Easiest Shredded Chicken EVER!

I have spent a lot of time on Pinterest in the last few weeks trying to figure out what to make for supper. I always like having a good idea of the next few days and it is much easier to do all the grocery shopping at once!

  Last week, I made some chicken pot pie filling that called for cooked, shredded chicken and realized that this is one of the most versatile things that you can make in bulk and have on hand for unplanned lazy nights.
   With the shredded chicken, we have made Pot Pies, enchiladas, and BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, but the possibilities are endless.


First I threw the chicken breasts in the crockpot with enough water to cover the bottom of the crockpot. I cooked them on low for about 2-3 hours.

Once they were done, I took them out and put them in the fridge for a little while so they could cool off. 

Once they were completely cool, I took them out and shredded them with my hands. I put a little bit of salt in with it and put it in a tuperware container and put it in the fridge. 

The possibilities are really endless with shredded chicken and it is super easy to freeze and save for later!

Do you make yours a different way? What recipes do you use shredded chicken in?  Please share with me!

Check it out for other Tasty Tuesdays every week!

Cookbook!

 
 The hardest part of cooking for me is knowing what to cook. I have started to enjoy cooking over the last couple of years. I know that I have become an aspiring chef in my own kitchen thanks to Pinterest. Let's just say I didn't get grandma's cooking skills, they have been learned instead of handed down. I am slowly working on figuring out this whole cooking combined with grocery shopping thing. I can at least say I am getting better.

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

I have touched on this on a couple other posts, but I LOVE to cook. I just hate spending a ton of time in the kitchen for one meal. Not ideal for me, even if I am home most of the time.
    My boyfriend is a huge fan on traditional meals and isn't a very adventurous eater. I typically stick within the boundaries somewhere between meat and potatoes and pasta when I am cooking supper. Sometimes I have to remember that every family has their favorites, and apparently not everyone eats the same things as we do. This being said, I have been trying to copy a lot of his mom's recipes to keep him in his dietary comfort zone. This is one that she has made in the past and I have copied. Thanks Robin!

Finger- Licking Crock-pot Chicken Wings

My very first Tasty Tuesday! I am so excited to have finally started a daily blog plan! I hope this starts to bring more readers to the page! Please, share your favorite posts with your families and friends!

This week we have had a lot of cooking in days! I have been so excited to finally have a kitchen again that I never want to go out for supper anymore. I have started making some more recipes and enjoying the cooking again!

I couldn't really find a recipe that fit how I wanted to make them. I didn't want a bunch of extra ingredients and I really didn't want to have to turn the oven on, but I couldn't find a recipe for wings that you just put in the crock-pot without baking them first. It gets so hot in our apartment during the day anyway because we are on the 3rd floor and we have a huge glass sliding door that makes up most of our light in the living room. I decided that I would experiment with the wings, and if the didn't turn out then we could always order Chinese.

My New Blogging Plan

I have struggled with what this blog is about most of the time that I have had the blog. I have spent hours searching other blog sites and reading all about what they do for their blog to make it work.

I am going to try something new and I hope to keep with it throughout the school year. I may have a few weeks were I struggle to keep up, but I will make sure to at least post every once in a while. I am really excited to start this!

My plan is to have a different theme for every day Monday-Friday. Each day will have a theme but it will be broad enough that I can write about a lot of things that are under that category. Every week will have a different blog post for that day of the week.

Meal Ideas

     Many people struggle with the idea of saving money because when they sit down to make a list, they don't know what to put on it. They aren't sure what to make or what they need to get to make it. Then, when they do go to the grocery store, they get snacking foods. When time comes to make a meal, they don't have complete meals in the house and end up getting take out anyway.. 

    For some time now, I have been working on compiling a master list of the meals that we eat in this house. I am ALWAYS looking for recipes and ideas for meals. I probably missed some major ones that seem to obvious to put on here, but PLEASE. I am always interested in finding out what my readers are eating at home and how much they are working with for their monthly grocery bill.

