Philly Cheese..Roast?

Here is the second installment of the recipes that were sent to me! (If you haven't sent me one and would like to, message me on facebook, click HERE) I may not post it on the blog, I just love trying new recipes myself. :)

I wasn't sure what to call this! It is roast but philly cheese steak style.  This undoubtedly was one of the easiest recipes I have ever fixed for my family. And hands down, it was one of our favorites. I also have to say, it was even tastier the next day! My husband absolutely loved it, it is now his favorite. He said "this is a killer recipe, don't share this with anyone else" lol! He wants to just keep it all to himself!  We loved how you could truly taste the beef but the peppers gave it the best flavor that I can not even describe!

Okay...are you ready for this?

Ingredients:

Chuck Roast

Jar of pepperoncinis including juice (you know, those peppers that come in Papa John's pizza and Olive Garden salad, you can find them in the pickle section of your local supermarket)

That's it! Two ingredients! Put in your crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve on toasted hoagie bun with provolone cheese and I added sauted onions.

I didn't get a picture because we gobbled it up too quick! But fear not, I took to google images and found you one. We did not eat the peppers on the sandwich, though. We ate them on the side. :)

photo credit

Thank you, Becky, for sending me this recipe!

Chicken Marsala

Thank you to all who have sent me recipes to my facebook page! I have decided to make at least 4 recipes of those that have been sent to me recently.  The first one I made was Chicken Marsala. This was so delish! I have never had chicken marsala before. I know Olive Garden and other italian restaurants serve this, but I have never ordered it. I could not wait to make it! I now know I will make and order it often. This comes from Domestically Dreaming.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon Essence, recipe follows (I used premade Emeril's Southwestern Essence)
2 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves and pounded thin
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups sliced mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake)
3/4 cup Marsala
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions

In a shallow bowl or plate combine the flour and Essence and stir to combine thoroughly. Quickly dredge the chicken breast halves in the seasoned flour mixture, shaking to remove any excess flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook the chicken breasts until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter to the pan and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are golden brown around the edges and have given off their liquid. Add the Marsala wine and bring to a boil, scraping to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the wine has reduced by half, add the chicken stock and cook for 3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Lower the heat to medium and return the chicken breasts to the pan and continue to cook until they are cooked through and the sauce has thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, add salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.

Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

I served with egg noodles and green peas

This was a winner in the Deal house! If you have a favorite recipe you would like to share, please send! I love trying new recipes...and so does hubby. :)

Ty's birth book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Friday Favorites

Hey guys! It's Friday, so that means Friday favorites!!  These are kind of all over the place today. :)

1.  Hobo Lauren

I love my hobo! It holds everything I need when I run out. I can just grab this baby and go. And since Ty was born, I throw this in his diaper bag and head out the door. No wondering if I'm forgetting something! It holds my checkbook, cards, money ok I have no money! ha! It is also big enough to hold lipgloss, etc. I love it! It comes in so many yummy colors and is the softest leather ever. It is one of those pieces that you will keep for years until it becomes "vintage".  You can purchase it at Nordstrom, or on ebay like I did, because who wants to spend that much money? 

2.  Makeup By Tiffany D Sigma palette

Even though I am not wearing makeup as much as I did before Ty was born (I don't head out of the house much with a 6 week old :) When I do get spruced up I have found I have only pulled out my Tiffany D palette since I have received it in December. The quality is outstanding, the colors are perfectly pigmented and last. Plus it comes with 2 gel eyeliners and a dual ended pencil eyeliner. The gel liners are the best quality of any gel liner I have purchased. And, yay!, it comes with a dual ended sigma brush. The E55 and E30. If you read my December favorites you know how much I am in love with the sigma brushes. When I purchased the palette, it also came with E05 eyeliner brush. Eeek! Check out her YouTube channel. She is one of my favorite go-to makeup gurus. And if you love OOTD photos as much as I do, check her out on instagram and her blog! You can purchase the palette here. 

