Don't Fry Day!

Okay, tomorrow, Friday, May 26th is Don't Fry Day.  In honor of it and of the upcoming holiday weekend, I am going to post two websites.  Please take care of your skin! 

Click here for an article about Don't Fry Day


Click here for EWG's Site on Sunscreens-  Please check this site out.  You might think you are getting the best sunscreen, but there is a lot of chemicals in some of them that harm you skin. 

Foodie Friday: "Chinese" Chicken

Well, I have a new recipe to share today!! Yay! Actually, it's a pretty easy recipe that I have used for years. It's simple and cooks up fairly quick. I was originally inspired by this recipe from Campbell's called, Sweet and Tangy Chicken.  Over the years however, I have kinda tinkered with the recipe and made a few changes.

  First of all, this time I used about two pounds of chicken breast tenderloins (use less chicken if you want it to be more saucy). They are smaller kid friendly pieces and they cook-up faster. I didn't get to defrost all the way so my pieces were still stuck together. Always, make sure you cook your food to the correct internal temperature to avoid any possibility of bacteria being left behind. If you don't own a food thermometer, it's a great investment. Click here to find out more about safe internal cooking temperatures.
  After the chicken was fully-cooked and browned, I added the ingredients (water, tomato soup, brown sugar, vinegar). However, instead of one tablespoon of brown sugar and vinegar, I had three of each. I know, I know. But it does taste yummy and not too over powering. Also, instead of white vinegar I use red wine vinegar. Just adds that little something. Feel free to tinker with if you like one or three tablespoons of each.  Everyone has different tastes. Once it's all mixed in, I lower the temperature and let it simmer to help reduce and thicken the sauce. 
  When it's done I usually serve with a boxed rice mix from the store that has an Asian flavor to it. You can add a frozen Oriental-inspired veggie mix to the rice too.  My family calls it Chinese Chicken because the sauce almost has the same sweet and tangy flavor as sweet and sour chicken.  If you wanted to make it even more like Sweet N' Sour chicken you could add some green bell pepper, onion and pineapple to the chicken towards the end while the sauce is simmering.

1 tablespoon butter

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast tenderloins

1 can (10 3/4 ounces)Condensed Tomato Soup

1/4 cup water

1-3 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1-3 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• Heat the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes or until well browned.
• Stir the soup, water, brown sugar and vinegar in the skillet and heat to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  

ENJOY!

Let them eat cake....Strawberry Shortcake that is!

This little beauty below is made every year by the local grocery chain,H-E-B. They were even put in the world book of records for the largest strawberry shortcake. They build it up and in around two days they sell if off at 2 dollars a slice. The proceeds go to scholarships. Let me tell you the slice isn't small either and oh so very tasty.

Another Update...

I had mentioned in an older posts, a couple who was having fertility problems.  The first pregnancy didn't stick.  However, the second one did.  She is almost 29 weeks pregnant with a sweet baby boy!  Whoo hoo!

Thankful Thursday! Hello!

So I have been a little absent from my blog.  Obviously...hello, last post was for the New Year!  I can't believe this school year is almost over.  I really hope to have a little more time this summer to post a of projects and stuff.  Anyway, I thought I would go back to my original themes for the days of the weeks.  Today is Thankful Thursday, so I am gonna share a few things I have been thankful for.
1.  Other people's blogs (O.P.B.!  Anyone else catch the 90's hip-hop reference?  Anyone?)  Although, I haven't been writing any blog entries I have been enjoying other people's blogs.  One of my absolute faves in Faith, Trust & a little Pixie Dust.  Michelle is so creative and I love all of her posts.  I have to hold myself back from checking her blog everyday, because I get sad when there isn't a new post!  I suppose she must go out into the world and find stuff to write about.  Anyway, she had this great post on giving money as a gift.  I found the lei as an awesome idea for my nephew's college graduation.  We were all getting together to have fun on one of those blow-up slides to celebrate, so the lei seemed fun and fit in with all the water!  I didn't use quite as many bills as Michelle but used more flowers.  I also tried to get flowers that matched the school's colors.  I used the straw-like spacers that came with the lei.  I used a two flowers, a spacer,dollar bill, a spacer, two flowers, a spacer pattern.
Here is a picture of my lei:

2. I am thankful that even though I may have not won the lottery yet (I suppose you would have to play to win), I can use crafting as a way to help my friends.  Some old neighbor's four year-old daughter just kicked leukemia's butt for the second time.  Some other people in the neighborhood were collecting crafts to help raise some money for the family.  Since the leukemia awareness color is orange I made some orange flower clippies.  I really love these cute felt flowers.  My inspiration for them came from this blog post that I stumbled upon one day.

3.  I am thankful for a school both I and my child really love.  I love how the principal and the entire staff work hard to make sure they treat each other as family.  It really showed this last week when the Endeavour took it's final flight into space.  One of the teacher's husband is an astronaut on the flight and another teacher in the same grade husband works in Mission Control.  The kids are totally fascinated and inspired by that (I am too).  On Monday the school set up a huge screen in the gym.  They called everyone's house using their automated system early in the morning and invited everyone (including parents) to come in a bit early to catch the launch together.  It was so neat.  Everyone counted down and cheered as they watched the shuttle rise into space.  It reminded me of when the shuttle program first started.  I remember teachers rolling the cart with the TV on it into class so we could watch the launches.