Five on Monday

I didn't get a chance to link up with Five on Friday, so I'm doing Five on… Monday? Let's all say it together… better late than never!

1. Pixie Pants
Right now I'm in that really awkward stage of post-pregnancy where nothing fits quite right. Shirts, pants, you name it-- it doesn't fit well. I headed to Old Navy last week to check out their new pixie pants because I thought they might be a good transition pant for these last weeks of winter and spring, and I was right! I was able to go up one size and feel very comfortable. They're a good streamlined pant and I'm able to pair them with lots of different types of tops. They're also a great price point! I'm glad to be wearing pants that aren't of the yoga variety, but let's be honest, I'm still wearing a lot of those too.

2. Sandwiches

This is a weird one, but I thought I'd add it anyway. Before I was pregnant with Annabeth, I can probably count on one hand the number of deli meat sandwiches I'd ever made for myself. They just didn't really appeal to me much. Then when I was pregnant with AB, I craved them hardcore. I would make myself subs and bake them in the oven to make them "pregnancy approved". Now that she's here, I literally have a ham and salami sandwich with colby jack cheese, light mayo, dijon mustard, and Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle every. single. day. I look forward to lunch so that I can have my sandwich. It's the strangest thing, but it sure is a delicious and easy lunch! Griffin usually joins me and has a "ham ham sandwich", as he calls it. It makes me laugh every time he says it! Also, this Sandwich Sprinkle is one of my favorite things; if you have a local Penzey's Spices, go grab some. It's delicious!

3. Mrs. Meyers Honeysuckle Hand Soap

I have to be honest… I'm not a huge fan of Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products. Eek! I know that's not a popular opinion, but I much prefer the candles and the hand soap. I honestly don't love a lot of their scents. Iowa Pine is a favorite around Christmas time and I love the Bluebell scent, but it can be hard to find. I recently grabbed a bottle of the Honeysuckle hand soap and I am obsessed. I have it in my kitchen and it is the perfect spring scent. Now, if only spring would show up and stick around. 

4. Pens

I'm sure I've written about my love of office supplies here before, but I'm about to wax poetic again. I love, love, love them. Highlighters, notebooks, Sharpies, spiral notecards, etc. Staples is my happy place! About a year ago, I fell in love with a new set of pens. I'd been faithful to Sharpie pens for a long time (and still love their pastel colored pack), but I grabbed a new brand on a whim during a trip to Target. The Staedtler Triplus Fineliner pens have made me a changed woman. They come in this handy little case that becomes a stand and it's so easy to throw them in your purse (or diaper bag) along with your planner. Most importantly, they write well! I love the super fine tip. I've used these to color code my planner and our family calendar that hangs on the fridge. If you're an office supply freak like me, get you some. 

5. St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Paddy's Day! We have corned beef every year, but we always have it in the form of reubens with lots of sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing. I cook mine in the crockpot using this recipe (no coleslaw for us). It's easy and always yields a really delicious corned beef! The smell has been taunting me all day long. I'm eager for 5:30 to get here! Annabeth O'Haney says, "Happy St. Patrick's Day and have a great week!" 

Five on Friday!

I think my theme lately (and maybe throughout the next year or so) is better late than never! I haven't linked up for Five on Friday in a sweet forever, and I just made it today by the skin of my teeth, so I thought I might take a quick go at it while my kids are napping. Eek, I'm still not used to saying that I have more than one kid!

1. Siblings

I had to start with this… can you blame me? Annabeth is quickly approaching her one month "birthday", which I can't even talk about because how has it already been a month!? One of the sweetest things about bringing her home has been watching Griffin with her. Sure, we've had some challenges, but he is nothing but sweet and loving to his baby sister. It brings my heart the deepest joy to watch him be a big brother to her. He would kiss her and hold her all day long if we'd let him. There's something about watching answered prayer that makes me feel deeply grateful and a little weepy. I plan to share more of these pictures from our newborn shoot soon (it's on a long list of blog posts I hope to start chipping away at!), but can you even handle how sweet my babies are? 

Thanks to the fantastic Abby Veldman for these beautiful shots of our family! 

