Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice

(taken from the Crock Pot Recipe Card Collection)

I got a recipe card collection for Christmas last year for my slow cooker. You may have noticed that quite a few of the recipes I share are for slow cookers. Andre and I both work long hours at work, and the earliest either of us arrives home to start dinner is 6:45. Pretty late to start a traditional dinner that takes an hour to cook. Needless to say I cheat and use my slow cooker a lot so we can still have a good meal together at the end of the day.

This is one of my favourites. I was a little skeptical when I read the ingredients, but let me tell you, coming into your house at the end of a long day and taking a whiff of this great dinner will turn you into a believer! Just whip up some veggies, and dinner is done. In fact, this is cooking in my kitchen at this very moment.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice

Ingredients:

3 cans of condensed cream of chicken soup (we use the sodium reduced, or reduced fat varieties)

1 lb of chicken breasts or cutlets (can be frozen)

2 cups of brown instant rice, not cooked

1 cup of water

1/2 cup chopped celery

salt, pepper and paprika

Start by adding the soup, rice and water to the slow cooker.

Mix well, and then add the chicken. I always cheat, and add the chicken while it's frozen, you can always thaw it first.

Then season with a little salt and pepper, and paprika, and add the chopped celery on top.

Cover, and cook on Low for 6-8 hours (I find 6-6.5 works perfectly), or on High for 3-4 hours. This is how is should look:

If you are cooking your chicken from frozen, I would suggest checking to make sure the chicken is fully cooked with a meat thermometer (I'm a little bit of a freak like that making sure the meat is cooked properly, regardless if frozen or thawed from the start).

Make some veggies and dinner is done!

Enjoy! I know we will tonight!

Christmas Rundown

Christmas Eve already! Thankfully I booked yesterday and today off work to get the last minute things done.

This was all that we had to do, and what we still need to do in order to be ready to host dinner tomorrow:

• clean out upstairs hallway of all paint and reno supplies
• clean up main floor of all the misc crap that we've been collecting this week
• clean up the master bedroom to store coats tomorrow
• make belgian cookies for dessert Christmas day
• make dough for cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning
• clean out fridge to make room for yummy leftovers
• quickly wash kitchen and diningroom floor
• place all the wrapped Christmas presents under the tree

Saved for tomorrow before company arrives:

• vacuum carpet in the upstairs hallway and master bedroom
• clean bathrooms, and clear personal items off of counter
• make up guest bedroom for in-laws arrival
• close office door so our company can't see the mess that is this room
• sometime in there save a couple minutes to just enjoy the day with Andre before the craziness of company begins.

It doesn't seem so daunting now that I have it all written down!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and enjoys this precious time with their families and friends!

Mean to Green (er)

Wow, I have really been slacking off with this haven't I? I promise that with the long awaited Christmas vacation that I have booked off work that I will add a few more of these little tips.

You may or not remember that with my last Mean to Greener entry I talked about my love of my steam mop. One thing that I love about the mop are the micro fibre cleaning cloths and how I can throw them in the laundry instead of throwing them into the trash. The one thing I didn't love is that clear as day on the tag of any micro fibre item is the warning not to use fabric softener! One of my vices is my:

I know, I know, but I love the smell! So I had a problem. But then I remembered something I had read about using some:

instead of fabric softener. After a little searching on the internet to assure myself that my laundry would not end up smelling like french fries, I gave it a shot. And let me tell you I was shocked! Not only were my towels soft and fluffy, but they were just clean smelling. No artificial scents!

All I needed was a couple tablespoons of vinegar diluted with water poured into the automatic softener dispenser in my washing machine. Just a word to those out there still using Chlorine Bleach that these two things do not mix, so do not use the same together in a load or you will create very toxic fumes.

So now the next time you just happen to be out of fabric softener, or you just want to switch to something a little less toxic just reach for the vinegar in your pantry and you will be set!

And we wait some more

Well I finished the dreaded two weeks of Provera. Overall not a horrible experience. I ended up spotting all but three days of the two weeks, but didn't experience any terrible side effects aside from the PMS and cramps from hell the last week.

I knew by the second week that I would be getting a period. There was no way my body could hurt that badly if I wasn't going to get a period. And sure enough the last day of the course of Provera the period to end all periods arrived. I was happy that my body achieved the desired result at least.

So now we wait. I am to now wait a month to see if the Provera will kick start my cycles. I don't have terribly high hopes, but my mother tells me to be optimistic. We have also decided that regardless of what happens, that I am not going back on the pill. Instead we are going to try for a baby. A huge step, and one that we are both on the same page about. It took some discussing. Andre, bless him, was hesitant because he thought that I would get pregnant right away. Once I explained that with my track record of one ovulation per year, this would be next to impossible to happen right away without the help of a miracle, he was more relaxed.

It's funny, but lately it seems like he's talking about children and babies more often. Even last night we were in church at their annual Christmas Candlelight Service and there was a young couple seated behind us with a newborn. At one point Andre turned to me and whispered that I had to turn around, there was a baby that was brand new behind us and he was so cute with a little Santa hat on. I thought it was the sweetest thing.

Who knows, maybe next Christmas we'll be busy planning for our own little baby on the way. One can only hope.

Guestroom makeover

I just want to start by saying I think this is my new favourite room in the house. I just love how it turned out. We had our doubts when we started let me tell you. To refresh your memory this is what we started with. It was less than fabulous.

First off we painted every surface of the room. We used the new Behr paint and primer in one, and let me tell you, I am in love. We have already bought the paint for the office makeover. We used "Simply Sage". I originally wanted a neutral colour for the room and just came across this colour and brought it home on a whim. Andre fell in love with it too and we went in a different direction.

