My Very Own Pot Roast Recipe

Well, I wanted pot roast...and bad! I did my usual search and scan for recipes but nothing was "suiting" this pregnant craving of mine. I decided to "invent" my own recipe and it turned out pretty awesome. The only thing I might do different next time is add a teed more salt. I just wanted to post a quick blog for my future reference regarding the recipe. Feel free to use for yourself.

I started with an almost 4 lbs Beef Chuck Pot Roast (boneless) that was thawed completely. I wanted to slow cook this all day for that "fall apart tender" look and taste. So I put 1 chopped onion, about 15 baby carrots chopped into thirds, 1 package of mushroom gravy mix, 1 can mushroom slices, and 1 can of cream of mushroom with roasted garlic soup. I stirred all that to mix well. Meanwhile, I took about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and heated it in a pan until really hot. I seasoned both sides of the roast with salt, pepper, and cummin. Then I added that to the hot pan and seared the roast on all sides to seal in flavor. After that was done, I added the roast to the crock pot. I then added about 1/4 cup water to the hot pan and worked all the bits of drippings from searing the roast into the water. I poured that over the roast in the crock pot and turned it on low for about 8 hours.

That roast was so tender I used a fork to break up the meat and the gravy was awesome over my mashed potatoes.

It's A Boy!

I finally had the "big" ultrasound. You know, the one where you get to find out the gender if you want to know. Of course, we wanted to know! I am THRILLED to announce it's a BOY!  Oddly I kept feeling like it was a girl, but really really really wanted a boy! I mean after all, Kristina is 19 and will be leaving home soon and Kenton is only 5, he needs a playmate! Seems everyone in the family was happy about the news too!

We got some great shots of the baby, too. In the top picture, he's looking right at the camera and his eyes are WIDE OPEN, and you can see his little fist right at the top, too. The bottom three pictures show him from primarily his left side. First showing him with his ankles crossed and arm/fist up by his head. He kind of has his face snuggled up into the placenta. The second picture is almost a double image. It shows a semi-great face shot, but then he moved so his fist is partially in the way. The third picture shows him kind of rubbing his eyes with his fist and you can see his lips, cheeks, and ear.

We are still deliberating over names but have it narrowed down....we really like the "K" tradition that we have going on. However, it's been sooooo hard this time around finding a name everyone agrees on, or that we can find any middle names to go with. This baby is our last and we really want to make it unique after all we've been through. We found a name that means, God has been gracious and shown favor. How awesome is that given the road we've been down? The name we are leaning most towards is Jaxson Kole Naval...we'd call him "Jax". We think this baby won't mind his "K" name being his middle name with such an awesome first name, and if it does really bother him, he could always switch and go by Kole later on. Other names still in the pool vary between Jaxson Raylan or Rayland Jaxson. Both of these derive from the main characters of TV shows we LOVE and they represent some pretty "billy badass" characters. We think Jax will be a perfect fit in our world of K's.....

Kenton Starts Swim Lessons!

Kenton finally started Swim Lessons. I was beginning to think the boy was always going to hate pools, but he started showing an interest finally so we signed him up! He started liking the pool a couple months ago on a random trip. So to test it out I took him to our local indoor waterpark. I knew he was ready when he started trying to "dog paddle" in the big wave pool! Success! So I contacted the base and found out when the next round of lessons would be and signed him up. We only had to wait a couple months and it's only $45 for the month. Not too bad, so we dived right in. He has five other kids in his first class and all boys. He seemed to really love it and is very excited to go back for the next class. He'll be going twice a week for the next month. This is great for him! If he's anything like his dad or mom, he should be a regular fish in the water. I'm really excited for him!

Honey Lime Tilapia

Yesterday my son Kenton asks me, totally out of the blue, to have fish for dinner. My guess is because we've been watching a lot of Food Network and he is really LOVING trying to make things he sees. Anyway, I knew we had some frozen tilapia, so I promised him we'd have it the next night (tonight) after I could thaw it out. This was an unusual request from him because he doesn't like fish normally. I only recently got him to try (and he loved it) shrimp. In fact, the only real fish eater in the family is my husband, Kyle. I do occaisionally like halibut, a basic white fish - nothing too fishy for me!

