Dependability

I wanted to share a random thought with you. I was getting dressed in the dark and was putting on a pair of shorts and thought to myself: "pants are so dependable." Hubbers laughed. But think about it. You're never going to put your jeans on backwards or inside out. But a t-shirt. Man that jerk will totally mess with you! T-shirt is like: "haha sucks to be you today! You walked outside and I'm backwards and inside out. idiot." So on that note, thank you pants for not trying to mess with people.

Feature Friday: The Bloggess and Victor. Still surprised after 16 years,

Happy Anniversary Week Bloggess and (poor poor) Victor. God love ya. Happy 16th Anniversary Bloggess. Your relationship is old enough it can drive...probably while texting. Well it's a Friday and I need to feature something so I figure you guys can go back to one of the best bloggers out there: The Bloggess.

This particular post is about her 16 yr anniversary. Do you remember last years? It involved a chicken...

There's really only one way to top that...

Ciao to the Corner of Crappus!

So my daddy's birthday is this weekend coming up and I am MOST excited to go back to DFW and see the fam! I was hoping we'd have puppy Lindstrom by now so he or she could meet her or his cousins but alas, no such luck. Honestly, I don't have a free weekend for a while anyways so we're waiting. I'm hoping for a dog in mid August. What kind you might ask? I don't really care too much as long as it's about 40 lbs and friendly...and potty trained...and like at least 2-3 years old. We're going to skip that puppy stage business. I don't have time for that!

We finally got our guest bedroom looking supa fly! Of course, no one can really sleep comfortably in there any more. ::gasp:: What do you mean Mrs. Lindstrom? Well I'll tell you what I mean, (what I really really mean). We did a furniture trade with my aunt. She got our extra bed, we got a lovely armoire cabinet that now hides the absurd amount of photo "stuff" we own. But check out that corner of the room. That is a nice corner. YAY! So eventually we'll turn that room into a sweet TV room and get a real people couch and turn our living room into...well, it'll actually stay a living room but hopefully we'll have more seating. We plan to lead a growth group for our church in the fall. Woot.

So, I'm all funned out on cooking for this week so you lucky people get an update on the exciting life I lead.

Oh, one final question: Are underpants still "underpants" when they're not under pants?

Thoughts. Comments? Share below.

Crock-Pot Teriyaki Chicken

Remember Monday how I told you about "dump bags"? Ok maybe I didn't explain so we'll try again. Basically you chop ingredients and assemble bags ahead of time, then you shove them (nicely) in your freezer. When you need a meal that you don't have to think about, you pull your bag of choice out of le freezer and dump it in your crock pot as you walk out the door in the morning. You come home from work and badda bing badda boom (people should say that more often I swear) and you have a delicious meal that smells like you slaved over it all day. Simple! Love it.

So, the other day,I shared the curry chicken recipe with you. Today we're visiting a different, yet equally delicious member of the more-interesting-than-ketchup spice wheel: teriyaki! And yes, this wheel exists... if only in my head. It's magical in there!

Anywho, here's what you need:

2 gallon freezer bags-label before hand, it'll make life easier. Split the rest of the ingredients evenly between the 2 bags.

Ingredients:

• 1 large bag of Baby Carrots 
• Red Onion cut into Large Chunks 
• 20oz can pineapple per each bag (undrained) (i messed up here and only got 1 can) 
• 2 Garlic Cloves chopped per bag 
• 2 Chicken Breasts in each bag 
• 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce in each bag 

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours. Serve over Rice.

That's 6 ingredients! How easy! Takes less than 20 minutes to prep everything and boy you'll be glad you did! Let me know what you think about this meal. Hubbers says it's a keeper!

Thanks to people way smarter than me with way more spare time to think of things that are all smart and stuff. I give you smart person 1 and 2. Cheers!

Cilantro Avocado Chicken Salad

I'm not a big fan of chicken salad. I think it's the lack of flavor with slimy texture. I found this recipe and decided I would give it a whirl. Now, the measurements are not exact. This is a, add to your liking kind of recipe. I'll tell you roughly what I used.

