First Birthday Gift & Power to the Cheap Little People!

O.k...sorry it's been awhile, but I've been sooooo busy! I got my FIRST birthday present in the mail the other day! My mother in law Carolyn sent me this GORGEOUS wooden salad bowl set inside it is my FAVORITE Asian flavored Chicken salad! It was sooooo YUMMY!

And I've had this new POWER TO THE PEOPLE mood come over me last Sunday when I actually e-mailed a Morning Call Columnist Spencer Soper who writes the column "On The Cheap" It's a Sunday column about saving money and strategies and such. Well this week he featured someone who had tricks on how to fool teenagers at McDonald's and NOT surrender your coupon, so you can use it again and again! Now were all human, sometimes we honetly forget to surrender it, and sometimes people forget to ask...and that's one thing...but to STRATEGIZE on how to do this? HONESTLY? It gives "Cheapsters" (that what we call ourselves) a bad name. So Spencer wrote back to me and he will feature my advice in an UPCOMING column! Wooo Hoo! Power to the cheap little people out there! LOL! I feel like the wicked witch when I said that...."I'll get you my pretty...and your cheap little friend too!" LOL!

I'm LOVING THIS FALL WEATHER! It's my favorite season! I love getting out on my bike on the weekends, I love the cool weather..everything! I hope you are too!

Take Care

Kat

For the 1st time in 15 YEARS....

I rode a bike! Check it out. It was so not about looking good or being glam for camera. This was just about me getting out there again and exercising with my family! Now I know the video appears that I left John Everett to trail off...but his friends were around the corner with their bikes. Te kids around here are older and they all adore John Everett, so don't worry...he was FINE! :) I love my new pink bike! The saying is true...it all came right back to me again, and I can't wait to get out there and ride again! :)

Steak w/Fresh Veggies over Noodles & Farmer's Market Salad

I know....this picture even impresses ME! :) Wanna know what it took? About $15.00 at the Faremer's Market today (that's where the flowers came from too!), a tablecloth, w/ napkins and placemats on my table, and some frozen top sirloin I bought on sale a week or so ago, and a bag of egg noodles! Oh! Adn the most important part....a great hubby who played w/John Everett downstairs while I put all this together for us! :)
It looks like a magazine cover doesn't it? You can have this too...it saves a lot of money than eating out at a nice restaurant! Today was such a good day! The weather was beautiful, we got out to Farmer's Market, John and John Everett plyed on the playground, I made that Julia video, rode a bike for the 1st time in over 15 years w/my family, and I had this great dinner! Everything just "came together" today! When I'm at work tomorrow, thinking about this day will make me happy!

Coat fry pan with olive oil on high heat...place cut up top sirloin in the pan (cook throughly) add fresh veggies (I added green papper, yellow pepper, and onion. Add stir fry sauce and a little bit of soy sauce along w/fresh pepper & Mrs. Dash seasonings. Heat noodles as directed on package. Serve meat & veggie mixture over noodles! ENJOY!

Eat Your Heart Out Julia!

So I watched the movie Julie and Julia the other week...(FANTATIC movie...go see it!) And I've been on the Julia/cooking kick latley I got some inspiration from my best friend Emily! I was watching Julia Child the other day on PBS and I starting trying to sound like her for fun...John laughed so hard when I did it for him and he said I wasn't half bad! :) I told Emily that I learned that a omlette only takes 30 seonds or so to make! She couldn't believe it...until I showed her the Julia Child video on You Tube. Just type in "Julia Child Makes An Omlette" into the browser and it will come up! Then she challenged me to make a Julia video since it was so fast to do and blog about it. Well HERE YOU ARE EMILY! I hope you all get a good laugh out of it! This video happened on the second live take! On the first take I learned the pan needed to be very hot...the butter tab need to be smaller and I only needed ONE egg because I had bought JUMBO egs at the farmer's market today...they were laid just the other day they said! Now that's FRESH! Get a load of the GIANT peppers I had on my counter too! Aren't they AMAZING! Can't wait to eat them tonight with my beef stir fry tonight for dinner! More on that later. And let me tell you...those cheese omlettes were GOOD! DELISH! Now let this video inspire you! Get out there and bring out your inner Julia and get COOKING! BON APPETIT! :)

The New Melrose...

Sydney's dead and Michael is Alive!? THIS IS CRAP!

Before & After...Dinner Tonight

From Seasoned Chicken & Veggies in a bag...to Homemade Chicken Soup


I Buy Whole Chicken Roasters when they are .99 cents a pound (I would buy a 6-7 lb one)

3 Potatoes, 2 large onions, 3 large carrots, 1 bag of celery
1 Bag and Season Envelope McCormick for Oven Roasted "Chicken"
1 Envelope of McCormick Chicken Soup for a Slow Cooker
1/2 box of any kind of noodles or pasta you have on hand I used Fanfare pasta...you could also use 1 box of chicked flavored wild rice too!

