Litter Robot

Last fall a mouse made it into our house. My middle son had asked for a kitten for his house because of mice… then he was afraid one would be lonely so he ended up with two cats.  After deciding the cats were too much work we ended up with three cats at our house. They do seem to be looking for mice all the time, but they also spend time causing trouble, breaking things, and winding around our feet as we try to walk.

Having three cats in the house, I decided changing litter and cleaning it all the time needed a solution.  We had a self cleaning litter box that uses crystal and needed cleaned once a week, but the cats preferred regular clumping litter. A friend suggested the litter robot, and I just had to give it a try. The litter robot cleans itself and dumps all the clumps into a pull out drawer at the bottom.  The bag needs pulled out and replaced every couple days, but so much easier. 

The cats at first were scared of climbing into the rotating scary hole.   It took some effort to get them in.  I tried putting them in, and they spread out as wide as they could and clawed their way away.  Later I put a treat in and somehow convinced our cat Spice to get in.  Once Spice had used the Litter Robot for a day or so, Pumpkin (shown here) finally decided to get in.  Socks was last to get in. 

After the cats started using the Litter Robot, they quit using the other litter boxes.  I think they love that it’s a regular litter and always clean. Whenever it needs the bag emptied from the drawer and has stopped cleaning they come find me and start meowing.  Following me in and watching me until the drawer is emptied and the Litter Robot cycles.

The Litter Robot also has a wifi feature available that will let you look up usages and send you an alert on your phone when it’s time to empty the drawer. It seems to use less litter also because I’m just adding to it when I need it as opposed to having to completely replace the litter each week… and I love the no more scooping! 

 

Lemon Shrimp Scampi Flatbread

There are a few recipes for Lemon Shrimp Scampi Flatbread available. I originally used a kit from Home Chef to make this one and just throw together some ingredients to get the same taste.  If you have some flatbread and protein, yum!

On the stove cook some garlic, lemon, shrimp (or other protein), maybe some mushrooms – you can add to the list! Then put them on some flatbread that has been sprayed with oil.  

Bake for a short time in the oven around 400 degrees. 

 

Steamed Veggies

Our Home Chef meal tonight included some veggies that sounded like they should come out steamed but used a little water in a pan fry method. As I debate a way to make them healthier I decided steamed over rice should be a great choice. The veggies involved were broccoli florets and should have been cooked with a little salt and pepper, then garlic and lemon zest was added. My plan involved steaming them in my rice cooker (throwing in a little salt and pepper). After they finish adding the garlic and zest by stirring into the bowl is fairly easy and it’s ready to be served.

This meal also included a Lemon Aioli sauce and some grilled steaks with biscuits in the oven. The steaks were easy to simplify in the air fryer (10 minutes grilled on medium), which made the biscuits the only thing I really followed the recipe for.

Leftovers

Getting take out we are frequently left with pieces of leftovers such as little packets of butter. I’m not excited about the waste of plastic, but I also don’t want to waste the food which is already in our fridge…

In this case, I wanted to make macaroni and cheese. The boxed mac and cheese needed butter and milk, which I had leftover. The question in a movie we were watching came up recently asking why there is obesity in some countries and others have people dying of hunger. In reality, it’s even happening in the same country. Buying food that later goes to waste is so easy to do, one of the solutions is meal planning but we still can end up with some leftover pieces here and there. We order meals each week from Home Chef which covers part of our week, but even with that I sometimes have a few things left. Our meal from last night included Burgers and we only used half the onion – My husband isn’t big on onions…. so now the other half an onion is going to be put into something we use for another meal. Onion petals in the air fryer are one quick choice that comes to mind, but I can also add them to something else we make.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are a favorite of everyone around here. I’ve tried a few ways to make them including using sourdough starter that I feed every three days. I’ve tried using pie crust, which does make a nice treat… for a quick large cinnamon roll method though, I’ve found a method that uber simple and comes out with a nice option.

To start you just need the frozen bread dough loaves from the grocery store. I love to keep them on hand for holiday meals, setting them out the night before to raise and baking to have fresh bread for dinner. To make cinnamon rolls I first let the frozen bread dough thaw and rise. I love how the frozen loaves rise so well!

After the the number of loaves I want to use are ready, I roll them out as much as I can. For cinnamon rolls, I then pour melted butter on the top and spread it out with a spoon. For my rolls I sprinkle brown sugar on top and then some cinnamon. Adding nuts is a possibility, but I haven’t tried that yet….. I then roll up my dough and slice the log into pieces that I can lay out into my pan. Letting the rolls rise, they will become bigger… my first try I had cut my rolls too big and ended up with HUGE rolls. Luckily they taste the same!

After the rolls sat out and were ready for the over, I baked my rolls at 350 for about 20 minutes. I checked mine several times and it really was a case of trial and error based on the size of the rolls, type of pan, and type of bread dough. These came out great though. I had used five loaves of bread and shared with my aunt and a friend, which gave us four pans of rolls. YUM!