What We Are Eating - Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers

Chicken Mozzarella Pasta with Roasted Red Peppers
adapted from Julia's Album

A few weeks ago, when the kids were gone, I decided to try a new pasta recipe that I knew wouldn't be something they would really eat but, Darryl and I enjoy really good pasta meals.  This was really an easy recipe to put together - I would recommend gathering and prepping all of your ingredients so you are ready to go.  I used chicken breast and just gut them down into "tender" size.  

Ingredients

• 3 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small jar (3-4 oz) sun-dried tomatoes in oil, or use 3-4 oz fat-free sun dried tomatoes
• 1 lb chicken breast tenders
• salt
• paprika (just a little bit)
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 8 oz penne pasta (for gluten free, use Tinkyada gluten free brown rice pasta)
• 1 tablespoon basil (if using dry basil), if using fresh basil you can add more
• 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water (or more)
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• salt, to taste

Instructions

1. Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained oil for sauteing as described below:
2. In a large pan, on high heat, sautee garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) in 2 tablespoons of oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar - see note above) for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant. Remove sun-dried tomatoes from the pan, leaving the oil, and add chicken tenders, salted and lightly covered in paprika (for color) and cook on high heat for 1 minute on each side. Remove from heat.
3. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve some cooked pasta water. Drain and rinse the pasta with cold water (to stop cooking).
4. Slice sun-dried tomatoes into smaller bits and add them back to the skillet with chicken. Add half and half and cheese to the skillet, too, and bring to boil. Immediately reduce to simmer and cook, constantly stirring, until all cheese melts and creamy sauce forms. If the sauce is too thick - don't worry - you'll be adding some cooked pasta water soon. Add cooked pasta to the skillet with the creamy sauce, and stir to combine. Add basil, stir to combine.
5. Add about 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water because the creamy sauce will be too thick (do not add all water at once - you might need less or more of it). This will water down the thickness of the cheese sauce and make it creamier. Immediately, season the pasta with salt and more red pepper flakes, to taste, if needed. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes for flavors to combine.
6. Note: Make sure to salt the dish just enough to bring out of the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.

 

Teaching Tuesdays - Week 11 - Catching up and Thanksgiving projects

This week, I worked to get Josh caught up a little bit in areas we are running behind - math and phonics.  He enjoys doing the math worksheets and, quite honestly, they are super easy (with only 3-5 problems on a page.  Doubling up lessons has been easy and we'll continue it this coming week.  In phonics we finished up our alphabet review and actually started true phonics this week.  I told Darryl he might need to teach the short vowel lesson where Josh has to master the vowels blending with all sorts of letters because, well, I never learned phonics and, holy cow, it's hard to learn it at my age HA!  This week we have also started working through a workbook on money.

This week we started talking about the Penny.  My boys both love money so this is a good thing to work on!

Nate loves school - loves his workbook pages, learning sight words and this book:

Yep, mazes!  These are good for his fine motor skills and well, they are just fun.  I had purchased both of the Kumon Workbooks two years ago and we just never used them.  I love that I can pull these out now and let them use them again.

This week we also started talking about Thanksgiving.  The weather is turning colder so this week I used Friday afternoon to my advantage and did some Turkey fun with the boys.

We did two different projects.  First, we did a color by number Turkey that I found over at Kindercraze.  I love that it printed as half sheets so that it wasn't too much for little hands to color.  This is the first time ever that the boys have actually been willing to follow the directions HA!  Usually they are monochromatic colorer's so seeing them actually color by the number was awesome!  Second, we did a cut and color turkey.  The pattern came from Thanksgiving Activities for Kids - you just need to click the image and save it, then I used my copier to actually enlarge it to 81/2 x 11.  The boys did great getting their pieces colored, cut out, and glued together.

I didn't take any photos but we also worked out side and did some science.  Earlier in our school year, we read a Zootles Magazine about plants and specifically talked about tulip bulbs.  Our local store had all of their bulbs at 75% off recently so I picked up two bags of tulip bulbs - 30 in each bag.  After burning attempting to burn leaves and other flower cuttings (who knew it was so hard to burn leaves???) we worked on planting the bulbs.  They boys may or may not have planted all 60 bulbs in a 2x2 square.  For real.  I'm curious to see what actually comes up in the spring!!

