A Few More Recipe Reviews

I've sort of been on a new recipe trying kick the past 2 weeks.  Well maybe the last month.  I am always collecting new recipes to try from magazines and online of course, I love trying new things.  I may not have "binders full of women," but I do have binders full of recipes!  ha, ha.  And I think I have been on a kick lately because well, life is a little slow around our house lately.  I mean it's cold outside, it's the post holiday blahs and well nothing except the regular chaos is really happening.  In a nutshell, I'm bored.  So what more to cure my boredom than to try something new right?
And since I always like to find new recipes or hear how something really turned out, I thought I would share a few of the ones we have done lately.  So, here goes.......

(picture and recipe from HERE)
I actually tried this one tonight.  It was a lighter version of take out Sesame Chicken.  I'm not going to lie, the pictures that I saw of this looked delicious, but mine did not look nearly as appetizing.  Not that it looked gross mind you, but it just did look as crunchy and tasty.  All in all I would give this recipe an OK on it's rating.  I didn't really love it, but Zack said he thought it tasted good.  Maybe I was hung up on the pictures I had seen and thought it was really going to taste like take out Sesame Chicken, I don't know, but it didn't have too much flavor in my opinion.  Just kind of so-so.  So  I don't think this one will be making it's way to the "Keep" binder.

Next up I made THIS tasty number a few nights ago:

Braided Spaghetti Bread (picture also from link above).
I mean seriously?  Need I really say more than the name of this dish?  It was tasty, and I'm sure in no way healthy for you, but oh so tasty.  It's basically like eating spaghetti rolled inside garlic bread.  Mmmmm.....
Zack and I enjoyed it's tastiness for a few days after.  (Ha, ha, I got the last piece for my lunch!!!)  Now, next time I do this recipe I will however change a few things.  It calls for pre-made bottled spaghetti sauce.  I don't ever buy this stuff because when I make spaghetti I just make it from scratch because I don't like bottled stuff and that's how my mom always made it growing up.  Bottled stuff always has sugar in it and tastes too sweet to me.  Anyway, I just followed the recipe, but next time I will just make my own sauce.  And I added ground turkey and used 1/2 the cheese because it was A LOT of cheese inside.  Other than that, we thought it was great!  2 enthusiastic thumbs up!

Okay, so to make up for the last calorie heavy one, I tried a healthy one:

Picture from and recipe HERE
Healthy Mexican Sweet Potato Skins.  Well, they were healthy tasting.  And we all know what that means.  No, I'm kidding, they were ok, I mean they weren't bad, but they did dirty a lot of dishes for what seemed to be a little result.  This may be one for the future when the kids will actually eat it and I don't have to make them AND something for the kids.  So I'd say, if you like healthy, then you will probably really like this recipe.
Okay, one last one.....to end on a good note.....


Pork Ramen Soup from HERE
This was YUMMY!  Super tasty.  EVERYONE loved it!  And that is saying something with 2 picky kids!  So thumbs up to this one.  I will definitely be making this again!  Try it, you'll like it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

                    

There's a little Valentine eye candy for you!  Mmmmm.....that's what we were enjoying here at casa crazy this evening!  Oh yeah, that's Chocolate Oreo Cake!  You can find the recipe here  or on my pinterest page. This isn't my picture, it's the one from the recipe site mostly because I'm not that awesome of a food photographer.  But trust you me, it was equally pretty and tasty.  I did little personal size heart cakes minus the frosting because I didn't think we really needed it after tasting the filling.  They were delicious!  I think when I make it again someday I will just use the filling as frosting on a regular cake.
Anywho....give it a go, it's delicious and easy, it's a win, win.

I have always loved Valentine's day thanks to my mother.  We didn't have many traditions growing up, but one of them was Valentine's day fancy family dinner.  My mom would make a nice dinner and put out her china and the crystal goblets and candles and we would have a fancy dinner.  It was always fun and special.  And I always thought it was cool as a kid that there were little bowls on the table with CANDY in them.  That we could eat during dinner!!!  What?  As a kid that equals AWESOME.
And my friends were often jealous that we always got a little gift of some kind from my mom as well.  So you can see why I was never bummed like other girls when they didn't have a boyfriend giving them flowers or something.  I could never understand why people found Valentine's day depressing, I always thought it was fun.
So in some ways we are trying to keep that tradition alive, we aren't going with the china and crystal yet since we have small children and that would spell disaster, but we did make our before mentioned special treat and had a nice dinner and presents were presented.  Children cheered and all went to bed happy.  I think combined with Oliver's school party it was mentioned a dozen times by him that it was "the BEST day!"  Oh, plus they got MAIL!  Valentine cards in the mail for Oliver and Ruby from Grammie and Grandpa!

All in all a pretty great day!
Hope you all had an amazing Valentine's day full of LOVE!

One year older

He did it!  This little guy turned 1!  Well last month he did.  

He was a little hesitant about his birthday cupcake at first.  But a few squishes in he started to have some fun!

He's almost walking alone.  He will walk back and forth to us, but he hasn't really broken out on his own yet.  I hope it happens soon because he's driving us crazy wanting someone to walk around everywhere holding one of his hands.  

But he's cute and lovable.

And like any baby, has a talent for making a mess!

Zack also had a birthday!  I think it was probably one of the warmer birthdays he has probably had, it was like 60 degrees!  In February!  And even though he had to work on his birthday, hopefully when he came home he found lots of love and birthday cheer!

He isn't working on any new skills as cool as walking, like August, but he's another year older and handsomer too!  And we love him.  And thank you for not making a giant mess with your birthday cake like August did!  ha, ha