January 29, 2016

Turkey Black Bean Chili Crock Pot Freezer Meal

Here's another freezer meal that I prepared a while ago. 


1.2 lbs ground turkey
30 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
28 oz tomato sauce
14.5 oz petite diced tomatoes, undrained
1 2/3 cup frozen corn
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground oregano

If freezing just combine all ingredients into freezer bag and freeze. 


To cook, dump everything into crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Break up turkey before serving. I put some cheddar cheese on top. It was so good! 





January 27, 2016

Cheesy Tortellini with Ground Beef Crock Pot Freezer Meal

Back for another crock pot freezer meal.


1 lb lean ground beef
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
28 oz crushed tomato
10 oz diced tomatoes & green chilies, undrained
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
19 oz frozen cheese tortellini
1 cup mozzarella cheese

If freezing, combine everything except the tortellini and mozzarella cheese in a freezer bag. 


To cook, just dump everything except tortellini and mozzarella in crock pot and cook on low for 8  hours.  Add tortellini and cheese and cook for 15-30 more minutes until tortellini is cooked. 


January 25, 2016

Chicken Cacciatore Crock Pot Freezer Meal

It's time for the first recipe in part 3 of my crock pot freezer meals. This recipe was delicious. I doubled the recipe to make 2 meals and we've actually eaten both of them already.


2-3 Chicken Breasts
1 onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
29 ounces diced tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt

(the above ingredients make one meal, I doubled mine and froze it in 2 bags)


To freeze just combine all ingredients in a freezer bag and freeze. Thaw in refrigerator the night before. 

To cook, just toss it all in the crock pot and cook on low or medium for 6 hours. Serve over pasta. 





January 21, 2016

Crock Pot Freezer Meals Part 3

I'm back for another round of crock pot freezer meals. I've done two of these previously- here and here


This time I purchased all my ingredients at Aldi's for only $225 and ended up with 20 meals. I made a few other freezer meals too, but they're not for the crock pot so I'll post those separately.

Here's everything I made-

Thai Peanut Pork
Mozzarella Turkey Pesto Meatballs



January 11, 2016

Growing to FIVE!?

Another big memory from 2015 for us what finding out that I am pregnant!!  Baby M #3 will be here in May 2016!


I found out when I was just 4 weeks! Crazy early compared to my first two pregnancies. Mike and I are very excited, the kids on the other hand...



Since I had a c-section with Mason I am going to hopefully VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) this time. I've found a great, super supportive doctors office that is known for their VBAC success.  As of today I am 23 weeks and have been feeling really good. The baby has been kicking and moving around for the last 6 or so weeks and loves to get really active at bedtime. We had our anatomy ultrasound the other day, but we've decided not to find out the gender for real this time. (That was the plan with Mason, but I couldn't wait)  I've gained about 10 lbs so far which is less than with the first two, but I also wasn't taking care of 2 kids those times, so I'm more active this time around. Ultrasound tech says baby weighs about a pound and is a foot long (made me want subway when she said that)



I'll share my belly pics in another post and keep updating as we get closer to welcoming Baby M. 





January 8, 2016

Our Honeymoon Cruise to Key West & Cozumel on the Carnival Ecstasy

The morning after our wedding we were off to the airport to fly to Florida for our honeymoon. We flew into Tampa and rented a Mustang convertible and drove 4 hours to our hotel in Miami.




The next morning we did some shopping to get some snacks and wine for the cruise and then headed to the port.  We were sailing on the Carnival Ecstasy to Key West, FL and Cozumel, Mexico. 




We were on the ship a few hours before we sailed away so we walked around, grabbed some drinks and Mike did a little drunk dancing. 



Early the next morning we arrived in Key West. Neither of us have been there before and we didn't have any excursions planned so we rented a moped scooter and just did some sightseeing. 




Funny Story, this isn't Mike's real wedding ring. On the way to the airport I realized he forgot his ring at home, so once got to Miami we went to Wal-Mart and he picked up this ring for $30 so he wouldn't be a newlywed without a wedding ring. 
 

