Tasty Crock Pot Recipes

Thought I'd post a shorter and much lighter post today than last.
I spent a good majority of today watching my Aunt Dora's 2 littlest ones and afterward talking to Dora about...well, everything (you know how women can be).
One of the things we brought up was crock pot dinners and how easy they can make life!

I thought I'd share some of them with ya'll:

Classic (Sunday) Roast:
Easy and delicious! Simply place the roast in the crock pot with carrots potatoes, onions, and whatever else you might want (or you can cook it by itself). Then add water and the seasonings you prefer. I generally put in seasoning salt, garlic, onion powder if I didn't put onions in it, Italian seasonings, and pepper. Simple turn it on to cook! On high it only takes a few hours and will still be fairly moist and yummy. For an even more most and peel apart roast, cook it on medium or low for many hours (depends on crock pot).

Curry Dinner:
This one was told to me by my sister-in-law and is awesome! This one is great because you can cook the rice, the curry sauce, the meat, and the veggies all at the same time, in the same pot! Easy clean up! simply put the rice, the curry block of paste, which you can get at almost any store in the foreign section (I go with mild because I don't like spicy!), the meat: chicken, beef, pork, whatever you prefer!, and then the veggies. The veggies can be fresh or frozen and can be whatever you like! Carrots and potatoes tend to make it heavier, while corn, broccoli, and green beans tend to be lighter...and almost more like a chili. Then add enough water for the rice to cook and the sauce to be...well, saucey. Set it for a few hours and you're good to go! So delicious, and kind of out of the normal for most!

Taco Soup
I call this one my food storage dinner. It, like all crock pot meals seem to be, is so easy! I tend to make this one big so there are plenty of leftovers. I'd say it makes enough for 6. The key to this recipe is to not drain the cans! Go ahead and pour all the contents into it, that saves the nutrients at the bottom and helps fill your liquid quota! Add 2 cans of black beans, 1 can of kidney beans (you can swip-swap those if you'd like), 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, about 6 oz. of tomato sauce, a can of corn, water (thicken it to what you like, it can be more of a stew or more of a soup), cumin (I use this liberally), and a little pepper. No need to add salt to this puppy, as the salt to preserve canned vegetables will be more than enough! You can also add chicken or ground beef. If you add the meat it will need to cook long enough that the meat cooks, otherwise it just needs to cook until it's warm. This is a recipe that works great in a big pot on the stove too. Serve with corn chips and shredded cheese on top! Yummy.

These are just three of many! I love collecting crock pot recipes, so if ya'll know of any, please share! The more the merrier!

:D

Assurance in the Home vs. Insurance for the Home

Today I've been kept busy with finding the right home owner's insurance for us. We have to have a quote to give the bank on the day of closing and there are so many options we haven't decided yet. However, we are running out time, as we are closing next week, and should probably make the decision soon.

I'll put a warning in here: this next bit is the confusing whirlwind of insurance hunting and results I encountered today. If you are not up to the tedious task of reading and/or reading and wishing you hadn't read the excerpt below, feel free to skip on down to the next set of squiggles! :D

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The one thing, I think, that is most bothersome about the whole ordeal is that you have to fork over all the information about you possible and then listen to your phone ringing off the hook for days, before the insurance agents will finally send you an email quote. And even then, there's all the fine print saying that what they sent you may or (more likely) may not be how low your quote is.
Then once you decide on a few speculative quotes, after harrowing hours of figuring out what exactly they DO cover, comes the researching required to make sure you're not being swindled or making a contract with a company known for not paying out.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) people generally only post comments or reviews when they're unhappy with the company, making it seem like any and all insurance companies are villains.
All in all, I spent all day researching and reviewing with the result that we still haven't made a decision yet. However, some of the things I learned are:
- Amica has the highest ratings for Consumer Satisfaction 8 years running (according
to the consumer reports)
- Travelers has, easily, the most negative reviews on both home and auto
- In general, the low quotes given to you are if you switch to do your auto through
that company also, giving you a multi plan deal
- Farmers seems to have a decent amount of positive reviews compared to most others
and is much cheaper than Amica (though, fairly, Amica isn't unreasonable)
- Allstate was ranked one of the lowest in customer satisfaction according to the
consumer reports
- Safeco is easily the cheapest, and as such has it's cornucopia of negative reviews
(though still ranking higher than Allstate and Travelers)
- Liberty mutual has a fair amount of positive views, compared to the lowest three.