2. Nursing 

My nursing experience with AB has been a complete 180 from my nursing experience with Griffin. As a result, I truly need the right nursing gear, if you will, this time. Last time, I don't believe that my milk ever fully came in. This time is much different, so I'm in desperate need of some nursing tanks and bras.  Here's my question… as someone who is nursing exclusively for the first time, where should I go to purchase a good nursing bra and tanks? Should I go now at about a month postpartum or wait another few weeks until things "regulate"? Also, where do I go? I have to tell you, when I'm not pregnant or nursing, I'm rather… sizable… on the top, so right now things are a little bit drastic, if you see what I'm saying. It's not going to work for me to go to Target for a nursing tank or bra. Trust me, they don't fit. If you have ANY advice about this, please feel free to chime in! I'm really at a loss and am hoping to go shopping with my mom this next week for some appropriately sized things. 

3. Skinny Pop

Okay, listen. I like popcorn just fine. I love movie popcorn and I really love popcorn in our WhirlyPop, but we just don't make it that often because the pot is kind of awkward to clean and dry. A few months ago, my parents left a bag of Skinny Pop at our house that they'd grabbed at Costco. Griffin asked for some, so I opened the bag and happened to try a handful while I was pouring him a bowl. Oh. My. WORD. This stuff is incredible! It's light and perfectly salted and so addictive! But at 39 calories a cup, it's okay to get addicted! It's the perfect snack for me while I'm trying to work on losing the last of my baby weight, but I'm pretty sure I'm sabotaging myself by pouring some Reese's Pieces into my Skinny Pop bowl. But I can't lie; the combination is fabulous. I grabbed some individual sized bags to keep in my van for Griffin, but I have a feeling I'll be ripping into one soon. I've only seen Skinny Pop at Costco, Kroger, and my parent's local neighborhood market in Michigan, but I would guess you can find it just about anywhere! (It's in the organic section at Kroger, FYI.) 

4. Meals 

For the last few weeks, our friends have been bringing us dinner every other night. They did this when we had Griffin and it was wonderful, but it's a much different blessing this time. I'm literally busy every minute of the day right now. If I'm not nursing a baby, I'm meeting her other needs along with her brother's, cleaning up, or doing laundry. It has been such a relief not to have to worry about dinner. I truly believe it's one of the very best ways to bless a mom with a new baby, no matter how many children she already has! 

However, before Annabeth was born (and even the week after she was born), I was able to really stock our freezer with some meals that we could pop into the oven or crockpot after the meals from friends stopped. My basement freezer is filled to the brim with buffalo chicken meatballs, gumbo, chili, sloppy joes, vegetable soup, mostacholi from my mother-in-law, chicken and rice from my mom, and some other great meals. I'm hoping to do a post with the recipes and links so that it could be a good resource to me (and anyone else) for future freezer cooking! 

I've also cooked a few times since AB was born. I resurrected an old favorite, taco mac (leave out the cayenne if you don't like heat!), and utilized my crockpot for chicken and dumplings (cut the pepper in half!). Very different recipes, but we really love both! 

5. Apples

This is so random, but it makes me happy, so I wanted to share it. Griffin's very favorite fruit is an apple. He goes in phases with other fruit, but he'll always eat an apple. I pulled one out last night to cut it up for his supper and he started waving his hands at me saying, "No, no, no! I want to eat it like Mimi!" Mimi is my mom and when we're together, she and Griffin will typically share an apple a day. Sometimes they'll have it in slices, but often she will just offer him bites of her apple. He really went to town on it. I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to eat it like my mom; that kid doesn't miss a beat!

Happy weekend, my friends!

Day 2 :: Coupons & Cooking

Today was just a day of small intentional things.

Usually, we go to story time at the library on Wednesday morning. However, after just getting home last night from being out of town for four days, I felt like it would benefit both of us to just take it easy and have a slower start today.

That's not normal for me. Griffin loves story time and I love story time. We like being on-the-go. But today, we just needed Cheerios and coffee on the couch with a side of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. I also knew I needed to grocery shop and I knew it would push both of us too far if we were to try story time and a full grocery trip.

So, as I said before, we started slow and I made my grocery list. I meal planned and wrote my list (which isn't abnormal for me), but I did a few things that I've been intending to do and haven't been.

First of all, I only planned for four meals for a full week. I truly enjoy meal planning and usually plan for 6 meals, but that typically ends with a high grocery bill, too many leftovers for 2 adults and a toddler, and a lot of wasted food. Seems like an easy solution, right? Cook a few meals and plan the leftovers for others.

