Food Friday - Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken
 adapted from Life as a Lofthouse

So, I've wanted to try this recipe for months but it just never happened.  It has gotten HUGE reviews on Pinterest and Facebook so, honestly, I thought it wouldn't be worth the hype.  My husband is not a fan of sweet and sour combo's so I had planned this for a night he was gone but, wouldn't you know it, he was home HA!  The good news is . .. he liked it.  I feel like baking it kept it a little more mild than it would have been cooked in a pan.  I did like that the sauce "only" called for 3/4 cup of sugar - so many sweet and sour recipes call for 1-2 full cups of sugar in the sauce and that, my friend, is a dessert!!  My four year old l.o.v.e.d it.  Now, true confession - I was kinda put off by this recipe because you have to prep the chicken - cut it, batter it, brown it . .. all before cooking it for an hour. In my husband's words, "Wow, this is a messy-lot-of-prep-work recipe, isn't it?  He hit the nail on the head BUT it was actually worth the work.  My house smelled wonderful as it cooked and it really tasted like restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken at home.  We love pork in this house so I might try this next time with pork instead. 

Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken

The chicken coating:

3-4 boneless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

The sweet and sour sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbs ketchup

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp garlic salt

       Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.  

 

Darryl's Birthday Weekend

On the 22nd of February, my husband turned. ..  .older.  :-)  Since we just went away for Valentine's Day last week, I had to get a little creative and decided that we would still go away but we would go to my parents house since the room was free, meals were free and, well, babysitting was free. 

First of all, I took the boys to the store on Thursday to find a present for their dad.  We stopped near the toy/candy/flower section and I told them what they were doing.  Nate turned around said, "I want to get him flowers" and Josh said, without hesitating, "I want to get him a treat".  Wow!  Who knew they already had ideas.  Nate walked through the flower section and found a daffodil plant he wanted to get because "It looks like our sunflowers mom!".  Josh had me help him pick out a huge bag of Hershey Kisses - he knows his dad loves chocolate!.

Second, on Friday, the boys and I packed and made a few things - a cake and cards :-)

They loved frosting the cake and yes, Nate is using a whisk - he said his spatula was not working well.  :-)  By the time they were down, the cake was beginning to crumble ;-)  They loved it though! 

Once Darryl got home, we headed out to my parents house for dinner, cake and gifts. 

 The boys put all of the candles in the cake . . and then rearranged them about 4 times HA!  They were so proud of their handiwork.  This is the first birthday party of an adult that they have really gotten into and it really was super fun.  We had a great dinner of ham, Baked beans, Potato Salad, and baked apples. Yum!

 This photo speaks volumes.  Darryl was pulling out the flowers and wasn't quite sure who picked them out; Nate standing off to the side quietly said, "I picked them out all by myself just for you dad".  How sweet is that?  That made them super special.

 This is Darryl opening Josh's gift - see Nate's face?  He's screeching, "It's a treat dad" HA!  Such excitement!!

 Blowing out the candles on the cake - Homemade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - his favorite!

The birthday boy!!!

On Saturday, we started out with breakfast at a place called Mega Coney.  The whole family went and it was fun.  Once we dropped the boys back at my parents, we took off for the day.  Our first stop was bowling but (oops) I should have called. They said they had opening bowling on their website but I did not realize there was a tournament that day.  So instead we just headed to a fantastic indoor outlet mall called Great Lakes Crossing.  Darryl wanted to pick out some new clothes so it was the perfect place to shop. I forgot out awesome the mall is - we haven't been there in about 10 years.  We walked the whole thing (it is like 2 miles) and, of course, got an Auntie Anne Pretzel for a snack half way through :-)  Then we went to dinner at Chili's and saw a movie because, well, we could.  Once we got back to my parent's town, we actually went back to Mega Coney Island for Milk Shakes (and maybe a Coney Dog and Hanni . . but I can't remember HA).  It was a great day

A nice relaxing weekend :-) 

March Goals

Check my February goals HERE

So, I learned an important lesson this month that is two-fold.  1) Don't wait until mid month to post your goals on your blog and 2) Don't forget to print them so they are in your face.  Surprisingly I did get more done then I thought I did but several of the items totally fell off my radar!  Quite a few of those items will be showing up again!

Home
1. Work on Landscaping/yard design plan - FOR REAL!  Spring is coming!!
2.  Get that darn coat rack!!!
3. Continue to save to paint the house - the goal is to start this project in early May In process
4. Get an estimate on replacing the front porch and doors Estimate done; on course to do project this spring
5. Get an estimate on what it will cost to redo the kitchen counter tops
6. Get an estimate on putting in the garage door opener Estimate done; this will be done soon!

