Stew Recipe thats Alright...

The weather out side is frightful and the stew is so delightful.
It doesn't really snow in Texas so eat some stew eat some stew eat some stew.

When you go to walmart dont forget to pick up:

• stew meat (you can get the kind with the bone or the one already chopped up either way its good)
• 2 big ones Potatoes (if your keeping this Atkins Stay away from the potatoes)
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 Carrots (Again Atkins stay away from the carrots too)
• 2 Tb vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Ok so first off you put the oil in a big pot and heat it up. Then throw your meat in and brown. you can put in the salt right now too. brown meat (at this point I threw in the pepper too and the onions but the recipe i followed said to do it later. I like doing it now though because it makes the meat taste better.)

Next add the Water,Papriks, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, bay leaves (whole)  ( I didn't have any but it says to put some),every other dry spice you see in that list. (at this point the only thing left out is the veggies.) Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 2 hours or until meat is tender ( I only needed an hour and a half.)

TAKE OUT THE BAY LEAVES IF YOU ADDED THEM YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT THOSE.

Add your veggies and let those simmer for 20- 30 mins. Just watch your potatoes to see when they are done since they are the ones that will fall apart on you the fastest.  (you could also add corn, maybe make some rice on the side to put into it, I dunno Butter squash I heard those taste yummy.)

Ok last step is where Mine went a little south ( not so far it wasn't edible just far enough that if I was on Chopped I would have gotten CHOPPED!)   If its too runny take out Half a cup of stew Liquid and add 1 TABLESPOON of flour and stir. Then stir that back into the stew. If its still to runny repeat with 1 TEASPOON! Bring to a boil again to cook the flour and then turn off the burner and let it sit for like 2 mins to thicken on its own.

EAT! NOM NOM NOM

****Nicole Notes**** After you put the veggies in you cant be too rough with the whole stew because things will start to fall apart on you! I was too rough with mine. be gentle when stirring  or mixing! The Meat will be really tender and the potatoes really soft JUST BE GENTLE WITH THEM!

Guys try this thing out I LOVE TO COOK! I love it even more when people say they like my stuff. It makes my heart feel good .... Like I dunno When Mando catches a king fish on the beach, I bet the feeling I have in my heart when I cook, is similar to that. I love to pass on recipes when I find one that works for me and I like to add in my changes I made to them.

Stew Hugs and Kisses
Nicole

Pumpkin seeds!

This recipe is used and proven yummy goodness!

Ok Ok carving pumpkins is fun, but all that pulp sucks! Right ? Right!? Let me hear an AMEN!

Ok we got that out of the way.

What your gonna wanna do is as your kids are carving the pumpkins (or you whatever) get them to pile the seeds separate from the rest of the pulp. and the major clups in another area. (its easier that way) then just start separating! running water of the seeds helps get the sticky strings off!

Boil them in enough water to cover them in a pot big enough to hold the seeds and the water then POUR IN THE SALT! A LOT OF SALT!(I put a pile in my hand and dumped it in. then still didnt think that was enough and put a little more)  and boil them for 20 mins. They are gonna change color! DON'T GET SCARED!

Lay the seeds out on a cookie sheet and let them dry over night (some where up high)

The next day, Put some butter in a pan and skillet those  ( ALMOST LIKE SAUTE THEM) bad boys until they are a Light golden color! put them on a napkin so they can drain off ( theres not supposed to be to much drain off tho)

Then as soon as they are cool they will be crunchy!!! and EAT THEM!

Roasted pumpkin seeds take two

Here we go again!

Whelp Y'all here we go!
Its October and with October comes My birthday, Halloween and it starts the Holiday months!

So I'm gonna talk about all these things today.

OH SIDE NOTE: My Life Partner went back to his old job THANK GOD! life has corrected itself!!!