The only problem? I don't like doing that. Leftovers aren't my game. But Tyler made the very reasonable suggestion above and I tried it last week... and he was right. So, even though I had a few other meals I would've loved to ideally make this week, I only planned for four. I know we'll have more than enough food.

Also, I used coupons. CRAZY. I have a stack of coupons that Kroger sends and some that I cut from magazines. Mama doesn't have time to have a coupon binder; I just save what happens to come my way. But I typically don't go through that stack before I grocery shop. I usually end up throwing away a stack of coupons at the end of the month that I certainly could've used, but didn't because I was too lazy to take 30 seconds to go through the stack before I go to Kroger each week.

So, I took those 30 seconds this week, and you know what? It saved me $11 for things I already had on my list. I know that's not much, but it made me feel like I'm at least being a good steward of the coupons I had on hand. Again... baby steps to being more intentional.

And I realize what you can see on this list makes it look like we eat a lot of junk and dairy. I promise my produce list is hidden!

Going along with the meal planning track, I had planned a meal with a few different sides tonight because we were going to have a dinner guest. That changed this afternoon and what I should've done was switch a meal for later in the week, but I decided to just go with what I'd planned.

Big mistake.

I'm just not in a season right now where it's reasonable for me to make a main dish and then a few different sides (that take considerable effort) to go with it. It's not reasonable with a toddler underfoot and it's certainly not going to be reasonable come January with said toddler and a newborn. It was a delicious meal and one that is very "company appropriate", but it's not very "Rachel's life with a crazy two year old appropriate" right now. And that's okay.

I can still be intentional about making good, healthy meals for my family. I can still enjoy cooking... and I do! It's okay if the side to our meal is a simple dinner salad with bottled dressing or something thrown on the grill with frozen sweet potato fries. It's even okay (and delicious) to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for supper. I need to be more intentional about setting myself free from this self-imposed expectation that every night needs to be a meal that takes effort and time. Tonight just about convinced me!

In case you're interested, we had Pioneer Woman's rigatoni with chicken, salad with creamy Italian dressing, and garlic cheese bread. Again, it was delicious, but phew! I felt like I'd run a marathon at the end. I'm no Ree Drummond. And I'm glad!

And with that, I'm off to bed. I have a big day tomorrow which includes hearing my sweet baby girl's heartbeat at my doctor's appointment!

 This is the second post in my 31 Days of Being Imperfectly Intentional series.

Five on Friday!

I'm back with Five on Friday! I love this link up, but I really should get back to blogging things of substance. This will have to do for now!

1. Girl's Night

A few Saturdays ago, some of my girlfriends came over for an appetizer/ craft night. We hadn't all been together in a long time and it ended up being the most laid back, wonderful night! Tyler had been gone for 4 days at that point and I desperately needed some time with adults. We had Greek dip, smores dip, baked brie, buffalo chicken dip, macarons and mini pies (both from Trader Joe's) and wine (water and sparkling apple cider for me!). 

After we ate, we made these DIY glitter mugs. If I can offer any advice, here it is. Use a larger sized glitter (fine glitter didn't work so well) and spray the adhesive very lightly inside your mug. A little bit goes a long way. 

I loved the way my mug turned out and I know I'll use it for many years to come!

2. Fabric Softener

I don't know about y'all, but I'm very product loyal. Once I find a particular brand or scent of something that I love, I tend to stick to it. I was at Target a few weeks ago and needed to grab my fabric softener. I've used Snuggle Exhilarations Lavender and Sandalwood liquid fabric softener for probably three years now. I love it the way it smells... basically, what I'd imagine heaven to smell like. So you'd imagine my panic when I realized that Target no longer sells it. I might have raised my voice a little bit, who knows. I bought the Target brand fabric softener, but make no mistake, I was not happy about it. 

Then last week, I ran to Walmart to grab a few staples we were out of and decided to check and see if they had my beloved fabric softener. I'd thought about it quite a few times and had even checked on Amazon for it, but they'd marked it up and ain't nobody got time for that.

Lo and behold, I FOUND IT. Praise the Lord! My life is so hard and also, you should try this. It's my favorite, in case you hadn't noticed. 

