2 great contests going on right now, yoga mat bag giveaway and perfume/lip gloss combo.

I have a good one for you this morning Bloggy Friends. Yesterday I whipped up some crockpot bread pudding.  Bread pudding is my favorite dessert. When I was a kid they had it on the salad bar at the Sizzler and I use to love to eat mounds of it.  As an adult it has been the go to dessert on special occasions for the Hubs and I.  So, I looked over a few recipes for crock pot bread pudding and made a few adjustments:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, beaten
  
• 3 1/2 cups milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
  
• 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 3 cups bread cubes or soft torn bread
  
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
  
• 1 banana, sliced


• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preparation:

I combined all the ingredients, minus the bread in the crock pot and whisked it all together.



I picked up some crusty white bread from a local bakery, The Stone Oven. I let it sit for a day.  Boy was this bread tough to cut!  I made such a mess, but it worked out well in the pudding. I used 7 slices.


Then I smooshed the bread down into the liquid, just keep adding bread until you run out of liquid.  But you want to make sure all of the bread has enough liquid to be submerged. I cooked the bread pudding on low for 4 hours.  You want to be able to stick a knife in it and pull it out clean.


In the last 30 mins of cooking, I added mini chocolate chips and shredded coconut to the top. 


The consistency was perfect!  The actual bread part wasn’t as sweet as I would have liked. I think next time I will add maybe half a can of condensed milk in substitute of regular milk.  Also, I will add more bananas. You can really experiment with what you add in. It would be good if you used cinnamon raisin bread too. Good stuff! 

I started feeling sick yesterday and feel pretty miserable today. Sore throat, upset stomach.  I hate getting sick, it really messes up with training!

2 great contests going on right now, yoga mat bag giveaway and perfume/lip gloss combo.

The other day my grocery store was having a BOGO deal on bags of apples.  So, I got two. Then forgot I had them and got another bag of apples at Trader Joes.  Needless to say I was a little overboard with apples. So, a lot of them were getting soft and ready to go bad, so I decided to throw them in the crockpot and see what would happen:

I used my handy dandy apple slicer


Then I put the slices (about 6 small apples) in to the crockpot with 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup orange juice, 1/2 brown sugar, liberal shakes of both cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and 2 tablespoons of Promise butter spread. 



I then cooked them for 3.5 hours on high.  The result was perfection!  They were the perfect amount of mush and sweet and yum all rolled into one.  I had some with vanilla yogurt.  They were so good that I ate them standing in the middle of the kitchen and I was so enthusiastic about it ( I might have been repeating yes, yes YESS over and over) that the hubby asked me “what are they better than sex”…a man should never ask a woman eating dessert that question if he doesn’t want the real answer.


So, yeah you should make these.

For dinner I was craving some salmon so I splurged at the store and got a wild caught Sockeye fillet.  I covered it in balsamic vinaigrette and honey and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Then I cooked it at 400 degrees for 25 mins.


I paired it with some portabello mushrooms boiled in french onion broth:


Some Zataran’s Carbiean rice. This stuff is totally full of junk and chemicals, but oh so good. It has dried pineapple in it and makes me think of an island paradise somewhere! 


We also had some boring steamed broccoli.  I don’t think I like broccoli anymore. I did forever, but then when I got pregnant it was the first thing that I was repulsed by and the taste for it has never come back. I need to come up with some interesting ways to eat it.  Anyone have any suggestions?


After dinner my sweet tooth was seriously kickin.  As if making apples unhealthy wasn’t enough, I had to butcher a banana too and put this bad boy together:


That would be Skippy all natural chunky PB and mini chocolate chips on a non fair trade banana!  I looked at my grocery and they didn’t have fair trade bananas. I guess those would be found at Whole Foods.

Now I am stuffed and the kid is sleeping. Time to sit back and relax. I am reading:


This Side of Jordan is a tapestry of American life in the summer before the economic crash of 1929, and a quintessential novel of the rural Midwest offered unexpectedly as a crime thriller. Full of American landscapes and totems, images and notions, foibles and fables, beasts and the blessed, it follows the experiences of 19-year-old tubercular farm boy Alvin Pendergast.

It is written by Charles Shultz’s son.  I am about 100 pages in but not sure what I think yet. I think I will keep reading tonight and if I’m not into it by the time I go to bed then stop reading it.

*Don’t forget to enter my Funktional Spa Body Butter and Soap giveaway! *

Since it’s Thursday it’s time for a crockpot recipe.  I had a pork loin from Costco withering away in the fridge so, into the pot it went.  Today was a total experiment, I took:

• 1 can of chicken broth
  
• 1 jar of apricot jam
  
• 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
  
• 1/4 of an onion

I mixed them together in the crock pot using a whisk and then added my 2 lb pork roast that I browned in a skillet.


I set the crockpot on high for 4.5 hours. I don’t usually like to cook on high, I find the meat is much more tender on the low setting, but the day got away from me and it was already 1:00 by the time I threw this together.  After 4 hours I took a taste and it wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting.  So, I took 2 tbsp of brown sugar and rubbed it into the top of the roast.

