Crock Pot Sweet Potato and Basil Soup

This was fun.  And by fun I mean I had a whopping great time making this meal.  Let's start at the beginning, shall we?  I didn't pick the meals this week, my hubby did.  I'll be doing more in the future, but as we get started with this Paleo Adventure, he's picking the meals since I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing.  So he found this yummy looking recipe over at PaleOMG and thought I could handle it.  I purposely picked this meal to be on Wednesday because it is a crock pot meal.  Wednesday nights include ballet and jazz for the youngest girl and boy scouts for the boy.  With everyone running in every other direction, this is why Wednesday is crock pot night.

I was most thankful that when I saw my hubby's meal list he had picked one meal to be a crock pot meal. So without looking closely, I saw the words crock pot in the title and decided it was Wednesday's meal. Strike one for me.  I waited until Wednesday to read the instructions -- strike two.  So Wednesday morning I read the instructions and #1 - it only cooks for 3 hours on high.  Well, that's not so bad, I can just cook it in the afternoon, leaving my morning open to make the youth snacks (which were loved by all.)  #2 - After the 3 hours of cooking, take the entire meal and pour into a food processor or use a hand blender to mix the entire thing into the consistency of soup. WHAAA? Um, husband dearest?  We don't have a food processor, nor a hand blender.  Our actual blender DIED this year so I don't even have one of those! Strike three!  Hubby was in Philly yesterday at a conference and guess what he bought me on the way home?  A hand blender.  I've always wanted one of those.

*Take note that I doubled the original recipe.  We are *ahem* healthy eaters and the original recipe said it was for 3-4 servings.  Yeah, that wasn't going to cut it for us so I doubled it.  Nothing wrong with having leftovers either.  Recipe at the bottom is for 3-4 servings, I doubled what I have listed below.*

I start making the meal by peeling 4 sweet potatoes.  Me -- peeling potatoes.  Let's just say I would never survive in prison or in the Navy.  There were sweet potato peels all over my stinking kitchen.  I have no idea how people can peel a potato in under a minute.  It took me like 10 to peel those 4 potatoes.  I hate peeling potatoes and sweet potatoes were no different.  In fact, they were harder because they were all odd shaped and what not.  UGH!  Stupid sweet potato shapes.  Then I got to dice them!  Yippee!  Have you ever diced raw sweet potatoes?  4 of them?  My right arm is feeling rather muscular today.  5 minute prep time my foot, thanks for those instructions.  After beating the crap out of those potatoes with my big ol' knife (same kind that my kids are scared that I'll get more stitches from) for another 10 minutes, I finally had diced sweet potatoes.  Dump the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot, and cook on high for 3 hours.  I did make a substitution in the recipe here.  Welcome to my allergy world.  The recipe calls for a 14 oz can of coconut milk and I used 14 oz of almond milk.  Don't want to have an allergic reaction to add to my night!

I plug my crock pot in and off I go to dance class with the girls.  I don't bother turning it to high because it's just on high.  The switch is broken off and I just leave it on high and plug it in and unplug it when I'm done. This crock pot is awesome.  I got it for my bridal shower from one of my bridesmaids way back when, so it's lasted over 13 years and it's a huge thing.  I've glued the handle back together a couple of times and the switch melted into a funky shape before it actually broke in half.  But it still works.

Fast forward.  It's now almost 3 hours later and I'm home.  Hubby isn't home yet with my new toy but dinner should be just about ready for the next step.  I walk in and I don't smell anything.  Huh.  Maybe it's because it's just sweet potato soup?  I go into the kitchen and the crock pot isn't hot.  It's warm.  I try to turn the handle and sure enough, it's set to "Keep Warm" instead of "High."  I have no idea how that happened since I've just been unplugging it,  but my dinner is no way close to being ready to eat.  The potato chunks are still rock hard.  Are you kidding me?  Bump the crock up to high and let it cook for 3 hours.  Dinner will now be ready about 10:30 pm.  I didn't know it wasn't on high because the knob is broken.  grrrr!

