Valentine's Day Teacher Gift

I don't know about you, but I really appreciate my boys' teachers. I know they are overworked and underpaid and that's really the truth here in Oklahoma, where we are one of the lowest paying states for teachers.

I like to let them know I appreciate them. So when I ran across this post on Pinterest I knew it'd be an excellent Valentine's day gift for them. It's small, inexpensive and hopefully useful.  She even has a free download of the cute little tag that goes around the bottle. I like free! I like easy! I know you do too!

 Simply Designing

I made the little bags I put them in as well as the gift tags. I'll show you how I did that tomorrow. I had everything already in my craft cabinet, but the nail polish. I guess I could have given them one of my "good as new" used polishes, but I'm not that cheap and that's just eww.  So, here's my version of an easy, cheap, Valentine's gift for your kiddo's teachers.

Tap Tap! Anybody There?

Six months. That's how long it's been since I have posted. Of course I didn't intend for that to happen, in August, that last time I posted. School started and life got busy and then medical issues came up. Nothing serious, just time and mind consuming. I kept thinking to myself. I like to blog, I LOVE Pinterest, but I just never seemed to have the time or energy to sit down and write. However, I never stopped using Pinterest for absolutely every thing!


I've got tons of things to post about and it's all screaming to get out of my head and onto this blog. So, today will be a two post day. This one to tell you I am still here. Here and ready to post! The next one will be a Valentine's Day gift idea for all those hard worked, under-paid teachers out there.

Cubed Steak and Gravy

This was good! The meat was tender and it made a nice gravy. As it was cooking I did have to add more water as the recipe suggested I might have to. When I did this I think it took away some of the yummy gravy taste. I tasted it before I added the extra water and it was very flavorful, after the water it was still good, but not as good as before. I'd watch out for that if you like yummy gravy. 

This recipe got 3 thumbs up out of four.

I found the recipe by searching "cubed steak" on Pinterest. You can find the blog here and the link to the recipe here.

Easy Homemade Meatloaf

I have misplaced my favorite meatloaf recipe and it's been so long since I'd made it I couldn't remember what all the ingredients were. So, I turned to Pinterest to see if I could find one that was just as good.

This meatloaf was not bad. It called for 1 cup breadcrumbs and all I had was Italian breadcrumbs so I used that. To be honest I didn't really like the flavor of the Italian breadcrumbs with this meatloaf, so I'd not use those again. I think all the breadcrumbs made it too firm. Next time I'd use another egg and unseasoned breadcrumbs or better yet maybe crackers instead of breadcrumbs. The recipe I lost called for crackers and the meatloaf was always moist and less firm.

This recipe received 3 thumbs up out of four. Of course, one of the Boywonders didn't like it.

I found it by searching "easy meatloaf" on Pinterest. The recipe came from a blog that I used once before. It's called EasyRecipeDepot.com and here's the link to the meatloaf recipe.

Roasted Asparagus

I used to hate Asparagus. Mostly because it was a vegetable and some because my mom used to eat it out of a can and it freakin stunk. A year or so ago I bought some fresh asparagus at the grocery store on whim. I knew my husband liked it, but I sure the heck didn't have a clue with how I was supposed to cook it. Pinterest to the rescue! I just typed "asparagus" in the search box and I found Simply Recipes. The roasted asparagus recipe is here.

 Boywonder1 calls it tiny tree's and won't even taste it. Boywonder2 will eat the tops and likes them. Hubby and I love it! I don't care if the Boywonders give it a thumbs down I'm taking there votes for it as a thumbs up. It's that good. Nothing like the stinky can crap my mom used to eat. :)

I'm giving this four thumbs up. 

Yoga

One night, shortly after I had to stop seeing my trainer because it was causing me severe arm, leg and neck pain, I was depressed and looking at ways to help myself. I must note I had gone to the doctor, who told me to stop seeing my trainer. He did an MRI and we found I had slipped disk in my neck, with nerve compression. Painful! Anyway, I was searching the exercise tabs on Pinterest and began looking at links about yoga. I had done little moves here and there before, but didn't really know how to do yoga at all. Then I found Adriene!

I love her! I began watching some of her video's. She has a whole bunch! I started with the video's for stress. I had to wait until I was done with physical therapy to start some of the other exercises. When I was able I used her "yoga for beginners" video.  Ultimately, I ended up having a surgery(breast reduction) that changed my life. After that I've been using Adrian's video's to "do what feels good."

Doing Yoga makes me fee good!

I give Adriene and her video's a big ole thumbs up!

You can read about Adriene and yoga at Yoga with Adriene. All her video's can be found on her Youtube channel.

Easy Oven Baked Pork Chops

These were bone-in pork chops. Recipe calls for two. I had six total. Instead of using amounts of spices called for in recipe I just eye-balled each amount for my pork chops. I also forgot to wash and pat dry my pork chops before I seasoned them. Another thing I did was season them an hour before I cooked them and placed them in the fridge. I was trying to multi-task at the time and thought it might be easier to just pull them out of the fridge and into the oven. I only mention that because by doing that I noticed I had to pour off some bloody juice before I put them in the oven. I followed the recommend cook time and they looked juicy when they were done. However, they did not look nice and brown like the picture showed. They looked kind of bland and white.

 I trudged on as I've noticed pork sometimes look unappealing to me at times. Boywonder2 who usually likes all meat said "mom these are so dry" I told him to add ketchup. lol. He tried that but said it was just too dry and sweet tasting. He only ate the butter bread. Boywonder1, as I've mentioned before, has a texture thing with meat. He only nibbled on a bite of pork chop. He tried them with ranch dressing and didn't like it much either. Hubby said they were okay, not great. I thought they were dry, a bit sweet and terribly bland looking. I served them with roasted asparagus (I'll share the recipe soon) seasoned black beans and butter bread.

I'd give these 1 1/2 thumbs up.

With that said I don't know why mine turned out so dry and bland looking. I don't think it has anything to do with the recipe I found. It was simple enough and should have worked.  I wonder if it had anything to do with me seasoning them and placing them in the fridge and hour before I cooked them. I also wondered if it had anything to do with my actual meat, which was  free range pork from a local farm.

I found the recipe by searching "bone in pork chops" on Pinterest. Original blog was called Easy Recipe Depot. Recipe found here.