Make it Monday - Doing some (Fake) Sewing.

I've mentioned before that both of my boys are in AWANA this year -Josh is in Sparks and Nate is in Cubbies.  This brings back memories for me as I was in Sparks when I was Josh's age.  It's kinda neat to have my kids doing the same thing that I did 150 years ago :-)

Each week we work on their verses and they enjoy learning them especially when they get their patches!  So this past week, I had the joy of putting their patches on their uniforms.

 So, first of all, I got out my sewing machine, I mean my needle and thread, ok, I got out my iron!!  (Which was very dusty and hardly used HA!)

 Then I sewed ironed on Nate's patches - he has a sash that he loves hates to wear over his Cubby shirt. 

 I then ironed on Josh's first patch (the green one under the "Sparks" logo) He is very, very proud of this vest. 

 That got me thinking about my old Sparks vest so I went digging for it SURE that my kids would be impressed with it.  They were not HA!  As I was ironing the patches on the boys sash/vest I thought about the fact that growing up my mom did not sew.  And by did not sew, I mean she never sewed anything. ever. ever. ever.  (Now, she makes heirloom quality quilts though so she obviously had a hidden talent!) So I wondered to myself how in the world she very got the patches on my uniform.

Look closely.  What do you see?  Apparently my mom DID sew a few things HA! 

Let me state now, I'm so thankful those patches can be ironed on . . .or Nana would need to do some sewing for her "boys" :-)

Things My Kids Say

* One of the greatest sounds ever - we were putting the boys to bed one night and Nate started singing a hymn, . . .. he sang the whole thing.  What a joy to hear your kids sing about Jesus as they fall asleep.

* We were driving to down the other day and Josh realized that he could "read" many of the road signs (because every time we drive by an orange road sign, he asks us to read it).  Nate asked him if he could read this sign or that sign, and Josh said, "That one says slow down" and Nate said, "And Kill a worker for money" HA!  You know the signs . .. "Fines doubled in work zones; Kill a worker, 15 years and $7500"  Yes, they have listened, no the did not get it right!

* The boys love going to our big town 'Grand Rackids"  (Grand Rapids).   Nope, I chose not to correct them and yes, we now call it Grand Rackids too!

Family Fun! Halloween

We had so much fun this year celebrating Halloween.  We actually grew our own pumpkin and the boys loved watching it grow (HUGE!) and they checked it every day for weeks as it slowly turned orange.  We did have a second pumpkin that got huge but it never turned orange! 

 The boys were very excited to finally get to carve our pumpkin.  This is the first year we've actually carved a pumpkin.  I thought they might want to decorate a smaller pumpkin but they had no interest - they totally wanted to work with Darryl and carve the pumpkin "they grew".

The boys wanted to be a full part of the carving so Darryl taught them how to move the knife to cut the top of the pumpkin.  (I was pretty sure someone was going to lose a finger . . .hahaha)

 Before long both of the boys have knives and were hacking carving away.  They loved it and kept asking who taught Darryl how to carve pumpkins HA!

 Trying to pull the top off of the pumpkin. . . .

 A little help from dad and the top finally came off . ..

 The boys did NOT like the guts HA!  We tried to get them to help scrap it out but there was no way they were touching it.  Nate did finally help me pull out the seeds for roasting but Josh wanted nothing to do with the "gross stuff."

We had a Halloween Tablecloth on the table so the boys picked out one of the jack-o-lanterns on the cloth and asked Darryl to copy it.

 The final product being product with a candle.  It is one awesome pumpkin!

 My two crazy boys and their first Jack-O-Lantern affectionately named "Jack".

 Me and my boys (see our green pumpkin on the steps?)

 Darryl and the boys.

This photo makes me laugh - Josh is my little photographer and this is the photo he took of Darryl, Nate and I :-)

My brother and sister-in-law, Kel and Deb, came to visit on Halloween and my brother even came in costume!

