Crock~pot Beef Roast

 

I forget how easy a meal can be to put together with a crockpot! This was the best roast, and so easy! I didn’t have a package of onion soup mix, so I made up some with the recipe below. It was kind of fun hammering the bouillon cubes!

Crock~pot Beef Roast

1 can Dr Pepper

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 package onion soup mix*

1 tablespoon oil

Heat a skillet and pour 1 tablespoon of oil in it. Brown roast on all sides in the skillet. Place roast in crockpot.

In a bowl mix the Dr Pepper, cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix with a whisk. Pour over roast and cover with lid. Cook on low all day.

 

Homemade Onion Soup Mix*

3/4 cup instant minced onion

1/3 cup beef bouillon powder

4 teaspoons onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed celery seed

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Combine everything and then store in an airtight container. 5 tablespoons of the mix equal one package of onion soup mix.

Turkey Sliders Recipe

 

I found this recipe over at Snack Girl and it sounded so yummy! I was craving meat, so I decided to give it a try. I don’t eat meat very often and I’m not a huge beef fan so turkey sounded perfect and low fat!

Turkey Sliders Recipe

(makes 11 sliders)
1 pound ground turkey
3/4 cup chopped scallions, I used green onions
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 limes cut into quarters

Place all of the ingredients (except the lime) in a small mixing bowl and, using your hands, gently mix until everything is evenly incorporated. Form into a patty and make a small indentation about the size of a dime in the middle of each side; handle as little as possible: do mot work more than necessary.

Place a cast iron skillet over high heat and when it is hot but not smoking, add the burger to the dry pan. Cook until well seared on both sides, about 5 minutes. Garnish with the lime quarter.

For one slider: 104 calories, 5.7 g fat, 21.8 g carbohydrates, 11.8 g protein, 0 g fiber, 400 mg sodium

Meatloaf~Pioneer Woman’s Recipe

 

I found this recipe over at Pioneer Woman and it is sooo good! I couldn’t believe that it called for 1 cup of milk, but this bakes up to be a really moist flavorful meatloaf. I did add the garlic and onion powder to it, I love these to seasonings and use them in almost everything. This meatloaf would make really good sandwiches, but ours didn’t last that long!

 Meatloaf

1 cup Whole Milk

6 slices White Bread, I used whole wheat

2 pounds Ground Beef

1 cup (heaping) Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

¼ teaspoons Seasoned Salt

¾ teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

⅓ cups Minced Flat-leaf Parsley

4 whole Eggs Beaten

10 slices Thin/regular Bacon

Sauce:

1½ cup Ketchup

⅓ cups Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Dry Mustard

Tabasco To Taste

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.

Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, Parmesan, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs.

With clean hands, mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain. (Line the bottom of the pan with foil to avoid a big mess!)

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

Make the sauce

Add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

Serve with mashed potatoes. Yummy!

Cocoa Rubbed Pork Chop

I found this recipe over at A Year From Oak Cottage. These pork chops have a great flavor, although I think I'd cut the cumin down to 1/2 teaspoon next time. They're not spicy hot but really flavorful. I like how easy they are!

Cocoa Rubbed Pork Chop

2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon of mild chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 bone-in pork chops, 1-inch thick
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine the brown sugar, onion powder, cocoa powder, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Rub the mixture evenly over pork chops, rubbing it in well.

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the pork chops and cook 4 to 5 minutes per side, until no longer pink. Serve warm.

Crazy Dog T~Shirt Review/Giveaway, Ham Bites are Born and Mozzarella Sticks and Onion Rings!

Today I'm linking up with We Are That Family for Works For Me Wednesday! My tip today is actually from my daughter, Jennie. She is a big pasta fan.

Jennie says that when you make any kind of pasta you should throw a big handful of salt into the pasta water. I finally remembered to do it when I made spaghetti the other night. It was just spaghetti made with bottled sauce, frozen meatballs and (Jennie, don't read this) Parmesan cheese that comes in the big green can. Hey, that's what my family likes! Well, the family agreed that it was the best spaghetti they've had that was from a bottled sauce! So from now on I'm salting my pasta water for a more flavorful pasta!


Crazy Dog T~Shirt Review and Giveaway!


Crazy Dog T~Shirts is your number 1 place online for funny t~shirts. They were kind enough to let me pick out two shirts for a review.


I love this shirt, it says "Invisibility Shirt ~ Currently Deactivated"



Here she is again in it with her new puppy Ella. I don't know if I shared this with you, but her sweet doggie Fifi was hit and killed by a car, while I was in Maine. I felt so bad that I wasn't there for her when she lost Fifi. Ken bought her adorable Ella Louise (Louise is my middle name!) while i was gone to take Fifi's place. Ella is a Toy Platinum Mink Miniature Schnauzer. She is fitting into the family quiet nicely!


Here's Chauncey modeling this fun Zombie Shirt! His big brother Jacob is big on outsmarting Zombie attacks!

I just had to share another picture of Chauncey modeling!

Crazy Dog T~Shirts are made out of a nice heavy cotton and are really nice thick and soft t~shirts. We always hang our t~shirts to dry and these didn't shrink when we washed them. Crazy Dog T~Shirts has an awesome selection to choose from!

