Mexican Stuffed Peppers

I made this for dinner last night and it was so good!  And easy, which is always a plus.  I cut the peppers in half instead of stuffing them whole (they cook faster) and used a mix of red and green peppers.  I used a 4 cheese Mexican blend in the meat and as the topping, but I think Velveeta would be just as tasty and melt nicely.



The finished product.  You can hardly see the filling under all that melted goodness, but we love cheese!



1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 package of taco seasoning
1 cup instant rice, cooked
4-5 peppers
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 cup water
1 cup cheese

Heat oven to 400.  Brown meat with onions in skillet on medium heat.  Stir in taco seasoning mix and water per directions on packet.  Simmer for 5 min.  Stir in rice and let stand.  Meanwhile, cut tops off peppers and discard seeds.  Mix salsa and 1/4 cup water in bottom of baking dish.  Add 1 cup of cheese to meat mixture; stir.  Spoon mixture into peppers and top with remaining cheese.  Cover and bake 35 to 40 min. or until peppers are tender.

Shrimp Risotto

Risotto makes it sound fancy, but it's pretty easy (and delicious!).  I made this for dinner last night.

Here's the recipe as it appeared in my Taste of Home magazine:

1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
1 3/4 cups uncooked instant rice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2 cans (14 1/2 oz. each) chicken broth
1 lb. peeled and deveined cooked medium shrimp
2 cups fresh baby spinach, coarsely chopped
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 plum tomato, chopped
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. 2% milk

In large skillet, saute onion in buter until tender.  Add the rice, garlic, basil and pepper; cook 2 minutes longer.  Stir in one can of broth.  Cook and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Add remaining broth, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly.  Allow liquid to absorb between additions.  Cook until risotto is creamy and rice is tender.

Stir in remaining ingredients; cook and stir until spinach is wilted and shrimp are heated through.
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Now, here are my variations.........I used water instead of chicken broth and it still came out tasty.  The chicken broth will just add a little more flavor to the rice for you.  I also used peas instead of corn (I'm sure your favorite veggie would work fine) and did not put in a tomato.  I used whole milk instead of 2%, made just a tad creamier.  I also used brown rice instead of white to keep it healthier.  And you can buy a bag of frozen baby shrimp that are already cooked, deveined and tail-off so all you have to do is defrost and use.  As I was making this, I thought it might be a little easier/faster if you're in a hurry to cook the rice the traditional way and then mix everything together in a skillet.  The basic idea and flavors of the dish should still come through.

Easy White Pizza

Last night we put our own spin on a pizza for dinner.  It is SO easy and SO good!

  Looks like your average pizza, but it's a little different; it's Pizza Alfredo.  We used a prepared pizza crust (Boboli) and used alfredo sauce (Paul Newman's) as our pizza sauce.  We sprinkled on some garlic, some cooked and chopped chicken and topped with some parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.  We baked it per the directions on the pizza crust and it came out perfect!  You can even buy pre-cooked and pre-chopped chicken breast if you need an even easier and faster meal. 

My husband also sauteed some spinach in a pan with a little oil and garlic and we topped some of our pizza with it.

Normally, I'm not a spinach eater at all, but this was really tasty!
Let me know if you try it!

