Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Yummy Slow Cooker Lunch 12/30/09


I had no idea what to make for lunch, but I knew I did NOT want to pack both kids into the car just for some fast food. So...I pulled out some frozen hot dogs (Nathans - the good stuff) and put them in the fridge to thaw. Then I had thought: slow cooker. I proceeded to do a search for "slow cooker hot dog recipe." I found a few things, most taking hours, of course. One, however, Hawaiian Hot Dog Surprise, only took 30 minutes, and I had the ingredients (at least I thought)! Working with what I actually had, I subbed half the hot dogs with leftover ham and left out the beans (which I amazingly didn't have - I ALWAYS have baked beans!) and the white sugar just because I figured it was sugary enough. I also cooked it on high for 30 minutes because it wasn't bubbling like the recipe implied it would. The end result was SO YUMMY! The Nathans hot dogs are salty, which gives a nice contrast to the sugary sauce and pineapple. The ham was good in it, too. I highly recommend this recipe, though I would bet money that the white sugar is unnecessary. I served lightly-buttered peas with this meal, which sounds weird but complemented the dish well. Toddler approved.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Education: Food for Thought

I would love to homeschool my children. My husband? Not exactly on board. I have searched and searched for evidence of what I know to be true about homeschooling, and I've found a lot of great resources. Isn't it funny, though, how some good food for thought falls into your lap? Here are a couple of links that have made an impact on me. Do you have any?

Why Schools Don't Educate
Is there hope for our children's education?

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Menu Plan Monday 12/28/09


(Sorry about the weird formatting; Blogger is acting up on me)
  • Meaty Monday:
  • Gluten-free pasta w/ sauce from a jar and crumbled spicy sausage
  • Garlic Bread
  • Tasty Tuesday:
  • CrockPot Tuscan Chicken from Saving Dinner served over rice
  • Wild Card Wednesday:
  • Not sure yet - probably takeout
  • Spaghetti Night (Well, since we did Spaghetti Night on Meaty Monday, we'll do Meaty Monday on Spaghetti Night):
  • Morton's Roast from Costco on the grill
  • Sesame Broccoli (like this recipe)
  • Free-for-All Friday:
  • Not a clue; no idea what we'll be doing

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Books That Stuck

You read "Suck," didn't you? Yeah...most people do. This is another facebook goodie.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

1. Fahrenheit 451
2. Island of the Blue Dolphins
3. Great Expectations (but not in a good way)
4. Eat Pray Love
5. She's Come Undone (again, not in a good way)
6. The Bible
7. Tuesdays with Matthew
8. A New Leaf
9. The Joy Luck Club
10. The Bonesetter's Daughter
11. A Brave New World
12. Hamlet
13. Jude the Obscure
14. Animal Farm (in a creepy way)
15. Kitchen God's Wife

Book Nerd?


This is one of those fun facebook activities, but I think reading is important, so I'm sharing...

BC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen-
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien-
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte-
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling-
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee-
6 The Bible-X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte-
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell-
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman-
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens-x

Total: 2

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott-
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy-
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller-x
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien-
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faul
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger-
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Total: 1

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell-
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald-x
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams-
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky-x
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck-
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol-
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame-

Total: 2

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis-
34 Emma-Jane Austen-
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis-
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne-x

Total: 1

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell-x
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown-
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery-X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding-
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

Total: 2

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens-
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley-x
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total: 1

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck-x
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy-x
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville-

Total: 2

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens-
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker-
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett-X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante-
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Total: 1

80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens-
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker-x
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White-X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom-
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Total: 2

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery-x
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl-x
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo-x

Total: 4

Grand Total: 18

Monday, December 21, 2009

Menu Plan Monday 12/21/09


Menu Plan Monday

This week is all messed up, and not entirely because of Christmas!

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Some slow cooker chicken dish I have yet to select (depends on my ability to get to the store today)

Wednesday: Freezer cleanout (I see chicken dino nuggets in our future...)

Thursday: Tenderloin roast (hubby's choice), cheesy potatoes, cheese dip, Spicy Sesame Green Beans (only half spicy, though, for the wee ones)

Friday: Ham, Jello salad (yes, I said Jello salad), corn, peas, scalloped potatoes, whatever else we add to the list...

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Review of this week's recipes

Meaty Monday:
Morton's Pot Roast from Costco – Good but not as sweet as I’d hoped, since it contained sugar, and very fatty
Stir-fried corn – Turned out better than I’d hoped!

Tasty Tuesday:
Last-minute change of plans led to dinner out

Wild Card Wednesday:
Last-minute doctor appointment led to takeout

Spaghetti Night:
Spontaneous dinner out with friends, conveniently also Italian

Free-for-all Friday:
Erickson Family Christmas!!!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Menu Plan Monday 12/14/09


This week is an easy week for me. I deserve it!

Meaty Monday:
Morton's Pot Roast from Costco
Stir-fried corn

Tasty Tuesday:
Tuscan Chicken from SavingDinner.com (received in an email from Flylady...I don't feel right posting it, so if you want it, message me or comment with your email address) over rice instead of pasta (I love it when the veggies are part of the main dish!)

