A little Reminiscing...

Tonight I was going through some old pictures and it was so fun to look at them and see how much Ethan has grown! Here are some of my favorites that I just found:

It brought back so many memories as I was going through the ones that I have saved on my computer and reminded me how quickly he is growing.  The pictures above are all from when he was about 2 and younger.  The one in the upper right hand corner is of him in his beloved yellow rainboots-he wore those EVERYWHERE!  Our neighbors across the street always commented on them-he would wear them with shorts, pants, PJs... whenever!  The first one on the second row is him in his Jump-a-Roo that he had fun bouncing around in and next to that is him on his first birthday-not quite sure what to do with the cake.  The first one on the third row is of him sticking his fingers under the bathroom door-he would always do that whenever anyone went in.  He and Sadie have been good pals since the first time we went and saw her at the rescue shelter-she has been so patient with him!  (and notice how skinny she used to be-now she is a tank!)                                                                    

Recipe

New Recipe for the week (made it on Sunday): Upside-Down Deep Dish Pizza.

VERDICT: Gross.  I'm not even going to waste my time typing up the recipe for the blog.

Recipe Time

Tonight's new recipe...

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
1 can Campbells Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1 container (8 oz) sour cream
1 cup Pace Picante Sauce
2 teaspooons chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
10 flour tortillas
1 medium tomato, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 green onion, sliced (about 2 tablespoons)

Stir soup, sour cream, picante sauce, and chili powder in a medium bowl.

Stir 1 cup picante sauce mixture, chicken, and cheese in a large bowl.

Spread about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla.  Roll up and place seam-side down in a 3 quart shallow baking dish.  Pour the remaining picante sauce mixture over the filled tortillas.  Cover the baking dish.

Bake at 350ºF for 40 minutes or until enchiladas are hot and bubbling.  Top with the tomato and onion.

SURVEY SAYS... its a keeper!! :)  I didn't add the tomato and onion, though.

This morning when I was going through my recipes, I found "the" manicotti recipe.  I made it a year ago when I had friends over and it didn't turn out so great (the shells were very crunchy because I made it the night before and then baked it the following day-not a good idea!).  About a month ago I made it again-this time all at once, and very determined to have it turn out right!  And it did-yum, so good!

Three Cheese Manicotti
1 (8oz) package manicotti pasta
16 oz ricotta cheese
6 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
6 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/3 cup dried bread crumbs, seasoned
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups spaghetti sauce

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil and add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente.  Drain. 

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine ricotta cheese, 4 oz mozzarella cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream, bread crumbs, parsley (I put it through my food processor to make it into really small specks) and salt and pepper to taste; mix well.

In a 9x13 baking dish, spray dish with cooking spray and cover bottom with thin film of spaghetti sauce.

Fill each manicotti with cheese mixture and place in dish; cover with remaining sauce.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top of sauce. 

Bake in preheated oven uncovered for 40 minutes; serve.

Trip to Utah

Early Friday, we joined Sean flew to Utah to visit his family in St. George.  We first arrived in Las Vegas and then drove two hours to get to their home.  It was so beautiful!  Even though it wasn't nearly as green as it is here in Virginia, the mountains were amazing!  Sean's parents have a really nice home that is on a mountain and overlooks part of the town and has a beautiful view of-you guessed it-the mountains:)

We had a great trip!  It was great meeting his parents, brother, and younger sister, and good to see his older sister again.  Saturday morning we drove to New Harmony and his grandpa took us to shoot guns-it was the first time I have ever shot a gun, so it was quite an experience.  Right before we left, his grandpa let me try the 12 gauge shot gun-and I hit the bulls-eye with it!  Afterwards, we all went and saw Toy Story 3-it was really good.  On Sunday we went to church and in the afternoon Sean, his mom, Ethan and I went to a nearby pond to feed the geese and ducks.  They were fiesty, but it was fun.  Monday we hung out in the pool and then went on a scavenger hunt around the St.George Temple that Sean's younger sister and her boyfriend made.  Ethan had fun finding everything on the list-including the red wagon-haha!  (it was right in front of him and even though I asked him a couple times about the dog that was sitting in it, he didn't notice and got pretty mad at me, and then he finally realized why I kept asking him about the dog!).  Monday night we roasted marshmellows and made s'mores-yummy!  We came back home Tuesday night - short trip, but it was fun:)

