Quick and Flavorful Pork Roast

Mondays are always a tough day for dinner because both my husband and I get home between 5:30-6 so many times it is my day for a crock pot meal!  I threw this Pork Roast together quickly in the morning before rushing out the door - a great weeknight go-to meal for the working family (or any family for that matter ;) )!

 

Pork Roast

Ingredients:

1 Pork Roast (whatever cut is your preference and size to feed your family)

1 onion, sliced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

sea salt

black pepper

parsley

oregano

garlic powder

onion powder

2 Tablespoons worcestershire sauce

2 potatoes, cubed

carrots (2 handfuls of baby carrots or 3-4 chopped carrots)

 

 

Directions:

Slice onion and place in the bottom of the crock pot (I heard this helps with adding flavor).

Place roast on top and rub minced garlic onto the top of the roast (You can make a few shallow cuts in the top of the roast so the garlic gets into the roast for added flavor).

Season with the remaining seasonings to your liking (I add a few shakes of each).

Finish with the 2 Tablespoons of worcestershire sauce on top.

 

 

 

 

I then added the potatoes and carrots around the outside and seasoned those with garlic powder and Adobo (of course). 

 

 

Cook on low for 10 hours, or on high for 5.  Let sit for about 10 minutes before slicing.  The onions caramelize at the bottom and are full of flavor to use as a topping on your pork.  Mmmmm :)  Enjoy!

 

~Erin Leigh



Organization - Week 2

So last week was week 2 of organization projects.  I am tackling/implementing three things a week until...who knows when...and then maintaining!    If you need to catch up you can read about the three things I tackled week 1 here. 

 

The first project I tackled during week 2 was our coat closet...the one we actually use for coats and not toys!  You can see the before and after below!  Talk about a wreck before...tell me I am not the only one whose closet can quickly get to this status?! I went to Target and bought two large baskets...one is holding winter hats/gloves/scarves and then the other is holding summer stuff.  I also picked up a shoe rack.  I LOVE how organized it is now!  (The things that excite me these days are starting to scare me....who am I?!?!)  Anyways...that was task 1 = complete! :)

 

 

Project 2 of the week was implementing another round of "nesting" aka - purge through remaining baby belongings, organize, sell and donate.  I sold items to five people that I am meeting up with this week and added more to my donation collection.  One step closer to basement organization and renovation!!

 

And lastly, the third project, that is only partially completed because it is a LONG project, and quite frankly, I don't have hours on end to work on it...but, I made some progress! My closet (our closet).  Closet, oh closet. I have such a love/hate relationship with you.  I love clothes and shoes and accessories (maybe too much) but it quickly gets unorganized and I haven't purged my own stuff for some time.  So, I started on Saturday.  You can clearly see that it is a complete disaster!  Well, I organized the shoes, pulled out clothes that I won't wear again, separated the remaining clothes by season/style (aka work clothes, pants, casual, dresses, sweaters etc). 

 

I'm clearly thrilled. ;)

 

I will be honest, the left side is still a disaster but I am loving this after shot!  The organized look makes me so happy. Let's see how long the shoes can stay that way! (Probably until my kids find their way into my closet and try on all my shoes)!  The left side of the closet is on my list this week!  One step at a time!

 

 

So, those are my three things I did this week to de-clutter/organize!  Did you do anything? On top of that, I made a goal of 5 workouts for the week giving me a little leeway with a minimum of 4 workouts.  Well - 5 workouts it was - 1 of them being a run on Saturday! It was a nice sunny day!  Overall week 2 was a pretty productive week! :)

 

~Erin Leigh

 

 

 

Reflection

My little one found her reflection this weekend and I fortunately had my camera handy to capture the "interaction!"  She has, of course, seen her reflection before, but this time she was interacting with herself.  She had so much fun and it was such a cute moment! Saying "hi," making funny faces, giving herself dirty looks and kisses...it was precious!

 

 

It is amazing how such a small event in the life of a child makes my heart want to burst with love as a parent.  Do you experience little moments like these that makes a bigger impact than you would think?  

 

~Erin Leigh

 

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Simple and Delish!

As I started to prepare dinner last night with the defrosted ground turkey and looking at what else I had, my thought was...what do I make with ground turkey and cauliflower? What kind of combination is that? I didn't meal plan for the night so I was seriously clueless what to make with this combo! Well, when in doubt lately, I typically make some sort of soup...and believe it or not, I actually came up with one of my favorite recipes to date! I was doubtful the whole time I was making it...but it was definitely delish!  It is a broccoli cheddar soup variation packed with protein and veggies.  It's made with ground turkey and additional vegetables, no cream and light on the cheese to make it lower in calories than the standard broccoli cheddar soup! 

Turkey Broccoli Cheddar Soup 

Ingredients:

1 package ground turkey (1.3 lbs)

1 10.5 oz package frozen broccoli 

1 cup chopped cauliflower 

1 cup chopped carrots 

1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 

1 teaspoon basil

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups milk 

5 oz grated cheddar cheese 

Directions: 

Cook ground turkey with onion powder and garlic powder.

Drain fat. 

Add chicken broth, basil and vegetables, bring to a boil for about 20 minutes until veggies are soft (by this time most of the liquid has absorbed). 

Add milk and cheese, mix together, remove pot from heat and let cheese melt, stirring a few times. 