Kids
1. Continue the Diaper Boys challenge
2. Complete Lessons with the boys - the goal in March is to finally finish Letter C and D plus do a review week over the first 4 letters.  I'd like to get to letter E . . .we'll see!
3. March Weather is always crazy - so depending on the Weather we would like to start taking walks and maybe start geocaching. It is still winter here . .. we've played outside on a few nice days but it is not walking weather yet!
4. Make one thing related to the birthday board!
5. Put into motion the chore chart
6. Sign the boys up for an activity depending on what is available


Me
1. Scrapbooking - I have one scrapbooking event to go to this month - just a 6 hour crop- so my over all goal this month is to finish October and November 2012 (November was a very small photo month!) and also complete the boys 1st year baby books. Josh's is basically done and Nate's is about 70% done.  I'd just like them both 100% done!
2. Get Earbuds for the m3 player :-)
3. Increase my steps - 8000 steps a day!
4. Read a book on my topic study
5. Begin Memorizing "The Sermon on the Mount"
6. Learn to Play 2 piano songs
7. Work on healthy lunches My goal is to find a 4 week rotation - Week 1 - Tomato Soup, Laughing Cow Cheese/Crackers and Fruit; Week 2-  Tuna fish on a bed of lettuce, crackers, veggies/dip; Week 3 - A Homemade soup and crackers w/fruit (I.e. Meatball soup, Broccoli Soup); Week 4 - Salad.  Either a lettuce salad, egg-salad, a chicken pasta salad along with fruit and crackers
8. This is the month I'm going on a snack strike at night.
9. Take care of my feet for this month - get them ready for summer and sandles


Marriage
1. Get Dental Insurance
2. Begin "A word a day"
3. Have a movie night with the Hubs.
4. Plan April's budget before April 1st.
5. Pay $25.00 towards the balance on our truck
6. Subscribe to the Sentinel

Travel
1. Plan Metrobeach trip with a priceline hotel for overnight Done :-) (We stayed at my parents but did our yearly trip to the beach)
2. See LesMiserable (Think I might take myself to the movies while the kids are gone those few days)


Crafts/decor/photography
1.Read "How to Photograph your baby and do it
2. Make a list of 100 things about me
3. MakeJohn Deere blanket for Nate
4.  Finish February's Pinterest Projects
5. Pick out 4 (or so) new projects

Organization
1. Finish the basement - the kids will be gone a few days this month so I already plan on using that time to finish this up.
3. Organize Recipes into several binders Done
2. Organize manuals into three ring binders
4. Organize our tax documents into a file box
5. Organize DVD's - need to order system from Amazon

Holidays
1. Plan special activities for St Patricks Day Done
2. Plan special activities for Easter


Lots and Lots of thing to focus on this month.  I'm hoping to hit this stuff hard this month.  March is much less busy than February was so I'm hoping for much better success! 

Too Cute Not to Toot

So, this list of muffin tin recipes from Recipe By Photo caught my eye so I thought I would share this with all of you. 

I must be hungry but my next idea is also a recipe and comes from Lemon Sugar . These would be great to make for camping or our over night hotel getaway's - a special treat for breakfast.

These little "elephant" feet from Martha Stewart are way too cute not to make.  I can see having these on hand for a rainy day this summer. 

We all have TP rolls at home, right?  Well there are some cute crafts over at Kids Kubby - great inexpensive craft ideas :-)

Well, I usually try to come up with at least 5 ideas but I'm running dry this week so . . .since I posted two links that share multiple ideas, I guess it's ok ;-) 

Happy Crafting!

February Preschool

February has been a little bit of a bust as far as preschool.  Now, don't get me wrong,we do things daily that aren't structured.  We played our version of "I spy" this week where we would "spy" a color and the boys would run through the house to find anything they could that matched that color.  The boys played with their computers - Josh taught Nate how to play his favorite game . . well he tried.

This past week we just tried to recover from a busy week the week before and it took all week!  We were all tired out from our adventures the week before and did a whole lot of nothing!  We did do two things - 1)We went to the grocery store on Thursday plus I took the boys to the bank and out to lunch.  These are great teaching times :-)  2) We made birthday cards on Friday for Darryl

We will be getting back into our groove next week with lessons, activities, a craft or two and maybe a field trip on Thursday since my husband doesn't work that day.

So, are you looking for some ideas for March?  Check out my Pinterest board for ideas.

You can check out some general preschool ideas on this Pinterest board too!

Have a great week !

What Pinterest Inspired Me to do

In January I did not share what Pinterest ideas I was honing in on - I meant to but the post kinda got lost so I thought I would share them now.

First up is something for the boys room. The inspiration comes from The Keeper of the Cheerios and looks like this:

My boys, much to my husband's chagrin, have many stuffed animals.  The boys talk about their "friends" or "kids" or "dolls" (yes, dolls - I'm trying to stick with kids and friends HA) and actually know when one is missing, which one belongs to which boy and they love them all.  As much as I love this "zoo" idea lets get real.  I'm not about to build anything (math is not my forte!) and the boys don't have room for cages in their bedroom.  So I too the above idea and turned it into this:

Just laundry baskets :-)  I know - so not as pretty as the inspiration but they fit right next to the boys beds and the boys love playing them - they haul the baskets out and dump out their friends; set them all up and puppet shows for them.  Then roll around in the baskets for fun HA!  I consider this a success! I already owned one basket so this idea only cost me $3.99 for the second basket.