In short: A) All companies I researched quoted between about 600-1100 a year (Safeco on one end, Amica on the other) B) The order (from what I could tell) of Consumer Satisfaction from high to low is: Amica, Famers, Liberty mutaul, Safeco, Travelers, and then Allstate C) all companies claim to insure against fire, explosion (not act of war kind), lightening, natural disaster (not including earthquake or flood) and vandalism in their dwelling coverage D)All offer at least 300,000 liability for not much extra.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/september-2009/home-garden/homeowners-insurance/overview/homeowners-insurance-ov.htm
http://www.viewpoints.com/Farmers-Insurance-reviews (this one I used for all, I just happened to end on Famers. Simply type in the other names if you want to take a look)
~~~~~

With all this information I wouldn't be surprised if I've confused you as much as all this research has confused me!
Ah well, we'll figure it out somehow.
However,
Pondering all the confusion these different insurance companies and their reviewers have thrown at me, I realized that it related a lot to the grander scheme of things. How often do individuals go out looking for the answers to their problems, for the assurance that what their doing is right or socially acceptable, or for the best deal life can offer?
So often are people tossed and hurricaned around when searching for the answers to these important questions, only to end up thoroughly confused and stumbling through what was supposed to be an easy and fruitful quest!
That's one reason why the home is so important! Through a solid family life with an anchored core, whether it be in God, Love, Unity, or whatever is important to your family, the members of your family will know their purpose in life and know a place - one singular, reliable, and loving place - they can seek answers to the other questions in life.
Even better, the answers they receive in a well-grounded home will be all the assurance they need to recover from emotional losses, tough days, physical trials, and any other bumps along the road of life. What better home insurance is there?

My home was founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ and I therefore know my divine purpose and am so grateful for my parents who answered all my questions (silly or not)with love and helped steer me towards the right (even when I didn't want it!)!

Family Fun!

Here's my cute little family! I need to get one of all of us together.




The cute little Dress Felicity is wearing in this picture with Mike was actually homemade (not by me, sadly). I picked it up in Provo, UT at a yard sale where there were several homemade items also available! It's darling.


I personally love the homemade touches in crafts that you just don't get in the stores.

I'm currently working on a set of darling pillow case dresses that are so simple and fun! I'll post them as soon as I can.

Homemaking the Heart of the Nation

With technology, fashion, finances, and politics snowballing out of control (pulling any hapless bystander down the hill with them), the home is more important than ever!

Our homes can be a safe haven of comfort and familiarity, of traditions, good expectations, honor, virtue, and flat out fun! Today's world is fast moving and so full of things to do (clubs, sports, electives, exercise, work, work, work, work) it's easy to forget to spend time and have fun with your family!

The purpose of my blog, therefore, is to find out (preferably cheap) ways to strengthen home and family, whether it's through crafting, cooking, family lessons, fun adventures, or simply tried and tested ways to bring the family together to create lifelong bonds and memories, and then to share what I find with you!

As I love to cook, sew, read, and spend time with my husband, Mike and sweet 15 month old, Felicity, a lot of the first posts will be about these things, hopefully branching out to new fields of interest and importance as I grow and develop my talents as well as find ways to help families all over the world strengthen their own talents, bonds, and core.

I truly believe that our nation is created and profoundly affected by the individual families that it is made of. "It takes a village to raise a baby" and likewise the baby's the village raise grow up to run the village and raise the next generations. As the village is a web of family units, it is incredibly important to start the work of raising happy, healthy, intelligent, and strong families and children in the home.

Please, feel free to leave any comments or suggestions on things you'd like to see, questions you might have, or feedback on anything else! I'd love to hear from you as I figure out what I can share with you, as well as things I can learn from you!