I.CAN'T.WAIT!!!!!

Andy is with my brother right now, changing the oil in my car. And when he returns he will have the tools that my brother is so graciously loaning me! (he normally doesn't loan tools out) Thankfully he took pity on me(since I promised to take care of them like they're my babies) and is letting me borrow them for a while, so I can try out some furniture building! YAY! I love brothers that have lots of nice tools (that they know how to use) so I can try them before I buy my own(maybe)! Can't wait to get started. I will defintely be posting pics when I get something done. For now I need to get the house picked up so I can spend my free time tonight (after the kids and Andy are sleeping) to try them out! Can't wait!!!!

Kitchen remake?!

I of course don't have before pictures for comparison. That would mean I was actually thinking about what I was doing before I did it! :) I'm a big believer of act first, think later......obviously!

So I've been awake with Jake since 3:30 AM today. By 8:30 I was totally annoyed, and needed a project...other than the 100 loads of laundry and sink full of dishes...oh yeah and All the floors that need to be vacuumed. Like a project that would be fun! Rearranging the kitchen cabinets and table seemed like just the thing!

Just disregard any random tools, dishes, shoes, pop cans, crocked pictures, etc you may see!

 The new kitchen bar

 new table location

the view from the other side.

The bar used to be going left to right next to the pantry and the table was right next to the railing.

And I'm (soonish) redoing the boys' room! Yay, I have there current bed set on CL so if you know some one needing a big ol' loft bed set send them my way :)

And I have a new addiction! Shocking I know, just another thing for my ADD to run wild with. You can find it here. I hope to be making my first project (new beds for the boys) soon!

Cheesy Chicken and Brocolli Braid

Tonight's dinner. I'm going to church for a women's ministry and I made Chicken Noodle Soup to take. But this is what I left for Andy and the kids. I've made it once before and they loved it! It's from this awesome lady, again:)

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Braid


2 cups cooked chicken, roughly chopped

2 cups lightly steamed broccoli

1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes



1/3 cup light mayonnaise (next time I think I'll try light cream cheese)
*I used one brick of cream cheese


1/2 cup Cheddar cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese



1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried dill

1 recipe of honey wheat bread dough (listed below)



Combine chicken, broccoli, mayonnaise, cheeses, tomatoes, onion powder, garlic powder, thyme, and dill. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours to let flavors meld. (They resemble a Ranch dressing flavor.)



Preheat oven to 350 F.



Roll dough into a very large rectangle.



Spoon the chicken mixture down the center of the rectangle.



Use a sharp knife to cut 1 inch strips on a diagonal outward from the filling to the edge of the dough on both sides, making sure you have an equal number of strips on each side. Begin and take one strip from each side and pull them over the filling. Continue until all strips are folded over. It should look braided. Form into a wreath on a cookie sheet. Brush the top with olive oil.



Bake for 25 minutes, until golden. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting to serve.



Yield: 1 braid

Honey & Wheat Bread Dough:


1 c. warm water

1 tsp. salt

2 T. honey

1 egg

2 c. flour

1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour

2 tsp. active dry yeast



Put all ingredients in bread maker and set to dough setting. Stop machine right before it does it's final kneading (about 3 minutes from the end). This way is all raised and ready to roll.

Italian Beef sandwiches

This was last nights dinner :) Yummy! It is from this awesome lady!

Italian Beef Sandwiches




1 beef roast--approx. 4 pounds (whatever cut--I buy what's on sale :))

2 packages dry Italian Dressing Mix or Seasoning Pouch

2-3 cups water



Place in a crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours.

Shred beef and pour in a jar of mild banana ring peppers right before serving (or they get mushy).

Place meat and peppers in a hoagie or brat bun and top with a slice of provolone cheese. (Cody puts his cheese on first so the bun doesn't get soggy!)

**Since I was planning my meals ahead of time and didn't want good, expensive bread to go to waste, I splurged on a bag of Rhoades dinner rolls (24). They're frozen and I can make as I go and use them for several meals. Worked great and Andy and the kids approved.

