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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!
  

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

S'more Cookies

Just so you dont get the wrong idea... I hate camping... but S'mores are yummy!
  This is a recipe I got from marthastewart.com (you gotta love Martha!) This cookie is a little on the dry side, but then again so are graham crackers so its a good fit!
S'more Cookies

1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 baking soda
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
Chocolate chips
Marshmallows (about a dozen, cut in half)

1) Preheat oven to 350
2) In a food processor pulse oats until finely ground. In a bowl combine flours, cinnamon, baking soda and ground oats. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar. beat in Egg. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just combined
3) Drop dough by the tbsp, 1 inch apart, onto baking sheets. Top with Chocolate (martha uses a semi sweet chocolate square... I use milk chocolate chips, about 8 per cookie) Put marshmallow half onto of the chocolate and bake for 11-13 minutes.
Martha bakes the cookies and chocolate before adding the marshmallow and then broils the baked cookies with the marshmallows on top... but I kept on burning the marshmallows so I tried putting them on and then baking them and it worked great for me!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Chicken Taco Salad...and a kid craft!

Ok, so Im sure most of you will read this post and be like "Well Duh! You've never done that before?" But this was a first for me and I loved it!
  I love Mexican food! (well ok I love all food!) I have really been craving Tacos lately, but I dont have ground beef in my freezer and since Ive been trying to use stuff up I have made sure I havent been buying any either. So Yesterday for dinner I was supposed to put a rub on my chicken... but as I was staring at my pantry I couldnt decide on a rub and my taco seasoning kept on catching my eye... so I thought Why not? I made up a thicker version of Taco seasoning. I think mine calls for 1 cup of water to 3 Tbsp of seasoning... but I just added enough water to make it into a paste. Then I poured it over the chicken and baked it in the oven. Then I cut it up and put it on top of a salad. MMMMMMMM... it was really good! You should try it!
   I have also been trying to make more crafts with my kids... mostly Ive just been trying to keep the TV off more. So yesterday we made one that was really fun and CRAZY simple. All I did was trace and cut out their hands and then let them color on Tatoos. (ok I lied a little... I like Owen color on the paper before I cut out his hands as I didnt think my 19 month old could stay on his little hands too well!) But then we taped them to the window in their bedrooms. My Boys loved it!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Weekly Menu... a bit delayed

I know I try to post this on Sunday... but Im a bit behind this weekend. Sorry!
Ive also decided to try and make one meal a week that is jaxon's choice... which should be interesting!
Monday - Chicken with a rub or some sort and Scalloped Potatoes
Tuesday - Hot Dogs and Fries (yep... J mans choice!)
Wed - Boston Pizza (hooray gift cards!)
Thursday - Chicken meatballs and Penne
Friday - Tortilinni Soup
Saturday - Japanese Grilled Chicken and Rice and Corn
Sunday - Leftovers
  Im super excited for the Chicken Meatballs on Thursday... they are a new(ish) item at M&M meats and I cant wait to try them out!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Perfect Present...

Jaxon loves books (yep... thats my son!) We are constantly reading books. He is also super smart. Which means he memorizes alot of his books. So new books are always a highlight in his life because he doesnt know whats coming.
  We got a super cute book from Jaxons little buddy Krysten. Its called Smash Mash Crash There goes the Trash. This is such a great boy book! Its all about two pigs who love watching the garbage truck come and eat up all the trash. There are only a few words on a page which means its a great book for nights when Bedtime is later then normal. But its loud, and dirty and there is a garbage truck. Every boys dream! It even rhymes which is a good thing in any kids book!
  All in All its a super fun read!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

favors

I love doing party favors. I think they are super cute and a great way to thank your friends for coming to the party and celebrating the big day with you! This year was tough because I had to make 36 favor bags and I didnt want to spend alot of money. So here is that I did. I made these super cute boxes out of brightly colored cardstock. I drew some circles on them because Jaxon LOVES circles. Then I filled them up with some super cute goodies. I wanted to keep with the swimming theme so I found Lifeguard rubber duckies, sea creature fruit snacks and then just since they are Jaxons favorite, some kool aid fizzers!

I think they look pretty darn cute on the table with the doughnuts!
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Onto the cake

Every birthday needs CAKE. But I am always trying to be creative... so this year instead of cake Jaxon had homemade cake doughnuts at this party. we went with doughnuts to keep with the swimming theme. I thought they looked like Inner Tubes! They are super simple because I have a doughnut maker (thanks mom!) I love that gadget! I made two kinds for the party; a vanilla doughnut with a mint chocolate truffle glaze and a chocolate doughnut with a Raspberry chocolate glaze.

Here is the recipes;
Basic Vanilla Doughnut

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
9 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup Milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1)Preheat doughnut maker (if you have one... if not the next recipe tells you how to do it with out one)
2) Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk in the butter, milk, vanilla and egg until mixture forms a smooth batter.
3) Scoop into doughnut wells and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I got the chocolate doughnut recipe online from Handle the Heat.
Baked Chocolate Cake DoughnutsFrom Lara Ferroni Yield - About a half dozen Note from Lara: It may seem strange to add nutmeg to a chocolate recipe, but nutmeg is the key to a recognizable doughnut flavor. It’s fine to leave it out, but your doughnuts may taste a bit more like chocolate cupcakes.
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or coconut oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
Chocolate glaze (see below)
1. Lightly grease a doughnut (or muffin) tin and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda, and then whisk in the sugar, nutmeg and salt.3. Add the butter, and using your fingers, rub it into the dry ingredients until it becomes coarse crumbs.In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, yogurt, vanilla and egg. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix, or your doughnuts may be a bit rubbery.4. Fill a ziploc bag with the batter, cut an opening in one corner, and pipe the batter into each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full. It’s important not to overfill, or as the doughnuts rise, you’ll lose the hole.5. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the doughnuts spring back when touched. Let cool slightly on a wire rack before glazing.Chocolate GlazeFrom Alton Brown
1/4 cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons whole milk, warmed
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
Combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until butter is melted. Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate, and whisk until melted. Turn off heat, add the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

***In order to make the chocolate glaze different flavours I simple used different flavours of Kisses instead of the bittersweet chocolate. It worked great!!!
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Simple is AWESOME

Tomorrow is my little man's Birthday. He is going to be 4! I can not believe it!!! Time as flown by! We had his birthday party this past Saturday. So I thought Id take the next few days to share the party with the blogging world. It was such a fun party!
  Today we will discuss venue! Jaxon loves to swim. He is constantly wanting to go swimming. So I thought it would be perfect to have a pool party. That was until I started pricing it out at the local pools in calgary. EXPENSIVE. But we havwe a little gem just 15 minutes from our house... OKOTOKS! That little town has so many hidden treasures.. this time it was the rec center. I was able to rent the entire pool (yes we had it all to ourselves) for $104.00 and we could invite up to 75 people. They had lifegurads and everything. AWESOME. In calgary I only found places were you spent $100.00 and could bring in 10 guests and you didnt have the pool to yourselves. As you can see this was a way better deal. So we invited a bunch of Jaxons friends and their familes and have a great time. We had invited close to 80 people but of course not everyone could make it so I think that night we had close to 50 people there. It was great. the kids had a blast swimming. Then we headed over to the chapel and have some pizza! It was so easy to plan because I didnt need to worry about games... they had just swam for an hour so then we ate and had cake and that was the end. Wonderful!