Recipes

So I'm trying out some new recipes this coming up week. Tonight's was a winner! This one is for Becky it has a glaze!

Glazed Chicken with Apple Salad

(Pampered Chef-29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook)

Dressing & Apple Salad

2 tbsp cider vinegar

2 tbsp apple jelly

1/3 cup Mayo

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 McIntosh or Gala Apple

1/2 cup lightly packed watercress

Chicken & Glaze

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt & pepper

2 tbsp apple jelly

1 tsp stone-ground mustard

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. For dressing, mix together vinegar, jelly and mayo, set aside. For salad, slice apples into julienne strips. Remove leaves from watercress stems. (discard stems); coarsely chop watercress leaves. Combine apples and watercress in bowl.

2. For chicken. heat Grill Pan (since this is a pampered chef recipe) not sure what else you would use, I guess just a pan to medium high heat 5 minutes. Meanwhile, flatten chicken to even thickness. Brush oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken 4-6 minutes or until grill marks appear. Turn chicken over; cook 4-6 minutes or until center is no longer pink.

3. While chicken is cooking, prepare glaze. Combine jelly. mustard and brown sugar in a small bowl (prep bowl if have one) Brush chicken with glaze during the last minute of cooking.

4. To serve, arrange additional watercress on serving plate, if desired. Pour dressing over salad just before serving; toss gently to coat. Top watercress with salad and chicken

Yield: 4 servings Calories: 280 per serving

Abi's Photo Shoot

A couple weeks ago Abi was outside playing in the dirt, remember those piles I was talking about, well since it was such a nice day out I figured I would take some pics, she's not dressed up at all, we just had fun!  Enjoy!

Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom

Yesterday as I was on hold with the turbo tax people Ava was sleeping and Abi was playing in her room.  She came out and told me..."I cleaned my door", I said with what, but before I could get that short phrase out of my mouth, I smelled it...she cleaned it with Lavender Hand Sanitizer!  Oh my and wait it gets better then she decides to go into the bathroom taking a long time then she comes out and asks me what is this, while holding a small bottle of cologne.  I asked her where she got it etc.  She told me out of the trash.  Well then again I smell something!  She smelled like the cologne.  Since I was on the phone I couldn't really do much, but after they hung up on me I went into the bathroom and the smell was so strong!  She apparently poured it out in the sink and instead of throwing it back in the garbage she climbs up on the toilet and puts in the medicine cabinet, like she didn't do anything!  Oh the joys of staying at home!  Below are some pictures from the last couple weeks, mostly of Ava because she's so darn cute!

 Yes, Abi is doing work, I bought this at Sams and she loves it!  She's going to be smart!

This is how I keep her contained...just kidding!

 She got stuck behind the end table!

 She's sitting in her MESSY play room listening to music while she's figured out a way to keep the basketball in one place so she can prop her legs up!

 Thought this was cute...you can see her tooth!

 This is one of those pictures I was suppose to take when she was newborn...just a little late she's almost 10 months!

Valentine's weekend

This year Mike surprised me, well he tried to until Andy blew it.  But oh well.  I knew Mike had something planned because he was texting and being secretive he wouldn't even talk to me!  So Friday night we went with the Garmons to Pizza Connection.  On the way to pick them up I kept asking Mike what we were doing.  He wouldn't tell me.  I told him it would with probably be either The Melting Pot or PF Chang's.  Well we picked the Garmon's up in the mini and we were discussing what we were going to get on the pizzas, Andy said...Lettuce Wraps from PF Chang's....I looked at Mike and he looked in the rear mirror and said "Thanks Andy"...so I knew what we were doing, but didn't know with who or if it was with ourselves.  I knew the Garmon's couldn't come so narrowed it down...don't have that many friends!  :)  Well I was really hoping that Danny and Courtney would be able to go with us or if Mike asked them I hope they would say yes, since we don't get to spend much time with them.  Well traffic to Tampa is awful so we thought we were running a little late, Mike called someone and said we were in traffic and would be there soon.  So I knew then someone was going with us.  But still didn't know who.  We finally got there not too much after he called whomever, and walked in and there they were...Danny and Courtney!  Yay!  I was really happy.  So we all enjoyed dinner and talked the whole time to the point where I had to say, I think we need to leave since they are probably wanting to sit the table.  But the night didn't end there we walked around the mall trying to find them something to wear for an event, but no luck.  Thanks Honey for the nice night and thanks Danny and Court for being such good friends! 

