TuTu Tuesday

Hey peeps!!!

It's TuTu Tuesday and I've got a short little post filled with snippets from the weekend.  Yeah, I had the best of intentions to do this post yesterday but alas...housework got in the way.

My plate on Sunday afternoon...the hubster and I were hot and tired on Sunday and we just didn't really know what to have for dinner (much like tonight...I'm still pondering that one)  We scrounged around in the freezer and found some black bean burgers and slipped those on the grill.  Normally we bake our fries in the oven but it was H O T on Sunday so I drug out the deep fryer from the garage.

We found a tidbit of french fries leftover in a bag and I grabbed few jalapeno poppers to round out the meal.   Hooked that baby up on the back porch and dinner is served.

The first is my plate and the second is hubsters (he didn't think I showed off my burger well enough so he snapped another photo)

Now.... I only ate about half my burger but then later I needed a sweet fix so I thought back to something I saw and grabbed a little glob of cookie dough that has been in the fridge forever and the waffle maker.

Heat up that waffle maker and slap that cookie dough on there.

Close it up and let the cookie dough baking begin

Check on it a few times to check for doneness

I think I let mine cook a little too long but that's ok...it was only one cookie and I was eating it hot

Note to self....spray the waffle maker next time.

Yeah, it was a little messy coming out of the pan

TA DA.....hot cookies, no oven. I'd call that a Win Win.

CAUTION:  DORK ALERT 

We made a quick trip to the cost co and I picked up this little puppy.

It was on sale (w/ costco coupon) for $80 then I had a $55 rewards certificate to use.  Can't beat $25 bucks for a $100 mop.

I seriously love this thing!!  It heats up in about 30 seconds and I can use it on all my floors (wood and tile) and it uses no chemical cleaners.  Just good old fashioned tap water.  No wonder everyone has raved about this thing.  It's an excellent purchase and one I wish I had made months ago!

 hey, I warned you of the impending dork moment.  I get so excited over cleaning products.

So several months ago I went to the fabric warehouses with sweet Gloria and I picked up some gorgeous fabric. I wanted new dining room curtains and also to recover my chairs.  Well about upteen months later   I finally arranged for Gloria to come over to help  sew my curtains this Thursday.  Well since we just guessed at how much fabric we would need I figured I better cover the chairs first and then see if we had enough for curtains.   You know just in case we didn't have enough I wouldn't end up with curtains and half the chairs that matched.   

This is what the chairs looked like.  Just a little out of date and not my style.

These are the hubsters mothers chairs from her dining table that is super old and survived Hurricane Katrina.   A little refresher is just what they needed.

Wow...what a difference some fabric can make.  I'm totally in love with this fabric and I'm almost finished with ten chairs plus a stool but I have to run to the home of depot because....I broke the hubsters staple gun. Seriously...only I could break an electric staple gun...sheesh   :0)

I can't wait to show you the new curtains this week!!    I'm off to the depot then I have to get home and clean the upstairs.  The kiddos will be home this weekend!! hoooorayyyyyy!!!!

Peace, Love and Yummies!!  

a Pinterest inspired dinner

We're gonna hop back on the Pinterest boat a minute because seriously if you aren't pinning you don't know what you're missing.   I'm so totally in love with this site and this dinner inspiration came straight off that site.   So let's get started because it's gonna be a long post today but worth it!

First item before heading out the door is get the green beans ready.   A nice little old lady in Sprouts was telling me and another lady how to prep our fresh green beans.  She said when we get them home wash them and soak them in ice water.  So I did...always listen to little old ladies in the grocery!

So I popped off the end pieces and got the beans in the crock pot.

Then I threw in some ham chunks, 1/2 of an onion, some new potatoes, 1 tsp garlic powder, onion powder & seasoned salt and 2 chicken bouillon cubes with just enough water to cover.

Slap the lid on and head out to lunch....a 3 HOUR LUNCH!!! 

