WFMW: Easy Dinner Recipe

I love easy dinners. What I love more than easy dinners are easy dinners that taste really good. Everyone knows that pork chops and mac n’ cheese is easy, but you can only eat that for so long before your whole family is like “nooooo…….mac n’ cheese again???!?” Last week Roman posted a picture of one our favorite meals and he was asked by several of his friends to dish out the recipe. Your wish is my command!  :)

Creamy Pesto Chicken

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into cubes)

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

3 cups bow-tie pasta

½ cup pesto sauce (we use the basil kind, not the original kind)

½ cup milk

½ cup Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Directions:

1.       Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the chicken and cook until firm (about five minutes). While the chicken is cooking, go ahead and start cooking your pasta in a separate pot.

2.      Add the soup, pesto sauce and milk in with the chicken and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook until chicken is cooked through.

3.      Optional: sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and stir it in. (Because we all know that cheese makes everything more awesome!)

4.      Drain your cooked pasta and add it to everything and *boom* you’re done.

5.      Post pictures of your amazing dinner to Facebook

I discovered this recipe scribbled on a piece of paper in my recipe drawer about three weeks ago and decided to give it a shot. I have no idea where I wrote it down from, or how long it was hiding out in my drawer, but I’m definitely glad I ran across it! We may or may not have eaten it once a week for the past three weeks……   O:)

Easy, delicious dinners work for me!

“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” ~Romans 8:14

WFMW: Building a Box-Garden

This summer, Roman and I...okay fine, really just Roman, tried his hand at gardening. In one aspect, it worked out really well. We had an abundance of squash, zucchini, and cucumbers and were able to give some away. Some of the plants didn't do as well, such as the watermelon, tomato, and bellpeppers. But one thing we quickly found out: weeding is annoying. And so we didn't do it. At all. Causing our garden to look like this:

Picture that mess on a much larger scale, because that is only the last few plants of our garden that are left after Roman mowed the rest of it down.

We He really didn't like the work, but we really loved all of the fresh produce our garden produced. So for our fall garden, we decided to try building a box-garden. The way a box-garden is constructed is supposed to drastically cut down on the growth of weeds, which means it requires less maintenance. Sold. So for anyone else who is curious, here are the steps we took to build ours:

Step One: Gather materials.

You will need four boards to construct the box, a plastic tarp or some trash bags to lay on the bottom (this is what helps stop the growth of weeds), and then dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. Oh yea, and then you'll need to actually buy what you want to plant in your garden. That's kind of necessary as well.

Step Two: Assemble the box.

Pretty simple. All you do is lay out the boards in a square, then screw the corners together. Just make sure that everything is nice and even on your corners and Voila! You have a giant box.

supervisor dog not required

Step Three: Lay down the plastic.

Before we laid down the plastic, Roman scalped the grass in the box with a weed eater, just to further discourage growth. But if you don't have a weed eater, this is not required. After he got done, we had a thick black tarp that we laid down in the center of the box. We then went around the edges with large trash bags, placing them under the boards and covering the entire area. You can see in the second picture where we pulled the edges of the plastic out from under the boards by a few inches. We did that just to ensure no sneaky weeds would start growing up under the boards and find their way into our garden.

Step Four: Fill the box with dirt.

I'm not going to lie, doing this step in the heat of the day with 90% humidity made me think I was dying. We had gotten some dirt from my dad's house (he shoveled some into a trailer with his tractor), so we had to shovel out all of that dirt from the back of the trailer into the box. We paused halfway through to break for lunch (and cool off), so that helped. But still. It was a lot of dirt, yo.

Suddenly, I hate gardening

Step Five: Get everything nice and even.

Pretty straightforward. You just want to make sure your dirt is as even as possible so all of your plants have enough soil for their roots.

Step Six: Figure out the spacing for your plants.

This will definitely require you to do a little bit of homework on what you're planting. For instance, squash and cucumbers need a TON of room to grow, whereas bellpeppers and tomatoes do not. So figure out what kind of room each of your plants need, and then space them out accordingly.




Scoot over cucumber, you're all up in my grill


Step Seven: Plant your plants.

This part is easy. Just dig the holes and place the plants inside. We bought actual plants (obviously) rather than seeds. Sure, buying the plant is more expensive (we paid $3 for each plant), but you generally have MUCH better success rates over planting seeds, and you get your produce quicker, so that works for us.

Step Eight: Water your plants.

Duh. But just in case, don't forget this last step. How often you water your plants is determined by what you planted and how much shade your garden gets. Our garden sits in direct sunlight pretty much from sun-up to sun-down, so we water our garden just about every day. If you are new to gardening, you will just have to use trial and error to figure out what's best. If plants look like they are drying up, water more. If they look healthy and are growing, keep doing what you're doing. Look at you, you gardening pro.

I'm ready for my close-up

And for all you haters out there, look whose flowers are still alive. MINE.

