Chicken Gyros 2 for one Crockpot Thurs.

It's Thursday again! That means it's time for all the crockpot yummies! Hosted over at Diary of a SAHM. Today I will share with you how I took Susanne's 40 Clove Garlic Chicken and put a Greek twist on it. I've been craving Greek gyros like the ones we got in Germany. SO when i saw the recipe I immediately thought just a little tweaking and I've got gyros! That's when my mouth started watering.
you will need
Salt, Pepper, thyme, rosemary and basil. (I've taken pix of my herbs i got a a local farmer's market)
Of course you'll need the 40 cloves of garlic, unpeeled. (i bought a few extra b/c I love garlic.)
also the celery and the chicken (a small one that will fit in your crockpot)
You also need tomatoes, lettuce,
more garlic like one clove,
2 cucumbers
onion large sized
1 small onion
1 Tbs sugar or splenda.
1 16 oz container of fat free sour cream.
Some pitas ( i made some home made but you can use store bought.) The recipe will be below!
Ok I really don't measure stuff so I'm guessing at the measurements. take your chicken out of the package and rinse it off inside and out with cool water. pat dry
Salt and pepper the outsides and in. Take 1-3 Tbs of each of the herbs and generously coat the outside and inside of the chicken. Now you're going to saute your chicken. Why? you ask? B/c this will kill the germs on the chicken and provide a nice safe environment for cooking in the crockpot (if you look closely at my pix you can see this chicken is in the pan) While that bird is getting it's bunns toasted, cut your celery and lay it on the bottom of your crockpot. This is so the chicken doesn't sit on the bottom of the pot and leaves room for juices to flow. Slice up the large onion put some on the bottom of the pot on top of the celery and stuff some inside the chicken. save about 1/4 a cup for later. Stick about 5-8 cloves of garlic inside the chicken also. Set the chicken on the celery and put the rest of the cloves of garlic all around it and put the lid on the crockpot. Set it on low and walk away for 8 hours.. You'll be drooling long before it's ready to eat it smells wonderful!
Meanwhile.. to make the Sakai (sp?) white stuff.
take the FF sour cream ( why ff? b/c it has no taste. in Germany they have this stuff called quark (sp?) that is basically a base for things like this)
press a clove of garlic into it. Take the onion you put aside and chop it up small and put it in the mixture. take one cucumber and seed it. (I leave the skin's on so it looks neat) chop it up small and add to the mixture. Mix it all up and put it in the fridge till dinner.
slice the tomato, small onion and other cucumber for your gyros later.

Pita bread makes 8
This recipe I adapted from Farmgirl's recipe please go there for in depth info on how to make these wonderful pita's. I'm just giving you the skeleton of the ones I made following her recipe. I use my lovely Kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook..

1-1/2 cups bread flour (keep the bag out for sprinkling the kneading area)
1 cup of whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons good olive oil
1 cup warm water (105-110 degrees)

8 squares of aluminum foil for baking

Take the Flours and mix it together with the yeast, and sugar. Make sure they're mixed together well. Add the water and the oil mix until it starts pulling together then add the salt. You may need to add just a tad more of the flour so the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. I let my kitchen aid to the work of kneading it for 6 min then I take it out and knead just a little more. Divide it into 8 and roll into balls. cover with a damp towel and let them rise for 30 min (or more if you get distracted like me) Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees Flatten the balls into discs and roll out to the 3/16ths of an inch. (just get out the ruler and figure that out) place each disc on a foil and bake for 5-8 min or until they're puffed up and slightly brown. Take them out of the oven stack them and cover with foil so they puffy part drops. you can cut them in half and fill the insides or use them whole folded in half.. it's up to you.

The chicken should be done take it out of the pot and "shred" it. if yours is like mine it will fall off the bones coming out of the crock pot. so there really isn't a need you just want small chunks/pieces of chicken. Take the white stuff put a dollop on the pita add some tomato, onion cucumber and lettuce. Enjoy!

How sweet!

