Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken

I have been cooking like a wild woman since Josh got home, and I found another fabulous recipe on Pintrest! This one maybe be the best yet! It isn't really the healthiest recipe in the world with the cream cheese and frying chicken, but I used low-fat cream cheese and would have cooked the chicken in the oven (had I not be a moron and decided to spray EasyOff in the oven before dinner). I didn't use the oil, and just cooked the chicken in the skillet that I cooked the bacon it. It's super tasty so I'll make this one again! 

Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken 

Ingredients: 

1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced

4 strips bacon, cooked and diced

4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs 

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels. 

2. Stir together the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, bacon, and jalapeños in a small bowl. 

3. Cut a pocket horizontally through the thickest side of each chicken breast, and fill with 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Secure with toothpicks. 

4, Roll the chicken breasts in bread  crumbs to coat. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and cook chicken breasts until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 8 minutes per side. If your chicken breasts are thick, they can be finished in a 350-degree oven. 

Soccer Mom!

Gray had his first official soccer practice this week, and he was pretty thrilled.... For the first 30 minutes. 

I should begin by saying that it is practically impossible to find toddler soccer gear. His socks are for a 10 year old, so I'm checking Amazon for something smaller. The Exchange happened to have some awesome Adidas outfits and the tiniest shin guards ever (which are so flipping cute BTW!). He was outfitted and ready for his first practice, then he decided he did not want to go. I mentioned that his girlfriend was going to be there and all of the sudden he wanted to try it out.

He loved it and was doing really well (for a 3 year old) for about half of the practice. I think he was getting tired because he sat down and wouldn't participate anymore. He is the funniest grumpy kid you have ever seen with his furled brows. 

Daddy got to leave work a little early (5pm) to see Gray's first practice! 

This is Gray refusing to participate. 

This soccer program is another great way the USMC is doing great things for families of Marines. Everything is done through the base and it's very inexpensive to enroll your child. The coach is a Marine, the practices are on base, etc. I'm not sure if this happens in every branch, or at every base, but I plan to sign Gray up for as many sports he in interested in trying while we are here and have the opportunity! 

And before you ask, I'm not getting a mini-van. 

Quilting!

I haven't set aside much time lately for some 'me time' with all the craziness of travel, partying, visitors, etc. I decided that this week was the week for some sewing. I had to have one of my machines worked on back before I left for the holidays because Gray loves the presser foot, and I foolishly left it on when I walked away for a second for a glass of water. He somehow managed to destroy something in the machine in .3 seconds, so it was off to the shop for a cleaning and repair. In the mean time, I figured I could get some quilting completed before our trip (as I had just finished a quilt and wanted to get it finished for Christmas gift) with my other machine. 

Mom gave me a Bernina several years ago that she never could seem to get working. I took it with a very humble comment like, "I'm sure it's the operator, not the machine." She generally is the problem with technology, but in this case she was right. This machine, while pretty expensive, gives me more trouble than it's worth. It needs to be re-gifted back to her but I doubt she would take it back from me knowing it's history of being a trouble-maker. With the deck stacked against me, I decided I could hand quilt the quilt (which is hilarious as I've finished about 1/4 of the quilting since November) and wait until my good machine was fixed. 

Lots of baby things for pregnant friends are now in boxes to be shipped! 

The VW fabric is what I centered the quilt fabric around
because Josh could die happy if he had a VW Bus. 

Now the machine is fixed, and I'm taking full advantage of Gray's new train table and the amount of time he is spending with it this week. I have gotten a great deal of things done that were on the 'to do' list and gotten pretty far along into a quilt for Josh. I have been buying the fabric for this quilt gradually over the last year and deciding on a pattern, but I finally cut into it yesterday. At the rate I'm putting it together, I'll be done in a few days! Hopefully I'll have a completed top to show you soon, but for now I'm headed back to the sewing machine! 

Cheating...

Since we were traveling so much over the last 6-8 months, I wasn't very good about blogging what was happening in my life. Over the last few days, I have gone back in time and posted about those things that I missed. I had several of the blog posts already going but never got around to actually posting them for you to see. 

That said, I know it's cheating to go back and blog about things that happened months ago, but this blog is as much for my memory as it is for your entertainment, so I decided you wouldn't mind. I guess if you do mind, don't scroll back to the recently added entries. :) There is new stuff all the way back to our trip to Yellowstone and DisneyWorld  (both of which I'm still working on at the moment and will be added ASAP.) last summer, so when you have a few minutes go back and catch up on all the things I didn't blog about at the time!

Crispy Tilapia in Tomato Cream Sauce

I found this recipe on Pintrest from www.eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com and decided to try it. It seems like most fish recipes are the same old lemon pepper or whatever, but this one sounded (and looked) great! I really love fish because it's good for you, but also super quick to make. I am glad we tried it because it is really good. If you are looking for a new/tasty way to cook fish, try this recipe! You won't be sad!

Crispy Tilapia in Tomato Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup favorite spaghetti sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons Half & Half
4 (4-5 oz) tilapia fillets
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cup Panko crumbs
1 teaspoon salt-free Italian seasoning
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan, over medium-low heat, bring the sauce and garlic to a simmer. Stirring occasionally, allow to cook until reduced by half. The sauce will be come dark red and thick. Stir in the cream and heat through. Keep warm. (I would recommend starting this after you get the fish going.)