3. Overcoming Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

I'm currently reading this book by Elyse Fitzpatrick about working through your anxiety and fear with Christ. I'm loving this book! I'm noticing that as I apply strategies that she talks about and put on the truth of who Christ is and learn things about his character, I'm learning how to manage some intense fear that I deal with on a daily basis. I would recommend this book to any woman. Truly, anything by Ms. Fitzpatrick would come highly recommended. This was a quote at the beginning of the first chapter. When the first thing you read in a book steps squarely on your toes (in a good way), I think it's a positive sign that it's going to be something you need... just speaking from loads of experience here.

4. Soup Friday!

Soup Friday starts tonight for the Haneys with the return of cooler temperatures and Shark Tank! I sent Tyler my soup Pinterest board and he picked Creamy White Bean Stew for supper tonight. I'm so excited to cook a big pot of soup and snuggle up for the first night of one of our favorite fall traditions! 

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5. Sugar and spice and everything nice

With the impending arrival of baby sister, I've started accumulating some sweet little girl things-- a fun addition to our house full of all things boy! Sweet Nina sent sister some headbands in a package of things I'd purchased from her and Griffin found one the other night. He wouldn't rest until I let him "wear baby sis-ser's headband!" I wasn't about to tell him no, especially with all that beautiful hair. His dad was less than pleased by this picture, but it made me laugh and laugh! And would you all just join me in hoping that Griffin's sister is blessed with hair like him? I guess we'll see in about 18 weeks!

Menu Monday

I'm linking up again with Rachel this week for Menu Monday!

We've had an erratic few weeks, so my cooking has been spotty at best. These are a few meals we've had during that time.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Chili

We love this chili and the fact that it's made in the slow cooker makes it that much better! It has great flavor and it really couldn't be easier to put together. Nothing peeves me more than a slow cooker meal that you have to prep for 30 minutes. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? We load ours up with avocado, shredded cheese, and Fritos. Tyler loves sour cream on his. I always make cornbread muffins to eat with this meal. I also leave the celery out because I truly believe it's a sin to enjoy celery. Amen.

Grilled Tortellini Chicken Caesar Salad with homemade dressing

This salad is delicious, easy, and filling. It's my friend Emily's recipe and I love adding things to it. I like to marinate chicken breasts in Lawry's Herb & White Wine marinade, grill them, and slice them up for this salad. I've always used the "dressing" recipe that comes with the salad recipe (Caesar dressing and lemon juice mixed together), but I have started using Cristina Ferrare's recipe for Caesar dressing because it's the best I've ever had. I use anchovy paste instead of anchovies. It's the perfect Caesar dressing and surprisingly, not mayonnaise based. I top this with big shavings of Parmesan cheese. It's a great summer meal!

Warm Steak and Asparagus Salad

There's nothing bad about this meal. I'm sure I've included it on Menu Monday in the past. It's easy and it's out of this world good. This was our meal for supper on Mother's Day! We add a little bit of blue cheese opposed to gorgonzola. We had slices of Kroger's Whole Garlic Clove bread on the side. This will always be a favorite in our house.

BBQ Chicken, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Zucchini & Squash Sauté

Wow. That's a terrible picture. Anyway, this is one of my new favorite meal combinations. Tyler is a fantastic griller and makes some of the best BBQ chicken you'll ever have. I paired it with roasted sweet potatoes which we love. These melt in your mouth! Griffin loves them too. 

I also added my favorite summer vegetable sauté. I slice up one half of an onion, one zucchini, and one yellow squash. I sauté the onion in some olive oil until it's becoming tender, then I add the sliced zucchini and squash. I add a little bit more olive oil and sauté it all until it's soft. In the last minute of cooking, I add a few shakes of soy sauce and a little bit of garlic salt. Mix that together, remove it from the heat, and add a few tablespoons of grated mozzarella cheese. Toss and serve hot! My mom made this a lot growing up. Try it! I bet you'll love it. 

Fig and Prosciutto Pizza at A TAVOLA

Obviously, I did not make this pizza. We went out for a date and we tried a wood fire pizza place that we just loved! The atmosphere was perfect and the pizza was so, so good. Our server recommended this fig and prosciutto pizza and he was spot on. It had fig jam, prosciutto, fontina cheese, and an arugula salad on top. I am excited to recreate this at home! If you're in the Cincinnati area, this is a fun and delicious place for a great date night! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Chewy Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's no secret that I love to cook and bake. I would have to say I prefer cooking to baking, but I've never turned my nose up at a baked good.

