Life Happenings: Excursions in the Kitchen

Life Happenings: Excursions in the Kitchen

So, several of my girlfriends in Lemoore and I have started a recipe swap, each Sunday one of the girls sends out a favorite recipe or something they have been hoping to try and it give us all a chance to try some new things. It rotates every week sends the recipe and its been really fun so far! So I figured I would start posting them on here when they come in. Im a little behind, so there will be three new ones this week, and from now on Ill try to post the new one each week when I get it! 

Sarah's Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Needed

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1'ish per person)

1 lb. precut bacon (I'm sure you could use turkey bacon, I never have)

16oz Sour Cream (you can use lite)

1 can cream of mushroom soup (you can use health choice)

1 can mushrooms (we like mushrooms so I use a bigger can)

Wrap each chicken breast in 1-2 pieces of chicken.

Combine sour cream, cream of mushroom soup and canned mushrooms

Place chicken in casserole dish and cover in sour cream mixture. Put in 350 oven for 1 hour.

Two additions to this:

1) you can use frozen chicken which I do all the time, b/c I forget to take it out of the freezer

2) you can put this in the crock pot on low for 6 hours, stir once or twice during cooking. I do it this way the most b/c it makes the chicken just fall apart!!

I serve this over rice

It's a family favorite, super easy (esp. in the crock pot) and makes GREAT left overs

Jacquee's Thai Coconut Chicken

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts- cut into bite-size pieces

1 tsp grated lime peel (can use lime juice)

1 tsp grated ginger root (can use powder)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 jalapeno chili, seeded and finely chopped (if you want it spicy, use the seeds.)

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

1 can (about 14oz) coconut milk (not cream of coconut)

1 tsp packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 cup sugar snap pea pods

1/2 medium green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 in cubes

1 medium tomato, chopped

1 Tbs chopped fresh basil leaves

Hot cooked jasmine rice

In a nonstick wok or 12in nonstick skillet, heat oil over high heat.  Add chicken; cook until chicken is no longer pink in center.  Add lime, ginger, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro.  Stir-fry for about a minute.

Pour coconut milk over chicken.  Stir in brown sugar, salt, soy sauce, pea pods, and bell pepper.  Reduce heat to medium.  Simmer uncovered for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender.  Stir in tomato.

Spoon over rice and top with basil.

Kristin's Slow Cooker Pizza Casserole

1 1/2 lbs Ground Beef 

1 lb   Bulk Pork Sausage  

4 jars (14 ounces each) Pizza Sauce 

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese 

2 cups grated parmesan cheese 

2 packages (3 oz each) sliced pepperoni 

1/2 cup finely chopped onion       (Or ultra minced to hide it from your hubby )

1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper 

1 clove garlic minced   (The 50 cent jars of garlic at the commissary . . .  great deal!) 

1 lb Rotini pasta, cooked and drained

1. Brown beef and sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring to break up meat. Drain. 

    Place meat in slow cooker. 

2. Add all remaining ingredients except pasta; stir til blended. 

3. Cover; cook on low 3 1/2 hours or high 2 hours.

4. Stir in pasta. Cover; cook 30 minutes until pasta is hot. 

Bon Appétit!

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Wings, Family, and Vacation

At the end of last month Traver recieved his wings of Gold and is officially a Naval Aviator! I am so proud of him, he has accomplished so much and has worked so hard to get to where he is now. We found out that we will be moving to Lemoore, CA where he will learn to fly the F/A-18 Super Hornet in squadron VFA-122! We were thrilled with this because it was our first choice to go to Lemoore and it was his first choice to fly Super's! We will be so much closer to family and friends and be on the best coast! Now if only they would cut us orders so we could know where we are leaving! 

The winging week was great because both Traver and my parents came out for it, so we got to see family and celebrate all together! We all got the chance to go into the T-45 (the plane Traver flew here in training) simulator, which was really realistic and much more challenging than we imagined it would be. It was fun to show the parents around the squadron and for them to see where Traver works everyday. We also got the opportunity to go out to the runway and watch other students come in for touch-and-go landings! It was incredibly loud but awesome at the same time! They even had a family day at the squadron where we got to meet Traver's CO and they gave out awards to the guys for different things they did throughout flight school. Traver got an award for excellent bombing skills and also for having the highest grades at the aircraft carrier when they went out to land! I even got an award for my wonderful work as a student naval aviator spouse, haha, it was funny but also greatly appreciated! The winging ceremony itself was great, it was fun to get to pin Traver's wings of gold on his chest, he even got me a wing pendant that I wear all the time now!

