Crispy Chicken With Creamy Italian Sauce

Another fantastic meal!  Even my picky daughter ate the chicken (but we compromised with plain pasta).  The recipe for the crispy chicken is pinned under Dinners.

I really liked the chicken recipe.  The steps were easy.  The only thing I changed was using less oil.  Even so, the chicken was crispy and held in moisture well.  I will definitely make the chicken again, especially since I always have the ingredients on hand.  And now I own a meat mallet!

The creamy sauce was incredible.  It used a product I have never used before, Philadelphia cooking cream.  There were four flavors to choose from, my husband chose pesto.  Which worked out nice with the spinach we added to the sauce.  I had a better likelihood of family members eating a vegetable if it was covered in sauce! But the sauce was easy to make, a little heavy (180 calories for half a cup), but it made a lot, at least for my family it was a lot.   Next time I make it, I will use a different flavor. 

I definitely recommend this recipe.  It's a little heavy, but definitely worth every bite!

Mongolian Beef

I don't often have a difficult time waiting for my husband to return home from work before starting dinner, but I could NOT physically wait for him when I made this meal.  Mongolian Beef, pinned under Dinners, was that amazing.

The recipe was incredibly easy, and used ingredients I often have on hand at home.  Paired with rice and steamed broccoli, it was perfect.  Better than any take out I can get around here, this beef was tender, and incredibly flavorful.  The combination of sweet and the red peppers left me wanting more.  I recommend this for anyone who adores Asian food. 

Go. 

Make this NOW!!

Knit Wig Hat

I had the Knit Wig Hat pinned in my "Knit" board for awhile before someone on Facebook asked if I could make her one.  I took her up on her request quickly.  The Knit Wig Hat is something I personally wouldn't wear but was dying for an excuse to make!

The patter is pretty easy, though I had to learn how to do a backward cast on to complete the upper half of the wig (yay youtube videos!!).  With fairly limited skills needed, this is a great project for Easy/Intermediate level knitters who want to do something a little cooky.  The pattern was a little tricky to read once it came time to do the decreases on the bangs... hence my slightly off end product. 

 

The Knit Wig Hat is definitely an easy alternative to dying your hair for a Halloween costume or for a themed party!  I look forward to making another one some day! 

Easter Egg Decorating Idea

Some years I dread the dying of Easter Eggs.  It's messy, I fuss about the kids potentially dying the entire house, I just don't wanna.  But I saw this super cute idea on Pinterest and had to try it!  I'm not sure what the original link is, the one I pinned is just a photo of eggs with beautiful temporary butterfly tattoos on them.

I rummaged through our tattoo collection... all I could find were Halloween themed tattoos, patriotic, and dinosaurs. Pretty much sums up my family! It was just as easy as putting temporary tattoos on the children, and less messy than dyes.  Personally, I much prefer dinosaurs over little bunnies and chicks on our eggs!

Frosted Zucchini Brownies: A Different Take

The Frosted Zucchini Brownies is a pin a friend of mine made under her "Cuisine" board.  I re-pinned from her, but have yet to try the recipe.  She graciously wrote up a review for me and took a photo. 

My friend, Emily N. substituted 3/4 cup applesauce for the oil, added 1 tsp all spice, and left off the frosting.  She also made them as cupcakes instead of a sheet. 

Her verdict:  "Not bad for taste but I found them to be a bit bland but moist enough. I think I need to up the all spice or try just a cinnamon/ginger/clove mix and go a bit heavy handed. I think a cream cheese frosting might be a better contrast with a dash of apple syrup and sprinkled cinnamon to complement the applesauce flavor."


The recipe does not contain eggs, so it is good for those with children who have egg allergies.

I am still looking forward to trying this recipe, so I will edit the post once I have made it!

Felt Fractions: Nice Tactile Way to Visualize Fractions

Here are my felt fractions (please click on the link to see original post!). I had pinned this under "Preschool/Kindergarten Learning Tools". 

These were super cool.  My 5 year old has been asking us "how much is left" when she is eating/drinking during meals, and she adores math anyway, so I thought this would be a fantastic way for hear to visually understand when we say half, third, fourth.

The tutorial had used primary colors.  I allowed my children to pick which colors I ended up using... I think you can tell which two my son picked and which two my daughter picked! I also didn't do the blanket stitch as per the tutorial.  I was using my sewing machine and was too lazy to make them look super nice (as you can see my sewing skills leave something to be desired!).

I love these, I think they are really awesome.  My children agree!