Ultimate Savory Pot Roast w/Gravy

Back in February Me, my sister Jessica, my mom Heather, my cousin Kasey and a good friend of ours Barb went to see The  Addams Family play here at our local performing arts hall. We love going to musicals its kind of our "thing" we like to do with just the girls! Here is a picture from the matinée we went to.

The night before the play my mom and sister came and spent the night at my house so they could attend church with me and my husband in the morning before we went to the play. But before my mom and sister were to get here we had planned on "spring cleaning" our downstairs bedroom. I knew that because of this I wasn't going to want to cook a huge meal that night because I would be tired from cleaning so I planned on making a roast in the crockpot. 

I found one I had never used before on the Crockingirls website and thought it was pretty interesting since it included a can of coke in its ingredients!! It was super simple to throw together and super delicious to eat. I served it with rice, green beans and a dinner roll!! 

Ultimate Savory Pot Roast w/Gravy

Ingredients

• 4 Pounds Chuck Roast (any beef roast will do)
• 1 Package Savory pot roast seasoning
• 1 Can Coke
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 Package Au Jus gravy mix

Directions

Step One

Mix the pot roast seasoning with the cup of water in slow cooker.

1. Step Two

   Place roast in mixture, then pour coke over top 
   
   

   Step Three

   Cover with lid and cook on LOW for 8hrs. DO NOT LIFT THE LID!
   
   

   Step Four

   After it's done cooking take the lid off (depending how lean your roast was at this point I skim the fat off) and sprinkle the AuJus packet over the top of roast and replace lid for about 5 mins. Take roast out of slow cooker then just slice, serve, and enjoy. :)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   And of course here is my final plate!! 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Hope you guys try it and like it as much as we all did! I have many more recipes that im gonna try and post soon so check back later for more!! 
   
   

Country Fried Steak with Creamy Mashed Potatoes!

Last night I did not cook dinner, instead Danny and I went with his brother and some friends to check out a new "wing night" spot (new to us, not them.) 

We had a wing place that we frequented almost every week with his parents but it ended up closing down. That place had wings for $.45 a piece every Wednesday and the new place we went to last night was $.55. I of course get plain wings and then dip it in ranch because I have such a sensitive palette to anything spicy that even mild is to much for me sometimes (I know I am a wuss, can't help it!) Danny on the other hand gets Molten Lava Hot Spicy Garlic that smells SO spicy that when it comes to the table its like my nostrils are on fire...true story. 

BUT, the night before I cooked and it was de-li-cious!! The previous week when I was at the supermarket I noticed they had cube steak on sale and I though to myself "we haven't had country fried steak in FOREVER" So I picked us up a couple packages. This is hands down one of my favorite meals and its not hard to make it just makes a HUGE mess in my kitchen. By the time I am done cooking there is flour all over the kitchen from dredging the steaks plus grease splatter that ends up all over my stove after frying them in my cast iron skillet. But in the end taking that perfect bite of fried steak with creamy country gravy is SO worth the mess....

I have made several different recipes through the years but its the Pioneer Woman's recipe for country fried steak that I love. When Ree's show first aired on the food network I wasn't really sure what to make of her (and honestly thought she was kind of annoying) but after making a couple of her recipes, this one being one of the first I came to the conclusion that she is an absolute miracle worker in the kitchen! The following two recipes one for Country Fried Steak and the other for Creamy Mashed Potatoes both came from Ree's cookbook "The Pioneer Woman: Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl"

Lets get to it shall we.....

Country Fried Steak...aka Chicken Fried Steak by Ree

Ingredients:

1. 3 pounds Cube Steak (tenderized Round Steak That's Been Extra Tenderized)
2. 1-1/2 cups Whole Milk
3. 2 whole Large Eggs
4. 2 cups All-purpose Flour
5. 2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt
6. 1 1/2 teaspoons Freshly ground black pepper
7. 3/4 teaspoon paprika
8. 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I honestly used only 1/8 tsp but we already discussed me being a wimp)
9. 1/2 cup Canola Oil, For Frying
10. Salt and Pepper
11. 1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Begin with setting up an assembly line of dishes. Mix the milk with the eggs in one; the flour mixed with the seasoned salt, black pepper, paprika and cayenne in another. Then have one clean plate at the end to receive the breaded meat.
2. Work with one piece of meat at a time. Sprinkle both sides with kosher salt and black pepper, then place it in the flour mixture. Turn to coat. Place the meat into the milk/egg mixture, turning to coat. Finally, place it back in the flour and turn to coat (dry mixture/wet mixture/dry mixture). Place the breaded meat on the clean plate, then repeat with the remaining meat.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the butter. Drop in a few sprinkles of flour to make sure it's sufficiently hot. Cook the meat, 3 pieces at a time, until the edges start to look golden brown, about 2 minutes each side. Remove the meat to a paper towel-lined plate and keep them warm by covering lightly with another plate or a sheet of foil. Repeat until all the meat is cooked.

Now, if you have Ree's cookbook you will see she also has a recipe for country gravy. I will hang my head in shame and say that my gravy actually came from a packet...I know, I know but it was STILL delicious! :) 

We had creamy mashed potatoes that I kind of adapted from another recipe by The Pioneer Woman. In her recipe you make the mashed potatoes and then put them in a baking dish and finish them off in the oven. I skipped the last step and just served them after mashing them.

Ingredients:

1. 2 1/2 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes
2. 1/2 stick Butter, Softened
3. 1/2 package (4 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened
4. 1/2 cup (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half (i just used whole milk cause that's what I had)
5. 1/2 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
7. 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper

Directions:

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks. Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Drain the potatoes in a large colander. Place them back into the dry pot and put the pot on the stove. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape before adding in all the other ingredients.
3. Turn off the heat and add butter, the cream cheese, half-and-half (or milk), seasoned salt, kosher salt and pepper. Mash to combine.

**I served them at this point but if you want to go ahead with the original recipe you can find it here. 

And here is my final plate! I served them with buttered green beans and a side salad...

P.S....im still trying to decide/learn how to use my new camera. Im not 100% sure if I am gonna keep it yet or get a new one. We shall see.

Yummy Spinach Dip!

So as everyone (well most normal people who aren't living under a rock) in North America probably knew...two weekends ago was the Super Bowl. I am VERY happy to announce due to my total dislike for anything New England Patriots (sorry Jen!) that the New York Giants rallied late in the game to pull off a 21-17 victory against New England in Super Bowl XLVI!! GO GIANTS!

I will admit that I am not a die hard Giants fan. Growing up in Southwest Florida my whole life I am a through thick and thin Miami Dolphins girl so much so that it is represented not only on the front but on the back of my car as well! With that being said, as much as I LOVE my fins...I dislike (I'm saying dislike because I am trying to be polite!) the Patriots just as much along with there QB Tom Brady. So I will pretty much route for whoever they are playing against! :)

Anyway, I get side tracked easily! So two weekends was the Super Bowl and we ended up going over to some good friends of ours house to watch the game and I decided to bring over Spinach Dip. Now this isn't my original Spinach Dip recipe that I have used for several years this is actually a dip that I started making after my cousin Kasey brought it over one time to a party that we were having at our house and it was so good (and I don't even like spinach!) that I had to have the recipe! People like me who don't even like spinach or spinach dip really like this dip that's how GOOD it is. Trust me!

The original recipe comes off the back of the Lipton Vegetable Soup mix box with one little alteration which I am positive is what makes this dip as fabulous as it is. First let me give you the recipe and then I will tell you what we do differently....

Spinach Dip

INGREDIENTS

1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Vegetable Soup Mix
1 container (8 oz.) sour cream or 0% fat Greek yogurt
1 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Combine all ingredients in medium bowl; chill 2 hours.

Serve with your favorite dippers.

Now as I stated before I do a few things different (not anything I came up on my own mind you but its still different.) I don't use the optional water chestnuts because I don't care for them but if you like them by all means give it a whirl! The one thing different I do and I believe Kasey found this out on accident because she bought the wrong ingredient one time but I could be mistaken about that, is we use frozen CREAMED spinach instead of just regular and it makes it a million times better in my opinion. It just adds this extra creaminess that is just simply heaven! Another thing is I don't cook my spinach. I'm not sure what Kasey does but I just never have since frozen spinach is already cooked anyway I just let it thaw out then add it. I don't even squeeze dry it because since you aren't cooking it it doesn't get all that extra liquid and I don't want to loose any of the yummy creamy part. 

