I WON!!!

I actually won one of the sony ereaders!!! I'm sooooo excited, I just called Paul to let him know and he had to tell me to calm down because he couldn't hear or understand me, lol! I was literally jumping up and down...this is sooooo cool!! Check it out:

And the winner is …

Books I've read this year so far...

Every now and then I'd like to do a post about the books I've read thus far this year.  I'd love to see exactly how many books I can read in one year.  Since today is the 29th of January, and I find it highly unlikely I'm going to finish my new book by the end of it.  I'll count these books as my January finished reads:

January

The Host By Stephenie Meyer

I absolutely LOVED this book and recommend it to anyone who likes a good science fiction novel.  At the beginning, it did confuse me a little, and if you've read the Twilight books, this is NOT the same writing that you are used to.  Its definately for adults, and not tweens and up.  (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Twilight, it was just written for a younger audience.)  I started reading it right before I got on the plane to go to Texas for my vacation.  I didn't get much reading done since we were so busy, but when I got to my moms house, I didn't want to put it down.  Finally a few days after being home, I finished it.  I love a book that when you finish it, you are actually sad that its over, and thats exactly how I felt about it.  I've heard rumors that Stephenie Meyer will be coming out with some sequels, but until I see it on the preorder, or that its available, I'm not going to hold my breath.  The book could end the way it did, or it could have a sequel, either way, it was an excellent read, and a book I'll want to keep for forever!

Marked By P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

I have this fascination with all things vampire.  I've a lot of the Anne Rice books, loved the Twilight books, and I'm just fascinated with vampire type things.  I love True Blood (haven't read the books, but I want to, but I love the show), and I also watch Vampire Diaries as well.  So, literally when I saw these books in the bookstore a while ago, I thought I might be interested in them.  When I was in Texas, we went to Costco, and almost all of them were there, I got the first four books to read.  All for much cheaper than anywhere else I'd seen them.  After I finished The Host, I started reading Marked.  At first it was a bit of struggle, definately a younger audience type book.  But I was interested, and wanted to see where it took me.  This first book was only okay in my opinion.  But since I bought the first four I figured I'd better read them at the very least.

Betrayed By PC Cast and Kristin Cast

In this book, things definately got a lot more interesting.  I'm still a highschooler at heart I guess, and I liked the whole book, it was better than the first, but not as great as the Twilights in my opinion.

Chosen By PC Cast and Kristin Cast

Again, things got more interesting, and I really liked this book, so I was getting to the point where I wanted to read them, and I was reading through them pretty quickly.  Its a different style writing than in Twilight, and I liked it, so I read the next book in the series.

Untamed By PC Cast and Kristin Cast

Things were starting to get better and better.  The writing was now speaking to me, the thought processes were better, and I enjoyed this book as well.  My only complaint...these books are very fast reads, and they are kind of short.  They could have put some of these books together to make a longer book, but they are easier to hold this way!

Hunted By PC Cast and Kristin Cast

Very good, couldn't wait to get to the next one to see what was coming up next!

Tempted By PC Cast and Kristin Cast

This is my favorite so far. This is the last in the series for now. There is another one coming out soon. But I couldn't and didn't want to put it down. I read through this one in a manner of days, and really wanted to grab that next one, but it won't be out until April, I guess I'll have to wait!

Started: The Law of Nines By Terry Goodkind

My husband just read this book, he suggested that I read it, so last night I started reading it.  I love Terry Goodkinds The Sword of Truth Novels, so I am definately interested in seeing what comes up in this novel.  I'll probably have a more in depth review when I finish this book, probably in February!

So far in January I've read: 7 books.  Now the House of Night Novels were shorter, but hey I can count them too.  I'm excited to see what I read, and think about with Februarys books!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup...

This is by far and above, the absolute BEST chicken noodle soup I've ever had.  AND-I MADE IT!  Wow this soup was bursting with flavor through every bite, cleared out the sinus', and everyone in my family loved it.  I really wish I could give all of you a taste of it, it was really THAT good.
I used a basic recipe for my base from allrecipes.com.  But then I completely and totally made it my own.  I'm not even sure I can completely duplicate everything I did, I don't know the measurments at all...sorry!  I really wish I had measured, but why dirty up more dishes?  I hope in the future I'll be able to duplicate this deliciousness, and next time, I'll be measuring stuff out to try to get it just right, and repost again.  For now, here is what I did!

