Happy Homemaker Monday 03/23

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

This past week passed me in a blur…hit by one of those springtime colds…the gift that keeps on giving, LOL. Looking forward to a better week this week. Hope everyone is doing well.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
Snow!! 🙂 About 5 inches, it was like a mini-blizzard. I don’t think it has anything to do with a certain Midwesterner who put out her deck furniture AND her grill already…I don’t know…what do you think Carrie? LOL 😉

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
Coffee, Fudge Jumbles (the oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate cookie bar I made…there is oatmeal in it!!)

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:
Even though I have been looking forward to spring, when I awoke this morning and looked out the window to the 3 inches of snow already on the ground, and the fluffy flakes dancing through the sky, I couldn’t help but smile. Something about snow just makes me happy. 🙂

ON TODAY’S TO DO LIST:
Plan my meals for the week, and then make out my shopping list. Laundry – have been fighting a cold, so it piled up on me again. Ugh!!

CURRENTLY READING:
It’s Just My Nature – by Carol Tuttle. I have always been fascinated about learning what makes people “tick” and their different personalities, and what makes each person unique. I like the approach that she used, it was very easy to understand. She explains how most people are used to the Myers-Briggs personality test, which defines 16 different personality types. In her book, Carol defines only 4 different types, with all of us having a little bit of each type, and one dominant one and a strong secondary one. These types of personalities or as she calls it energy, are also found in nature. So interesting!!

Looking through my wish list to find another fiction, nothing has jumped out at me yet.

ON THE TV TODAY:
The Voice. Catch up on The Good Wife, and Castle. I also look forward to Devious Maids starting in the late spring/summer.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
I need to grocery shop for the week yet.

NEW RECIPE I TRIED OR WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:
I didn’t get a chance to make anything new this past week. I will be trying the Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken I posted about last week, tomorrow.

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA:
Even with the snow on the ground, I am still trying to think spring and warmer weather!! It has to get here sooner or later.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES (PRAYERS OR DEVOTIONALS):

Happy Homemaker Monday 03/16

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

Hope everyone is doing well, and looking forward to warmer weather, I know I am definitely getting Spring Fever!!

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
Beautiful!! Today the thermometer actually reads 73!! The 50’s and 60s’s have been nice, looks like it might go back down to the 40’s in the next couple of days. It’s been weird for me to enjoy this warm weather, as we check in with our mushers everyday in Alaska, where it has been –20 and –30 degrees. Today it made it up to 1 for them. Hope to do an update on their progress in the next couple of days.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
Coffee, of course, with my Sweet Cream Creamer, and some delicious Jam Puffs my mom made over the weekend!! I have traded my snowflake mug, for just my spring green mug, I really would like one like this though:

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:
The yard looks so drab, the grass is just kinda yucky. We definitely need some rain to make everything nice and green!!

ON TODAY’S TO DO LIST:
Really not much, cleaned house yesterday, home school lessons of course, I might bake something once I’m done with this post. Shhhh…the laundry is done. But I have a feeling there’s a pair of socks somewhere trying to rally the other garments in protest to this abomination. The socks around here are bold like that, and would do it all out in the open too, since they usually hang out wherever they are dropped…Anniehow….

CURRENTLY READING:

The Sweetness of Honey by Alison Kent. This is book 3 in the Hope Springs series I have been reading. First two were very good.

But what I just finished reading….Oh. My. G!! The Dead Key by D.M. Pulley. The story takes place in 1978 and 1998 and switches back and forth. It tells the story about the secretaries at the First Bank of Cleveland in 1978, and then in 1998, when the bank is abandoned, and a female engineer is assigned to work in it to draw up the actual floor plans, so that a buyer can decide if it can be renovated. The twists and turns in the book are so good!! Half way through the book, the author linked the past with the present with one character. Brilliantly written.