Look what I found this AM when I got in the car for work!!!
I didn't eat it at first b/c I wanted to blog about it and take a pix. Silly me left it in the car so that's why it's a little melty.. LOL it wasn't when I found it.
How sweet is my DH? And just when I'm needing it too. He does things like this from time to time and it really surprises me and makes me smile! OK sooo just had to share! I'm really going to go to bed now b/c I have to work tomorrow and I'm POOPED already! this working 2 jobs sucks big time! only till Friday though! PTL!
PS. Did you watch HEROES last night! I love that show. I say it every time I watch that show and it's the only one that I'm glued to the tube for. I can't knit, eat or email. Nothing. I just sit there absorbed in what's going on, on the screen! LOL it did not disappoint me at all. though I do have one question... How did Sylar get Eden's gift if she killed herself before he could kill her??? Was I the only one who caught that? speak up people!

Two of the Best things ever invented!

I'm talking coffee and knitting! together they're the dynamic duo! I joined the knitter's coffee swap and we're getting our partners soon! I'm so excited. I really don't know how I missed it last time but i did. But I've been waiting for it.. anyways I wanted to share with you my fave coffee mug. It's the one I always grab first. I like it b/c it's blue inside and white on the outside. I also like the butterfly that is trying to make it's way to the top of the mug. My mom gave me the mug. (she sells mary kay so if you need the hook up click mom and it will take you to her website!)
In fact right now while I'm using it. I'm also trying a new coffee out that I got the other day. Surprisingly it's really good. I have to admit I'm kinda a coffee snob. Most of the coffee you can get at local supermarkets and such are OK in a pinch but really I enjoy and prefer the better stuff. and by better I mean fresh roasted and quality beans. Anyways it was on the shelf at good old wally world next to the Starbucks coffee. I liked the look and thought it would be nice to try and see if it's good. I was pleasantly surprised! This one is good and had a nice floral taste at the end. OK anyways now I'll answer my questions for my KCS partner.
1. Whole bean or ground? i def like whole bean the best! but pre-ground doesn't bother me.
2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Fully Loaded, what's the point of decaf?? really!!
3. Regular or flavored? I prefer regular blends more than flavor b/c I'm really picky about the flavors.
4. How do you drink your coffee? I drink my first cup of coffee with some raw sugar and some low fat creamer (the liquid kind) after that I add coffee and just cream.
5. Favorite coffee ever? I love to get my coffee from the California coffee roasters. after I order they roast it and then send it off so when I get it YUM. I can still see the natural oils on the beans from the roasting. The smell is to DIE for! my fave of all fave's is their Moka Java Their house blend is good too.
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? I'm kinda picky, while I don't mind trying new things, I do like the better quality beans. (IE no millstone or eight o'clock coffee etc) so if it's like a local roaster place or your fave place to get coffee from or whatever that sounds wonderful!
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? I do like a good biscotti and chocolate covered espresso beans. I also like Dove's dark Chocolate I do love treats but I'm working on losing weight so having snacks around aren't the best thing. soooo.. if you wanna pass on the treats and go for another bag of coffee I'd be tickled pink!
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? Um I love coffee?? Oh i don't like most nut flavored coffee b/c it tastes funny and kinda moldy. Also i love chocolate but HATE chocolate flavored coffee it just tastes funny and gives me a headache! (did I mention I'm picky?)
9. Yarn/fiber you love? I like most of it as long as it's soft enough to touch to your face. Unless it's wool then it doesn't matter b/c I'll used it regardless. I do like acrylic! lets face it's cheaper and machine washable and with my kids...well let's just say it's easier. But i do like higher quality fiber too..esp if I'm knitting socks and other stuff for myself.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I hate red heart super saver and anything as scratchy/squeaky.
11. What's on your needles? UMM (blush) a pair of socks I'm making for myself going on 2 years.. they just get put on the back burner.. sigh. I have a toddler wrap sweater I'm working on for my littlest. I have a pair of slipper socks I've been working on for myself and yup you guessed it, they're on the back burner too. I also crochet so I have a great baby gift I'm working on that I won't spill about b/c it's for my sister and she reads this blog and I'm not going to spoil it.. LOL I also have an amigurumi Elephant I'm planning on starting tonight. Also an afghan/UFO that I'm debating taking apart and starting something different with the yarn. I'm sure there are more projects but I can't think of them at this moment. yeah I have start-i-tus.
12. Favorite colors? All the colors of the rainbow and then some! I don't like pastels though. I'm a bright and vibrant soul and love those kinds of colors. but I'm also really drawn to earthy colors too! Oxymoron? you decide! I really love a dark brown with blue or bright pink. Or greens and pink or purple. oh and i love lime green paired with different colors like dark blue or a mud brown the possibilities are endless!
13. Allergies? Nope PTL! though i have a great sniffer so smoking isn't great but it's deal able.
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? Have I mentioned I love original neat and totally cool mugs?!?!? One day I'd love to open a coffee shop and have each mug be different! Oh and the more coffee they hold the better! LOL heck an IV would work wonders! LOL j/k I love to sip coffee and savor it! I'm not a huge fiber snob at all. I'm a practical person so I knit/crochet things that are useful. I don't like doilies, b/c I'm not super girly. No TP covers or tissue covers anything that people think of when they hear crochet and think grandma-ish.
I'm kinda nervous about this exchange b/c the last couple of exchanges I've done I got a little "burned" shall we say. I put together this great package thinking of my partner(s) and what they told me and sent it off and then heard nothing else from them. No thank you or even a mention on the blog. SIGH.. then I've also gotten some where they don't read my surveys/questions so that's always a bummer. OK that's it I think. Sorry to bore ya'll. I can't wait to spoil someone!

