The right tools to do the job.

Keeping the house clean with two teens, my amazing husband, and our boxer sometimes seems like an impossible, never ending task. When we moved to Dalhart we got a cordless vacuum that let’s just say hasn’t fit the bill. But, I am a cheap skate so I just try to make it work. 

My husband spoils me rotten, and wants me to have to right tools that I need to keep the house clean. We looked at Walmart for which cordless vacuum we would try next. Chad looked online for the best rated while I looked at the cost. I have always seen the commercials for Dyson vacuums and thought surely they cannot be that much better than any other vacuum for a fraction of the cost.  Shhhhh don’t tell Chad I was wrong.... ya know he will right it on the calendar and remind me lol. 

You know you are old when you are excited about a vacuum but it truly is the best vacuum I have ever owned! What is your favorite vacuum? Living in the RV space is very valuable, I am so glad Chad talked me into the Dyson V7, he truly is the best! 

Crockpot meal: Chicken and Gravy

Good morning, yesterday we tried a new crockpot meal and it was a hit with my family. Two in a row, now that is a miracle. I usually find recipes and change them a bit because I think it will taste better than the original recipe, most of the time I do it and it makes it hard to share my recipes. As my kiddos get older I want to be able to share recipes with them, so I have been writing them down how I actually cook them. I should probably type them it might be easier to read. I made it over steamed white rice but my husband is not a fan of rice. But I love rice and it is so easy to make in my rice maker. You could also serve over mashed potatoes or your choice of noodles. Crockpot meals make busy days a bit easier but I also use crockpot liners to make clean up easier for the kids. Hope you enjoy this as much as we did. 

Crockpot Chicken and Gravy

**Serve over steamed rice, mashed potatoes, or noodles

3 to 4 boneless chicken breast 

1 (10.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup

2 pkgs of turkey gravy mix 

1 cup chicken broth

1 tsp Salt

2 tsp  pepper 

Place chicken in crockpot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl whisk together can of cream of chicken soup, gravy mixes and chicken broth. Pour mixture over the chicken. Cover crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours. If you used frozen chicken breast cook for 8 hours on low. Before serving shred the chicken and stir. If gravy is thick add hot water in small increments until desired thickness. 

Crockpot meal: cheesy sausage and potato casserole

Crockpots are the best! Especially when you are busy with every day life. It is so nice to be able to get stuff done without worrying about time to cook! 

Cheesy sausage and potato casserole 

1/2 onion diced

2 cups of milk

2 cans cream of chicken soup

4 1/2 cups of shredded cheese

2 packages of sausage (smoked or kielbasa)

2 28oz bags frozen potatoes O’Brien 

1- 24 oz bag birdseye peppers stir fry

Salt and pepper to taste

Put bags of potatoes, diced onion, sliced sausage, and stir-fry mix into the crockpot mix up, top with 4 cups of cheese. In separate bowl mix together cream of chicken soup and milk and salt and pepper. Pour over top of potato mix in crockpot. Cook on high for 3.5 hours. Top with cheese and enjoy! 

Learning is important

Those that know me know that I love to cook, I have done my best teaching all my kiddos how to cook. Some have completely lost everything that I have taught them or don’t care to learn, some have done great! When my son picked his electives at school and one was culinary my heart jumped with joy that one of my kiddos also enjoyed my passion. Boy was I wrong!! He said he just took the class so he didn’t have to live off of ramen noodles when he moves out.... and I am thinking boy I have you help me in the kitchen quite frequently... but maybe I’m not the best teacher 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t know! Kinda hurt my heart but I try not to take it too personal. 

Well Sunday I was making some cupcakes and hunter was sitting at the table chatting away with me and I asked him if he wanted to help and he was so happy to help, taught him how to zest lemons, juice lemons and how to make cupcakes. I love teachable moments like that. 

While scrolling through a health magazine the other day, not sure how or why it comes in the mail, I can guarantee I did not order it. Payton and I were looking through the recipes it went mostly like this..... ehh.... umm gross.... who even eats this stuff..... what the.... oh I bet zep would like that ( our boxer). We tore the page out cause she said she wanted to make them for him and threw the magazine away because we were definitely not looking at it again lol. Payton asked last night at dinner if we could get the ingredients so she could make them. I looked over the recipe and all we needed was wheat flour and crunchy peanut butter so off to the grocery store me and Chad went. Got home and she got to baking. Now here it the part where I should have observed her.... she is my messy child and I know everyone is different buuuutttttt how she got flour from one side of the kitchen to the other, on her elbow, eyebrow, and pans she wasn’t even using is beside me. I saw the mess... told her to get it cleaned up and went to bed. Got up a little later looked at the kitchen and went to wake her butt up. She proceeds to try to pretend she is asleep to keep from cleaning the kitchen. This child will be the death of me. She piles all the dirty dishes in the sinks and put the dough she hasn’t baked into a container and puts it in the fridge.... off to bed she goes. At this point I’m like ugh I don’t even care I’m going to bed. 

This morning we had orthodontic appointments so I knew she would have some time in the morning to get things done.... and she thought she would get to sleep in hahaha (evil mom laugh) 

Ducks: The good, the bad, and the ugly!

As you may know I am a cute little creature lover. When Chick days came to our local Tractor Supply we saw so cute little ducklings and baby chicks. My chicks are sweet angels and I will save them for another day. Anyways, we got a few cute little ducklings, brought them home, gave them all sweet little names, snuggled those sweet little fuzz balls.

