Lemon Chicken!

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Salt and pepper
• 3 cloves sliced garlic
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chicken broth
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

• Combine flour, salt and pepper and dredge the chicken in it. Set remaining flour mixture aside. In a pan brown chicken in 2 tbs of butter and transfer to a baking dish. In the same pan saute garlic in remaining butter. Add reserved flour mixture and stir to form a thick paste. Gradually add broth and lemon juice. Bring to boil; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Pour over the chicken and sprinkle with parsley. Cover and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until done. SO SO YUMMY - one of Alex's favorites!

Week 33...

Mild acid indigestion (easily cured with Mylanta!)

Very bad back pain, most uncomfortable when sitting - go figure (easily cured by my amazing husband who rubs it EVERY single night!)

Pelvic pressure & pain when I walk too much (Doc said don't walk as much - easier said than done when you have a crazy toddler you must entertain every day)

Hungry all the time (although this is nothing new - even not pregnant we all know I LOVE to eat!)

Have to pee all the time (I just use the bathroom every time AJ does and I'm fine!)

Carrying low (Doc said to get maternity girdle but I don't think I will bother - note to self, do a ton of sit ups before even thinking about baby #3)

Finally have crib and dresser set up (AJ doesn't seem to mind sharing a room = so far, so good, keeping fingers crossed!)

Started washing NB & some 0-3 month clothing, blankets, bibs & burp cloths (need to buy a few more all in ones and a pack of white long sleeve onesies but that's about it for NB & 0-3 month clothing!!)

Need to get bassinet/co-sleeper that fits in our ever shrinking bedroom (still not sure what to do about this one???)

Doc next week, then two weeks after that and then I start with every week visits at 36 weeks! (crazy!)

Every time we pass by St. Barnabas AJ says happily "Mommy have baby Dylan there, not yet, he too little" (finally she is over saying she is going to hit baby dylan and now she says she will help me change his diaper and give him hugs and kisses - thank goodness!!!)

We are all getting so excited in the Matrale household - soon it will be time and we couldn't be any happier to be bringing our little boy home to share our lives and love with him!

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

1 package stuffing mix for chicken

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can condensed cream of celery soup

1/3 cup sour cream

1 cup frozen veges (I used a carrot, pea & broccoli combo)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup French's French Fried Onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle salt and pepper on chicken and bake in the oven till chicken is done (about 30-40 minutes). Cool chicken and then cut up into bite sized pieces. Heat oven to 400 degrees and prepare stuffing mix as directed on package and set aside. Mix chicken, soup, sour cream and vegetables in 13x9-inch baking dish, top with the onions, cheese then stuffing and bake 20 minutes.

Little Explorers Nature Class - Week #3

This week we learned all about the Monarch butterfly. We learned how they grow, that they are orange and black in color and that they taste really bad which is why other animals/insects don't eat them! Next Mrs Barbara read the kids a story about butterflies and then we sang a song and flew around the room!

Then the kids made their own butterflies with a coffee filter, a pipe cleaner and black and orange crayons. Here is a pic of AJ's!

The kids then took their butterflies outside for a hunt/walk, along the way we found different butterfly pictures that led us to the next.

We got to see a real Monarch cocoon (which we learned is called a chrysalis) and found a tiny snapping turtle that we delivered back to the passiac river where we watched him return to the water (turtle is in the third picture below - he is the little circle shape about a 1/2 inch from the water in between two groups of leaves - see him???)!

Once again, we had a great class that the kids & moms enjoyed!

Apple Cake!

Yesterday at the apple farm I bought some apple cake mix - today I decided to make it with some of our freshly picked apples! You can order the mix online, as you can see on the back of the package. DELICIOUS!

Sausage, Pasta & Bean Soup - Cousin Candy's New Year's Day Recipe!

• 2 small cans tomato sauce
• 4 links sweet Italian sausage
• 2 links hot Italian sausage
• 3 cans cannellini beans
• 2-3 cans chicken broth
• 6 stalks finely chopped celery
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 lb. ditalini (or other small pasta – I used elbows because it's the only small whole wheat pasta I could find in the store this week!)

- Chop up celery & garlic and lightly run through the food processor to finely chop it.

- Take sausage out of casing and crumble, saute in your large cooking pot in olive oil until cooked, drain and set aside.

- Saute celery and garlic in same pot, cook until celery is soft and add sausage back to pot.

- Mash 2 cans of beans in the liquid with your food processor and add to pot.

- Add last can of beans un-mashed with liquid.

- Add chicken broth and 2 cans of tomato sauce and cook over low heat.

- You can either add your pasta now, uncooked right into the soup (the way I do it), or you can cook the pasta separately and when you are ready to eat and spoon the soup over the top. If you do add the pasta right to the soup it will take about 30 minutes, don't cook too long or you will have mushy pasta.

-Top with grated cheese & enjoy!

Soup freezes well, just be careful with noodles, because they expand and soak up liquid, if this happens just add some more chicken broth to it!

Apple Picking - Riamede Farm - Chester, NJ

Today since it was such a beautiful day (and because WVU wasn't playing Auburn till 7:45 PM) we decided to go apple picking. We mentioned sometime last week that we should all go, but I wasn't so sure it was going to happen till Maria put the wheels in motion this morning - cousin Nonie even saw Maria's FB post about it and decided she wanted to join in on the fun! What a beautiful day we had - the weather was sunny & warm - it was just perfect! We started off with some hot dogs cooked in apple cider (very very yummy snappy dogs, but the bees were very attracted to cider smell & and I HATE bees). Next, we went on a hay ride though the orchard and then picked our apples. We then treated ourselves to some cider, checked out and I bought some apple crisp and apple cake mix! Next we were off to Chester and walked up and down the main street and checked out some of the cute shops. We ate pizza & had some DQ ice cream! The crazy Jones-Ferrell's bought a bird and baby Julia had a big poop (it required double diaper duty)! All in all it was a great day! Now we are home, AJ's happily sleeping after a LONG day and Alex and I are hanging & waiting for our game to start (rain delay - yuck!)! Let's GOOOOOOO Mountaineers! As you can see from the pics we were routing for our team all day today!!!

Play Date!

I love play dates - they tire out the kids and the moms get some much needed chat time and they are even better when they are with your old high school friends! Today we had a great time at Kara & David's house with Staci, Alexis, Marielle, Emily & Emma! Kara even remembered it was my birthday next week along with Emma's & had muffins with a candle to blow out - we all sang happy birthday and enjoyed some really tasty muffins - thanks Kara! The girls were so cute playing, David was showing off his new found walking skills and Marielle graced me with her beautiful smile! We had a really great time today!!! Thanks girls!!!

Little Explorers Nature Class - Week #2

This week we went out to the garden to pick veges - carrots, potatoes, green beans & peppers. Then we went on a nature walk through the woods and got to see all kinds of neat stuff like a few different ground hog holes, cattail plants, a frog pond and a flower garden. Toward the end of our walk it started to rain which made AJ happy because she got to use her new umbrella (that she LOVES and wants to use all day even inside)! Then we went back to the classroom - we sang some songs and looked at pictures of different animals. Next we watched the teacher cut open an apple to count the seeds and then she gave us a demonstration of how to plan our own apple seeds. Everyone got their own apple to cut open and we counted our seeds and recored how many each child had - we got to take their seeds home with some growing soil and a little pot to try to plant them ourself! I really enjoy this class with AJ - it's so much fun and we both really look forward to it each week!