Catch Up

March 11, 2010
Oh my goodness it has been almost a month since I have posted.  I have been ultra busy with club and traveling and birthdays.  It has been crazy.  So here is my catch up.

The Twins are not 16 and driving.  YIKES!!!   They are proud to continue the family legacy of getting 100% on their driving tests.  Allora took hers first and then the pressure was on for Ashton.  But he held up under the pressure and was amazing.  It is still scary that they are driving now but oooooh the freedom...

So that was on the 6th.  Before that Ashton and the Drill Team Traveled to California to compete on the National Level and did amazing.
They got 1st place in Exhibition and 3rd in Armed Regulation.  It was sooo cold but they were so good.  He was so tired when he got home he looked like he was going to drop.  He said it was worth it and he had a great time.

The week before that Allora and I traveled to Colorado for volleyball.  That was such a fun trip even though we were disqualified the first night.  (Let's not go there).  They played amazing but I guess it was not meant to be.  We still played, just not in our division which really made no sense but they got to play and have loads of fun so that was okay.

Not much else has happened, as if that's not enough...  I have slacked a bit on the cooking but Mckenzie made this amazing dessert the other night.  Oh my goodness her pound cake is to die for.  It was so good.

Volleyball

February 16, 2010
Well we had a long weekend and were very busy.  Saturday was tournament so we spent the day down in Salt Lake all day watching the girls play ball.  They did great.  They won all of their games.  They are on their way to the top. Yes this is Allora jumping for the block.  She is doing great and loving her team and the game.













We had the Chibante's hang out with us for the weekend.  Always a pleasure and Charles gave me a mini cooking lesson.  Learned a few things about BBQing.  He and Joli made an amazing lunch before they left.  Steak, potatoes, asparagus it was soooo good.  The kids are already begging me to make it again.

I have a few new things I want to try this week so I will let everyone (if anyone even reads this) know what I tried.  I also found a great blog for some slow cooker recipes I am dieing to try. The blog is familycorner.blogspot.com.  I found it on sugardoodle one of my favorite websites.  There are several recipe sites you can link to on the bottom left if you are interested in checking it out.

California Trip

February 10, 2010

Well I just got back from California and the weather was great until yesterday...  

I had a great time.  I got to see my friend Christy.  That was so great to catch up on things with her.  We went to PF Changs at Victoria Gardens.  Wow that place is amazing.  There is like every store you could ever wish for.

Anyway we had a wonderful visit and I am hoping she will bring her family up to Utah a visit really soon.  She hasn't changed a bit.  I felt like I was back in High School only a lot happier.  : )  

Well we are home safely and back to cooking.  We had a great quick lasagna for dinner tonight.  It was sooooo easy and everyone loved it.  I will definitely make this one again.  

Basically it was bow tie noodles layered with ground beef,  sauce and cheese then baked.  YUM YUM!  Thank you Paige...

Busy, Busy, Busy

February 2, 2010
Ok the cooking is coming along well.  I am getting used to thinking about dinner in the morning so I have something set out to make.  I had to call my friend Paige about some meat today to find out what I should do with it because I was not sure.  John had bought a beef tenderloin butt fillet at Costco to make as a roast.  When I pulled it out I didn't think it looked like a roast so I had to call and make sure.  Yep I was right Paige said better to cut it up and make steaks.  Anything tenderloin apparently makes really good steak.  For those of you who are veterans I am sure you knew this but for me I had no idea.  So tomorrow she is going to help me make something new and wonderful.  I am excited.  She has some really good recipes so i am looking forward to trying some of them with her. 

Random Question for the day....

Ok for those of you who have dogs I have a question...  My dogs go out in the snow and come back in and then I have little doggie paw prints all over my dark hard wood floor.  Any ideas (besides mop every ten minutes)?????

