Last week I did some experimenting and came up with a new chicken recipe that was actually a success!  Most of my experiments are big flops, so this was a big deal!  I’m calling this dish “Sticky Chicken” for lack of a better title.  I baked the chicken in the sauce (though I’m sure you could cook it in a skillet too), and then reduced the sauce to make it thicker and stickier.  Serve with rice and green beans for an easy dinner!

Sticky Chicken

recipe by me!

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/4 lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Whisk together brown sugar, oyster sauce, lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper.  Place chicken chunks in a single layer in a baking dish, and pour the sauce over the top.  Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degrees, or until chicken is cooked through.  Remove chicken and keep warm.  Transfer sauce to a small saucepan, and bring to a boil.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens.  Serve chicken over rice, and top with sticky sauce.

Today I wanted to share some happy little videos that The Littlest Apple and I have been enjoying this week. (But I promise I’m not going to turn in to that crazy blogger lady that posts You Tube videos all the time!)

Jason Mraz on Sesame Street singing “Let’s Go Outdoors” to the tune of “I’m Yours”.  Love it! This song always makes me smile. I’ve been walking around singing it for days.

And Ricky Gervais sings a lullabye to Elmo.  The Littlest Apple giggles hysterically at this one, every single time, which in turn makes me smile, every single time.

This is my new favorite way to eat broccoli!  I’ve roasted lots of other kinds of vegetables, but why haven’t I tried it with broccoli before?  So easy!  I love the way it gets just a little bit crispy.  Thanks to Courtney at Cooking up a Family for the inspiration!

Ingredients:

• 1 head of broccoli
• olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Layer broccoli in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with garlic.  Cook for 20 minutes, or until barely browned.  (Definitely important to keep an eye on it!  I’ve cooked it twice, one time it turned out perfectly, and one time it got a little too crispy.)

The number of blogs I subscribe to just keeps growing and growing, and as a result, the great posts I read and bookmark to share with you or to look at again later also continues to grow!  Here’s some of the good stuff from the last 2 weeks:

Asiago Bagels from Brown Eyed Baker: Bagels is on my list of things to try making myself, and Asiago Bagels are my FAVORITE kind to order at the bagel place.

A post from Create Beauty Daily on struggling with infertility and miscarriage.  I particularly liked the list of at the end, with some Do’s and Don’ts on what to say to people who are struggling. (Thanks to Metropolitan Mama for the link!)

I didn’t get to have any Funnel Cake when we went to the Livestock Show & Rodeo this week, and I’ve been craving one ever since.  Maybe I could try making my own Funnel Cake at home, just like The Pioneer Woman!

Cutting Down On Waste in the Kitchen: Tossing the Paper, from Keeper of the Home: We’re still working on cutting back on our paper towel usage.

YouLookFab has a great list of 20 Must Haves for Spring and Summer 2010.  I’ve got about 13 of the items on this list, which I guess is a pretty good start.  I had a nice little pick-me-up shopping spree yesterday for some new spring and summer clothes.

The Two Year Old: A Traditional Perspective and the follow up post How Do I Live Peacefully With My Two Year Old from a new to me blog, The Parenting Passageway

the good life for less has a Spring 2010 Looks Book full of affordable pieces (and how to wear them) to update your wardrobe for spring.  She’s got great style, and I always love to see the outfits from the wardrobe consultations.

I found Heavenly Homemaker’s post on what they did to help their son’s eczema without drugs fascinating since The Littlest Apple has had eczema since birth (though much improved now).

Our mantel has been in need of a makeover essentially since we moved in.  I never quite mastered the art of decorating a mantel.  Layla from The Lettered Cottage HAS!  She’s got  a beautiful Spring Mantel that I just might have to copy!

I’m hoping to try these Salad Spinner Spring Flowers from Confessions of a Homeschooler sometime this week.  The Littlest Apple LOVES to play with our salad spinner!

These Granola Cookies with Coconut, Almonds and Chocolate from Dandy Sugar WILL be making an appearance at my house this week.  Yum!