The first two things I learned how to do in the kitchen were how to scramble eggs and make chocolate chip cookies. According to Griffin, I make a mean scrambled egg and the boy is like his mother and has never met a baked good he doesn't like. Does that officially make me a successful mom?

Truth be told, I've always made chocolate chip cookies for the dough. I've used the old Nestle Tollhouse recipe which makes a delicious dough, but not the best cookie in my opinion. Maybe it's just me, but they always seem flat and kind of blah.

On another note, is the Nestle Tollhouse episode NOT one of the best Friends episodes ever? 

Back to the point at hand-- cookies.

My friend Megan shared her go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies with a group of us girls from church a few months back and my cookie life has been forever changed.

These chocolate chip cookies are to die for. They are the fluffiest, chewiest chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. When we made them at her house for the first time, we all just kept eating cookie after cookie. We couldn't believe how good they were! The recipe says to make them jumbo sized, which I did last night for small group. They were a huge hit! I usually make them regular sized, but the jumbo cookies were a treat. 

I want to share the recipe with you because I'm a giver and I believe everyone should have access to a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's the Land 'O Lakes cookie recipe, but I don't feel any loyalty to that butter. I like the butter that costs the least amount of money at Kroger. Can I get an amen?

Chewy Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Makes 24 jumbo sized cookies, about 50 regular sized cookies

• 4 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla 
• 1 12-oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed until well mixed. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed, otherwise you will have crumbly dough in the bottom. I use my stand mixer to mix the dough. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. I typically only bake 6 large cookies at a time. Bake 10-14 minutes (I always go the full 14 minutes) or until light golden brown. Do not overbake. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to cooling rack.

Side note #1: When I make the jumbo cookies, I use my 1/4 cup measure. I scoop the dough, then pop it out into my hand where I kind of make a rounded shape, if you will. That way your cookie is rounded on top and not the shape of your measuring cup.

Side note #2: Why are my baking sheets so stained? I promise I wash them each time! 

Side note #3: Last side note, I promise. But it's important! If you want to make regular sized cookies, be sure to adjust your baking time to 10-12 minutes at most. Since this recipe makes so much dough, if I want to make regular sized cookies, I usually scoop dough balls onto a sheet pan, freeze the pan, and then put the individual dough balls into a large Ziploc bag and keep it in the freezer. If we want a few cookies after supper or we have last minute guests coming over, I can have fresh baked cookies in less than 15 minutes! 

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do! 

Menu Monday... on Thursday!

I'm pretty late to the game this week, but I wanted to link up with Rachel and share our meals from last week!

Skinnytaste's Bangin' Grilled Shrimp Skewers with sautéed shredded brussel sprouts and rice pilaf

Holy smokes. These were so, so good. I grilled them indoors on my grill pan and we each ate two skewers. If you're a shrimp fan, you'll love these! I bought the pre-shredded brussel sprouts from Trader Joe's and sautéed them with a little butter, olive oil, salt & pepper per Kate's recommendation. This is definitely our new favorite way to eat brussel sprouts. Deeeeelish. I also served Trader Joe's rice & orzo pilaf which is one of our favorites. This meal knocked it out of the park! 

Slow Cooker Peach BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with spicy sweet potato fries

I served these with this coleslaw and slices of avocado. We liked these, but they were almost a little too sweet for me. I might try using a tangier BBQ sauce next time! I want to give them another shot. These are the Alexia frozen sweet potato fries. They were really spicy! I think I prefer non-spicy sweet potato fries. 

Trader Joe's Kung Pao Chicken with TJ's Veggie Fried Rice and frozen spring rolls

This was a low effort meal on small group night. We loved it! It's a great alternative to take out Chinese food and it had great flavor. The only thing I'll change next time is to throw in an extra bag of stir fry veggies. 

We had Griffin's second birthday party last weekend, so I didn't cook a lot during the week, but I wanted to at least share what I did make! I also made Southern Living's tomato and tortellini salad which is alway a great meal. It's important to use sweet summer corn, but luckily, I had some in the freezer! Come on, summer corn! Mmm... one of my favorite things about summer! 

Happy Menu Thursday! 

