I'm hungry.

If you play World of Warcraft, you'll understand that reference.....which means, my account got hacked! No idea how, but all my stuff and gold was gone when I finally was able to log in. Not only did they take my stuff, I got a 3 hour ban because they were spamming for gold selling sites. Yay. Luckily I was able to get everything back, but it still sucks.

Craig had a 2 day weekend last weekend! It was so nice just having him around, and you can tell Ethan loved it too. We took him to the fountain downtown to play, but he mainly just likes to people watch....along with doing his "yoga pose" lol. We leave for LA this weekend and I'm so excited to take him to the beach again!

I'll be bringing crochet down for the trip, so I'll probably start on my Pumpkin Crochet-a-long, and maybe Ethan's hoodie that I've been wanting to work on.

I've also had this Babette Blanket in my que on Ravelry for at least a year, and depending on finances this month I might get the yarn. We really need a blanket for the couch and I think this would just be to cute!

Dinner last night was Slow Cooker Marmalade Chicken Curry which was amazing, even Craig liked it! It was a little to spicy for Ethan though so he just had rice, a chicken strip and peas and carrots. This week has been a "use up what we have" week and so far so good! Last night I made Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta which was soooo good, but sooooo fattening with all the heavy cream I used lol. Ethan LOVED it though! Tonight will either be sloppy joes or meatloaf...and I'm leaning towards meatloaf since we dont have any cheese and we only have regular bread. Tomorrow is payday though woohoo!

Meal Plan Monday

Here is the plan for the week, although usually throughout the week it changes some lol.

Monday:
Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joes
Frozen sweet potato fries tossed with basil/salt/pepper and a dipping sauce:
¾ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
¼ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon lime zest

Tuesday:
An enchilada recipe similar to this one, I'll post it once I make it

Wednesday:
Leftovers!

Thursday:
Chicken with Scallion-Lime Sauce and Sweet Carrot Rice

Friday:
Slow Cooker French Onion Soup
Easy Quiche

Saturday:
Hopefully leftovers, if not then Chicken Spaghetti

Sunday:
Either leftovers or takeout!

Garlic Chicken

This is Craig's favorite dinner it seems like since he always requests it! It's super juicy and moist and I usually just serve it with rice pilaf and a veggie. Ethan doesn't like the chicken of course :P

- 3 Chicken breasts (I use the bags of frozen boneless skinless, so just defrost enough for your family)
- Italian Dressing
- Lawry's Garlic and Herb Marinade
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
- 1/2 cup flaxseed (optional but I like to pretend it's healthy then)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup white flour

Place chicken in a plastic bag (I sometimes do this while it's still frozen) and cover with 1/2 italian dressing and 1/2 Lawry's marinade.....enough to cover and add the minced garlic. I marinate it at least 4 hours.

Take 3 bowls and in them place:

Bowl 1: The 2 types of flour
Bowl 2: 2 eggs, beaten
Bowl 3: Bread crumbs, garlic powder and flax seed

Dip the chicken in the flour, then egg then bread crumb mixture.

I usually cook the chicken in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, but if I dont have the time I'll just cook it on a medium heat skillet for oh 5 minutes on each side or so....however long it takes.

Then eat :D

Pesto Chicken

This is the easiest recipe ever and it's so tasty! Even my 16 month old eats it and he's incredibly picky. I need to start measuring things and taking pictures now lol.

Pesto Chicken

- 3 defrosted chicken breasts or however many feeds your family (I just buy the frozen bags of boneless skinless)
- Half a jar of store bought pesto. I dont have a food processor so I dont make my own although I'm sure it's tastier if you do
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- Parmesan cheese (I have the cheapy kind in the bottle)
- Enough cooked spaghetti to feed your family, I use whole wheat

Preheat oven to 350

In a seperate bowl, combine pesto and sour cream.

Place chicken in baking dish, pour pesto mixture over and toss to coat.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 40 minutes or until chicken is done.

Make spaghetti according to package directions.

When the chicken is done I like to cut it up into bite sized cubes, but you can leave it whole if you'd prefer. I just toss everything in a giant bowl, sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese and serve. Super yummy!

I also make my son and husband garlic bread to go along with it....if I remember to buy it I even will serve a garlic loaf sometimes lol.

