What a Week!

Monday: Nathan started school and I went with my sister to take some pictures of his first day and witness this little boy growing up.

Tuesday: The drama started. This was Nathan's first time riding the bus. Nathan has been wanting to ride the bus for years. He's see the other kids getting off the bus in the afternoons and ask everyone why he couldn't ride the bus and we'd tell him "Because you don't go to school yet. When you get a little bit older you can ride the bus." Anyway, my sis put Nathan on "The Green Frog" bus in the AM. However, he was not put on "The Green Frog" bus in the afternoon. Nathan was lost for a few. Thankfully, this brave little 4 year old boy knows his mommy's phone number and luckily there was a nice mommy at the bus stop who saw this scared boy and offered to help. My sister got a phone call from this nice lady saying that her son Nathan was with her in a completely different part of the neighborhood. Some foul up happened at the school and Nathan was put on the purple flower or some other bus route.

Wednesday: I finally went to Pinkberry which opened in Colorado Springs months ago. I'm kind of obsessed with the Pomegranate Pinkberry. mmm Cue mouth watering. Also visited Old Navy and DSW where I picked up some new shoes for our R&R trip to Vegas!
I tried a new recipe. Something I adapted from a friend. I pan fried some Pork chops with olive oil and some S&P. When they were all cooked up and happy I threw in a chopped red bell pepper and an onion and a large can of Diced Tomatoes, some more S&P and about half a tspn of crushed red pepper flakes. I put all of this into a baking dish and threw it in the oven at 375 for about 15 mins just to get all the flavors happy. I made some whole wheat rotini pasta on the side and proceeded to stuff my face.

Thursday: I visited my friend and forced her to watch PS I Love You, because she hadn't seen it yet- weird, right?

Friday: I got busy with a friend. We had some lunch and popped into JC Penney then saw The Change Up-- so funny. It was vulgar but hilarious. It's always nice to giggle. :) I tried another new recipe: I started with a marinade two tablespoons Dijon mustard, rosemary, parsley, S&P, olive oil and a lil water. Threw in some Chicken Thighs and let them marinade all day. I pan fried them with some olive oil and had some green beans on the side. YUMMM!!

It's officially been Saturday for 5 hours and 44 minutes 6 hours and 5 mins. For some reason I went to sleep about 1030ish and have been up since about 230. Saturday is off to a stellar start. This Am (in about an hour) I'll be heading over to Fort Carson for the Walk for the Fallen. This is the 3rd year in a row I've participated. It's always heartbreaking to be there. It's humbling. The last two times my husband had just returned home from deployment (the first time) and back from extended field rotations last year, so I was feeling especially grateful to have him by my side. This year he's on the other side of the world. I'll miss him. I'll be walking with friends and kiddos for a great cause.

How was your week?

Treats

{source}

We all know and love these lil' beauties! Rice Krispie treats. They are of course made with marshmallows, butter and the one and only Rice Krispies Cereal.

Have you ever made "treats" with a Rice Krispie alternative??:

I think I have had the Fruity Pebble alternative at party or something in the past... I think. But I can't be sure. I do know I've had the Golden Grahams and the Reeses Puffs! Both are delicious options!

Here's a recipe for "treats" try something new this weekend and let me know how you liked them!

Maybe this post is a side effect of my job- I stock the cereal aisle? Who knows?

BIG Icing FAIL

Ladies, why aren't you baking out there? Who doesn't LOVE CupCakes!? These ones are especially simple and AMAZING! Give them a shot... but don't forget to come back and link up!

Ingredients coming together.

They're beautiful! And so delicious. Mine have kind of a pound-cake-like consistency. A-MAZ-ING!

However the icing recipe that was attached to the cupcake recipe was just awful!!! The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of Milk.... I figured, ok... lets see how this goes. I mix and mix and mix.... and it still had the consistency of the cupcake batter. Horrible. So I wound up going with Mrs. Martha's Fluffy Vanilla Frosting from page 302 of her Cupcake Cookbook.

Pretty huh? Give it a shot, tell your readers, and link up! The McLinky comes down in two days, Sunday, January 30th!! These Yellow Cupcakes are not as popular or "cool" as Red Velvet but man, they are quickly becoming our household favorite!

Water

{source}

I spoke to Housing today and good news (!!!): we're still on schedule to sign for our house this week! You all know how excited I am to be getting our house so that I can have my things back (I've only blogged about missing my bed, pots & pans, more times than any one person should)! Something else I'm excited to try making pitchers of water with fruit. I know, I know- where the heck have I been? But, since getting more healthy is a goal I have, and I'm so over soda it's not even funny I'm fiending for an ice cold glass of water (with fruit). I don't know about you but I don't/haven't taken the time to slice up a lemon at home (as they do in restaurants). Beyond being a great way to spice up (teehee) commonly, un-flavorful water, it looks really pretty! Don't you think?

