Crock pot

I'm in my third week back to work and am beyond tired. I'm getting up at 4:30am everyday and not going to bed until close to 10 or 1030. Maverick has been doing pretty good about sleeping through the night, but those few nights when i still have to get up for 30-40 minutes to feed him leave me feeling even more wiped the next day. This is what my days look like right now: get up, shower, get dressed/do hair/makeup, feed Maverick,wake up the boys/feed them/dress them, make Price and I our green smoothies, pack up lunch and gym bag, leave house by 640am, drop boys off at school, work 8-430 (gym for an hour at lunch), pick boys up from school, get home at 6, cook dinner, make next days lunch, get coffee ready, do dishes (if Price hasn't done them), give boys a bath, read them a book, feed Mav again, set clothes out for the next day and try to get to bed by 10. I'm exhausted again just thinking about it all! In an effort to try to minimize dishes and spend more quality time with the kids and less time cooking, I discovered a website called: momswithcrockpots.com. Almost everything can be made in the crock pot without any other pots or pans and can be left to cook all day. I loved just about every recipe but I chose 4 (ones that had very little prep and very few ingredients) that I'm going to try this week.

1) pumpkin and chili chicken stew
2) tomato artichoke chicken on pasta
3) sour cream and bacon wrapped chicken with rice
4) dump and go cheesy chicken and broccoli

Yes, we eat a lot of chicken in our house. We usually do red meat one or twice a week but it's chicken and veggies most nights. I'm hoping these made my days a little easier and cut back on the number of dishes were using/having to wash. I'll make sure to post the impact momswithcrockpots has on the Walling family and if the food it as delicious as it looks!

XOXO Brogan Lee

PB PRETZEL BITES

Happy St. Patricks day! I was not into it this year :( I failed to make the green mint shamrock sugar cookies I had planned on making, the kids weren't decked out in green clothes, I didn't drink a Guinness and we didn't have corn beef and cabbage for dinner. I'm a bad Irish girl! Oh well, there is always next year!
Even though we didn't get into the St. Patties day spirit, we still managed to do a little baking! I found a kid friendly and delicious recipe on...can you guess????? YES Pinterest! I have no idea how I manage to have all the ingredients for these fantastic treats in my house!?! (But i am oh so glad that I do) I like this one because there is no need for an oven or stove top so the kids can do just about everything. I'd say this is appropriate for kids 3-4 and up. Preston (age 5)was able to roll the peanut butter mixture into balls but Ethan(age 2 1/2) had a hard time with it. His looked more like snakes! :) Also, to make the recipe a little easier, it might be best to drizzle the treats with chocolate rather than dip in chocolate. This was REALLY messy, the pretzels started to break and it was nearly impossible to keep the kids from licking their fingers in between each dip.
All in all, this was yummy! Yet another pinterest dessert that didn't last a full 24 hours in the Walling household!












Ingredients:
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• Pretzels
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1.Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set aside.

2.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat peanut butter and butter until combined. Scrape down bowl, add sugars and beat until combined. You should be able to roll the mixture into balls without sticking to your hands. If needed, add more powdered sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll.

3.Roll the mixture into small balls, about 1 teaspoon of mixture for each ball, and place on prepared baking sheet. Sandwich the balls between two pretzels and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

4.Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water. Stir occasionally until smooth, and remove from heat. Dip each pretzel bite halfway into the melted chocolate and place on the prepared baking sheet. Chill in refrigerator until chocolate is set.

Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs
XOXO Brogan Lee

Coconut Chicken salad

Prepare yourselves, because this blog is being taken over by Pinterest posts!
Last night i tried yet another recipe and it was GREAT! It was easy, relatively fast and I had everything in the house already. Ethan LOVED it too which is a major plus! We eat grilled chicken and veggies EVERy....SINGLE....NIGHT, so i wanted to mix it up a little bit. Give it a try, i bet you'll love it too!

P.S. this is another "stolen" picture....the ones on the website are just so much prettier than mine.



CHICKEN:
• 6 (about 12 oz) chicken tenderloins
• 6 tbsp shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp crushed cornflake crumbs
• 1/3 cup egg substitute or egg whites
• pinch salt
• olive oil spray

SALAD:
• 6 cups mixed baby greens
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1 small cucumber, sliced

Vinaigrette:
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp white vinegar (balsamic would work too)
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Whisk all vinaigrette ingredients; set aside.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine coconut flakes, bread crumbs, cornflake crumbs and salt in a bowl. Put egg whites or egg beaters in another bowl.
Lightly season chicken with salt. Dip the chicken in the egg, then in the coconut crumb mixture. Place chicken on a cookie sheet lined with parchment for easy cleanup. Lightly spray with olive oil spray and bake for 30 minutes turning halfway, or until chicken is cooked through.Place 2 cups baby greens on each plate. Divide carrots, cucumber, tomato evenly between each plate. When chicken is ready slice on the diagonal and place on top of the salad.

Happy eating!

