Category: Parenthood

#7/52 Tuscan Chicken

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A little late posting this, but I made a damn good Tuscan Chicken last week and I’m excited to share the recipe with you!

I decided to try the Creamy Tuscan Chicken recipe from downshiftology, and was so happy I did.

This recipe was very easy to prep, didn’t make a lot of dishes, and was ready to eat within 30 minutes. The flavors of sun-dried tomatoes are becoming a new favorite for me. I’m not sure why I haven’t cooked with them more to this point. We paired this delicious dish with rice and a vegetable mix of brussel sprouts, mushrooms, and broccoli.

Ingredients
● 4 (6-ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts
● 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning or a mix of individual spices such as oregano, thyme, basil, and rosemary
● 1 teaspoon kosher salt
● ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
● 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
● 4 garlic cloves minced
● ¼ cup finely chopped yellow onion
● ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes thinly sliced
● 2 cups baby spinach
● 1 ½ cups heavy cream
● ¼ cup freshly grated parmesan

Instructions
1. Prep the chicken. Season both sides of each chicken breast in Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
2. Sear the chicken. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and sear for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until golden. Remove the chicken from the pan to a plate and set aside.
3. Cook the onions. In the same skillet, add another tablespoon of oil and the onion. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes, until the onion has softened.
4. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic and saute another minute, until fragrant.
5. Add the spinach, and saute another minute, until just starting to wilt.
Add the heavy cream and parmesan cheese, stir together, and bring to a simmer.
6. Let it simmer. Place the chicken back in the skillet and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.

52 New Recipes in 2023, #1/52 Sublime Swordfish

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2 years ago, I started a journey to lose some weight in a healthy way, my New Year’s resolution was to make one healthy snack a week. Well, this year my New Year’s resolution will be to make one new recipe every week for a year. As a domestic engineer, meal planning multiple meals a day is exhausting. I have found that I am more motivated to cook when I am trying something new! So, please leave me some comments if there is a favorite dish you love and want me to try. I am really excited to embark on this culinary adventure and grateful to have you here for the ride! If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so at the end of this blog post.

The first new recipe of the year is Swordfish. I decided to try the Best Grilled Swordfish recipe from Tasting Table, and I am so happy I did! This is definitely a recipe I will make again in the future; the taste was sublime. I decided to pair it with pesto spinach and cheese tortellini and sauteed green beans. If you try it, let me know what you think too.

Ingredients

  • 3 lemons
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • ½ cup olive oil, divided
  • 4 (6-ounce) swordfish steaks
  • 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
  • 1 bunch fresh basil, coarsely chopped
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. Wash and dry the lemons and fresh herbs.
  2. Zest and juice 1 lemon into a 1-cup glass measuring cup. Juice a second lemon into the cup, but do not zest it. Then, add the thyme to the mixture.
  3. Finely mince the garlic or paste using a garlic press
  4. Add ½ the garlic to the lemon and thyme mixture. Then, add ¼ cup of olive oil. Whisk to combine the marinade.
  5. Dry the swordfish with a paper towel.
  6. Using 1 teaspoon of salt, season both sides of the fish.
  7. Place in a zip-top bag and add the marinade.
  8. Place in a shallow dish and marinate in the fridge for up to 20 minutes.
  9. Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. Pick the fresh basil leaves and fresh parsley leaves from the stems, and coarsely chop. (You are looking for about ½ cup of each basil and parsley after the leaves have been chopped.)
  10. Add the leaves to a food processor. Add the juice from the remaining lemon, ½ teaspoon of salt, the rest of the garlic, ¼ cup of olive oil, and the red pepper flakes. Pulse until the herbs are finely chopped (do not process until smooth), about 5 to 7 pulses.
  11. Heat the grill using high heat for 7 to 10 minutes. Clean well with a grill brush. Then, reduce the heat to medium.
  12. Remove the fish from the marinade and place it on the grill.
  13. Grill the swordfish for 3 to 5 minutes per side, until it easily releases from the grill and the inside is flaky and opaque — or a probe thermometer registers 130 F in the thickest piece of fish.
  14. If desired, cut an additional lemon in half, and grill it for 3 minutes. Serve with the fish for a final squeeze of freshness.