Quattro formaggi

This is from Pioneer woman blog:)
My girls are huge pasta lovers, but they don't want anything on it. So I never want to make marinara sauce because once one doesn't want it nobody wants any. This was a hit. I only had the girls home tonight but they loved it. I planned to serve it with rib eye chops, but the boys are the meat lovers, so I just didn't even bother with them, so this was a super easy meal! I also just found a cheese combo mix at Aldi (It was $2.49 for 3 cups mixed) instead of shredding my own, Yes I'm a slacker:) The mix has Mozz, Provolone, Romano, Asiago, and Parmesan cheeses. It worked great and was way easy!

Ingredients


1 pound Angel Hair Pasta

½ cups Grated Fontina Cheese

½ cups Grated Parmesan Cheese

½ cups Grated Romano Cheese

½ cups Goat Cheese (chevre)

2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened

1 cup Heavy Cream

1 whole Garlic Clove, Peeled

½ teaspoons Salt, More To Taste

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Minced Fresh Parsley

Preparation Instructions

Heat cream in a small saucepan on the stove over low heat.



Rub garlic clove all over the inside of a large serving bowl.



Cook pasta according to package directions in lightly salted water, leaning toward the al dente side. Do not overcook! Drain pasta, then return to the cooking pot. Pour in cream, add butter, and add cheeses and salt and pepper. Stir gently to combine, adding hot pasta water as needed for consistency. Don’t overmix; if there are little clumps of cheese here and there, it’s fine! Taste and add more salt if needed. Mixing stage should happen very quickly.



Turn pasta into large serving bowl. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately with a nice medium rare steak.



*Can use whatever four cheeses you’d like!

Mini Meatball Sandwiches

I've made my menu for the next 21 days and I'm trying a bunch of new recipes from the Pioneer Woman website they pretty much look awesome! This is the first one from her site. It was a HUGE hit in my house. Everyone ate it, there was no complaining. Jake even asked if he could have another sam-isch :)  (My first day was a turkey tenderloin, baked potatoes and broccoli. 2nd was waffles and bacon.) I served this with Cheetos, cucumbers and grapes.

And on a side note Jake and I returned $45.90 worth of pop cans today!!!! Ummm yeah that is 918 cans/bottles. I don't think we have taken cans back for about a year now. It took up the entire back of my car. Like I had to put the seats down. It took us 2 hours at two different stores. CRAZY! Jake was a perfect angel. So I bought him an entire bag of Cheetos, and told him he didn't have to share! :) He was however very gracious and gave everyone a great big handful at dinner, all while telling Jocee  "I didn't have to share, but I am, 'cause its nice." I love it:)




Ingredients


1 pound Ground Chuck Or Ground Beef

½ cups Panko Or Other Bread Crumbs

1 clove Garlic, Minced

½ teaspoons Salt

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

½ cups Milk

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

½ whole Medium Onion, Diced

1 jar (large) Marinara Sauce

12 whole Dinner Rolls (or Slider Rolls)

4 slices Provolone Cheese, Cut Into Four Wedges Each

Preparation Instructions

Mix meat with bread crumbs, garlic, salt, pepper, and milk. Knead together with hands. Roll into heaping tablespoon-sized rolls.



Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook for one minute. Add meatballs between the onions and brown for one minute. (You might have to do this in two batches, depending on the size of your skillet.)



Pour in jar of marinara; shake pan gently to mix. Put on lid and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.



When ready to serve, cut each dinner roll in half. Place a wedge of Provolone on the top and bottom of each roll. Spoon a meatball with the sauce onto the bottom bun; top with the top bun.



Serve immediately!

Disappearing camera

These were a few pictures I found on the camera, recently after it had disappeared for a day...

 self portrait with the gingerbread man:)

here she is documenting

 herself jumping

on.the.couch...Classic! I love it. That's my girl :)

Creamy Chicken Balls

Really?! Who names this stuff?

This recipe was on food.com. I found it after I googled 'shredded chicken recipes' at 5:30 {that's P.M.} last night. I don't like to brag but, you know.....

