Shredded Jalepeno Popper Pork Sammies!

I recently discovered the best recipe. I had to share. Even my shy-to-new-things hubs liked it!!! Spicy, creamy, sweet, all rolled into one sandwich. It was very very good.

I found this recipe here...  Just to give credit where credit is due. ;)

I made a few changes to work for our family. Here is my very slightly tweaked version. Oh and this is full fat and wonderfully bad for you.

Ingredients:
Sourdough bread- sliced
Tub of cream cheese (whipped)
butter
frozen Bird's Eye chopped jalapenos
6 lbs Boneless Pork Roast (2 separate roasts 3 lbs each)
frozen Bird's Eye chopped onion (about 2 cups- eyeballed)
2 tsp. chopped garlic from a jar (if you haven't noticed, I buy some things already chopped and ready, I am lazy like that)((I know not as good as fresh, but onions make me cry, I don't like to have garlic fingers, and the peppers are super handy to have around))
3/4 c. Rice Wine Vinegar (recipe called for Apple Cider... I forgot to pick it up while grocery shopping, and had rice wine on hand)
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
2 tbsp chili powder ( I used chipoltle chili powder because I had it, but I think I will cut this down some next time, a little too much spice for my family's taste.)
2 tbsp. Worcestershire (totally used spell check)
One bottle of Cookies Sweet and Smokey BBQ sauce (keep .5 cup divided for later use)
2 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 red onion- fresh
olive oil and salt.

Okay... what I did:
In the Morning: 
 I made a single serving of some jalapeno cream cheese for my sammy, everyone else got plain cream cheese. They don't do spicy very well. I mixed about 2 tablespoons cream cheese with one tsp of the frozen jalapenos, then put into the fridge to meld all day.
I mixed BBQ sauce (remember to reserve half a cup), mustard, sugar, chili powder, Worcestershire and mustard together in a bowl. I placed the frozen onions and garlic in the bottom of my crock pot, put the roasts on top and smothered it in the sauce I mixed up, and poured the vinegar on top of that. Set the crock to cook on low for 10 hours.
After work:
Took the roasts out of the crock- cooled for about 5 minutes while I drained the crock sauce into a bowl using a colander to catch any bits of onion and what not to make a smooth sauce. Reserve this sauce in your bowl for now. Slice your red onion, cook on low to med. low in a sauce pan with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt until soft and golden and yummy. While onion is cooking shred the pork and place back into the crock pot. Remember your BBQ sauce from this morning? Add it to the pork. Mix it up. If needed add some the strained crock sauce until meat is moist enough for your liking. Put the lid on and keep the crock on low.
Okay... here is where it goes from good to down right amazing.  Remove onions from skillet, add a pat of butter and let melt. Take the bread, coat it with your schmere (cream cheese, yo) put some of the onions on the cream cheese, add some pork and put another slice of bread on the top, you know, make a sammy. Place sammy on the melted butter and let it get golden brown. I can fit three sammies in my skillet. Remove sammies onto a plate once golden on side one. Add butter to skillet and repeat goldenization process on side 2. I served our dinner with a side salad with cilantro dressing and corn. Also, my kids did not get any onion, I would recommend extra onion if everyone likes it. I would also go with the jalapeno cream cheese by Philadelphia if everyone likes the heat. It is just less waste to make my own small batch myself.

Try it, I promise it does not disappoint. Thanks to the original poster. We have a new recipe in rotation now. We also have a ton of meat leftover. I plan to freeze it.

Yumm!

Summer and Mini Vacations...

What a busy summer. There doesn't seem to be enough time to fit everything in! Our kids are doing tball/softball, we have church activities, and of course the normal work and house stuff.

Just a run down of the last month...

Father's Day was great! We had a nice weekend, but very busy. Tball and Softball take a lot of our time on the weekends, but the kids love it. Speaking of lots of time... this weekend we have games at the same time, but in cities that are about an hour away from each other. That means each of us will miss one of the kiddo's game. Sad. On the plus, we will only be in the heat for one game. Silver linings.

Bubba and Daddy

Stinky and our niece.