Wild Card Wednesday:
Cranberry Stuffing Turkey Breasts from Costco
Roasted green beans

Spaghetti Night:
Fancy pasta with sausage (haven't decided which fancy pasta or sausage yet)

Free-for-all Friday:
Whatever's left!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Review of this week's recipes


Review of this week's recipes:

Meaty Monday:
Easy Slow Cooker Meatballs – They were good, but the meatballs themselves could have used more seasoning (the only seasoning was in the breadcrumbs) and they didn’t hold together well. They have hope, though!
Roasted Parsnips – I also made some with cinnamon and sugar. They were ALL good!!!
Garlic Bread – Well, our bread molded spontaneously, so no garlic bread for us… :o(

Tasty Tuesday:
CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken over rice – It was very good but tasted just like Picante Chicken. Since the Picante Chicken has fewer calories and more veggies and is less work, we’ll dump this recipe and keep that one.
Garlic Sesame Green Beans – Good as always, though I forgot the almonds and made the beans without red pepper flakes so that Ellie could eat them (I like them better that way, anyway). I also added chopped garlic to the oil (because I accidentally started to make my garlic green beans instead of Mike's). I give a huge thumbs up to veggie recipe that makes my toddler ask for more until there is no more.

Wild Card Wednesday: Changed to a meal out, since Mikey’s chiropractic appointment got in the way.

Spaghetti Night:
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce – Since I doubled the meatball recipe on Monday, I decided to just break up the meatballs into sauce. I’ll have to try this recipe another time.
Honey Mustard Broccoli - MUCH better with Ken's Steak House Honey Mustard dressing than with Safeway Honey Mustard
Garlic Bread

Free-For-All Friday: Whatever is left!

Family Dinner (Saturday or Sunday): Ditched the food plans when the family plans changed...had yummy brinner

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Menu Plan Monday 12/7/09


Here I go with my first week of complete menu planning! I'm very excited!
(Oh, and be sure to check back at the end of the week for a review of this week's menu!)

Meaty Monday:
Easy Slow Cooker Meatballs
Roasted Parsnips
Garlic Bread

Tasty Tuesday:
CrockPot Brown Sugar Chicken over rice
Garlic Sesame Green Beans

Wild Card Wednesday:
Ham Sandwiches
Fruit Salad

Spaghetti Night:
Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Honey Mustard Broccoli
Garlic Bread

Free-For-All Friday:
Whatever is left!

Family Dinner (Saturday or Sunday):
Slow Cooker French Dip
Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Sun Magazine | Why Schools Don't Educate


The Sun Magazine Why Schools Don't Educate

This article really makes you think...and feel guilty...

On the other hand, it motivates you to speak up and make a difference!

"Now, here is a curious idea to ponder: Senator Ted Kennedy’s office released a paper not too long ago claiming that prior to compulsory education the state literacy rate was 98 percent, and after it the figure never again climbed above 91 percent, where it stands in 1990. I hope that interests you."

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Just 15 minutes...


I have been totally motivated to get organized lately, but my head has been all over the place (and, conveniently, not in the one room desperately needing my attention). I have to go back and read old posts like this one to get back on track. Maybe I need a new mantra: just 15 minutes...just 15 minutes...just 15 minutes...

Menu-Plan Plan


I've been agonizing over menu planning for the longest time. I follow Jessie's Menu Plan Monday blog posts. I follow the Menu Plan Monday blog posts she references. I follow FLYLady's menu plan ideas and testimonials. I have done SO MUCH research into this to try to figure out how to make it work for me. My stumbling block is my recent vegetarian history. I have no arsenal of recipes to fit into a plan! Thankfully my husband finally heard my plea for a new slow cooker and bought me a 6-qt. Crock-Pot from Costco for our anniversary. I have jumped into slow cooking feet first! Now I'm motivated. Now I do have a new stumbling block: I have to stay dairy free for my son. Hopefully this will only be temporary like it was with my daughter (14 months temporary, but still...), but for now I have to work hard for my recipes. (If you have any good dairy-free slow cooker recipes, please share!) So...

Here's my menu-plan plan:

Meaty Monday - Slow-cooker beef recipes
Tasty Tuesday - Slow-cooker chicken recipes ("Tasty" because chicken tastes like whatever you do to it) :o)
Wild Card Wednesday - Whatever I feel like, pork, vegetarian, slow cooker, not slow cooker...
Spaghetti Night (Yeah...nothing really goes with "Thursday") - or whatever pasta dish sounds good
Free-For-All Friday - Leftovers, anyone?

Welcome to my blog!


I finally broke down and created a blog. I've been so inspired by my friends' blogs, Jessie and Felicia specifically, and I do find myself writing blogs on other sites, like SparkPeople and facebook. Writing blogs is therapeutic for me, so I'm hoping having an official blog will motivate me to do more therapy. :o)

I chose the title "Kandid Katie" not just for the alliteration but because I want my readers to know I'm telling the truth. I am honest, often to a fault, and I try not to sensationalize or provoke. I do, however, have very deep passion inside of me that spews out like molten lava and mountain shrapnel. If you feel injured by my words, please let me know. It's probably a misunderstanding, but maybe you can open up my mind in new ways!

I should also warn you that I am very flighty in every sense of the word, good and bad. I have very strange - and sometimes derailed - trains of thought. I pick strange topics to ponder and get upset about seemingly-small things. That's just me, as most of you know.

I hope you enjoy my blog. Feel free to laugh at me or with me. I hope I provide some food for thought, and maybe, just maybe, inspire someone else to try blog therapy.