pinbusted recipe: crockpot apple oatmeal

What a letdown!

I randomly got a spurt of energy while doing my before-sleep pinning and saw this recipe for the overnight crockpot apple oatmeal. I immediately got up and put it all in the crockpot, expecting to wake up to delicious smelling breakast.

Fail. All I could smell 6.5 hours later was a little bit of burnt something. It was over an hour less than what it recommended, but still the bottom and sides were burned.

I tried it anyway... and.. well... it was worse than the smell.

It was a spongey, chewy, tasteless glob. I couldn't deal, no matter how hungry I was. 

If you're going to make it, I'd do at least 3-4 cups of milk with 2-3 cups of water, and at least a tablespoon of cinnamon... and definitely don't cook it for the full 8-9 hours. Put that in the pot with two apples, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and two cups of oatmeal. 

Or... if you've made it in some delicious way, please spill your secrets!

love,
elizabethany

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pinspired recipe: crockpot ranch potatoes

Ready for an easy side that's scrumdiddliumptious?!

Ranch crock-pot potatoes, as Pinspired by this here recipe.

They're super easy! All you do is throw some cut up red potatoes, water, and minced garlic in the crock-pot and let it sit on high for 3-5 hours, or low 6-8 hours, then add some seasonings, ranch dressing, and cheeses!

You should know, however, they probably won't come out looking like up there. Mine were more like this: 

Basically a sloppy, kinda mashed up mess... but it didn't matter! They were still delicious.

I will say that I will probably make a couple changes next time I make them. Instead of using ranch dressing after they're cooked, I feel like it'd be great to mix in ranch dressing mix halfway through the cook-time. Same with the other spices. I like to really let the flavor soak into whatever I'm cooking in the crock-pot.

Also, you don't need nearly as much cheese as they suggest [1/2 cup]. In fact, I don't think you really need any at all, except maybe a little bit of parmesan cheese. [If you're on a diet, anyway. If you don't count calories- the more cheese the better, right?!]

Here's the thing.... a lot of these food bloggers are all fancy with their photography too. They find the perfect dish and the perfect lighting and the perfect set-up as if they're a restaurant trying to sell their food. Not me. I'm showin' you like it is... and I'm pretty sure it still looks delicious.

So there ya go! Try this recipe this weekend. It's easy to make, can feed a lot of people for a cook-out or whatever, and everyone will like it. I mean, duh- it's ranch flavored. 

love,

elizabethany

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pinteresting: old frame turned earring holder and crockpot salsa chicken

My birthday is coming up in two weeks, which means my house is being turned into a hotel for about 15 of my best friends for the weekend. Finally, I've been given some true motivation to finish everything in my room, get it organized, and looking good.

So, for the next two weeks, expect me to be talking a lot of crafts and "ooh my room is becoming a big girl room!" tweets.

Step one: Get my jewelry organized and out of tangled boxes.

I found a ton of ideas on Pinterest, and I really couldn't decide on one [although I really wanted to use knobs as necklace hangers, but it's a lot more expensive than you'd think!], but when I found a broken frame from the dollar store, I knew the simplest/cheapest solution.

I went to Walmart and bought 1/3 of a black, sparkly mesh material, folded it in half, and hot glued it to the back of my frame. My earrings easily hang from any part of the frame and VOILA! They even look pretty [neat]!

The necklaces are just hanging from nails right now, but hopefully I'll get something spiffier for those soon.

 --

For a couple months now, I've been having "Pinterest Sundays," where I make one recipe from Pinterest that I haven't tried yet. Not gonna lie, I think I've loved everything I've tried besides a lemon crab pasta. Ick.

This weekend I made Salsa Chicken Tacos in the crockpot. [Sorry, no pictures of my own, so I'm showing you the ones from the website I used for the recipe!] It was SUPER easy! You throw in chicken, salsa, and cream of chicken soup, let it cook for 4ish hours while you lay out in the sun, then mix it with sour cream and throw it on some tortillas! YUM!

The best part: I swapped out sour cream for plain greek yogurt, and the other people eating had no idea! Yay for healthy in the summertime!

I'm glad that I'm finally doing more things that girls are expected to do... but how weird is it that one weekend I post about getting shmammered on the water, and the next I spent being a housewife [without a ring]?!

Moral of the story: Try the salsa chicken. And spend $2 to organize your earrings.

love,
elizabethany

PS: I also made the turquoise earrings you see here on the bottom row! I found them at Michael's under clearance for under $2, and took the earring hooks from other earrings I no longer had the matching earring for! BAM.


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