Second Wind

Right now, the girls are fully immersed into fall sports.  I mean, holy volleyballsoccercheerrunning season.  I am exhausted and even though I'm not the one out there running or volleying, I have no energy by the time we walk into the house at (most evenings) 8 pm!
I keep telling myself I need to do a weekly meal prep.  I know it will make life easier, but I also know that it is just a little more work than I want to participate in.
Our meals have been on repeat...spaghetti, sloppy joes, cold cut sandwiches, frozen pizza, turk burg w/mac & cheese. 
Everyone is over it.
During one of the many practices, I decided to look at pinterest for dinner ideas, instead of reading my book.

Pinterest.  I haven't been on to browse & pin in...a year...two?  Yes, I have looked up specific things - but I don't browse like I used to.
While going through the INSANE amount of pins on my recipe board (let's get real - I will NEVER cut the girls sandwiches in cute little shapes of animals) I decided I would clean it up. 

Have you ever tried to 'clean up' your pinterest boards?  Does that happen?  Well, I tried.  I was able to get about 3 boards cleaned, all the while thinking the whole idea was dumb.  I have 3,000 pins!  It's safe to say I will probably never do 2,991 of them.  Ugh.

Anyway, while I was cleaning out the recipe idea one, I ran across this yummy looking dinner idea.
So, that evening, after practice, we ran to the store to get a few of the missing ingredients and I made it for dinner.
While it was VERY good and this is something we will definitely make again in the future, attempting a new recipe at 7:45 in the evening is ridiculous!!  But I had caught my 2nd wind at that point and was ready to cook.

Our family is NOT gluten free, so I did not follow the recipe strictly.  And I even made a few changes during the prep.

Here is my version of this delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole

3 1/2 cups cooked rice (we LOVE rice)
3 cups cooked chicken (I used rotisserie chicken from the cold section in the meat dept)
6 slices of swiss cheese
8 slices of cut up deli ham
1 cans of cream of chicken soup
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup crushed saltine crackers or gluten free panko
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

While I was mixing it, I was waiting for Dennis to find a second can of the cream of chicken, I decided it was too thick (for our family tastes) and added another 1/4 cup of milk & told Dennis to quit looking for the 2nd can of cream of chicken b/c I didn't want it.

Personally, I thought it was perfect that way. AND leftovers were just as delicious!  Maybe even a little better :)

Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think!

Teacher Appreciation Week - Thursday

When I found this one on Pinterest, I loved it b/c it was simple and cute..turns out the class was having rootbeer floats on Fri as a treat after their zoo trip...so guess my gift choice was meant to be! And since giving a 6 pk of mini-pop would be weird, I added a bag of m&m's.

Mrs. W, thanks for being an 'AW'some teacher! Love, Cadence

 

 

Bryleigh only attends school 4 days a week, for less then 3 hrs a day.  I still appreciate all she does, ESPECIALLY since she's working w/a class of special needs kids.  I wanted to get her something, so Bryleigh gave her a basket of goodies on 1 day.  4 bags of candy, an insulated cup & the basket it came in..

Mrs. L, Thanks for being so sweet!  Love, Bryleigh

Teacher Appreciation Week - Wednesday

What goes better w/soup then crackers?  Personally, I'm diggin the purple bow from the Dollar Tree.

Mrs. W, you're o'fish'ally the best!  Love, Cadence

Teacher Appreciation Week - Tuesday

This is my favorite gift of the week!  I just think it's so cute...I really wish this was something I had come up with on my own - but again..not that creative!

Mrs. W, Thanks for being 'SOUP'er!  Love, Cadence

Teacher Appreciation Week - Monday

I wish I were more creative and could think of amazing & awesome ideas on my own..

Thankfully, since I cannot, I can turn to Pinterest!  I swear, what did un-creative...increative (?) people do before the internet?

My open letter to Pinterest would go like this:

Dear Pinterest, thank you for making me look awesome!  Sincerely, a mom with no creativity



Mrs. W, Thank you for helping me bloom... Love, Cadence

 

Thanksgiving Class Treat

So for no known reason, my brother is having seizures.  They start in his sleep and his wife does everything in her power (she's strong, but a tiny little thing) to hold him down and keep him from hurting herself.  He was so bad this morning that she called the rescue squad.  When they came in to get him - he was still seizing and punched the rescue worker while they were trying to get him on the board.
My sister had gone up to the ER previously, when he had went in for seizures, earlier this week.  She witnessed one and said it was so scary.  Tonite, I went up with him and sat and talked to him.  While I was on one side of him, my mom was on the other.  The girls were sitting in chairs at the end of the bed watching tv.  He & I were talking about getting a drink - he said he was thirsty.  I asked him if he wanted pop or juice.  He wasn't answering me.  I assumed he was listening to my mom talk on the phone.  It took only a few seconds to realize he was actually seizing.  My mom grabbed a nurse and within a minute, he was done.  But he has NO recollection of what had happened or what we were even talking about.  It was scary and weird.  When I say he was seizing, I don't mean he was thrashing around..he was looking around, dazed, his jaw was clearly locked and his eyes were blank.
By the time Jenny had gotten back up there, the girls were ready to go.  We said our good-byes and headed home with heavy hearts.
I had promised Cadence we'd do a class treat for Thanksgiving, so when we got home, with a bag full of ingredients, I got to work.  Even if I have to work outside the home, I still want to be able to do some of the cool stuff I see on Pinterest for the girls to take to school. 
While looking for an 'easy' treat for Thanksgiving, I ran across these adorable Turkey Pops.  They weren't exactly quick, but the end result was worth the mess!