2. Rinse and dry the fillets and set aside. In three pie plates (or shallow dishes), place the flour, salt and pepper in one plate; the beaten egg in another plate; and the crumbs mixed with seasoning in the third plate. Coat each fillet with the flour mixture, dip in egg until covered, and then press on the crumbs.

3. Heat a frying pan on medium to medium-high heat until very hot. Add a little olive oil and fry the fish for 3-4 minutes on each side until crispy-golden and fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove to a platter and spoon the sauce over. Garnish with Parmesan. Makes 4 servings.

I fried the fish in olive oil this time, but next time I think I'll try baking the fish. It takes a little longer, but I feel like it may be easier and it has to be healthier. I also think I'll try catfish next time. I'm guessing that any mild white fish should substitute easily. Seriously this fish was so good! You should try it!

Gray's Pirate Party!

I am sitting down to write this blog post and I am wondering where the time has gone. I can't believe my 'baby' is 3 years old! We had his birthday party the weekend before his birthday, so Mom, Jennifer, and Claire could be here to celebrate with us.

For the second year in a row, San Diego weather foiled our attempts at an outdoor party. It is generally nice outside, with little rainfall every month (and an average of 11.25" a year in the 90's) but somehow Gray's birthday weekend hasn't been so great for outside celebrating. Next year we are going to plan for an inside party and it will probably be beautiful. After the party was all said and done, the 70% chance of rain turned out to be a really bad guess because besides the wind, the weather was fine. 

Josh got a smaller (non-pirate) bounce house than we had originally rented and set it up in the living room. The kids didn't mind jumping indoors, so I guess that turned out alright too. Besides planning for a party in the park and therefore having no real activities for the kiddos, I think everything went pretty smoothly. 

Remove a little furniture and you have an indoor bouncy house!

Gray and Claire jumping pre-party! 

A friend of mine received a cake pop maker for her birthday last month, and she wanted to try it out. We spend about 5 hours that weekend making pirate cake pops. They were a hit with everyone, even though some adults didn't want to eat them because they were so cute. :) I'll be the first to admit that the cake pops were super delicious because we had a few mess-ups that needed to be sampled the night we made them. 

I decided to make the cake myself again this year. I swore last year that I would never do it again, but I guess I had forgotten about how much of a pain it was... This year I had a little more advice on the how to's of cake decorating, so it was a little easier but I had to freeze it at least three times to make the icing cooperate. In the end, I think it turned out ok but I'm going to swear again that I'll never decorate another cake! Maybe this year I can find a cake place in SD that doesn't want $70+ for a cake.... If you know of anyone, I'm open to suggestions. 

Pirate Pops! 

The problem was finding something cute to put them on, so I came up with this solution. 

Pirate Cake! 

Blowing out the candles.

Gray says 'Rrrr Mateys!

As far as Gray was concerned, he had a super party with some of his favorite friends (plus got some awesome gifts)! He is still talking about his pirate party, so I think it was a success!

Now that Gray is three, I think he is more fun than ever. He says so many funny things now and is so much more creative than I ever expected a three year old to be. He loves trains, cars/trucks, dinosaurs, rockets, Cars, Wall-E, and Toy Story. He is potty trained and will tell you that he is Mommy's "big boy" not Mommy's "baby." He continues to amaze me every day with the things he learns and says. Josh and I never realized how lucky we would be to have him in our lives until he actually arrived. We are so thankful for every wonderful minute we have with our little Monkey. Sometimes it's sad that he is growing up so quickly but then again he just keeps getting better with time. I'm sure that all parents are crazy about their kids, but this one is pretty amazing.

Happy 3rd Birthday Gray! 

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta

I found a pretty good pasta recipe on Pintrest last week from chaosinthekitchen.com. I thought I would share it with you. It goes together pretty quickly, which is great for a weeknight meal. Josh and I both liked this recipe and I will prob make it again when I'm looking for a good comfort food meal. I try to make healthy meals most of the time, and I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't fall into that category.

Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients:
4-8 oz linguine or fettuccine
      (I used closer to half of a box than 4oz because, which made the sauce thinner.)
10 tablespoons butter
     (This almost scared me away, but I decided to try it anyway.)
8 oz fresh, sliced mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 oz cream cheese, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
2/3 cup boiling water (from noodle pot)
1 pound cooked shrimp

Directions:
1. Boil and salt a large pot of water and cook the pasta. While pasta is cooking, cook shrimp and reserve. If your shrimp are pre-cooked frozen, thaw under running water.

2. In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat and sauté mushrooms until soft and brown, season with salt and pepper. (I sautéed the mushrooms with olive oil, so I cut out some butter here.) Reserve mushrooms and melt remaining butter in skillet.

3. Add minced garlic, cream cheese, and herbs. Simmer cream cheese mixture until well blended. Get a scoop of boiling pasta water from the noodle pot and mix in, stirring quickly to smooth out the sauce. Keep the sauce hot and add the shrimp and mushrooms. Mix well and simmer (stirring often) until everything is hot and thickened, about 10 minutes. Toss the sauce with the cooked noodles and serve! This would be amazing with some garlic bread and a salad!