Recipes

This post will be different than my normal posts. This is a collection of pictures and screen shots I've taken of recipes that I wanted to make. I wanted to get them all into one location. A lot of these are crock pot meals because that is my new favorite way to cook with working full time and a baby. I'm putting the recipe name in red for easy visual reference for future.

The top one is for baked tacos. I've made these a few times and John really likes them.

This is a recent addition, Crock pot pork chops, and we both really liked them. Super easy and flavorful! I just made some of these today as freezer meals. We'll see how they work that way or not!

I just tried this one tonight; a complete steak dinner in the crock pot. It was okay. John's steak must have been the top one in the crock pot because his wasn't as done as mine and so his looked better. I started it late so I didn't have the full 6 hours to let it cook therefore I alternated between high and low on temp. Everything was cooked except the potatoes which I finished off in the microwave.

These Crown Royal recipes are on a deck of cards we got at a Nascar race. I haven't tried the hot wings, but I've always wanted to but I have done the grilled salmon and it's good. For the bottom ones I've done the sausage but not the BBQ sauce. The sausage is good, but it always overcooks in my crock pot.

This one is for Mexican casserole. I haven't made it and I'll have to alter it for John, but that shouldn't be too hard and it sounds good. 
 

Another one I haven't tried yet. It's like a fried rice sort of. I bought a ham this last grocery trip and just haven't cooked it yet. I have a few recipes that I need leftover ham for....

Red velvet cake. I did make this once. It's not the easiest recipe (although it's not hard) and I only thought it was okay. 
 

Dijon Chicken. I have made this but I don't remember what I thought of it. I think it was alright. I have a recipe for a dijon chicken from Annette I think and I like it better. 

Lemon Bars!! I make this a lot! It's requested from work quite often. It's a pretty quick and easy recipe and they seem to be well received. 
 

This is for a chicken enchilada or chicken quesadilla. I haven't made it yet so I'm not sure how it tastes, etc.  The recipe continues below.

Cauliflower casserole. I made this while I was out on maternity leave. I liked it pretty well; John not so much. It kept pretty well for leftovers also. 

 Potato crock pot dinner. I made this one a few weeks ago. It turned out almost like a soup. I liked it but we decided it needs something more to make it a meal so my plan is to add ham to it for the next go round.

Crock pot french dip. I haven't made these yet. I have the ingredients but haven't tried it. Honestly it is one that requires a little more work than I want to put out most nights to shred the roast.

Below is cinnamon roll casserole. If you want to see what this looks like check out my Christmas post. I made this Christmas morning. First, this says to cook it 2.5 hours but it took us 4 hours to cook. Then to me it came out with a weird consistency. John said it was good but I noticed that neither of us got into the leftover so...... 

Cooked cabbage. I don't know why I decided I wanted some cooked cabbage. I remember having it when I was a kid; along with cream tuna on toast (don't ask). I figured it was easy to make but I googled it just to be sure and I only loosely follow this recipe. Honestly, I love cooked cabbage and it's so quick and easy. Plus cabbage is super cheap at the ranch market!
 

These next two I've made only once. It's for Pecan caramel cheesecake cookie cups. They were yummy but took a while to make if I recall. Also they were very rich. 
 

 TV dinners. I made these the other night. They were pretty easy to prepare and would be good to make beforehand and throw in the oven when I get home. There were a lot of leftover potatoes and go light on the oil!

 Burrito casserole? I can't remember what this was actually called. I made it a few nights ago. I thought it was only okay but John said he liked it. I did take it for left overs and it was okay. I added some salsa after so I could have onions and tomatoes that John won't eat. 
 

 Cauliflower patties. I just got this a few days ago and haven't tried it yet. It sounds good though!!

 

Peanut butter fudge. I found this tonight so I obviously haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to when I do!

I did a round of freezer meals today. My mom sent me this site and we've liked the crockpot freezer meals. We haven't tried all of them yet, but I've really liked the creamy italian and the cafe rio. The pineapple chicken reminds me of a sweet and sour sauce a little. My mom made the french chicken when she was here and I liked it. John caught onto the fact that there is the onion soup at the end so he didn't like it so much.

http://www.overthebigmoon.com/super-fast-chicken-freezer-meals/ 

and

http://www.overthebigmoon.com/freezer-meals/ 

Christmas!

I love this picture of my little bug with his Mickey hat on.

JJ's 3 month photo. He's getting so big. There isn't a 3 month appointment so I don't have his weight at this time.

I did some grocery shopping one day (it's bad when I start to like grocery shopping just to have some me time because I hate grocery shopping with a passion). But I picked up this egg nog and it was delicious! I wish they had it year round.

