Storm Prep

Tonight we'll be getting hit with a Nor'Easter, so, I'm in the middle of storm prep. I know it seems like I'm focused on this quite a bit since I also did a power outage post, but in our area of the country it's important to be prepared. The storm forecast is for winds of 30-40 mph, sleet, freezing rain and 3-6 inches of snow.

Storm Prep List:

1. Fill all water bottles/buckets
2. Bring wood in (for our wood stove)
3. Water plants/fill humidifiers
4. All laundry done
5. Run dishwasher / wash all bottles
6. Get all flashlights around- place 1 next to bed and the rest on kitchen table
7. Check on spare batteries- have enough?
8. Check pantry- make sure stocked w/necessities
9. Charge all electronics- tablets and phones
10. Animals Ready- fill guinea pig water bottle / fill dog dish / put shovel next to back door to shovel path for dog to go outside

 I got most of it done during my lunch time but the dishes and filling all the water containers until my little man went to bed. During my prep I found one of the flashlights were dead and we didn't have any spare 6-volt batteries.

The last thing I did was make sure that I had showered and had given my little guy a bath. If you are without power and water you'll have to go without showers.

I'm posting this tonight because if I don't have power tomorrow when I wake up, my internet will be down and I don't want to waste my phone battery on non-essentials, like checking when the power will come back on.

Multiple Meals with this Delicious 3 Ingredient Chicken

My idea of a perfect meal is one that has few ingredients, doesn't take a master chef to make and tastes delicious. So, when I found a recipe for BBQ Italian Chicken, it was love at first taste. It's three ingredients: Italian dressing, BBQ sauce and chicken.

Italian BBQ Chicken

1 Cup Italian Dressing

1 Cup BBQ Sauce

3-4 Chicken Breast (I usually use 4)

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4 hours. 

Serve with a side of your choice. 

What makes me love this recipe even more is its leftover potential. I've used it for leftovers in multiple ways. One of my favorites is to cut the chicken up, heat it with the juices in a frying pan. We eat it over rice or alone with baked beans. 

7 Essential Ways To Prepare For A Power Outage

Last week we had a snow storm roll through with wet, heavy snow, which caused us to lose power. The storm was worse than the forecast had anticipated and I wasn't prepared. Thankfully, we had the power back a few hours later. However, it reminded me to never take having electricity for granted and that there were things I needed to do to be prepared for a possible power outage. There are so many things that we use daily, without giving them a thought, that run on electricity.

1. The toilets-  your toilet won't be able to draw water and refill the tank when you flush. So, you'll need to have a few buckets of water handy to dump in the toilet bowl in order to flush them. If you live in a snowy climate (and there is snow on the ground) you won't have to worry about this, just bring in buckets of snow and let them melt.

2. Flashlights- I know this is a given but it's a biggie. Do you have kids that are scared of the dark? Well, when the power is out that nightlight isn't going to work.

3. Spare batteries- the flashlights don't run on air. 😉

4. Water-  You'll need water to drink and most wells or water systems run on an electric pump. Make sure to have at least a few gallons of water on hand.

5. Warm items- this one is a little generic because everyone's heating is a little different. If you don't have a wood stove you'll be without heat when the power goes out. So, if you have a wood stove, make sure you have a lot of wood ready to go. If you don't, make sure you have blankets, warm clothes and/or a place to go that does have heat.

6. Food- when you stock up on food, make sure it's something you can eat without warming it up. Unless you have a wood stove, you can't heat anything up. Stock up on things like bread, peanut butter, jelly, crackers, and fresh fruit/veggies. You can also get some items like yogurt- these will stay good in the refrigerator for a little while. Each refrigerator is  different but usually if you keep the door closed,as much as possible, it'll stay cool for 12-24 hours. If it's cold outside you can also put some of your stuff outside in the snow to keep it good longer. Or you can put some snow in a cooler & put your refrigerated stuff in with it.

7. Fully charge your electronics. If you know a storm is coming make sure everything has a fully charged battery. You'll need to be able to look online to check the status of getting power back on and you'll need your phone if you have to call emergency services for some reason.

and a note to lactating moms: make sure your baby eats from both breasts, even if you have to pull him off one to latch onto the other. Remember, your breast pump won't work and not emptying your breasts will become painful.

Delicious Pasta

I used to meal plan constantly and stock up on items that I knew me and my husband would eat. Unfortunately, when I got pregnant, I stopped doing that because I was so tired. However, now that the little man is here I'm back to meal planning and pinching every penny I can. 'Cause damn kids are expensive.

