Blog-Lift Again

Ok so again I have changed my page. I think this one is final (for now)! Ha. I will soon post an actual post. I have just started a new job and have been super busy. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get an actual post up. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Blog-Lift

If you are on my page you probably already noticed that I have a new background! I think that I like it. I just haven't quite made up my mind yet. Now that I have a grasp on how to change things and play with them a little bit more I may be changing it often. You know, until I find something I love.

For now it is staying like so. Let me know what you think about it.

Now I am off to bed. Hope everyone has a great week ahead.

MckLinky Blog Hop - Favorite Recipe

During the summer I love to eat anything with fresh tomatoes! I can seriously eat a tomato like an apple. I just love them soo much!!! So here are 3 of my favorite recipes (all with tomato of course).

First one is Parmesan, Chicken, Broccoli pasta

Ingredients

4 oz. (1/4 of 16-oz. pkg.) whole wheat spaghetti, uncooked
1/4 cup KRAFT Light Zesty Italian Dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 cups broccoli florets
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
4 tsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

Instructions

COOK spaghetti as directed on package.
MEANWHILE, heat dressing and garlic in large nonstick skillet on medium heat. Add chicken and broccoli; cook and stir 5 to 7 min. or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in tomatoes and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese; cook 1 to 2 min or until heated through, stirring occasionally.
DRAIN spaghetti; place on serving plate. Top with chicken mixture, remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.

2nd Tomato & Pesto bread (to go with the pasta obviously)

Ingredients
1 loaf of Italian style or French style Bread, cut in half length wise or just in slices
Pesto
Plum tomatoes
Olives (optional)
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan Cheese

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Place bread, cut-sides up, on baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 min. or until golden brown.
SPREAD bread halves evenly with pesto; top with remaining ingredients.
BAKE an additional 8 to 10 min. or until cheeses are melted. Cut each bread piece into 12 slices. Serve warm.

Last (but not least) Foil-Pack Chicken w/ pesto, artichoke hearts, & (you guessed it) Tomatoes

Ingredients
6 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup pesto
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1 Can of artichoke hearts, drained, quartered
2 cups of fresh diced tomatoes
3 cups instant white rice, uncooked
3 cups warm water

Directions

Preheat oven to 400*F. Mix rice and water; spoon evenly onto center of each of 6 large sheets of heavy-duty foil. Top each with 1 chicken breast. Cover evenly with the artichokes and tomatoes, then drizzle evenly with the combined dressing and pesto.

Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and both ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place packets in single later in a banking pan

Bake 30-35 min or until chicken is cooked thoroughly. Remove from oven and Enjoy!!! (After it cools of course.)

Each of these are so good to me. And both my husband (who doesn't really even like tomatoes) and our 3-year-old daughter love all of these recipes.

I do, however, 1/2 the recipes usually since its just the three of us.

Little Fishy...

Here within the last couple of weeks we have been in the water a lot. So much, in fact, that Jayci has become a little fish. She is so fun. She can jump off the side and swim a little ways. She can go down the slide without floaties, pop up, and swim to one of us standing close. She aslo, just as of tonight, can do a front flip and back flip in the water. She also will jump off the side, head first, and do a flip once she hits the water.

At the beginning of the summer I would have never thought she would be doing all of this!

I took some video of it tonight and thought I would share.

Blog Hop

Yesterday Kelly's Korner talked about a new Blog Hop that has started. It is a feature to advertise MckLinky that was started by Brent Riggs and MckMamma. Each week the Blog Hop will feature a diffent theme, and they are giving away $100 to one lucky participant. I am hooked on different blogs so this looks like a lot of fun to be able see even more!

This weaks theme: Favorite Photo. Hope you enjoy!

This is actually a picture taken this past weekend. We were at the park in Collierville, TN and I just happened to snap this picture at the right time. I really did not think that it would be very good but with a little bit of editing I think it has become my new favorite. I just feel it shows so much. My husband's father is retired from the Army National Guard so loving our country and are soldiers just comes so naturally in our household. To me this picture just captures love all around. Love of our country and love of a father and a child. I really don't have a lot to say about the photo. I think it really speaks more for itself.

4th of July Weekend in Pictures

Well because we did so much and I have so many great photos I thought I would just tell about our weekend in pictures. It's a little different but I think it will be fun.

Driving to Memphis: Jay, Jayci, Me, & Brenda (Jay's Mom)

The Memphis Zoo: Jayci w/ Giraffe, Jayci waiting on the Sea Lions, Jay & I waiting, The Sea Lion show, Cori & Jayci with the panda bear, My fam in some exhibit.

Sparklers: Jayci, Kirsten, & Elijah watching Cori open the sparklers, Jay with his tiny sparkler, Jayci, Elijah, & Kirsten

Red, White, & Blue Photo Shoot

Swimming (both Friday & Saturday): Elijah helping Jayci down the Slip-N-Slide, Jayci surfing down, Jayci & Kirsten rinsing off before getting into the pool, Elijah jumping off the diving board, Kirsten jumping off the diving board

Saturday night & Sunday on the way Home: Jayci amazed by the fireworks, Cori & Jayci, Jayci at the hotel Saturday night, Watching a movie on the iPod, Staring out the window trying to figure out a way to avoid taking a nap a little longer.

OK I hope you enjoyed my little photo post. As you can see we did a lot and had a good time. It would have been a really really long post to try and write everything out! Hope everyone had a very safe and fun 4th of July!!! We sure did!

Summer Lovin'...

If every day could be like today I would never want Summer to end. OK well not all of today because I lost my keys this morning so I ended up running like 30 minutes late and we missed the puppet show we were supposed to be seeing. Oh well it was a fun day anyway. We still went to the library downtown (and caught the last song of the puppet show) and met up with my friend Mary and her two boys for lunch and some fun in the park. Her boys are like 7 and 9 so they are quite a bit older than Jayci but it was still fun.

After the library we went over to the park across the street in the Rivermarket to eat lunch and play. Oh also Jay surprised us by getting off work early and meeting up with us! I have to say this may be one of our weekly trips. I know it is a little far to drive for a picnic and play but it was really fun. The park has little fountains of water coming out of the ground and tunnels in the ground for the kids to play in. I forgot my camera today but did get a few pictures with my phone.



After the park we came home and rested for a bit then went out to my in-laws house to swim. Let me just say Jayci is becoming such a little fish. She can actually touch in the shallow end of the pool. This means she doesn't have to wear here floaties or life jacket if she doesn't want to. Which she LOVES! She can jump off the side and she tries to swim back to the wall. She more less hops back but we are really working on swimming. Tonight she actually swam underwater for a few seconds. I think she is still unsure about the water she doesn't like to get her feet out from under her for too long. But it is still so much fun watching her learn. She is just growing so fast. Here are a few pictures from swimming. She also loves going down the slide now.




By the way did you notice my black nail polish in the first photo? It's really a black with just a hint of red in it. I wasn't sure at first but I did my toes and then like 2 days later I did my nails in the same color. I am really LOVING it. What do you think about black nail polish? Is it too goth or just up to the person and how they wear it?