Super Nummy, Super Easy Greek Yogurt Chicken

I tried this the other night and LOVED it! Super easy and WAAAY nummy!

I used six chicken breasts, but you could use tenders just as easy.  I've seen similar recipes floating around on Pinterest. . .here is my version that the whole family ended up loving:

Ingredients:
6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups plain greek yogurt (I used Kirkland Signature brand)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbs. seasoning salt (I used Kroger brand)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Panko bread crumbs -enough to cover

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine greek yogurt, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, seasoning salt, and pepper in a bowl. Coat the chicken with the yogurt mixture, then roll in the bread crumbs. Place on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Be sure to spray the foil with cooking spray first! I used frozen chicken and cooked it for about an hour. Enjoy!

After devouring one piece by itself, I cut one up and topped a salad with it for dinner.
It was even better the next day for lunch. Definitely a keeper!

Our First Eggs!

So. . .I'm way behind here, but last Thursday, the 25th, we got our first chicken eggs! We weren't expecting our cute little squawkers to start laying until at least September, so it was a pleasant surprise to say the least!

I opened the coop door to check their food and water, even leaned in a bit to level out their food.
As I was closing the door I happened to notice a cute little egg just sitting there in the middle of
the coop floor. I have no idea how I missed seeing it. It was so little and cute! 

Did I mention how cute it was?

At first I just kind of stood there and stared, it took a second to sink in that it had come from one of our own chickens. I even wondered for a sec if it was my husband just playing a trick on me by sticking a store bought egg in there, but it was so much smaller than the ones in our fridge that it couldn't have been that.

Then I felt really bad. I wasn't expecting any eggs for at least another month, so I didn't have the
coop ready with their nesting boxes. This poor chicken had to lay her first egg in the middle
of the wood floor. Poor thing. So I set out to remodel the coop. 

I had planned on adding a couple more feet off the end of the coop for their nesting boxes. But. . . 
because this is how most of my DIY projects work  I got one end of the coop torn apart, managed to break the blade on my saw and basically got nowhere. After putting everything back together the best I could and having nothing to show for the last hour of my life I was left with no choice but to do the best with what we had and just added a few boards to separate a section off in the back and added more torn newspaper strips to make it soft and cushiony. Yes, I just said cushiony.

This whole process took a couple of hours and when I was putting everything away and cleaning
up I noticed one of the chickens in the coop, scratching around in the newly set-up nesting boxes.
She was acting kinda wierd and wouldn't leave that area. I closed the door and left her alone for a while. After about a half hour I came back to check on her and she was chasing another chicken
out the coop squawking at her as loud as she could.

Inside, hidden under the newspaper, was another cute little egg, this time a brown one. 

Two eggs, three hours apart, over one month ealrier than expected. What a day!

We didn't get any eggs the next day, which was disappointing, but have had two
everyday since then. It's been a lot of fun going out to gather them up.
I can only imagine what it will be like when all six of them are laying! I can't wait!

Homemade Chocolate Sauce

I planned on having brownies, ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert last night, so I took
it upon myself to try a recipe I found on Pinterest. I know, of all places to find a recipe, right?

I'm pretty sure that no matter what you do, chocolate sauce that tastes like it's supposed to, is not going
to be good for you. While this recipe does have a lot of sugar because it tastes like it's supposed to, what it DOESN'T have is all of the extra preservatives and whatever else in it that you can't pronounce.
For that reason, this one is a keeper for those random times we do have the coveted liquid deliciousness.
I hardly ever buy it because when I do, I can always count on catching my two boys
drinking it straight from the bottle out of the fridge. I'm SURE my girls have NEVER done such a thing!
At least they've never have been caught!  

If I tell them they can only use it for ice cream or chocolate milk, they do mind and do just that.
I guess it's my fault I never told them that there should be significantly more milk than chocolate sauce
when using it with milk. They are diligent in informing me that there is a layer of milk on top of
the two inches of chocolate sauce sitting in the bottom of the cup. Needless to say, chocolate sauce
does not hold a permanent spot on  my weekly shopping list.

So...back to last night. The original recipe can be found here, I doubled it and changed it just a tad.

This is what I used for my recipe which turned out great, and it was super easy!

2 cups sugar

1 cup cocoa powder

2 cups water

1 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

 pour everything into a heavy pan ...

 ... mix it all up really good. I scraped the sides a lot while mixing.
You want it to be real smooth, with no lumps.

