Snow Day!

 My boys' footprints... 

 "Underdog!"  Literally.  Jeff has to duck under Austin or he can't get out of the way fast enough.

Throwing snowballs into some empty plastic pots.

About 3 weeks later:

(February 3, 2012)

 We love that we don't have to clean snow off the cars in the morning, but now we get to shovel it off of a much larger area...

 Austin digging in the snow

The snow did not stop until the following day, so we shoveled about the same amount on day two.  We accumulated so much snow that we thought there would be snow on the ground until April... but we have had lots of warm days and our lawn is nearly clear already!

Dinner/Recipe #7: Fast Muffins

So, I decided as much as I am enjoying having new 'dinner' meals it's already getting a little old after only seven weeks... Not a good sign if I'm going to make it to 52!  We really enjoy breakfast for dinner so I thought I would start including other types of recipes to my 'new meals' goal.

Blueberries were on sale last week so I bought a bunch and froze them.  I love to eat frozen fruits and veggies... and tater tots (Jeff thinks I'm crazy) so I've been munching on frozen blueberries all week.  This morning I figured I'd better make something with them so Jeff could enjoy some too before they are gone.  I've had the hankerin' for some blueberry muffins so I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook to find a simple recipe. 

I found a basic muffin recipe that provided instructions on how to add various items like poppy seed, blueberries, cheese, etc and how to adjust the recipe if necessary.  Perfect!  I whipped these puppies up with half whole wheat and half white flour and had them done just in time for Jeff to go to work.  We thought they were simple and tasty, and a nice way to change up breakfast.

http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2012/02/fast-muffins.html

Dinner #6: Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole

I personally have not made this yet, but I found this in my mom's refrigerator while I was visiting her and it was stellar.  I had about 3 helpings for lunch one day...  This is a good freezable recipe, which is something I've been wanting to do more of.  My mom had made this ahead of time and my dad, or whoever was home, threw it in the oven.  It was seriously delicious - I'm pretty excited to make it for Jeff!
http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2012/02/texan-ranch-chicken-casserole.html

Toddler Dreams

This morning at breakfast I asked Austin if he'd had any dreams.  He enthusiastically said, "Yeah!"  I asked him what he dreamed about and he quickly replied, "Jesus!"  This makes my heart happy.  I'm so grateful for child-like love and innocence.

Dinner #5: Citrus Garlic Shrimp Pasta

I got this recipe off of the Mitchell Family blog from my sister-in-law.  I substituted chicken for shrimp and lime zest for the lemon zest because that's what I already had in my kitchen. :)  It was a very "refreshing" dish, as Jeff described it.  Good stuff! (And it made a ton - Jeff and both have leftovers for lunch... plus some)

http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2010/02/citrus-garlic-shrimp-pasta.html

Dinner #4: Easy Chicken Alfredo (w/ cottage cheese base)

I'm already falling behind and it's only been a month...
A couple weeks ago I made a basic alfredo sauce using a cottage cheese base (instead of cream cheese).  I had about a cup of cottage cheese that I didn't want to go bad so I went to allrecipes.com and typed 'chicken' and 'cottage cheese' in the ingredients list.  The following recipe is what I got:

Easy Chicken Alfredo (w/ cottage cheese base)

It's a "Lite" recipe and tasted good.  I don't know that I will make it regularily, but it was a great use for my leftover cottage cheese and it's always nice to have a lighter calorie alternative.