Spaghetti Squash Confetti

(sorry I forgot to take a photo so this is leftovers at lunch the next day)
I like squash and loved this, Dan hates squash and it 'was ok'. (lol) *shrug* We both agreed though that it needed more tomatoes (the original recipe called for more, but I only used one since its all we had). The original recipe can be found here (their picture is prettier than mine)... I just added the garlic. :)

Ingredients:
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic
• 1 whole spaghetti squash
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 3 large tomatoes
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Slice your spaghetti squash in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and season with olive oil, salt and pepper on all sides. Place the squash flesh side down on cookie sheet with foil covering all of the exposed skin. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender.
• Meanwhile, saute the yellow squash and zucchini with oil, salt and pepper. Add the garlic (minced).
• When the spaghetti squash is done simply pull your fork through the flesh and it will come out like spaghetti noodles! (this was my first experience with spaghetti squash, and was pretty cool!
• Combine the “noodles” and sauteed vegetables and serve with chopped fresh tomatoes. Sprinkles with fresh Parmesan cheese and salt & pepper.

Chicken & Veggie Shishkabobs

These are so easy and yummy! -They just might be our family's new favorite meal! I found the marinade recipe randomly online (I sadly don't remember where so as to give credit... allrecipes.com maybe? -I just googled shishkabobs) and we added what sounded good to us, made it and fell in love!

*Note: we have made these a few times now, both outside on the grill and on our little George Foreman grill... super easy! :)

Ingredients:

For the kabobs:
Chicken Breast, cubed (we use about 2-3 breasts)
Veggies, cut up into bite size pieces (we use various peppers, onions, grape tomatoes and etc)
skewers
For Marinade:
3/4 cup Soy Sauce
2/3 cup Veggie Oil
1/2 cup Lemon Juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup Mustard
2 cloves Garlic (I just added Garlic Salt instead with the pepper)
Salt & Pepper
Directions:
*If using wooden skewers, remember to soak in water for at least 30 minutes before using.

Mix marinade together well in a med-large bowl (which you will let the chicken soak/marinade in) -we like to reserve some in a separate bowl on the side (about a cup or so) before adding the raw chicken for extra basting while cooking.

Place chicken pieces in to marinade, cover and allow to soak in the fridge for at least 1 hour (the longer the better).

Prepare skewers as desired for cooking, & then just cook until chicken is well done (basting the skewers more while cooking) & enjoy!

**We've been making either fruit smoothies or fruit bowls to go with them, so yummy!! :)

Tin Foil Artichoke Chicken & Rice

I originally found this recipe on KraftFoods.com, and it sounded good to me (-plus 'easy' is a bonus right?!) so we tried it out. The verdict? We all (even Addie!) really liked it! :) So here it is for easy access to make again in the future, and so that you guys can try it out too!

*the original recipe can be found at the Kraft link I shared (above), and this one below, as always, has my own little changes. -this is also a smaller version (I halved their recipe) but it made OODLES for us to have leftovers!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups instant white rice, uncooked

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (ours were the thick ones so we got like 2-3 servings of chicken in it)

1 can (13-3/4 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained, quartered (the original recipe calls for 1 can for the 6 chicken breasts, but we LOVE artichokes so I used the whole can on just our little bit of chicken)

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing

1/4 cup pesto
garlic salt, to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 400°F.

Mix rice and water; spoon onto centers of 2 large sheets heavy-duty foil (I always double wrap our food when making tinfoil dinners since they tend to leak -and shape your foil into almost a 'bowl' shape before adding the rice as it would probably run off otherwise). Top with chicken, artichokes and tomatoes; drizzle with combined dressing and pesto. Add garlic salt.

Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and both ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place on a cookie sheet, and bake 30 to 35 min. -or until chicken is done (165°F). Remove packets from oven; let stand 5 min. Cut slits in foil with sharp knife to release steam before opening.

Wontons (beef)

**My camera is on the fritz!!! The settings are messed up and I haven't been able to figure them out for the life of me, so excuse the goofy, un-appetising looking photos! :( ...they look gross, but I promise are YUMMY and this even happens to be our favorite batch yet!

Ingredients:
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1 sm. onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped (I have sometimes used garlic salt or garlic powder instead... you know, to make myself feel better about not having garlic on hand lol, and they turned out yummy still!)
1 pkg. wonton wrappers (found in the refrigerated produce/salad area usually...and we have used both round and square wrappers -doesnt matter!)
soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper

Directions:
Cook ground beef until thoroughly browned.(drain if needed) Add onion and garlic, cooking until tender. Add sauces and seasonings to desired taste. (I sort of sprinkle a bit of each, stir, check color, and pour some more until I like the 'color' lol) Spoon meat mixture onto the center of dough wrappers. (I keep a small saucer with water on it to the side to dip my finger in for the next part...) With moist fingertip, wet the outside edges of the wrapper (to get it slightly sticky so it pinches closed better). Fold and pinch tightly closed -careful not to tear the dough wrapper.
Fry folded wontons until a light golden brown on each side.
**we serve with stir fry rice & veggies usually, and dip them in soy sauce while eating them usually.
(below: un-cooked wontons waiting for Dan to do his frying duties while I finish filling & folding)

