Baked Chicken Parmesan Wontons

For dinner, tonight I was inspired by this blog that was of course pinned on Pinterest. :)

I served my the Baked Chicken Parmesan Wontons with a small side salad with ranch dressing.

For the Baked Chicken Parmesan Wontons I used the following:

Chicken breasts (cooked and cut into small pieces)

Wonton Wrappers (you can find in in the produce section of the grocery store)

Onion Powder

dash of salt

black pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

Italian Seasoning

Mozzarella Cheese (I used deli slices and cut them up into little squares)

Spaghetti sauce or Marinara sauce (I just used Hunts Spaghetti sauce)

Once your chicken is cooked and cut up add it to a bowl. Mix in the seasonings and sauce. Take a wonton wrapper and place a small piece of cheese in the middle. Then take a spoonful of chicken sauce mix and put on top of the cheese. Pull one corner to the other and kinda seal together. You can use water to help sides stick. Add to a pam sprayed cookie sheet. I made enough to fill the cookie sheet. I also sprayed some pam on top of the wontons before sticking the pan in the oven. (I had leftover chicken sauce mix that I just put in the fridge and will use another day).

Bake on 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with more Spaghetti/ Marinara sauce. ENJOY! :)

Note: Sometimes I don't always put the exact amount on seasonings etc. That's b/c I didn't measure, I just sprinkled/threw in. You can add as much or as little as you want. Just taste it...if it's need more of something just add it. You be the judge. :)

Sausage Orzo Skillet

Got this recipe from this blog that of course I pinned on Pinterest. :)

Sausage Orzo Skillet

1lb Sausage (You could probably use any kind of sausage you'd like)

14 1/2 oz beef broth (reduced sodium)

14 1/2 oz stewed tomatoes

1 box orzo pasta

ground black pepper

pinch of salt

Italian Seasoning

water

Cook your sausage with seasonings and drain once done. Add the sausage back in the skillet and also add in your beef broth and stewed tomatoes. Mix well and let it come to a boil on medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, add in your orzo pasta. Mix well adding in some more black pepper and Italian seasoning. Put a lid on your skillet and let the orzo pasta take in the juices. The recipe said 15 minutes, but I checked in about 10 minutes and everything was nice and fluffy. I didn't want anything sticking to the bottom of the skillet, so I added a little water and mixed well. I put the lid back on for a few more minutes and turned the heat down to low so nothing would burn and just to make sure the orzo was cooked through. My husband, loved this and so did I. It was another successful homemade meal!! :)

UPDATE: I made this again and I also added in 1 chopped green pepper and 1 half chopped red onion. Loved this dish even more. :)

New Things Monday

Microwavable meals that actually taste good. I've had the below meals and love that they are from the Top Chef line. :) There's a bunch of different ones but these are the only two I ate and will probably stick with. (They've been on sale at many stores recently for about $2 and some change).

Barbeque Seasoned Steak with red potatoes

Chicken Margherita with Balsamic

Goals....

I've been working on some personal goals. I was going to make a private blog for my journey but I decided against it and just figured I would blog here and share with you. :)

My goals (In no particular order)

1. Exercise

2. Lose Weight

3. No Soda

4. Get into my favorite Old Navy Jeans

5. No Fast Food

6. Get off Blood Pressure Medicine

7. Get Credit Cards (2) paid off

8. No eating after 9pm

Today, is week 3 of my journey. I stepped on the scale this morning and I've already loss 6 pounds! YEY!!! :) I haven't had any fast food or soda for 3 weeks now. I've been eating breakfast (Special K with strawberries cereal with skim milk), lunch (healthy choice meal, or dinner leftovers or pb&j sammich), and dinner (home cooked meal). I never used to eat breakfast. I would normally grab fast food for lunch while I was out running errands and for dinner just whatever, sometimes even hitting the fast food joint again. Not anymore!! :) I've also got some healthy snacks for in between meals. Fat Free pudding, fruits, Sugar free Jello and nuts.

Last week, I started walking/jogging on the treadmill that my mother got my husband and I for Christmas. The time goes by so fast when I'm on it and I feel really good afterwards. I'm also going to start getting back into the gym. I'm hoping to do that this week.

