13 Freezer Crockpot Meals!

I know I posted 12 bags on Facebook, but the truth is that I forgot like 3 ingredients and had to return to the store to finish the freezer bags. Oopsies. 

We decided to play freezer bag roulette every night that we make these. As in we will shut our eyes and grab a bag without looking at the name on the front so that we are unbiased on the meal. Not that any one of them sounds better than the others, but this brings excitement into our lives. We are old. And boring. Don't judge. 

I have yet to try all/any of these so if they don't turn out delicious - blame Pinterest! I'm just the messenger!

Slow Cooker Ranch Porkchops

• 4-6 pork chops
• 1 envelope ranch packet
• 2 cans cream of chicken

COOK ON LOW 4-6 HOURS

Beef Hash

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef (we only had ground turkey so that's what we used)
• 1/2 large bag of hash browns
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp dry onion soup mix
• 1 cup beef broth
• Pinch of pepper

COOK ON LOW 2-4 HOURS

Cilantro Lime Chicken

• 3 chicken breasts
• Juice from 2 limes
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1 16oz bag frozen corn
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 tsp cumin
• Pince of S+P 

COOK ON LOW 8 HOURS

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 16oz bag frozen broccoli
• 1 large green pepper, chopped
• 2 jars alfredo sauce 

COOK ON LOW 4-6 HOURS

Creamy Italian Chicken

• 4 chicken breasts
• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 can cream of chicken
• 1 packet Italian seasoning

COOK ON LOW4-6 HOURS

Honey Rosemary Chicken

• 4 chicken breasts, cubed
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp salt

COOK ON LOW 6-8 HOURS

BBQ Chicken

• 4-6 chicken breasts
• 1 bottle BBQ sauce of choice
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/8 tsp cayenne 
• 1 tsp garlic powder 

COOK ON LOW 4-6 HOURS

Chicken Fajitas

• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 green peppers
• 1 onion
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• taco seasoning 
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika 
• 1 tsp salt

COOK ON LOW 5-6 HOURS

Teriyaki Chicken

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 inch of ginger, shredded

COOK ON LOW 4-6 HOURS

Slow Cooker Ranch Chicken

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 ranch packet
• 2 cans cream of chicken

COOK ON LOW 6 HOURS

Hawaiian Chicken

• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 can pineapple chunks 
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice (from can)

COOK ON LOW 6-7 HOURS

Cheesy Salsa Chicken

• 6 chicken breasts
• 1 jar salsa (peach mango)
• 1 cup mexican cheese
• 1 tbsp greek yogurt
• Chopped cilantro to garnish

(Cook chicken & salsa on high 1 1/2-2 hours and then add the cheese, greek yogurt, and cilantro)

Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

• 2lb pork tenderloin
• 2 cups frozen pineapple
• 1 red bell pepper
• 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp brown mustard
• Pinch of pepper
• Pinch of garlic powder

COOK ON LOW 6-8 HOURS

ALSO - not a crockpot recipe but something I'll end up trying as well:

Bang Bang Shrimp

1 lb shrimp

3 tbsp plain greek yogurt

3 tbsp chopped green onion

1 1/2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

1/2-3/4 tbsp sriracha 

Cook shrimp, either in skillet or grill, and combine the rest of ingredients while shrimp is cooking. Take shrimp off of the grill and toss in bang bang sauce. 

I know the majority of these recipes are chicken. The reason is that we like chicken and it's easy. And cheap. And sooo super easy. These are 13 crockpot dinners that will most likely last us around 3 weeks. That's just two of us eating on them. If there are more people in your family, maybe double the recipes? Or don't, we will have tons of leftovers but you probably wouldn't if there are more people in your family. Maybe you hate leftovers? Definitely don't double the recipe if that's the case. 

I also baked eggs and bacon, and made little breakfast sammies with english muffins and cheese. I wrapped them in tin foil and threw them in the freezer for grab and go breakfasts :) 

Also on the meal plan includes sweet potato hash, overnight oats, and sausage/spinach frittata. Breakfasts usually last me a while because I love switching it up. Having to be at work at 0630 in the mornings also makes it hard to cook first thing, so grab-n-go's are convenient. 

For snacks I'll make energy bites that I will post the recipe for at a later date, but if you want something RIGHT NOW, then I'll direct you to Pinterest. Shakeology are up on the list as well as little peanut butter and banana bites. 

Lunches will include tuna, huevos rancheros, salads, and whatever leftovers are in the fridge! 

