Thanksgiving over stuffing waffles!

What!! Thanksgiving in January? Yes, we had Thanksgiving dinner all over again last night, but with a minor stuffing twist that turned out to be delicious and pretty creative.

This really isn't a recipe per say and there wasn't anything magical or back breaking about it either. I didn't have to make a full turkey, a ham or stuffing to get the same effect, although of course you could, but I happened to have all the pre-made items in my pantry/refrigerator to make this dinner feel like the a real Thanksgiving feast. Easy! Just like it should be!

I also happen to get this idea from Guy Fieri's Triple D show (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives), from one of the restaurants he visited and I couldn't wait to try it myself.  This restaurant in Syracuse, New York calls this "Jive turkey on a waffle." The gist of it is that once all the main turkey dinner ingredients are made they are all piled on top of a waffle made out of stuffing!

Yes, you heard correctly. A Stuffing waffle!! What a concept!

So here is what I did:

First, I began by warming up my waffle iron on the side.
In the meantime, I put the carving board turkey in the oven to brown for 10-15 minutes, warmed up the mashed potatoes and gravy, and then made the stove top as directed on the box.


Once I had the Stove Top cooked I spooned the stuffing onto the waffle iron, shut it and basically let it cook until ready like I would a regular waffle.









See It comes out all nicely browned and crispy!! 

You can make upto 2 waffles with 1 box of Stove Top which was just enough for us since the boys don't like stuffing, and I would probably do 1/2 a waffle per serving anyway.

Next I placed the turkey slices on top,

then I spooned the mashed 'taters next to that.

Then I poured the gravy over the whole thing...

Voila!

Winner, Winner...a Thanksgiving waffle Dinner!!

I also added lightly grilled deli ham slices since the turkey slices were pretty thin, some corn, and

 of course you can add cranberries or any another favorite Thanksgiving fixin' you'd like. 

But one bite of it all together and O.M.G!!!

I honestly can't say enough just how delicious it was.

*****

Here's an added bonus for all my Weight Watcher friends- Points Plus Values!
I actually went ahead and calculated the points for this dinner because I had all the information available for me to calculate it pretty easily:

Here's the breakdown:

Turkey (2oz- about 3 slices)                 2 points
95 % fat free Deli Ham Slice (1 oz.) - 1 point per slice ( I had 1 slice)
Stove top (1/2 cup or 1/2 waffle)      - 4 points
Costco Mashed Potatoes (1/2 cup)    - 5 points             (you can always make a lighter version)
Canned or gravy in a jar (1/4 cup)     - 1 point
Canned Corn (1/4 cup)                         - 1 point

Total points                                         14 points

Obviously you can adjust it to make them lower. You can have 1/4 of  the stuffing waffle and 1/4 cup of potatoes to adjust the points, and still have a very filling turkey dinner.  I also know its sounds kind of high but If you budget your points correctly throughout the day, these 14 points are totally worth every mouthful!

Jerry and I love watching Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-in's and Dives (aka- Triple D), and some of his kitchen shows. We think he's pretty funny, and his shows are a lot of fun, but most of all we love it because we (or 'I' really) have gotten a few of our family's favorite meal recipes just from watching these shows and trying them out for ourselves. So I thought it be fun to share it with you guys.

Its always nice to get creative with our food presentation for the whole family to enjoy!

Hope you'll like the idea enough to give a shot yourself in the near future. You can't go wrong!

From my corner to yours...Happy Thanksgiving on any night you'd like!!

Project Life- Week 4

Here we are at Week 4 and it was definitely a full week for our family, but productive as well. I was actually surprised to see how many pictures I had actually taken. So once again I had to do something a little different and I was thankful to have my variety pack of pages available to work with the pictures I had.

I will start off by showing you what my week looks like side by side first because if you look closely there is actually an insert in the middle!

Like I said, I had a few extra pictures by the weekend to add and this Design I insert allowed me to add 6 additional 4x4 pics and title squares to complete the look. Its a perfect little insert!

So if you look at each side with just the coordinating insert they look like this..

Left side (design A) with Front side (Design I)

Mikey's Lyrics above

 I used the 3- 4x4 pockets on the right to creatively coordinate some pictures about a moment I caught between Christian and Mikey as they collaborated together on a song this week. I also used it to include a copy of the original lyrics Mikey wrote (in his handwriting) for us to always remember. I would have included the video I recorded of his singing the song to me, but haven't gotten that sophisticated yet. 

