Friday Favorites #102

Happy Friday Foxy Friends! It's Friday woo hoo. Although I have a dentist appointment and a doctor appointment, when it rains it pours. That's what I get for making my dentist appointment 6 months prior, and not writing it down. Thank goodness for the reminders. Onto my favorites:

In case you missed it this week!

Monday: How To Organize Your Home from an Unorganized Person
Tuesday: Instant Pot Pot Roast
Wednesday: Leather Jacket Look + Life Lately

I'm over at The Blended Blog today, sharing some Friday Loves. What is Friday Loves? We figured that since we have 15 of us and between all of us, we probably read hundreds of blogs that we should start showcasing the posts that we love for the week. So each of us is taking a week and showcasing our favorites from the week. It's a link up so go link up your Friday Loves too! It can be blog posts, or just something you've loved that week, maybe you can be showcased the following week!

 

Last weekend was a pretty great weekend. Friday we ditched the kids and went to Korean BBQ with another couple. It was so nice to not have to chase kids around for the 1.5 hour wait, we got to chat and have real adult conversation.

 

 

When we got Mini Fox back from my parents, she had curlers in her hair. She loves when her hair is curly. This girl is all Sass.

 

 

Then Saturday was a busy day, I hit up my eyebrow lady in the morning, and then when we got back we hit up the most fantastic birthday party. Remember when I talked about the charity Thomas House? Well our good friends are on the board and decided to hold their girl's birthday parties at Thomas House so that everyone there could celebrate with them. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast! They had face painting.

 

 

They had a Puppy Farm...actually I don't know what it's called, but this lady raises puppies so and they also rent them out so that they can play and be around kids, it's the cutest thing EVER. Mini Fox was in heaven!

 

Meanwhile, Baby Fox was in a different kind of heaven, called Video Gaming Truck heaven. Baby Fox barely made it past the front gate.

 

 

It was so much fun to celebrate with friends, they are so generous.

 

 

Saturday night we headed to my aunts house for dinner. Yum, I always forget to take a picture of the most amazing spaghetti ever. We always request it when we go there, she says, you know I can make more than spaghetti...haha.  Everything always ends in their living room, with a dance party performance by this girl.

 

 

And then we started playing Monkey in the middle, Kudos to my uncle who is in his late 60's getting down to play with the kids.

 

 

Then it was time to take off the face paint and Baby Fox wanted to take off Mini Fox's and it might have been the cutest thing ever. Taking his job very seriously.

 

 

Sunday it rained ALL day, literally, it was down pouring for 8 straight hours, it was crazy, usually it is on and off pouring raining, but this was constant all day. Which gave us some time to clean the house and get stuff done without having to worry that the kids aren't outside playing. Baby Fox's Lego set got all mixed up and he couldn't finish it because the packages got mixed together, so I separated it for him. Yep I went through each direction and pulled out the pieces that he would need...and then he finished it in an hour.

The finished product:

 

 

Lately it's been super cold out, this is what the temp has been when I leave for work...brrr....Wow this picture makes my dashboard look super not dusty...but it totally is.

Can we just say #goals? She really maximizes here space...so do you think the kids would be okay with me turning their rooms into this when the move out? When can they move out?

 

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm off to a girls weekend with the bestie, so excited to get away!

 

Linking up here

What Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Foxy Friends! It's another weekly link up with The Blended Blog. Today I'm sharing my leather jacket that I got 2 Christmas's ago, and you know what? I haven't really worn it because the weather had been so nice, but we're actually getting something called a winter now, so I thought I would break it out. It is the softest thing in the whole world, now I just need to find places to wear it. Last weeks polka dot top was so popular that I thought I would share my other polka dot top. Two polka dot tops in a row for the win.  If you can't tell my shoes are polka dot too. Funny story about the shoes, they're actually Jessica Simpson and I saw them several years ago, but the last pair they had had a smudge on them, and I didn't want to pay all that money for a smudge shoe, so I said no and thought I can find them again...fast forward a YEAR later and I finally found them again! I snatched them up so fast.

 

 

It's the last Wednesday of the month and I finally remembered to link up with Shay, Mel and Sheaffer for What's Up Wednesday. Let's get started.



What we're eating this week:

Pot Roast! I'm all about my Instant Pot (affiliate link), you should be too! I was able to make this plus the mashed potatoes all in 2 hours! Instead of the normal 3.5-4 hours. It's nice to be able to make this after work, mid week comfort food is where it's at with this cold weather. Oh and the gravy is the bomb.com! So good, I could eat it by the truck load.

What I'm reminiscing about:

This little lady. She's starting preschool next week...waaahhh!!! How did she get old enough to be in preschool?

What I'm loving:

With my food allergies I hadn't been able to drink wine, I know! Right?! Anyway, after my allergy shots I am now finally able to drink wine. I haven't done any reds yet, but this white wine is soooooo darn good! It's from Costco and it's sweet and tastes oh so good. Notice how there isn't many in the container at Costco? Yep it's that good.

What we've been up to:

Trying to clean the house, seriously it's a mess in here, but I have a plan.

