Homemade Granola

Thought it might be nice to post a recipe on the "lighter" side amidst all the heavy holiday food we're all eating! This is a favorite of ours, and it's adapted from Barefoot Contessa's recipe. I've just added cinnamon & vanilla.

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 cups sliced almonds
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups dried apricots, small diced
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup dried figs (I leave these out)
• 1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix oats, coconut & almonds. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, honey, cinnamon & vanilla. Pour over oat mixture and with a wooden spoon, toss to coat.

Spread mixture on a 13x18 rimmed baking sheet, and bake 25-30 minutes stirring every 5-10 minutes until it turns a nice, even golden brown color. Remove from oven, and let cool, stirring occassionally. Once cool, add dried fruit & cashews, and store in an airtight container. Serve over yogurt, or simply with milk. Enjoy!

Also, makes a lovely gift. I like to give this in old fashioned glass canisters.

The Simple Things

Here's to the simple things in life - and being thankful for each one.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Greek Chicken Kabobs

What says summer like kabobs?

I love them - they are so easy, healthy, and most importantly - delicious!

My search for a Greek Chicken Kabobs recipe was inspired by a local Greek restaurant called The Mediterranean in West Chester. My sister Julie http://twirlysteps.blogspot.com/ and I ate lunch there last week and everything was so good!

The chicken was so moist and tender - not dry little pellets like kabobs can often be.

What was the secret?

Yogurt.

Combine the following ingredients and

marinate 1 lb kabob sized chicken pieces for at least 3 hours:

1 6-8 oz. container fat free plain yogurt

1/3 tomato basil crumbled feta

1/2 tsp lemon zest

2 T fresh lemon juice

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp rosemary (I didn't have any so I used herbes de provence)

1/2 tsp greek seasoning (optional)

Skewer with vegetables of choice.

I used Red Peppers, Squash & Onions.

Heat your grill on high for 10 minutes. Clean and wipe with vegetable oil. Place kabobs on grill and sear for 2-3 minutes, turning to sear evenly on each side. Turn heat down to medium, close cover, and grill 8-10 minutes or until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165.

I served these kabobs with cous cous and watermelon. I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so you'll have to imagine grill marks and the meat & vegetables resting on a mound of cous cous. When I'm hungry, all goes by the wayside!
Hope this gives you a new recipe to try for the summer.

Enjoy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Grace!

We can't believe how fast you are growing up! You are such a sweet little girl, shy around most, but very affectionate and 'hammy' for a select few. You were perfectly designed, and masterfully made. We thank God for you every day!

"Backward, turn backward, O Time in your flight; Make me a child again just for tonight." ~Elizabeth Akers Allen

Lemon Chicken

In a recent Taste of Home magazine, I found this delicious recipe for Lemon Chicken. The secret ingredient? Lemon Pie Filling! I found that a little odd, but it helps to create a mild sweet and tangy glaze for the chicken. I am always looking for new chicken recipes, as it's easy to get into a rut. This one is a keeper!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup bisquick
• 1 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 4 bone in chicken breasts, skins removed (I used boneless, skinless)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/3 cups lemon pie filling
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine bisquick, seasoned salt, and pepper. Add chicken pieces one at a time, shake until coated. In skillet, heat oil, and brown chicken on both sides. Place in a 9x13 pan.

In a small bowl, combine the pie filling, water, vinegar, and soy sauce. Pour over chicken and bake, uncovered, at 375 for 40-45 minutes. Or until chicken reaches 165-170.

**I actually skipped the bisquick part, and just seasoned the chicken breasts in the baking dish, skipped the browning, and just poured the glaze right over the chicken. Turned out tender and delicious!**
I served this with some leftover cornbread that I toasted in the oven, a brown & wild rice mix, and some veggies. Voila! Dinner is served. Hope you enjoy it!

Catching up from Spring

Well, it has been MONTHS since I've posted. Too many events! Too many pictures to catch up! I will just start with a few recent pictures...and catch up another time.

An April visit down to Bethesda Maryland for Easter.

We were blessed to be there during peak Cherry Blossom season.

This is in a beautiful nearby neighborhood we walked through one morning.One of the 27,000 dream houses of mine!A special birthday celebration for my Mother In Law Boni!

Rocking together - A favorite pastime at "Oma's" house.

A day in the life of Grace...these kind of happenings usually occur 2 minutes before we need to walk out the door. Thank goodness for my Dustbuster. I reccomend everyone getting one!!!

We will miss you Grandpa.

Sweet Potato "Pie"

I always appreciate tips from other moms - especially in the food department. Most children can be picky at times, and go through different phases of liking things one day, and refusing them the next. So this suggestion is by no means creative, or anything new. But it might just be something different, to try with your children!

