Chicken of another name

When I spotted this chicken on Pinterest I knew that I had to make it.

But I needed a reason to make a pound of bacon and turn the grill on. Enter Sunday afternoon when our friend Chris came to watch some NFL game with Alex. Turns out the recipe is not as bad for you as it looks. It is basically just chicken marinated in a mustard and honey mixture, grilled and topped with bacon and cheese. OK it is not a Weight Watchers recipe, but could be worse.

Turns out the original recipe IS worse. It is from the Pioneer Woman and calls for the chicken to not be grilled but cooked in the bacon grease. See? Totally worse.

And it is a recipe that the whole family could eat. For the boys they got the chicken and with bacon on the side (even James with his 8 teeth, all in the front, figures out how to eat bacon). I served it with some quick oven roasted broccoli and we all enjoyed it.

Ranch Chicken (worst name ever- there is nothing ranch about it)

Ingredients

§  1/2 cup Dijon Mustard

§  1/2 cup Honey

§  1/2 whole (juice Of) Lemon

§  1/2 teaspoon Salt

§  Crushed Red Pepper and 1/2 teaspoon Paprika or ½ tsp smoked paprika

§  6 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

§  1 pound Thick Cut Bacon

§  Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

1.   To begin, make the marinade. In a zip top bag, mix together ½ cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with ½ cup honey, juice of ½ lemon, ½ teaspoon paprika, and ½ teaspoon salt and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

2.   Next, rinse the chicken breasts, place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound to around ½ to ¾ inch thick with a mallet.

3.   Next, add the chicken to the bag with the marinade and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.

4.   While the chicken marinates, fry up some bacon.

5.   Heat the grill to med-high heat.

6.   Take chicken out of marinade and discard excess. Cook 3 min on first side. Flip and top with bacon and cheese for the remaining 3 minutes of cook time.

Oven Roasted Broccoli
1 head of broccoli cut into florets
pinch of salt
pinch of crushed red pepper
olive oil

Heat convection oven to 375 or regular oven to 400
Line cookie sheet with foil and drizzle olive oil on florets
Sprinkle with salt to taste and crushed red pepper
Toss to coat broccoli with oil and seasonings
Roast for 10 minutes or so

You have not been drinking

The blog is different. I was playing around with it over the weekend and saw this new layout. I thought it was easier to read and catchy - but I would love to hear what you think!

Since I am actually asking I hope you will respond. You know I usually just think I know everything. Like how 18 month olds are assholes and first time mothers make me want to jump out a window.

But I digress.

Seriously, let me know if you hate it and I can switch it back. Or let me know if it doesn't work too!

I don't want to let the six of you down.

PS Don't let this baby catch you looking at or trying to eat his veggie straws. He will scream bloody murder then cut you.

At least I look thin

For my 35th birthday Zach stuck with his hat trend (Alex, Liv and Vince all got different styles of hats) and got me this lovely visor. It is huge. If you think it wraps all the way around my head you would be wrong. It is one of those visor on a headband things.

Terrible.

You can see James agrees.

Alex claims it was this one or one that was burnt orange and he thought that would clash with my hair. Says the man who wears two different shades of gray in one outfit.

I want to be one of those moms that doesn't care but seriously, I am never going to wear this visor. I think I am going to tell Zach it does not fit and take him with me to pick out another one. If he really pitches a fit I will cave (obviously). But I will not be seen outside of Drummond street in this visor.

I am 35 not 55. And I don't power walk in the morning. I mean I need to, but I don't.

Christmas under 4

Under 4 minutes, under 4 years old, which ever under 4 works for you. Because Christmas at our house was all those things.

Zach insisted we leave three cookies for Santa and and three carrot sticks for the reindeer. Unfortunately his mother only had an apple for the reindeer. The baby will choke himself on carrot sticks and Zach refuses to eat them so why would I purchase them? Anyway, he seemed happy enough with the apple. He also placed Jack in James' chair so he could make a quick get away (and I was glad to see him go).

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house after a marathon mass at the Co-Cathedral downtown. A retired priest gave the sermon and (it was obvious he did not have children) he talked FOREVER even reading directly from a letter from the Pope to the New York Times. Both boys held out as long as they could but finally we just had to bail. I don't think my father in law appreciated my critique of the priest's sermon - but I speak the truth.

The best family photo in a while. Better than this at least. 

Wall to wall free for all...

Christmas morning was great, it really is exciting with two little ones! Zach got a play table/kitchen, a dream light and some miscellaneous Spider-Man stuff. James got stuff pulled out of the closet, a musical play set and Spider-Man slippers that match Zach's. It is hilarious to watch him stumble around in them - I sort of wasn't thinking that a not-secure walker would struggle with a padded shoe. He doesn't care a bit, he has the same thing as Zach which makes him super happy.

