Some Recent Favorites From Around The Web (that are worth trying)

http://ourbestbites.com/2010/09/kids-week-on-the-go-breakfasts-whole-grain-banana-pecan-muffins/

Kristi shared these muffins with us, and the kids love them!  I used oatmeal instead of pecans because Breck can't have nuts yet.  And I reduce the amount of brown sugar to just a tiny sprinkle of top of each one because Brin declared them too sweet the first time that I made them.  These are really yummy, thanks for sharing Kristi!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/beef-with-snow-peas/

We tried this for dinner the other night, and it was better than going out for takeout. We use Beef Broth as a substitute for sherry and put this over jasmine rice (which I fell in love with when we have those Hawaiian haystacks at one of your wedding showers, Heather!)

http://ourbestbites.com/2012/01/kates-power-smoothie/

We have made this A LOT lately.  We use steel cut oats instead of oat groats and any vanilla yogurt that is on sale.  (greek or not!)  I add a little bit extra oj so that it isn't such a workout for our blender.  It's yummy and filling! I double it if it's for our whole family.

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/01/15/soft-baked-monster-cookies/

I can't remember if I posted this or not yet, but these are really soft and yummy.


What are some of the approved experiments that you guys have tried lately?

Holy Guacamole!

We love guacamole at our house! It is a healthy snack that we’ve been loving lately with the avocados being on sale from the super bowl.  We are however guacamole snobs. This recipe is one my mom made up when they moved back from Mexico. It is just like what they have in Mexico. It makes me miss Mexico. I keep telling Ty we need to fly down just so I can get tacos from my favorite restaurant…one day maybe :)

Avocados (I used three for this batch, which was perfect for the three of us)

Lime juice (I used the juice from 1 ½ limes)

Salt, to taste

White onion, chopped finely, as much or as little as you want (I’m not a big fan of raw onion, but you have to have it in your guacamole, because it adds so much!!)

Tomato, chopped, as much as you want (again you have to have tomato)

Start by mashing your avocados in a bowl after you have taken off the skin and removed the pit. I mash them one at a time. 

Then add lime juice and salt. (The lime juice serves two purposes  1. It helps prevent browning, I’ve had some in the fridge for a few days and it’s still green!! 2. It gives a hint of lime taste in your guacamole.) Taste before you add the onion and tomato to make sure you have the right amount of lime and salt.

 Add the onions and tomatoes and give it a good stir.

Enjoy!

Heather

Weekly Menu

Hi gals!

Sometimes I struggle coming up with a weekly menu so I was wondering if y'all would be willing to share your weekly menus with each other? That way we can share the love and the good ideas and help each other out in the process!

Here is the most recent menu that Jordon and I brainstormed for the past week and a half. (Yes, week and a half... only because Jordon got on a roll with finding ideas while flipping through some cook books and I wasn't going to stop that goodness!) We like to do at least a couple of meatless meals each week so that is why those are thrown in there...

In no particular order:
Potato bar
Chinese Chicken Salad (Our Best Bites has a great recipe for this)
Lasagna
Navajo Tacos (using Heather's scone recipe)
Creamy Vegetable Chowder (from my Pinterest)
Creamy Tomato and Spinach pasta (from my Pinterest... but we both discovered that we don't like cooked spinach so we have nixed this idea for good)
Spaghetti
Cranberry orange chicken salad (Our Best Bites recipe and it is STELLAR!!! Seriously, my favorite chicken salad recipe now!)
Sloppy Joes (homemade recipe from the Mormon Cookbook - I'd be happy to share with anyone who would like it. It's super easy and I added my own twist to it)
Tostadas
Lettuce wraps (Our Best Bites and it's DELICIOUS! And not that hard!)
Tin foil dinners

We now have this week to create a menu for... and I'm looking forward to anything y'all will share! I'm thinking this could be fun to do every now and then?? I know there are some great ideas for dinner that I just forget about so I'd love to hear what y'all do for your menus!

Love you ladies!!!