So, Grace loves sweet potatoes. However, she started getting bored with them as I normally served them plain. So, I decided to jazz things up with some Pumpkin Pie Spice, and just a sliver of butter. Suddenly it became "Pie", and she couldn't get enough!

This method takes a little prep work, but results in a super quick lunch or dinner side dish!

First, I peel the sweet potatoes.Cut them into big chunks, and stick them in my Pampered Chef Micro-Cooker (Awesome product!!!), or use a large glass bowl. Fill about half way up with water.

Cover with a steam releasing lid, or paper towel.

Microwave 10-12 minutes, stirring halfway through.

This time will vary depending on how many potatoes you use.

Cook until they can be pierced easily with a fork.Drain, and spread chunks on a baking sheet.Freeze until frozen solid.

Then keep them in a freezer safe zip-loc bag, and take out as many as you want at a time. When ready to eat, place sweet potatoes in microwavable safe bowl, and nuke for 20-30 seconds. Cut into bite sized chunks, dab with a little butter if desired,

and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice on. Voila! "Pie!" And a great source of Beta-Carotene & Vitamin A.

Don't get the wrong idea. Meal time is not always such a loving time as seen above. Just yesterday, I was at my good friend Jeane's house wiping applesauce off her floor, table legs, chairs, and my pants. Courtesy of Grace throwing her applesauce cup for the 32nd time. My gaze was not so loving towards her at that moment!!!

Burr...it's cold outside. Stay warm and cozy wherever you are!

Squiiiiiiirel!!!!

The day started out like normal. Grace & I woke up, ate our breakfast, brushed our teeth and got dressed. All was quiet in our world. Until....

A loud thrashing sound came from our fireplace, startling me practically out of my skin. I cautiously walked over to our living room telling myself it was probably just a cute little birdie stuck in the flue, and it would fly away any minute. As I peered around the corner, the loud thrashing, and scratching of metal started again. At that point, my mind jumped from itty bitty birdie to being convinced that our chimney was giving birth to a rabid wolf or a grizzly bear. I ran to call James, my knight in shining armor working an hour away. Could I ask him to make the commute home at 9 in the morning, release the wolves, and then drive back? Fat chance. However, he reassured me that the flew was SEALED and absolutely nothing could get through there. Okay, I thought. I can live with that until animal control gets here.

So I call an animal control company and they proceed to tell me that removing an animal from my fireplace could get really messy, and they really don't do that kind of work. WHAT???? And I quote their advertisement in the Yellow Pages: "24 Hour EMERGENCY Service. Trapping & Removal of Nuisance Animals, Specializing in Moles, CARCASS Disposal." My fireplace is messier than disposing a dead animal?? Thanks alot.

So, they refer me to a local "Wildlife Specialist" in the area. As I frantically am calling this new number, I'm picturing a large man in overalls and a plaid shirt with missing teeth named Cletus. You know, of the Darryl, Darryl, and Larry variety.

Cletus answers, I plead my case, he informs me that he's out of town. A crushing blow.

As I'm hem hawing on the phone, staring pleadingly at the fireplace, the mystery critter thrashes for the last time, and makes a break for it. Suddenly, world champion high jumper Mr. Squirrel falls out of the flue, jumps over the fireplace screen and into our living room. I scream repeatedly (while on the phone with wildlife dude), gather Grace up and fly upstairs, shouting 'he got out, he got out!!'

The poor man on the phone probably thought I was either being murdered and was very worried, or thought I was a complete idiot. Probably the latter.

I don't even remember getting off the phone with him. Sorry Mr. Wildlife, whoever you were.

So Grace & I make a mad dash out of the house, her in her pajamas, and me in mine, over to our neighbor's home. I drop her off, and run back to the house to face my nemesis. Back into the house I go, seeing the squirrel running all over the place trying to get out. So I open the back door & front, and just stand in the middle of our house hoping nothing touches me and that he isn't a stupid critter, and will find his way out. Thankfully, he was a smart little guy and made his way out quickly. Crisis Over!!

I made my way back over to my neighbor's house and ended up spending about an hour with her. She is going through some very heavy things right now and so it was great to sit and connect with her for a little. Later on still frustrated that I had "lost part of my morning" on a busy day, it dawned on me that God had sent that squirrel. If he wouldn't have paid us a visit that morning, I would not have been able to connect with my neighbor and listen to her heavy heart.

Thank you Lord for sending the diversions

I need, to slow me down, and put me in the places I need to be.

Hope you were mildy amused by my bizarre story, and are enjoying a critter free day wherever you may be!

Grace at 19 Months

We are discovering that Grace is very much like her Daddy. She stacks, she unstacks, and restacks again. She fills a container up with toys, and then empties it out, fills it up again, and so on. Each toy has to be positioned just so. A bit OCD in my opinion, but completely normal to James. :-) Perhaps we will have another engineer in the family! I captured this today as I was unloading groceries from the store.