Oh my don't you just love with you just find a new friend and feel an instant connection??!!!   I met Lovely Leah a little over a year ago.  She's the mom to our kids friend and we finally got the chance to get together and I just felt like I've known her my whole life. She's warm and funny and kind and has a beautiful sweet soul.  We laughed, we cried and we had such a wonderful time.  We also had Fried Green Tomato BLT's for lunch.   Many thanks to our sweet waiter at Cowboy Chow who must have seen two ladies having a wonderful time and never bothered or rushed us!!  I look forward to spending more time with this wonderful new friend!!

well... we finally left the restaurant and nothing like adding a trip to WallyWorld while you are out and about.

Why do I show you these things... I seriously paid $24.25 for all of this stuff!!!!

No joke no joke..I had a coupon for almost everything. Except the magazine which is full of coupons and why I buy it, the milky way's because hubster has been craving them lately and the sour cream which we needed for dinner.   I hope the "coupon hoarders" don't ruin this game for the rest of us.  I mean I get having a little bit of a stock pile but do you really need to clean the shelves when you shop and seriously...who really needs to keep 100 boxes of cereal at their house??!!!!

stepping down from soap box now...

and it's back to dinner folks....

Take 2 Tbsp olive oil and mix in 1 tsp of smoked paprika

Rub a couple of chicken breast down really good with that mixture 

Now mix up another batch of that oil/paprika mix for the corn that you should have oiled down first

(yeah, don't roll the corn in the raw chicken oil please)

While doing this tell someone in the house to go turn on the grill...husbands work nicely for this

Take the corn and the chicken and place on the grill

Run inside to wash out the plates and grab a nice glass of this...or anything cool and refreshing

go back to the grill to check on things and find hubster has swiped the camera because "we need to show the food on the grill from a different angle"......((eye rolls)))

then discover as you are taking photos off the camera for the blog that he apparently felt the need to photograph his Who Dat Nation sign in the back yard

and rearrange items on the grill

this corn is ready for the house.

Take it inside and shave the kernels off that roasted corn.

Careful.... it was H O T

This is another shot because this idea came from Pinterest too.... Take your bundt cake pan and rest the cob on the hole in the middle and run your knife down the corn cobs and the corn goes right into the pan. Genius!!!!!!!

Now that those kernels are off the cob just dump them all in a big skillet

Add in 1/3 cup of sour cream 

and while the original recipe called for a splash of milk...I lopped in a couple scoops of butter.

I know... Paula Deen would be proud!

Stir that all together and throw in a little bit of fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste

Dinner is served!

and here's another shot because well quite frankly I didn't care for either photo but I couldn't decide which was the best of the worst photos.

another shot of the finished yummy corn

the finished green beans

and the leftovers... I don't know why I never thought of this before but when I cook for the hubster and myself we always have tons of leftovers.  Most of the time he's more than happy to take them to work because he seriously loves leftovers but sometimes (like today) when he has to be out of town and he can't eat them.   I just decided to pack up the leftovers and put them in the freezer.  Now they are in portions just right for the kids to swipe and take back to college with them or for us when I need something for a quick dinner.  

Have you thought of a great way to save your leftovers?  Do you have leftovers?

Have a great day peeps and even though it's 103 degrees at 11:15 in the morning I'm looking forward to high school football starting tonight!   

Peace, Love & Yummies!!

my crazy week!

Wow!!  We've been home from vacation almost a week and I'm just now getting around to putting up a post.  In my defense we've been super busy so here's a recap of our busy back from vacation week!

Last Thursday we sadly left this:

This was our view from our balcony...yeah it was truly amazing!
We had some delays due to "security" issues with someone on the plane (eeeek) but we finally took off from Montego Bay to head home.   As quickly as the screens came on hubster and I were racing to fast forward the movie we were watching on the flight over...we had like 30 minutes left in the movie when we landed on the way to Jamaica.  We finished the movie (The Lincoln Lawyer)....really good movie by the way.   Then we landed in Atlanta, took a trip through customs while the drug dog sniffed our luggage (no worries...we were fine) and then it was back to DFW a few hours later than anticipated but home.

Friday... was a marathon day of getting the laundry done from vacation so the Abogg could head off to Waco.  Friday evening Court arrived and we skipped the gym to go to dinner here:

where I had this

hey..... the gym will be there tomorrow!

Saturday....we're off bright and early to head to Austin to take Court and her things back to school.  It was a long day of moving in the heat and eating here

and dessert here

a little food truck called Bananarchy  good stuff good stuff

Heading home we stop at the Abogg's apartment to relieve him of a box spring and back home

Long day but always enjoy helping out our kids!!