We recently went to Branson. The kids had the best time. Hubs realized he was running a fever as soon as we got there. It stuck around until yesterday. He was diagnosed with an ear infection, but I think maybe the doctor was a small bit crazy. He had EVERY symptom Bubba had a couple weeks ago. Which turned out to be an upper respiratory infection. But what are you going to do... They still gave him meds. Back to Branson... We did so much stuff. We crammed as many activities as we could into 1 full day and 2 partial days: 2 shows (at our hotel, nothing spectacular, but the kids loved them), three museum/attractions, duck boats and the water park at the hotel. Which by water park, I mean kind of big and dark jungle gym inside a building full of water. No Hurricane Harbor or anything like that. But I stress, the kids had a blast. I have realized the older I get the less impressed I am with things as a child I would have been all googly eyed about. You lose the rose colored glasses, and that is sad. Here is an overload of pictures for your viewing pleasure...

This pretty much sums up how he felt the whole time, but he missed nothing. He is an amazing dad.

Stinky loves archery. She was pumped to see this at Bass Pro Shop.

Bubba's "chubby" face. Silly guy.

These posted all out of order, but you can figure it out. I don't have the patience to reorganize them.. 

A Day in the Life

Now is the time of year for my spray tan. I have pasty, albino skin. I don't have any time to lay out and earn a real one. I also do not have the funds for a professional one. I do it myself in my bathroom. Very cool. I sprayed last night, dried off and then slept on it. I am out of practice I guess because I did a TERRIBLE job. I forgot to wipe down my feet apparently. I have Oompa Loompa feet, and I also missed a large area on my leg...

Dark foot. Mostly my big toe... Man I need my toes did.

See that streak of no color, not the flash, lower down? And my flabby thigh?

I don't know how that happened. I normally use Nutragena (I googled how to spell this, me=dork), but Walgreens had a deal I couldn't refuse so I bought the store brand. I think it was actual just user error, but I want to blame the store brand, so I will.

I did some research. Lemon juice is supposed to help fade blotchy areas, and I have that at home, so I tried it.

 Lemon Juice Blending - Actually worked pretty well. I used lemon juice from concentrate, squirted a paper towel and rubbed along the streaky lines. Blended everything a little bit better. I took a shower and re-sprayed very lightly to the missed areas, scrubbed my feet and rubbed the "seams" from the blank canvas spot on my thigh into the already tan part with more lemon juice.


Here is another fun story. I went to Walmart to buy some work lunch, and locked my keys in my vehicle. I called my mommy. I am talking to my mom, looking into my vehicle and notice... my moonroof is open!!! I climb the hood of my vehicle (a Yukon, folks) and shimmy in through the moonroof. Get my keys, get out of the vehicle, raise them above my head like a victory trophy, and drive away. There is a construction crew and several old people who witnessed my embarrassment (aka ninja moves). An old man laughed at me. This has been my day so far.

Meal Plan for June 16-22

Meal Plan for June 16-22
 
 Sunday- Father's Day
Breakfast- BIG Fattening Breakfast- Biscuits and Gravy- Eggs- Bacon AND Sausage. I am going to have a well fed man!
Lunch- Family BBQ- I am bringing Broccoli and Rice Casserole- Yum
Dinner- Probably will not need to eat, but if the kids get hungry- PBJ is a good fall back

Breakfasts this week will alternate between cereal with fruit or Granola Bar and Yogurt

Lunches will be sandwiches or leftovers with salads, fruit, nuts and dark chocolates. (My daughter will be away at camp, and actually it makes packing lunches very simple for us, more of an assembly line. Her allergies (while I love her very much) make meals a tad bit more difficult.

stolen from EatingWell.com

Dinner the rest of the week:
Monday- I like to think is becoming Mexican night- Tacos with salad and beans
Tuesday- Pizza (Flat outs with Pizza toppings for everyone to choose from) with salad and fruit
Wednesday- Grilling out- Hamburgers and Chicken- French Fries and Green Beans
Thursday- Family night at camp- We will be eating there.
Friday- Chili- using leftover grilled burgers- salad
Saturday- Leftovers- maybe chili dogs.

Weekend Recap~ A little late- busy week

Holy smokes! What a weekend.

