Chinese food & cuddles

This weekend my Mr. and I had a little at home date.

Last week he had an INTENSE work week. It was long hours and really strenuous work. He said he almost stepped on a snake too (he is currently working landscaping at big commercial businesses).

I decided that Friday was going to be at-home date day. We would relax, rent some movies, and order some take out. He deserved it.

Martin came home with Chinese take out! I had been looking into Chinese restaurants too! hehe. (: I was so stinking excited!
So we had some DELICIOUS Chinese food in the cute containers ( most places we would go to.. they would put the food in a Styrofoam container.. so we were extra excited about this Chinese food)!

The rest of the weekend was filled with Parenthood and playing/snuggling with little Sophia. (:

she loves to bite his face!

This morning when I woke up.. my heart felt so heavy... I am not sure why or what exactly I was feeling.. but I was like overwhelmed with the feeling of love.

Love for my husband. Love for that stinky little puppy. Love for the Lord. Love for my life.
I can't fully describe it but it was a complete reassurance of being surrounded in love.

It feels soo wonderful!

food in cute containers, cute puppies who bite faces, and love. - Monica
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Also make sure to check out my new facebook page. (:

Melt in your mouth chicken

Last night I tried a new recipe from pinterest. It is called "melt in your mouth chicken" and it was delicious and easy (which is what I love about amazing recipes).

Take 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tsp garlic powder (I used garlic salt because we didn't have garlic powder...

Don't... it was just a little to salty), 1 1/2 tsp seasoning salt and mix it all together. 

Spread the mixture over four chicken breasts and bake in the over for 45 minutes on 375 degrees. (I sprinkled Italian breadcrumbs before putting in the oven for a little more flavor... but it isn't needed. )

Eat and enjoy!

New, easy recipes and love. -Monica

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spicy chicken

On the menu for this lovely Thursday day off: homemade buffalo chicken strips! yummy for my hubby's tummy!!!

So.. what we have in the freezer (meat wise) is either chicken breast of steak. Since i am still learning a lot about cooking different dishes (and we still have a LIMITED amount of ingredients in the house) sometimes it is hard to figure out what to cook. Today we decided to use the Franks Hot Sauce that my husband bought.
Excuse me now for the not accurate measurements... i found a recipe but didn't have all the ingredients so i just went with it. hehe.

I took my chicken breast and cut it in little strips (not too thick). I made a mixture of flour and italian bread crumbs. (1 part to 1 part) I added about 2 tsp of garlic salt, uh... maybe like 1/2 tbsp of paprika, and some pepper. i took 2 eggs and wisked them... dipped the chicken in the egg and then coated with the mixture.

I heated up some oil in a frying pan and place about 5 chicken strips at a time in it. I cooked it for about... 5 minutes on each side.

Then i grabbed my Franks hot sauce and heated it in the micro for about 1 minute.

After the chicken was all nice and cooked i put them in the Hot Sauce.

I cooked the rest and soaked them in the very spicy sauce and served to my hubby! hehe. :)

My husband said they are his new favorite and is looking forward to them for football Sunday. hehe

I am not a HUGE spicy lover.... so i made some of the chicken strips and did not put them in the Frank's.. and i just dipped them in barbeque sauce. They were still really good chicken strips! :)

It was a very quick, easy, delicious dinner with not a lot of ingredients. The flour mixture in the recipe called for more spices then what i had (no breadcrumbs, garlic powder [i only had garlic salt], and cayenne pepper), but it was still delicious! Its one of those recipes that you could have changed or switched out ingredients. Which is sooo helpful for me in my not-so-stocked kitchen.

Dessert was ice cream. yummy! :) We needed something cool for our hot mouths! hehe.

spiciness, easy dinners, and love. - M

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this is how our sundays go sometimes

This Sunday i woke up late for church. :( i was really looking forward to church this week... luckily our church streams the sermons live so we were still able to watch it. ALSO... i woke up at 9am! So its not like i woke up SUPER late... but hubby and i intended to go to early service (which is at 8:30am). Hopefully next week!

The good thing is that we got to eat a homecooked breakfast... instead of a bagel on the go. I cooked my husband bacon and eggs! :) We had oven-baked bacon. (cook at 400 degrees for about 15 or so minutes)

i lined my baking pan with foil.. so that the clean up was easier on me.

We also had cheeeessyyyyy scrambled eggs.

I worked my magic in the kitchen wearing my oh-so-cute polka dot apron that i bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. i LOVE aprons.. so i really want to buy more!

I just love how girly this one is... with the little ruffles at the bottom. hehe. too cute!