I'm chaning my blog template btw so bear with me!

Hopefully I can Distract You!

It's slow cooking Thursday! Brought to you by Diary of a SAHM
I made Garlic Chicken and Dumplings...it's really easy so be prepared!
5-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 cans of cream of chicken soup (i used the fat free stuff)
1 cup of water
1 can of chicken broth (reduced sodium and 94% fat free)
2 tsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
2 10 oz cans of ready to bake biscuits. (I used the low/reduced fat)
salt and pepper to taste

take everything but the biscuits and put them in the crock. use a garlic press for the cloves of garlic and cut up the chicken in chunks. mix them up and turn it on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. (i did the high route since i wanted it for lunch time) 1/2 an hour to 45 min before serving take the biscuits cut them into four and drop them in the crock put the lid on. if you were doing low turn it to high. once they puff up and are cooked time eat!
the chicken is super moist and really good. even my pickey DH ate it and LIKED it!


In attempt to distract you from my lack of craftiness lately, I wanted to share with you a pix of my friend Pam. Oh look she's holding the baby blanket I made for her! I think she likes it. After I gave it to her she used it the rest of the weekend! I was proud! I gave it to her when I went to visit her at the beginning of the month. I'm just really SLOW at adding pix for ya'll and I forgot to take pix before I went. I'm also waiting for someone to send pix of the other things I made. Patiently I may add!!! OK no so much since I'm calling her out publicly. eek! if I don't get them soon LOL I'm not sure what I'll do.
anyways I'll share more of what I made her when I get pix. have a great day!

club 17

It's the 17th and you know what that means, yup time for your BSE ladies! for all the info you need about club 17 click here.

Nothing creative is happening here. remember I'm getting a new job? well I've been going to my old job in the mornings and then to my new job in the afternoons. I'm very worn out by the time i get home.
Now on to what's happened at Virgina Tech yesterday, my heart just breaks. I don't understand how someone could do something like that. The whole day I've been praying non stop for families of those killed and injured and the family of the shooter and also the students at the school. It's just a horrible thing!
OK with that I'm off.

UGH I can't believe there's pix of that!