Minimalism and Christmas?

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How do these two things coincide?

I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist, but I have been following several minimalist moms on Instagram as an inspiration. After being a domestic engineer for 3+ years, I am so tired of feeling like I am constantly cleaning. One insta-mom said that if it takes you more than 20 minutes to tidy a room you have too many things. And I believe it!

From clothes, toys, and other randoms, we had too much stuff. I went through our family’s clothes and filled 4 trash bags full, and recently another one full of shoes. If I haven’t seen Chris or myself wear said shoes in the last 5 years they need to go, with the exception of a pair of black dress shoes for both of us. We also donated a box of other random things like toys, purses, an air purifier, and a wifi extender. I went through the house and thinned out my plant collection and now have at least 15 sitting on my kitchen table to be given away in the next few days. I am selling the items that I think I can get more than $20 for.

About a year or more ago I was really into watching Marie Kondo when I needed cleaning inspo, after watching and listening over and over I’ve slowly been letting things go. Last year I got rid of almost every book I own besides 3 to 5 I hadn’t read yet. I haven’t missed a single one of them since (nor have I read the books that I kept, whoops). This doesn’t mean I want to get rid of everything though. We thought we were going to move in May and so I started packing a lot of decorations or other things we don’t use. There was a change of plan and said items were in the box for a couple months. I unpacked them in August and the decorations brought me such joy putting them back around the house, so like I said, I don’t think I will be a minimalist, but having less is the new thing I am striving for every day.

This puts me in a pickle for Christmas. Of course I want to give my daughter something but I don’t want more items in my house. The insta-moms I mentioned earlier suggest consumables and experience gifts. I also like the idea of “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read” and doing 4 gifts. I thought maybe I would get her a stuffed tiger and zoo tickets, but I don’t want more stuffed animals in my house. Perhaps a butterfly craft and butterfly pavilion tickets? I’d love to get her snowboarding stuff for Christmas, but she’ll need it all in 2ish weeks, so that won’t work. I can’t wait until she likes sitting through manis and pedis – because that will be a no-brainer treat for both of us haha. Until then, I will continue this debate with myself on what the heck to get my darling daughter and husband. Do you have any suggestions? Leave them in the comments!

Hibernation Unit

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September 14th Malia and I met some friends down at Roxborough State Park to hike Fountain Valley Trail. The amount of bear poop on the trail was astonishing, I had never seen so much poop. I mean, it made sense, if I was eating 20,000 calories a day, well you know.

It wasn’t far down the trail that we ended up seeing two bears in a tree! It was a really neat experience, we were able to snap some pictures and videos and keep hiking. The bears were much more concerned about their snacks than us. This inspired our hibernation unit.

I put together 3 part Montessori Cards of the animals that hibernate in Colorado and I would love to share them with you!

Click here for Hibernation 3 part cards.

Montessori 3 part cards and free materials

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Coming up with learning material for my daughter can take up some time! I sure love it when other mama’s share print outs that they’ve already taken the time to put together. I thought it was my time to return the favor!

Montessori 3 part cards consist of three parts.  There is a control card that includes a picture with a word label, a picture card, and a printed word label.

Lessons begin with the control card, then followed by the matching of the picture cards, and ends with the placement of label cards. There are plenty of other ways to utilize these cards with children, depending on their literacy level.

My daughter is 2.5 years old, at this time we use the control card and picture card. Recently, I made a couple 3 part cards to match a couple of the Safari Toob animal figurines.

Dogs Safari Toob and this Rottweiler figurine inspired my first set. Our sweet Rottweiler wasn’t a dog that was included in the original TOOB so we got her separately.

Nature Safari Toob inspired the second set. We see a lot of these animals in Colorado and we are learning them in our Spanish Lingua music class. So naturally, I made a copy in English and one in Spanish.

These 3 part cards are ready to go on their own without the animal figurines, but the figurines do add that bonus fun and are super worth it in my opinion!

Get your Dog 3 part cards here

Nature Animals 3 part cards in English here

Nature Animals 3 part cards (en Español) here