When can I consider my dog house trained?

Hello. Your site has been helpful in getting us to train our 5-month old lab retriever using a crate, and it's prevented any more yellow urine stains on our off-white carpet (we've found that the product "Nature's Miracle" works wonderfully at getting both the stain and the smell out of the carpet). Annie seems to be taking to the crate fairly well. I just have a few questions regarding her behavior. We realized we needed a crate when after a week of taking her out every hour or so, she'd still not urinate (she'd poop outside) even if she had to, and then, after 10 minutes inside, she'd urinate on the rug. She wasn't making the connection outside=urinate. I'm hoping the crate helps her to do that.

My questions:

(1) She doesn't eat voraciously, nor does she finish her meal(s) in one short time period. Sometimes, she won't even touch her meal until the afternoon or evening. So it's really hard to set her on any kind of schedule for regularity, because she eats later, when she wants to, rather than in the morning, when we put the food down for her. I hate to put down a whole bowl of food for her, and then take it up and throw it away only to refuse to let her eat for the rest of the day -- that seems wrong. Any suggestions?

(2) How do you know when she finally IS housebroken? She's spending so much time in the crate, how does one tell that she's gotten it?

Thanks!
Miriam