Happy New Year

Did I mention I went to Urgent Care last week because of my toe? I hurt it pretty bad on the stairs, they took some xray's, and sent me home saying everything looked fine. Well, guess what? I got a letter in the mail yesterday saying when the radiologist looked over it there was a slight fracture on the outside of the toe........ no wonder it still hurts so flippin bad! Oh well, nothing they could do about it.

So 2011 has come and gone and we are now sitting a few days into 2012. What did you do for New Years Eve? We made some great food (Mozzarella Sticks, Coconut Shrimp, Cheesy Salsa Bread - this was a recipe we found on the back of the Beer Bread Value Pack, Garlic Garlic Dip, and ate some homemade Salsa), watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and then watched the ball drop (actually we watched it twice). So it was a pretty quiet but fun night for us. Except Savannah, we all made it until midnight (thanks to a long late nap from 2-5). Who all made New Years Resolutions? I did, and I actually wrote them down this year. They include:

1. Lose 14 pounds (BY: Exercising at least 4 times a week, eating a salad at least 3 times a week, and cutting out all products with MSG)

2. Yell Less (I get carried away sometimes and tend to yell a lot - mostly at Scott)

3. Clean the house more - this ties in with #2 because a lot of the time I yell because I'm stressed out about our house looking so bad, so I figured if I just spend a little more time every day cleaning the house I'll be less stressed.

4. Continue being a genius at school - Graduation ETA is May 2013, and if I continue getting all A's in my classes and re-take a Psychology class I took back in Fall of 2004 and get at least a B on it, I'll graduate with Honors!

Somewhat achievable goals, right? The whole point of resolutions is to make the New Year an even better year than before by bettering yourself. Hopefully I can accomplish most if not all of these!

The Mini Party

Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner tonight, yumm! Had to cook the chicken this time, usually we just use left over chicken from a whole chicken, but we haven't made a whole chicken in awhile so I just cooked up some chicken breasts. Should make Scott's "dinner duty" easy for him, all he has to do is throw in the cooked chicken and the noodles when he gets home from taking Connor to Karate.

So after the Children's Museum we went home and got everything ready for a "mini" party. Both sets of grandparents, the Moore's and Betty came over. I made BBQ Chicken Wings (3 different types of BBQ, the kind I made, Tastefully Simple's, and Open Pit), Honey Teriyaki Ribs (Tastefully Simple, but I can't find it on the website to add a link, so I think it may have been discontinued), some pasta, and Pat made some bread. I also made some cherry chip cupcakes with strawberry frosting for dessert. We ate dinner, then opened presents (a couple super cute outfits, a mini mouse, a bracelet, a stacking toy, a Barbie Jeep and from us - diamond earrings, clothes, a movie & a cute lady bug shapes toy) , then we had "cake"! Because we did BLW with Savannah, she was so use to just getting regular food, that she really didn't get that messy at all. It took her a little bit to even try it because she was confused as to what it was since she has never been given a cupcake before. Overall, I think Savannah's Birthday was awesome! And I have tons of pictures to show her when she's older!

Her 24th Birthday

Almost Thanksgiving already, which means BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING! WOHO! :) Anyone else as excited as I am? The main stores I need to go to are Walmart & Kohl's, everywhere else it doesn't matter if I go to or not. Last year Savannah was born 5 days after Black Friday shopping, so going into Black Friday I had pretty much all of my shopping done, this year I saved a few things to buy specifically on Black Friday. Should be fun!

So this past Monday was Chrissy's Birthday. The big ole' 3-0, so why does the title of this post say 24? Well, she always jokes around and says it's her 24th birthday and that her younger brother is older than her, lol. We celebrated by having dinner and eating cake over at the in-laws house. Then it was present time, which the kids loved and get way ahead of themselves doing, but it was fun. We got her some Lemon Slush from Tastefully Simple, some cool glasses to put it in, and also a cheese grader & meat hammer that she asked for. I hope she had a great birthday!

Italian Beef Barley Soup

It's snowing outside, yuck! I really hate snow. It's barley sticking, so hopefully it doesn't stay around for long. This reminds me, I really need to get in and get new tires, I've had these ones for 4 years now, so I'm assuming I probably am in need for new ones.