Do you do this at home? What are your favorites, Oranges, Lemon/Lime, Apples, Cucumbers???

PS: Yes I just blogged about water... lol.

The New Years that could have been

I had this idea of what New Years in our new house, with our new friends could have been like. The vision in my head included delicious food, Wii Mario Kart tourney's, other games and delicious drinks:

Exhibit A:

{source}

Strawberry Champagne Sparkler Cupcakes, courtesy of DC Cupcakes. I saw these on Oprah (obvious, by the picture) and thought they were freaking awesome. Click here for the How-to Video and here for the recipe. 

Exhibit B:

{source}

Pomegranate Martini... What's not to like? Seriously? Find recipe here.

Alas, my New Years Eve looked a lot more like this:

{source}

I can lie to myself and you all and say it was just "low-key" but really we didn't do a.damn.thing. I was asleep by 1030 and watched the ball drop (via AFN) at 8AM (Midnight MST). All I can do is keep my rocking' awesome ideas handy for next year and know that everything will be different 364 days from now. 

Hope you all had a great 2010 and had a blast bringing in 2011--- here's to a great year! 

Cookies n' such!

My buddy Jen hosts a weekly recipe blog hop. This week she is featuring Cookies!!

Who doesn't like cookies?

If you do (don't like cookies) than you can just stop being my friend.... NOW!

Here's one of my fav recipes:

Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 c Sugar

8 oz Cream Cheese

1 egg

1 Package rolled Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.

Directions:

Spray Pam in the bottom of a 9x13" baking pan. Press about half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. In a small bowl mix together the other ingredients and pour over the first layer of cookie dough. Then add the remaining cough on top of the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 18 mins at 350 degrees or until golden brown on top.

And ENJOY!

It's a fav. I've also tried this once with brownies and cream cheese.... YUmmmmm!!

*~*

I love that my last post encouraged a few new followers and that you all felt as strongly about it as I did.

*~*

A big-warm 235th HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the US Army!

Hooah. 

*~*

In other exciting news the hubs and I got iPhones this weekend.

Do you have an iPhone? 

What accessories must we pick up?

Do you know of any cheap places to pick up accessories? 

I couldn't find a Blogger App. Have you found one??

A Recipe

The last few months I have been experimenting with new foods; adding to old favorites or mixing in new goodness to create fabulous leftovers! I'm happy to say that a few have been HUGE hits at our house. Kevin raves about this spicy-pasta dish I make with Orzo. He even told his mommy that she would have to try it. Since I know my terrific MIL reads my blog I figured I could post it here, this way she'll get it and if anyone of you are interested you can also give it a whirl!

Just a heads up I cook everything based on taste/eyeing the ingredients. Sorry this may not be super specific! I hope you try it and love it as much as we do!

Ingredients:

1 box (lb) Orzo pasta

4/5 stalks Green Onion

Frozen Peas

2/3 Gloves of Garlic

Shredded Parmesan cheese (aprox 3/4 cups)

4 Strips of Bacon

1 (or less) Tspn Crushed Red Pepper

Olive Oil

Salt/Pepper to taste

Garlic Salt to taste

Oregano (aprox 1.5 tbsp)

Mixed Italian Seasonings (aprox 1.5 tbsp)

I recommend cooking the orzo beforehand. I came up with this recipe the first time, because I had made too much Orzo for soup and it turned out great. The second time I made the pasta and dumped it straight into the sauté pan... it was ok but not as good!

Also precook the bacon, chop into small pieces and set aside.

Remove peas from freezer and set aside while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Get a large skillet hot coat the bottom with olive oil. Chop Garlic cloves and green onion, sauté once oil is hot. Toss pasta into oil, add seasonings, Parm cheese. *Note: 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper keeps this spicy, I say start slow and taste as you go. Make it as hot as you like. :) After all the spices are mixed in and everything is getting “happy” (as Emeril says) add ¾ bag of Peas. Lower heat (between low and medium) and let simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.

Ideally we want enough oil to keep this moist, enough cheese to make it sorta sticky but not like glue. Peas should be tender; not mushy. :)

Enjoy!

Let me know if you try it, how you like it or if you have any questions!! :)

~***~

I'm kicking myself tonight. You see, I wrote a list of Xmas gifts for Kevin last week (possibly two weeks ago) but I can't find it and for the life of me I can't remember what was on it, or anything else to get my husband!

Crap!