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 tbl butter (I used the light butter that LofL makes)

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cup sliced celery

2 cup sliced carrots

2 cloves garlic

about a tbl of olive oil

1/2 lb or so, of uncooked chicken breasts, chopped up into bite side pieces

2 boxes of Chicken Broth (you know the 32 oz box things of them)

1 can vegetable broth

basil

oregano

salt

seasoned salt

garlic pepper

pepper

poultry seasoning

thyme

garlic salt

condensed cream of potato soup

Tonys seasoning

4 cups dried egg noodles

First, make sure your pot is heated to medium-high.  Throw butter, onion, garlic, and carrots into a big pot (I used an 8 quart pot), I let those simmer for about 3-4 minutes, then I threw in the celery, and I sauteed for 4 more minutes.  Then I threw in the chopped up uncooked chicken, and mixed all of it up, so that the chicken was turning whitish, but not browning, I would say another 3-4 minutes.  Then add the chicken broth, vegetable broth, basil, oregano, salt, garlic pepper, pepper, poultry seasoning, thyme and garlic salt to taste.  Let simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.  Add cream of potato soup.  Let simmer covered, another 10 minutes.  In the meantime, make the egg noodles in a seperate pot and drain. Add pasta to the soup mixture.  Then add some seasoned salt, and tony's seasoning to the mix, all to taste, make sure you don't over do it with tonys, he'll bite ya!   Simmer an additional 5 minutes to make sure the flavors meld together really well.  Serve, and enjoy!  I know I did!

GOOD morning!

This morning, as I was walking Sierra to school, I noticed something a little different.  The SUN was shining!  It was very very cold, but the sun was actually out...I think this is the first day this entire month that the sun has actually been out.  Immediately, my mood picked up, and I knew I wanted to take advantage of it somehow.  So I came home, grabbed the dog, and went for a little walk outside...

This is outside near my house, I just love the way it all looks with snow all over it!

I absolutely LOVE the pinelike trees in the distance covered with snow!

Lexi was having fun being outside, playing in the snow.

I should seriously save this picture forever and put it on my desktop...there is actual sun in Germany!

I think this tree used to be one tree, and then was hit by lightning or something, or it just grew that way into two tress, but I love this tree, its the backyard part of our building.

Run Puppy Run!

Another beauty

I love how this one turned out, if you look on the bottom left corner, you can tell I was totally trying to not get the dumpster in the picture!

Thats our building!

She just looks soooo happy doesn't she?

Another giveaway...

I really really wanna win one of these, so I'm doing what I can for more entries!  =)

Check it out and enter yourself, but remember if you win, you have to SHARE!  ; )

http://armyhousehold6.com/2010/01/18/want-to-win-a-sony-reader-touch-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-9165

Boston Cream Pie...Cake!

Ohhhh my YUM!  There really are no words, other than those three.  AND this is out of my healthy cooking cookbook...meaning its GOOD and light, and HEALTHY!  You can't go wrong with this one!  (Adapted from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking Cookbook 2009)

Boston Cream Pie Cake
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup ff milk

Filling:
1 1/4 cup cold ff milk
1 pckg (1 oz) sugar free instant vanilla pudding

Glaze:
1 1/4 cup confectioners surgar
2 tbsp baking cocoa
1-2 tbsp ff milk (I actually ended up using a little more because it was too thick at first, but only a little more)

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, and sugar until crumbly.  Add eggs; mix well.  Beat in applesauce and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with milk until blended.
Coat two 9 inch round baking pans with cooking spray (I used the kind with flour in it, so that it would come out of the pan easily), sprinkle with flour; add batter.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (or do the toothpick test) Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For filling, in a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding together for about two minutes.  Let stand for about 2 minutes or until soft-set.  Place cake layer on a serving plate; top with filling and remaining cake layer.
For glaze, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa, and vanilla.  Add enough milk to achieve desired consistency.  Spread over top of the cake allowing some glaze to drape down the sides.

YUM YUM YUM...thats all this needs!

Meatloaf

Another of my Money Saving meals.  Meatloaf...oh yum!  I love meatloaf, Paul, on the other hand, does not.  So I rarely get to make meatloaf, mostly when he's deployed, but I was really in the mood for some meatloaf when I made up my menu, and voila, he's going to have to suck it...jk, but he'll live.  He's eaten wayyyy worse...I mean helloooo, he's in the ARMY!  =)  (on the upside though, he LOVED it!)

This recipe is absolutely delicious.  Of course, I had to tweak it...a LOT.  And I didn't measure anything out or anything fun like that.  I just kind of threw it all together, but thats the fun of meatloaf.  Now I will say that mixing it up, is the best part...but I hate getting meat and gunk under my fingernails...and I have long fingernails.  Soooo...to compensate, I use my gloves...yes, I have special disposible gloves for such occassions, and yes, I know I'm a nerd!  Ahh well, here is the recipe!

Meat Loaf
1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef (or turkey)
1/4 cup milk (I used fat free, but thats because thats all I use)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground mustard (I did not have ground mustard, so I used regular mustard and added about a teaspoon full instead...)
1/8 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced (because I'm a rebel, I used 2)
1 egg
2 slices bread, torn into small pieces (I let Sierra do this job, and I used whole wheat bread, Sierra had fun "helping" me though)
3 tbl chopped onion (Of course, all of my onions are bad, thanks Baumholder, so I used minced dried onion, and I used a little less, because thats what you are supposed to do)
1/3 cup ketchup, chili sauce, or bbq sauce (I used chili sauce because I didn't think I'd use the chili sauce for anything else)

Heat oven to 350, and mix all ingredients together except ketchup in large bowl.
In ungreased pan, spread beef mixture, shape into a loaf.  Spread ketchup on top and sides.
Bake, uncovered 50-60 minutes until meat and juices are no longer pink, or thermometer reads 160.  Let stand 5 min.