Thanks for another great idea Pinterest!

End of Year Gifts



 

 

Since this is only my 2nd yr of being a mom to a kid in school, I didn't do anything last year for the kids, but I made up w/it for her teacher's gifts! 

This year, I may have slacked on the teacher gift (I feel so terrible), but gave the kids something fun, too.

 

I was on pinterest, searching for end of year teacher gift ideas and ran across this...loved it!  And loved how inexpensive it would be to put together for 20 kids.

So, after a quick trip to the store - we put these together in time for Cadence to give them to the kids in her class!

 

 

 

 

 

Tina’s Bridal Shower

My friend Tina is getting married next month and I offered to throw her a bridal shower. It was supposed to be at the clubhouse in my community, but it was double booked & we had to have it at my house. I didn’t think it would be a big deal even though we weren’t informed until about 3 days before the shower.

The morning of the shower, our toilet was running & water poured ALL over the floor. We had carpet in the bathroom (I hate carpet in the bathroom!) & had to tear it out & do a quick tile job.

It threw off my morning preparations but her cousins & future mother-in-law were wonderful in helping me decorate and prepare the food!


Sign on the front door

Her wedding colors are a dark purple & dark green…I tried to work those colors in wherever I could…She is also trying to add Japanese aspects throughout the wedding, as this is her culture. Her wedding invitations are on cherry blossom paper, the invites I made had cherry blossoms on them and the wedding program will have cherry blossoms.

The decorations were ideas I found on pinterest.

The famous tissue paper pom poms & the cool ceiling decorations..they didn’t turn out quite as good as I had hoped. However, b/c of the whole floor problem that morning, the decorating portion was kind of rushed.

The appetizers were in these cute little baskets...we used duct tape instead b/c
a. it was purple &
b. it was easy!

The food was yummy!

I kept it simple with a baked potato bar b/c it was a later in the afternoon shower. Past breakfast & lunch but before dinner. I think it was successful…

Her family also brought some pasta salad. For dessert a DELICIOUS cherry cake decorated w/purple frosting & purple cherry blossoms.

In lieu of party favors, I had 'tickets' for 15 min chair massages for the guests. I was pretty excited about having something different!

The front & back of the ticket...the # to the side is their wedding date!  :)

our menu board..

Other than the girls parties, this was the first themed party I've ever done.  I really enjoyed coming up w/ideas and stuff.  I'm kind of looking forward to my next one!

How about you??  Do you like to throw parties? Themed or just whatever happens type?

Baked Pork Chops Recipe from pinterest

Dennis pulled pork chops out for dinner one evening & I happened to see a pork chop recipe on Pinterest that week. I started looking for it again (oops – should have pinned it the first time I saw it!) and counted down the hours until dinnertime…

There were more steps than I like, but overall, it was worth it.

Baked Pork Chops

6 pork chops
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups Italian-style seasoned bread crumbs
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk

Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Rinse pork chops, pat dry, and season with garlic powder and seasoning salt to taste. Place the beaten eggs in a small bowl. Dredge the pork chops lightly in flour, dip in the egg, and coat liberally with bread crumbs.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the pork chops until both sides are crispy, or until the breading appears well browned. Transfer the chops to a 9x13 inch baking dish, and cover with foil. Bake in the preheated oven for 1/2 hour.

While baking, combine the cream of mushroom soup & milk in a medium bowl.

After the pork chops have baked for an hour, cover them with the soup mixture.

Replace foil, and bake for another 30 minutes.

This was before we put them in the baking dish – they looked superb don’t cha think?

Hair, hair, everywhere….

It took FOREVER for Cadence to grow enough hair to do anything to it. F.O.R.E.V.E.R
Bryleigh on the other hand has a lot more hair at 2 than Cai had at 3! Since Cai finally has something to work with, I’m always searching for easy hairstyles to do w/her short hair. I don’t do much to Bry’s right now b/c her hair is still so fine.

I saw the cutest lattice ponytail picture on pinterest and KNEW I had to do it to Cadence!!

Yay!

Next time I will use less, like they did & maybe do it wet. She has lots of strays when I do her hair – no matter how much hairspray I use, I cannot keep them in place…
Any suggestions?

If you have a little one w/short hair – this is so easy for a quick, cute hair-do!

Best Meatball Recipe - EVER!

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I was looking around Pinterest (shocker - right?!) and found this recipe for meatballs.

It sounded pretty good - but I did change up a few of the ingredients & cut it in 1/2 - here is the halved recipe and my changes in ().

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil (I used Pam spray)
1 pounds ground beef (we don't eat red meat, so I used ground chicken)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (I used cottage cheese)
1 large egg
1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 tsp Mrs. Dash garlic
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 cups Classic Tomato Sauce


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Drizzle olive oil Pam onto a cookie sheet
2. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix together ground meat, cottage cheese, egg, breadcrumbs, & seasonings until fully incorporated. Roll mixture into firmly packed 1/2-inch balls.

3.Place meatballs on pan & put into oven. Bake until meatballs are firm and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a meatball reads 165 degrees.

4. Meanwhile, heat tomato sauce in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.

5. Remove meatballs from oven and carefully drain excess grease from pan - if you use ground chicken/or ground turkey there isn't any excess grease... Put meatballs into deep fry pan & cover w/sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes more. Serve.

These are beyond delicious!!