Sunset: Lake Erie

Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken

Prep Time: 15 minutes    Cook Time: 2½-3 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
• 2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup chicken broth
• ½ cup white wine
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• Optional: carrots, onion, celery

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the oregano, salt, garlic powder, paprika, and ground pepper. Wash the chicken breasts and pat dry, then rub the spice mixture into the chicken.

2. Melt the butter over medium heat and brown the chicken (about 3-5 minutes each side). Then place the chicken into the slow cooker.

3. In the same skillet, heat the water, chicken broth, wine, lemon juice, and garlic. Bring it to a boil and then pour the mixture over the chicken in the slow cooker.

4. Cover and cook for 2 ½-3 hours on high, or 6 hours on low. You can also add carrots, onion, celery, and other veggies into the slow cooker, too!

5. Remove the chicken from the broth and serve over rice or pasta!

Waffles from Scratch

This makes 3-4 waffles, if you want more just double the recipe!

Ingredients:

•        1 egg
•        1 cup flour
•        3/4 cup milk
•        ¼ cup vegetable oil
•        ½ Tablespoon white sugar
•        2 teaspoons baking powder
•        1/8 teaspoon salt
•        ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
•        Optional: cinnamon, chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat waffle iron.

2. Beat egg. Whisk in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla until just smooth.

3. Spray waffle iron with non-stick spray.

4. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter onto the waffle iron and cook until golden brown.

Homemade Pizza and Pizza Crust!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast (I used 1 packet of red star platinum yeast)
• 1 1/3 cups warm water between 105-115F
• 3 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• ½ Tablespoon cornmeal

Toppings:

• Pesto sauce
• Spinach
• Artichoke Hearts
• Fresh Mozzarella cheese
• Salt
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Heat water until it is between 105-115F (I use a turkey thermometer to check the water’s temperature). Once it has reached this temperature add the yeast, stir, and then let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy and fully dissolved. If the yeast doesn’t dissolve, this means it is dead and you’ll need to start over again with active yeast.

2. Add in the flour, olive oil, salt, and sugar. Mix by hand for 1 minute.

3. Start kneading for 7 minutes (I just use my hand to knead, if you have a dough hook you can use that on low-medium speed). If dough is too wet, add a little more flour. After the kneading the dough should feel smooth. Poke it with your finger and it should slowly bounce back up—that lets you know it is ready to rise. If this does not happen, knead a little longer.

4. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a mixing bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm environment (about 75-80F) for about 2 hours.

5. Punch the dough so that the air is released.

6. Split the dough into two pieces and form each part into a ball (if I want smaller pizza’s I’ll divide it into 3 balls). Let each one rest for about 15 minutes, or you can freeze a ball to use later—however I think it tastes best when used fresh!

7. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and allow the oven to fully heat up.

8. Grease a pizza pan with olive oil and sprinkle it with the cornmeal (this adds more flavor and a slight crunch).

9. Flatten each dough ball on a lightly floured surface. Then, place on the pizza pan and lift/pinch the edges of the pizza slightly to form the rim of the crust. Now push some dents into the dough using your fingers—this prevents bubbles from forming. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

10. Add desired toppings. For my Spinach Pizza (pictured above) I brush a light amount of pesto sauce on the crust, add spinach and artichokes, lightly salt it, and top with fresh mozzarella cheese. Once it’s out of the oven I add sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese.   

11. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Depends on how brown you want your crust.

12. Slice and serve the pizza!

How To Save Money During a Move!

              So I recently just moved across the country, and decided that buying the big items would be less expensive then shipping what I had. I went in to ship a comforter and was told the 14lb bag would cost over $100 to send… no thanks. So I had to find a bed, couch, stools, dresser, etc… After going to multiple furniture stores in the area I wasn’t able to find things I liked (or they were way too expensive) and even if I did buy them my car wasn’t large enough to transport the items—so it would cost a lot more money to have the store deliver them.

              I started looking on Wayfair and Overstock (since they have free delivery on a lot of items) so that’s where I ordered most of my furniture from. A plus for Overstock is that they also give cashback through Ebates.com and offer a 10% first time discount if you sign up for emails.

              A lot of furniture on these sites comes from retailers that could be near your home. If this is the case, you can go directly to the store (say Ashley Furniture) and show them the price listed online, plus say that it has free delivery, and most of the time they will match the price (they just check online themselves to confirm the amount and that it’s from a comparable retailer). This way you could get the item faster, purchase a longer warranty, and set an exact delivery date.

              If you are shipping a car to your new destination, inquire about the company’s policies on having items in the car. Some will let you stuff the car as long as it’s below the window line, some have weight requirements, and some don’t care what’s in it. I was able to fit most of my clothes, dishware, bathroom items, and other household items in to the car I was having shipped. This saved A TON of money on shipping. The only thing is that you have to remember the car company isn’t liable for items inside the car, so don’t put valuables. 

            I found that these tips were extremely helpful in saving money during my move, I hope you find part of it useful too!

A Perfect Shoe Organizer for High Heels

I have spent hours trying to find the perfect shoe organizer to store my high heels.

              First, I bought one of those racks that has bars to hold the shoes up, but sadly the bars were spaced too far apart for my size 6 heels. I contemplated buying those plastic shoe boxes and stacking them in my closet but I’m the kind of person who likes to have their shoes on display. If it’s in a box, even a clear one, I feel like I wouldn’t wear it as much.

              I really liked the cubby style organizers so that’s what I was on the hunt for. The only problem was that every single shoe organizer I found was geared towards flat shoes and didn’t have the height to store even a three inch heel. I looked at Target, Home Depot, Lowes, TJ Maxx, Walmart, Wayfair, Overstock, etc…. I couldn’t find that perfect organizer I was envisioning.

              Finally, I found it! The perfect high heel shoe organizer from The Container Store! Unfortunately the closest Container Store to me was two hours away… so I had to take the risk of ordering online. I relied on the web reviews and the item description to assure me that I was making the right decision.

              I ordered two different styles of their shoe organizers, the 8 pair and the 12 pair (which comes with dowels that allow for them to be stacked). The organizers retail for $39.99 but if you catch them during a sale you can get them for as low as $29.99.

              They come disassembled, so they need to be put together—but building them was easy. It took me maybe 15-20 minutes to finish each one and I only needed a hammer and screw driver. Once they were built and stacked they were perfect! They looked way more expensive then what I had paid. The 8 pair organizer has a maximum height of 6 ½ inches, so I used that to store my higher heels. I store them with one shoe facing the front and the other facing back, this was I can fit a pair into each slot. The 12 pair organizer has a maximum height of 5 ½, which fit my 2-3 inch heels.

              Overall I would definitely buy more if my closet had space for more cubbies! 

Graduation!

 Some pictures I took of my sister when she graduated high school in June.