Updates Since This Blog Was Made

Several changes have happened since this blog was originally created. I am now married to my then fiancé. Since then we have moved two more times. Once from the apartment to a rental house in Burien and then we moved one more time to a house we bought on the edge of Burien and Seattle. I also am now employed with a local public school district and teach 3rd grade. My house work is pretty dismal and in desperate need of help. I'm struggling to find the balance between teacher, wife, individual and having a tidy house.

Ham and Bean Soup

So on Sunday, I made Ham and Bean soup. It turned out okay. Eric really liked it though. I was unsure about it at first since it requires only 4 cups of water for the broth. The consistency of it turned out okay.   Note to self next time double the recipe and use half the required amount of celery and onions. Recipe will soon follow.

Friday at last

It's Friday... Friday...Friday! Today's work week felt extra long after the shortened week last year. Since we had so much left over I didn't have to do any cooking today. I'm headed to a bridal show tomorrow with Tracy to get some wedding ideas so when Eric and I do set a date I have some more ideas. I also have a bunch of picking up to do around the apartment and some things I want to do for work like design a part two for my social studies curriculum. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on Sunday yet though, but that's the beauty of the weekend... no absolute schedule! :)

Resolution to post again.

So it's been awhile since I have posted. I kind of felt like once I got my teaching job I could no longer call myself a House Fiancee anymore. Since then though, I've decided it's still okay to refer to myself as one because I still do quite a bit of housework, cooking and laundry. Admittedly my apartment does not quite look as spotless as it once did. I've been trying to learn how to balance housework and work and been failing miserably. Any suggestions?

So sometimes towards the end of the week Eric and I make "experiments" where we combine our random remnants of our fridge and pantry and attempt to make an edible meal out of it. Last night what we had left was 1/2 lb ground beef, 2 boxes of three cheese mac and cheese and a small bag of frozen corn. We ended up cooking the mac and cheese and then combining the beef and corn in. We then added Italian seasoning, chili powder and garlic powder to it. The result was surprisingly kind of tasty. It reminded me of two recipes I found in my highly looked at cookbooks and of a Velveeta skillet meal.
It ended up being 1.66 WW points plus/ ounce so not very healthy, but it was our attempt to push back grocery shopping until Saturday and after payday.

Tatertot Casserole

Today I sadly had no subbing calls. So I'm lazily in my sweatpants putzing around the house and guiltly watching old reruns of law and order. I ate some leftover chili today. :-) It was just as good as left overs!

I then made the great tatertot casserole in preparation for dinner tonight. It's probably one of easiest things to make. It's not healthy but it is tasty. My fiance's cousin called and the private preschool asked me to subsistute for them for the rest of the week... I said,"YES, YES I WILL!" So Tuesday after my interview at the local Safeway, I will be subbing 12:30pm-5 or 6pm and then the same hours for the rest of the week. Yay!

 

Quick Tatertot Bake

Ingredients:
3/4 to 1lb ground beef or turkey
1 (16oz) package of frozen tatertot potatoes
1 can of mushroom soup (undiluted)
1/2 can milk or water
1 cup (4oz) shredded cheddar cheese
salt & pepper

Prep:
1. In skillet brown meat and onions.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place in greased 1-1/2 qt to 2qt casserole pan----meat.
4. Top meat w/ tatertots.

5. In a separate bowl mix mushroom soup with 1/2 can of milk or water and then pour over casserole.

6. Sprinkle with cheese.
7. Cook atleast for 30 minutes uncovered until brown at 450 degrees.
8. Serve


1.82 points plus per ounce

The Garlic

Today I decided to attempt to make White Bean Chicken Chili a second time. My previous attempt I made a "slight" error with the garlic. The recipe called for two cloves of garlic and I thought that meant two whole bulbs of garlic so I chopped up all the garlic in both.... this resulted in a very strong garlic chili. Thankfully Eric and I like garlic so we ate it for dinner, but keeping leftovers was not going to happen. The apartment smelled like garlic for an entire week and so did I. I swear that I smelled it on my hands forever.

This time though I did not mess up the chili and made sure to keep the garlic at ONLY TWO cloves. The chili results were delicious. I actually ended up offering some to our neighbor above us for taste testing. I'm still awaiting his opinion though. I altered the recipe slightly. The * indicates modifications noted under the ingredients.

White Bean Chicken Chili

Recipe Taken From: Pillsbury Savy Shopper's Cookbook

Prep time: 30 min               Start to finish: 30 Minutes        9 (1 cup) servings

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

*5 1/4 cups chicken broth (from two 32-oz cartons)

2 cans (15oz each) cannellini beans, drained

*2 cans (4.5oz each) chopped green chiles, drained

1 tsp dried oregano leaves

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Dash ground red pepper (cayenne), if desired

1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (6oz), if desired

*Chopped fresh cilantro, if desired

*I only use one 32oz carton of chicken broth because I felt that it was already soupy enough. I also only use 1 can of chiles since my fiance does not like that many. I also do not add cilantro. I add light sour cream and oyster crackers to mine with the cheese before I eat it.

Prep:

1. In 4-quart Dutch oven, heat over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion, garlic and chicken; cook and stir until chicken is no longer pink in center.

*2. Stir in remaining ingredients except cheese and cilantro. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low; simmer 10 to 15 minutes to blend flavors, stirring occasionally.

3. Serve with cheese and cilantro and enjoy!

*I then toss the chicken, garlic and onions in a crockpot and then place all the remaining ingredients in the crockpot. Turn the crockpot on low for atleast 3 hours and it will cook and blend all the flavors together. I find the beauty of the crockpot is that I can make dinner earlier in the day but it'll still be hot and ready for me when I'm ready to serve it.

1 serving (1 cup each): Calories 200; Total Fat: 4.5g ( Saturated fat 1g; Trans Fat 0g);

Cholesterol 30mg; Sodium 710mg; Total Carbs 20g; Dietary Fiber 5g

Weight Watchers Points for 1 cup of chili w/o cheese, sour cream or crackers= 4 points

My Introduction to Domestic Life

 

Hello,

 

My name is Lauren. I moved to Seattle, WA at the end of August from Michigan. I came here because my fiance got a job out here and I hoped to find a teaching job out here. In Michigan there are not very many at the moment. At the moment I am without full time employment so I have become the unofficial house fiancee, as I have started referring to myself. I recently started substitute teaching at a private preschool up in Kirkland and I signed up to sub in a school district about 30 minutes south of Seattle. Since I'm new I haven't had much luck getting days so far so I've been filling my day with slowly exploring Admiral and cleaning and cooking in the apartment.

 

While here in Seattle, it's taken some major adjusting for me. I left all my friends and family behind in Michigan. This blog is my attempt to share my adventures out here in Washington and my possible mishaps in my new found domestic life.