So this past week has been a crazy busy one. This past month I've been planning a women's brunch for our church. I decided I wanted to make Kaiser rolls and bring a lunch meat tray. I found the recipe at the fresh loaf.. but of course I loosely followed it and changed a few things. I snapped a photo of them coming out of the oven and then in the basket I brought them to the brunch in. There's just something about bread in a basket that looks sooo wonderful. They were a huge hit! The brunch went really well too. I was completely excited. I'm sure you remember how hard it was for me to move here. But I've really been praying and working on "blooming where I've been planted". So yesterday was def a step in the right direction esp with making friends.
Also this week I quite my job and was offered another one! I'm so glad b/c my job was really getting to me. So Friday I turned in my 2 weeks notice and I feel so relieved. But we'll see how work goes tomorrow! How it all worked out was a total answer to prayer.
Last week we got all the rest of our stuff out of storage and brought it home, I was down in the basement and I happened across a box with photo's and yearbooks in it. I immediately brought it up stairs for a good dose of nostalgia. There were some fun pix in there, and a lot of groans and shaking my head b/c I can't believe I dressed like that. It was really fun reading all the stuff written in my HS yearbook. I also found from my space info about my HS reunion coming up this year. I can't believe I graduated 10 years ago.. sigh.
anyways well it's been a long weekend and I'm dog tired so I'm going to go to bed..

The incredible egg.

As a tradition in our home we dye eggs before Easter and then have millions of colored hard boiled eggs after Easter to figure out how to eat. And let me tell you NOTHING can beat rainbow colored egg salad and deviled eggs. (of course we use non toxic egg dye and wash/rinse them before making anything edible)
I was worried that we would have a tie-dyed carpet when we were done but instead we had tie-dyed hands. The destroyers are a wonderful blue green, and the bub's are just a light pinkish-yellow. just my finger was pink b/c i was trying to use this marble egg dye kit and it wasn't working with the crappy plastic gloves. There was a point there that i was holding my breath b/c i saw a cup at the edge of the table and an elbow dangerously nearby. Luckily the glass was moved and not spilled. i snapped a pix of one of the sets of eggs that they dyed. They did a wonderful job! we tried those marbled eggs, let me just tell you don't bother it didn't work too well. It said in one min they'd dry but after 5 they didn't so i never got to marble two different colors. We also had the sparkley kind and that worked for like 2 or so eggs. it wasn't the best either. from now on i think we'll just stick to typical egg dying.
I also made some Challah bread. I got the recipe from allrecipes. (I like to read the reviews)
Though i substituted the honey for splenda, and half the oil with milled flax seed and used an egg white wash for the golden crust. OH and I also only ended up using about 6 1/2 cups of flour instead of the 8. Now I'm not a huge artificial sweetener person but the box said it could be used for baking and I didn't want all the points from the honey, so i thought, what the hey why not try it? Which points are the same reason I substituted the oil for the flax seed. plus it added some good folic acid among other things. I think for pretty much every recipe I try at home I'm always adding or substituting things etc. I can't just make something right off the recipe. Esp when I'm making bread. Usually it's just adding oat bran or switching some of the white flower for whole wheat or something similar. I remembered to snap a pix of it before I cut into it to try it out. It was really great! sweet and light and the crust is crusty! I had just pulled it out of the oven late last night and my DH's came home. At first he turned his nose up.. have i mentioned he's a bit picky? (the flax seed leaves little brown flecks, delicious for me to look at BTW) I coaxed him to try some telling him it was warm and would be yummy! About 15 min later he came back in and said that bread was really good! So i wrapped up the one loaf and I'll be bringing it to our Easter dinner tomorrow. Yes it passed the DH taste test so I know the rest of his family will enjoy it. I was wanting to make this awesome looking bread but after reading the review about the colors bleeding and my DH's face when I asked what he thought I figured it could wait till another time. Of course I think I would just make a loaf not a ring.. but again that's my preference.
OK I'm going on and on.. so I'll leave you!
Have a Wonderful and Blessed Easter!
He Has Risen!

prancing and dancing

For a couple of weeks now I've been heading over to the blog Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and checking out her Thursday recipes for the crock pot. Today I thought I'd share one of my own... i warn you though I'm all about the approximate directions so bear with me! I have a big crock pot with the removable inside layer for dishwasher safe action, it rocks! But you could use those liner bags .The Crock pot Classics imitation (i had one of those kit's from the store at a friends house and figured it'd be easier and cheaper to make at home)
3 or 4 boneless skinless Chicken breasts (i get mine from wally world in the green bag)
1 to2 1lb bags of the frozen stewing veggies. (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery etc)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
thyme, oregano, rosemary, parsley, onion powder, basil any other type of herb you'd like to add.
(I'm all about use what you have)
1 can of low fat low sodium chicken broth ready to use.
rice brown or white or both.