We then had some oak coloured laminate installed to cover the horrible wood flooring we found under the carpet. Then we hung some curtains, assembled our Ikea sofa bed/futon, and threw down an area rug that we had lying around. This is what we ended up with:

We obviously still need to add some finishing touches and some art to the walls, but it still wows me every time I go into the room how far we've come from the horrible rust coloured carpet, and the beige semi-gloss everywhere. My mother came over this weekend and said she found it hard to believe it's the same room compared to how it looked the day we got the keys.

I hope that Andre's parents enjoy their new home away from home when they come to stay with us for Christmas!

Childless=Lazy

I'm afraid that this appears to be the opinion of one of my closest friends, or should I say "friends". This friend is actually my best friend, one of my closest, and longest friends. She has always come out with snippy comments as long as I've known her, but lately they have really been getting on my nerves.

Today's episode is courtesy of a message she left on our voicemail this morning inviting us over for tea to see their new house. Sounds harmless enough right? Wrong!

Now Andre and I love to sleep as much as the next person. Lately especially Andre because he rises long before the sun to get to work on time. My friend left the following message on our voicemail at 9:16 this morning:

"Hi guys it's *** calling! It's about 9:15 in the morning. I was just calling to see if you wanted to come over this morning for tea to see the new house. I know it's really early in the morning and you're probably asleep..." It goes on from there about how they're up early because of the "baby". Normally I try not to let this sort of thing bother me, but today it did. Maybe I can blame it on the artificial hormone induced PMS that I am no doubt experiencing for the first time in about 7 months. Yeah, we'll go with that.

It's her tone when she leaves messages like this on the phone. And for the record, this is not the first time she has left a message like this on our voicemail, every time we don't answer the phone when she calls on a Saturday morning the message begins with "Oh, you're probably sleeping..." in the tone. She might as well just say "It's 9:00 and you're not answering the phone?! How can you let the whole day pass you by like that?! We were up so early this morning with the baby. We are just so busy because of the baby" For the record the baby is almost a year and a half. More like toddler, than screaming infant.

The worst part is that I feel like justifying myself to her! When she leaves a message like that I feel like I have to tell her everything that I did that morning. "Oh I'm so sorry I couldn't answer! I was having a shower/cleaning the bathroom/vacuuming" I know, so glamorous! Today I couldn't answer because I was already at work. At my career. Something she wouldn't know about because she's never had a career. As much as I would love to tell her this, I know it would hurt her feelings, so I would never do that.

For now I think the next time she calls I'm going to respond with "I'm so sorry we couldn't come to the phone, we were having people over for brunch/hosting overnight guests/out shopping/at work/having fabulous sex in different rooms of the house or yes, sleeping, because you can still be busy and be child free!

*Disclaimer: I in no way intended to offend any mothers, working or stay-at-home with this rant. It is related to one specific person, and in no way describes my feelings about parenthood, otherwise Andre and I would not be trying to become parents.*

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

At least in our livingroom that is! Since we went from a small one bedroom apartment to a house, our decorations are limited. We really only have enough for some decorations on the table in the diningroom and in the livingroom. I was so happy this Christmas because I was finally able to have a 'grown up' tree! We had a pre-lit 4 foot tree that we had put out in the apartment, but I wanted a full sized tree.

Andre and I scowered through flyers, looked at the beautiful (but expensive!) trees at Costco, and were at a loss. I wanted pre-lit. After being spoiled by our little one, I was not willing to go back. I also wanted a nice looking tree. All this meant lots of $$. Something I wasn't really wanting to spend! I had almost given up hope when I was at a Card making Workshop and the host of the workshop mentioned that she was selling a 7 foot pre-lit tree. It was two years old, but it was too big for her space. They had bought it for $200, but she was willing to sell it for $60. Needless to say it didn't take me long to accept her offer! The only catch was that it was multi coloured lights, and I'm partial to white, but for $60 I was willing to live with it for a couple years.

So here is our bargain basement tree all decorated and lit up in our living room!

I'm from the school that your tree should be a collection of all the things that remind you of the season, or mean something to you rather than something that is out of the pages of a magazine (not that there is anything wrong with that!). You will notice that in the picture. Every year I also pick out a Hallmark Collectable ornament. I'm hoping to find one that I like when I go Christmas shopping this coming Monday.

One other thing in our living room is my little Christmas Village. My grandmother decided to start buying me pieces for a village a couple years ago. I think she did this mainly because she loves them, and has always wanted one for herself. To be completely honest I was less than thrilled when I started receiving them. I think my exact words to my mother (when my grandmother was out of earshot of course) was "what the hell does she want me to do with these?". This because we had NO space for things like this in the apartment. Now that we do have the space, I am more than happy to put stuff like this on display.

So there is a little bit of the decorating that we have done for the holidays. I have a little DIY that I had done, but I haven't taken a picture, so that will just have to wait!

Here goes nothing

I'm on day two of the Provera. I had some nausea and other bowel related symptoms yesterday. I also have IBS, so I'm hoping that was the cause otherwise it's going to be a very long two weeks. I have noticed today that my appetite has decreased, altogether this isn't a horrible thing, so we'll see how I feel over the next two weeks.

In other news Andre's 41st (!!!!) birthday is this Wednesday. We usually just do a dinner out and then get eachother a small gift to celebrate. I think I've decided to get him season 1 of Dexter as his gift. He became Dexter obsessed somewhere in the middle of Season 3, so he wants to catch up. I think my mother is going to get him Season 2 for Christmas, so we'll be watching some tv when we're both off over the holidays I think.