Chinese Cashew Chicken

We loved this recipe!! I used turkey instead of chicken; I also didn't use any bean sprouts or green onions (baby steps for my picky husband) and it was still delicious! Vince thought it was good and he ate all that was on his plate... even the mushrooms!! And the best part is that it is a CrockPot Recipe!! Easy cooking and even easier clean up.

Ingredients

• 1 can (16 ounces) bean sprouts, drained
• 2 cups sliced cooked chicken
• 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions with tops
• 1 can (4 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 cup whole cashews
• Hot cooked rice

Directions

1. Combine bean sprouts, chicken, soup, celery, onions, mushrooms, butter and soy sauce in 4 1/2-quart crock-pot slow cooker; mix well. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours or on HIGH 2 to 3 hours.

2. Stir in cashews just before serving. Serve over rice.

TIP: For easier preparation, cut up the ingredients for this recipe the night before. Don't place the stoneware in the refrigerator. Instead, wrap the chicken and vegetables separately, and store in the refrigerator.

Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli and Sausage

I found this recipe in my friend's recipe book and tried it for dinner tonight. It was delicious and Vince liked it!! Here is the recipe and a picture I took of my plate. Hope you like it as much as we did.

Ingredients

• 6 to 7 ounces whole wheat penne pasta
• 8 ounces broccoli florets
• 8 ounces mild Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 1 medium onion, quartered and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Add broccoli during last 5 to 6 minutes of cooking. Drain well; cover and keep warm.

2. Meanwhile, heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Crumble sausage into skillet. Add onion; cook until sausage is brown, stirring to break up meat. Drain fat.

3. Add garlic; cook and stir 1 minute. Add sausage mixture, lemon peel, salt and black pepper to pasta; toss until blended. Sprinkle Parmesan evenly over each serving.

Our Love Shack

Here are some pictures of our Apartment. There have been a few changes since I took these pictures, but you get the idea. The Christmas decorations have all been put away, so my awesome book shelf is back where the tree is in the pictures. I have a desk that matches the book shelf, and that is now in our bedroom (I'll post pictures of that once I get my computer set up). Lastly, Vince's parents bought us a beautiful kitchen table and 4 chairs for Christmas!! I am still working on decorating our bedroom and will post collages of everything when complete. Enjoy!

Our entry way and living/family room. The couches are from my grandparent's house down south (thank you, nannie and papa!!). I made the pillows and the art on the wall. Our "coffee table" is the chest that used to be at the end of my bed; I just put a piece of fabric over it as a "table cloth".

We no longer have the white Wii stand on the left of the tv and it makes the room feel bigger.
We decided to give Koda the porch. He has a cot back there (thanks, mom!) and a water bowl. He loves laying out there. I think when it gets warmer again, I might put a chair out there to read outside while he sleeps.

Another angle of the tree and tv.

I LOVE our tree. I couldn't find a tree skirt I liked, so I laid some white batting around the base to look like snow. It matched the tree and was super cheap! I can hardly wait to set it up next year!!

Our washer/dryer is in that little closet. LOVE it!!!


Koda has a little basket of toys. His food is now where the mirror is, and the mirror is in our room. And a picture frame is hanging on that wall straight back.


The Santa towels are now put away, but I still love our spacious Black and Green kitchen.


Our bathroom. My best friend painted the art on the wall. She's amazing!


My mom's bathroom inspired me to make this for our bathroom. It smells so good!

Sleeping Beauty

I woke up the other morning to Koda sleeping like this and it made me laugh out loud! The longer I look at this picture, the more I can't stop laughing. He may be stubborn, but he's a good boy; lovable and hilarious.

Lunar Eclipse 2010

Total lunar eclipses during winter in the northern hemisphere are fairly common, NASA says. However, a lunar eclipse falling precisely on the date of the solstice is quite rare.

Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years for NASA.

"Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," Chester said, according to NASA. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one ... that will be on 2094 DEC 21."

This year's event will take 3 hours and 38 minutes. The eclipse begins on Tuesday at 1:33 a.m. ET, when the Earth's dark-red shadow will turn up on the edge of the moon, according to NASA. It will take about an hour for the shadow to cover the entire moon. Totality begins at 2:41 a.m. and lasts for 72 minutes.
(http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/19/lunar-eclipse-december-2010-falls-on-winter-solstice/)
(http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/18/tuesday-darkest-day-years/)


I drove over to my parent's house late that night to get my lens to take pictures of the moon. Their backyard was so dark, that it was perfect for taking pictures. My mom grabbed my tripod and here are some of what I got:

Looking up through the tree branches

Zooming in a little bit. I kept getting that reflection from the moon in the sky.
Weird, but cool.

Zoomed in. I loved that we could see so many stars.
We also saw a bunch of shooting stars.
The orange is at the bottom of the moon, rather than on the right side,
only because I rotated the picture.

Since we were outside for so long, we were fortunate enough to see an owl fly into one of our trees! Then we got to listen to it "hoot" with another one in a different tree. It was seriously AMAZING!! They literally "hoot-ed"!!! Times like this remind you just how cool God is!

Pregnant People

I am literally amazed by how many of my friends have recently had a baby or are now pregnant. I can name my friends who are childless at the moment on ONE hand. There is certainly something in the water and I am not at all ready to drink it. Don't get me wrong, I am very excited for my friends who have, or will soon have, little ones in their life... I'm just glad it isn't me right now :)

JUST MAUIED!!!

Here are some pictures of our first few days in Maui... Sooo much fun!!!!

Meet my husband, Vince!!

We drove around the northeast side of Maui and found the Blowhole!!

We kept driving around the island and drove on this TINY one lane road; it got pretty scary at times.

This is where we found the banana nut lady in her little hut!! We bought a loaf & it lasted us all week!

We went snorkeling at Turtle Town and then at Molokini; it was awesome!!

We also saw a huge pod of spinner dolphins...that was amazing!!

The captain said that was only the 2nd time he'd seen them there in the last 3 years!

More photos to come.....