Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

I had a good friend who introduced me to this wonderful BBQ Chicken that is made in the Crock Pot. I served this at my daughters Tea Birthday Party and the parents plus the kids really enjoyed it. This meal is so simple to make and easy on the budget. I sometimes make this on a Sunday for dinner, just so my Husband and I can take left overs for several days to work. That is the good thing about Crock Pot cooking, you make enough for left overs.
All you need is:
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Barbacue Sauce
1 pack of Chicken Breasts
2 teaspoons of Honey

Place the Chicken in the Crock Pot and cover the Chicken in water. Cook the Chicken on low for 6 to 8 hours. You will know the Chicken is done when you touch it with a fork and it falls apart. Remove all the Chicken from the Crock Pot and place in a bowl. Pour out the water and juices that is left in the Crock Pot. Take the Chicken in the bowl and use a fork and shred it. The Chicken is going to be so tender that it will just fall apart at the twist of a fork. Once the Chicken is shredded place the Chicken back in the Crock Pot. Pour as much of the Sweet Baby Ray's Sauce on it as you like. I usually use about 1/4 of the bottle. The last thing you add is the 2 teaspoons of Honey. Mix all the ingredients up really good and cook on low in the Crock Pot for about 30 mins to let the Sauce and Honey blend with the Chicken. When I cook this for a party, I will let the Sauce and Honey blend with the Chicken on low for about 30 mins and then I place the Crock Pot on warm.
 I serve regular Hamburger Buns with the BBQ. It is also good with just Chips. Pickels are also a favorite with BBQ too.
Warning, the other day I learned a good lesson. Do not bring this BBQ to lunch already made on white bread. Time lunch rolled around my sandwich was so soggy, I could only eat the BBQ.

If you try this recipe, please let me know what you think and the things you added to it.



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Meet Charlie the dog

I have this friend who lost one of her family members 2 years ago. It was a sudden shocking loss, one day the family member was wagging her tail and enjoying her Thanksgiving meal that her Master's had put before her and the next day she passed away from Cancer. Yes Abby Rose was a 10 year old Golden Retriever, who was so much part of my friend's life, the dog was treated like one of the kids. (maybe better than the kids...LOL) So when Abby passed away, she thought she could not love another dog, like she did Abby.
Abby Rose



Several months later my friend had the opportunity for another Golden Retriever, that she named Charlie. This puppy is nothing like Abby, by no means. I just love the stories she tells and the pictures she has of Charlie. If you subscribe to my Pinterest page, you would see I pin many pictures of Charlie. This dog loves the camera. I could not get my own dog to pose for pictures like Charlie does. I have known Charlie for an entire year now and every time I open my Facebook page I usually see a picture of Charlie getting into something.
So today I want to share with you some pictures of Charlie.







I can't believe Charlie sat in front of this cake and did not eat it. My Taz would have had the cake down before I could snap any pictures.


This was taken today. Charlie was being a very bad boy.






I think this dog should be a pet model. Does any one know any dogs that do that?




This is my favorite picture.


Hope you all liked the pictures of Charlie. Before I let you go I have to show you my baby, who is a cancer survivor. This is my Taz. We are just so thankful to still have him with us.


 Have a Great Day!

Crock Pot Potato Soup

I try to cook in my Crock Pot at least once a week. It is so simple. Just place all the ingredients in the cooker, wait 6 - 8 hrs and supper is done. The newest Crock Pot meal my family tried was Potato Soup. I have tried making Potato Soup years ago on the stove and it did not turn out very good. So I was hesitant on making this meal, but my stomach out ruled my head. This actually ended up being very delicious and we ate every last drop of it. I could not decide on what recipe to try on Pinterest, so I took several that I liked and combined them to create this yummy recipe.


You will need:
1 bag of potatoes - I used half of a 10 lb bag.... lol which would be equal to a 5 lb bag.
1 bar of cream cheese
32 oz size of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
half of a white onion

Optional at the end:
Bacon
Shredded Cheese- I used Mexican shredded cheese
Crackers

Peel your potatoes, cut them up and place them in the Crock Pot. Chop up half of a white onion and place it in the Crock Pot. Cut the cream cheese up in squares and place each square in a different location in the Crock Pot. Then take your 32 oz size of chicken broth and pour it completely in the Crock Pot. Open your can of chicken soup and pour it in.Close the lid and set that baby to 6-8 hours on low.
                                                                          I would check the Crock Pot about 4 hours in and mash some of the potatoes. When the time is almost over I would check the soup again and mash some more pototatoes with a fork until you get the thickness that you like. I cut some potatoes thin on purpose to make the soap thick.
When the soup is ready all you have to do is place in the bowls and add your optional ingredients. I used shredded cheese and bacon. We had crackers too.

