Slow Cooker Lazy - Jambalaya

I run hot and cold with cooking.  Sometimes I want to cook all the time and then I go through phases where I don't want to cook at all.  I'm glad I have some of the time saving appliances I do, my slow cooker, my instant pot and our air fryer for those times when cooking isn't my thing or I've decided to subsist on Naan bread and tomatoes with balsamic vinegar for days and my family has to be YOYO (Your On Your Own).

I'm not someone who can create recipes herself, I'm not that talented with food, but I'm a champ at finding recipes that I want to try and cooking the things my family has enjoyed all of these years.

Recently, I had a craving for Jambalaya but I didn't want to go the Zatarain's route (which we've tried before and it's not horrible) so I went on the lookout for an easy recipe.

My google skills took me to this recipe of Easy Slow Cooker Jambalaya and I gathered all the ingredients together to try it out.

The title of the recipe isn't lying, it was easy.  Literally dump everything in your slow cooker until the last 1/2 hour when the rice and shrimp go in.  I'm sure you could do this in the instant pot also, but I was in no hurry the day I made it, so I used our tried and true slow cooker.  The after Jambalaya review was a Thumbs Up!  It makes 8 very hearty servings and since this really isn't a good recipe for the freezer, we had it for dinner than night and each had a leftover portion for our next day's lunch and a good friend was gifted with a container to keep him fed.

The only change I made was I reduced the amount of chicken to one large boneless skinless chicken breast rather than 2 pounds of chicken thighs.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Resurrection of Sorts

I knew I had let my blog languish for a few months and when I checked, yep...September was the last time I posted anything.

With that discovered, one of my challenges this year as it has been in the years since I retired from my U.S. Court career is to have more of a routine through out my week, so I'm going to add posting to my blog on my "Things to make a habit" list.   I am a creature of routine and habit.

I like being a bit accountable to it, I like sharing things I'm doing and even if nobody reads it, I feel like I'm leaving a living, breathing diary/journal for our son and any future grandchildren I may have after I'm gone. 

I'm not big on starting new things at New Year's, to me it's a little cliche but probably more about the fact I'm never mentally prepared at the first of the year to make changes. 

Some of the things I'm challenging myself to incorporate into my weekly routine and make a habit are:

• Yoga
• Blogging
• Crafting
• Reading
• Meditation
• Walking or biking (once I get permission from my foot doctor)

I need to incorporate each of those things several times during my week.  I always read at bed time but depending on how tired I am, I might only read one or two chapters before I get sleepy.  I'd like to increase the time I reach for a book.  I enjoy my time online but it needs to be balanced more with the things I enjoy in real life.  Gardening will be added to that list once our gardening season is here.

I got creative and made myself a "cheat sheet" that I laminated and can slide in my planner to act as a reminder and my cheat sheet coordinates with my journal I'm keeping to track my progress.  More on that journal in future posts.

Last October, I also took a part time job as a sales associate for Le Creuset at the new outlet mall in my burb, it's only 10-15  hours a week, so I have plenty of time to do the other things I enjoy.  The part time job adds some routine that I clearly crave PLUS a very generous employee discount to enjoy on their brand of products and a little extra money every week.

I'm also going to be redoing my blog so I can incorporate my small home based art and crafts business Serendipity Home Art & Crafts.  It a fun project of mine that allows me to be creative and make a little bit of money.  You can find my Facebook page here and I'll be updating it soon with some new stuff.

So, welcome to my blog if you've made it this far and I hope you'll visit again.

A Finished Project

I swear nothing gives me more pleasure and satisfaction then finishing a "long time coming" project, whether that be one of our home projects, or in the yard or even a craft project.

The husband installed the closet system over the Labor Day holiday weekend and it's a good thing we had the extra time because as I started bringing clothes back in the closet, I think we ended up re-configuring things at least three times, but finally found what is going to work well for us.

 

Taking the door off was the right thing to do.  Makes it way more spacious than it is.  Like I said in my last post, it's only 6' deep and 7' across which is small for a master closet.....both the closet and the master bathroom in this house were disappointing to me, but coming from a two bedroom, one bath bungalow, they weren't deal breakers, the other storage in this home more than made up for the master's shortcomings.

