Chicken Stir Fry

Hello!  How’s your week going so far?  It’s been pretty hectic and interesting around here.  Ethan is on school vacation this week and last week he was off everyday except Friday due to the blizzard that we had here.  Needless to say, I’m a bit behind.  I’m starting to get some serious spring fever.  I cannot wait to be able to take the kids outside without having to wear 5 layers of clothing!

Today I thought I’d share with you a recipe I made last week for dinner.  It was incredibly easy, healthy, and kid approved!  Both Ethan and Madison gobbled it right up.  Winner!





Ingredients:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
2/3 cup of tamari (or soy sauce)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flake (more if you want is really spicy)
2 tablespoon of olive oil (or sesame oil)
1 medium green pepper, sliced into strips
1 medium red pepper, sliced into strips
1 medium head of broccoli (break into florets)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 yellow onion, sliced into strips
8 oz can of sliced water chestnuts


Directions:
Combine the tamari, brown sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flake in a bowl to make the marinade.  Add the chicken strips into the mix and let sit for a minimum of 20 minutes.
 
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan or wok and add in your green and red peppers, broccoli, carrots, onion, and water chestnuts.  Cook for about 5 minutes then remove from the pan and set aside. 

Heat another tablespoon of olive oil back in the pan and add the marinated chicken strips reserving the extra liquid.  Cook and stir the chicken until it is almost done with just a little pink on the inside. 
When the chicken is just about done, add the veggies back into the pan along with the reserved liquid marinade.  Cook for about 5-10 minutes. 

Serve over brown rice.  I used the Trader Joes jasmine brown rice.  It was awesome with it!


Enjoy!


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About Me

Happy (late) Monday!  Today, I was sitting thinking about my blog and it occurred to me that I’ll be coming up on my one year anniversary in just a few short months!  I can’t believe how fast that came!  For fun, I thought I’d share with you a quick post sharing 10 random facts about me.  Things I’ve never shared here before!  Sounds like fun right? 



Here we go…….

1)  My favorite food is chocolate, chocolate and chocolate!  I can never get enough!
2)  I love reality TV.  The Real Housewives never get old to me. 
3)  I can’t stand clutter but I hate cleaning.  Big messes freak me out!
4)  I love to read.  I read about 3 books a week. 
5)  My absolute favorite TV show on the planet is Big Bang Theory!
6)  I have a slight obsession with fuzzy socks.  I think I have about 40 pairs!
7)  Music of choice:  Anything from the 70’s – Funny thing, I’m a child of the 80’s!
8)  I am completely addicted to soda – I’ve fallen off the wagon more times that I can count!
9)  I just graduated college with my Bachelor’s in Psychology and I’ll be going for my Master’s this fall. 
10)  I am not a morning person.  People cannot talk to me unless I’ve had my coffee!

So that’s it!  Now, tell me about YOU!

Have a great night!

Friday’s Feature: Shaklee Kids Incredivites

Happy Friday!  I’m so glad Friday is finally here!  This has been a crazy week around here seeing the kids are just going back to school today from last weekend’s blizzard that hit us here in CT.  The amount of snow we got here was just too much to handle.  The funny thing?  They are on vacation next week!  Crazy huh?

Anyway, I’m going to try something new here every week on Fridays.  Every Friday, I’ll be featuring a product that my family uses that has been a help, a cost saver, or really life changing.  I can’t think of a better way to spread the news about the things I love more than right here on the blog! 



Today, I thought I’d talk about the vitamins that Ethan takes.  He currently is taking the Shaklee Incredivites.  I can’t say enough good things about these vitamins.  The thing I love about the Incredivites is that they are all natural; they have no gluten, artificial sweeteners, colors or preservatives.  I actually just for giggles looked at Ethan’s old bottle of Flintstones vitamins and I couldn’t believe the difference.  The Flintstones bottle contained the artificial sweetener aspartame!  If you don’t know what that is, I encourage you to check into it.  Pretty crazy stuff!  Some other ingredients included Blue #2, Red #40 and calcium carbonate.  Yuck!  I always thought all vitamins were made the same.  They certainly are NOT!  The best part?  With all the flu and cold nastiness that has been flying around lately, Ethan has had perfect attendance in school.  If nothing else, this makes this Mommy happy!

Here’s a little short video about the Incredivites. 
http://content.shaklee.com/shaklee/flash/show.php?video=Kids

The Incredivites can be purchased by clicking HERE.


I hope you had a great week and I’ll talk to you Monday!


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Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

Today I thought I would share with you the recipe I made over the weekend when we were being buried in about 30 inches of snow!  It was the perfect dinner to come inside to after shoveling for hours and hours on end! 

I like this recipe because it calls for cream cheese instead of the heavy cream that is found in most baked potato soup recipes.  A low fat or fat free cream cheese works just fine which I like since I’m watching what I’m eating.  This makes a huge pot of soup too so there will be plenty of leftovers!

Ingredients:

(1) 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes (washed & not peeled), diced into about 1 inch pieces. 

2 large onions, diced

6 tsp. minced garlic

8 cups chicken broth

16 oz. low fat cream cheese

Salt and pepper, to taste

Optional:  Bacon, cheese, and scallions for garnish

 

Directions:

Add the chicken broth, potatoes, and onions to the crockpot.  Cook on High for about 6 hours.  Add the cream cheese and blend with an immersion blender until the cream cheese is melted and about half the soup is blended.  Top with your choice of garnishes! 

Enjoy!

 

While you’re here, also check out:

Honey Wheat Bread

My Top 5 Favorite Shaklee Products

 

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Snow Days…..

