Shrimp and Grits

I tried my hand at shrimp and grits for the first time tonight and it turned out very well for my first time. I wanted to get the recipe down so I wouldn't forget it. It is super easy and fast. As I mentioned before some of the amounts are estimates.

two cups of chicken stock (one can)
1 cup of milk (I used 1% because that is what we drink)
I cup of water
I combined all of these in a pot and brought them to a boil then slowly added 1 cup of grits while whisking and turned the burner down to simmer and covered with a lid. They took about 5 mins to thicken.
At the same time I sauteed in olive oil in a cast iron skillet
1/2 onion diced small
1/2 cup bell pepper diced small
4 cloves of garlic diced
Seasoned with salt and pepper, red pepper and Italian seasoning
I seasoned one pound of deveined and shelled shrimp and seasoned them with salt, pepper, taco seasoning and Italian seasoning.
I added the shrimp to the hot skillet and let the shrimp cook.
When the shrimp was finished I removed the shrimp and veggies from the pan and then added about 2 TBS of butter and about 1-1 1/2 cups of shrimp stock I had defrosted from the freezer.
I let the sauce cook down a few minutes and used a spoon to scrape the bits off of the bottom of the pan. Then I added the juice from half a lemon and added the shrimp and veggies back to the pan.
While the sauce was cooking and after the grits were done I added about 2TBs of butter and about 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese and salt and pepper to the grits. That is it supper fast and easy. We put our grits in a bowl then topped them with the shrimp and sauce. I am already thinking about how I could improve the recipe or change it up some but it was quite tasty the way it was.


Shrimp Stock

Shrimp shells
Water
Italian seasoning

combine in a pot and simmer with lid on until dark colored. Add salt to taste if necessary.

Christmas Pictures of the Kids!!!

This shows his personality perfectly!!!
She was not in the best mood, but still a cute pic.
My beautiful girl. Such a sweet smile.
I was very thankful to get a good picture of all three of them.
I love my precious babies!!!

Little Miss Attitude

It is hard to believe that our little unexpected blessing from God is almost 15 months. She is growing so fast and is now a full fledged toddler. She started walking right around her first birthday. In fact it was the day of her birthday party that she decided to display her new found talent. The whole family was at the house and she started putting on a show for them. By now she is quite thrilled about her new freedom and loves to explore the house. She gets quite upset if you put her in her pack-n-play. She believes she deserves the same freedom as her big brother and sister. She has a fairly large vocabulary and is starting to put two-word phrases together. She loves her brother and sister and is starting to interact with them in terms of playing. Her favorite game is to throw her toys out of the pack-n-play and wait for Cayden or Hannah to throw them back in. She thinks it is so funny. She is starting to want to wrestle with Craigan in the mornings. It is the tradition of Cayden and Hannah that when they wake up and get in our bed they wrestle with their Daddy. Now Zoe has caught on and does her form of wrestling with him. Over the past few weeks she has developed a little bit of an attitude. When something is not how she wants she will fuss and sometimes throw her body back like she is pitching a fit. It is quite cute but I am doing my best to discourage the attitude. If I say "Zoe Sarah that is not necessary" she puts her head down in shame. It is so cute and I am very impressed that at almost 15 months she knows that when I say her middle name that I am serious. Despite her little attitude she is a little sweet heart. I am so thankful that God in his sovereignty gave us a third child despite our fears. She is an absolute blessing (as are all our children) and I am humbled that God has chosen Craigan and myself to raise them to be godly men and women. It is an awesome and scary responsibility but we are trusting God for guidance.

I thought of a few other cute things to say about Zoe. She loves music. She loves to dance and it is so cute when she shakes her little rear end and twist her shoulder (which is her signature move). She likes to sing. Her favorite song is the ABC song. She can't say all of the letters but she gets the rhythm and you know what she is singing. She knows what sound a dog, duck and horse makes and she is learning her body parts and how to say them. It is amazing how much they can learn at this age.

Sausage and Lentil Soup

Today I came up with a new recipe. I needed something to cook in the crockpot because Craigan and I were going hunting and I wanted supper to be ready when we got home to avoid the usual take out meal that is our go to when I have not planned anything and we get home late. I have been trying to be diligent in planning meals so that we aren't tempted to fall back on the take out meal. I'm not one to be able to do any long term meal planning but I have found this week that if I take a few minutes in the morning to plan the days meals it makes a huge difference. I am in the process of becoming more organized in all aspects of my life and planning meals has been the easiest to accomplish. Once I realized that just by deciding what I will fix that morning I have been able to save money and time. So that lead me to a new recipe today. Like I said, I was looking for a crockpot meal and last week I had planned a "rough" weekly menu which included using ground sausage to make a stew or soup. I wasn't really sure what it would be but I had an idea. That is usually how I cook. I have an idea of what I want and then make it up as I go. Most of the time I do not use a recipe with exact measurements (unless I am baking, which is not a norm for me) so the following recipe contains estimates. I am typing it out to give me a guide the next time I fix it, but feel free to give it a try if you want.