Of course, my stuff takes up 3/4 of the closet and my husband gets the rest but that works because his current job's dress code is t-shirts and jeans, so his casual polo type shirts are only worn when we go out to the movies, or out to eat, etc.   Even so, they are much more accessible and his shoes are underneath his shirts.  We also have a spot for the basket that has our shoe cleaning/waterproofing supplies in it.

While my stuff was out of the closet, I did another purge and pared it down some more, some went to my sister, the rest will be donated.  In another month, I'll be switching out seasonal clothing

In the meantime, I pulled all my black, white, and gray colored clothing from the rest and using the new space in the back of the closet where the built in was, put my white on the lower rod and the gray on the upper along with the small amount of purple I have.  We even have room to store my yoga mat (I do yoga in our bedroom) and our down comforter we use in the winter on the shelf between the clothes.

The rest was organized by ROYGBIV as best I could.  All my black and black prints are hung on the bottom rod along with pants and capri pants and I hung some of my Hawkeye gear to the front of the top rod.

Over on the top shelf of the husband's side of the closet, I have canvas storage bins with my boots, seasonal shoes, totes & small bags, and swimwear stored.

One the top shelf of my side of the closet, I store my gym bag, a basket of hangar clips, my blue felt fedora and purses.......my precious.  😀

My purses....sigh, I needed a way that I could see what I had.  Before the re-do, they hung on large S hooks on the lower rod of the husband's side, but the closet door swung in to the closet and was usually open, so quite a few of them were hidden from sight unless I stepped in the closet and shut the door.

Now, they are all out for me to see!

The two drawer unit we installed holds my undies and bras and the wire basket holds my various pajamas.  Of course, I had to give my Iowa Hawkeye purse the love and recognition it deserves.  

I needed a way to get some of the purse to stand up better rather than flopping over.  No way was I spending the money for purse shapers, they are expensive!

I have the satin bags that the Michael Kors came in but you can't see them if you store the purses in the bags, so they are folded away for safe keeping.  I didn't want to use tissue paper and my first thought was pool noodles!.....I could cut them up and stuff them in the purses, but unfortunately I couldn't find any pool noodles this late in summer so as I was wandering my local dollar store, I saw children's water wings, swim arms, whatever for $1 a pair and BINGO, the light bulb goes off and I think I'll blow those up and stuff them in the purses....

They worked perfect and it only cost me $8 bucks!

I also found this cool purse hanging gizmo on Amazon and I hung more of my purses on that.  I have a lot of purses, but I use them and like to switch them out frequently.

All and all, I'm really pleased with the makeover of the closet and wish we would have done it much sooner than we did, especially when I was still working, but hey, we can enjoy it now.  The husband even thinks it was a good idea now that it's done.  

Thanks for stopping by and letting me tell you all about our DIY home projects or décor!

Progress......Yay!

Sorry....the crazy cat lady is out today and has to start her post with a cat photo.  Tucker likes to stick close to his human. 😊😻

Lots of projects going on in our household, but one big one was completed last week.  We finally had the carpet we have in our home shampooed and cleaned and they did a great job!  So here's a shout out to Steamway Craftsman Cleaning Service in Ames for their work.  If you need any cleaning done, give them a call!

Since we had two rooms to almost empty, life around here was in an upheaval for a couple of days because we could barely use the kitchen, dining area, foyer and hallway because that's where everything had to go, so we were squeezing through tunnels of furniture, side tables, chairs and lamps for a couple of days.

Putting things back ended up taking me WAY longer than moving it out.  I couldn't believe how dusty and dirty things were, so I took my time cleaning each thing as I put things back where they belonged.  I did manage to do a little rearranging of furniture also, a couple things got kicked to the curb and I see a cool new reading chair in our future.....that's the inner interior designer in me, what can I say?

We also made progress on our closet re-do.  The wooden built in was torn out and destroyed with minimal damage to the wall, the left side of the closet torn out and the husband patched and caulked all the holes so that I could put on a fresh coat of paint.

Ignore the gross carpet, it's going to be replaced in October.

On a side note.....progress with the weight loss.....down 24 pounds now since August 2016, but it does fluctuate a bit and I don't weight myself everyday or even every week.  Just concentrating on eating and snacking as healthy as I can and if I have a bad day, I make up for the next.   Unfortunately, I've completely blew my goal of yoga everyday, but I'm managing twice a week right now and 2-3 good walks a week.  It's all I can manage right now.

