I Made It Monday

Yes my friends, it is back.

This one has a back story....

One of my favorite places to eat is The Cheesecake Factory. I get to go two times a year, and I ALWAYS get Chicken Romano. I love it so much that I start thinking about it the minute that I know that I am going to get to go!

A few weeks back I tried the Pasta ala Betsy from Pioneer Woman, substituting the shrimp with grilled chicken. It was sooooo good (and really what is NOT good from Pioneer Woman?)

But I got to thinking.... the sauce was a lot like the sauce from Cheesecake factory. Then I turned to my trusty sidekick Google, where I found a recipe for Chicken Romano.

So that is how I came up with my new dish.

The sauce:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup of white wine

8 ox can tomato sauce

1 cup heavy cream

2 basil leaves

saute the garlic and onion in the butter and oil until the onions are translucent.

Take off of heat and add in wine, let it evaporate for about 45 seconds. Then add in tomato sauce and cream. Let simmer while you do the rest!

Cook a pasta of your choice- I used thin spaghetti

Now the chicken. I did not use measuring cups, so I can't give you a specific recipe.

I used fresh chicken tender cut pieces. Pound them flat, think really, really thin.

Set up 3 bowls- one with flour and some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. The second bowl with beaten eggs, the third bowl with grated Romano cheese ( i used the Kraft stuff in a can)

Put each piece of chicken through the process, flour, egg then cheese. Fry them in oil in a pan until brown on each side.

After the chicken was fried I put a little of the sauce on and sprinkled some mozzarella cheese on top and melted it in the oven

Next I put the sauce on the cooked pasta and topped with the chicken

The whole family LOVED this. Except Mr Rocks. He doesn't like any type of pasta. (weirdo!)

So I just made his pan fried plain chicken with panko instead of the Romano.

My Decade

I started the decade with Mr Rocks, thinking that the people that thought that the world may end in the year 2000 were odd. I was happy to be celebrating my first new year over the age of 21 at a friends apartment- she was in fact the only friend that had an apartment at the time. It was a super fun night!

Flash forward 10 years. I was barely awake at midnight and laying in bed. So what happened in between there? A TON!

Between the years 2000-2009 (in no particular order)

-I got married

- had 4 babies

- lost 2 babies

- graduated college

- worked in 4 places, and at home

- lost a (step) parent

- Found religion

- became Catholic (not the same as finding religion, becoming Catholic is a process)

- became an aunt

- came to the realization that my true passion in life is motherhood, and that it is OK to not like to work, or want a career.

- Sometimes you have to work to do what is best for your family

- I learned everything I know about children through trial and error

- I made the best friends ever..... online

- I learned that no matter how bad something feels at the moment, life goes on

- I got a cell phone

- I got a laptop

- I learned to text message

- I bought a mini van *gasp*

- I moved 3 times

- had Starbucks for the first time

- watched many. many movies

- replaced most of the things that we received as wedding gifts already (who knew that stuff doesn't last that long!)

- learned that between the Internet and having a handy dandy husband- you can try to fix almost anything.

- I am really glad that I have a handy dandy husband

Welcome, 2010

With the new year comes the usual wave of resolutions. Well, this past month has been especially hectic, so I was a little behind in getting started on my new goals.

I always like to set goals for myself every so often, not just at New Years.

This year I have the usual- get healthy, drink more water, and give up Diet Coke.

The goal to succeeding with goals is to have a plan of action!

My plan- I want to get back to working out 5-6 days a week. This is going to be tricky with working. I know that millions of mom's work out of the home and still manage to work out, so I know it CAN be done, but I have to figure it out for me. I work evenings, so I was planning to do my runs on the treadmill in the morning after the big kids go to school. This plan has hit a major road bump because Little Boy has figured out how to climb out of the play pen. Now I just need to figure out something to do with him while I run. He is just at the holy-terror-almost 2 stage right now and it had me stumped! I have been going to Zumba when my work schedule allows.

As for the water- I just need to do it. My goal is 5 bottles a day.