What I'm dreading:

Mini Fox starting school next week, she's so darn excited which is great, but it just seems like the start to the never ending school. No more are the day when we do nothing and have no where to go during the day. She actually starts school 40 minutes before Baby Fox.

What I'm working on:

Cleaning the house. Do you see a pattern here? I'm trying to organize, organize, organize. Next up is this cabinet...

What I'm excited about:

My weekend away with my bestie! It's been FOREVER and it's just the two of us and we're going to have a blast!

What I'm watching/reading:

Well I bought The Magnolia Story...but haven't read it yet, but I'm going to.

Watching The OA and 3%, both are on Netflix and you have to watch both, so good!

What I'm listening to:

Lot's of YouTube...my favorites at the moment. Seriously there are so many amazing artist on YouTube! You find anyone recently?

What I'm wearing:

See above, but here is a better shot of those shoes. I have no idea what I'm doing in this picture, well it was about to rain, so maybe a it might rain, let's get this done picture?

What I'm doing this weekend:

Hanging with the bestie. Provided that Mr. feels better...poor guy, he's not doing so good and it's day 3...

What I'm looking forward to next month:      

Utah! Mr. and I are headed to Park City to hit the slopes sans kids and it's going to be so fun! The last time we went was prior to Mini Fox being born, so it's been a while,  I hope I remember how to snowboard! Apparently I can't find any pictures of us, this must change. Although, I think we mostly leave everything behind because it's close to 0° and we think it's too cold for the electronics.

So what have you been up to lately?

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up here

Instant Pot Pot Roast Recipe

I'm over on The Blended Blog talking about my favorite new appliance, the Instant Pot! I'm adapted one of my favorite pot roast recipes so I can now make my favorite pot roast in half the time, woo hoo! 

Ingredients:

3-5 pounds Chuck Roast (make sure it can fit into your Instant Pot)
Salt and Peper
Oil (either olive oil or canola oil, any oil you prefer to cook with)
1-3 Red Onions (I prefer red onions and a lot of them, if you're not an onion person, just use 1, we like to eat the onions as a side dish, so for me the more the better)
3/4 cup of Apple Cider + a splash more if your roast is bigger
1/4 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar 
 4 Tablespoons of flour

Directions:

Step 1:

Make sure you're Instant Pot is connected correctly, with all of pieces in the correct place per instructions, i.e. the condensation collector, sealing rings, etc (most of these should already be in place when you buy it). Hit the Saute button, and wait for the screen to say HOT.

 

While you are waiting, salt and pepper your meat. When the screen says HOT, add 1 tablespoon of oil, wait a few seconds and add meat. Each side takes 10-15 minutes to fully sauté.

 

 

Step 2: 

While you are sauteing, cut onions. My family loves onions so I will cut 2-3 of them, I typically will cut off the end, cut it in half and the start making slices. When meat is done sauteing on both sides, add onions on top.

Step 3: 

Time for your liquid, turn your Instant Pot off. Measure out 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and fill the rest of your measuring cup with apple cider. If you have a bigger cut of meat you can go a little over the 1 cup mark, like 1 1/8, that's what I did when I had a 4.2 pound roast. Pour the liquid over the onions and meat and close lid, making sure your valve is set to "sealing" before you start. Press manual mode and set timer to 45-60 minutes. If you have a smaller roast set for the lower temp, if you have a bigger one set to the higher time.

Step 4:

Meanwhile, make these awesome Mashed Potatoes. Seriously, it's one pot, you add enough milk/butter/water to the pot so when the potatoes are done cooking, all you have to do is add butter and mash, no trying to pour hot water out, no extra dishes to do. Perfect.

Okay so that's not really step 4, but you should make them to go with, they are delicious! Step 4 is really, when the timer goes off, let the roast sit there for 10 minutes for a "natural" release. After the 10 minutes is up, carefully switch your valve to venting and take off lid. Side note: I let it go the other night for 30 minutes because I was doing other things, and it turned out perfect as well, so don't panic if you let it go too long.

Step 5: 

Scoop out the onions and place into a separate container and save for when food is served. Then carefully take out the meat and place on cutting board (preferably with the juice channel, so they don't go all over the counter). The meat will be falling apart, so most likely it will not come all in one piece. 

Take the juices and pour into a separate container, you're going to need it to separate so you can get the fat.

Take 4 tablespoons of the fat and put into sauce pan. Heat up and whisk in 4 tablespoons of flour, whisk continuously until it turns a light brown color (should take 3-5 minutes).

Measure the juice without the fat to 2 cups, if you don't have enough juice you can substitute with water. Whisk the 2 cups of juice to the flour mixture, once all incorporated let simmer until desired thickness.

This will take about 10-15 minutes. I always like to make more gravy depending on how many people are coming for dinner.

I made a handy chart of measurements in case you want more gravy than 2 cups (which really comes out to about a cup of actual gravy).

Step 6:

Enjoy! This is such a yummy and easy meal to prepare and it only takes 2 hours from start to finish, including the gravy! I know you want to go out and get an Instant Pot (affiliate link) now, right?!

Linking up here