First Recipe Post: Peanut Chicken Bowls

A lot of the blogs that I read often post step by step recipes, and I love it! One of my favorites is The Pioneer Woman and I have used several of her recipes over the last couple of years. I have wanted to try posting one for awhile, so here goes!

I'm not sure why I'm starting with this one, other than the fact that I made it last night and actually remembered to grab my camera as I was cooking! It's a pretty easy recipe that I've made for a couple of years. I like it, because it falls under the Rachel Ray category of MYOTO (Make Your Own Take Out) I have no idea what magazine I originally found it in. All I remember was that a college student wrote in asking for a way to make Top Ramen more exciting and this was the suggestion. I have adapted it a bit over the years, but for awhile, I used to make it exactly as the magazine said! It was originally designed around:

Oriental Top Ramen (is that racist yet?)

Weird that I have that lying around.....I may have had a weird pregnancy craving.....

Here are the ingredients that I use instead:
Whole wheat spaghetti, about 3/4 of a pound
(in the orginal recipe, this was 2 packages of Ramen)
3 cups of frozen broccoli and carrots
1 1/4 cups of water
1/4 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of soy sauce (I use low sodium normally)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)
Approx 2 cups diced chicken
1/2 cup of peanuts, chopped if you have them
1/4 cup chopped green onion (optional at our house, only if I already have some)

1. Brown chicken in some EVOO, put a large pot of water to boil. Once the chicken is cooked, set to the side, off the heat.

Yup, my mom owns The Pasta Pot. And it is AWESOME!

2. Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the sauce; water, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, corn starch and red pepper flakes. (the original recipe called for a packet of the oriental ramen seasoning too. You will not miss it) Whisk all together and begin to heat until smooth over medium heat. Keep an eye on in, it will get thick and bubbly. Whisk it occasionally. Once it does, cook it for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat.

3. When the water comes to a boil, throw in the pasta, with a little salt if you prefer. Cook as directed on the package.

4. When the pasta has 3 MINUTES LEFT to cook, throw in the veggies, bring to a boil and allow to cook for the remaining 3 minutes. Drain veggies and pasta.

5. Add the chicken and pour in the sauce, mix all together.

6. Throw in a handful of peanuts (I didn't have chopped that night) and mix.

7. Serve and enjoy! Not glamorous, but tasty!

And toddler approved, she had 2 helpings and requested it for lunch the next day! Success!

Small Style 7/28

Finally! Some summer weather in the Northwest! We've been busy enjoying the sunshine, so I haven't done a Small Style post in a few weeks. Here are some shots from our trip to the Oregon Coast last weekend and we actually had sunshine!

Beach Coverup: Carter's (hand me down)
Sandals: Hand Me Down

Hat: Fred Meyer

Swimsuit: Carter's (gift)

I am linking with Mama Loves Papa.

What I Wore Wednesday 7/27

I am so proud of one of my all time best friends for passing along the 'What I Wore Wednesday' posts and adding her on twist. You can link to her below!

If you are new to my blog, welcome! What I Wore Wednesday has recently started changing for me, since I'm pregnant with my second child! I actually really like a lot of the maternity clothes that I have from my first pregnancy and have already picked up a few new pieces.

I love the search for inexpensive maternity clothes. I have gotten some great stuff handed down to me and I love going to Goodwill to find more. It's so great, because thrifted maternity clothes tend to still be in GREAT shape, since they only get worn for a few months! I find lots of brand names, my favorite being Motherhood, but pay SO much less than the prices in their stores. I also find pieces at Ross, Target and Old Navy.

The most important thing for me with all of my clothes, whether pregnant or not, is comfort. I have been surprised over the years to discover some trendy clothes that actually are pretty comfortable. I know a lot of pregnant women need to fit in their pre-pregnancy clothes as long as possible and as soon as possible after their baby is born. That didn't bother me with my first pregnancy and it hasn't with this one. A large part of that is because I think that maternity clothes these days are really cute! And there are so many styles to choose from of all types of clothing. Some stuff does look baggy for awhile (though that ends all too soon), because they do fit differently in more areas than just the waist (aka, most jeans), but there are lots of other options. With my last pregnancy, it was late fall through spring (in Oregon), so I mainly wore cool weather clothing. This pregnancy, I'm pregnant in the summer, so I've had to get some new things. Plus, I started showing about 30 seconds after I got pregnant, so I've needed things sooner this time!

