Daily Archives: November 25, 2011

Saving Time and Money with Crockpot or How I cook..

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I LOVE my Crockpot in fact I love it so much that I multiplied it last summer as my birthday gift.  I purchased a combo of 3 small crockpots!  Using a crockpot saves energy! I also find that it is a great way to get meal prepared especially for a crowd and have everything hot at the same time. My favorite site for Crockpot recipes is A Year of Slow Cooking. I actually started following this site the same year that she cooked something different in Crockpots each day for 365. I have used probably 10 recipes from this site and never been disappointed.

For Thanksgiving this year, I was asked to bring vegetables and a desert to my parents for lunch. Matt and I both like turkey so we chose to cook a Turkey breast as well.  I am a recipe follower so this site  is awesome. I used both the turkey breast and cream style corn recipes . The turkey was  honestly one of the best tasting and moist turkey I have ever eaten. I started it about 7am and we ended up eating it around 6pm. I used my large Crockpot for this. In the sectional, I prepared corn, pintos and sweet potatoes. I did have to soak the pintos overnight. While all these items were cooking I was able to go to both CVS and Walgreens. We still arrived at my parents with plenty of time prior to lunch.  No trouble cleaning up is also an advantage, after lunch we came home plugged back up the sectional and turn them on warm. At 6ish we simply dished up the food for a second meal. I did empty the pots after dinner.  We enjoyed a second round of leftovers this evening for dinner. My plan is to make a turkey pie. So we have really stretch our meals this weekend. Both the large one and the sectional all fit in the dishwasher

Using the crockpot makes roast, soups and appetizers easy as well. I can use find most ingredients in my pantry. The biggest advantage I see to using the crock pot is that I can start a meal and it is ready at dinner time even if we have been extremely busy all day. This usually saves us from grabbing something out to eat or using alot of “quick pasta meals”.  An example is this Sunday, we will be cooking Baked Potatoes for us while at church, easily $30 saved in one meal which pays for the Crockpots each time I use them.

Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

So Much to be Thankful for..

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This will be my last blog post on the things I am thankful for this year…although it really shouldn’t be because I need to have a grateful heart all year long. I do have plans for several more post on this extended weekend. But to stick to the topic here is the extended list of things ( I have been posting each Friday in Novmeber so in total this will make 24, don’t forget to catch up !)
1. Being at home for this Thanksgiving. Matt and I have been together now for 8 years, in each of the previous years except 2009, we have travel to Michigian to celebrate with his side of the family. I LOVE each and every one of those folks but it is hard to travel with small kids. So I am thankful for cooking my own dinner in my own house this Thanksgiving
2. Having time to enjoy my husband. Matt and I plan to spend a good portion of the day tommorow shopping together. Haley is baby-sitting, with pay so she is also thankful for this chance to earn some extra money. One of the benefit of traveling together is the extended time in the car in which we talk and get caught up with each other. So instead we are going to each shopping and maybe even a meal out alone during this busy season.
3. Friends that have the same interest as I do. I really enjoyed meeting both Sandy and Dana at CVS this morning and rushing through the store grabbing the deals we wanted to share!
4. Crock-pots. They are a huge time and money saver. (More details on this soon)
5. My children growing up as friends, the older girls are starting to become mature friends. I am happy to see them want to spend time together and not always fighting over clothes. I LOVE watching the younger ones play! Yes I enjoy having 5 kids!
6. God’s blessing in my life. Several years ago Matt and I attended a small group that used the book “A Blessed Life.” We have struggled to live in this manner and in all honest are really enjoyed this blessed life!