Strawberry Cream Poke Cake!!! AMAZING!!!

When your husband shows you a recipe and says "you should make this", that really means "you better make this" I haven't made a dessert in a LONG time, i have tried to make cookies TWICE recently and both have been fails and i have no idea why.. Simple chocolate chip cookies F-A-I-L!!!

SO, ANYWAY! Strawberry Cream Poke Cake -- Hello AMAZING!!!
This cake is so simple and so delicious! The recipe is from a great website , Butter With a Side of Bread has so many awesome recipes!
I pretty much followed this recipe exactly as the directions called for. The only thing I didnt really do was wait the full 3 hours to put the icing on it, I was heading to bed so I really only waited about 2 hours! I don't think it made any difference

You can follow the recipe here!

Here are some of the ingredients!

You basically make a white boxed cake as the directions on the back of the box call for. Once it is cooled, take a fork and poke holes all along the top of the cake. The more holes the more the jello mixture will seep through! I poked A LOT of holes!  

Once cooled and poked, make your liquid jello and add cold water then pour all along the top of the cake. This is where I didn't follow the directions completely. Place in the refrigerator and let sit for 3 hours (or two if your ready to go to bed like I was). You then take a container of Cool Whip whipped topping and a container of whipped frosting and mix together, add in the almond extract. You have to stir for awhile and I let it sit out so the Cool Whip would soften a little more {my arm was getting tired from stirring} Once it is fully mixed up and a good consistency then spread it over the top of the cake and add your strawberries for garnish! 

I put it back in the refrigerator overnight. It is delicious!!! 

I hope this will fulfill your sweet tooth! enjoy!

Brrrrrr and Beef Stew!!

Sundays are usually my grocery shopping/meal planning days. This week I made out my meals and got everything together on Sunday as normal! I remember a couple of weeks ago I had bought some beef tips and froze them so I thought this would be perfect for Beef Stew. Since having a baby my crock pot has become my best friend! Being able to start something for dinner in the morning and not have to worry about it till time to eat (ok, you should probably check on it occasionally) dinner just takes one stress away!

Ok Ok, back to the Beef Stew. So this morning I was washing bottles and I glanced at my menu for the week (if you don't have one you should get one) Well, I had forgotten to thaw the beef tips last night.. So I quickly filled up the sink and let them thaw while I was putting the baby down for his morning nap!

I had found this recipe several months ago and I have made it a couple of times. I am a very "follow directions" type of cook. So, I usually follow everything to a T! Today, I was slipping a little bit, aka forgot some things! I thought this would be a good time to share "my version" of this recipe. The original is great, I have made it word for word, but my spin off still had the husband saying "dinner is great" SCORE!!!

The original recipe for The best Crockpot Beef Stew. We are not an onion eating family so, the recipe calls for onions, I skipped that! Also, skipped the celery.
Ingredients:
2lbs of beef stew meat (cut them up into small pieces)
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped (didnt use this!!)
2-3 gloves of garlic, minced ( I used the jar of minced onion
6oz can of tomato paste
32oz of beef broth
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
2 cups of baby carrots
4-5 small red potatoes cut into bite sided pieces
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup of water

So today, I couldn't find the oregano! oops
My Style : I used frozen carrots, peas and corn. It doesn't make any difference which you use, I was just feeling lazy and didnt want to waste time cutting up carrots! So basically get out your crockpot and mix the beef chunks, celery, carrots, onion, potatoes, salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, oregano, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and tomato paste into the crock pot.

Today I used tomato sauce because I didnt have any tomato paste --- could tell no difference. 

Once you put it all into your crockpot, stir it up and leave it on high for 6-7 hours. If you are really an over achiever, you can put it on low for 10 hours. But who has time for that? Not me! around 3:30 I turned it to low for about 45 minutes and then just to keep warm. 

The recipe says to add the frozen peas and corn at the end and cook for 30 minutes, Im not sure why because it has made no difference, so I just put it all together. It also calls for adding flour and water to thicken it up, I have made it once with and once without, the consistency change was minimal. Do as you wish!:)

I whipped up some cornbread muffins and dinner was on the table at 5:45! This is a great meal to cook ahead and freeze too! 