ON THE TV TODAY:
The Voice, which I will actually watch with the kids. I have one other episode of The Good Wife to watch, I just love the character, Marissa, she just makes me laugh, how she just speaks her mind!! This show just has good casting overall. I have some catching up to do on Castle as well.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
BBQ Breaded Pork Chops, Rice, Corn on the Cob and Grands biscuits
Teriyaki Chicken with rice and veggies, Hawaiian Bread
Chicken Parmigiana, Fettuccine noodles, Green Beans, Italian Herb and Cheese Bread
Turkey Club Sandwiches
Swiss Steak Supper, Crescent Rolls

NEW RECIPE I TRIED OR WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:
Last week I did try the Easy Pork Fajitas from Carrie, and these were absolutely delicious!! I did not serve mine with guacamole though, but they were very good, and easy to make.

What I am trying this week is Teriyaki Chicken. I think someone posted it on FB, and it looked so good, going to give it a go. So many times I see these recipes and I add them to my bookmarks, and think, that looks good, I’ll have to try it, and I never did. I am so glad that in the last month or so, I have made it a point to try these recipes, and so far everything has been good. I would love to be one of those people who can just “throw things together” and make a meal, my sister can do that, I need a recipe, which then I can alter it if need be.

Here is the recipe for the Teriyaki Chicken:

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients

1 1/2lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 clove minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon fresh black pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons chicken stock

Directions

In the slow cooker, mix together soy sauce, molasses, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and pepper.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and turn a few times to coat well in the soy sauce mixture.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours, turning the chicken about every hour to ensure even cooking.

Once cooked, remove the chicken from the slow cooker, cut up into bite sized pieces, and set aside.

Pour the liquid from the slow cooker into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and chicken stock until combined. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling liquid and reduce to a simmer.
Allow the sauce to thicken for 2-3 minutes, then add the chicken to the pan.
Toss to coat the chicken with the sauce, and let heat through.
Serve over rice with vegetables.
Enjoy!

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA:
Definitely thinking spring and warm weather now that I have lost an hour (curse you Daylight Savings Time!!), and the days are longer!!

These first two pics are for my dear friend Carrie, who has been longing for spring for some time now, and would like to see some green, and loves flowers.

This is my daughter’s twin brother skateboarding…he’s 6′ 2″ and she’s like 5′ 5″…but I love how they still spend so much time together even as they are getting older.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES (PRAYERS OR DEVOTIONALS):

Happy Homemaker Monday 03/02

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
Sunny and warm!! Well…33 degrees is warm for us now. We have a mess heading our way though, after midnight…snow, cold, freezing rain, then rain, with 40 degree temps, then back down to 20 on Wednesday. Gotta love the Midwest!! 🙂

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
Brownies and Coffee with my Sweet Cream Creamer. The brownies were from the bakery this time.

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:
I’m watching the birds feasting on their buffet (as my youngest likes to call it). It’s a buffet because our birds not only get bread, but sometimes popcorn, crackers, a pop tart or two. For some reason they don’t like corn flakes, those were there for a couple of days, they did finally eat them though. #pickybirds

RIGHT NOW I AM:
Drinking a Starbucks Mocha Coconut Frappuccino and typing up this post. These are delicious, first time trying this flavor. I buy them at the grocery store in the glass bottles. So delicious!!

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:
It is really clean, did a good cleaning yesterday.

ON TODAY’S TO DO LIST:
Laundry of course, and that includes laundering money. My son left his wallet in his pants, so yeah…I’m a criminal as well, I launder money, LOL. Have to balance the checkbook, would like to also make some bread pudding…been thinking about that since yesterday.

CURRENTLY READING:
Still reading A Little Lower Than the Angels by Caryl McAdoo

Need to write my review on the other book I finished, and finish reading this one to write my review.

I recently finished Beneath the Patchwork Moon by Alison Kent. This was the next book in the series that I started that had the recipe for the brownies. This one was about the girl who makes scarves with her weaving loom. This is very good too, the main character, Luna Meadows, was introduced in the first book, letting you know that she had some secrets she had been keeping to herself. All that comes out in this book…very good.

