Last week I wanted to do a little something different when cooking chicken for dinner.  A few weeks before my friend, Mandee (The Kitchen Wife), had posted a recipe for what looked like a really yummy chicken dinner (Roasted Chipotle Chicken Breast with Black Bean Salad over a Baked Potato).  My husband is not a fan of potatoes so I just decided to make the chicken breast.  The recipe calls for the taco seasoning that I used for the DIY tacos (of which I'm making again tonight). Here's Mandee's recipe for the taco seasoning:

2 tsp. Chili Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Paprika
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp. Cumin
1/2 tsp. Oregano
1/2 tsp. Pepper
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

I baked the chicken for 25 minutes and should have used my handy-dandy meat thermometer that my step-mom got me for Christmas to check and make sure it was cooked all the way.  They smelled delicious and for the most part tasted good.  That is until my husband found some raw chicken.  I felt so bad - at least half of his chicken breast still needed to be cooked longer.  Moral of the story is to always check you meat before serving.  I probably should have baked them for 30 minutes and will do that the next time I make them.

If you like potatoes, try out the rest of Mandee's recipe.  I think when my mom is in for a visit, I might try them as well as some other recipes that Mandee has that the husband won't like.

Oh, Mandee did tell me that her husband said that the chicken would probably taste really good on the grill.  I think they would.  I might try it out on our Foreman the next time, but can't wait for warmer weather so we can have the nice charcoal flavor added to it.

My husband had bought some cake mix with the intention of making it for Valentine's Day, but that never happened.  Yesterday I thought that I would try something out that I haven't done with Michael, let him help me out with making something in the kitchen.  Michael is always in the kitchen at my feet when I'm trying to cook dinner, but I've never let him get involved because I'm always trying to get things done and never have time to go at his speed.  I decided that I would let him be involved with making the cake.  He seemed to have a great time helping me out.

I brought one of the kitchen table chairs over to the kitchen island so that he would be able to watch and help.  I opened the cake mix bag so that Michael could pour it in the mixing bowl.
He actually did pretty good.  Got almost all of the bag in the bowl!  I then cracked the eggs.  After I cracked the first egg, I handed the shell to Michael to throw away (he loves to throw trash away in the trash can).  He touched it, made a face, and handed it back to me.  After cracking the second and third eggs, I handed them to him and he hopped down from the chair and threw them away.

I then measured out the oil and handed it to him to pour into the mix.  He did really good and got it all in the bowl.  The same with the water.

Now to the part I was a little nervous about, the mixing.  I started the mixer and showed him how to use it.  He loved it, as I'm sure must boys do.  I mean it's the kitchen power tool!  He wanted to use it so I let him control it, but with me still holding it.  He had a blast!  Here's the video that I took:
He did such a great job!  I think I might have to let him help me a little more when I'm cooking in the future.  Maybe I have the next Chef Gordon Ramsay or Chef Robert Irvine living with me!
The whole entire time, he had a smile on his face.  I asked him after the cake was baked and cooled if he wanted to help with the icing and sprinkles and he said no.  He was too caught up in his TV show and I was ok with him not helping.  I probably avoided a big mess.

What are some things you've let you toddler help you with while cooking?  I do think that I will try and involve him in the future while I'm cooking in the kitchen.  That is, if he's interested in doing so.

• 6 minutes per pound to cook. 
• 6 minutes per pound to defrost.
• 6 minutes per pound on 50% or 60% power to preheat (with 50% power is your defrost cycle).
• 1/3 to 1/4 of your cooking time is standing time.

Every Valentine's Day since Michael was born, Jon and I have gone to The Outback Steakhouse for their Valentine's Day special.
Since Jon has Fridays off from work, we decided that since they opened at 11am on Valentine's Day that we would try to be there around opening.  It took a little longer to get ready, but we were still able to get there when it wasn't too busy.  Made for a quick and easy lunch.  It was delicious like every time we've been there.  This is what the deal included:

Yes, this our first real big snow storm for us in Northern Virginia.  All of our family members have been hit with tons of snow for weeks, but we sometimes didn't even get an inch.  I had been wanting a big snow to come so that we could go out and play with Michael.  He's almost three and had yet to see how much fun snow is.

Last night it started snowing when Jon was coming home from work.  We decided that we would go get a pizza for dinner.  While we were out, I ran into Home Depot to see if they had any sleds.  No luck.  The snow was coming down and roads were starting to get covered so, we decided to not search anywhere else for a sled.

When we got up this morning the Mazda was completely covered and it was still coming down.  We went out once it stopped snowing and measured before we did anything.  It was 14 inches and we're suppose to get more tonight.

Well before any fun could be had, we had to be able to get out of our house.  The snow had come up to the bottom of the front door.  Michael had fun helping shovel out the driveway, cleaning off the Mazda, and even helped out our neighbor.

