Saturday, March 27, 2010

Flowers

[in the car]
Ethan: How come Sean always gets you big flowers and I can only find small ones for you?
Sean: I know where to go - I will show you.

.... 20 minutes later at Giant....

Ethan insists that I do not follow them-so that Sean can show him where to get 'big flowers.' While in line to pay, Ethan comes running up to me-telling me that I need to go to the car (and hands me Sean's car keys)....Sean tries to walk by without me seeing the flowers in his hand... I go out to the car and they join me a couple of minutes later-with "something" behind Ethan's back. He climbs into the car and very excitedly showed me the flowers that he picked out for me. TOO CUTE!!!!!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Saint Patrick's Day 2010

We woke up on Saint Patrick's Day to find that the leprachauns came while we were sleeping! They left their footprints on our counter and left some Hershey's kisses (they must have run out of their gold chocolates)!


Over the weekend, they visited Ethan's classroom - although none of them were caught, they left their trademark footprints around his classroom and on the student's traps that they carefully hid in spots that they thought the leprachauns would go looking for gold.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Recipes Update

So I am going to continue to post the "keeper" recipes on here-not only for others (if anyone else actually reads my blog) to also try and enjoy, but so that I won't forget about them or lose the recipes. :)

So here are the latest ones that I've tried that turned out good:

Garlic Chicken 'n' Gravy
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspooon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped (I didn't have any, so I just used garlic powder)
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chicken broth, divided
1/2 cup white wine or additional broth -- I used the additional broth, obviously:)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, cook chicken and garlic in butter over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until browned. Add 1/2 cup broth, wine or addtional broth, basil, and oregano. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 7-9 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Remove chicken with a slotted spoon and keep warm. In a small bowl, combine flour and remaining broth until smooth; stir into pan juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over chicken.

Linguine with Garlic Sauce
12 ounces uncooked linguine
1/2 pound sliced bacon, diced (I used my food processor so that the pieces were smaller)
5 cups fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1-1/4 cups milk
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, remove to paper towels; drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. (I had made the bacon beforehand, so I used 1 tablespoon of canola oil instead of the bacon grease).

In the drippings (or canola oil), saute the spinach, onion and garlic until tender. Add the milk, cream cheese, butter, salt, nutmeg and pepper; stir until smooth. Stir in pine nuts and bacon; heat through. Drain pasta; toss with sauce.

Black Bean Taco Salad
1 pound ground beef
4 cups torn leaf lettuce
1 large tomato, chopped
1 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup catalina salad dressing
4 cups nacho cheese tortilla chips

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink drain. IN a large bowl, combine the lettuce, tomato, beans and beff. Drizzle with dressing and toss to coat. Arrange tortilla chips on a serving plate; top with beef mixture.

**this one needs some more pizzaz next time. We added sour cream, cheese and tried it with dorritos and tostito chips - it was ok. Maybe next time add alvacado and some other things, but it was ok, and Ethan liked it and it was incredibly easy.

So there you have it! I have lost track-I don't know if I'm hitting my New Years Resolution of making 3 new recipes a month, but at least there is a conscious effort to expand my cooking abilities AND there haven't been any (yet!) that have been absolutely disgusting:)

Leprechaun Trap

Ethan's Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hellman, asked that each student make a leprechaun trap and bring it to school to try and catch some of the quick, gold-seeking little guys... I remembered an article I had read last year about some cool "trap" ideas, so after a quick google search, I found the article - here is our final Leprachaun trap!


My boss let me go into work late so that I could drop Ethan off directly at his elementary school with his trap so that it wouldn't get messed up at daycare. He was so excited and it was so sweet to drop him off at the kiss-and-ride!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ethan's First Love Note

So today after I picked Ethan up from daycare and we were on our way home, he asked to have his back pack. I didn't really think anything of it so I handed it to him when we were at a red light. He then started taking every single thing out of it - I asked what he was looking for and he said "something private." Hmm... that spiked my curiosity but I didn't probe anymore. He couldn't find this "private" thing, and so when we got home, he dumped everything out of his backpack in his frantic search. He then pulled out a peice of paper, announced he found it, and then asked if I wanted to see it. Of course I wanted to know what this private thing was! So I looked at and here is what I saw...

Here is the front...



And when you open it up...


He is only in kindergarten!! I'm so not ready for this..



Sunday, February 21, 2010

New Recipe Success!!

Tonight was another "new recipe night." I was a little nervous because I didn't have the exact ingredients that the recipe called for, but I figured I would make due with what I had. It is called "Parmesan Chicken Pasta." I didn't have the Parmesan cheese pasta sauce mix that it called for (and is obviously a vital ingredient!) but I used another sauce mix that I had instead. Also, even though the title of the recipe has "pasta" in it, you would think one of the ingredients would be some sort of noodles-but nope, they weren't listed. My only guess is that there are noodles in the Parmesan cheese pasta sauce mix. So anyway, I added bow-tie pasta, Parmesan cheese and broccoli to it... I have to admit, it was pretty tasty!! And best of all-its very easy!

Finally-a new recipe that is definitely a keeper!!! :)

Here is the recipe:

Permesan Chicken Pasta
Ingredients:
  • 2 packages (4.3 ounces each) Parmesan cheese pasta sauce mix
  • 3 boneless skinless chicken breats cut into strips
  • 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
  • 1 cup fresh green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 medium tomato, chopped (optional)

Prepare pasta mixes according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook chicken, mushrooms, and beans in oil over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until chicken juices run clear and vegetables are tender; drain. Add pasta to sauce. Stir in tomato.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentines Day

For Valentines Day this year, I wanted to do something special for Ethan but I wasn't sure what to do. One of my co-workers told me that she was going to cut out small hearts and make a trail from her kids beds to their Valentines Day present for them to find on Valentines Day. Instead of buying a present for Ethan, I took a part of her idea (hearts cut out of construction paper) and decorated Ethan's bedroom door (while he was sleeping) with some reasons why I love him for him to find on Valentines Day morning:


In the morning, he came running into my room and was so excited! He loved it! He then ran out and told me not to come out until he told me to. A couple minutes later, he came back in and handed me an envelope with a letter in it that he wrote (see below).


"Happy Valentines Day. Thank you Cupid."

Dear Mommy Thank you for the notes I was so surprised. I love you, too. Happy Valentines. Love you Ethan. I love my mommy."

The Best Things in Life Really Are Free!!!

Just a couple minutes, some construction paper, and a black sharpie marker truly made our Valentines Day special this year :)
PS. Sorry the copies of Ethan's letter and envelope aren't the best-my scanner isn't working so I had to take pictures of them.