Crock Pot Mac & Cheese

So I found this recipe and wanted to tackle it because 1. it's easy and 2. the only mac and cheese I have ever made has been out of a box, and that powdered cheese always creeps me out.  So when I came home from my Saturday job I walked through the door, into my kitchen and went right back to work.  It takes a few hours to cook but it's worth the wait.

Macaroni & Cheese

Prep Time: 30 min.

Cooking Time 2-3 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 4-quart

Ingredients:

8-oz. pkg. dry macaroni, cooked

2 Tbsp. oil

13-oz. can evaporated milk (fat-free will work)

2 cups milk

1 tsp. salt

3 cups (about 1/2 lb.) shredded cheese: cheddar, American, Velveeta, ,or a combination

2-4 Tbsp. melted butter

2 Tbsp. onion, chopped fine (I opted out of this)

After cooking and draining your pasta, toss macaroni with oil into your slow cooker.  Stir in remaining ingredients.

Cover.  Cook on Low 2-3 hours.  Now go take a nap and wake up to a yummy smelling home.  At this point, if desired, you can add cut up hot dogs, and cook 1 hour longer

This makes a lot of mac & cheese, perfect for leftovers :0)

Rosemary Chicken w/ Alexia Side

Today I was just looking for fast and easy.  I had chicken and some frozen veggies.  Here's what I made, nothing special:

Rosemary Chicken

Ingredients: 

                     Boneless skinless chicken breasts

                     1/2 tsp Rosemary

                     1/4 tsp Salt

                     1/4 tsp Pepper

                     1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Lay chicken flat on cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and gently pound until even and flat.  Preheat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Sprinkle chicken with  Rosemary, salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pan; cook 3 min. on each side.  Remove from pan.  Add to side dish.

Side dish:  Alexia Roasted red potatoes & harvest vegetables (found in all natural frozen food section).

And of course I added some A-1 sauce, mmm :)

Be mine, Valentine

My husband and I have officially been married for two years.  We got married on Valentine's Day and I know people look at me a little differently when they hear that because usually you would imagine a stereotypical bridezilla type wanting to get married on such a cheesy day, but honestly I just thought it was cool that it was on a Saturday that year and our colors had already been chosen as red, black and white.  It just was a casual pick of the day.  I thought it was cool that everyone would have a reason to be celebrating their significant others on our anniversary.  Love is in the air on that day and it just makes us appreciate our relationship that much more.

So to celebrate our two year anniversary (coincidentally we both had the day off) Ricky (my husband) cooked me a beautiful breakfast.  Delicious omelets and toast, and after we finished I said "AWW I should've taken a picture of it!"  the food was pretty ^_^  Then we basically just drove around, went to a bunch of cool little guitar shops, ate at Napoleons on High downtown for lunch, that place totally reminds me of a New York pizza joint, and had mocha lattes at my favorite coffee spot:  Brioso.

It was a good day of just one on one hanging out and chatting with my best friend <3

Now that I've gotten all romantic-al on you...time to change subjects.

Tonight for dinner I made some feta stuffed chicken breasts.  I couldn't eat it unfortunately because I've been so nauseous lately but I've had it before and this way Ricky gets to eat as much as he probably really wanted to anyways.

Song of the day:  "Curl Up and Die" - Relient K

Yummy Fries

 

Today I made homemade baked french fries! They are much more healthy than deep fried fries and they turned out delicious! Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

3 Russet Potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch strips

Cooking spray

Dried Basil, Salt &amp; Pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray medium baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Arrange single layer potato strips on sheet, skin sides down. Lightly spray potatoes with cooking spray. Sprinkle basil, salt &amp; pepper.

3. Put in oven 25-30 min.

My husband and I devoured these in about 5 min., so good! Enjoy! ^_^

What I've Overcome

 

Everytime I hear this song I start to think "..did I write this?" because it is so dead on with how I feel.  Everyone has a past but you should never let your past control who you are, or become who you are.  I love knowing that Jesus has set me free from my burdening past mistakes.  <3 Have a good day! <3

xoxo.kelsey.

Catching up

I have been so very sick all week!  Cold and migraines and stomach aches...oh my.  Needless to say I have really not been cooking up anything exciting, some simple pasta meals and Toll house chocolate chip cookies, nothing fancy.  So I will make it up to you and be working on some things for next week.

