www.triedandtasty.com. I told you guys to bookmark it and if you haven't, you really should. We have loved nearly every recipe we have tried from there and this one was a winner as well. This really was quick and easy, a great choice after a long day at work.
I also followed her advice and served this was Basmati rice. I'd gotten so used to throwing a bag in the microwave, I forgot how tasty good sticky rice really is.
I'm still undecided on the Braggs Liquid Aminos. I agree that it does taste just like Soy Sauce but I also had a bottle of the La Choy Lite Soy Sauce and when you compare the two, I'm not sure its really that much better. The Aminos has a much lower sodium content but higher total Carbohydrates And the serving size is smaller - 1/2 tsp of Braggs compared to 1 tbsp of La Choy. So I guess it really comes down to personal preference and whether you are more interested in sodium, calories, or carbs. Check out the two nutritional labels below (Braggs is on the left) and decide for yourself.
Braggs Amino Liquid is available from Amazon (isn't everything?) and it does not need to be refrigerated, which I kind of liked given our over-packed fridge doors.
The recipe for the Quick and Easy Sweet and Spicy Chicken can be found over at Tried and Tasty.
The bad news is I have clearly been out of touch for awhile. The good news is, I have been so busy cooking, crafting and creating that I have some great posts coming. Ill start with another recipe of the week. And Ill make an attempt to be much better about regular posts. This blogging thing is harder than I thought.
I'm sorry I don't have a photo of this recipe, I was too busy shoving it into my mouth to stop and take a photo. With the pool opening next month, I'm trying to incorporate as many "skinny" recipes as possible into our weekly routine. I love crock pot recipes as well and this one sounded interesting so I decided to give it a try and I am so happy I did. The sweetness from the sprite was different but so yummy. We served it on tortillas with some fresh cilantro and a lil shredded cheese. Couldn't have been easier. The Hubs keeps saying how good it was and the leftovers disappeared quickly.
Living a changed life-bajito chicken
The Hubs loves to make chili. He has a few different recipes he plays with and he makes big pots of it and freezes it. I do not like the Hubs chili. Its not his fault, I'm just very particular about my chili. #1, I don't like beans. #2, I do not eat beef so it has to be turkey or chicken. We had a little chili cook-off recently but I'm not really sure who won, because no one would say anything other than "they are both good". Probably wise on their part. The Hubs and I can be very competitive. And since I do not like his chili, he rarely likes mine but this particular recipe was a hit with us both.
Sorry about the photo - I really need to work on my photography skills. Only change I made to the recipe was leaving out the beans. I served it over rice with fresh cilantro. So yummy.
Look Who's Cookin Now Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken
My kitchen organization effort continues and I wanted to share with you the neatest little solution I found for decluttering the spice cabinet. These spice clips I found on Amazon worked like a charm.
They come in a 10" long strip with tape for attaching to the cabinet doors. You can remove clips as needed so that it will fit your door or wall perfectly. I used all 20 on my small door and it made a huge difference in the cabinet. And its very easy to get the spice bottles in and out. One thing to keep in mind - the tape on these is serious - be sure you want it there because I'm honestly not sure this will ever come off again. Hope the next owners like it as much as I do. ;-)
We have a Shrimp Scampi recipe in our regular rotation that's beyond good. Its has LOTS of butter (12 tablespoons) and we devour it like crazy people. I was planning to make it again this weekend but then I realized that my jeans are tight enough, and it might be time to scale things back a bit. So off to Pinterest I went looking for a skinnier version and that is where I found Pineapple and Coconut's Skinny Baked Shrimp Scampi with Spaghetti Squash. I was a lil nervous at the reaction I would get from everyone going from 12 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons of butter BUT this was a huge hit! I loved it. The Hubs loved it. The teen loved it (although he wasn't interested in the squash). It was everything I hoped and more. Easy to make, healthy, and tasty. I even enjoyed the squash and kept scooping out spoonfuls of it while I was cleaning up. It looks so yummy doesn't it...
Here is the link for the recipe for Pineapple and Coconut's Skinny Baked Shrimp Scampi. And my alterations... I did not have any Kerrygold butter or cheese so I used the unsalted butter I had on hand and some shredded white cheddar cheese. You can see in the picture that I only sprinkled cheese on half of the top (the right side) because I really didn't feel like it was going to need any cheese, the shrimp looked so yummy on their own. I also sprinkled just a little bit of panko bread crumbs on that side but I think next time I would omit both of those and just use the 3/4 cup of cheese mixed within the squash. Also, I did not have the white wine vinegar but I did have white cooking wine so that it what I used. Next time I may try to find the Kerrygold cheese and use the vinegar and see if it can actually improve this yummy recipe.
I will definitely be checking out some more of Pineapple and Coconuts "healthy eats & sweet treats". A+
And for those of you who are not watching your weight and think 12 tablespoons of butter is just what you need (it really is very good), here is the original scampi recipe we use from Food Network: Baked Shrimp Scampi
Our kitchen is the hub of our home. Even though the older boys both have desks in their rooms, they prefer to do their homework at our kitchen table. They also love to eat. So we all spend a lot of time in the kitchen and it quickly becomes a disorganized mess. I posted recently about reorganizing our pantry, but even before that, I decided we needed to deal with our homework/dining table area. This is what it looked like:
Everyone, including the dog had their own bin. The boys used theirs for all their school papers. At the end of each school year, I would go through each bin and pick out the masterpieces, and then recycle the rest. We also have a bulletin board for photos, flyers, etc. But it was a bit of a mess and an eyesore. Anytime I'm looking for new storage pieces, I start with Ikea because they are affordable and everything we have gotten from them has held up very well. So this time I decided to go with the Besta line in the dark brown/black. I can't even tell you how roomy these bins are. I originally bought 3 and ended up going back for more because I loved them so much. And look at the difference it made...
I ended up with 4 big ones and 4 small ones against the wall and 1 more set over at the end of the counter. Soooo much storage. And they are big. They hold my crock pot, my ninja, all my cake pop supplies... and still holds all the kids school stuff.
Here is a link for the Ikea Besta line. It comes in a few different colors and you can do it without doors or legs so its completely customizable.
Since I spent some pretty serious money on this, I tried to be thrifty on the new wall decor. I bought a 4 pack of 12 X 12 mirrors from Ikea, and got some frames at AC Moore using my coupons. They only had white so I used some leftover spray paint I had and painted them black. I only used 2 of the 4 mirrors so expect to see the other 2 pop up sometime in some other room. The other two frames are filled with some projects I made using my Silhouette.
I love my new kitchen. I prefer everything out of sight and this makes my OCD much less irritated. I plan to add some pretty handles at some point, but for now I like that it is difficult for my littlest man to get into these. He has his own cube which houses his playdoh, paint and sticker supplies as well... did I mention how roomy these things are. Im seriously considering some white ones for the basement at some point. And I put these all together myself while the Hubs was working so they are A+ in my book.
*My middle child helped with the 2nd print, and said "just so you know, I don't love anyone more than Chick-Fil-A". Told you my boys love to eat.
