Monday, June 10, 2013

How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your crockpot

Uncooked

Cooked and shredded

Ummm so this method has basically just changed my entire life! You cant get any easier than plopping a whole frozen chicken into your crock pot and leaving for 5 hours! I found this method on a youtube video and was impressed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX4DjU43Bj4 , I heard people can get 5 meals out of a whole (small) chicken so I had to try it out. I used a different "recipe" than the lady in the video, here is what I used.....

*** I had a 5 pound chicken and left it in all night and it was amazing!


Ingredients: 
1 whole frozen chicken (3ish pounds)
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 carrots sliced
1/2 onion diced
2 stalks celery cut
2 bay leaves


Directions:
Pour 1 cup water in your crockpot, lay chicken breast down in your crock pot, sprinkle salt and pepper on and around your chicken, stuff the cut carrots, onion, celery and bay leaves around chicken. Cover, set on high and go do something fun for 5 hours. To check if done you can stick a knife in a thick spot of the chicken and see if the meat is still pink, if it is still pink cook longer. When done, remove from crockpot and separate chicken as desired. If you want you can broil your chicken 5 minutes on each side for a more crispy chicken.

If you want to make chicken stock: 
Source: http://www.momskitchenhandbook.com/uncategorized/who-knew-crock-pot-chicken/

Remove the skin from the chicken and pull the meat off the bones.  Store the meat in the fridge until ready to use. Put the bones back into the crock pot.  Add two more whole carrots, 2 whole stalks celery, half an onion, and another bay leaf.  Add 5 more cups of water, turn the pot to low and cook an additional 4 hours. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Update with the garden

Well, I dont know what I am doing haha. There are a million plants growing and I think 90% of them are weeds so I am waiting for them to get a little bigger so I can know for a fact its a weed before ripping out some cilantro or something. I havent skipped a day watering yet! YES! The bigger garden doesnt look like anything is growing from a distance, when you get up close you can see there are plants all over, some are getting to the point where I can tell what it is. Here are some pictures...

Cilantro for sure...

Looks like nothing, right? 

Then you look closer and you're like, HEY KALE!

The sunflowers are growing like CRAZY! 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

How to take your prenatal vitamins when you cant swallow pills....

So, I am a giant wimp. For whatever reason I am terrified of swallowing pills, I have like mini panic attacks whenever I "try" and trying ends up with me holding it in my mouth while people yell at me "You have to swish water around in your mouth" or "Put it on the back of your tongue and let it fall down" and then I cry like a giant baby and get shaky. With that being said, I NEED to take my prenatal vitamins, I was buying those gummy ones they sell at Walmart and then realized (after talking to my midwife about it) they are not nearly good enough. I wish I could just pop pills like a drug addict, I have a friend who can take all of her horse pill vitamins at once (its like a handful of pills). So, I bought prenatal vitamins in those dissolvable  capsules and tried out the ole put it in applesauce trick, I wanted to get it over with so I poured two pills worth of powder into a tablespoon of applesauce....FAIL....that ended up with gagging and throwing up! So then I bought protein powder and tried it in a shake with a banana and it didn't taste bad and you cant taste it at all when you add strawberries too! Woohoo, grow baby grow!



See? Dont blend the whole pill, just the powder. 

Ta Dah!




Ingredients: 
Your daily dose of Prenatal vitamins in capsules
 1 Banana
5 frozen strawberries
Protein powder (read on the back how many scoops you need for the serving, I need 1/3 cup)
About 1 - 1 1/2 cups of milk

Directions: 
Put chopped banana, frozen strawberries, protein powder, THE POWDER from your prenatal vitamins (Please dont blend the clear dissolvable part!) and milk into blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy and grow that beautiful baby!

In case you are wondering what supplements I am taking, here it is. Its all recommended by my midwife, so ask your doctor or midwife before taking anything. Everything I take is chewable, liquid, or powder.