I do usually double the recipe when I make it because a) it goes SO fast at parties you really want the extra dip and b) I usually place my dip in a bread bowl right before serving and after I have hollowed out the crust If I make just one batch of the dip it usually doesn't fill the whole bowl like I like it to! :) 

So there you have it. At your next get-together try this easy and inexpensive dip. I know you will love it as much as we all do! 

As always if you end up trying it let me know what you think! 

Have a good week!

Jen

I'M Back....

I know, I know....I have been a BAD blogger! Its just I have had so much going on through the holidays and going through my back pain issue (which thankfully is better!) I literally had no time to blog or was in so much pain I wasn't even able to get out of bed and when I did get downstairs to cook I certainly wasn't in the mood to take pics of everything for the blog. But I feel better and ready to get back to cooking! :)

Let me give you a quick version of what I have been doing while I wasn't blogging....

I hosted my very first Thanksgiving at our house we had about 30 adults plus children. It was wonderful and stressful all at the same time because I was working very hard to make it PERFECT. We had two turkeys (one traditional in the oven which I made and one smoked that my BIL did) and a ham that my MIL made. Then I made 4 pies from SCRATCH for dessert and everyone who came also brought a dish anywhere from an appetizer to a side dish. It was a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of family and friends! Certainly beats last Turkey day by a long shot since last year I was eating Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital attached to a vent!

I had my one year anniversary of my lung transplant on December 2, 2011 and I celebrated in style by not only having a wonderful party at my house with family and friends to celebrate....BUT I also got to spend 4 amazing days in NYC with my sister and cousin. We walked EVERYWHERE, by the time it was time to go home parts of my body that I didn't even knew existed hurt! But I could do it and I didn't have to stop/rest/or hold anyone back because I could BREATH! It was an amazing feeling!

Christmas kinda snuck up on me this year. I am usually that person who in October is usually done shopping and this year I don't even know what happened but I was way behind and still shopping the week of Christmas! That will never happen again believe me because all the millions of people who were also shopping reminded me why I don't go to stores or malls in the month of December is because of all the other crazy shoppers out there! Christmas Eve was spent with the in-laws and Christmas day was spent with my family by going to church in the morning and then dinner late afternoon.  It was a great Christmas all around.

New Years Eve we had a little party at out house like we usually do. Danny doesn't really care to go out on New Years and worry about who's gonna drive home and then navigating the roads with all the other people who are possibly driving drunk. He thinks its just safer to stay home. So we have had a New Years Eve party every year we have lived in our house except last cause I was still in Gainesville recovering.

So that brings us into January. I just had a check up last week that included a bronch and yesterday my coordinator called me with my results which I am proud to say were NEGATIVE for rejection!! I was a little worried this time because I have been having major sinus issues and I didn't want that negatively affecting my beautiful breathers. Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention I got a early 30th birthday present yesterday (my bday is 2/3!) a NEW CAR!! Its so pretty, I will have to post pictures next time I blog! :)

Well that's all I got for today. I have to go meet my little brother at his college cause he needs some money for gas...aren't I a good sister or what? LOL

Till next time....XoxoX

Its been WAY to long...

I don't even know where to begin! Its been so long since I wrote a blog and everyday I tell myself ok I am gonna write one and then I just don't.

I have been feeling SO great lately and am hardly ever home during the day anymore and thats when I usually wrote my blog post! But tonight I was like ok this is getting ridiculous, sit down and write something....so here it goes! :)

In the last month, I had my 6 month transplantaversary, my 4 YEAR wedding anniversary, been to Orlando twice (once for a the weekend with Danny for a Disney trip for out Anniversary and once for a week with my parents at there time share) both trips were awesome and I had a blast!

