Fun times

Jess, Dan, & Beck came for a visit this weekend. It was a great time. We headed down to Indy yesterday and had fun at the Children's Museum. We got out of there while the race was still going on, it was like a ghost town!

Playing with Lego's before breakfast. Gotta love a restaurant that has a Lego table! Hudson saw a picture of a smiley face made from eggs and bacon and told the waitress that's what he wanted for breakfast...and they made it!

Somehow, the boys love Star Wars?

Meal Stretching

My goal this week was to make grilled chicken stretch. Ryan grilled some boneless chicken breasts on Sunday night for dinner. No one was extremely hungry, so we only ate one between the 4 of us (granted they are huge).

Tuesday I cut up one and used it in salad. We had fresh greens from the garden, fresh strawberries, poppyseed dressing, blue cheese and walnuts in the salad. Let me say the combo of strawberries and blue cheese is excellent together!

Wednesday we made chicken quesadillas. I sauteed some frozen bell peppers and onions, and threw that in along with the chicken and black beans. I also made some fresh pico de gallo and guacamole to eat with it.

Tonight we're having chicken paninis. I'm slicing the remaining chicken and putting that on artisan french bread along with tomato, pepperjack cheese, and chipotle mayo. We'll have a salad with more greens from the garden and strawberries. Pretty much a Panera bread copycat meal!

Tasty Tuesday

I had some strawberries almost past their prime, so I whipped up a double batch of these muffins. Hudson liked them so much he started giggling after his first bite!

Berry Smash Muffins

• 1 2/3 cups fresh strawberries
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Heat oven to 425 F.
2. Put a paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups, or grease just the bottoms of 12 muffin cups.
3. Slightly smash strawberries in large bowl, using fork.
4. Stir in sugar, oil and eggs until mixed.
5. Stir in other ingredients just until moistened.
6. Spoon batter into muffin cups.
7. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until light golden brown or toothpick poked in center comes out clean.
8. Cool 5 minutes.
9. Loosen sides of muffins from pan if needed, and take them out of the pan.
10. Makes 12 muffins.
11. Tip: If you do not have fresh strawberries, you can use frozen strawberries that you have thawed and drained.

I tried this the other night instead of my "ghetto" garlic bread recipe that I usually make. We loved all the cheese in it. I used 1/2 cup of margarine and Texas toast for the bread.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

• 1/2-1 cup margarine
• 3 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. Microwave margarine in medium glass bowl for about 40 seconds or until about halfway melted.
2. Mix in all ingredients, using a fork.
3. Spread mixture over bread (I use a one of those long sourdough french loaves split in half lengthwise but I've also used plain thickcut bread or split dinner rolls).
4. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 450, until top is golden brown.

45 minutes = 17 lbs

I took the boys strawberry picking this morning. I hadn't been for a long time and it was their first time. Here's our yield from one row in the field. Guess I'm making strawberry jam tonight!

Date Night

Brooks and I went on a date Wednesday evening. Chick-fil-a was hosting a mother/son date night and we love Chick-fil-a so we thought we'd check it out. They had tablecloths and fresh flowers on each table (as well as a flower to take home), limo rides (we didn't partake because of my car seat safety stance) and music. Brooks was so excited that there were 3 (!) cows there. He was so excited to get his picture taken with them. He asked me to wear a dress so obliged. I love taking my boys out for a little one-on-one time.

Dance maniacs

Hudson got a cd from his preschool teachers with all their favorite songs. The boys loooove to listen, sing, and dance to it.

Tasty Tuesday

I'm back with a few recipes. I made this baked ziti over the weekend. I don't usually use ricotta cheese in my baked ziti, but I had a container in the fridge that needed to be used. We all loved the ziti, I liked it better than lasagna, and it's much easier to make!

Baked Ziti

• 1 lb ziti pasta, cooked al dente
• 1 lb Italian sausage, cooked and chopped
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 (28 ounce) jar pasta sauce, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Cook ziti according to package directions; drain; set aside.
3. Mix ricotta, egg, parsley, 1-1/2 cups of the mozarella cheese, and parmesan cheese in a large bowl.
4. Mix cooked sausage and pasta in with ricotta mixture.
5. Mix in 3/4 jar of sauce.
6. Transfer mixture into a 2 quart casserole dish.
7. Top with the rest of the sauce and mozarella cheese.
8. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
9. To freeze: Cover dish with foil and freeze. When frozen you can pop it out of the container and put in a freezer bag if desired.
10. To heat: Thaw. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more.

We all love homemade refried beans. I found this recipe and was intrigued, so I gave it a try. It was good, not quite as good as real refried beans (but of course you're missing the fat). I think next time I will try it with half chicken broth, this time I used all water. They were great on top of tostadas with fresh guacamole for a quick dinner.

Unfried Refried Beans

• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
• 1-2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 9 cups water (or 9 cups an equivalent amount of half water and half broth)

1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker.
2. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed.
3. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
4. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

The boys

The boys had their last day of preschool last week. Since they are in different classrooms, we got to attend 2 parent parties. Hudson's class sang and danced to some of their favorite songs, but Hudson was not in the dancing mood that day. Brooks's class acted out a story, as you can watch below. We're going to miss all of their teachers and friends at Purdue Lab School. We have known some of them since Brooks started there 2 1/2 years ago!

They are still in swimming lessons at the Y and have come a long ways since they started back up in January. It used to be that Hudson would hold on to the teacher, now he is swimming all over the pool by himself! He also would refuse to jump into the pool, and yesterday he jumped into the deep end by himself (with a float belt on). Brooks is now swimming all over the place independently and even jumping off the starting blocks into the deep end without any flotation.

Hudson with one of his teachers

Car or boat?

Yea, I'm alive. Let me get you caught up in the next few days. About a month ago, I was rear-ended while waiting on a stoplight. Fortunately, the kids were not with me and there really was not much damage done to Busy Bee, even though it was a F-150 that hit me. The insurance finally went through and a week ago Busy Bee went to the body shop to get fixed.

I got to drive a lovely Chevy Impala while it was in the shop. The way it handled, I'm not sure if it was a car or a boat. It was all very plastic-y. The brake pedal was too high in comparison to the accelerator. It had fake back headrests and was difficult to tether the car seats in over them. The plus on this car, it had a big trunk (not that I even used it).

Today MSN has a list of boring cars. Guess what is on the list?
The Impala was once America's best-selling car, and vintage models are highly sought after by everyone from traditional collectors to hip-hop restorers. But the current Impala is just a big, boring Chevy sedan, perfect for the guy in the Witness Protection Program who doesn't want to be noticed even if he runs someone over in the street. The Impala's most exciting attributes are an affordable price and a bigger back seat than an Accord or Camry. And parked alongside Chevy's stylish new Malibu, the Impala seems duller than ever.

It felt so nice to be back in the driver's seat of Busy Bee, who is the opposite of the Impala.

The boys didn't like the Implala either, they thought it was boring. Although Hudson can now pick out Chevy's on the road (along with Mazda and Subaru).