Anyway, today my mission was to find a tilapia recipe I could both pull off and hopefully win Kenton over with. I wanted his "fish experience", particularly since he requested fish, to be a good one and one to set a precedent for him for liking fish because it's a healthy choice. I went to my old faithful Pinterest boards and searched through tilapia recipes. I chose the one I chose for several reasons. First because the picture made it look pretty good, second because the blogger said her husband wasn't a big fish eater either, and he loved it, and third because I had all the ingredients on hand and it just sounded like it might be pretty tasty!

As soon as I realized this recipe called for a marinade I started preparing it. I had about 2 hours before it would be time to make dinner and according to the recipe it only needed a minimum of 1 hour to marinade. Thank God the fish was thawed at this point!

Here's the recipe, from Pinterest. I didn't have any lime or lemons on hand, but DID have a container of Lemon Juice. I just used it instead of lime juice and simply omitted the lime zest. Also, the recipe just calls for honey. Living in Alaska, I had some special Alaskan Fireweed Honey on hand so I just used that. It's just a lighter colored honey with great flavor. I'm sure that any honey would be just fine though. After I got the marinade ready and fish in it, I just put it in the refrigerator and flipped the "bag" about every 30 minutes and marinaded it for just under 2 hours. Lastly, I don't really know how to make fish very well, but I followed her directions exactly regarding 3-4 minutes per side without disturbing it much. My fish came out perfectly done! It is a delicate fish after it cooks though so be careful with it and use a spatula to get it out of the pan so it doesn't fall apart.

Honey Lime Tilapia
Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the fish and marinade:

4 (4-5oz) tilapia fillets (thawed if frozen)

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 Tbsp olive oil

1½ Tbsp honey

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder 

 

 

 

 

 

For dredging and cooking:

½ cup flour (I tried both white flour and whole wheat pastry flour with good results)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

 

Instructions

1.    Assemble marinade by combining lime zest, lime juice, olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a gallon-sized zip-top bag or shallow container with a lid. Add fish and marinate in the refrigerator anywhere from 1 hour up to 24 hours*.

2.    When ready to cook, combine flour with salt and pepper on a plate. Remove each fish fillet from the marinade and dredge lightly with the flour on both sides (just a light, light coating).

3.    Heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Cook fillets 2 at a time for 3-4 minutes per side or until opaque and browned (this works best if you don’t disturb the fish much while letting it cook).


Notes 
*If you want to plan this meal in advance, you can prepare the fish and marinade in a large freezer bag and keep it in the freezer. Move frozen fish and marinade to the refrigerator the morning you plan to serve the fish and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator. It will marinate while it thaws!

Is there such a thing as Asian Comfort Food?

These chilly, wintery nights make me yearn for some old Southern Comfort food. However, that's not always an option. Tonight I was trying to figure out what to do for dinner as the winds picked up outside. My daughter had asked for meatballs again, "like the ones I made last time". Those aren't homemade, or even mine for that matter - these are just simple frozen meatballs from Costco. They are a chicken Teriyaki & Pineapple meatball. Last time I made them, I made them in chicken broth wth ginger and served with rice. But I remembered the sweetness of the pineapple and teriyaki not being as smooth of a taste as I liked.

Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs

That being said, tonight I decided to jazz them up a bit and maybe make them a bit more "home-ey". My son is coming down with a cold and is losing his voice, so I knew the chicken and ginger would be good for him. Plus, last time I made them he LOVED those meatballs and I knew this could be a good way to get some "ginger remedy" in him.

This time I wanted to stay along the same lines but wanted something "thicker". Tonight I used Cream of Chicken soup as the base. Then I added two chicken bouillon cubes with a cup of water, a tablespoon of chopped garlic, a tablespoon of parsley, a tablespoon of butter, a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a small can of mushroom pieces and set the meatballs to simmering while I got the rice going. After about 20 minutes, that sauce smelled like heaven - and tasted amazing too!

Teriyaki & Pineapple Meatballs

I gave my son a taste and he tried to act like he didn't like it, but I saw him grinning and licking his fingers too! After the rice was ready, I drizzled some sesame oil and soy sauce over the meatballs and stirred that in to the sauce. That really gave it a nice smokey flavor. I served it up with the meatballs & sauce over rice and stirred well. That was the closest thing to Asian Comfort Food I've ever had or made...best of two worlds and a hit with the kids (Kenton ate every last little bite of his)!