Anyways I have a busy couple of weeks coming up.  Next weekend I am going out with all the girls from work, we are getting a limo and dining out at fancy restaurants.  Valentine's day is after that and it will be my 2 year wedding anniversary! ^_^ After that I have a woman's weekend retreat coming up where I will be playing guitar and leading worship with one other girl and I am really getting stoked about it!  My whole life I knew I was supposed to do something with music and when I tried to do everything on my own it just didn't work out, but then God entered my life and He reminded me of my purpose and He was just that missing piece that I needed.  I know music is supposed to be made for God and that is what He is calling me to do, worship Him through song.

Also I would like to share that I did a Richard Simmons "Sweatin' to the Oldies" workout today and I am totally not ashamed.  It was awesome.

Song of the day:  "Come Back When You Can" by Barcelona

Music I'm digging.

I have been playing guitar all day long and realize most of the songs I cover are all by this one girl whom refers to herself as Gregory and the Hawk.  I have been listening to her since around 2006 and she just recently signed to a label.  I have searched for years now to find other artists that share her style but nobody compares really.  I just don't think she gets enough credit and hope she knows she is a huge inspiration to me.  Check her out.

Some other artists I'm listening to lately: 

TaxiTaxi!

Mirah 

Fences 

Okay, I just realized I could go on forever.  So I will leave you with these four little treasures and hope that you will check them all out.  Some really great music right here! 

Sweet Dreams <3

xoxo

Kelsey.

Minty Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today we were hit with quite a few inches of snow and although Christmas is over I still got the urge to have some warm cookies after shoveling the driveway.  My favorite cookies are Mexican Chocolate Chip but then I remembered I had Dark & Mint Chips in the cupboard, so here we are!

"Minty Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies"

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1/4 cup extra-light olive oil

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup dark mint chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).

In mixer bowl beat the sour cream and oil until combined.  Add sugar and vanilla until well combined.  Add flour mixture bit by bit until combined.  Add chips.

Then I used a cookie dough scooper to measure, rolled them into balls and pressed them to make them round because for some reason they won't do it on their own like regular choc. chip cookies.  Bake for 5 min. and then rotate baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back, bake for 5 more min.  (*For a crunchy Biscotti type cookie do 10min rotate and 10min more.) Cool on racks.

Eat.

Song of the day: "Tend the Real Line" by Gregory and the Hawk

xoxo

Kels.

Flashback Recipe

When I was little and growing up, my mom would always make fast easy meals for me, two sisters and brother.  I believe she called them "Cowboy meals".  So when I'm feeling too tired to cook, these cowboy meals are my go to meals.  The deal is, I gotta cook something because if my husband doesn't have left overs for a lunch he will go and spend money on crap like Taco Bell and God knows what else (there is some motivation for ya).  Here is what I made tonight:

"Hash, Peas & Cottage Cheese"

Ingredients: 

2 cans Corned Beef Hash

2 cans Peas

1 medium sized tub Cottage Cheese

First just dump the hash into large skillet, heat up and brown until crispy.  Pop the peas in microwave.  Add the two together.  Top off with cottage cheese.  

WHAT? THAT'S IT? yup.  This meal is rugged but simple just like a cowboy. lol.

Okay, well enjoy the food and pic of me as a youngin'. 

xoxo

kels.

Crock Pot Tuesday

Today is Tuesday and that means I made another yummy meal in the crock pot.  Every Tuesday I wake up at 4:10AM and go to work at the coffee shop.  Work until about 11AM and come home for a couple hours and just enough time to throw stuff in the crock pot and run off to my other job.

Lately I've been doing variations of the same meal but my husband said this was the best yet.  Here's what I did:  

Ingredients:  1 large bag baby carrots

                     1 large bag frozen broccoli 

                     4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts

                     1/2 cup chicken broth (or water)

                     1/2 a large onion

                     1 clove garlic

                     kosher salt, pepper & other choices of seasoning (basil?)

First make sure chicken is defrosted.  Dump bag of baby carrots into crock pot.  Cut up 1/2 an onion (however you like it, big or small pieces) and sprinkle on top of carrots.  Salt & pepper the chicken breasts and lie on top of carrot and onion mixture.  Cover with frozen broccoli.  Pour in 1/2 cup chicken broth and add seasonings to taste, today I did salt, pepper and basil.

Turn on low heat for about 7 hours.

Come home from work and enjoy!  I am still tweaking this meal, today there was a lot of water at the bottom (probably from the frozen broccoli) so it made the broccoli a little soggy but the chicken and carrots were perfect.  The chicken just falls apart, MMM!  So next time I will probably either get fresh broccoli or not add the chicken broth.

The picture didn't turn out looking as appetizing, but I assure you it was delicious ^_^

Hope you all have a nice night, I'm exhausted.  

xoxo

Kels.

Sunday Dragonquest.

