Food Friday!! Spicy Coconut Chicken Casserole

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So I decided to join in the food fun.  I will confess this is a Martha Stewart recipe, but it is AWESOME!!  I have made it several times and the kids LOVE IT! and so DO I! easy to make and easy one pot clean up!!  YUMMMY!!

And for all those who cannot eat wheat or dairy! Here you go!  A great recipe!

SPICY COCONUT CHICKEN CASSEROLE

Ingredients

Serves 4.

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 whole chicken legs (about 3 pounds total)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) light coconut milk
• 1 1/2 cups canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 cup jasmine rice
• 2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 8 ounces green beans (stem ends removed), cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1/2 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Directions

1. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Working in two batches, cook chicken until browned, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to a plate (chicken will cook more in step 2).
2. To pot, add coconut milk, broth, 1/2 cup water, and curry paste; bring to a boil, and stir in rice. Add chicken (with any juices), arranging pieces in a single layer. Cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, without stirring, until rice is almost tender, 15 minutes.
3. Scatter bell peppers and green beans on top of chicken mixture; cover, and cook until vegetables are crisp-tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

Blast from the past

Well Anna has challenged me again!  Phew first it was jumping in the house on the couch! Now it is who has the biggest glasses!  I think I HAD THE BIGGEST BADDEST 80’s GLASSES!!  Now you be the judge!

Please note the electric blue eye shadow, the feathered hair, the pink and black plaid pants, the vest….and the enormous glasses!! OMG this was in 1986…..

Here is a picture from the same year, just earlier in the year…..Note the rose colored glasses, hot pink shirt!

That next summer, I learned about contacts, this picture was taken at camp!  Not a bad outfit because it was the camp uniform.

Can you believe I am the camp director of this camp?  Look there i am 22 years ago! Back to glasses! a bit smaller, and I have two pair!  DORK!

MMM… carrot smoothie and a shot of wheatgrass

Still struggling through my cold.  I have broken down and called the doctor as i find it hard to lie to my mother when she calls to ask if i have called or not.  So I await the doctors phone call….

So today I was ready to start discussing the “Bus Stop”…I was planning out what i was going to write and so on but then, something MADE MY DAY!!

So here is how the morning went…the kids slept at my parents house.  I got up took a shower and as i was getting out the twins arrive.  My dad was dropping them off so i could take them to the bus stop.  I sit in the car and think about the characters (parents/babysitters) sitting at teh bus stop and think to myself they would be fun to write about…I drive to work and think i need some cough drops or something to get me through the day and perhaps a nice hot cup of coffee.

So I as I drive to CVS and as i drive by my favortie shop was was OPEN.  WHAT SHOP YOU MIGHT ASK….The Citrus Jucie Bar Cafe. OMG i almost peed my pants.  They are never open before 10am!  I had been dying for a smoothie. They are so fresh and taste so good!  I was so excited I drove right by CVS.  Turned down the street, parked and rushed through CVS.

I walked over to the citrus bar and i was so very excited!  I walked in asked for a “Bunny Spice” smoothie looking a little like:

I know I know, but they are soooo soooo good!! YUMMM!! A carrot smoothie! and then since i was not feeling well, i thought perhaps a 2 oz. shot of wheatgrass would do the trick! YUM Looking a little like this:

OMG it was so good.  I would love to be able to eat a diet of raw foods.  The more i read the better it sounds for you. I have tried on and off, but i find it tough with the kids. They are not as willing to try someo fo this funky things i want too.  so I will wait for a bit longer, throw in more veggies and raw fruits and nuts into our diets and hope someday to phase out some of this cooked food.

So maybe tomorrow i will feel up to telling you about the funny people that wait at the bus stop with the kids every morning!!

Photos of the weekend

Well well well, I told you things would get better.  I know most people say things when they are upset, i know people get upset when they assume things, I know some people are great (like you guys) and some people are not so great.

After spending most of the day in bed saturday, getting out to change the wash (i did 12 loads this weekend), and to feed children (nothing healthy), partly feeling sorry for myself and mostly because i was sick as a dog! OH WAIT I AM STILL SICK…well i am not sick, i just have the sniffles…I love living in this world called denial!! hehehe..

So my mom went to New Hampshire, and she bought the boys xmas outfits.  She even called me from the store to ask me what i thought of the outfits, she had me go on line to look them up….we have decieded the boys this year were not going to have the same outfits but similar…We were going to the seaport to have their pictures taken for advertisment purposes…pimping out my boys…here are a few pictures of the day!

You know i always wonder with Jordan being adopted and being one of 16 children will his relatives ever pick up a seaport advertisment and say that kid looks just like me!?  I wonder if his mom would recognize him today?  Does he look like his siblings? I know he did when he was a baby, how about now?  all his brother and sisters have the same father, they were all such beautiful children…hummm i guess i will never know….

Here is Jordan my super model!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE those RED pants!!

You try and get three kids to smile and look at you at the same time!!

Here are the boys, after a couple of long hours of this photo shoot….LOVE THIS PICTURE

Go ahead take your best shot! Everyone else seems to be

Okay so the past couple of weeks have been a bit difficult for me.  I feel as though i have been put in front of a firing squad….

