going to be sweet.
…
Today’s practice was again chill. We have done about twenty-four hundred yards for warm-up; though we would be doing a short sprint set soon. Coach was working with the lower lanes while Jenny and Brit were watching our lane and the two below us. Watching us swim is probably boring. We have broken all our bad habits because we have Coach usually staring us down if we make a mistake; so we now just swim and swim and swim. Lily was at the Bailey’s again; I’m guessing Coach has grown accustomed to having someone to watch his daughter.
Everything was going smoothly. After our last two hundred Jerry and I pulled ourselves up and onto the deck to cool off and enjoy the Gatorades Jenny had brought to share.
“How do you guys just keep swimming without stopping? It seems like it would get boring after a while,” Brit questioned as she threw Gatorades to Ken, Matthew, and the other two lanes.
“Slow days like today,” Michael, a swimmer in the lane next to us, said as he sipped the Gatorade, “make us appreciate these easy days as much as possible. They don’t come often, especially that lane,” thumbing toward us.
“Yep. I am soaking up the easy!” Jerry sighed and gulped the remainder of the gatorade.
Just as we were almost completely relaxed, “Well. I see you all are finished…what shall we do next?” Coach had walked over gripping his hands in a similar manner he does when we are about to die. The lower lanes were already getting out of the pool.
‘Lucky.’ “Okay,” I put the cap on the bottle and slip back into the pool. Jerry follows pursuit. “What is next?”
“These two lanes divide into your normal freestyle relays, and be one lane apart.” Coach waved them to other lanes.
‘What’s Coach up to?’ We stayed put.
“As you know…relays…but the catch is…” Coach smirked, “swimming backwards. George demonstrate.”
‘He knows Jerry is better at it than I am…’ “Okay.” Leaving the wall feet first and trying to attempt to look correct. Popping my head up Coach is laughing…actually laughing…I swam normal to the wall.
“That was almost as good as your backstroke swimming,” Coach sputtered between his deep belly laughs. “Be happy you don’t have to do that competitively.” Coach stopped finally, “Follow George’s example. Each person has four 50s each. Treat this as your cooldown. Let’s begin.”
As I said in #10’s post that it had to marinate for 24hrs.
Spices ready!!Meat prepared!! See you tomorrow morning!Oooooooooooo
So it’s not the most exciting process…and I also tweaked the recipe. The recipe called for using a barbecue to grill the meat in a foil container…I didn’t want to break the hubby’s grill while he was out so I made do with a crockpot. I looked up various crockpot chuck roast recipes and they all said similar: Low 8-10hrs. 😎
You can’t really see the progress, but it smells delicious!!
At this point we have about 3hrs to go…
Okay so at this point we have eaten lunch and I have been skimming through this new cookbook and come upon…churros…😳
Churros it is!!
Who can skip the churros recipe…
The batter did not seem correct but I just went with it expecting it to fail…I didn’t have the correct nozzle so I just made them like this…Well I got creative with the shapes as the rounds went on, but you see that empty plate…that means they are being eaten as I finish them. 😎
They might have looked strange but they were yummy!!
The cinnamon roll shaped ones came out the best!
Okay back to the roast. It is almost ready!!
It just fell off the bone…actually I thought I was going to be able to pick it up by the bone and the bone just slipped out. 😎
I didn’t realize the recipe was going to have me make a BBQ sauce, but I am happy it did. Costco has not been selling our favorite BBQ sauce, so we’ve been pretty limited.
Made with some of the juices and other varied ingredients, I followed the recipe!
Well I kind of followed it. When I was reading the ingredients my brain change cider to white. So I added 1/2 cup of white vinegar. I realized after I pour it in, and decided to try and ladle some out. I then added about 1/4 cup of cider vinegar. Nobody in my household will know! 😎
Hopefully I am making you hungry!!
Removing the fat this is what remains!! Enough for a few dinners!!
I had to taste it at this point…Yum!
Add some sauce…and…Hubby’s food.My food.
I know I always say be healthy but we do occasionally eat other veggies besides salad, I’ve just been too lazy.
So…this recipe is a must for anyone out there that loves meat and barbecue…A MUST!
Look Like Photo: Chuck Roast: Maybe an 8. Since I didn’t smoke/ grill the meat it didn’t take on as much color….I think. I’m not really sure; I’m still new at cooking big chunks of meat.
