Oatmeal Banana Blueberry Goodness Pancakes

"With enough butter, anything is good.” ~ Julia Childs

The Chubby Cubby

      Having a gluten allergy in combination with a husband who loves healthy foods and gags at the sight of butter (we're working to change this as, much like Julia Child, I believe butter is one of the best parts of life 😆), makes many tasty traditional breakfast bakes a bit of a challenge. I've suffered watching friends and family delight and revel in the warm, comforting goodness of french toast, creative waffles, cinnamon buns, pancakes, etc. But, PTL, my suffering has come to an end due to a generous invitation into a new world of breakfast warmness extended to me by my almost-sister-in-law. Oatmeal Banana Blueberry Goodness Pancakes. Oh. My. Goodness. Saved. There are many, many different versions of these pancakes with as many varieties of topping and fruit and chocolate fillings as you can imagine. So I will give you the basics and let your imagination go from there! (Full disclosure, I chose one that doesn't include Greek Yogurt as it bothers my stomach, but that does exist as well!).

Ingredients:

1) 1/2 cup milk (almond milk also works great!
2) 2 Eggs
3) 1 Banana (I'm not a huge banana fan so I just used a small one)

Proof we had sun

4) 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey (optional)
5) 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
6) 2 teaspoons baking powder
7) 1/2 teaspoon salt
8) 1 teaspoon vanilla (because vanilla makes everything better ❤)
9) Optional toppings: various fruits you like (we did blueberries), butter (if you can handle it haha), nuts,and syrup, honey or powdered sugar. Get creative!

Instructions:
1) Put all ingredients (except the toppings 😉) in a bowl and mix together.
2) Heat griddle to medium heat and spray with cooking spray.
3) Pour into small circles (or fun shapes if you're feeling silly) and then flip when they start to bubble in the middle after about 2-3minutes (beware! they are a little messy to flip). Let cook a minute or two on other side. They should be a goldenish color (see picture below ↙).
4) Serve warm and go to town on fun toppings!

Sooo GOOD

I hope these bring you as much joy as they brought to us! 😂😂 Happy cooking!

Reflections on Habakkuk and JMB's "The Minor Prophets: Volume 2"

   