3.  Misty by Sherwin Williams

Can I just say, I am obsessed with this color at the moment. I have been drooling over this color ever since Bonnie Donahue at House of Grace painted her new home this color but have really been putting a lot of thought into it before I use it in one of my rooms. I have a front "formal" living room which I use as a piano room. I am going to refinish my piano this spring in white and really, really want to paint the walls this color. I am going to add in accents of navy and yellow or green...I am still contemplating though. I am one of those that only paints every few years and don't want to get tired of blue. What do you think? Don't you love it!!

Photo credit

Photo Credit

4.  Phillip Phillips

Ty and I listen to A. Lot. of music during the day. For the moment we are listening to Phillip Phillips (with a mixture of Baby Einstein and Baby Praise :) I love the mixture of Mumford & Sons and Dave Matthews in his music. I could listen to him all day long.

That completes Friday Favorites for this week! Hope all you busy bees have an awesome weekend! The kids are out of school today. Supposed to be winter weather this afternoon! Time for some hot chocolate. <3

Guest post! Shaklee with Juliakendrick.com

Hello, Busy Bees! 

I mentioned in my December favorites about my favorite cleaning product, Shaklee. I am so excited that today I have a friend and fellow blogger sharing Shaklee with you!  Julia is a work-at-home mommy to three handsome boys. As a wife and mom, she strives to give and surround her family with the healthiest and safest products available. That is why she became a Shaklee distributor. Read on to find how how amazing Shalkee is for yourself!  Head over to her page and give her some blog love from The Busy Bee Mama! Tell her I sent you. :)

So, What is Shaklee you ask?

Today I am going to show you! :) 

Shaklee has an awesome Get Clean line. Once you switch to these safe, frugal and great working cleaners, you will never go back to the harmful and expensive ones you used before!

This Get Clean kit is $99 and will last you a long time. If you were to go to Walmart and buy the equivalent amount of cleaning products, you would spend over $3,400! So to say these last a long time...is an understatement. A long time and saves you A LOT of money.

 Let's talk about safety for one. What other cleaners can your kids help you clean with that is completely safe? If my kids want to help me spray down the table, they can! We have 2 bathrooms, so they each wipe down a bathroom every day too! I would NEVER trust them with any other cleaner to do that. Too dangerous.

Also, dollar store cleaners do not even stand up in comparison to Shaklee Get Clean cleaners! Ours are frugal AND safe. Those ones on the left leave harmful carcinogens in your air and residue on the surfaces that you clean. I know I don't want that around my kids and where they are playing. 

You can click HERE to see our Get clean line!

We also have our awesome Healthy Beauty line. I use this stuff every day!! It lasts a long time too. Did you know that a lot of your beauty products contain harmful parabens? Shaklee's Enfuselle line is completely safe and paraben free. 

I don't know about you but I am going with a safe beauty line. I don't need any cancer causing products.

We have our 180 Weight Loss Line...I am losing A LOT of weight on this right now!! If you are serious about getting your body healthy and losing fat and gaining muscle then you need to check these out.

 And our most important line of all, our Healthy Nutrition line. Our food is such poor quality today. Even if you buy organic food, you never truly know what you are getting. It is vitally important that you and your family supplement with vitamins. We even have an amazing line for your children. I can't even begin to tell you some of the results we have seen with these supplements. 

So these are the great products that I am proud to market and refer my friends and family to. I am blessed and thankful that I am able to share them with you too!

So here is where you can find the best products for the #1 Natural Nutrition Company in the U.S. who uses the most potent and purest ingredients to make their products the best!

Healthy Nutrition

Healthy Weight

Healthy Beauty

Healthy Clean

Follow me HERE on my personal blog and HERE on my Facebook page!

Julia

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

I couldn't figure out what to make for dinner! Ever had that happen? I failed at menu planning this week, therefore I had nothing prepared for dinner. After looking through the fridge I knew I had fresh spinach I needed to use. So I went to google and went to work. Then I came across this recipe. Of course, this was it! It, after all, was a recipe by my favorite Food Network Star, The Pioneer Woman!

