Recipes

Here are a few recipes that I've made in the past couple of Months that I thought were yummy!!

Chicken with Creamy Bruschetta Pasta
2-3 sprigs fresh basil (rinsed)
2 plum tomatoes (rinsed)
1 (8 oz) package garlic/herb flavored spreadable cheese (Rondele is the brand I tried)
1/2 cup reduced-fat milk
8 oz tomato trinity mix (fresh diced tomatoes, onions, bell peppers)
3 chicken fillets (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
8 oz dry linguini pasta

Steps
1. Fill large saucepan half full of water. Cover and bring to a boil on high for pasta.
2. Chop basil leaves coarsely. Cut tomatoes in small pieces. Place cheese in medium bowl; whisk in milk until smooth. Stir in tomatoes, basil, and toamato trinity mix; set aside
3. Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 min. Season both sides of chicken with Salt. Pace oil in pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken; cook 4-5 minutes on each side or until golden. Meanwhile, stir pasta into boiling water. Boil 10 minutes, stirring occasionally,, or until tender.
4. Reduce heat on chickent to medium; cover and cook 5 more minutes or until internal temp. reaches 165 F.
5. Drain pasta. Remove chicken from heat cut into 1/2 inch think slices. Arrange chicken over pasta and top with cheese mixture. Serve.

(They actually made this at Publix grocery store and I thought it was so good! I licked my plate clean and wanted to go back for more. I added fresh mushrooms to mine as well.)

Saltine Toffee
1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350, LIne a large cookie sheet w// aluminum foil and spray heavily w/nonstick Spray.
3. Place saltines in a single layer on foil.
3. In small sauce pan melt 1 cup of butter; add brown sugar and bring to a boil-boil 3 minutes. Pour over crackers
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until crackers float and sugar mixture bubbles. Remove from oven. Turn oven off.
5. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Put pan into warm oven to soften chips. Remove and spread chocolate with knife.
6. Allow chocolate to harden (YOu can freeze entire recipe so the chocolate sets quickly)

(This recipe I got from Kara Love we had a little craft/recipe exchange at church the other night. Everyone seemed to have already known about this delicious toffee, but I had never had it and I LOVED It. So this is for those of you who had never tried it.)

ORANGE CHICKEN

4 half chicken breasts
1 beaten egg
1 Tbs. water
1/4 cup Corn starch
2 Tbs. butter

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Yoshida sauce or soy sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs. corn starch in 2 Tbs. water

Combine egg and water. Cube chicken and put in egg/water mixture and coat it with corn starch in a bowl. Brown chicken in margarine until golden brown and place in shallow pan or casserole dish.
Combine remaining ingredients except corn starch and bring to boil. Add in corn starch with water as needed to thicken sauce. Pour over chicken and bake at 350 covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 20 minutes and serve over rice.

(This recipe is from Diane Dixon's Blog Actually that isn't her last name anymore, anyways, we made it and LOVED IT!!! Thanks Diane!!)

Calzones
Rhodes frozen bread loaves
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni (and any other pizza toppings you like)
olive oil or melted butter
garlic salt or powder

I just put my frozen bread loaves in the fridge all day to allow them to thaw. Roll out the bread dough. Spread tons of cheese and pizza toppings on half of dough, fold over and press sides together. Spread the top with olive oil or melted butter, sprinkle with garlic, cut a few slits in the top, bake for however long it says to bake the bread on the bag. I think we baked ours for about 30 minutes.

(Haha sorry about that last recipe, I was totally just writing it from memory, my sister just told me about it over the phone and I just kinda made it up as I went along, THIS is SOOO good, one Calzone is HUGE Chad and I made our own, but I got 3 meals out of mine. haha. We got the kids biscuits in a can and let them make their own mini pizzas they loved it. This was a fun meal to make as a family.)

Up all night....