Sunday....my hubster made some ribs with the jerk seasoning we brought back from Jamaica

They were yummy!!  We had some leftover green beans (very little leftovers) and some frozen corn


Monday....I was struggling to find something for dinner since I hadn't grocery shopped since before vacation.   I finally found these things and threw together what I called Bruschetta Chicken

I just took some chicken and poured the jar of bruschetta over the top then topped with some Italian blend cheese. Baked at 375 for about 30 minutes.   While that was cooking I boiled up some pasta

I just threw a salad together and this was dinner.  Not bad not bad at all.  The Abogg had to come home for a class at church on Monday night so he had dinner with us.  What you don't see is the "toast" I made which turned out to be everyone's fave part of the meal.   I just buttered bread (yeah plain old sandwich bread) and sprinkled on Parmesan cheese and garlic salt.  Ran under the broiler in the oven and dinner is ready to serve!!   We ate and then the Abogg headed back to Waco, I miss him...just sayin'

Tuesday... I got a crown at the dentist.  I didn't feel good. The end.

But LL and I decided to get together and put our "coupons" together and get them organized. That means I got to use these...

Yeah... I got to bust out the label maker!!  That's always a good day for me and it made me forget that my face felt like someone punched me.

Hubster had a meeting so dinner was whatever I could "not chew"

Wednesday..... well since it's been a few weeks since I've been to Sprouts I knew I had a shopping day ahead of me.   First up....mow and weed whack the yard.  Oh that's OK it was only 104 degrees while I was doing it.  jeez....and seriously if you are one of those people raving about how close fall is getting where you live...shush!   We are still over a hundred degrees every day around here, no rain and no relief in site!!!    So I grabbed the crock pot and put together some Mexican Crock Pot chicken

Just throw in some boneless skinless chicken thighs, a can of black beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of green chili's, a can of black olives, the leftover frozen corn in the freezer and about 1/4 cup taco seasoning.  I also added some extra chili powder and some jalapeno salt. 

Just dump it all in the crock pot and go shopping!

Speaking of shopping... I got all this at Tar jay for ....drum roll.......$15.26

no kidding!!!   I double down on the coupons at the ole' Tarjay and rack up.

This was waiting on me when I got home.  Just grab two big forks and shred that chicken.

I dumped mine on some tortilla chips and added some tomatoes, shredded cheese and some chopped green onions.  Hubster had his on some tortillas.  It's a versatile dish you can even top some lettuce with it.   We had quite a bit leftover so I pulled out two freezer containers, split up the leftovers and now I have to some in the freezer for a last minute meal or for the kids to steal  eat when they come home from school.   

whew....see I told you it was a wild week!!   I've already cleaned up the fresh green beans and got them going in the crock pot and the chicken breast unthawing for dinner.   Now I gotta run because I'm meeting a friend for lunch!  Go me.... I NEVER leave the house except to go grocery shopping!! 

so what are your weeks like when you get back from vacation? hectic? calm? or do you just walk around and pretend that you are still there??

I personally could NOT figure out where that man was that had been making my omelets to order.  I mean really....he isn't supposed to come home with me??

Peace, Love & Yummies

8 Random Topics

Mark this down as the random post of the decade!!  No kidding...it's all over the place today, you've been warned...oh and it's kinda long too!


Random Topic #1

How to make your berries last longer in the refrigerator.

Dump those berries in the sink with 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water

Just swirl them around gently in the water 

yeah...just use this stuff

and yes, I buy this in a mondo huge jug at the costco.

why...because I use it with everything especially laundry and cleaning

it's a handy item

Take the berries out of the sink and dry them...then put in the refrigerator

Vinegar is a natural disinfectant so it kills any of those nasty little mold spores hiding out on your fruit 

hence, they stay fresher longer.

Did it work on the blueberries?  I dunno because I ate a pint and a half in a day.

The strawberries ...most definitely.  They stayed fresh for over a week.

Random Topic #2:  Cooking fresh green beans in the crock pot

First things first....you gotta wash and trim those fresh green beans.