    Currently, I have our grocery bill at about 180-200 a month. That includes a TON of fresh and frozen produce, and some great cuts of meat when it is on sale. I always look for good sales on meat. 

     The other day we were at Heartlands Foods in Beatrice. They currently have a "Pick 5 for $25" Special on their meat. 

We got pork chops (marked at $5.89) 

Two cuts of ribs ($6.96 and $5.33). 

Huge chicken breasts ($5.89)  

Brautwaursts ($7.26). 

Well, that meat wasn't really that high priced, but I did make sure to get some of the more expensive cuts of meat. We saved $6.33 on that meat!! (I LOVE sales like that.) 

PLUS!! The best part is that with the heartland foods groceries to gas card Meat is 50 points per dollar spent. Well I earned 1580 points on the meat alone, which can turn into 5 cents off per gallon. (Up to 15 gallons!). That means I can still save a 75 more cents!! 

That puts me at just over $7 dollars in savings in the entire grocery trip.

Anyway... that was not the point of this post, I just had to brag a little because I was excited about those kinds of savings on meat!

Here is my list of meals:

Beef:

Golash

Spaghetti
Stir together Lasagna

Tacos

Hamburgers

Hamburger Helper

Taco Hamburger Helper

Meatloaf

Hamburger Gravy with Mashed Potatoes

Taco Soup

Runzas (Casserole Style)

Cheeseburger Casserole
Cheeseburger Sloppy Joe
Cheeseburger Calzone

Burritos/ Enchiladas

Chicken:

Chicken Tacos

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Chicken Breasts (Baked with Ranch powder as a coating)

Wings
Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

Breakfast:

Biscuits and Gravy

Pancakes

Eggs

Convenience Meals:

Banquet meals (Sometimes, they are nice to have when I get off work and don't want to cook!)

Pot Pies

Mac and Cheese

Frozen Pizzas

Frozen noodle and veggie steamers (Add some chicken.. Yumm.)

Other Cuts of Meat:

Sausage/ Fettuccine Alfredo

Ribs

Roast

Hot Dogs (Turkey Dogs from Walmart ($.99)

Brauts

Pork Chops (SunMarts 10 for $10!)

Sandwiches

Farmland Ham and Instant mashed potatoes
Pepperoni Pizza Roll

Vegetarian:

Potato Soup

Noodles with veggies and cheese (or Alfredo sauce)

Quesdillas with a Rice Side

Stuffed Shells (Meat/Marinara/Cheese.. Or pretty much anything)

I try to do about 2 or 3 vegetarian nights a month, just because meat does get expensive very quickly. I will be the first to admit though, Sean and I eat very well. We have a veggie and a fruit at ALMOST every meal when we eat at home.. We rarely ever have Ramen noodles in the house. We don't really eat canned soup other than tomato soup. All of those "cheap" foods, they don't exist in this house.. other than mac and cheese (Cuz its the best food EVER)

A lot of my recipes are found on pinterest. If I find something I really want to try, I typically print it off and try to fit it into the meal plan for the next two weeks.

      Now, when you have a master list you can sit down and figure out what each recipe takes and how much you need of it. Then you can effectively look for price matches or coupons.

Do you do something similar at home home and know something that worked better? Let me know what you are doing at home!!

Cooking Oil instead of Air in a Can!!

     Sooo.. I am starting to try to bake more (trying more pinterest stufff...) and I was in need of non-stick cooking spray. Cooking spray can get so expensive and it has a ton of added chemicals and such... Not a fan.. So I thought I would give this a try. I got the instructions from this blog post.

Ingredients: 

1 part oil

5 parts water

Spray bottle (preferably misting)

Here is the ending result: 

Yes, It is settled, because it settles within 3 seconds of shaking it up. You almost have to spray it in between each shake... Bummer..