This was my husband as i cooked.... playing xbox live. The ONLY thing we bought at Black Friday (which.. i guess really my mother-in-law bought it for my husband for Christmas. hehe) was the Madden 2012 football game for Xbox. It was originally $60 on sale for $28! So... my husband has been playing it NONSTOP since then!

But we ate some deliciousness before we watched our sermon on our laptop.

One of our Pastors spoke on breakthrough and the process before you get breakthrough in an area. It was very encouraging! So... for the rest of the day we have just been relaxing and spending time together. My husband is still playing his Xbox live and i am still in my pjs as i type this. hehe.

relaxing sundays, yummy breakfasts, and love. -M

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decking the halls

My husband and i had a wonderful little Thanksgiving just the two of us on Wednesday... followed by Thanksgiving day at my father-in-law's mom's house with the in laws! :)

Tuesday we took out Hank (our tHANKsgiving turkey) at 3pm to defrost for the next day. I guess we missed the surgeon generals warning about defrosting a turkey at room temperature. Apparently you can get food poisoning and even death. We missed that memo. Wednesday morning (after the turkey had been sitting out for a whole 16 hours in the kitchen) my husband read the fine print on the packaging of the bird that said NOT to defrost at room temperature. Needless to say we did NOT eat it. Although our family were saying it was probably fine since it was completely frozen when we took it out...  but we weren't willing to attempt it.

Also Wednesday my sister, niece, and nephew came to visit for a little while. It was great... because i havn't been able to visit in a couple of months! My nephew is 4 and he keeps getting taller and taller!!! :) My niece is gonna be 18 in 2 weeks and she is sooo gorgeous! I love hearing about all her high school stuff and of course boy drama. haha. My husband and i got to have lunch with them and visit for awhile. She also brought me her old Christmas tree! :)
We went to the store to get ANOTHER baby Hank (well just a breast roast actually) and some pie. After 3 short little hours we were eating our very little Thanksgiving dinner.

rolls are not pictured. hehe.

It wasn't much... but it was good for just us two. :) We also had some dutch applie pie. (side note: we bought a cherry pie at the same time... and we put it in the refrigerator instead of the freezer. well... there was red cherry juice all over our food last night! uh oh!)

Before dinner we decided to decorate our cute little tree. So i ran to the Walmart store to grab some little Christmas bulbs. 

The tree already came with lights... which was sooo nice! We put the bulbs all around the tree and i had previously bought my husband 3 little ornaments for his favorite football team. I also bought a gold star to go on top of the tree. 

Our tree is 6 ft tall... so i let my hubby put the star on! See that little sock monkey ornament?! He is soo cute! hehe. 

Here is our finished product! 

I am soooo pleased with it! It really is the perfect size for us! :) Now we just need to get some stockings! hehe. 

Last night we went and had Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. It was really nice to have all of us together. :) Then we watched the big 49er game. We lost and my hubby wasn't to happy. hehe. 

Christmas decorations, lots of turkey, and love. - M

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what the chicken tacos?

Wow! This week went by really fast.
I adore having my hubby home now. (: I have been practicing my wifey skills with cooking and cleaning (everyday.... when he was out of town working it was always "clean-up friday" since he would come home on Saturdays.).

Last weekend was our first Halloween together (last year we were apart while he was in So Cal for school). We stayed at the house and watched movies. hehe... we are sooo adventurous, huh? We didn't even have trick-or-treaters (which was a disappointment to me..  i love cute little costumes.)
This year was my nephew's FIRST year dressing up EVER (& he is almost 5), so it was a big deal! He was
"robot bumblebee".

my sister said that he wore it all night and the next morning.

I can't wait to dress up my future little kids in super cute costumes. (: I have found some cute ones on Pinterest that i like. (has anyone else noticed that the start of a lot of conversation are now starting or ending with "i found it on pinterest").

this is soo clever and adorable. 

i ADORE this! hehe.

ahh... (: Someday. (:

Also this week i discovered an amazing dinner that i have made twice this weekend (per my hubby's request)  The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tacos . Okay, seriously these were soooo good! I made them last night for my sister-in-law and my husband. I started with boneless, skinless chicken breast and cut it into little pieces.  And cooked it in the pan with olive oil.

We seasoned our chicken with Chicken Taco seasoning and peppercini juice. (my husband pronounces it "pepper-see-knee" i say "pepper-chee-knee". lol. We are in a debate.)

After the chicken is done and cooked... you set it aside and grab a corn tortilla. And this is where it is deliciously unique. You put the chicken IN the corn tortilla and put the whole taco in a pan with about an inch of oil and fry it!