Pinterest Is Awesome

This morning I decided my sewing room need a little TLC and "winter cleanup". I found several projects awaiting my return. I was able to complete 4 of them, LOL! The biggie was patching jeans... When I went in there, I saw and remembered these jeans my husband has been hounding me patch up for him. There were 4 holes that needed patching and I'd tried patching the 2 big ones previously. Unfortunately I'm not the queen of "mending" things and my little sewing machine has a hard time with heavy duty materials.

Anyway, I searched Pinterest (which is my new habit for tips & ideas) a while back and came across this jean's mending blog. This lady is awesome. I put her tips to test this morning and it worked out great! For jeans, the style seems to be that anything goes for the "look" anyway. This tip used fusible backing as a stabilizer to hold the hole together and allows you to do a up & down motion to fix the hole and yet continue the "distressed" look of the jeans that is fashionable anyway. I was leary but it worked, even for me and my unskilled sewing self and machine!

Jean's After Patching

These are Kyle's yard work and utility jeans anyway, so if they came out screwed up, it would still be better than paying huge amounts of money for new jeans to work in anyway. Here's some pictures of the final product. I was quite happy with the results for "work" jeans and being able to extend their life. Thank you Pinterest for providing yet another invaluable tip!

Jean's After Patching

Kenton Gives To Those Less Fortunate

Kenton - job well done!

Today has been a pretty special day for us. Kenton learned about those less fortunate and stepped right up to the plate to share some of his good fortune. Over the past few weeks I've been noticing his room is looking more and more consumed by "stuff". Toys, magazines, books, cars...you name it, this boy had it! The sad thing is that he never touched most of it anymore, and it was just eating into his play area.

This morning I decided today would be the day to talk to Kenton about donating his older, gently loved toys to little boys and girls that don't have anything - or only have very little. A few months ago, he was super responsive about donating some of his older clothes that were too small for him for the same cause. Surely, this should go well too...but my secret fear was that it wouldn't and he'd have issues with this. Shockingly he could hardly wait to get started!

This morning I sent him into his room right after breakfast to "pre-screen" those toys. "Sort them into piles of what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away" is what I told him to do. I told him if there were toys that were broken or missing parts they needed to be thrown away, and if he didn't play with certain toys anymore maybe some other child would just LOVE to play with them! He ran into his room and jumped right in to it! After a few minutes, I joined him with the sorting. All I had to do, was hold the trash bag and he told me what he wanted to do  This boy even gave one of his favorite teddy bears to my unborn baby. His room looks SO much bigger! He was SO excited to do this and kept talking about how happy the other kids would be to get those toys.

He even helped me to load the bags in the car and take out the trash. My heart swelled with pride - my baby is GROWING UP!! We drove the stuff to a donation center and I rewarded Kenton with lunch at McDonalds! All in all a great morning - 'tis the season and it feels great to "give".

Garlic Butter Shrimp - It's What's for Dinner!

Garlic Butter Shrimp

I love it when I head into the kitchen with an idea in mind, and no recipe to follow, yet dinner comes out perfect! Thanks to my mom, I think I have a pretty good palate and that gives me a good sense of creating recipes.

Tonight, I knew I wanted to make something simple involving shrimp and pasta. I had no cream to make an alfredo sauce and nor did I really want a cream based pasta. So I decided to saute up some butter, olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, and lemon juice. Then I added in the shrimp and eventually the angel hair pasta cooked in salted boiling water. Topped it all off with parmesan cheese, and boy was it tasty! Even my son loved it and finished everything on his plate.

All that was left now was to decide what to have for dessert. Mainly because Kenton had a great day at school and deserved a treat, but secretly I wanted something a little sweet too! Kristina convinced me to get some lemon bars last time we went to grocery store. I thought that make a nice clean finish for dessert. As I write this, it is chilling in the refridgerator!

The ultimate test will be when Kristina gets home from work and eats. I'll know it was a hit if there's hardly any leftovers after she's done in the kitchen.

2012 Recap

I decided since my hiatus caused a disruption in posting all the big things that happened this past year, I wanted to post a "review" to highlight some things from 2012.

Most of my friends and family already know, I retired from the Air Force medically in Jan 2011. Since then I've pretty much been a stay at home Mom, enjoying my days with my son Kenton. That year FLEW by. That took me to 2012, which has been a bitter sweet year.

