Tasty Tuesday

Crockpot Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

5 lb. boneless pork shoulder, cut into large chunks

2 tablespoons oil

S&P

12 oz. Dr. Pepper (or Root Beer)

Your favorite BBQ sauce

Directions:

Sprinkle pork with S&P.  Heat oil over medium heat in a large heavy pot or dutch oven.  Sear pork shoulder pieces a few at a time until all sides are browned and caramelized.  Add pork to a slow cooker as they finish.

Pour soda over pork and turn slow cooker to low and cook 8-20 hours.

To serve, use two forks to slightly shred meat leaving some larger pieces.  Split buns or dinner rolls and lightly toast.  Toss each serving with a little BBQ sauce just to moisten.

***YUM!  I love this because I'm not a huge fan of my sandwich being soaked in BBQ sauce.  To give the meat a little more sweet and tangy flavor, I added about 1/4 cup of sauce to the pork.  It was enough to give it the flavor but not overpower it and drench it in bbq sauce.  The pork itself, alone was fantastic and could be served plain with bottles of sauce on the side for each person's liking.***

Giggly Girls

The girls LOVE to play in my closet.  Some nights I just let them unwind while I get some "alone" time (if you can call it that) on my computer and watching, as Lauren says "Mommy's shows". 
The girls were having a blast the other night and the giggles began.  It was so cute!

Weighloss Update

I know it's been FOREVER since I blogged about my weight loss. I promise you I didn't give up on it. In fact, I reached my 50lb goal about a month ago!! Woohooo!!  I am now down to 195.  That is 55lbs since Nov. 15, 2010 and 75lbs since Sept. 13, 2010. 
I couldn't have done it without the support of my family and friends.  Especially my family for being always willing to watch the girls so I could go  to the gym.  Since I've moved back to Kansas, the progress has slowed down.. I have to rely more on healthier eating than the exercise.  I don't want my progress to stop just because I hit my goal for the year.  I am going to try and continue to live a healthier and more active lifestyle.  With that in mind, the pounds should continue to drop.  My ideal weight that I would feel great at would be about 175lb. I haven't seen that number since high school.  I haven't even seen 195lb on the scale in 6 years, so I'm super excited. 

I'm sorry I dont have any recent pictures.  I don't have a full length mirror here in Kansas. I will try and figure something out though.   The last pictures I took were at the beginning of my Beachbody Challenge.  My weight was 203lbs.

picture just to show the difference in my face from last year to this year.....

I am kind of at an awkward stage right now, despite the weight loss. I don't feel very toned and even though I have lost weight, I am between sizes in clothes which makes it super frustrating when shopping. I am going to keep things up and maybe I'll have more progress to blog about in the future!!  Thanks to all of my readers whose kind words of encouragement have kept me going as well!!

Tasty Tuesday

Porcupine Meatballs

Photo and recipe credit

Ingredients:
1 lb ground chuck (beef or turkey, I am sure you could use anything)
1 cup of uncooked minute rice
S & P
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
dash of chili powder
1 egg
handful of bread crumbs
1 can of tomato soup
1 5 oz can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup of milk
2 teaspoons Worcestershire
1 Beef Bouillon cube
1/2 medium onion diced very small

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl mix an egg, spoonful of the tomato soup, ground chuck, bread crumbs, onion, garlic powder, chili powder, S & P, and rice.
Make into meatballs and place in a shallow baking dish, I made about 18 meatballs with mine.
In a separate bowl microwave the beef bouillon with the tomato sauce just so the cube dissolves.
Mix in the tomato soup and Worcestershire sauce , milk, salt and pepper.
Pour mixture over the meatballs.
Cover dish with foil and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Serve over rice or potatoes

My week in cell phone photos...

Lauren pouting over her breakfast. 

"No eggs!!!"

Faker Faker... She was awfully picky on this particular morning.  It was nothing out of the ordinary, she just was not going to eat her eggs.
She has a fake laugh now, and it's hilarious.

She is such a sweetie.  Sleeping, she looks just like she did as a baby.

Kaelin playing at her appointment. She is such a big girl! Walking, climbing, sitting in big girl chairs! I really wish we had this table set.  I love it and the girls do too everytime we are there!  It is the perfect size!

Riding the slides with Lauren at Fort Riley's Oktoberfest. 

I have been debating for quite some time whether to leave my hair the way it is above. Just curl it and still have the ability to pull up if I want...or to cut it into a short bob again..

Me & Kae bug!

Mommy & boo boo bear

Sleeping soundly in mommy's bed! :)

I love this, and I want to make one of my own for my house. I love love love this verse. 

Slightly mortified...

