Yesterday was one of those days where everything took longer than it should and things didn’t turn out quite as planned. I planned to follow the original recipe for Crock Pot Chicken Chili posted at Redsie but a last minute discovery that I didn’t have beans had me scrambling through the pantry until I found half a bag of rice. My Chili quickly turned into a Mexican Rice. I was surprised that it was as good as it was. The kids loved it but hubby and I love a lot of spice so we doused ours with some hot sauce before eating.

Crock Pot Mexican Rice with Chicken
Servings: 10

1 onion, chopped
1.5 cups of rice
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
10 oz package frozen corn kernels
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts 2 Cups of water
Combine rice, onion, chili peppers, corn, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder and taco seasoning in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in.

We really liked it, if you love spicy food and don’t have kids to cook for I would recommend doubling the Chili powder, if not then  Franks Hot Sauce does the trick.

My husband and I love movies and with that love of movies has come approximately 1000 DVD’s. I don’t have bookcase space for them because books is another passion of my husbands. All of our DVD’s had been stacked three rows deep on shelving in an upstairs closet. It made trying to find one movie nearly impossible. I do have to admit that I am pretty lucky and have a wonderful geeky husband that has put quite a few of the movies on storage drives that we can play on demand through our XBox but the majority of our movies have been forgotten about. I need the extra storage space upstairs and I really wanted to get the movies where they were easy to find.

I was inspired by Jen at IHeartOrganizing. With nearly 1000 DVD’s this was a huge task and took two days to complete.

On New Years Day I dragged my husband to the local Office Depot armed with a $10 off $50 coupon that I printed off the Internet. I cleaned them out and bought two storage boxes that hold about 220 DVD’s each and 500 paper sleeves. The following day armed with another coupon I went to the other Office Depot and managed to get another 500 paper sleeves and three more storage boxes. I would have loved to have used plastic sleeves but with the volume of DVD’s I was dealing with paper sleeves are much more cost effective. I spent $94 on materials for this project and have since sold my empty DVD covers on Craigslist for $20, bringing the total project cost to $74.

My first step was making my own tabs. I have a couple of boxes of file folders stashed away and cut those down to make alphabetical tabs. I then started the tedious task of bringing all the DVD’s down stairs and taking them from the boxes and putting them in the paper sleeves. My husband called me Santa, the quickest and easiest way to move DVD’s is to stack them on a sheet, wrap them up, throw them over your shoulder and carry them Santa style.

I will not lie, taking all those DVD’s out and filing them was extremely tedious, made a huge mess and took a lot of time. In the end I would do it all over. I now have 5 little boxes of DVD’s tucked away out of view in my entertainment center and over 700 DVD cases out of my house giving me storage that I desperately need.

I have a new obsession, Pinterest. I love easy crafts, home decor and getting things organized so I was immediately hooked. I love the visual format and now have all these wonderful ideas to try and beautiful pictures to inspire me. I have already completed four projects this year with inspiration coming from pinterest. I also have the materials for another three projects already purchased.

I have been inspired by Pinterest to use it as inspiration to do one thing I find off of the site every single day this year. It will not always be a project, some days it will be a recipe, some things will take more than a day and hopefully a few will be travel. I am really looking forward to spending 2012 finding new and exciting things. It is also a great way for me to get back into blogging, it has been a year since my last post.

I’ve been playing with this recipe for awhile and have finally tweaked it enough that everyone in my family gobbles it up and goes back for seconds, even my three year old picky eater! It is much healthier than traditional meat based sauces and the blend of turkey sausage and turkey mince gives it wonderful flavor. The red pepper flakes give it the tiniest hint of a kick but still leaves it kid friendly.

1 lb turkey sausage
1 lb turkey mince
1 large onions, chopped
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (10 oz)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray

Add diced tomato, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, basil, oregano, salt and pepper to slow cooker

Cook sausage and mince in skillet until cooked through, drain and transfer to slow cooker

In same pan saute onion mushrooms and garlic until soft then transfer to slow cooker

Stir ingredients together and cook at a low setting for 8-10 hours

Makes approximately 12 generous servings and freezes wonderfully.

When I started this blog one of my first posts said that this is not the blog you’ll find recipes on, well that’s changing along with a lot of other things. The past six months of my life have been a journey into trying to find the old me, the one that could cook, the one that never gave up on anything.

In June 2006 I had a stroke, physically with some hard work I recovered and eventually regained my fine motor skills. I thought I was fine but mentally I wasn’t the same person I was before the stroke. I was getting frustrated over little things, could no longer read a book, had the attention span of a toddler, couldn’t speak without getting tongue tied, could not keep a thought in my head long enough to finish a sentence and never finished anything I started. I stopped talking to friends and dreaded social gatherings because I hated trying to have conversations, I felt like an idiot. I would think I replied to an email but hadn’t, forget to return phone calls and I am sure upset a few friends along the way. I became everything I always preached against, I stopped getting out there and stopped living my life. I allowed myself to become consumed with the house because it gave me the excuse I needed to stay home and hide from the world. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was happily miserable.

Its been about six months since I decided that something had to change. I now sit here in front of the computer typing happily away 30 pounds lighter and not stopping every five words to try and remember where I was up to. I have read four books in the past week. I cook dinner every night and nothing is prepackaged from the freezer, things have changed and they have changed for the better. I am happier, my husband is feeling well taken care of and the kids are getting a lot more attention.

It has not been an easy road to get to where I am now and I still struggle daily but things are getting easier with each passing day. When I first started this journey I made lists for everything, what I was going to do and what order I was going to do them in. This went for cleaning, cooking, the kids, anything I dealt with in the day had a list and I became obsessed with those lists. Those lists allowed me to complete tasks without getting frustrated about forgetting that I had laundry on or getting lost in the middle of trying to do something. I gave up my lists just before Christmas and while I tire myself out from remembering what is going at any given moment I am making it through on my own.

As for my getting tongue tied I am getting better. I talk and sing all day, whatever thoughts are in my head or whatever song pops in, out it comes. If I get confused on lyrics I look them up and sing them until I remember them. I’m feeling great about what 2011 has to bring and am unbelievably happy how far I have come in six months. I am doing things that a year ago would have had me throwing my hands in the air and walking out of the room. I plan on celebrating this year in June, I survived a stroke and I finally found me again.