I think the best part for me about Disney was the fact that we got there at 8:30am and didn't leave the park till 10:30pm and I walked ALL day with out being out of breath, tired or needing any breaks besides when we stopped for food/drinks. My brother-in-law who is a firefighter actually started complaining about his feet hurting around noon...by the end of the day I told him if I had to hear about his feet one more time I was gonna punch him in the eye!! LOL

A few weeks ago I joined the gym around the corner from house. I started with just doing the treadmill for 30 minutes and now am up to a little over an hour there doing both the treadmill and weight machines for my arms and legs. I go pretty much every other day and I really enjoy it. At first I was SO sore but now its much better and I can feel myself getting a little stronger every week! I have finally gotten brave enough to try a spin class so I think my SIL and I are going to try a class sometime next week. The only sucky thing is the class is usually at like 9am and I am SO not a morning person and neither is my SIL Stephanie! But I am willing to get up and give it a try because everyone who takes the class just loves it.

I think I mentioned before that Danny was re-doing the downstairs bathroom and guest room. Well he has been working so much that its taken awhile to get things done but the bathroom is FINALLY done and the bedroom is almost done so I will try and get pictures up of the final product....I just LOVE my bathroom! :)

On a sad note a good friend of mine that I met last year past away this past Sunday. Sara lived in my town and had 2 tx's in Gainesville where I had my surgery. About 3 weeks ago our Dr sent her home with nothing else he could do for her chronic rejection and after being home for a week they called in hospice. On June 17th, Sara and her boyfriend Jesse were married in a little ceremony outside there home and on the following Sunday (June 19th) she passed away. I got to see her and say goodbye on Saturday and I have to say it was very heartbreaking for me but I am glad she isn't suffering anymore. Nobody should have to go through that...the person or their family. Its very sad. She was such a loving, caring and kind person and if you knew her and were lucky enough to call her your friend then you know just how special she was. No matter how sick she was she always took the time daily to text me to see how I was doing and was truly 100% happy for me that I was doing well and living life to the fullest...and I honestly don't know how she did it cause I don't think I am that type of person....but hopefully I can take a little piece of Sara with me and strive to be more like her. The world would be a much kinder place with more people like Sara in it.

On that sad note (now that I am crying once again) I think I will end my post for tonight and I will really try to update more often! Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures up of my 2 mini vacations when I get home from the gym!! :)

Good Night!!

XoxoX

Twelve days just FLY by...

I just looked at blogger and realized I haven't updated in 12 days!! Geez-louise!

Where to start...well I got my biopsy results back from my bronch a couple weeks ago and it was NEGATIVE for rejection!!! Woo-Hoo! I love hearing those results! :)

We had and awesome time at our friends wedding on Sanibel. It was so nice to "get away" for a night even if it was only an hour away from our house. Lounging by the pool with a RumRunner in my hand is the way to relax in style! Unfortunately, we didn't get to do the parasailing thing because my doctor said NO until my sternum is "completely" healed...bummer! But one day I will...

Us and the Newlyweds!!

Me, Danny, his brother Troy & wife Stephanie

Me & Danny <3

View from our room! :)

The next few weeks are jam packed for me. We have Easter next weekend, next week I think I am going back to Gainesville (I swear I am always there!) then the following weekend me and my family are going to Panama City Beach to see my Aunt and Uncle. Then May 4th I am riding up with my dad to Ohio to pick my little brother up from college. Then that following weekend is Mother's day....and in the middle of ALL that I go to physical therapy for 2 hours three days a week!! Im telling ya I am a busy girl!! :)

Man I am exhausted just thinking of all I have to do! LOL I just got home from PT so I am gonna straiten up my bedroom a little bit and then jump in the shower. I need to have dinner done a little early tonight cause we have to go to the grocery store after dinner and I don't want to be going super late!

Have a great Monday everyone.....

XoxoX

Last Friday GNO!! :)

Last Friday night Danny went to a concert with a bunch of boys so I went to my FIRST Girls Night Out since my transplant! It was so much fun and I always like spending time with my ladies. We went to Buca Di Beppo (sorry mom) it was SO yummy and I always leave there way to full. Steph and I shared the Chicken Carbonara...one word DELISH! :)

Here are a few photos...enjoy!

Enjoying the food!

Me and the best SIL! :)

All the girls outside...

Holly, Steph, Crissy & Me

My GFs from elementary/middle school! Love them! :)