Crazy Dog T~Shirts are letting me giveaway a T~Shirt to one lucky winner and the winner can pick any t~shirt!

Here are the rules~The first one is the only one you HAVE to do to enter the giveaway, the rest are just extra entries.

1)This rule is mandatory~Become a follower of my blog, easy huh? Just click on the Google Friend Connect Follower button on the top left on my blog. Leave me a comment and tell me that you're a follower! Don't worry, if you are already following me that's great, just leave me a comment saying you're a follower!

2)Sign up for Crazy Dog T~Shirt's Newsletter and leave me a comment telling me that you signed up!

3)Like Crazy Dog T~Shirts on Facebook and leave me a comment telling me that you did it.

4)Put my cute Songberries Button on your blog. (You can find it on the top left of my blog) Leave me a comment saying you did with a link to your blog.

5)Follow Crazy Dog T~Shirts on Twitter. Leave me a comment telling me along with your Twitter ID.

6)Tell me in a comment your favorite Crazy Dog T~Shirt.

This giveaway is open to US Residents only and I will close it and pick a winner Sunday, June 20th.

I was not financially compensated for this review. I received a sample of this product for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my own experiences.

Now, onto some more food! PW made some like this a while back on her blog, but since I couldn't find her recipe, I made up my own. These were super easy, just remember to freeze your cheese sticks ahead of time. You need to freeze them at least 2 hrs, but you can pop them in the freezer the day before or night before. These were gobbled up pretty fast!

Fried Mozzarella Sticks

1 cup Italian Panko Bread Crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
12 string cheese sticks, cut in half
oil for frying

First, put the cheese sticks on a plate and freeze for 2 hrs.

Heat oil in a skillet, I like to use my cast iron 10inch skillet with about 2 inches of oil.

In a bowl put the flour and seasonings and mix with a whisk. In another bowl whisk the eggs and milk. In a third bowl place the panko bread crumbs. I like to line my bowls up by the stove with the bread crumbs being the closest to the stove, then the egg mixture, then the flour mixture.

This is where I got my family involved! I had Sloan dipping the cheese sticks in the flour, then she'd put them into the egg mixture. Ken would take them out of the egg mixture and roll them in the bread crumbs, then put them in the hot oil.. I would turn them over with tongs when they started to brown, then remove them to a plate with 2 layers of paper towels on it, when they were browned.


We had leftover breading, so we cut some onions up and made onion rings!

We still had some of the breading left, so we cut up pieces of ham and made ham bites! Ken just loved the ham bites! I thought they were better than chicken nuggets!

Business Card Giveaway, Metamorphosis Monday and The Best Meatloaf Ever!

Have you been wanting to get some business cards? Maybe some with your blog name or maybe your Etsy Shop? Well, I have a great giveaway for you! U Printing has offered one of my Peeps this great giveaway- 500 Business Cards

2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.5 x 3.5” (slim card) (I love the slim cards!)

14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock

Full Color Both Sides; Offset Press; 3 Business Day Printing Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only. Must be 18 years old and up.

All you have to do~

Be a follower of my blog (look in the upper left corner of my blog)

That's all you have to do! Just leave me a comment and let me know that you follow me. If you want more chances to win you can do any or all of these~

1)Follow me on Facebook ~ leave me a comment
2)Update your Facebook status with this giveaway ~ 1 comment
3)Blog about this giveaway~3 entries~leave 3 separate comments

That gives you a total of 6 chances to win! I'll leave this giveaway open until April 18. I want to thank U Printing for offering this great giveaway!









I wanted to share a weekend project that the kids helped me with. I'm linking up to Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps On The Porch. And I'm also linking up to What's Your Sunday Scoop? Weekend Wrap Up Party , I Made The World Cuter Today over at Making The World Cuter and Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou. Be sure and check out all the other ideas on these blogs!








Ok, those were all of my poor flower pots that I have out in the front yard. I love that they are old! They were all in the old barn when we bought our house. One of them I'd painted in cow spots years ago. They were all begging for attention!




Chauncey hauled them all out to the shop where him and Sloan cleaned out all the dead flowers, washed the pots off and then Chauncey painted them black. He even got around the inside so it would look nice! I made a stencil with some freezer paper. I found a Fleur de lei on Google images, then I enlarged it and printed it out onto the freezer paper. Then I cut it out with an exact o knife and my sweet hubby helped me tape it on each pot and he sprayed it with white paint. We had to do a little touch up with the black spray paint.


The kids helped me plant all the new flowers we picked out. They did a really good job!



These are my favorites. I love the one in the middle. My daughter Jennie gave it to me when she moved from Washington. We planted some herbs in the middle of the bigger pots.


This one is kind of hard to tell, but it's a little teacup pot. I had two of these from last year, but I made the mistake of leaving them outside all winter, and they froze and fell apart. So this year I'm going to be more careful and bring them in for the winter.




I found this recipe the other day over at Santa's Gift Shoppe and you know me, here it is! She has a really fun blog, not just Christmas things, so be sure to stop by and visit!

