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Sunday, April 24, 2011

A little change!

YIKES! ive been away for a while... Life is crazy...Im thinking I may have to give something up...maybe the blog... hmmmm we will see
  So today  dont have a menu to share with you. My mom is in town and we leave for Vegas on Wed so its a fend for yourself (last minutes meals) kind of week... but I do have a good recipe to share with you! It was great!
Cajun Honey Wings

1/4 cup Ketchup
1 cup water
3/4 cup vinegar
1 Tbsp Veg oil
1/3 cup honey
4 tsp Emerils Essence
1 Tbsp minced canned green chilis
1 1/4 tsp chili powder
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1/8 tsp thyme

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until thickened. Toss in fried wings or strips.

SUPER GOOD

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

FHE Swap

One of my super smart friends held a Family Home Evening Swap tonight. I was sad that I had to just drop off my stuff and run but I am thrilled with the idea... here is how it works. You make on really great FHE lesson and then you make how ever many copies of it that you need so everyone gets one. (we had 5 girls so I made 5 copies) then you go and exchange them so you leave with 5 different lessons! Sweet eh??
  I will admit that I didnt come up with my lesson idea entirely on my own. I found it on one of those old school books I got from my moms basement. They are GREAT!!!
  My lesson is about Dinosaurs that have no manners... like Rude Rex and Butt in Bronto. There is a stick puppet lesson about the dinos that teaches how being mean makes others feel and how to have good manners. Then you play Dino bone match. There are kind words and sayings on each card.
  I cant wait to get a chance to look through the other lessons I got!
I will for sure have to do a FHE swap again!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Vegas Prep

I am super excited! In just over a week I will be going on a girls trip with my Mom and sister to VEGAS. I have been frantically trying to lose some weight for the big trip! (it hasnt worked... because even though I bike for 45 minutes, 6 days a week... I have started snacking more then I should!)
  But as excited as I am to go I am also very nervous. This will be the first time I am away, over night from my little Owen... and even jaxon has only been away from me for one night when he went camping with dad when he was 18 months old... Im sure they will be fine... I think Ill have a harder time! Im going to miss them so much.
  Part of my Vegas prep has been to do little things to help the boys because Im assuming/hoping they miss me at least a little. One of the things I thought of doing was recording bedtime stories. My kids adore books. (yay!) every night we read stories. I love that time with them. Tim always offers to read the stories because I am exhasuted by that point of the day but Jaxon insists on me reading them to him... So I decided to record a few of his favorites onto Tims iphone..That way if they want mommy to read stories he can hold the book and turn the pages while I "read" the stories to them.
  hope it helps!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

This Life of Mine will kill Me!

Ok its official! My Life is crazy!!! or maybe Im crazy for trying to get so much done. Either way If I survive the next few weeks to get to Vegas... Ill be amazed! So in order to hopefully ease some of the Insanity this week I made sure to plan out dinner this week...one less this to think about right?!?!
Monday - Chicken Club Pizza
Tuesday - Breakfast
Wednesday - Hoisin Glazed Chicken
Thursday - Boneless chicken Wings
friday - Pretzel Sammies
Saturday - Spanish style Noodles
Sunday - Easter Dinner (thank goodness my mom is here and will cook that one!)

Yes yes.. I also decided that since like isnt crazy enough Id try 3 new recipes this week!
Wish me LUCK!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Wingin' It

I love Chicken Wings! (Yes I know...I love alot of food!) I am constantly on the search for good wing recipes. There are so many recipes out there are I have a hard time finding many that I actually really enjoy enough to make again. But this recipe is fantastic. There is enough heat behind it to make your mouth warm, but there is still a really nice sweet ending to it. I love spicy food... but not spicy so that you taste nothing else. I should have know this would be a great one though seeing how the wonderful Bobby Flay come up with the recipe!

Bobby Flay's Hot Wings
2 Tbsp Ancho Chili powder
1/2 cup red wine Vinegar
2 Tbsp pureed chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
2 Tbsp Honey
1 stick butter

In a small sauce pan bring vinegar, chipotle puree, ancho chili powder and Chili powder to a simmer. Remove from heat and add mustard, honey and butter, Whisk until smooth. Add to wings and toss to coat.

So Bobby Flay breaded his own wings and deep fried them of course... but I just bought some breaded wings from M&M Meats and baked them in the oven. It worked wonderfully!


Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A Great Cause

Hello All!
  I promise I will try to be more diligent in posting on this blog in the future... but lets face it... life is a little crazy at times!
  Anyways... in the mean time here is another blog for you to check out! Its a great cause and one of my friends is going to be helped by it and then I have other Super talented friends who are auctioning stuff off!
http://sweetpeabenefitboutique.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Food for a Crazy Week

The Calm and boredom I felt last week is definately a thing of the past. This week is looking a little rediculous! I have to take Jaxon to school M/W/F morning, Tuesday morning Jaxon and I both have dentist appts, Tuesday evening I have Stamp club, Wed evening I have YW, Thursday evening I have leadership training and Saturday I have to go to dinner at the inlaws... and then there is of course all the normal chores... I hear you out there... WHINE WHINE WHINE! ok.. I get it... life is rough Ill suck it up!
  So what to cook this week... I have a massive amount of chicken in this house... so I think Ill make use of it
Monday - Chicken Parm.
Tuesday - Fried Rice
Wednesday - Chicken Wings
Thursday - Bourbon Chicken
Friday - Pork Stir Fry
Saturday - at the inlaws
Sunday - leftovers

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookie Smoothie

Yep you heard me right... Chocolate Chip Cooke Smoothie. Im pretty sure I have mentioned it once or twice before but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Food Network Magazine. In the April issue (I just got my May issue bytheway!) they included a booklet with 50 smoothie recipes and this one was in it. I think Id call it more a milkshake... but they said smoothie. To me a smoothie is healthy. This diffinately is not!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Smoothie
Add 1 cup each Vanilla ice cream, milk and crumbled Chocolate chip cookies (about 3 cookies) and 1/4 cup mini Chocolate chips to a blender and combine.