Here's some pictures of Abi & Ava all dressed up in there Valentine's outfits.

After church that evening we decided to roast marshmellows...yummy!  Abi learned that she really likes them.  I think me and her ate all of them because Mike was gone on his phone doing church business...

Tara's birthday

I haven't posted much of what's been going on with events, instead of my grocery shopping, so I'm going to try and catch up from the past couple weeks. 

Tara, my best friend since childhood's birthday was February 9th.  So instead of going to dinner I asked Andy if he wanted me to cook for them.  Tara decided what she wanted and he bought the ingredients.  So I made chicken alfredo with zucchini.  It was really good!  Then we sang and had cake.  Almost forgot to mention that I went to the dollar store early in the day and got decorations for her birthday, since earlier in the week she celebrated with her family and it wasn't about her it was about her baby inside of her!  So I wanted her to feel special since it was her birthday!  Andy said I out did my self and I had too much time on my hands...I told him it was only 4 dollars!  That dollar store at Grove Park is great!  Here are some pics and a video of her special day!

If you notice in the video Harley our dog was singing too.  I hope you enjoy!

Amended Return

Oh my gosh, I don't even know where to begin!  I'm so confused and frustrated!  So the church gave us a corrected W-2 since the first one was incorrect, duh that's why its called a corrected one, oh whatever, so I went to amend the return last night and when I went to print it I noticed that Ava wasn't listed as a dependent!  I don't know how this happened or how Turbo Tax missed it!  So I went to add her as a dependent well the refund raised, went to view it again and now Abi & Ava's name were on the amended return, GOSH!  I researched how to delete the 1040X and finally figured out how, but that didn't change the refund amount!  So my last resort I called them.  They had me download the program, after waiting for 20 minutes for it to download my return wasn't there!  So he put me on hold to get his supervisor, and waited, and waited and waited and then they hung up!  I'm so frustrated.  So I logged back into Turbo Tax and clicked on the print forms section, where is says if you need your form or something like that so I did, and it had Ava as a dependent but the forms I saved from when I finished the return at the beginning of the month didn't have her, so I don't know what the IRS received!  Anyone have any help for me?!  I've contact a lady from the church that does taxes, hopefully she can call me soon! 

Gosh, well feel a little better now!  Thank God for blogging!

BOGO

So as I mentioned in a previous post I started clipping coupons and visiting www.southernsavers.com and watching the sales. So this week Publix had great BOGO! I didn't have a lot of coupons but I was so excited to see the savings! I spent $50 and saved $40! 90% of it was BOGO. One cool savings was that I had a coupon for $1 off (2) Gerber Organic baby food, since I feed my family hormone injected items, why do I need organic?! ha ha Anyways, that food is more expensive, but I kept the coupon. While at Publix I checked out the clearance table and there was Gerber Organic baby food marked down to $.80 I thought hmm can I use my coupon...sho nuff I could! So I basically paid $.60 for both (4) containers of Organic Baby food! CRAZY! But the story doesn't stop there, CVS had Wisk detergent BOGO, and I clipped (2) coupons a couple weeks ago for $1 off one. So I called the coupon queen, Courtney Rohrdanz, and asked her if I could use two of the coupons she said YES! While I was there they also had Raisin Bran buy one get one for $.01. I didn't have coupons for that but I think if I did I could have used them, I'll have to verify that with Courtney. So my total for 2 bottles of detergent and 2 boxes of cereal was $12 and saved $15! Again, crazy! So its exciting when you really take the time to find the deals! Thanks Courtney for introducing and encouraging me to do this!

Try it out and let me know how it goes! Until next time...