Carrots with Curry Orange Sauce

I made this the other day and I was really impressed! Craig loved them too, Ethan wouldent touch them (but he's that way with veggies). It's from a little "Love Your Heart" American Heart Association Cookbook that I have no idea where I got it from.

Serves 4, 1/2 cup carrots and 1 tablespoon sauce per serving.

4 Medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/8 inch slices (I used about a half pound baby carrots uncut)

Sauce:

1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I didint have any)
1/8 tsp salt (I used Kosher so I used a little more salt)

In a large saucepan, steam carrots for 7 - 8 minutes, or until just tender. Pour into a colander and drain well. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the orange juice to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for 1 1/2 minutes, or until reduced to 2 tablespoons. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining sauce ingrediants, mix in carrots.

Recipes and no sleep!

It's 6:30 am, I've been up for almost an hour...and Ethan is not even awake! My sleep has been so terrible lately, I wonder if it's pregnancy insomnia.

Actually I think one of the reasons why is that I haven't been able to craft as much and I have so many ideas floating in my head that want me to make them now that it's hard to suppress the creativity LOL. I think I need to start making little beanies for ball joint dolls because they are small and quick....except I only know of my cousin who has one but she lives an hour away! Maybe I'll have her compare her dolls head size to a fruit so I can make some here, mail them to her and she can take pictures for my Etsy shop. We'll see :D

Here are some random recipes I've made lately:

- Crispy Chicken with Creamy Orange Sauce: I marinated mine in a marinade of lemon, lime, garlic, orange juice...and uh I think that's it. I kinda just threw things in there. It was amazing. Ethan wouldn't try it.

- Slow Cooker Sweet Mustard Roast Beef: While I personally didn't care for it (I think I just don't like roast beef to be honest) my husband said it was really good with a mild sweet flavor that went well. My 16 month old tasted it then threw it across the room. But he hates meat so don't take that as any indication of flavor ;)

- Cheesecake Brownies: BEST BROWNIES EVER. I used Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies and added vanilla into the cheesecake mixture. They are super rich but soooooo good.

- Quinoa and Black Beans: This was terrible. I think my taste has been off this week too but I thought this was disgusting. So I added in some cheddar cheese, lime, salsa and sour cream and made it "southwestern". I thought it was ok - Craig liked it and Ethan...again, wouldn't touch it.

- Quinoa with Sweet Potato and Mushrooms: I LOVE LOVE LOVE this dish. But I love sweet potatoes, in fact I think I would make them almost nightly in different forms if I could....but Craig doesn't like them! How insane is that?! (he did also say he didn't like pesto but he requests pesto chicken almost weekly) He did like this dish though.

- Sweet Potato Burritos: This sounds so weird but it's SO GOOD. Craig of course didn't like it but it was one of my favorite meals yet.

- Spinach Ricotta Bites: I made these in the hopes that it would get Ethan to eat some veggies.....but nope it didint work. I think these make a tasty little snack but Craig just said they're alright. Can you tell we have different tastes? :) I added cheddar cheese and bacon to mine.

- Spicy White Lasagna: This was really really good, and normally I'm not a fan of sausage. Ethan even ate it!

Since I REALLY need to start writing my recipes down, I thought I'd post them on here to start off so I at least have them somewhere so I don't forget. I'll post these recipes soon, but here are some staples around our house:

- Pesto Chicken: It's just chicken that I bake with a half a jar of pesto, sometimes I even mix in sour cream if I'm really feeling daring. Then I mix it with cooked whole wheat spaghetti and yummyness ensues. Ethan actually ate the chicken last time I made it!

- Pulled Pork: YUM. This recipes was originally from Makeupalley, but I tweak it a bit and add less vinegar (Craig likes it that way) and just randomly throw in the spices for the rub. I'll look it over and see what I do so I can post it.

- Meatloaf: I used to just use those seasoning packets but that seemed so dumb since I have all the seasonings here. So last week when I made it I added my own seasonings, garlic, Italian breadcrumbs, worchestire and um...I'll have to check on the rest lol. But it was so much better then just a seasoning packet.

