Kyecen cuteness : )

I totally just had to share, Kyecen is becoming quite the little artist!

I wish that I would have taken a picture of one of the Valentines that we made, HE WROTE HIS NAME, all by himself. No coaching, No tracing, No looking at it written down.

I am such a proud mommy!

He has also started to draw people and objects, like cars!

This is on the DoodlePad, the first "thing" I had seen him draw so I had to take a picture before he erased it!

He described this to me as a car with him driving and mommy is running with a smile on her face!

I can totally see it, and I love it!

Dad also taught him how to spell mom, by saying it and writing it! M-O-M and when he feels like remembering dad and Rob too!

I love being his mommy!!!

Mallory Rob and Kyecen

Chick-Fil-A

I know, I know I always say I would rather cook at home than go out to eat...there are exceptions to that rule though #1 Teakwoods in Gilbert AZ (I love their Jess Jess Wings AND their ranch!) #2 Chick-Fil-A Chicken nuggets! #3 ColdStone (Birthday Cake Remix, in a waffle bowl, with sprinkles)

Okay, back to Chick-Fil-A...I have found a copycat recipe, thank you Pinterest!

And it comes very close!!!! I think if I had a deep fryer, or even just a little better handle on the frying pan with oil in it thing (remember, new to the cooking thing-I like to bake!) that these would have turned out amazing...I will do this again and I will try the recipe for my favorite Honey Roasted BBQ sauce they have!

I marinated the chicken overnight in a mixture of Milk, Egg and Pickle juice

Yes, I said pickle juice...It really adds to the flavor like you wouldn't believe!

Breaded in Flour, Salt and Pepper, and a little Confectioners Sugar! 

Again, yes I added powdered sugar to the breading! 

Fried it up...and 

Viola! (It looks like it could be cooked longer, but it was in there forever and I was afraid it would make my chicken chewy to be cooked for so long...hmmm?

Yay for Chick-Fil-A at home!!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to My Love!!! (Or as I like to say,  Happy making it out of the "Friend Zone" Day) or to the rest of the world, Happy Valentines Day!

We celebrated in our normal fashion, making a delicious dinner of some of our favorites!

Bacon wrapped Filet, Shrimp Scampi, and Green Beans Almondine!

We have found a food service/restaurant market just down the street and made a great find! We can cut our own filets from a beef tenderloin! For $29.00 we have managed to get 15 filet's, and enough meat to make some great Carne Asada!(that's for another post!) 

Dinner was amazing as always, and again makes me rethink why we ever go out to dinner!

With lots of love,

Mallory, Rob and Kyecen

Backyard Adventures :)

Kyecen style! Just some pictures for all our warm family and friends that are so

 jealous of all the snow we are enjoying right now...yeah right!

View from our back porch

Mommy and Kyecen heading out to play in the snow

The rain melted our snow away for a couple days and we met a little friend 

that lives somewhere in our backyard...

WHITE OUT!

our first snowman :)

treaking through the porch...

eating the snow (not sure why but he loves to eat the snow)

Throwing snow balls at mom!

More snow eating...

and more snow eating...

for those of you that miss shoveling the driveway!

our second attempts at snowmen..

all for it to rain the next day! Melting

8.5" of snow and counting...

can't see the ruler anymore...it's about 16 inches

Lightning McQueen!

Helping shovel the driveway!

Enjoy the weather!

Kyecen, Mal and Rob

Chicken Noodle Soup

We made our own noodles!!!

It was so easy and they are sooo delicious! First we made the rest of the soup..

I started with a stock pot full of Chicken Broth, two chicken breasts diced, and some of my favorite spices, salt and pepper, cumin, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder! (no measurements here, this is where cooking gets fun! because baking is like a science and exact measurements are required...) After the chicken was cooked added two bundles of celery and a whole package of carrots all sliced up. I also added a little diced red onion. 

My little Bugs Bunny :) was so excited about a HUGE carrot!

I found this Egg Noodle recipe

4 eggs 
2 cups all purpose flour 
1 tsp salt 
1/8 cup of water

He was such a big helper!

We had a blast,

which is obvious by the flour all over his clothes!

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Snack break while the noodles set out to dry :) Jell-O

After they laid out to dry we rolled them up, 

and sliced them like cinnamon rolls,

 we laid them out long again,

and sliced into about 4 inch strands...

then into the pot to boil for about 8 minutes!

Last but not least : ) add I added them into our big pot of soup!!!! So Delicious

Perfect for the snowy days we are dealing with!
Mallory, Rob and Kyecen

Food from our new kitchen!

So now that I have a ton of time on my hands, especially because it is freezing outside and there is so much snow...Kyecen and I have been tearing it up in the kitchen!!! Here are some of our more noteworthy treats, of course good, but I won't go into too much detail on these :) 

We make something at least every other day, mostly Pinterest inspired of course :) some days we make more...this means that I am branching out and I am no longer strictly a sweets person and I have made some yummy dinners!

My little helper in his Chef gear!

S'mores cupcakes (so far my least favorite recipe that I've made in a long time,I can't even find the pin it came from...not worried though I won't make these again!)

Okay, not a recipe, but a noteworthy treat! Laying in bed I told Rob that I was craving chocolate and maybe some peanut butter...a couple minutes later this is what I got! Amazing Man!

One of our favorite easy and yummy treats! Peach Cobbler! 

1 cup Bisquik, 1 cup Milk, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Mix together and put in bottom of your baking dish

1 can (29oz) Sliced Peaches (drained), 1 cup Sugar. Mix together and pour over bisquick.

Bake for 50-60 minutes on 375*

Yes, put the peaches on top the bisquick will cover it when it bakes!

Serve in a bowl with a little heavy cream or vanilla ice cream!

 

Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken  and Honey Mustard Dressing (If I had crushed the pretzels a little smaller it would have been a better coating) Overall a yummy dish!

My go to favorite, Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies (made with mini m&m's!) 

I introduced Kyecen to Jell-O (this is his singing the Jell-O song face!)

An all time family favorite, and a cold weather quick and easy dish! 

1lb cooked ground beef, 1 can corn (don't drain), 2 cans Kidney beans (don't drain), 1 can tomato sauce, 1 packet taco seasoning (less depending on how spicy you want it), and 1 can diced stewed tomatoes (optional). Put it all in a pot and cook for about 30 minutes! Serve in a bowl over tortilla chips or Fritos with cheese and sour cream!!!

I got a crazy hair one night around 9pm...I used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and it made 100 mini cupcakes...way too many!!! I have been struggling to find a Peanut Butter Frosting Recipe that I was happy with, fluffy and not oily, I finally found one!!! And I needed to find a good Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough frosting, I found that one too!!!

I was at the grocery store and passed the meat counter and the pork tenderloin caught my eye...don't ask, I'm not sure but my mind is always on food! New ways to flavor, cook and serve it.. so here it is!

I found this rub and off I went!

(I had to modify it due to lack of ground mustard, but I just rubbed it down with a deli mustard before the rub, then baked for 30 minutes at 475* then reduced to 425* for another half hour (3lb tenderloin)) 

It was so juicy when I sliced it up!

Served with Scalloped Potatoes and Green Beans! Kyecen actually ate almost the whole can of green beans...I had to tell him no more so the rest of us could eat some!

Happy Eating!!!

Mallory, Rob and Kyecen