dinner time

Here's how my recipes for this week turned out:

On Sunday we made this...

Pan seared steak with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus

The verdict?  Delicious.  All we did was marinate the steak all day using this marinade, and then Austin pan seared it.  I roasted the asparagus (coated in olive oil, salt, and pepper) for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees.  For the spuds I just made them like any normal person makes mashed taters.     

On Tuesday we had this:

Chicken stir fry

Verdict: pretty good!  Austin requested that the next time we make this we add peas.  I can't find the exact recipe I used (oopsies), but I literally just googled "chicken stir fry" until I saw something that looked good.

And then on Wednesday we had this:

Cheesy tortellini

With this:

Yummy Carrabba's bread with herbs and olive oil

Survey says?  Yum!  An easy dish to whip up on a busy week night.

All of this stuff was really great, but my favorite dinner of the week was Austin and my anniversary dinner at Texas de Brazil.  We were both in food comas fo sure.  My favorite thing there are the fried bananas.  Austin's is the house specialty steak.  Austin gets frustrated with me that my favorite thing to eat at a STEAK house is a banana, but I like what I like :) 

This is what I'm thinking for this week:

Monday- Stan's for dinner, but I want to make these for the team snack

Tuesday- Lettuce Wraps courtesy of my good friend, Rachel Ray with fruit salad

Wednesday- Creamy White Turkey Chili from eatliverun

Thursday- Buffalo Chicken Tacos with home-style fries

Friday- Leftovers/going out!

We're having a special guest stay with us next weekend, so maybe she can help me cook!  

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!! 

kids say the darndest things part I

Bill Cosby was right.

Kids really do say the darndest things.  I always knew this was true to an extent, but due to my recent increase in time around children I am now a full-on believer.  Here are some of my favorite things I've heard from 7th graders and 4-6 year olds in the past few weeks...

Ballet Teacher that I assist on Saturday mornings: Girls, it is very important for you to listen to me or Miss Jamie when we are giving corrections.  When you're waiting for your turn to go across the floor, how should you be acting?
5 year old Ballerina: Patient!
A different 5 year old Ballerina: Nice!
Another 5 year old Ballerina: Quiet!
Ballet Teacher: Yes, very good!  You need to be quiet.  And why do we need to be quiet?  So we can hear who?
5 year old Ballerina: (whispering) God?

**This question came to me while my 7th graders were learning about persuasion.  They were making their own commercials about a product of their choosing.  This particular partnership chose to sell Wiz Khalifa's new CD.**
7th Grader: Miss, can you tell me if this sounds good or not?"
Me: Sure, let's hear it.
7th Grader: You should buy Wiz Khalifa's new CD...everyone else is!  His CD has some great music.  It's not the best thing you've ever heard, but it's still really good.
**Good to know that the future of American advertising will be rooted in honesty...**

Dance Teacher that I assist on Mondays: Girls!  Y'all need to stop acting up, and pay attention.  If you don't get it together I am going to start sending you down to the office.
6 year old Dancer: What's the office?
Dance Teacher: It's like the principal's office at school.  If I send you down there they will call your mom.
6 year old Dancer #2: Oooohhhh.  I've never been to the principal's office.
6 year old Dancer #3: Me neither!  My sister has to go allllll the time though.
  

**This also happened in my 7th grade class during the persuasion unit.  Two students were in the middle of making a print ad in hopes of selling their product: a briefcase.  I noticed a spelling error, and encouraged them to correct it.**
Me: Hey guys y'all might want to look up "briefcase" in the dictionary...I think you have a spelling mistake. (They spelled it "breifcase instead of "briefcase")
7th Grader: (walking back up to me after about 3 minutes, no sign of a dictionary anywhere) Um, Ms. Chandler I just looked up briefcase, and you were mistaken...we spelled it right on our poster.
**I just smiled and told them to make sure they double checked their work**

Oh, and as always, a picture is worth 1,000 words:

Working with kids might be stressful sometimes, but I can never complain about having a boring job!

to austin.

Today I want to say happy 2-year anniversary to my favorite boyfriend in the world!

That's us last night before we went to dinner to celebrate!

Love you butthead!

a wednesday book review

I have a confession.

Actually, it's not a confession because most people know this about me, but here goes: I hate to read.  I think it's boring, and I usually fall asleep.  When my dad used to read to me at night before bed I made up movies in my head instead of paying attention.  I used to laugh when my sister put books on her letter to Santa.  I could probably count the number of "assigned reading" books that I actually read in high school and college on one hand.  That's what sparknotes are for people!  I guess I just never liked the idea of my teacher telling me, "you have to read this, and then do all sorts of assignments about it because the state of Texas says it's important and so do I".  Not the best motivation.