Her recipe serves 10. Um, it's two of us. So I halved the recipe for us. Also, the recipe calls for penne pasta, I used elbow noodles. I know that does not change the taste but it didn't look quite as fancy. :) I paired this with chicken. Warning:  This in no way is healthy or diet friendly.

This is the halved recipe :)

3 Tbs butter

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (I always use my pampered chef garlic press)

1 bag baby spinach

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and halved

1.5 Tbs flour

1.5 cups whole milk

sprinkle of cayenne pepper

S&P

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella or monterey jack cheese

1/4 cup chicken broth (I didn't use this)

6 oz pasta (penne) cooked until al dente

1/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

crushed red pepper, to taste

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large pot or skillet. Add garlic and throw in the spinach. Stir it around until it's wilted, about 1 minute. Remove spinach from heat and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to the same pot and raise the heat to high. Throw in the halved artichokes and stir it around until they get a little color, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the artichokes from the pot and set them aside.

Reduce the heat to low. Add 1 tablespoon butter to the pot. When melted, sprinkle in flour and whisk until it's combined. Pour in milk and whisk to combine. Let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until starting to thicken. Add Parmesan, Mozzarella/Monterey Jack, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir to melt, and if it's overly thick, splash in chicken broth.

Add artichokes and pasta, tossing gently to combine. Gently fold in spinach, then pour the pasta into a serving bowl. Sprinkle the top with crushed red pepper flakes and plenty of Panko breadcrumbs for crunch.

Serve immediately!

This was so delish! And it was hubby approved!

Oatmeal Energy Balls

Welcome from Pinterest! Make sure you follow le blog and the busy bee mommy on facebook! :) (links on the right :)

Happy Monday morning!

If you follow my Facebook page, you know I was fixing something easy and quick in the kitchen this weekend. What was I making? Oatmeal balls! This recipe was requested after my fridge tour. :)

If you need an easy snack that is oh so yummy and can be made pretty much any way you want and doesn't need to be cooked, then this is it. :) Needless to say, I made these Saturday....they are now gone.

First lets talk some ingredients.  I am a nursing mother, so these are also good for my milk production with the oatmeal and flaxseed. I also use flaxseed in my Tone-it-up pancake.

Some of you may not know what flaxseed is.  Flaxseed can and should (in my opinion) be named as a superfood. It is high in heart healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, magnesium, and fiber. It is low in carbohydrates. Studies have shown that flaxseed also contains lignans, which help prevent cancer.

I purchased my flaxseed at Kroger in the organic section.

Enough rambling, on to the recipe:

1 cup oatmeal (not instant)

1/2 cup frozen thawed coconut

1/2 cup peanut butter (or any nut butter - sunflower seed - almond, etc)

1/2 cup ground/milled flaxseed

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup crushed walnuts

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together and chill for about an hour. Roll into small balls (about 1 inch) and enjoy. Easy Peasy! Keep refrigerated. Makes about 25.

This would be so good with chocolate chips or dried fruit.

I am going to try it with crushed dried banana and chocolate chips next! Yummo!

Slightly adapted from gimme some oven

When life gives you snow, make cream!

photo credit

One of my fondest memories growing up was when it snowed. Yes I loved sledding with my brothers, having snowball fights with the neighbor kids (we had a neighborhood full!) But one of my fondest was making snow cream! Something about this sweet goodness just made snow days magical.  Apparently, this is a tradition in the south. After talking about it with several of my friends that live farther north, I learned they had never even heard of it! Oh, what a sweet introduction. <3

Now, people say don't use the fist snow of the year because it picks up pollutants on the way down. I say, if it's deep enough, go for it! I mean, I know I'm not the only one that would wait my turn to go down the sled hill and just pick up handfuls of snow and eat it. My girls do that and of course they, and I, did not care if it was the first snow! 

Well, it's not deep enough, so I won't be eating pollutants this time, but I thought I would share with you the famous snow cream recipe!