So this post I'm going to talk about one meal that I make that is will be three meals for the hubby and I. It's a zucchini, mushroom and pasta dish. I love it! I found the recipe from Damn Delicious

The original recipe calls for:

1 pound pasta
2 zucchini chunked
1 bag frozen peas
16 oz cremini mushrooms
2 cloves garlic sliced
4 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Now the recipe that DD gives says to put the water, garlic, mushrooms, peas, zucchini and pasta in the pot. Once the water is reduced then add the heavy cream and parm cheese. Having it this way is declicious. It'll come out looking like this:

I make it this way the first night, and then the second night to change it up I put in some sweet Italian sausage in it. I usually use the sausage patties and break them apart but you can use anything type that you want.

Once the sausage is cooked heat the leftover pasta in a large sauce pan. Add the sausage, some more cream and parm cheese to it. Turn the burner to a medium low heat- you want it to heat up all the way through without burning the bottom. Make sure to stir often. Once it's heated all the way through enjoy. This meal feeds the two of us for 3-4 nights, depending on how much is eaten for lunch.

New Years Resolution

Like I said yesterday, I have had some challenges with keeping up on the blog. I'm going to try and do at least one post a day because I really want to make a go at blogging. So, today's post is going to be about the workout routine I stopped doing after two weeks. Unfortunately, I was so overwhelmed with going back to work and taking care of my little bug that it fell by the wayside. Then two weeks ago when my dishwasher broke, it fell even further down the list of things on my to do list.

So, my New Years resolution is to start a fast and simple work out plan that is easy and can be built upon. I've searched Pinterest and found one that looks doable without a lot of fuss. It's 4 exercises done 4 times. It can't get much simpler then that. I will set a goal of doing the workout at least 4 times a week and adding in some cardio by walking (weather permitting). Since there is a theme of the number 4,  I'm going to do the work out for 4 weeks and see if it had any results. I'll report back weekly on my progress, The workout I found is below, It is from the site She Rocks Fitness, which can be found here,



**Note: I am not being compensated in anyway to review this.

Losing One of My Best Friends

Well, my master plan of blogging, taking care of my son, keeping up with my housework and working full time was an utter failure. I haven't felt like blogging because I'm constantly so tired that I'm usually in bed and asleep before 9:30 pm.  We also had a loss in our family. My sweet dog of 10 years had to be put down two weeks ago. Two months ago he was diagnosed with lymphoma. We kept him comfortable for a month and a half. Unfortunately, we had to make the decision to put him down because he was in pain. At the end he couldn't get up on his own and had obvious discomfort when walking. For the last 10 years he was my friend, child and companion. Luke was my first child and left a significant mark on my life. So, I feel that it is up to me to tell his story.

Luke helping me make jewelry.

When I graduated from college my parents wanted to give me a special gift. Luke was a rescue dog from Virginia that ended up in Vermont. He was living with a dog trainer because he had some special needs due to prior abuse. Before ending up with the trainer Luke had 5 owners and his quirks had three families return him to the shelter. The trainer only allowed me to adopt Luke after I interviewing me and meeting my family. My parents picked him up from her three weeks before I was done with school. I came home the next weekend to bring home a load of stuff and to be with him.

Our first meeting was interesting, he was skittish and wanted nothing to do with me. That is until he saw me petting and loving the family cat. At that point he realized I was good people and we were bff's ever since. I found out quickly he was a one woman dog, and he merely tolerated everyone else. My poor, patient husband often found himself growled and barked at, especially if he was approaching me or entering a room I was in.

After my graduation, I moved back in with my parents (thankfully only for a short time, but that's another story). The first few weeks were an adjustment, he was only a year old and was full of energy. He loved running and playing fetch, he could chase a ball for hours. However, I soon found that he would start limping after these long hours. His back left hip would cause him pain, which for a young dog was not normal. I brought him to my family vet and they did x-rays on his hip. The x-ray showed that he had bone fragments and scar tissue between the head of his leg bone and the hip socket. The vet believed it was from prior abuse, likely being kicked. After discussing the risks and benefits, I had the vet surgically remove the fragments and scar tissue, which gave him more mobility and stopped him from being in pain.

The mental trauma was a fear he carried with him his entire life. Even though he was truly loved and given the best care, he was still scared of men and showed that fear by barking and growling. He would become very agitated when he felt cornered, he would bark and growl at the person he felt was cornering him. Thankfully, even though it never fully went away, it did lessen with time.

Being Luke's human changed my life. Trying to help him with his fears and insecurities gave me a first hand view of how abuse can leave a permanent mark. I will never view animal abuse or rescue animals the same way I did before Luke entered my life.

RIP Luke

Week One-Day Six

I wasn't able to post earlier because life got really crazy. Between my first day back at work and leaving my little guy at daycare for the first time, today was awful.

Even though I wasn't able to get my shake in, I was able to do a partial workout. I got three quarters of the way done before my little man decided he needed attention.

Dinner tonight was a wonderful chicken taco rice dish. Another great recipe from Pinterest, it had ground chicken, onion, salsa, black beans and rice. We altered the recipe a little bit so instead of using your own seasonings we used a packet of taco seasoning and tortilla shells to make an awesome burrito.

So, overall today feels like a win. 😃