         This post is dedicated to my sweet husband for his book recommendation and verbal processing with me and Alstair Begg due to his beautiful sermon on Habakkuk a couple weeks ago. I was inspired by the two of them to dive into the minor prophets over the past couple weeks, and it has been such a rich and rewarding experience. So basically, for my post today I just wanted to long-windedly discuss and say that I highly recommend simultaneously reading Habakkuk and James Montgomery Boice's book, "The Minor Prophets: Volume 2." 😊
         Habakkuk is perhaps not a typical choice for your spring quarantine reading. Experiencing the author's description of the impending judgment on God's people at the hands of the cruel and merciless Babylonians just doesn't shout "fun" or "let's brighten the day." The book doesn't shy away from hard questions and the very real terror the prophet expresses, "I hear and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me" (Hab. 3:16). Not really a quote you would put on your computer desk to inspire your Monday, right? However, despite this depiction of fear and terrible hardship, Habakkuk has strangely been the most encouraging reading I've done since our lockdown began 7 weeks ago.
         In its three brief chapters, Habakkuk covers a wide range of questions, which the author directs toward God. As James Montgomery Boice writes, "Habakkuk is profound because it raises deep questions about the workings of God in history--why God does what he does, why he does it in the way that he does, and why he sometimes does nothing" (400). Much like us looking at our world today, Habakkuk sees the brokenness, the pain, and the lack of justice for so many (Hab. 1:4). His words sound all too familiar as we think about racial and socio-economic inequities; the paralyzing fear of hearing that our loved ones have gotten sick; the fear for our economy and the future; the concerns over the state of the church and how the gospel can go forth in the midst of lockdowns; or, if you are like me, the state of your own sinful heart as you wrestle with patience with each other in restricting times; trust as we combat the sleepless nights of hurting for those around us; joy in the mundane and even in the somewhat terrifying day-to-day of living in a pandemic; issues of sphere sovereignty as we navigate the virus and our communities; and the pain of being separated from the people we love (and even the people we struggle to love😉).
         In response to Habakkuk's questioning and lamenting over the brokenness he sees, God answers Habakkuk, saying, "For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" (Hab. 1:5). At first this seems comforting; perhaps God is planning to save them from judgment due to the reforms of Josiah, as described in 2 Kings 23? Maybe God will step in and immediately end the suffering and injustice: "Well, you've really tried so I've decided to cancel the Babylonians and bring back King David right here on the spot." That's what I would be hoping. (Or, to briefly transport it to our day and time, maybe God will step in and immediately end the pandemic and all the fear, hurt and pain?) But no, instead, God responds to Habakkuk by saying He is working to bring judgment at the hand of wicked Babylon that will surely come, later stating, "If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay" (Hab. 2:3). God's responses raise a huge dillema for Habakkuk. How can this be God's plan? To raise up Babylon to bring judgment when they as a nation are pretty much the epitome of wickedness? (Hab. 1:13). 
         My goodness. How is this comforting? As the reader we are then shocked to see Habakkuk's change in attitude from a questioning complaint to rejoicing in response to God's answers. Habakkuk's change occurs even in the face of this definite coming of a pain and judgment at the hands of Babylon (a prospect that we honestly can't even begin to imagine). Somehow Habakkuk is led to sing and rejoice in the Lord? "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster with stringed instruments." (Hab. 3:17-19). (And not only is Habakkuk singing, he's clearly writing a song for others to join and sing as well, as the verse ends noting that it is a song for the choirmaster with stringed instruments and thus to be put to music).
         Why is this and how can this be? How can he rejoice in the Lord in the face of judgment? It is because Habakkuk has recognized that the Lord is seated on His throne and is still at work,  bringing about good even in ways that seem to make no sense to His people. "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (Hab. 2:20).  And because of this reality, God gives the charge that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4). Habakkuk thus dwells on who God is, this God who is seated on His throne, and what He has done. "You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed" (Hab. 3:13). He knows God and His history of saving His people, and therefore Habakkuk has a joy and trust, and so also may we. As Boice writes, "God's mighty past acts in history amply demonstrate that he is able to save those who look to him in faith. But he has also promised to save his people and therefore will save them. The God who makes promises stands by his promises. The God who makes oaths keeps them" (431-432).
         Yes, suffering and pain and hardship will come, and, in fact, we are even assured it will (John 15:20). It may even last the entire duration of our lives (something I've watched many grapple with over the years). But, there is still a God on His throne. And He is a good God. As the author of Hebrews writes, expanding on the words of Habakkuk, "you endured a hard struggle with suffering . . . Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls" (Hebrews 10:32-39). It is towards eternal hope that Habakkuk and we can look and have hope and persevere, living by faith, knowing that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17).  
         And this is why I loved these two books. Hopefully you got at least two take-aways and can glean more from your own readings of these two books. 1) There is some perspective, we don't have the Babylonians coming to conquer us (that's a real plus compared to our struggles not being able to find toilet paper or to have a beautiful 401k), and 2) even if we did, we can sing, knowing that God is on His throne, He has been and will always be faithful, and there is such a hope to come at the end. I hope this long reflection and recommendation encourages our hearts as we seek to live joyfully in the midst of quarantine. We are never to ignore the pain and deny the hardship, but we are to persevere with joy to the end.

         With love, Jack Jack. Tomorrow I will tell you about my new favorite food.....oatmeal banana pancakes thanks to my dear soon-to-be sister-in-law's ingenious cooking skills.

