YuM yUm YuM!!

This is a new recipe that we tried this week and it was a hit over here, so give it a whirl if it sounds yummy to you

Baked Chicken Stuffed with

Pesto and Cheese

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup pesto

1 cup packed finely grated mozerella cheese

1/3 cup low fat sour cream (not fat free, use low fat)

about 1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

1 cup chicken stock or canned chicken broth

***

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine pesto, mozerella cheese and sour cream until well combined. In a flat bowl put the parmesan cheese. Spray 9x13 pan dish with nonstick spray. Pound chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness, or as thin as you can get it, the thinner the better.

***

As each piece of chicken is flattened, spread 1/6 of pesto cheese mixture evenly over one side of the chicken. then roll up eack piece end to end, starting with the widest end, rolling as tightly as you can. Tuck in any loose ends, you can use toothpicks to help if you need to (it won't look perfect, no worries). Coat each piece of stuffed chicken into the parmesan cheese. Put chicken into casserole dish (arrange pieces in a row, with pieces almost touching the sides).

***

Pour enough chicken stock to barely cover the bottom of the dish (less than 1/2 cup) and cover tightly with foil. Bake chicken for 30 minutes, then remove foil. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake for 15-20 more minutes, until the top of chicken is slightly browned. Don't overcook.

***

When you take the chicken out you will have a yummy looking combo of stock, pesto and cheese in the bottom of the dish. You can serve the chicken just like it is, or you can make this creamier sauce.

Sauce:

Pour liquid from pan into a saucepan and add the rest of the chicken stock that you didn't use. Bring to simmer for 10 minutes or so, until sauce is slightly reduced and cheese is melted. Mix flour (I only used about 2 tsp) with a small amt of cold water, then wisk it into the sauce until sauce thickens.

***

We just poured the sauce over the chicken, but I think next time I might cook up a little wheat pasta to serve the sauce over with the chicken!

Hope you like!

Now seriously, I like trying new recipes...so post some of yours on your blogs for me to give a try

(thanks mom for the yummy ones you have been posting, I like them all a lot)

Run Through The Warehouse!

Paul and I got to go to Milwaukee for a work trip that his District won. It was a quick trip, but we had a gReAt time!

On Our Way there!

The first night they had a yummy dinner for everyone at the hotel.

Me & Laura

Dallas, Laura, Paul and Yours Truly

After dinner, we hit the town...it was a beautiful night outside.

Paul, Bo and Jay

Okay, I love my husband, but why does he always have to pull these goofy faces when I am snapping our pic! Oh well, guess that's another reason to love him.

The next day we headed out to see a little bit of the town. It is really a neat place, the building and architecture are so old and really beautiful. We of course had to get Paul's picture in front of the Milwaukee Ale House!
And the BIG DAY that we have all been waiting for all YEAR...

Run Through The Warehouse!

Everyone got 60 seconds, but their team won 1st in the Area, so they got 75 seconds to run through the warehouse and grab whatever their little hearts desire! These guys have been plotting, planning and strategizing for like 10 months...so today was exciting! It was so much fun to watch them all get their turn and go crazy...
They all did GREAT!!

I was a little nervous standing on the sidelines, but it really was so much fun!

The Tucson District!

It was really fun to getaway for a couple of days, so thank you again Matt and Steph for watching out kiddos. They had so much fun too, Brig told Paul on the 2nd day that we were gone that he wanted to stay at their house for "20 more days," but when we picked him up he was excited to see us and come home.

I love those 2 kids!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Thank you to Paul's brother and his wife, Matt and Stephanie for watching our kids while we getaway for a couple of days. We dropped them off at their house tonight and the kids could not be more excited.
On the way over Brig said, "Are you staying for dinner?" and we said "ya" and he was like "Why??"

Then while we were eating dinner at their house, the conversation went something like this:
Stephanie: "Brig, where are your mom and dad going"
Brig: "Home??"
Stephanie: "Are you going to miss them?"
Brig: "no"
(fyi, we are not going home, we are headed to Milwaukee tomorrow for a little trip on Paul's company)

Well it's a good thing that I know that he loves me, as I smooched them goodnight and goodbye I was so excited to get a couple of days away with Paul, when my sweet little Raegan said, "Mama, snugger me!" I am still excited to get a few days away with my hubby, but at least I know that they love me after all. And although I know they are going to have so much fun running around with their cousins, I will just tell myself that they will miss me!

Their Biggest Fan...

