My favorite crock pot recipes

 I am linking up today with Kelly's Korner blog to share two of my favorite crock pot recipes! I typically do not do these kind of blog posts, but I absolutely love my crock pot!! I discovered what a useful tool it is after having my daughter. Have you ever tired to make a meal with a baby on your hip or a toddler hanging on your leg? It just doesn't happen. 

My crock pot has made my life so much easier. I typically use it 2- 3x a week. In fact, I am using it today. 

That is a new recipe I am trying out for cheese ravioli. It smells delicious! I found this recipe at Crock Pot Girls website. 

I'd like to share with you two of my all time favorite crock pot recipes!!

Italian Beef

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups beef broth

1 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon onion salt

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 bay leaf

1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian style salad dressing mix

1 (2-5 pound) roast

Directions:

Combine all ingredients (except the roast) and whisk. Place the roast in the crock pot and pour mixture over. Cook on low for 10-12 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Remove bay leaf when done. Shred meat with a fork. Serve on rolls with provolone cheese. This recipe will not disappoint! I crave it. 

Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooker Chicken

Ingredients:

1 pound (about 2) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (14 ounce) can petite or regular diced tomatoes, DRAINED

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes. You can use more if you would like it spicier

Directions: 

Place the chicken in the bottom of the slow cooker. In a small bowl combine the tomatoes, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes. Pour over the chicken. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high 4-6 hours or on low 8-9 hours. Remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred with two forks. Return to slow cooker and mix the chicken with the juices from the tomato/brown sugar sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with flour tortillas and toppings of choice. 

*If you would like your chicken a little runnier don't drain the tomatoes. I usually drain, because I like the chicken dry. This is a great recipe! 

32 months

Ella turned 31 months on the 19th.  I am unfortunately a little late in posting this. She has been keeping me on my toes lately. Ella is only four short months away from being a big three year old! What happened to my little baby!? 

Ella isn't doing a whole lot of new things since last months post, but I still wanted to do a "31 months post", because she will never be this age again! 

Even though I think Ella is the sweetest child on the planet she has had a few "ugly moments" lately. She is determined to get what she wants when she wants, and unfortunately life just doesn't work that way. 

The biggest change I have seen in Ella in the past month is a change in her speech. She is almost always talking in full sentences. I love to listen to her talk. It's so fun to have a conversation with her. She says the absolute funniest things!

Ella someday when you read this I hope you know that even though you make me want to pull my hair out some days, I wouldn't trade this time with you for all the money in the world.

You make everyday an adventure, and I love to see the world through your eyes.

Weekend

I hate that I have been majorly slacking on my blog lately. I don't know why, but I am constantly busy doing something. By the time I have time for myself to sit at my computer, it's about the last thing I want to do. 

Anyway, we had a fun weekend. Saturday we went over to Aaron and Sarah's to swim. Ella LOVES the water. I never thought I would see the day. She got really brave and actually swam by herself in the water. I loved watching her. You could tell she was so proud of herself. Ella is so trusting of Aaron and Sarah. She swam with Aaron all by herself while we were inside. I love that she trusts him enough to be in the water with him all by herself. That is saying a lot! 

Sunday morning Sarah and I met and ran 7 miles! 

That is the farthest I have ever ran in my life. We signed up to run the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon in St. Louis on October 23rd. WHEN I finish (I have to keep telling myself that) I will be so proud! I might actually consider myself an actual runner.

I am so behind on posts. Ella turned 31 months on the 19th, and I haven't even finished writing about that. Stay tuned!

What Ella does before she goes to sleep...

Weekend recap

We had such a busy weekend, and I am exhausted! It started Saturday morning bright and early with a 5 mile run with Sarah. We are training for the 10K that is only three weeks away. Hopefully these early morning runs will pay off, and we will finish with a good time. 

Saturday afternoon Adam's cousin, Amy, got married. We headed to Celestine, IN for their wedding. We were late as we usually are. It is my BIGGEST pet peeve to be late, and for some reason (I can't imagine why) we are always late. We even missed the bride walking down the aisle. Ella was such a good girl during the whole ceremony. I thought we would have to take her outside, but she sat through the whole thing. I was so proud of her! 

Ella in her new dress! She accidentally spilled chocolate milk all over herself on the way to the wedding (one of the reasons we were late). I should have known better! She looked cute anyway. :) 

She loved the playground that was behind the reception place. She liked it a little too much, because all she wanted to do was play at the playground. 