Salsibury Steak

January 27, 2010
Ok so I tried to make Salsibury Steak last nite and I really didn't like it at all.  I don't think it was the recipe or anything but I just didn't like the texture really.  Everyone ate it and said it tasted really good but it was just not my favorite dish.  The meatloaf is waaaay better. 
I need to find a different place to get recipes from.  The magazines I have been looking at are not really working for me so I need to think outside the box a little.  I want to try something new next week, so if anyone is reading these ramblings and has any good recipes please let me know so I can try them.....
thanks

cooking update

January 27, 2010

Okay I have not been keeping up on my notes however I have been cooking away.  I have tried some really good recipes and so far Harrison is the only one that has been giving me trouble (no surprise there)...
I made meatloaf again at the begging of my kids.  They absolutely love it.  I have to say it is one of the best recipes I have tasted.  Today I went a little out of my comfort zone and made salmon with mango chutney and coucous, and a spinach salad.  It was amazing....  I have a pic I will post tomorrow.  It looked so good I decided it was my POTD.   My husband told my son that he would have had to pay $20 bucks if he had ordered this salmon at a restaurant.  He really liked it.  I think the kids like the old foil with lemon and butter recipe better but at least I stepped out of my box.  Oh and Allora came home from Volleyball and gobbled it down so I guess that means I got a thumbs up from her too...  Tomorrow I am trying another out of my box recipe.  I am trying Salisbury Steak.  We will see how the kids like this.   

Blog abilities

I am putting a disclaimer on my blog. I am so trying to figure this whole blog thing out. My sister sat and gave me a 2 hour tutorial, she is wonderful, and I still keep messing things up so forgive me.

I will in the future as I get better be posting some of my scrapbooking pages and some of my POTD's. It is fun to get creative. This one was from last week it was the windshield of my daughters car since she has to park outside. I love the icicles.  Sometimes I get really weird trying to be creative with my POTD's....

Recipes from last week

Chicken Teriyaki
Makes 4 to 6 serving

2 Tbls vegetable oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
3 cups broccoli florets
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup Teriyaki sauce with sesame and garlic
Hot cooked rice (optional)
Garnish: sesame seeds


In a large skillet, heat oil over med-high heat.  Add chicken, and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, or until golden brown.  Add broccoli, carrots and celery; cover, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until veges are crisp-tender.  Stir in teriyaki sauce; cook, uncovered for 2 to 3 minutes, or until heated through.  Serve over rice. I added some candied pecans on top.  You can really add any veges you think your kids will like, zucchini is another good option.

Pizza on a Stick

Make 8 Kabobs

1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated breadstick dough

8 (8-inch) wooden skewers

½ cup pepperoni

1 cup Colby Jack Cheese cubes

2 cups mixed pizza vegetables (chopped green bell peppers, mushrooms, black olives, grape tomatoes)

Marinara sauce

Small iceberg lettuce wedges (optional)

Prepared ranch dressing (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

            On a clean flat surface, unroll breadstick dough.  Cut  4 breadsticks in half crosswise.  Reserve remaining breadstick dough for another use.  Tie each dough strip in a knot.  Arrange on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Thread baked bread knots. Pepperoni, cheese, and vegetables onto skewers.  Serve with Marinara sauce and an iceberg wedge with ranch dressing, if desired.

My kids didn’t like the ingredients on the stick. I laid the ingredients out on the counter and they assembled them how they wanted and made them like a hot pocket. Then I baked them for 10 minutes.  This way you don’t have to use the skewers and the kids have fun creating their own pizza.

Cooking Update January 19, 2010

Well another week has passed and things are going good.  I planned another menu and we had really good intentions but only a few of the recipes actually got made.  The week was so busy it was crazy. But we did have some great success with what I did make. 
I would like to make a note however,  one of the nights I had planned everything out because I knew that I was going to be gone.  The recipe was simple.  Paula Dean's Pizza on a stick (See Below) everything was ready to go, recipe on the counter, ingredients all in the fridge,  and dad took them out to dinner.  LOL  Well at least they ate.....  We ended up eating the pizza on a stick Sunday for lunch and this is definitely a favorite for my kids.  The other favorite was the Chicken Teriyaki. 
My sister wants me to post the recipes so she can try them too.  Let me know if anyone tries them and has success with their kids. 
So I have a lot of ingredients I didn't use last week so I made my menu this week based on the ones I didn't do last week. 