Hold the taco with the tongs until it fries in the taco shape and then flip it over to the other side while you do another.

Once both sides are nice and crispy... take it out and wrap a paper towel over it to get the excess oil out. Put yummy cheese in them immediately so that it gets all melty! yum!

Then.. just put your toppings.. lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, hot sauce. (: and enjoy!

I was soo proud of them and they were soo yummy! (:

Today (of course) is football Sunday and my Sis-in-law came over for the game too. (:

delicious food, cute costumes, fun time with friends, and love. - M

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Football Sunday

My wonderful husband is home this weekend again. (: I love it when he is home.

Sundays are football days at our house. My husband is a lifelong 49er fan... and with me being his Mrs. i am a 49er fan as well.

I have always loved cute food! hehe. The first day that i met my husband's family  was on St. Patrick's Day. So.. OF COURSE i brought over green mint chocolate chip cookies. My sister has always been a pro with making beautiful, interesting, and totally scrumptious food. (just look at my bridal shower .)

Well, i have been finding some recipes on pinterest that fit the beautiful, interesting, and scrumptious checklist. I figured that Football Sunday would be the perfect day to try. (:

We got up Sunday morning and watched ibethel.tv and listened to a sermon from Kris V.  He talked about how everything that we do.. there is something that we are NOT doing.. and to pay attention  to what we are NOT doing. It was really good!

 Then it was time for the game.. and for me to cook. (:
The first thing i decided to make was pizza rolls. It was sooo easy! (which is also on this new bride's checklist)


Pizza Rolls:
2 can refrigerated pizza crust (i got pillsbury)
Garlic salt
Italian Seasoning
1 cup sliced pepporoni
1 cup shredded cheese (we used a pack of mozzarella and parmesan)
1/2 cup parmesan (which i just noticed i didnt use lol)
Ragu Sweet Basil Sauce for dipping

- Preheat oven to 425
- Dust a large cutting board or wax paper with flour and roll out pizza crust.
- Season each crust with garlic salt and italian seasoning
- Top with cheese and meat
- Starting with a short end, roll crust into a tight log.
- Place on a lightly greased pan and bake for 10-12 minutes
- Serve with Ragu Sweet Basil Sauce

See.. it is sooo easy!

Pizza dough with the seasonings.

Pizza log. 

Finished the pizza rolls.. and my husband loved them!

For dessert i made Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries! Also found on Pinterest. (: i got this recipe from The Sweets Life Blog.)

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries:
 1 lb large strawberries
 8 oz (1 cup) softened cream cheese (i used the whipped kind .. it was easier to work with)
 3 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
 1 tsp vanilla extract
 graham cracker crumbs

- Rinse strawberries and cut the top of the strawberries off. Pit the middle with a paring knife. Prep all strawberries and set aside. 
- In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until creamy. Put the mixture in a piping bag or ziplock with the corner cut off. 
- Fill strawberries with the mixture and dip the tops in the graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately, put in refrigerator until ready to enjoy. 


Also incredibly easy and absolutely delicious!

pitted strawberries.

The mixture was soo good! We only did 3 tbsp powdered sugar.

They were so so good!

  i was very very pleased with all that i made and with our day. (:

football games, delicious food, and love. - M

pasta for a week.

Well its 10:00pm on Saturday night and i am sitting in my apartment watching a marathon of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Food Network.

Yup, my husband couldn't come home tonight after all. They did not get off work until after 6pm and they are 5 hours away and were too tired to drive home. :( So... (hopefully) he will be home tomorrow.

Before i knew if he was coming home or not i decided to cook dinner that i knew he would like and that would last even if he didn't come home until super late. I made delicious bow tie pasta with chicken, broccoli and alfredo sauce. It was very good but i think  know that i maybe went a little overboard.

I have a lot of left overs! I dont think i will need to cook for awhile. hehe.

oh well... at least no matter when or what time my husband comes home... there is PLENTY of food here for him!

I have ALOT of respect for people who are in a constant long distance marriage (with spouses who travel for work, military, and school). This is sooo much harder then i thought it would be. I mean we did long distance while we were dating... but it SOOO much harder now that we are married. He has been gone for 8 days... i cant imagine those wives who cant see their husbands for 8 months! My heart goes out to all of you.

Also.. i soaked my fingernails in acetone nailpolish for an ENTIRE 30 minute show... and i FINALLY got all my fake nails off (from my wedding!). hooray!! They look TERRIBLE... but i am glad they are off!

pasta, needing a manicure, and love - M

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