Defrosting is Not My Friend

Lately I have not been very good with defrosting food efficiently. On Monday I made the honey sauces chicken in the crock pot like I planned. Only I didn't put in fully defrosted chicken, it was all sort of still clumped together but I've cooked chicken in the crock pot before and it's always cooked pretty fast. Except I forgot to account for that when I timed the recipe so about 5:15 rolled around when my boys thought they were starving and I come to find that the chicken is still a little raw in parts. That just won't work. So I ended up making homemade lunchables for dinner for them and eating the chicken later when Shane got home. It turned out really good and we ate it again the next day for our real dinner but it was disappointing to not be as easy as I had planned.

I think the boys would rather have these any day.

Then today came... Yesterday we rearranged the chest freezer because it was becoming a black hole and I couldn't find things I was looking for. I took out an elk roast at 9am and put it in the freezer figuring 24 hours would be plenty of time for it to thaw enough to cut into chunks for the stew I wanted to make. Wrong again. It will be plenty thawed by tomorrow but knowing I needed it to cook so long in the crock pot again I had to scrap my plans and save them for another day. Here some of the freezer ingredients are thawing at a nice little plate party.

Loaded Baked Potato Casserole

So I ended up making hamburgers which were pre-formed and precooked from the freezer and the loaded baked potato casserole from the picture above. Mine didn't have green onions because I didn't have any but I'm sure next time Shane would love some of those too. Really not hard to make and so yummy. In the end everything always works out fine but I just don't think my brain is working correctly at the moment.

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Belated Christmas Pics

Because I didn't download any pictures for a while, and then it was after Christmas and things got wild for a while I kind of skipped over the actual holiday so several weeks late, here is how we spent our Christmas. I didn't get any pictures when we were over at Shane's family's house but we spent lots of time over there too. All four kids in one picture together! Warner kind of blends into the tree skirt but his little baldish head stands out. Luckily the matching pajamas I bought for the boys last year still fit too. Head lamps for spying on Santa. Opening presents was a daunting task for Lincoln. I think this was when he realized asking only for a "princess and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" wasn't the best of ideas. Don't worry he got plenty spoiled. The messy aftermath. Lincoln playing in his new tiny little kitchen. My brother and dad at our house. My mom and brother decorating a giant gingerbread...

Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I've been tweaking this overnight sourdough cinnamon roll recipe over the last few months and I think it's finally, exactly, the way I like it. We love this for slow weekend mornings, to take to family and friends, or for special holiday get togethers. It's also the same recipe I use when making them to sell locally. I've been keeping it under wraps for no reason in particular but it's just too good not to share. I don't have a reliable kitchen scale so this recipe uses good old fashion cups and goes a lot by the feeling of the dough. It will get messy but don't be discouraged if it doesn't turn out just right the first time. No matter the flop, these cinnamon rolls will never disappoint taste wise. The PDF printable can be found here or you can keep reading. Overnight Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls The night before you want to make rolls: 8 Tablespoons cold butter, shredded (a whole stick) 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour 1/2 cup sourdou...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

We love chicken in our house because it is yummy, very versatile and somewhat affordable. It is also Shane's meat of choice for his "tone and sculpt" plan. (ok so I just love how special he is and really I am not making fun of him) I generally try to find boneless, skinless chicken for less than $2 a pound. These days it is getting increasingly difficult, even looking into Zycon or Costco so when I found some for $2.30/lb I got all the had... two packages. I frozen one because Shane will BBQ that for lunches on the weekend. With the other package, which I think was about 3.5 pounds or 5/6 breasts, I was able to look on the monthly menu plan and figure out what chicken type dinners I had coming up and chop from there. Since the breasts are usually very thick I slice them in half, like a top and bottom part. Then I either chopped up into bite sized pieces or froze whole. For less than $9 in chicken I made four meals that will serve at least two adults and two children. ...

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