Drama and Perception

Hello everyone! I've been enjoying catching up on your quarantine adventures. Thanks for including me in this. I haven't been doing any baking (leaving that to my housemate...) but I have been thinking a lot about perception. Mainly, how I want to be perceived by others.

So of course I have to start by talking about K-dramas.


Korean dramas are great. They're fun and frothy and melodramatic. If you want to watch a pure-hearted character with an improbable occupation find love, this is the genre for you!

K-dramas don't show you what it's actually like to be a Korean person, obviously. But they tell you something about how Korean men and women wish they could be perceived.




If I had to boil it down, I would say the ideal perception around emotion. 

Look at those sparkly smiles

To be a K-drama hero, you've got to act cute! You're going to embrace emotionalism over mean things like success and skills and getting things accomplished. You will teach the people in your life (who are workaholics) to be silly and emotionally expressive. They will learn the value of love! Of friendship! Of family! 

Cool? Cool.

So then I watched some Chinese shows.
          

And ooooh man, were they different.

The ideal perception was about competence. To be a hero, you have to put aside your emotions and do the task in front of you.

Go is the C-drama version of chess. Characters play it only as a metaphor.

 

So. Much. Crying. They are tears of justice.

 In a Chinese drama, a hero does that task brilliantly. There are so many slow-motion shots of heroes accomplishing tasks! You've only got your wits, skills, and strict morals to help you. Your family will die. Your love interest will die. You will cry one beautiful, perfect tear and then you will continue to accomplish your gosh-darn task.

Anyway. COVID-19. Quarantine. How people perceive me.

With this forcibly imposed distance, I've been looking at my workplace like it's another culture, just as foreign as a K-drama or a Chinese show. I've been thinking about what my work ideal is, and if I really need to live up to it.

I used to think a lot about how I present myself at work. It's hard to be taken seriously in higher education when you're only 30 and have a personality like an especially nerdy chocolate fountain.

But I haven't thought about presenting a "professional" ideal in weeks. I take Zoom calls with the dean on my couch. I ask my students about the dogs I hear in the background of our video chats. I don't care when my roommate wanders into frame.

I've told myself it's because my coworkers don't care anymore, but maybe it's me who doesn't care. I think I'd rather be perceived as something a little closer to the reality of Anna: who's been stuck inside for 7 weeks, who's Going Through It Too....and who sure has watched a lot of Asian TV recently. 

First Walking Week Completion Update (Comment your steps below)

Good job everyone surviving another week of quarantine! Thank you also to everyone who wrote this week 😊I've loved reading all the posts! This is the post for everyone to update their steps for the

week (please post in the comments below...goal is to post them by lunch time tomorrow so we can tally the total for the group for the week). Hopefully you all were able to enjoy the sun today! Happy Sunday Eve 🌞

Green is on the way! 

Use What You've Got Salad

I have very few cravings as a pregnant mama, but one of the most constant cravings I do have is for fresh crunchy veggies. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to explode if I can't bite into a crispy carrot stick or munch of delicious kale salad! But I've found that it's hard to stay stalked up on these delicious foods while in quarantine. Thankfully my mom lives just a few houses down and has brought me gifts of veggie goodness when the cravings have hit and the fridge has been bare, but to keep from pestering my sweet mother I stalked up on vegetables in a big way on my Walmart pick-up order last week. Broccoli, spinach leaves, red onions, green onions, jalapeno peppers, red, orange and yellow peppers, carrots, asparagus, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, avocados, the list goes on. Yes, last week I was in veggie heaven.
But today a terrible thing happened. I got a salad craving...big time. Like I needed a salad or I was going to die. So I went to the fridge to get out all the salad fixings and discovered I HAVE NO LEAVES!!!! No kale,spinach or spring mix, not even a few limp iceberg shreds. Devastation! A half full bag of half rotten broccoli florets stared me in the face, mocking my pain. As I grabbed it out thinking to choke down the remaining edible crunchy bites, a light bulb went off. I have a cheese grater! I could transform those nasty little trees into a broccoli salad!
So I set to work grabbing out of the fridge all the remains of the glorious salads I had feasted on the previous week: the jalapeno peppers I had chickened out of using, a single green onion, some wrinkly cucumbers, a lone orange pepper with a black spot growing on the top. I grated, chopped, shredded and sliced. Rotten portions were discarded and a beautiful new creation began to take shape! The aroma was delicious, the shades of green and orange, dazzling.