How in the world did I ever work full time?

It's finally happening.......

After 13 years of a master closet that I hated and that I have fought with to find a workable solution to our clothes and my shoes and purses, we are finally going to gut it and re-work the shelving system. 

This has become necessary now because we are going to put new carpet in our master bedroom and that includes the closet floor.

Our master closet has this awkward wooden built in (see below) set right in the middle of the back wall and it is wasting at least 6 to 8 linear feet of hanging space.  As you can see, I use canvas bins and baskets as storage within the built in, but it also makes the space dark and the clothes that hang to the back of our closet get "lost" because of it.........so I want it gone!

So, we need to get that built in out of there before we can proceed with carpet, but since we are demoing the closet, we might as well re-configure it and give it a fresh coat of paint, especially since it looks like we'll be staying put for awhile.

Unfortunately our budget does not include those fabulous wooden closet systems, I checked out Martha Stewart's line of wooden closet systems but I'm not going to spend 3k on a closet do-over and our master closet isn't that large, just 6' deep and 7' across.

So, knowing wood was out of the question, I went to Lowe's.com and looked at their Rubbermaid coated wire closet systems and accessories and found exactly what we need for under $300.00.

I'm hoping to empty the closet today so tomorrow the husband can take on the task of demoing that built in out, then I can paint, using the same Sherwin Williams Dover White (SW 6385) that all the closets are painted.  Once the painting is done, we can start installing the closet system. 

We also decided to take the door off the closet permanently, or at least until we decide to sell because where the closet is located nobody but myself and husband see it and although the husband doesn't know this yet, we'll be replacing the light fixture also because it's doesn't do the job.  So between the door off and a new fixture, it should help immensely.

Now days, I'm not as fast at completing home projects as I used to be so I'm hoping that we get this project done before the 16th of September when we leave for our 30th Anniversary "honeymoon" in Estes Park, Colorado.

Enjoy your weekend!  and I'm keep my blog updated with our progress.  I'm excited!

Letting Go........

Next month I'll be celebrating a milestone birthday and because I'll be entering in a new decade, there are some things in my life that I'm finally letting go of to start off my next decade off fresh.

My family has had a rough 18 months.  As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, both myself and the husband lost a parent and recently we lost a long time pet, so we desperately need some cleansing of bad mojo but just recently the tide has seemed to turn with a new job opportunity for the husband in his career and our son finding a floor manager position with Target (my favorite store).

I've had a whole lot of things taking space up in my head that have caused me emotions that aren't necessary and it's totally foolish of me to continue to let these things bother me and cause me pain.  Some have had their grip on me for years and some are relatively new.  I need to let them go and I'm working on some self-talk when those thoughts start to enter my head.

In the last year, I've had to re-evaluate friendships and other relationships and decide what course of action to take because more important than ever in my life and in this world, I want to surround myself with people who share the same values and be done with those that do not.   I'm not ashamed to admit that our circle of friends has grown smaller but for us at this point it's quality, not quantity that counts.

I'm also letting go of the ideal that I'm going to go back to weighing the 125 pounds I did at age 21.  It's not going to happen, it was almost 40 years ago and I'd look like crap at my age at that weight.  I'm letting that go and be thankful for my current good health and just concentrate on moving, be that gardening, walking, biking or yoga.

I'm also letting go of a lot of time spent on social media.  Lately, I found that whenever I am on Facebook, my news feed is depressing and I see the same damn thing posted by multiple people and it's just not fun anymore.   I'm not giving it up because it is the only way for me to keep up with my out of state friends but I'm scaling back big time.

Lastly, I'm excited about a possible part time job opportunity.  A new 75 high end store outlet mall is opening up in our burb in late October and they are having a job fair next month that I'm going to go and see if I can find PT work that will fit my needs.  Cross your fingers!

Since it appears that we will be staying in this home for a few more years, we've got some home projects coming up that is going to keep me busy over the next 3-4 months and I'll share as things get done.

In the meantime, as my water bottle says "Worry Less, Live More"

Food for my Head Part #1

A couple things I started doing during the period of time that I wasn't feeling well was both meditation and yoga.  I didn't do them everyday like I probably should have, but I used those tools when I needed to help with my anxiety and the gastric problems I'm now dealing with plus I really enjoyed the stretching.  My form needs a hella lot of work, hoping to improve that over the next few months.