Once we were dug out and the car cleared off, we went to the back of our house where there's a hill.  Since we had no sled, we took the lid off of a storage container and used that.  I was even thinking of using our buggy board, but had forgotten that it was in the shed and not the garage.  Surprisingly, the lid worked really well.  The first time Michael and I went down, we actually ended up ahead of the lid.  We had so much fun, but had to go in because we'd been out for several hours and Jon and I were getting pretty wet.  Here's the video we took and definitely, if you don't have a sled but have a storage tub use the lid!

When we were doing our grocery shopping, we found these large strawberries still on the stem.  Since it's getting close to Valentine's Day, they had a whole lot to choose from.  The way I choose my strawberries is not just by looks, I smell them.  If they don't have that beautiful strawberry smell, I don't get them.  I kept going back to the large stemmed strawberries, made in the USA.

Just recently I learned an awesome way to clean fruits.  I used to just run my apples or whatever fruit under running water.  How could tap water really clean your fruits?  It can't.  Here's the way to do it.  Fill your sink with water and a cup of vinegar, mix it up and then add your fruits.  Let them sit for about 10 minutes.  This not only cleans the fruit, but also helps them last longer.  The fruits will smell like vinegar for a day or two, but will not effect the taste at all.  Hope you enjoyed this helpful tip!

Jon is a lover of wings.  Me, not so much.  I mean don't get me wrong, I love me some chicken, but not so much wings with BBQ sauce.  Since last night was the Super Bowl, Jon felt that he had to make wings for supper (even though we watched very little of the game).  He decided that he would just make them naked and we could add the sauce of our choice to them while we ate.  They were actually really yummy and I think I might have him make them more often.

We had bought a big bag of frozen wings from Walmart.  So Jon thawed them out before he did anything with them.  To make the wings naked, this is what you'll need:

Place the wings on a cookie tray and have your oven preheated to 400 degrees.  Bake the wings for about 25 minutes.  Let the wings sit for a few minutes before serving.  Jon poured Buffalo Wing sauce on his wings and I dipped mine into a sweet honey barbeque sauce.  These wings were good with out the sauces.  I was rather surprised at how good they were and how fast it took to make them.

I have been thinking about posting something about this for awhile now.  I love the YouTube channel The Mom's View.  I just can relate to these moms and I feel that I'm not alone in my trials with raising Michael.  This past week they posted a show about how they deal with their children melting down in public.  Does your parenting style change when you're out in the public?

I'll admit that mine does.  I'm a lot more aware of my surroundings and try to act as cool as I possibly can.  A few weeks ago we were at Target and this mom had a daughter that was a lot older than Michael throwing a fit.  I felt sorry for the mom, but I also felt sorry for the daughter.  The mom was yelling at her and, in my opinion, not handling it the best way.  I would have just went and checked out and left, but this mom kept shopping and screaming at her daughter.  There have been several times where Michael has acted up and I had to stop what I was doing and leave.  Every time, I felt so embarrassed because my son was not behaving.  I had a mom come up to me one time and tell me not to worry about it, that we've all been there.  That made me feel better, but I still sometimes feel judged when I'm out in public and my son doesn't behave.  That's one of the main reasons Michael and I stay at home so much during the week.

It doesn't seem to be as bad when Jon is with me.  If Michael acts up, Jon takes him to the bathroom and has a talk with him and maybe even gets a spanking if one is called for.  If that doesn't work, one of us will take him to the car and sit with him there until the other is done with what we were doing.

Since becoming a parent, my views about a lot of things have changed.  Before kids screaming would drive me up the wall, but now I completely feel for the parent that's child is screaming bloody murder.  Most of the time I feel like it's mine that's doing that and generally if we've been waiting for a very long time it is.  What precautions do you all take when going out with your kids?  I always have several cars in my purse for Michael to play with and we always have some Michael friendly games downloaded on our cell phones.  I never wanted to be one of those parents that put a phone or iPad in front of their kid to keep them quiet, but sometimes if you want to go out to eat in peace, it's what has to be done.

The thing I hate is when he does act up, all the judgmental looks that you get from people.  Even if they clearly can see we are doing everything in our power to stop the melt down.  One time we were waiting to even be acknowledged to get a seat and Michael started screaming.  The people behind us were like, "Oh, my God!"  After that was said, we left.  Don't need to be in a place that people are going to act like that when they could clearly see we were trying to get Michael under control and that we had been waiting for awhile.

I have noticed a difference within the past month or so.  I can go to the mall and actually have lunch with Michael.  Well, as long as he has some cars to play with and my phone to play games on.  Before he wouldn't even sit down - he would always be running off.  We're slowly understanding each other.

Let me hear what you all think and what has worked for you.  Like they said in the video, every child is different and you just have to learn what works best for that child.