           Back side (Design I)                                                                with Right side (Design A)

By Saturday night I had a few last minute pics that went perfectly into these 4x4 pockets about our Family Fun Night- Dinner at Ruby's as a family since Jerry's been working late hours lately and a good ol' game of Monopoly at home with Mikey and Danny which was so much fun and included the rolling of some digital dice. Go figure!

I really love all those cute calendar styles I see on so many other people's pages but I don't have any a cute stamps or already made cards. So I discovered how to make one myself along with my title for the week through a small process of print screens, a few edit tools and collage creating in Picasa once again. I loved it and I can do this again! I was also feeling all shades of the color pink last week so I worked that in to my pages.  I'll have to do a post later on the processes I'm finding I can do through Picasa to share.

I realized this week that my layouts are usually pictures that summarize the activities I've probably already shared either through my blog or FB and if not, they're pretty self explanatory so to summarize the week would have been redundant this time. So instead I took the chance to journal about the things I actually hadn't captured on camera, and it was nice to sit back and remember even some of the smaller details that made up our week.

One of those details included on this summary but I wrote about on its own 4x6 card was about meeting one of my mom's cousins that I had never met before. I love meeting family I never knew! Martha Luz was here on a very short visiting from Canada, and I honestly only got to visit with her for a little over an hour, but it was enough time to love her spirit and genuineness.  She's a cousin I'd love to see again and get to know her better. She had me so wrapped up in the moment that I completely forgot to take a picture with my camera to remember her by.  Hi Martha!!

 Final look with the back side of insert...liking the way it all kind of coordinates.

 So even though its only been 4 weeks since starting this project, I have been discovering new things and new ways to do things, the things that work and those that don't for me. But so far I'm really enjoying this process.

Again, I'm linking up to Project Life Tuesday where I discover so many new things to try!

From my little corner to yours...Thanks for stopping by!

Crock Pot Cooking- BBQ Pulled Pork

Its raining today and its perfect weather for crock pot cooking! Don't you think?

I discovered the beauty of using a crock pot about 2 years ago and I can honestly say it is something I can't live without anymore. Its just too easy and convenient not to use, and to be able to take dinner off  my to do list first thing in the morning is such a blessing on busy days! There is nothing complicated or mysterious about using a crock pot, it is just a matter of having your raw ingredients and a few hours on your side and your good to go.

You just set it and forget it!  Oops, I think that's a different machine, right?  ;)

Anyway, but its true! I'm sure many of you have one and enjoy them yourselves, but since winter started I have been using mine at least once a week for different recipes, and I just thought it was the perfect day to share one of our family's favorites that I made last week during those nice cold days we just had. It was the perfect comfort food and maybe you all would like to try it too.

I've tried a few different recipes but my favorite so far has been this one which I actually cut out of a coupon insert. (See those coupon inserts do more than just save you money!)

Note: The recipe gives specific brand names for some of the ingredients but I will keep it generic because I'm sure we all have our favorite cooking brands and they all work just fine.

Ingredients
2/3 cup of Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup of Ketchup
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 med. white onion, chopped
2 tbsp. yellow mustard
2 tbsp. white vinegar
Salt and pepper
4-6 thick bread rolls (Any kind) 
Your favorite BBQ sauce to top off your sandwich to taste
3 1/2 1b. boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 4 pieces
(I don't usually cut mine into pieces until a few hours into cooking- but its all preference)


One thing that I discovered in using and taking care of my crock pot are these wonderful slow cooker liners. They are heat resistant but they allow you to cook your food as normal but without the messy clean up after. You just pull the bag out and your crock pot should be dry or at least minimally dirty so you don't have to soak or scrub it too much. I highly recommend them and Target usually has them priced really well.

Directions:

First, slice openings in the pork shoulder with a knife to allow for flavors to set in. 

Salt and pepper to liking. Mix all ingredients (except bbq sauce)

 and pour over pork to make sure it covers it completely. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

4-6 hours later, I take two forks and shred the pork within the pot, 

and mix the shredded pork with the juices to further mix and set in flavors.

 Check taste and add salt and pepper (or even some seasoned salt) as you see fit.

Depending on the tenderness of the pork I will continue to check and reshred as needed.