Serve whatever is in the fridge.  Kids ate pizza leftover from cheat day lunch, I had kabobs, hubby had chicken.  Fast forward again to 11:30 pm, soup is now ready (doubling it took a little more time to cook.)  I break open my toy, scan over the instructions, and get to work.  I stick it in and start blending.  I pull it up and it spits a little soup at me.  Ok... go grab an apron.  Back to blending I go.  You know what?  When you blend something that is in a hot crock pot and it spits up at you, it kind of burns.  Yup, that's right, it burns. But darn it, I was getting this meal done and taking pictures.

Soup when finished cooking, prior to blending.

Finished soup.  Looks tasty!

Verdict:  I think 2 TBSP of basil is a little much for doubling this recipe, but hey, that may just be me.  It was just ehhh.  I found myself majorly wanting some crackers to crumble in the soup.  But since I haven't messed with making bread or anything like that Paleo yet, I was disappointed.  Both kids took one look, called it gruel, and made little effort to eat it.  The girl had about three bites, the boy maybe 7.  Hubby ate the whole bowl I gave him and he loved it.

Crock Pot Sweet Potato Basil Soup

Prep time: 5 mins  Cook time: 3 hours

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and diced

½ yellow onion, sliced

14 oz almond milk

1 cup vegetable broth

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 TBSP dried basil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients in the crock pot.

2. Mix around.

3. Cook for 3 hours on high.

4. Use a hand blender, blender, or food processor and puree mixture until smooth.  **If using a hand blender, I highly recommend waiting until it cools or it might spit up on you and BURN YOU!

5. Eat it!

Holiday Humor

So, I'm kind of a geek.  I saw this comic this morning and absolutely cracked up.  It came from George Takei's facebook page.

Hope you understand what it means.  :D

April Fool's Day!

This morning I woke up and went downstairs to the kitchen to make my husband breakfast.  I took one look outside and walked right back upstairs.  I told my husband to look outside and asked him if he was still going to work.  What a lovely April Fool's laugh God gave us this morning. One more morning of beautiful snow.  

Happy April Fool's Day!

I've never been one to celebrate April Fool's Day.  Mainly it's because I'm not quick enough to actually come up with pranks that will fool anyone with a brain.  Thankfully, God made me smarter than my kids!  Well, at least for now He did.  

I decided this was the year that I'd have some fun.  I didn't really plan anything in advance, I just saw some facebook posts from friends and some ideas from blogs and started having fun.  The first thing I did was break out the glue and the pop tarts.

 

Yes, that  plate is upside down.  The kids came down for breakfast to find their pop tarts glued to their plates.  They found it funny till they realized they couldn't eat them because they were stuck.  Lucky for me them, I had some more pop tarts waiting for them to enjoy.

The rest of the day continued like normal, school, lunch, finished school. Grandma & Grandpa stopped by for a visit and they stayed to watch the Phillies win their opening game.  (I'm now very happy.)  Now, on to dinner...

The kids came to the table to find a special treat.  Ice cream sundae's with caramel sauce!  Too bad for them it was mashed potatoes and gravy.  They were both so very excited, and they dug in first to their special dinner treat!  Before the spoons even got to their mouths they could tell the consistency was off.  tee hee!  After dinner it was time for grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert.  Wait, what?

That's right, we had grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert!  Actually, it was pound cake slices that I toasted with my mini blow torch.  I dyed vanilla frosting with some yellow and a drop of red food coloring to make that cheesy color.  My son, even after learning that it was cake, still thought I put cheese into it because it was just the right color.  Score one for mom!

This was one grilled cheese sandwich that they could enjoy!  Before bedtime they asked for a drink.  Well, being the extra special mom that I am, I made them some lemonade to enjoy. 

What a shame that they couldn't actually drink this lemonade!  In fact, it was lemon Jell-O in cups.  Muahahahaha!  My little girl tried so hard, she finally was able to start drinking it and managed to drink half of her Jell-O through her straw.  

Overall, it has been a most fun day!  The kids enjoyed the jokes and no one played one on me!  That is a sign of a successful April Fool's day for me.  I like it when I'm not the one getting pranked!

DUH!

Have you ever had a DUH moment?  You know, one of those times where someone has to tell you something so basic, because you didn't get it?  I've had a few situations this week where I just wanted to curl up and hide because I missed something so obvious, it should have smacked me in the head.

