If I Dream It...

I love the crock-pot... and so long as I take the time to toss everything in it in the morning or the night before - it's wonderful for simple, yummy, meals... Any meat that comes out of the crock-pot is always incredibly moist and tender  - and depending on what you cook it in, full of flavor! I wanted to something a little different than my normal... and while I like pork, I rarely make it. And since I had done things over rice and as a sandwich lately, I figured - tacos! I still had the BBQ Beer Chicken recipe in my head as it hadn't been that long and it was really good... so I used it as inspiration for this dish. Added in some different spices and called it good. When it came to eat, I sweetened some of the cooking liquid and tossed some cabbage in it to top the tacos... it was super yummy! I tried them plain, with avocado, and with a little extra BBQ sauce on top - and I must admit, all of them were very good! The only thing I liked more on day two was that the cabbag...

So I've been thinking about making pretzels for quite some time. They are sooo good and I honestly do crave them quite a bit. However, I've never taken the time to try to make them on my own. Since spring has not truly started yet and we just got covered with more snow... I had some time on my hands. Because quite frankly - when the roads are covered... it's just no fun to be out in that stuff. Since I'd be staying indoors, I decided to stop and finally take the time to make pretzels. Now that I have - my next pretzel test may be to figure out if I can freeze them and then just make a few at a time instead of a whole batch... but it'll be awhile before I try that... after two cookie sheets of pretzel bites in just over 24 hours, I'm honestly pretzeled out. But they were SUPER GOOD! Can you smell the yummy pretzels? MMMM! Anyways, they weren't exactly a ton of work, but then again, I did use the bread machine to make the dough :) But they st...

There's something about a snowy day that makes me want soup... and lets face it - soup is always best out of a bread bowl! And it is odd to think of craving a bread bowl filled with soup in spring - but they're good anytime... and unfortunately, spring hasn't really caught up to us... we're trapped in winter for some reason. Anyways - I digress... soup in bread bowls - yummy! However, I was super lazy with my bread bowls... those were simply a loaf made in the bread machine, cut in half, and hallowed out. I know I could've just had the machine make the dough and bake it and actually make bread "bowls" in the process... but I just didn't feel like it. Granted, I did make a different type of loaf instead of just a white bread. I did a cottage cheese chive loaf... and wrinkle your nose at that all you want but it was super good and went great with potato soup! So today I'll share two recipes with you... one for a very yummy potato soup and the oth...

I may have said this before - but I'm not much of a breakfast person... not because I don't like it. Honestly, some of my favorite dishes are breakfast items... but I just don't usually take the time for it. I choose to sleep as late as possible and then have to get up and go... oddly even on the weekends I don't really make the time for it... and that's just usually because by the time I'm hungry it's time for lunch. But anyways, while I don't often make time for breakfast... when I do have it easily at hand, I do eat it. So I've learned it's best for me if make it ahead of time and then have it for the week ahead so that I can grab it and head out the door.  With breakfast in mind, I made a strudel awhile ago... and with portable, grab-and-go in mind I made individual strudels. Both recipes, while very similar, are a little different. Not because one way is better than the other - but because I had slightly different ingredients at hand...

Some people love it, others hate it... I must admit I've never met anyone on the fence about their feelings for it... Tapioca. Personally, I love tapioca pudding. I have to be in the mood for it, but there's something oddly comforting about it. Many people don't like it - the ones I know say it's a textual thing...  I don't know why tapioca got me thinking about the drink Oribitz, but it did... so I'm sharing my trip down memory lane too... Much like some people's take on tapioca pudding, people didn't like the texture. And understandably, it seemed odd to have something semi-solid in a drink. For some reason though, I liked it - it was an odd treat in my book. I loved the fruit flavors and the odd little floating balls in each bottle. It intrigued me because it was so different. Granted, I will admit, when I think of a drink - that wasn't my idea of anything refreshing... it was more of an odd dessert than a drink. Sadly, to me, it didn'...

When cooking with the crock-pot I've done a bit of BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, but I didn't want to do the same thing... however, I wanted BBQ... so while it's not a huge stretch, I did branch myself a little. And while I like the thought of a mango BBQ - I wasn't sure it was something I could get the hubby to go for (though I'm sure I'll try that one of these days too)... so what could be an easily accepted tweak that sounds yummy? BEER! That was it! So to make a simple BBQ beer chicken sandwich I went... And with the crock-pot, it really can't get much easier.  The beer and BBQ sauce by themselves impart a lot of flavor - so I didn't add a bunch extra.  And as per usual - the simplicity of the crock-pot is also wonderful for lazy days... so it was super nice to toss dinner together over lunch and then come home and dinner is almost ready... it's great.  Now I didn't make a bunch - I need to get a smaller circle crock-pot again s...