We were only in Key West for a half day and then we were off to Cozumel.


We arrived in Cozumel around the middle of the following day. We had an excursion planned. We rented dune buggies and were going snorkeling. 


I do not know how to swim so I almost chickened out and didn't go snorkeling, but I knew if I didn't I would really regret it so I did it! It was awesome. As soon as we got about 2 feet into the water there were fish everywhere. We swam out with our group a good distance and checked out the fish and coral. I would totally go snorkeling again (I'll bring an underwater camera next time though)



After snorkeling we headed to the other side of the island for lunch. We stopped at a little hut on the beach and had some amazing tacos, beans, and rice. 



I loved these pop cans and bottles. I actually saved them. They were of course written in Spanish, but they were also about half the size of cans and bottles here. So cute!



After lunch we drove back to port and did some shopping for the kids before heading back to the ship to watch for drunk people running so they wouldn't miss the ship. 

When we got back to our room we had chocolate covered strawberries, champagne, and a Carnival Ecstasy 'ship on a stick' waiting for us. I had requested these about a week before our trip to surprise Mike. 


Our final day on the ship was a sea day, we just hung out by the pool, ate a lot of food, took naps, and saw a couple shows.  Early the following morning we were back in Miami and it was time to get off the ship =(


We rented a car again and headed up to Cocoa Beach. We did some driving around and hung out at the beach before getting dinner and heading to bed.  



On our final day of our honeymoon we rented a kayak and headed to Manatee Park. Mike says this was the best part of the whole trip. We kayaked around for a few hours and were surrounded by manatees the whole time. Before we did this, Mike didn't know what a manatee was, he was a bit worried about them being mean and either biting him or tipping our kayak over. 



Once we got in they just swam right up to us. They liked to be in the shade so they would just swim under us and hang out by our kayak. It was awesome. 


Our final stop before heading home was Disney! We only had about 2 hours before we needed to get to the airport so we parked at Downtown Disney and practically ran to T-Rex for some lunch. We luckily grabbed a seat at the bar, ordered within minutes, stuffed our faces full and were off to the airport to head home. 




We arrived at the airport, checked in, and got right on the plane. We were cutting it close, but we made it. 

We had an awesome honeymoon and I want to thank everyone that bought us excursions or items off our Carnival Honeymoon registry. It helped out so much and we had so much fun!  I can't wait to go cruising again with the kids. 



January 7, 2016

We're married! Our wedding day June 20th, 2015

So, since I haven't posted anything since February 2015 there's a lot to catch up on. The biggest thing being our wedding! I have a few posts with the DIY decorations we did and stuff like that, but this post is all about our actual wedding day.

We got married on June 20th, 2015. Our colors were yellow and gray with a sunflower theme. Our wedding party consisted of my sister, best friend, and niece, Mike's best friend, my brother and his nephew.  Marley was the flower girl and Mason was the ring bearer.  My dad got ordained so he performed the ceremony. We had the same photographer that took our family/engagement pictures last year.



We each wrote our own vows (Mike wrote his on the back of Marley's chore cards, too funny) It was a short and sweet (and hot) ceremony and then we took photos and were off to the reception.






For the reception, we  rented out a local church hall. We did all the decorations the night before, and had food catered from Panda Express (one of our favorites) Mike and I had our first dance to Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars. 



I danced with my dad to Daddy Dance with Me by Krystal Keith and Mike danced with his sister to John Legend's All of Me. 


My cousin, Nikki, made the cake and 100 cupcakes. We had banana cake with cream cheese frosting with banana pudding and sliced bananas inside. It was amazing! 




She had about an hour drive from her house to the hall and by the time she went to put the cake out it was actually falling apart and the pudding was oozing out. She had about 10 minutes to fix it and she did amazing!


Then the real party started. We had about 75 people attend and I hope everyone had as much fun as Mike and I did.  






All photos in this post were taken by Nichole Goodrich Photography 


We partied hard and before we knew it it was time to go home. But the fun didn't end there, in the morning we were off to Miami for our honeymoon cruise to Cozumel and Key West!