Started the day off with some DS Dragonquest IX.  BTW--are there any dragons in dragonquest?  Played lots of guitar today at Guitar Center and somewhat helped my husband decide on his first acoustic by playing and replaying "walking with a ghost" by tegan and sara on all the guitars.  He decided on an Alverez.  I'm drooling over getting a really folky beater or something with a resonator but then I really gotta start playin more blues.

I watched the movie Crazy Heart and although I can't say much for the plot, the music is really great and I've been sitting here playing a bunch of songs from the movie so I decided to listen to the soundtrack while I type this but I can't do it.  I physically cannot just simply listen to country.  I get very ill.  Something in my brain connects country music to getting car sick as a child and I can't sit and listen to it.  But nevertheless there really are some good songs in that movie, whether they make me sick or not they are still good.

So back to dragonquest...this is my character.  If I decide to do anything for Halloween this year, I do believe this will be my costume.  Pretty awesome eh?

xoxo

kels

It's a New Year

Okay so I haven't been faithful to a blog since I was 19 but I'm going to attempt this again.  It's just very difficult for me being a lover of notebooks and actual pen to paper writing.  Just the action of writing is emotional for me.  I have kept a journal since kindergarten and I still have every journal entry I've ever made sitting in old rugged notebooks, tucked away on my bookshelf.  I love the fact that they are real and exist.  The problem I have with blogs is I can't have it on a crinkled paper with my mood in my handwriting with dried tears or little sketches in the margins.  NONETHELESS I shall prevail!

So here I go.

Let me tell you what's going on in my life right now so you are up to speed.  This might be difficult because when you haven't known where I've been it's hard to completely see where I am.  But I am not who I used to be therefore you will never know who I was.  Heehee.  I like to sound like characters in Alice in Wonderland.  Okay well obviously something right there about me, I get sidetracked easily...

So I am a married 26 year old and I live in a home with my husband, four cats and ten guitars.  Yes that's right, we're crazy cat people.  And we both play guitar!  I have been playing guitar since I was 14 and I have one classical nylon string Ibanez acoustic/electric, another regular ibanez acoustic/electric, two crappy beater acoustics, a Nashville Hard Rock Epiphone and a Squire electric that I never play but my hubs got me when I was 18.  Someday I hope to own one really nice guitar but I am happy with what I have right now.  I mostly play folk and harder dark rock, christian and covers.  I work at a doctors office and a coffee shop but my passion is music.  I have never made a new years resolution before but I have sort of been thinking of starting this year with a resolution to really work on my music and get more involved with other musicians.  Weather it be just jamming together or playing events.

I have a couple hobbies and one includes cooking.  I really have only been cooking for about a year now and it is something that totally relaxes me.  I have always been the type of person that will just clean the whole house because I have a lot on my mind and I've recently realized that cooking is the same way.  There is something about order that puts my scattered mind at ease and there is a definite order or cooking and cleaning.  You will be happy to know that I LOVE to take pictures of my food and share recipes!  So on this blog I plan to share those joyful little treats with you all! ^_^ meow!

Another hobby of mine is poetry so be ready to hear some of that.  Although it feels rather like I am a new poet because recently my entire style of writing has changed.  My poetry used to be very dark and mysterious with a Kerouac inspired beat to it but when I became a Christian a year ago I have only wanted to write poems to my Lord.  I still have the same type of sound underlying my poems but there is a total shift in mood.  I'm not saying all of my poems are happy now, they are just...hopeful!

Couple other hobbies of mine:  Video games -I am currently playing a lot of ps2 and DS games.  And reading -lately mostly just C.S. Lewis books, and of course the Bible.

So here I sit in my cozy little home.  January of 2011 and my Christmas tree still stands.  My cats lie in four corners of the room yawning and scratching.  Oh that reminds me, I must introduce you to my cats considering I will most likely be referring to them from time to time.  The oldest is Skylar.  She is my black and white tuxedo cat and will be 6 years old this August.  She's the most friendly cat and very loyal and mellow.  Next are my "Twins", Chloe & Ozma.  They are my tiger cats and are from the same litter but Ozma was actually the runt so she is very low on the pecking order.  Chloe is lighter in color and the happy go lucky klutzy goofball and a people-pleaser.  Ozma keeps to herself and hides in dark corners.  You could say she is the "evil twin" but she can be very sweet.  Lastly my kitten Jetta, she is only a few months old and is a bombay cat, jet black fur and golden eyes.  She is full of energy and loves to be the center of attention.

Okay well that's it.  If you ever want to know how to keep me in conversation for hours just bring up cats.  Well I am going to leave it at that for now and see what tomorrow brings!

God Bless!

xoxo

Kelsey.