Brig loves loves loves the Jonas Brothers, especially the song Burnin' Up (that may be their only song he knows, but he LOVES it)! I think he discovered them through Disney Channel commercials (which by the way they are genius to put their little bands on commercials, because kids like Brig would have no idea who they were without that little advertising plug), but he got hooked quick. We were at the mall the other day and they had a cardboard standup of the Jonas Brothers, and we had to keep walking by it because he thought it was so cool. He wants to hear Burnin' Up over and over, and he even uses a screw from his tool bench as a microphone and goes to town singin' away. He is very animated about it, and today when I picked him up from school one of his teachers says they get him to sing it for them every day. HA, that kid is a crack up. So I thought I would document it and let you all experience

The Brigham Brothers, I mean the Jonas Brothers!

(scroll down to the bottome of my page and pause the song paylist, so that you can hear him singing)

Words of Wisdom...from Kid Rock??

So I don't know much about Kid Rock, and most things I know about him probably aren't the classiest of things, but I still found this quote from him GREAT (maybe a little hypocritical because he has made some statements in the past, but I still liked what he had to say)!

"I truly believe that people like myself, who are in a position of entertainers in the limelight, should keep their mouth shut on politics. Because at the end of the day, let me tell you what I 'm good at: I'm good at writing songs and singing. What I'm not educated in is the field of political science. And so for me to be sharing my views and influencing people of who I think they should be voting for … I think would be very irresponsible on my part. So I'll just keep my mouth shut on that. I think celebrity endorsements hurt politicians. Because as soon as somebody comes out for a politician, especially in Hollywood, when they all go, 'I'm voting for this guy!' — I go, 'That's not who I'm voting for!' … As soon as Oprah Winfrey pops up and goes 'Ha-la-la-la-la,' I'm like, 'I love Barrack Obama. I hate Oprah Winfrey.' I don't hate her. I just don't believe in her, so I don't want any part of any of that. I think celebrities hurt politicians."

-Kid Rock

Amen!

I, like Kid Rock, get so frusterated that celebrities find it their "obligation" to share their political opinions. They may be amazing singers, or talented in front of a camera...but what qualifications does that give them to try to "inform" us all about these issues?? Of course there are some celebrities who have done their homework and do really know what they are talking about, but I again agree with Kid Rock that they are abusing their "fame" because they know that they have fans out there who will vote for their picks just because they say the words "I Endorse" or because they talk positively about them on the radio.

I don't care who Oprah is voting for, and what Matt Damon, Whoopi Goldberg and countless other celebrities political views are has no impact on my political views.

Well, now that I have got that rant out...I will shut up, because I am sure no one out there cares what I think, after all I am not a celebrity! :)

A River Runs Through It...

Okay, it wasn't a river, but it was Fly Fishing. Over Labor Day weekend Paul got to go to Christmas Tree Lake for a little "man trip"of fishing with his brother, Matt, and a few of his friends. Paul enjoying a day of fishing, fishing, fishing (this is before he got sick with the flu, poor guy)!

Paul's brother, Matt

Matt & Rick

They had a fun trip of fishing, camping, roughing it...and more fishing!

Mt. Lemmon

I have wanted to take the kids to Mt. Lemmon ever since we moved here, and we finally made a day trip up there on Saturday. It was so pretty and was interesting to watch as we increased in elevation, how the scenery changed. At the bottom it was typical Tucson, lots of Saguaro Cactus and not too green, but by the time we made it to the top the cactus were replaced with lots of green trees and the temperature was A LOT cooler.

At the top of Mt Lemmon is this cute little town, Summerhaven, and we got to stop and eat at this YUMMY pizza place. It was so heavenly sitting outside in the cool breeze and enjoying the afternoon.
The kids were so cute on the way up, Paul had told them that cougars and rattlesnakes live up here. So the whole ride up Raegan was saying

"Cougars, Rattlesnakes where are you?"

They looked for animals the whole time and Brig loved when the mountain bikers passed by.

Isn't it pretty?

(except for that dang sign)





Granted it is no "Utah Mountains" but it is the best that we have here, and it was beautiful. The Arizona scenery has really grown on me in the last couple of years, it is beautiful in it's own "Desert" way! I am excited to go back up in the winter and let the kids play in the snow.

My Little Helpers!

My kids love to help out around the house. Raegan likes to follow me around with a cleaning wipe cleaning whatever she sees me cleaning. So we decided it was time to give them some chores (besides just cleaning up their rooms). Raegan starts the dishwasher, but she calls it "cleaning the dishwasher" and Brig shakes out the tablecloth after dinner. It is fun to watch them get excited about helping out.

Here's a little video of Raegan doing her chore: