More cooking tales!

Cooking has been slow due to lack of time to use my awesome slow cooker, however I have now used it a total of 3 times and have had success each time! The second time I actually bought a pre-prepared meal from Walmart which contained meat potatoes and veggies. It was so easy to prep, I literally just had to throw everything into the slow cooker and just add some water and that was it. I was a bit skeptical on the taste, but sure enough it was actually good for what it was and lasted me 3 meals which I was excited about.

Just a couple of days ago, I decided to take a recipe out of one of the books my sister bought and mailed for me - Chicken drumsticks! The recipe was a bit more difficult had a lot of items and didn't have any veggies or anything but that was easily remedied by just buying a couple of green peppers and carrots to also bring with me for my meals. The halved the recipe since it called for 4 lbs of drummies and I knew I wouldnt be able to eat that much before they would go bad so I was a bit nervous and I also had forgotten one item but it turned out great! I was very happy.

Work is going well. For two weeks in a row I have gotten the two sales awards that we have which is for most phone calls and most sales in the week. I have gotten the award for most phone calls every week since my second week working there. I did not think at all that I was close to doing it again this week but I did so I was very happy :)

I still haven't explored the inner city of Knoxville as much as I would like - I do enjoy just walking around cities but there really isn't much to Knoxville. It's far different than Nashville, Boston, New York City, or any other bigger city I've been to. It's more like a small city that you don't go to just to explore.

Still trying to balance out my grocery shopping cost. My last bill was approximately $75 but I bought hot dogs (Hebrew National 97% fat free) which can easily cook in 1.5ish hours in the slow cooker and taste great along with veggies and some other stuff. I think that in the end it will end up lasting me for a week and a half before I have to go back to get more turkey for lunches but I should be set for dinners for at least 2 weeks if not maybe 2.5 . I have some tortellinis which I have found some good slow cooker recipes for. We will see!

Sorry it has been so long - I really will try to update more :)

Adventures in Cooking

I hate cooking. I might even go so far as to say I have a fear of cooking. Not fear as in some fear spiders (I love spiders!), however I strongly dislike it. I have never found the use for something that takes longer to prep and cook than it does to eat. My parents also decided to name me after someone in the family who was a really good cook. I claim that it cursed me from the beginning to never cook anything. I still do feel that way, however of course going the other route costs a lot more money and is significantly less healthy.

I don't remember why, but I decided to try out a crockpot. My sister had used one a lot but I never found the use in having to wait 8-10 hours for my food to cook. I realized, however, that I needed to find a way to cook food that was healthy and be able to reheat it for leftovers many days later. I got the idea into my head I was going to buy a crockpot, and asked permission of my landlord/roommate to make sure she would be okay with this. She is a very nice person though and of course had no problem with it whatsoever, and even better, had a spare one that I could have while I was living here!

I am a very last minute kind of person, and on my way home from work I decided to stop at the grocery store and get the makings of something to cook. With a bit of research on my droid, I decided to cook http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenthighrecipes/r/peachcpchix.htm . It was a labour of love that I had to wake up at 3am to finish and put away in the fridge, but it was great. Next time I'll do without the curry powder. My sister, who does love to cook, heard that I was using a crockpot, and mailed me 2 great books on crockpot recipes. I think it always perplexed her that I hated to cook, so now that I'm doing SOMETHING in the kitchen department she went all out and got me them. I am very thankful :)

Another last minute decision was to buy a foreman grille. I had one when I lived in my grandmothers house, however there was no drip tray so I never used it. I don't have a stove or oven in my half of the house. I am welcome to go upstairs and use my roommates, but sometimes I don't feel like bringing everything upstairs or if she has friends over or something. Foreman grille just seemed like a great way for me to stop at the store on the way home from work and pick up some meat and stick it on the grille. Indeed I just got done eating a hamburger, and it was great!

I am very excited to have the use of these in my future cooking. Just don't look for me to branch off much more than this. All the burger took was me pre-heating the grille, throwing a patty on, then taking it off 5 minutes later. Very low maintenance for which I am thankful.

-Me

PICTURES!

The picture on the left I was just fascinated with how little snow there was. At home in Massachusetts there had been about 4+ feet of snow on the ground and as we went farther and farther south it became less and less. My mom asked me to take the photo of the West Virginia welcome sign. We were only in W.V. for a very short time.

This was until we arrived in Tennessee! We were very close to getting there which was very exciting.

It's kind of difficult to read but that was the welcome to Tennessee sign on the right! Notice the lack of snow :)

My car was very tightly packed.

And that was the trunk with the aid of my mother's hand.

And those are the best of the photos from the move! Photos from my apartment will take a bit of time to post.

Work is going very well. Here is my typical weekday:

7:06 am : Wake up + get ready

8:28 am: Leave for work

9:00 am - 5:30 pm : Work

5:30 pm - 6:03 pm : Drive to animal shelter

6:03 pm - 7:00 pm : Volunteer at the animal shelter - walking dogs, cleaning cages etc

7:05 pm: Drive home

7:25 pm: Make and eat dinner

8:00 pm - 10:30/11:00 pm - free time to be on computer/watch tv

11:00 pm at the latest: sleep

I don't know if I posted this but I started to volunteer at the local animal shelter and I absolutely adore it. Walking the dogs is a lot of fun too because I am getting exercise and it's fun to see how much they love to go for walks and get 1 on 1 time. Unfortunately it also makes me really want a dog but I can't have one at my current place due to my roommate having 2 dogs. I also cannot afford a dog right now so at least I get to play with them there.

That's it for now. It's already 10:00 pm and I'm exhausted!

-Me