 My two Pirates.  To keep it real . . .. Josh was very upset with me because I told him he had to wear a coat (it was in the 20's and we had some snow!).  He told me he did not like cold Halloweens.  He pouted all the way until we got out of the truck and started walking  - then he told me how cold it was and he was glad he had his coat HA!  Well, because of the sadness at home, I did not get a great photo!

 My brother Kel and Nate.  Kel's costume was awesome!

 Darryl and I laughed and laughed when we turned around from getting the boys candy and saw Kel standing out on the sidewalk.  It was slightly creepy HA!  Kel was the most popular person on the Trick or Treating route, though, with adults and kids stopping to say hello to him!

After about an hour of outside Trick-or-Treating, we headed back to our church for their indoor (and warm) Truck-or-Treat activities.  The boys got to play lots of games and get more candy. 

It really was a great night and yes, the boys are enjoying their candy :-)

Weekly Menu

We ate a lot of chicken this past week.  For a family that prefers beef or pork, that says a lot HA!  Yep, chicken was on sale recently and, in an effort to keep the grocery bill down this past week, I planned our menu around that chicken!

Sunday dinner.  I grew up with my mom making a roast almost every Sunday that was ready after we got home from church.  It was awesome and I loved it.  I still love it but roast has gotten so expensive and I just struggle with planning that meal!  I can honestly say that if we lived in town where we had a nice selection of restaurants, we would probably eat Sunday dinner out every single week.  No cooking; No Clean-up; No dishes but, that is not the case.  Instead I've decided I need a rotation of Sunday meals.  Either things that cook while we are at church or things I can put together on Saturday and warm up on Sunday after church.  So far this is what I'm thinking - Sunday Swiss Steak, Roast, Pork Loin, and Ham.  I made soup this past Sunday - it was good and went together quickly after church but the boys were less than thrilled!

Here's the plan for this coming week - we are in the quiet weeks before the Holiday excitement begins!

Saturday - We are planning a family day.  Right now, we are planning to head into town, ride the new bus called the Silver Line, head to the Children's museum (free with a library pass) and get dinner.  Not sure where since we'll be downtown but there is a great pizza place we haven't been to in awhile!

Sunday - Roasted Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Rolls

Monday - Beef Tips and Noodles - a great crock pot meal!

Tuesday - Pulled pork BBQ (Left over from Sunday's meal), Baked Beans and Mac and Cheese

Wednesday - Waffles, sausage and Fruit

Thursday - Chicken Pasta w/roasted red peppers and mozzarella, green beans and garlic bread (I made this meal recently and we loved it - I have left over roasted red peppers and want to use them so we are eating it again!)  The kids will probably have spaghetti! . 

Friday - Tacos!!! 

November Goals

I am amazed that I am writing goals for November.  I feel like this year went by very slowly yet, now it's gone.  So crazy.  As we enter the holiday season, my goals start to shift and I focus more on getting things done in order to make sure that the time around Christmas can be geared more towards fun stuff and not be stressful with things that must get done!  You can check out my October goals HERE and see what I did (and more likely did not) accomplish

November Goals: 

The Home
1. The Kitchen - Deep cleaning.  We have some projects going on with the kitchen right now so I want to focus on doing some cleaning and cleaning out of things.  Along with rearranging what is stored where in order to make my cupboards more useful and keep the countertop cleared off as much as possible.  Along with updating some decor (using my photography to keep expense as low as possible) and just doing some updating over all.  Most of the cleaning is done - some is waiting until the project is done and the dust settles though.  I plan on doing the decor in January - after I take Christmas stuff done. 

2.  Outside - I am still working slowly to get the outside stuff done.  It seemed that every time I planned to work out side, the temps went up to the 70's and well, I don't do yard work when I have to sweat HA! (Especially in October and November GEESH!).  I'll finish up the yard prep and then actually put away the last of the outdoor stuff and get it all covered in plastic before the snow flies.  Done!  The boys and I worked hard on this project a few weeks ago and got everything cleaned up, put away and even made room to park in the garage . . .just in time for the HUGE snowstorm that hit!