Sometimes I feel like taking the time to cook something special, something more involved, but most of the time, I just want to get dinner ready as quickly as possible.  For many people, a recipe’s list of ingredients is the first indication of how involved a dish is.  Here are some main dishes with 10 ingredients or less:

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter–serve with spaghetti.  Add ground beef or shredded parmesan as desired, and you’re still under 10 ingredients!

Chicken Soft Tacos–even with tortillas, rice, and beans, you’re still at less than 10 ingredients!

Perfect Roast Chicken–don’t fear the whole chicken!!

Chicken Broccoli  Mac & Cheese

Spicy Stir Fried Chicken and Greens with Peanuts

Potato Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Chicken Taco Soup

Pesto Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Italian and Chicken Vegetable Soup

Savory Baked Chicken

Slow Cooker Taco Chili-one of my go-to meals in law school

Taco Rice–freezes well!

Not viable.

That was the news I got yesterday when I went for an ultrasound.

I was six weeks pregnant.

The doctor said he knew things weren’t quite right before he even did the ultrasound, based on my lab work alone.  I’ve already had bloodwork done three times since last Thursday.  (I also went for an ultrasound last week, per doctor’s orders, but they couldn’t see anything yet.)

Obviously, I was upset with this news.  I had been crazy tired, which always happens to me in early pregnancy.  A little bit queasy.  But there were no obvious signs that anything was wrong, as there had been in my previous miscarriages.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t completely surprised by the news of this miscarriage.  The odds weren’t exactly in our favor.

Because if you’ve been keeping track…

Miscarriage at 5 weeks, December 2006

Finley was born, August 31, 2007

Miscarriage at 12 weeks, with resulting D & C, August 2009

Ruptured ectopic pregnancy (with removal of left tube and a chunk of my uterus), December 2009

and now….

Miscarriage at 6 weeks, March 2010.

The doctor said repeatedly that I didn’t do anything wrong.  That it isn’t my fault that this happened.

But at the same time, I was thinking….

Maybe I shouldn’t have taken that Amoxocillin and Tylenol for my sinus infection, even though both my family doctor and OB said it was safe for early pregnancy.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been drinking even the DECAF coffee (because it still has a little bit of caffeine).

Maybe I should have eaten more veggies.

Maybe it’s because I’m overweight.  (Though my BP and cholesterol are a-ok, and my doctor said that this shouldn’t make a big difference…)

Maybe I should have exercised more.

Maybe I should have done less and relaxed more.

Maybe I shouldn’t have lost my cool and yelled at Finn yesterday.

Maybe this is God’s way of telling me that we’re only meant to have one child.

Maybe we should have waited longer after the ruptured ectopic.  They did take a wedge out of my uterus, after all.  After the doctor told me that the pregnancy wasn’t viable, he also said that it is probably for the best.  That maybe it was too soon after the ruptured ectopic and that I should let my uterus heal a little longer before trying again.  (Wait!  Didn’t he also say that I didn’t do anything wrong?  And tell me that it was okay to go ahead and try again back in January?!  Way to make me feel guilty.)

I think The Picky Apple and I (and the doctor, too) were surprised by how quickly I was able to get pregnant again.  We figured it would take a little longer since I am down a tube.  But apparently not.

And clearly it doesn’t matter anyway, if I can’t STAY pregnant.

For now, we’re taking a 6 month break.  Then we’ll decide where to go from here.

Neither one of us has felt a strong urge to have a large family.  I was always okay with 2 kids.  But then after The Littlest Apple was born, it took us a while to decide we wanted a second child.  It would be nice to have another child, but I don’t think either of us feels like our family won’t be complete until we have a second child.  We might be okay with just one.

My doctor isn’t ready to send us for testing just yet.  Nor has he said that we won’t be able to have more kids.  But how much more can I really take, emotionally and physically?

And if this keeps happening, THEN what?  I don’t think IVF or fertility treatments would really help, since fertility isn’t the problem.  Surrogacy?  Not sure if I want to go there.  Adoption?  Not sure about that either.

It’s starting to become more and more clear to me just how much of a miracle it is that we have The Littlest Apple.  His name, which means “fair haired warrior” is SO appropriate, don’t you think?

Maybe one child is enough for us.

It is for now, anyway.

