Halloween Is Coming

I think this is THE cutest costume I have ever seen. I found it on Martha. There are lots of great ideas on there. Check it out.

Spicy Apricot Chicken

So, I have a new favorite chicken recipe I got from the one and only EVERYDAY FOOD mag. It is faster than fast, and D-lish.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 6 ounces each)
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions
Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. In a small bowl, stir together jam and red-pepper flakes; set glaze aside.
Place chicken on an aluminum-foil-lined baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Broil until chicken begins to turn opaque, 5 to 6 minutes.
Brush glaze on chicken. Broil until glaze is browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees, 4 to 5 minutes more.

P.S. I also added salt, pepper, and a little garlic salt to the glaze along with doubling the amount. Next time I will add in a separate cooking sheet with aluminum foil with just a little salt and pepper on chicken, for the kids, the glaze was just a tad too spicy for them.

My Fav

This is my favorite meal right now, and has been for a while acually. It is incredibly easy to make, so yummy, and pretty healthy. Sometimes I add minced garlic too the mix and use yellow onions instead of shallots to help use whats on hand.

Ingredients
Serves 1
1 small zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 lemon slice, halved, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 skinless salmon fillet (6 to 8 ounces)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Fold a large piece of parchment paper (about 15 by 16 inches) in half to crease it; open, and lay it flat.
2. On one side of crease, mound zucchini; top with shallot, butter, dill, and lemon slices. Season with salt and pepper. Place salmon on top; drizzle with lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.
3. To close, fold parchment over salmon; make small overlapping pleats to seal the open sides and create a half-moon-shaped packet. Place on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until salmon is opaque throughout, 15 to 17 minutes. Serve (see note).
4. You can either place the packet on a plate and cut it open, or make a slit in the paper and use a large metal spatula to transfer the contents to a serving plate.

Love this Concept!

This is Jerry Seinfeld's wife's cookbook. She puraids foods and slips them into everyday recipes. I love this idea and am incorporating this into my own recipes along with using some of hers. I haven't tried too many but love the sloppy Joe's recipe. She puts sweet potato into her pancakes, although the grocer was out of sweet potato I used yams. They are now my favorite pancakes along with Shanes. They aren't dry like most pancakes, they really are amazing. Does anyone know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? Nutritional difference? I know sweet potatoes are suppose to be good for stabilizing blood sugars. Hopefully they are similar in nutrition because I've been eating them like crazy.

Winter is here!

If you know me at all you know winter isn't my favorite season. In fact my body goes into a natural and forcefull hybrination. This presents a problem when I have two little ones at home who demand every second of the day. Also living in Utah we have a very LONG winter. Last year it started snowing at the end of September and didn't stop untill into the first week of June. We have lived here for 2 1/2 years and I am continuing to figure out how to get through the winter. Here are a few of my little tricks.


I love my tea
I love herbal tea. It is one of the few things that warms me to my bones. And is one of the only things that can get me out of bed on a cold dark winter day. I look forward to it at nightime too, it is my reward after the kids go to bed and I tidy up the house.

A vacation to look forward to
Last year we were able go to Bryce Canyon with our friends and their family. We had so much fun with the festival there. It was very inexpensive and beautiful. After the holidays I needed something to look forward to, mid winter time. It helps break things up and gave us a brake from the day to day.

The right gear
I am slowly accumulating proper winter gear and learning what I need to keep warm. This may sound silly to those of you that grew up in the freezingness but this is all new to the rest of us. I had lived in California my whole addolecent life, although there are plenty of fairly close places to go to enjoy the white winter my parents hate it and you could even say are afraid of it(atleast driving in it). So naturaly I didn't really have any really warm clothing, then I moved to Hawaii, ya. So now I am finding deals when I can, like after "winter" deals, even though it is still snowing here. I learned quickly that you need a hat, gloves, and good shoes. Even if your just going to the grocery store. I am misserable when I am cold so I had to get over my hate for wearing clothes. (a side note: I am a little closterfobick to clothes). Also, I am very exited about our 4 wheel drive this winter season. It is so frustrating and embarasing to get stuck in your own drive way.

Outdoor sports
I think it helps to have something fun to do outside and because it is so beautiful here, I wanted to embrasse the beauty. So, last year we started cross-country skiing. I love it! I have such a good time when Shane and I can jst go together and ski. It's not to crazy and life threatening. It's a time when Shane and I can just be together and not even talk about bills, ezema, work, or whatever else is on the table at the time. We just talk about skiingand enjoy our time together. It's a nice break for us.

A few others that I havn't been able to try but want to...

Fake and Bake
Shane thinks I am paying money to get cancer, so if I could I would.

Mid season shopping spree
It was brought to my attention by Angela(Shanes sister in law) this spring that the winter wordrobe gets so annoying after so long. I think a little shopping spree mid winter would help, hint hint.

If you have any other great ideas, please share.

My New Favorite Site and Items (Fawnandforest.com)

Need I say more?

Chicken Cheesesteaks with Peppers

Chicken Cheesesteaks with Peppers

Ingredients
Serves 4
1 pound chicken cutlets
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as safflower
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 mixed bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 ounces sliced provolone cheese
4 soft hoagie rolls, split lengthwise
1/4 cup light mayonnaise

Directions
Heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. On a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, toss chicken with 1 tablespoon oil; season with salt and pepper. Broil, without turning, until chicken is opaque throughout, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board (reserve baking sheet); let cool, and thinly slice. Set chicken aside.
On baking sheet, toss together peppers, onion, garlic, and remaining tablespoon oil. Broil, tossing occasionally, until crisp-tender and slightly charred, 8 to 10 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Add chicken to broiled vegetables; toss, and spread in a single layer.
Top chicken and vegetables with cheese; broil until cheese is bubbling, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Scoop out most of the doughy center from both halves of rolls; discard. Spread rolls with mayonnaise; fill with chicken and vegetables. Serve immediately.
Helpful Hint
Provolone is one of the traditional cheeses for steak sandwiches, but you can also use mozzarella or Monterey Jack. Hoagie rolls are also sold as sub or hero rolls.

This is what we had for dinner tonight. I got it from my favorite reciepe magazine, Everyday Food. It was easy and yummy. I didn't have all the right ingredience but used yellow onions, and mozzerella cheese instead of what is listed. I also used only one chicken breast in attempt to cut down on meat and cost. It was plenty of chicken.