Well, not ALL night just until 2am..first of all I couldn't sleep when I went to bed around 10pm, I had just fallen asleep when Owen woke up at 12am, sick with a fever and a harsh cough. He didn't get back to sleep until 2am. I'm so tired. Need Sleep. NOW.

ummm...oops...Excuse me

We went to Sam's yesterday. I love trying out their extra soft pillow top mattress. They have these mattresses on wheels and you pull them out from under the shelfs. Well I laid on one with Hallie and Chad had to take a phone call. We slid ourselves back underneath the shelves, so we were hidden. I don't know what got into me, but I got into this silly teenager mood, and whenever someone would walk by, I would make farting (sorry mom), I mean fluffing, noises. It was hilarious to see the people look around everywhere, they honestly couldn't figure out where the noises were coming from. I'm cracking up just thinking about it.

Set for the 10th

So, the University of Alabama finally called last week! Chad's interview is set for June 10th. It's an all day interview. They will be taking him around campus, showing him around, asking questions, etc. They told him that they will pay for his gas down and back and for a hotel room. So that's good. Chad and I are going down to Gulf Shores a couple of days before hand!! My brother, Dallas, works for the Marriott so he can get us $35 hotel rooms!! We got one right on the beach! I'm so excited for our Mini vacation!!! I, on the other hand, am not excited about the idea of moving to Alabama. I don't want to move away from my family. I live near my parents (like 10 mins) and Chad's parents live an hour away from here, I will miss being that close to both of our families!! Also, we will have to sell our house :( We just bought it in September!!! Gosh, I don't even want to think about it!! I will be okay with it though, especially since they will pay for half of Chad's schooling. We shall see.

The date was fun. The movie was good until the ending, then it just got weird. I'm not sure how I felt about it. Here is a pic of us on our date!! Its kinda goofy I think..

This past weekend Chad, Owen, Hallie and I went to visit Chad's Aunt Angel and Uncle Todd in Johnson City. It was so fun. Her house is amazing! She got it for a really good deal, but has done a lot of work on it and I really Love it!! They have an amazing view. (don't know why they have this blur in the pic)


Here is a pic of me and Hallie enjoying ourselves at Angel's house! I should have taken more pics but didn't get around to it.


oh and here is a pic of Hallie and Owen a couple of weeks ago before Church.

Alabama?

Chad got a call this past friday from the University of Alabama. They want to have a second interview with him. He doesn't know when yet, they said they have to get it approved through the University first, but that there is no reason why they wouldn't approve of his interview. So now, we are just waiting for the call. Chad is having a hard time. I think he feels rejected or something b/c no one will hire him. I've been trying to cheer him up. We are going on a date tonight!!! I'm so excited. We are both really, really needing this. I got a Red Lobster gift card for my birthday from Vicki (thank you!!) and then we are going to the $1.50 movie theatre to see Knowing. I cannot wait! Momma should be here any second!!! I will post more about Alabama later.

He Didn't get the Job...

(the fire fighting job)

Bootylicious

So..I went on a diet not this past monday but the monday before. Things haven't gotten really out of hand. I don't really like to call it a diet. I'm trying to change my bad habits, so yeah, For the 100th time I'm doing it again. I'm doing it so I can have a baby. I want to start trying in October. I've lost 4.2 lbs. So, thats good. I forgot how hard this was, but I'm thinking after a while I will get used to it.

I decided not to potty train Owen just yet. Thanks for all the comments about it. I decided to go for it one day, but I forgot how disgusting it is to clean out poopy underwear. Yuck. I'm not ready, he might be, but I'm not. I mean, we just FINALLY got Hallie potty trained in Sept. So I'm going to wait a while.

Still haven't heard anything yet.

Not yet....

So, we still haven't heard anything from the Smyrna Fire Department! But we found out that we should find something out this week!! EEEk..

Some new developments: Chad had an interview with the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, to be their Aquatics director. It was a phone interview and it lasted almost an hour. I don't like the idea of moving to Alabama, but if he gets the job they will pay for him to get his masters. I like that. So if he doesn't get the fire fighting thing, we might be moving to Alabama. He will have another interview in person sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Question: Owen is constantly taking off his diaper, he is constantly asking me to change his diaper, even if he just peed in it a little bit, he wakes up dry and has an interest in using the potty. He will be 2 in July. Do you think its too soon to potty train him? I wasn't planning on doing it for a while, just b/c we had such a HORRIBLE experience with Hallie, but since hes going through diapers like crazy, I thought maybe we should, but I'm SCARED!!! What if he's too young? What if he's not ready yet?