Our Baby Is 2!!

Isaiah actually turned 2 years old last Wednesday but we celebrated him this past weekend, on the 22nd which happened to be my sister's birthday. lol

I can't even believe he is 2 already!! Crazy how time flies! Come join the party!

The party was monster truck themed so we had trucks everywhere, on the table cloth, on the cake, "driving" up the cookies, into the chips, on the temporary tattoos scattered around the table.

The FOOD!! Everyone loves food! We had all kinds of goodies, a huge monster truck cake, chips, chips, cookies, cookies (yes, 2 kinds of each), brownies, chocolate chip stuffed raspberries, fruit salad, baby carrots.

The party people. Hanging out. Playing. Yes, we have a swing set slide in our living room...you don't? You don't know what you're missing.

The CAKE! I was originally going to make the cake but at the last minute we decided to just buy one. The one we found at our local grocery store was PERFECT! Isaiah loved it, he wouldn't leave it alone on the table. He kept trying to take the truck off before it was time. lol Last year he didn't like everyone singing, this year he was ok with it up until everyone said his name in the happy birthday song then he started crying. I don't know if it scared him or what but he wasn't a fan. lol Also, we never practiced blowing out candles so we let big brother handle that part.

The GIFTS! Isaiah ended up with the perfect gifts for his taste at the moment. He got a trash truck that lifts the trash can and dumps the "yuck" (as Isaiah calls it) into the truck. He got a playmobil bus because he is into them right now. He also got a monster truck that drives and does wheelies. He got a fire truck he can push himself around on. I also created a shutterfly photo book with pictures from the monster truck show we recently took him to. He loved everything!

Since Picnik closed I've been using PicMonkey to create my photo collages and I have to say, I love it, maybe even more than Picnik!

What's For Dessert?

THE best Apple Crisp! And super simple too!

Ingredients:

6 tart apples - peeled, cored, and sliced

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup quick-cooking oats

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, divided

1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place sliced apples in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

In a bowl, mix melted butter, flour, sugar, oats, and the remaining tablespoon of cinnamon to form a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle over apples. Dot with remaining 1/4 cup butter.

Bake 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned and apples are tender.

I like my crisp extra crumbly so before I put it in the oven I made another 1/2 batch of the crumb topping. For the half batch I used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar, I added a little vanilla and a tiny bit of nutmeg. I added this on top of the first layer of crumb topping then dotted with the 1/4 cup of butter.

It came out so incredible amazing!

Submitted in the I love fall foods linky on Kludgy Mom's blog.

Couponing

Seems like a great idea right? I mean how hard could it be, clip some coupons, save some money! Right?!?

WRONG!!

First let me start off by saying I have never been one for coupons mostly because most of them seem too ridiculous to be worth saving and remembering I have them. I mean, save 30 cents on "something I really didn't need to begin with" when you buy 3. Yep, that's right, I have to buy 3 "somethings I really didn't need to begin with" just to save 30 whole cents! No thank you. Not worth it.

Second, we live in the middle of nowhere! I don't even know where to find coupons to clip! We don't get the paper and we don't have paper boxes available around here.

Third, on the rare occasion I do stumble upon a valuable "worth it" coupon I always forget I even have it! Then I'm all like, "Ugh, why do I even bother!" lol

To be fair, I must say I have received a few "worth it" coupons in the mail (and actually remembered I had them and used them). I also found a website that lets me pick from a whole list of coupons and only print the ones I'll actually use for things I already buy!

But, even with it being super easy to access coupons these days it still takes TONS of time! I had no idea! I mean to get the best deal you really need to scour local grocery store sales papers to figure out what's on sale, how cheap is it, what else does each store have to offer (again, that I actually need). Then your all, should I use this coupon at this store or should I use this coupon at that store...until your head spins right off.

Also, I do not, DO NOT like grocery shopping so I am not about to go to 15 different stores to get the absolute lowest price on every single item I need just to save what will, inevitably, amount to less than a dollar.

With all that said about coupons I do have a little coupon success story. There was this one time at band camp...wait, wrong story! HA HA Just kidding! Anyways, there was this one time when I utilized that really cool coupon website I mentioned earlier AND I had received some really "worth it" coupons in the mail and it just so happened to be at the same time we were going to do our BIG shopping trip and when it came time to pay I actually remembered I had all the coupons in my purse and we ended up saving almost $30 dollars that trip!! Now, I realize that was probably way more exciting for me than it is for you and I'm sorry, I was just SO EXCITED and still am if you couldn't tell! LOL

To conclude this, way too long, post about coupons, I don't plan on putting tons of time into collecting coupons, reading through sale papers and having my head spin off again but if we are planning a trip to the store I will check the coupon website. And if I see a really good deal on something we usually use while I'm shopping in a particular store I'll grab a few extras. That's my take on couponing, the good, the bad and the ugly.

What's For Dinner?

Green Bean Salad - a side dish

Ingredients:
Fresh Green Beans
Plum, Cherry or Grape Tomatoes – whatever you like or have available
Fresh Basil – chopped into small confetti like pieces
Fresh Mozzarella Cheese - I use the block and cut it into smaller cubes
1 Bottle Italian Dressing

1. Wash the green beans. Snap the stem ends off and snap the beans into bite sized pieces.
2. Boil water drop beans in and cook for a few minutes – you want them to be crisp not soggy.
3. While the green beans are cooking, chop the mozzarella into bite sized cubes, chip the basil and halve the tomatoes. If they are small enough you can add them whole.
4. When the green beans are done poor the hot water out and put the beans into cold water. This helps to keep them crisp and cool them faster.
5. Once the beans are cool and everything else is chopped add everything to a large serving bowl. All the Italian dressing and serve.

NOTE: Use as much or as little of each ingredient as you like. This salad is also good the next day, after the dressing has had time to soak in.

6. ENJOY!

What's For Dinner?

Garlic Cheddar Chicken

1/2 c. butter

4 cloves garlic, minced (I used a couple spoonfuls of already minced garlic from a jar)

3/4 c. dried bread crumbs

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 tsp. dry parsley

1/4 tsp. dry oregano

1/4 ground black pepper (I don't have any so I didn't add any)

1/8 tsp. salt

8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves - pounded thin (I didn't pound them)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the garlic until tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Mix bread crumbs, cheeses, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper in a bowl.

4. Dip chicken in garlic to coat, press into crumb mixture.

5. Arrange chicken in a 13x9 inch pan, pore butter mixture and crumb mixture on top.

5. Bake for 30 minutes.

We also had semi-mashed potatoes and corn with our chicken.