Good Monday morning!  How was your weekend?  We spent our weekend shoveling 30+ inches of snow that came to CT.  It’s been very interesting!  I can honestly say that every time I heard the name “Nemo” that I would think of the cute little clown fish in one of my son’s favorite movies but now, I’ll think of the body aches and frozen fingers we have from shoveling snow!  Haha!  I’ll be happy when things get back to normal around here.  Schools are still closed again today and I’m pretty sure they probably won’t be in school tomorrow either.   My city is running out of places to put all this snow!  The street I live on is down to one lane and I’ll be meeting my mail truck outside probably until July because I still have yet to find my mailbox!  Let’s just say I’ll be happy when spring comes….


Today, I thought I’d share with you some pictures from our snowy weekend.




This picture was outside my door the next morning.  Most of the snow fell in the overnight hours so when daylight came it was like we stepped out onto a set of a really bad movie!  Haha!  I literally had to push the snow with my front door to just get out. 





My car was completely gone.  I drive a little Mitsubishi Eclipse.  Next to the Eclipse is my husband’s Jeep which was also buried but we could still see a little bit of the hood of his car due to the snow drifts.  Crazy!





Ethan absolutely LOVED the snow!  In his short 6 years of life so far this is the most snow he’s seen.  We’ve had some pretty mild winters in the last few years so he thought this was amazing!  My husband and I were not too impressed though….   Ethan is still standing on the front steps.  The snow was up to his chest!





Eventually after a ton of digging…..We found my poor car!





Here’s Ethan standing in the path we dug out to get to the driveway.  It’s literally up to his shoulders!  He loved pretending that he was swimming in the snow. 





As the snow began to pile up, Ethan loved to climb the snow mountains.  He couldn’t believe how tall they were….He was very excited that he was able to touch the top of the lamp post in our front yard! 





So needless to say, it was a very interesting weekend!  Did you have any snow where you live?


Stay tuned tomorrow for the yummy soup recipe I made during the storm!


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Home DIY Project List – 2013

Now that tax season is upon us, my husband Mark and I have been discussing things around the house that needs taking care of or upgrading. We are always talking about / daydreaming about what needs to be done but this year we are going to take some action. We have been in our current house for almost 9 years and there are things that have needed to be done from that long ago. There was always something that held us back. Not this year!





Here’s our list!

• Paint the kitchen, living room, and upstairs hallway (Has never been painted since we’ve lived here! Yikes!)
• Replace living room picture window
• Cut down the tree in our front yard (The poor tree is starting to become a bit of a hazard!)
• Cap the upstairs fireplace
• Install a pellet stove
• Install a dishwasher
• Get a new fridge
• Make more use of our finished basement
• Create an area for our kids to play
• Make an office / craft space for myself
• Paint the garage floor
• Power wash the outside of the house
• Refinish and paint our deck

I’m sure I forgot something but this is a pretty good idea of what we’d like to do this year. It might not all happen but it’s our goal!

Do you have any special projects you’ll be working on this year?

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The Importance of Dating your Husband and a List of Fun Date Night Ideas!

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner I thought I’d discuss the importance of dating your husband. Ok so, I know what you’re thinking…..Date my husband?? Been there, done that. While the concept seems strange, it’s something I’m committed to doing this year.



Before having kids my husband and I had a completely different lifestyle. We went out to dinner a few times a week, went to the casino, saw shows, movies, took a few vacations a year, you name it. We were always out and about enjoying each other’s company.

After the kids came it was a big change to our busy lifestyle. Don’t get me wrong…..I love my kids! We love our kids! Which brings me to my next point. I truly believe a happy household is built around a happy marriage. If you are just accepting that marriage with kids means changing diapers, struggling with money, staying home, and hoping for an extra 30 minutes of sleep on the weekend, then you are probably setting yourself up for failure. To me, having a happy marriage means love, communication, and having a relationship outside of your children. It’s very easy to get caught up in the daily hustle that you just update your husband on the important things going on and look forward to setting your head on the pillow every night.

The truth is, if you don’t take the time now to date your spouse, you never will! We need to prioritize our relationship with our husbands just like we prioritize our work, children, and any other commitment we have throughout the day.

Ok, ok so what am I getting at? Having a regular date night is a must! You don’t need tons of money or sometimes even a babysitter! Just start by making date night a ritual. Schedule it just like you would any other commitment that you have throughout your week and stick to it! Many marriage experts agree that one way to keeping your marriage strong and a priority is by spending time together. I totally agree with this!


Here’s a list of some fun date night ideas!




Outside the home:


- Go to the movies. If you can swing it, go for dinner too!
- Go shopping
- Visit a winery
- Attend a cooking class
- Go to a “paint your own pottery” store
- Dinner cruise (My husband has been begging me to do this! Maybe I will!)
- Attend a comedy show
- Bowling
- Go to a coffee shop
- Go for a walk. Find a few local trails if the weather is good.


Inside the home:


- Rent a movie and make your own homemade popcorn (NOT the microwave one! Have fun with this!)
- Play cards or a board game
- Watch an entire season of your favorite TV show
- Have a fondue night
- Make a meal from scratch together. Something you’ve never tried before
- Order in and watch DVDs. Chinese food is my personal favorite!
- Spend an afternoon watching old movies
- Have a theme night. For example, French night…Make a unique French dish, wine, cheese, and watch a foreign film
- Re-watch the first movie you ever watched together
- Splurge on wine, cheese, fruit and crackers



**Do you have date nights with your spouse? If not, will you commit to doing it? I’d love to hear if you implement this in your marriage!

Have a great day!

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~Nikki