BBQ chicken and sweet potato fries

So tonight I tried a couple new recipes. I had quite a bit of leftover chicken from our dinner last night that I wanted to use up, so I looked around for a recipe that it would work in. What I ended up making was a BBQ chicken sandwich. I got the recipe off of blog called Ordering Disorder (well, kind of a blog, just Google Ordering Disorder, Chris Johnson, and it will come up). This is what you need:

2 cups of cooked chicken (I just used what we had left)
1/2 cup bbq sauce (I misread this as 1/2 a bottle, and it was still delish)
1/2 cup grated carrot (I very finely grated one medium sized carrot. I do not know if this serves an actual purpose or is just to sneak a veggie in, but it was good).
Loaf of french bread or other "hard" bread (I had a 4 pack of rolls. Hamburger buns would be too soft-you want something that isn't going to get all soggy)
Monterey Jack cheese (I am guessing you could use another kind of cheese, but I did not. I used shredded cheese, not slices)

Heat the first 3 ingredients in a saucepan.
Cut your bread in half and spoon some chicken on one side. Top with cheese. Broil both sides of the bread (with and without chicken and cheese) DO NOT OVER BROIL, Eat.

We all thought these sandwiches were GREAT and I will definitely be making them again.

I also tried out a new recipe from Torie, a friend from church. I think sweet potatoes are great, so I was excited to try this:

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato Fries:
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into 4-inch long and
1/4 to 1/2-inch thick fries
2 tablespoons olive oil, or more as needed
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Avocado Dip:
1 avocado, see Cook's Note*
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup cream cheese
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped.
2 scallions, white and light green part only, chopped
1 lime, juiced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum
foil and set aside.

Place the sweet potatoes in a large bowl and toss with olive oil until
the sweet potatoes are coated. Add the paprika, chili powder,
coriander, salt, and pepper; toss to distribute evenly.

Arrange the coated fries in a single layer on the prepared pan. Bake
for 20 minutes on the lower rack until the sweet potatoes soften.
Transfer the pan to the upper rack of the oven and bake 10 minutes
longer, until fries are crispy. Serve with Avocado Dip.

Place the avocado, mayonnaise, cream cheese, jalapeno, scallions, and
lime juice into a blender or small food processor. Blend for 1 minute
or until you have a smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper, to
taste. Serve as a dip for the Sweet Potato Oven Fries.

I really liked the sweet potatoes and the dip. I would love to have them again. However, my family was not as excited as I was. Tyson tried the dip and then wanted us to scrape it off his plate. He did not like the sweet potatoes either. Jori threw her fry back on the dish. I did make them both eat one, but they were not happy. Darin does not like sweet potatoes, but he said if they had been crunchier he might have been more into them, so maybe if I cut them smaller???

So if you like sweet potatoes and avocado, you should try this out. The fries would be good by themselves too without any dip, but they would need some salt. I told Darin we WILL be having sweet potatoes again in some form, because I do think that kids (and adults) can learn to enjoy different foods.

Crockpot Chicken and Salsa

Here is another super easy and tasty meal. BOTH kids ate two tortillas full! My friend from college, Michelle, gave me this recipe. She just told me about a tilapia recipe I might be trying soon. I will wait for her review though before I try it out on my fam.

Open jar of salsa, spoon 1/4-1/2 cup in bottom of crock pot - add 4-6 frozen chicken breasts. Pour on rest of salsa. Set crockpot on low if cooking all day, or high if cooking in 3-4 hours. 30 minutes before you eat, shred chicken with fork and return to crock pot. Serve in tortillas, with chips or over rice and topped with cheese.

Optional additions: 1 can of corn, 1 can of black beans. Sometimes I make rice and stir it into the crock pot after I shred the chicken.

I bought salsa with corn and black beans in it and it was good. I think I used 5 breasts, the one full jar and another 1/4 jar that was just hanging out in the fridge. It was really THAT easy!

Flip Flops in November!

So, I thought it was only possible in South Africa, but today I wore FLIP FLOPS in Michigan in November! We have had two close to perfect days. I say close, because we have an overabundance of lady bugs around our house. We spent so much time outside today. The kids and I walked down the path, saw some people flying a huge kite (or as Jori kept calling it a big flag), played in the rocks down by the water and quacked at a family of ducks.