Churros: 0…it did not in the slightest look like the photo…😒
Taste: Chuck Roast: 10!!!!!!!!!!! I would say 100! But it is out of 10 so 10!!!!!!! The hubby would have had seconds but I said no.
Churros: I would give a 9! It tasted amazing but I think I will follow a different recipe. The dough seemed more like funnel cake batter…that probably would have worked better.
Easiness: 10! Because it was cooked in a crockpot it was super easy!! I think the churros were harder; giving churros a 7.
So overall I had another busy day! Hopefully this drive to cook continues…I love food! I have been exercising…I exercise to eat food!! Mwahahahaha! 😎
Husbands in the world…if you want some new varieties give your wife a cookbook. But make sure she knows you aren’t saying her food is awful. So maybe give her some flowers too!
I had some inspiration, from talking to some old friends. I really am at a different stage of life, and it’s hard to make conversation with them now. I’ve always had trouble making conversations; me being an introvert, but it is harder now with non-moms… 😓
I never thought I would be the one to grow apart from friends….I thought I would be the one left behind.
I guess this poem is for all the non-moms out there. If you are drifting apart from your friend who can’t seem to make conversation, unless it revolves around baby or husband… just know they are trying. It is difficult to remember small details from before kids or marriage.
So I lied when I said I would be starting the other Ree Drummond cookbook. I needed to find a recipe for 4lbs of chuck roast…so I dove into this one instead!!
I thought a country styled cookbook would have plenty of meat recipes…I was correct!
However this blog post is not about the chuck roast. It had to marinate for 24hrs, so I decided to make chicken nuggets from the same cookbook.
Frying in peanut oil again!
You should know. After getting the chuck roast ready I decided upon a crazy idea…I have been in the kitchen since 11:45am…it is currently 4:40pm. I cleaned the refrigerator…
So clean!!! 😍
I thought I would have a break to sit down after my madness of cleaning…nope. Dinner here I come!
All my ingredients are ready.
I forgot I needed to defrost the chicken; so that I could put it in the brine concoction. It had to sit in the fridge for 30min….
Sitting for the short 30min…🤤 Breading of the chicken!!
It was actually an easy process. I was quite surprised how easy. It was a nice change for starting a new cookbook.
It’s coming along!!Round 2 of breading…Well…
When the recipe tells you to cut even pieces it’s actually for a reason. Because then the piece cook the same amount of time. I had to cook the big pieces together, and cook them a little longer.
But it still looks delicious!!Done!
Since I was using a pot and not a dutch oven I had to do a few more rounds. Try four more rounds…
The fries were from another dinner.
Keeping it healthy…we had a salad!
Again this recipe does not seem so exciting but it actually was! I fried chicken and it came out done and still moist…I have become a master at frying…at least in my household!
The hubby and Elizabeth both said yum yum when I served them.
The fries, sadly, did not survive to this dinner, they were hard and were kind of chewy, but Elizabeth still ate them all off her plate…😳
Look Like Photo: 10! I think because I did not use the vegetable oil it looks a bit different in color but overall…10!! 😎
Taste: Hubby 10! Elizabeth 10! Me 10! So delicious. Will definitely be making this again. And might use the temp, time, and breading for other various chicken recipes!!
Easiness: I give it a solid 9. One point off of perfect because I had to do several extra rounds. But the rounds were only 3-4min long. So we are talking an extra 12-16min. That’s why I give it a 9!!
My next cooking post will be about the chuck roast recipe!! It was delicious as well!!
This is two days of not cleaning….it’s a mine field in our living room…Big building blocks!!! OUCH!!Plastic bears between the toes…!!!!Impression of the lego on the foot…can you imagine the pain!?!It was chalk time?…I was making lunch and she got too quiet. Which is why I walked through the mine field. Daddy’s chair…😵 at least he was not home. I made her clean it off…The rocking horse…😩 again she cleaned it. The piano bench…I did not include the couch or another shelf…which again she had to clean. Her chalk has been taken away. Enough was enough…Clean up time!!!Just because I can!Imagine angels singing a big, “Hallelujah!”But not for long. The sound of blocks being thrown begins again…
The living room looks worse than it did last night….so we will be cleaning again! All parents understand the legos…Whoever invented them did not think about the pain caused when stepping on them. If they had…
When the older kid legos become a big thing in my house…we will have to have a designated area…
emily2jane 