Fab Food Feb :: Chicken Parm Wraps

Pinterest and I are kind of on a break. I know that taking a break from various things is a little bit cliche, but it's what I must do to maintain moderation in my life. (I've also taken "breaks" from Twitter and Facebook. PS: If we were friends on Facebook, you'll have to refriend me on my new profile, as the old one got irreversibly hacked!)

Back to Pinterest- one reason for the break was that I had so many pins and was doing NONE OF THEM. A lot of the pins were food items. So, I started picking at least one on most weeks and giving them a try. Chicken Parm Wraps were a delicious success.

Here is the original post so you can have the recipe for yourself.

A few things:

• We just bought a Rotisserie chicken that was already precooked at our market. I was needing fast, easy dinners. We just shredded it with a fork and moved on.
• I couldn't find egg roll wrappers at my store, so I bought Phyllo dough and used 5-6 sheets. You could also use crescent rolls.
• We usually make our own tomato sauce, but you could easily buy jarred marinara.

The cooking gadget/tip that I have to share with this is to have a nice size sheet pan (we have a cuisinart from Jim's Mom that is my new favorite!) and cooling racks that you can place inside of it to keep the heat circulating around them in the oven and also not sticking!

Jacob's First Birthday

We had a baseball themed party for Jacob's first birthday. Here are some of the details:
I cut out baseball hats with my Cameo and used them as the invitations. I made a pennant banner that says "Jacob is 1"and had each of his monthly pictures on it.

I made baseball cupcakes, ordered baseball sugar cookies, served "ballpark" food (hot dogs, nachos, cokes and sweet tea) and decorated the backdrop to the food like above. I also made Jacob a smash cake which he only wanted to lick the icing off of. He got lots of great gifts, some functional (which I love) and some fun! Here's a few more pictures:

Fab Food Feb : Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

This is probably one of Jim's favorite desserts. It uses some unconventional "cake" items but it makes the cake super moist and yummy! The tool I use? Definitely my Kitchen Aid Mixer! Maybe this next year I can explore some more attachments to the mixer (pasta making anyone?).

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

1 (4.5 oz) package instant chocolate pudding

1 (4.5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding

1 pkg. Devil's Food Cake Mix

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup of water

1. Mix dry ingredients; add all other ingredients and mix for 3 minutes.

2. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

3. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar

Fab Food Feb : Honey Glazed Chicken Stir Fry

Jim and I have always been huge stir fry fans. We would just buy the bags of frozen stir fry veggies and serve over rice or pasta. When we found this recipe (which I remember we cooked for the first time when Jim's uncle was installing our new bedroom ceiling fan- I know, that's random) we had to try it to give a new spin on a dish we liked and love it.

We got the recipe from a friend, but I found it here.

Our favorite things to use to chop veggies for stir fry (when we don't use frozen)? Rachael Ray's knife set that I got Jim for his birthday last year (similar one found here) and then a bench scrape to gather everything together and toss into the pan!

Jacob :: 12 Months

UPDATE ON FEB. 6: We went to Jacob's well check today. He weights 27 pounds 7 ounces, is 32 inches long, is still off the charts, is going to cry it out at night and we're starting the weaning process down to one feeding just before bed. He's still got a bad yeast infection from antibiotics, but we're doing everything we can. Because he has nursed so long and so well, textures are going to take longer to get used to, so we're going to stick with the Stage 2 foods and keep introducing new things! He'll eventually come around!

Jacob turns one year old today!
We started out the day with a sleepy rendition of Happy Birthday.

He continues to scoot everywhere. Sometimes I think he'll start crawling, but he always keeps that leg under him. Cautious kid? Maybe. Being a boy, I'm not sure that's the case. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

We're almost back to a good sleeping schedule. He's only waking up twice at night and still taking two good naps during the day. I have a feeling I'm going to get the nod from our pedi to invest in some ear plugs and let him cry it out. I'm not sure what I'll do with a full night of sleep.

The whole table food and weaning thing is still so confusing to me. I'm pretty sure I'm just a wimp and need to let him gag it out but it's just scary. That's something else we'll be seeking advice from our pedi on.

He is equal parts ornery and cute. We are in a parenting Bible Study, and one thing we learned is that even from early on, they're fighting for control. And he is. We have some started disciplining as he sometimes finds hitting people in the face amusing when he isn't getting what he wants.

His party isn't until next weekend and i'll definitely be posting about it. Here is 12 month picture:

Fab Food Feb : Crock Pot Lasagna

It's Day 1 of Fab Food in Feb and I'm sharing a recent find that has become a dish we could more than once a month. It's super easy to prepare, cooks in a crock pot and is so good. I've even served it at a shower luncheon I hosted in December because it was something that I could make gluten free for a friend that would be attending.

I found it on a blog I read, so if you want to see the recipe, click here!

Crock Pot Lasagna

Recipe type: Crock Pot Entrée

Author: Mandi Ehman

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 26 ounces pasta sauce
• 1 cup water
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 2 cups italian cheese
• 1⁄4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 8 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions

1. Brown meat and drain. Add pasta sauce and water and mix well.
2. Hint: I like to buy ground beef in bulk, brown it and freeze it in 1-pound portions to make preparing this (and other meals) even easier!
3. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, 1-1/2 cup mozzarella, parmesan, egg and parsley.
4. Add 1 cup of the meat sauce to the bottom of the crock pot. Break up four of the noodles to cover the bottom. It’s okay if they overlap. Cover with half the cheese mixture and 2 cups meat sauce.
5. Repeat layers.
6. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and let sit for 15 minutes until melted.

We have a pretty basic crock pot, but it gets lots of use. If you want to avoid the possibility of having to clean burned cheese off of your crock pot, you could always use crock pot liners. We don't have a dishwasher, so any help is accepted.

Fab Food in February

I thought I'd try something this month- a theme for my posts. And, because I don't want to get too crazy, I picked an easy theme. FOOD. I'll still be updating my blog weekly with Project Life and taking one post to talk about Jacob's party. But, the rest of the days will be recipes that I love.

Outside of life updates (Project Life and Jacob updates) February is Fab Food Feb. Each day not devoted to Project Life of Jacob, I will share a favorite recipe and tool that I use. I've already shared two recipes (Taco Soup and Missouri Cookies recipes can be found here) so I hope you'll try them and share some, too!