Remember the original recipe can be found here, or you can just throw in your own items and make another spin off of my spin off! At the end of the day, it's a warm meal perfect for this brrrr cold weather we are having!  

6 Months - Time Flies!

Reflecting back...

I remember when I was pregnant people saying, "enjoy it, it'll be gone before you know it".. towards the end I was thinking, why would you tell someone to enjoy this.. I was miserably uncomfortable, not able to sleep and had heartburn from, well you know!! Not to mention, it was June in East Tennessee and I was sweating in places I didnt even know you could sweat in!! ( I know, TMI)

Then, once Bentley was born, the worry of being a mom set in. I remember saying to my mom, I can't sit around and just hold him because that's all he will ever want. I said this to several people and many of them replied, "take advantage of it, it won't last forever" I brushed that off, thinking I have at least a year of these holding, snuggling, cuddling moments.

Last night, I was looking through my Facebook photo album that I made for Bentley when he was born. I started thinking, I did not enjoy those first months like I should have. I feel like it is normal to look back and much of the time seem to be a blur, because lets be real, you were living off of adeline, little sleep and for me - - LOTS of Spark!! I will be the first to admit, things with Bentley in the beginning were not easy, they were HARD. Maybe they seemed evermore hard because I was a first time mom, BUT they were still hard. I think I didnt enjoy my time with him as a newborn because i was so scared the next day would be worse than the current day.

So where I am going with this post is -- I have a 6.5 month old! Ya'll that is half a year, I feel like if I blink too many times it's going to be summer and he's going to be ONE!!! I can't even say that outloud! I might have not soaked up and enjoyed all of our first 6 months, but I will be making up for lost time for the next 6......and well the next 15, 20.. well as long as he will let me! If you are a new mom, soak it up.. spend a nap time on the couch holding them, it's not going to scar them, it's not going to ruin their ability to nap! Take an extra 5-10 minutes at night to sing another song, rock a little longer. One of my favorite things to do with Bentley is lay in the floor with him. He loves to pat my face (sometimes, it's a little harder than a pat - we are working on this). Savor every minute, because it's no joke, you will blink twice and they will be half way to a year.

I have lots of goals for 2016, but one is to continue with this blog. When your a stay at home mom, sometimes one of the things you really miss is adult conversation. While I might not be physically talking, I can get a lot of my thoughts out in words too!

Until Next time, here are some then and now of Mr. B!

Health... What us Women deal with...

So, have you ever felt like there was something you really wanted to shed some light on but you just weren't sure how to do it OR when it was appropriate?! Or even that you were not the most educated person to speak about it either..  yea, well that's kind of where I am with this subject..

But here goes.. In February I was hit with 4 letters that I had no idea what they meant.. PCOS.. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or Polycystic Ovaries. I will spare you all the details that led to this diagnosis. When I got a call from my OBGYN, it was her nurse and she said "Jill we think you probably have PCOS" I said, umm excuse me what? {Famous last words} Looking back now, I probably was yelling at her because she got really quite and started stuttering. Immediately, I said, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AND WHAT IS THAT. I instantly thought I had cancer, I have had a fear of cancer since I was old enough to know what it was. This led to an ultimate "Jill meltdown". My doctors nurse was so sweet trying to console me as I stood outside my office crying uncontrollably. She immediately worked me in to see the doctor that afternoon. Again, sparing the details, I became very informed.