In Spring of 2012 my daughter graduated high school! I can't believe it - already?  My heart shattered, yet soared with pride at the same time! She was very happy to be done with high school and is ready to move on.

My beautiful daughter with her diploma.

She was just glowing that day.

In Fall of 2012 my son started Kindergarten! Another "I can't believe it - already?" moment for me. Kenton has really enjoyed Kindergarten so far. He loves riding the bus to and from school. I think his favorite thing might be "show & tell" each week.




With big sis on first day of school.

 

Here is Kenton with Kristina on his first day of school. If I had been thinking properly I would've used a better camera to capture the moment. He was very excited to go to big boy school that day!

 

I was really impressed with his school. They had a Back-to-School Picnic a few days before school started to welcome everyone back and to orientate new students. He got to meet his teacher, see his classroom and school, play on the playground, meet new friends, and they served hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, cookies, brownies, sodas, juice, and water - all at NO cost to the families. It really set the "positive" tone for him!

 

The next thing they impressed me with was for parents of Kindergarteners. They had a Tears & Cheers event the morning of the first day of school in the cafeteria. These parents could meet up, and have coffee and cookies and share their joys and sorrows for a couple hours as their "babies" started school for the first time. They never had anything like that when my daughter started Kindergarten.



Cell phone didn't take such a good pic here.

Kenton is learning Spanish this year in school as he was selected for the Spanish immersion program at his school. This is done by a lottery system and he was quite lucky to be selected. There is something so adorable in hearing him say his Spanish words!

 Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's just because they are different children, but Kenton is so much more excited about school than Kristina was at that age. I feel sometimes like I'm living vicariously through him. His enthusiasm and excitement is contagious and endearing!

Kenton turned 5 years old in July. It seems time really is flying by. He wanted a round cake that looked like a piece of candy this year, so that's what he got. For the first time, he was able to blow all his own candles out. It's been quite the year of firsts for him.
 
Just a few days after his birthday passed he lost his first tooth! It scared him at first, because he thought "the sugar bugs hadn't gotten it", but once I clarified it for him, he was super excited to see what the tooth fairy would bring him! Then a couple weeks later he lost his second tooth! That one didn't scare him - he was anxious for the tooth fairy to come again!


Kenton loses his first tooth!



This summer was also a bit of a sad time for the family and Kyle left for training in Mississippii. He is supposed to be there until the end of March of 2013. This was not a good time for that to happen, because we found out that we were expecting another baby in March 21, 2013 in July and this would mean Kyle would miss everything. The entire pregnancy and the delivery. He did however get to see the baby on ultrasound and hear the heartbeat before he left though! After all we've been through with pregnancy losses and complications, it looks like this baby is going to make it just fine. As of writing this, I am a little over four months along. We still don't know if it's going to be a boy or a girl yet though.

3 Different ultrasounds, about 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks along.

We are looking forward to Halloween this year. Kenton wanted to be a scary ghost. So we got him a costume that fits the bill. He is very excited to put it on and go trick-or-treating this year. We also painted pumpkins for the season, rather than carving and he LOVED that!

He now asks me if we can paint them more because he loved it so much. I'm thinking I'm going to have to get some more pumpkins for him to paint.

Hear are some pictures of him painting his scary pumpkin with a spider, bats, and polka dots!

 

 

All in all 2012 has been a FAST moving year with lots of firsts! I wish I had been better about keeping this blog up to capture all of them, but hopefully this post captures some of the good moments!

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this 2012 recap to date.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Blogging Hiatus - Discontinued...hopefully

Wow - ee - wow, it's been A WHILE!! There's no excuse other than, well, life, for my hiatus. I've been gone so long that I forgot my blog site's address. It was while reading other friends' blogs that I remembered my own, neglected blog site. I am going to try my hardest to remember it now. There are just too many things that happen in life, with family, society, and technology to NOT be blogging about them. It is afterall, like an online journal as well. In thinking about it, I'd like my kids to have some "record" of the things that were important enough to me to write about. Maybe one day they'll get a kick out of it, or treasure my posts.

So, give me some time to reaclimate myself to the blogging world and the changes that go along with it. Then, I hope to be blogging away again happily. 

To be continued...