Meat-in-the-Foil Recipe

It may not sound appitizing to some of you, but just let me say, it is SUPER yummy. Another good thing: it is easy to make. For mom's who maybe have a short time to whip something up and then have to run to pick up a kid from soccer practice, band rehearsal, the babysitter's, or if you just want something fast to prepare and then relax... this is a meal for you!

This meal is also easily adjusted for a slow-cooker recipe and can even be done with roast instead of steaks -- I'll share that after the initial recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• Round Steaks (or whatever steak you prefer) up to maybe 5
• 6 Potatoes, peeled and cut
• carrots, cut (or use baby carrots whole)
• 2 TBs butter
• 1 package Lipton's Onion Soup Mix

DIRECTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 425*
• lay out foil on cookie sheet. I use two pieces of foil to create a "bag". If you don't want to actually use foil, I believe you can also use those oven bags.
• place your meat in the foil

• peel and cut up the potatoes. Choose whichever way to cut you like. You can even thinly slice if you want. Then place with the meat. If you choose to use red potatoes instead of russet it is not necessary to peel, unless you want to.

You could, instead, use a bag or two of these... which I've done on occassion. Found in the frozen food section, though I find they absorb a bit of a metallic taste so I like to use unfrozen.

• Take the package of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix and dump it on top of the meat & potatoes. This is also where you would add your carrots. I personally don't like cooked carrots so we don't include that in our meal.

• Top with the butter. You could also add some water since often the meat will come out tough.

• Close up the foil by folding over and slightly rolling to prevent steam from escaping.

• Place in oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
• When finished, romove from oven, allow to sit for a few minutes then open SLOWLY. The steam is hot and can burn.
• Dish out and enjoy!



I know some people will gasp that I have 2 major starches (potatoes and corn) for dinner, but darn it, I like corn!



Now for the Roast version:

Same as above, just use a roast instead of the steaks

And the Slow Cooker Version:

Same ingredients but be sure to add a cup or more of water for the broth. You can then make gravy from it or just serve the meat with the juice.

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker (steaks or pot roast chunk).

Cook on high 3-4 hours.

Happy Cooking!

Milspouse Weekly Roundup

Welcome to the Milspouse Weekly Roundup!

Wife on the Rollar Coaster started this up so all us busy military spouses can link up our favorite post for the week. It is a quick and easy way to catch up with favorite bloggers -- and meet new ones! Thank you to my friend Poekitten at Many Waters for passing this on to me to host this week!

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So Hello! I'm Sierra and this is my little blog, The Tervo Times. It's my place to keep family and friends informed on the going-ons in our family, post recipes I enjoy, update on my son's therapies, and sometimes just write about whatever comes into my head I feel like sharing. Soon to come, some book reviews.

I've been military my whole life; born and raised a Navy brat. After my dad retired we stayed in beautiful Washington State where I continued on to college and met my future husband in AFROTC. Not long after, we got married and the Air Force sent us to Japan for 4 years!



Me and Ryan on our wedding day March 2005



Getting ready to climb Mt. Fuji. Yes, we did make it to the top and if you ever get the chance -- do it!



While in Japan we had our first child, William, in March 2008. Then a few months before we left we became pregnant with our second child, Alanna, who was born at our new station in New Mexico in April 2010.



Here are my little ones at the Easter Egg hunt last weekend.



And rounding out our family is our little dog, Maya. We had a lot of training issues in the beginning (some of which you can find in earlier blog posts) but she is a great dog and seems to have conquered those house training flaws.



Maya the Havanese

We LOVE living in New Mexico. The weather is nearly always gorgeous and the desert truly has its own beauty. Yeah, there is a lot of crime outside the gates of the base, but that is fairly common for any large city. To be honest, I wouldn't mind staying here for many more years -- military willing.

Some things I enjoy:

my family, Netflix, theatre, sewing, being with friends,

sight-seeing, singing, vacationing, long car rides,
baking, reading, and the onsen

Some things I don't enjoy:
laundry, mean people on the phone, stinky plane rides,
traffic, cockroaches, being sick,
black coffee, and dirty sink traps

Life isn't all sunshine, rainbows and roses. We do have challenges. Currently we have been working very hard with our son who has Apraxia, a severe speech disorder. It can be difficult traversing the special education system, trying therapies, and now we're approaching our time of fighting TriCare for services after aging out of the Early Intervention Program. But, he is making wonderful progress and I'm very proud.

Please look around on my blog, check previous posts to get to know me. I do read every comment that comes my way and happily read through e-mails sent as well.

Next week link up with Maria at Personalized Sketches & Sentiments who will host. She was very eager for the job and after checking out her blog you will find she has some rich history as well as talent!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to link up below!