However, I figured that since I'm a fancy English (student) teacher now it's probably in my best interest to start reading.  How can I tell the kids how important it is to read when I don't even like to read myself?  So, off to the library I went.  I checked out this book, and a week later I was hooked on reading:

Why can't we read books like THIS in school??  A Northern Light has all of my favorite things rolled into one wonderful package.  It's a love story, wrapped in a murder mystery, with a dash of down on the farm family fun, and a sprinkle of historical fiction.  I would highly recommend it.  If a book can keep me entertained and actually make me WANT to read, then you know it's a good one.  

After reading this, I think I've officially caught the reading bug.  Heck, I may just ask for a Kindle for Christmas.  Well, let's not get carried away.  I'm warming up to the idea of reading, but I don't know that I'm ready to give up my usual clothes and movies for literature quite yet.

menus

I will be the first to admit that I am not necessarily the most organized person in the world.  Often times I wait until the last minute to do things, I can be a little bit forgetful from time to time, and I don't really understand bills and money and deadlines for the cable company.  However, I love love LOVE to plan my eating schedule for the week.  I am constantly checking food blogs and looking for new recipes to try, and every Sunday I make a menu for the week.  I write it on a notepad and leave it on the kitchen counter so I can refer to it every day.  My dream is to someday have a house with a perfect little kitchen that has a huge blank wall that I can hang a giant chalkboard on and write out my menu every week.  I will most likely purchase said chalkboard from etsy.com.  Never heard of etsy?  You're missing out.  Go look around for an hour, or seven.

Anyways, this was my menu for the past week:

Sunday- Gumbo with Chicken and Shrimp over Rice

Here's the recipe

Monday- Stan's mini burgers before the big Bacca playoff game.  I made some of my sister's famous oatmeal cookies for after-game-snacks:

Tuesday- Chicken Tex Mex

Recipe is from this

Wednesday- I had planned to make Chicken Stir Fry, but if you'll remember last Tuesday was the great Carrabba blackout of 2011, so we ate lasagna instead.

Thursday- Once again, I planned on making something else, but since I had perfectly good Carrabba's sitting in my fridge I stuck the meat in the freezer and chowed down on some Italian.

Friday- Leftovers

This past week turned out to be underwhelming in terms of cooking, but I'm hoping the coming week will make up for it.  Here's what I have planned:

Sunday (today)- Steak with Mashed Potatoes and Asparagus

Monday- Staneroo's

Tuesday- Chicken Stir Fry

Wednesday- Tortellinni in Marinara Sauce with Italian Bread (aka Carrabba's bread)

Thursday- Austin's taking me out for our 2 year anniversary celebration! <3

Friday- Leftovers

Saturday- Triple date with two of my besties from high school and their boyfriends...the destination is TBA

Looks like it's shaping up to be a week of good eats!  Until then, I'm going to get back to my apple treats that I'm making for tomorrow's softball game, and try to erase the last 7 seconds of the Texans game from my memory.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!  

   

rocktober

Happy October!!  It’s starting to get colder up here in Dally bar, and things are definitely getting spooky.  Last night around 8:23 the power went out at Carrabba’s.  At first I was annoyed because I wasn’t going to get in my full shift, but then the cooks called all of the staff over to the kitchen to make sure the food didn’t “go bad”.  JACKPOT!  You better believe I loaded up, baby!  Our refrigerator is currently packed to the gills with lasagna, garlic mashed potatoes, and soup galore.  Plus, I got to go home an hour early…just in time to catch the Dr. Drew Checkup edition of Teen Mom.  So, I would like to give a shout-out to whatever power company dropped the ball, leading to the great Carrabba’s power outage of ’11.

October is a fun month.  It’s cool, but not too cold.  Austin and I carve pumpkins and give them human names.  

Benjamin the Monster

Sally the Spider

I get to start wearing boots and scarves and all kinds of fun, wintery things.  It’s anniversary month!! (Two years of dating my main squeeze on the 14^th)  And, of course, HALLOWEEN!  Costumes, candy, tricks, treats.  I love it.  2009 was Austin and my first Halloween together.  However, we had only been dating about 2 weeks when the big holiday hit, so we figured a couple’s costume might be a little much.  This was the year of the picnic and the dinosaur.  I donned a plastic tablecloth with fake food hot glued to me, and Austin teamed up with his pal, Zac, and went as double dinosaurs.  It was a sight. 

Last year, Austin and I dressed up as Mario and Princess Peach.  Our friends joined in on the fun and suited up as the rest of the SuperMario World cast.  We braved the bars in College Station, which have a reputation of being ridiculously crowed on Allhallows Eve, and everyone loved our group dress-up idea.