Once it is all smooth, turn on the burner to medium/medium high. I kept stirring off and on so it wouldn't burn on the bottom. Once it starts boiling, turn it down and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until it is the consistency of syrup. After 7 minutes, mine was still kinda thin, but I called it good. Take it off the burner and let it cool to room temperature. Then, stick it in the fridge in a covered container. It should last for up to two weeks if your kids don't drink it all in a day or two. This recipe filled a quart jar about half way.

I didn't make mine until dinner time, so when we used it with dessert, I hadn't put in the fridge yet and it was still a little warm. Warm chocolate syrup with warm brownies and cold ice cream. ... mmmmmm.

Update, I had ice cream for breakfast this morning don't judge and the sauce was even better!
I thought it had a little bit of a dark chocolate taste to it the night before with our brownies, but after
sitting in the fridge overnight, it was quite a bit thicker and tasted just like Hershey's milk chocolate syrup! Not a bad way to start the day!

Homemade Toothpaste

It's time to make another batch of toothpaste and I thought I would share my recipe. There are so many different recipes and concoctions, it's hard to know where to start. I have tried a few different ones and have settle on this one for now....and I LOVE it! Every time I brush my teeth it feels like I just left the dentist after a cleaning. My two teenage daughters agree, which doesn't happen too often because they know everything.

It literally takes minutes to make.
Here is the recipe I have settled on after a few batches of trial and error:

2 Tbs. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 heaping tsp. xylitol

4 tsp. glycerin

12 drops peppermint essential oil

3 drops OnGuard essential oil blend

2 drops melaleuca essential oil

Using a glass bowl, add all your ingredients together and stir!

Don't use plastic or anything else porous. You will forever smell and taste the essential oils
in whatever else you put in that same plastic bowl. You've been warned! ;)

 

We store our glob finished product in empty baby food jars. Again, do not store in plastic.
There is the smell/taste issue like I mentioned before, but also the oils will 'eat away' at the plastic
and you will end up putting BPA from the plastic in your mouth everyday. My thought is that
that kinda defeats the whole point of making your own toothpaste, you know, to get away
from all the potentially unhealthy additives. Just my two cents!

I use doTERRA essential oils. They are the only brand that is CPTG (certified pure therapeutic grade)
so I know they are safe to ingest. Do not just grab any brand of essential oil off the shelf and
use it in your body. Do some research to make sure it is safe for you. I've done mine, and
I am hooked on doTERRA for my family.

We all have our own jar in our bathrooms. We did experiment with adding different kinds of oils to get different flavors, but found that the flavor of these three oils together are fairly dominating and that adding anything else just made it taste a little weird, and not at all like we were hoping. The taste might take a little getting used to, my husband isn't a huge fan, but my girls and I love it and the clean feeling we get every time we brush. Not only are we getting the health benefits from the essential oils, but it has been a great teeth whitener, too, with no added stuff that we can't pronounce. Give it a try!

Breakfast Skillet to Feed an Army

We are out of food. Nothing to eat, just ask my kids!
I had planned on going to the store as soon as I got up and ready, but to be honest I wasn't sure
what we were all going to eat for breakfast. I did find 4 eggs, 3 potatoes and some sausage that
I forgot I had in the back of the refrigerator drawer. Bingo....breakfast skillet here I come!

The beauty of this recipe is that it is so adaptable to whatever you have on hand.
I found two mushrooms, a half an onion, and three corn tortillas to go in today's batch.

First step is to chop up the sausage and get that cooking on the skillet. We add a bit of honey to
cook in with the sausage as well. My husband has always done this, so now of course I do, too.
It does add quite a bit of flavor.While that is doing it's thing, I threw the potatoes in my
microwave potato cooking bag thing and cooked them.

Dice/chop up the onion, mushrooms and corn tortillas. When the potatoes are done and not
too hot to handle, dice them up as well. I use red potatoes, less starch and lower on the glycemic scale. Leave the skins on, too. You want all those nummy vitamins and nutrients!

I also add salsa right in the mix. I like the flavor it adds when it is cooked in.
Not a ton, though, or it gets too soggy.

 Once everything is cooked and chopped, add it all together on the skillet and mix it up well.
I like to sprinkle a bit of cumin on the top. Cumin just makes everything that much better. 

Add your eggs and stir them in to coat everything. I only had for eggs, but I probably
would have used another one if I had it. The eggs make a good binder to kind of
hold everything together, and also soften the corn tortillas a bit.

 Spread it out a bit and just let it all blend together.
Once the eggs are all cooked through, you are good to go!

Serve with more salsa and enjoy!

Feel free to add anything you happen to have on hand. We have used green pepper, cheese, avocado and black olives in the past. That's the beauty of the recipe, you could have a different breakfast every time you make it! It is VERY filling and it makes A  TON! The leftovers, if you have any, make REALLY good breakfast burritos the next day. Just wrap a bit in a tortilla and warm it up in the microwave.