Last week I reported that I was reading through Psalms and Proverbs and how difficult I found it to read through so quickly.  Well, they had nothing on Isaiah.  I confess, I'm reading Isaiah just to read it, but I know that I'm missing a lot.  I told my kids last night that I am looking forward to getting a good study guide and reading through Isaiah again.  If you have any suggestions on a guide to use, please leave me a comment with the name of the guide.

Again, like last week, God has chosen a few verses to speak to me.  I am so very thankful that through the Holy Spirit, I am still able to be blessed in my reading of the Bible in 90 Days.  I read the following verse last night and just started laughing.  I happened to be in bed with my hubby and read the verse to him and he started laughing too.  It was a total "DUH!" moment.

For thus says the LORD,who created the heaven,

(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it

(he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!):
"I am the LORD, and there is no other."

Isaiah 45:18

I did not add the parenthesis, they are in the ESV Bible.  Seeing those words in the parenthesis made me laugh.  I mean a true, LOL (laugh out loud).  Read it again, but this time add a DUH at the end of each parenthesis, go ahead, I'll wait.

"...remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me..."

Isaiah 46:9

The Israelites had to be reminded repeatedly that God is God.  In these passages God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah telling them, God is God, the only God!  DUH!  I just have to laugh, because I'm not the only one who needs a slap in the face every now and then.  In fact, in 9 verses God says "I am God" in the Old Testament.  "I am the Lord" is written in 184 verses in the Old Testament.  Really?  God needed to establish Himself 193 times?  Wait, no He didn't.  God is God and it's us who needs the reminder.  Even I have to be reminded every now and then.  Do I doubt that God is God, no, but sometimes even I need a reminder that He is the center of my life. 

Picture from Stupid Fat Hobbit.

I HeartTwilight

Yes, you read it right, I Heart Twilight. I'm one of those people who have read all 4 books about 20 times. I've listened to them all on CD as well. I own the soundtrack to Twilight the movie and New Moon the movie. I've watched Twilight so many times I have lost count and I was a brave soul and attended the midnight premiere of New Moon last night. Confession is good for the soul, right? :)

I'm not alone! In fact, many ladies in my church all Heart Twilight. So much so, we're having an "I Still Heart Twilight" party tonight. We're going to play the Scene-It Twilight game and the Twilight board game (which I own) and eat Twilight themed snacks. What is a Twilight themed snack? I'm glad you asked! If you're on Team Edward you are supposed to bring something cold. If you're on Team Jacob you are supposed to bring something hot. If you're on Team Switzerland, you can pick what you will. I'm not quite sure what the "hecklers" are bringing, but I'm sure it will be fun finding out. Yes, we have hecklers coming tonight. We don't want to be exclusive and want to have fun with all the ladies at church. So some gals are coming to make fun of us Twilight fans.

Oh, if you don't know what Team Edward, Team Jacob, or Team Switzerland is... ask a teenager. Any teenager!

I'm very much so on Team Edward's side. So tonight I had some fun creating my Vampire snacks. I made Vampire cookies that bleed when you bite into them and have fang marks. I also made a bloody cake! It even is supposed to ooze blood when you cut it open!
Don't worry, all of the blood you see is just raspberry jam. But it sure does the trick! I can't wait to show off my snacks tonight. And try to win the games as well!

15 Things

Today's Housewife would like to know about their readers. So I've complied this list of 15 items about me for you all to learn.

1. I'm claustrophobic.

2. I love to sing but I can't dance. I have no rhythm. I don't know how that works with singing because I need rhythm, but I can't make my body move.

3. My hubby and I ignored each other when we met. It took a mutual friend setting us up after she found out we had met for us to go out.

4. We were married 1 year and 5 days after our first date.

5. I hate needles and cringe every time I have to have one, but I try to give blood as often as I'm allowed because I'm O+ and CMV negative so the Red Cross calls me CONSTANTLY!

6. I love to fly, especially alone.

7. I love to bake and will spend all day baking if I could, but I dislike cooking meals.

8. I love to sing and act and do both in church, but I can't stand speaking in public. I get nervous and get the shakes and start to studder. It's not pretty. I don't get that way when acting, just when the speaking is actually coming from me.