I've owned this Rodney Yee Yoga Video for at least a year and I enjoy the yoga workouts in the video, but I also found myself not practicing as often as I should have because I didn't feel well enough or I simply didn't make time for it and that is my goal for right now.  Rather than set myself a bunch of goals, I'm going to take one at a time and right now it's yoga, every day for at least 20 minutes.  It's not a substitute for the walking (that I've not been able to do much of because of the hot, hot weather) or the aqua aerobics I do when I go to our local aquatic.  I want to do this EVERY day.

I found this great website through Google when searching for free yoga classes or challenges.  It's called Yoga with Adriene and just started her 31 days of Yoga program.  She also has a great YouTube channel Yoga with Adriene.  

Let me know if you want to join me for the next 30 days., I'd love to have some yoga buddies.  I'm on Day #2 today.  This Sunday, I'm taking a yoga class with some very special guests, but you'll have to wait for photos from that.  😊

Re-Awakening

Last month after having to make the hard decision to put our beloved oldest pet, Kirby to sleep due to illness, I started toying with the idea of re-starting my blog.  I'm not sure why and I'm not sure why I stopped, but when I went to find it, I was surprised to see that my last post was in May of 2016 and 14 months have passed by....wow.

I don't know where I want to go with this blog, but I did find I was better at writing at it than I was in a journal.  It was a hard time for my family after my dad's passing as my husband lost his mother just a short five months later in August of 2016.  I wish I could say that the last year has been easier, but I'd be lying if I did, because it hasn't.  2017 is working on being just as depressing as 2016 was but I keep trying to be as optimistic as I can.

Since my last blog post, I also had my first real experience with a long lingering illness which put a lot of things in my life in perspective.  I was so thankful that I finally started feeling well again, but I felt like I lost four months of my life that I could have been enjoying, and although it was life altering at the time, it was not life threatening and for that, I'm also thankful.

One positive thing to report that from a year ago the first part of August, I've been able to find a way to trim off 18-22 pounds depending on the day and am hoping to lose another 20-25.   Not that it can't be done, but losing weight post menopausal is tough for some and that some would be me.  I am happy that I'm not on any high cholesterol meds or high blood pressure meds that quite a few of my contemporaries take and I'm also not pre-diabetic which I've always worried would rear it's ugly head later in life as I was a gestational diabetic.

In another seven weeks I'll be celebrating a pretty big milestone birthday and when looking at it as a number, it's scary, but other than the new aches and pains that come with aging, it feels no different than the last milestone birthday I had.

I promise my future posts will be much more upbeat than this one and try to keep my sharing to fun things that are going on, or my latest DIY project, or the last book I read or movie I saw or a new recipe we tried.  I might even get adventurous and post a videos also.

Thanks for following my new re-awakened life's journey!

Days

Days go by
Fog follows me then floats away
Days go by
Time follows me then floats away
Days go by
My thoughts are scattered and then float away

Well, it's been 78 days since I've updated my blog...........I do have things to share or things to say and obviously being retired, I have the time but I find I put my blog on the back burner when other things come up and I guess that's okay especially since it's not like I make any money doing it but I like to think that someone out there in the big world of the internets likes reading my stuff.

It's also been 46 days since my father passed away and his passing is one of the reasons I've not posting anything earlier than now.....I'm still processing his death and I honestly feel like I'm in a bit of a fog since then.  Not having parents anymore is a sad, sad club and some have been members since they were young and others enjoy having their parents around late in life.  There is also another dynamic when your parents are divorced when they pass and depending how long that had occurred come into play also.  In my situation, my father had been married to my step-mother for longer than he had been married to my mother and my mother never remarried.   There is also a decade between my parents deaths....my mom's in April 2006 and now dad's in March of 2016.....spring time and Easter time don't hold fond memories for me because my mother died the Thursday after Easter the year she died and my father the Thursday before Easter this year.

At my age, you also start to question your own mortality.  My parent were very young when they had me (age 18), so I'm not that far behind them.  My mother was 67 when she passed and my father 77.  My maternal grandmother was only 63 when she passed, but I my mom's younger sister just turned 73 and is still going strong...my dad's side lived to be older except for his brothers.  My dad, the middle boy outlived both his older and younger brothers but both grandparents on that side were in their late 80's when they passed.   Our family is small, so when we lose someone, an entire branch seems to be cut-off and gone forever.