ON THE TV TODAY:
We started watching The Voice last week. The kids and I started watching it when it first came out, and really enjoyed it. But once the judges changed, we didn’t watch it. But 3 of the original judges are there this season, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, and Christina Aguilera, and they really make the show. They added Pharrell Williams (the guy who sings Happy) as a judge, and he is actually pretty good. I’ll catch up on Castle on my laptop later in the week.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
Dorito Casserole
Bifes Enrolados – Stuffed Steak, mashed potatoes, Broccoli & Cauliflower, Crescent Rolls
Easy Pork Fajitas

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:
Nada, nic, zero, zilch, zip, nil, nought…nothing 😦

NEW RECIPE I TRIED OR WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

I will be trying this week:

Bifes Enrolados – Stuffed Steak, from Sandra @Diary of a Stay At Home Mom
Easy Pork Fajitas, from Carrie @Northwoods Scrapbook

The two recipes I tried from Sandra, were very delicious. I liked the Swiss Steak Supper a lot, and so did my two sons. When my middle son really likes something, he’ll say Mom you make the best stuff. 🙂 My youngest son was analyzing it, and trying to decipher the flavors, LOL. You can find the recipes here:
Slow Cooker Swiss Steak Supper
Parmesan Chicken and Rice

I also tried Chicken Parmigiana from Sandra, and this is my favorite. I LOVE Chicken Parmigiana, and this one is very good, and easy to make. Served it with some Chicken flavored Fettuccine noodles, and a some green beans, so good!!

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA:
I can’t believe it is already March, and we still have snow on the ground and ice at the lake. Hopefully these will be the last of the icy photos.

Not everything is frozen…signs of life!!

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES (PRAYERS OR DEVOTIONALS):

Happy Homemaker Monday 02/16

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Carrie Ann Alexis

HHMwinter

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

It’s Monday again, another week has gone by, here’s what’s been going on.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
Really cold…like 14 degrees cold!! Had a little snow over the weekend, not even an inch.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
Home made brownie (see recipe below) and coffee with Sweet Cream Creamer.

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:
The piles of snow have been refreshed, with a new blanket of white. With the construction going on behind our house, and the windy days we had, left the snow really dirty, and yucky. Hate when that happens.

RIGHT NOW I AM:
Just waiting for my dinner to be complete, this is why I love slow cooker recipes!!

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:
Kids have been taking it easy, we took the day off for President’s day. So it’s a little more cluttered than usual, with Legos of course.

ON TODAY’S TO-DO LIST:
Lesson plans for the rest of the week.

CURRENTLY READING:
Tsunami 2004 Still Wading Through Waves of Hope by Holly Michael

A Little Lower Than the Angels by Caryl McAdoo

I have been asked by my friend Holly to join her and Caryl McAdoo’s Facebook Group as an eVALUator, where I will receive new releases and then review them. These are my first two; I will be posting reviews on my blog as well as Amazon once I read them. Looking forward to reviewing some books.

ON THE TV TODAY:
I rarely watch my TV shows on their actual days. I watch them on my laptop when I get time. I caught up on Castle from last week, and it left us hanging until this week!! Very good though. My two youngest and I have started watching Duff Til Dawn on the Food Network. Two teams work all through the night at Duff’s bakery to create a cake based on the theme they receive before the contest. The winner goes home with the Golden Whisk!! So much fun, Duff is the owner of Charm City Bakery and had the show Ace of Cakes some time ago. So fun to watch. Tonight we will watch the Kids Baking Championship on the Food Network. These kids are incredible bakers!! I hate the competition part, when one is eliminated each week, so sad. 😦 (I am so not the little league mom, I hate seeing the kids disappointed).

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
Slow Cooker Swiss Steak Supper, Grands biscuits
Parmesan Chicken and Rice
Chili
Beef Stew
Frozen Pizzas

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:
My youngest son and I created a Rainbow in a Jar as a Science experiment the other day. I saw it on Facebook, and I thought that looks easy enough, and he really enjoyed layering the different liquids on top of each other, and adding food coloring and seeing how it responded in the different liquids. It was a lesson about density. This was the end result.

