A Couple Quick and Easy Recipes

And tasty too!

Last week, I took a recipe from Pinterest (Korean Beef) that I had tried in the past and decided to try it again and tweak it a bit. 

You can find the original recipe here and the super easy and only change I made was to add a bag of fresh stir fry veggies (broccoli, carrots, and snow peas) while the meat was simmering! 

It not only added tons of veggies to the meal in the same pan, but it stretched the recipe to even more servings than just the meat and rice. 

Last night, I tried this Chicken Fried Rice recipe. I checked out the Teriyaki Chicken recipe that she has linked and decided to dumb it down a bit - ok, a lot - and just poured Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce in the crockpot with the chicken. 

The chicken was so flavorful and dripping in Teriyaki sauce so I chose not to add the soy sauce to the fried rice. I was afraid it would have made everything too salty. 

In the end, the dish was plenty flavorful and while J didn't care to eat it, B wasn't going to turn it down and Bobby and I were impressed.

The next time I make it, I will probably use a cup and a half of the veggies, but everything else will remain the same. 

If you try either of these, or even the Black Bean Soup recipe - which has quickly become part of our weekly meals - let me know what you think!

Black Bean Soup - Quick, Easy, and So Yummy!

Picture taken from comfyinthekitchen.com

I found this Black Bean Soup recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally gave it a whirl the other night. It claims to be the "best ever" and while I don't know that I would go THAT far, it certainly was delicious! 

I sliced up some avocado to put on top and used brown rice instead of white. I also used a little less chili powder than it called for because I wanted J to be able to eat it and both Bobby and J gobbled it up. Bobby even took leftovers for lunch the next day - that says a lot in this house!

I didn't get around to taking any pictures, but I encourage you to try this one out. I tend to have all of the ingredients needed on hand and it takes maybe 15 minutes to throw together. 

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Such a horrible blogger I have been. I'm sorry! Christmas and New Years have come and gone and it all went by waaaaay too fast. 

The week after Thanksgiving was spent getting all of the Christmas decorations out and getting the exterior lights in order. Bobby did an amazing job outside this year and he is just looking forward to going bigger and better next year. I've been told that music will be added to the mix....Oh boy! I'm hoping to have started a little tradition and purchased an 8 foot blow up snowman for the girls to give Bobby for his birthday. The snowman had yet to be received by Bobby when these pics were taken, but rest assured, the big chilly dude fit in quite nicely. 

 

Like we do every year, we planned to have Bobby's mom and his Nina (godmother Tia Marilyn AKA Tina) down to help us decorate the tree on December 2nd. The day before, I bundled up the girls to head ALL THE WAY out to.....Home Depot only to step out of our garage into perfect 70 degree weather and a blazing sun! Thank you Southern California. We rocked our Ugg boots and furry vests anyway, fell in love with the first tree we checked out and took it home with us. I made a crockpot full of Caramel Apple Cider and we ate Costco pizza and Caesar salad for dinner. Festive, right? The tree turned out beautifully and Jordan had an absolute blast seeing all of the lights and decorations. She kept saying, "Look at all the decorations!" and "Lights are bootiful!"

 

 The weekend after that was Bobby's Birthday. His Birthday was on Saturday, but he spent Friday playing golf with some of the guys from work and then I was lucky enough to get a sitter for the evening and go out for a few drinks with him and his work crew. We had a blast and were still home in time to put Jordan to bed. The next morning we loaded the car up and took off up to my mom's. I got Bobby tickets to that Sunday's Laker game, so we were able to leave the girls with my mom while we went to dinner and the game.

Bobby's Surf and Turf Birthday Dinner!

Happy Birthday, Love!

We had another fun night and the girls did great with grandma. Even after enjoying one of Dada's birthday treats that mama made!

 

Thank you for babysitting, Gamma!

The following weekend, Bobby's mom and Nina hosted a small Christmas dinner. His Uncle Acie is battling Alzheimers and seems to respond really well and enjoy his time when Jordan is around, so we welcomed the idea of getting to spend some extra time with them and enjoy yummy food. The prime rib that Bobby's Nina made was to die for! Jordan wasn't a fan of the dinner choices, but sure did enjoy her very own gingerbread man!

 

B in her Christmas outfit and ready to go!

Bobby left for a business trip bright and early the next morning and the girls and I had a little play date with one of Jordan's friends, Sophia. We made salt dough ornaments, ate lunch, and enjoyed our time together. Here are B and J's handprints from the day. 

Bobby returned home late Wednesday night and the rest of our week was filled with Christmas shopping, cleaning, and treat making. I took several of my recipes/ideas that I had pinned on Pinterest and put them to use to put together some gifts for our neighbors. 

From the top left, I made Slower Cooker Cinnamon Almonds that are absolutely delicious and SO addicting! Next, I attempted to make Peppermint Serving Trays. These weren't a complete success or a complete failure. The shape is never quite perfect without a little manipulation before it cools and you definitely need to use parchment paper vs. wax paper. I also used a spray sealer on them to eliminate some of the tackiness, but they were still a tad sticky. All in all, a cute touch, but not amazing. 

Bottom left shows the final product with White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge shown on the right of the tray. As Jordan would say, "Deeeeelishus!" She did manage to sneak a piece off of one of the trays before I was able to wrap it in cellophane! Lastly, I made White Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies. Such a yummy treat! I skipped the Peppermint extract in the batter because the M&Ms were enough peppermint for my taste and they were great! The cookie is so chewy, almost brownie-esque. 

