Teriyaki Chicken

Normally, Sunday dinner in our house is something super easy. Weird, right? You’d think that because we have no work, or anything to do, that we’d do a big dinner, something elaborate and delicious. Unfortunately, that’s never what happens. Usually, I come home from church after noon, change out of my church clothes (that’s right, I don’t stay in them.) and then eat a biggish lunch, since usually, I’ve not eaten breakfast, and so far for the day, I’ve only eaten the gummy bears and chocolate covered peanuts in my church bag. So then, I enjoy a big meal at like, one, and then, I just don’t think about food (sometimes I have some snacks during the day) and then it turns like, 7 or 8, and I' think, holy we need to eat something! And quickly throw together something to eat, but today, it changed.

I had a lot of time today, with there being no church yet again. So I found this recipe on Pinterest yesterday, and I wanted to make it. So at about noon, I started getting it ready, and at noon-thirty, I had it in the crockpot, ready to cook. The recipe goes as follows:

Teriyaki Chicken:

4 Frozen Chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1 can pineapple chunks, drain half of the juice out
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Spray the crock pot with nonstick cooking spray and add chicken breasts. Pour soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and pineapple chunks (with the juice) over the chicken. Sprinkle as many red pepper flakes on top as desired. Cook on high for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken in the crock pot with 2 forks, and serve over rice.

Now, that’s how they do it. Let me tell you of my additions and changes. I used an extra chicken. There was 5 in the package I got, so I just threw it in there too, so it wasn’t just going to be by itself later. It didn’t take away from any of the juice, or anything, I didn’t think. Also, I read in the comments of the blog I took it off of that they chicken and sauce was way too salty, so I used low sodium soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. I also added a bell pepper, and half of an onion, because I thought they’d be a nice addition. I didn’t shred the chicken in the pot, I took it out onto a plate, shredded it there, and then let it cook for another 10 minutes or so, so it could be all soaked in the juice again. All in all, it took about 4 hours to cook, because it was all done by 4:10. And now, the taste….

IT WAS DELICIOUS! Honestly, it was so good. I recommend the heck out of this to anyone. I took a picture, of course, of it after I shredded:

 

Yum!

A Scout is Helpful...

Tonight, as is usual every Wednesday, I had scouts. These kids...man. Only two show up every week, the same two loyal boys. Today, we were working on their Scholar badge, and we finished all the requirements, and still had about 30 minutes to go. We decided, instead of just playing around, doing nothing, that we'd get the boys started on another badge, and we chose Handyman. What did we choose to do, you ask? Oh, simple! Make the boys wash cars! (Hey, its in there!)
So, we drove our respective cars up into the driveway, gave the boys a hose, and let them go. They sprayed both cars, then we all got involved with the washing, then the boys sprayed all the water off. Then, we all pitched in yet again, grabbed a towel, and dried the cars. They were looking pretty dang good by the time we were finishing. And of course, after the cars were done, they ran off to play dodgeball or something (how they did that with just the two of them, I'll never know), and left myself and the other leader to finish up with the cars, namely, washing the windows.
But we finished, and now the cars look great. I hadn't washed Echo since about March (I think it was at the same time as my first mouth surgery, which I couldn't believe!) and now, it's sparkling, and shiny and looking near-new. So, yes, maybe it was a little odd to have the boys do that, but it's in the manual, and they're close to getting their badges. And tonight, our scouts were super helpful.

A Day Off in the Middle of the Week

I suppose today isn’t the middle of the week, its only Tuesday, but I’m sticking with it. Originally, I had taken off today to finally go to Lagoon for Husband’s birthday. His birthday was indeed 2 months ago, and we’re only now getting to it. Yesterday, near the end of the day, Husband texted me to ask if we were still going. I said yes, and he asked if the place was even open. Of course it was! … I thought, until I checked and found out that yup, they do close during the week after Labor Day, and are only open on the weekend now. Jeepers! We decided to still take the day off, we could find stuff to do.