Some facts: PCOS effects 1 in every 20 women of child bearing years and around 5 million women in the US! I'm not going to bore you with a zillion statistics but click here if you want to learn more. Medical professionals don't really know what causes PCOS, many think genetics plays a big part. However, this doesn't apply to me {as far as I know} I am an only child and my mom nor grandmother have ever had this. PCOS has several symptoms such as Hirsutism, which is increased hair growth in areas women wouldn't naturally see it, weight gain in the stomach, irregular menstrual cycles, pelvic pain, skin tags, dark spots on the skin, etc. Wait for it, I had none of those either!!! Not.A.Single.One.  So my immediate question was what makes you think this, and how do we know for sure. A couple of weeks later I was scheduled for a pelvic ultrasound to know 100%. Anyone that knows me knows I'm very nosey when it comes to medical things, I want to know what someone is seeing, what it means, what to look for, etc. So my initial request was to know every single thing that they saw on that scan, the ultrasound tech finally said, ok this is what you need to pay attention to. The infamous, "string of pearls". I still to this day wonder why such a name was given to something that is nowhere near as beautiful and innocent as "pearls". This is a 100% indication of PCOS. So there you have it, it was confirmed and that's what I had. My doctor then explained the relationship with PCOS and insulin, gave me a prescription for Metformin and told me I needed to cut out all carbs or at a minimum try to be gluten free... HOLY COW BELLS, no carbs for this pasta loving girl.. Needless to say I ate broccoli for the first time this year, tilapia for the first time this year.. Green beans and Quinoa... yup, I enjoyed my small food option world prior!

Here are some photos showing a healthy ovary and a PCOS ovary..

See the little "String of Pearls" aka all the little cysts. They really remind me of those baby teething chew toys {random I know}

So you may be thinking A) how did I not have any symptoms but yet I have PCOS.. Well I wondered that too. My doctor explained that since I had been on birth control for many years, that had basically masked several of the symptoms and had kept the PCOS under control.

I started researching, reading, talking to other women and I was pretty shocked when a lot of women didn't know what I was talking about. But then again, why was I so shocked, I knew nothing about it until a couple of weeks prior! Those that were aware didn't really understand the severity. At one point, I don't think I even fully understood. It is not something life threatening, but it can effect several things with your body!

I started looking on social media for PCOS groups, forums, discussion boards or anything that I could find to talk to other women going through what I was going through. I had never been "sick" with something that could not be fixed or that I couldn't just "get over". I didn't find many outlets unfortunately, which led me to the thought of, I really want to talk to other women about this, I want it to not be so hush hush or so unknown.
Yes, I am one person and I don't expect to conquer the PCOS world by storm, but what I want is for women to feel like it's ok to talk about it, to ask questions about it. To be prepared  and aware.

My biggest concern after coming to terms with what was going on, was will this effect me being able to have children?!? Many things come up for debate at the Garza house, but two things were never up for negotiation, children and the VOLS. I was told by several that they took Metformin and were able to get pregnant on their own.... not everyone is that lucky.... I will dive in to that in a later post!!

There is a great Facebook page called PCOS Diva and I find all the posts that Amy makes are very informative. She is a licensed Health Coach and she does a great job teaching about healthy eating, clean eating but also motivating and making those of us struggling with PCOS feel not so alone in the world! I would highly recommend "liking" her page!!

For now, I am managing. From the outside you would never know there was anything wrong with me. I don't feel any different, I don't look any different.. But I am more aware about how the things I eat effect my PCOS. I love pizza {I'm probably going to have it for dinner tonight} but I am immediately tired, a carb coma!!

If you take nothing away from this LONG post, take away this: Never feel like you are asking too many questions to your medical providers, don't always rely on the internet because while informative, it is the internet and anyone can post on it! If you think you have symptoms of something, consult your doctor.. You might think the question is silly, but it could lead them to ask you other questions and you to quickly find out what was wrong and get the proper treatment!!


Feel free to comment below with questions, concerns or words of wisdom!

Until next time... oh yea, GO VOLS!!!

So, I have been thinking, trying to figure out where Im going to start.. Really thinking about how I am going to get you caught up over the last 2 years.. It has been two years since I actually posted something {informative}! So many things have happened between then and now, I could probably write for a couple of days. But I do think it's important to bring you up to speed so that the important things I'm going to start writing about all make sense!