That's it!  It was so good! Wish I made a double batch to get through the weekend! :)

 

Simple and delish...my favorite cooking combination!

~Erin Leigh

 

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Crockpot Chicken Tacos

This week I tried a variation of my Crockpot Chicken Tacos  using seasonings from a local business called The Tasty Tomato I recently heard of.  They make and sell dip mixes, seasoning packages and beer bread mixes with no added sugar or salt.  It was my first recipe trying out their seasonings and it came out great!  I have a few other kinds of seasonings that I can't wait to try out soon too! :) 

Crockpot Chicken Tacos:
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
1 14.5 oz can of natural diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon Simple Salsa Seasoning from The Tasty Tomato  (2 teaspoons for a spicier version)
(How simple is that?!?!)

Directions:
Throw together in crockpot. Place on high for 5 hours or low for 8. Shred chicken and mix back together.  Serve with taco shells, rice, beans, cheese, salsa, sour cream, avocado or whatever floats your boat! :)

 

 

Mmmm...so good! Can't wait for leftovers for lunch today...and I am not a leftover person! 

~Erin Leigh

Save Time by Being Organized

So...to follow my post last week about my nesting and de-clutter plan, I have been trying a few other things to make me feel more organized and overall, save time!  The de-cluttering project made me feel like I should take it a step further.  I don't feel unorganized or think that my home is unorganized, but I know there are things I could do a better job staying on top of which can save me time and energy...which is always a plus!  Does that make sense??   So, this week, I successfully worked on it and here are the few changes I implemented.

Here you will find what my laundry room looked like last weekend.  We are mid-renovation and on top of that, the laundry built up over the week...and it's actually worse than it looks...what you don't see in the picture is that there is a load of laundry in the washer AND in the dryer.  It took about 2 hours total time to fold and put everything away.  Unreal.  Tell me I am not the only one this has happened to?? So HOW to avoid this??  Wait for it....do a load of laundry a day...but not only DO the laundry but also fold and put away.  I had heard this before and finally said, ok I should try it because this is getting out of hand!  In reality, I actually don't need to do one every single day, but if I do one load 4 - 5 days a week it doesn't add up.  I tried it out this week and I stayed on top of it and I felt more organized and didn't have to spend the time doing it all at once!  Now, the laundry room is clear and we are getting around to deciding on cabinets, counter tops and designing our laundry room this weekend.  Can't wait for it to be done! :)

 

Next - toys...oh the toys.  We have turned our front coat closet into a toy closet to store the toys.  There are too many toys all over the house (I cannot wait until our basement is done so all the toys can go into the playroom)!  Anyways....the toy closet gets cluttered and unorganized VERY easily...so, I organized it, moved things around and was able to fit MORE into the closet than what was in it before.  Simple re-organizing makes me feel like there is so much more room! The kids helped me out so it was a little project we did together!  Worked out perfectly!  We are also working on putting away what we take out before taking the next thing out to play...that is still a work in progress.

 

The easiest yet most effective thing I did daily this week was made our bed.  Sounds so simple but sometimes (most of the time) it never happens.  First of all, I LOVE getting into a made bed at night.  There is something about crawling into a made bed that ends the day on a great note.  But, you cannot get into a made bed if it never gets made!  Secondly, it makes the room look put together and not disheveled every time you walk in during the day.  Makes me start the day feeling organized.  So, try it...take the extra 30 seconds to make your bed right away in the morning!  Starts the day with an accomplishment within the first few minutes of waking up! 
 

Those are the three things I committed to this week to be more organized and I feel like it worked.  Do you have any suggestions on things you do to keep your house organized to save time overall?  I want to try to add three new ones to my list this week!

~Erin Leigh

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The Day of Love

I have been teaching the kids that today, Valentine's Day, is the Day of Love...but really, to me it is just another day.  We give lots of hugs and kisses, say lots of daily "I love you's" and do our best to show thoughtfulness year round...which to me, is more important than focusing on one day per year. But, that is just my opinion. We go out to dinner weekly...I would rather go out tomorrow instead of tonight with everyone else (no offense to anyone going out to eat tonight ;) ).  However, the kids and I did decorate some sugar cookies, wear red, made a few homemade Valentine's and did our usual holiday photo shoot. :)

 

The photo shoot today brought me to do a little thinking about these two characters.  There are few things I love more than the love between my kids.  The constant laughter, dancing, singing, playing, running, protecting, kissing and hugging melts my heart. Yes there are definitely frustrating and overwhelming times as a parent (for example, when they gang up on you for going on vacation, throw simultaneous tantrums or both choose to throw their food or milk on the floor), but it is amazing watching their relationship grow and I can see that those things that can frustrate us as parents are them teaming up (we are probably in for it down the road) and building their little relationship.  They are definitely each other's "other half" right now and I love it.  Here is a look at our little Valentine's Day pictures.  On a side note, a good picture of two toddlers gets harder and harder to capture!

 

First, this photo proves that they have grown to be simultaneously difficult.  The top is our 2013 Valentine's Day picture which I attempted to repeat - clearly unsuccessful!

 

 

And the rest are a few shots I got throughout the morning!

Checking out the driveway being plowed.

 

 

Definitely not the greatest hair day! Lol

Always on her toes!

The love! 

 

And, of course, our Love sugar cookies we made yesterday :)

 

 

Hope everyone has a great day!  What are YOUR thoughts about Valentine's Day?  

 

~Erin Leigh

 

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