I'm not allowed to complain

Alrighty. Football season has started. And again, Drew is helping to coach, is the water boy, and is taking pictures. I'm adding the photos to the photo album (a link to the right) and trying to maintain the team's website. I say trying because it's a bit confusing to manuever through the creator's program (a man must have written the program!), but I think I've finally got it. Last year, the time we had to put into the football program, with all the practices and games, was overwhelming. I guess I brought my exhaustion to work, so my colleague Vicki says that since we don't say no to anything, I'm not allowed to complain about being taxed. So I'm not.

Actually, since I now know what to expect, I'm actually enjoying going to practices and looking forward to the games. Practice is 5 miles from the house and I've been riding my bike there everyday. It takes me about half an hour, but it gets me out and saves me from sitting on the couch eating chips. I haven't lost any weight yet, but at least I'm not gaining any either. I pass a lot of men on the bike trail (and a lady or two) and they're all wearing their colorful biking shirts and shorts. My goal is to get my behind small enough to look okay in some of those padded shorts and not spill over the edges of the seat. Oh, that's a terrible visual. Don't try to picture that!

Another thing that's helped is that I'm planning ahead with the dinners and making friends with my crock pot. Here is what I cooked last night. Not great, more of a Hamburger Helper type meal, with way too much pre-prep work. But the boys really liked it. So if you have kids, and want a cheap meal that you can make and walk away from, this works:

Pizza in a Pot

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14 oz. jar of pizza sauce
2 Tbs. tomato paste
3 C. spiral pasta, cooked and drained
2 3.5 oz. packages sliced pepperoni (why didn't they just say 7 ounces?)
2 C. (8 oz) mozzarella cheese

Cook the beef, green pepper and onion until meat is no longer pink. Stir in tomato sauce, pizza sauce and tomato paste.

In the slow cooker, layer the pasta, beef mixture, pepperoni and cheese. Cook on low 3-4 hours or until heated through.

This is what I mean by having a lot of prep work. You have to cook the meat and the pasta, so why bother with a slow cooker. You could just put it in the oven. But if you choose to try this, here are my comments. One, don't cook overcook the pasta, because they get too soft in the crock pot if you do. Also, I pulled everything together the night before and put it in the fridge, so it was cold when it went into the crock. So I'm not sure low would have gotten it hot enough in 3-4 hours. Maybe. But I turned it up to high after two hours and it was plenty hot at four hours. But other than, it was okay for something warm to feed the kids after a busy day. Oh, I didn't have any green pepper, so we went without and it was still fine. I think you could throw in anything you put on a pizza - olives, anchovies, whatever.