After all the official stuff was over, we went to lunch with the other guys from VT-9 (Traver's squadron) at one of their houses and got all the family together and it was great! That night was the winging party, which my mom, Janice, and I had arranged for all the food and cake. We BUILT and aircraft carrier cake, it was AWESOME! Everyone was super impressed that we had made it because it looked pretty realistic! We even had plastic airplanes landing and taking off of it, which ended up either stolen or crashed into the cake by the end of the night! The party was great, all our best friends were there and we got a chance to celebrate with everyone! The next morning we all (Traver and I and the parents) took off for Pensacola, FL. It was nice to show them where we so often go for weekend getaways. They got to see the beach, which was luckily all cleaned up after the oil spill and we took them to a favorite restaurant of ours, Mcquires, its an awesome Irish Pub that we go to most times we are there. We even got to take them to the Naval Aviation Museum. All in all it was a great trip and it was great to have the parents here for it! 

We didnt have long after the parents left before we left on leave to drive up to Annapolis. We camped our way up (Boeing too), stopping in Ft. Payne, AL for one night (worst nights sleep ever, hott and muggy, gross) and then we stopped in the Great Smoky Mountains for another night which was awesome, it was beautiful in the mountains (and cooler). We then drove up to Reston, VA to stay with my cousins and go to a wedding in Annapolis. The wedding was great and it was fun to see some of Traver's classmates we hadnt seen in a while. Boeing made good friends with my cousin's dog T-Bone and they got to swim and run and play alot, I think he is lonely and bored at home now, haha! We spent three nights there and then went down to Lake Anna where my great aunt and uncle live and stayed two nights with them. We camped one more night on the way home in the Great Smoky's, which was almost a disaster, since the campground we planned to go to was up a deserted, overgrown, dirt road, we went almost all the way up when we decided it wasnt worth getting stuck, crashing... where there is no cell service and no way anyone will ever find us! Boy it was nice to get home after that! 

All together we traveled 2251.5 miles on the trip and spent a total of 40 hours and 52 minutes driving (that isnt including stops that is actual driving time)! 

Now we are just trying to get the house back to normal, and Im preparing to go out to Cali for a job interview in Fresno and to do some house hunting in Lemoore for when we finally get orders and get to move! It should be pretty exciting! Ill let you know how it goes! 

Live it UP!!!!!!

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Busy Busy

In the last few weeks since we got Boeing, things have been pretty crazy. Things with Boeing have been awesome, he has turned out to be a pretty great puppy. He is pretty well housebroken at this point, with the exception of the last two days when he has been having trouble. He is crate trained and loves his crate. He has cutest quirks. Like he loves to play with his food, he will take one piece out of the bowl and chase it around the floor, pushing it with his nose or paws, and then he will cover it with a paw and look for it and push his paw around with his nose and then have an "ah-hah" moment when he lifts his paw up and eats it. We have also learned he loves to play with water bottles and that the broom scares him. He sleeps like a champ now though, he will sleep through the night and not have to go out until we get up to let him out, its awesome! He did however find a dead baby snake in our backyard last week while Traver was gone, yuck! 

Traver has been really busy the last few weeks with training, he spent last week in El Centro, California to do several flights that require really good weather that we just dont get out here. It was pretty sucky week for me, I missed having him home and having to deal with Boeing all by myself for a week was trying. The worst part of it was that he got zero cell service out there so we hardly got to talk at all, bummer! Oh and I was sick, which was really lame, because I never get sick, and I was! But he finished out there with good grades and made it home for our trip to Pensacola we had planned for this past weekend. It was great, there was a ball down there that we went to which was fun and a whole bunch of guys from our base got their wings and had a big party down there which was really fun. We stayed in a not so great hotel because we took Boeing with us, and nice hotels dont generally allow dogs, but it was alright. We took Boeing to the dog park for the first time, he loved it and there werent really any other dogs around, so he just got to run around and have fun! It was a great way to exhaust him before the 3 hour drive back up to Meridian. 

At this point things are good, but Im getting impatient to find out where we are going next. We should hopefully have an official winging date for Traver soon, and we are hoping it will be sometime in mid or late July. Then we should hopefully be moving to the west coast (fingers crossed) sometime in August. Although we finally found a church and I have some great friends here, I am ready to move, get a job, and start the next chapter of our lives. But everything happens in God's time and it will work out just like its supposed to.

