Saturday, August 17, 2013
Super Silly Saturday
While out shopping at the dollar store for craft supplies the other day I told the boys they could each pick out one thing, after all everything is a dollar. To my surprise they picked these supper silly glasses and they cannot get enough of them, wearing them every chance they can! I thought for sure they would pick out something like a car, action figure or rubber snake. To my surprise they went with these classic funny glasses! Nice.
How about you? When was the last time your children surprised you?
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Quick Family Meals with Kraft Recipe Makers Meal Kit #KraftRecipeMakers #shop
Before I was working full time I enjoyed spending time cooking, cleaning and even folding laundry. My son would hang out playing or watch a movie while I took care of household stuff. Now as a full time working Mom I realize that its ok to have the house a bit messy and unfolded laundry. I no longer need a meal to take 2 hours to make it to feel like its a luxurious meal. Now every moment I have not at work I want it to be spent with my son. I love seeing his little sweet face when I get home from work. He always has a million things to tell me and show me about his day. For dinner I want to be able to have quick family meals that I can make and feel like I have made a quality dinner without it taking time away from being with them. I often seek out new products that are meal kits to save time on cooking. I am headed to Walmart to find a new product Kraft Recipe Makers for our pool party we are planning.
We are planning to have a little party for our family and friends at our complex pool. Our families have been taking turns cooking dinner for each other and I wanted to serve some good food for everyone on my day off of work but not take all day to do it. Since we are serving Tex Mex Chicken fajita flavors I planned the menu around a Mexican inspired theme. Living in California we have access to a lot of great Mexican food and there is a wide variety of items available at our local Walmart on the Hispanic aisle. I found some great items to add to our party to make the dinner simple and delicious.
The Kraft Recipe Makers comes with two sauces. One to simmer the meat and veggies in and the other to finish the meal. The Tex Mex meal kit has easy to follow step by step instructions. So easy! I omitted the rice in the steps for my fajitas since I plan to serve white rice with cilantro and lime as a side dish.
I cut up the chicken breast and added the Lime Fajita simmer sauce in a saute pan. I like that I can make the whole meal in one pan. Makes it a simple clean up after dinner.
Once the chicken was cooked I added the veggies and the rest of the simmer sauce to the pan.
Once the vegetables have cooked and absorbed the flavors of the simmer sauce I added the second sauce of Chipotle Tomato to finish the dish. I made the cilantro lime rice, cut up the cantaloupe, packed up the chips, drinks, cookies and headed down to the pool to have our party.
The Kraft Recipe Makers Tex Mex was a big hit! Everyone enjoyed the flavors of the chicken and vegetables. I served the chicken and veggies in a hard shell taco and soft tortillas so our guest could enjoy the flavor with different textures. Guest even had seconds and the kids loved it. It was the perfect flavor combo for our outdoor fiesta! We spent the rest of the night eating the cookies, playing darts pool side and watching the meteor shower that was happening that night. A perfect day with family and friends with little time spent in the kitchen to make a great meal. I will be buying the other flavors to serve next time its our turn to cook. One neighbor said she makes an excellent chow mein noodle dish that I could pair with the Kraft Recipe Makers Sweet and Sour Chicken. #KraftRecipeMakers
You can see my shopping trip at Walmart to find Kraft Recipe Makers in my Google+ story and connect with Kraft Foods on Facebook.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Easy Recipes for Family Meals with Oatmeal from Smart and Final #ChooseSmart #shop
For my family I like to save money when we shop for groceries. I think if we can save on food we can have money for extra things and fun adventures. I look at a sales ad for a store, check my coupons and plan a weekly meal list based on the deals. This week we are shopping at Smart and Final for items on sale to make easy recipes for family meals. I see that the First Street brand has many items on sale and a $2 off offer when you buy 4 participating products. We always buy First Street items and Smart and Final so I decided to plan a day around eating Oatmeal since my son loves it and it is on sale.
For Breakfast we are having Blueberry Fruit and Cream Oatmeal with banana slices on top, green grapes that we got a great deal on and orange juice. A healthy and easy start to the day.