I'm not going to lie, it definitely takes dedication, and focus. Luckily, for me my husband is my biggest supporter. He has been getting in shape for a while now so he's a good role model for me. He's loss over 70 pounds and has been working so hard to meet his goals. I'm so proud of him. He's training for a 10k in March and a half marathon in May. I'm going to be doing a 5k in May. (I've done it the last 4 years)

I'll be posting updates on my personal fitness journey. I'll try to post weekly. We'll see.

Homemade Peppered Steak

I love Peppered Steak. I really like Wegmans Peppered Steak on their Chinese Buffet. It's good but at $8.50 a pound....well it's a little pricey. I pinned a recipe on Pinterest the other day which took me to this blog and I knew I wanted to make it for dinner tonight.

Steak (I just got a nice looking cut at the store that was $5)

4 tsp plus 3 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium)

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

3 tsp corn starch

5 tsp vegetable oil (I used EVOO)

1 large onion, sliced into thin strips

1 red pepper, sliced into thin strips

1/2 tsp black ground pepper

crushed red pepper flakes (optional but who would ever want to leave this out) :)

Rice (I used the 90 second rice pack)

Directions:

Slice your meat into thin slices. Place in a bowl and add 4 tsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1/2 tsp black ground pepper and red pepper flakes.

In a small bowl, add your sliced red pepper, sliced onion, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp water, and 2 tsp cornstarch. Mix well and set aside.

In your large skillet or wok heat up 1 tbsp oil. Once heated add your meat mix. Cook until meat is done. It took about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add remaining 2 tsp of oil to skillet/wok and then add your red pepper mix and cook for about 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, add your meat back in and mix everything well. I also added about 1 more tbsp of water to keep everything from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. It will thicken up pretty quickly. While everything is simmering together cook your 90 second rice.

Eat hot!! :) It was really good. This is a dish I will make again. I might even add some green and yellow peppers next time. :)

Breakfast Pinwheels

1 package of Sausage

1 Green Pepper

6 eggs (scrambled)

2 packages of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Parsley flakes

Crushed Red pepper flakes

Ground black pepper

Onion Powder

pinch of salt

Cook your sausage then once it's done drain it. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut up your green pepper. Scramble your eggs. Once eggs are done you can add in your cooked and drained sausage, and cut up green pepper. Also add in the seasonings and mix well. Let cool a bit. Take your crescent rolls and lay them out pinching the seams together to make a big rectangle. Add the mixture on top of the crescent roll. Press the mix into the roll. Roll up tightly. Then slice them. Add them to a pam sprayed cookie sheet and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes. Eat them hot!! I had some left over mixture that I put in the fridge and I'll eat it tomorrow for breakfast. :) Not all mine came out in perfect pinwheel form but who cares.

Homemade Sesame Chicken

We eat A LOT of chicken in this house. I always get a huge pack of chicken at the grocery store that last us 3 to 4 meals. It's cheap and with chicken you can do so many different dishes with it.

I made Sesame Chicken today inspired from this blog I found on Pinterest.

You will need:

2 to 3 chicken breasts (I baked these in my pampered chef baker....done in no time baker is what I prefer to call it...haha) (not pictured)

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ketchup

2 tsp sesame seeds (toasted)

black ground pepper (not pictured)

parsley flakes (not pictured)

Olive oil (not pictured)

First I put some olive oil in my favorite cooking pan. I added the 2 tsp sesame seeds and toasted them up real quick.

Then I added all the other ingredients and mixed real well.

Once the chicken was cooled for a few minutes, I cut it up in bite size pieces and added to the sauce. Let it simmer for a bit. 15 min or so. Cook your rice. I made the quick 90 second white rice.

MMMM :) Enjoy! :)

Garlic Chicken with Purple Mashed Potatoes

For dinner tonight, I made Garlic Chicken from this site from a pin.