God Bless!

Life Happenings: Excursions in the Kitchen

Life Happenings: Excursions in the Kitchen

Crock Pot Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:

-2 large/4 medium chicken breasts

-1 can cream of chicken soup (98% fat free is good)

-6 oz. light sour cream

-1 cup of salsa (we use medium heat)

-1 packet of taco seasoning

-2 cups brown minute rice

Preparation:

-place chicken breasts in crock pot and cover with taco seasoning

-mix soup and salsa together and pour over chicken breasts

-cook for 2.5 hours if chicken is unfrozen, 6 hours if frozen

-mix rice and sour cream into the crock pot and shred chicken with forkand let cook until the rice is done

-serve as is or in a whole wheat tortilla

Makes 6 servings

Bon Appétit!

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Boeing

So, Traver and I got a puppy! YAY! I have been bugging him for a puppy for quite a while and I finally got one! On monday I got an email from someone at the base that had found a puppy on the side of the road and were trying to find it a good time. When we called there was another couple who was already looking so we figured we probably wouldnt get him but we gave them our info anyway, just in case. Well they called tuesday night and said he was still available if we wanted to see him. We went over and he was just too cute how do you turn that down! We brought him home and did a late night walmart trip to get supplies. The first night was kind of rough, he cried alot, I got up with him 3 times that night and by 7am he was awake and I had to get up with him. He was really good that first day, Traver and I both got some good time with him, but we both had to work at one point or another and they overlapped by like 3 hours, which meant the puppy had to stay home alone during that time, but he did great! He was better that night too, he only got up twice but he was awake at like 6 and ready for the day, so I got up, he is trying to make a morning person out of me, and I am so not a morning person! By the time Traver got up I had made a vet appointment for later that morning and we had to pick a name, because it is just sad to go to the vet with a nameless dog. 

We had gone back and forth about names, we wanted something aviation related and been bouncing names around since we got him and just hadnt found the right one, by this point we were between Ace and Boeing, and we went with Boeing! Its perfect for him, and we love it! So we took him to the vet and he did great, the vet was really nice and Boeing was a trooper! They gave him his first round of shots and an ear mite treatment (and an ointment for us to use) and a de-worm treatment. They weighed him in at 5 lbs and he is between 6-7 weeks old, he is so tiny! We were able to get something to keep the ticks off of him too because they love him! Anyway, he slept most of today after the vet. We even had some friends over and he barely played with them, sleep coma apparently. So he was really mellow and they loved him, I wish he was like that all the time! He is just so cute and we just love him! We are in the process of crate training him and its been hard but he does really well so far!

Cant wait to see what all we have in store with this little guy in the future! I hope he sleeps in a little more tomorrow, I could use the sleep! 

Woof Woof!

Life Happenings: General LIfe Happenings

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Church Stuff! 

So, for the last 8 months of being in Meridian Traver and I have been struggling to find a church, we have tried several churches and each one came up short, in one way or another. The biggest problem with each of them, at least for me, was the lack of young people to fellowship with. Fellowship is such a huge part of church for me and there weren't any opportunities for that at the churches we were trying. We did find one that Traver liked, in terms of message, but again no fellowship opportunities, and I got very little out of the teachings. I personally have a very hard time getting up and going to church if Im excited to hear what is going to be said and with all these churches, I had no excitement, I wasnt being fed at these churches so I would sleep through it and wake up feeling guilty for not going, but not that guilty, and that is a bad sign. 

So last weekend, on Saturday, Traver got up to go to this Bible Study and I got up and did one of my own. I started into the book of Romans and was just starting to feel more and more fed and alive with each verse. That night we went to a friends house for dinner and they mentioned trying this new church (Faith Baptist), the church of the family that leads the Saturday morning Bible Study, and we decided we would try it too! The family that lead the Saturday Bible Study, the Blankenships, lead a 9:30 Sunday School class for young adults on Sundays, and then there is the normal Church service after that at 10:45. So we got up and went to the 9:30 service where they were finishing up Galatians, it was great to sit in a room full of young adults and break into God's word! We even stayed for the 10:45 service, which was great and had a great message as well! After church we had lunch with a big group of people from the class (mostly student naval aviators and their wives) and everything seemed to be falling into place! 