Haterz gonna hate

Box-gardening really work for us!!

Note: I am not a gardening expert and neither is my husband. So anything I tell you to do may or may not work for where you live/what you plant. Don't hate me, let's just be friends, m'kay?

"Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God." ~Psalm 92:13

WFMW: How to Clean Glass Showers

When I first got married, I was really naive concerning all things grown-up related. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and she took care of most of the cleaning and cooking while we busied ourselves with school and extracurricular activities. I can't tell you how many times I've called her since I got married three years ago and started the conversation with "How do you......"  

One thing I've struggled with is how to get those water-stained glass shower doors clean. The usual all-purpose bathroom cleaner didn't do the job, and I was getting tired of watching the grime build up. Here's the before shot:

See what I mean? G-R-O-S-S. So what's the best way that I've found to get all that junk clean? CLR. 

After you spray it, you let it sit for about five minutes. Then you take a rag, sponge, whatever and scrub the surface. Once you get done scrubbing, you simply rinse it off and you're done. See how pretty my shower door is now? You can't even tell that this picture was taken while looking through the glass:

And while I'm bragging on our clean shower, check out our new shower head. I'm kind of sort of in love......

CLR works for me!!


Note: I am not an affiliate nor was I reimbursed in anyway by the company that produces this product. All opinions/professions of love are 100% my own.  :)

"She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy."  ~Proverbs 31:20

WFMW: Dog Problems

Today's Works For Me Wednesday is for all my fellow dog owners out there. If you've ever had a dog that has gone through surgery, then you know the heartache that follows: your dog has stitches and/or staples, and you now have the task of getting them to leave. it. alone. so it can heal. And if you've ever owned a dog like Duke, then you know that this task can be downright impossible.

Duke had stitches. Within three days he ripped out half of them. So he got staples put in. He ripped those out within two days. 

Why didn't you put the cone on him? You might ask. Well, we tried that. But when he immediately started slamming his head into the ground to try and get it off, it came off real quick-like. Because the only thing worse than a $450 vet bill from surgery is a $200 vet bill to pay for your dog's busted face right after the surgery. Basically, if he was going to be that desperate to get it off with us standing right there, what would he do while we were gone at work? Would I come home to find my dog knocked out and my house a wreck? Not a chance we were willing to take.....

So after he ripped out the staples on Sunday, we started to get pretty desperate trying to figure out how to get him to leave it alone. Because there was no point in getting staples put back in if he wasn't going to leave it alone. And even if we didn't take him back to get staples again, it was never going to heal if he sat there and licked it all day while we were at work.

Cue our lifesaver: the Kong Cloud. This thing is AMAZING and I wish I could buy whoever invented it a milkshake. Or at least say thanks. Because after a week of trying everything we knew to try, Duke-y Face is finally unable to mess with his wound. (PS: the vet didn't put staples in again when we took him back, it had already started healing enough on its own.) The Kong Cloud was right under $30 for a Large, and I purchased it from our local Pet Supermarket. 

The Kong Cloud is a protective collar that attaches to your dog's regular collar. It has an inflatable tube surrounded by thick cloth (so they can't puncture it by scratching at it). All you do is attach it to your dog's collar, blow up the inflatable tube to the needed amount, and then put your dog's collar back on him.

It took him a little while to get used to it, but we did our best to be really upbeat about the collar. And as soon as we put it on him we gave him a treat and then played with him so that he would learn that the collar was not a punishment. He wears it all day and all night and so far it is working really great for us! Here he is so you can see what it looks like (don't mind Lauren in the background #photobomb):

It has also brought a whole new realm of nicknames for Duke to our minds: balloon-face, bubble-head,  balloon-dog...just to name a few. But for real, I'm just so glad we finally have a solution so that he can finally heal. 

The Kong Cloud really works for me!!

Note: I am not an affiliate nor was I reimbursed in any way by the makers of the Kong Cloud. I just have a deep appreciation of their product!  :) 

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."  ~Mark 8:35

WFMW: How to Get Your Husband to Do Stuff

It’s Works for Me Wednesday here at Life with the Casterlines. This is where I share little tidbits of *hopefully* helpful information. And please feel free to leave your own tidbits in the comments! Today’s post focuses on how to -ahem- get your husband to do stuff….

The Problem: My laptop continually freezes up and crashes. Not a good thing when you need it for your ministry or when you’re trying to do a blog post

The Solution: Hubby needs to wipe laptop clean, re-install operating system, and possibly do a dance around a campfire so laptop will continue to work

****Problem persists for over a year….with no Solution****

Step One: Over-exaggerate your reaction every time laptop messes up. If that doesn’t work, proceed to Step Two.

Step Two: Find a $1,200 laptop and request it for your birthday which is coming up in *one month*

Step Three: Explain (again) why the new laptop is needed

Step Four: Watch your laptop get repaired the very next day and admire your handy work.

