What's For Dinner?

My mom is an amazing cook. I seriously grew up on the best food. We had dinner almost every single night as a family. At Christmas people wait by their doors for her treats and people are always asking her for her recipes. So my goal is to make dinner most nights, with sides and everything. That's what I grew up with, and that's what I want to do for my husband and our future kids. But seriously, sometimes I want nothing more than to just skip the grocery store and mess of cooking and just go out.

For Christmas we got a fabulous idea from my aunt to give out our family recipes on cards I designed and put them in a cute tin. Now that I have them, I’ve made a few of my favorite things from growing up and haven’t dreaded it quite as much. So if you don’t know what to make for dinner, here are a few of my favorites for you to try…

(click to enlarge the image)

Enjoy!

A Weekend In...

Who goes to Chicago during the coldest month of the year? Only crazy people I’m sure, and I’m glad we have a few friends crazy enough to go with us.

I’m convinced you’ve never been cold until you’ve felt the wind blow off of Lake Michigan. Even in the frigid cold, Chicago still has that thing that makes it so amazing, I love the energy there.

We rode the subway to get around, shopped, ate, went to the aquarium, played games and talked until the wee hours of the morning. It was great to get away.

So it’s January 26th, I’m almost though the coldest month and I totally survived. It only gets warmer from here!

Good News

Well, I'm not sure if this technically counts as news... but you may have previously read about my love of 100 Calorie Packs. The new Oreo Cakesters are divine! Brandon prefers Vanilla, I like Chocolate, try them both!

Do not confuse them with new Oreo Snack Cakes, not nearly as good...

In other “news” Kelly Clarkson has a new single out called "My Life Would Suck Without You". How romantic. I love an American Idol, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. It’s definitely back to her roots before she got all defiant and decided she could make whatever kind of music she wanted. I think she realized she preferred selling records and making money as opposed to not and went a little more mainstream this time. The new album is out March 17th.

If you watch Biggest Loser be sure to root for Dane on the Black team. He was Brandon’s companion on his mission and is a great guy.

And if you watch The Bachelor be sure to root for Melissa. I don’t know the girl but I‘ve been a fan since she was on Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team. Imagine my surprise when I recognized her on The Bachelor. It was then that I realized I have a serious problem and should probably lay off the reality TV.

Last, but certainly not least…

Happy Birthday to the smartest, funniest, most generous guy I know (beside Brandon) ... My dad!

Back to School

The vacay is officially over. Our flight home was seriously crazy. At one point we were sitting on the dirty floor of O'Hare with 4 cheeseburgers, 20 chicken nuggets, and 2 large fries. How did we get there? They held us in the air on our flight from Las Vegas to Chicago because of weather, no flights could land or take off. By the time we landed it was time for our connection to Lansing to leave. We got off the plane looked at the monitors and it said on-time, we totally missed it. We walked over to the tram that took us to our gate (passing all possible food options on the way). When we got there, we found out we were delayed, the monitor just didn't say so. So we had about an hour to get food. We had two options, a sports bar or McDonald's. Since they couldn't confirm a time when our flight was leaving we thought McDonald's was the safest bet. So we got in line, and waited and waited and watched people in the other three lines come and go. 40 minutes later, finally our turn. Yay! We just wanted to share a meal, we paid and looked at our receipt...not what we ordered. Seriously? The incompetent employee made us run our card for a "refund" several times since we paid too much. We ask for the manager. Imagine our joy when the lady says she is the manager. What!?! Finally we were like...we'll pay whatever, we don't care. Just give us some food! So we ended up with 4 cheeseburgers, 20 chicken nuggets, and 2 large fries. There was no where to sit, all the chairs were filled with angry people. Finally our flight left, we were home free. But of course, when we arrived in Lansing, some of our bags didn't. Yes, the vacay is definitely over!

Seriously So Blessed

I’ve seen this gem of a blog linked up to others, heard it discussed and seen it referenced here and there but never actually read it. So I was blog hopping tonight and decided to take a look. I have to admit at first I thought it was legit, and I was honestly intrigued. I actually enjoy people with overly high self esteem. As I read and went back to beginning I realized the blog was a way over the top spoof on the “typical Mormon mom blog”. It’s highly entertaining and I think I might want to be friends with a slightly toned down real life version of Tiffany/Amber/Megan/Nicole. Check it out.