Kris

Granola Girl

Someone in my sister (Jocelyn's) ward gave her some granola for a new years gift with a note that said "to a happy and healthy new year!" She loved the granola and put it on yogurt, with milk, by the handful as a snack.  She asked for the recipe and I usually request any recipe that anyone loves... because it usually means that it is tested, tried and good!  It's also pretty easy to switch up and make it with things that you like.  Don't like pecans and raisins? Use walnuts and craisins, or almonds and dates.  Don't like coconut? leave it out!  I really liked it, but Ryan LOVED it.  He was shoveling it in his mouth with a spoon and said "oh my gosh this taste like candy!"  He is by far the healthier of the two of us, so his idea of "candy" tastes much different than mine! 
Grandma Brimhall's Granola (I have no clue who Grandma Brimhall is, but she is a good cook!)
6 cups instant oatmeal (I used the quick cooking)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup wheat germ (for reals, the first time I have ever bought this stuff!)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans because Ryan loves them)
1 cup dates (or raisins or craisins...we used raisins because Ryan loves them... do you see a theme here!?)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
mix all dry ingredients together.
in a separate bowl combine:
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1/3 cups water
1 tsp vanilla
pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix until well combined.  pour into a large ungreased cookie sheet (I put it on tinfoil and greased it... because that's what I do, and sometimes I'm a freak like that!) Bake in a 300 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes (mine took 30-35) mixing every 5 or so minutes.  I just used tongs and mixed it around to make sure the coconut didn't burn.  you can't under or over cook this... just bake it to the desired crunch level... actually you quite easily could over bake this, but only if you burn it.  Other than that it is just baking it to your liking.  Let cool and store in an airtight container!  It makes quite a bit, but Jocelyn tried halving it and it didn't work for her.  So make the whole thing and give some away! Happy Granola Baking gals!
Shae
PS: Since I don't have a picture of the granola, I thought I'd insert a picture of our completed gingerbread house from the competition. Can you believe that was just a month a go? In some ways it seems like this time has flown by, but in others it is just dragging right along!   

My new fav!

I don't know about all of you, but we've been having a lot of soup lately. I think because it's cold and soup is easy to make. What is soup with out rolls? This is my new favorite roll recipe.
(Yummy rolls) This is the recipe for the rolls we brought to Shirley's house on Christmas.

I have also found that the leftover rolls freeze really well. There is no way that the three of us could or should finish one batch before they go bad :)

Happy cooking!
Heather

Easy Chicken with George!

So over the past several weeks I've been figuring out how to take care of a baby and cook at the same time which I LOVE. I had missed cooking so I'm very grateful to get back to it. However, there are still plenty of nights that, for whatever reason, I'm not able to cook and then Jord gets home and there's not much time to get dinner ready before it gets late so often times we're looking for something really quick, but more sustainable than a pbj. Though we have our fill of pbj-like dinners. :)

So we started employing the George Foreman a lot more to make some quick grilled chicken! We'd then pair it with some quick sides and voila! A quick dinner that feels like more effort was put in than there actually was. 

Here are some ideas of ways to quickly put a dinner like this together. 

The chicken:

You could top it with any mixture of the following-

Basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, etc. 

seasoned salt

Mrs dash 

You could even marinate it (but you'd have to have planned ahead for that... But the making of the meal would still be fast!)

The sides:

Plain rice

Any flavor of the quick packaged Pasta Sides (it was actually one of my favorite meals when we paired it with a pasta Sides!)

Any flavor of the quick packages Rice Sides

Potatoes (roasted, mashed, like fries, etc)

Or we made a quick sauce once with some leftover cilantro in our knock-off magic bullet blender. (Thanks for the idea, Shae!!) And it was still fast and turned out super yummy!! That is the pic below. Any type of sauce would be way yummy over plain rice and the chicken. 

Then just add a veggie and/or fruit and you're good to go! This type of meal has become our fall back meal and I love that you can do lots of variations with it. 

Hope it helps on crazy evenings!!

Love y'all!

Kristi

Fun Themed Night

Since having Joshy, Jord and I have done a lot of things inside at home so we've had to get creative on date nights, etc. We've gotten into old episodes of The Cosby Show and that's been awesome! 

But I was wanting to do something to mix it up a bit. So we had a Country Music Awards night! The CMA's were on a Wednesday night so we made some "southern" food and watched them. It was a fun themed night and was a good variation for the middle of the week. 

We made white chicken chili (great idea, Shae) and cornbread. The white chicken chili recipe is from Our Best Bites and Jord and I both love it! So fun and tasty! And a fun date night idea if you're looking for something fun and free! Any awards night or something on tv with a theme would work. 

Love you!

Kristi