Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

 I'm making it for the second time tonight so I'm really hoping it came out as good as it did the first time.

 (This is not mine but it's the closest to what it looks like when I cook it.)

Seeing as I am only one person, it's hard to find crock pot recipes that are specifically made for one person and only have one serving. Honestly, I would probably be spending a lot more money on groceries if it worked like that. This recipe, if following the directions online, will yield 12 servings.

The last time I made this, it lasted me for the rest of week for lunches and one dinner. So out of a 5 day work week, I got about 6 meals including the first night I had it for dinner. For a family of two, it should still last for a couple of days for leftovers.

I got the recipe originally from Pinterest (of course) but it linked me to this website:

Awesome Slow Cooker Pot Roast

The awesome thing about this website is that you can change the number of servings you want and it will change how much of each ingredient you will need accordingly. I just kept the number at 12 because again, I like having the leftovers.

Here is the recipe:

• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup (I used potato soup because I don't like mushrooms)
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 5 1/2 pounds pot roast

Step 1: Add soup, water, and soup mix into the crock pot and mix together.
Step 2: Coat pot roast in mixture
Step 3: Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low 8 to 9 hours.

And that's it! Easy right? The meat comes out so tender and flavorful it like melts in your mouth. Better yet, the gravy is already made with the ingredients that you coat the pot roast in. No extra gravy needed.

The only thing I did differently is I added some potato and baby carrots in towards the end of the cooking cycle just so that I didn't have to make an extra side.
I usually add the veggies with about 2 hours left to the cooking time. If you are like me and you work all day and don't want to wait for another 2 hours after you come home and wait for the veggies, you can either make another side or I suggest turning the crock pot on high for about an hour to make the veggies cook faster.

No matter what you add, I can guarantee the meat will come out amazing. I hope you are able to enjoy this as much as I do.

Watch out for another food blog either Saturday night or Sunday. I have a steak marinade and potato recipe that I'm going to have Ryan grill up for me.

Until next time,

Jessica

Barkeepers Friend: Pass or Fail?

So if you know me well, or just recently met me, you should know that I like to keep things clean and organized in my life. You come over to my place, you will always notice that it's clean (even if I just cleaned up right before you came over). I think this is something that I got from my mom. She taught my sibling and I that a clean home is a happy home. Not in those exact words but more or less the fact that you will probably be more comfortable and productive in a clean home.

I've been in my apartment for 9 month now. It doesn't seem like it has been that long but believe it or not, it has. I love my apartment. It's all mine, I can decorate (within reason) however I want, and the best part is I can organize it anyway that I want to! That is really the thing about living on my own. I know where everything is.

The only thing I can really complain about is the fact that is in an apartment and that it is an old apartment. Things are not perfect. The wood in some places is curled but not rotting (thankfully!) and tile is not the best looking, but those are things I can deal with.

The only thing that has been bugging me is my bathroom. Not only is it tiny but it collects so much dirt so fast, I can barely keep up! I've done the best that I can with what I've been given so it's functional for just me. Here's what it looks like now.

Isn't it just the cutest?

Now you're probably asking, what the heck is the point of this? Well calm down and I'll tell you. The point is that my beautiful bathroom has one major defect....the toilet.

I clean my bathroom almost every week. This means the tub, toilet, sink, mirror, and floors. My toilet is a constant source of trouble. I don't know if it's the hard water of San Bernardino or if it's just an old toilet but no matter what I do, I cannot get rid of this hideous black stuff on the inside of my toilet. Here's what I mean:

Gross huh? Don't get me wrong! I've already clean the toilet! This is what is looks like clean!!!

I've tried Cleanser, Bleach, CLR, toilet cleaner, and almost anything that claims to clean toilets but it just won't come off. I've sat there for 30mins or more scrubbing this toilet but nothing will do. So, I conceded to the fact that it may never be white but at least it would be clean. And that's when I came across Pinterest.

I know most of us use Pinterest. Some to plan weddings that won't happen for awhile, to look at clothes we may never be able to afford, decorating ideas only the rich and famous could pull of, and delicious recipes that would make us all fat. But wait! You could just go over to your motivation board and look at all the exercise ideas you pinned to work all that food off. Truth be told, I love Pinterest. I've made a bunch of recipes that I've found and have implanted some of the organization ideas into my home. I've also tried some of the exercises to much failure due to my lack of coordination. But I digress.

While looking at different organization and cleaning methods, I found something that a lot of other people claimed to be the miracle kitchen and bathroom cleaner. It's called Barkeeper's Friend. It claims on the bottle that once you use it, you will love it. So I decided to give it a try. I went to Home Depot and bought a bottle. It was about $4 for 26oz. That's a pretty good price for something that is supposed to be awesome. Here's what it looks like.

I followed the directions on the bottle and hoped for the best. To be honest, I was hoping that the black stain that had been plaguing me for 9 month would just go away. No such luck. So I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed, and cursed the heat, and scrubbed some more. Again, I sat there for about 30 min and scrubbed this stupid toilet. To my extreme disappointment, my toilet still is not white.

Here is the toilet after.