Now to crown it with some bite-sized tortilla chips to add just a little bit more crunch: 

Perfect! To top it all off I decided to add my new Skinny Girl Poppy Seed Dressing. A bit of a splurge, but I felt I was justified in using it since I was about to eat veggies that would have met their destiny in the trash can if I had let them sit another day. And guys, this dressing is SO good! Sweet, creamy, delicious and definitely does not taste fat-free!

So, mouth watering, I drizzled it on, carried it to the couch and snuggled in to indulge my craving. Crunch, crunch, crunch. I felt the crazed feeling begin to leave my body as this Use What You've Got Salad satisfied my desire for a fresh and crispy lunch experience.
So the lesson here friends is this: don't be afraid of those random rotting veggies in your crisper, and don't give up on living your dream salad experience just because you are out of those precious crunchy leaves!

Parmesan Crevettes: AKA All My Favorite Foods on 1 Plate

Oh. My. Goodness. Good.

As I work on completing my next book (a project that has been slightly delayed as I begin to simultaneously work through the chunker 1,000 page Bar Prep Manual, which my heart guiltily loves), here is a quick and delicious recipe that I made up. Pregnancy has created some odd loves for me. The list is long and somewhat random, including things like sporting a short, easily flippable ponytail, casually rolling my sweet husband off the bed in my sleep, waddling when I'm barely showing, and shrimp. Odd, I know, but we roll with it 😅.

This recipe was born out of the wedding of my current loves with necessity as our Aldi order didn't come until Friday and we were running low on some supplies. Without further ado, here is what we have audaciously  named, "Parmesan Crevettes," because, why not?

Ingredients:

1) A cup or two of shrimp: depends on number of people so easy to add more or less. (We used baby shrimp because big ones give me the creepers currently).
2) 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
3) 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper (or to taste), 1/2 tsp garlic powder
4) 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese (my guess is just regular stuff would be great too!)
5) Uncut green beans
6) Rice (we used jasmine rice).
7) Drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt and pepper for green beans.

Easy peasy steps:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Start to prepare your rice (if you don't know how....haha I will pray for your first attempt and leave you to the mercy of youtube tutorials 😂)
3) Next pour olive oil into pan and place shrimp on pan (best if defrosted, but if you are like me, it will just take a smidge longer to cook them if they are still frosty little buddies). I take off the tails before cooking.
4) Mince your garlic and sprinkle that and the salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste (I generally just give once good sprinkle of each onto the pan). Stir and flip the shrimp so they are covered in the mixture.
5) Pop into oven and bake about 20 mins (or until the mix begins to look a little crisp. See photo → )
6) While it bakes, put uncut green beans in frying pan with drizzle of olive oil and add pinch of salt and pepper. Cook and stir at medium heat for about 5-8 minutes and then turn to low.
7) When rice is finished, take it off the heat and then serve when the shrimp mix has finished (timing worked out well for this!).

I served the meal with applesauce and sprinkled shredded parmesan on the top. Quick, delicious, and relatively healthy. In the interest of full-disclosure: My sweet buddy does not share my love for shrimp, but the meal still managed to get a 4.3 star rating 🙌🙌. Enjoy!

It’s All About the Bake r...