The recipe we always made growing up:

a lot of snow (we never measured)

1 cup sugar

1 Tbs vanilla

2 cups milk

Adjust all to taste, it's more of a yummy taste test than a measuring thing. :)

Mix all together and eat quickly because it melts fast!

This year, if it snows again, I am going to try Paula Deen's recipe! Yummy!

8 cups of snow

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all together and eat quickly

I think the sweetened condensed milk will give it that ice cream creaminess that it so needs. <3 Oh I hope it snows again!

Did it snow in your neck of the woods? Have you made snow cream before?

Chambray Love

Who doesn't love Chambray? 

Who doesn't know Chambray? 

Oh the love I have for it! To set the record straight, Chambray is NOT denim. I will repeat...Chambray is NOT denim. Although it looks like denim. ;)  Chambray is a lightweight cotton weave fabric primarily used for summer and spring fashion. But it can be found in thicker weight for fall and winter. It originated from Cambria, France, thus it's name.

Chambray can be worn so many different ways: Here's my OOTD on this rainy/snowy day. Chambray with a little bit of Henri...swoon! I purchased mine here because I wanted one long enough to wear with leggings. (note: the Rubbish boyfriend shirt runs LARGE! I should have ordered a size down. :)

What I love most about Chambray is how versatile it is. It can be dressed up or down and pretty much worn for any occasion!  Here are some pics I found on the web. The first is from the Blonde Ambition blog and the rest I found on Pinterest! Enjoy.

I love how Leslie, yeah, we're on a first name basis, styled it a bit formal with the black skirt and tights!

How gorgeous with a maxi skirt this spring! I WILL be sporting this look often!

The basic, classy look of Chambray. Paired with white.

Who likes color? Chambray is the perfect neutral to pair with your on trend colored bottoms.

My love for Chambray continues....And they lived happily ever after!

Our favorite pot roast

I type this post right now with a pot roast in the crock pot cooking for dinner. No, it is not this pot roast but it's going to be yummy all the same! It's one of those, throw everything in the slow cooker and go. That's not this recipe. This is the, I have a little time and I want that yummy rustic real food flavor. This is Pioneer Woman's pot roast.  

I cooked this pot roast and took these pictures on 12-8-12.  I remember that date specifically because I made if for a Christmas dinner for my husbands work. I also remember it because I went into labor at 3am the next morning with little Ty! <3

This recipe is copied directly from her website :)

Ingredients

• 1 whole (4 To 5 Pounds) Chuck Roast (mine was 3 pounds I think)
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 whole Onions
• 6 whole Carrots (Up To 8 Carrots)
• Salt To Taste
• Pepper To Taste
• 1 cup Red Wine (optional, You Can Use Beef Broth Instead) (I use beef broth)
• 2 cups To 3 Cups Beef Stock (added to the other cup :)
• 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme, or more to taste
• 3 sprigs Fresh Rosemary, or more to taste

Preparation Instructions

First and foremost, choose a nicely marbled piece of meat. This will enhance the flavor of your pot roast like nothing else. Generously salt and pepper your chuck roast.

Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Then add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or you can do a butter/olive oil split).

Cut two onions in half and cut 6 to 8 carrots into 2-inch slices (you can peel them, but you don’t have to). When the oil in the pot is very hot (but not smoking), add in the halved onions, browning them on one side and then the other. Remove the onions to a plate.

Throw the carrots into the same very hot pan and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so.

If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pan. Place the meat in the pan and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Remove the roast to a plate.

With the burner still on high, use either red wine or beef broth (about 1 cup) to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom with a whisk to get all of that wonderful flavor up.

When the bottom of the pan is sufficiently deglazed, place the roast back into the pan and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway (about 2 to 3 cups). Add in the onion and the carrots, as well as 3 or 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary and about 3 sprigs of fresh thyme.

Put the lid on, then roast in a 275F oven for 3 hours (for a 3-pound roast). For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours. 

The only completed picture I have is in the crock pot to transport it to the party. :)

This post roast is delicious! I have made it several times and it is a family favorite.

Enjoy!