Use Easy Recipes

We do our share of frozen and boxed dinners, but here are some easy-to-assemble recipes for meals we cook on a regular basis:

Baked Potatoes (Wash potatoes, dry, and spray with canola oil. Bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes. Cover with your choice of toppings- cheese, chives, sour cream, chili, bacon bits, etc).

Grilled Cheese and Soup (We do use canned soup...but we grill the sandwiches ourselves. Some fun twists are using cream cheese spread instead of butter on the bread, adding basil or garlic salt on top of the cheese, or using several kinds of cheeses).



Skillet Shepherds Pie (1 lb ground beef, 1 can tomato soup, 1 can green beans, 2 c mashed potatoes. Cook the ground beef and add tomato soup along with a dash of oregano, garlic salt, onion flakes, and black pepper. Top with warmed green beans and mashed potatoes. Note: don't add the mashed potatoes until everything is cooked and you are ready to eat.)

BLTs (Cook the bacon, shred the lettuce, slice the tomato. Assemble. Or make it a BALT by adding avocado.)





German Pancakes (Preheat oven to 425. Melt 1/2 stick of butter in 9x9 pan. Mix 1 c milk, 1 c flour, 4 eggs, and 1 tsp salt. Pour into pan and bake for 20 minutes. Top with syrup, powdered sugar, and fruit.)

Tacos (Add packet of seasoning to 1 lb ground beef. Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese, ketchup, etc).





Stew (Combine 1 lb stew meat with 4 cups of cubed potatoes, celery, carrots, and onion. We buy a packet of stew seasonings and combine that with 2 cups of water. Crockpot for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.)




Stir-fry (Granted, we usually use a frozen stir fry mix for this, which we combine with stir fry meat and frozen pot stickers. Seasonings we've used in the past are: soy sauce, a-1 sauce, Korean bbq sauce, and ponzu lime sauce. Serve with rice on the side.)

What are some of your easy-to-assemble recipes?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

100th Day Celebration

Today was Dash's 100th day celebration, or "Baek-Il" in Korean.  In Korea, on the 100th day after a child's birth, the family celebrates the child having survived the most vulnerable time in their life (physically). The family and friends celebrate by eating traditional red bean rice cakes, which symbolize the hope of longevity and happiness.

We were thrilled to have family in town to celebrate this special occasion for Dash. We had them draw pictures and write small notes to him that he can look at when he is old enough. Besides the traditional rice cakes, we also ate Korean Sweet Pancakes. Usually the baby will wear traditional Korean clothing, but since we don't have any for Dash, we decided to wear ours!

We also did a traditional Korean ritual: The child is seated before a table (in our case, a blanket) of various foods and objects such as thread, books, notebooks, brushes, ink and money. The child is urged to pick up an object from the table, as it is believed the one selected first will foretell the child's future. For example, if the child picks up a writing brush or book, he is destined to be a scholar. If he picks up money or rice, he will be wealthy. If the child picks up the thread, it is believed he will live a long life.

Although we don't necessarily buy into predicting the future, we placed the following objects in front of Dash: a pencil (scholar), money (wealth), a hymbook (musician), a missionary tag (RM or General Authority), a football (athlete), a shoelace (long life), a lion (animal lover), and a phone (engineer). As you can see from the picture, Dash ended up picking the phone. 

Rhetorically, 

Rebekah

NaNoWriMo 2

Last year, I participated in my own version of NaNoWriMo by blogging once a day. I've decided to do that again this year, mostly because my personal journaling has lagged and I'd like to document this historic time in my life (pregnant and finishing grad school). Also, because I want to do something better than this:

Like last year, you can expect this month to be full of memoirs, poems, thoughts from my classes, and family updates. Unlike last year, I will be starting on time and so my goal is 30 posts for the month of November.

Wish me luck!
Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Halloween Festivities

*The title of this post is not to be confused with the post I did last year.

Even though Matt will be gone for Halloween, we still wanted to participate in the festivities. We tried something new this year by making our own caramel apples! I won a huge jar last week for guessing how many caramels were inside and I used about a third of them for these apples. They weren't as attractive as the ones we get from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, but they still tasted delicious.

This year we decided to do "The Incredibles" as our pumpkin theme. 

The goal: 

The reality:

Yeah...you can't really tell that it's "Jack-Jack"-O-Lantern. 

 Same pumpkin, other side:

Doing the "I" was a little bit easier in the design, although Matt had to spend some time carving out the circle around it so you could see the faint glow of the candle.

Matt also cooked pumpkin seeds again this year, which he will be eating all by himself (No offense to Matt's cooking, I just don't like pumpkin seeds).

What have you been doing to celebrate Halloween?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

General Conference

We love general conference!! It's apparently become a tradition to go to the BYU Law General Conference Reception in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building between sessions on Saturdays. I think I've made it to the last 6 receptions or so. Free food and networking, right?

Selfie attempt to take a picture of the four of us. I wish you could see Matt's name tag, because it mentions our "company": Legally Insane, LLC.

Thank you, kind stranger, for taking this picture, since the selfie angle wasn't working out

Matt called me on the way home from priesthood and asked me to pull up the last two minutes of the session online. Turns out, they made it on TV! 

My family always had doughnuts for breakfast during general conference, so I've decided to carry on the tradition with Matt and I...except with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I would highly recommend the pumpkin spice cake and cream cheese pumpkin doughnuts. Sadly, they were devoured before I remembered to take a picture. *I blame the baby.*

Sunday between sessions we drove to the Provo temple and walked around. As we were coming back to the car, we noticed a horde of missionaries crouching around Matt's car, taking pictures. There were only three possible explanations: the NC license plate, the BYU-I Alum license frame, or the fact that it looks like the letters on the plate spell "BOM" (Book of Mormon). Turns out it was the first--they are all headed to NC next week to start their missions! Matt and I reminisced about the different places we have been during conference time in the past. As a sampler: Korea, Washington DC, Utah, Dominican Republic.

We are loving the fall weather! The mountains are finally starting to change colors. Here's hoping it lasts through November. 

What are your conference memories?

Rhetorically,
Rebekah

Happy Birthday, Matt!

I'm glad we could celebrate with some on your childhood favorites- toaster strudel, cocoa pebbles, and "drumsticks" on your cake. 

Love,

Rebekah

Paper Footballs

Months ago, Matt and I were eating at a restaurant and he made a maroon paper football out of the paper ring that had been holding the napkin together. He wrote "I love you" on it, and gave it to me as a gift. 

I can't remember how it started, but eventually we took turns hiding the football in various places around the house for the other person to find. Here's where I found it this morning: 

A second football came to be because we thought the first one had been lost when Matt sneakily hid it in the hood of my sweater. I had set the sweater down in various places and by the time he told me where he hid it, the football was gone. So he made me a new one (see the white football below- his name is on one side and mine is on the other). Come to find out, the original football was hiding in the cushions of the couch. So now we have two. 

Sometimes we forget who's hidden the football or where we hid it, so it may go a week before it's discovered. However, Matt usually finds them the quickest because when I remember where I hid the football (which is usually when I pass the hiding place) I'll ask, "Did you find the football?" 

I realize that of course he hasn't, or it wouldn't still be in the hiding spot. However, what I really mean by the question is, "This is a reminder it's your turn to find the football." Naturally, Matt has picked up on the fact that when I ask, the football is usually nearby and it only takes him a few seconds to find it. So I need to think of a new strategy.

We'll see if he found where I hid the footballs today. I'm doing my best not to ask him so I don't give it away.

Rhetorically,
Rebekah