I do think that next time, I'm going to try ground turkey instead of beef, and we bought the cheapy meat, so next time I'll buy a little more expensive, there was a lot of grease at the bottom of the pan, and thats not really appetizing to me.  It was still delicious though.  I made it with some mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.
I have no idea how much this meal was all in all.  Unfortunately, I lost my reciept from the grocery store.  =(  But it was a great meal, and according to the book it costs 1.02 per serving.  I've noticed that its usually pretty accurate, which means its on the higher end of the scale.  It makes 4 servings, but even though Paul and I had about 1 1/2 and the girls each had one, we still have another one left.  If you make it let me know how you like it!

Flylady...

I came across this website from another blog that I was checking out, and I thought it looked neat.  So I signed up for it, and am doing the baby steps every day.  I figured it would help me to do the things I need to do every day, and not feel so cluttered all the time.  Today, it was make my kitchen sink shine.  Now I need to buy some sos pads to really get the full effect, but my kitchen sink sure does look pretty.  Also, being in Germany, and not having two sinks (we only have one sink with a little side for drying your dishes, oh and its a small sink) made it a little more difficult to follow the directions exactly.  There are hard water spots all over the one side, but it still looks better than it did before.  I did everything I could to the sink according to the directions (except the sos pads, I'll try that on those water spots later), and the sink looks very pretty.  And she's absolutely right, it did make me smile!  I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing, today was day one!
http://flylady.net/pages/begin_babysteps.asp

(I will say though, that my house is never really that dirty or cluttered, but its fun to try new things, and I believe that this little program will help in other ways, not just for my house, but for my head too! )

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

Another one of the recipes out of my Money Saving Meals cookbook.  This one was a winner.  Everyone loved it.  I served it with some garlic/parmesan bread, and some asparagus.  Yum!

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells
18 uncooked jumbo pasta shells
2 cups frozen spinach, thawed
1 egg, slightly beaten
5 oz chicken
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
26 oz tomato pasta sauce (I used Robusto somethingerother, it was a cheaper jarred one)
2 cups shredded Italian cheese (I didn't need that much, I used about 1 cup instead)


Heat oven to 350, cook pasta according to package directions.
Squeeze out all of the juice out of the thawed spinach, then place spinach on paper towels and squeeze dry some more.
Mix spinach, egg, chicken, ricotta, and parmesan (I also added some minced garlic, because I love garlic).  Drain pasta, rinse with cool water.
Spread 1 cup pasta sauce in a 13x9 in pan.  Then spoon about 2 tbl of ricotta mixture into one shell (I used a Pampered Chef medium scoop for this, it worked perfectly).  Place shells, filled sides up.  Spoon with remaining pasta sauce.
Cover with foil, bake 30 min.  Remove foil, and sprinkle with Italian cheese.  Bake another 5-10 min.

Now, lets talk about savings.  How much did I save with this recipe, or rather, how much did I spend.  I already had the spinach at the house, and I also had the chicken, as well as the egg, and parmesan.  So those aren't being counted in my little estimate.  So I spent 1.35 on the shells, 1.69 on the pasta sauce, 1.96 on the ricotta, and another 2.47 on the Italian cheese (which I was supposed to use all of, but didn't).  All in all, I actually spent only 7.47.  Now I would guesstimate that the spinach would have been about 1.50, and the chicken probably more like 2.00, the egg, well, I'm just not going to count that, most of us have eggs, and the amount of parmesan, maybe .50.  So it would have cost something like 11.47.  Still, thats a pretty good price when it feeds all of us, and then some.  Autumn had 3 shells, Sierra had 2 shells, I had 3 shells, and Paul had 6 shells.  The serving size is supposed to be 3 shells per person.  And we were supposed to get 6 servings.  More often than not, the meals we make are usually one less (because the husband is able to eat a little more) serving.  So I would say 5 servings instead of 6.  Still, according to my calculations, it was 2.29/serving (thats wayyyy better than anything taco bell could do).  But if you really want to talk about money.  I also served asparagus (steamed), probably running 2.00, and then garlic bread which is about 2.00, so all in all, we ate our entire dinner meal for only 3.09.  Considering we just went to Mac Grill in Ramstein and spent about 6 dollars each for the girls meals alone, thats one heck of a deal.  It just amazes me that amount of money you save by eating at home sometimes.  But who wants to cook all the time, I certainly don't, and I love to cook!  But all in all, this was a delicious meal, and I'm loving the fact that it wasn't very expensive too!  If you try it, let me know how you like it!

Obsessed...

I am not a vegetarian...
I am not a vegan...
but somehow I am obsessed with veggie sausages.
I don't know or remember the first time I tried them.  It had to be sometime in the past two years.
I originally tried them because they are lower in fat than regular sausage.
I didn't think I'd like them.
I was afraid to try them.
But now, I LOVE them!
I love the smell when they cook in the microwave, I love the taste with a hint of spicyness (is that a word?) to them.  They have to be the links, and they have to be Morningstar.
They are the perfect thing to go with my fiber one (cardboard) cereal with banana.  Mmmm...deliciousness!