XOXO Brogan Lee

Chocolate covered strawberry pie

Here's another pinterest recipe!! I took the picture off the website (mine did not look this pretty). But boy oh boy, it was DELISH!! So good in fact, that I made it on Saturday, let it set overnight and it was gone by Sunday afternoon! Price and I both have quite the sweet tooth! If you like cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries, I strongly recommend this dessert!



1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 chocolate pie crust (like Oreo)

Melt 3/4 cup of of the white chocolate chips in the microwave (30 second intervals)for about 1-2 minutes, being careful not to burn. Set aside.

Beat the heavy cream, vanilla extract, & 1/2 cup of the confectioners sugar with an electric mixer in a bowl until it becomes thick.

In a separate bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese, the other 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar, & the cup of melted white chocolate.Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Spread the cream into the chocolate pie crust. (I recommend not putting all of the cream in the crust at first. There is a lot of cream and it will overflow as you stuff in the quart of strawberries.) Then, press the sliced berries into the mixture ALL over it. Find every single available nook & cranny, and shove a berry in it!

Melt the remaining white chocolate in one bowl & melt the milk chocolate in another. Drizzle the melted milk chocolate on first…then the white chocolate. Make sure the drizzles are thin and spread out because if you pour the chocolate on top (like i did) it is impossible to cut when the chocolate chips harden again.

Happy eating! I'm sure there will be more Pinterest recipes to come!

Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs,
XOXO Brogan Lee

Rollie Pollie

Thats right! Our little pollie is a rollie!! Maverick waited until the week I went back to work to start rolling over and I missed it! :( Luckly Price happened to have the day off and caught it on film. Mav is going to be 4 months old in a few days and I cannot believe how fast time is going by! I think the best part of this video is Prices commentary. He was so excited to see one of the kids "firsts" before me. Even though it made me sad that i missed it, i'm glad that he was there to experience it. Enjoy!!

Lots of Love and Bunches of hugs

XOXO Brogan Lee

Beach day

It's the first weekend of march and the last day of my maternity leave and San Diego decided to spoil us with an 82 degree day! We loaded the kids and dog up and headed to IB. It was Maverick and Lucy's first time to the beach. Unfortunately we didn't go to Dog Beach so we couldn't let her off the leash for very long and I think she was pretty sad about it. Lucy LOVES the sand and the water and everything about being there. If next weekend is this nice, we will have to go to Dog beach to let her run around. Maverick didn't seem to be the biggest fan of this outing. I'm assuming it may have something to do with the fact that he pooped all over himself about 30 minutes after we arrived and while I was changing him he got covered in sand. I don't like when i have tons of sand under my clothes either. Ethan and Preston have really grown to love the beach. The last time we went out, Preston screamed when he got wet and Ethan started crying the minute we stepped foot on the sand and cried so hard for so long that he passed out for over an hour on the towel. This time they were so excited to be there that they were running all over the place, climbing the rocks, running into the water and digging in the sand like crazy. It made me happy to see them enjoying it so much. Now that they are getting more comfortable around the water I need to get them in swim lessons!
Oh, and I can't NOT mention Prices favorite part of the day.... Massive hamburgers, waffle cut fries and a 32 oz beer from the pier restaurant! (He hates when I take food pics so one is not included.) It has been about 2 years if not longer since he has eaten there and as soon as a trip to IB was mentioned, that was the 1st thing that came to him mind ;)
I hope everyone had a beautiful weekend to! Tomorrow I'm back to work and sure to cry at least a few times! :( I'm going to miss the boys so much and I'm nervous I'm not going to remember anything! I'll just have to cross my fingers and see how it goes!
Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs,
XOXO Brogan lee

Pinterest

Pinterest is my new obsession! I have been on it twice and spent, no joke, about 4 hours browsing all the amazing things other people have "pinned". I made these Rolo brownies the other night and they were AMAZING! I didn't follow the recipe but I'm assuming it was more or less the same thing. I let The boys whipped up brownie mix, put it into a mini muffin pan, then they stuck Rolo's in the center, and baked for 25 mins. Once cooled we poured chocolate glaze over the top then drizzled with Carmel sauce. I highly recommend giving these a shot. I have about 40 desserts I want to try but I'm going to have to have strong will power because I'm starting back at work Monday and am going to try to go back on a struck diet and hit the gym again. But maybe every now and then I can splurge and try a new recipe. But back to Pinterest.... Get on there, search, save and enjoy! I have endless clothing ideas, meal ideas, desserts, house decor ideas and now I'm going to hop on the motivational workouts. My sister and BFF have been trying to get me to check it out for months and have been telling me I'd love it but I just never got around to it. Now that I am on it, I'm hooked! I

Breakfast tacos

Left overs can make a darn good breakfast! This is what I did with ours the other morning. I chopped up our BBQ chicken, some tomatoes, bacon, cilantro, green onion and avocado, scrambled some eggs and mixed it all together. I piled everything into a corn tortilla I toasted on the burner and topped with Frank's Red Hot (because i put that s**t on everything ;) ) and extra sharp cheddar cheese AND ta-da!!! An excellent breakfast!