Picture of the Day - January 17

The tiny bowler!

Pulled Pork (yup again!)

So as you may recall I posted earlier about Pulled Pork that we made in the slow cooker. (It is wonderful, feeds a large crowd and is SO easy to make that you can't not make it!)

The recipe I posted earlier but didn't get any pictures but I did this time.

Here it is once it is all pulled! 

From the start to the end of my actual cooking process it took about 20 minutes!

(I had the onions pre-diced from earlier in the week)

Just put those in the frying pan until they were slightly soft, added the ginger, garlic, chili powder, chili sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, pepper and everything else.

We are contemplating trying the same thing with Beef to make a pulled BBQ Beef so my husband decided that we should try adding some molasses.  IT WAS WONDERFUL!  It made it have a very BBQ taste and quality!  Also added to the sweetness.

Now again, we pulled the meet and then added a couple of spoons of sauce instead of shredding it in the sauce because of our daughter. We then kept the sauce for the side to pour over ours!

Then we were going to have Potatoes for supper and I wanted something more exciting so we decided on having potato skins (ok not so healthy but very tasty and makes me feel like we were having a take out meal!)

Potato Skins

4 medium potatoes (use red or white, but try for oval and long vs. round shaped ones)

4 slices of precooked bacon

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Sour cream.

1. Was the potatoes very well, then prick with a fork.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Pop the potatoes in the microwave on High heat for about 10 minutes.
4. Dice the slices of bacon.
5. Carefully remove the potatoes and slice them in half (along the widest part).
6. Use a melon baller and scoop out the insides but be careful to enough enough potato attached to the skin to be able to pick them up.
7. Sprinkle some Olive Oil on the potatoes, and some salt and pepper.
8. Place the Potatoes on a cookie sheet skin side down.
9. Sprinkle the diced bacon and shredded cheese on the potatoes. 
10. Heat until the bacon becomes crispy, the cheese is melted and the potato is sufficiently soft.
11. Serve with some sour cream! 

We use the insides of the potatoes to feed our daughter - other wise you can keep them for making mashed potatoes or other things!

Here is our supper!  (the corn and broccoli is missing from the plate but basically here you go!)

#04 Shopaholic takes Manhattan (2002) (Kinsella, Sophie)

#04 Shopaholic takes Manhattan (2002) (Kinsella, Sophie)
Summary: With her shopping excesses (somewhat) in check and her career as a TV financial guru thriving, Becky’s biggest problem seems to be tearing her entrepreneur boyfriend, Luke, away from work for a romantic country weekend. And worse, figuring out how to pack light. But packing takes on a whole new meaning when Luke announces he’s moving to New York for business—and he asks Becky to go with him! Before you can say “Prada sample sale,” Becky has landed in the Big Apple, home of Park Avenue penthouses and luxury boutiques.

Surely it’s only a matter of time until she becomes an American TV celebrity, and she and Luke are the toast of Gotham society. Nothing can stand in their way, especially with Becky’s bills miles away in London. But then an unexpected disaster threatens her career prospects, her relationship with Luke, and her available credit line! Shopaholic Takes Manhattan—but will she have to return it?

Pages: 400 pages

Rating: 5/5
Comments: I love this books - the story gets even better and I look forward to reading more of these!

The Meal Plan (January 18 - 24)

Here is the plan for the week!

Sunday:Herb roasted chicken, potatoes skins, Corn and broccoli
Monday: Sushi (*happy dance!*)
Tuesday: Shrimp, brown rice, Broccoli and Peas (maybe this will be a stir fry type thing)
Wednesday: Cod, brown rice, peas, and beans
Thursday: Rotinni, Meat balls, beans and broccoli (this is a Dad and daughter only night so I figured things should be easier for them!)
Friday: "Messy Giuseppe" (Rachael Ray "Express Lane Meals" p. 182) potato skins, corn and broccoli (basically this is suppose to be like sloppy joes!)
Saturday: Dinner & a movie (thanks to M&P for taking the kidlet for the night!)

Plus for the week we are going to be adding the following side dishes and salad:
- Linda's Thai Noodle Salad
- 4-bean Salad

*Yum* Grocery shopping was such a breeze this week! made it really easy I sat down looked at the weeks events, planned our meals and wrote down anything I didn't have in the house on the list and off I went.

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to come up with new ideas for meals. However, on the back of the grocery list I started writing down ideas for the future weeks as inspiration hit me in the store! I'll keep a master list in my binder then can refer back to it as we go on!

Ah yes, the binder. I keep a master binder of all my recipes - everything is in it, and it has a master index at the front, dividers and subdivisions to keep things organized (but I'll post more on that later!)

- UPDATE: only one problem has arisen now with the above. Apparently someone will be away Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week *sigh* however, it seems that the meal plan will be easy enough to adapt! Thank goodness for that.

Now I just need to find a few vegetarian items to try in the next couple of weeks!

Picture of the Day - January 15

And the sad part of the matter is....this is just a few of the shoes I have at work and a tiny part of the shoes I have at home.

Menu Planning Success

So this was our supper tonight!  If you look back at our meal plan for the night we were successful!!

We had pasta with sauce instead of rice because we had left over sauce in the fridge. Unfortunately the only frozen veggies that we had were the beans so we had that instead.

Tonight we had promised our daughter some ice cream and a cookie for a treat for having a good day!  So we went to Costco for that and while there we picked up some of the groceries while we were there and got to talk about our menu for the next week.

It seems that the once skeptical husband is actually liking the idea of menu planning! It was great this week to come home and know what we were going to do for supper, have already taken the food out of the freezer and just be able to do it.  I am so amazed because yesterday even the husband managed to make the Chicken Dumpling Stoup  on his own!  (it was easy considering that the veggies we all ready and cut for him!)

We'll see how this keeps up!

Picture of the Day - January 14