Menu Monday

My friend Rachel does Menu Monday every week! I like to try and contribute when I actually remember what we ate the previous week.

It was a lighter week for cooking, but I sure was glad to be back in the kitchen. Due to a crazy last few weeks of February and then being in Florida for two weeks in March, I hadn't really cooked in 5 weeks. Crazy! We had leftovers for a few nights and ordered a pizza on Friday. I think pizza is always a necessity the week after you return from vacation, don't you?

Slow Cooker Ham and White Beans 

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I think I've blogged about this before, but it's one of our very favorite winter meals! I substitute three large smoked turkey tails for the ham and add the tiniest bit of brown sugar. Tyler always adds smoked tabasco to his bowl and we eat it with cornbread. We like our cornbread sweet with Trader Joe's creamed honey! 

Creamy Green Chile Chicken Burritos

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I made Molly's green chile chicken burritos on Tuesday and they lived up to the name! They were so creamy, but it was nice that I was able to use the less fat cream cheese. Tyler really liked these, but I have to remember-- I am just not a green chile fan! I usually find a recipe that sounds so delicious every few months with a green chile sauce or base and I always think that maybe my taste has changed, but no such luck. I want to make these again but I will use a red sauce and I know I will really love them then! We had them with fat free refried beans. As a side note, I used this method to cook the chicken and it was fantastic! I will definitely cook my chicken for recipes like this from now on.

Rosemary Baked Chicken

I picked this sauce packet up at Fresh Market a few months ago and it's just been sitting in my pantry. You bake the chicken, pour the sauce over the top, and bake it for a bit longer. Honestly, this was just kind of "eh". It had a good amount of flavor, but it was really lemony. It wasn't awful; it just wasn't my favorite, but it sure was easy! I served this with the best roasted broccoli ever... and I do mean EVER.

Mini Honey Mustard and White Cheddar Meatloaves and Ina's Mustard Roasted Potatoes

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If you haven't visited Tina and Crist's blog, you are missing out in a big way. It is one of my very favorites. I made these for some friends who came over for supper on Saturday and we were all big fans! Mini meatloaves are so fun and these had great flavor! I loved making them with panko and I followed Crist's suggestions and put all the cheese into the meatloaves. The potatoes were a perfect addition and we had green salad and Sister Schubert rolls on the side. You can never go wrong with the Sister. 

Crockpot Chicken, my mom's Cheesy Potatoes and Roasted Brussel Sprouts 

I made this for our little Easter lunch since it was just the three of us after church! I put the chicken in when I got up Sunday morning and it was perfect when we got home. Megan suggested it and we really enjoyed it. I paired it with my mom's cheesy potatoes (recipe coming this week!) and roasted brussel sprouts. I always forget how to roast them the best, so I asked Twitter how people like to cook them. I took a few different suggestions, combined them, and they turned out perfectly. I just tossed them in EVOO, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and a little garlic powder, then put them cut side down on a sheet pan in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes. They were perfect-- nice and crispy, just how I like them! We ate the leftover rolls from Saturday. This is a picture of Tyler's plate, but don't be fooled. I ate just as much, if not more. Oink! 

What did you make this week? Link up with Rachel!

Happy Monday! 

Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan

I haven't been documenting my meals here lately, but I have been keeping track of them in my planner! At least that's something, right? However, I made Chicken Parmesan tonight and I thought I would share the recipe with you!

I don't have the best memories of Chicken Parmesan because it was one of the first meals that I cooked as a married woman. I picked a Rachael Ray recipe, but it called for about 57 steps and just as many ingredients. It took me forever, partially because of the steps and ingredients and partially because I was a new cook. Because of that, I've probably only made it 4 times in our marriage. That would probably be fine except for the fact that it's one of Tyler's favorite meals. I really need to get better at making it more often because he loves it so much! He asked for it tonight, and I was going to make it in the crock pot, but I remembered that I had an old recipe.

My first college RD, Tarah, is very near and dear to my heart. She was like an older sister to me in college and we've kept in touch over the years. I just love her. I went to visit her after her first baby was born in 2006 and she made this Chicken Parm for me. I'd forgotten about it until Tyler asked for Chicken Parm, so I dug it out of my email archives. It is so simple and great for a weeknight! I adapted it a little bit, but it is so delicious and reminds me of my sweet friend. That's a win-win!