9. The only time I went rollerblading I got hit by a car. I won't rollerblade now.

10. I prefer driving stick-shift cars.

11. I've lived in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Pennsylvania, California, Pennsylvania, California, Maryland, and I'm back in Pennsylvania.

12. I've lived in 15 different homes throughout those moves.

13. I have a small heart tattoo in a place that only my hubby can see. I want to get another tattoo but don't have the money for it and can't quite decide on the design.

14. I didn't think I'd like Twilight and just finished reading it and can't wait to read the rest of the books now.

15. I love Chemistry, especially Organic Chemistry. I'm not so hot with the math part and can't stand English and grammar even though I'm not terrible at it.

The Medical Mystery Strikes Again

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a bunch of little medical problems. Nothing that is terribly serious, I know lots of people who have many more things wrong with them. I'm just allergic to a few things, have hypothyroidism, bouts with gout, and ankle problems. But there is one more problem that I've had since I was 13 and for the first time yesterday I mentioned it to my doctor because it has passed the "irritates me" stage to being a full fledged problem.

My right arm won't go up straight. In fact it pops and cracks every time I try to make a full circle. Lately, it's gotten to the point that I can't pick up heavy things and my shoulder and upper arm hurt constantly. So I finally asked my doctor about it and he swung my arm around and figured out I have bursitis. He told me to take 400 mg of Ibuprofin 3 times a day for 7-10 days and he also recommended I get a steroid shot in my arm. What's one little shot?

Thankfully my hubby and I had back-to-back appointments yesterday so he was in the room with me. He held my hands as the doctor held up this long, thin needle filled with 15 cc's of stuff. It wasn't just the steroid in there, there were 2 different pain killers as well. Before I received the shot I asked if I would be ok to drive and he said yes. So in goes the shot and I cringed a little, my son went running from the room and my daugter positioned herself for a better view. The doctor then told my hubby to stand aside because I was going to kick him since the needle wasn't in all the way yet. WHAT!!! That's when I screamed. I actually screamed! The needle had to go all the way into the joint and he put 10 cc's of that mix into my shoulder. The he moved my arm around and for the first time since I was 13 it didn't pop or crack. WOW!!!

So we go home and have dinner and I take my 400 mg of Ibuprofin with my meal and head out to church for our AWANA program. That's when the pain killers in the shot and the Ibuprofin combined and it didn't react well to me. My brain was fuzzy, I started slurring my words, and I couldn't stop laughing. To sum it up best, someone asked me if I was stoned. I went into the ladies room and saw my pupils were dialated and I thanked God that I'm not actually in the room with any of the kids at church. I stayed out in the hallway and my limited interraction with the kids involved at least 1 other adult present. The other mom's laughed at me because they understood what was going on.

Why the meds had this reaction in me I'll never know. But I do know now that if I have to have another shot down the road, I'll make my appointments for days when I have nothing to do that night!

My First Stitches

Saturday night I got into a knife fight with a watermelon. The knife slipped and I got what I thought was a little cut. I put the knife down and said, "Um, Becky?" to my friend and she calmly put a towel on my hand and told me to go wash it off. She then proceeded to wash the knife. Because you know washing the knife was the important thing.

I came out of the bathroom and showed my hand to a few people who all agreed I needed stitches. I didn't want to go. I was enjoying what I was doing and didn't want to leave my friends. Here's a pic of my hand right after removing the towel. There was a lot more blood than this picture shows.


So off to the urgent care we go. Becky drove me since I needed to keep pressure on my hand. Kudos to her for not stalling my stick-shift car! I think she secretly told the watermelon to cut me so that she could drive the PT Cruiser.


Oh the pain!
Ok, so maybe this was a posed shot. It actually didn't hurt that much. The knife went in so quickly that I almost didn't even feel it. It hurt after I got the stitches when the numbing medicine wore off and the next morning, but not much since. Only when I try to use it too much.















So we may be dorks taking all these pictures, but we had a fun time! The doctor put in 2 individual stitches but had a hard time cause my blood just kept getting in the way. What can I say, I'm a bleeder!


Here's a pic of the stitches. But here's the best picture of them all...


When it was all said and done... I ate that watermelon. Take that! I won!