I found this dress at Goodwill for less than 7 bucks and I love it. It's super comfortable and really versitle. I wore it out for our 5th anniversary and plan to wear it to a wedding in a few weeks. It's not too dressy though, I can wear it just about any where, just have to change shoes and accessories. This may be one of my last time with the wedges though, my balance felt a little off with the extra weight in front!

Dress: Goodwill (originally Motherhood)
Shoes: Nordstrom Rack
Purse: Ross
Necklace: Some boutique in Spain, 2005

I am linking with That Kind of Mom.

Our 5th Anniversary

For our 5th anniversary, we went away for a nice weekend in Lincoln City! One of Nelson's groomsmen's parents (got that?) own and rent out a house and they were nice enough to give us the 'family rate' for their gorgeous house. It was a good deal! We hope to spend a lot more time there in the future! Nelson took off Friday (last vacation day for awhile, he's saving up sick and vacation for paternity leave when baby comes, a wonderful blessing, he should be able to get at least 6 weeks!!!), so we went Thursday night through Saturday. (the house was already reserved for Saturday night. Here's the house:



I told Kalaya that the front door said 'welcome' and for the rest of the trip, we had to hear over and over (and OVER AND OVER) how, 'It says welcome! It says welcome!' It was pretty cute. I wonder if she'll recognize the word out of context in the future?


Thursday night we went out to dinner at Mo's (yeah, about as touristy as you can get, but I was craving a cheeseburger and fries and theirs are yummy!) and then walked down to the beach, which was less than a block from our house. She played with her sand toys and then wanted to test the water. It was actually a really nice evening, even for the Oregon Coast, pretty warm, only a little windy and the water actually wasn't ice cold. So, Daddy let her put her feet in and she wanted to go further and further and LOVED the water. We had to drag her back. It actually felt pretty good!



Saturday morning she got up VERY early (around 6:30, I think), because the master bedroom was very bright with four windows. She had breakfast and was asleep on the couch within an hour and slept for another 2 1/2 hours after that. (we are not morning people at our house. A typical morning for her starts between 9 and 9:30) A quick lunch and down to the beach! It was perfect weather and she dug, searched for rocks, buried herself, ran around and went in the water (with Daddy's help) to her heart's content. This was followed by another afternoon nap (the morning one really was just finishing off her night, she'd gone to bed late Thurs night) and then out to dinner at a local brewery, where I had some delicious shrimp!


The hot tub was also a big success, especially with Daddy! (I didn't go it, of course...sacrifices for pregnancy!)


Saturday morning was packing and getting ready to leave, but not without breakfast first!


We finished off the trip with a stop in Salem to see Grandma (Nelson's mom) and drove home on Saturday. Sunday Nelson and I had an anniversary celebration during Kalaya's nap, while Oma took over for a bit. We went to a yummy lunch at Benihana and a movie.


Yup, our daughter is too young for a movie, we went to Winnie the Pooh's latest by ourselves. : )

We know that many people/couples think it's important to have time away just the two of us, but we don't feel that way. We just aren't the kind of parents who go on vacation without our whole family, at least not at this point in our child's life. We understand why some think that's important, but we know we'll have years and years to be alone. We treasure every moment with our whole family! We feel that our relationship is plenty strong enough without dropping the kid off at the grandparents so we can be alone. At least, not for more than a few hours. Definitely a personal preference that each family has to make for themselves!

First Belly Pic of Pregnancy #2

For obvious reasons, I am not showing my belly itself. (not in a dress silly!) Wow, dresses REALLY emphasize a preggo belly!! I am just shy of 13 weeks in this pic. More about the outfit on Wednesday for WIWW!! The belly has definitely popped out faster with the 2nd pregnancy. It didn't help I had just had a HUGE lunch at Benihana for our anniversary. More about that soon!

WIWW 7/20

Well, now that the word is out, I can explain my lack of blogging, particularly ‘What I Wore Wednesday”. I haven’t been taking pictures of my outfits for 2 reasons. (1) All of my clothes are already maternity (mostly), and we were not announcing the pregnancy yet, so I didn’t want to post about it! (2) I have slipped into Mommy-mode clothes more often than not because yoga pants and sweats have elastic waists and all of my ‘cute’ pre-pregnancy clothes no longer fit. I’ve definitely been wearing old t-shirts with comfy pants more days than not. And, I’m certainly not ashamed of it, but haven’t taken pictures. : ) I’ll start doing ‘What I Wore Wednesday, The Maternity Months’ soon, hopefully by next week.

