Live: Pineapple BBQ Chicken

I am trying to use my Crock-Pot more often, just for the ease of cooking. I mean it's great when I can come home from work and dinner is just about ready. One of my favorites that I can not seem to stop making is Pineapple BBQ Chicken. Its easy and cheap.

Ingredients:
4-6 chicken breasts (I have always used thawed, I would love to know if I can put them in frozen.)
1- 8oz can crushed pineapple
1 bottle BBQ sauce (seriously the cheapest you can buy, original)
Rice

1. Mix the BBQ sauce and crushed pineapple in the bottom of a greased Crock-Pot.
2. Add your chicken, cover with sauce.
3. Cook on Low 6-8 hours, or High 4-6 hours. Mine always seems to cook on the faster end, maybe because the chicken in thawed.

When I get home a cook a quick pot of Minute Rice. Dinner is ready to eat in about 10 minutes.

This time I used brown rice for my husband and white rice for me.

Live: Pinwheel Appetizers

Pinwheels:

Basic Ingredients: flour tortilla shells and whipped cream cheese (it just spreads better)

There are so many variations to make from here:

Taco: a packet of taco seasoning, shredded cheese, diced green onions, and diced black olives

Sandwich: ranch seasoning packet (can be flavored), deli meat (works best if shaved), sliced cheese

Mexican: Fiesta Ranch packet, sliced cheddar cheese

This time I made the Mexican ones.

Directions:

1. Mix the Fiesta Ranch packet into the whipped cream cheese.  

2.  Spread the cream cheese mixture on the tortilla shell like pizza sauce (all over).
3. Lay your sliced cheese on the cream cheese. I used a 1/2 piece at the bottom, and 2 full slices in the middle.
4. Roll, tightly. And freeze for at least an hour.
5. When you take them out of the freezer cut into slices, about 3/4 inch. You will not be able to use about the first inch on each side (my husband usually eats them, I just don't like to display them).

Live: Kitchen Backsplash

A backsplash is a great instant worth your time addition to any kitchen. The possibilities are endless:

Mosaic Tiles
Subway Tiles
Tin Sheets (which come in so many finishes)
Glass Tiles
Not to mention the endless ways you could do a pattern with tiles.

I knew from the time we started working in the kitchen I wanted a backsplash, it was just going to take the time to be able to do it, oh and the money.

I fell in love with a beautiful 1" square mosiac tile I found online. It has marble times, glass tiles, and bronze tiles. The down side, it was $16 a square foot. Meaning it was going to cost me $300 just for the tile. If this was my dream house I don't think I would have a problem spending that kind of money, but the fact that we only see ourselves in this house for about 5 year, I had to think resale. I know a backsplash will add some value, or just interest in a kitchen, but that was a lot to spend. While shopping at Lowe's I found a 4" square marble tile that was almost an identical match to the marble tiles in my mosaic. I decided to order 1/5 of the tiles in the mosaic, and do the rest in the 4" square tiles. It took my cost for tile from $300 to $130! After buying the the remaining supplies I spent about $200 total.

A few days before we actually started tiling I laid out the tile for all of the countertops to find a design I liked. I wanted to make sure to use as much of the mosaic tile as I could, and I soon found out that I would not use enough if I just but it in randomly. My husband wanted me to try it as a square pattern, which would have been a lot easier to put up, but it ended up looking like a checkerboard. So through trial and error I landed on this pattern. Now I did not use the mosaic tile behind the stove, the bottom row should have all been mosaic, but I would have ran out and you won't see it anyways.

So it seemed that we were ready to start tiling:

Now my husband has experience tiling, so I was depending on him to teach me. He forgot one important step, don't let the grout stay on the tiles for too long, and that is exactly what I did. Here is what I learned from this:
1. Don't let the grout set on the tile for too long. Grout a few feet, then go back and wipe off.
2. If you make this mistake and let it set too long you are going to need white vinegar and fine grit sandpaper (I used a 400 grit sanding sponge).
3. Mix water and vinegar, and scrub-scrub-scrub!

The next side went remarkably better, thanks to my mom's help. I grouted and she wiped. She also went through with a rag and wiped off all of the little tiles individually.

And a close up: