Freezer Meal - Orange Chicken

Well... this was one of the freezer meals that I prepared earlier this year. The night before I placed the frozen bag in the fridge to defrost. The next day, I came home from work during lunch and dumped the bag into the crockpot. Once home from work - dinner was ready - per se.

Boiled some plain white rice and heated some frozen wonton appetizers in the oven. Dinner was served.

My take: ehhhh.... not so great. The "sauce" was more of a thin liquid than "sauce" as I was expecting. I'm not sure I liked the mix of orange and onions and such. The chicken was moist and tender and flavorful --- but not sure I liked the flavor.  I don't think we'll be doing this one again.
Ems take: "a 2 out of 10".  She wasn't impressed either.
Overall take: we're tossing this recipe and not planning on doing it again.

I hope the remaining 6 freezer meals are better!! Stay tuned to see!

New Recipe - Ranch Pork Chops

This one is simple! simple! SIMPLE!

Take a packet of dry ranch seasoning. Dump in a bowl. Sprinkle a dash of black pepper. Sprinkle a dash of paprika. Toss your pork chops in this dry mix. Once they're coated, bake in the oven til they're done. I used thin chops, so it didn't seem to take long at all.

      

Once they're done, we paired them with mashed potatoes and baked beans. Yummo!

We "grilled" them on a grill pan in the oven.... so they had the grill marks and all!

 

Bon Appetite! 

2015 Reading Challenge - Summer of My German Soldier

I chose this book for the category "Banned Book".  Discussing the challenge with a co-worker one day, we got to looking through a list of banned books and wondering why each one was banned....  We came across this one, set in "Jenkinsville Arkansas".  No worries - there is no such place. But, the storyline sounded interesting.... so I decided to bookmooch it.

It was a quick and easy read. A good story as well. I'm guessing the reason for it being banned is because it talks about Nazis and N*ggers.  The story is told from a 12 year olds viewpoint. She meets a Nazi prisoner and ends up becoming friends with him. He escapes and she provides him shelter and food.

I enjoyed it. It was neat to read about places in Arkansas that really are..... Jonesboro, Cummins Prison Farm (although it's no longer a prison "farm" per se), Little Rock, etc....

New Recipe - Kale Chips

Another Pinterest curiosity....  Well, not COMPLETELY Pinterest inspired.

My co-worker, Deanna, made these a while back and brought some into the office for us to try. I loved them!! And....the word on the street is that these things are good for you. So, I've been wanting to try to make some on my own.

Well, Kroger had their organic kale on sale this past weekend.... so... what better time to try this.

I browsed around on Pinterest and a few other websites -- to make sure I knew what I thought I knew about how to do this.  It's simple..... clean the kale, dry the kale (I used my salad spinner), chop it up into "chip" sized pieces (maybe a lil bigger than bite-size, because it shrivels and shrinks). Once you have your fresh, cleaned and dried kale chip pieces, toss them in a bowl with some olive oil and a lil salt. I added a little sprinkle of garlic powder as well.

Once they're tossed ---- lay them out on a cookie sheet.

 

Aren't they so pretty!! So bright and green!

 

 

Next you pop them in the oven ... I set it on 250 degrees... for about 18-20 minutes.

 

And.... this is what you get.  Sad looking kale chips...... shriveled up.....

 

 

BUT --- don't let the look deceive you............they. were. yummy! Crispy and crunchy....and perfectly done!

 

My take: DEFINTELY doing this more often.

Ems take: She liked them....thought they were pretty yummy.

 





New Recipe - OMG! Crock Pot Chicken

I came across this recipe on Pinterest...looked good, sounded good... so I thought I'd give it a try.

The recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1 Can cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 Packet of dry Italian Dressing
• 1 Packet of dry Ranch Dressing
• 1 8oz pkg of Cream Cheese

Instructions

1. Throw everything in the crockpot on low and cook 6-8 hours.
2. After about 4 hours of cooking I usually stir everything together- but if you're not home it's no big deal.
3. Just stir about 20 minutes before serving to really mix together the cream cheese and dressing packets.