I have been drinking lots of smoothies lately.  I usually have one for breakfast, but they make great snacks too!  The great thing about smoothies is that they are SO flexible!  The Littlest Apple also enjoyed smoothies (for a while, anyway), and he got a splash of heavy cream in his!  After reading about “green” smoothies on many different blogs, I started throwing a handful of spinach in too.  You can’t even tell it’s there!  I usually do a dash of this and a handful of that, so I’m going to do my best to give you a recipe….

Ingredents:

• 8 ice cubes
• 1 banana (the riper, the better)
• 1 cup strawberries (frozen work great too!)
• 1 handful of spinach leaves
• 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt (I use plain, but flavored could be good too!)
• 1-2 cups of milk, depending on your preferred consistency
• honey (if needed for sweetener)

Blend and enjoy!  This makes plenty to share.

In honor of St. Patrick’s day, we had a special art project today with our art playgroup friends.  First, each child was given a bowl of blue and yellow paint to mix, creating our special color of the day, GREEN!

Then the kids used these potato stamps to stamp the paint onto their paper.  I carved heart, triangle, and square stamps.  I used a small cookie cutter for the hearts, and free-handed the others.

All in all, it was a simple project, but the kids seemed to enjoy it…though not as much as the paint popsicles–that’s the reigning favorite!

I also served some homemade green shamrock sugar cookies with white frosting and green sprinkles.  I used a new recipe, and honestly, they didn’t turn out that great (this is the first time Martha has let me down!).  The dough was really hard to work with, and they tasted bland.  I’ll share my go-to butter sugar cookie recipe for Easter, coming up soon! (How is it that I haven’t shared this yet?)

Since I had success using whole wheat flour in the Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins and the Homemade Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, I decided to try more recipes using whole wheat flour.  I’m not sure if I’ll cut out white flour completely, but I would like to use whole wheat flour more often.  I’ve had this recipe for Yummy Apricot Breakfast Bars from Heavenly Homemakers bookmarked for a while, but I usually don’t have dried apricots on hand.  These definitely aren’t as sweet as your usual breakfast cake, but I think that’s a good thing!  These taste hearty, and I love the crunch of the sesame seeds!  I do think these taste best the day they are baked.  I’m looking forward to playing around with various combinations of fruit, nuts, and seeds in the recipe.  There are so many possibilities!

Apricot Breakfast Bars

from Heavenly Homemakers

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 3/4 cup dried apricots

Melt butter and honey together.  Remove from heat.  Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add baking soda, salt, vanilla and buttermilk and eggs.  Stir in flour, oats, coconut and sesame seeds until well combined.  Cut dried apricots into small bites (I usually cut mine into fourths).  Fold apricot pieces into dough.

Bake in a 9 x 13 baking pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, by Laura Numeroff: We love all of the books in this series, and this is no exception. In this book, the cat takes a girl to the beach, the gym, and the science museum.  And it all begins- and ends- with a cupcake.

Bear Hugs, by Alyssa Satin Capucilli: This was a Valentine’s gift from Grandma and Grandad.  It’s an Early Reader with simple text about different kinds of hugs: “A big hug? A small hug? A growing very tall hug?”  Right now I just read it, but soon I’ll be using this one for some word and letter recognition.  The illustrations of the bear family out for a picnic are adorable.

How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends, by Jane Yolen: All of the books in this series are excellent too!  This was our latest purchase, and it is perfect for preschoolers learning to share and interact with other kids their age, complete with vivid dinosaur illustrations.  We especially like the line “Does he hide all his dump trucks, refusing to share?” since The Littlest Apple, a lover of dump trucks, sometimes has trouble sharing his trucks when friends come to play.

Llama Llama Mad at Mama, by Anna Dewdney: A follow up to Llama Llama Red Pajama.  This is the story of the little llama who is forced to go shopping with his mama at the Shop-o-Rama instead of playing on Saturday.  He whines, he moans, he pitches a big tantrum in the middle of the store and throws stuff out of the cart.  Mama Lllama’s reaction to the tantrum is the true gem of this book, I think.  We’ve had  quite a few grocery store tantrums lately, including a HUGE one last week over toys, so I’ve been reading this one lots lately!