Food finds

Here are a few items we have been enjoying... 

Walking through the grocery store last week, this Vlasic Farmer's Garden line caught my eye.  I decided to buy a jar of the Zesty Garlic Chips and give it a try....Man oh man, this is such a delicious summertime treat!  I can't wait to try more flavors!  I believe each jar has Cucumbers, Carrots, and Red Peppers, and the Zesty Garlic contains Garlic Cloves. 

We happened to stumble upon a popcorn booth at Sam's Club one Saturday morning from a company called Popcornopolis...and they had the free samples of popcorn....and we were suckered in.  This popcorn was so delicious and they had some really interesting flavors!  Check out their site here with all the flavors.








In the freezer section you can find these bags made by Yoplait for Smoothies!  I realize you are really paying for the convenience factor here, but it is so worth it!  They have a few different flavors and each bag contains frozen fruit pieces and frozen yogurt.  You place in blender with 1 cup skim milk and you have a delicious smoothie a minute later!  It makes 2 servings per bag...or if you are like me, then just 1 big serving!

Baja Lasagna Casserole

And I have yet another very easy, delicious recipe for Baja Lasagna!  We had this recently on vacation with my husband's family and I loved the fact that you can make the casserole with almost all ingredients out of your pantry, so you can buy the ingredients ahead and not worry about it expiring.  There are also so many variations you can do with this casserole to always change it up.  So....you may be wondering what's up with the goofball on the left.  Believe it or not, this recipe is actually inspired from Richard Simmons....but please don't let that deter you from trying it!

Below is how I made it--.

Ingredients:
2 Cans Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilis (30 oz. total)
1 Can Sliced Mushrooms (drained)
1 Onion chopped
1 Can Pinto Beans in Mexican Flavor
1 Can Kidney Beans (rinsed, drained)
1 T. Chili Powder
1 tsp. Cumin
1 Pkg Flour Tortillas (I had 10 and cut into strips)
1.5 Pkg Shredded Cheddar or Mexican Blend Cheese
1 Can Jalepenos- Use as many or few as you like
To garnish- Fresh Cilantro and Sour Cream

Alterations: 

• The original recipe calls for corn tortillas, so could substitute those. 
• Can play around with using different kinds of beans.  Would also be good with black beans.  I'd also like to try layering in some refried beans
• Can play around with using different kinds of tomatoes
• Could add fresh green, red, yellow, orange, peppers
• Could add some hamburger or chicken
• Could add a layer of mexican rice

Directions: Preheat over to 350 degrees.  In a pot on the stove, saute onions until soft. Add tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, jalepenos, chili powder, and cumin. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. 


Sprayed 9x13 pan with non-stick butter. Place 1 layer of the tortillas on bottom of pan.  

 Next add some of the tomato/bean mixture followed by a layer of cheese. Repeat until ingredients are gone. (My final layer was just tortillas with the cheese on top). 


Bake for 30 minutes. I added fresh cilantro when I took it out of the oven. Serve with a dallop of sour cream on top of each slice.

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

Here is another great recipe to use when it's too hot to cook- Shredded Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches.  This is one of the EASIEST things ever to make.  I had seen this on pinterest and so glad that I gave it a try!

In the morning I dumped a 3lb bag of frozen chicken tenderloins into the crock pot.  Cover with a 12 oz bottle of Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce.  Sprinkle a 1 oz. packet of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing on top.  Close her up and let cook for 6 hours on low or until chicken is shreddable.  Take 2 forks and just shred the chicken in the pot.  I added 2 T. of margarine/butter at this point, but you could probably omit that to make it healthier.  Let cook for another hour or so.  Serve on hoagie roll and enjoy!

We topped ours with some Blue Cheese dressing and Blue Cheese crumbles.  Also would be good with some ranch dressing instead.  I was definitely worried that this was going to be very spicy based on the amount of wing sauce and what I was smelling....however, it was very mild.  Next time I may try making half of the sauce a spicier brand. 

Chicken in the Crock Pot

Delicious Sandwich

Avocado Chicken Salad

With the weather being so hot, I try not to turn on the oven or stove for our meals and it is hard to come up with new ideas.  I had pinned a recipe on Pinterest for Avocado Chicken Salad.  I like just traditional chicken salad, but this is a good variation.  It tastes very similar to guacamole- maybe a little too similar that next time I would use more mayo and less avocado.  This took about 10 minutes to throw together, so is also nice for a quick dinner!