A small... what?!

The wind is truly in an uproar today. No joke we are having spring weather in Albuquerque today. So... the kids and I are staying indoors.

Speaking of the kids, Lana is spending more time in bed sleeping today than she is awake. She sort of did the same thing yesterday. Not that I should be complaining, but I do like to play with my baby. Maybe she's growing a bunch as well as teething - which seems to be never-ending and she only has 3 teeth! Also, she's had a cough and runny nose the last few days but no fever. I hope she feels back to normal soon.

Update on Will: he is talking MORE! He's trying to say "bike" "keys" "cold" "hot" and is overall communicating verbally more often. We are definitely in a growth of speech right now and I'm loving it. During therapy it was obvious he knew the names and sounds of all the animals he just can't quite get them all to come out sounding right.

We got a call from the pediatric clinic yesterday about the MRI Will had a while ago. Apparently they found something they consider "non-specific" because more testing will be required to find out if it is a problem or not. What is it? Well, it seems that Will has a 'small' pituitary gland. This could be a cause for his lack in growth, then again, it could be nothing. We're now waiting for our referral to the endocrinologist (should be here in a week or so) for the next step.

Whew...

Easter Time! (and some birthday stuff)

Tuesday was Alanna's 1st birthday! Here are pics of our little family celebration.



Some birthday decorations



checking out the cards and opening gifts



She didn't really want to wear her little 1st Birthday Crown

 

But she was excited about that cupcake!



As you can tell, she REALLY liked it! YUMMMM!



Will also enjoyed our little party!

  

Saturday we went to the church Easter Egg Hunt and Party. It is open to the community so there were LOTS of people there. Will and Lana were in the young kids "hunt".

Ready with the baskets to get some eggs.

Alanna had a hard time learning that you don't just hang onto the eggs, you put them in the basket. But it turned out okay, especially since one of the eggs she wouldn't let go of contained a $100 gift certificate to a local photo studio.

Will was in the swing of things on how to get the eggs, but I think he was distracted by the amount of people and all the other little kids.

Afterwards, Lana passed out on the way over to the church.

Will had a BLAST in the bouncy house.

When Lana woke up she was happy to wander around.

This was the giant bouncy slide. After going with assistance in climbing the ladder and sliding down, Will conquered doing it all by himself! Below is video of him doing it.

That evening we dyed our Easter Eggs. I went with the camo design kit, but they didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. This year Will had fun and kept wanting to put more and more eggs in the dye. By this point in the evening I think Alanna had had enough and wasn't very interested.

All the eggs



A special egg for me -- and the stickers actually worked.



Sunday morning I had to be at church early because I was part of the singing group. Ryan had to get the kids ready by himself that is why we don't have any cute pics of them together. And since we had some communication errors and then Lana fell asleep before we got home, we didn't get a family photo. Bummer.



I actually wore a dress and showed off my pastey legs! I hadn't bought a new dress in about 3 years so this was a big deal for me.




Our Easter basket haul. I guess the Easter bunny REALLY likes us.

  

Will with his Easter basket in his special handsome outfit.

Here's Alanna in her Easter dress. She had just woken up from her nap, hence the crazy hair, no shoes, and no head bow.

Alanna checking out her basket.

So overall we had a VERY busy, full and fun Easter weekend. And of course we know the true meaning of Easter ---

HE IS RISEN!



The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

(You can use this)

Welcome to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly! I like to blog about my days and weeks but sometimes it's good to just give a summary of what went on.
Simple enough.
Guidelines:
You don't have to be a follower, but I would like for you to stick around. I don't follow everybody, but if you link up I'll be sure to check your blog out!
Type up your post for the highlights to your week;
good, bad, and ugly.
Click on the linky and add your info.
The URL for your Good, Bad & Ugly post will be just fine.
Oh, and this isn't a guideline, but come back next week too!
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Now for My week!

The Good:

· Will has started making more understandable sounds (at least to those closest to him) which is a HUGE step in the process of talking.

· I found an Easter Dress to actually wear this year at church.

· Alanna had her first birthday and it looks like her 4^th tooth is FINALLY breaking through the gums.

· We went to the church Easter Egg Hunt and had a blast. Alanna even picked up one egg that had a $100 gift certificate to a local photo studio. Also, Will climbed up the HUGE bouncy slide, by himself, twice – something we’d been working on in therapy.

· The new season of Dr. Who started this evening.

· Insurance is reimbursing us the full amount of the damage we reported to them on our personal stuff.

The Bad:

· I finally get a ton of laundry done and then more gets piled up. I swear, it’s those evil laundry gnomes! You all know how much I HATE laundry.

