Sara's Mexican Chicken Skillet!

I can cook, but I'm definitely not a chef, nor do I really know how to go about making something if I don't have a recipe to follow. Unless of course it's throwing chicken into the crockpot with a bottle of b-b-q sauce or making a box of macaroni (macky cheese) with some frozen nuggets of some sort for the kids. Now Steve on the other hand, can cook! He can stand in front of the open refrigerator and pantry for a few moments, pick out 5 or 6 random ingredients, and whip up some fancy meal that ALWAYS tastes good! It must be instinct, and I must be lacking some of that.

Tonight however, I am proud of myself! For the first time ever I pulled out some random ingredients and just ran with it. I planned a meal out in my head with what I pulled from the pantry and refrigerator, second guessed myself a few times, swapped a few ingredients, and ultimately made something edible! I'm calling it...

Cookie Dough Dip

Since I first saw this recipe, over a month ago, I have not been able to get it off of my mind. Every time my sweet tooth starts acting up, I think to myself: "Man, I forgot to buy chickpeas again!" I'm sure you are wondering how chickpeas will do anything for my sweet tooth. Well that's where this recipe comes in, Cookie Dough Dip . This is one of the most popular recipes on her entire website, so I figured I better try it first.

Chocolate Banana Frozen Delight

When bananas go brown I throw them in the freezer to save for banana bread. I have been looking for something a little healthier to do with them and I have found it!

If you have a sweet tooth, like me, I would highly recommend giving this a shot. I found this concoction on Pinterest... surprise, surprise. The link that was offered didn't work for me so I'm not sure where this originally came from.  I do however know how insanely simple yet tasty this is.

Biggest Loser Pancakes

First and foremost...Pinterest is addicting!! That being said, I stumbled upon this Biggest Loser pancake recipe during one of my hours of information overload. I was a little nervous to put all of these ingredients into a blender at the same time for fear of what they might come out tasting like. I hate wasting food and 6 egg whites out of my newly bought dozen along with half of the container of cottage cheese AND almost all of what was left of my rolled oats seemed like a lot if this recipe were to fail. But hey, you only live once right? 

Goodbye eggs...

....HELLLLLO Pancakes!!

           

Where To Send Those Expired Coupons

As a hobby and a way to save a little money on the side, I like to clip coupons. Every month I end up with a ton of unused coupons. I used to throw them in the recycling, but now I have learned of something even better: sending them to military families overseas who can use them past their expiration date on base!!

Remember, Remember The Month Of November....

...should have been the quote. It's already December! Where did November go? I guess working evenings, having two small kids, a major holiday followed immediately by a birthday, out of town visitors, and over 2 weeks worth of multiple sicknesses in our house is where the month of November went.

On Halloween I started a seasonal nights/weekends position. It definitely has made time start to move a lot faster than it already was. My intentions were to blog all month about the new job, Thanksgiving happenings and recipes, and party planning for Logan's 3rd birthday pirate party! As you can see by my lack of blog posts, I didn't quite get there.

The sickness in our house began with me. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or the working around people and handling money (which I haven't done in 3 years) that caused the sick-a-thon to begin, but whatever it was, it really hit us hard! It started with a little tickle in my throat one week. The next week it seemed to go away and then I heard the baby coughing every once in awhile. I was hoping it was just gone, but alas, I lost my voice within two days. It was hard to talk for 4 to 5 days. Towards the end of that my parents came into town. The day after they got here Steve and I both caught a nasty virus that caused us to be fighting over the bathroom all night long. Since we both got no sleep we were so glad my parents were here to help take care of the boys! I ended up missing work and we rescheduled Logan's birthday party for the following day so we had a chance to get it together.

That day Collin started coughing like crazy and sneezing. Steve and I were both not good for a few days. I missed one other day of work due to stomach flu symptoms. The next day we had Logan's birthday party. We still weren't feeling good, the cake totally fell apart and was not at all up to my standards (That's what I get for taking shortcuts) but overall, Logan enjoyed himself so that's all that matters in the end.

After a long weekend my parents left to head back home and we went to the doctor for Logan and Collin got checked too since he was sick. Logan is in the 75th-90th percentile for height and weight. My little turkey is growing too fast! I can't believe he is 3! Collin is wheezing while breathing so we had to rent to own a nebulizer to give him breathing treatments at home. So far they seem to be helping. He has another appointment next week.

For now we all have slightly runny noses and I think the sickness is finally in it's last stages and on it's way out of our home! FINALLY! Time to bring on some fun for Christmas/Winter Solstice!

Jack-O-Lantern Cake

When it comes to cakes, I have a little bit of an addiction with surprise cakes. I think it is actually the reaction that people have when someone cuts into a cake to find a picture or other design on the inside that I love. Putting a smile on someone's face is priceless! I have done a few of these cakes in the past, and eventually I'll blog about those too, but for today I'm talking about the jack-o-lantern cake!