What do you do on a 3 day weekend?

My weekend started out Friday night by going to see my brother and his improv  group at Seattle U. They really are quite hilarious. I was thinking of staying home because I was so tired from a busy week at work, but I'm glad I went to see him! Then Saturday was my super productive day. I cleaned EVERYTHING- bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, did laundry, changed sheets, put clothes away, dusted, vacuumed, and more. It felt so good to get everything cleaned up (and now I don't want to touch or use anything that would mess it all up!) The rest of the weekend included church, clearing up the DVR by finally watching the Grammy's and a few other shows, reading (Sticky Faith by Kara Powell and Chap Clark and Love Times Three by the Dargers), shopping, and sleeping! Saturday afternoon I turned to pinterest as I thought of what I should make for dinner and this is the result...

Recipe #1 Crock Pot Shredded Chicken

While this post is about the most recent weekend, I actually made this chicken last weekend. It turned out SO well. The recipe can be found here. It was super easy to just throw it all in the crockpot and let it cook for a few hours. When it was done I shredded it up and bagged it for lunches and put a few in the freezer.

Recipe #2 Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Now anyone who knows me knows that I rarely follow a recipe exactly step by step. (I've inherited that trait from my mom. Love you, mom!) We'll start with the fact that I didn't do this in the crock pot, I did it in a soup pot on the back of the stove. I also omitted the bell pepper (because I don't like them) and used the shredded chicken I had put in the freezer last weekend. The real recipe can be found here. I also made the honey jalapeño cornbread, found at the same site. This dinner got a big thumbs up from Luke and I've got leftovers in the fridge and freezer to take for lunches this week!

Recipe #3 M&M Samoa Blondies

Naturally, when I start to make dinner my mind jumps to what I'm going to make for dessert. So I head to pinterest and look in my cupboard for what I can create out of the ingredients I have. I found coconut in the freezer and thought I remembered a recipe for samoa blondies on pinterest. SO good! Samoas are some of my favorite girl scout cookies and these cookie bars have a very similar taste. The recipe can be found at Six Sisters' Stuff (one of my favorite places to find new recipes!)

I really love to cook and bake and I love sharing the things I make with others. Pinterest is a great place to find new recipes to try and I find myself trying at least one new recipe a week, sometimes more. I'm thankful for friends and family who are always willing to help me eat the things I create. 

I'm especially thankful for this guy who always eats everything I make! This was taken on Thursday night before we went out for Valentine's Day at BluWater Bistro. I am a blessed girl :)

Friday night taco seasoning

Happy Friday! It has been a very long week of work (after a long week of being deathly ill) and I am so thankful to have a night to lay on the couch and watch TV like a bum. Friday night means lots of wedding shows on TLC, and [since I drove by Little Caesar's on my way home from Target] it also means pizza :)

Recently I have been pinning a lot of recipes on pinterest and have been trying to cook more real meals and have lunches to take to work. Yesterday I made a beef stew in the crock pot and (just like my mom) I couldn't find a recipe I really liked, so I just dumped a bunch of stuff together. Stew meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, AND sweet potatoes! I will never make stew without sweet potatoes ever again! It was so yummy. The sweet potatoes fall apart a lot more than regular potatoes and give the stew a great consistency and sweet taste.

Tomorrow I am planning on making chicken in the crock pot that I can shred and use for tacos, wraps, sandwiches, salads, and more during the week. This is the recipe I am planning on using. Hopefully it comes out as yummy as it sounds!

One of the things I need for tomorrow's chicken is taco seasoning AND I just happen to come across a recipe for homemade taco seasoning this week on pinterest. So tonight I made my own mix of taco seasoning to use on my chicken tomorrow. I feel so domestic making taco seasoning, but it was really easy! And the sodium intake will be much lower than seasoning from a packet. Looking forward to using this seasoning on a variety of different meals!