Chicken Kabobs

Chicken Kabobs

8 oz. can pineapple chunks

¼ cup bottled chili sauce

1 T brown sugar

1 T lime juice

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. ground allspice

1 lb. boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

1 large red or green sweet pepper, cut into 1” pieces

Directions:

Drain pineapple, reserving 2 T juice; set chunks aside. For sauce, mix juice, chili sauce, brown sugar, lime juice and spices.

Thread chicken pieces with pepper and pineapple chunks onto skewers.

Brush skewers with sauce and broil for 7-10 minutes. Turn, brush with sauce and broil 7-10 minutes longer.

Snickerdoodles

Here’s the recipe I use for our holiday Snickerdoodles! Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup butter or margarine

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

3-3 ¾ cups flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

¾ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:
Heat oven to 400◦ Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Mix cinnamon and sugar, roll balls in before baking. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, immediately remove from baking sheet.

Friday Faves - Christmas Cards & More!

#1. christmas card books

Free printable here. I love this way of storing Christmas cards!

#2. snickerdoodles

…and fudge, technically, but I haven’t made the fudge yet. Each year, my grandma, who lived in Oklahoma, would make and mail snickerdoodles and fudge each year for Christmas. Two years ago, I “took over” this tradition and mailed them to my dad and brother. It doesn’t feel like Christmas yet until I’ve had these two sweets. Click here for the recipe I use.

**Quick aside…my dad just flew back this week for my grandma’s funeral. Family dynamics can often be…tricky, and odd. But, all that aside, each member of your family makes an imprint on your life whether you want to admit it or not. Think about the imprint you’re leaving. Thanks Grandma Roach for this sweet tradition.

#3. neutrogena makeup remover towelettes

I HATE getting ready for bed. I’ll postpone it, just because I don’t want to go through the routine of “getting ready for bed” i.e. brushing/flossing, retainers, removing contacts, removing make-up, taking daily medicine, lotion…anyone else exhausted yet? Anyhow, I am far from consistent when it comes to taking off my make-up (okay, you can close your mouth from gasping now). BUT, since I’ve bought these bad boys, I’ve been much more consistent! I also use their eye makeup remover, works great!

#4. grace

This last one may seem silly, and it without a doubt falls into the last but CERTAINLY not least category. Being sick with mono, and having a 4 year old and a 21 month old, my patience is often thin. I will admit to having made the Marge Simpson frustrated noise with my children in the middle of chaos. And I will admit to flat out snapping out in irritation. If you’re a parent and this has never happened…well, you’re probably lying.

BUT, the grace of God allows me to seek forgiveness and start anew without harboring all these wretched feelings of guilt. Am I stricken with guilt? Yeah, but there’s no reason to harbor that guilt once I’ve asked forgiveness and have moved on with the intent to improve.

Thank you God for this. You, more than anyone, know I need it.

Thoughtful Thursday–Nativity Ring & Run

The idea for a Nativity Ring & Run is essentially this:

Step #1: Purchase a 12-piece nativity set (WHATEVER you like! – or, for a cheaper way to go, follow this link for a printable version of a nativity). Here’s the Melissa & Doug one I bought last year at 50% off to use for this year:

Step #2: Print out a description of each piece to the set. You can either follow my link (for older kids), or the link above for some adorable, brief once sentence description. (or print out both if the house has young and old alike!)

Step #3: Wrap each piece, somehow matching it with each print out for delivery.

Step #4: 12 days before Christmas, deliver your first piece of the nativity to an unsuspecting friend by placing said gift on their doorstep, ringing their doorbell, and running before they can see you!

Step #5: Continue each night leading up to Christmas Eve where you’ll deliver Baby Jesus and reveal your identity to your friend!

I posted this idea when I first did it 2 years ago here, with the printables I altered available here. It was perfect for that year when we shared our nativity with our 8year old and 12 year old neighbors. They were a bit older and LOVED the more detailed descriptions of each nativity piece.

BUT…I have a 4 year old, and while he has a pretty long attention span, my stories were a bit too long. So, we opted for this version this year and we’re super excited!

I hesitated posting it on my blog, ‘cuz it would be fun to keep our identity a secret, but…if they find out, they find out. Here were my kiddos getting ready to deliver tonight. He was SUPER excited and sneaky!

I have to admit. When we were getting ready to head out, my little boy was not so excited. He wanted to just stay home and play. My frustration was not well contained. “You need to learn to be nice!” I’m sure I shouted. Eek! It’s so hard for little ones to learn to think of someone OTHER than themselves. BUT…I’ll tell ya. As soon as he got caught up in the excitement, he was adorable and was excited for the recipients to get caught up in the excitement as well.