put one tsp of each of the herbs in the bottom of your crock pot. I also added a bay leaf.
chop or press the garlic into the bottom of the pot. cut up the chicken breast into chunks add it to the crock pot.
open the frozen veggies and yup you guessed it add them to the pot.
open your chicken broth can and pour it in along with two more cans of water.
Put the lid on the pot and turn it on high for 5 hours or low for 10 hours. walk away and do laundry, go to work, go to the zoo, change the baby, ya know live your life etc..
1/2 an hour BEFORE you eat add 2 cups of rice, put the lid back on and then comeback for dinner in a half an hour. be careful though b/c if you're gone longer than 1/2 an hour your rice may be soggy like.
I used one cup of brown and one of white. my DH doesn't like brown so i sneak things like that into my cooking with out his knowing. doing half and half with things he NEVER knows and eats healthier for it. (sly grin)
Viola you're ready to eat. you may want to add some salt and pepper for extra flavor. Also if you have a smaller crock pot you can cut this recipe in half by cutting out half the water and rice and only one bag of veggies.

ENJOY! LMK if you like it.


So now on to the SNOW.. HOLY COW just Tuesday it was sunny and nice and we were playing outside and Today it's snowing. Crazy weather it's on crack I tell you! if you look closely you can see the snow in the pix. I never knew how hard it was to take a pix of snow.. weird huh?
It's so depressing that it's snowing and Easter is Sunday. it's supposed to be nice and sunny and spring like, not snowing!

Before beady would go to take a nap today she wanted to wear her unicorn costume. To get her to lay down my DH said after she took her nap she could wear her costume. So she's been dancing around all over the place since she woke up. I snapped a few pix to share. Well I'm off to make some coffee and get warm. It's COLD!

Frog pond and frolicking.

Monday i had some free time so i thought i would get out a few of my UFO's and deal with them. You know you all do it out of sight out of mind. And we all avoid dealing with them until we have to.
I have the HP sweater i was making for my nephew and then i decided i didn't like the way it was turning out so i got him a gift card and left it waiting for it's fate since like December. also a sweater i was makingg myself.. i haven't worked on for over a year so i thought it was time to recycle the yarn and use if for something else.. I'm not sure what but I'm sure it will come to me. so rip rip rip and out came the grey sweater. the yarn is really soft i got it in Germany and I've lost the label so I'm not sure what it's called. Though i do remember that it was like 40%-50% wool. the HP one is soft too, it's woolease. It's so easy to knit and easy to care for! I've got a few friends who're having babies and they're boys so i can def use this yarn again and soon. I will take any ideas you have into consideration as to what i should use this wonderful recycled yarn for though. Even if it's not for babies and just for me or my kids or DH...
Gimmie Ideas!
Can I admit to you that I haven't made my sister and my new niece anything? I'm at a loss as to what to make her. I was going to make her a monster hat but i hate fun fur and threw it away b/c it so didn't work out. Yeah it really pissed me off and you can't frog fun fur.. sigh. Have I mentioned I HATE fun fur? it's itchy too. anyways this isn't an anti fun fur rally it's a rally for me to figure out what to make her and little C. So Jess LMK what you want me to make, and it can be anything I can sew a diaper bag, or crochet something like a blanket or knit something too. HELP ME!

So today it was wonderful outside. Like in the high 70's! we played outside and had fun. We swung and colored with chalk and rode bikes.. well the destroyer did and the Bub used the scooter. since her bike is still at her uncles in storage.. yeah we're going to get that soon. I also cut the Bub's hair. She's been asking me for a while now so today while outside chop chop! Here's the pix what do you think. she said "it's just as short as i wanted" and for any of you who know her can TOTALLY hear her saying that! and of course i couldn't take a pix of the bub with out taking one of the destroyer. so here she is.. such a ham!
also on another note you can see I have added a ticker up there. in place of those annoying adds i had there before. I decided to remove them and put something encouraging up there. Now I need to loose way more than 25 lbs but with WW you start with small goals and work from there so my first goal is 10% of my weight. anyways just wanted to update you on life.. consider yourself updated!