This recipe is very similar to my husband's signature breakfast that we have dubbed
Hash browns El Zorro. I will post that the next time he makes it, it's definitely a keeper!

I love downtown!

I love downtown Salt Lake. We don't get there nearly enough. I took the kids there yesterday to play and get out of the house. Our first stop was Trader Joe's, my first visit. That stop was definetly a success. After that, we went to the Gateway and the boys played in the fountains.

I love the Gateway mall. So many cute shops and fun things to see and do. We window shopped, wished we had more money, then found some cute swim suits on the clearance rack. All three of us girls picked up a new suit for super cheap! And who doesn't love a new swim suit!

Pizza on the way home rounded out our day on the town. We all had a lot of fun, I love my kids!!!

A Long Distance Love Affair

I admit it! I'm in love. His name is Joe. Trader Joe, that is. Distance is the only thing keeping us apart. Now I am in a tough spot...do I continue this relationship or try to just forget and move on? This is a tough one.

It all started last Fall when I heard through the grapevine that Trader Joe's was coming to Salt Lake. 

I'd been reading on blogs all over the place about how cool this place was and how much everyone

 loved going there. Then...I had my chance. It all became a reality when they had their grand opening 

the end of November last year. The problem....distance. 45 minutes one way to be exact. Which might 

not seem like much to some, but to a mom of four who shares a car with her husband, 

driving an hour and a half to get groceries was a little hard to justify. Nope...ain't gonna happen.

So...here we are, eight months later, and I decide to take my kids downtown to hang out and play. 

I have to just stop and see just what all the hype was about, right?

I have to say, I was expecting a bigger store. I almost missed it. Once we got inside, though, my disappointment quickly vanished as I was met with rows of organic produce...cheaper than I could get non-organic at my local grocery store. One big smile comin' up! The first aisle we walked down sported the coconut oil I had been wanting to get for quite a while, and it was a couple dollars cheaper than I had paid before. Another smile. Right after that joyous find was the liquid stevia that has been on my want list for months, and for three dollars cheaper than I had seen locally. HUGE smile!

My haul.

Next find...deodorant. For the last year, I have been making my own deodorant after reading mounds of articles about the aluminum found in anti-perspirant and it's link to breast cancer. I can't even tell you how many different recipes I have been through, trying to find one that could successfully tackle the job of taking on my over-zealous sweat glands (I know...TMI). Thanks a lot for that, DAD! 

I did find one I loved and thought worked better than any store-bought kind I had used, only to find a couple of weeks later that I was allergic to the baking soda that was in the mix. I tried lowering the amount, still a no-go, and even tried substituting with arrowroot. A few of the natural solutions I tried worked great short term, but would eventually stop working. The last thing I have been using is a crystal. I had read different reviews, some good, some bad, and decided I didn't have anything to lose. I have to say, I haven't been overly impressed, and neither has anyone that has had to be within a couple feet of me! So, I decided I had to bite the bullet and fork over the two-weeks pay for a stick of deo at Good Earth.

Never fear, though, my new love Joe had his own label on a stick right next to Tom's...and for 

noticably cheaper. Today is my first day using it, we'll see how it goes. I'm sure my kids 

will let me know fairly quickly if it is not working.

After that, I picked up a loaf of bread and a few snacks for us to enjoy while perusing Salt Lake. I left happy and a little saddened at the same time. I was in love....but knew it would never work out. Too many miles sit between us. There is no way I could continue to visit Joe on a regular basis.

Now....if Joe decides to move to Utah County, then I've got a problem. 

I may just have to tell my husband he's got some competition!

Cabela's here we come!

We love going to Cabela's!

It has been so hot outside and we have been stuck inside our sauna house,
thoroughly enjoying each other's company. It was time for a break!

Our first stop is usually the walk-thru aquarium. It's amazing how big some of the fish are! 

I swear there is a monster sucker fish in there. You know...those fish that suck up all
the algae and all the left-over fish food in the aquarium.

Next up, the animal displays.

We weren't the only foxes in the house.

Feeding the fish. I always go in there feeling good that we are just going there for fun and not to buy stuff, but they always manage to get my donation somehow. OK, so it's just a couple of quarters for fish food, but still!

 And who doesn't love the completely obnoxious pop guns that every
kid that walks through the front doors has to try out?

And last but not least, my secret reason for going to Cabela's...the roasted cinnamon pecans. 

No trip would be complete without 'em!

Oh ya, they also have clothes and outdoors equipment in there somewhere, but where's the fun in that?