3.  Christmas Decor - yes, you read that right.  I put up my outside stuff in November.  I tend to watch the weather and pick a weekend when it is not bitter cold to put up the lights and basic decor.  No, I don't turn it all on yet but I like it done before my fingers freeze and fall off :-) The outside stuff is up!  I need to up another strand of lights and some red bows to finish up the project but otherwise what we have is done.

4. Toy Clean out - After Thanksgiving, my kids spend a few days with Papa and Nana.  This is my prime time to clean up and clean out.  My kids really don't have an over abundance of toys but in order to keep it under control I have to clean it up a few times a year.  Basically, I go through every bin and basket and box - make sure that all the pieces are matched back up; go through games and make sure their aren't missing pieces that impact game play; look for broken toys, and clean out stuff they have out grown.  This allows room for Christmas toys to find new homes. My plans were arranged (all for good) so I didn't get quite as much accomplished as I planned - including this project.  I will carry this over into December and work to get everything organized and cleaned up before Christmas. 

Scrapbooking
I was able to attend a scrapbook crop in October which really helped my stick to my goals and even get a little ahead!
1. Order first set of scrapbook page prints (I have created a spread sheet and plan to get pages order - what I might actually do is figure out how much it would cost IF I ordered and put the money away.  The company I use usually does a really good sale sometime in march where I can then order more for my money!) After looking at the budget for December, I've cut out all unnecessary spending so I can focus on the things we want to do for Christmas.  I plan to start the page ordering in January.
2. Birthday Books - this was on the radar for October but didn't get done - I need to ask Josh his questions and then print the pages and put them in an album. The pages are done; now I just need to order them and get a scrapbook for each of them - the plan for this is January
3. Blog Book - also from October - I would like to put 2013 of my blog into a book and then budget to get it ordered. Not Started
4. Finish up December 2013 (if not done already) I had planned to work on this over my "weekend" but ended up with some other things going on and didn't get to it.
5. Create the Christmas ornament books for each of the boys
6. Update the Family albums
7. Create a blog book for 2012 and, again, budget it out so I know when I can order it
8. Order photos from Jan-March 2014 to have on hand for a crop at the end of the month Ordered :-)

School
1. Make my plan of where I want to be by mid-December so that we can take a few weeks off around Christmas/New Year Done!
2. Plan our Christmas Advent activities and order anything that needs to be ordered/prep anything that needs to be prepped Done!
3. Go through the books on our shelves and clean them out.  I love books and so do my kids but, I know we have quite a few books that the boys have either outgrown OR have never had an interest in.  I'd prefer to have books on the shelves they enjoy hearing and will enjoy reading at some point.
4. Go through all of my "school" supplies in the basement and clean them out or use them.  I try to limit what I have in storage - I'm more of a "use it or lose it" kind of girl ;-)
5. Create chore charts for the boys (Yes, I've had this on here before . .. some day I might do it HA)
6. Find some great recipes to make with the boys and to use to teach them how to cook some basics

Christmas
Yes, this is a new topic.  I love the Holidays and need to plan to keep it non-stressful!
1. Decorate the house.  This usually happens near the end of November.  As I do each year, I like to be a little brutal when we get stuff out and only put out what I love.  If it doesn't get put out - it goes away to Good Will. Just about done - I worked on it throughout this past week we just have put up the tree.
2. Add some new ideas - some big snowflakes in the windows, Maybe some Christmas blankets for the boys beds for something different
3. Finish all shopping for the kids/stockings/family if possible.  Financially, some things may get pushed into December but my goal is to start picking stuff up now.

Misc
1. Make plans for Nate's Birthday and have everything on hand/ready to go by the beginning of December (His birthday is just before Christmas so I strive to give him a special day that is not impacted by the fact that Christmas is two days later!)
2. Continue to grow my "Quiet Time" with a Bible Study, Daily Bible Reading and Prayer time
3. Continue to read - whether for fun or for learning.
4. Decide on my theme word for the next year and come up with a list of key goals that fit into that theme to accomplish.  Something different than these monthly goals. Done!
5. Order my Yearly Planner (It takes 4-6 weeks to arrive so I need to order early Done!