AMAZING Diaper Rash Cream

This stuff is seriously AWESOME! One of my good friends, Pam, posted it on her blog last year after the nurse at her Dr's office told her to try it. Pam fell in love, posted it on her blog and I made a mental note that Id try it out too if Addie ever got a diaper rash...which she did a few months later.
The moment her rash got bad (too painful, broken skin, etc...) and the other regular creams we'd been trying the last few days just weren't cutting it so I went back to Pam's blog post and tried it. MAGIC! Seriously within hours it was already helping SO much! Addie no longer screamed when we changed her diapers, and all the places that hadn't been big open sores were already gone! I kept cleaning and reapplying the magic mix, and added some Neosporin to the open sores and within a day or two even they were gone! I fell in love with the amazing mix, blogged about it too, and have made the point to spread the tip around any chance I got! :) A few days ago I had another friend ask me what the mix was again so she could try it on her kids. I thought it was still posted on my blog, but I cant find it now so I thought Id post it again here for easy reference. ...Feel free to try it, love it, and thank me too! *wink*
Get some Mylanta (Ive since found any strength works, but I usually do 'maximum' anyway -also both name-brand and generic both work) and some Aquaphor or Vaseline cream. I say both because I was originally told Aquaphor (found either in baby section by diapers & creams, or by the regular lotions) and everywhere you look it up online the recipes call for Aquaphor... however, Ive tried Vaseline and prefer to use that now! The Aquaphor was like $6 for a mini tube last time I looked at Walmart (this last weekend) and I thought it was just ridiculous! To me, Vaseline and Aquaphor are about the same thing so I decided to try Vaseline instead. Vaseline was like 2 items over and cost only $2 -I was sold! Bought it and hurried home to try it!
Applied it that night, and once again only a couple diaper changes later the awful rash was almost completely gone!! Yay!


...So get your Mylanta and your choice of the creams and mix some of each together! I use little tupperware bowls with lids to keep it in. The mix is about 50:50, but the more Mylanta you use the more liquid-y it gets and you still want it a manageable 'cream' so start smaller with the Mylanta and go up from there mixing well until you like the consistency. This is what mine looks like:

Apply to a cleaned, sore little baby bum, and VOILA! :) ...Usually you will notice a difference a few hours later, but apply as needed for a couple days if its still there.

Stuffed Tomatoes

I found this recipe by accident while searching online one day a few weeks ago for some recipe ideas to use our extra tomatoes. It was posted by a lady as an answer on one of those pages where people type in questions in the search box (Google or yahoo, etc) and readers just randomly reply. The lady didn't have any info and Ive since lost the web page, so I sadly cant link her to give her credit. We made the recipe for the first time last night for dinner, and we (all 3!) really liked it! I especially love it because its one of those recipes that's almost 'too' simple! *wink*
We think it would be best used as a side to go with grilled chicken breasts, steaks or etc.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes (the bigger the better so you can stuff them -I made 3 out of this recipe)
croutons (about 1 cup for 2 tomatoes ...you can use bread crumbs instead like I did and I used 3-4 slices for the 3 stuffed tomatoes we had)
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 minced garlic cloves (*optional)
olive oil for cooking the onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp basil &/or Italian Seasoning
tomato sauce (optional*)
Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Take a thin slice off of the top of the tomatoes, and gently scoop out the pulp. Reserve pulp aside in another bowl. Turn tomatoes cut side down, and allow to drain on a paper towel.
Saute onion and garlic until translucent in olive oil.
Mix the croutons/bread crumbs with the reserved pulp, onion saute mixture, and add salt, pepper and seasonings. (I used Italian Seasoning, Basil, black pepper, and some garlic salt since we didn't have garlic to use) I also added a small amount of tomato sauce too just for more flavor.
Fill tomatoes with the stuffing mixture and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Place in baking dish and fill 1/2" of the bottom of baking dish with water. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

Slime

This easy recipe makes some awesome slime/goop/silly putty-ish stuff that Ive used many times over the years with my students and clients. Its way simple and quick to make, and best part is its easy clean up (just peels off!)

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Borax ('20 Mule Team Borax' ....a detergent found on laundry isle of your local store -or come borrow some from me!)
2 -1/2 cups of water water (so 1 cup total but you mix two mixes with 1/2 cup each separately first)
4 oz. Elmer's Glue (I just eyeball it and add until i get a good consistency)

Directions:
Mix 1/3 cup of water and Borax well in a small bowl. In another bowl mix 1/2 cup water and Elmer's Glue. Add desired food coloring to the Glue mixture. Stir the Borax mixture into the Glue mixture (may take a little bit to get fully mixed...Ive found kneading with hands often works best). Once mixed well and a good consistency have fun playing with it!
*Stores well for several weeks in a closed container

You can roll and mold it into sold-ish forms, but when held high or set down it will start to stretch/melt a bit (as seen above). Its good entertainment for long periods of time! *wink*