    Yesterday, was the day. My subscription twenty-five pound bag of gluten-free flour came, and my son requested a carrot cake. Now, before you think, like I would with a different individual, “Wow, they are amazing! They’re making a cake from scratch.” let me introduce myself. I am a model representative of flopped bakes — cookie bars that never seem to solidify and baked in peaks on what should be flat surfaces are my normal. Poor children. For me, however, this is really a blessing because while I may flop a bake like no other, simultaneously, for every fiasco, I dream about cake eighty times, sometimes, mid-flight of stairs: It’s really imperative to my health that I plateau at such baking basics.

    If this deficiency, therefore, inspires an image of a woman applauding every time a person bakes a cake and even decorates it with icing that fits over the cake and holds to it — well done — it is me. “Oh Dear! Paul and Mary! Y’all are so sweet. A little dry? But does it, also, crumble?”

    And yet for every one hundred disasters of a bake there is a miracle — where by no power of my doing; for the Lord knows, my merit in putting the ingredients together are really on my part arbitrary and having no discrimination — a bake turns out well. This happened on Easter. Mercies never cease.

     Alas, on Easter this carrot cake was one fine cake, but not twice does lightening strike! Yesterday, it peaked and was definitely, too, dry.

    Baking is such a humbling pastime. It goes in the oven, and I pray that the Lord will have mercy and help it. 

    I don’t really mind, when my bakes go awry. Every time, I look at my failed desserts, I see Jesus, like not physically — spiritually. In failed desserts? Yes. 

    He is so perfect and so good. There isn’t a blemish in him, and even on my best behavior and with my best works and best bakes, I am confident that the difference between his holiness and my best acts are engulfed with such a great chasm that there is not a question of whether I am good or good enough or not. It is obvious that we’re going to need a Substitute here. Put my bakes next to any good baker, and you will see my bakes will just never do. No restaurant could ever think of serving them, unless they intentioned to go under, and then no one could call that company good. I would need a substitutionary baker. 

   And while this post is, primarily, about a recipe that I have not even mentioned yet, I, recently, read a book called, Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin (and it’s a pretty basic study the Word book that I really liked and will probably have all my kids read, whether they are women or not), and she right off says something that will change my Bible reading, hopefully, forever. She says, “I approached my study time asking the wrong questions. I read the Bible asking, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What should I do?’ And the Bible did answer these in places...But the questions I was asking revealed that I held a subtle misunderstanding about the very nature of the Bible: I believed the purpose of the Bible was to help me...The Bible does tell us who we are and what we should do, but it does so through the lens of who God is...So, when I read that God is long suffering, I realize I am not long suffering...A vision of God high and lifted up reveals to me my sin and increases my love for him.”

    This is me. This is my baking, but Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Super Moist Carrot Cake recipe, even the title mocks me, linked below, is sound — in the hands of a true baker. Enjoy! 🙌🏻 😂

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/super-moist-carrot-cake/

Book recommendation

I am on my 4th time through this book in about 6 months. I never read through books multiple times, but the reality of our union with Christ is so needed in my life right now. This is near the top of my list as a ‘life changer’ book.

Biography of Paul (Book Review 1 for the Jack Jack) Sorry this is long!

