Crock Pot Thursday - Beef Carnitas Tacos

Eat, Live, Run has the best recipe for Beef Carnitas Tacos

From Eat, Live, Run

in the Crock Pot! 

They were so yummy! I definitely recommend to shredding the meat and then putting it back in the crock pot, just so all the flavors can melt together. 

Next time I think I will add some pico de gallo! Even Bobby loved this, so you know it's good if he approves! 

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Zyliss Julienne Peeler

Photo from Amazon.com (link below)

I really want a veggie spiralizer! I love pasta, I could eat it all day every day for the rest of my life. The different amazing sauces that you can make, make my mouth water just thinking about them.

Unfortunately, due to the carbs in the pasta I don't let my self indulge very often. If had veggie pasta, I could eat it whenever I wanted and would not have to worry about the carbs. Plus I would get plenty of vegetables. 

Because I really don't want to spend money on a spiralizer, I googled how to make veggie pasta and this website popped up. Oh She Glows talks about this Zyliss Julienne Peeler

Oh She Glows made some beautiful pasta. I had to order it! It was $9 with free shipping from Amazon.com  

It should come in with in the next few days. Review to come! So excited!

Crock Pot Thursday - Baked Potato Soup

I love cooking in my crock pot, especially since I found these handy-dandy liners that make cleaning a breeze! I have found so many yummy recipes that allow me to put food on in the morning and come home to a yummy home cooked meal, with minimal cleaning! Awesome sauce!! 

This is one of our recent crock pot recipes that we love! Baked Potato Soup from Cooking Classy.

The only downside to any baked potato soup is the lack of protein. Yes, there is bacon topping but it doesn't provide enough protein for your meal. The next time I make it, I think I'm going to add some ham to get that meat in there.

January Month-A-Versary (37 months)

Pre-Month-a-versary:

I am starting this post several days before our actual month-a-versary on the 19th. That is how excited I am about it! On January 7th I started a long term substituting job for a local high school Spanish teacher. Getting used to these long days has been interesting. It must be what a baby feels like the first few months of life; because all I want to do is sleep, sleep and sleep some more. Getting a full seven hours of sleep at night, isn't even an issue for me. I sleep fine, yet when I awake I feel like I have risen from the dead. I am a zombie for at least an hour after getting up at six. 

I don't know what it is, I'm used to working long hours and being on my feet a lot because of Chili's, but this is brutal compared to that. I don't even do much; the teacher left a lot of packets that students work on together and I am here in case they get stuck, which isn't very often. Who knows!

Sorry about the rabbit trail. My point was that I have been so tired lately that I have barely seen Bobby because I'm in bed super early. At at least twice a week I'm in bed by 8:00. Bobby has only night classes this semester, and is the Vice President of his Association of Civil Engineers Chapter, which keeps him really busy. He isn't home most nights, and I'm not home most days. We haven't seen much of each other lately, which of course makes me so excited for our month-a-aversary! We have no idea what we are going to do yet but, at this point I don't really care as long as we are out and about together. 

Post-Month-a-versary:
We were so exhausted on our actual month-a-versary that we slept most of the day. We actually went the next day. We had all these gift cards from Christmas and our anniversary that the whole night was free! We went and saw a movie.

 

It was good, just an average action adventure movie. I couldn't get over how dirty the theater was. We have been going to the same AMC for 3 years. We have a stubs membership and everything. But lately when we go in the theater is really messy and smells bad. Then when we left the elevator was covered in popcorn. I mean come on take some pride. If we had another AMC around we definitely would go there instead. 

After the movie we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I forgot what a good steak tastes like!!! It was good, and their Caesar salads, yummy!

It was a nice night. Happy 37 months baby!

Buttercream Icing

Icing Ingredients:

1 package powdered sugar
1 cup of shortening
1 cup of butter, softened (we use country crock, it’s great because it is already softened)
1 tbls vanilla extract
mini chocolate chips (optional)

Note: the icing makes enough for 4 dozen cupcakes, so feel free to half the recipe. It tastes just as great! Any leftovers refrigerate well. 

Directions:

1. Beat, vanilla, shortening and butter until thick and creamy.

2. Slowly add the powdered sugar until the icing is mixed well. If it is to thick for your liking, you can add a couple tsp of milk, but it tends to get to runny for the pastry bags once the milk is added so I never do.

Girls Night In

There were a lot of people in my family along with friends who had birthdays in November and December. So my mom threw a girls night in party. I wasn't feeling all that great so I slacked once again on taking pictures.

This was our awesome cake from Nothing Budnt Cakes! It was supper yummy. You can see the candles that my mom stuck in it. When they were lighted, one of the ones on the left caught a paper flag on fire. It was really funny. There were about 6 of us standing around to blow out the candles and then all of sudden we are blowing really hard because it on fire. 

My best friend, Katy and my sister, Rachel accidentally matched. It was crazy!

We also played this minute-to-win-it game, where you tie a tissue box to your back filled with jingle bells. You have to get as many jingles bells out as you can in a minute. My sister-in-law Kassie won at 4 seconds, and my sister Rachel came in second at 8 seconds. I didn't video those two but here are some others.

My mother-in-law, Jeri.

My sister, Victoria