Confession

I'm not posting my menu plan this week because mostly I'm carrying over last week's menu. Between eating upstairs with the Babcock's, eating at Mom's, Brad not getting home until too late, and eating a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden with the Falk's, I only cooked two times last week!! As a result, I hardly had to do any shopping this week, so we're going to splurge on Thursday night and make dinner for the Babcock's, Mom & Dad, and Josh & Heidi in honor of Dad's birthday.

Jessica and Rosie both suggested that I share some of my recipes. I'll try to do better at that! I love when people include a new recipe or two with their menu plans! In fact, Amy has linked Emeril's Tortilla Soup recipe on her blog this week, and we will definitely be trying that soon! And of course, Alaina always has great new recipes up on her recipe blog. You can also always search on Organizing Junkie for tons more menu planning and recipe ideas!

Lime Chicken

This recipe came from Brad's Mom, and we absolutely love it! It is so easy to make, and I almost always have the stuff on hand for it. This is one of the girls' favorite meals!

4 Chicken Breasts, salted and peppered - I usually filet mine so they are nice and thin
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
2-3 limes, juiced
1 stick Butter
1 tsp. chives, minced
1 tsp. dill weed

In large frypan, place oil and heat to medium temperature. Add chicken and saute about 4 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn chicken, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook 10 minutes or until fork tender. Remove chicken and keep warm, drain off oil and discard. In same frypan, add lime juice and cook over low heat until juice begins to bubble. Add butter stirring until butter becomes opaque. Stir in chives and dill weed. Spoon sauce over chicken.


Granola

One of our Tennessee friends, Marcie, brought this to us when Kathryn was born and we've been making it regularly ever since. Brad and I love it as a cereal, and the girls love it just for a snack. The great thing about it is you just start with the basic recipe, then use your imagination and add whatever you like to it (or whatever you have on hand :)!

4 Cups Oats
1 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1 Cup Unsweetened Coconut
1 Cup Nuts, chopped (I prefer pecans or peanuts, Mom prefers walnuts :)
1 Cup Honey
2/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Peanut Butter
Other ideas: raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, seseme seeds

Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, stir, then bake for another 10 minutes

We take ours out right at 30 minutes because I like mine to be chewy. This is just a crumble kind of granola. You can also make it into bars by pressing it firmly into a 9x13 baker before cooking. It is still a little crumbly, though, so we prefer to just eat it crumbled.