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 

         To be completely honest, I can be a little (and I probably should say "a lot") skeptical of overly famous preachers, especially when they pastor large megachurches. Nevertheless, I found the book, "Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit," by Charles R. Swindoll to be an incredibly encouraging read as the author tells the history and story of Paul, drawing largely from the book of Acts and incorporating numerous passages from his many epistles to illustrate the teaching that was going forth during the varying seasons of the apostle's life. The book was especially appropriate and compelling during this season of quarantine as it dove into the reality of the significant amount of time Paul spent waiting on the Lord, sitting in prison, desiring to be with the people he loved and desperately wanted to disciple, but yet the patience and tenacity he demonstrated in using that time well. For truly, as Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-13, these seasons had taught him contentment in Christ. "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." It was a convicting read and made you want to read all his letters and especially the book of Acts again with new perspective on where he started and the many miles he traveled to share the good news of Christ.
         Briefly, here are some of the truly wonderful highlights of the book: the weaving of the teachings and words of Paul's letters to the churches into his chronological experience, the large amounts of Scripture it contained, the convicting faithfulness of the life of Paul, the emphasis on teaching truth courageously and spending significant time in the Word of God, and the overall emphasis on how the Lord uses even the weakest and seemingly greatest of sinners, by redeeming them and equipping them for service. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His Kingdom . . . He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them" (241).
         Like all books, it did have its shortcomings. The author at times gets swept up in his own personal reflections on his career as a highly successful pastor, seeming to forget that not all ministries do (and possibly even should) look like his and not all persons share his same experiences and background. He also can go off on some odd application tangents using catchy terms like "authentic" and "gritty" that leave you wondering how we got there. As with many biographies, he occasionally slips into imagining and filling in gaps, forgetting to stress well that we don't fully know what Paul was thinking or all the details of every moment of his life. (And one final random Jackie critique, but he also quotes The Message and Wild at Heart a few times which always sets my little red flags off 😆).
         However, despite these critiques, the life of Paul is beautifully captured and the book is so full of direct quotes from Scripture that it allows the reader to really get a sense of the experiences and timeline that shaped the man who wrote much of the New Testament. I recommend the book and was greatly encouraged by it and love anything that makes me want to read Scripture more.

Definitely NOT Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Last night I tried my hands at a recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough bites. I love cookie dough and it was too late in the evening to think about actually baking cookies. Here's the recipe I used - https://www.cookingclassy.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-bites/ It was quick and easy, didn't require a ton of ingredients and was pretty much totally delicious. My couple little tweaks: I only had salted butter so I just left out the salt. Also, to heat treat the flour (because apparently there can be bacteria issues with raw flour? Who knew?) I did thirty seconds in the microwave, stirred, thirty more seconds, stirred, plus fifteen seconds more. I don't have a candy thermometer, but this amount of time seemed pretty standard on most sites, so I just hoped for the best 😁. Warning - these cookie dough balls are SUPER sweet and you really only need one little one to satisfy your sweet tooth. Not a small salsa bowl full of dough. I may or may not have learned this from personal experience... 😉. Enjoy!

Great Book

I just finished listening to “A Woman of No Importance” by Sonia Purnell.  The book is a biography of an American woman named Virginia Hall.  She worked as a spy, first with the British and then the Americans, to aid the French Resistance in WWII. She was minority because was a female, but also because she had a wooden leg! This is an amazing story and is very well written!

Healthier version of Chicken, Zucchini, and Alfredo over Penne Pasta

Every night Camden gives our new dinner experiments a rating from 1-5 stars, 3 being a decent meal, 4 being "let's make this again", and 5 being "please put this on my birthday dinner list." 1-2 ratings are just bad news and should be avoided at all costs. Thankfully we've only ever had one incident of a 1 star....fish oil gone wrong 😆. Last night we got a 4.5 with my healthier/quarantine supply version of a zucchini, chicken and alfredo pasta. After walking a ton in the chilly Sunday air and mowing the lawn (which looked like it had joined the ranks of young men in quarantine in desperate need of a hair cut), this was the perfect warm and snuggly meal (plus easy and rather therapeutic to make as I love frying pans and spatulas). 

Additionally, this meal can literally be modified with any veggies you love and any type of noodles and can totally be made without chicken, though I loved the chicken a lot. 

So....here it is! 

Yum and more yum

Ingredients:

1) At least 1 zucchini (other ideas include adding spinach, baby tomatoes, etc)

2) 4 chicken tenderloins (or really any chicken on hand...possibly shrimp would be great too)

3) 1 tbsp olive oil

4) 1/2 tsps of garlic powder, onion powder and dried basil; 1/4 tsp pepper and salt (or to taste) (really all spices are to taste so feel free to increase or decrease the amount!)

5) 2 cloves of minced garlic

6) Any type of pasta you'd like (Penne noodles were fabulous!)

