Anna is turning 4, my summer experiment

Here is the Princess Cake I made for Ms. Anna's birthday. It was a big hit w/the girls. Pink frosting Pink Cake... And Anna got lots of fun princess-y stuff for her birthday from all her friends and family. She especially loved the dresses from Auntie Kat--yes she is all girl.

I am on some pins and needles as I am so close to my goal to promote to Team Mentor on 7/1...but it is mostly out of my hands and in the hands of my team. It's hard to work hard and sit back and be patient at the same time.

On the running front, I ran the Ridge Run again this year and survived. Oh and then they take pics of you during the race and email them to you in case you want to order them for a memento...yah-no. My pics I should get printed and put on the fridge --that's a guaranteed way to skip opening the fridge! I want to run a 1/2 marathon again and finish faster than last year and to that end I got a new pair of running shoes FREE w/my coke rewards point collecting --that was super cool AND I am doing a change of diet experiment to try and lose weight cause then I would be running faster (less drag...)

So I am on day 4 of my new diet of no meat no dairy. I think I'll probably lose about 1000 lbs cause I love dairy and cutting it out really is reducing all the fun! LOL.--On the plus side, peanut butter is in....

Tonight I made quinoa and mixed that w/corn and black bean salsa and yum, it was delish and today I also found out margarine doesn't contain meat or dairy which was news to me, duh! Of course since I want to lose weight, I won't be able to sit around and eat toast w/margarine all day as lovely as that would be!

i make a spongebob cake patrick turns 8.

On May 9th Patrick turned 8. So made him a Spongebob cake, as he requested. Now this is the only time I have ever tried to make a cake that wasn't a reg sheet cake. If you think that it looks swell I credit watching episodes of the ACE OF CAKES on the foodnetwork for inspiration. If you don't think it looks swell, then I blame being on painkillers at the time of making the cake. See on May 8th, I had oral surgery and so on May 9th, I was pretty loopy.

May 10th was Patrick's party and as far I could tell, the kids all had fun. We got lucky with the weather, it was cool, but sunny and my Amazing Race game went over big w/the kids--which was great cause I was really fretting about how to amuse a bunch of 8 year olds w/o people fighting over the Wii.

Mothers day I let the boys play on the Wii too much and I watched Juno. Which was a good movie, good for renting.

And now we only have 12! 12 more days of school left. ekkkk.

Gas today was over $4.00 a gallon and with gas and food really eating up our budget, we decided we'll not go on vacation to Boston this year. I was so glad I was able to switch my 2 free hotel nights from the hotel in Boston to a marriott downtown. So right before the 4th we'll have a two day vacation in Chicago. That will be fun.

Take me out to the ball game

Well it was warmer at the game on Sunday than it was around here today. (temps only made it to 41 degree. And it didn't rain so we had a great time...and the good guys won!

Above is Karl's son Jade w/his cousin Bryce and Patrick there in the backgrou and then we have a wonderful pic of Anna w/her uncle Karl.

GOOO White Sox! Come on warm weather!

Great recipe by Tyler Forence

I made this last week, very yummy w/the fresh turnips that I had w/our organic food delivery.

Butter Rooted Vegetables
Recipe by Tyler Florence

1 tbsp EV Olive Oil
1 lb parsnips, peeled, cut into cubes
1 lb turnips, split into halves
Fresh ground pepper
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup chpped fresh herbs like chervil, parsley and thyme (I only had parsley and thyme to add)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 lb carrots, peeled, cut into cubes
Kosher Salt
1 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Put the olive oil and butter into a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and toss to coat them well w/the fat; sason w/salt and pepper. Add 1 cup chix stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook until the veggies are tender, about 20 min. Add butter and toss until incorporated. To serve, pour veggies into a large bowl and shwer w/the mixed herbs and season w/salt and pepper.

We have had fantastic weather this week. I wish it was sunny and in the 70s all the time!

Roast Chicken Recipe I must try.

I have to make this very soon!

Chef Hans' Roast Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary

1 Corn fed free-range or organic chicken 4 to 6 lbs

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 garlic clove lightly crusted with skin

2 springs of fresh rosemary

1/2 lemon

3 tablespoon olive oil

lemon pepper seasoning to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 250- with fan, 325- without fan

2. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper and lemon pepper salt. Place the garlic and rosemary, fresh lemon in the cavity. Set the chicken in oiled roasting pan and brush with oil.

3. Roast for 1 hour 15 minutes, basting occasionally and covering with oiled grease proof paper or foil if the breast is becoming too brown.

4. Remove from the oven at 160F and allow to rest for few minutes before carving.
Eat with warm vegetables, salad, your choice.

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Started weeding today, realize I really don't like weeding--but I do love having a garden..I"ll have to work on getting Anna to know the difference btwn plants and weeds because she loves weeding!

chicken divan

Well I am hoping the weather has taking a turn for the warmer and we won't be having many more --if any days in the 20s. Around this house we are still trying to get used to the time change. It's hard to fall asleep and even harder to manage to get up in the morning, but that extra hour of sun---boy is that fan-tas-ic!

The other day we had a couple of bunches of broccoli sitting around and I really really wanted Chicken Divan, but I didn't have any sour cream. Sigh. So here is what I came up w/and personally I thought it was good.

