Making Workouts a Family Affair

So we’re sending our  oldest daughter to volleyball camp this year, twice, and we’ve registered her for the local recreation team as well. I’m hoping she loves it. Anyway, so we’ve got our oldest son training for football. That takes a lot of chauffeur time.

So now we’ve got our daughter running a mile three times a week. She kept wanting to quit and was whiny and crying on Monday. (Of course we went farther than a mile because the GPS on my phone was messed up.) She kicked it today! Took a whole minute off her time & only stopped for a few seconds to readjust the armband because it’s too big!

Yesterday she did a volleyball training workout, lots of squats and lunges – for strengthening those jumping muscles. I am proud of her!

And the little kids just want to be included, so we find something for them to do as well.

How to use leftover smoked Tri Tip

My husband smoked this weekend...  fabulous tri tip in his smoker. He had soaked it in teriyaki sauce overnight. O.M.G. I think it was my favorite one yet, since he started smoking meats about six years ago (I am pretty sure it all started when we lived in Nevada).

Anyway, surprisingly, we had leftovers! He gave me permission to use the meat however I wanted to in dinners this week. First thing that came to my mind was crockpot... Stroganoff... 'cause let's face it, stroganoff with ground beef gets boring, simple and fast, but boring. However, I went to the pantry on my break from work (I work as a transcriptionist from home) and found a single packet of "HOT" chili mix. Jackpot!

So I diced up the meat, added 3 quarts of canned tomatoes to dilute the heat in the seasoning, the seasoning packet, stirred up and turned the crockpot on low. I didn't even set the timer. About 4:00pm this afternoon I added cornstarch to thicken the chili. Oh, I also had my son add some fresh tomatoes from the garden. *NOTE* do not add cornstarch directly to the hot soup, it will clump. Mix the cornstarch with cold water until all clumps are gone and stir it into the hot liquid. I turned the crockpot up to high for about 30 minutes so that he cornstarch would thicken.

Serving homemade cornbread with Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Honey Butter!

I <3 my crockpot!

I am flattered!

The Relief Society in my ward has asked me to teach a crockpot class for Super Saturday in October. So it's weighing on my mind what I should do. My objective is to show that crockpot cooking is not intimidating and to share conversion from oven-baking to crockpot cooking so that one can still make their favorite recipes.

So I guess I better get cracking... Stay tuned for the plan...

Wrong Cut of Meat

This is just a quick note to say that pork rib tips are not the greatest piece of meat in the world...

It probably doesn't help that my family is getting sick one by one, and I can feel it trying to kick me down...

So I really like the gaucho bbq sauce that my parents make, but it didn't even seem right today...

A flop in the cockpit today :-/

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In Training.... Again

I took time off after my 5K the end of April and used every excuse under the sun to not start running again (not that I ever was a runner... ever).

Why start again now? In my cleaning sprees lately (decluttering, dejunking, pre-moving/pre-packing cleaning) I came across a flyer for another race. A 6K. I don't know why I think I can run farther when I had to walk half of my last race. But I find myself setting the goal and setting up a training plan. Ha!

So today was a 20-minute workout, 10 of which I had to run... I did it! Tomorrow is longer...

My point? Well, if nothing else I will be in better shape. I have nagging thoughts that I need to be in shape physically and spuritually real soon.

So I am also training by listening to the New Testament recordings and need to get back to our family Book of Mormon reading in the mornings. Something tells me it's really important... but try telling that to kids...

So we pray, and hope that our family is getting it, as little as it might be at this time. It's important. We take it a little bit at a time so we can be prepared for our 1K, 1 mile, 3K, 5K, 6K, whatever it is for us spiritually.

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EZiest Baked Potatoes in the Crockpot!

Ingredients:
Potatoes
Foil
Olive oil (or Canola oil)

1. Scrub potatoes
2. Poke potatoes - we don't want any exploding
3. Rub oil of choice on skins - I like my skins soft so I can eat it
4. Wrap in foil
5. Place in crockpot on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.
6. Serve as usual with favorite toppings or set aside to use another day like for potato salad!

ENJOY!

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Marinated Chicken

I have time for a quick post...

We have a long-time friend, who has since passed on, who I think came up with this recipe made famous at the Manti Pageant in Utah, only he used turkey breasts and grilled the turkey. Oh, heavenly...

Well, I like my crockpot, and the recipe is in my trusty crockpot cookbook by Debbie Harman.

But here is my twist because I ran out of soy sauce, I don't know, a week or two, or three weeks ago, and haven't replaced it!

So I used (eyeballed):

1 1/2 to 2 cups lemon-lime soda pop (soda, pop, soda pop, coke, depends on where you live, or where you've lived)
1/4 to 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce (I was pouring directly from the bottle)
1/4 cup olive oil (again, eyeballing, just drizzled it over my chicken in the marinade container)
3-4 chicken breasts

I buy frozen chicken breasts with no bones or skins. I could probably save some money if I wanted to, but these days I just don't have time to "prep."

So everything sat in the container for a couple hours, but then I thought I had better get it into the crockpot so we have something to eat this evening. I finished my rush files this morning, but I still have four regular files to finish before 5:00, hence the love of my crockpot...

**Dump the chicken and the marinade ALL in the crockpot and set on high for 3-4 hours.

I may or may not set the rice in my rice cooker to finish at 5:00... I have two really cool methods, fool proof - microwave in my Pampered Chef rice cooker or my fancy schmancy rice cooker (at the moment I have no clue what the brand is, but it has a "keep warm" setting). Spoiled, I know. And since I posted this originally, someone pointed out that I didn't say whether or not to include all the marinade (the two-star line above is new), I pulled out my rice cooker, Aroma brand, and followed the directions for my rice.

I'll dress up some green beans for a side and voila... dinner at 5:00!

Incidentally, I am a little anxious today as well because my oldest is going on a field trip to the school he will attend next year, middle school... I just want be the best mom I can be and teach him to be the best man he can be.