Foodie, Food, Food

I love food! I love to cook, bake and consume all types of food. Lately I have been making menus for the week and then doing one big shopping trip and it works great. I have been making a huge list of meals that we like and are pretty easy, so when I go back to work I don't have to think too hard. I can just look at the list and pick some meals for the week. I have noticed that my list is a little stale. I need some new and exciting recipes that aren't too hard to make and don't cost too much money to assemble.

With that being said I call for your help and expertise. Since most of you who read my blog are preparing food for you and/or your families I want to know your favorite recipe. I would love to have the recipe if you want to take the time to leave it or at least describe the dish so I can assemble it.

I will share my favorite dish.
Crock Pot Curry Chicken
2-4 Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts (frozen works)
4-6 red potatoes, washed and chopped (leave the skin on)
2 cups baby carrots
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 Curry Brick, medium heat (on the asian aisle at Winco), roughly chopped
1 (14 ounce) can Coconut Milk (low fat)

Wash and chop the red potatoes while leaving the skin on. Chop one medium red onion. Remove the curry brick from box and roughly chop.
Lightly spray the crock pot with non-stick spray. Layer chicken, carrots, potatoes and onion in the crock pot. Sprinkle the curry brick throughout the layers and then dump the coconut milk over the top before putting the lid on.
Cover and cook on high heat 6-8 hours or on low heat 10-12 hours. (frozen chicken)
Cover and cook on high heat 3-4 hours or on low heat 6-8 hours. (fresh chicken)

Serve with Basmati, or your favorite, rice.

This is one of my favorite dishes in the world. So, girls, get your recipes out and start sharing!
THANKS!!

GO WORLD

I have been watching the Olympics everyday for the past 11 days and I love it. It has been so exciting to watch Michael Phelps win each of his 8 gold medals. I think I held my breath through every race and screamed, jumped and clapped at the end. The women's gymnastics is amazing and I love watching Shawn and Nastia win medals for the US. I also love how the Olympics have brought the world together, in communist China, and we can be happy for everyone. I was talking to my mom and she said something great. "I want everyone to have their best day at the Olympics and whoever is the best of the best will win the gold medal." I couldn't agree more. I feel so bad for the athletes who have are just having a bad day and fall of the beam, trip on the track or don't have their best dive.
I love to have a good cry now and again and I absolutely love the tear jerking Visa commercials! The first time I saw the Derek Redmond commercial I cried. When I see it now I just get a little teary eyed!



So, I am a sucker for the Olympics. Only 5 more days....then what will I watch on TV?

Summer

So, summer is starting to wind down and, of course, I have not accomplished all the things I have wanted to. I did go on three amazing vacations, spent time at the pool, did some babysitting, made new pillow covers, picked berries and made jam, relaxed, read several books and recently watched lots of Olympics.

Now I am getting ready to go back to school. I have hit all the sales at Staples, Office Max, Target and Walmart. I love the Staples penny sale! I do have to say that this years penny sale was not nearly as good as last years. This week they have Elmer's glue for FREE! Seriously, you walk in and you can get 2 bottles of glue for free. I have a teacher's card so I can get double the maximum quantity so I got four bottles of glue FREE! I plan on going again tomorrow to get four more bottles. I love a good deal on school supplies! I also started collecting books from the library. I currently have 17 items checked out and 40 items on hold. I have a list of at least 20 more books that I will check out before school starts. Oh how I LOVE the library! I own a lot of children's books but I don't like to take them to school because they get torn and yucky, so I check them out from the library. I am probably one of the few people that has their library card number memorized! (Does anyone else have their library card number memorized?) I also love my educators card because I get to check things out for 6 weeks and there is no limit to how many books I can have out at a time. I usually have about 80 out at one time.

So, with the couple weeks that I have left I plan on going to the temple, going to the Sandy river, organizing my recipes, organizing some drawers in my house, work on my personal history, finish the Work and the Glory series, work on my tan, lose 5 pounds before I go back to work and find a new home visit bag. I am posting these goals publicly in hopes that it will motivate me to achieve all of them.
I love summer, I love my job!

Nauvoo slide show

After Lindsey's awesome Breaking Dawn slide show I was inspired to make a slide show of Nauvoo. It is kind of long, but I thought it was a great way to remember my trip that was so amazing! I am so grateful that I could spend two weeks in Nauvoo and feel the wonderful Spirit that is there. I have also been reading the Work and the Glory and I can't believe the many trials and difficult times the pioneers had to live through. Just everyday tasks like washing the clothes, making dinner and getting water took so much time and effort. I am grateful for the modern day conveniences we have and especially for air conditioning and light clothing! How did the pioneer women survive in so many layers and those long dresses. I did a previous post about Nauvoo and so you will see some repeat pictures, but there are also a lot of new ones. If you take the time to watch it I hope you enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Breaking Dawn

So, I know a bunch of other girls in the ward are going to post about this, but right now it looks like Rosie is the only one with pictures up yet. They must all be busy reading! Since I don't have children or a job I finished the book at 2 am last night! I started reading around 10 and when I finished and looked at the clock it was 1:45 am. It was really weird because I wasn't even tired. Then I couldn't fall asleep and when I did I had strange dreams and I felt like I was reading all night.

I LOVED the book. It was great. It was a lot different than I thought it would be. I won't say much about it here because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. If you want to chat about it call or email or something!

I went to a Breaking Dawn party with some friends and we had a BLAST!! I was kind of a poop about going because I had to babysit at 5 am the next morning, but I decided to go and I was glad I did. There were a bunch of tween, teens and US! The crazy moms in the cool shirts. It was so fun to not care about what everyone thought and get totally into it. Amy's mother-in-law made us these awesome shirts and we had a grand time showing them off in the costume contest. I was only going to stay until 9 or 10, but I was having too much fun and ended up staying until about 11:30. Thanks for the fun time ladies!















Amy, Challene, Becki, Holly and Lindsey
















Challene and Amy joined the Edward vs. Jacob debate after some light prodding from us. It was so funny to watch the teenagers get really worked up about the debate.
















Amy's mother-in-law made us cookies and made them all festive with little Breaking Dawn decorations! So cute!
















Yes, we are the Team Edward Mom's! We rock!