We're Not Perfect, We're Parents

After reading her post, I felt compelled to share it.  Mayim Bialik, aka Blossom, has shared her parenting methods, attachment parenting, which are interesting to say the least.  Read her post and then come back for my thoughts:  Mayim's article
I do not judge other mothers.  I judge myself.  A lot.  Knowing what a challenging, unforgiving, constant, thankless job it is, I do not dare judge anyone else.  Every mom is different, every child is different, every family has different needs so I pretty much go by the "whatever works for you" mindset.  If this is what works for her family, that's great.  No way in hell it would work for mine.  Or 90% of those I know for that matter.
1.  Breastfeeding until 2 1/2 years old.  Nope.  I couldn't even breastfeed my son for 2 1/2 days.  I tried, it failed, I was exhausted and I stopped.  I didn't give up; I made a thoughtful, conscious choice that formula was the best option for our family.  The "Nursing Nazi", as I affectionately call her, that was on duty that day disguised as the lactation consultant was less than thrilled with me (don't worry, I got to leave the hospital with all kinds of freebies because she was SO out of line).  "With the proper education, support and resources, almost all women should be able to build a strong milk supply and successfully breast-feed, barring rare genetic conditions."  Um, pretty sure I don't have any rare genetic conditions so I guess that puts me into the "try for and feel bad you couldn't do" category that she puts natural childbirth in.  Which brings me to #2.
2.   Natural childbirth is a right and a privilege.  It absolutely is a right.  A privilege?  I'm not sold on that one.  I have the utmost respect and support for women who desire natural childbirth.  But I also think that everyone's experience is completely different and there is nothing wrong with admitting you need help, that the pain is too much to bear.  Truth be told, if I didn't think an epidural was a possibility my son might not be here.  I can't be sure if the epidural didn't quite live up to it's full potential that day or if the pain was so outrageous that it snuck past the epi, but I felt.  A lot.  Of pain.  If that's how it felt WITH the epidural, than natural childbirth can suck it.  Seriously.  Ain't gonna happen.
3.  Bed-sharing.  Nope.  I can't even "bed-share" with my husband because his snoring keeps me up.  I'm totally out on this one.  And I kinda dig my real bed.  I'm not a futon on the floor kinda gal.
4.  I have no problem with slings although I didn't use one.  Almost exclusively instead of a stroller though?  I don't know........I mean, where do you hang your bags when you're at the mall?!
5.  Gentle discipline, huh?  I can go for the no hitting, but no punishing?  None?  At all?  We were punished as children if we did something wrong and I'd like to say that I'm a pretty well adjusted, mentally healthy adult (despite what my husband says!).  I don't think it harmed me.  I also take huge exception to the insinuation that if you "force manners" on your children they are "robots".  Teaching them to say "please" and "thank you" does not make them robots.  It makes them pleasant to be around.  It makes them the children that your friends don't roll their eyes at when you tell them over the phone you have to bring the kids with when you get together.  It makes their teachers glad to have them in their classroom.  It makes them polite members of society and let's be honest, these days we could use more of those!

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on these parenting viewpoints.........do they work for you?  Not work for you?  Anything you have tried, are trying, will try or hey, maybe even just vowed after reading to never in a million years ever try?

I wonder if Sixx has any children.............

Dessert for Breakfast

That's basically what this recipe is.  Of course once I tell you it's from Paula Deen, I'm sure you won't be surprised.  I made this a few days ago and it is sinfully good!  A tad rich for breakfast so a little goes a long way.  But life is short so why not eat dessert for breakfast once in a while?!  Shake things up, people!  Bananas Foster is my favorite dessert so I couldn't resist this recipe..........

 Bananas Foster French Toast
6 croissants, halved lengthwise
Batter:
4 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup heavy cream
Topping:
6 bananas halved lengthwise and quartered
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup walnuts (I had to use almonds for allergy reasons)
1 tsp vanilla

Melt a bit of butter in a pan.  Whisk together eggs, cinnamon and heavy cream.  Batter croissants and place in pan.  In separate pan, melt a little butter to coat pan.  Add brown sugar, corn syrup, maple syrup and nuts and bring to a boil.  Add bananas and vanilla and cook until bananas are warmed. 

Spoon the topping over the french toasted croissants and enjoy!

I forgot to take a picture of the outcome, I was too excited to eat it to remember the camera.  Here's a tiny picture of what Paula's looked like. 

She also said that rum extract can be substituted for the vanilla extract.  Shoot, if you're going to do that, why not use real rum?!

P.S. Linking up to Debbie's Newbie Party!!  Check it out!

Ninja Poop

Last night was an adventure.  My husband was working late so I was happy to spend some alone time with my son in the evening.  I get home and no sooner do we watch grandma's car pull away than the boy decides it's time to poop.  "Thanks so much for saving it for me", I think, but no big deal.  I lay him on the changing table and open the diaper to see it's barely anything to speak of.  Good, nice and easy clean up.  I lay the diaper on the pail while I finish dressing him and bam, we're done.  I'm in the kitchen and see my son come out of his room carrying a tube of lotion he likes to carry around.  It gets left at my feet and he takes a couple of old bottles I still have on a shelf and carries those to his room.  Then I see him come out of his room with a clean diaper in his hands, which doesn't strike me as odd because he always likes to play with diapers.  I tell him to put it back and he disappears back into his room.  But this time he's gone a little longer, so I go to check out what's happening.  Much to my delight I realize that it's not a clean diaper at all that he had, but the dirty one I had just taken off of him and laid on top of the pail.  I forgot to ever put it inside the pail!!  So, I take it away and dispose of it like I should have in the first place.  I check the baby for any collateral poop damage but luckily don't see any, so I clean his hands and crisis averted.  I go back to the kitchen and something catches my eye.........what could that be?  There's something on the floor just outside my son's room........aaaahhh!!  It's the turd from his diaper!  I have NO idea where that came from because I swear I didn't step over it on my way in or out of his room just now (though apparently I must have).  And it's kind of smashed.........smashed?  How?  I check the bottoms of baby boy's socks, they're clean.  I eye the dog, but he hasn't been anywhere near there.  I realize I'm the only one left.  I check my left slipper, clean.  I check my right slipper and there we have it!  Somehow I managed to step on it without even seeing it.  So, now I clean up the floor, I clean off my slipper and proceed into his room to place the wipes, etc. that I've just used into the diaper pail.  I turn to leave and there in the doorway of his room is another little piece!  What the???  Is it raining from the sky?  There's NO WAY that could've just been there, meaning I stepped over poop AGAIN without noticing!  I clean that up too.  Then I notice a little smudge on the rug.....I've given up trying to figure out what's going on at this point and just clean it up.  That harmless little turd that was nothing to speak of has turned into the stealthiest poop ever!  Finally, all is clean.  We leave his room and the boy trips over my feet and lands splash in the dog's water bowl.  Are you kidding me??  I dried him off, cleaned up the mess on the floor and went to finally sit down.  My son walks over to me, climbs into my lap to sit with me for a while and I realize that I wouldn't trade my evening with him for anything.  Ninja poop and all.