Ingredients:

• chicken, cooked and shredded (8-10 tenderloins)
• avocado (1 1/2)
• mayo, just a little
• green onion, sliced (I suggest 2-3 but I only used one. I don't love green onion and this one was particularly beefy)
• cilantro-lots. Just lots 'n lots. Mmmmm
• lime juice to taste- easy squeezy tasty, cover girl...cover chicken.
• salt/pepper to taste. Shake shake shake. Shake shake shake. Shake your spices!

Now I read somewhere that if you have a stand up mixer, you can toss the hot chicken in there with the tree shaped paddle and it will shred your chicken. Turn it on low.... chicken is not meant to fly. Seriously though, this really works wonders! I actually just added all my ingredients in and let the mixer do the work. This was so simple. You just add your ingredients until it tastes good. You seriously can't go wrong. Make sure your avocados are good first. One of mine smelled nasty after I cut it open so unfortunately, I had to toss it. I hate picking out avocados! Well anyways, I hope you enjoy this tasty lunch or snack time option. Let me know your thoughts below if you make this. I love comments!

Curry Chicken: Crock Pot Dumper

Wow that is an appetizing title to a meal huh? Well, the meal itself is QUITE appetizing. Do you ever have one of those weeks where you may as well set your hair on fire Monday morning just to get a jump on things. This is the perfect meal for those times. It only required a couple minutes of prep time and you get 2 meals out of the deal!
You can prep a bunch of these crock pot freezer meals all at once but I'm just going to share the ones I've tried. For more ideas, check out Mamaandbabylove.com. She's got some great stuff including this recipe. Here's how you prep it:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1.5-2 pounds chicken thighs, or breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes.
2 cups baby carrots.
2 cup coarsely chopped mango*. Or 2 cans of chopped mango.
1 cup chopped onion.
1 zucchini chopped, about one cup.
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 chicken bouillon, one per bag.
.5 cup raisins (for garnish)
.5 cup peanuts or cashews (for garnish)


Directions:
Divide everything into two, 1 gallon freezer bags, shake it up, seal, label and put in the freeze.

To cook, take out of freezer and set on counter for about 30 minutes, then dump contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.

This is so simple to pull out in the morning and place in your beloved crock out as you head out the door. Oh and I highly suggest investing in some crock pot liners. They are great for easy clean up and so worth it just to not have to de-crusty your crock pot. You can even go to Reynolds.com and get a $1.00 off coupon. Woohoo! You know I love me some coupons.  So there you go ladies and gents. Let me know what you think of this curry chicken recipe in the comments below. 

Happy 4th of July

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Back when I was in highs chool, my favorite teacher, Mrs. Johns, would always make these cookies for us around Valentine's day. They're super easy to make and delicious. I give you cherry chocolate chip cookies. There are only 7 ingredients:

• 1 box cherry chip cake mix. This can be hard to come by so when you find it, buy it up.
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 rounded cup chocolate chips
• 2-3 drops red food coloring

Mix all the ingredients together. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Mmmmmmm Cookies. 

If you notice, the cookie on the left and the cookie on the right are different. I pressed the dough down slightly before cooking the cookie on the left. I think it looks prettier but they both taste the same.  

Blueberry Iced Tea

It's summer time and with Independence day right around the corner, I'm going to give you guys a recipe for Sweet Blueberry Iced Tea. It's sweet, refreshing and there are all sorts of health benefits to blueberries.

It's pretty simple, put a pot of water on to boil. In a separate skillet, dump in a pint of blueberries and  about 1/4 a cup of sugar. Cook the blueberries down to juice. 

Meanwhile...

When the water is about to boil, pour it into a 2 quart pitcher over a tea bag. Pour in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar into the pitcher of hot tea. If you don't want sweet tea, you're clearly not from the South....so I guess you don't have to put in the sugar you Yankie.

When the blueberries are mostly juice, use a strainer to separate the juice.

And now,you have a delightful glass of blueberry tea to go with your 4th of July festivities. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday McClellen Boys

Happy Birthday Drew and Alex. Alex, you should be pretty excited, you survived your first year of life! I hate to break it to you but it's only going to get harder. People will expect you to do things like talk soon. Then after that people will expect you to shut up. Then you can get a blog. Like me.

So in honor or Drew's birthday I have posted some rather hilarious footage from out visit up there earlier this month. This is their daughter Addie bouncing and giggling. It's hard not to laugh. 

Addie bringing "Uncle" Nathan the ball. Or possibly taking it away. I can't tell