I hope I have your mouth watering.


I have linked this post to the following blog hops:

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/

Candy Bouquets

What are you getting your sweetheart for Valentines Day? Being on a budget, makes it hard to buy any good gifts. I was browsing the Valentine Day cards and they ranged from $4 to $7 at Target the other day, that's a lot of money, especially when you need to buy 2 or more and on a budget. I wanted something thoughtful that would not break the bank, for my husband and daughter. It took about 2 weeks for me to think of something that I wanted to do for my two sweethearts in my life. I finally found it after some inspiration from a co-workers gift. What person does not like receiving a Candy Bouquet?
This was my first time ever making one of these creations and I had to make two of them. Talk about an adventure. But it was really easy to make. I think it took me about an hour to make two of them.

Items you will need:
Vase
Tissue paper
Wooden Sticks - candy sticks or bamboo sticks
Floral Styrofoam
Glue gun and glue sticks
Candy
Pipe cleaners





I first picked the vases I wanted to use.This is where you can get creative. You can use mugs, cups, glasses, you name it you can use it. Remember that I am making two vases. So I chose a single vase and a mason jar. Those were the first two glass containers I found in my storage room. I guess you can say I am re-gifting.
There's many different type of Styrofoam shapes you can buy. Since my candy bouquets were going to be small,  I choose to buy the smaller cones for $4.47, it was a two pack and I got 40% off of them. I placed that really big one back. Also pictured of my favorite purse by Gianni Bini. I think I have had that thing for four years and it still looks brand new. As you can tell I love my purse.

To get started I stuffed the vases with some tissue paper and then I wrapped tissue paper around the Styrofoam cones. I made sure that the green was not showing through the glass.
The cones I chose was a tad bit bigger than the vases. So I took some glue and some candy and glued on the foam. If you don't want to do this you could add more tissue paper to cover.
You just glue and stick until the arrangement is full and designed how you want it. You want to layer. I found that the bamboo sticks was much easier to stick in the foam then the candy sticks. If I was to make another one I would just use the bamboo sticks that have a point..
To glue the candy to the sticks, I just made sure that the wrapper was secure and placed either a dot or a line of glue on the bottom or back of the candy and laid the candy on the stick. Very simple.

This is what they looked like when I was almost finished. You don't want to leave gaps or show the sticks. If you notice the kisses around the bottom, this is where I used the pipe cleaner. I took the pipe cleaner and glued kisses on it and wrapped it around the vase for the bow.
This is the finished gift to my husband. I placed all of his favorite candies in the bouquet.

This is for my daughter. If you notice her's is done in pink, silver and a dash of blue. I also included all of her favorite candy.

It ran me less than $15 to make both of these bouquets, I feel like they are thoughtful and did not break the bank. I hope my two sweethearts like them. I would love to know what you did for that special someone in your life. Don't forget I love comments and I try my best to answer every single one of them.
Happy Valentines Day.


I have linked this to the following Blog Parties:




Raising Imperfection

Crock Pot Italian Stuffed Peppers

I can not say this enough, I LOVE MY CROCK POT! My family has had some seriously good meals from my Crock Pot. The newest meal we discovered was Italian Stuffed Peppers. These are unbelievable delicious. This comes from someone who rarely eats a pepper. It only takes 8 hours to cook and it makes your house smell so amazing.

You will need the following:
1 1/2 or more Hamburger meat
3/4 cup  cooked Rice
Shredded Cheese
3/4 cup Bread Crumbs
 1 egg
Spaghetti Sauce
Bell Peppers
1/2 onion
Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper to taste

Clean out your peppers and cut the tops off of them. Keep the tops so you can place it make on it.
Chop up a half of a onion. I used a  yellow onion.


I then mixed all my ingredients, except for the spaghetti sauce and cheese in a bowl. When all of the ingredients are mixed up really good. It is time to place in the peppers.
When you have all the peppers stuffed sprinkle cheese on top of the peppers, place in Crock Pot.

