Orange Chicken - Review & Leftovers

This was dinner. Served with wild rice and edamame (ed-ah-MAH-may).






Ralph said he would eat it again. I think it was too sweet. If I made it again I would pick a spicier BBQ sauce and try to find a less sweet marmalade. I'm sure brand makes a difference.

Over all - 1.5 thumbs up.

Leftovers. I saved the broth when I drained the chicken. I am going to use it to boil up some rice noodles and serve the chicken over that.

I steamed (nuked) the edamame in olive oil, garlic salt and Extra Spicy Seasoning Blend from Mrs Dash. Yummy (although Ralph didn't care for these)!

If you try any of these ideas, let me know how it turns out.

Orange Chicken

Today is a cooking day. Yep! I am going to make (attempt anyway) orange chicken in the crockpot.

To celebrate my bravery, I have a new apron. I am not really messy but I hate having dirty hands so I wipe them off a lot. Check this out.







Cute new apron. The best part? The solid blue part is removable. It has buttons so I can take it off and wash it. Plus it hangs there like a towel. Very convenient. Love it.





Did I mention how cute it is? Look as these fun flowers!!!

Ok, back to cooking.

I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat, I am just REALLY picky about it. One of the things I hate is raw meat. Gross! Nasty! Disgusting! I avoid the meat section in the grocery store. Nasty, and I don't see the point. Ok, so last night I went with Ralph to get the chicken. He did pick it out and give me some pointers. But I was there in the meat isle.





Here's the stuff. I got the chicken out and into the crock pot, with my BARE HANDS. I thought about tongs but was too lazy to hunt them up and I really intend to do this again, so why not. Eewww! All I could think about was breast implants. (Well it is chicken breast)

Then I washed & dried my hands. Hahaha!

Here's the recipe: Take 4-5 chicken breast and cook in the crock pot (covered) for 3 hours. After discussing this with Ralph - we think 4-5 hours is better. Just make sure that chicken is cooked all the way through. Then drain the juice from the crock pot. Mix 3/4 cup BBQ sauce, 3/4 cup Orange Marmalade, and 2 tbsp Soy Sauce in a bowl. Then pour mix over chicken. Cover and cook on high for an additional 30 minutes. I'll probably turn it down to low after an hour or so, then try it.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Location:Lake Ozark, Missouri USA

Yoga

I am not an athlete.  I am not striving for the perfect body. I do believe being in shape and active is healthy.  Since I don't necessarily enjoy exercising, I am trying to change it up so it isn't such a boring routine.

Today I tried some yoga poses.  It's a lot harder than it looks. 30 seconds is a long time when you are trying to hold a position your body isn't accustomed to.  I'll have to work up to the 30 seconds.  I do like the stretching though.  It feels great! I will be learning more poses after I get used to these.  It takes me awhile to be able to do the moves without my nose in the book.  And learning to BREATH.  I have a tendency to hold my breath.  Not good!  Yoga is alot about breathing.

I think this will compliment my strength exercises.

I am using a book titled Yoga For Beginners: Essential Poses For Yoga Beginners by Amy Gilchrist. I downloaded it in my Kindle app.  There are several free yoga books available that I will be checking out too.  If I find and settle on one terrific book, I will let you know.  Until then, I will let you know how it's going.

Tomorrow will be another strength day. 

A Gadget that Works

How many kitchen "time savers" or cooking "gadgets" do you own? We have at least a box full. We added to the collection a couple of weeks ago.





See this cute little dish? It's for cooking eggs in the microwave. Well guess what? It WORKS!!! Yep! One egg, scrambled, and one minute in the zapper. Result = one perfectly cooked egg. Perfect for english muffin sandwiches.





Here is my delicious breakfast sandwich.

Tip: Don't try to cook two eggs at the same time. Trust me. Logically, I thought that two eggs for two minutes would work, even the rule of a tad less time because it's the zapper. Nope! Result = BIG MESS!!!! Hugh mess. Blew the cover off and covered the inside of the zapper with egg. Just cook two eggs separately. If you try for less time - the eggs are still runny. Just cook them one at a time.