Cut to today, and we didn’t ever think of what to do. Last night, we didn’t really think, and then this morning, no one could really decide, so we just sort of did…nothing. I set my alarm this morning for 6:30. There was no real reason to wake up that early, but I thought it was better that I didn’t sleep in too much, lest I was unable to sleep tonight. The alarm went off and I thought, meh, I don’t think I’ll get up, so I went back to sleep. When I woke up for reals, I went on a run, and then got ready for the day, and we finally went to breakfast at about 11. To the Village Inn. FANCY! Whatever, it was delicious, and I got a couple of slices of pie to go for later, so I’m happy. Then, we shopped around Barnes&Noble for a while, looking for any book that we wanted to get. I didn’t find anything I wanted! GAH! I just have so many unread books that I own right now, so it seems crazy to buy another that I won’t read yet also. Then, a trip to Walmart to pick up some supplies for dinner (namely, small tortilla shells)

We came home to rest up, (Husband has BAD allergies right now, thank goodness I don’t) and I watched a little TV while he did so. Then, we were finally going to go on a bike ride. We loaded up the bikes, drove down to the mouth of Provo Canyon, then proceeded to unload the bikes. And after we got mine off, we saw that Husband’s bike (even though it had been given a tune up 1 week ago) was broken. The shocks of the bike had completely come off, and the tire/’fork” part of the bike was essentially holding on by just one cable- the brake. So we loaded them back up again, and drove to the local bike shop, so that they could fix it. Dejected, we went home again.

After we got home, it was pretty near dinner time, so we got that started. I made Chili Dog Casserole. And if you want to know how to make it, I direct you to Chelle’s blog here, she has really good direction. I will leave you with a picture of mine after I pulled it out of the oven:

Yum!! This was seriously awesome. After dinner was eaten and settled, I decided it was time to paint my nails. It’s only been a week or so since I last did my toes, but they chipped, so I decided to do them again. Over the weekend, I bought a new paint color – Slick Slate! Here’s what they looked like when I was done:

I thought they looked pretty snazzy, I was pleased. The white stripes aren’t the same on both nails, and that bugs me, but not enough to start again. As those were drying, I got going on another quick project, making some cookies. A long time ago, I wrote about making 4 ingredient crinkle cookies, and today, I wanted to make them a little differently. I used a red velvet cake mix this time, and boy, these were a beast to make. The dough was stickier, so the cookies were harder to make, but I finally got them all on the sheet to put into the oven:

I thought they looked dang good, and was excited to pull them out! When I did, this is what I found:

Disappointing! So I guess, lesson learned, you can make chocolate cake ones, but not red velvet ones. I’m sure they still taste fine, but I am disappointed at how they look.

And that’s it! My day. Yes, it was pretty boring for a day off, but at least, near the end, I got some stuff done. And it was nice, to not have a stressful day, to just do whatever I wanted.

Pizza Balls

Oh, Pinterest. So fickle. Sometimes, you give me such good recipes. Delicious recipes. Awesome crafts. Funny sayings. But sometimes, I have what I call the “Nailed it!” moment, and that’s when you try something from Pinterest, and it doesn’t work, at all. And then, all I want to say about it is “Nailed it!” because you super didn’t.

Tonight, I wanted to make pizza balls. Delicious, awesome pizza balls. They’re supposed to be easy. Ingredients:
3 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits (10/can), 56 pepperoni slices, block of Colby cheese, 1 beaten egg, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, 1 jar pizza sauce.

To make-
Preheat the oven to 425. Cut the block of cheese into 28 squares. Flatten a biscuit, and stack the pepperoni and cheese inside (Like a small sandwich. Slice of pepperoni, cheese, slice of pepperoni). Gather of the edges of the biscuit, and place it seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with Parmesan, seasoning, and powder. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Now, this is how the recipe on Pinterest said to do it. DON’T DO IT THIS WAY. If you cook it for that long, at least it my oven, it burns the heck out of them, and they’re hard as rocks. I’ll use some pics now, to help you along. Here’s what they looked like, before putting them into the oven:
I know it says to put them into a 9x13 pan, but Husband put them onto the cookie sheet before I realized what was happening. Maybe that also helped in the burning, but who knows? Then, I pulled them out of the oven, and realized that, yes, they were burned. I’ll put mine side by side to the pic off the internet, so you can see how awful mine are.

See! Gosh they were bad. And they were barely even eatable. I only at a couple before I gave up and just threw them all away. And I guess you use the sauce to dip them in? After the initial introduction to the sauce, we’re not told what else to do with it, and that’s fine. And the one thing we want to say about these pizza rolls?

