6/22/2010

Well, I'm back with 2 more recipes!

The first is bar-b-que chicken. You won't even believe how easy. Bar-b-que sauce, chicken stock and chicken in a crock pot. Let it sit for an hour or two (since it's already cooked). The meat breaks down and is great in a sandwich or our new favorite, Bar-b-que chicken quesadillas.

And now for an actual recipe...Chicken Caesar Sandwich.
Reserve some of the breast meat when you take the meat off of your chicken. Slice the chicken and toss with 2-3 Tablespoons Caesar dressing and grated Parmesan cheese. Serve on a ciabatta rolls with romaine lettuce.

It's a great summer time sandwich! Hopefully, I'll be back soon with more recipes! And of course a Blythe update! We are heading for her 4 month check up this afternoon. The time is already flying by! I can't believe how fast she is growing.

6/19/2010

The title of our blog is Breakfast with the Blandfords and was initially intended to be a place where we shared all the wonderful things that we created in our kitchen. I knew it had been awhile since I'd posted a recipe but it turns out the last time was 11/22/2008. Yes, you read that right! Almost a year and a half ago. Which is sad!!! We've been cooking up some great treats and I have lots of pictures from things we've created so hopefully I will get lots more recipes up soon.

I thought I would begin though with my new friend, rotisserie chicken. I've used this for years to make chicken and dumplings but never thought about creating additional uses for it. And then I had a baby and wanted yummy food that could be made quickly. The possibilities are truly endless but here are some of our current favorites.

I can get a rotisserie chicken at our local store for $5 which is a bargain if I've ever seen one! As soon as I get home I take all the meat off the bones. (As a side recipe, boil a giant pot of water. Put all the discarded skin and bones in the pot and boil for 6-8 hours. Add water as necessary. Strain the broth and place in freezer safe containers and you don't have to spend money on chicken stock. This saves us A LOT of money!) I don't mind dark meat if it's mixed with white meat but if you prefer to separate your meat that is fine too. I take 2 forks and shred the meat. I use shredded chicken in all the following recipes. To me it's easier to work with.

Here are 5 different things to do with all that chicken:
Make a Tex-Mex style chicken. I am a huge fan of Salsa Verde so I normally cook half of the chicken in salsa. By doing all this when you get home from the store and then refrigerating it, it allows you to heat and serve later in the week. Tex-Mex chicken can be used several ways but our favorites are enchiladas, quesadillas and taquitos. Even though it's the same chicken, it's different enough to us to have 2 of these meals in the same week. Here's my recipes:

Enchiladas:
Whatever sauce you used to cook the chicken, pour some in the bottom of a 9x13 and spread to cover the bottom of the pan. Cover with corn tortillas. Add the chicken mixture (that you've warmed in the microwave), Mexican cheese blend and then cover with more tortillas. Cover the tortillas with a thin layer of salsa and add more cheese. Bake at 350 until the cheese bubbles.

Taquitos:
Warm your chicken mixture in the microwave. Warm a few corn tortillas as well. (We prefer to do this in the oven or on our stove top. Not in the microwave!) Fill each tortilla with about 2 tablespoons of the chicken mixture. Roll and secure with a toothpick. Place rolled tortillas in hot oil on the stove top and turn once when the 1st side in is golden brown. Let cool and enjoy with salsa, sour cream or guacamole for dipping.

Quesadillas:
Warm you chicken mixture. Heat a large skillet and then add a flour tortilla, Mexican cheese blend and chicken. Top with another flour tortilla. Turn to brown tortillas. Let cool and then cut into triangles.

Ok...this post has already become very long! I'll add the other 2 recipes later today or tomorrow. And they don't involve using the same type of chicken in 3 different ways. :)

6/14/2010

I have always been a person that needs to write things down. I wish that meant I was an organized list maker but my "organizational system" is more like organized chaos. I write things down on random pieces of paper and then have my paper all over the place. I can normally find most anything I need but if I were to need to explain it to someone else, it could be disastrous! Now that I've had a baby, if it's not written down it will shortly be forgotten. So, with that said, I decided that I would make a list of the things I want to accomplish this summer. I'll report back on my progress (not that anyone cares but one goal is trying several new recipes! I'll let you know how they turn out.) So with out further adieu...

1. Read a book a month. I have always enjoyed reading but have not been doing much of it since Blythe's arrival. I want to start reading again. (If you've read anything great lately please leave a comment. I'm not totally sure what I want to read.)
2. Try at least one new recipe a week. I'm not sure why but I'm always more eager to try new recipes in the summer. Maybe that's because everything just seems fresher.
3. Shop at the Farmer's Market at least every other week. I love buying fresh produce from the people that grew it on their local farm.
4. Read Isaiah each month. I'm doing a Bible study on Isaiah next year and I want to be familiar with the material.
   
5. Help Currey finish up youth group stuff for the next year. We are having a blast planning for next year. It's going to be amazing!
6. Walk Moose at least 3 times a week.
7. Do yoga at least twice a week.
   

6/7/2010

So I'm still behind on my posts but at this point in time my camera with my pictures on it is M.I.A. I'm trying to be better about keeping up with my blog so I thought I'd do a post on cloth diapers.

Honestly, I can't even remember where I ever got the idea to consider cloth diapers but once I heard about them I began doing research. A LOT. OF. RESEARCH. I wish that I could say I had strong convictions about environmentalism but if you know Currey or I that is just not the case. But if you know me, you know that I am cheap. Not frugal, cheap. And I'm proud of that and that's another post in the making! :) I am absolutely in LOVE with Blythe's cloth diapers so this will probably be a lengthy post as I have lots to say about our choice.

I began looking at the options and doing the math. Using cloth diapers could save us money and lots of it. Even before we were sure that I was going to stay home, we knew the cost of having a child would be high. I continued to read different numbers but the general consensus is an average family spends $2500 on diapers over the course of each child's life. So even families with 2 children will spend $5000 diapers on diapers! To date I've spent $150 on cloth diapers. We do use disposables for convenience but I've not spent anything on those yet as we were given lots of gift cards and a couple of packs as gifts. For us cloth is much cheaper.

The world of cloth diapering is vast and everyone has their favorite brands. Picking what diapers I thought would work for us was one of the most difficult tasks. Thankfully we live in an area that offers shopping for everything and we stumbled across Comfy Bummy in Naperville. If anyone reads this that lives in the Chicago land area, they are worth checking out. We went in and they were very helpful. There are lots of decisions to make like one size or sized, pre-folded and covers or inserts, and Velcro versus snaps. We were able to look at different options and feel different materials. I think getting to touch and see them in person was MUCH easier than looking at pictures on the internet. Although we felt we were more informed I was just not ready to make the financial commitment. We decided we would wait until Blythe was a month old and then we would buy all the needed supplies.

Fast forward to Blythe's birth. We'd read all the books and knew that she would go through 8-10 diapers a day. That didn't mean much to me until our diaper genie began generating what seemed like a mountain of trash. Although I'm not incredibly green, seeing that many diapers headed to the trash put me over the edge! When Blythe was just 2 weeks old we made the switch.

We started with pre-folded diapers with a cover. We picked Thirsties and were incredibly pleased. I went though a short phase of not liking them when Blythe was about 2 months old as the fit was a bit off. Now that she's grown more I'm back on the Thirties band wagon. We were given a 3 pack of Smarti Pants at one of our showers and I bought a couple of Bum Genius diapers on-line as everyone who uses them seems to love them. I have been pleased with both. Currently I have 2 dozen pre-folds with 3 covers, 4 Bum Genius, and 3 Smarti Pants. I do laundry every other day but I hardly notice the extra work. I can stuff diapers while I watch TV or talk on the phone.

Another huge plus is Blythe does not get diaper rash. At All. Unless I put her in a disposable. I mentioned earlier that we use disposables for convenience. Normally that's just when we go to church or to staff. There are bags that you can carry to hold soiled diapers when you are on the go but I have yet to join that club. I'm actually considering becoming a full time cloth diaperer just to avoid diaper rash but we'll see if I become that brave. There is something about cloth diapering in public that still kind of scares me! I love cloth diapering which has honestly been very shocking to me. If you don't mind the extra laundry it's an option worth considering!