Faux Chicken Divan
2 bunches broccoli steamed
3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 brick of reduced fat cream cheese
about 1/2 a cup of milk
2 tbsps sour cream
2/3 cup light mayo
2 1/2 tbsp Garlic Dill Mix
bread crumbs
shredded cheese

Take the cream cheese, milk, sour cream (that was all the sour cream I had), mayo and Garlic Dill mix and blend that in a med bowl w/the mixer until well blended and fluffy--used more milk if needed to thin out the blend.
fold in the broccoli and chicken and mix together w/a spoon.

Put mixture in a baking dish, sprinkle on your fav. shredded cheese and top w/bread crumbs then bake for 1/2 an hour at 350.

Bryce minus a tooth, an avocado tree, and no meat on Friday

Here is the happy kindergartener.

We have an outrageously delicious new product that is just too easy to make. 1 packet of the Giddyup Guacamole Mix water and a couple of avocados and you have ahhhhhhh the best guac it's crazy good. So what do you have after you make some fantastico guacamole? a couple of pits and the chance for a fun family project. Yes I googled 'grow avocado from pit' and got the scoop on how I could grow my own tree! So Anna, Bryce and I are on the road to growing a tree.

Now today is friday and this year Tom has decided to keep lent. So I made a yummy dinner and it got 2 thumbs up from Tom. The kids wouldn't eat it--they had cucumber, french fries and cheese pizza. Anywho, so this is what I made.

Scalloped Potatoes w/Fennel.

So you take your basic scallopped potato recipe and you add in thinly sliced fennel bulb and i add in a fair amount of garlic garlic and bake that together and you have a nice new twist on scalloped potatoes and you've added in another veggie to the mix.

Then I took 1 lb of Orange Roughy which was 3 large filets--that cost $9.67 OUCH! sprayed them w/some pam and sprinkled 1 lightly w/our new Garlic Dill Mix and 2 w/the garlic garlic and popped that in the oven w/the broiler on high until the Orange Roughy was opaque and flaky w/a fork.

It's been ages!

Oh I had the flu for the first time since 1999. just now back to 98%... How miserable it was. I couldn't smell or taste for 5 days--you just don't realize how sad life is when you can't smell or taste until it happens. And that was after about 5 days of barely being able to get out of bed!

Exciting news for Mr. Bryce, he lost his first tooth yesterday, and then I forgot to put a dollar from the tooth fairy. then I grabbed an envelope and drew a tooth on it and put it on his dresser, told him that must have been left by the tooth fairy, he opens it..and the darn envelope was empty.. Oy. I forgot to put the dollar in the envelope after I decorated it! Ekkk. So I realized the dollar was on our bed by Anna, and told bryce the toothfairy must have made a mistake.

Bryce said the tooth fairy must have forgot to wear his glasses and got all confused. I said yep that must be it!
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We have such a delicious line of new products for this spring/summer I can't wait for my party on 3/1--I finally get to share all the goodies!!!

New Fav Lunch

I made this yesterday and today, it's really yummy!!!! the recipe is from hungry-girl.com, i made a few changes to it, like I used reduced fat cheese vrs. fat free cheese because fat free cheese is just aweful tasting!

Whole 'Lada Love

Wanna stuff your face with a saucy smothered bean 'n cheese enchilada without a gazillion irritating calories and fat grams? Just whip up a batch of these Lean Bean Cheesy Enchiladas PRONTO!

Ingredients:

2 large corn tortillas (like Mission Super Size)

1 slice reduced fat-free cheddar cheese, cut in half

2/3 cup enchilada sauce

1/3 cup fat-free refried beans

1/4 cup shredded reduced fat-free cheddar cheese

1/4 cup chopped onions

1 tbsp Roasted Tomato Salsa from TS

1/2 tsp. fiesta party dip mix, dry

Optional toppings: fat-free sour cream, chopped scallions

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a pan sprayed with nonstick spray, cook onions over medium heat until they begin to brown (about 2 minutes). In a small dish, combine the onions with the refried beans, taco sauce, and taco seasoning. Mix well. Spray a small baking dish with nonstick spray.

Heat tortillas in the microwave until slightly warm. Lay the tortillas on a clean, dry surface, and then spread about 2 tbsp. of the enchilada sauce onto each one. Place one half of the cheese slice on each tortilla. Then, evenly distribute the bean mixture into the center of each tortilla. Wrap the tortillas up tightly, and place them in the baking dish seam side down.

Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes (until the enchiladas are hot). Remove dish from the oven, sprinkle shredded cheese over the enchiladas, and then return it to the oven for about 5 minutes (until the cheese is nice and melty). Plate those babies and, if you like, top with some of the optional ingredients. Enjoy!

MAKES 2 SERVINGS

Onemonth closer to spring

Some pics I was finally able to down load. :-)

the first is from a magic of books night at bryce's school...it was on his bday and we took his bday presents (the book and the pirate hat w/and we made a tent w/a blanket and a couple chairs and read by flashlight and then we sat around the campfire w/a bunch of other students and their parents and the teachers read interactive stories.

the second is the cabin we stayed in down in so. IL ...Pope County over new years.