Spring Break part 2

 We went to Mortensen Manor after we finished up at Disney.  We were going to celebrate Robyn's birthday and Reed's Eagle Court of Honor.  We are glad we were able to be there for both. 

 Robyn's party was at a trampoline place.  The kids really had fun there!

 We are so excited for Reed and his accomplishment.  It was a nice night!

Spring Break part 1

 We had such a great Spring Break.  We did it in parts.  We had a Disney part, a Mortensen Manor part and a San Diego part.  We left a little early for break because our Disney passes were blacked out the week of our Spring Break.  We are glad we went early because it wasn't to busy. We drove down to Anaheim from St. George and after we checked into the hotel we went straight to the park.

 Lily was driving the car behind us the whole time with Noah running the gas and all we heard was the car crashing into the sides and Lily saying sorry to Noah.  It was kind of funny.  We went on Star Tours and I was the rebel spy.  YES!

 Now that the boys are older we split up while at the park for some of the time.  The boys didn't want to go on Peter Pan and Lily didn't want to go on Pirates.  We met back up for the tea cups though.

 We were able to watch the fireworks that night and then go back to the hotel.  We all crashed because I knew we would have an early morning the next day.

 We started out the next day right on time at California Adventure.  We got fast passes for Radiator Springs and then hit all of our favorite rides, some of them twice.

 We had never walked down this road before and we ended up finding a cool path to a different side of the park.  Who knew?

 We finished up early at California Adventure and headed back over to Disneyland.  The boys wanted to run off and play while Lily and I visited all the princesses.  She was in heaven.  She also rode on Julie Andrews horse on the carousel. 

 That night we headed back over to California Adventure to ride a few more rides and watch World of Color.  So we opened and closed the park.  Haven't done that in a long time. 

 The next morning we headed over to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast.  The kids enjoyed it and so did mom!

 After breakfast we walked around Downtown Disney for awhile.  We met a parrot at Rainforest Cafe and built and raced our own cars at the Lego store.

 It was a fun Disney trip this time.  No fights or disagreements.  Just good old fashion fun!

Dinner 22 - Table for One

Ok, Rach and the kids are out of town for spring break.  I decided to hijack dinner #22 and make something that I will probably never get at home as a family meal - some seafood!  I am not a wiz in the kitchen like Rach so I kept it simple.  Thanks to the kind folks at Food.com for the help!

Dinner #22 - Lemon & Herb Chilean Salmon on a bed of seasoned long grain and wild rice, served with roasted asparagus (yeah, that was a mouthful - I am all ready for Chopped!)

Salmon:
http://www.food.com/recipe/lemon-herb-salmon-127788

I left out the rosemary and dill weed, and used sea salt instead of kosher (not sure what the difference is)

Roasted Asparagus:
http://www.food.com/recipe/roasted-asparagus-50847

Rice:
Ok, cheated here a bit.  But it was very tasty! Thanks Rice-A-Roni!

It was super simple and it did not make too much of a mess.  And it actually tasted pretty good.  It was a little more tangy than I thought it would be, so maybe I should have added more sugar (or used less sour lemons).  In any case, I will be enjoying it for the next few days as I made 6 fillets and only got through about 1.5 of them tonight.  Just need to get the fish smell out of the house before Rach gets back!

Enjoy!

Dinners 20-21

Oh my goodness!  It is certainly taking forever to get to 28 new meals.  We tried 2 new ones the past two days.  Now that Spring Break is almost upon us I won't be doing any new ones until April.  I know it didn't take this long last time, but there has kind of been a lot going on and I really just didn't want to stress about this.

Dinner #20-Easy Crock Pot Pork Chops-this picture didn't do it justice

 

 Super Easy-threw it all in a crock pot before church, came home and it was almost done.  What can be easier than that on a busy day.  Know your crock pot though.  Mine only cooked for 5 hours on low and I think that was to long.

•  
• 6-8 thinly sliced pork chops (you can usually buy them already cut thin)
• 1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing powder
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (I would use the reduced sodium ones for both-it was a little to salty)

• Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.
• Add pork chops.
• Sprinkle ranch dressing powder evenly over the pork.
• Add soups and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours (or high heat for about 3-4 hours).
• Serve with mashed potatoes and salad

#21-Mexican Shredded Beef

 This was another easier meal, but it involved some effort.  It's not one of those meals you can put in the morning and then forget about until dinner time.  There is a middle process, but it wasn't to hard.  They were way yummy though and the kids really liked them.

• 3-4 Lbs. lean roast beef
• 1 pkg. onion soup mix
• 2-3 c. water
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 2 c.  picante sauce

 Lightly sear the roast on all sides. Add to crock pot and sprinkle with onion soup mix and add 2 c. water. Cook in crock pot on low for 8-9 hours, keep an eye on it and add more water as necessary. (again, know your crock pot.  Mine only took 4.5 hours before I took the meat out to shred and it was done.) Make sure there is always about 1-2 cups of liquid in there. Do not let the water cook out!

After meat is cooked, drain juices into a large jar. Place jar in the fridge so the fat will rise to the top and be easily removed. Shred the meat and toss our any excess fat.

Saute onion in butter. When onions are clear, add flour and stir until smooth. Add 1-2 c. of the meat drippings, stirring or whisking constantly until it is a gravy-like consistency.

Return shredded meat to crock pot and add gravy mixture and picante sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir and simmer. Meat should be moist and juicy.

St. Patty's Day fun!

 Our lives our so busy again.  Gone are the simple days.  Can't wait til summer when I don't have to worry about projects or grades.

 Noah had to try 5 new fruits and veggies for his health class.  He had kiwi, bok choy, a plumb, kiwano ( I think) and a kumquat.  It was quite a fun exercise.

 Raspberry chocolate cupcakes.  They were pretty tasty.  Just starting the St. Patty's day food a tad bit early.

 Pinewood Derby kind of snuck up on us this year.  We weren't 100% prepared and didn't get to spend as much time on the car as we would of like, but it got finished right before weigh in and Adam ended up getting 6th place.  He had fun and we are a bit relieved that this is our last one.

 Lily is always wanting to be a part of the derby.  Adam was nice enough to let her help.  She's been a great cheerleader for him.

St. Patrick's day in not one of my favorite Holidays, but it's a good one to have some fun with.

 I wasn't going to do anything special for this holiday breakfast, but the kids turned up their noses at Lucky Charms so I ended up making green french toast.

  The kids wanted me to dye the mashed potatoes green.  Lily had quite the rainbow of flavor on her plate at dinner.

 Then they wanted to make sugar cookies.  I was in the kitchen all day, but the kids were happy and at the end of the day the kitchen was clean.

 We finally got to meet our new baby cousin, Samuel.  He is only 6 days old in this picture.  He is so cute and snuggly.