Shrimp and Potatoes for Dinner!

What was dinner tonight? Well, we had a delicious Italian Shrimp Scampi, a side of Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potato wedges, and Smores Bars for dessert. I will include recipes, directions and pictures below. All 3 of the Pinterest inspired dishes we had to tonight really hit the ball out of the park. I give them all FIVE stars!

Italian Shrimp Scampi
Ease **** Taste *****
50 medium, raw, shell on shrimp
2-3 lemons
Italian dressing dry season (1/2 pack)
1 stick of butter

Slice the lemons and lay out on cookie sheet. Place the raw shrimp on the pan. Melt the butter
and drizzle over shrimp and lemon. Sprinkle Italian season over the top of the shrimp. I only needed half the envelope, but you could use the whole pack if you want. Cook at 350 degrees for 15 mins.

This is truly a DELICIOUS way to enjoy shrimp! We had no leftovers!

Raw Shrimp

All done! 

Cheesy Bacon Ranch Potato Wedges

Ease: *** Taste: *****

5-6 potatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

Salt, pepper and season salt

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1 cup shredded cheddar

1/2 cup bacon bits

Cut the potatoes into wedges, a little on the thick side. Toss them in oil, and spread onto well-greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and season salt. Cook for about 40-45 mins (depending on the thickness of the potato wedges) in the oven at 400 degrees. While the potatoes cook, mix up the sour cream, milk and ranch into a bowl. Pour about 3/4 of into a casserole pan and spread out across the bottom. When the potatoes are done, place them in the casserole dish on top of the ranch mix. Top with the the shredded cheeses and bacon bits. Return to the oven for 5 min on broil! 

Smore's Bars

1 bag of mini marshmallows 10.5 oz

6 tablespoons of butter (melted)

1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 Box of Golden Grahams 12 oz.

Melt marshmallows and butter in a large bowl. 30 seconds at a time and stir until fully melted. Add in vanilla and stir. Fold in the whole box of Golden Grahams until well mixed. Add in the chocolate chips last minute and press into a WELL greased 9x11 pan. Put in fridge for 10 mins to help set. Cut and eat!! Cover leftovers for an after school treat!

Melt the marshmallows

Stir in vanilla

Add the Golden Grahams

Stir in chocolate chips last

Pressed into greased pan.

                     Cut into squares and enjoy!

Magnetic Board

I have seen the cutest magnet boards at several shops lately. They are very pricey and so are the cute magnets they sell to go with it! I saw a few attempts to re-create one on Pinterest and thought I would give it a shot! It turned out really cute (or at least I think it did) ! I did already have some of the items needed to make the board, but I ended up spending $6.00 for it. Not too bad considering the ones I have seen are $20 and up for the boards, and $10 and up for the magnets. 

I started with a large Pizza Pan, Modge Podge, Magnetic Dots, Fabric and Buttons

Begin by ironing the fabric. Place it on the cookie sheet and COVER it in Modge Podge with a paintbrush.

When you have fully covered the front, flip it over and cover the back edges.

I put mine outside to dry.

While the Modge Podge was drying, I hot-glued the magnet dots to the buttons.

 Finished magnets!

Finished Project

And there is my cute board hanging on the pantry! 

Jenn's EASY Lasagna

I think my lasagna recipe is very generic. It's extra cheesy and it's my kids love it! Actually, besides my homemade fried chicken nuggets, this is their favorite dinner! I always try to cook a kid-friendly dinner every night, after all, they are my biggest fans! I decided to add this recipe to the blog just in case you've never made your own lasagna! It really is a very easy dinner that you can make ahead and freeze, or make in the morning and pop in the oven later for dinner. There are two types of noodles. There are regular lasagna noodles, and a no-boil lasagna noodle. My best friend swears be the no-boil noodles. I prefer the boil first kind!