I want to take a minute to send you to the blog of one of my favorite people and best friends in the whole world: That Kind of Mom She is an amazing person, wonderful mom and I just love her! Her blog is so awesome and today’s post is no exception. She is very brave and honest in today’s post and I just love her for all that she does. We’ve known each other since we were 8!!!

Just for fun, here’s a special outfit for WIWW. Last Thursday was (I hope you all know!) the premiere of the final Harry Potter movie. As for every other, I went to the midnight showing, in costume of course!! I didn’t take a picture that night, but here is a pic of me last Halloween (along with my beautiful family) in the same outfit. I am so sad that the movies are done being released, because all of my friends know that I am one of those crazy fans!!! I made most of my outfit myself, back in college, for the premiere of the 3rd movie. I embroidered the Gryffindor colors on the vest and sewed on the patch to my robes myself. (Nelson's costume is from Goodwill, Kalaya's from Babies R Us)

Gryffindor Scarf and patch: Ebay

Vest, graduation robe: Goodwill

Black Skirt: Buffalo Exchange

White shirt, red tie: no idea, borrowed from my husband

Black Knee socks (yup!): Ross

Black Flats: Payless Shoe Source

I am linking with That Kind of Mom

Baby # 2 is on the way!!

Well, we've made our announcement on Facebook, we're pregnant again!! Here is a quick rundown of the pregnancy so far:

How far along are you?

12 weeks on Tuesday

When is the baby due?

January 31, 2012

Will you find out the gender?

Yes, likely around the first week in September

Will you keep the name a secret again?

Actually, probably not. We want Kalaya to be very familiar with the name and she can’t keep a secret. : )

Any names yet?

Not really

Do you want a boy or girl?

Either. Honestly, we will be 100% happy with either.

Is this the last one?

We truly do not know. We do know that we plan to wait at least 5 years after this child is born to make any decisions. (The Snip or try again)

Was this planned?

100% absolutely. We have been VERY blessed that both times we wanted to get pregnant, we were able to on the first try.

Have you been sick?

Minor irritation, but not too much. I mainly get nauseous if I don’t have enough food in my system or indigestion if I eat too much. There’s not really a happy medium. My appetite is shot, because very few foods appeal to me, except plain, plain, plain. (this is all just like my first pregnancy)

Any other symptoms?

Again, all minor. I am SO TIRED ALL THE TIME. I can’t believe how tired I’ve been this time around. Last pregnancy I was teaching 26 2^nd graders full times and it was NOTHING compared to how tired I’ve been this time. Only other things are all the same as last time; acne, trouble sleeping, breast tenderness, Again, all very minor.

How is Kalaya reacting?

Very well so far! Though obviously, she doesn’t really understand. She is very proud of the ‘Big Sister’ shirt we got her and gives ‘mommy’s baby’ lots of hugs and kisses and says I love you baby!

Sigh...another house hunt update...

There's some things to report, but we're still not moving forward. Our market is so incredibly frustrating, because of all of the short sales. We are STILL waiting for final word from the banks on both of the short sale offers that we have.

Okay, I will confess something. We are pretty picky. That's part of the reason this is as hard as it is. I think there have been several times where our realtor (Tammie, who is awesome, by the way) has wanted to just shake us and say, "It's your first house, it's not going to have absolutely everything!!!", and want us to lower our expectations about something just slightly. But, bless her heart, she has put up with our standards.

But, the reality is that I know too much about the schools in the area (which is good for our future children, but makes it harder to find houses in our price range), so there are some areas I don't want to buy in. There is nothing wrong with any of these schools, but I'm being picky. There's nothing wrong with the Hillsboro School District, but we'd rather be in Beaverton. We want (need) a yard, we want 3, preferably 4 bedrooms. We want a house, not a cookie cutter condo or 'house' with houses 2 feet away on either side. We can't afford/don't know how to work with much of a fixer upper. So, needless to say, this has been a challenge for our realtor. But, again, she has been GREAT!

