Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki

This one is good and oh so simple...!

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Water 
• Cooked brown rice

Directions

1. Add the chicken thighs to the Crockpot
2. Mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic and pepper in a bowl, then add to the Crockpot
3. Cook on low for 3-4 hours
4. Remove chicken from Crockpot and keep warm
5. Pour the remaining fluid from the Crockpot into a saucepan, bring to a boil
6. Combine the cornstarch and water to a smooth paste, then add the cornstarch mixture gradually to the cooking sauce until it thickens
7. Serve chicken on a bed of brown rice and top with the sauce.

I'd like to credit this fabulous recipe to Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen. I made very little changes. I did cook up some red bell pepper and green onions to add to our dish which complimented it nicely.

Project Life weeks 5 & 6

Still loving this project. I had a drama with week 5, not thinking I had enough content to pull together a double page spread so rather than finish it up on the weekend I was planning on extending my date range to include a few extra days to fill out a spread. But it's funny how things come together after all! I didn't finish it up until I was well into the next week, which wasn't ideal cause I was getting confused working on 2 weeks at the same time! But as you can see I did get a double page spread for each week after all. I also used Design D page protectors which gave me new spaces to play with. I like that it works for one week. But then of course you're committed to using the back side for the next week as well then - not always so great. Anyways....here is my week 5...

And week 6...

One thing that this project is really highlighting to me is how quickly this year is moving by! I've never counted the weeks before. It's early Feb right? - to me that sounds like we've barely kicked off the year. But when I realise that we're 6 weeks down and currently living in week 7 of this year - now that seems fast!

Raring to run

This ankle injury really knocked me for six. I'm currently undergoing physiotherapy for a sprained ankle, but mostly it seems to be a waiting game. Seriously 'a sprained ankle' sounds so pathetic and un-serious! But 2 months on and I have a new appreciation of how serious it can be. And reading Wikipedia and hearing stories of people were weren't fully back to normal until 6-12 months kind of freaks me out!

According to my physiotherapist I'm doing well since I've been walking with ease and without pain for a few weeks now. But as soon as I do anything beyond that - even just 'running' to the door to greet Chris when he comes home, or rush to grab a pan that's bubbled over I'm reminded that all is not right. Right now walking is great and I'm really trying to get out there more for a walk after work or on the weekends.

So with all that I was incredibly nervous about signing up for any races this year. I am the Queen of procrastination when it comes to registering for races at the best of times. I'll train for them, with the full plan and intention to do them but I'm not great at signing my life and my money away until the last minute.

However my hand was forced this week. Twice!*

One of the items on my manifesto that you may or may not have noticed I'd snuck in at #15 there was the intention to run a marathon. Yes. The FULL 26.2 mile marathon - Yikes. I'd already decided that this is something I want to do just once. I LOVE the half marathon distance. For me it's the perfect balance, requiring commitment but without obsessing about the training hours required. The Full marathon is a whole other ball game. It's more than I want to do, more than I want to commit my life to. But I'm in a great place right now, mentally and physically when it comes to my running. And if I don't do it now, I may never do it. So.....

It had to be a big one. It had to be the main event (not an event where there's a Half or Full option, because the big event in those cases is always the Half) and it to be a 'destination' race for me. So the Chicago Marathon it was!! I follow a few blogs of people who'd run last year and it sounded awesome. I also love the fact its pretty flat (because I'm quite happy to take anything that will make this ordeal experience easier!). Registration opened on the 1st February but after reading around on the interwebs it appeared that whilst it did sell out, it wasn't too quick, which sounded great it my books. I could mince and generally procrastinate as is my way. Truth be told I wanted to know I was running again before I forked out my $175 non-refundable registration fee. But Facebook told me it wasn't to be. Just 6 days after registration opened they announced they would be selling out the 40,000 spots later that morning and for me, sat at work (did I say work? - surely I would never be looking at Facebook at work?!?!...uhumm) it was crunch time. Chris started quoting Nike ads (just do it!) and so I DID IT! Less than an hour later they posted it was sold out!

And so now, with poorly ankle still bugging me I sit with green-eyed longing at the other runners buzzing by my window and desperately want to get out there and remind myself I can still do it, and more to the point that I will survive 26.2 miles on October 7, 2012.

*more on the second 'race' soon!

1 down, 9 to go!

Another item on this years manifesto was to make 10 washi tape projects. It's another one of those trends thats exploded this year, and with heaps of the scrapbooking companies bringing out more and more cute designs it's hard to resist. Most of my tape came direct from Japan (a great Etsy seller with very reasonable prices)

My first project was a little home decorating. I had Chris put up this shelf above the printer, close and accessible to my desk. Nice. Functional. But a little drab!

So I decided to add a little decoration to my shelf!

This took me about 30 seconds...seriously! I just ran a strip of washi tape along the front of the shelf for a bit of added colour and decor. And the great thing about washi tape is that'll peel straight off with no stickiness left behind. So I can change out my shelf colour over and over whenever I want a change!

Project Life weeks 3 & 4

Scrapbooking with Project Life seems to have exploded this year! It's everywhere! Like me, so many people are saying how it's driven their creativity, and yet there's no rules or pressures - you really can make it as dressed up as you want. It's been said by countless others....but I'm still Loving It!

I've been keeping up with a double page spread per week. I'm traditionally a 'week starts on Monday' kind of girl but because the 1st was a Sunday so far I've just rolled with that being the beginnging of the week as far as Project Life goes. It's also suiting my creative playtime...I normally get busy on Saturday's whilst Chris is at work - since Sunday's are our only day off together I certainly don't want to encroach on that precious time.

So without further ado here are my Week 3 and Week 4 spreads;

Week 3 Spread

Week 4 Spread