Now, I knew owning little farm animals would not be all rainbows and skittles but, I did not believe that they could grow up to be such messy, anti-social, disgusting creatures...… good thing they are still cute! They are so cute that we got more! We were so in love with our ducklings and how they would eat meal worms out of our hands, dive down to the bottom of the duck pond and fluff their cute little feathers. As they grow we watch them lose their baby fuzz and get their beautiful feathers.  They grow soooo very fast and I knew they would outgrow the kiddie pool but I didn't think it would be that fast. We started looking around for what we could use for a duck pond and finally figured it out and we built a large pen with a big stock tank pond for them to play in and they love it! Did you know that ducks are incredibly lazy and do not get out of the water to poop? they just poop and keep swimming. They still love meal worms and will go crazy when they see us or that we have a bag of their treat treats. In fact that is the only time they care about me.....rude! they do not want to be pet, or held...they just want me to clean their pond, give them meal worms. 

I cannot say that I truly thought that these cutie pies could be so messy. Every day I clean their waterers, and fill up their feeders. I clean their pen out every week which includes emptying their pond of stink poopy water and dirt that they have carried in their bills, raking out the poop all over the pen.....I don't know why they poop so dang much. 

As they have grown they have become more and more pains in my butt. They started playing in the waterers right after I filled them. They fill their beaks with water and make mud puddles....that sounds pretty innocent right? WRONG! they do this with the big 7 gallon jug of water then dig holes all over the pen.....I am sure they are trying to dig a hole that I will break an ankle in. so each week I fill in those holes and I am still trying to figure out a way to get them to quit digging holes and playing in the waterers. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, I have done hours of research and nothing has worked. They also love to eat my beautiful plants....even though I give them fresh veggies to eat on. I still love my stupid ducks regardless of all the headaches they give me and I still force them to let me hold and pet them, one day they will like it. 

The other day, I was on the phone with my sister-in-law just chatting away and I look over and one of the ducks has a dried dog turd in its mouth like a cigar.....no I cannot believe it either! now you know I was describing all this to my sister-in-law while she is about to eat lunch....I helped her diet that day because I then told her how the duck choked down the dog turd whole and went after another one.....sooooo disgusting! Needless to say, they will not be getting kisses from me!

Trying out my new crockpot

Recently I made a batch of charro beans for my husband to take to work but somehow my crockpotot bit the dust... I wasn’t mad I got to get a new crockpot! I do have an insta pot but I haven’t quite figured out the crockpot function on it yet.

I went in search of a big crockpot, ya know the size where you can put a whole pork shoulder roast in and still be able to put the lid on... well I searched and read reviews of Sooooooo many different crockpots. Can you believe there are crockpots out there that are over $200..... seriously it can’t be any better than this $60 one. I did find one that was $150 that I wanted but it was a Ninja 6 in 1.... not sure what all it did but I don’t think I could have used a crockpot liner in it and I wanted to see it in real life but couldn’t find it anywhere. So I kept looking. I found a 10 quart crockpot on amazon and I was so excited whooo hooo! Got it in and that thing is seriously huge! I know, I know, I’m old because I get excited about a new crockpot. Click on the link below if you want to see the one I got.

Amazon Hamilton Beach 10 Qt crockpot


Today was the first day to use it and I am making my sons favorite crockpot meal Crack Chicken!

3-4 frozen chicken breast
2 pkg ranch seasoning
8oz cream cheese

Put all in a crockpot on low for 8 hours. With an electric mixer shred chicken add 1 pkg real bacon bits, 1 cup mayonnaise, and  2 cups shredded cheese (I use taco blend)  then mix until well combined. Serve on hamburger buns and enjoy!

Banana Bread Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 over ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pan with liners. In large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mash bananas with mixer, add sugar and whip together until light and fluffy. Add melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well until combined. Slowly add dry ingredients until incorporated but do not over mix.

optional: add pecans/ chocolate chips fold in with spatula.

pour batter in prepared pan and bake for 20 min or until toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.

RV Living with messy teenagers

About 4 months ago we decided to move into an RV when we moved across the great state of Texas from Huntsville that has been our home for the last 5 years to Dalhart which will hopefully be our home for a very long time. Most people probably think we are crazy moving our family of 4 into an RV because they have the thought of a small camper when in all actuality it is more the size of a mobile home, we have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Of course I would like more storage space but I also needed wanted more storage space in the big house we moved out of. When we moved into the RV we had to get rid of things as we could not fit everything from our big house into our RV, but I think that my daughter and I have the most issues with getting rid of things. She is a hoarder.... no I really think she is. She is a typical teenager that sits on her bed, no longer plays with toys, needs tons of clothes and gadgets but wears the same 5 things over and over and doesn't use anything but the TV remote and snap chat. I on the other hand have tons of stuff too but I am more organized so it doesn't seem like it. She leaves a mess in every room she it in but I still lover her. So today I went through part of the kids room cleaning up their stuff because it completely drives me nuts that it is not organized.... am I the only mom that cares that the kids cabinets and drawers are not neat and clean? so I folded and organized their clothes today and got rid of a trash bag full  few items that they surely will not miss while they were at school....I was going to make Banana nut bread but the recipe called for 4 over ripe bananas but I of course only have 3 then saw their messy room and totally forgot about just going to the store to get another banana. I guess I will go now. I will post the recipe later.
bye-bye for now

Casey