To make everything better, Tuesday there was a meeting at the Blankenship's house to plan the start of an Officer Christian Fellowship for the base here. I was super pumped about it and the meeting went great! We got the chance to decide how we want to go about running it and where we thought God was leading it. So now we have not only a church for Sunday's but also a midweek Bible Study! Then to add to that, a few of the girls from the church and OCF are part of a women's Bible Study on Thursday nights and they invited me along. They are working through Beth Moore's book on Esther and so far it has been great, and I went to my first meeting last night and what a comfort it was to spend time with some Christian women and talk about God! I have missed that so much since we have been here! It was always so amazing to me how great it made me feel when I would go home and get together with my two best Christian friends, Kirsten and Christina, they are so encouraging and inspirational in their faiths, and I'm excited at the prospect of building that here as well!

So anyway, I just really wanted to share my excitement at finding not only a Church, but a midweek study, and a women's study! When God moves, he really moves! In less than a week, I feel so much more put together, I feel a 100 times closer to God, and I am just happier in general about life! What an awesome feeling! 

Praise God!!!!!

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

Life Happenings: General Life Happenings

LEARNING FRENCH!!!!!

So a while back, my mom and I agreed that we would learn languages and go to those countries when Traver is away on deployments. So our first language is FRENCH! We decided last summer we would start learning french and my mom went out and got all kinds of fun stuff for us. It was actually really fun. I got home from an evening out and my mom had this super cute bag full of little wrapped up gifts all having to do with France.
Including:




A french computer program, not Rosetta Stone, way way to expensive! But its called Instant Immersion and its got lots of awesome stuff in it including a mystery game you play when you are all done and have to solve all in French. Its a great program and WAY cheaper than rosetta stone!



A french book called "French in 10 minutes a day" which has little lessons and stickers to put all over your house and flash card and puzzles and games that help you learn, its a great book for learning!



A subscription to France Magazine which is really fun to look through, its not in French, but has all these sweet articles about places in France and just fun things, and it does have some french in it to help you learn and read in French!





She also got us each these books by Mireille Guiliano... "French Women Dont Get Fat" and "French Women For All Seasons" and although I havent fully read them yet, they are pretty good and funny! She also got us a book called " A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle and Im looking forward to reading it!



And as a fun extra, she got me a copy of "Sex and Mrs. X", dont worry its not anything raunchy, its a movie, a comedy, about a woman who goes to France to write an article about a French woman who basically sets up well established french men with beautiful women.... ok ok it sounds bad, but its really not and its very funny, and very french!

All in all we have tons of fun French learning tools and are making progress towards really learning the language and making a trip to FRANCE! We are so excited and I think its going to be great! I cant wait for our actual trip to France where we can put our french to good use and sit by the Eiffel Tower and drink wine and eat cheese, haha! We even are thinking about doing a race while we are there, since we are currently training for a half-marathon, we figured why not just keep up with it and do a race while in France! But we shall see how that goes, haha!


Au Revoir!

Life Happenings: Entertaining Exercise

Life Happenings: Entertaining Exercise

Half-Marathons




As of the 1st of this month I started training for a half-marathon! My mom and I, and several of her friends and their daughters are training for a half-marathon later this year and its really exciting! I am no runner, like I literally dont run, but I am really excited to become a runner. The first thing I did was buy GOOD running shoes, that is one thing I knew, I could not run in bad shoes, and it makes all the difference. So if you are thinking about running you should make sure you go to a running store and have them fit your foot to the right shoe! There are so many different shoes out there and a running store will be able to find the one that fits your foot just right. For me, I got Mizuno's and they are awesome! I use the Mizuno Wave Rider and they are super light weight which is really important and they are really comfy!





Another good thing to get is a book that will give you a better idea of how to train for a half-marathon. I have "The Absolute Beginners Guide to Half-Marathon Training" and its really great. It goes through the whole process from start to finish, also through how to eat when in training, and it comes with stength training logs, food logs, and running logs. Its a great book and definitely worth the read! I also got a running watch that keeps track of your distance, speed, and even estimates calories burned! All these things are great resources when you start training for races.




Another awesome resource is Hal Higdon's website (HalHigdon.com) . He was a world class runner and has written several books and programs for runners, starting with beginners all the way through advanced runners. His website is a gold mine full of awesome information for runners. Whether you are running a 5K or a Marathon, or a triathalon, or if you live in the cold or the hot. He has a program for everyone and they are all editable so that you can make it work into your lifestyle and time frame!

Ill be keeping everyone posted on my progress through my training! Wish me luck!

GO! GO! GO!