Homemade Lasagna:
1 lb. ground beef browned and drained
1/2 box of lasagna noodles (12 noodles)
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
4 cups of mozzarella cheese
1 container of ricotta cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs

Brown ground beef. Drain. Return to pan and add jar of spaghetti sauce.
Boil noodles (use a tablespoon of oil to keep them from sticking) and drain. 
In a large mixing bowl combine the ricotta cheese, eggs, 2 1/2 cups of the mozzarella cheese, and parmesan cheese.
Begin layering in a 9x13 pan. I put a cup of the meat sauce on bottom. Then 3 noodles. Then 1/2 the cheese mix (I use my hands to get it evenly spread over the noodles). Then 3 more noodles, then meat sauce, 3 noodles, the rest of the cheese mix, 3 noodles and the rest of the meat sauce on top. Top with the remaining mozzarella cheese, and cover in tinfoil. Bake for 35-40 mins at 375 degrees. Remove the tinfoil and bake for an additional 5 min. to brown top! 

Brown the Beef

Drain and add the sauce.

Mix up the cheese.

Start layering. Meat sauce on bottom

Then noodles and cheese.

More noodles.

 Meat Sauce, then repeat!

Cover top with me cheese and bake!

Special Little Pillow

When Nana started chemotherapy treatments, Momma took off school for several weeks and took her to her treatments, and stayed with her to help her through the worst of it. After Mom went back to school, Kennedy and I would check in on Nana during the day and bring her lunch, or drop her off at the clinic for treatments. This was about the time that I was trying to get Kennedy to sleep through the night in her crib. After a few nights, we realized that she slept much better with a pillow. Well, of course when I told Nana that she slept well with a full size pillow in the crib, Nana was very quick to give me a replacement! She handed me a very old, very soft, small, sage colored pillow. I could tell from looking at it that it was old. She told me that it was handmade by her mother, and that it was hand stuffed with real cotton. None of that polyester fiber fill. It was soo soft and just the perfect size. She told me to take it, even though I told her it was not necessary, that she had no need for it. So, I took the pillow and gave it to Kennedy. She immediately grabbed hold and rubbed it on her head. So, we began giving her her "Nana Pillow" when she laid down for naps and bedtime. She loves that pillow more than any other toy! She would carry it around all day if I would let her! Nana never knew how much she loves that pillow, but I sure do wish she was here to tell her about it! She would be so happy. I don't have many pictures of Nana and Kennedy, and she didn't get a chance to hold her too much while she was sick, but something about Kennedy and that pillow just warms my heart. As I tiptoed into her room tonight to check on her, I couldn't help but smile, and shed a little tear when I peeked into the crib and saw this...

Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken Tater Tots

I found this recipe for chicken, cheese and tater tot casserole. What I liked the most about it was that it's a Crock Pot recipe!! My favorite! I get a little tired of  "cream of crockpot", so I was excited to see this recipe involved no cream of anything soup! Now, don't expect a fancy dinner with this. I would have to say this is definitely a kid friendly style dinner. It works especially well for nights at the soccer field, or football field. 

Crock Pot Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole:

1 bag of Tater Tots

1 lb. of raw chicken tenders (cut into nugget size pieces)

2 cups Shredded Cheese (your favorite kind- we use the colby/jack blend)

1 cup Milk

1 cup bacon bits

Spray your crock pot with Pam, cover bottom in half the tots. Cover the tots in 1/3 of the cheese and bacon.  Spread your raw chicken nugget pieces on top of that. Cover in salt and pepper. Then cover in 1/3 cheese and 1/3 bacon bits. Pour the rest of your tots in. Cover with remaining cheese and bacon bits. Top it all off with the cup of milk poured all over the casserole. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. I cooked ours for 5 and it was perfect! 

Cut up the raw chicken strips.

Layer in the crockpot.

YUMMY cheesy deliciousness!