Bobby and I also made a tag team effort on gifts for both of our mom's and his dad. We put our own little spin on these picture holders and were very happy with the way they turned out. 

My mom showed up on the Friday before Christmas and was a huge help with the girls, running errands, and with the treats for the neighbors!

Then came Christmas Eve. We dined on homemade tamales, took a walk around the block to look at Christmas lights...

watched A Charlie Brown Christmas (a Christmas Eve tradition), and ended the night by making sure we left some yummy treats for Santa and his reindeer!

B is totally not amused!

Bobby's mom arrived bright and early around 6:30am Christmas morning so she could watch J open presents. B slept in, but once J was up, I made sure that Bobby had the camera ready to catch her reaction when she saw all of the "prizes" that Santa had brought. We got a few good shots...

but she was more concerned with making sure Santa and his reindeer enjoyed their milk, cookies, and carrots. Then she wanted to eat the left over cookie, so I let her. 

We had a lot of fun opening gifts with her and she was in heaven with all of her new toys.
The rest of our day was spent munching on yummy snacks, cooking, watching TV and playing with the girls. Not too shabby if you ask me!

4th of July Recap

This is the second year in a row that we have spent the 4th of July partaking in a block party with our neighbors. Everyone pitches in with food and goodies, one of the neighbors rents a snow cone machine, another neighbor rents a bounce house, someone else has kiddie pools/slip n slides out, etc. Sadly, it seems like the only time we converse with most of the neighbors on our street, but we have a great time. 

Bobby smoked some pork butt for the occasion that turned out fabulous as always and I tried making 4th of July Rice Krispies that I found on Pinterest. I found the directions on this blog quite vague, but I managed. Rice Krispie treats aren't difficult to make, but I made my first mistake in my purchase of the Rice Krispies. The directions call for 6 cups, so when I looked at the box and read that each box contained 12 ounces, I did the math in my head and figured out that I needed 4 boxes.....64 ounces....6 cups, right? Ughhhhh.....if only each box contained 12 FLUID ounces. FAIL! I got a good laugh out of that one and still have three boxes and the receipt on top of my fridge waiting to be returned. 

Anyway, I redeemed myself big time when I realized that I was out of the wax paper that I was sure I had in the drawer. I ended up emptying the remaining cereal from the bag, cutting a strip of the bag off and using that as my wax paper. Worked like a charm and I felt a lot less like the numb nut that I was 10 minutes prior. 

Aside from my absentmindedness, here are a few tips I feel the recipe is lacking:

• Don't microwave your marshmallows for "a few minutes". I found a minute and a half to be PLENTY!
• You're going to need more than 10 drops of red food coloring. She does not mention how much to use and I was scared of using too much, so my red ended up being pink and I used at least 10 drops.
• Buy two packages of marshmallows for two reasons. First, it allows for some snacking while you're making them ;o) and second, even after my very precise calculations of figuring out how much a third of the bag actually was, the division of marshmallows wasn't exact. I used 2 cups for each layer, but ended up needing an extra ounce of so from the second bag. 

Back to the block party......Jordan decided she was going to try out a kiddie pool, with her clothes on and had a blast splashing around with Dada. She also had her first experience in a bounce house and I'm pretty sure she would have fallen asleep in there if we let her.

Here are some shots from the day:

2012

2011

Aside from the Rice Krispie treats, I also attempted to follow this blog's directions and make a 4th of July Wreath that I figure I will probably keep up till Labor day.

I ordered the red and white ribbon off of amazon as suggested and was planning on getting a blue ribbon at Michael's or Joanne's, but ended up not being able to find any that was 1.5", so I settle for some a bit thinner and, clearly, I could have used at least one more spool, but oh well. I'm pleased with the overall outcome and proud to hang it on my door!

Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th! It was definitely brutal going back to work Thursday morning, but it was nice having a day off in the middle of the week as well. 

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

I was pretty unmotivated to cook towards the end of last week and ended up working from home on Wednesday, so I tried out this recipe that I had found on Pinterest here.

It was so simple to throw together and with a few minor tweaks to meet what I already had in the fridge, I was able to make it work.

Diced yellow onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper

Frozen chicken tenders (I didn't have any chicken breasts) seasoned

Cooked on low for about 7 hours (since the chicken tenders weren't as thick as breasts)

 

Shredded the chicken with two forks and mixed everything up!

 

SO SO simple and very tasty!

A Rainy St. Patty's Day

Bobby had been asking me to bake something for a few weeks and when it became apparent that our St. Patty's Day was going to be a Saturday filled with rain, I took note. I had found this recipe on Pinterest a week or so ago, so I went out and bought all of the ingredients (except for the Creme de Menthe Chips - Vons didn't carry them) and decided we would have a fun little family baking session. So, Saturday morning, we lounged around for a bit and after Jordan's morning nap, we got her dressed in her St. Patty's Day outfit - improvising a little with pink sleeves to keep warm - and we braved the wind and rain for a trip to Target. 

Here's our Lucky Little Lady in her "pretty" shirt and adorable pigtails...

We did some aimless wandering in Target, but were luckily able to find the Creme de Menthe Chips we needed to complete our recipe, so back home we went. 

And here's how it went...

And booooooy are they delicious!!! Jordan took a bite of Dada's, walked around the corner into the kitchen and said, "Mmmmm!" Then of course, "More, more!" :) We then indulged ourselves in corned beef, cabbage and mashed potatoes, my favorite part of this holiday.

It was a great day, if I may say so myself.