Tues - Meat Loaf (Andrew's)
Wed - Crockpot Stew
Thurs - Taco Pasta Salad with homemade cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips Fri - Pizza on a stick (kids request)
Saturday is moms day off  : )

No shopping involved YEAH!!!!
I am doing research for next week so if you have any kid friendly recipes please post them for me to try.

January 12, 2010

I had to post this for today also because I am so proud of it and it is my picture of the day (POTD).  I finally organized all of my videos because I have a lot of family that likes to check my movies out so I needed a way to organize them all.  I entered them all into an excel spread sheet so we knew what we had and were not buying duplicates and so we could start buying DVD's to replace all of those VHS tapes we still have laying around.  Then we put all of the movies in sections A, B, C, D....  So titles go in a section not necessarily alphabetized, I figured that was way too much to expect from my kids.  Anyway this is the finished project.

January 12, 2010

Well today I made Chicken Teriyaki and rice from the Paula Dean magazine and my family loved it.  I was excited to hear them say they really loved the dish.  Yeah Paula!!!  This recipe was so easy and so good.  I am kinda starting to like this cooking thing.  I planned my menu for the week after looking through Paula's magazine as you know and I am loving it.  We spent Monday at Costco getting food.  Wow it takes a lot of food to cook. Then we had to go to the grocery store to get the things costco didn't have.  John helped me this week so that was nice.  He is trying to be really supportive (mostly because he likes the food). 

Tomorrow we are trying Pizza on a stick.  This should be fun.  I am excited for this one because the kids get to really make their own and it is a fun food night.  I have to go with Allora to volleyball so John gets to make it with the other kids so I am kinda bummed out but I hope they will like it......  It would be a great party meal.  I will let you know how it goes. 

Janurary 9, 2010

OOk so the first week of cooking is over.... Yeah.  It wasn't so bad.  We did do a left over night on Thursday because I didn't want the enchiladas to go bad but for the most part they ate everything I made ( which is pretty darn good considering....)  
We had chiken wings Wednesday, which I think was the hit this week.  Just threw the chik wings in the crockpot with the honeybrown sugar BBQ sauce with rice and they were good to go.  
Friday was baked potato bar.  Friday is a really hard nite because my kids are off and running most of the time so I am trying to keep Friday's pretty simple so they can kinda eat it whenever they drag themselves in.  
This coming week I am going to try some new receipes from Paula Dean.  My mother has her magazine and lets just admit it she is the cutest lady around.  I just want to hug her.  I mean come on....  I wish she was in my kitchen all the time.  If there was one chef I could meet I think it would be her.  She is just adorable.  
So I am going to try a couple of her receipes because they are suppose to be kid friendly.  
They look really good and I think my kids will enjoy them.  I will make my menu tomorrow and then my shopping list for Monday....  

Janurary 4, 2010

Well, my first night of cooking was a success.  John, Mom and I all sat down and planned a menu for the week.  YAHOO...  Then we headed out to Costco to get me all set with ingredients...  We had chicken and steamed broccoli and a salad.  The kids enjoyed this meal and all I had to buy was the chicken.  I had everything else.  It was a quick meal since we were off to Volleyball for the evening.

Today was so hectic we barely got the groceries.   Now I have a plan for the week and it doesn't seem like such a big deal.

LIFE PROJECT:

My Life project (Photo Album) came yesterday.  I am so excited to get started. I already started taking my picture of the day for the new year.  I love my finished album from last year.  It looks so good.  As soon as I have time this week I will download some pictures.  It is such a great way to scrapbook and journal all in one.

www.beckyhiggins.com

SCRIPTURES:

As a family we decided to once again read the Book of Mormon together.  Our ward has a reading plan so we all sat down yesterday and the kids decided that they wanted to read to whole reading assignment for the week on Sunday afternoon after church so that is what we did.  It took about an hour but we were finished and we all had time to lay down for a quick nap after.  Next week Nephi 3-9

$$$:

Tracking is going good.  We recorded everything we spent this weekend and John is ready for his trip to California and promises to keep track of everything and so am I.

Infinite Power of Hope

Infinite Power of Hope