Here is Zach "helping" James with his gifts.

The play table and general Christmas morning destruction.

This is my favorite photo from the day.

Alex got James the leaf blower from Home Depot but Zach immediately decided it was his.

Super hero lawn boy, right here.

Breakfast from the freezer

Does anyone else dread breakfast? I mean not at much as dinner, obviously, but I feel the pressure of feeding my kids something that is nutritious and will hold them until snack (at least my little ones get snacks) but also something they can eat without my help. Zach can do cereal...but it almost always spills right when I am in the shower or straightening my hair. AKA I can't stop what I am doing.

So I started batch cooking breakfast items and freezing them. And I love it. As my sister would say, technically you can buy all the items I make and freeze. And honestly, now that I am back full time I do usually buy them. But I still really like to make the stuff too, when I have a little time.

This weekend I bought some "Renaissance bread" at Randall's only because I wanted to make french toast for the boys and wanted it to be with a hearty wheat bread. Oh it is hearty all right, the first two ingredients are wheat flour and barely. My children might come to hate me in the future I know.

But look how pretty they turned out!

I decided I did not have the time to stand at the stove (that and the fact that James is always "helping" me with everything which is somewhat of a fire hazard) so I searched around for a way to bake it in the oven. After wading through entirely too many french toast casserole recipes I found a non-casserole that I re-worked a tad for me.

It was so much faster than just doing 4 at a time. I squished 10 slides on the cookie sheet and they all turned out perfectly. In case you would like to make them as well, I put the recipe below. I included some pineapple puree which is from a Deceptive Delicious recipe and makes the french toast a tad sweeter without anyone being the wiser, but you could obviously leave that out.

Baked French Toast

4 large eggs

6-8 slices of bread

2 TBSP pineapple puree (optional)

½ tsp cinnamon

Splash of milk

1 -2 TBSP butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Blend eggs, milk, puree and cinnamon in a bowl

Put butter on cookie sheet in oven just long enough to melt the butter. Roll the pan around to coat well.

Dip bread in egg mixture turning once and then put on cookie sheet.Bake for 10-15* minutes, turning once to get the bread golden brown.

* In all honesty- I am just estimating the cooking time. I left mine in the oven while I was doing 15 other things and once I smelled it I came running. I start with 10 minutes and go from there. 

Zach was very excited when I told him we were having french toast for breakfast.

Quick Gift

Whenever it was grandparent’s day, we happened to be seeing Liv and Vince. I had seen these on where else, Pinterest, so I set about convincing Zach to jump up and down for a photo. It did not work especially well but I was determined to use my laminator. Determined. 

I finally got one that would work, where he is basically just holding his arms up. Poor James, he had to settle for hanging from his arm. Unfortunately I am not the best with scaling photos so it sort of looks like James is going to eat Zachary. Whoops. But Liv and Vince love them which is what was important.

Thank heavens my dad is a periodicals only reader like Alex and my mom has a Kindle so I don't think they mind not having hanging chads of the boys. But if I hear any different I will get that laminator out immediately.

Walk for a Cure

Technically October is breast cancer awareness month, but technically my life spirals out of control at a moment's notice so posts end up coming out two months late. This is of no surprise to anyone I know.

Liv (a cancer survivor) always organizes a team to walk. There are some constants (Jim and Susan) and some new faces each year. The new faces this year included Zach and James. The last walk Zach attended was two years ago when we was just as pleasant as James is these days.

In 2009 I found a onesie for Zach that had the pink ribbon and the slogan, "A cause I can latch on to" which I found enormously funny. I mean, who doesn't love a double entendre?

Not to be outdone by my 2009-only-one-child-working-part-time-self I knew my boys needed clever shirts. Turns out there are not really any that you can buy. OK, any that you can buy on such short notice. But you can buy pink ribbon clipart on Etsy and iron-on paper in a hurry.

Naturally, James was making his standard face and eating snacks the entire time. He is very thin.

The walk was PACKED. It took us an hour just to get to the starting line. By that time our boys were done. Done with being in the wagon and done with their snacks. We turned around at the first street we could and headed back to our car. It was still a disaster, they were both crying and we were basically speed walking to get there as fast as we could. Finally once we were back in downtown we let them out to walk. They both enjoyed "sliding" down/around the sidewalk of the Chevron building. Their hands were covered in black dirt. Gross. But worth it for less crying.

I insisted on a "blood only" photo for Liv. All moms want this even if they lie and say they don't because they have such amazing daughters-in-law. Granted, most moms don't call it "blood only"; but my grandmother loved that phrase and it makes me laugh when I use it.