 Pour your jar of spaghetti sauce over the peppers . I did not use all of my jar and I wished I did. Place the tops back on the peppers.

Let the peppers cook on low for 8 hours or high for 6 hours. After 6 to 8 hours your meal will be mouth watering good. Let me know what you think of the meal if you try it.

Seek and Find Contest

All of the Seek and Find phrases have been posted. Please email the phrase to niftythriftyfamily@gmail.com. All entries must be received by 12:00 am EST on Feb 11, 2013. Good Luck!
If you did not catch the directions click on the link below:
http://niftythriftyfamily.blogspot.com/2013/02/seek-and-find-contest-for-free-ad-space.html

Mid Week Inspiration

It's been a train wreck at my house for the last several weeks. I am really feeling that good old saying "when it rains it pours". If it is not one thing it is another. Yesterday I finally just had to laugh. I am trying to keep rememebring this verse from 1st Corinthians

"There hath no temptation taken you but such is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1st Corinthians 10:13 KIV

Yesterday I just had enough. I wanted to scream and cry. I guess almost losing your life to a silent killer was not good enough. The punches just keep going. I went to the dentist for my six month check up and I found out that I have several cavities. Well the punches did not end there. Yesterday my daughter was sent home sick from school yesterday.

God is good and with everything that is going south in my life, I just need to be thankful. 
1) I need to be thankful that two weeks ago that I heard the Carbon Monoxide dectetors going off in our home. For that, my family is alive today.
2) I am blessed that it only took several hundred dollars to fix out furnance and that we were not out thousands to buy a new one.
3) I am thankful for very good dental insurance.
4) I need to be thankful that my daughter will be well with just some medicine.

So life can throw whatever it has to offer to us right now. Because I am going to give it all to the Lord and I am just going to be thankful.
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31 KJV


Crowns and Castles Sandwiches


Along with all the food I served at my Daughters Tea Birthday Party, I made the cutest finger sandwiches. We served cheese and peanut butter castles and crowns sandwiches. 



Cookie cutters are so hard to find. I was lucky to come across these cutters one day while I was browsing in the party section at Wal-Mart. I believe these cookie cutters are the Wilton brand.

I read somewhere on Pinterest that if you place butter on the inside part of the bread, it will keep the bread soft. It truly works. The butter also gave the sandwiches a creamy buttery taste. Some people asked me, what I had used on the sandwiches, due to the sandwiches did not taste like you ordinary peanut butter or cheese sandwiches. They had more of a creamy buttery taste to them. It did not bother the kids, they enjoyed them.

I thought the sandwiches turned out really cute.


The only thing I disliked about making these sandwiches was that I wasted so much bread. The cookie cutters were very small. But on the plus side, our dog Taz was pleased with all the extra bread. His tummy was so full he did not even care if new people was in our house.


To check out more about my daughters tea / birthday party check out the following links:





How to make a Tea Pot Birthday Cake

I consider myself a novice when it comes to making cakes. I usually only bake cakes once a year and that is  for my daughters birthday. I refuse to buy store bought or from another person. It has to be made from my hands. I guess I am weird like that.
When my daughter told me she wanted to have a tea party birthday, I thought to myself what kind of cake can I make for her? I searched and searched for the right cake. When I thought I found the right one, I would show her and ask her what she thought about it. We went thru many designs, but we finally agreed on a 3D tea pot and cup cakes.

To make a tea pot cake you will need the following:
Gum paste
Toothpicks
Wilton's Sports Ball Pan Set
Icing
Fondant
Cake Batter

Several days before you need to make the handle, top of the pot and spout for the tea pot using the gum paste. I used the store bought gum paste and I had to color the paste. Coloring gum paste was not nice to my hands. If anyone knows any tips please let me know. I did learn a little trick. Place toothpicks at the ends of the spout and at both ends of the handle.This helps hold the heavy spout and handle to the cake. To make the top, I took a tea cup and placed gum paste inside. I smoothed it out all around the teapot and then I trimmed the excess off around the top of the cup. I gently removed the gum paste out and set it to the side to dry. I did not use toothpicks in the top. As for the spout and handle I shaped them by hand.