My opinion of the product: I'm not really sure what I think about it yet. I don't like that I have to shake it really well between each spray.. but I did it and it seemed to work.
I used it for making scrambled eggs (baked in the oven) in muffin tins for my egg muffin look alike, which can be found HERE.

I think, for now, I like it. It is quick and easy to make, and I don't have to spend a fortune on a little air filled can with a little bit of oil. (Plus, every time I am at wal-mart I forget to buy it anyway, that is until I need it again.)


I consider this a Pinterest Success. It helped me save money. AND I don't have to worry about all of the chemicals in the can of air and oil. Woo!

Egg McMuffins at Home

 Wow, It has been a crazy couple of weeks around here. I had drill last weekend (and it kicked my butt). I have been working about 15 hours a week now (budget is tighter than ever) and I have been spending as much time as I can at my grandparents farm to spend time with my grandpa. Between all of that and Sean being in school and working about 25 hours a week, our lives are crazy..
   Well, now that Sean has started school, he is on the go for breakfast almost every day. He just doesn't have time to sit down and eat a bowl of cereal (We don't buy milk either so cereal is kinda out of the question anyway..)
    I've been spending some time on pinterest looking for ideas for breakfast. We don't have time to sit down and make pancakes and all of that every morning and we don't have the grocery budget to buy a ton of prepackaged, chemical added, frozen breakfast sandwiches. I have come up with a couple good ideas so far, and I'm slowly trying each one of them.


     Even though I have worked at McDonald's for almost 3 years, it has not stopped me from liking our egg muffins! I LOVE our Sausage Muffins. So after spending sometime on pinterest I realized that I could easily make some ahead of time, toss them in the freezer with a paper towel around them, and microwave them in the mornings for us.

Here is a printable version of this recipe!


 I used:
Tomas Muffins (Bought at the Bread Store)
6 Eggs
6 Slices of Cheese
6 Slices of Ham (about 2 or 3 slices per muffin
3 pieces of Turkey sausage (Not Pictured)










First, I cracked the eggs into muffin tins.
I broke the yolk just enough so it would bake all the way through.

 Preheat oven to 350 and bake the eggs for about 10-25 minutes. That seems like a huge range, but it really depends upon the muffin tin you are using.

When I made them, it took about 15 minutes. I suggest not using a small muffin tin like I did. Our eggs turned out fitting really small on the muffin. The goal is to have the egg smaller width wise. It should be relatively flat.

While the eggs were in the oven, I baked the muffins just a little bit. I spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven with the eggs.

I have read that you can also use a toaster and that works just as good.









After the eggs were fully cooked, I assembled the muffins. I made three of them with sausage and the other three with ham.

Then, (Not Pictured) I baked them for about 3-5 minutes after they were completely assembled. After taking them from the oven I let them cool on the counter for about 20 minutes.

After that I wrapped them in paper towels and placed them into 2 freezer safe bags. (One marked ham, one marked sausage)










For reheating, I just about 2-3 minutes. I flipped the muffin over half way through.

These are great for in the mornings.











Price Breakdown 

Muffins:                        1.25                        (At Breadstore in Beatrice)
Ham:                            1.55                        (while at BOGO Free-Regular at 3.10)
Cheese:                         1.98                         (Heartland Grocery Store)
Eggs:                               .89                         (For half dozen eggs)

Total:                          5.67
Per Muffin:            95 CENTS!!

McDonald's Savings:      2.66   -  .95   =  1.71 savings per muffin!! 
    On 6:                      15.96   -  5.67  = 10.29!!!! 

What a great way to save some money if you are one of those people who eats a sausage egg muffin on the way to work almost every morning of the week (or even 1 or 2)

These are also great for kids! What a yummy treat to get them to eat breakfast, not to mention they have a lot of the needed food groups in just one sandwich (Meat, grains, dairy)


And! They are pretty healthy. (Well.. The egg muffins actually don't save you that many calories.. Only about 40 calories..)  BUTT.. When using turkey sausage you save about 140 calories. They save you a ton of sodium as well. If you use a lower calorie cheese or muffin you can mix it up and make them for pretty low calories.