Done.

This method will work for almost anything that needs to be accomplished. Hubby forgets to change the oil in your car? Start sending him prices for a Mercedes. Need him to give the dog a bath? Dump dirt all over his pillow and blame it on how dirty Fido is. Tired of ironing his clothes? Accidentally burn a hole through his favorite shirt.

Any questions?

;)

Note: This is 100% not-godly behavior and was meant as a joke. Ladies, let’s please not be conning our men into doing all of the housework. But seriously, if it’s been a year and your laptop/car/dishwasher still isn’t working…..well, you have the game plan! Hop to it!

Also Note: Thanks for the fixed laptop, darling!  Xoxoxo

Functioning laptops work for me! :)  :) 

“She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” ~Proverbs 31:27

WFMW: Cleaning Solutions

I now introduce to you “Works for Me Wednesdays”. If you read other blogs than you may have seen this before, so please don’t think I’m super duper smart and came up with this idea all by myself. Because then you would be wrong-o. I discovered Works for Me Wednesdays through one of my all-time favorite blogs, “We are THAT Family” (link is to the right in my list of favorite blogs if you wanna check it out). BUT, I know through my survey that pretty much all of my readers are 17 and older, which means many of you are probably responsible for some sort of something around your home. Unless you are thirty and live in your mom’s basement and she still does everything for you, in which case I guess this post won’t concern you. And also, you should consider getting a job and maybe take up some of the cleaning workload.

ANYWAYS. Works for Me Wednesdays (WFMW) is just a cool way for me to share with you some fun little tips that make life easier.  Anything from easy recipes to cleaning tips to how to wash your cat without dying (I actually don’t know how to do that, help?), I’ll be sharing little tidbits with you that will hopefully make your life easier. And please feel free to share your own little tidbits in the comments section below OR post a link to your own blog if you also write WFMW posts. And for those of you who love my Weird Wednesday posts, do not fret: I still plan on mixing those in on Wednesdays too.

Alright, now that we got all of that out of the way, let’s get this thing started.

If you know me personally, than you know that I am a clean/organization freak. If you don’t know me personally, than you now know that I am a clean/organization freak. I have files for everything. I clean my house once a week. My desk at work stays spotless and everything in my drawers/filing cabinet has its own place. However, ever since Roman and I moved into a (much) bigger house than our double-wide trailer back in August, I’m finding it extremely difficult to fit in all of my cleaning. Since I work a full-time job, I usually try to clean on Saturdays. But in this bigger house, I can easily spend 8 hours cleaning and 0 hours relaxing. And no matter if you work a full-time job or a part-time job or if you have the opportunity to stay home with the kiddos, I’m sure the women across America can relate. So let me introduce you to a product that I have fallen in love with………..they’re called “disinfecting wipes”.

Maybe you already use them and you just rolled your eyes at me. I know, I know, sometimes I’m late to the party. Actually, I’m usually late for everything…..but seriously. I have fallen in love with the Great Value Lemon Scent Disinfecting Wipes from the mysterious land of Wal-Mart. First of all, they are bleach free, so I don’t have to worry about accidentally getting it on my clothes. Second of all, the lemon scent smells pretty good to me. And third of all, I haven’t found anything they couldn’t clean and they greatly cut down on the amount of time I spend cleaning. (I tried to find the price online for you, but Wal-Mart’s website is not playing nice. I think I spent $10 for a pack of three.)

Here’s the thing: my kitchen has a LOT of counter-space. And I have two cats who adore laying all over my countertops. So once a week I would get out my 409 (miracle cleaning solution) and scruuuuub my countertops/stove/microwave/fridge/sink/cats (just kidding about that last one). Now, I just take a couple of those wipes and run over everything (not the cats) before I go to bed at night. I wake up in the morning to a shiny, fresh-smelling kitchen and now I don’t have to worry about cleaning up a disaster-kitchen every Saturday. Last night we made tacos and somehow managed to get salsa all over the stove and the surrounding counters. Even though I didn’t clean up for a couple hours after dinner (because I’m lazy like that) I was able to take one disinfecting wipe and ba da bing, ba da boom, no more salsa splatters.

These things do a pretty good job in the bathroom as well. Of course, I will still need to periodically give my shower and bath tub a good scrubbing, but last Saturday I was able to quickly run over my sink/sink countertops and the toilet and then I was done. So much easier and faster than getting out all of that cleaning solution and rags and toilet cleaner and all that.

So there ya have it. Disinfecting wipes really work for me!

Psst: I was not paid or given any free products to write this post. I just have a love relationship with the products mentioned above. You can love them too….I’ll share.

Also pssst: I know I said I was going to close my survey this past Friday, but I have decided to leave it open for a little while longer. So if you haven’t had a chance to take it yet, click here. And if you have already taken it-thank you! I’m getting some really awesome feedback!

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”  ~Proverbs 31:28-31