One pound of ground sausage ( I used deer sausage because that is what I had, I think it would work with any kind of ground meat, but would probably need a little more spices if using plain ground meat.)
Diced tomatoes (I used some I had put up in the freezer from our garden. I would guess it would equal to about 2 cans of diced tomatoes.)
Dried Lentils (I used probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
Beef Broth (3-4 cups depending on how "soupy" you want it. I used beef bullion granules with water.)
One chopped onion
1/2 - 1 cup chopped bell pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
Spices (I have no clue how much of each but I will estimate)
salt and pepper to taste
chilli powder 1/2 teaspoon (I probably could have added more because it wasn't spicy, but I wasn't sure how spicy the sausage was so I was hesitant to add too much.)
ginger 1/4 teaspoon
dried thyme 1/4 teaspoon
paprika 1/4 teaspoon

I cooked the sausage about half way, then added all ingredients into the crockpot and it cooked on low about 5-6 hours.

It was a hit with my family. I fed my family of five and my in-laws and there was none left. The only one who didn't like it was my son Cayden but he has not discovered the joys of trying new things. I'm not sure if he actually tried it or not. Hopefully this phaze will end soon.

My Little Man

Three words to describe Cayden, full of life. There is never a dull moment with Cayden. He is full speed all them time. He loves to laugh and have fun and it is hard to get him to be serious and listen. So needless to say he gets to spend time in time out. He is such a little cutie that it is hard to discipline him sometimes. He loves trains, cars, balls, superheroes, pretty much anything boyish. The other day as we were watching the Gamecocks play baseball and he told us that when he gets bigger he wants to play ball on TV. Although he is quite full of himself he still loves to cuddle. He likes to get his sippy cup of milk and sit in your lap while he holds your finger and you hold his foot. He loves to give hugs and kisses and about every 5 minutes he says "mommy" and I say "Yes," and he replys "I love you" and I respond with "I love you." I don't think I could ever hear those words too often.

Hannah B.

My sweet little Hannah B. is quite the little princess. She loves anything girly but also loves to get dirty in the dirt and she loves bugs. She would play in the dirt for hours if she could, but she also loves to dress up and be girl. She wants to be a superstar when she grows up and loves to practice singing, playing instruments and dancing. She has a sweet voice and I finally got her to sing at church one Sunday night. She sang "This is the Stuff" by Francesca Battistelli. She would only sing it if she stood behind the pulpit, so that people couldn't see her. She did a wonderful job and was swinging her hip the whole time. It was so cute, I just wish everyone else could have seen it.
She is a little on the bossy side and can convince her little brother to do about anything, which has gotten both of them into trouble. She can be a little sassy but we are working on that. She is a very big helper when it comes to her little brother and sister and she loves them so much. She still loves to cuddle and loves to have "mommy time." She is very inquisitive and loves to read. I can't wait to start homeschooling because right now she is eager to learn new things. We are so blessed to have Hannah as our daughter. I pray that she will always look to God for guidance.

Zoe's Eight Month Update

There is a lot to tell about Zoe this month. It seems like when she turned eight months she decided to start doing all kinds of new tricks. Right before she turned eight months she starting sitting up by herself and from there within about a week she was able to go from lying down to sitting up. As soon as she turned eight months see starting crawling. She has been doing the belly crawl for about a month but she is now a full fledged crawler and is so proud of herself. She has also started pulling up and she even cruises around her bed and pack-n-play. She has attempted to let go but isn't quite ready for that step. She should definately be walking by a year and probably before. You can tell that she wants to, she is a very determined little girl. So far she has started on two teeth, one on the top and one on the bottom. They are about halfway out and there partners shouldn't be too far behind them. She is eating cheerios now and loves them. I'm not sure if likes them so much because they taste good or if she likes the independence of being able to feed herself. I have started her using a sippy cup and she does pretty well with it. She is at the stage where EVERYTHING goes into her mouth, even the cats tail. She loves the cat and anytime he comes near her she gets excited and grabs him and usually she ends up with a clump of fur in her hands and they go straight to her mouth. She is starting to babble some she says "bybyby" and occasionally makes the "mama" sound but I'm not sure if she knows what she is saying yet. She loves to give nice slobbery kisses and we love receiving them. At her well baby checkup she weighted exactly 20 pounds and was 27" long. She has those chunky little legs and cheeks and I just love them. She is growing up too fast, but she is a complete joy. She is a happy baby (unless she is hungry, tired, or sick) and just a special blessing from God.