(But with that kind of savings who can argue with that!)
They only took me about 45 minutes to make (while I was doing a couple other things!)




Did you try this at home and find something that worked better? Let me know what you are doing at home!!

Portion Control to the Max!

   

The other day Sean and I were talking about why were weren't losing any weight, even though we eat pretty health and live pretty active lifestyles. (It seems like we are always on the go..)

     Sean said that his biggest problems was portion control. After he said that, I thought he might be on to something. Knowing HOW much you are eating is just as important as to WHAT you are eating!! (I always forget this...)

      My biggest problem (just so all of my loyal readers are up to date..) is that I don't eat enough. I talked with my recruiter early next week and we talked about what I am eating on a day to day basis. He told me that he wants to see me try to eat at least 6 times a day. (including 3-100 calorie snacks). I am regularly suppose to eat every 2-3 hours during my day. 

          So after I talked with my recruiter, I was on my way to walmart to get snack baggies, pretzels, wheat thins, and prepackaged 100 calorie snacks. 50 bucks later, I came out with everything I needed to make my own snack packs to take with me when I am at work, or on the go during that 2-3 hour window. At work, I just run to the back, eat it really quick when I get a chance and get back up on the floor. I haven't really ran into much of a problem when I couldn't grab my snackage at work before heading back, which is great. 

       My recruiter told me that for the first few days, I was going to feel like I was eating so much food. I was going to be extremely full, but after those few days. I was going to be starving for the next food that was going into my body. I would get to the point that at about 2 hours, I was extremely hungry already. This is my metabolism kicking in and working better than it did before. 

      Well, he was right. I'm pretty much always starving right now, except right after my meals.. Then I am extremely full. 

All of this sparked my creativity side of thinking and I started thinking about how I could so easily prepackage a lot of my foods.


So I started off with the wheat thins and the pretzels. 

      I pre-proportioned my wheat thins, pretzels, almonds, banana chips, raisins, marshmallows, and (bought for an extra extra treat) dark chocolate covered raisins.. they are all packaged in approximately 100 calorie proportions.
   This is great for when I am on the go at work, and doing other errands. It saves me from having to count everything out and worry about over eating. It also keeps me from eating straight out of the boxes/bags, which I have been known to do once or twice.
       I did end up buy pre-packaged cookie 100 calorie snacks for my sweet tooth cravings. I have an awful sweet tooth around 9:30-10 at night. I just want a something sweet and a lot of it. Well I got these cookies specifically for that time period. Although, I don't think I will be buying them again because I have found that I can replace the cookies with marshmallows or raisins and my cravings are just as satisfied because with those snacks I get a lot more of them than just 6 tiny little cookies. 

Then I moved on to my oatmeal that I eat every morning...

    Since I was told that I need to eat more.. I have been aiming for a breakfast consisting of anywhere between 300 and 450 calories. I try to aim pretty close to 380 for most mornings. Since then I have been trying to eat oatmeal for breakfast. It is low in calories, but high enough for me to get what I need without having to eat a TON! I have found that stirring in the brown sugar after it is cooked helps make a little bit go a lot farther. I only use about a tablespoon of brown sugar total (about 35 calories). My mornings can get really hectic. On Saturdays and Sundays, I have to be to work by 7am. For those who know me, they know I am NOT a morning person (still trying to figure out why I joined the military for that reason...lol) All of my portions are already measured out, so I can just dump the bag into a bowl and add a cup of water. Perfect for mornings..
    For those with kids, this is perfect for them to get going in the morning. Oatmeal is known to keep a person fuller longer, but it is also great for cold winter mornings. Having it portioned out makes it extremely easy for kids to make their own in the morning. When bagging them, you can add brown sugar for convenience, but I prefer not to, just because I am calorie counting.

Then to my frozen vegetables...