2 chicken breasts

1 tsp minced garlic

4 tbsp brown sugar

3 tsp olive oil

I put my chicken breasts in my Pampered chef baker. I mixed the marinade in a small bowl and then poured on top of the chicken, and put the lid on. I then put the baker in the microwave for 9 minutes. The baker is awesome...............it truly makes your life simple. :D I had 4 purple potatoes. Yes, PURPLE! :) I washed them and cut them up then boiled them until they were tender. Once done, I mixed them up with a little salt, pepper, butter and skim milk. When I plated my food (for the picture) I topped off the potatoes with some parsley flakes and more pepper. :)

Purple potatoes look weird, but they taste the same. :) Nate was excited to try them. He thought they looked so cool. :) A delicious dinner, that was done in no time. :)

New Things Monday

I had a coupon for a Dole Shaker the other day. I decided I would get one and give it a try. Out of the 3, the strawberry sounded the best to me so strawberry is what I got. :) Once I got home I read the back of the bottle to see how to mix it. You just add any kind of juice you want. I went with Orange Juice. Once it was all shaken, I tried it. It tasted a little chalky to me. BLECH!! It kind of reminded me of those flintstones vitamins when I was a kid. I let it sit for 5 minutes, shook again and then it tasted okay. I guess letting it sit for a few minutes just lets it mix more. :)

Homemade Jambalaya

Tonight's dinner is Jambalaya. :) (Bet you didn't see that coming eh)

1 box of family size Zatarain's Original Jambalaya Mix

3 smoked sausage links (heated and cut up)

3 Andouille sausage links (heated and cut up)

Red pepper (cut up)

2 chicken breasts (cooked and cut up)

1 small can of light red kidney beans (drained)

1 package of 90 second rice (white)

black pepper

Cook your chicken breasts, and heat up your links. Cut them all up. Cut up your red pepper. Follow the directions on the box for the Jambalaya. When you add in your box mix, you add in everything else. So, when I cut up everything I added it to a bowl and set aside until it was ready to add to the pot. :)

I served mine with some biscuits. :) MMMM good! You can also add shrimp, or other meats to make your Jambalaya your own. :)

New Things Monday

I tried Jambalaya for the first time. Friday afternoon after the plane watching we went back to Nate's parents house and had dinner. Linda, made Jambalaya and it was awesome!!!! I asked her for the recipe so I could make it too. :) Linda, put smoked sausage and andouille sausage in hers. She also added a red pepper and a can of light red kidney beans. It was really good and I can't wait to try more Zatarain's myself. :)

Naval Air Station Oceana

On Friday, we picked up Nate's mom, Linda and went to Virginia Beach to the Naval Air station Oceana. You can't actually get on the grounds but there is a parking lot next to the air station that you can park and watch the planes take off and land.

It was pretty neat to see. It will be better to go when it's warmer out though. It was a very cold and windy day. Linda, told us they do air shows withe the Blue Angels on the base in the summer so maybe we'll go check that out this year.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A while back I was watching day time TV. GASP....LOL Anyways, I caught an episode of 'The Chew". It's a cute show. The episode I saw had Eva Longoria (from Desperate Housewives) as the guest. She made Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. You can watch the clip here. I know Nate loves this cake so I pinned the recipe to Pinterest so I would have it when I needed it. :) I promised Nate, I would make it one day and that day was today. :)

You will need:

1/3 cup melted unsalted butter (room temp) (1/3 cup for pan and 1/3 cup for batter)

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)

7 maraschino cherries

7 pineapple rings

Cake Batter:

1 1/2 cup Flour (Eva suggests Cake flour but I used all-purpose)
2 tsp baking powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup melted unsalted butter (room temp)

2/3 cup milk

tsp vanilla

1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put your cake pan on the stove top. (fireproof pans only)

Melt your butter on low heat. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly, all around. Let melt together and mix around coating the pan evenly. (use 1/3 cup and set the other 1/3 cup aside)

Add your pineapple rings, and add a cherry to the middle.

Mix your cake batter together.....Mix dry ingredients well. Then add your wet ingredients. Once combined, mix in 1 egg.

Add batter to the pan, on top of the pineapples. :)

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until your cake tester (or toothpick) comes out clean. Loosen in the pan by slightly tilting just a little bit.

After 3 minutes of cooling, flip onto a plate. If any fruit stuck to the pan (I had 2 pineapple rings stick) then just take a spatula and carefully put back in place. Let cool.

