Menu Plan

Here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday: Sloppy Joes with sweet potato fries
Monday: General Tso's chicken with fried rice
Tuesday: Philly Cheese steak peppers (new recipe)
Wednesday: Turkey and black bean Enchiladas (new recipe)
Thursday: Biscuits and gravy (made with low fat biscuits)

If you follow the recipe links, most of them contain the nutritional information per serving.

And, I have to admit, I was TOTALLY WRONG about the zucchini boats from last week. I thought Craig would give them 2 out of 5 stars and ask to limit them to once/month. But, he actually really liked them! I thought they were OK (3/5 stars), but he really, really liked them. I'm glad :)

A heart full of love

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated with a little breakfast and some quality family time. Tonight we'll uphold our annual Valentine's Day tradition and enjoy breakfast for dinner at Bob Evans with our friends!

As much as I'm trying not to gift him for every little holiday, it's difficult to hold back when toys like this Toy Story Water station (retail $19.99) was on sale for $5.98!

Plus, he LOVES it and I'm pretty convinced that if the toy helps develop motor skills, then it's really not a toy, but rather a necessity :)

Giving Woody a shower

Yesterday was Pink Day at Ryan's school. Good luck finding a pink shirt for a toddler boy! Impossible. I thought about taking his red shirt and ruining it in the wash, but didn't. Whatever. They need to make pink polo shirts for toddler boys. Period.

Here are the Valentine's that Ryan gave to his classmates. I used this free printable to make them.

Valentine's we made for Ryan's classmates

He totally thought there was milk in them :)

Love this recipe

We LOVE this recipe for Spicy Romano Chicken. 

We've done really well counting calories lately, so when we had a day where we needed a higher calorie meal, I knew exactly what I wanted to make! It's SO GOOD!

According to my calorie calculator, this has about 965 calories per serving as prepared (makes 4 servings). Yauzers! 

However, when I made it last night, I used 1/2 the butter in the sauce (saving 200 calories). I estimate each serving was about 800 calories. 

Next time, I think I can cut back on the heavy cream too (saving MANY calories).

Now that I've exposed how neurotic I am about calories right now.....here is the recipe. 

The Sauce:

• 1 pint heavy cream
• 4 T butter
• 2 tsp  salt
• 1 – 2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup romano cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper  *EDITED*  If you aren’t sure how much cayenne you will like, add a tiny amt and taste as you add until it’s to your liking!

The Rest:

• 10 ounce package of bowtie pasta cooked and drained according to package directions – al dente.
• 1 1/2 T melted butter
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained
• 1 7-8 ounce precooked sliced grilled chicken 
• 1/8 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 oz heavy cream

How To Make It:

Sauce:

• Melt butter in saute pan or skillet. Add cream, salt and pepper, heat to a boil. Remove from heat and fold in cheeses and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

The Rest:

• In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter, then add mushrooms, and sundried tomatoes. Stir for one minute. Next add artichokes and chicken (and cooked sausage or other meat). Stir. Stir in 1 ounce heavy cream and 1/2 of the sauce. Add bowtie pasta followed by rest of the sauce. Stir gently. Serve.

If you're in need of a new dish to try, you surely won't be disappointed with this one!

Menu Plan

Here's our menu for the week. We're trying new dishes tonight...vegetarian night!

I'm going to predict that Craig will think dinner tonight is "OK" but will request that we only do this once a month :)

Sunday: Creamy Zucchini Boats and Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: Asian Lettuce Wraps (I'm also making these stuffed fillo shells for MOPS)

Tuesday: Spicy Romano Chicken

Wednesday: Wonton tacos

Thursday: Dine out (Bob Evans for Valentine's Day with friends)

SMASH your year: January

One of my New Year's resolutions is to make memories. We do lots of fun things as a family. We're cool like that.

As the mother of a toddler, that also means I have a TERRIBLE memory. I used to remember EVERYTHING. Seriously, I could meet you once and two years later I'd still remember your name, your boyfriend's name, and nearly every detail you shared with me the one and only time we met. 