To go with it I also cooked a spaghetti squash for 45 mins at 375 degrees, I put it face down into a pan of water.


The finished pork was great.  I am glad I added the brown sugar, it kind of carmalized on it and gave it a lot more flavor.  I liked this, but I liked the beer pork roast much better. 



For the spaghetti squash I had mine with a bit of cheese and salt n’ peppa.  It was perfectly cooked.  I think that spaghetti squash might be my favorite squash.  What is your favorite squash and how do you cook it?

Now that Harper is crawling and furniture surfing it is getting so much harder to get good pictures of her.  She wants to take the camera from me!



Ouch!  Look out here she comes. 

I love Thursday night comedies on NBC! I believe their is a new episode of my favorite show – The Office – tonight.  So excited.  If you are an Office fan, who is your favorite character? I adore Jim, as in I want to date him, but I think Andy is my favorite character.  Some of his scenes are just priceless.  One of my favorites was when he serenaded Angela with “Take A Chance On Me” with his acapella band – Here Comes Treble – on the phone.  But I really like the new dynamic with him and Erin.  Great show.  Yes I know I talk about these people like they are real and my friends.

I whipped up something super easy and nutritious in the crock pot today. 

I took a ton of root vegetables – radishes, parsnips, sweet potatoes and carrots and put them in the crock pot with a 2 cups of veggie broth, some green onions and Trader Joes 21 spice salute. 


I chopped them all up, don’ they look pretty!


The I put the broth and spice on.


I cooked these vegetables for 4 hours on low.  Then I remembered that I had frozen scallops in the freezer.  So, I threw in a cup of scallops and cooked them on low for another hour. Everything came out perfectly.  Very filling and tasty.  I couldn’t resist showing off my cute little dish from Elm Studios again!


Today was one of those can’t stop jamming food in my mouth days and no exercise happened.  Grrrr I hate those kind of days, so I was happy to have a light dinner.  Husband and I are going to do some yoga once the dinner belly dust settles and then after Harper goes to bed, we’re going to watch District 9.



I am excited to watch this, I have heard good things!  I asked for book recommendations the other day, but two good ones from the library showed up for me yesterday!  I have a bit of advice for those of you who use the library, request the large print book, you will get new releases so much faster! I check out the Amazon top 100 books, then go to my library’s website and request them, so when they call me to tell me I have something waiting for me, I never know what it is.  Surprise!  I do the same thing with movies, check the top DVD sales.  I hope to start one this weekend.  I read a good review in People magazine about a book called The Wench by Dolen Perkins- Valez, I think I will check it out next.


Back when I used to work in an office I always loved Thursday. It meant the weekend was near and I always jammed my weekends full to the brim.  I think I am going to try out the Saturday free yoga at LuLuLemon, any Clevelanders want to join me, its at 10am in Beachwood!  Also I have a half marathon on Sunday!  I am so unprepared. I have ran a lot of halves before so I am not too worried about completing, but my time is going to stink. The course is hella hilly.  At least its looks like its going to be 40ish, perfect running weather. Too bad there is over a foot of snow on the trails, its going to get sloppy, muddy and wet. I might have to think about changing my shoes and socks in between loops.  The race is 2 loops, one a bit under 9, one a bit under 5.  I am looking forward to being done with this race, then its time to start training for the Lexington Half and Cleveland Half.  What about you Bloggy friends, anything good on tap for the weekend?

*Did you enter my Etsy and Nature’s Gate giveaways below!?!*

Tonight I tried a crockpot recipe for Apple Sauce chicken that I grabbed off of A Year of Slow Cooking.

–4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (I used 2 of each)
–1 1/2 cups of applesauce
–1 T dried onion flakes, or 1 yellow onion, chopped finely
–1 T apple cider vinegar
–1/4 tsp cinnamon
–1/2 tsp black pepper
–2 cloves garlic, minced
–1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional, I used them, and added more to the adult servings)

The Directions.

A 3 or 4 quart crockpot is the best size for this, but I did use a 6 quart. If your pot cooks fast, err on the lower end of cooking time.

Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot. Add the onion (if you are using the dried onion, wait and add it to the applesauce). In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together. Pour on top of the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4.

***************************************************************************************************

This recipe was nice and simple, just as I like them!  I picked up some supplies at Trader Joes this morning. I went to TJs at 8:30am, oh my, is this the time to go!  I was one of only 3 people shopping. It was like having the whole store to myself. I tend to find myself there on Saturday’s and you can’t even get near the frozen food aisles.


I didn’t have apple vinegar, so I just used white wine. I also didn’t have the chili flakes.  It smelled divine while cooking.




I was in a hurry and didn’t brown my chicken first.  I also used chicken breast with the skin on.  I cooked it for 4 hours on low.



I tired this cornbread stuffing tonight, but neither of us were very impressed. Harper liked it though! It’s pretty bland.  Stovetop is better.



The chicken fell apart coming out of the crockpot, which is just how I like it!  Great recipe, I will definitely make it again sometime. 