Serve with french vanilla ice cream. (Nate's suggestion)

Not much left. ahahahaha :) Nate really enjoyed it. Me? Well it's good, but I just don't think I'm a huge fan of this type of cake. I'd rather have chocolate. haha I think I would like pineapple chunks in the cake part itself as well as on top. Nate said that it is perfect that way it is. :)

Homemade Kung Pao Chicken

Nate and I have been on vacation all this week. We took a stay-cation. We love taking them b/c we can do whatever we want, when we want. We're not on a time frame. Most of the week, we've been in jammies in front of the TV and computer. haha......ahhhhh. :)

Tonight, for dinner we decided to be daring and make Kung Pao Chicken. I found a recipe on Pinterest the other day from this blog. It looks sooooo good and I knew we could make it.

How good does this picture above look? :)

To make you will need the following: (chicken breasts not pictured)

First I went ahead and put my spices in a bowl......

3 tbsp green onion (chopped small)

3 garlic cloves, minced (I used 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic)

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (if you want more kick, just add more)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Then I whisked up the sauce.....

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar (I did 4 tbsp)

2 tbsp soy sauce (I did 4 tbsp)

2 tsp sugar (I did 4)

Take Boneless chicken breast and cut them into 1 inch pieces. I used 1 breast per person.

Add 1 tbsp cornstarch to a bowl. (I had to use more....each piece of chicken needs to be coated)

Add 2 tsp sesame oil to your pan. (We used more than 2 tbsp, just eyeball it, if you think you need more just add it. That's what we did).

Once the chicken is all cooked and browned (about 8 min or so) you can add the other ingredients. At this step your house will smell and sound like a busy Chinese Restaurant. haha

Once everything has cooked together for a bit then you add your 1/3 cup of peanuts. I was a little hesitant to add the peanuts but it really does make the dish. Trust me. :D

Make your rice while everything is done and simmering.....We made the 90 second white rice packet. One package for each of us.

And there you go......Homemade Kung Pao Chicken.
It needed a little salt so we each sprinkled a dash of salt. Nate wished there was some more kick to it but I thought there was just the right amount. It was very good. I'm so happy it was a success. We will be making this dish many more times in the future.

New Things Monday

Welch's Passion Fruit Juice. I love passion fruit. Ever since I tried passion fruit last August I've been wanting to have it again. I haven't been able to find fresh passion fruit. I talked to someone in produce at Wegmans and they told me that they do get passion fruit every once in a while and showed me where they are put when they have them in stock. I check that area all the time but I've never seen any. :( I saw this juice at Giant a few weeks ago. Once I saw this juice I grabbed it quick. haha It's really good! I haven't seen it anywhere else. Nate liked it too. I'm still waiting to get some fresh passion fruit thogh. One day. :)

Sharon and Agnes' Brunch

Yesterday, my friends and I threw a brunch for our friend Sharon and her newborn Agnes. Agnes turned 1 month old yesterday. We chose pinks, chocolate browns and a spring green. The colors looked great together. We had simple decorations and lots of yummy brunch foods.

Precious little Agnes.....

Kristen made a sign for Agnes. She got it off the internet.

Beautiful pink daises, Ashley picked up for Sharon.

The tables setting with the food! (You can't see in the picture, but we had pink and chocolate brown streams coming from each corner of the room into the middle where we had 3 pink Chinese Lanterns. It looked adorable).

Brown plate, with little plate and napkin.

We decided to do a miniature candy bar. Kristen and I found cute little glass jars at Pier One back in the fall and knew we wanted to use them. We filled the dishes with whoppers, and pink, brown and green sixlets. So cute! I got some pictures of Sharon and we put them around the house on little stands. (sorry for the sensor spot)

Gift table.....Lots of goodies. Baby Detergent, clothes, clothes, clothes, changing pad, high chair, blocks, gift card, Lavender Baby soap, headbands, and more clothes!!! I also got Sharon a gift certificate to her favorite place to get a pedicure. :)

Kristen made cupcakes. How cute are these?? I love the monogrammed sign. Agnes Anne C. :)

We also decided against games. So....we all made Agnes a onesie. I knew I wanted to do headphones. Why not? LOL I added some music notes and dots. I think it turned out pretty cute.
Here's all the onesies. :)
It was a fun brunch! I know Sharon appreciated everything we did. :)