Saturday, April 26, 2014

Gardening with Essential Oils

I have recently gotten into essential oils. It is also spring so I am also getting into gardening.  Only it takes some time for me to work jeff into things. So I bought a jalapeño plant as our first "mini-garden" plant. Wouldn't you know it after two days little critter appeared on it. So today is day one of my oil journey and gardening combo.

This is what it looks like this morning...


I will do an update in 5 days to see if there is a change, hopefully my concoction worked!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Ranch Pork Chops

In the event that you don't like pork chops this recipe will change your life. If you do like pork chops this recipe should still change your life! I made these last night and fell head over heels for them. Even Jeff said he liked them and he hates pork chops. As a matter of fact he used the expression "ew" when I told him what we were having. I hope you all like it as much as I did!

Ranch Pork Chops

Original Ranch Pork Chops
Original Recipe here

Ingredients:

1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
6 pork loin rib chops about 1-inch thick (I only used two because they were really big and there wasn't a lot of mix left over)
dash of paprika (optional) (I didn't use paprika, it didn't need it)
salt
fresh cracked black pepper


DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

Empty pack on a small plate. Place pork chop on the season and repeat on other side. Make sure it is well covered.
Arrange the chops on a baking sheet or glass pan. Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika to taste. (I did it again when I flipped the pork chops) Bake the pork chops for 20 minutes, turning once (around 10 min) until browned or an internal temperature of 150ºF is reached. Allow three minutes of rest time. (this will allow the juices to stay in the pork chop longer and create better flavor.
*Recipe only gluten free when made with all gluten free ingredients. Read labels of all packaged ingredients to determine whether they contain gluten.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Weekend Away

This last weekend we took the family to Salt Lake for a temple trip. We also brought Lenny with us so he could see some of the guys. The weekend started out great! We came over Thursday afternoon. Friday morning I was able to clean out the car, run to Costco and get my eyebrows threaded. (If you have never had your eyebrows threaded you should try it out! I love it.)

Lenny, Jeff, Anton and his wife, and I went to the Draper Temple. It was wonderful and Jeff was able to get some better direction for the family. Sometimes reconnecting with the spirit is needed. Especially when you are feel a lot of personal turmoil or confusion.

Saturday Laurel and I took the girls to the zoo. We were able to meet up with Kevin, Shellie and Kevin who brought Lyla. A lot of the animals were gone but we had a good time anyway. MecKenzie thought the zoo was amazing. She really liked saying hi to the animals. Jenelle wasn't as impressed.



After that I was able to get my hair done! I went a bit more blonde for spring and I added a little blue underneath.

 
 
Sunday we went to church then got ready to go to the Mortensens'. Samantha came down and was able to go with us. I love going to the Mortensens'. They always have a good time and good food. Who doesn't love that?
 
Unfortunately we had some car trouble. We had to take our car into the shop. Wouldn't you know it a recall part is the part that broke. Thank goodness we didn't have to pay for it. It would have cost $2,300. We didn't get the car back till today so Jeff had to go home yesterday without us. But we will get to go home today! All in all it was a pretty fun weekend.