I *heart* food blogs

I follow a lot of blogs. A lot. Like 125 or so. Some of them are related to my job. Several of them are coupon/money-saving sites. I follow a few celebrities and TV show wrap-ups. But a majority of the blogs have to do with food, cooking, restaurants, eating, etc. I love to see the photos, read the recipes, investigate techniques. If I had more time and planned meals more ahead of time, I too would love to maintain a food blog. My mom often calls to borrow recipes. I am actually thinking about starting a separate blog to digitally record my recipes. Tonight would have been a great night to record my cooking and recipes - I think I made the most creative use of leftovers that I ever have. Here's the background:

We had a small party for the girls on Saturday to celebrate their birthdays (Kelsey on the 15th and Kaitlyn on the 28th). I got a meat and cheese tray from the store. When I ordered it, I saw you could also buy a condiment tray. For only $10 it came with pickles, olives, shredded lettuce, onions, sliced tomatoes and multicolored peppers. It was actually really pretty - I should have taken a picture. We had some chips and different dips too - including Kaitlyn's favorite taco dip. We all ate well but there were lots of leftovers. Yesterday, I had to babysit for some friends. I knew I wanted to do something with chicken for supper so I put some in the crockpot to cook while all 4 kids played. Since there was still lots of good stock still in the crockpot, I decided to cook more chicken for the week. I went ahead and made chicken divan for dinner last night.

Tonight for dinner, I knew I would make schezwan chicken for Dave with some of the extra chicken I cooked last night. I didn't want any and I knew the girls wouldn't eat it either. So, I asked if they wanted tacos. I dismantled the leftover taco dip to make some yummy, meaty, melted cheesy tacos for them. I went ahead and just ate the taco dip along with my margarita. It is National Margarita Day after all! Even after making Dave's dinner, I still had leftover chicken. We are all busy this week with basketball, church, 4H and birthdays so I knew I needed to do something with it. Then I saw the condiment tray still in the fridge. Guess what I made to put in the freezer? Chicken fajitas! To the chicken I added the peppers, onions and tomatoes along with some taco seasoning. When I go to make them, I will add some salsa as the liquid. Genius, if I do say so myself :)

Monkey Muffin Recipe

Monkey Muffins

1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, very ripe

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 375. Grease up muffin tin (recipe yields 9 muffins although we made them mini).
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In a seperate bowl, mash up bananas with a fork. Mix in sugar, egg, butter and vanilla. Mix to combine.
4. Now have wet ingredients meet dry ingredients. Slowing start adding in the dry ingredients, mixing as you go until just combined. Last, toss in chocolate chips. Fold mixture over to distribute the chipsthroughout the muffin mix.
5. Fill muffin tins almost to the top, and bake at 375 for 18-22 minutes.

These muffins are super moist and yummy still warm from the oven.

I found this quote when I was cleaning tonight: "Thank you. You've given me an image of myself toward which I can aspire." Love it!

Mommy Notes

This was sent to me on Facebook. Novel idea!

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born! Just copy and paste it in a new note for yourself! Tag 10 mommies when you're finished.

Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? And then some! She was conceived through in vitro.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Shocked that it finally worked!

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? No

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 23

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? They told us that we weren't pregnant at first. And I had an awful weekend. Monday, I had to go back for blood tests so we knew when to start again. They called Thursday and said "Ooops, you really are pregnant!"

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? I was too stunned. I don't know that I told anyone!

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Absolutely!

9. DUE DATE? 3-9-99

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really, but I couldn't overeat or I would get sick.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Taco Bell. It made me gain 11 pounds in one month!

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?Are you kidding? All I wanted was that baby!

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Girl

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? We just wanted a healthy baby.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 31

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Kind of :) I was on bed rest and couldn't go. Dave went in my place.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew. And it had to be rescheduled twice because of snow.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Oh yeah! Low progesterone, problems with the placenta, preterm labor

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Carle Hospital, Urbana,IL

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Induced at 9 am, started pushing at 9 pm. She wasn't born until 11:49 pm.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Husband

22. WHO WAS WITH YOU WHEN YOU GAVE BIRTH? Husband, doctors and nurses.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I didn't want to at first but when I couldn't stop getting sick, I did.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 6 lbs. 4 ozs.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? Monday, February 15, 1999

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Kelsey Margaret

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 11 next month

Here's to 2010!

OK, so I fell apart on blogging this year. Many apologies. I will try to do better next year. Will I resolve to do better? Um, no.

I did ask the girls today what their wishes and hopes are for the next year. Kelsey, my ever serious and thoughtful kiddo said she wanted the economy to improve because she knows some people are still hurting. Kaitlyn on the other hand wants more snow and a lot more ice cream.

Hope you have a prosperous and sweet New Year!

Too Busy!

A major work project has been kicking my butt - apologies for no posts.

This post is no different. I am testing something for that project.

A New Recipe

I made these for dinner tonight and they were really good: http://www.mommyskitchen.net/2009/11/pioneer-womans-potato-bundles-and-ree-i.html. I am not sure if they are company-worthy but they sure were tasty!