Serving suggestion: I like buying those nice freshly baked 6" rolls from Vallarta (aka- bolillos, some bakeries have a whole wheat option too) which you can then, lightly toast in the oven or serve soft, cut down the middle and add a hearty serving of the pulled pork with its juices for flavor. I add the BBQ sauce at the end as a topping because 2 of my boys are not crazy about it and I let the others add as much as they like.

Add some baked fries or these great baked potato wedges from Trader Joes and you've got yourself a winning dinner!!

Its super tasty and very filling and I fed my family of 5 with this recipe. The best part being that I still had enough to freeze away for another dinner or a light weekend lunch. You decide!






Anyway, there it is for you to try and play around with. You might already have your own recipe or find that you'd like to add or change up this one, but whatever you do, you can make the crock pot work for your family and help you make an easy meal on the days you need more time for other things.

I've got other great recipes I've made and will share them on occasion, but I'm ALWAYS looking for others to try. Please, please email me your favorite crock pot recipe, and I will try it and will post it on my blog and report on how it came out for us.

From my little corner to yours...Enjoy this beautiful rain and may you use your crock pot today!

email me at sandyslittlecorner@gmail.com

Project Life- Week 3

This week was oh so different than the last! It was much easier, quicker and funner for me!

I'm also learning as I go along. First off, I'm learning to become a little more patient with my photo taking and developing, and more importantly- getting organized.

The last couple of weeks, I was taking pictures, setting them up (cropping, editing or collaging) and sending them to print right away, with multiple trips to Costco...not so efficient OR cost effective! This week, I took my time, took my pictures, thought about them, and every few days would consider possible set ups and left the printing up for the weekend when I had the majority of them done. Much less stress, more realistic in timing and one trip to Costco and I got what I really needed in the end. So I will be trying this again this week.

                                                                        Desing G planning page/ Design A planning page       

Believe it or not, there are planning pages available here to get your pages pre-organized which Betty shared with me and they made a world of difference! You can choose which page design you're using, print them out accordingly so as the week goes by and you've taken your pictures, you can pencil in and plan what picture or embellishment will go where on a weekly basis. So that's what I did, and I had my pages done by Sunday night...loved it. Will it work every week, don't know? But for now, compare for yourself...

Left side- (the back side of last week's Design G page)

Right side- back to Design A

My goal for next week is to find a way to take clearer pictures...I apologize!

 A few other things I did different this week:


I did some journaling on the pictures themselves via either Picasa or the Insta-collage app on my phone which is so easy to do, and saved me some time. I was also able to include a picture I didn't end up having room for by adding the weekly title to it, so journaling right on the picture served a duo purpose and I really liked how it came out. 

For some of the spots I used full sized 4x6 pictures this week instead of smaller cropped collages to make room for visible journaling. However, I didn't want to feel like I didn't have room to journal with a full sized picture, so I included a full sized 4x6 card behind the picture that included my writing and I attached a felt heart to stick out as a tab for easy access reading and a cute embellishment to boot.

Here it is all together- Week 3

I am linking up at Project Life Tuesday to share and find new inspiration for next week.

From my corner to yours...Thanks for stopping by!

A birthday shoot for a Princess...

Its that time of year again when my dear friend Angie asks me to take pictures of her little girl Shantal. She is no stranger to my blog, and I have been taking pictures of her since she was a baby.

Angie is well known amongst her friends for her elaborate parties, and this year she outdid herself (as only Angie can) in celebrating Shantal's 5th birthday.  Shantal's wish this year was to become a princess. So this past weekend they celebrated with a princess ball theme and a dress that was nothing short of being taken straight out of a Disney Princess movie. Just gorgeous!

This shoot was a lot of fun for me! I had a pretty little girl in a fairytale dress and the foto opps were endless.  It was also another opportunity to once again get some practice using my digital Canon instead of my iPhone camera which I'm getting way to used to using for everything lately.  I took over 200 pictures, and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to shoot it all in manual mode again. This came more naturally for me this time, and I can tell I'm starting to hone in these skills with the more practice I get. My goal always is to do some justice to theme with the pictures I take in the process.

I put the pictures I took into collages just to give you an idea of the different kinds of pictures I took of the party and of Princess Shantal.

 Angie has a great imagination and every thing she makes is beautiful and every detail is taken into account. She had an amazing area dance area with a mirror for every princess to look into and a candy table that was as dreamy as any little girl would like it to be.

Shantal is always to easy shoot. She is a natural in front of the camera and loves to pose, and she just looked so beautiful in that dress. However, she was ready to party so I had to work quick and thankfully I got in some pretty good shots (including one of her shoes of course) before all the guests arrived.

In editing, I used a lot of soft focusing, the sepia tones and some shadows to get the dark background contrast because I felt the dress and color theme allowed for that. I don't use anything fancy and I don't have Photoshop, but Picasa gives me (a true novice) just enough editing tools and ease of use that I can work with to get the looks I want. Again, they're not perfect, and I still have lots to perfect, but I will eventually upgrade as I get better. For now though, Angie is always so sweet to complement whatever I do and appreciate the pictures I take of her little girl and her family in general. 

So Angie, Thank you again for trusting me and letting me do this!

Happy Birthday to Princess Shantal Monique the First!  ;)

 XO

Project Life- Week 2

I had a little harder time putting this week together.

It was somewhat an uneventful week-  just getting into a normal schedule again after all the holiday chaos and a few random events so there weren't as many pictures as I would have liked. However, I took the chance to do more journaling than anything, so that's ok with me.

Week 2 left side:

Week 2 Right side - (Design G page)

Project life has a set of standard pages (Design A) that comes in a big pack, but they offer different types of pages you can add to vary your designs.  I had purchased a set of Photo Pocket Pages - Small Variety Pack 1 and I'm so glad I did.  I ended up using one of the Design G pages  that is included in this pack for the right side of this week's spread. It worked nicely since I had fewer pictures and I enjoyed the change of picture positioning that it gives.

Side by Side

This week in summary:

• The weather was dang cold so my crockpot was in full effect (and will continue to be)
• I launched my Spanish blog 
• Christian had a doctors visit for a cold that wont go away
• Tax season has begun for Jerry, so he's is working long hours again, but is grateful to be busy.
• Spent a few days with my mom and she made me an amazing traditional lunch
• A special cake for a special friend's daughter in time of  family crisis
• And a short visit from Tio Feo and cousin Danielle for a movie night...Les Mis is amazing!
• And some random moments to remember

I have to remember that not every week will be out of the ordinary or super eventful, but every week will be special for whatever happens, hence- the look of every week will definitely be different.


Either way, this week is done and complete. I'm happy and I'm on to Week 3.


I am linking up to Project Life Tuesday again where you'll find even more examples of other peoples Project Life pages. Take a look if you get a chance.

From my corner to yours...Have a great day and we'll see you next week. :)

  

Growth- OLW Motivation

Remember how I mentioned to you that my year's word of "Growth" keeps randomly popping up at me? Well once again, last week I was perusing my Facebook wall, and I came across a post from a friend's husband who is a PhD in Theology and Psychology (I hope I got that right), and it hit me like a ton of bricks!

 And it read...

Omg! This is the key!

This is exactly what my journey is this year!

This is what I have to figure out in so many ways!

And I know I may not figure it out at all at once, but I feel like this will play over and over in my mind as I take situations in hand. It will help me take a moment to either hold on or to learn to let go, and in turn grow as a person a little bit more each time.

Thank you Dr. Ross Porter for putting this out there as if you knew I'd needed to read it and for letting me use it. :)

May you find random inspiration in your One Little Word and may it help you grow as well.

From my corner to yours... Happy Monday!

Currently...

I'm liking this list! I might to do once a month to remind me to reflect on a moment in time:

• • Drinking:  my second cup of coffee (I may need a 3rd today)
  • Listening: to the news in the backdrop
  • Wearing:  a super comfy white hoodie, leggings and sneakers (Its that kind of day)
  • Working:  on a project for work that has to be done soon
  • Feeling:   a little tired, but good having finally put away Christmas!
  • Weather:  43 degrees, beautiful, but I'm FREEZING!
  • Wanting:  more time in the day to do stuff
  • Needing:  to do my daily stretches
  • Wishing:  I could get a mani-pedi
  • Making:   A cake for a friends little girl who's birthday was cancelled due to death in the family :'(
  • Enjoying: that my hubby is home from work this morning
  • Loving:    That its Friday!

From my corner to yours...Have a great weekend and take a moment to look around!

This list of currents was inspired by Amy Tangerine.