Vampires & Alfredo Sauce

I have been eagerly anticipating the release of the new Vampire Weekend album. Did not disappoint--probably my favorite band right now.

Fun GNO with Amanda and Tisha to Olive Garden on Wednesday. Relaxing to catch up and enjoy the company of two of my favorite girls.

Wii & Chicken Parmesan

Mack has been addicted to the Wii Motion Plus he got for Christmas. We have loved playing the Frisbee Dog Throw, Three Point Shoot Out and the Island Flyover.

Monday was a day of major wintery comfort food. I came home from work feeling this need to cook a lot of super soul satifsying goodies.

Main course was Chicken Parmesan with a green salad. I made the overly cheesy version, but am posting probably a version I like a bit better than won't induce major heartburn. Mack kind of likes this version better too--he really likes the spinach pasta. This is from the Body for Life Cookbook:

2 Egg whites

1/3 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

4 tbsp Reduced-fat parmesan cheese, grated, divided

2 portions or 1/2 lb Chicken breast

2 portions or 4 oz Uncooked spinach pasta (you can find this at Harmon's)

1 cup Low-fat pasta sauce

2 cups Baby spinach leaves

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites with fork until slightly frothy. Then, mix breadcrumbs and 2 tbsp of reduced-fat Parmesan cheese in a pie plate.

3. Dip chicken breasts into egg whites and then into the breadcrumb mixture, coating both sides.

4. Lightly coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts on the baking sheet; bake for approx. 12 minutes. Turn over and bake another 12 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink in the center and coating is golden brown.

5. While the chicken is baking, prepare spinach pasta according to its package directions.

6. In a small saucepan, warm pasta sauce over medium heat.

7. Divide spinach leaves between two separate plates. Layer portions of warm spinach pasta and baked chicken breasts over spinach leaves. Top with pasta sauce and remaining Parmesan cheese. Serve.

& then we ended the night with these...

Golden Graham Treats. Sigh. Perfection!

Dinner & Primary

Dinner with my family at Famous Dave's. Fun and relaxing way to spend the start to the weekend. Such a long week this week after so much time off during the holidays.

Our annual Primary Get to Know you Activity was today. My job as secretary is to make all the rolls, lists and direct everyone to their classrooms. Whew! So much work every year. In awe that Mack is almost out of Primary and soon will be passing the sacrament.

Merci Beaucoup & Honesty

Had our card exchange at work today. These were my little thank you cards. Transparency, Emmascript, ribbon and French. Love.

We are trying FHE on Thursday nights as it is the only night we are work and church free. We did a lesson tonight on honesty. Here is what I put together:

Write the letters H, O, N, E, S, T on separate pieces of paper and hide them in the room. Have your family find them and decide what word they spell. For each letter, share a story of someone whose name begins with that letter and who was honest and true. H—Helaman (Alma 56:1–10, 45–48), Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:1, 3–5), Harold B. Lee (Valiant B manual, pages 219–220); O—Obadiah (1 Kgs. 18:3–4); N—Noah (Gen. 6–8), Nephi (1 Ne. 3:7; 1 Ne. 16:18–26, 30–31); E—Enoch (Moses 7:13), Enos (Enos 1:26), Ezra Taft Benson (Valiant B supplement, page 2); S—Samuel (1 Sam. 15:1–28), Spencer W. Kimball (Valiant B manual, pages 221–224); T—Timothy (“Timotheus” in Philip. 2:19–22), Teancum (Alma 50:35; Alma 51:30–37).

Games, movies & more games...

Sequence with Austin & Karla. Karla was convinced the mini cards on the board were messing with her Lasik. Laughed, but then agreed that is makes your eyes go buggy after a few minutes! Karla and I won a bunch though!

Chipmunks the Squeakel with the Gundersons. Kids loved it. It actually wasn't half bad!!

Happy New Year!! January 1 - 2.

Only made one resolution this year. I wanted to document my life and my families life more completely. There are many things I hope to do, need to do, etc., but I wanted to do something that I could really hang onto this year and for the years to come. Here goes!


Super cutie Miss Morgan blowing not one but TWO horns to welcome in the New Year. Mack partied it up at Jack & Karla's while I went on my annual ride along with Shane. We saw the usual suspects--traffic law breakers, a robbery, gun shots that turned out to be fireworks. Always have a fresh respect for Shane's job each New Years Eve, and get super grateful for my desk job that is luckily outside of the line of fire (for the most part!).

I took a whole week off of work during the Christmas break with the best intentions of organizing, cleaning and getting back to my housewife roots. Ended up seeing three movies, sleeping in way too late everyday, shopping, hanging out with Mack and Shane and of course eating too much. I did make one step towards uncluttering though with Mack's drawers. Was totally avoiding this task all week, but finally dug in tonight. This is one of the beautifully organized drawers that will probably be a haphazard mess by next weekend, but tonight, it is perfection.

For Whitney.

My last pay it forward! Whitney, I hope you didn't think I forgot about you:} K, so I have so many fun memories of you. Our first meeting the week you got married when I transferred up to Materials Management was the first. You seemed so cool. So sophisticated. So fun. Loved our gossiping about Susan and the myriad of love triangles that were playing out in our department. I remember too when we came to see your first house. It was my DREAM after that to get a house right in that area--and we did! And then our fun dinner at Joe's Grill a few months ago. So fun talking over organic burgers and just catching up. So glad our friendship has continued, albeit mostly electronically. Miss you:}

So, I have made you what I call a Last Minute Holiday Packaging Kit. I LOVE putting together a great gift. I think the way something is presented can totally make or break the whole vibe of the gift. So, these are my fAVoRIte ways to package last minute quick gifts you still want to have a little special flair. First are some cute little labels I made in Photoshop--just for you! I love the little vintagey Christmas girls. So cute. Simply cut out and punch two small holes at the top to thread the ribbon through. Next are cellophane bags. An absolute must have. I probably package like 99% of gifts in these. I love the see through fun. Put a bit of the bag shred in, use the American Crafts marker (fine point if you want to write a little note, medium point to quickly add their name and then yours). Follow up with some fabulous ribbon, and a can of hot chocolate or Bath and Body Works soap is instantly transformed into amazing.

Also throwing in a Tonya's workout CD as you were so patient:} Send me your address through Facebook Inbox & I will get your kit to you.

Love ya Whitney! Happy Holidays!