When we were in the store and my son realized we were making cookies it was all he could talk about until we made them. He always likes to help in the kitchen. Sometimes its just trying the ingredients for quality control of course. I have many First Street baking items already in my cupboards so I only needed to buy the Quick Oats and Chocolate Chips. I have always loved making cookies from scratch. As a teenager my family would ask me to make my awesome chocolate chip cookies, it always made me feel special to bake it for them. For my son I add the oatmeal for texture and the health benefits.
When we got home from the park my son was exhausted from playing in the sun. While my son took a nap I planned out the dinner I was going to make for a few friends that were coming over to watch some movies. I am making Oatmeal Crusted Chicken and serving it with spinach couscous.
For my recipe I pulsed in the blender the quick oats and spices so the oatmeal would stick to the chicken and cook more evenly. My son was awake by the time I was ready to use the blender and loves to help push the button. Next I dipped the chicken in an egg wash before covering it in the oatmeal crust. I drizzled the top of the chicken with butter before going into the oven to help the oatmeal brown. You can use your favorite spice mix like I did or add the ones directly from the recipe. My spice mix contains all the spices on the ingredients list.
Oatmeal Crusted Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 cup regular oats
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
- 1/4 teaspoon dried summer savory or parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 egg
- 4 Chicken Leg Quarters
- 2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine, melted
Directions
- Preheat oven to 450°.
- Combine oats, salt, and next spice ingredients (salt through pepper) in a food processor or blender, process until oats are finely chopped. Place oat mixture in a shallow dish; place egg in a medium bowl. Dip chicken in whisked egg, and coat in oat mixture. Place chicken in baking pan and drizzle butter over chicken. Bake at 450° for 45 minutes or until done.
We had a wonderful day spending time as a family enjoying meals, a day at the park and movie night with friends. My recipes we all planned around a simple ingredient that was on sale. Have you had a day with one ingredient as your meals inspiration?
You can see my shopping trip at Smart and Final by reading my Google+ story. Connect with Smart and Final on Facebook and Twitter.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Disney Planes in Theaters Now! #DisneyPlanes
PLANES is in theaters now, check out some of the great fun and engaging content on Disney.com’s FlewTube http://disney.com/FlewTuben. Including:
- Planes Trailers & Clips
- Paper Airplane Tutorials
- Features on Remote Controlled Flyer enthusiasts
- Introductions to parts of a plane
- Flight-related Disney legacy content
We are hoping to get to the theater this weekend to check it out. My boys love CARS so I know this will be a hit too! How about you, have you or are you going to see the movie?
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
The ingredients (check out the zucchinis, the are from our very own garden!) |
I love the way shredded zucchini looks! |
Mixing it up. |
Chocolate!! |
All ready to bake. |
Ingredients:
2 (1 oz) squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
3 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of grated zucchini
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 cups of all purpose flour
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans, be sure to coat it really good! Combine all of the chocolate and melt it in the microwave, just enough so it is slightly melted and smooth.
In a large bowl combine, eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and grated zucchini, mix well. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Next, stir in the bowl of warm melted chocolate. Last, pour your batter into the loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes and enjoy!!!
*I melt all of the chocolate together, I don't care for the chocolate chips to stand out when I bit into my treat. To me it tastes better when the chocolate runs all the way through, that is why I melt all of the chocolate together, but you can leave out the chocolate chips when you melt the semi sweet and add them in whole.
2 (1 oz) squares of unsweetened chocolate
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
3 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of grated zucchini
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 cups of all purpose flour
Directions:
Preheat oven at 350. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans, be sure to coat it really good! Combine all of the chocolate and melt it in the microwave, just enough so it is slightly melted and smooth.
In a large bowl combine, eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and grated zucchini, mix well. Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Next, stir in the bowl of warm melted chocolate. Last, pour your batter into the loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes and enjoy!!!
*I melt all of the chocolate together, I don't care for the chocolate chips to stand out when I bit into my treat. To me it tastes better when the chocolate runs all the way through, that is why I melt all of the chocolate together, but you can leave out the chocolate chips when you melt the semi sweet and add them in whole.
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