So Monday night I made Italian Beef Barley soup for dinner. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and decided it sounded pretty good, so we tried it out. The only difference in the recipe when I made it is that I didn't crumble the cubes (to hard, I tried) and I added a little Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple in there. The recipe turned out good, and it's a great starter recipe. If we ever make it again we'll be adding some combination of the following: potatoes, carrots and celery. It just seemed that it was missing something and I think one of those (or all of them) would add to the soup and make it just a little bit better.

A Belated Birthday

So Connor had off of school the last 2 days, so mine and Savannah's routine has been pretty screwed up, oh well! It's nice being able to play with him, but unfortunately with both kids home I haven't gotten much done around the house. I did manage to finish folding the kids laundry and filling out Savannah's birthday invites, but other than that nothing. I really need to finish cleaning Connor's room this weekend!

So last weekend we finally got to celebrate Aunt Missy's birthday. We would have done it closer to her birthday (September 26th), but they canceled Sunday dinner on us twice and then we canceled so we could go to Game 1 of the NLCS. So about a month late I finally got to give her the present we had for her: Chai from Tastefully Simple and a cute little mug I made online. Even though it's late I hope her birthday was great and here's to many many more (Cheers!).

Easy Slow Cooker Turkey Breast

So I started (once again) working on cleaning Connor's room. This time I'm going by a new approach. I'm taking absolutely everything out of his room and slowly going to put the toys back and where they belong. Hopefully this will weed out the "junk" that we can get rid of, without Connor realizing it of course, because to him all the stuff is "awesome!" Hopefully I'll get it done by Nov 6th because of my Pampered Chef party I'm having.

So last night for dinner we had Broccoli with Cheese Sauce, Pasta Roni, and a Turkey Breast. I have never made a Turkey Breast, but I found the recipe in "The Essential 4 Recipes" cookbook from Tastefully Simple. The only difference is, the recipe calls for a 3-4 pound bone-in turkey breast, well at Woodmans I couldn't find one with the bone, so I bought a boneless one instead. The recipe turned out great. It was quick (well to get it ready to go on the slow cooker) and easy. We immediately cut the meat in 1/2 and put it in the freezer so we can enjoy it again in a week or two. Totally recommend checking out this little cook book, this is the 2nd recipe we've tried from it so far.

Cheese Sauce

So today was Connor's 4th day of school.........and he cried.....and didn't want me to leave him.........does it get easier?? Thankfully there was another teacher watching so she came in and took his hand and said lets go give Mrs. Hewitt (his teacher) a good morning hug, so he reluctantly went with her and Savannah and I quickly snuck out the door. I really hope he starts liking school. I want him to be more successful than Scott & I are, which means he NEEDS school!

This past Sunday we were suppose to go to Aunt Missy's for dinner, but she text me and canceled. Therefore it was up to me to make dinner......something I wasn't looking forward to. Well Scott had 1/2 of his squash left, we made some garlic toast, potatoes & carrots cut up into little squares(with 2 cloves of garlic and some Onion Onion - tastefully simple) and I also made some broccoli & cheese sauce to go over it. Scott does not like broccoli but he said if I make this cheese sauce he'll eat it every day of the week. He liked it that much! I really liked it to and it reminded me of the cheese sauce my step-dad made when I was a kid, not sure how close the recipe is but I'm assuming its pretty darn close.

Baked Kale Chips

So today was my last day working full-time! Which is exciting because I get to spend more time with my kids and sad because that means Connor is starting school tomorrow! Connor goes to school 8:15-10:50, so I will be dropping him off & picking him up, then dropping both kids off at grandmas & then working 12-5.

So in part of Jessica & Justin's farm share that we picked up last week was Red Kale. What is red kale? Well I honestly didn't know what it was so I googled it before we picked it up. Still not really sure what to expect with it we decided to look up a recipe for Kale Chips (suggested by the lady at the farm share place). So on allrecipes.com I found a recipe for Baked Kale Chips. I only used up 1/2 of the Kale that we got, I used Garlic Pepper (tastefully simple) and after reading some of the comments I only baked them for 8 minutes. Well they tasted interesting.......most of them are still sitting on the table......and I probably will never try this recipe again.......but maybe I just don't like Kale? I'm not sure.....I think someone who enjoys or has actually had Kale before should try this recipe because I can't give a very good review on it.

Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot

Last night we took Connor to his new school to meet his teacher & drop off his school supplies. I'm not entirely thrilled about the looks of this new school, and from what I've heard from a couple of friends it's not necessarily the best place to take your kid....oh great.....thankfully it's only 1/2 days, and it's only for 9 months! I'm sure Connor will have fun with all of his new friends he'll make!

So this past weekend before we went to Devil's lake we through a Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot. We put Garlic Garlic & Onion Onion (Tastefully Simple) & some paprika like the recipe suggested. When we got home it smelled great. The chicken had been sitting a little longer than the recipe suggested and just fell apart from the bone so Justin didn't have to carve it (don't think he liked that), but I thought it tasted great. We got enough chicken left over to put in some Alfredo & also make a spicy chicken pizza this coming weekend. I also did the chicken broth & got 2 containers full in the freezer now thanks to this! Quick & easy dinner plus left overs! Can't ask for better!

Slow Cooker Dump and Go Cheesy Chicken

Well Jessica, Justin, and the family were going to go to Mt. Olympus tomorrow.......but since I'm dumb and didn't look at the dates on our free passes, we just realized tonight that they had expired, oops! So instead we decided we'll head out to Devil's Lake. I've never been there, so it should be fun!

So this past Tuesday we tried another recipe from allrecipes.com - Slow Cooker Dump and Go Cheesy Chicken. Instead of Garlic Powder I put some of Tastefully Simples Garlic Garlic & Onion Onion on it. It wasn't the best chicken recipe in the world, but it was pretty good. It made enough for dinner & 2 lunches for me. We served it over brown rice. I might make it again, but I would maybe try some of the other suggestions in the comment area and maybe some other "cream of" soups.

Pork Tenderloin & Potatoes

So yesterday we ended up going to the Dane County Fair (more on that later), and then had Cody & Amber over for a cook out. Today we're just kind of chilling. Ate a late breakfast, now I'm in the process of making pickles, and then it's off to Janelle's 1st Birthday Party. I'm hoping to get some scrap booking done tonight as well, we'll see if that happens or not!

So Friday night we had a wonderful dinner. We got 2 recipes off of allrecipes.com, the first recipe is called Easy & Elegant Pork Tenderloin, and for a side we made Lemon Parsley Potatoes. I am usually not a pork fan but this was awesome! We ended up having to cook it for 45 minutes (instead of the 35 the recipe says), and we added a little of Tastefully Simple's Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic on top. The meat was so moist, and the flavors all together were wonderful. The potatoes were really good to, but I was not nearly as impressed as I was with the pork. It was very easy to make, Scott did it all by himself while I was on my way home from work. The other great thing about this recipe is it cost us about $15 to make the meal, but we have more than enough to have it as a meal for Monday night too. So $15 for 2 meals, not a bad deal! Can't wait to eat it again on Monday!

Parmesan Chicken

So today was pretty chilly....which meant no swimming lessons for the kids. We could have brought them in for a safety day, but we decided against it. Instead we spent the time and went through my boxes of Tastefully Simple stuff that came today!

Tonight we tried a new recipe - from allrecipes.com - Parmesan Chicken. Can I say yummmmmmmm! The only thing we did differently was we used plain bread crumbs, added Tastefully Simples Garlic Garlic and some Pepper, and we also didn't flatten the chicken - which added to the cook time. It turned out great! We ate it with some asparagus (we toss some olive oil in the pan along with Garlic Garlic). A great meal I can't wait to have again!

Sweet Potato Fries & Apples

So right now Scott & Connor are gone helping the Moore's bring home their new swing set, so it's just me & Savannah chillin at home. Next weekend I have my Tastefully Simple party, so I'm trying to get some of the cleaning done. I did manage to clean my entire bathroom, which desperately needed it!! If you are interested in ordering anything from my party, let me know and I'll e-mail you an invite to shop online!

So Friday we started our next foods of Baby Led Weaning. This time it was Sweet Potato Fries & Apples. The Sweet Potato Fries I made the night before, cooked them in the oven with a little bit of oil on top of them. The recipe called for Olive Oil, which I thought we had, but as I was making them Scott informed me he used the rest of it up when we had Asparagus the other night......so I used Veggie Oil instead. She seemed to like the fries, but the Apples were a little more difficult. I had just sliced them with my Pampered Chef Apple Slicer, but I think the pieces were to big....so I'll be making them smaller tonight, probably cut them in half.