Monday, November 28, 2011

A Few of My Favorite Things: Thanksgiving Reads

A Few of our Favorite Thanksgiving Reads!

Over the River and Through the Woods
Illustrated by Lynn Cravath
This was a favorite as we broke in to the classic tune!

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks
by: Margaret Sutherland
We loved this book because it is about being thankful for everyday things. Our favorite page in the book said "I am thankful for lollipops that turn my tongue purple...or green or orange or red or blue."

The First Thanksgiving (board book)
By: Dana Stewart
This is a super cute and simple book. Our favorite part is at the end of the book when the indians and pilgrims sat around the table. "Then everyone joined hands and said, "Thank you God!" What a happy first Thanksgiving day!"

This First Thanksgiving Day - A counting Story
By: Laura Krauss Melmed
Illustrated by Mark Buehner
This book show the Indian and Pilgrim children doing their outdoor chores as it leads up the the big Thanksgiving feast. The children work together and have such a fun time doing their chores. It is illustrated beautifully.

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie
By: Alison Jackson
The girls loved the repetition and "reading" along with Mommy! The story itself was a bit disappointing. We know and love I know an old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and that story made sense. This one on the other hand, didn't seem to have a good order. from last to first she swallowed bread, 10 layer wedding cake, a pot, turkey, salad, squash, roll, cider, and pie.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Recipe of the Week: PF Changs Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

PF Changs Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

After a follow up appointment from Big Sis's eye surgery we stopped and ate at PF Changs. The waitress brought over Lettuce Wraps that were a mis-order. She asked if we wanted them for free and we did not pass them up! They were delicious!

This week I was at the store and some one had left a coupon for a head of iceberg lettuce in the produce section making the lettuce only a few dimes! I have not bought iceberg lettuce in over 12 years because the nutritional value is zilch! We stick to romaine and spinach...the darker greens. But, since I had a coupon and it was so cheap I started dreaming of PF Changs Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps! I decided to google the recipe and I found one! My hubby picked up a few ingredients on his way home and the dream was about to become reality :)

This recipe is not exactly the same as the restaurant version but they are close enough! We loved these! I will definitely be making these again! I doubled the recipe and it made way too much. I really only needed to make a single recipe and we would have had enough for a few meals. I used the leftovers on salads the rest of the week. The sauce is super yummy too! It is a great salad dressing. I will also be using this sauce as a stir-fry sauce and marinade in the future! Plan to spend extra time making these. It takes A LOT longer than the 25 minutes the recipe calls for. Extra tip: Pick up a bag of the crunchy Asian noodles at the store! I made a package of the rice noodles as an extra filler. The rice noodles were good but not fantastic. The recipe gets 5 out of 5 stars at this house!

You can find the original recipe HERE!

P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

By Lali on December 16, 2001

Photo by Bergy

329 Reviews

Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 25 mins
Servings: 2-3

About This Recipe

"This recipe is from Todd Wilbur and Top Secret Recipes"

Ingredients

3 tablespoons oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnuts
2/3 cup mushrooms
3 tablespoons chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4 -5 leaves iceberg lettuce

Special Sauce

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1 -2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste

Stir Fry Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

Directions

Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.

Directions (cont.)

Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups".
Top with"Special Sauce".

Family Night with Sanctus Real and Casting Crowns

Family Night with Sanctus Real and Casting Crowns!

Our kids have grown up singing and dancing. Music is a favorite thing in this house! I remember my first concert was Michael W Smith and Amy Grant. That was when Amy Grant was being discovered! My hubby surprised me many many months ago with tickets to the Sanctus Real and Casting Crowns concert. He had bought 5 tickets with the thought that this would be a great first concert for our girls! How Great is Our God has been a favorite song in this house since the girls learned how to talk!

Big Sis is headed off to school but is SUPER EXCITED

about family night as soon as she gets home!!!

Middle Sis said she was going to color this all day because she was so excited!

Knowing that the first concert is the most memorable one for life we wanted to make sure they saw Sanctus Real

I know most people would say that 7, 4, and 3 years old may be a bit young but we knew we would have a blast! Our 3 year old is excited to see "the guy in Mommy and Daddy's wedding photo album", our 4 year old can't wait to see "Sanctus Reals Talent Show" and our 7 year old can't wait to dress up and dance and sing their songs in real life! I on the other hand am excited to see my friend on stage who, after worship practice, once told me that his dream was to be a drummer in a band!

Here is Lil Sis doing some backpack activities while we wait for the concert to start!

Woohoo! Sanctus Real!!!

It was so great to see the girls dancing and singing along with the bands!

There is Matt! We have been praying for Matt's little boy Bowen and his family since before he was born. The girls pray for him at meal times and bed time. We know that prayers by the faith of a child can do amazing things. We wanted to go to his birthday party a few weeks ago but were not able to make it. The girls were disappointed. Two nights ago Little Sis prayed for Baby Bowen's heart to be "strong and healthy and that he wouldn't get any broken legs"! This amazing lil boy has a great family, grandparents, Aunt and Uncle, and cousins. We know that Little Bowen doesn't weigh just on Momma and Daddy's hearts but the whole family. We love the Hammitt family and our prayers are with Sarah's family too! The girls were so excited to see Bowen's video on the screen during the concert. Please click here to check out the link and keep him and his family in your prayers.

Mark!

Big Sis having fun!

Middle Sis...loving every minute of it!

Lil Sis danced so hard that she fell asleep for the last 2 songs.

Understandable since the concert lasted from 7:00 p.m - 10:43 p.m.!

The people behind us said their favorite part of the concert was watching her dance!

Here we are catching up for a quick minute during the intermission.

I cannot believe that the girls are so old!

What a great night! My hubby and I felt like we went with grown up friends since

the girls were so great and had such a fun time!

One more song!

Family pic at the end of the show! (Someday Lil Brother can come too!)

We got to spend a few more minutes catching up with Mark at the end of the show! It's been a few years (15 years...man i'm old!) since our worship team practices!

If you haven't seen or heard these bands check them out at the links below:
Sanctus Real
Casting Crowns
Lindsay McCaul
The Afters

What a fabulous night!
Here are a few their songs!

Forgiven by Sanctus Real

Lead Me by Sanctus Real

Courageous By Casting Crowns

Glimpse Into Motherhood: October 30 - November 6

Hi Everyone! It is me, Middle Sis!
I have been very busy the past few weeks and cannot wait to tell you about it!
We went to a concert at church on Halloween. We do not celebrate Halloween. We think it is too scary. There is a house across the street from us that has scary things hanging all around it and scary sounds coming from it too. We "freak out" every time we see it. Since we do not celebrate it we always find something fun to do. JJ Heller and Matt Brower came to our church on trick or treat night so we got to go see them! We like to sing her song that goes "Who will love me for me. And how does the next part go again, Mommy?"

Click Here to watch one of our favorite songs that we hear JJ Heller sing on the radio!

This week we got a call from our friends who invited us over for a fun project for us to do with them. We were already for bed but we jumped in the car and headed down the street for some last minute fun!

Their Mom made some cool goop to play with.