     This was probably the most helpful thing out of all of them. I pre-proportioned out my frozen veggies so I don't have to worry about that when I am making them as sides for lunch/supper. I LOVE veggies. These are proportioned out according to serving size on the bags. Most of these bags contain anywhere from 30-70 calories, which makes them great sides to go along with a chicken breast, pork chop, or even a burger. I am really excited about these because I think it will help us eat more of our veggies and think of them more as a convenience and not a hassle to deal with.

So... My organization...

I bought 4 or 5 of these cute little baskets for our freezer and cabinets to hold the baggies. I got the baskets at Family Dollar for $1.50 a piece, which was crazy cheaper than walmart's prices for like items.  I also bought my Aunt Lisa's cabinet from her to hold ALL of our snackage. This way it is all in one place and we don't go looking through the other food in order to find snacks. This has been working out great!!

I started out writing on EVER SINGLE BAGGIE.. but that ended quickly. Instead I have two post-it notes with the amount in each baggie. It made everything go by so much quicker when it came down to bagging it.

     So.. This has been a huge success for me and I am every excited about the entire thing. I have everything ready for when I need to eat and when I am on the go.

      So, I bet my faithful readers are wondering how much this has helped me lose... *Drum roll please* I am sitting at a solid- Non fluctuating. 150. Which is great. I have drill next weekend and I am hoping to be down to 145-147 by then. I would really like to be close. I have accepted that I will not make my goal of losing the weight by graduation because that gives me 30 days to lose almost 20 pounds (crazy unrealistic. So my new goal is to be at 140 or high 130's by graduation. Then down to my goal weight before I leave for AIT on May 30. I am really hoping to be able to do this, but the next few weeks are absolutely crazy when it comes to my schedule.

My Love-Hate Relationship with the Kitchen

    With Sean starting school and me looking at a part time job, I have to find something for breakfast! Last night while Sean was at work I got the crazy idea that I could cook. HA!
      I decided to try to make applesauce, tortillas, and granola bars. HaHa!!

Here is the applesauce recipe that I attempted.

Here is the granola bars recipe I tried.

And here is the tortillas that I killed.



Well let's just say that nothing really turned out how I thought it was going to/ how the recipe called for.

The tortillas were awful. They tasted like pure flour. Instead of using regular flour, I tried using whole wheat flour. It is better for you, but it turned out dry and awful.

The granola bars turned out harder than I thought they were going to be. I didn't have the right sized pan so I was going to try to make them into cookie sized granola cookies. 

Fail. They tasted like burnt honey. I wish they would have worked out, but many I will try again with a different recipe. 

I think the applesauce was the one I was hoping would work out the most. It looked soo good, but it was mushy and gross. I was really disappointed.







So, my relationship with the kitchen is not very strong right now. I go thru these random fails, where everything I make doesn't work out. I have since retried working in the kitchen and have made some pretty good stuff. I wish I would have been successful with the granola bars because those would make really good snacks, but that's okay. Maybe next time.

QC&H: Veggie Chips

Today, I saw on pinterest to make chips out of veggies like carrots and cucumbers. Well, I had produce that was quickly going bad. I had to do something with them. I love salty snacks such as chips and other snacks like that. So What the hay. Why not give it a try.

1. I already had cucumbers cut up in a dish from earlier this week. I laid them out on a cookie sheet and brushed on a little bit of vegetable oil on both sides. I then put them in the oven for 10 minutes at 350. Then 5 minutes on broil. 
2. I then took them out of the oven and flipped them over. I sprinkled garlic salt over them and put them back into the oven for 15 minutes on 350 degrees. 
3. When I pulled them out of the oven I flipped them over and let them cool. I think they taste really good. I hope they dry out more and they become more crunchy. 

I followed the same steps with the carrots. Instead of using the brush with the carrots, I threw them in a bowl with oil and garlic salt. Then put them on a cookie sheet and bake the same as the cucumbers. 