I didn't think I'd start this early being embarrassed by what my children say.    Lauren is an early talker and quite the gifted gabber.   I guess she gets that from me.    This afternoon I dropped her off at a friends house while I took Kaelin to an appointment.    When I returned to pick her her up she was walking around with the fly swatter saying "Trouble, Lauren Trouble".    I asked her what she was saying and she brought me the fly swatter and said "Trouble, Lauren Trouble"    I corrected her and said "No, it's a fly swatter" but she insisted on calling it "trouble".  Slightly mortified, my two year old was making me sound like I beat her with the fly swatter when she was in trouble!!  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.    Although embarrassed by her choice of words, and baffled because I'm not sure where she got her choice of words, I laughed.    I have let her play with our fly swatter before and chase around the flies, but never once punished her with it or referred to it as something she would associate with trouble. 
Anyway....yes..it was embarrassing but I guess it could have been a lot worse and instead of saying it at a friends house, I guess it could have been at the doctor or daycare! HA! 

Hey lady, get out of my face!

All I wanted was an uneventful trip to the grocery store. Isn't that what any mom of a toddler wants..let alone two toddlers.
So last Friday, the girls and I went to the commissary for our weekly grocery trip.  We arrived and the building is under renovation/construction so I was thrown for loop when I had to use another entrance and begin my shopping on the opposite side of the store... anyways..back to my story.  Within the first 5 minutes of being there, this old asian lady walked up and while invading their personal space, leaned into the girls saying...no yelling.."OH YOU SO BEAUTIFUL, SO BEAUTIFUL".  I can handle that. I said thank you and continued on our way.  She kept walking beside us though and kept repeating it and then started asking their names.  I kindly answered, grabbed my lunch meat and carried on.  She followed.  By this point both girls are cowering.  Then she gets in their faces again to tell them how pretty they are.  While I don't have an issue with that in itself, my issue was with her literally almost being nose to nose with them.  Kaelin now begins screaming and flailing around in the cart.  She wants out and away from this lady, pronto.  I was about to turn the cart around and get out of there when the old lady began scolding me saying "You need to take your girls out more often"..I replied "we get together with friends and go to the parks, almost everyday." ...her answer back to me was "No, they not good with people, not social, you need to get them out more"......Umm thanks. They are One and Two for goodness sake.  They have me 24/7 and I do my best to make them well rounded. Sure, they are skiddish around new people and new things and most of the time cry if I drop them off at a daycare/nursery. 
I just wish at that point one of them could talk well enough to say "Hey lady, get out of my face!" ..it sure was what I was thinking... the rest of the trip was spent with me bribing with treats and evening opening a bag of goldfish off the shelf to just keep them happy.  So much for uneventful grocery trip!

Tasty Tuesday

Spinach Roll

So...this is a recipe that I just whipped together today for lunch. I was inspired by my friend Jamie.  She had us over for lunch last week and made home made pizza and was making a pepperoni roll for supper for her family.  I mentally took note of what she was using and decided to try a version on my own at home today.  I didn't have any pepperoni so I used spinach and it turned out quite tasty!!

Below is the recipe I used for pizza dough.  It was the best so far that we've attempted to make...well actually we've always just used the jiffy box mix, so yeah...this was a big improvement! 

1-package active dry yeast
1-cup warm water
1-tablespoon sugar
1/2 -tsp of salt
2 -tablespoons of olive oil (I used Tastefully Simple Garlic Infused Oil) YUM!
3-cups of flour

- Add water, sugar and yeast to bowl.  Let yeast dissolve.  Add remaining ingredients. Beat in mixer with bread hook until dough forms a ball.  Place on floured surface and knead and form ball. Place in greased bowl and cover for one hour until dough doubles in size.  Once it has risen, punch down and knead.  I had enough dough for 2 medium sized pizzas or rolls.  I decided to freeze one and save it for later. 

The dough is the hardest part..the rest of the recipe is left up to your imagination!  I sauteed spinach, sweet onions, garlic and olive oil until onions were soft and spinach was wilted.  I made a mixture of oil, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and garlic.  I brushed the crust with this yummy mixture. Next I mixed 1 cup shredded mozzerella cheese with 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.  I placed the mixture on the crust and topped with the spinach/onion mixture.  I rolled the dough and then formed into a horse shoe. I brushed the top with the garlic oil/parm mixture. 

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees. Bake on pizza pan or stone for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top. 

This was so so so delicious. The girls even liked it.  Just like pizza, you can make it however you want!!  I definitely want to try some other toppings next time. 

Just start off with the crust and build from there.
What are your favorite toppings for home made pizza?! Do you have any crazy flavor combinations?