To start the cake I used the Wilton's sports ball pan set.
 Sports Ball Pan Set
This pan was very simple to use. Unlike some pans that require one and half boxes of cake batter, this only required one. You could also do one half one type of batter and the other half a different kind of batter. When the cake is done baking I would recommend the moment you take the pans out of the oven, use a damp towel and push down on the cakes. This will get the air out of the cakes. Don't worry the cake will spring back up if its done. I would immediately remove the cakes from the pans and let cool.

While the cake is baking you need to make some icing. I use the Wilton's butter cream icing recipe.
When you have your icing ready place the two halves together. First check to see if the halves fit evenly together. You might have to cut some from one of the halves. Once they are even, place a layer of icing between the halves. This will act as glue and keep the pieces together. Continue using the icing by icing the entire cake. When the icing is all over the cake place in fridge until the icing is hard. Try to make the icing as smooth as you can.
I used fondant to place over the ball of the cake. I am still learning how to apply fondant to a cake. I think I did a okay of a job. I made marshmallow fondant that I colored pink and rolled it out to the size I wanted. Once the fondant was rolled out. All I did was lift the fondant up and place it over the ball shaped cake. I trimmed the excess off at the bottom and tried to smooth out the fondant.




I then placed the tea pot handle and the spout on the round ball. To place the handle and the spout, I added some butter cream icing at the ends that touch the cake. The icing acted like glue.

Next I piped purple butter cream icing around the bottom. I did this because the base of my fondant was not the neatest.

I did not plan to add flowers all around the cake. But I had some bad spots in my fondant and I had all this extra gum paste. I just started making petals and a small ball for the middle. I mashed the petals together in the middle and added the ball. In the back I placed a toothpick to hold them in the cake. I think the flowers really made the cake.

I almost forgot the ball at the top of the tea pot was made with gum paste.

I was very pleased with how the cake turned out. All the kids and parents was amazed with it.
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(Sammy ate violets investing newbie game)  

To check out more about my daughters tea / birthday party check out the following links:

I have linked this to the following blog hop's:
 nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no149

Seek and Find Contest for Free Ad Space

Starting tomorrow, The Nifty Thrifty Family will be hosting a SEEK and FIND. The winner will receive two free weeks of advertising on the Nifty Thrifty Family Blog. Yes, you eyes are not deceiving you, you read it right, that is two free weeks of advertising. Your picture and link will be placed on the side of my blog where you see the advertise here square for 2 weeks. It will also be placed at the bottom of each post that is wrote within the two weeks. Do I have you on the edge of your seat yet?

Here is the rules:
I will be placing a random phrase on one of the social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and embedded in a blog post) that Nifty Thrifty Family belongs to each day from February 4-8, 2013. So you will need to subscribe to all of them. One of the social media sites will house a weird phase each day.  You will know when you see it on all media sites. I will try to make it not relate to the topic posted. Out of each phrase you find, you will use the first letters in each word to make a word. There will be one word per day. At the end of the week, I will send out my last post telling you to email your answers to the Nifty Thrifty Family's email address. Why email? Since you went to all that hard work to search for the phrases, you don't want to give your answer to someone else. When the contest is over I will be randomly drawing a winner that has the correct answer. Good Luck!

To find the answer on Pinterest, I will pin a picture and place in the title as phrase for the day. Instagram I will take a picture of the word you will use that day.

Saturday Bloggy Take Away



 

 It's Saturday again and that means take-away day !

Just like our favorite take-away meals I hope you can find some great blogs to take-away today.

So lets get the bloggy takeaway underway. I'm in no way making this a strict blog hop but some basic etiquette should be followed to make the hop sucessful for all participants.

Etiquette

1. Follow your two hosts. (1 and 2 in the list's)

2. Follow all six co-hosts (2 - 8 in the list's)

3. Add your main blog URL to link up not a specific post.

4. Visit some of the blog's you like the look of and follow, if you want leave a comment 
this is a great way to make bloggy friends.

5. Grab the button and display on your blog.

 

   

This is our first week so we are keen to tempt you back. I will be selecting everybody who links up for the next four weeks in a row and selecting at random a winner. The prize I hear you shout, A $15 Starbucks gift-card Open to UK and US only

If you want to Co-Host email me - gibbo252@gmail.com


Ok, now get linking up from the comfort of your sofa just like a real take-away!