Don't they look good! (:

This is a great alternative to snacking on chips and other fatty foods. I love these pinterest meals and snacks. They make eating healthy easier and some of them are kind of fun to see how they will turn out. I like eating some of them and most of them turn out pretty good.

And! for an even better plus, Sean likes the carrots a lot. "if we kept this stuff around, I would be set." Welp, Sean said it best.


Also!

A bag of carrots cost.. 1.66 at walmart.
A Cucumber costs ... .78!

So you can't go wrong because it is so much cheaper than a bag of chips!

QC&H #1: Hamburger Casserole

   Okay, so weekends are always a little crazy, but this one has definitely been up there with the craziest! Last night Sean and I got home and we were STARVING! We had been at work all day and went to his brother's gonna be house. (Long story) Anyway. I was helping Josh fix and clean up until around 8 and Sean was easily there until almost 9. Well when I got home I was definitely not in the mood to cook, and knowing that drill is two weeks away and I need to start watching weight to get to were I needed to be, I was not set out on eating out again.
       I went into our kitchen and tried to come up with something. I decided to make the low carb version of our Hamburger Casserole that Sean and I have made a couple times. We try to rotate our recipes pretty frequently and we are always looking for more, but this is a go to recipe when we are out of ideas.

     It's pretty good and it was about 220 calories per serving. I ate an apple and an orange with it. so my supper calories were right at about 300 last night (Which is typically what a meal should be and not a whole lot more.

      Sorry, I was so tired last night that I forgot to take pictures of each step. I thought I had taken a lot more pictures than I did until I went to upload them and realized I had taken the uploaded one and one of a tomato. I failed on that. Sorry!!
Here is the greatness:


Ingredients:
1 lb of hamburger
1 whole pickle (I think I only used 3/4)
1 whole tomato
Diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp mustard
6 slices of cheese

First brown the hamburger. Drain. 

While you are doing this you should dice up the tomato, pickle, and onion into small bits. There is about the sizes I used, but that is up to the cook.

When the hamburger is browned add the pickle, tomato and onion to the hamburger and let it mix together in the pan. I usually stir it around for about 5 minutes..

Then I add the mixture into a casserole dish. I add the ketchup and mustard into the dish and stir it well, trying to evenly coat it the hamburger. (Last night was the first time I did it this way and it turned our really good)

Then smooth it out and add the cheese slices to the top of it. Bake it at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. 

Simple meal in about 20 minutes. 

You can also add crescent rolls to the top of the casserole and make it even more like a cheeseburger, but that adds up the calories and the carbs. (But it is still very good)

I know one of my friends is always looking for recipes that are quick, easy, cheap, and good for a person who can burn macaroni. (: That's my goal is to find recipes that don't cost too much, are still healthy, and don't take a million hours and a lot of know how to make them.

Here is recipe number one of a series of Quick, Cheap and Healthy!    

Here is the cost of this meal:

1 lb Hamburger:
 (We buy in rolls of ten @ 2.49/lb.)      

 = 2.49

Jar of pickles:
     Kept in the fridge for a low cal snack(Probably cost around
        2 Bucks a jar for 6(about) pickles)

  =.33

Tomato:
   I believe they were priced matched this time around

=.99

Ketchup and mustard were kept in the fridge. 

       For what you use ( Just a guess on it.)

=.25

Kraft singles

   @1.99 for 16

     For 6 of them

=.75

4.81 For the entire dish and it serves 6. That makes it at just about .80 per serving. Now. I know that you may not have everything in the house (pickles, ketchup, mustard) so it will be a little more than that. 4.81 is a heck of a lot less than eating fast food. 

Lets use McDonald's (Just because I know the prices and I want to prove my point about fast food.) 

The price of our lowest meal, the number 6, is 3.84 after tax. That is 7.68 for both of you.

(assuming you are feeding you and one other person like I am.) But it is hardly ever ordered. 

Our highest priced meal, Angus meals, is 6.20 after tax. That would be 12.20 for two.