Adam, me, and the beard! haha. It's actually starting to grow on me. 

After 11 years Amy and Derek finally got married! She has a lot more patience than I will ever have. 

Ella did not want to be in any pictures!

Lacey and me! My favorite reception buddy. We have had some really fun times together at family weddings! Too bad we couldn't get as crazy as we used to. ;) 

On the way home we drove past the most beautiful field of flowers so we of course stopped. I wanted to get Ella's picture by this field SO BAD. She was screaming and crying the entire time so we said forget it. It would have been so cute especially with the dress she had on. Maybe someday...

After the wedding we spent the night at the in-laws house. We needed to do a trial run before Florida, and we thought this was the perfect opportunity. I am happy to report Ella slept so good. She laid right down and went to sleep. She did wake up during the night a little disoriented, but she went right to sleep. We were very pleased with how good she did! 

Last Holiday World trip of the season

Ella and I met Erin, Bree, and Mallory at Holiday World this past Wednesday for our last hurrah of the season. I am kind of sad we won't be going back until next summer, because next time we go Ella will be three years old..tear;(. 

Ella LOVES Holiday World. She loves rides more than anything in the world. She was especially excited to ride with Bree. She was very excited to see her! 

I love that Mallory was able to ride with them this time. I think it was the cutest thing I have ever seen. 

We rode the carousel 100x in a row. I'm not even kidding! 

The newest member of our family. Thank goodness I was able to win this! Ella spotted it right off the bat.

She got brave this time and put her arms up when she was riding. Ella has gotten very independent here lately. She climbed in herself and snapped herself in. When the ride was over she got out, climbed in another rocket, and snapped herself in. It was so nice she could just ride things over and over again. 

Starting to wear down...

It's hard to see, but she is rubbing her eyes. We left shortly after this. 

We have lots of great memories of Holiday World this summer. It seems like yesterday we took her for the first time. We are already looking forward to going back many times next year!! 

Things I want to remember

Ella has changed a lot lately. It seems like in just the past week or so she has become a little person with her own opinion. 

Her new favorite phrase is "no mommy,no." She says this a lot now. At times I find it entertaining, and at times I find it exhausting. The other day Adam was giving her a bath, and he got out the wash cloth. She said, "All done daddy. Put it back!" What happened to my sweet, agreeable little child!?" haha

She will also tell you if she doesn't like something. You will hear, "stop daddy or stop mommy" a lot around here these days. If you do something Ella doesn't like she will definitely tell you. 


She is OBSESSED with her "Elmo's." Her Elmo's are these pink, silky pj's that I bought at Walmart. If I knew they were going to be so popular I would have bought a couple of pairs. She HAS to put them on every morning. If I tell her they are dirty she says, "go find Elmo's." Am I seriously getting bossed around by a two year old? 

Ella and I ate at Panera Bread by ourselves last night. This is something I rarely do, but I decided last night I wanted to grab a quick bite to eat while we were out. She had dessert first, and then ate some of her meal. While we were sitting there eating someone came up to me to let me know she seemed like such a pleasant little girl. He said she was looking around smiling at people. 


As you can see from the pictures Ella LOVES to paint. We do this quite often now! 

My little girl is becoming a big girl so fast. Now if I could only get her to go on the potty....

Ella swimming

Ella on the diving board

5K #2

This past weekend I participated in the YMCA 5K. Luckily, I had a running partner this time around, and it made the run so much better! 

I have improved so much since I started running with Sarah. She gives me the extra push I need when I am about ready to give up. I always think I am going to "die", but she always tells me I can keep going. I haven't died yet so I guess she is right. :) 

The husbands were nice enough to get up at the crack of dawn to go support us! 

Sarah and I usually try to pace ourselves, but I am pretty sure we ran a little faster than we usually do. We both have a Garmin watch that we wear when we run. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge mine, and the battery was dead. I had no clue what our pace was or how far along we were. That mixed with the humidity made for a difficult run. I always think I am going to die, and yesterday was no exception. 

Here we are almost to the finish line. I was so HAPPY to see the end in sight!

DONE!!!!

The Y supplied popsicles and cold wash rags after the run!

Sarah and I placed 98 and 99 out of 425 females. We ran 3.1 miles in 28:08. I think we did an awesome job. All the early morning runs are definitely paying off!

Next up is the 10K run in September!