The Best Meatloaf Ever
(makes 2 Lg. Loaves)

3 lbs. ground beef (or 1 1/2 lb. gr. turkey &
1 1/2 lb. gr. beef...lean..whatever you want)
1 lg. onion, chopped finely
1 (8oz.) box stuffing mix (any flavor)
1 8oz. can of tomato sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 c. fat free, light or reg. sour cream
1 packet of dry ranch dressing
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. oregano
1 egg

Sweet Sauce (Topping)

2/3 c. ketchup
1/2 brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

You can use your mixer to combine everything!

Divide into 2 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. Drain any fat from pans and top with topping. Bake 30 minutes more.

I Made Fabric Flower Headbands and Chicken And Rice, My Way

I'm linking this post with The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday.


These are the new headbands I made. On this one I used scraps from a drop cloth to wrap the headband.

The flowers are made from leftover lace.

This one is made just from drop cloth scraps.

I thought they turned out pretty good!

Sloan loved them and wanted to keep both.



This is Chauncey's late night snack. Yup, that's green beans on top the whipped cream and chocolate mint ice cream. Makes you want a nice bowl of ice cream and veggies, huh?


I've always liked chicken and rice when someone else made it. I didn't like it so much when I tried it. The rice would never cook all the way! So I thought about it the other day and decided to try it a little different. It turned out great and I loved how easy it was!

Chicken and Rice, My Way

1 chicken, cut up
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken noodle soup
1 1/2 cups regular rice

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9x13 pan mix the cream of chicken soup and the chicken noodle soup, add in 1 1/2 cups rice and stir around. Top with the chicken pieces. Cover with foil. Bake for 2 hours.

Do you like shoes? OOoh, I do! Just for Me..and you is doing a giveaway with ZooShoo.com and you could win a great pair of slouchy boots! You can get a 10% discount if you want to buy some. I did! Sandals, because summer has to come sometime!

The Best Beef Roast a blanket story and a giveaway

I was folding up Chauncey's blanket after it came out of the wash, and Sloan walked in and asked where Chauncey got the blanket. I told her that 14 years ago when she was born, she gave it to Chauncey. I told her that her dad helped me tie it. Sloan asked me why she gave Chauncey the blanket and I told her so that Chauncey would like her. Sloan said, well, it didn't work! I thought that was so funny! I had to take a picture of Chauncey with his puppy blanket. No, he doesn't use it any more, he wraps his dog in it at night. Actually Chauncey and Sloan get along pretty good most of the time. I love my kids at the age they are now, but they sure do grow up fast!

My family loves a roast when I cook it this way. We've been doing this to our roasts for years because it gives them the best flavor, and it's really pretty easy! We've used beef or pork roasts for this. It's a little messy, but the meat turns out nice and juicy. You can't make any gravy from it though. I don't have a picture of the sliced meat, because my family ate it all! If you have any left it makes a yummy sandwich!

The Best Beef Roast

1 beef roast
Mustard, I like a grainy mustard, but any mustard works
Kosher salt

Rinse your roast and pat dry. Cover top and sides with mustard (I just lay it in the pan, but if you have a helper have them hold it) Now pour the Kosher salt all over, real thick. Turn the roast over and do the other side. You want to try to cover all the mustard with the Kosher salt.

Now put it in the oven at 325 and bake for 2 hours. Test with a meat thermometer. I like to get it up to 160 degrees. Remove from the oven and use a spoon to break off all the salt. You should end up with just a little mustard on the roast. Put on a cutting board and slice and serve.



Head over to Beneath My Heart for a great giveaway! You could win jewelry!

A Hike, and Cafe Rio Pulled Pork

We went for a gorgeous fall hike yesterday. Chauncey found his way down to the creek.


The dogs were hanging out while we looked for acorns and took pictures.


Sloan is holding one of her rocks she found.


This is one of the bridges we crossed.


This bridge goes up through the trees.


Chauncey found a cut of branch to sit on.


Sloan loves to look for rocks! They both came home with lots of rocks. Chauncey is working on his geologist merit badge so he's working on a rock collection. Sloan just loves rocks!


It was 72 degrees out yesterday!



I came across this recipe the other day when I was looking for some ideas for dinner. This was so easy to make! I've never been to Cafe Rio, so I called a friend to see if she had. She said they serve this over salad and another restaurant chain serves it with rice and beans. I served it with salad one night and the rice and beans the next. It was a hit! Even Sloan loved it! I don't usually buy Taco Seasoning Mix, so I found a recipe for it.

Cafe Rio Pulled Pork

3-4 lb pork loin roast
2 cans diced green chilies
3/4 bottle salsa
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 package taco seasoning mix*

Mix everything but the roast in a bowl. Put the roast in a crock pot set to high. Pour the salsa mixture over the roast. Cover. Cook on high for 4 hours if the roast is frozen cook on high for 6 hours. Remove the roast and shred with 2 forks. Return to the crock pot, stir. Cover and cook for 1 hour.

Serve on a green salad or with rice and bean.

*Taco Seasoning Mix

1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Mix in a small bowl. Equal to 1 package Taco Seasoning Mix, without the preservatives!