After we came home from our walk, Darin came out to play. The kids were having fun making chalk creations. Here's what Tyson made:A big old 5 and a 2! Good job buddy. Jori needed a little help finishing her mega game of hopscotch and Daddy was happy to help out:
Finally, for your viewing pleasure, the kids and daddy play hopscotch:


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Yes, that is me snorting as I laugh, but admit it, you probably snorted too as you watched!

Chicken, stuffing and swiss

I asked for recipes and some of you have answered. I am hoping more people (assuming that there are more people that read my blog) will add a recipe to the comment section of the last post. I'll try them out and let you know what our family thinks.

Tonight we had a fantastic meal thanks to Tami, my dear friend from California!! It was great. Tyson had 4 helpings, Darin wanted to know why we had never had it before (um, because since I've known you you've been anti stuffing), I thought it was super easy and super good. Jori was not a fan, but she doesn't like a lot of things that I make, so ignore her opinion!

Here's the recipe!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 slices of swiss cheese (the Kraft brand swiss cheese is NOT good/flavorful in this recipe though)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box of chicken stove top stuffing
1/3 cup melted butter

Lay chicken breasts in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover chicken entirely with the swiss cheese (usually takes about 2 of the slices to cover each chicken breast). Spread cream of chicken soup over the cheese (do NOT add milk to the soup). Sprinkle dry stuffing over the soup and then drizzle melted butter over the stuffing. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. Then uncover and cook for about 10 more minutes to get the stuffing a little crispy. Enjoy!

Help us out of our food rut!

Even if you have never commented here before, I hope this time you will. I feel like I have been making the same 5 or 6 meals for our family for the past 4 months. Needless to say, we are all getting a little tired of eating the same things over and over. A couple months ago I asked people on Facebook for some simple and inexpensive meal ideas and ended up with a lot of suggestions for tuna casserole and omelets. Now, those aren't bad things to eat, but this time I want to know what your favorite meal is and I want the recipe!

Don't be shy now. Please leave a comment and help our family get out of this rut we're in!

Parent Teacher Conference

Tonight we had Tyson's parent teacher conference. I had been looking forward to this since the sign ups came home a few weeks ago. Who doesn't want to know how their kids are doing in school? I am thankful to report that Tyson is doing GREAT in kindergarten. His teacher, Mrs. Weiss, said he is a joy to have in class. He is right on target for where he should be this year. Mrs. Weiss did say that it wouldn't hurt to work on writing letters with him, but only if it is done in a fun way. So if anyone has good suggestions for making writing fun, I'd love to hear them!

Something that Darin and I both thought was funny was that Mrs. Weiss said Tyson is often one of the last ones finished with his work. The way she said it made it sound like he was being really careful and cautious, which was shocking to both of us. Then it came out that he likes to talk to the other kids at his table a bit too much. Now THAT made sense to us!

Darin and I are so thankful for the teacher Tyson has this year. She just has such a kind heart and seems to genuinely enjoy having him in her class. We both prayed so much about where he would go to school and whose class he would be in, and we feel confident that God has His hand on Tyson. We can't wait to see what the rest of this year holds for him.

Double Coupons come to West Michigan!!

Today I experienced the JOY that my mom, sister and other people living in states with Safeway and Albertson's get to enjoy on a weekly basis-DOUBLE COUPONS! Family Fare is doubling coupons for three days this week. Sunday (done), Monday (almost done) and Tuesday (get out there people). I had some good coupons and there were some good sales. This is what I came home with:

2 Scott 12 packs, 4 Honey Nut Cheerios (bonus alert-I will be getting 2 free movie tickets with special codes in the boxes), 12 yoplaits, Jennie-o Turkey Bacon, Smithfield Bacon, 2 scrubbing bubbles toilet gels, 1 bounce dryer bar (love them!), 1 Juicy Juice Brain Development (it was on sale back by the meat), 2 different kinds of pepperoni and 2 non coupon items-bread and sponges. The grand total was $37.13, which was a savings of $22.59!

I hope Family Fare does Double Coupons again sometime!