Hello and welcome to my mind. Maybe I should be wishing you luck with it since my mind currently runs at warp speed x 234,984,984,234,643. I will use my powers of good to focus it down into consumable and helpful bites.

I am a Christian, firewife, mom of 3 (one mine, one his, one ours – did I mention we are a blended family?), entrepreneur and creator of a small virtual business, coffee and chocolate overconsumer, Minnesota native, Colorado-raised, current Texan, outdoors supporter, avid reader, sometimes crafty, amateur baker, and always curious about #allthethings.

That being said, I got the itch a couple years ago to write out my thoughts, experiences, lessons, tips, hacks, and inspiration for all the others who somehow manage to make this juggling act look graceful.

Because we know it’s not. It’s challenging. Tears some days, uncontrollable laughter others. 

Most days it is a matter of remembering to enjoy every moment in between surviving all the to dos and schedules that fill our spinning brains.

And praise to those moms, business owners, homemakers, and their husbands who can make this walk look smooth and easy, or actually have it BE that way in real life!

I don’t know how many of you reading this already know this unbelievable time saving trick that literally made me want to cook more…no really. It did.

I was starting off with the incredibly easy dinner for a busy day – Crockpot Salsa Chicken.

Throw 3-4 chicken breasts in your crockpot, add in a 16 oz jar of any kind of salsa, then I tossed in a block of cream cheese just for fun. Cooked on high for 4-5 hours. Done! Dinner served.

Except by that point, I got the great idea to make loaded nachos for dinner, so I was planning to shred the chicken. As a fanatical reader of all things, I found some comment on one of the many threads I read on a shredded chicken recipe. 

Get this.

Put the cooked chicken breasts into your stand mixer with a flat paddle (somewhere between 3-5 speed) and watch it until it is shredded to preference. 

For. Real. It worked!

I did this, immediately ran out to the living room and exclaimed to my husband, “Babe! You’re never going to believe what I learned!” Then proceeded to bore him with my newest kitchen revelation as he wondered when dinner would be done.

From now on my family will be having shredded meat dinners only.

Kidding! Sort of.

But honestly, shredding with forks will never be acceptable to me again. This hack opened up my world. Aaaaand now I have carnitas (shredded pork) and spicy italian beef (shredded beef) on the menu for next week. 

Here are the five kitchen hacks I have learned that have really stood out among the rest lately:

1. Make perfect hard boiled eggs in your pressure cooker.
2. Get tiny containers/baskets from the dollar store to organize your kitchen drawers.
3. Sprinkle cinnamon over the coffee grounds before you brew the coffee for a delicious twist on regular coffee.
4. Use your stand mixer to shred cooked meat fast.
5. Bake your bacon on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in the oven for the world’s tastiest perfectly done bacon.

So fill me in. Spill the secrets! Tell me what tricks you find to make your kitchen a happy place again!