THAT is precisely the reason I chose this as my Thoughtful Thursday post. How WILL he learn to be thoughtful if I don’t model it and help him find ways for his little 4 year old self to act on it? If we are willing to admit it ourselves, sometimes even we don’t want to be thoughtful.

Come on! Admit it. You know, like those moments when you REALLY don’t want to return the shopping cart? You’d rather leave it out stranded for the poor grocery workers to come wrangle? (One of my huge pet peeves by the way, if I can do it with 2 kiddos, people can certainly do it with none!)

Or driving around in Christmas shopping chaos? You’ve already waited for like 5 people to drive by and you’re ready to cut off the next person? (This one I’m always tempted to give into)

Or you stroll up to the communal coffee pot at work and there’s JUST enough for your cup left? You know you should brew a fresh pot instead of put the pot back empty, but why should you have to do it just because of bad timing?

It’s the equivalent of my 4 year old wanting to stay home and play. Putting ourselves before others. It’s not always easy. But…if you can think of the big picture, it’s not really gonna put you out much, and others notice. And, it makes you feel good inside.

So…be thoughtful friends!

Trick of the Trade Tuesday–Christmas Tree Stand

 

trick of the trade #26:

Christmas tree stand

First off, pardon the very child-like looking tree. My mom always used our memory filled ornaments and that’s a tradition I will always hold and cherish. So, all our ornaments hold some sort of memory. No fancy trees in our house. =)

Now..onto the trick of the trade!

This clever trick came from my mom! She always used a Christmas tree stand to not only make the tree taller (meaning, cheaper!!), but it also created great space underneath the tree to place all your presents. Brilliant! We made ours out of 5 – 18” pieces of 4x4, and 2 sheets of plywood (cut to however big you’d like your tree stand to be). We just drilled 4 of the pieces to the corners, and one in the middle for support. See horrible diagram below:

trick of the trade #27:

clever way to water your Christmas tree

Use a piece of PVC pipe to place where the water should go, then use a pitcher to lead the water down the pipe. No more getting down on all fours to shimmy underneath the tree. And having to either use a tiny little cup of water, or awkwardly trying to tip a pitcher underneath all those branches! Seriously, waay easier. And my son loves watching below to see when it’s full of water and tell me when to stop. So…what are you waiting for? Go find an old piece of PVC in your garage and make something a bit easier in your life during this crazy holiday season! =)

Meal Plannin’ Monday

Week in Review:

Monday – Leftovers

Tuesday – Meal Delivered

Wednesday – Butternut Squash Risotto

**fyi – I didn’t have sage, so I substituted poultry seasoning and thyme, still was absolutely delicious!

WILL BE MAKING BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO AGAIN!

Thursday – Chard, Chicken & Potatoes

**Boil small red potatoes for 20-25 minutes. Roughly mash and throw in some peas, butter, and salt. For the chard, just saute over medium-high heat with oil and butter (about 2 T each), and two whole cloves of garlic for 5 minutes or until wilted (in a pinch you could use garlic salt/powder).

Friday – Spaghetti & Broccoli, Chicken Parmesan

**Boil spaghetti per package instructions, throw in broccoli for last 2-4 minutes. Pour olive oil and a bit of parmesan cheese over it and serve. Chicken, cook, pour over marinara sauce and parmesan, cover and cook 2-5 more minutes and serve.

Saturday – Hubby’s Office Work Party! Dinner Provided, yippee!

Sunday – Another Christmas party. I made candied pecans (turned out alright…they tasted slightly burnt though), bought white chocolate peppermint popcorn,

made cranberry mojitos (yum, yum, YUM, YUM, YUM),

and Black Santas (SUPER strong, although tasty)

 

**the name sparked interesting discussion. Not totally PC, but it’s the name I found when searching for recipes. Thankfully, our party attenders had a good sense of humor and chalked it up to being funny.

**************************************************

this week’s meal plan…

Monday – Chicken Kabobs & Rice

Tuesday – Slow Cooker Sweet and Spicy Asian Pork Shoulder

Wednesday – Pesto Chicken Sandwiches

Thursday – Pumpkin & Black Bean Chili

Friday – Papa Murphy’s (EAT OUT)

Saturday – French Dip & Sweet Potato Fries

Sunday – Leftovers

see ya on the flip side next week! =)