What is your favorite thing to make in the crockpot?

Good afternoon Bloggy friends.  It is snowing here in Cleveland, hopefully everyone is staying warm.  I warmed myself up this morning by hitting the gym for a 20 min sprint on the dreadmill and then a 30 minute Power Playt class. In this class you hold a weighted plate (5 or 10 lbs) and the instructor runs you through a series of fast paced exercises using the upper and lower body 4 times.  This was the first time I took it and I think I will definitely feel it in my shoulders tomorrow. I liked how you did the same thing 4 times in a row, I am a big fan or repetition, as I have no coordination and new moves bewilder me.  By the 4th time I knew what I was doing!  Before class,  I did an all out sprint on the treadmill which I hated all 17 mins of, but I never sprint and I really need to start adding some speed work if I want to change my normal 9ish min easy pace for an 8ish pace.  I had to run some errands afterward and I had such a gourmet lunch of Wendy’s.  LOL. What can I say, I may appreciate good natural food, but I also love a frosty and the allure of the $1 menu. Shoot me. 

I wanted to use my crock pot today and eyed a squash that is begging to be let out of it’s hiding place on the hallway shelf.  I am not sure if this is an acorn squash or what…I believe acorn. The sticker fell off.  So, first off I sliced the mystery squash in half.  Better have a good, strong knife for this undertaking:


Then you need to scoop out the insides of course.  Afterward I threw into the crock pot with a cup of water. I placed the squash face up and sprayed them with PAM olive oil spray (love this stuff), then sprinkled these spices on there and threw on a little vanilla too.


After they were thoroughly sprinkled, I turned them both over to sit face down and have them on high in the crock pot and figure they will need 2 or 3 hours to cook. I’ll turn it off when my fork can pierce the skin.  Can’t wait for dinner!  Yum.  We’re having roast bone in chicken too. Come back later for pics of that

I started reading this book last night.  I abandoned my Hitler book (Castle in the Forest), way too much discussion of baby Hitler’s asshole, yes his butt and how his mom kept it overly clean. Have you seen the previews for the Shutter Island movie? It looks amazing!  So far, 2 chapters in I really like the book. It’s about a patient at an insane asylum that escapes and 2 police come to the island to investigate.  Spooky. 


On last thing. What do you use for sweetener?  I usually use stevia from Trader Joes, but I picked up this PureVia and really like it, not that it tastes any different, I just like the packaging. I like to use half a sweetener in my coffee, tea, etc and this package easily allows me to just use half.  Just thought you’d like to know that

Good day bloggy friends. It’s been a hectic one today.  Well it feels that way b/c it’s been so long (a week!) since I made it out of the house and to the gym in time for my 9:15 Urban Iron class.  Doing the gym class in the a.m seems to make the first part of the day disappear and the next thing I know it’s lunch.  Today’s lunch was quick b/c I was so hungry, a nice Trader Joes Chicken Quesadilla with a little plain non fat yogurt and black bean salsa. I opened it up so you can see the guts, lots of yummy veggies (spinach, corn and peppers), chicken and cheese in there:


Doesn’t Trader Joes just have the best frozen food!  I eat way more frozen food than I should, mostly from TJs and Whole Foods, but still I know I shouldn’t.  I am the queen of sodium.

I like to use the crock pot once a week and decided to pull it out for some chicken.  We buy our chicken at Costco and I must say I am impressed.  It’s all natural and packaged in 2s so there’s not that random third piece of chicken floating around.  Today, I just browned up the chicken:


Threw it in the crock pot and made a marinade out of some yogurt and spices from Arora Creations. I love these spice packs, this one has a bunch of spices in it including, coriander, cumin, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. 


Mixed that up and dredged the chicken around in and spooned on the extra. Then I threw in a can of tomatoes.  This will be my last can of tomatoes b/c I read an article on MSN the other day about the 7 foods you should avoid b/c they are dangerous for you and canned tomatoes was on the list b/c of what is on the inside of the can, I’ll buy jars.  Some of the others to avoid were non organic apples and potatoes and microwave popcorn. 

No matter how yummy your food, it still looks like throw up when its in the crock pot.

And look what I got in the mail today, YUUMMMMMMMMM!  I love POM!

This is great b/c we have been eating a lot of pomegranates around here lately. We got a case at Costco and G has been peeling them and I am finding red everywhere in our kitchen.  I keep thinking I have it all cleaned up and then I find some more.  I like to drink POM mixed with sparkling water. I am happy I can give Harper some of this b/c it’s 100% pom juice, no added sugar or junk. You should check out their website.  Here’s some fun POM facts I learned:

*Pomegranates are one of the earliest cultivated fruits
* Many scholars think it was actually a POM depicted in the Garden of Eden
* Man first started planting pomegranates sometime around 4000 B.C.
* Pomegranates are a superior source of antioxidants when compared to red wine, grape juice, cranberry juice and green tea!

Hey did you enter my giveaway from Raw Revolution yet!  If not, check it out below.