Village Tavern

Tonight we decided to take the kids out for dinner - we still had our gift card from Aunt Nonie & Uncle B to use so off we went to Village Tavern! We had amazing seats right by the pretty gas fireplace and the food was great! Alex, Dylan & I LOVED our crab cake app and the tarter dipping sauce! The 4 of us then split a garden salad with blue cheese and for dinner Alex had a awesome flank steak with fries and broccoli and I had a awesome short rib sandwich with mixed veges! The kids split a mac & cheese that came with banana for dessert and they finished every last bite! The had some of Alex's broccoli and my mixed veges too! Alex and I really enjoyed the drink special - half priced booze - I had 2 pomegranate martinis and Alex had a scotch! What a nice time out for a early dinner with the kids! Thanks Aunt Nonie & Uncle B - hopefully next time we go you will be out here visiting us and will be there too!

Caught Ya!

Every once in a while when they aren't wrestling, pulling hair or beating each other over the head with random objects I catch them sitting together, playing and being cute - I love these moments even though they are few and far between! Today I actually caught them playing nice with each other twice - what a great day to be their mom!

Mushroom Pancetta Pasta

1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup light cream

1 small pack diced pancetta

1 small pack mushrooms cut up

diced onion

2 cloves garlic

fresh ground pepper

olive oil

Boil water for pasta, cook and drain, while your doing that, cook up the pancetta in some olive oil till nice and crispy, remove with a slotted spoon and drain off fat on paper towel. In the pan the pancetta was cooking cook up the onions, mushrooms and garlic till onions are translucent and mushrooms are browned and then add the pancetta back to the pan. Add the wine and reduce by half and then add the cream, some Parmesan cheese and pepper. Toss with cooked pasta, top with more Parmesan and ENJOY!

Valentines Day 2011

We had a nice day fill with lots of love! Alex & I had a awesome dinner Sunday night - cheese and crackers with pink champagne for out app and then pasta with mushrooms, onions & pancetta in a white wine cream sauce and some red wine for dinner! Alex & I got the most beautiful gift from AJ - a bag filled with heart hug coupons and 2 chocolates! Alex got me the most beautiful bouquet of Gerbera daisies, a box of chocolates and a tickets to see Bon Jovi in May - so excited! Alex got his new IPhone and AJ & Dylan got cards and $ in the mail from Mimi, a fun ecard to look at on the computer from Grandma & Pop Pop and a bag of Hershey Kisses and a stuffed animal from Alex & I! I cooked Alex & the kids a special lemon chicken dinner (did it with cut up thighs and it was AWESOME)! It was just so nice to be with the two best kidos all day and my #1 guy all night! I am a lucky lady surrounded by lots and lots of love!

Marinated Grilled Skirt Steak & Scalloped Poatoes

I never cooked a skirt steak, I have had it at restaurants and have always loved it but for some strange reason the look of it in the grocery store intimidated me! I was SO wrong to be scared of this easy to cook super delicious meat! Skirt steak will now show up more frequently around our house for sure!

Marinade-

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/4 canola oil

3 TBS honey

2 tsp grated garlic

1 tsp grated shallot

Mix up the marinade and place in a zip lock bag with the meat in the fridge for a few hours. Take it out of the fridge about 1/2 hour before grilling to get to room temp and then grill on high heat for about 2 minutes per side and enjoy! SOOO GOOD!

Scalloped Poatoes-

Bake 4 potatoes on a baking sheet in 400 degree oven for 45 minutes. Cool in fridge for about an hour. Gently peel off the skin and slice into thin slices. Put a layer at the bottom of a baking dish and top with some fat free shredded cheddar, some bacon bits, some green onion and then another layer of each. Top with some 1% milk, cover with foil and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 1/2 hour. Remove cover and cook about 10 minutes till the top browns! ENJOY!

Super Bowl Sunday!

We had a nice day yesterday, just the 4 of us home playing, watching and eating! We were happy to see the Packers beat the Steelers and we were happy muching the day away on our low fat snacks (well I did my best!)! I was disappointed to see Christina Aguilera mess up the National Anthem when I just got done explaining the importance of it to AJ - I had her standing up with her hand over her heart and all! I think her nerves just got the best of her but it was still painful to watch! I also was NOT a fan of the half time show - The Black Eyed Peas with special guest Usher and Slash - Slash was the best part! You need rock and roll at the Super Bowl - not bad pop! Anyway the game did not disappoint and kept our attention till the very end! The commercials were ok - there were some funny ones and some ok and some not so funny! All in all it was a good day spent with my favorite people!

The eats were as follows:

8 Layer Dip-

Get a dish and on the bottom spread some fat free re fried beans mixed with a little low sodium taco seasoning, the top with a layer of fat free sour cream, a layer of fat free shredded cheddar, some lettuce, some fat free salsa, some olives, some green onions and some diced up tomatoes! Sever with whole grain tortilla chips!

Buffalo Chicken Dip-

Get a square baking dish and spread down a layer of low fat cream cheese, a layer of shredded chicken breast mixed with franks red hot wing sauce and top with fat free cheddar cheese! Serve with whole grain tortilla chips and celery!

Potato Skins-

Bake your potatoes on a baking pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. Let them cool and then slice them in half. Scoop out most of the potatoes and spread a little melted butter over the skins. Bake a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes, remove and top with fat free cheese, bacon bits and then bake till the cheese is melted. Serve topped with some green onion and with some fat free sour cream.

Pigs in a blanket-

Open up some low fat crescent rolls, cut up some all beef low fat hot dogs, roll them up and bake about 10 minutes at 375. Serve with some catchup and mustard!

Pizza-

Roll out some pizza dough, you can use a scissor to make the circle look perfect! Top with low fat pizza sauce and fat free mozzarella and uncured pepperoni! Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes!

Spinach and Artichoke Bites-

These were Pillsbury and I made them because they have been sitting in the freezer for a bit and I wanted to get rid of them - they were pretty good! Dylan really liked them!

Rosa Mia - Good Italian in GA!

Alex and I were lucky enough to stumble across some good Italian in GA tonight! I did a little research on line, we got the kids dressed and off we went barely a mile down the road! We can walk in the summer and they have outdoor seating! It was great - for our app we had some real antipasto with delicious meats, cheeses, artichokes, roasted peppers and olives. Alex had veal saltimbocca served with a great lemony angle hair pastas (one of his favorite meals) and I had linguine carbonara - both were amazing - the pasta was freshly made there! The kids had some awesome real pizza that Alex and I stole a few bites of and lots of bread sticks! For dessert we had chocolate gelato and tiramisu - AJ devoured the tiramisu! This place is a keeper and we will go back for sure!

Here is our photo shoot before we left!