One of the things that my dad and I talked about over the years was both of our struggles with our weight.   My weight really wasn't as issue until I quit smoking 13 years ago and over the next 3-4 years continuingly put on weight.   I think the same thing happened with my dad.  You quit smoking, you look for another "thing" and with many ex-smokers, food is it.  Then if you really enjoy food, the battle is super hard.  Both my dad and I are "snackers" and I'm hoping that identifying

Since my dad's death, I've though about what I could do to honor him and I decided that I was finally going to make a concentrated effort to lose 30 pounds.   I'll be thrilled, my doctor will be thrilled and I can hear my dad say "Outstanding!".

So to "chunk" this task out so I don't become overwhelmed or set myself up to completely fail, I'm going to concentrate on the next 90 days to lose half of it.....15 pounds.....that's only 5 pounds a month....should be doable.....here's my obstacles

1. Booze (craft beer, wine, margaritas).  I don't drink everyday, but I do like a beer or cocktail with our meal probably twice a week.
2. Snacking.   One thing my dad and I had in common, we are "snackers".
3. Emotional eating.   This can go one way or another depending on what's going on.
4. Not taking the time out to eat during the day.   Then ravenous at night and we eat late due to the husband's job.
5. Keeping non-healthy crap out of the kitchen.   With a skinny 20 year old still at home there is still more junk food than I would like and my willpower is crap also.  :)

So, now that I've complained about my obstacles, here's some of the things I'm going to try and implement

1. Challenge myself to use My Fitness Pal every day to track my food because tracking does help.
2. I doubt I'm going to completely cut out my snacking, I'm just going to make better choices of what kind of snacks.
3. I'm also not going to give up my Diet Pepsi, but I'm going to make sure I drink TWO bottles of water to every one Diet Pepsi I drink.
4. I'm not going to cut out, but limit the amount of added sugar I consume....I'm talking to you ketsup.  :)
5. I'm also not going to cut out, but keep in check any processed foods that may find their way into our house because I know that little pouch of Idahoan potatoes isn't going to kill me once in a while.  :)

I love most fruits and vegetables and don't hesitate to eat them, I just need to make sure I'm getting the right amounts each day.

I also am pretty active but I could bump it up a bit, but I have to be careful because of the arthritis I have in my ankles, feet and neck.  No running ever, but I do like to walk and I need to start strength training again.

The husband and I were going to a aqua boot camp for quite a while, but it's just too hard to get to anymore because of what time the husband gets home and trying to rush to make the class.   I could go by myself and I might but it was much more fun doing it together.  It's bike season now also, so I anticipate getting out on the bike trails very soon.

So, it make that long story short....I'll be updating you on my fitness journey here if you're interested...sharing any recipes, workouts, etc. that have helped me.   I'm hoping that if I share here, I'll have some accountability of what changes I want to make.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to me!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I've been remiss with my blog lately....unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, life got in the way AND I'm also working on the gazillion pictures I took in New York City that I want to share with you at a later date......in the meantime though, I'll share another recipe from our family dinner table.

It's amazing that in the same month I've discovered and made two different casseroles that the spouse loves!  As I've mentioned in a previous post, the spouse is not fond of casseroles or stews but I keep making them thinking I'll hit upon some that he'll like and lately I have.

This one came across my Facebook feed from Tip Hero.   Super easy and really good.  One of our son's friends was over that night and ate two helpings of it and there were no leftovers.  I think the next time I make it, I'll mix it up a bit and use buffalo wing sauce instead of hot sauce and sprinkle fresh chopped green onion on top.

Loaded Chicken & Potatoes

1/2 lb. Bacon – diced and cooked, set aside

8 medium red or gold potatoes - diced

1 lb. cubed chicken breast

Mix together in large bowl:

1 Tbsp. Paprika
2 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 ½ tsp. ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ Tbsp. hot sauce or buffalo wing sauce

Add potatoes and chicken to the oil & spice mixture and mix well.

Pour chicken & potato mixture into a lightly sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 60 minutes.

Top with:   
½ cup of chopped green onion
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Reserved bacon.
Return to oven for 5 more minutes to melt the cheese

Serve with sour cream.