· Will fell while playing on Alanna’s new toy, smacking his forehead on the handle of one of our movie cases then face planted into the glass door. He now has a big bruise to show off at Easter.

The Ugly:

· Ryan missed out on all the wonderful fun and memory making because he had to work… and is still there over 12 hours later.

· I just learned that a childhood friend of mine’s mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer and, though not aggressive, will need surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Prayers please.

· I made resurrection cookies with the kids this evening… but I don’t think they are going to turn out right. Not sure what I did wrong. Maybe it’s the elevation? Too much sugar? A little bit of yolk got in the egg whites?? We’ll find out tomorrow morning.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In & Weekly RoundUp

It's that time again! Check out Wife of a Sailor's blog to answer the questions and link up.

This Week:

1. How many pets do you have? And what type? submitted by Life and Times of a Displaced Jersey Girl
We just have our one dog, Maya. She is a full bred Havanese. I fell in love with the breed while working at the Pet Boarding Facility in Japan. When we moved back to the states I started looking for breeders. We picked Maya from a breeder in Colorado since she was the only female of the litter and was available in the time frame we wanted a dog. Maya is GREAT with the kids, very submissive and NEVER sheds.

2. What are your favorite projects to do while hubby is away? submitted by my-inspired-nest
I like to get more thorough cleaning and organizing done. And since my evenings are available I do some sewing, online stuff and watch movies he doesn’t care for.

3. What are the must-haves in your deployment care packages? submitted by Christine’s Little Blog
I like to send pictures, letters and favorite snacks and homebaked goods. For my female friends I’ll include their preferred feminine supplies since those are not always readily available to them. I also like to send candy – not just for the service member because they usually always share with the local kids.

4. If you could star in any TV show, which would it be? submitted by Just a Girl

I’d like to be in Dr. Who. Yes, I’m a Dr. Who fan and cannot wait for the new season to start this weekend! I know it isn’t real, but it would be fun to play in the TARDIS and hang with Matt Smith. Too bad David Tennant is gone… I loved that guy.

5. What was the biggest hurdle that you faced during your/your significant other’s first deployment? submitted by The Pavlik Perspective
We’ve never had a deployment to go through. The longest we’ve been apart is, I think, 2 or 3 months. During that time it sucked being alone (no kids at the time) but I stayed busy with school, work and the gym. If he were to be gone now I think it’d be hard explaining to Will why Daddy is gone when he cries for him.

By the Way... my friend PoeKitten at Many Waters is hosting the MilSpouse Weekly RoundUp. Next week I get to host! Hope to see you then!

On a Historical Event

Just as I went to write this blog I noticed it was my 200th post! Whoo!

Things have been pretty busy lately. Therapies, Alanna's birthday, bible study, choir practice, Easter shopping, and trying to keep this house together. I made progress with Mt. Laundry today; he's more of a hill now.

Can I just say how BEAUTIFUL the weather in Albuquerque has been? Love it! I mean, Washington is beautiful and all, I enjoy all the green... but there is a reason it is so green. It's called RAIN. Yeah... we don't get too much of that down here. Right now we are dealing with the Spring Wind, which is annoying, but we still have lovely clear blue skies and sunshine.

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Now, is anybody out there excited for the Royal Wedding? William and Kate? To be honest, I kinda am. I don't think I'll stay up uber late or get up early to watch it, but I might DVR the ceremony to watch when I have time to sit and enjoy it. How often do we get to see an heir to the throne get married? It's historical!

While at the BX the other day there was a group of non-American military members standing in front of me at the food court. I noticed by their uniforms they were British so I struck up a conversation with them. Nice people, really. I love the English! (If you're reading this Jayne - I miss you!!!) During our talking the food server asked them about the Royal Wedding and they gave that roll your eyes, smile politely, annoyed look. I laughed. They'd been getting those questions a lot lately.

And, no, they were not excited about the ceremony. But they are happy to be getting that day off.

I think the British Monarchy is something interesting... yet us Americans don't really have something to equate it to. I mean, we had the Revolutionary War to prevent that from happening. LOL.

Then I thought, well, when Chelsea Clinton (daughter of a former President) got married I really couldn't have cared less. I don't even know the name of the guy she married or where it happened. Then again, I doubt she will be a future ruler of our country so it's not very history making.

I debated on throwing a little wedding party with tea and scones and those adorable little sandwitches to have a nice time, but I think it'll be a bit more work than I want to take on. Maybe for the next Royal Wedding, eh??

So, are you going to watch the wedding? Are you even interested?

Happy #1!

I can't believe it's been a year!

Happy Birthday to my little girl!

From This:

To This:
You are my very precious, determined, full of life and blessed daughter.

Jeremiah 29:11