Nailed it.

Sunday Activities

This weekend was a church and RSL game-free weekend. I know that technically, it’s a regional/stake conference, but growing up, we never went, so now as an adult, the habit of skipping these meetings is still strong. And I know, I should be good and go, but I don’t, and I enjoy the day off, so that’s how I roll. Anyway, I gave myself a huge to-do list, because I had all day to do it. And in my brain, if I don’t go to church, I need to be productive in some way, so this is how I do it. So all day, I cleaned. I cleaned all 3 bathrooms, including mopping them. I swept and mopped the kitchen. Vacuumed the whole house. Basically, just did the whole house.

Later in the evening, I was writing a birthday card to a friend, and I decided that it was time for me to change my phone paper. (as explained before here, I use a piece of scrapbook paper in my clear phone case to individualize it, in case people didn’t remember) And to change up tradition once again, I decided to stamp my own background this time, so that it was a little differently. After going through all my stamps, and all my colors, I decided on this:

Ta-daaaa! Looking pretty good, eh? I don’t really ride bikes a lot, but recently I finally got my bike back from my brother, so I am a little more into it than before. Plus, I really like the bike stamp, it’s pretty cute. Anyway, the moral of the story is this: Even when I don’t go to church, I still get a lot of good done.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse

As usual, Monday = treat day. Last night was a specific treat day, because I am the hostess for Stamp & Chat this week. I was in the neighborhood of trying to find a healthy treat, and I stumbled on this recipe on – say it with me, everyone! – Pinterest! This has to be one of the easiest recipes I’ve tried. Here’s the recipe:

1 8-oz pkg fat free cream cheese

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup Splenda

½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tub (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed. (Do NOT add to recipe unless until completely thawed)

With an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the Splenda and pumpkin pie spice and continue to mix until well combined. Unload the whipped topping from the tub, and using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon (DO NOT USE ELECTRIC MIXER), gently fold the whipped topping into the mixture, stopping as soon as the ingredients are blended.

Over stirring will cause the whipped topping to lose too much air.

Spoon the mousse into individual dessert bowls (I fancily used 9-oz plastic cups), cover, and refrigerate for ½ hours, or until mixture is set. If desired, sprinkle each mousse with a light dusking of pumpkin pie spice before serving.

And ta-daaaa! Pretty easy, and they are pretty dang good. You can’t even tell that you’re using a sugar substitute or fat-free cream cheese. Of course, I haven’t tried the ‘set’ version yet, just as soon as it was mixed, but I don’t think the taste would vary that much. With a treat this easy and this healthy, it might be a pretty good treat to serve all over the place this fall.

Miscellaneous Monday

On Saturday, my sister in law gave me a call; she needed help with a school project, and thought I could help her. The gig was making postcards, which, I know how to make card-related items. So, Sunday afternoon rolled around, and we started to work. It took a little longer than I thought it would, it took over 3 hours to get these done. But we finished them, and they looked pretty good, I thought. I took a pic, naturally.

When we were finished, and she put away her things, I surveyed the damage left over.

After she went home, I cleaned up. It took a while to clean up, of course, but finally, everything was super clean and done. Sadly, all of the things I had on my to-do list didn’t get done, but that’s ok, I was doing a service, and that means blessings, probably.

I didn’t see a movie the entire month of August in the theaters. Things were busy every weekend, from our Colorado trip, people were out of town, and soccer games were on unusual nights, so it was just hard to get to a theater (I know, I’m whining about something that not a lot of people get to do, and believe me, I get it). This past week, I made up for it in a big way. I saw a movie on Labor Day, and then I saw one Friday, and one on Saturday. I made up for it all! I think there were only 2 movies that I didn’t get to before they left the theater, one being Spider-Man. I think I’ll have to RedBox that, which I’m ok with, it was never a movie that I was jumping up and down to see. But now, I’m caught up, and feeling pretty good about it.

I finally got a picture of me with our friend Canada. (I’ve decided to call him Canada, being his origin place, and his thick accent) Sadly, it happened at night, so the quality isn’t amazing, but now, you can see how much taller than I he is. See?

Such a difference! But now I finally have it, a size difference that I can show. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.