This year Austin and I are trying to think up a couple’s costume that isn’t too cheesy, too expensive to create, or too ridiculous.  Here are some of our ideas so far:

-Boy scout and Girl scout (Austin told me he wasn’t interested in this one, but I think it’s cute)

-Bumblebees (Austin informed me that we are not four)

-Doug Funny and Patty Mayonnaise (I think we’re leaning toward this one, but I am having doubts about how I’ll look in a blonde wig)  

-Dinosaurs (I’m worried that Zac might get his feelings hurt if I take over his role as “girl dinosaur” though, and Austin says he would be embarrassed to have a repeat costume)

-Ring leader and lion (I would be the ring leader, and Austin would work the mane)

-Fireman and Dalmatian (Austin’s the puppy, I would be fighting fires)

That’s just a start.  We are open to ideas and suggestions!  I hope everyone is having a great beginning of Rocktoberrrr J    

busy bee

M.I.A.  Missing. In. Action.

That's my middle name lately because I am always gone! That's why I haven't posted in awhile, but I promise I'm still alive!  I thought you guys might want to know what a week in the life of Jamie Lynn Chan Chan has been these days, so here's goes...

Monday: I pop open my sleepy little eyeballs around 6:11 and proceed to get ready for my week of teaching the 7th graders.  Once I look a little more like a teacher and not so much like a student I hop into BEVY (the xterra) and drive my booty to Allen, TX, home of the most wonderful outlet mall in the world.  After I get to school, I watch my cooperating teacher give the lesson to first period, and then I take over for 2nd through 7th period.  During 4th period we get to go to cheerleading where my blood pressure skyrockets every time the girls go into their stunts, and during 6th period we get a break from the kiddies!  After school I head on over to the dance studio and teach precious 5-6 year olds how to do ballet, tap, jazz, and tumble.  After dance, I truck it to Stan's...

(the bar that sponsors Austin's softball team), and then go play "team mom" as I sit in the stands while the big league chewbaccas do their thang.  After the game, the team eats their snacks, and then I go home to go to sleep!  The past few weeks I have made things like snickerdoodles and mini-hamburger cookies.  Yum!

How cute are these?! (they're made using vanilla wafers, thin mints, and icing)

Tuesday: The morning routine/school thing is the same as Monday.  When school is over, I come home and get started on dinner.  Austin finishes and/or heats up dinner when he gets home because from 6-10 I can be found holding down the hostess fort at Carrabba's.  

Wednesday: Just a repeat of Tuesday.  It's all very glamorous and exciting.  Wednesdays are great because the best show on TV comes on--DANCE MOMS!  I cannot get enough.  I like tag teaming dinner with Austin.  Lately we've been having things like:

Lettuce Wraps with Fruit Salad (these seriously tasted like Pei Wei's)

Linguine with shrimpes and veggies and garlic bread

Mexican Lasagna (layers of chips, beans, cheese, taco meat, green onions, tomatoes, and olives...yes please!

Thursday: Schoolio in the morning, and then from 4:30-5:30 I go to the dance studio to teach a 9 year old cheer class.  The girls in this class are nutzo...they crack me up!  But, I have the same blood pressure issue that occurs during school cheerleading every day.  Why can't cheerleaders just stay on the ground?!

Friday: Yay for the weekend!  School in the AM, and then Carrabba's plus whatever shenanigans Austin and I get into come the noche.

Saturday: I teach precious dancers in the morning, have a fun-filled afternoon doing goofy things with Austin, and then cap my night off with my buddies at Carrabba's.  Here's an example of one precious little ballerina that I get to see every Saturday morning:

Last weekend Austin and I headed to Houston for a wedding.  On Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner.  We ate fajitas, people sang karaoke, and Austin joined a mariachi band.  

Oh, and there was also free ice cream.

Hehe prankster on the loose

The wedding was the next day, and it was so pretty!  Here's me with my date, the groomsman:

Sunday: Church.  Carrabba's.  Grocery shopping and preparations for the upcoming week.  Oh, and football.  Lots and lots of football...

What the heck is wrong with the Aggies?  This weekend they played in Dallas, and I'm so glad I didn't waste my monies on a ticket.  We went to midnight yell to show our support, but obviously that didn't really help :(

Midnight Yell at the Ft. Work Stockyards

And painting the town red afterwards!

Whew!  It's a crazy life, but you know I wouldn't have it any other way!  Staying so busy keeps me out of trouble, ya know? :)

I'm gearing up for another one at the moment, so I gots to go...hope everyone has a wonderful week!