This smoothie is yummy. It tastes just like a liquid cookie. But there are a couple downsides. All my chocolate chips sunk to the bottom of the glass and I had to keep stiring it before I could drink it. And it was gritty from the cookie curmbs. But it was yummy!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Card Exchange

Its almost time for the card exchange. I must say after seeing all the super cute, creative and beyond amazing cards that my friends made last time I was really feeling the pressure. Well its nothing fancy I think its a cute card... here's hoping its up to everyone's standards... sorry for being so remedial ladies...
Front

Inside
So... is it cute??

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Multigrain Bread

Is there anything better then the smell of freshly baked bread??? I have a carb maniac. I love bread, pasta, crackers... anything that is high in Carbs... yep I know its a diet killer! Since I love bread I also love my bread machine. Someone once told me that bread from a bread machine isnt real homemade bread. To which I said "If you can show me how to make fresh homemade bread and keep my house clean and watch my two beyond insane little boys Im all in." So I HAPPILY use my bread machine!
  here is the recipe I use most often!
Multgrain Bread

1 1/4 cup water
2 tbsp Butter
3 Tbsp Honey
1 1/2 cup white flour
1 1/3 cup Multigrain flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp yeast
3/4 cup Sunflower seeds

Add ingredients according to the manufacturer's directions.

Ok... I just thought of something better then the smell of fresh bread... the TASTE!

Now Im off to scrub my kitchen table because my little monster decided paper wasnt good enough for him and apparently washable markers are really washable...

Monday, April 4, 2011

Girls (and Kids) night In

As I mentioned yesterday this weekend was General Conference. That meant saturday evening all our men folk ditched the wives and went to watch the Priesthood session. Instantly I thought... "Perfect time to have the ladies over" and of course since the hubbies were all gone the kids come over too. It was a great time. All I did was have a bunch of desserts and a friend brought punch and we turned on a movie and let the kids play/watch a movie and the Moms got to eat and chat. Made my evening go by a lot fast and was alot more enjoyable then hanging out by myself with my two wild ones.
  So what did I serve...Candy Cane doughnuts, Sugar cookies, Andes mint chip cookies and a peach crisp.
I think I may have to make this a regular occurance.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Slack Week!

Every Sunday I sit down with my calendar and make up a week plan. I find things less overwhelming if I can look at it just a week at a time. I was shocked when I realized that I have next to nothing going on this week! (yes I know, now that I said that something will explode and life will fall into chaos) I have just the standard school and YW and then nothing else. I guess I will really have no reason to not get my house clean and do some other projects Ive been avoiding! Plus there is one big project I'd like to get done before I head to Vegas for my girls trip in just over 3 weeks! But as I sit here I glance down at next week... YIKES thank goodness I have nothing this week because next week is insane!
   Did everyone enjoy General Conference this weekend??? (if you dont know what Im talking about Im more then happy to give you more info on it!) I actually got to catch a far more then I normally do. I did miss alot of it still but Iim really looking forward to studying the talks in the Ensign next month.
  So... on to the weekly menu;
Monday - Ribs
Tuesday - Chicken stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta
Wednesday - Chicken Fingers
Thursday - Maple Pork Chops
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Bang Bang Shrimp
Sunday - Leftovers
  This habit I have gotten into of having leftovers on Sunday makes me laugh now... as I near the end of the week my Tupperware cupboard is basically empty and my fridge is over flowing... but then Sunday rolls around the now my fridge is empty and the cupboard (ok at this moment its the dishwasher) is full!
  Hmmm... maybe with all this free time I have I can scrapbook or be crafty!

Friday, April 1, 2011

April's Fool

Hooray for a new month! That means it was time for a new book for the boys! I dont know how he did it but he picked out a very appropriate April Fools day book! Its called Awkward Aardvark. This is still part of the African series that we are trying really hard to keep with for all of 2011. The artwork in these books is amazing. I have always wanted to go to Africa and reading these books and looking at the pictures makes me want to go even more... some day...
  Anyways, This story is super cute. Its about an Aardvark (imagine eh?) who is snoring so much its keeping his mongoose neighbour awake all night. The mongoose gets tired of the snoring and enlists some of his jungle friends to help pester the aardvark. Nothing they do works and the snoring only gets worse, until the aardvarks tree falls over. He is so upset to have lost his resting place that the demands to know who did it. Turns out it was a swarm of termites. Aardvarks vows to eat all of them for eating his tree... animal justice! But the Termites hide all day and only come out in the cool night so aardvark becomes nocturnal so he can eat them and Mongoose is no longer kept awake by the snoring!