Like I said earlier, if you try any of these recipes and you hate them, blame Pinterest. If they are the most freakin' delicious meals you've ever stuffed in your face, then I take full credit and I'll be here all week. :)

Girl or Boy?

Last weekend (Easter), I put together a gender reveal party for my sister-in-law, Lura and her husband, Ryan. She is around 18 weeks pregnant and so it was time to find out what they are having! From the moment she told me she was pregnant, I soooo wanted to put a party together for her - but the baby shower has already been claimed by her aunt - so I settled for the reveal. :) Their appointment was on March 25th, so I essentially had to prepare everything in the weeks leading up to Saturday, the 26th. I was so scared the baby would hide its stuff and we wouldn't be able to pull off the party! Luckily, the baby was spread-eagle in the ultrasound so it was obvious. I wasn't going to find out, I was going to wait and find out with everyone else at the party but it was absolutely killing me not knowing, haha. So Preston and I looked into the envelope and we were soooooo excited to see what baby Taylor was going to be :) 

Everything turned out awesome, I requested that everyone wear their guess so there was a sea of pinks and blues at the party. Ryan cooked burgers and hotdogs on his grill, Lura and I put out a few platters of fruit, veggies, and meatballs, and then we set up a canvas with balloons for the reveal! 

I bought the canvas on Amazon, and Preston bought paints at Target in different shades with black balloons to keep the secret! He and Ryan rigged a setup so that the balloons would be pinned above the canvas so that when they were shot with the BB gun, the paint would fall/drip onto the canvas. I had also purchased a vinyl sticker from a friend at work in the shape of a deer silhouette that we could peel off after the paint had dried. 

Not all of the balloons had popped like I had hoped, but some of them did and everyone was so surprised to see BLUE! Almost everyone there had guessed it was a girl, so I loved hearing everyone yell with excitement when they saw it was a boy :) 

That makes THREE nephews to love on this Christmas! I can't wait! 

One Year :)

One year.  

We've made it one whole year - 12 months - 365 days.  One year of smiles, laughs, tears, stress, surgeries, sickness, health, pets, apartments, weddings, driving, moving... man. What a year it has been. I couldn't imagine being with anyone else, doing this crazy thing we call life with anyone else.  You are my favorite.  Like, more than sushi. More than cats. More than anything in this whole world. 

A few of our favorites for the first year:

Meals: 

Sushi, like, always. 

Billy Bob's Burgers (even though they didn't agree with your stomach... worth it? I think so).

Dr. Pepper pulled pork

Movies:

Deadpool probably took the cake 

Experiences:

Random beach trips

Two surgeries

Moving into our first apartment together

Getting our puppy 

We may not have a baby yet, or a house, or dream jobs, but we have dreams of our future and I'm so thankful that we get to experience this life together. :) 

Battling the Black Plague

This past weekend is the second time this year that I have been so sick I can hardly stand up straight (the first time was the week before my birthday in January).  This time, it was bad. I have never in my whole life required medical assistance for sickness from anyone other than a primary care doctor or an urgent care.  This time, I woke up at 4 in the morning on Sunday and I woke Preston up and told him we needed to go to the hospital.  I felt like death.  I had been fevering for over 24 hours with my temperature reaching 101 so we brushed our teeth and drove to the nearest emergency room.

Let me digress for a second and explain why I chose not to go to Darnall Army Hospital - 

1. They are stupid
2. 
   

I mean, what more do I need to say? Honestly. After they gave Preston straight potassium into his hand and making him endure 2 ridiculously long surgeries with tubes protruding from his stomach for 2 months, I wasn't really biting at the bit to be seen in their Emergency Department. 

So it was my idea to go to the next closest ER which is Seton in Harker Heights. Well, I thought this was a better idea at the time.  We got there at 0444. No one greeted us for almost 30 minutes, in which case the nurse came in, asked me some questions, handed me the tv remote and explained that they were full, they only had one doctor on the clock over night, and it might be a while. 

At 0730, the day shift nurse and doctor show up, ask me some questions, the doctor listened to my lungs while the nurse hooked me up to the blood pressure cuff and stuck a pulse oximeter on my finger.  At that point, the doctor asked me if I wanted an IV with some fluids and toradol for the pain (...what? I mean I had headaches but they were really exacerbated by my coughing). She mentioned an x-ray and a rapid flu test as well.  So, I agreed because I definitely felt dehydrated and wanted to figure out what was wrong.

My nurse came in and swabbed my nose, but really, it was my brain. And I'm well aware that you have to get those q-tips pretty deep because I perform the same test on my kids at work, and I always tell them I need their brain boogers, but I've never had it done myself so now I can totally relate to my kids when they fight me. 

A different nurse came in to start my IV.  She checked my hand and found a really good vein, and when she stuck me, I felt like a thousand needles had been burned in the fires of Mordor before they entered my flesh. I have given blood countless times, but holy crap that took the cake on the pain scale.  I told her how badly it hurt, and she just kept on diggin'. When she was finished, she left the room and my nurse came to hang my fluids.  I looked at my newly placed IV and noted that the catheter was up into my skin. Like, underneath it. I told my nurse to pull it back because it hurt so bad, so she did but the pain never really went away. She also at that point pushed the toradol into my IV for the "pain". So there I sat, binge watching the Food Network because I totally dig Guy Fieri's backyard setup, while they bolused a liter of fluids into the hole that was bored into my sensitive hand.  

When the liter was almost finished, the X-ray technician came in but noticed that I still had fluids running so she said she had to wait until they were finished. I literally almost reached up and stopped them myself so we could get that ball rolling (I mean, it was almost 10am at this point).  She went out to the desk and checked with the doctor on the status of my fluids so she could get her x-ray on.  The doctor, nurse and x-ray tech came back in to stop my fluids so I could go take 2 quick pictures.

Long story short (lol funny- because at this point I feel like I'm rambling), my x-ray came back clear, my flu swab was negative, the doctor said I had a viral infection and I just needed to go home and rest, and let the virus run its course.  She then asked me how the toradol worked for me in which I had to explain to her that I was only REALLY in pain if I coughed and my head was exploding, and that I still had a low-grade fever so she said that she would get me some motrin and send me home. (Even up until this point in my visit, no one had checked my temperature).

Before the nurse could come back in, I started to take my IV out. I asked Preston to grab me gauze and tape and I would pull it out myself to get the ball rolling on discharge.  The nurse came in right as I ripped the first piece of tape off and was mortified that I was taking my IV out. I got reprimanded and told I needed to wait for her because she "needed to chart that she removed it". I told her, "you could just chart that I removed it..."

After getting home and dealing with that weird ER experience, I slept the rest of the day away only to find myself becoming nauseated later that day. It was literally just one thing after the next. Maybe I picked up some sort of GI bug while I was at the hospital. 24 hours after that and a ton of nausea and vomiting later, I am now feeling 100% again and I'm taking ALL precautions at work to guarantee this doesn't happen again because I do not want anymore ER visits! It felt really weird to be on the other side of the medicine and I don't think I'm a fan!

New year, new adventures

Seeing as how I only post once every few months, I have many updates for you all ("all" meaning all 2 of my blog readers). 

The first and saddest update I have is that one night, about a week before my birthday, I went to work and when I returned I found that I no longer had two cats. At some point in the night, our littlest kitty decided to run away.  I am insanely upset by this.  I have yet to fully understand how, for 7 years, I went without letting Jack get outside and away from me. Yet, I move to Texas, and TWO of the family members on the Rushton side have let out both of my cats.  Obviously, Jack was found and returned safely home, but it is now basically February and our little kitty James is nowhere to be found.  It's simple, really. You check for your children before, and after, you open the doors. I hope wherever James is, he is safe and warm. 

My second update is that our home grew by another 4 feet! (No, we did not replace James, we actually got this furbaby before he disappeared). Her name is Cambria! She is a German Shepherd. When we got her, she was 11lbs. Now she is 28lbs of sweetness and a little bit of crazy. She is SO insanely smart. She has learned how to sit, shake, lay down, and we are working on rolling over. We really lucked out with her! 

I requested to switch to day shift at work, and so far I'm still waiting. I am first on the list, though! I can't wait. I'm really struggling with staying awake all night and getting decent sleep during the day. Hopefully soon...

In January, my friend Kristin came to Texas to visit and to enjoy our annual Red Robin birthday date! It was so much fun. We went to Austin and explored, hung out on South Congress with the cupcake trucks and stellar views of downtown. I'm going to have to take Preston back there. We ate at Guero's taco bar and I discovered that the queso there tastes like home! Oh man, I am so thrilled. I have been on the search for decent queso in Texas forever. Most places use yellow cheese. What the deuce. That should be outlawed!

beautiful skyline