I had 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts left over from my make-ahead night that needed to be used today. So I pulled out one of my many crock pot books and found this oh so simple recipe.
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When in doubt, smile.
Archives for the month of: May, 2008
My Nana has a pig collection .. when I spotted this card in the store .. it was just too perfect!
Today I realized my site looks really boring right now .. here are a few puppy pics I snapped today:
Driving Miss Daisy
She would ride like this everywhere if I let her ..
But right after we took that picture (still on our dirt road), both dogs were moved to the safety of their car carrier 
Big Pup loves to model ..
He comes and tells me to get the camera
Then Daisy does things like this to take my attention away (and big pup’s)
And she always demands to be the center of attention
pay attention to MEEEEEEEEEEEE
So last night I swore I was never going to feel better, that I needed to find another doctor, and sure enough my energy seemed to come back today. My throat is still swollen, and I’m wondering if it might be allergy related, so tonight I’m switching allergy meds to try that out.
Today I managed to catch up on work a bit, ship out 3 photography print orders (woo hoo!!), run errands for 3 hours, including going grocery shopping, and put together 2 new recipes! I decided to try out a tequila lime chicken recipe & one called shanghi stir-fry from my new make-ahead cookbook. I’m amazed at how much food these recipes make. I ended up with 6 tequila lime chicken dinners and 8 shanghi stir-fry dinners (2 servings each!) They’re designed for 4 portions .. so its like everything is doubled for my 2 person family. Anyways, I quickly cooked up a tequila lime dinner tonight and both Sean and I really liked it. The recipe calls for basting, but I just put it on my george foreman grill because it was late and I was tired and hungry .. anyways, I couldn’t really baste on there. But I bet it’ll taste even better with the basting. I’ll share the recipe once I get a pretty picture .. today’s plate was too plain
Just got word that the next tenant for our condo has been approved and is all set to get her keys on Friday!!
We’ve been going through some annoying BS with the condo board .. the condo has been empty since Jan. We were supposed to have a tenant move in back around May 1st .. his application came through in March and it took the board 3 weeks to call him for an interview .. then he backed out the last few days in April because of the way he was interviewed (even-though he was approved, the board apparently said some inappropriate things)
This new tenant wanted to move in June 1st, the board got her application on May 8th and as of last Friday .. before a holiday weekend and a week before when she wanted to move in, they hadn’t even given her a call to set up an interview. Yes, I called that Friday and complained. Luckily it looks like it will all work out.
Thank you to all my well wishers. A day in bed was all I needed, yesterday I got up and cleaned the house, did all the laundry and even joined my neighbors for their Memorial Day BBQ for a bit. Although hanging out in the hot sun really took its toll on me, so I ended up taking a nap and woke up to Sean making chicken soup from scratch! It was a good day
Then, we let Daisy out around 8pm, but she didn’t come back in off the porch. When I went out to check on her, I found her with her nose buried in a coffee mug Sean had left on the patio table. She came in .. ran around .. then curled up with us by 10pm. We were totally shocked she wasn’t wired. She was sound asleep in her crate by 11.
But a little before 3am she started whining, and crying .. and no amount of ‘Daisy, sleep’, ‘shhhhh’ (Dog Whisperer) or ‘uh ah’ (It’s Me or the Dog) would get her to stop. Soon I realized she was panting. So I dragged myself out of bed and let her out onto the porch. She started running back and forth from inside the room to the porch like a crazy dog. Once she stopped in the room so I thought she was ready to go back to bed, but when I stood up she sprinted out to the porch again. So I decided to let her out into the yard. I have no idea if it was the coffee or if the dog was just nuts .. but she just hopped around in the yard looking for frogs and didn’t care that I was standing there in my PJs dying to go back to sleep. After 10 min I opened the door and called her in and she sprinted back through the door. I curled back up in bed, and listened to her run around the house. But to my surprise she was sleeping on me within 5 minutes. Of course she woke me up at 7:15am demanding her breakfast like every other morning.
To believe you’re a bit of a hypochondriac .. or to finally give in and go see a doctor, eventhough you weren’t sure your symptoms were real .. just to find you really are sick.
I have a throat infection. Yeah .. didn’t know those were possible. See, the only symptoms I had were a swollen throat/glands (not painful at all) and tiredness. So I ignored everything for about 2 weeks .. figured I was just lazy .. I had no cold symptoms, no stuffy nose .. just annoying to swallow.
But at least I got to take advantage of Publix’s free antibiotics :) I feel worse today then I have in weeks .. so either I caught it early .. or knowing that I’m sick made me give in and feel sick. Either way I’m happy its a Saturday during a long so I can hang out in bed and listen to the thunderstorms roll in.
Hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekends! I’ll be here, snuggin’ the pups
Yes!! Just what I needed tonight
I’ve recently discovered something about myself .. I really enjoy eating home cooked meals. On top of that I love to find recipes and try them out. However, I dont like to cook every night, more like once a week, I really enjoy cooking once in awhile. But because I don’t like to cook regularly I find myself heating up ‘bag meals’ and zapping microwaved box meals too often. So I started to wonder if I could start making my own frozen dinners. I found in my last Real Simple magazine that they had a ‘make-ahead’ recipe for steak fajitas. I then spent the rest of my Sunday afternoon reading everything I could about freezing meals and once a month cooking (OAMC). Monday I packaged up my first make-ahead meal, those steak fajitas, and this afternoon I reheated a bag for the first time.
Here’s straight from the freezer
After 10 min of defrosting
After draining extra water & turning heat up to cook the meat
Here is my fajita ready to eat (yes, I know I rolled it into a burrito, that’s just how I do it). Perfect meal for after my wii workout
The Recipe (from Real Simple Magazine, June ’08)
freeze it
- 1lb flank steak, thinly sliced against the grain
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 red bell peppers (I used 1 red, 1 green)
- 1 jalapeno, seeded (if desired) and thinly sliced (I diced mine)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (I ran out so I used a little chili powder, some cumin, & some cayenne pepper too)
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (forgot this)
- Kosher salt
- 4 1-quart re-sealable plastic freezer bags (I used 1 gallon because I put 2 servings in each bag)
In a large bowl, combine the steak, onion, bell peppers, jalapeno, chili powder, hot sauce, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Divide evenly between 4 bags. Freeze until ready to cook, up to 3 months.
cook it (per serving – my bags have 2 servings each, so this was doubled)
- 1 bag frozen fajita mixture
- 1 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 8-in flour tortillas, warmed
- salsa (optional)
- sour cream (optional)
In a large skillet, over medium heat, heat the oil (use 1 teaspoon per serving). Empty the frozen contents of the bags into the skillet. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Raise heat to medium high and cook, uncovered, until steak is cooked through, 2 to 6 minutes. Serve with the tortillas & salsa and sour cream if desired.
My changes – I doubled the recipe, ending up with 8 servings, or 4 bags of 2 servings.
I’ve been inspired, I picked up a few cookbooks and I can’t wait to start stocking my fridge with yummy meals that I made! And I really can’t wait until Nikki can cook again and we can start exchanging make-ahead meals!
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