Peanut butter and yogurt spread

I cannot stress how much I love this spread.  

3 ingredients

1 part creamy peanut butter

2 parts Greek vanilla yogurt

Honey

Mix together

Keep chilled

This is the only way I will eat celery raw. 

It's healthy, creamy, slightly sweet, and oh so versatile.

Breakfast:

Eat on biscuits, bagel, toast, croissant, etc.

Lunch: 

Make a sandwich- add a banana.

Snacks:

On celery, apple, or other pb friendly foods

Mix with ice cream and milk for a peanut butter milkshake

It's like a sweet creamy peanut butter, but better.  If you don't like yogurt, try this, you cannot taste it.  A little bit of honey goes a long way with this recipe

Add it to anything you would put peanut butter on or in.  

Alterations:

Less peanut butter for a protein packed breakfast yogurt... Add fruits and granola and you are set for the day.

Blend your fruits and veggies and a great smoothie.  Just add more yogurt. 

Try it!  Make a small batch and the possibilities are endless. 

Freezer Crockpot sausage and veggies

Cut Hi there!  I just finished making up 3 meals that will go from my freezer, to crockpot, to plate.  With M in school, Jer busy at work, and me working and finishing up my senior year ( I graduate in the spring with a B.S. In education) I am one busy mom... I will be working part time on weekends and completing my residency (Doing the teachers job for free :) ) it will be like I'm working a full time 50 hour job plus working 15-25 hours on the weekend.  I know there will be nights I will NOT be able to cook supper for 3 hungry tummies. So, I whipped up a 3 meals that I can toss in the crock of the morning before I walk out the door and come home to after a long day.

The following recipe is something we love to eat:

Polish sausage with lots of veggies.

Simple, fulfilling, and oh so tasty.

Here is the ingredient list:

2 lbs polish sausage

3 large bell peppers

1lb sweet "snacking peppers"

1 lb baby carrots

4 large red onions

1pkg baby portobella caps

1/2 bundle of celery

1tsp each salt and pepper

Here is how I worked:

Cut up the veggies!  I left the carrots whole. I left the veggies nice and chunky (if you cut them small they will break down too much).

Cut up the polish sausage. This is how I cut it.

See how I left it in the package when I cut?  I just sliced right across then I picked up the bag and all and dumped.  Once I got to the end I had to individually cut them ( saved my fingers from the knife this way) :)

Here is it all mixed up.  I added the salt and pepper before I mixed. 

Isn't it so colorful?   The colors are fascinating!

Now I just bagged it up into three gallon size bags, labeled, stacked, and tossed In the freezer.

 

To cook, just toss in the crock pot of the morning with a bit of yummy butter set crock on low.  When you come home the house will be filled with a beautiful scent.

Tips:

Save the pepper seeds to dry and plant next year.

Save the mushroom stems for soups.  I just dice me and drop them in a freezer bag and toss in the freezer. (Perfect for homemade cream of mushroom soup.  Just lightly sautée with a dab of butter till tender.  Make your cream of whatever soup and toss in the  mushrooms. Simmer about 10 mins and yum yum. 

Save the end of the celery with the roots and base attached. Sit in a shallow dish of water to grow more celery. 

Let me if you have tried any of these tips or the recipe before. :). What did you do differently? Questions? I will try to answer. 

Moving breakables.

Ok, I see where people post and blog about how they pack their kitchen ware such as plates, cups, bowls, etc... When I moved from college life to my adult home, I packed my breakables the cheapest way I could... Using what I had.  I used all of my towels, kitchen and bath.  When I ran out, I used my clothes. I used everything from socks in glasses and t-shirts for plates.  I also used my older "ratty" shirts for pots and pans to keep them from bumping.  I used jeans for between stacks of picture frames also.

When I moved, I did not have to buy any packaging materials.  Why spend money on things that you are just going to use for a few days and throw away or burn?

Prevention By Change of Energy

sooo, I am jumping on my soap box... ObamaCare, Sex, Physics, Teens, and etc all come in to play. ObamaCare says that all Employers must pay for the abortion pills, Birthcontroll, and etc. Most uses of the Morning After pill occur in teens. Why do teens have sex? Pleasure, frustration, energy, and etc. More effort needs to be pushed towards prevention at point A instead of waiting until point B. With me so far? Hang in there! In Physics you learn that it has been proven that once an object is in motion, it will stay in motion; once a object is at rest, then it will stay at rest. This adds to the fact that energy cannot be destroyed, however it can be CHANGED! Why aint there more focus on teaching and educating teens on changing their sexual desires and energies into a more productive and less destructive energies? Why isn't there more effort in teaching "Prevention By Change of Energy"? Take teen males for example: They are packed full of energy, testosterone, and etc. If they find something they can focus their energy on and bury themselves in, then they are less likely to have the energy to satisfy their sexual desires. The testosterone can be tamed by expressing their competativeness and other forms of "strutting their feathers". Look at it this way, teens need to taught how to use up the different types of energy they have. This will allow them to learn to control their energy in the first place by changing it. This would also work towards self destructive teens, and many other. If a person can learn to enjoy something other than their not so good but strong desires at a prision, in thereapy, etc. then we know it is possible to teach teens to control their sexual desires by changing their energy. That is where we have became lost in this world. We are not taught how to control all of the energy in our bodies, therefore, sometimes it will get us into trouble. Think about this. Its Simple Physics Within Our Body!

