Freebies

I am very excited about our upcoming mini trip downtown~ We are staying at a Marriot Residence Inn and I earned the hotel stay free through Tastefully Simple...then I have 5 AMC gold tickets so we can go see WALL-E for free through my coke rewards.

Then I have a $25.00 gift certificate for NIX a restaurant by our hotel that I got for free wthe coke rewards again...Then we have 6 free tickets to see the white sox from Bryce's baseball camp...AND today I read in the Trib that all summer long kids get in free to the Museum of Science and Industry! So this is going to be my kind of trip, my freebie and rewards collecting will equal less out of pocket expenses and we don't have to spend a ton of $$ on gas.

I am also happy to report that the hotel room has a fridge and a microwave so we don't have to eat in restaurants the entire time. Wahoo!

So tomorrow will be 10 days with out chocolate. I have been waiting for the phone to ring and someone to tell me I get some fabulous prize for subsiding w/o chocolate for more than a week...

Relay for life on Friday

Well on Friday I am participating in a local Relay for Life overnight event. I really am not sure how it will go...I have like a tent thing, but not a tent tent, I have one of those coverings you put up that is like a cheap version of a tent for an outdoor sale event.

Tom will be home with Anna and I'll be there w/the boys. I really hope it all goes ok...ie no storms and no crabby kids. I think I should probably check w/Tom and see if we have a tent tent somewhere in the garage...

I figure I can do lots of walking, since Im used to running. Really I am just giving myself a pep talk on the whole thing right now, I don't like going to places where I don't know exactly how things work--but who does like to try new stuff right? I'll also be doing onsite fundraising w/my TS and I will have at least one team member coming up there--I need to work on hopefully finding another team member or 2 who might want to come up there as well.

Today Anna turned 4, and what did she want to do for her birthday. Get a pink booster seat. So we went to Target since it looked like they'd have better selection on booster seats than WalMart...but they didn't. So I got her a Dora necklace from the one spot..and we went over to Trader Joes because the one other thing Anna really really wanted to do on her birthday was get a little shopping cart and put food in it. LOL Fortunately when we got to Trader Joes they had a mini shopping cart available for the birthday girl to use. Fortunately for me she only almost rammed it into about 3 fellow patrons of the Trader Joes--she was pushing the cart around like she was Danica Patrick...

Then she finished offer her day w/a big piece of chocolate creme pie that Auntie Teri brought over.

So that's what it is!

The other day I cut up cantalope, had a couple of pieces and right away my mouth started itching...and the same thing happened when I made guacamole...so I did some googling and found this:
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/articles/pollen-fruits-veggies-help-trigger-oral-allergy-syndrome/hd-607439?ipc=B00449

turns out if you are allergy to ragweed--yes...then pollen in some fruits and veggies can trigger oral allergy syndrome...

well at least now I know what the deal is. And at least cooking the fruit or veggies in question can stop it...which is good in case it ever starts happening w/tomatoes...Still I am bummed about the guacamole issue. I love guacamole. But it is def. a prob. I have w/alvocados because today I had alvocado on a sandwich and one bite and my mouth started itching. which is really freaky!

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.