Sean being so righteous and reading his scriptures on the way there....  Ethan and me-being not-so-righteous reading a novel and playing Nintendo DS:)

Night in DC

Saturday night we went into DC... not for any particular reason-just something different to do.  Our rooms were on the 15th floor and right on Pennsylvania Avenue, so we had amazing views from our hotel rooms!  (I did have them all next to each other in Photoshop and left it on without saving it and during the night, my computer decided to "configurate" itelf and shut down afterwards-closing all of the applications and websites I had open... so instead of going through the hassle of trying to make the pictures look "seamless and panoramic" some imagination will have to be used:)  I did add captions to point out the big tourist sites that we could see from our rooms.

View From the left...

                                     

View looking straight out..

View looking to the right

Other pictures along the walk around DC...

Capital Building-I was literally standing right outside of our hotel when I took this

A few of my favorites!!!  

The World War II Memorial is my absolute favorite-so beautiful

I didn't take too many picures of the monuments once it got dark because we walked by most of them in the evening and on our way back to the hotel we were focused on walking by the White House so we took the fastest way there from Mr. Lincoln... and it didn't include going by the other monuments along the way...

Again, I think the pictures say it all-AMAZING!!

I'm so grateful to live so close to D.C. - I don't go into the city as often as I should, but I hope that I will go there more frequently in the near future and enjoy the museums and tourist sites.

More Recipes

So a couple of days ago I figured out how to "tag" posts and I wanted to tag all of my recipe posts, that way I will be able to find all of the new recipes I have tried this year really fast and easily.  I realized that I had only posted 7 new recipes and I know I have tried more than that this year!  So I went through my recipe book (that has tons of post-its sticking out everywhere!) and figured out which ones hadn't made it to the blog.  So here they are (in addtion to the one I tried tonight)...

Carrot Chicken Pilaf  (what I made tonight)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, cubed
1/4 cup butter
1-1/2 cups uncooked long grain rice
5 medium carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped sweet red pepper
4 cups chicken broth (2 cans)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

In a large skillet, brown chicken in butter.  Remove and keep warm.  Add the rice, carrots, onion, mushrooms, and red pepper to the skillet.  Cook and stir until rice is browned.  Stir in broth and put chicken back into skillet with mixture.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until rice is tender.  Stir in parsley.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

**This recipe was OK.  I didn't make it with the red pepper or onion-I will try it with the pepper and onion next time, as it was very plain.

Bow Tie Beef Skillet
I made this around the beginning of the year and I don't see it on my blog...  maybe because it didn't turn out good-I have a big sad face next to it in my recipe book!  I won't bother typing out the recipe, since clearly it isn't a keeper..

Chicken Ritz  (good!)
2 cooked chicken breasts, cut (can have 4, I used 2)
6 oz. egg noodles, cooked according to directions
1/2 lb Velveeta
4 tbsp. butter, divided
1 cup milk
32 Ritz crackers (1 pack)

Place cooked noodles and chicken in 9x9 pan (or 9x13, whichever you have).  Preheat oven to 350º.  Combine cheese, 2 tbsp. butter, and milk and melt together in microwave, stirring every so often.  Pour over noodles and chicken.  Crumble the crackers and mix with the other 2 tbsp. of melted butter.  Spread over top and cover with foil.  Bake 20 minutes.  Remove foil, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Teriyaki Chicken  (good!  Perfect for Sundays)
1/2 sugar
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Pineapple juice
1 cup water
a few sprinkles of Garlic Salt
A few sprinkes of Ginger
2 lb. Chicken

Mix all ingredients in the crockpot.  Cook for 4 hours, shred, and serve with rice.

Another New Recipe

Last night I tried another new recipe...

Chicken Breast Cacciatore
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 egg
6 boneless chicken breast halves
2/3 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Cover and microwave on high for 1-1/2 minutes; stir. Cook for 2-4 minutes or until it simmers; set aside. In a shallow bowl, combine the cornflakes, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. In another bowl, beat the egg. Dip chicken into egg, then roll into cornflake mixture.

The recipe then says to microwave the chicken, but the thought of microwaving chicken weirds me out so I baked it...

Once the chicken is done, pour tomato sauce mixture over chicken and sprinkle with mozzerlla cheese.

Ethan LOVED this recipe! He ate all of his chicken and half of mine. This recipe is definitely a keeper:)