Give up the Diet Coke. This is a toughy. I don't drink coffee, so this is my caffeine. I know the horrors of Diet Coke (well, any aspartame) and I still drink it. I plan to wean off gradually. I am currently down to 3 cans a day (I drank a lot, shamefully). I don't think that i will ever be totally off it, but i don't want my body to be dependant on it.

I also want to blog more. I need to let go of the idea that it needs to be super interesting and just remember that it is an outlet for me to get things out.

Next I want to talk about my decade, so be on the watch.

I Made it Monday

A friend of mine gave me this recipe. It is from Hungry Girl, so it is a lower calorie option. I made a few changes (I will let you know what I changed)

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:


2 cups moist style yellow cake mix (1/2 of 18.25 ounce box)
1 large banana, mashed
1/3 cup Gerber bananas (or other baby food banana)
½ teaspoon baking powder


Frosting:¾ cup cool whip free(thawed)
¼ cup reduced fat peanut butter, room temp (optional 12 slices banana)


*I double the recipe (mostly so I could use the whole box of the cake mix). I also used extra creamy Cool Whip, because that is what I had. I checked the calories, the fat free version has 10 calories less per 2 tablespoons (personally, I would take the extra calories). I also used natural peanut butter, not low fat.


Preheat oven to 375

Combine peanut butter and cool whip stirring until mixed well. refrigerate.

In large bowl, combine cake mix with baking powder and 1 cup water. Mix well.
Add pureed bananas and stir thoroughly. Mix in mashed banana.

12 cup muffin tin with lined cups or sprayed. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Test with a toothpick.

Once cooled COMPLETELY, spread frosting. Top with a slice of banana. Refrigerate until ready to serve

*I don't know why the recipe says to refrigerate the frosting. I did and it was too hard to frost the cupcakes! So I left it out for a bit and I added more Cool Whip.

I also didn't top with the banana, because I didn't have lemon juice.


This is what they looked like:
If you made these according to the original recipe 1 cupcake is 143 calories.

These are really, really good! The peanut butter and banana combo reminds me of being a kid. I ate peanut butter on nanas all the time.

Little Girl also helped me make these, you can check out a pic on my pic blog (once i get it updated of course!)

Seven

The other day, my Big Boy turned 7 years old.

It is so hard for me to believe! It seems like it was just yesterday that we found out that I was pregnant! But in the time that seems like it was yesterday, we have had 4 children!

During that journey, there is one night that I was talking about with Mr Rocks, that kinds of gives us a chuckle now.

A few weeks before Big Boy was born, we spontaneously went to eat dinner at Friday's. I was VERY pregnant, and moody. While we were sitting there talking about the stuff that we still needed to do, we had a thought. This dinner was probably the last one like it. The last time we could just go to dinner, with out a child, with out a diaper bag, with out setting up a sitter.
Little did we know, in that Fridays a little over 7 years ago that our realization was sooooo true!

A few weeks later, as Mr Rocks drove me to the hospital, I realized that I wouldn't miss those dinners too much.

After a few more kids, I kinda wish that we could go to dinner alone more often, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Long time

I took a leave of absence. I am not really sure why.

Then I got to worry- what the heck was I going to talk about after all this time?

Then I thought- who cares, just jump back in.


So that is that.

Lots of things happened- school started, a few long weekend trips.

I am back. Can't promise that it will be all that interesting.

I Made it Monday

This week I made rum cake. It is one of Mr Rocks favorites. It is really pretty easy too! This recipe was given to me at my bridal shower by Mr Rocks' great Aunt.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional- I do not use them)
1 package (18.5 oz) yellow cake mix
1 (3.75 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

(sorry- not sure why the picture is sideways? Can't get it fixed?)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 10" tub pan or 12 cup Bundt pan. (if you choose) Sprinkle nuts over bottom. Mix all cake ingredients together and pout over nuts. Bake 1 hour and let it cool.

Next, make the glaze:

1 stick of butter

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup rum

melt butter in sauce pan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

It will thicken up an look like this:

Remove from heat and stir in rum.

Prick the top of the cake with a fork or a tooth pick and drizzle the glaze over the top and sides. I found that setting the cake on a cooling rack was the easiest way of doing this.

Cut and serve. We like it with a little bit of Cool Whip. The cake is very rich and the Cool Whip is very good with it!