Weekend Review & Mashup

Obviously Wednesday's wrap up didn't happen... my procrastinator spirit was in full drive as I raced from work to liquor store and grocery story (no one can say I don't have my priorities straight...) home to finish cleaning before in invasion on Thanksgiving.

I'm also getting ready for a little release/count down fun - so be sure to check back starting on December 1 to see what's happening!

So a lot in a little space:

I'm doing one more crock pot meal for the month. Last week's turned out really well - and left overs were still good.. but there was something about the way it smelled that made me less then happy with the cool ranch chicken (sometimes it is the little things) - But this one is different. It's my twist on a lasagna soup. It took me about 45 minute to get everything ready and into a crock pot to simmer all day was the lasagna sauce (my own recipe: tomato sauce; paste; seasonings/spices; garlic; onion, ground beef) + Italian sausage (first time I tried that)
Then it will be buffet style later with gluten and gluten free noodles for the guests... hopefully this will work well?


And onto other things:

WRITERLY

I am almost done!! I have a few bits to add while I'm thinking about them - and then not thinking about them because ideas will always pop into my head when I'm NOT actively writing *grumbles* So as of Monday - I'll be done with NaNo and taking a few days off to reset the mind before jumping back into edits for STATIC

PUBLISHINGLY

We are at t-minus 12 days.... EEEEP!! I'm so excited and so nervous... and I'm working on a bit of fun for the beginning of December.

READERLY

Taking a little of that down time to get some reading started. i have a huge wish list stored for Christmas, which means I need to knock out some more now (twist my arm!)

OTHERLY

Getting ready for a crazy three weeks at work before the nice Christmas break - lots to finish in a short period of time... but if you haven't noticed, I tend to thrive a bit on chaos - so I say bring it! (remind me I said that then I'm losing it later)

So short and sweet - as I have rooms to vacuum, food to prepare and workouts to starts... and obviously words to pound

Chat soon!

Last NaNo Crock Pot for the year...

It doesn't seem possible, but we have reached that point in the month - where one more crock pot meal should hold everyone until Thanksgiving - and then there will be leftovers until Christmas.... just kidding - but not really. And if I'm being honest, I'm a little sad that this is the last one - because that means this story is almost over - well in theory it is, but that's another post for another day.

So for this week, we are going to make a Cool Ranch Crockpot Chicken.

Of all the recipes, this one has the least number of ingredients, but it also takes the last amount of time to cook...which is great - as long as I remember to start it in a few hours!

You can find the recipe here and be sure to check back on Wednesday to see how this one turned out!

Now back to pounding keys...

NaNo Crock Pot

I had what I thought was a great idea to share some easy and yummy recipes this month to ensure that people lucky enough, or unfortunate enough - to live with a writer during NaNoWriMo would still be able to eat.

And then... I happened to google something and found that someone else had the same idea a few years ago. So I deleted this post and moved on with my life...

Until this morning when I prepped a crock pot meal I had never made before... If it ends up tasting even half as yummy as it already smells the prep time will be worth it. So I figured what the heck - nothing wrong with offering a bit of help - right?

So this week's crock pot meal was found via Facebook and Pinterest. It is: Disneyland's Slow-Cooked Beef Stew.

You can check out the meal yourself via https://www.pinterest.com/pin/554857616570406568/

Please note I will not be scooping out a hard roll to make a Mickey shaped bowl for the finished product - much to the dismay of my little girl... maybe another time.

I have tried to select meals that are easy to prep and will offer a decent meal plus provide left overs... to feed the family while I pound keys later this week.

It too me about half an hour - maybe a bit more to prep as I was trying to multitask without my daily allotment of caffeine via tea - but it still wasn't too messy. I did need two good size bowls as I prepared - one for the meat once browned so that I could saute the garlic and onions, and another for the potatoes, carrots and celery (I didn't add mushrooms - not a fan)...

I'll be sure to share how the finished product turned out once it's done cooking!

Do you have a favorite? Please share and I'll pass it along!