So many hurtful things have been said and it has been shocking.  Boiling down to the point of me just being a plain old bad person and it is all my fault…according to some people, i apparently i am a dictator, i am a person that does not communicate, i am a bad friend, i do not appreciate people enough, i am mean, things i say have made people quit, I have problems, i need help, serious help, i am incompetent, i cannot do my job….wow!! since others are taking shots, here is my shot at myself… last night was the first night since last thursday my boys had a home cooked meal.  Last nights was nothing to exciting even….

WOW Fail as a person, friend, mother as a human.  So if anyone else out there wants to shot while i am down you should have at it now.

but dont worry, I will scrape myself up off the ground. I will put myself back together.   i may not shoot back but all of this will make me stronger in the end.  I can take it but damn it hurts. It seems to be coming at me in the most unlikely places too.

This too shall pass.

Rule #1 Dont draw attention to yourself…Fail

Well it was a pretty successful day yesterday!  I was surprised throughout the day.  For dinner last night, the boys and i went to Outback.  They love going and who am I to deny them goign out to dinner on my birthday night.  Now if you know me well enough, you will know one of my rules in life is, “Do not draw attention to yourself” This is one rule as I am sure my instructors would agree I pound into them throughout the summer months.   Apparently this rule does not seem to apply to my children or they just have not learned it…

So we out to dinner. We sit down and before anyone comes over the boys ask if they are going to sing to me. AHH WHAT!!?? NO… i told them it was not like i was wearing a bday crown or they knew.  So the waitress comes over and jordan looked as if he were going to pop!  She greeted us and before she could ask for drinks, he erupted..”Its my Mommy’s birthday!!” Of course the whole table was telling her, Jordan was even going to sing the song he made up for my birthday,

it goes something like, “happy birthday to you happy birthday to you, you are not 32, happy birthday to you, you are 36, happy birthday to you”

Of course i put a stop to that and hoped this watiress could see the stress in my eyes of please please do not sing to me later….

We play games at the table waiting for our food.  It was a nice dinner, the boys were well behaved and then i could feel it….the clapping, the crowd of wait staff…walking towards me…OMG…I know I said a little “OH SHIT” under my breathe…the look of terror was on my face….but phew they went to the table next to us. I was off the hook or so i thought…NOPE… They sang at the table next to me and then promptly turned to our table to sing.  I could have crawled under the table. I think my children were singing the loudest…

But you know what, they loved it.  They thought that was the best thing since sliced bread.  It was not so bad, and I am so glad birthdays come once a year!!  Just wait until their birthday!!  muwhahaha

Pooped out doing the back stroke!

HOLY SHIT!  So we have had a long time “turd burglar” around here….you know what that is, i am sure you have had one in your office.  Someone goes takes a dump and leaves a little turd floating in the toilet…today it was not the “turd burglar”

Well this little guy just could “just keep swimming!”  HAHAHA

now for a closer look!!

GROSS…but funny at the same time….

Thanks Mom and Dad

I know I know today is my birthday but you know what after having children of my own i feel as though i should be celebrating my mom and dad.  My parents are awesome.  just thinking what i have put them through, preteen years, teenager, college, marriage, kids, divorce and now!! phew!  I asked my mom if she ever thought 30 some odd years later she would be here….she said no. she was happy to have three great kids and three grandchildren!

Here is the cake we had for dinner the other night! Jordan is getting so big!!  I just wonder where i will be next year or even 5 years from now….hummmm i will let you know.

Moving the MORGAN

Well well well, I know i was waffling on whether or not I wanted to be on a boat or on land…I have to tell you being on a boat where all the action was had to be the best spot.

Here we are getting ready, you know all the little support boats…

I know moving the DUNTON was fun.  It was exciting, new and could you belive they were trusting my boat handling skills not to wreck it.  Moving the MORGAN was awesome.

Here is the “captain” of the project!! I just love this picture! Looking off into the distance, I wonder what he is thinking?

EVeryone got into place.  Boy what a production!

I know I was one of the little support boats.  We followed her down the rive, here she is passing the CONRAD,

and we were the ones to push her stern into the dock, and here is my trusty partner in crime!  Thank God for Amy!!  I would take her anywhere with me!!

Here is what the stern looked like…We were next to the boat on the left….PUSHING!

Phew the MORGAN made it down to shipyard.  She may look like a skeleton right now, but she is going in for a boat makeover!!  What fun it is going to be to watch them restore her!  I really think somedays i was born in wrong time era!  But maybe i was born at the right time, as there were no female captains!  and today I can be a captain…i hope to clear my plate a little, to make room to become a captain.  I told my mom tonight at dinner, 10 years and that’s it.  I am sailing away!! I can work for pennies here on land or at sea!

Now the Seaport is missing her landmark and it looks very empty with out the MORGAN in her normal spot…

It wont be long before we need to move the CONRAD!!! (December of this year! OMG now that is exciting!)

Photo Friday

this is a picture of my parents house. their house has a name, it is called irisrock.  i just liked these pictures…