 

 

 

So ---- seems I have to tweak almost every new recipe I try...

My tweak: I did only one package of dry Ranch dressing. The dry dressings are so strong to me --- so I couldn't imagine having both packages in there. And, well, I didn't have 2lbs of chicken --- maybe closer to 1lb.

 

Once it was done, I served it over white rice...making sure to add some "gravy" to my bowl.

 

 

My take: It was pretty yummy. I like chicken 'n rice meals --- this one was good.

 

There was enough leftover for Em and I to have it for dinner the next night.

 

Her take: She liked it.

 

We'll probably do this one again. 

 

 

 

2015 Reading Challenge - The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I chose this book for the category: "A book you were supposed to read in high school but didn't". I don't recall that I read it, and after chatting with my friend Melissa about this challenge - she mentioned this book that she recalled from high school. Well, if she read it in high school - chances are highly likely that I was supposed to read it as well. So, I did for this challenge.

I "read" this book as an audio book. I wasn't overly impressed with the story. It was a good story -- but nothing too spectacular in my eyes. But - now I can say I know the story....after many years of not knowing it.

Pinterest Project - Homemade Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Soap

I've seen these recipes floating around pinterest for a while now.... and I recall several years ago that my sis made some laundry soap. From what I recall, it lasted her a while. She gave me some to sample during that time... and it was ok. But it was never anything I wanted to tackle on my own. Well, in my organizing and starting the new year with a different outlook, I decided I'd try it. My "word" is REDUCE... so maybe by doing this, I can reduce my spending... 'cuz we all know buying laundry detergent isn't cheap! So... below is the recipe I followed and the link to the blog I found it on.

Here is what you will need to make 2 gallons: 

• Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
• Arm And Hammer Baking Soda (the big 4lb box)
• 20 Mule Team Borax
• Oxi Clean (2 of the 1.3 lb containers, or 1 3lb container; generic is fine)
• 3 or 4 bars Fels Naptha Laundry Soap (people have had success with both - I used 3)
• 2 containers Downy UnStopables (I'm a Gain fan, so I did 2 containers of Gain Fireworks ) 
• garbage bag (or a garbage bag-lined 5 gallon bucket)
• food processor (to make your life much easier) or cheese grater (worked fine with a grater) 
• container to store your soap 
• measuring scoop

http://aprons-n-pearls.blogspot.com/2012/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html



So -- I spent a couple hours last weekend mixing all this together. The hardest part was probably shredding the Fels Naptha bars. They're a golden yellow color -- and I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like shredded cheddar cheese! Fun! And the Gain Fireworks looked like corn! Ha! Corn and Cheese Laundry Soap!

This batch filled my laundry bucket. I wasn't really impressed. Typically a full laundry bucket only lasts me a good month or two, maybe three. So -- how was this bucket of "corn and cheese" supposed to last me a while longer than the expensive stuff?? The total cost of all supplies was around $28. I managed to find coupons for the OxiClean and the Gain Fireworks - so that helped.  But, $28 seemed a bit expensive for a bucket of laundry soap. We figured it up -- and this bucket should last me until May...for it to be actually a money saving adventure. I have my calendar marked --- we'll see how long it lasts.

 

One thing my sis mentioned about the soap... and why she only ended up doing it once... is that it didn't really suds up/bubble up like they wanted it to.  Well... this is true. There is VERY minimal bubbling as it's running through a load. But several times throughout the cycle, I dipped a few fingers into the water, just to see how it felt. Each time the water felt - and smelled - soapy, so I think it's still doing it's job. I was worried that the detergent would clump on the clothes -- but I didn't experience that either.

I'm going to have to play around with it a bit and figure out my scoop size.  It's not supposed to take a full scoop like the expensive stuff does... so I'm still working on that - finding the perfect size scoop. BUT -- so far, I'm ok with the results. The clothes are clean... and smell nice... so, if this is an actual money saving thing, I will probably try it again. We'll see where we are in May!