I will admit that it is a little better so this was not a complete failure. However, it will probably take me scrubbing twice a week before it will be gone completely. 

Side by side comparison.

While this product didn't do what it promised, I am glad that it began to make a dent....even if it was a tiny one. I'll probably try to continue and look for something that will clean this up but for now, I'll just continue to keep my bathroom clean and hope that one day, I will have a white toilet again.

I do want to say that while Barkeepers Friend did not make my toilet white again that it won't work on your tough stains. It could. I just wanted to give you my experience on the product.

Until next time.

Let It Be

This is currently what I feel like. I feel like I've been I've been running on empty for awhile and I'm not really sure to get out of this funk. I've tried crying, I've tried talking to other people, and I've tried ignoring everything and just going about my daily life. So, what's got me all worked up?

Grad School

Dun Dun Dun! Yes, believe it or not, grad school is stressful. And the worst part is that the people that I talk to the most have no idea what I'm going through. Sure, they may be in school or have gone through a program, but they aren't in my program and they don't understand the overwhelming disappointment I feel in myself when I don't do well on something I think I should have or the anxiety I feel when I speak up in class and then NO ONE has a follow up. I feel like I said something that just didn't make sense at all and made myself look like an idiot. Am I an idiot? Of course not! I know that. I'm obviously smart enough to be in grad school. But it's the having to go through the same anxiety I did in High School and in my Undergrad. That constant feeling that everyone else is judging me and if I don't perform just right, I'm written of as not knowing anything. 

So, what to do? Do I continue to fight the anxiety and participate in class or do I keep my mouth shut, not say anything and just risk not getting all of the participation points?

I'm half way through this program so I know it will be over soon. But I still have another 9 months to go.

Work

Now, let me say this first. I absolutely love my job. I am thankful that I get to do what I love everyday. Do I get frustrated at times? Who doesn't! Do I do a lot more than I get paid for. HECK yes! Even my supervisor said he wished he could pay me more. However, the California education system sucks balls right now so I get to live pay check to paycheck.

What I do not love is the fact that I recently had a situation at work where my job satisfaction was called into question. What did that result in? Being called into my supervisors office so that they could have a talk with me about it. WTF?! Seriously?! If you were to come into my office, I am the most upbeat, helpful, and knowledgeable person. I consistently go above and beyond my job description to serve the students, staff, and faculty that come into my office.

I honestly cannot go into much detail because it may be interpreted the wrong way or it may seem that I don't like my job. But I will be extremely selective in what I know talk about since people can't be trusted.

Image

This is one issue that is always with me. Currently, well, as of this morning anyway, I weigh in at 382 pounds. this means that I have gained 132 pounds since I graduated High School in 2005. Is this my own fault? Yes. I am not  naive to think that my weight gain is just some genetic fluke.

As I've stated before, I'm waiting on insurance approval to have gastric bypass surgery. This would drastically reduce the amount of food and the kind of food that I can eat. And again, I did not come to this decision easily. I've fought my hardest to lose weight on my own only to flat line after losing a few pounds.

Even though I will still have surgery, I haven't given up on trying to lose as much as I can. The hardest part is not seeing results right away. I have a bunch of friends are working on losing weight themselves and are seeing MASSIVE results.I am so proud of my friends who have been seeing result and hitting goals but I selfishly have to say that it makes me feel worse about myself. And feeling bad about myself over the results my friends are seeing makes me feel like a huge jerk.

I have huge image issues. I'm constantly self conscious about the way I look. I don't like being in front of groups because of the way my body looks, I don't like to speak up that often because then people look at me. Sure, I may sit in the front of the class, but I am constantly worrying about what people sitting behind me may be saying, or thinking just based on what they see. Even in high school I felt this way. I was also bullied to an extreme in high school. Being in band didn't help. I was teased not only behind my back but to my face. The people who I spent the most amount of time with in high school were the ones that bullied me the most. I could've quit band but I loved playing so much that I had to deal with it.

Unfortunately we live in a society where image rules.We are defined by the clothes we wear, the make-up we wear, the way our bodies are shaped, and by how tan our skin is. It's extremely difficult for me to leave my apartment on a daily basis knowing I don't fit this mold. I honestly don't want to fit to mold. What I do want is to feel comfortable with the way I look. I don't need to be skinny. I don't even need to be in single digit sized clothing. I want to be healthy. If healthy for me isn't society's ideal, then screw society......and if it were that easy to take my own advice, I wouldn't be writing this.

Conclusion

So, what do I do? What does all this ranting that will get 5 or 6 views and no comments mean? I have no idea. I just know that there was stuff that I needed to get out. There was stuff that while I don't feel comfortable with people knowing, people should know because it's apart of me. I need to learn to let things go and to accept what I cannot change. 

It is going to take me so long to get to a point where I can go out in public and just strut my stuff without having to worry if the girl few feet away is laughing at me with her friends or if it was just a joke. Or if the good looking guys at a near by table are checking me out because I'm looking fabulous or because they're making jokes about the fat chick who shouldn't be in the restaurant.

I guess I just have to Let It Be.