Magic Button...not so much. Crockpot for the win!

So, I recently posted this to my FB: "I thought FOR SURE being a stay at home mom would be the magic button to making me love cooking. Wrong. So wrong. #dontdeceiveyourself #ihavenotime #Iwillpayyoutocookforme"

It's true. I've never been a "good" cook or have really liked cooking. I willfully bow out and hand over the expertise of cooking to someone else. 

Being that I am a stay at home mom now, I really do want to tackle this chore (yes it's a chore to me) much better. I'm the type that starts looking for meals online, starts a list, but then gets overwhelmed by it all, and I just give up and end up winging it at the grocery store. 

Our meals usually end up consisting of plan Jane chicken and some cooked veggies. On the dual side. Every now and then though I'll get "creative" and make something out of the norm, but not often enough. 

So here's my challenge to myself - to start pushing through the blah blah blah of cooking, buckle down and get-er-done! Instead of overwhelming myself with Martha Stewart type cooking goals/skills, I've decided to try making at least 2-3 new meals a week. I'm determined to figure out/and find healthy, delicious, quick meals that aren't so boring.

In all my 27 years (6 years of marriage) I've used the crockpot once. This has got to stop. Today I put my foot down and turned on my crockpot! I'm starting this new venture with this Cream Cheese Chicken Chili crockpot meal I found over at Rita's Recipes. 

My modifications to this recipe:

• I didn't use frozen chicken
• I used frozen corn 
• Added 1 cup of water in place of the corn juice

And it turned out perfect!

(Pic Source: Rita's Recipes)

This crockpot stuff is AH.mazing. Being a new mom is exhausting. I have the most energy earlier in the day so making dinner (putting it all in the crockpot) is awesome. It sure beats trying to muster up energy at the end of the day in order to make dinner. 

Whoever invented the crockpot. You. Are. Boss. #winning

If you have any awesome crockpot recipes, please please share them!! I'm desperate over here. ;) Would love to try them and post how it went. I will also be pinning the meals that I try over here on Pinterest. 

My Saturday

 

Well here I am, up bright and early about to try something I've never tried before. 

:: 10 Miles :: 

The longest run I had done up to this point was 6.2 miles. 

I've been running consistently since February. 4 miles most runs. 

Kevin has caught the bug and has begun running more. 

He recently did his first 10 mile run and inspired me to go for 10 too.  

It was time. Time that I pushed myself to another level. 

 

Dunks, driving us to our running destination. 

:: Downtown L-burg ::

Here we are at the start of the run. 

The trails were beautiful which allowed for some good distractions.  

I really had no idea what I was actually getting myself into. 

I just knew I needed to try. 

 

:: 10 Mile Recap ::

My breathing was good the whole run. 

I never really felt out of breath. 

It was my legs that were feeling it the most. 

Dunks ran slightly ahead of me most of the time, which for him I'm sure felt good, 

because I've been running faster then him lately.

[tee-hee, sorry babe, just had to put that out there] ;-P

If I recall correctly, miles 5 to 7.5 were the toughest for some reason. 

I'm used to stopping at 4ish, so I think at the 5 mile mark

my body began to wonder what in the world I was doing. 

It felt SO GOOD to hear my phone call out mile 8! 

After 8 I knew I could finish. 

Although mile 9 started to get a little rough, I couldn't even imagine not finishing at this point. 

Ironically, the worst part of the run was when we finished.

My legs were jello, my head was delirious, and about 30mins after, 

I started to feel extremely nauseous. 

I ended up feeling nauseous for at least two hrs after the run. 

The breakfast I tried eating after the run did not help my sickness.

I ended up throwing up three times [not fun].  

I couldn't get over the nauseousness so I took a nap

and thankfully when I woke up, I was back to normal again! ;)

 

After our nap we headed straight to Starbucks. 

I needed my coffee fix. asap. 

We sat at the bucks, and read our Bibles 

and talked about some stuff currently happening in our lives. 

I love when I get the chance to really connect with my Dunks. 

Apart from "marital" intimacy, 

there's a very intimate secret place that we experience together.

I'm sure we aren't the only couple with this secret place. 

What I mean by this is that we share conversations that I feel no one else on earth 

could really appreciate and connect with like we do together.  

When I was reading today the passages above really caught my attention.

God has that secret place with us. 

A place that is like none other.

Just Him and I. Our secret place. 

He has one for you too. :)

Some days I feel like I'm searching for this secret place 

and just can't find it [just like in marriage too].

Other days I feel like I couldn't be more hidden in there. 

I've found it, and it is good. Bringing peace to my soul.

Here's a creation I created today. 

The lines aren't perfect, but that's OK. :)

:: What's for DINNER ::

This meal is a new favorite of ours. 

It's delicious in so many ways. It's super cheesy, which we like A LOT. 

It's been a great weekend. 

Full of good challenges, good conversation, 

good creativity, and good food!