Idea number two is just a photo pinned to my Pinterest Board - I'm not sure where the original idea came from as the link takes you back to a photo board.

Toy storage in the bathtub!!  We have one bathroom so the toys drive us nuts - for the longest time I've kept them in a bowl in the cupboard and it is such a pain to get them in and out.  I loved this idea but, again, with one shower, this was going to really crowd the adults that take shower (I.e. my husband and I HA)  So I went looking for a similar idea and came up with this!

It is actually a shower organizer that hooks on the shower curtian hooks.  Instead I hung some command hooks and hooked it onto those.  This gives plenty of space for their toys, body paints (which they love!) and even a place to hang their scrubbies.  The toys dry out and are keep out of the way since it hangs at the back of the shower.  The best part?  It cost $9.99.  Super simple and inexpensive!

The last idea is something for the classroom and comes from Attempting Aloha and looks like this:

This is what mine looks like :

I love it!  This Shoe Holder was $5.99 at target and it holds a lot of stuff.  I keep stuff I don't want the kids to get into in the top two rows.  The other stuff I don't worry about so much.  This really is the perfect storage solution for SOOOO many things!

That's all for now but I'm already working on my February ideas :-)

Weekly Menu

Hello there!  This is a normal week, I think! Last week's menu did not go as planned.  I had planned to go to the store on Tuesday but then we got hit with a rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow storm that started on Monday night and lasted all day on Tuesday.  We went no where!  Just to get from our door to the garage meant ice skating across the sidewalk due to all of the rain that "flash froze".  I finally made it to the store on Thursday (My husband stopped on Tuesday on his way home from work to pick up a few things so we would "survive" hehehehe) so I "shopped" from home for Tuesday and Wednesday night.  We had Ham and Cheese Quiche, Donut muffins, and hashbrowns on Tuesday and a Roast, Potatoes and Carrots on Wednesday.  All good food :-)

This past week while at the Scrapbook Weekend, several of us got to talking about menu planning.  One of the women said she thinks that that effort/time of prepping/cooking/eating/and clean-up is over rated and she hates it.  This is what they eat every week - Sun- Order Pizza, Mon . . this one I can't recall, Tues is Tacos, Wednesday is her husbands day, Thursday her Mother-in-law makes dinner and Friday/Saturday they eat out.  Seriously??  Most of us said we menu plan and the meals are different every week or we get bored.  Remember my family favorites?  I put them all back in their normal places of my recipe book - I'm tired of them.  Seriously.

On a slightly different note, I've started to think about summer cooking.  I want to have a plan this year - a small "summer" recipe book maybe with things that are not so "hot" to cook or eat.  It's funny to think about right now as I watch a snow storm out the window but I know that if I don't think about it now, we'll hit the first hot week and eat out every night (which, by the way, we will eat out more in the summer - it's even going to go on the menu!!) 

Here is this weeks plan!

Monday - Homemade Pizza and Homemade Sauce - I've had this recipe sitting around for awhile and decided this was a good time to try it.  If the sauce is good, I'd like to make a huge batch and freeze it . .. if it isn't, I'll go back to the can!  We will also have breadsticks (probably just pillsbury kind) because my 3 year old doesn't like pizza!

Tuesday - A few weeks ago we were supposed to meet friends for dinner but my truck died so we had to cancel.  This is our "make-up" day :-)

Wednesday - Darryl has practice so I decided to try something new that might not be his favorite - Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice.  This is a pinterest recipe that has HUGE reviews even from people I actually know.  We'll see how it turns out.  Darryl might just have to learn to like it :-)

Thursday - I've had quite a few "I want to try this" recipes floating around in my recipe book for awhile - this is another one and it is Apple Stuffed Pork Chops with Herb Gravy.  I'm going to serve it with Bob Evans Mashed Potatoes and a veggie I have in the pantry . . .green beans, carrots, peas - I'll decide by dinner!

Friday - I saw a recent episode of Pioneer Woman - she made Lasagna and Garlic Bread - I'm going to try her recipe; it is just slightly different than mine but the changes look like they are a good thing :-)

Saturday - Tonight we are heading to a night of "Dinner and Praise" at a local church.  We get to eat dinner and then there is a music service (Yep, I'm singing).  Should be a great night.

Sunday - After church - Puerto Rican Chicken (we use this recipe for our Thanksgiving Turkey), Stuffing, Mashed Potoates and Gravy and Green Beans.  Later in the evening I think we will get a Pizza or something.

Monday - Korean Taco's, Chips and Cheese and Oven Roasted Green Beans.  This is my first night back to practice with the Lakewood Choral Society so I wanted something easy for dinner :-)

Our sweets this week - Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies, Oatmeal Scotchies in a Pan and Cool Whip Dessert.