Room Makeover and Sweet Potato Latkes

We have had quite an exciting week!  On Thursday morning after Matthew left for school, his birthday room makeover began.  The painters arrived on schedule and painted his room a rich khaki color (with a dark blue accent wall) and hung his new light fixture.  Shortly thereafter Ikea arrived to build his new dresser and desk.  When they were done, we re-arranged his furniture, put on his new bedding and hid a cell phone in his desk drawer. 

 

We kept the door closed and did a big grand entrance.  Matt came home from work for a few minutes and we all led Matthew through the door where we caught his surprise on video!  It was wonderful!  There were so many moving parts with different people owning various parts of it and it all came together so beautifully.  He was thrilled!  Of course, the moment he saw his cell phone, well, that trumped the whole room makeover.  And of course, with the cell phone came a cell phone contract.  Email me if you would like me to share it with you.  I looked at several online and then created my own contract. 

Matt and I took Matthew and Champ and 2 friends to the Monster Truck Show Saturday night.  What a hoot!  It was really fun and a lot to take in - I don't know what was more interesting:  the monster trucks or the people watching.  Fascinating, really! 

So here I am on a Monday loving my kids being home.  After a weekend of spend the nights and activities, my heart just smiles when it's me and the kiddos - and it's especially smiley right now because my house is quiet.  Champ is at the library with my neighbor.  Brooke is sleeping and Matthew is buying apps with his iTunes card.  I ran with Sandy this morning so she has found a nice spot and she's sleeping.  Peace and quiet - I love it! 

I went to the grocery this morning and bought food to make the following meals:

Corn Chowder with Sausage Corn Bread (I bought gluten free baking flour and will keep my fingers crossed that it still works!)

Basil Lemon Baked Chicken with Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Chicken Salad (Café at Pharr style)

Chicken/Sausage Gumbo over Cauliflower Rice

 

 

So, look forward to some new recipes!  Before the Monster Truck Show on Saturday, we fed our hungry boys some burgers, salad and sweet potato latkes.  They were a hit!  Big Matt especially loved them.  As I tasted them after having been freshly cooked and topped with crumbled blue cheese, I felt like I could have submitted them in a food competition and won.  Mm mmm. 

 

First, I grated 1 medium sized yellow onion followed by one regular Idaho potato and one sweet potato (I peeled the potatoes first).

 

After I grated those three, I put them in a pile in the middle of a clean kitchen towel.

I then wrapped it up and squeezed all the water out - or as much as I could.  (**Note - rinse the towel off before you throw it into the wash because when I opened my washing machine to put the clothes in the dryer, it was a mess - potatoes everywhere!).

I added some salt, pepper, a bit of cayenne pepper, one egg and 2 TBS flour and mixed it all up.

Working with about 1/4 cup at a time, I scooped some up, made a little patty in my hand and put it in a hot skillet with Canola oil...

Cook them for about 3-4 minutes a side.

Aren't they pretty?  When they were done and hot off the pan, I put a little crumbled blue cheese on top and seriously thought I might pass out - they were so delicious.

I cooked them early in the day so that I had nothing to do but plate up dinner when it was time to eat (the monster trucks were waiting for us).  They were better, in my opinion, when they first came out of the pan because they were still crispy.  They lost some of that crispiness sitting in a warm oven all day, but they were still really good.  This would be a great side to any chicken, pork or beef dish.  Or you could have a couple of these and some mixed fruit for a meal!  Enjoy! 

Click here for the recipe. 



Happy Valentine's Day!

So, I was recently talking with a friend of mine from whom I learned the expression FACEBOOK DEPRESSION.  Do you ever log onto Facebook and scroll through everyone's pictures and comments - most of which are positive and lovely and make you think that they're living this perfect life - and then you compare that with the reality of your own life and it makes you kind of feel a bit down?  Well, that's Facebook depression.  It's not really something I experience for I know that for the most part, Facebookers are posting the highs in life - the best pictures of themselves - pictures of their kids' championship wins, pictures of fancy dinners and amazing vacations... and in between all those postings, they're just living life like the rest of us...

Anyway, I started thinking - oh no, do my blog readers, every time I write a new post, think - oh here comes happy homemaker again... So, I've decided to share a little bit of my reality with you.  First of all, let me just openly thank the good Lord above for blessing me with an eternally positive outlook on life in general.  I'm so very thankful for that and do my best to embrace it each and every day.  Do I complain?  Absolutely!  Do I ever feel overwhelmed?  Oh, just about every day - but I figure you probably do, too, and why would you want to read about my daily woes when you have your own to deal with? 

Now, I could devote a good dozen or so posts to how I don't measure up to the person I hope/wish I could be.  Or I could write about how sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of business and activities (wait, I think I already do that occasionally)... but I don't want to bore you.  We are who we are and we're trying to do the best we can - right?  Plus, I really try to redirect my thoughts when I'm feeling defeated, to those of thankfulness.  And last night as I finally got all three kids in their rooms for the night, I poured myself a small glass of red wine and collapsed onto the sofa - too tired to read, too tired to watch t.v. - and the house was quiet and I thought... geez, as much as I look forward to the peace I experience at the end of the day, it sure is nice to have a houseful of kids to keep you busy - that's where the fun happens (just minutes earlier, the kids and I were blasting Justin Timberlake's new song, 'Suit and Tie' and the boys were laughing at Brooke and I dancing), the love swirls around, the activities fill up your calendar, the fun conversations happen... so all this is to say that I complain - I feel overwhelmed quite often - but I try to think of it all from a great big picture lens.  These days will be gone before we know it and we will miss them! 

Right now we are in sports overlap - the basketball season is nearing its end as the baseball season has begun, so we are out most nights of the week.  Couple that with a science fair and a 5th grade school play and there you have it - little time at home and no time to cook.  Last night, however, I did make a tasty meal - pecan and cashew chicken.  I took 2 chicken breasts and sliced them in half to make 4 thin pieces.  I coated them each with Dijon mustard.  I then rolled them in a mixture of ground up pecans and cashews.  I cooked them in a little canola oil and that was the meat portion of my dinner.  It was really juicy and tasty chicken. 

Because it didn't have any breadcrumbs in the nut mixture, though, it didn't stick very well to the chicken.  But it was still really good.  I served that with some lima beans, corn and grits casserole.  Delish!

Tonight is sandwich night.  I have oven roasted turkey, spicy chipotle deli chicken, honey maple ham... and I'll make sandwiches to order and serve them with sweet potato fries, green beans, and fruit. 

Next week we should be settling in to our Spring routine of just baseball... so look forward to some fun recipes!