Another one pot meal.

This one is super easy. Get a bag of frozen vegetable (or fresh in the summer) and a can of tomato juice (I prefer getting the generic V8). Put both into a pot and warm to you're preferred temperature. In the summer we'll bring this up to a boil really fast so the vegetables cook then put it in the refrigerator to cool for a nice cold soup on hot days.
Super easy, and can be really inexpensive, our girls like making this cause they can make it on their own (with mom or dad standing nearby for the stove) . Then do the same as with the potato soup I listed earlier. Warm it up and have fun. Different things can spice it up for those with different tastes. Chili powder for one, cheese for another, bacon bits and sour cream, or something as simple as a little salt and pepper (my preference). Grill some cheese sandwiches put the soup in coffee cups and add a board game for a night to remember. Have left over chicken throw it in. Use this as a base and let your families taste buds rule the night.

Sunday suppers.

So Sundays are normally no electronics (TV, computer, Wii, gameboys, phone, etc) in our home unless everyone can do it at the same time (like a Wii game for four). Sundays are for family even if one isn't able to be there cause of work. But this morning I'm alone and trying to catch up on everything since we've been without the Internet since Wednesday thanks to the line getting cut up the street. I thought I would share my Garlic Pork that I did last Sunday. It has a lot of garlic in it but the taste isn't overpowering since half of the garlic is pretty much roasted whole and turns out sweet. You're friends won't avoid you the next day. I make enough for 5 servings usually but it can be adjusted easily. You'll need a crock pot; about a cup of some type of pork cut up (mine was from a huge Boston Butt I cut up into stew meat); about 4 cups worth of fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables; 1 onion (I ended up using 2 tsp onion powder cause my last onion was bad); 1/2 tsp ginger; 14 garlic cloves; salt (to taste, I didn't use any); pepper (to taste, some people like a lot we use it sparingly); about 2 tsp oil (I use olive oil); Parsley (unfortunately I was completely out)and water.

First you need to clean your cloves. You can get the skins off easier if you smash them gently first. The skin will usually slide right off. Now I cut off the ends (yes I know you don't need to do this, I just prefer to do that) and separate them into two groups. Half that the worst of the smashed ones will get minced up, the other half are left whole.
Put the pork (mine was frozen still this is fine), garlic, ginger, onion (onion powder in my case), pepper and olive oil in the crock pot. Cover it put it on high for about 1 and a half to 2 hours. Now here is the trick, you can't keep opening it up to look at it. It needs to act like an oven. Go do something, I went threw the kids closet and got rid of the clothes that were to small so I wouldn't keep looking at it.

I checked mine at an hour and forty-five minutes and there was a bit of a burnt part on the left side as you can see.(Sorry about the flash) I just scraped it out with a spoon. You want the golden brown everywhere. You'll get more with onions in it. Add you're water (be extremely careful when doing this as the oil is very hot and can splatter when water is added. I try to add the water as quickly as possible to avoid this.) and then scrape all that golden up, it's where your flavor comes from. Take your time and get all of it mixed up into the water well. You'll have a nice broth. Add all you're fresh vegetables. I added only celery and lots of it since my kids love it. Then cover it on high for another 1to 3 hours depending on what you put in (carrot usually take the longest, the celery only took about 30 minutes). By now the fresh vegetable should be turning tender and only need about half an hour more. If you are using canned or frozen vegetable this is where you'll add them. I used canned potatoes (I don't even know where they came from, probably something my 6 year old put in the cart when I wasn't paying attention.) and about 4 cups of frozen mixed vegetables. Cover, leave on high for about 30 to 45 minutes. I lowered mine to medium for about 3 hours since we went to see a movie (below in another blog). Grab a loaf of bread, make some cornbread up, crackers, or what ever else you like and there you go. The actual time getting it all together isn't that long. Even when I use all fresh vegetables in the summer it's still about 45 minutes prep time I would say. Once you get past the browning in the first part it's pretty hands off from there. We've added tomato juice to it before cutting the water in half and it is really good like that on a cold rainy day with sandwiches. You can leave out the meat even, we've used garbanzo beans as a meat substitute in it and that is really good too. We've used chicken, and beef in this too and it still turns out really good. The nice thing is you can add what you're family likes and leave out what they don't. If you don't like garlic leave it out completely. Experiment and see what you like, if it doesn't turn out the way you though there's always PB&J sandwiches! Although I really haven't found a way to ruin it yet. But my crock-pot is my energy saver, and time saver so that I can spend more time playing with my family on our family day! Grab a little hand, and play today!

Free Movies!

Okay so Sunday is our family day that means that all the electronic pretty much get turned off on that day. On occasion we will have one on like the Wii but we're all playing it together. It's the one day out of the week that our oldest isn't allowed to find somewhere to stick her nose in a book. Or our youngest bury herself in the container of Legos (we've got a ton of them). Hubby (if he's home) and I aren't allowed to zone out on the computer. Sometimes like this week end we had to do what I call a split shift, lol. We did half of it on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. Saturday night we read more of our book "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate Dicamillo. We had hoped to finish reading it by Sunday. In our community nearly every Sunday there is a free movie night in our Community Center. Check around in the newspaper, your local church, local libraries, community centers, Chamber of Commerce, and of coarse the internet. With summer coming up you'll be able to find more ususally. Many free movies are done in the summer. You may need to bring your own chair or blanket to sit on. And you'll probably need to pack your own snacks and drinks. But who wouldn't rather pay forty cents for a big bag of popcorn than the normal $5.00 that you do at a theater.

So on Sunday we went and saw the movie, "The Tale of Despereaux" and don't expect it to follow the book. It was a cute movie but I felt they changed it. Now I have to admit that we didn't finish the book before the movie like I had hoped. But there are major changes from the book (the parts we've read and we're over half-way threw the book) from the start. If a character doesn't speak much and you turn around and turn him into a chatter-box that is a major change in the character. When you add new abilities to that same character then you no longer have that same character. See the movie if you get a chance, the kids will love it and it is a cute movie. Just don't hold your breath for it to do justice to the original work!

Okay well now I need to head out for the time being but tonight I'm going to try and get the pictures from our Square Foot Garden on. Hubby was finally able to show me how to get the pictures of the camera.