Let's start from the beginning- when all the action happened... WARNING- a little graphic (bloody mess graphic)

Friday, we decide to go to the car show that happens the first Friday of every summer month at the local mega church. We get there, and no car show. Church event. So we decide to drive across the new Fenton Bridge to look at all the flood water. We pull up to a stop light, and a kid flies across the intersection on a crotch rocket. He is going incredibly fast. He loses control, hits a curb and flips. No joke. RIGHT in front of us, and our now completely terrified children. Us and one other vehicle see this happen. I hang up on my sister in law (we were making plans to get the kids together since the car show was cancelled) and call 9-1-1. We pull up on the bike fully expecting a dead kid. Only, no kid, at all. Hubs looks up a side street, and there he is running. My guy follows him, quickly, the kid stops as his injuries are catching up to him. He is bleeding, a steady flow running from his wrist. He looks unsteady. Hubs gets out to see if he is okay, and tells him to wrap his arm (He swears he saw bone chips and "meat" hanging out... EW!!). Meanwhile... 9-1-1 has now transferred me, TWICE!! If he had been in worse shape, yikes. I am not doing first aid on this kid, I would puke. It was gross. I jumped in the driver seat and drove the kiddos further up the road, put on Despicable Me, and stood in front of the window they could see the guy through. I was the gore body guard. A cop shows up right away. Apparently, she had flashed her lights at him, and he had taken off on her. The moron was running from the cops. Going over 50 miles per hour (in a 30)! His bike flew head over tail about 100 feet before it landed. She gave her a little reaming, another cop called him something I won't repeat. They were mad. Come to find out before the cops arrived Hubs had lectured him as well. Ambulance showed up, Hubs made a statement and we went home.

In comparison, while the rest of the weekend was incredibly busy, it was much more tame. Our kiddos play t-ball/softball for the local Y. They each had their first practices at the same place 4 hours apart. We went to Six Flags. Passed out. That was Saturday. Sunday was church and not much but catching up on some laundry. Which was nice.

This week, I have been working hard. My boss is on vacation, and I am trying to man the ship, so to speak.

OH and here is a little nugget of gold. Hubs was listening to the radio while washing my vehicle, and heard a song he has heard, we all have heard, a majillion times on the radio, "You're so Vain". He comes in, and swears he heard Mick Jagger singing back ground vocals. Pretty distinctive voice. Got out good ol' Google, and sure enough, he did. Crazy. Here it for yourself. If this is some common knowledge thing, we will feel like goons, but we have decided to play "Where's Mick" while listening to the radio. He may have been hiding in every song for all we know.

Menu for June 9-15

I haven't been using my Monthly Meal Planner as of late. It is still really handy, and I go to it for some ideas, but I have been trying an online weekly planner. Shrinking on a Budget offers great weekly meal plans grocery lists provided for a really inexpensive price. I found it through Pinterest. I paid $6 for six months worth of weekly meal plans. I find that I spend around $150 each week at the grocery store anymore. Prices are on the rise, and having that menu planned out for me can be very convenient. I just cross off what we don't need, and sub out some of my family's faves for the recipes I know they won't touch. I have PICKY eaters in my family, so not every week works for our needs, but I have gotten some amazing new recipes to add to our catalog. Here is what we are eating next week. I made this menu myself, we are taking a break from the  unfamiliar for my family's sake. They like safe and comfortable. Lunches and Breakfasts included! Happy eating-

Sunday, June 9-
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with salsa and whole wheat toast with fresh fruit (canned always subbed for fresh for my allergy ridden child- usually applesauce or light fruit cocktail or grapes- the lone fruit she can eat)
Lunch: leftovers from last week (spaghetti and BBQ)
Dinner: Turkey Tacos with corn tortillas and black beans

Monday, June 10-
Breakfast: Oatmeal (old Fashioned, not quick cooking) flavored with Cinnamon, raisins and honey
Lunch: Mom- Salad with turkey lunch meat and Cilantro dressing and green salsa, fresh fruit and carrots with hummus. Snack: raw almonds and pecans.  Kids and Hubs: Turkey sandwiches with multigrain Pringles, fruit, juice/gatorade/water, dark chocolate square ( or squares if you are a grown man) and a cheese stick.
Dinner: Shredded BBQ crock pot chicken (can also be done with pork if it is on sale) on Whole Wheat Buns, Sweet potato fries (and regular fries for the picky ones), green beans.

