Slow Cooker Corn Chowder

This is great for cold Fall/Winter nights.


Feeds 4-6


Ingredients


4-6 Potato's Peeled & Cubed into bite size pieces
1 Can (15.25oz) Whole Kernel Corn (Undrained)
1 Can (14.75oz) Creamstyle Corn
1 Can (12oz) Evaporated Milk
1-2 Medium Onions Chopped
8 Slices of Bacon Cooked and Crumbled (I sometimes use turkey bacon)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp. Pepper


Directions


Place all ingredients in slow cooker and mix together.


Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hrs
on High 3-4 hrs


Tip: Pair this with some sour dough bread to complete your meal.

Quick Simple Spaghetti Recipe

This is one of the staple meals in our house, I make it pretty much the same as my mom always did growing up and my kids and husband love it. 

Feeds 4-6

Ingredients:

Ragu Spaghetti Sauce-2 Jars

Ground Beef-2 lbs

Garlic Salt-1 Tbsp

Pepper-1 tsp

1 Pkg (16oz) Spaghetti Noodles

Optional:

Zucchini-1 (cut into small slices)

Yellow Onion-1 (chopped)

Directions:

Fill large pot with water and place on stove on high heat to boil. In large skillet, brown ground beef, sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. (Optional: In small skillet, saute zucchini and onion and add to cooked ground beef.) When fully cooked, drain excess fat from ground beef and return to pan. Reduce heat to medium and add both jars of Ragu sauce and heat through. Add noodles to water, cook 7-12 minutes or until noodles are cooked through. Drain noodles and add 1 Tbsp of butter to keep noodles from sticking together.  I like serving this with a quick garlic bread, shown below. 

Garlic Bread:

French Bread Loaf-Cut long ways

Spread butter on both slices and 

sprinkle lightly with Garlic Salt.

Broil in oven until lightly browned. 

Serve and ENJOY!!

Quick Recipes

I have to admit, this is the area that I need to work on the most. I love food, but I don't love cooking so much. I am always looking for quick and easy recipes to help make the process less painful. I have a handful of quick recipes I use pretty regularly and I thought you might enjoy trying these meals that work for our family. I will begin posting  recipes periodically that we have enjoyed and that I found quick and simple to make. We usually eat basic chicken and beef meals, with out a lot of frills. Since as many of you may know, 2 and 3 year olds prefer the basics. Be sure to click follow on the bottom left of my blog so that you can try out these recipes for the busy cook, or non-cook :). 

SWIMMING

During the summer we enjoy taking the kids to the community pool. I remember spending long days at the pool as a kid and it is one of my favorite memories from childhood. Playing at the pool as a family is lots of fun, and it also helps to tucker out the little ones for a nap. All my kids love the water and so do I, so it's a perfect activity to fill these long summer days. 

There is only one problem, our local pool isn't really cheap. It is $4.00 per person over 1 yr of age to get in, which makes it $16.00 per day for our family to get in. So if we go 2 times a week, that is $128.00 a month, add gas and the cost jumps to $168.00 per month. Seasons passes sound like a great plan to me, but wait they don't offer anything like that at the swim complex. 

We could get Mon-Thur season passes to the nearest water-park for $39.99 per person, that's only $160.00 for the whole season for the family. The problem, the water-park is nearly and hour away and the community pool is only 20 minutes away. What happened to easy summer days lounging at the pool, that didn't cost you and arm and a leg to enjoy? 

Oh the challenges of being an adult who has to weigh the financial circumstances before getting enjoy fun activities. Somehow this family will get to enjoy lazy summer days by the pool, this I am sure of. 

I already miss this deck at our old house, where the kids could hangout in their baby pool. :( The new house just has a concrete patio which is surrounded by granite rock terrain, which is prime snake territory.

The Things They Say

Everyday our 3 year old says things that make me smile and laugh hysterically. Just yesterday my brother in law commented on how funny the things she says are, by saying I should write a book titled "The Things Princess Says". So I thought I would share a few of the funny moments, that made me think, "kids really do say the darnedest things".

Princess(just after waking up in the AM): Daddy I POOOOOPYYYYY.....

Daddy: Ok, lay down and I will change you.

After getting situated for the diaper change, I here this from the other room.

Princess(in her very concerned voice): DADDY, DON"T TOUCH THE POOP!!!!! 

Daddy: (chuckles)and says "ok I won't"

After the birth of our 3rd child, Princess often would sit next to me while I nursed baby brother. One afternoon she sat on the couch and announced  "I wanna hold baby". I of course was happy to oblige this adorable request and laid baby brother across her lap. Princess sat gazing at baby and petting his head for a moment, then lifted her shirt and (in her mommy voice) says "you wanna eat baby", "he wanna eat, he's HUNGRY".

The other day while showing my mom some things online. Princess walks over to us, looks and up and says (in her serious voice) "I have a hair on my butt".

My sister was over to spend the night while her hubby was out of town, and just as she arrived her 5 month old started crying to signal feeding time. My sister plopped down on the couch and lifted her shirt to nurse the baby, at which point princess looks at her and says "ewwww gross, you can't feed meee". 

 I think God must have known how stressful raising children can be, so he made sure there was plenty of comic relief to help get us through.

PROVERBS 17:22 
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

Daddy's Little Girl

Princess with Daddy during a family walk. 

"Fathers generally have as much or more impact as mothers do in the following areas of their daughters’ lives: (1) achieving academic and career success—especially in math and science (2) creating a loving, trusting relationship with a man (3) dealing well with people in authority—especially men (4) Being self-confident and self-reliant (5) Being willing to try new things and to accept challenges (6) Maintaining good mental health (no clinical depression, eating disorders, or chronic anxiety) (7) Expressing anger comfortably and appropriately—especially with men"

-Linda Nielsen, Ed.D.

Girls with a high self esteem are far less likely to make reckless decisions sexually or allow themselves to be treated disrespectfully by men in their relationships. I see young girls who seem to just be searching for love in all the wrong places and it saddens my heart. There are so many girls out there who struggle with self esteem their entire life and they often make poor decisions because of it. To think their life could have gone in a completely different direction if only they had received the love they needed from their Dad. 

Our daughter is now 3 and often times I think about how important her relationship with Daddy is. I wonder what her future will hold and what things she will do in her life. To think that bond and affirmation from a little girls Dad can help her self esteem for her entire life, that is a huge responsibility for every father. I know the things my father said to me all growing up and even now greatly affects the way I view myself. I pray daily for healthy relationships between my husband and our children, and especially for his relationship with our daughter, because I know just how important that will be in molding the women she will become. Self is esteem is easy to build in young children and hard to get back if it has been destroyed in childhood. So lets all tell our children daily how special and loved they are and that they are capable or whatever they set their minds to. 

"Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture."
-Lydia M. Child