That averages at 9.94 (7.68+12.20 /2) 

So even if you did have to by pickles at 2 bucks and I know you can get a bottle of ketchup for 1 dollar.

That still only puts you at 7.81 for this entire meal. You will save $2.13 and you will have leftovers unless you are feeding more than 2. 

So there you go. This is why eating at home saves money. Thanks for reading through all of the math (which is probably over doing it and for the rest of the series I will just post the prices of each item and the total meal and per serving) I just wanted to show how it worked.

Juicing

            Woo! Thank you dad for this awesome juicer!
      Today, I wanted to share about Sean's and my latest "healthy lifestyle change." I hate calling them diets because to me that means short lived.. except most of our tries have been short lived... so... Oh well.

      How many of you readers have Netflix? Probably most of you, Right? Okay. Well I recommend you watching the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  My dad recommended it to us, and now I am suggesting it to you.

    It is about a guy who has a very rare disease, but is also overweight. I believe he starts at 370ish lbs. (Don't quote me on that part... Its been a few days since I watched this..)
     This documentary is about his trip cross country during his 60 days of detoxing cleans by JUST drinking juice. He has a juicer in the back of his van and he goes around to farmer's markets and different places talking to  people about juicing. Along the way he meets a ton of people that say they could never be able to do it, as well as two or three people who actually commit to doing it for the 10 day challenge.
    Not to ruin the ending, but he loses a ton of weight and is taken off all of his medication for the rare disease. *GASP*


      So.. After watching this and talking to my dad, (and my dad giving us a juicer) Sean and I decided that we would start to replace just one meal with it. Breakfast is the easiest because the fruit juices are so much better than all of the vegetables.

Here is my breakfast:

(A big handful of Purple and green Grapes, 1 Orange, 1/4 of a tomato)

Now, I am sure you are thinking that looks really gross. It's actually not! The tomato left almost no flavor it the final product so it tastes like orange and grape juice. Yum.

Plus, it leaves you with a TON of energy and leaves me feeling full after I finish it.

I have drill this weekend for the National Guard, but as soon as I get back from drill Sean and I are hoping to start the 10 day challenge of only juicing for ten days, with no actual food. *Fingers Crossed!*

Okay, so my next post probably won't be until Sunday night, unless I decide to do it from my phone tomorrow night in the barracks, but I probably will just crash tomorrow night after a full day of who knows what I will be doing tomorrow! 

Birthday Pancakes!

          Sorry Everyone! I have been sick the last two days. I have the worst headache/ sinus infection. But today is Sean's birthday, so I had no choice but to get up and to get outta bed. I have made huge plans for his birthday.
    Last year I made fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. It failed. The chicken was slightly raw, the potatoes were kinda lumpy.
   I'm not really that great of a cook. Actually.. I hate cooking. It is because of websites such as pinterest that give me a picture of what it should look like at the end. Well.. My food never looks like the picture.

So this year for his birthday.. I tried to make Birthday Cake Pancakes from this Blog. 
http://penniesonaplatter.com/2012/08/15/birthday-cake-pancakes/

Well.. They didn't turn out looking anything like those ones. 
And THIS. This is why I hate cooking.. 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cake mix (homemade or the box kind)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (1.75 oz bottle) sprinkles

Okay. So first you are suppose to mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. (Except the sprinkles) Then pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ones, and after well mixed fold the sprinkles into the batter.

<<<<Like this 

Then cook like normal pancakes.

So in the end, they turn out looking like this. 

Cute I guess, but you can't tell the sprinkles are even in them. Nothing like the picture. 

And I would just give up hope on the icing, because ours turned out really gross. 

Maybe just use frosting?

On the plus side, the sausage was really good, But other than that I would call this Pinterest idea another fail. Sorry Sean, other birthday meal failed, but that's okay. I still have supper tonight to hopefully make up for it. (I'll let everyone in on what I did for that tomorrow.)