Tuesday, June 11-
Breakfast: Granola Bar with Yogurt
Lunch: Mom- Same as day before (change up fruit for some variety) maybe use leftover BBQ chicken instead of lunch meat. Kids and Hubs- Ham and Swiss Sandwiches, fruit, chips, and sweet treat.
Dinner: Pizza- Flatouts with Marinara and fresh Mozzarella. Pepperoni and veggies for toppings. Salad on the side with low fat dressing or Olive Oil and Vinegar,

Wednesday, June 12-
Breakfast- Cereal and fruit
Lunch: Leftover Pizza with side salad and Raisins.
Dinner: Grilling out baby~ Chicken, Steak and Hot Dogs- Corn on the Cob- fruit cocktail and baked beans.

Thursday, June 13-
Breakfast: Granola Bar and Yogurt
Lunch: Pulled chicken salad sandwiches from leftover grilled chicken, chips, fruit, carrot sticks.
Dinner: Fish Sticks- Mac and cheese- fruit cocktail and green beans.

Friday, June 14-
Breakfast:  Oatmeal (old Fashioned, not quick cooking) flavored with Cinnamon, raisins and honey
Lunch:  Mom- Salad with turkey lunch meat and Cilantro dressing and green salsa, fresh fruit and carrots with hummus. Snack: raw almonds and pecans.  Kids and Hubs: Turkey sandwiches with multigrain Pringles, fruit, juice/gatorade/water, dark chocolate square ( or squares if you are a grown man) and a cheese stick.
Dinner: Spaghetti with whole grain pasta, low sugar pasta sauce- salad with low fat dressing.

Saturday, June 15-
Breakfast: Whole Grain pancakes with fresh fruit and Maple Syrup
Lunch: Picnic style lunch with Sandwiches, deviled eggs, chips and fruit.
Dinner: Leftovers (anything that is left gets pulled out- hodge podge meal. Yum!) Peanut Butter and Jelly sams are thrown in if there are not enough leftovers.

Workout Wednesday with Skinny Meg

This is a great post talking about weight lifting! This woman is amazing. I have been following her blog for awhile, and she is very inspirational for me.

Baseball Birthday~ Go Cards!

My little man turned 5! He just had his first day in Summer School as a Kindergartner. He is growing up too fast. This year we celebrated with a baseball themed party for his friends. It turned out to be a rainy weekend, so the yard was muck and I had several young men in my home. We got along pretty well, and I think everyone had a great time. We had a couple other hiccups, but the important thing is that little man had a great time.

Table cloth was a plastic cloth with stickers on it. I bought a banner and it came with every team logo along with it.  The big Cards logo was a wall hanger.

Pampered Chef deviled egg tray flipped made a great "field" for the cupcakes.

Here is where we had a speed bump. I made cupcakes Saturday evening before the party, and I must have over filled the cups. The cupcakes ran over the edges and stuck all over the top of the tin. I tried to salvage, but the fell apart and looked terrible. It was such a shame too. They were a red velvet and white cake marbled. Very lovely, and perfect for the red and white theme of the Cards. Anywho. I made an emergency run to the store for another couple of cake mixes when I realized I was setting myself up for unnecessary stress. My friend Sarah was with me trying to talk me down from my anxiety filled birthday party tension. This was the weekend before Mother's Day so cupcakes were everywhere at the store. I went to to bakery, and asked how much notice they needed for an order of Cards cupcakes ready made. 24 hours!?! I am having this party in 18 hours! The bakery girl remembered suddenly (she saved my sanity) she had ONE tray of red and white cupcakes in the freezer. Mine!!! I called them, hand in the air! She gave them to me on discount, as well, after I recounted the disaster I had making my own. (Side note~ Cupcakes are not wasted in this house- I frosted those broken excuses for cupcakes and Little Man blew them out on his actual birthday and I froze the round cakes intended for his big day and brought them out to make a dessert for Mother's Day. Waste not.)

Party favors~ Big League Chew and Cracker Jacks. Little Man had autographed thank you notes attached to each  baggie.

We had peanuts and sunflower seeds. Popcorn too. I had some cotton candy, but set it out unwrapped, and the humidty that plagues St. Louis shriveled it up into this sticky gross blog of sticky gooey grossness.

Mario Slugger- Two favorites combined into one!

Marble likes boxes. Billy likes soda.

What you missed while I was being a lazy blogger.

Notice I said lazy blogger, definitely not a lazy momma, wife, or dieter. We have been busy beavers in this household. My little man turned 5! My daughter had her dance recital. We got through Mother's Day/Party for the little guy (almost without me killing anyone). My hubs finished our amazing tree house.
All in all a good month.