There's about 2 pounds in this pot

Then just fill with enough water to cover

Throw in some ham...or bacon or what have you

I keep ham chunks on hand in the freezer so I just toss them in frozen

what?? you don't???

Seasonings

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules
• ground black pepper to taste

Dump all those in the crock pot

You'll notice there were no onions, I was out

they tasted good anyways

Let those cook for about 8 hours on low...take them out and snort them down

good stuff good stuff

(I have no picture of the finished product...sorry we were hungry)

You can also add about 1 lb of new potatoes in there and then you'll feel like your grandma is cooking for you and that's a good good thing!

Random Topic #3:  Bird meeting

Apparently the birds held a community meeting on my front lawn

I hope they were discussing finding some rain and sending it our way

Most likely they were just enjoying some shade but it sure looked like an organized meeting to me!

Random Topic #4:  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream...homemade

I'm still seriously in love with my new ice cream machine!

In a large bowl beat together:

4 oz pasteurized egg substitutes (such as Egg Beaters)

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add to this 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup milk

(I used 2% milk)

Beat well.

Put in the refrigerator to get the mixture chilled well.

Pour the chilled mixture into the machine let the magic happen

While the ice cream base is churning away grab some of this pre-made cookie dough

(do not use homemade cookie dough...just let the doughboy do this work)

Cut it up.  You can see I cut each of the pieces into 4th's and it was suggested that next time I actually make the chunks a bit smaller.

When the ice cream is about 10 minutes from being done just drop in those cookie dough pieces. 

Behold the thing of beauty...now eat and enjoy!!

Side note...as a general rule I do NOT like leftover home made ice cream. It just gets too grainy for me after a couple of days but this, well it was still nice and creamy the next day which could be a bad thing.

Random Topic #5: The Hannibel Lector refrigerator

This is our newest addition to the laundry room.  You know the refrigerator from storage wars!

It cleaned up very nicely and now it's being put to good use.....feeding my organizational habits!!

Seriously....the shelves are all labeled.  It's quite a system so I went to work on the big freezer too, which is now in the garage.

Sausages, ham, bacon, porks of all kinds and the freezer meals

As you can see it is time for me start cooking more meals we're almost out.

Shelf #2....various frozen ready to eat things and of course the ice cream machine tub!

This is the third shelf...this is where the beef products are living.

And this is the bottom baskets....it is for the chickens

I'm telling you I just don't know if you guys can take the excitement that goes on in my life.  I mean it's seriously overwhelming.....NOT!!!!!

Random Topic #6:  very unexciting dinners

this is about the extent of the food situation around here.  We are going to be on vacation soon and we are on a clean out the refrigerator and the half empty bags of stuff in the freezer.  Plus it is just too dang hot to cook in the oven, using that grill whenever possible.

This is a salad with some Schwan's buffalo chicken nuggets.

Random Topic #7:  Throw seed packets in your yard

Have I mentioned it is hot..and dry?  I mean really really dry!!!

I dumped a bunch of seed packets in a section of the backyard a month or so ago and by golly look what happened!   I haven't even really paid much attention and these were smiling at me this morning.

Happiness on a stem is what they are.

Random Topic #8:  I got a new coffeepot

Yep, I'm probably the last in the country to finally get me one of these little beauties but I finally did.  Want to know the kicker... I don't really drink coffee. I'm a tea girl but I can do that in this too.  I also got that handy little drawer to store the kcups in. Yep, the need for organization takes over me yet again.

So there you have folks, a week's worth of randomness in my very exhilarating life!

I hope wherever you are you are enjoying cooler temperatures and more rain than we are.

I think today is Day 39 over a hundred, the record should be broken on Saturday for the most days over 100 degrees.  I will not care as I'm going to Jamaica and I'm pretty sure 90 degrees in Jamaica is going to feel like a major cold front!!!!   

Thanks to all you for the sweet messages about our Kiss dog.  I still miss her, the house just isn't the same without her around.  In a couple of weeks when the kids are back in school and my house is empty again I'm gonna be a lonely lonely girl.   Of course maybe I'll start cooking again but then.....my sweet Kiss won't be around to clean up my floors when I make a mess.  :0)

Peace, Love, Cool Breezes and Summer Rain to you guys!!