NEW RECIPE I TRIED OR WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:
I tried Carrie’s Snow Cocoa recipe at Northwoods Scrapbook. This was so delicious. I made it along with home made brownies (recipe below). This would be a wonderful drink for a holiday party since you make it in the slow cooker and you can just leave it there.

I am also trying these two recipes from Sandra’s Slow Cooker Thursday Recipes
Slow Cooker Swiss Steak Supper
Parmesan Chicken and Rice

This brownie recipe came from the book that I was reading, A Second Chance Café by Alison Kent. I love books that include recipes!!

Two Owls’ Signature Chocolate Brownie

1 ¼ cups cake flour
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking powder
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
¾ cup unsalted butter
2 ¼ cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease or spray with cooking oil and flour (or line with aluminum foil) a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

Sift flour, the salt, and the baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler (or in a microwave), stirring often so as not to burn the chocolate. Mix the sugar into the smooth chocolate mixture. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture, folding with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake 30 – 35 minutes, or until an inserted tester comes out mostly clean. Cool completely before cutting.

These were very good, nice and moist but with the light slightly crunchy top.

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA:
My daughter and I were out the other day and drove through the park by the lake. We got out and she took pictures of the frozen lake. (I actually only got out once, it was so extremely cold).

This is the beach. These huge mounds have formed from the waves constantly crashing up against the packed ice and snow.

The waves were actually still able to move under all these chunks of ice. It was something to watch the waves with these large chunks of ice rolling towards the shore.

Yes…it was actually colder than this looks!!

Happy Homemaker Monday 02/09

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Carrie Ann Alexis

Linking-up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:
Cold…it’s 30 degrees but feels like 21…brrrr. Saw some flurries today. Looking at a high on Thursday of only 15.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:
Banana bread and coffee with my favorite Sweet Cream Coffee creamer.

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:
Still plenty of snow around. Some of it melted over the weekend, but the sidewalks are finally cleared as well as the streets. All around town, there are mounds of snow piled up in different places.

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:
Actually it is clean. Spent my Sunday morning cleaning.

ON TODAY’S TO DO LIST:
Home school lessons, run some errands, and do the few loads of laundry left…I almost got it all done yesterday…ALMOST!! So close. 😦

CURRENTLY READING:
Evening Stars by Susan Mallery

Tsunami 2004 Still Wading Through Waves of Hope by Holly Michael. This author is a good friend of mine, she actually went with her husband to where the Tsunami hit the hardest, she published this book in time for the 10th anniversary of the Tsunami.

ON THE TV TODAY:
Just read here that The Good Wife will return March 9th, looking forward to that. I am thinking about starting the Downtown Abbey series. My mom just bought the whole thing for my sister and she began watching it, and is hooked. That’s a lot of catching up to do though.

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:
Turkey Bacon Club Sandwiches
Cheesy Chicken, Alfredo Noodles, Green Beans and Crescent Rolls
Chicken Pot Pie
Cheeseburgers, fries and deviled eggs (My youngest calls this dinner Burger Queen, lol)

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:
Does creating a nice shade of hair color count? Being that I am not a natural red head, and my wonderful genes have me graying way too early, I have been experimenting to find a nice red color, that looks natural and won’t fade as much. My mom and I were hairstylists once upon a time. My daughter tells me it makes me look younger…so yeah…we’re sticking with this one, LOL. Need to take a new pic…someday.

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:
I tried the Banana Beignets from Sandra’s food blog, you can find the recipe here. These were really good. Had a hard time working with the dough, but they have a really good flavor. I really should be trying recipes for main dishes, but I am always drawn to the desserts. 🙂 Making the Simple Bread Pudding again this week!!

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM CAMERA: Here are a couple more photos from my daughter.

Find Yourself Again