Pretty Ballerina

Birthday Man

It matches our house. So cute you wanna puke right?

The dog and cat were not allowed to party. I think they were jealous.

I have been attempting to eat cleaner. I have removed as much processed food from my diet as I can tolerate (baby steps). I snack a lot of carrots and hummus here of late. I found this gem at Trader Joes... 
OH MY GRAVY! Buy this if you can. Yumm-O. I tell you what. Clean eating has made a huge difference for me. The weight is not going down as quickly as I would like, but I am not bloated, and my stomach is pretty flat for having carried two children. I also drink water like a fish which means I pee 900,000 million times a day. I do have bad moments. Like when my hubby figures out how cheap cake mix is, and wonders why I don't just make cakes all the time. Then I eat like 4 cupcakes in a week. Yeah, there are times like that.

Up next on the old bloggeroo... Little man's Cardinal's party.

It is Official...

I am a terrible blogger. I am not going to promise to do better, but dang it I am going to try. Get ready for more of me (I hope).  :/

Pants Redo

I was in a bit of a fashion slump recently. I had some pants that I never wore in my closet. Flares. Honestly, I cannot pull off flare. WAY too hippy this chicka is. I got a brain storm going and realized I could edit my pants to more of a skinny style. I enlisted my hub's grandma, love that lady, and she helped me give my pants a new life.

First we pinned them (I was sans camera during this portion). We did this while I was wearing the pants inside out. We then stitched them with her handy dandy sewing machine.

Flipped them right side out and made sure they were even before we committed to removing the excess fabric.

A good cut... (This is a different pair. I did three pairs)

Ta da!! (Please ignore my messy closet in the background)

Soooooo much better!! I am very pleased with the way they turned out. I think I will try clothes editing more often. Might make Goodwill shopping more fun on my non exsistent clothing budget. My photographer was my daughter.

So big

 

We registered our littlest monster for Kindergarten tonight. Does this face look old enough for school? I think not. This mamma is a little sad. Thinking about breaking out the old photo albums. Maybe not, crying might freak out the chilluns. Busy days in our house.

Whipped Cream Cupcakes- Cookies and Cream Style

The cupcakes were a Whipped Cream Cookies and Cream Cupcake with a Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting. The cookies could be optional, but why?! They are light and fluffy. Not too sweet. So, so good.

Girly Spa Party

My daughter turned 11. An age that has come to be tough on her father and me. She is no longer a little girl, but not really ready for everything she thinks she is.  When talking about what to do for her birthday this year, the party as well as the gifts were a little more difficult to decide on. We had the normal family get together...

Ham Chowder

This is a staple for my recipe book. I originally got the recipe from Once a Month Mom. It freezes beautifully. The image above comes from the website the recipe was originally published. You must try this soup!!! Uh-May-Zing!!!! Even my kiddos like it, well, not true, my son likes the crackers and cheese that I put on the top. He once told me that soup "makes him sick". What a jokester.

Just a note about freezing and then thawing. It will look GROSS. It will look like something went horribly and terribly awry. It didn't, I promise. Just heat it up and all will go back to looking like soup. I now realize that my statement above about it freezing beautifully will be misleading. I should say after freezing and reheating it is beautiful. Before the reheating, you will not want to eat it at all., but you must press on and cook the soup.

Chicken and Waffles Makeover

Okay, a coworker of mine told me she was having chicken and waffles for MLK Day. I thought it sounded so good. Unfortunately, I am watching my calories again, and fried chicken and waffles smothered in butter and maple syrup don't exactly scream "Eat me, dieter!" So I thought, makeover chicken and waffles. Here is what we had...

Honey Breaded Chicken Strips (Baked) and banana pancakes for me, real waffles for the kiddos and hubs.

 

I'm back!!

Okay, so I became a total slacker over the holidays and just haven't been able to get back into the swing of things. I am making a good effort to get back to this because I am gaining weight back. Not only was I a blog slacker, I was a diet slacker. Almost to the point I feel like I am starting over. It has been very discouraging. I haven't been able to run since it turns nighttime at about 5, and I have dinner to make, and extra curricular activities to get my girly to. BUT that is just an excuse. I could do a video. We are getting a treadmill, so that will rid me of all excuses shortly.

Working on my new entries, but wanted to announce that I hadn't left you all. I know you were worried and scared and heartbroken. It is okay calm down, I am back.