Mother's day.

As many of you know, Mothers day is today. It has been sad but happy day. There are only a couple of times a year I really miss my mom, and today is one of those days. The other days consist of her birthday, her passing, and I guess some major holidays.

I guess I miss her because I really didnt get to know her all that well. I hate that she is missing out on all of our lives, especially playing with all of her grand babies. I know she is out there watching over us and I am sure she played with Asher before he came to us. I hope one day I can teach Asher about her more and allow him to know a little bit about her. The much that I got to know anyways. In my eyes she was an incredible women. I am also thankful for the atonement and the understanding that Families can be together forever. I hope to see you again someday mom and I love you.

On the other hand my dad ended up marrying someone short after and she has been a big influence in my life I am grateful that she is there for me and is such a great grandma for Asher.  I am also thankful for my mother in law for raising someone as intelligent and loving as my husband.

School is starting which means freezer meals were made.

We are starting back up with school on Monday and I am kind of excited. I have been having a little bit of anxiety with it already though because it is my first semester with classes on campus since I have had Asher. Which has been 3 semesters online. Oh how I love online classes, it just breaks my heart to leave Asher for long periods of time and I have classes 10-2 Monday Wednesday and Friday. Only one on Tuesday and Thursday thankfully.

Anyways when we are both in school we often have a hard time wanting to cook, just because we are busy with school and have other things on our minds. So we would often just grab a quick bite to eat. So to help calm my anxiety a little and save money, yesterday with a good friend, we got together and made tons of freezer meals. Thought I would share some of the recipes we did.

Chicken and Broccoli Bake

Ingredients:

    1 pound chicken, cooked and cut into chunks

    2 cups broccoli florets

    10.75 ounces cream of chicken soup (you can even make your own!)

    2 cups cooked rice

    1 teaspoon garlic powder

    1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix cooked chicken, broccoli, soup, rice, and garlic powder. Spread in greased 8×8 baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

**Optional variation: omit the broccoli and serve as a steamed veggie side dish instead.**

Freezing Directions:

After preparing casserole, spread in a greased baking dish, but do not bake. Cover with foil, label, and freeze. To serve: Thaw. Bake uncovered at 375F for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Servings: 4

Layered Enchilada Casserole

2 cup cooked, shredded chicken (I just toss a few chicken breasts in the crock pot in the morning to cook)

1 can diced tomatoes, drained (15 oz)

1 can black beans, drained (15oz)

1 tub Santé Fe Blend Philadelphia Cooking Crème

2 cup shredded cheese. ( I used a combo of 3 cheddar and Pepper Jack)

3 flour tortillas (I used 6 inch)

1. Mix the chicken, tomatoes, beans, and cooking crème in a bowl. Combine well.

2. Place a 1/3 cup mixture on bottom of a pie plate or 8X8  freezer pan.  I buy the foil ones. Top with 1 flour tortilla.

3. Top tortilla with chicken mixture and cheese. Repeat layers and end with chicken mixture on top and top with last bit of cheese.

4. Double wrap in heavy aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn.  Label.

Cooking Instructions: Thaw and bake uncovered at 350 degrees 30 minutes or until heated through.

Baked Ziti (Rotini)

Ingredients:

    1 box of ziti or rotini shells

    Pinch of salt & pepper

    2 cups of ricotta cheese

    1 large egg

    1 cup grated parmesan

    1 cup mozzarella

    1 large jar of pasta sauce

Directions:

    Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Throw in your pasta and cook as directed. Drain the water.

    Combine the ricotta, parmesan, mozzarella, and egg in a bowl. Save some of the parmesan and mozzarella for the top.

    Pour half of the pasta sauce on the bottom of a pan (I was able to use two square pans).

    Add the pasta on top of the sauce. Layer the cheese mixture on top of the pasta.

    Pour the remaining pasta sauce on top of the cheese mixture. Sprinkle remaining parmesan and mozzarella on the top (I always use more than recipes call for!).

    Cover your pan tightly and freeze for up to 2 months. To heat, turn oven on to 400 and bake for 40 minutes.

Chicken Rice Wraps

I made these for Becky and Rett previously, and have heard of many other people making them as well so they seemed like a safe bet. I think these will be great for lunches!

Recipe (adapted from this document that I found on a cooking message board)

2 cups dry rice, cooked as directed on package

1 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded

2 cups medium salsa

1 pkg. Taco seasoning mix

8 large flour tortillas

In a large bowl, combine chicken, salsa and seasonings and cooked rice.

Spoon mixture into center of tortillas and wrap.

To FREEZE: Simply wrap each folded tortilla in tin foil and place in 1 gallon freezer bag. To reheat, unwrap and microwave for about 2 minutes, flipping once.

 Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients:

1 lb. Pork Sausage (I use Jimmy Dean)

1 Pkg. Hash browns (I use Simply Potatoes)

8 to 12 Large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 pkg. shredded cheese (I use cheddar today, but I have used a Mexican blend)

salt and pepper to taste

1 to 2 pkg. flour tortillas (I used the soft taco size tortillas)

Assemble everything how you like it. We added green peppers into ours and also added bacon and ham in with our sausage. Wrap burrito in Tin foil and place in gallon sized bags. Warm for 2 min rotating the burrito once. 

               

Black Bean Soup ~ 10 Minute Delicious Dinner!

Ten minutes AND delicious??  No lie.  Unless, you forget to buy black beans, at the store, like I did.  Then it takes more like and hour and a half.

 Alright, so this is what I used:  4 cans black beans, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 can corn, 1 cup salsa, and a pound of ground beef.  You can easily substitute the ground beef for chicken, or even do it meatless. I love to add avocado, tomato, olives, cheese, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips to the soup.  Mmmm!

Cook up your meat (ground beef, chicken, or nothing).  Set aside.

Chop up your soup toppings…tomatoes, avocados, olives.  Grate some cheddar cheese, and pull out your chips and sour cream.

Blend 3 cans of black beans with 2 cups of chicken broth.  You may have to split this into 2 sessions, if it doesn’t all fit.  Once it’s blended, dump it into a large pot.  Add about 1 cup of salsa.  You can add more or less, depending on your preference.  I like Pace Picante sauce.  But, I blend up my salsa first, no chunks for me!  Stir the salsa with your blended black beans/chicken broth. That is your soup base.  Heat it up.

Add the meat to your soup, your fourth can of drained black beans and a drained can of corn.  Heat and stir together, and that’s it.

Black Bean Soup ingredients:

4 cans black beans (3 to blend for base, 1 for hearty filling)

1 can corn, drained

2 cups chicken broth

1 lb. ground beef (or shredded chicken)

1 cup salsa

Optional toppings: avocado, grated cheddar cheese, tomatoes, black olives, sour cream, crushed tortilla chips.

Directions:  Cook your meat, set aside.  Prepare your optional toppings, set aside.  Blend 3 cans of black beans with 2 cups of chicken broth in the blender.  You may have to do a couple sessions, if it doesn’t all fit in the blender.  Pour it into a large pot.  Add salsa.  I do one cup, but depending on your preference, you can add more or less.  This is your base.  Add the fillers to the base:  can of drained corn, cooked meat, and last can of black beans (drained.)  Heat all together.  Serve with toppings.

We also made  Chimi's and a pizza casserole, lasagna, and taco pasta shells. If you want recipes for these one, just ask and I can get them to you. We loved the burritos the most because after you wrap them individually you can take them out basically anytime to use them breakfast lunch dinner without having to have too much left overs or waiting for the whole family to be hungry.

California Trip

This last week we were lucky enough to spend sometime with Benj's family on a family vacation in Disneyland. Benj parents have a time share so it was like a little vacation in a different apartment, so great. While we were there we spent time in Disneyland, California Adventure, the Beach, and just relaxed. We were so busy making memories and having fun I didnt take many pictures but we did get some great pictures on the beach. Asher really loved it there and might even someday become a beach baby :). Here are some pictures of our trip.

14 months old.

Tonight I came across some pictures throughout this past year that i really loved wanted to share some of them with all of you to go with it are some fun fact about what Asher has been up to and all the new tricks he has learned lately.

1) "Yeah" is currently one of Asher's favorite words. When we can't see him playing in another room and he is being oddly quite I often ask Asher questions such as " Asher are you being naughty?" or " Are you doing something you know you're not suppose to be doing?" he almost always answers with a "Yeah!"

2) Asher's favorite thing to play with and eat is dirt. I know weird but he obsesses about it. Everywhere we go its "dit" in Ashe'rs language. My parents have a lot of plants in their home and he when we aren't looking he grabs a bunch puts half of it in his mouth and then squishes the other other half everywhere. We usually find a dirt trail leading into another room or two. When we go outside to play he also heads straight to the dirt.

3) Asher loves loves animals especially kitty's. One word that does come out clear is kitty. Too bad animals don't love him and usually run when they see him. Even dog are called kitty.

4) Asher is such a Chocolate lover just like his dad ( I dont care much for chocolate, I like my salty things bettter.) He even knows if something is brown it's most likely chocolate if it isn't chocolate he is usually disappointed.

5) He has such a tender heart. We have recently been teaching him to fold his arm's and be quite during prayer. Sometimes we get into a hurry during dinner usually when Benj has to be back to work in thirty minutes and sometimes forget to pray. He usually looks at us and folds his arms and waits till we pray before he will eat.

6) Asher loves music. If he likes the beat to the music he will drop whatever he is doing just to dance.

7) His favorite things to play with are my kitchen spatulas and plastic bowls.