So the first topic My birthday: My son was born three years ago this month... exactly one week before my birthday. This year LP decided he was gonna go to Chicago without me (dont get me started on this topic cause someone will get murdered) the weekend of little booboos birthday. SO we pushed his party back to the weekend of my birthday. Which was fine I figured his birthday was a bigger deal than mine and if we had celebrated separately no one would have shown up to my party to begin with... just like the last two years. SO lets go joint Yo Gabba Gabba parties! I bought the cutest cake for him! My little prince! There was a bounce house, a pinata.. It was fabulous! He got so many gifts! we were so happy that everyone came and had a good time, there wasn't any drama it was great!  It was a really great day...
I'm still very depressed about my weight however, and looking around at all my family and friends I was thinking all day how unhappy with myself I am, how differently I act around people when I'm unhappy. I am usually a very positive and happy eccentric person, I couldn't even bring myself to mohawk my hair up like I usually do for party occasions. Its my weight ... I'm not happy about my weight... SO what do we do about that?

WE START ATKINS AGAIN!

When I did Atkins the first time I lost a good deal of weight before I fell off the wagon on vacation. I just let myself get bigger and bigger! Now its affecting my attitude and the way I relate to other people... Its obviously time to stop. So maybe this is your first time stopping by to read my blog.. well if your with me and need to lose some wait ... subscribe and stay a while .... we can clean and cook and diet together!

HALLOWEEN! I decorated my house for my son... he doesn't know what Halloween is. He doesn't remember last year, but things this year are starting to stick so I decided to do the house up to get into him into the sipirt and so we'll have pictures to show him when hes older. YAY decorations!

THE HOLIDAY months!  YAY I became an AVON rep! IF you need anything from AVON email me! I'm gonna blog about my selling experience too so stick around its gonna get more interesting I promise!

Next blog to come will be a blog about what to do with your pumpkin pulp and seeds from when you carve those pumpkins with your little pumpkins :-P

My Life Partner is on the night shift... and it sucks!!

I'm one of those people that cant live,breath,walk right without their spouse. I think I covered this part however I'll go over it again, He's my life partner not my spouse because we never got officially married, and I don't just give the title husband away like I would boyfriend. Well most of my day is consumed by him. Checking facebook to see what hes doing, washing his clothes, washing his dishes.. etc. etc. At night is usually our time to watch TV together and umm cuddle and such activities that two grown people with a child do together. I mean of course sleep and drool on each other pillows LOL.

He got a new job.. At first this seemed like the best idea in the world! number one reason: because he hated his old job and it was super hard to live with the new grumpy man who took over the guy that I fell in love with. Number two reason: night shift sounded like the shift that would mean him coming home when I would leave for school so we would no longer need the baby sitter.

The part I forgot to put into the equation... I'm now alone in the house with my son and the cat. At NIGHT! what happened to the big strong man who was supposed to fight off the bad guys that break into the house.  wheres the trigger happy dude that fights for lesser gun control so he can shoot the intruder that comes in for our TV. HE'S WORKING NIGHTS!!!!

so can I have harsher gun control?! HUH! Cant we get an alarm system for the house and not just the garage! NOW CAN WE HAVE A DOG?!

of course not...

Do you know what I have to do now?!

Pull up my big girl panties, get a good book and hunker down for the nights that follow. I know he thinks hes gonna be the only one missing out on sleep but thats totally not the case. I'm going to be up and listening for stray noises, I'm going to be freaking out about the sounds of the neighbors cats fighting outside my window. I have to keep the normality with our son and insist (even tho i'm scared) that he sleep in his room like normal. I have to be the new "Man of the House".

For women everywhere that do this on a normal basis I tip my hat to you

For women like me who are just now having to start this, know that I am with you now, we aren't alone anymore, we are together holding hands through the internet keeping each other company.

Don't worry Baby! I got this house, and our son!

Good night my fellow braves! See you in the morning when we wake up stronger women.

NikkiBrave

Where have I been?!?

Living a busy life! Child, school, husband, moving LIFE. I can't say I'm back but we'll see.

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