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Beef Stroganoff (Crock Pot)

from: 161

Ingredients
1/2 C orange marmalade
16 oz can whole cranberries in suace
2 tsp. orange zest, grated
3-lb turkey breast

Directions
Combine marmalade, cranberries and zest in a bowl. Place the turnkey in the slow cooker and pour half the mixture over the turkey. Cover. Cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3.5-4 hours until the turkey juices run clear.

Add the remaining half of the orange-cranberry mixture for the last half hour of cooking. Remove the turkey to a warm platter and allow to rest for 15 min before slicing. Serve with the orange ranberry sauce.

Nutritional Info (1/9 recipe(
270 cals, 1g fat, 125 mg cholesterol, 90 mg sodium, 18g carbs, 46g protein

from: 161

Ingredients
1.5 lbs lean stew meat, trimmed of fat
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced,
1 tsp. salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 lb fresh mushrooms
can cream of mushroom soup (healthy variety)
1 C water
1 C fat free sour cream

Directions
Combine all ingredients except sour cream in slow cooker. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Stir in sour cream. Cook on high for a few minutes to heat sour cream.

Nutritional Info (1/6 recipe(
240 calories, 7g fat, 75 mg cholesterol, 900 mg sodium, 15 g carbs, 27 g protein

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Cranberry-Orange Turkey Breast

from: 161

Ingredients
1/2 C orange marmalade
16 oz can whole cranberries in suace
2 tsp. orange zest, grated
3-lb turkey breast

Directions
Combine marmalade, cranberries and zest in a bowl. Place the turnkey in the slow cooker and pour half the mixture over the turkey. Cover. Cook on low 7-8 hours or on high 3.5-4 hours until the turkey juices run clear.

Add the remaining half of the orange-cranberry mixture for the last half hour of cooking. Remove the turkey to a warm platter and allow to rest for 15 min before slicing. Serve with the orange ranberry sauce.

Nutritional Info (1/9 recipe(
270 cals, 1g fat, 125 mg cholesterol, 90 mg sodium, 18g carbs, 46g protein

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What We're Up To

It's a cold grey day here in the Mile-High city, which is logical since we had highs yesterday in the low 80s.

We haven't been up to a whole lot, just working and such. I picked up the audio version of Freakonomics from our library last week and Matt and I both enjoyed it immensely. Basically a couple of economists use economic methods to answer bizarre questions. They cover various topics from teachers cheating on standardized tests to the business model for an urban drug gang. The answers are frequently pretty surprising. A good book to check out.

We've also been on a crock-pot kick at home. It's the perfect time of year for the crock pot and it's a nice thing to have your meal mostly made by the time you get home from work. We picked up Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly and we've made two great recipes from it so far – one for roast turkey breast with orange cranberry sauce and one for beef stroganoff. Both turned out quite well. I'll try to remember to post the recipes at some point.

I spent part of last night playing around with Microsoft Photo Story 3 (which you can download here). Basically what it does is create a photo slide show and turn it into a wmv film. It's pretty simple but does some pretty nice effects. You can do narration (possibly for your travel photos?) and include music. I did one of Loki photos last night to the peanuts theme. It was pretty cute. Anyhow, we're planning to create a photo slideshow for my grandma's memorial service so I think we'll use that.

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It's Beginning to Look a lot Like …

First of all, thanks to all for your condolences. They were very sweet and heartfelt.

Well I am starting to get some Christmas prep going. I'll be heading into 3rd trimester on Dec 1, so I'm especially keen to get going early cuz I'm moving a bit slower these days.

Over the weekend, I picked up both of these publications. On the left we have Martha Stewart Living's Holiday Handmade Gifts, which so far seems interesting. Lots of things to make from sweet stuff to personalized gifts to toys. Can't say I'll prolly do tons out of here, but I like some of the ideas.

The other is from a magazine I'm not familiar with called Cuisine at Home and it contains only cookie style recipes (some bars, barks, etc. as well). They all come with nice photos and instructions and I like the wide variety they included. Last year I got together with a friend and we baked a bunch of different cookies to give out as treats to friends and neighbors and we both enjoyed that and are planning to do it again this year … so it will be nice to have some new ones to try!

Anyone else got some holiday fun up their sleeve?

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Slow Weekend

This was one of the first weekends in a while where I wasn't totally devastated on Sun night that I had to return to work the next day. I think that's because I finally had a slow weekend. I did very little that was for or about anyone else and that level of selfishness apparently sits well with me. hehehehe

Friday we begged off a family obligation and Kelly came over and we cooked up some Mac 'n' Cheese and played an abbreviated game of Monopoly … one of those annoying ones where no one gets a Monopoly and no one has a clear advantage and you have to trade a bunch and the whole thing just feels dumb. So we quit. Don't remember what else we did.

Saturday we cleaned up the house, did laundry, and babysat Liam for a few hours. He's such an easy going good baby. He even took a nice nap. Then we hit Target and did the food shopping for the week. It was a bit later than we normally go and it was a mad house there, chock full of overtired screaming kids. Continue reading “Slow Weekend”

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Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients

1/4 C butter
3/4 C chopped green onions, including tops
2 C chopped fresh mushrooms
2 T four
1 C half and half
1 C chicken broth or stock
1/4 t salt
1/8 t pepper

Directions
Ina dutch oven, cook green onions in butter over low heat until tener. Add te chopped mushrooms and cook mixture, stirring for 2 min. Add flour, and cook 3 min. Remove the pan from hte heat and add chicken stock and half and half in a steady sream, whisking. Bring the soup to a boile over moderate heat. Simmer, stirring for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

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Mmm… Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese is quite possibly one of my fave foods of all time. I love the simplicity of it. Even more, I love the endless combinations between cheese, bread, and extras. Yum. So when my mom found out about Chedd's, I was more than anxious to try it. Finally we got our chance last night. After Matt picked me up from work, we hit the Littleton location for some FAB grilled cheese.

They truly have an amazing selection of cheese and breads and such and they grill them up perfectly. Matt had jalepeno havarti with bacon on focaccia and I had bacon, avacado and monty jack on vienna white. Both were amazing. We also shared some of their tomato bisque which was great as well. We will definitely be back. Now they just need to add apples and raisin bread to their menu of possibilities. Continue reading “Mmm… Grilled Cheese”

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Scatterbrained

Hi all. Sorry it's taken me so long to post t'day. It's just been one of those days … hit the ground running and still doing a bit of a sprint. Kinda nice, actually. Couldn't believe when I looked down at the clock and it was already 11! Yikes. Projects and meetings all morning.

We had quite a few trick-or-treaters last evening. We live in a neighborhood with loads of kids and houses on flat streets that are close together, so very desireable that way. Loki was a bit overwhelmed by the large number of strangely dressed strangers in his terrirtory, so I ended up pulling him upstairs with me for a while while Matt answered the door. We had crockpot red beans and rice for dinner last night and that turned out pretty well. I'll have to post the recipe later though because I can't remember where the heck it came from.

NaNoWriMo starts today too and although I've signed up for it, I am having trouble even thinking about starting it. Blah. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Seriously. Why do they pick November?? I've got to start Christmas shopping and such. Lousy idea.

Lastly, just wanted to send out a big congrats to bloggy friend Lisanne on the birth of her baby girl, Meredith!! Yay!