Nowadays, I can't even remember my age.

So this year, I vowed to document our year so we not only make great memories, but I'll actually kinda, sorta remember them now.

You'll remember that Connie threw down a SMASH book challenge and, being the healthy competitive challenger I am, I accepted. 

I purchased the necessary accessories (which are very, very reasonably priced- I used my 40% off Michael's coupon to pay $8 for the entire SMASHbook) and got to work. 

The best part about a SMASHbook is that it is SUPER EASY to do. Its perfect for us Type-A personalities that inevitably put off scrapbooking b/c it takes too damn long due to our irrational need for crafting perfection.

SMASHbooking requires very little imagination and not so much time. Seriously, it took me about 5 minutes to make each page. 

The first Thurs of every month, Connie and I are posting our SMASH book pages for the previous month.

Connie got her pages posted earlier (OMG, she'd so talented and fun!!).

Here are ours! Enjoy!

I plan on decorating the cover throughout the year

Inside the left front cover- a folder to keep loose items

First page-- list of my resolutions and recap of New Years Eve

Our indoor treasure hunt. I saved the clues in the "keep me" pocket. 

Pictures are stacked so I can put more pics per page.

Recap of a few average days in the Lotz house!

A page without RJ :) 

This last page recaps a few of the social events during the month. Craig and I went on a few dates- the first one was to see Les Miserable at the movies. We misread the start time of the movie so we showed up an hour early. It was pouring rain outside too. So, we did what any 21st century couple would do-- we watched Ghost Adventurers on the cell phone until it was time to go inside for the movie :) 

So on this page, there's a pic of our cell phone propped up on the dash board with a sticky note briefly describing the date. Under the pic, I put our ticket stubs.

The bottom picture is of Jill, Kelly and me at our alphabet dinner. We're working our way through the alphabet, trying out different restaurants. February was "D" month. It is SO fun. We've found some great places to eat and every single dinner, we laugh until we cry (both from laughing too much and from sad moments when we lean on each other in difficult times). This past month, Jill's mom and husband happened to be at Dos Gorditos too and they picked up our tab! THESE are the memories I want to remember in 20 years!

A brief recap of dinner is written under the pic of us gals. 

And, since this is the first month, I thought I'd throw in a few pics of my SMASHbook supplies.  I keep everything in a tub under the coffee table in the living room. I usually make a page while watching TV with the Hubs after little dude goes to bed. Seriously, its taken me longer to write this post than it does to make the pages!

Small Thirty-One zipper pouch I use to store things until I can SMASH 'em!

What about you? Are you joining us in our SMASH challenge? Its not too late to get started!

Menu Plan

Last week we did great with our meals.

On Tuesday, we used Peach preserves on the salmon since I didn't have any raspberry. It was still delish! Craig said it was the best salmon I'd made so far. Score!

We didn't end up having the chili, though, because the meat went bad before Thursday. Instead, we had our back up meal (Bertolli Chicken Florentine- its a freezer bag meal). I always have one of those on hand because they work great as a last minute meal (seriously, they head up on the stove top in 10 minutes). I don't normally include them as part of the menu because I try to make meals (rather than just heat up prepackaged food), but I keep this on hand *just in case.*

We did REALLY well with eating 1,200 calories each day :)

Now, here's this week's menu!

Sunday: Chili dogs, nachos, and stuff that others brought over for the Superbowl
Monday: Arlene's Meatloaf and roasted broccoli
Tuesday: Tailgate Sandwiches with cooked carrots
Wednesday: Chicken fajitas
Thursday: Pot Roast and asparagus
Friday: Hot dogs and beans (unless we dine out)

My Old Kentucky Home

I'm over here today blogging about fabulous geocaches in my home away from home, the beautiful state of Kentucky.

I thoroughly enjoyed researching the caches and added many to my "must find" list.

Its been so stinking cold this month that I haven't found ANY caches in 2013. That *must* change considering I've challenged myself to find 72 caches this year.

Head on over to HerKentucky to see which caches you think are the most interesting!