Book Review - Cracking the $$ Code

Cracking the $$ Code by Patricia M. Annino seems like it would only be for working women. I don't think. The subtitle of this book is "What successful men know and you don't (yet)". I think this book can be used by any woman whether working or not. In it, she explains certain things that men just seem inherently driven to do while we as women are not. They would seem to be things that would come naturally but being a woman and being driven by the wanting everyone to love me feelings, they don't. It's something that I need to work on. This book gives women the tools to do just that. Whether you are a working woman or a non-working woman, i think you will come away from this book learning something about yourself and learning some tactics you can do to make your life easier. This will definitely be a book that I will read over and over to refresh my memory of what I need to do in order to make my life more productive.

Book Review - Kill Me Twice

Kill Me Twice by Jerry Bayne was definitely a page turner. From the beginning, his storyline swept me in and made me want to keep reading. When someone kills the Senator and is doing it out of revenge, you want to find out why. Jerry Bayne tells you just enough to keep you interested but wanting to know more. This thriller was a great book all the way through. I definitely want to check out more books by this author!

First 5K of the Year

So I ran my first (and last???) 5K of the year. Ok, it may not be my last but it's just so annoying that I feel like I can't go and can't train because I need to take care of the kids. But that's a whole 'nother post in and of itself.

So the night before SUCKED. Taylor woke up and ended up sleeping with us in bed and Emily woke up like 3 times. Ugh. So I hardly got ANY sleep at all. Alarm went off and I so did not want to go. After about 30 mins I forced myself to get up, got dressed (didn't bother with a shower since I took one the night before) and headed out the door in like 10 mins. Got to Huntington Beach and parked almost in the same spot I parked at last time. I was about 3 blocks from the start line. =) Gotta love that. But it was 52 degrees and I was freezing. I learned my lesson the year before and since it was only 5:30 when I got there (the start time of the race was 6:50am) I sat in my car for almost an hour. It was kinda nice until I started dozing towards the end. Woops!

I went to the start line, then found the restrooms and bascially only had to wait about 40 mins until I started running the race. Considering I haven't ran since my last 5K in August of last year (YIKES that was what almost 6 months ago!) I think I did pretty good! I finshed at 38:59! Under 40 mins. Yeah!!!! My personal best record is 38:20 at my last race. Just think if I had actually trained. I would LOVE to do 10 min miles but not sure if I will accomplish that anytime soon. Once the kids get older I'm sure I can train better. Having a 4 year old and 2 2 year olds is HARD! So anyway, I'm actually very happy with my time. Until the next one!

Overall: 1541 out of 2494

Women: 911 out of 1636

F 30-34: 166 out of 266

Age/Grade: 38.15% Place: 1648

Finish: 38:59 Pace: 12:33

Tag Time: 38:59

Gun Time: 50:20

Breakfast

I just had to share my breakfast. Doesn't it look yummy???

Book Review - Stop It

Stop It by Sally Lee is a book about being bullied. Anabel is a little girl that is bullied by her brother George. In the end, she tells George to STOP IT! and he stops being a bully. While this book has a good message (don't be a bully, don't let a bully bother you) it's kinda abrupt. Basically, all Anabel does is tell her brother to stop it and he stops being a bully. Will this happen in real life? I doubt it. Is it a good first step in teaching your child how to deal with bullies? Definitely. A bully won't stop unless you stand up to them and this sort of teaches how to do it. Will it have a happy ending like Anabel? Who knows. I would hope every situation would end like this but I doubt it.

Review of CSN Stores - Cusinart Smart Stick Hand Blender

Ok, I was finally able to use my new Immersible blender thanks to CSN Stores very generous offer of allowing me to review it. CSN stores sell everything from furniture to home decor to cookware sets to shoes and everything in between. Let me tell you. Not only did I find a great new recipe to use my immersible blender in, this thing is awesome and I can't wait to use it more in the summer time to make smoothies and stuff for everyone in the house.

So I used this recipe:

Slow Cooker Green Pepper Chicken

3 chicken breast halves
2 large green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 (7-ounce) can whole or diced green chiles (mine were mild)
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 tablespoon dried minced onion, or 1 large yellow onion, diced finely
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream (to add before serving)
corn tortillas, optional (I used flour tortillas)


Directions:

I used a 4 quart slow cooker. Put the chicken into the bottom of the cooker, and add the bell peppers and the whole can of chiles. Add basil, onion, salt, and pepper. Stir a bit to combine. Pour in the 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours, or on high for 3-4.

Before serving, use tongs to remove the chicken, and set aside. Using an immersible blender, blend the peppers and sauce left at the bottom of the slow cooker. If you don't have an immersible blender, carefully(!) pour the slow cooker contents into a traditional stand blender and pulse until fully combined. Pour back into the cooker.

Stir in sour cream until melted. If you don't have sour cream in the house, plain yogurt or cream cheese would work just fine---this is only to thicken the sauce a bit and to mellow out the peppers and chile flavor.

Slice chicken, and return to the cooker. Set to high for 20-30 minutes, or until your dinner is fully hot. Serve the meat in corn tortillas, or over rice. Or both!

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I obviously used the immersible blender instead of taking the VERY HOT liquid out and blending in a traditional blender. Here was my crockpot before:

And here is my crockpot after:

We were a little worried at first. But this recipe was DELICIOUS! We put the chicken mixture in flour tortillas and basically made burritos. It was YUMMY!! So easy to do and using my new immersible blender made it so easy. I think it took me 5 mins to blend it and that's because I was trying to figure out how to use it. LOL! If you are looking for an immersible blender, this one by Cuisinart is definitely one to try!!! Check it out at the CSN cookware store!!

I'm Happy to Report

That we will NOT be re-tiling the kitchen floor. YEAH!!! We know the week long project would probably turn out to be a month long project and I just can't deal with no stove, dishwasher, washer/dryer and the refrigerator in the garage with three little kids for that long. Um no. So we are just replacing the tiles that are broken/coming up/ making noises and we should be done by Friday. And in the meantime, although I have to walk around the missing tiles for a little while, I can still cook! Yeah!!

SWEET!

And that's not being said on a good note. Background - We redid our kitchen almost 7 years ago (wow does time fly! It seems like it was just yesterday but we redid it in 2003. Yikes!). Well the great contractor we hired to do the flooring did such  a great job (being said sarcastically) that we have one tile that has completely come up from the floor and most of our grout is missing in front of the sink and refrigerator. We were living with the grout issue but the tile coming up - well it was time to fix it. So we "hired" our neighbor who has construction background to help reinforce our kitchen floor (we have a raised foundation) and then redo a couple of tiles and regrout. Well, he reinforced the floor and today he was removing the tiles. Guess what he found? The wonder board that was placed under the tile wasn't done correctly. It should have been screwed in however, they nailed it in instead and so some of it is coming up from the plywood underneath. So to make a long story short, we are now going to re-tile the entire kitchen. Fun. This means, I will be without a stove and dishwasher for like a week (well knowing this guy it may turn into a month which would SUCK!). So there goes the meal planning for this week. Thankfully most of them can be moved to next week (hopefully we'll be back to normal then) and we have leftovers in the refrigerator we can heat up. I just made a HUGE pot of chili last night so I know dh will eat that as a leftover. I guess my plan of making up a list for the local fast food places should happen sooner rather than later now since I know us and we'll be eating out. Not good on the saving money front that's for sure. Ugh.