Parking Wars

I would love to know who the first innovative moron was to put a chair in the snowy streets of Chicago to save a parking spot.  Why does this strike people as a completely reasonable thing to do?  Nobody puts expendable items out in the street any other time of year.  If it is not insane, then why not save your spot in the summer too?  Because it IS insane.  Especially when

G-O-D and Beef

Just a couple of random things to talk about today.........

1)  Someone gave me this pamphlet this morning: 

I did open it and inside are some interesting musings about "the stench of the dying and the human waste", etc.  Hmm........thanks?  But I'm cool with Jesus, the devil does not "have a claim" on me.  To quote a song I've heard to the tune of OPP:  Are you down with G-O-D?!  Yeah, you know me!! 
No, really, I've heard this song.
As a side thought, is it blasphemous if I use WWJD to mean What Would Julie Do?  Some of you already know that my Catholic guilt makes me feel like I shouldn't even sing along to Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode.  I was 12 when the song came out.  I thought it was sinful then and I'm still not convinced it's o.k...........

2)  If you need a dinner idea, here's a quick, easy and delicious recipe for beef sandwiches in the slow cooker.  Put a 2-3 lb beef roast (pretty much any kind will work: rump, pot, etc.) in the slow cooker.  Empty a jar of mild giardiniera into the slow cooker.  Cook on low 8-10 hours.  It will shred apart and be great on yummy sandwich rolls.  I like to top mine with mozzarella cheese and put it in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes to melt the cheese and toast the roll a little.  So good and so easy!  Let me know if you try it!

I'm Sure This Show is Killing Brain Cells

Why do I love The Bachelor?  No, seriously, why? 

It is mindless entertainment, is that the draw?  Because I can just stare at the TV screen for 2 hours and not think about the million other things that are requiring my attention?

It goes against everything I believe in.  It sets back the women's rights movement about 60 years.  It is sad and desperate and degrading..............and I'm hooked!! 

Cup(id)cakes!

There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, yummy!  Sorry, I seem to always have a Yo Gabba Gabba song on a constant loop in my head!  Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I had an unexpected 2 days off, thanks to Jack Frost and Mother Nature tag teaming some whoop ass on Chicagoland, I thought I'd seize the opportunity to bake some goodies.  I was supposed to make these for a few girlfriends last week but I came down with a horrible cold (sorry girls!). 

These are Double-Chocolate Malt-Shop Cupcakes with Cherry-Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Of course I had to sample the results, and my husband volunteered to as well.  Neither of us distinctly tasted the malt in the cupcake nor the cherry in the buttercream but that being said, these things are delicious!  To quote my husband, they are "pretty frickin' good"!  The recipe follows (from Family Circle), so give them a try.  You can brag that you made cupcakes from scratch and your Valentine(s) will be in love!

Makes 20 cupcakes  Prep 20 minutes  Bake at 350 for 17 minutes

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup malted milk powder

2/3 cup oil

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Frosting:

4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp heavy cream

2/3 cup cherry preserves

malted milk balls or maraschino cherries, for garnish

1) Heat oven to 350.  Line cupcake pans with 20 liners.

2) Cupcakes: Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until blended.

3) Beat milk and malted milk powder on medium speed.  Add oil and eggs; beat until blended.

4) On low speed, add flour mixture to milk mixture; beat until smooth.  Add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined.  Stir in miniature chips.

5) Divide batter among muffin cups, filling halfway.  Bake at 350 for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.  

6) Buttercream: Beat confectioners' sugar and butter on medium-low speed until well blended.  Add vanilla and heavy cream; beat for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy.  Beat in cherry preserves until well incorporated.

7) When cool, frost cupcakes and garnish the top of each with a malted milk ball or cherry and serve.

P.S. Linking up to Debbie's Newbie Party!  Check it out!

SnOwMG

Snowmageddon!  Blizzaster!  That's all we have been hearing about on the news for the last two days.  Granted, this is forecasted to be the biggest snow storm in 44 years.  People are hitting the grocery stores and gas stations like they're going to be snowed in for weeks.  But this is Chicago.  We will survive this. We manage things here that no one else in the world could do.  We have a tank top & flip flop wearing day immediately followed by a jeans & sweatshirt day and we don't blink an eye.  We have snow, floods, hail and some of the windiest weather anywhere.  We can navigate our maze of expressways better than a hungry rat looking for his cheese.  We laugh at the sight of man-eating potholes as we circumvent around them with the skill of a nascar driver.  We deal with road construction that seems to be on an endless cycle.  We have been forced to watch the same Victory Auto Wreckers commercial for 30 years.  And if we can survive the pride of having the tallest building in North America turned into the embarrassment of calling it Willis Tower, we can survive this snow.  Get out your boots, gas up your snow blower and get the hot chocolate ready, people.  We will be fine.

Going Bananas!

What's a party without decorations and cake??  So, here's the rest of the monkey party I put together....
We had the party at a local park district building.  To jazz up the walls, I bought some palm tree decorations and some monkeys that were meant for a classroom bulletin board ( both found at Oriental Trading).

On the tables, I used white tablecloths and added runners that I cut out of some adorable monkey fabric that I found online.  I also had these monkey & palm tree centerpieces I also bought from Oriental Trading and added some baskets with raffia and bananas as centerpieces as well!

As added fun, I ordered a 5 foot inflatable monkey from Oriental Trading as well.  He was propped in the corner and the kids had a lot of fun with him.  He made for good photo ops too! 

Instead of one birthday cake, I decided cupcakes were easier.......no cutting, no forks, etc.  I made 9 dozen monkey cupcakes that turned out like this:

I made yellow, chocolate and of course banana cake, all frosted with chocolate frosting.  I frosted the top third of a Nilla Wafer for the monkey face and added the eyes, the nose and the smile with gel icing.  The ears are mini Nilla Wafers tucked under the face. 

For favors, I made monkey treat cups for the kids.  They were filled with monkey necklaces, banana candies and monkey tattoos.  I used brown paper cups and punched holes for the handles and tail, made out of brown pipe cleaners.  The face was part of a monkey door hanging craft kit I found at Oriental Trading and I just used the bits and pieces I needed to make the cups.

There were also chocolate monkey lollipops for the guests to take home.  It was so easy to mold the chocolate pops and tie them in a treat bag!  For display, I put floral styrofoam in a basket covered with raffia and stuck the monkey pops in so they were standing up and everyone could just grab one on their way out.





Monkeying Around: Monkey theme party ideas

Not so secret confession:  I love planning parties.  It's the nerd in me that loves the organization, attention to detail and advance planning it takes.  I also love to use my creative crafty side that sometimes gets stifled in the mundaneness of daily life.  That being said, my son turned one earlier this month and of course I wanted his party to be spectacular so I got to work early (very early).  Task #1, choosing the theme.  Relatively easy since my husband likes monkeys (that could be another post in itself) and my son is a bit of a monkey himself.  So done, monkey theme it is!  On to invitations.  I wanted to make the invitations myself so I searched around for supplies and played around with some ideas until I came up with this: 

It's just yellow and green card stock with the white information paper attached.  The monkey is a 3D sticker which I stuck on top of a foam leaf.  I then glued them both on top of some raffia pieces I attached to the card stock.  I used rubber cement to adhere the raffia and to attach the paper and card stock together, it worked really well.  The monkey stickers had four designs, some were much happier than this sour looking one!
I bought some chocolate brown envelopes for them and ordered these cute monkey return address labels from vistaprint.com:  


A little blurry, but it says "Going Bananas for Jake's Birthday!"



A simple home made invitation that sets the stage for a great party! 
And of course proper etiquette dictates we must send thank you cards!  So I saved money by making those too. 

I simply found a picture of a bunch of bananas online and traced it onto yellow card stock.  I added the details and the text with a brown Sharpie and wrote the note on the back!
Voila! 
I will post more details about the monkey party soon!

Go Team Blog!

We are 4 great friends.  We've known each other for over half our lives.  We've gone to school together, traveled together, laughed and cried together.  We've lived life with all it's ups and downs and no matter what's happened to take us in different directions or put miles between us, here we are.  Still great friends.  So, why not a new adventure?  Why not try blogging together and see what happens?  Admittedly, we're not sure what these posts are going to bring or if anyone will even read them, but at the very least it will be another chapter in our story.  So, here's to our team blogging!  Ready, Set, Go!