So here goes the short, condensed version of what's been going on in the life of this Rocky Top Family!
I honestly cant remember 2012, well not very much of it, so I'm skipping ahead to 2013!
Mr. G and I decided early in 2013 we were going to put our house for sale, we just weren't sure at that time what our next move would be, would we build? would we buy? we really had no idea! We started prepping the house at the end of spring and talked to a realtor! Luckily, we have a good friend that's mom is an AMAZING realtor, I even nicknamed her the "House Whisper" I don't remember the exact day, but we listed the house and before we could blink our eyes our house was SOLD!!! 4 days, 7 showings and a big, fat SOLD sign in the front yard. We agreed to be out July 31st, and yes I started my traditional freaking out..... right about NOW!!! Even longer story short, after looking at every house in West Knoxville (this is no exaggeration) we went back to our original idea of wanting to build. We became those people that went back to our first neighborhood and decided to build again! We broke ground in August and were hopeful we would be in the house by Christmas... OK, {I} was hopeful, probably not realistic. Since things happened so fast, we couldn't find a house to rent for 6months that would allow both Jax and Ebby... #Problem!! So we worked things out with Mr.G's parents to move in with them for 5-6months. I know your thinking it, so keep thinking it... Moving on! We were very Thankful to have a free place to stay, and Jax was pretty excited to get to spend everyday with his Nini!!
Fast forward to December 2013, yea about that moving in by Christmas... didn't happen.. apparently construction workers like to start their Christmas holiday, oh about 2 weeks prior.. so moving in before Christmas wasn't happening. We agreed on Jan 8th 2013!!! We packed up all our crap and yes we have more crap than 5 people! We spent that first night in our house, mind you we nearly froze to death. Note to self, when moving into a new house in the dead of Winter, make sure all your heat is working... Thank the lord for an amazing group of movers in Volunteer Movers, even if they weren't our friends, I would still brag on the good job that they did moving ALL our stuff back into the new house!! Then my good friend volunteered to come over and help us unpack, which really was her cleaning, which I appreciated more than one would ever know! Followed by my mom coming down and helping with more unpacking and cleaning..

Wait for it.... We are going to Fast Forward again..

Ok- just kidding. slight rewind... I was laid off from work during all the fun last minute house things. It was traumatic and scary.. Not to toot my own horn but when I set my mind to something I'm not going to quit till I accomplish it. Finding a job was my top priority after the holidays. I started a new job, new field, new everything on Jan 13th! At this point, I was starting to think 2014 was for sure going to be the year of NEW for the Garza's!
We have been in our dream home for 10 months now!! Holy cow that seems so long... We have LOTS of work to still do too! We have rooms with no furniture (who needs those rooms) so if you come to visit us, well I hope there is only 2 of you because that's all the extra beds we have! oops..

Our house is directly behind the swimming pool in the neighborhood, many would think that was crazy.. but hey, I always wanted a pool but Mr.G always complained and had the "pools are a lot of maintenance and work" speech.. yea yea, whatever! So I got my pool, in my backdoor, granted I do have to share it with my closest....neighbors! We enjoyed the summer by the pool...some of us a little too much... {yea, I'll touch on 3RD DEGREE SUNBURNS in another post}

So hey, It's Fall Ya'll!!! What does Fall mean in Tennessee, well GO VOLS!!!! Tennessee football at its finest!! Sad fact - Mr.G took a job out of town in August :(.. When we moved back to Tennessee in 2011, I said I wasn't moving again.. yeah well, I aint moving again!!! In all seriousness, Mr.G got an amazing opportunity for his career and while I would be lying if I said I wasn't sad, hard etc.. It is what it is and we are making it work. Since meeting Mr.G 8 years ago, there hasn't been too many things that have been "easy" for us, so this is just another hurdle. The first couple of weeks that he was gone, I'm sure I cried more than I didn't.. but lets face it, since 2007, the longest we had ever been apart was 7 days.... yes my friends SEVEN DAYS.... People always used to tell me God only gives you as much as you can handle... I guess I'm pretty strong {yup, another post}

Hey peeps, I feel like I woke up and it was October!! What happened to Summer?? and August and well, Sept?! yea, no idea!!

In case your wondering, We still have our fur babies Jax and Ebby.. Ebby is starting to show some age with her nice white/grey whiskers and Jax, well he's Jax, spoiled, needy, diva, diva boy dog.. etc.. {he gives diva a new definition, he's laying beside me in the bed snoring, enough said}

I have SO many things I want to share with ya'll but I wanted you to be up to speed on where life had taken us the last couple of years.. Now your up to speed, so lets keep on rollin'!