- Garlic Chicken: This is Craig's favorite recipe that he ALWAYS asks for when I ask him what he wants for dinner. It's evolved quite a lot so it's not quite as garlicky as it used to be....I like it better that way. I marinade chicken in a mixture of Italian Dressing, garlic and Lawrys Herb and Garlic Marinade which I really hate to use since it has high fructose corn syrup...but it makes for tasty chicken. Then I coat the chicken in a mixture of half whole wheat flour, half white flour, then egg, then a mixture of Italian breadcrumbs/flaxseed/garlic powder. Depending on how much time I have I either bake it at 350 for 40 minutes, or just cook it with some olive oil on the skillet. It's super juicy and flavorful and Ethan even took a bite of it last night when I made it!

I think this is the original garlic chicken recipe.

- Tacos: Tacos are easy around here, it's either chicken or that strips of beef ("sandwich meat" I think it says on the package) that sometimes I marinade in a mixture of salsa/lime/beer/garlic...but most of the time this is a last minute meal so I just throw the meat on the skillet with some taco seasoning and onions and call it done. We put it in a tortilla with lots of cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Super easy.

- Lasagna: I just use the directions on the box of whole wheat no cook lasagna noodles LOL. I do add in more seasonings, cheese and use more sauce and no water.

New Seedlings!

I was very surprised to see these have sprouted! It seems so fast, it was a week or less.

Carpet of Snow, I really could of cared less if this sprouted lol...I just had the starter seeds/pot from Buzzyseeds so I thought what the heck.



A sunflower! Of course it's one of the mammoth ones so if anymore sprout in that container I'll have to transplant them. I also have a dwarf "Sunny Smile" variety that I want to plant, but we might be moving soon so I don't want to plant to much....but we'll see :)



Here's an updated shot of my container garden, don't mind the black bed thing (I cant think of what it's called right now!) It will be moving in our bedroom today. That other big green container in the back is growing Jack Be Little pumpkins! ..hopefully.



I haven't been doing much crocheting but it seems some of the fatigue is passing so maybe I'll try tonight. I did have someone send me a message on Etsy about ordering a few beanies but they haven't replied in 2 days so who knows :)

Ethan has learned to open doors (joy), pretty much say "Elmo" and to grab his shoes when he wants to go for a walk. The only problem is he wants to go for walks all day long lol....the first thing he does at 6am is grab his shoes. I'll take him out later if it's not raining though.

Yesterday I noticed that you can hear a lovely grinding sound from our brakes on our car, so I need to find a way to take it in. It also needs an oil change and to get smogged so there will be big $$$$. My husband just wants me to go take it in....but I'm not waiting around with a 1 year old while they work on it...especially since maybe it would take longer then a day since we need all that done? So we'll have to figure something out.

You MUST try these recipes, I made them for dinner the other night and it was amazing!

Coconut Ginger Rice: I did add the juice of the lime to it and it was even better.
Southwestern Grilled Pork Chops with Peach Salsa: Instead of the chili rub, I used a Grillmates Baja Citrus marinade as a rub, and I bought store bought peach salsa. It was so good though! Ethan didint like it but it might of been to spicy for him.

Frogged Round Ripple Afghan

So I was working on this pattern for 12 Point Round Ripple Afghan and I somehow ended up with 9 points instead of 12! I have no idea how. I thought I could fix it, but it was just getting more and more bowl shaped so sadly, I am going to frog it. Here is a picture of the mess...as you can see the middle is all wonky!



I also just got my yarn in the mail from KnitPicks, it's Knitpicks Comfy Worsted in Blackberry that I'm going to make a cardigan out of for summer! That is if I can find time between Ethan and exhaustion lol.

I don't know if I had just forgotten how tiring the first trimester is or if it's worse because I have a 1 year old, but I'm beat and I'm only 8 weeks! I should be napping since my son is but I just finished getting together a grocery list and doing dishes....fun household stuff. I sure cant wait until Saturday when my husband is home so I can take a nap for a few hours!

Dinner tonight is just boring 'ol stir fry since I need to use up some chicken, but tomorrow (or the next night, depending on if there is leftovers) I'm making Crockpot Barbecue Beef and Bean Sandwiches which look super good, and the next night is Crockpot Taco Soup. I love my slow cooker, I can make it the night before and just take it out of the fridge and start it up! So easy.