Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a great New Year’s Day. I spent mine with a really sore throat and the sniffles. You know you’re sick when you don’t want to lay down and sleep because all the gunk goes to your head! Hoping to muddle through work today, this head cold should make for some interesting food choices and about a billion cups of hot tea today. I’ve been thinking about starting a new feature on the blog-Try This Thursday. Most people know what Pinterest is, even if they haven’t used it themselves. I definitely use mine fairly often, but at the same time I know we all pin or hold on to recipes we want to make “someday”, crafts we’d like to make, and all those “life hacks” you wonder about. So each Thursday, I’m going to share something new I’ve tried in the last week. They may not always be pretty, but that’s part of the fun! If other people want to try something similar, let me know and I’ll host a links round up. I think it could be the start of something fun!
This week’s experiment was a set of boot cuffs. I have a friend who is pretty into leggings and boots, and as a birthday gift I wanted to give her some of those super cute boot socks I see rolling around everywhere, kind of like these:
But everywhere I looked, they were stupid expensive-like $25-$30 per pair. I love my friends, but the idea of spending that much on socks was just silly to me. So I started searching for something similar I could make her myself. All that really shows of these socks in the few inches that stick above your boot, so a pair of cuffs seemed pretty easy and quick to make. I settled on these:
They looked great! Pattern was super easy to follow, and they whipped up in no time. It’s a basic knit/purl rib for anyone who knits. The pattern itself can be found here. I’d say these are a super easy knitting project, and anyone who has the basics down could knock out one cuff in a few hours. I’m almost done with a second set for myself already! I’m definitely glad I found this pattern; I saved myself some money, still gave my friend a gift, and bonus points for doing it myself.
Since this is our first “Try This Thursday”, I’m also going to include a new recipe we tried last night, One Pot Chicken Lo Mein. I’d have to give this one more of a B grade-it turned out delicious, but not really very lo-mein-y. It was a cross between a soup and a lo mein. Jeff was the cook for this dish, and he’s not entirely sure what he’ll change next time, but he’s not opposed to trying again.
- ½ lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small chunks
- 12 oz. whole wheat linguini or fettuccini, broken in half
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut in thin 3 inch long strips
- 1 medium red bell pepper, cut in thin 3 inch long strips
- 1 bunch green onions, white part sliced and green part cut in 3 inch long strips
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- ½ cup water
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- Add the chicken, then the pasta, then the remaining ingredients to a large stockpot and cover. Bring to a boil. Stir and reduce to a simmer. Cook covered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until most of the liquid is gone and the chicken is cooked through.
Food, Farts, and Frustration 
I think the one-pot dish looks pretty good. I wonder if pre-cooking (at least par-cooking) chicken and pasta would help and let you lighten up on the liquids? I find with dishes that call for uncooked rice that if I pre-cook it partially it turns out better.
With ‘should try this’, we keep it front and center and cook it the next grocery cycle – then it is either added to our recipe book or recycled 🙂
In terms of workouts, I definitely workout based on the ‘above neck, OK, below next, rest day’ mantra. But it also depends on exhaustion level and so on.
Love the crafty idea for the boots … none of us sew or knit. I laugh remembering Lisa and I sitting doing a hack job applying Cub Scout patches way back when the kids were little! 🙂
sewing still intimidates me, though I’m halfheartedly working on it. The crafty thing has been fun though-with a runner’s mentality I start to go crazy in the winter if I don’t feel as if I’m doing SOMETHING productive, and this is a perfect way to keep me occupied indoors. That’s a great idea for the pre-cooking, I’ll pass that on to the chef for next time. 🙂
I like the one pot idea! I generally fight through any little colds and stuff to work out.
I just did my first workout of the day-I usually pretend I’m going to skip it and then go anyways. I wasn’t as intense as normal, but I was there! Much better than sitting around sniffling. 🙂