Oven Roasted Chicken w/Veggies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut up the whole roaster chicken, cover a plate with the "chicken" seasoning...roll the pieces into it and place in the bag it comes in in a single layer
Cut up the potatoes, carrots, onions and celery and place them in the bag on top of the chicken
Slit 4 holes in the bag
If 6 pounds or under cook for 1 hour...if 7 or more cook for 1 hour and 1/2
Serve with the pan juices over the meat and veggies

and then later.....

Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup

Drain all the pan juices from your leftovers and remove all the skin and bones from the chicken parts...then cube up the chicken into little pieces
Take all the cut up meat and veggies and place into the slow cooker
Add the Chicken Soup Seasoning Envelope
Add 6 cups of hot water...you may need to add some more veggies all depending on how much you have leftover
Stir it up well with the water
Cook the noodles separatley as instructed on the package, drain, and then add to the soup when ready...stir...
Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours


Dinner and luches for the week...DONE! :)

John & John Everett Ride AGAIN!

Hello everyone!

Wow...what a few weeks we have been having! I've been meaning to blog about this for some time now, but I knew people would ask about pictures and videos as soon as I reported it. So, I waited for everything to be in order first.

Remember the Hellertown Community Fair I bloged about a few weeks ago? Well while there, we entered to win a free raffle of prizes...and WE WON the GRAND PRIZE! A $350.00 Giant Mountain Bike for our local bike store! :) Can you believe it? John was so excited! I traded his bike that I bought him at Target for one for ME! Now we can all ride together as a famly!

So we went to the bike store to get the bike properly fitted for John and then wouldn't you know it...we foundone for John Everett as you've heard...and order a bike rack for our garage.

Here's a video of John Everett riding his bike and a pic of the bikes we won/bought The boys have been having a great time on them nearly every day! I got the call from th bike store today and MINE is now ready (I needed them to reassemble mine...th Target person who put mine together had NO IDEA what he was doing...my handle bars and seat were COMPLETLY LOOSE!) I can't wait to pick it up this week and fall on my ass for the first time! LOL! :) Hey, what matters is getting out there and trying! :) Enjoy the video!

Dinner Tonight

Salsa Chicken

I took a McCormick's Receipe and made it my own by adding more to it. God, I LOVE that I'm good at this! Now that I'm cooking so many different receipes, I can now read receipe, think about how they would taste in my mind...and then think...but what else would make it "pop" "be better" or more often than not...what veggies can I hide in this so I feel like I'm getting a serving of veggies too. It's true. I love simpe skillet meals that focus around chicken and ground beef, but you really do have to think about veggies too. I like making them "a part" of the dish as opposed to a "side item"-then they are a part of th flavor, and lets face it...easier to EAT! :) This receipe is a great example. The original one only called for tomatoes. That was it. So I added onions, and green peppers. I would think that would elementary...doesn't salsa come with those ingredients too sometimes!? I was surprised they weren't part of the orginal receipe!

Here's my version:

1 lb of cut up skinless breast of chicken

1 envelope of McCormick Mild Taco Seasoning

1 can of diced tomatoes (undrained, you'll want the juices in the dish) (for a spicier kick...use "chilli seasoned" diced tomatoes)

1 medium onion (diced up)

1 big or 2 little Green Peppers (diced up)

1/2 Cup of Peach Preserves (or orange marmalade if you prefer)

Few shakes of Orange Stir Fry Sauce (no stir fry sauce? Then use a little bit of juice from a mandrian orange can) (leave it completly out if you rather have a "true salsa taste"...a like a hint of sweet in there)

Served over Rice

Heat up skillet with two tuns of olive oil in the pan, once heated add diced up chicken and cook until chicken is cooked through...then add the taco seasonings, stir and stir until it gets all over the chicken...it will look clumpy on there...don't worry, the tomato juices will even it out.

Add the can of tomatoes, stir it up...then add the onion and green pepper ...when the mixture gets good and hot...add the peach preserves, stirring again until the preserves are liquid throughout the dish....I then added a few shakes of Orange Stir fry sauce for a "sweet citrus salsa" taste

Cook rice as the package intructs and serve the mixture over it!

Thank me later.....LOL! :)

Intimidation...

Hey...if you want me to feed you back down a litte!

Visit to the Zoo

Here we are at the Lehigh Valley Zoo today!

We loved watching the African penguins get fed! They are about 6 to 7 pounds each and can eat a pound of fish a day! Whoa! Sounds a little like me...only I'm not that crazy about fish...more like me with popcorn! Yeah...I can easily eat a tenth of of my weight in popcorn! :)

We also got to see a camel, some kangaroos, goats, sheep, llamas (and their mamas! Sorry...bad joke I LOVE saying!) zebras, beautiful birds, and finally some prarrie dogs! Prarrie Dogs are so damn cute! Their name always fools my mind...I keep exspecting to see something BIGGER! Those teeny tiny critters? Those are prarrie dogs? Why do I always keep thinking of Lassie? No, that was a dog....on a prarrie. Wait a minute....Lassie wasn't on a prarrie? It looked rural. OH! It was just the 50's? ...O.k.... LOL! :)

Enjoy the video of the pengunis getting fed!