8) Asher loves reading. Usually he fights us going to bed but if we read him a couple of books he goes down without a fight but usually asks us to read him a couple of more.

9) Asher loves fruit, but wont drink juice. He hates juice he wont even swallow most of the time, he usually will give it a try and then when it gets into his mouth he opens his mouth and lets is all drain out onto his shirt. But we always bring baby organic fruit pouches everywhere with us and if he seems them he will hand them to us and drink the whole fruit pouch usually in one sitting.

10) Asher is very friendly and loves to give kisses and hugs to almost anyone who will take it from him. My dad didn't like his open mouth kisses and said something about it to us when Asher was around. He must have understood because after that all or mostly all of his kisses are closed mouth kisses.

11)   Asher already has a best friend and loved him Lincoln and his baby sister V. Asher loves them both and can never stop laughing when around him.

12) Asher is already really good at ignoring us. When we tell him not to do something or to do something or to even simple come here he will look at us say "What?" a couple of times and then pretends to not hear us and does whatever he wants.

13) He is already good at taking pictures when we tell him to smile he usually cheeses it. What a ham.

14) we honestly couldn't have been blesses with a more perfect child in our lives. He is always so happy even when he is sick and rarely disobeys us. I hate that he is growing up so fast and is so eager to do so.

Here are my top favorite pictures we have of him so far.

My Baby Turned One

I cant believe Asher has already turned one. Its been a crazy year but I wouldnt have traded it for the world. We didnt really celebrate Ashers birthday yet because we wanted to celebrate it with some close family and friends. And if you know my dads profession he is EXTREMELY busy from October til April. So we are celebrating in this next Sunday. When that time comes I will post pictures and write a little more about it. But for now I just wanted to write down some things he has been doing.

Asher At Age One:

• weights 20 pounds (25th percentile) 
• is 28 inches (10th percentile)- we have a short stalky baby on our hands.
• He has four teeth. -- his two front teeth have a huge gap in between them we found out today its because of the skin that is attached to his lip goes clear down to the bottom of his gums, they said if something doesnt happen at 18 months we might have to go see an ears, nose and throat doctor from them to cut it. 
• Which brings me to my next point, Asher has a hard time breathing through his nose and is a huge snorer, he has a hard time sleeping at night, which is why I cant say Asher sleeps through the night, When talking to our doctor about it he said Asher nose passage is too small for his body, and he might have some problems with adenoids?. They also said that they cant really do anything about it till he is 18 months old. so we will see.  but he still wakes up from this nose problems probably any where from 1-4 times a night.
• Asher also has one eye thats a little crossed we are watching for that as well and might have to see an eye doctor for it when he turns 18 months 
• He has been walking since 9 months old and hasnt stopped there, he now climbs on couches over the baby gate, and even pushes things  over to stand on them when something is just a little too high for him. 
• He says lots of words such as: GO GO GO, No, yes,  Mom, dad, more, dadis ( there it is), hey, hi, hello ( heywo), num num  and a lot of others things we cant understand. 
• Knows some sign language, more, tired, thirsty, hungry.
• Still taking two naps a day ( one hour each) 
• fitting into 18 month tops and 9-12 month pants 
• can eat everything but his favorite foods are Bananas, pineapple, oatmeal, and chicken, and milk
• He hates juice,
• officially taking pacifiers only at nap time and bed time. 
• Still cant do stairs 
• Loves dancing

We truly love this little boy and everything he brings to the table, my life wouldnt be the same without him, he truly is everything to me and cant wait to see where he progresses next. 

It's not about losing weight it's about living a healthier life style

Lately I have has some things on my mind that make me want to be a better person. A lot people in today's world only think about losing weight and getting to their goal weight, or having a nice looking body. At first this is the only thing I would think of. In my mind I just kept thinking  when I get to the weight I want and I look good I can go back to eating junk food and not working out anymore. After many talks with my sister and a lot of discouraging feelings I had with myself  I realize that it isn't just about losing weight. Its about living healthy, being healthy and being a good example for those you love. In high school I was a super skinny girl. I was proud of it with little to no exercise weighing 110 pounds and eating whatever I wanted. This isn't the case anymore I wish it was so that I could look and feel good all of the time but it just isn't the case. Now that I have dedicated myself to living better not just physically but spiritually I feel there is a need to share and help inspire others as well as allowing myself to understand that its not always about losing the weight, though that does help push me a little more :D

It isnt going to be a fast process or easy but I promise it will be worth.

Asher's fun in the snow.

I know we havent posted in a while its hard to keep up with life at times. I cant believe my baby is almost one. I feel like I just had him yesterday. During the Christmas break we took Asher outside to play with my family. It was a new adventure for him and I think at times he wasn't so sure about everything.  But in the end I think he loved it, and just enjoyed riding in the sled and on the four wheeler. We are  blessed to have such a sweet boy in our lives and when his birthday comes around I will update more then.