7) 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

8) 1 cup milk (you  can use cream for the extra delicious, but slightly less healthy, version)

9) Optional toppings for garnish: fresh basil to sprinkle on top (we finally got to use some from our garden!) and shredded parmesan cheese.

Instructions:

1) Boil water and make your pasta. 

2) While pasta is boiling, pour olive oil into frying pan and put it on medium/high heat. Place chicken in pan and sprinkle with all spices on both sides. Add minced garlic to the pan and cook until no longer pink and chicken has a little browning on both sides. Cut up/shred chicken into smaller pieces. 

3) While chicken is cooking, cut up vegetables (tiny cubes are great for the zucchini so it gets cooked all the way through) and then add your veggies to the pan once the chicken is cooked. Let zucchini's  cook with chicken for about 5 minutes or until starting to soften (you can go longer if you don't want any crunch...I like a little crunch in my zucchini).

4) Turn heat down on chicken and veggies to medium low and add the milk and then the parmesan cheese. Stir for a few minutes until cheese is melted in.

5) Drain noodles and then add them to your chicken and veggies. Stir all together and keep warm until ready to serve.

I loved having this with fresh strawberries cut up on the side and apple sauce. But really, add whatever sides you would like! We garnished with fresh basil from our garden and parmesan cheese.

Super easy and super delicious!

Easy Caprese Chicken

This is one of my favorite recipes that we've made in quarantine so far! Feel free to adjust things according to what you have in your Covid-19 kitchen (i.e. if you don't have fresh basil, don't sweat it 😉).

Photo of the dinner that doesn't do it justice 

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (around 9oz....adjust according to family size as we definitely had enough sauce and seasoning for more chicken)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 1/2 tbsp minced garlic (fresh is amazingly good in this)
2 cups cut tomatoes (cherry tomatoes halved are perfect)
1/4 cup onion peeled and sliced (we left this out since they upset my pregnant stomach, but still so good...just used some onion powder)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cups shredded mozzarella

Optional to garnish with fresh basil....we didn't have any and, as said above, still delicious!

Easy instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 430
2) In 9x13 pan pour the olive oil and place chicken into the oil coated pan. Then sprinkle on oregano, basil, salt pepper, minced garlic, and onions if you want and coat chicken with the oil and various spices. Then place halved tomatoes in the dish around the chicken (and onion if you are including them)
3) Whisk together balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and a pinch of garlic and pour over chicken and tomatoes (flip chicken to get on both sides).
4) Pop in oven for 20-25 minutes...(basically you want your chicken temperature to get to 160-170 degrees so it took ours closer to 35 minutes)
5) When the chicken  is fully cooked, pull it out and sprinkle it with mozzarella cheese and then put the chicken back in the  oven 4-5 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Garnish with fresh basil.

Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or noodles.... We LOVED it over garlic mashed potatoes....and since we're in quarantine...nobody cares that we smell like garlic! Win-win. We made a craisin salad on the side and it was the best "we-couldn't-have-ham-for-Easter" meal we ever had 😊🍲

Enjoy!

Welcome to my attempt to keep our sanity in the midst of quarantine! I've created a blog for sharing 3 things: 1) delicious recipes you've tried 2) a good book you finished and a brief description of why it is good (or you could do the anti-good book review to warn us to save our brains from becoming mush haha) and 3) your step counts at the end of each week (step updates due by Sunday afternoon, if you'd like to participate in this portion of the blog).

The goal is to shoot for 50,000 steps a week and a book every 2 weeks....but don't stress if you just want to read the blog, occasionally say hi, or do just one of the three things 😀 Hope you all are staying safe and joyful and now off to eat the delicious dinner my sweet, sweet husband made to celebrate this sunny day and to help us put on the Covid-19!

Photo: A special quarantine moment on our sidewalk brought to you by the daily chalk artist sisters 🤣