The Tualatin short sale looks like it is probably not going to happen. The bank will not approve anything below $190K, which is way out of our price range. Actually, we are qualified for that high, but I am not having our mortgage be half our income or more. NO WAY. It's frustrating, because it was short sale listed at $159 and we made an offer lower than that. I honestly don't care (TOO MUCH) that we probably won't get it, but it has made me SO angry that we've been basically been waiting for 3 months, having our hopes up for nothing. This just proof that if something seems too good to be true, it very likely is...... Basically, a short sale owner can list at any price to get offers and then has to wait for the bank in charge of their mortgage to approve the offer. This bank will not approve our offer because every other property in the area is worth much more than that. (which we knew) The listing agent is trying to prove to the bank how much work the house needs and the condition it is in, but they don't care. They are hundreds of miles away, have never seen it and only see the value of the property it is on. SIGH

The second offer we have on the 4 bedroom in Aloha (our 2nd choice, but still a lot to offer) seems to be doing better. The listing agent is much more positive about our offer (which is much lower than the Tualatin offer) being accepted. It is on a very quiet cul-de-sac, has a large family room and living room, HUGE yard, 4 bedrooms, dining room and 1 1/2 baths. It needs a lot of yard work and we would likely paint all of the inside. It also needs to be cleaned BIG TIME. I don't know what the current owners are thinking honestly. I'm so embarrassed for them. It is SO FULL of junk and clutter. Luckily, it doesn't appear that there's any damage, just dust and dirt. I'd be mortified for someone to see my house like this. Here is the listing. It is a LIE. I have no idea when these pictures were taken, the house is full of trash and clutter, as well as the yard. But, we are able to see past it for the house's potential and we really like it. We should hear 'any day now'. FINGERS CROSSED! After our offer is hopefully accepted, we cross our fingers for inspection.....

God bless my parents for letting us stay now for 7 MONTHS, which is so much longer than we ever planned or anticipated. We have saved our down payment and enough for minor work and repairs, as well as paid of any additional debt. (not counting Nelson's under grad student loans) It's time to be back in our OWN house!!

Memorial Day 2011

Yes, I know that it was over a month ago, but I wanted to post these pictures anyway. We went out to Eastern Oregon over Memorial Day weekend (Pilot Rock, to be exact) and took Kalaya to 'see' her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa, who have both been gone for several years. She is very lucky to have one set of great grandparents that she's seen a few times, though they live in Alabama. They are actually here for the month right now.

We kept it very simple and she accepted it without batting an eye. She still talks about it almost every time she sees a flag about 'gate gamma, gate gampa, flags and flowers.' That pretty much sums up Memorial Day to me!

July is here??

So, yeah, I have been really, really lazy about blogging lately. Not on purpose. So, here are some updates on our household:

*At 26 months, or 2 years 2 months if you'd prefer, Kalaya is busy busy busy. She is such a pleasant toddler! She plays so well independently and is so curious about everything in the world around her! Her vocabulary is so beyond what I ever expected it, I'm still blown away every day. She is playing so much more with her imagination ("Mommy! Petend seeping, petend baby eat", etc, etc.) She talks about everything she sees and she observes a lot!! Everything from birds and bikes to pointing out the letters and shapes she knows as we drive around. ("Mommy, octagon, right there! Mommy, G!! H!!!") She still loves reading her books, playing with learning toys, playing with her kitchen and play food, taking care of her babies and pets, playing with her Little People, dressing up, driving her cars and trucks and many, many other imaginary games. We are finally getting nicer and nicer weather, so she has been spending time outside with her sand and water table, her wading pool, Little Tyke slide ($15 on Craig's list!), t-ball set, golf clubs, and just running around exploring.

*Though most of the time she is very laid back and low key, we are definitely in the twos! We do have occasional temper tantrums and 'no!'s as well as kicking, screaming fits, but mostly she listens fairly well. She has tough days (as does Mommy!), but they're fairly predictable, aka if she's not eaten recently, misses nap or gets up or naps too early. All in all, compared to other stories of the twos I've seen, she seems to be doing really well.

*You will notice there haven't been any recent posts about the damn (sorry) house hunt. We are still at a stand still with the same two houses we have offers on. Short sales are CRAP, but unfortunately, that's our market. I know it will be worth the wait and I feel like we really can't complain, because my parents are so generous to let us keep living here (for FREE) and we're putting money in savings each month, but.....it's time to be in our own place again.

*I am no longer head of the committee for my high school reunion. Well, that's not true. I technically am. But, we had to cancel it, because no one was willing to pay to go. I am very disappointed, but it is what it is. I will say that it has taken a large stress away, which is nice.

HAPPY SUMMER!!!