Wednesday Wisdom

Wednesday Wisdom

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Freezer

As I've mentioned my mom has been great about bringing me food for the freezer and we had the lasagna last week and it was delish and enough for two meals.  However I want to be able to cook and put things in their as well.   I do love to cook and this weekend I figured was the weekend since it was a 3 day weekend and we basically had no big plans.  I should be able to divide my time enough between resting and doing a little cooking.

G was golfing this morning so after I got up I headed to the kitchen with my iPad and my Pinterest pins on freezer meals and set out to get some things done.

I was able to make two things before I was too tired.   As I sit here doing this post I hope I didn't overdo.  You would think after 33 weeks that I would learn that I just don't have the energy I'm used to but I forget that.  Oh well I can just rest the remainder of the day.  Sigh.......

Here's what now sits in my freezer!

This was the easy one - just throw together some sauce and place it over the chicken and freeze to throw in the crock pot later

Its called Honey Sesame Chicken and the recipe came from here
I screwed up and only got 2 chicken breast for this so I just made a note on the bag to add two more before I cooked it in the slower but here's the recipe

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (could also use olive oil or canola oil)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - doesn't really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions for Freezing: 
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into labeled gallon sized bag. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken.

On empty gallong bag write: Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

I also made this.  Martha calls it Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-dried tomatoes but I made some adjustments noted below.  It as great and I have 3 meals in the freezer!

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, plus more for baking dishes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound penne rigate
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (8 ounces each), halved horizontally
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 cups whole milk
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and thinly sliced - (didn't use this - not sure G would like that)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded provolone (6 ounces)
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan (4 ounces) (totally forgot about this as well)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 (Didn't do this as I'm going to freeze it). Butter two shallow 2-quart baking dishes (greased 3 9x9 foil pans for the freezer). In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente; drain pasta, and return to pot.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper; cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Halve each piece lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise.  (I used by big dutch over for this - no need to dirty another pan)
3. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium. Add flour and garlic; cook, whisking, 1 minute. While whisking, gradually add milk; bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Add mushrooms and tomatoes (did not use these); cook 1 minute. Off heat, gradually stir in provolone and 1/2 cup Parmesan.
4. Add chicken and pasta to pot; season with salt and pepper. Divide pasta mixture between baking dishes; sprinkle each with cup Parmesan.
5. Bake, uncovered, until top is golden and bubbling, about 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  (Wrapped them and wrote the instruction on the top of the pans and put them in the freezer!)

Pooh

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Elegant

I had my baby shower this past weekend and one word I would use to describe it would be elegant.  I once again feel blessed by the wonderful people I have in my life.  Namely my friends who took the time from their busy lives to plan the whole thing.  Where are the pictures you say?  Well I am waiting on one of the hosts to supply those to me.  I charged my battery that morning and took my camera but it never left my handbag.   I didn't want to wait any longer to capture the day however and promise to post some pics later once I get them.

I will be honest.  I was very nervous about this shower.   Being the center of attention is not real high on my list as I have mentioned before so events like these stressful for me.  I however decided just to roll with the punches and know I was in good hands with the ladies who were throwing it for me.

Every bit of it was pure elegance as I said. 

It started with the invitations done by my sweet friend Amy.   Jack and the Beanstalk - how cute is that!   I truly have never been a part of an invitation like this one.   All done by hand with some many parts.   My mom even framed the invitation for me to hang in his room.   Perfect!

The event itself was lovely.  My Salem Sis was kind enough not only to bring my parentals up for m Salem but to also make sure that my mom and mother in law and I all arrived in style.  The weather for the day could not of been more perfect.   Not too hot and not to cold and not raining!   There was a fire over in the warm spring part of the state so the view from the yard was a little hazy in the distance and you couldn't see the mountains but it was still an amazing view.  This house of my friends is beyond your wildest imagination.  It looks like something straight out of Town and Country or Architectural Digest - I kid you not.   Guest were greeted with options from Champagne bar by Shaunna.   You could have straight champagne or add one of four juices (pear, cranberry, ruby red grapefruit, or orange) - I had my go to sparkling water.  You then could wander outside to the backyard and the pool area and visit.   The brunch was perfect with a selection of breads, scones, mini quiches, fruit kabobs, and a yogurt bar.  After everyone had a chance to eat the presents were brought outside to the pool area and I sat down to open them all.   To say my friends are generous is an understatement.   Who knew there were so many cute things out there for little boys?   At one point a couple of the gifts were compared to a clown car at the circus.  And to think with all of those gifts not one duplicate!   Lots of football and monkey inspired things as well as lots of blue. 

As part of the invitation there was a book template and you were asked to bring a book to start my sweet jellybeans library.   I love all the books we received were great - books about puppies, hawaii, and some great classics like Pooh and Dr. Seuss.  There were also two tables (one in the entry way and one in the family room) with a display of books and some stuffed creatures from them.   These were the gifts from the hostesses.   They each picked out books that they personally liked.   Now I just need to make sure that they get to sign some of them.  Will have to make a note to do so when they come to meet my jellybean.  Also, I need to take the list and make sure I know who each book is from.   That way when one turns out to be jellybeans favorite and can be sure to share that with the person who gave it to him.

At the end our take away gift was a cellophane bag with the initials J-T-P cookies and magic jellybeans in blue.  Both the cookies and the beans are yummy!  Like there would be any doubt.

Amazingly enough all the stuff fit in the car to go home.   And I was able to go through everything with G that afternoon and sort through things for the most part as well.  I hope to work on that a little more this weekend.

Again I am truly thankful and feel blessed to be surrounded by the people in my life and cannot wait to introduce them to my bundle when he arrives.

Cleaning

So although I consider myself one of the lucky ones with this pregnancy I do not have near the energy level I had pre-human growing.  As a result I have decided to give in and hire a housekeeper.

The first one I hired didn't show.

The second one came today.

As it turns out she is 31 weeks pregnant (keep in mind I'm 32).  I believe she is in her 20's and doesn't know what she is having and feels great.  Says her mom will take over her clients when she can't work anymore so its good they have a back up plan.   However there is something weird about hiring someone to help with something due to your "condition" and then she has the same one.   Actually if we are being completely honest it feels weird to have anyone cleaning your house.   Keep in mind I wasn't just sitting around watching TV and eating bon bons.  I was working while she worked so I didn't feel as guilty but the whole thing is surreal.   Don't misunderstand though - not so weird I don't want someone to do it.   She did a good job but not great and honestly I think she should of been able to do more in 3 hours.  I know I would of in my pre-human growing state.  I didn't schedule my next appointment with her and to be honest will probably move on to someone else or maybe not anyone at all.


Oh well I tried.......