31 Days of Life

I'm three days behind, because, well, life happens. I am attempting again this year to blog for 31 days as part of The Nester's 31 Days of Writing Challenge. My posts won't be long, some days just a picture, uploaded from my phone. I'm hoping to document our life. My word for 2014 was live. You can click here to read why. I've attempted to take a picture everyday to put in my journal. I haven't blogged much this year because we have been living. I haven't posted here but have posted snippets on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I'm having problems linking to those at the moment. I'll try to revisit and link up later. Wish me luck as I attempt to succeed at 31 days of blogging life happenings in our family.

31 Days---Day 4

31 Days---Day 5

31 Days---Day 6

31 Days---Day 9

31 Days---Day 12

31 Days---Day 14

31 Days---Day 16

31 Days---Day 23

31 Days---Day 30

They Hear What They Wanna Hear

I overheard the kids about 7 this morning playing a game. Michael was giving them definitions/examples so the girls could guess the word. The conversation went something like this. 

"This is what mom would be if she didn't teach."

 "A stay at home mom."

"I'd like that but no. It's what Mrs. Wendy is after she takes pictures."

"Uh?"

"What she does to the pictures."

"Make them skinny." "Give them teeth." "Cut out the background ?"

"What's she called? Ok ok mom does this to our stories." 

"She fixes our mistakes. You know she doesn't really wanna teach English and Mrs Wendy doesn't add English to her pictures."

"Good grief! She wants a corner office with all windows where she can wear her jeans and flip flops everyday. So what does she wanna be after she retires from teaching?"

"Oh she wants a corner office on liberty hill so she can write and embarrass us the rest of our lives."

"You're close."

Time runs out...an editor. The word was editor. 

"Michael editors don't write, they edit. They don't get to embarrass the people they love. And they don't get to wear jeans to work. Mom can't be an editor she hates tights."

Hmm...they do listen. 

Happy Project--April 25

Mikie and I are headed to Georgia to run our first mud obstacle race...the Superhero Scramble. Love coming through the Gorge at the Tennessee/North Carolina line. 

Happy Project--April 21

Mollie came off the bus carrying her Bible. So I snapped this pic. Later in the afternoon I was on Instagram and her teacher had snapped a pic of her open Bible on her desk. 

Happy Project--April 18

                 Good Friday paintings. 

Me Happy Project--April 15

I just can't get the hang of posting every single day or even once a week for that matter. I'm going to try to post once a week a picture that makes me happy and brings me joy. My goal is to work my way up to a post a day...a quote, a picture, a real post by the end of summer. Maybe you can help make me accountable and join me in my "Me Happy Project."

Michael struggles with reading. He got excited when his book came...The Dangerous Book for Boys."  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Parmesan-Ragú Style

Ragú has some awesome new recipes they have been promoting on the Ragú Facebook page and on Ragú's official website. I was recently challenged by Ragú to prepare an "Official New Tra-Dish." I was provided a recipe and a gift card to use to purchase Ragú Old World Style Traditional Sauce of my choice. Each jar of Ragú Old World Traditional Sauce is packed with 11 juicy tomatoes, making it richer, thicker and just taste better.

Having four kids I always have help in the kitchen. We decided since we had never tried this particular recipe to keep it as it is, except we used fiesta cheese instead of mozzarella. The challenge was to make it fit my busy life style and our eating habits. 

The recipe is below and you can find the nutritional value here Ragu No Frying Chicken Parmesan.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup plain dry bread crumbs
• ½ tsp. Italian seasoning
• ¼ tsp. garlic powder
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 2 ibs.)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 jar (1 lb. 8 oz.) Ragu® Old World Style® Pasta Sauce
• 1 cup shredded Fiesta cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Combine bread crumbs, Italian seasoning and garlic powder in shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg, then crumb mixture; turn to coat.
2. Arrange the chicken in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Bake 20 minutes.
3. Pour Pasta Sauce over chicken; top with cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Just a side note before I poured the pasta sauce over the chicken, I removed the chicken from the pan, poured out the chicken juices, then put the chicken back in the pan. Then I poured the sauce over it and put the cheese on top. I wanted to be able to use the sauce that dripped off also and didn't want it to have the chicken juices in it. 

Dinner was a success. We placed it on a bed of spaghetti with brussel sprouts on the side. Even my pickiest child who doesn't like tomato based sauces loved it. This is a keeper on my menu plan. Ragu has a lot of great tasting sauces and this meal would go great with any of them.

Moms this is a quick easy meal that your kids will love. Give it try this week for dinner. 

Disclaimer: I was compensated with a gift card to purchase the Ragu sauce of my choice for this meal. The recipe was supplied by Ragu and I could have changed it if I had wanted to. All opinions in this post are mine.