My New Love

I have a new love and I think every mother, especially mothers of ACTIVE boys should meet. It's Tide Stain Release. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. My boys are always getting grass stains and dirt and filth and who knows what else all over them. And my three year old is slightly OCD I think because the filth bothers him (once all the fun is over) but I never have time and rarely remember when I do have time to spray clothes. So normally I pull out a nice white shirt with a big brown blotch on it and go.. "Oh yeah I wanted to spray that" But not anymore. Tide stain release is great! It gets most everything out. So now I just add a cap full with all my laundry detergent, every load just to be safe! So it gets my stamp of approval... give it a try!

Waffles

I have started my Little Owen on real food. We are now trying to not give him baby food, just have him eat normal food. So far its gone pretty good. His favorite breakfast is now waffles! But I can't blame him I love me some waffles.

This is a killer waffle recipe.

Cinnamon Sugar Waffles
2 Eggs
1 3/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups flour
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Whisk everything together!

It's just that simple!

Snickerdoodles

I don't know what it is about a snickerdoodle, they are the simplest cookie I know how to make, and yet I just devour them! They are one of my favorites for sure!

SNICKERDOODLES1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

topping
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

1)Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) use an electric mixer on medium to combine butter, sugars, egg and vanilla
3)In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar
4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the electric mixer until smooth
5) Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl
6) Roll 1 Tbsp of dough into a bowl and dip the top into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place sugar side up on a baking sheet.
7) Bake for 15 mnutes, until light brown

I made up a batch of these for a friend this afternoon and I had to quickly put them in a sealed bag so I wouldnt eat them all! These are one of Jaxon and Owen's favorite too! Jaxon thought today was an extra special day since we spent the morning out at the lake and made snickerdoodles in the afternoon!

About to start Another week!

To begin Ill apologize... this will not be the most exciting post... its been a crazy weekend and I just cant wrap my head around what to post for you. What did you do this weekend?? I had my parents in town to watch my two little monsters, I mean boys, while me and my sweetheart attended the wedding of one of my dearest Friends. So since the wedding creeped up on me I spent my saturday doing the last 18 pages of a 40 page scrapbook I had been preparing for her. Just layouts so she could just add pictures! Then Saturday we were gone all day in Cardston at the wedding a reception. It was beautiful! Made me realize just how much me and her had been through and how much I truly adore and love her. What a gorgeous bride.
  So now its time to face another week. What's on yrou plate this week?? Over here we have a beach date tomorrow, a visit to Heritage Park on Tuesday, a Canada Day BBQ on Thursday and I think thats about it, other then the regular mom stuff. So hopefully it all goes smoothly.
   One thing I have managed to get crossed off my to do list already this week is a menu so here it is
Monday - BBQ Burgers (tis the season)
Thuesday - Baked Ziti (yes I made this last week, but I bought too much stuff and still have lots so since Ill be feeding the Elders I figured why not do it again!)
Wednesday - Dragon Fire chicken with Kung Pow Rice (love it!)
Thursday - Canada Day BBQ with Friends (Oh Canada)
Friday - Smokies and mashed potatoes
Saturday - Pizza (not sure what kind yet... but I have a week to play with it)
Sunday - leftovers
  Oh today Jaxon had to bring snack to Nursery and my mom taught me the cutest and yummiest snack! I told her I wanted to make cinnamon twists and this is what she taught me (Im always learning from my mom)
Take a pkg of biscut dough (we/she used Pillsbury). Cut the biscuits in half and flatten them a bit. Dip them into melted butter and then into a cinnamon sugar combination. (I always have cinnamon sugar in my pantry) then twist and bake. We/She had a hard time getting them to stay twisted but they were so good even if they untwisted. I have eaten a week's worth today!

Watermelon/Strawberry Slushies

As promised here is a wonderful summer time drink. Watermelon/Strawberry Slushies! They are super easy too!

Strawberry-Watermelon Slushie

3 cups cubed seedless watermelon
3/4 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
1/3 C sugar
1/3 C fresh lemon juice
2-4 C ice cubes
In a blender, combine the watermelon, strawberries, sugar and lemon juice; cover and process on high until smooth. Gradually add ice cubes until desired consistency is reached. Pour into chilled glasses and serve immediately.
*Heres an added tip... my blender doesnt crush ice very well... so I put my ice cubes in a ziplock bag and smash them with a hammer before putting them in a blender

Yield: 5-7 cups

A Little Taste of India

Tonight's Dinner was so good! I love ethnic flavors, Chinese, thai, Vietnamese, mexican, indian I love them all! So tonight I thought I'd try my hand at making chicken korma. It turned out great!

Chicken Korma
1 large red onion, 1/2 sliced and 1/2 finely chopped
1 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic smashed
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 lb shredded chicken breast
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 pieces of naan bread
chopped cashews for garnish

Puree the chopped onion in a food processor with the ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and 1/2 cup of water. (I didnt do that step I just mixed the chopped onion and spices all in a bowl... and I didnt add the water)
Heat a small amount of oil in a pan, add the sliced onions and cook until golden brown. Add the other onion mixture and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the frozen peas and cook for a couple of minutes until they are thawed. Add the chicken and mix to combine.
In a small bowl combine the yogurt and the water. Add to the pan. Add the cilantro and remove from heat.
Serve on top of the naan bread and garnish with more yogurt, cashews and/or cilantro
Eat it like a Taco!

Also in the above picture you may notice my lovely drink. Its a watermelon/strawberry slurpee... recipe to come tomorrow!

Favorite Color Party

I like to throw parties. So every once and a while I do a play date on steroids. I event a few kids and their mommies over and we have a themed play date. Today was the Favorite Color party. It was a play date all about colors.

here is the invite I had made up for the party... yes I know that none of you got an invite ladies... I forgot them until after the fact.

We had all sorts of colorful foods. Red Strawberries, Pink Watermelon, Green Grapes, Blue and Green cupcakes (mint chocolate... yes I love to bake too!) and rainbow licorice (Jaxon's Favorite!)

I bought each of the kids a plain white pillow case and busted out the fabric markers and let them design their own pillow case. I was surprised at how long this held some of the kids interest, especially Jaxon!

But the highlight of the party was the Flower Hunt. All I did was cut out different color flowers and attach them to popsicle sticks and then I hid different colors in different rooms and told the kids clues like "downstairs their are flowers hidden that are the same color as the sky" Then they all ran off to find Blue flowers. They got to collect them in plastic cup vases and by the end has a beautiful bouquet. One of Jaxon's new buddies Jack Davidson was too sweet and gave me his orange flower since I had told them orange was my favorite color!
All and all I think it was a fun morning!