Ok, I know this is random but this is a picture of the bathroom at Dolce. I've watched over the past few months as they've redecorated it. So this obviously looks like it's hung in fabric but it's not...it's flocked! If you look real close you can see the tiny little dots that make it look like this. It was so cool looking I had to take a picture.

As we got closer to Christmas the days just flew by. After that first week where I struggled a little we sort of fell into a rhythm. Not that it wasn't a crazy exhausting rhythm... but a rhythm nonetheless. I didn't plan on taking JJ to see Santa or anything and then realized that I would probably regret it. However, I knew he was tired and not feeling well and the ward Christmas party with it's 600 germy children running around maybe wasn't the best place to take him but for a last minute thing it was the only chance we were going to get so we ran him over for a quick picture.

This was me working on the centerpieces for Christmas. I like to go all out because it's such a fun night. I got this idea from someone Stephanie knows and then pinterest of course!

Here's the finished product!

These were the name cards or whatever; except I don't like to tell people where to sit so I just put one at each seat.

And the little treat bags to go with the place settings! These have so much glitter on them there is still glitter all over my house.

Honestly about 2 years ago I sold all my Christmas stuff. So I've got to buy all new stuff! We really didn't do anything for JJ because he won't remember it so this stocking we got as a white elephant at a Christmas party worked great for him! Then I had to get stocking holders at Target and these were really all they had but with the little chalkboard on them it was sort of cute I thought.

I might have one more year with this tree but then I know I'll have to get a real tree for JJ. I love having everyone over for Christmas because it's that many more presents we get to see everyone open.

This was supposed to be JJ's Halloween outfit but it was too big but it worked for Christmas too since it's Nightmare Before Christmas. He got really stuffed up and congested the weekend before Christmas so like all first time parents we rushed him to the doctor Saturday morning. He weighed 12 lbs 1 oz and had an ear infection, cough, congestion, and some crazy acid poop that gave him a horrible diaper rash. We got the cough and congestion under control fairly quickly I thought. The ear infection we gave him a prescription for 10 days and the acid poop....well we still seem to be fighting that a bit. We get the rash cleared and about 2 days later it comes back. I am not sure what is causing it but it's blistered up and made him bum bleed. I feel horrible for him.

This is the blanket JJ's Aunt Stephanie made for him. She put a lot of time and effort into it and we love it. The different fabrics represent different people. It's so cool.

We were super excited to add Nathan, Erica, and Sophie to our group this year! Poor Sophie had her brace on but it didn't seem to bother her at all!

John's, I mean, JJ's train set from Disneyland.

This was our breakfast on Christmas morning (more on this in my next post), but basically let's say it didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped.

This year was our 5th annual Lights on Bikes and it was cold!! We left JJ with his grandma and crashed Stephanie and Bart's family dinner. I'm glad we did because the food was so good! We thought we were going to shorten our ride and we did a little but we still went about 9 miles I think. We went a bit earlier in the evening and we got more attention than we've ever had. It's a lot of fun to do and we get a really good reception from people.

The many faces of JJ. It's something with his eyebrows that he gets the cutest looks.

Right when we get home is usually his happiest time so I have to take advantage.

The week between Christmas and New Years was nothing exciting. We both worked, JJ went to daycare.... nothing exciting. New Years eve was a stressful night for us. Fireworks started about 8 and didn't end till 1 and we were so paranoid they were going to wake JJ but they didn't! Our New Years resolution is for JJ to wear more pants and less onesies although that is certainly the easiest with daycare. This was New Year's day with his sweatpants and shirt that I couldn't pass up. I think they are so dang cute.

It had been so cold we were getting frost. We had to cover some of the plants for a few nights. Then Saturday was my birthday. We were busy all day but had plans to go to dinner. On our way to the restaurant there was a silver alert. Only in Arizona! A silver alert is similar to an Amber Alert but for a senior citizen! I've never seen one.

Yes that's right, I am one year old; count the candle. We went to Hillstone. It is one of my favorite places and it didn't disappoint. I had to take pictures of my Thai salad, filet, fries, coleslaw, etc. All so yummy!

We didn't get a picture of all four of us and this is the only one we got that night.

I had said I wanted some grab bags that I'd seen the infomercial for. John found them and got me some. So far they worked...ok. Not completely sold yet, but we'll see.

That about brings us up to date! I took the 2nd off work and ran some errands and it's amazing how quick time flies when I have it to myself and try to get stuff done. I did decide that I could do something for myself for my birthday on that day and decided I wanted to go to a movie. I went to the new Hunger Games movie by myself. I've never gone to a movie alone before and I found it enjoyable (going alone and the movie). So there we are. We're all back to work/daycare trying to find our rhythm and hoping every night that JJ sleeps all night. The last picture is one day where he actually fell asleep while he was playing. He's never done that before and it didn't last long. I guess we'll take the struggle of him not taking naps well for the baby that sleeps through the night for the most part.