Summer 2012 Memoir

What a wonderful summer we have had! I love to stay busy during the summer. It keeps the kids entertained for one! It also allows them to see the beautiful world God created for us! Our first trip was camping in Pine Mountain with our friends The Curtis'. We brought our tent to sleep in for 2 nights, and our friends brought their camper. We had a wonderful time hiking, and playing at Callaway Gardens and swimming. But, I will have to say that the best memory of this trip was Kennedy locking herself in the van. For 45 minutes. It was quite the adventure! We eventually called 911, only to discover that a child being locked in a vehicle is NOT an emergency in Troup County, and that the 911 dispatcher had a bro-in-law who was a locksmith and so kindly came to our site and retrieved my child from the lock car. 

We had lots of local adventures as well! We made a trip to Dauset Trails, several trips to Callaway Gardens and Sprewell Bluff!

     

 

Dauset Trail

Callaway Gardens

                                                                    
                                        Sprewell Bluff

 We even managed to squeeze in a trip Six Flags with the kids free 600 Minute Reading Club tickets!


One of the trips this summer involved a break for me! I hadn't had a Mommy break in 2 years, and finally got a great chance to relax with some wonderful friends in New York City! The story of how I met these gals is one to remember! Believe it or not, I actually met these ladies on the internet! A popular pregnancy website called Baby Center offers birth boards and chats for new, experienced and expecting moms. On this website, I managed to randomly be thrown into a group of about 12 woman who still chat on regular basis! We all have babies born in July of 2011, and some of the women have other children as well. We all live spread out across the country, but we chat via Facebook and Skype everyday. These women are truly special to me! We call our group the "Banana's" because the way we all ended up chatting was about a post on Baby Center involving a friend feeding her baby banana's at 2 months old. Here is a picture from New York with some of my "Banana" friends!

For 2 weeks of the summer, we actually ended up at Camp Lejuene, North Carolina! One of my friends, Nicole( a banana friend ) lives on base there. Her husband was deployed to Afghanistan and she needed a little company! Fortunately, she also has children my kids ages! She has the a 1 year old, an 8 year old, and an 11 year old! We are the best of friends, and enjoyed our time together! We visited the Emeril Isle and played Putt Putt and toured an aquarium, we swam at the pool, went to the beach on base, and played the beloved "car tag" game! We ended up with pictures of car tags from all 50 states (except for Idaho, which we found on another road trip!) We also took a day trip to the University of North Carolina (for those who do not know- my husband and children are UNC's biggest fans). We checked out the Dean Center where the Tarheels play basketball and the college bookstore for some memorabilia. We took another little trip while in North Carolina to visit Virginia (just so we could say we had been to Virginia this summer). Here are a few pics from our trip to the base at Camp Lejuene. And for those who are interested, my friends husband arrived home safely last month!

                                                     
                             Hanging out at the beach on base!

Grocery shopping at the Commissary

The Dean Center

                                My friend Nicole and I at the aquarium

The never ending cartag game!! 

The 4th of July brought along a bike parade, grilling out and of course some sprinkler action in the back yard! The beginning of July also brought a very special 1st Brithday!

                                            The Bike Parade

Water Sprinkler and trampoline = Good summer fun!

                                                                 
                                             Birthday Girl!                      

As if that isnt enough stuff for one summer, Kevin and I got to take a wonderful trip for 5 days to Bermuda! We stayed at the Fairmont Southhampton with all expenses paid courtesy of Home Depot, and my hard working husband!  We had a wonderful time! Bermuda is truly a beautiful place. My favorite thing about the trip was the snorkeling. I snorkeled every day. I absolutely love to look at all the underwater sea life. The food was not as exciting as I had expected. But the beauty of the island made up for it. We were able to visit several of the cities on the small island, as well as take a catamaran to an awesome snorkeling reef for the day. Bermudans are the only people allowed to drive on the island, so we took public buses and boats everywhere we wanted to go. The people of Bermuda are very polite, kind people! We were very surprised at the manors of even the children! We enjoyed our time in Bermuda and our alone time together- we don't get it that often! Here are a few pics from our trip.