Cleaning the things you clean with

Have you ever went through your house and cleaned then just put the tools away?  I am very guilty of doing so.  I just finished cleaning the bathroom due to the onset of insomnia and then I realized that my broom was NASTY!

Think about it!  You sweep the floor, scoop up the debris and find yourself pulling dust bunnies and etc. out of the broom bristles.   Why not just run your broom under the bathtub faucet or swish and rinse in your mop water?  Makes since don't it?  Although I had just finished cleaning the bathtub, I decided to spray off the plunger, its holder, and the broom and dust pan.  I left them in the tub to drain and dry overnight and then in the morning I can just put them up, rinse the tub, spray disinfectant, then mop the floors.

Along with cleaning the broom, dust pan, and other commonly used bathroom tools like the plunger and its holder on a regular basis, we should also concider cleaning vaccum cleaners, sponges (if you use them), scrubbers, dish racks, cleaning storage areas, the mop, and anything else that you use the clean with.  Let's face it! They get dirty too!

Chicken about Chicken

As I am a Crafty, Cooking, Baking, going to school mother and wife you would think that I would know how to cut up a chicken.  Add in the fact that my husband is a butcher and chicken is at the top of his list, you would expect that I would know how to cut up the fowl, but GUESS AGAIN! 

My mom, my daughter, and I made a trip to Sam's today.  As we were checking out the food sample station, my mom jumped down the little aisle where the chicken was.  I usually avoid even looking and the fresh meats because my husband keeps us in check with meat at home, but this time I mosied on over there after mom hollered for me. Once I got to where she was she asked me if the .98 cent per lb price on the the whole chickens was a good deal,  (I am a sucker for anything costing less than dollar).  Before I could even answer her question, I glanced down and saw a REDUCED sticker on a twin pack of hens.  I picked up the birds and began looking the package over well.  Ok, so there were a couple of things wrong.  1.  The outer bag had been open, but the bags actually keeping the bird from leaking were just fine, and 2. The date.   The sell by date was for tomorrow.  BIG DEAL!  The reduced sticker meant that we were going to spend $1.50 less.  WOOO HOOO!  I snatched those birds up and kept my eye on them until they made it into the cooler as though it was Black Friday at Wial-mart (crazy I know). 

Once home I tossed the birds into the kitchen sink while I put the remaining items from out shopping spree up.  I soon caught myself avoiding the subject of putting the birds up.  I finally made myself do it.  I couldn't figure out why I kept avoiding these boogers.

I finally opened up one of the birds rinsed and inspected for stray feathers and stashed it into my crock-pot.  Chicken and Dumplings for lunch and supper tomorrow!  Now what to do with the other bird?  Hmmmm.  It needs to be cut up so that I can freeze it in portion amounts.  How?   How in the world was I supposed to cut up this bird?   I know that it has two of everything but neck and tail (pretty much). So I grabbed my sharp knife and began butchering this extra bird. (Hubby was at work or else I would have rooted his butt off the couch and made him cut it up).  So I started with the basics.  Wings:  two of them. Found the shoulder and cut to that joint then popped the bone out of the socket.  Next?  Legs and thighs.  I like them both together so I found the "hip" and cut to the joint and popped that bone out of the socket... Ok so after separating the limbs from the body I then had to work on the body itself.  Soooo....  Breasts!   Two of them.  I began by cutting the the sides of the bird, then cut the meat from the ribs and the breast bone.  Wow!  I got the breasts separated.  I looked down were I had cut out the breast and found that I had also cut out the tender.  Yay! 

I cleaned up my chicken mess and bagged the pieces for freezing and labeled them.  Now what?  I was stuck with the back, neck, tail and ribs with the breast bone. I just tossed it into my crock pot of the other chicken.  Why waist that yummy flavor?

Now that I finally took the time to butcher my own chicken,  I think I will start checking out the discounted meats more often.  Hmmm..... I wonder if the hubs will be up to teaching me how he does it next time?