Lots of exciting things to come!! Stay tuned!!
Leaving you with a few pics!

Well Hello there Blog world!!! WOW it's been a year {ok, longer than a year} since my last post!!


What brings me to writing a post at this late date you might be thinking? Well, I have decided that posting on this blog is something I WANT to do. I really enjoying writing and I feel like there are a lot of real life things that I can talk about and women can relate to!

My goal with this blog to share real life things! I read a lot of blogs and while many of them are so cute and "perfect" that isn't life, and that isn't reality! Life is messy, Life is spur of the moment! Life has lots of bumps and even some bruises! So with all that being said, I plan to talk about recipes, healthy, beauty and maybe some other things! I want this to be a fun and happy page where anything goes!!

So stay tuned for our FIRST official post!!!

a YEAR WOW!!!

Holy Cow!!! Its been almost a year since I last posted on this blog!! ahhh, goal FAIL!!!! i dont have an excuse.. so i'm not even going to try!!!

I cant even think of everything that has went on since last Sept (my last post) BUT I can surely tell you, we've been busy!!

In Nov. We had our early Thanksgiving with my family at house in TN. My cousin and her twins were able to come up and my grandmothers and parents. We had the food catered (which was great) there was no mess, no washing dishes, nothing!! it was a great time!! We then made the trip to CA for the annual MEXgiving! We had a great time as usual. I took my first trip to Disney Land too!! Actually, I went to both Disney World and Disney Land in one year, my friend Charli was probably extremly jealous of me!!HA We celebrated Michaels parents wedding anniversary while we were in LA along with celebrating the latest addition to the Garza family, Catalina. Beth and Beaver added another little girl to their clan!!! Almost enough for their own basketball team!!:)

On a Ride at Disney Land

Gabe, Janet and Michael (comparing belly size)

baby Catalina "Chocolate Milk Garza, CMG"

December was full of busy-ness.. Christmas (my favorite holiday), we put up our first REAL christmas tree in our new house!! it smelled so good!!

picking our our 1st REAL tree

My TN/UT Orange and White Tree

We had several events during the month of Dec! This year we tried something NEW. We hosted Christmas with the Garrett's at our house!!! I have always wanted to have Christmas at my house so we made it happen!! We had my grandmothers and parents down, along with my uncle and cousins. It was a lot of fun! we played games, opened presents ate alot!!

a VERY intest game of bingo!!

visiting the Nashville Garza's before xmas

Me and Celio

Me and Char Char

We spent New Years at the Club Le Conte with Matt Jen, Stefan and Katrina!  It was lots of fun!!!

Jan came and as the days passed we were getting ready for our Oldies Cruise with Michaels mom and dad!!This year was Southern Carribbean!! Boy was I excited!!!!

BUT before we could leave, we did something that was not in our "plan".... drumb roll please...... WE GOT A PUPPY!!! I saw his cute little face on the Humane Society's website.. and well the next thing we know we brought home this little white fur ball, we nammed Jax..

the night we brought him home!!!

sleeping with daddy!!!



sleeping with mommy!!!

This little guy has stolen our hearts!!! We were so sad/scared to leave him for a whole week to go on our cruise because we had only had him a week!! But luckily, we found Miss Rene and Jax was well taken care of while we were gone!! He was all of 15lbs when we brought him home at 15 weeks... Now he is a wopper at 50lbs!!! but he still cuddles up with us every night and sleeps in the bed!!

the Spring has come and gone.. i'm not sure what all took place.. but again it was busy!!!

Skipping Forward to CURRENT!!!

We took our FIRST Garza Family vacation to Destin 2 weeks ago!!! 16 people, 6 of which were under 10,in one house for a whole week!!! but we had a great time!! we had perfect weather, except for one day!! We have SO many pictures. I will make another post later and share some of the pics!!

As of Today, there is 23 days till its FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!!! we are beyond excited and ready for a GREAT season!! yahoo!!!