Tarah's Weeknight Chicken Parmesan
serves 4-6

Ingredients 

• Three large boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded to an even thickness
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• large jar of pasta sauce (I used Kroger brand Tomato & Basil)
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 box whole wheat thin spaghetti

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish. Add milk to a separate shallow dish.
3. Dip chicken breasts in milk, then coat in breadcrumbs mixture. Place in a 9 x 13 glass dish.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. In the meantime, boil your spaghetti noodles.
5. Remove chicken from oven and pour the jar of pasta sauce over the top.
6. Top each breast with the shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake for 15 more minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, broil on high for 2 minutes, just enough to brown the cheese a bit.
8. Serve hot over spaghetti noodles with extra sauce. We enjoyed ours with sweet peas. Enjoy! 

Note: The chicken breasts I used were GIANT, so we each ate a half of one. We were plenty full!

Menu Monday on Tuesday

If you've spent any time reading my blog, it won't surprise you to know that I love to cook and eat. Cooking for my family and friends is definitely one of my hobbies. 

I thought about starting a recipe journal for 2013 to record what meals we eat, where I found them, and whether we liked the meal or not. Then I remembered I had a blog and that this might be a better place to record those things. I'm going to try to stay somewhat current on my Menu Mondays, but I will be late more often than not. I'm starting out the year on a good foot, considering it's already TUESDAY, but whatever! Here's what we ate this week.

December 31, 2011 :: New Year's Eve

We stayed home, made a nice meal, watched a movie, and went to bed early! See also: we are old. Ha! We started with bacon wrapped water chestnuts as an appetizer and then enjoyed one of our favorite salads: romaine, orange pepper, hard boiled egg, and blue cheese with Garlic Expressions vinaigrette. We rounded out the evening with grilled steaks, Molly's Twice Baked Potatoes, and grilled onions. For dessert, we each had a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich from Trader Joe's. This was a great meal, but how could it have been bad? We went to bed fat and happy!

January 1

I was feeling pretty sick on New Year's Day, so I had a bowl of noodles with butter and garlic salt for dinner. It's one of my favorite easy meals! Tyler ate the leftovers from New Year's Eve.

January 2

Skinnytaste's Pasta with Butternut Sauce, Spicy Sausage, and Spinach

The only thing I did differently was that I sliced Trader Joe's Spicy Italian chicken sausage into links and browned it in olive oil (instead of crumbling it). This wasn't our favorite because it didn't have a ton of flavor. However, I attribute it to the fact that I used peeled and chopped frozen squash from Trader Joe's instead of fresh. We definitely want to give this another chance when squash season rolls around. I served it with roasted brussel sprouts and Sister Schubert's mini baguettes. Griffin loved it, especially the sausage!

January 3

Trader Joe's Spinach and Kale Bites with Tomato Basil Marinara and whole wheat thin spaghetti

About a month ago, the sample lady at TJ's was putting out these spinach and kale bites in their tomato basil marinara sauce. Griffin and I both loved them, so I picked them up and served them over thin spaghetti. I baked them in the oven according to package directions, then kept them warm in the sauce while I cooked the pasta. We had this with garlic toast and we loved it! It was a great, low calorie meal that was packed with flavor. If you have a local TJ's, you can find these bites in the freezer section! 

January 4

Ina's Winter Minestrone with Garlic Bruschetta

We always have a pot of soup on Friday nights. I left out the celery because I absolutely hate celery. It was a flavorful, easy soup that we really enjoyed! I halved the recipe and we had plenty to eat plus leftovers. I made the garlic bruschetta and it was the perfect accompaniment to the soup. This was a definite winner!

January 5

Erin's Bow Tie Fiesta

I have seen so many people rave about how good this is and I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to make it! I sent Erin a text asking her a question about making it ahead of time, and when I told her I'd never made it before, she told me she was ashamed of me-- haha! And RIGHTFULLY SO! I am so sad it's taken me a sweet forever to make this because it is SO DANG GOOD. I'm not even going to tell you how much of the pan we ate. The only thing I left out was the jalapenos. We ate it with homemade guacamole and chips. No, the chips were not homemade. Ain't nobody got time for that. (I love Sweet Brown; go look her up on YouTube if you don't know who she is!) This would be the perfect meal to take a new momma.

What about you? Any great meals you've enjoyed lately?