I enlisted the help of Jocee 'cause I felt like I hadn't seen her all.day.long. Oh yeah, 'cause she was at school all.day.long...I think I should be homeschooling...What?! Oh yeah the recipe....I'll save homeschooling for another post:)

 I had a ton of leftover shredded chicken from our super bowl par-tay, and I didn't want to just waste it.

Which is how I usually roll...Mine had taco seasoning on it so I put it in a strainer first and rinsed it off.

Yep, classy I know:)So here's recipe for Creamy Chicken Balls! {insert me laughing hysterically} I wish we were forming a church cookbook. This just seems so fitting : )

Jocee calls them chicken pockets. Way more appropriate! Since I have 2  a 12 year old at the table. Enjoy!

Chicken Balls

4 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded

2 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened

1 garlic clove, minced (or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)

1 teaspoon ground sage

1 (4 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained {I minused these}

2 (8 ounce) packages crescent roll dough

2 cups corn flake crumbs

2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans cream of chicken soup, undiluted

Directions:

Prep Time: 30 mins

1 Poach chicken in boiling water until tender. Cut into chunks and shred between 2 forks.

2 Add cream cheese, garlic, sage & mushrooms.

3 Separate crescent rolls into triangles. Place a rounded Tblsp of filling on each triangle and pull all edges up to seal.

4 Roll in corn flakes and place on cookie sheet.

5 Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Heat cream of chicken soup over low heat until smooth and hot (do NOT dilute).

6 Serve chicken balls with soup poured over each one.



Just FYI.....

(Umm yeah and this pic is from my phone, Sorry. My camera is MIA at this moment. I'm sure I'll find it within a day or so with about 200 pictures of random items around my house as well as the kids:)

Apparently, 1 box cake mixed + 1 can of Coke Zero makes 24 cupcakes?! What?!? who knew?!

Tonight in BBS {bi-ble study} (for all the non gangstas...)We had to say our name and our favorite cake. (Londa secretly hates me and makes me say a fun fact about myself every week, Yes! Londa I'm sureish that is all truth I'm thinking on:))

Anyway this week was our favorite cake. The chica next to me's (totally a word) favorite cake was diet coke cake. What?! Yep, you can take a chocolate cake mix add a can of diet coke and Viola, make a cake!

So back to the picture...Overflowing muffin tops! I, somehow missed the fact (printed on the box) that says Yield: 24 cupcakes. Oooops! So I made 12 it seemed like a good idea!

I suppose it's fitting since that's what I'm sportin' these days. At least it's not as bad as the middle school lunch lady's. (Out of the mouths of babes, my babe actually, except he's 12 now...details!) Nice! So there you have it....1 cake mix 1 can of pop and you have a cake. You're Welcome!

And on a side note, to combat the muffin top I started running. Yeah like on Monday. I'm slow, like painful slow, like more than 10 minutes a mile slow. Eeek! But I'm doing it! 5.5 miles Monday, 6 miles Tuesday, Eating a muffin top @ 10:57 Wednesday....What? You've gotta take rest days, you know, so I don't burn out:)

I ♥ Goodwill

Today I stopped at GW real quick on our way to Target to get the kittens food. I mean we drive right.by.it. I don't think it is possible to drive by without stopping! It's like illegal or something! I ran into this super cool lady too! So see I'm not the only GW lover:) Anyway this was my super find today.

They retail for $150.00. CRAZY!

 I think I'm going to save them for Christmas this year. If I can wait that long:) They are a little big for Ash right now anyway (not that that would keep her from wearing them). I even looked them up on the official  UGG site. The little reflector sticker that is on the box is also sewed inside the left boot and that is the new authenticity sign that they are using due to all the counterfeiting.

I'm sooooo excited:) She isn't super in to name brands (yet), but she did mention not to long ago that one of her friends had a real pair of UGGs. We talked about it and how expensive they are, and she was totally fine with having the $12 pair from Old Navy. So I think she will really appreciate them, I mean as much as a 9 year old can.

The really funny thing is Andy keeps telling me"I'm sure you will eventually find UGGs at GW!" He was right....now just to find them in my size!