Gadget review = thumbs up!

Location:Lake Ozark, Missouri USA

Plans to Exercise

Exercising at least 5 times a week is one of my goals. This is a recurring goal since I think it's an important part of being healthy.  And...I'm still rebuilding the strength I lost from my knee fracture last summer. By the end of this year, I don't want to notice that I had an injury.

I get tired of doing the same thing so this should give me some choices and it doesn't matter if the weather isn't perfect.

Here's the list of what counts as a "time".
- 2 miles of brisk walking (not dog walking meandering/smelling stuff - sorry Jack & Uma)
- 20 minutes of exercise with light weights - must rotate to work all body areas
- 20 minutes of yoga
- 20 minutes of swimming

I added walking last year.  It seemed like an easy thing since I walk the dogs everyday.  I've decided that I can't count the leisurely stroll I get when Jack (the old dog) goes along.  Uma (younger dog) likes to trot along at a good pace but both dogs need to walk.  Uma is aging and after some surgery last year, she is starting to slow down some.  So I am revising my walking part this year.

The most fun thing about walking in our neighborhood is the varied terrain.  And the hills.  Big hills. And woods, shoreline, rocks, gravel, all kinds of fun stuff.

I have two different programs that use light weights but will be keeping an eye out for other workouts that appeal to me.  I tried a new one today that uses wrist/ankle weights.  Some of the exercises were the same as my tried & true.   Off & on over the years I have used a program from a book called "The 12-Minute Total-Body Workout" by Joyce Vedral.  It uses 3 lb. dumbbells and works the entire body every three days.  It works for me.  I love the book/picture thing - no videos for me.

Yoga - New to me - a learning thing

Swimming - this is strokes and active in the water. The stuff that makes me starving when I get out. Not working on my tan, floating & drinking beer.

I'm done talking now. Thanks for stopping by.

Location:Lake Ozark, Missouri USA

Welcome to My New Blog

Welcome to my blog.  Rachel's Life at the Lake.  I'm a transplant to the beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, located in the middle of the state of Missouri. I moved here with my husband Ralph, (just for the summer) in 2010.  We loved it so much that we closed our business, sold all our property in Kansas and moved here permanently.

I'm a goal setter.  I just don't get stuff done without them.   Very early in my working career, I had a boss that REQUIRED all staff to set goals.  I hated it. Complained about it every year.  I still set goals every year.  What a terrific lesson learned.

This blog will be the journey of my most excellent life at the lake and the goals I use to keep it that way.

I have a lot of goals. Personal, Health, Financial, Family, Household, Art, and Business goals.  Some of them are maintenance goals that I have achieved but don't want to let slide. Reading is an example.  It's been on my list for the past two years.  The first year I didn't make my goal of 25 books.  Last year I read over 70 books.  This year I want to continue, and will keep the goal at 25.  I have some new things I want to try this year so I don't think 52, a book a week, is realistic.

Goals have to be measurable and realistic. I make charts and track my progress.  At the end of the year, I can add it all up and turn the results into a percentage to see how well I did.  Goals should also stretch you.  If all my results are 100%, then I haven't set my goals high enough.  I'm happy with 70-80% overall.

I have ten goals for 2015.  Sharing them in a public forum adds some accountability.

1. Health - Exercise 5 times a week.  Learn some yoga.

2. Health - Eat from each of the 5 food groups, 6 days a week. 

3. Personal - Start Art Journaling

4. Personal - Read 25 Books

5. Household - Move to #15 

6. Household - Start emptying storage units and getting rid of extra stuff

7. Personal - Cook once a week. Try new recipes & collect for my cookbook

8. Business - Post on social media on a regular basis. 5 times a week

9. Business - Start & maintain an Etsy store for I Stamp Studio

10. Business - Inventory and organize new studio space for maximum efficiency

This is the simple list.  Some of these will have smaller or other related goals included.  I'll talk about those in other posts as they come up.

That's all for today.  Thanks for stopping by.