Here were my ingredients:
2 Green Onions
Handful of Cilantro
1 Avocado (forgot to put in the picture...oops!)
2 Bags pre-cooked diced Chicken
2 Spoonfuls of Mayo
Sprinkle of lime juice (recommend using fresh lime juice)
Salt and Pepper

I started with the Avocado in the bowl so I could get that smashed up.  I then added in the Mayo and stirred until I got the desired consistency.  I added the rest of my ingredients and let refrigerate overnight so the flavors melded.  I really think this would taste good on several different things- Bread, Pita, Nacho Chips, Crackers, etc.  Enjoy!

Lachlan - 7 Months

This post is a couple weeks late (once again), but this month has flown by more so than any other!  Here are a couple 7-month pictures:

What's Lachlan up to at 7-months old?

• First and foremost, he can now SIT!  It only took him a couple days to go from only being able to sit alone for less than a minute before falling over to sitting for 5-minutes or a decent duration to play.  (Notice DAD is super paranoid and always wants to surround him with pillows in case he topples)

• He eats some cereal each morning and a fruit/veggie in the evening.  We mix about 2 T of dry oatmeal up and he gets about 2 oz. of the fruit/veggie.  So far he has liked every single food (as far as we can tell) except for some fresh avocado that I mashed up for him.  I think the consistency was just too thick for him compared to his other baby foods.  We typically alternate between fruits and veggies to keep mixing up the flavors.  So far he has tried squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, peaches, applesauce, pears, avocado.

• He got a new "big boy" carseat, stroller, and bathtub.  We have had an insanely long heat wave, so he has barely been able to use the stroller, but seems to love it.  I drove myself crazy with researching them and trying to decide if we should buy one where you can add on a doubles kit for when we have another kid...but then decided against that and figured we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  So then the next decision was if we spend some money to get a really nice one or not-- we opted to get a cheaper stroller since we aren't sure how long we'll use it for and we primarily use it for walks around our neighborhood which is all on nice pavement.  We went with this Jeep Liberty stroller and we LOVE how it pushes.  It has a cute steering wheel that Lachlan is intrigued by, and I love the huge basket underneath- it even has a basket underneath the baby's feet to catch any items they drop.  The carseat (The First Years True Fit Recline) does not appear to be as big of a hit, but he was ready to outgrow his infant carrier and I thought this would be more comfy giving him more room....but he has fussed A LOT in it this last week.  And I HATE loosening and tightening the harness- it is very difficult to reach.  We got an inflatable duck tub that we really like- the beak even quacks when you press the button inside it!

• His 2 bottom teeth are really growing!  He has been on the fussy side lately and drooling like a fool, so we are guessing that he is getting more teeth.
• The day after he turned 7 months, he had to say bye-bye to his friend Luke who is moving to Florida.  It was a sad day :(
• Hopefully this was the worst Father's Day that we ever deal with.  Saturday night we had gone to Spooner's (a local ice cream shop) and it was our first time trying it and I LOVED it.  However, both Dustin and I got very sick during the night, so we don't know but are thinking we got some sort of food poisoning from this ice cream.  It was a miserable way to spend the day! So at an un-eventful moment later, Dustin opened some gifts- grill tools and ties...yes, probably the most generic fathers day gifts one can find!

• We have a new song that is his favorite.....10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!
• He has a few books that are his favorites...and if you try to read any others, he will definitely let you know by starting to cry/whine by page 2.  The ones he loves are Baby Faces, Peek-a-Who, and Whooo Loves You.

• Since he seemed no longer interested in the wubbanub, I took that away a couple weeks ago and he's done just fine without it.  My mom was here last week and she hung a few toys from his crib- Lachs loves to just look at them and sometimes reach up trying to touch them.  The last week or so, he'll spend 10-20 minutes after waking up just nicely playing in his crib.
• Favorite toy is definitely his Jumperoo-- if he's sleepy, he'll still doze off in there.  I came home from work last week and my mom and grandma were baby-sitting....and there is Lachlan sound asleep in his jumperoo!
• I love giving Lachlan his bedtime bottle- he's so relaxed laying in my arms, but will reach his arm up to feel my face- he loves grabbing and exploring my nose and mouth.  His latest is now he transitioned to reaching up and feeling his own hair.  Sometimes he really pulls at it hard, but doesn't seem to bother him.  When giving himself his bottle, he loves to get his feet up there and hold the bottle with his feet so his hands can roam feeling other things.

• I've been able to drastically cut down on the pumping cause my supply really tanked when I got sick.  Basically I'm just pumping morning and night, so about every 12 hours-- and I am not getting all that much, so am moving to just doing once/day next week and my goal is to completely stop when we go on vacation at the end of the month.

 Some other random pics I love: