Stuffed Bell Peppers & Caesar Salad (With a Twist)

I used to HATE stuffed bell peppers when I was little although I had never eaten them. I guess the mention of peppers just made me run as a child thinking they were hot and spicy. Boy, was I wrong and boy, did I miss out as a kid! Lol! Because I LOVE stuffed bell peppers now! And this Caesar Salad, oh my goodness, to die for! It was my first time making homemade Caesar dressing let alone a Caesar salad and I was pretty proud of myself and y'all know me, I always have to make a recipe totally different than someone else's so that's why it's called "with a twist" lol so here we go! I made this tonight and TC was pretty satisfied. Grayson doesn't like these kinds of things although he LOVED the rice mixture for the bell peppers. But he ate chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries lol

Stuffed Bell Peppers:

Ingredients:
- 1 box of Zatarain's jambalaya rice mix (again, I didn't follow the original recipe where it said to use regular white rice. I just love the Zatarain's rice since it gives the stuffed bell peppers more flavor)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (do NOT drain)
- 1 onion (chopped)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 1/4 cup shredded Mexican-blend cheese (divided)
- Sour cream for topping (optional)

Directions:
- Follow the directions on the back of the box and cook the Zatarain's rice mix
- Brown your ground beef and drain
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Cut the tops of the bell peppers off and scoop out the seeds and membranes
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
- Place bell peppers in baking dish
- Mix together ground beef, rice, diced tomatoes, onion, 1 cup of the cheese and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl
- Spoon mixture into bell peppers
- Bake for 30 minutes
- Top with sour cream and remaining cheese

Caesar Dressing:

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (or 2 egg yolks)
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove (pressed)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:
- Mix together all ingredients and voila! Lol I used a mixer to mix everything evenly :)


Caesar Salad:

Ingredients:
- Romaine lettuce (I bought the package stuff that already had the carrots and everything in it lol)
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup BBQ sauce
- 1 cucumber
- 1 handful grape tomatoes
- Croutons (DARN IT! I just remembered that I forgot these haha dangit!)
- Cheese (since we all know how much my husband LOVES cheese lol)

Directions:
- Grill chicken breasts (I borrowed my grandma's handy dandy George Foreman grill lol I need to invest in one of those!)
- After your chicken is done, cut into cubes (or just shred it into bite sized pieces)
- Place in a Tupperware container with a lid
- Pour BBQ sauce over chicken and shake the Tupperware container to evenly coat the chicken
- Peel and cut cucumbers
- Again, mix together all other ingredients plus the Caesar dressing and voila! Lol!

Y'all that salad was so good you're gonna wanna slap yo momma (please don't lol). The chicken probably would have been better if I marinated the chicken first, but I got my days confused which n return made me confuse my meal plan day so I was in a rush especially having to thaw out the chicken AND the ground beef for the stuffed bell peppers.

Hope y'all enjoy and let me know how y'all like it everything :)
Also, I didn't have a picture of my ingredients for everything since I was rushing trying to get dinner done lol

BBQ Chicken Casserole

This recipe called for Buffalo sauce and it's supposed to be called Buffalo Chicken Casserole, but we're not a fan of spicy and hot stuff and boy when I first tried the Buffalo Chicken Casserole, I had heart burn so bad and my mouth was on fire! It's sad when both TC and I had a glass of milk with our meal and took a gulp with every bite of that casserole lol so I changed it to BBQ sauce and it's SO good! TC requests that once a week lol :)

BBQ/Buffalo Chicken Casserole:

Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 package bacon bits (or packaged raw bacon. I just don't like all that grease so I use bacon bits lol)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese
- 1 bag baby gold potatoes (quartered)
- 1/2 cup sliced green onions (or just a regular or sweet onion)
- 1/2 cup French-fried onions (the stuff you put on green bean casserole for anyone who didn't know what those were lol)
- 1/2 bottle BBQ sauce (or a 1/2 cup Buffalo sauce)
- 1/2 cup ranch (I don't put that much ranch in mine. I put maybe 2 tablespoons and then let TC put more on his if he wants)
- Chives (I didn't measure lol)

Directions:
- Preheat over to 400 degrees
- Cut potatoes in quarters

- Microwave potatoes for about 2.5 minutes where they're almost done but not quite since you want them to cut the rest of the way in the oven where they don't become burnt and shriveled
- Cut raw chicken into small cubes
- Slice green onion or chopped regular/sweet onion
- Put potatoes, raw chicken, onion, BBQ sauce (or Buffalo sauce) and ranch dressing in a Tupperware container that has a lid
- Shake Tupperware to evenly coat everything with the BBQ sauce (or Buffalo sauce)
- Spread mixture in a baking dish
- Bake for 25-30 minutes
- If you're using packaged raw bacon, cook bacon
- The last 5 minutes of baking the chicken/potato mixture, top with bacon bits (or cooked bacon), French-fried onions, chives and cheese.
- Bake for those last 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the French-fried onions are golden

We really love this recipe! So good! Hope y'all enjoy and let me know how y'all like it :)

One Pan Chicken, Green Beans & Potatoes

Ok, so I've tried this before and decided that the chicken would be better to marinate over night and cook in a separate pan...so that kind of beats the purpose of a ONE pan recipe lol BUT I'll give y'all both recipes :)

One Pan Chicken, Green Beans & Potatoes:

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or however many you need to feed your family)
- 2 cans green beans
- 1 package baby potatoes
- 1 stick butter
- 1 packet dry Italian dressing mix

Directions:
- Preheat over to 350 degrees
- Wash potatoes and cut in halves or quarters (I did quarters)
- Melt butter in microwave until fully melted (about 30-45 seconds)
- Drain green beans and place in a single layer on one side of a baking dish
- Place uncooked chicken in a single layer in the middle of your baking dish
- Place potatoes in a single layer on the other side of your baking dish
- Pour melted butter and sprinkle the packet of dry Italian dressing mix over your green beans, chicken and potatoes
- Bake for 1 hour

So simple and easy and SO delicious!

If you want to marinate your chicken first and cook it in a separate pan follow this recipe:

Marinated Chicken:

Ingredients:
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or again, however many you need to feed your family)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup oil
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup white distilled vinegar

Directions:
- Whish brown sugar, oil, soy sauce and vinegar in a medium bowl
- Place mixture and raw chicken in a ziplock bag
- Marinate over night
- Once marinated, do the same steps with the one pan recipe for the green beans and potatoes but place the chicken in a separate baking dish
- Bake every thing for 1 hour at 350 degrees

I really liked the marinated chicken better than just putting melted butter and the dry Italian dressing mix over the chicken. To me, the chicken with the melted butter and dry Italian dressing mix was just dry and bland, but the marinated chicken was SO good! I could definitely eat this recipe every day! Lol! Hope y'all enjoy and if you try it, please let me know how y'all liked it :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Also, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Haha I swear I'm losing my mind and kind of forgot it was St. Patrick's Day! Lol

Grayson and I have been working on some art work for St. Patrick's Day! I'll post pictures tomorrow. But here are a couple of pictures we took yesterday :)

 

 

Determined

I'm determined to blog every day or at least every other day. Between photoshoots, taking care of Grayson and our dog Bacon, cleaning house, running errands and just so many other things, I'm finding myself not having any time to sit down and just write/blog. I'm behind on so much. There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want and need to do. I've recently picked up my camera every day where it's not just to do photoshoots for other people. Last night, Grayson and I sat down and read a bedtime book. I took some pictures of us doing that. I don't want to have my camera out all of the time where it takes away from enjoying time with Grayson, but it is nice to have those simple pictures that mean so much to me. As cheesy as it sounds, it really is the little things in life that mean the most, and I want to capture that. The past two afternoons after dinner, Grayson and I have ventured outside to take pictures and just enjoy this weather. I really love this time of year. Not only because we can enjoy being outside without sweating our behinds off or freezing our behinds off, but also because of the fact that it's daylight savings time and it gets darker later instead of it being dark while we're eating dinner and we eat a pretty early dinner (5:30-6:00). So it's been nice to just go on an adventure and take nonposed pictures.

I'm really excited to share my recipes I've done the past week. So be prepared for an overload of those lol. As of right now, Grayson and I are taking a break from his color boxes and stuff. I'm trying to search for activities we can do outside instead of being cooped up indoors. I so wish we were a little closer to a beach. I don't like swimming in the ocean and I bet that water is still cold, but I bet that breeze feels amazing! I can't wait to go this summer! Last year was a blast but now that Grayson is a little older and he can walk now, it's going to be even more fun!

Keeping it short tonight since I'm about to post recipes and I have to get back to editing pictures before Grayson is done eating his snack. But here are a couple of pictures I've taken of Grayson the past couple of days. I love my sweet boy so much! And he makes the perfect guinea pig! Haha ;D

 

And here's our dog, Bacon :)

BabyNet

We had Grayson's BabyNet appointment yesterday and it went great besides the tantrum Grayson threw but even then I was glad he did so. We got answers and help and Josh (the guy who evaluated Grayson) was wonderful! Grayson has gone from maybe having a very mild case of autism to a medium case along with a Sensory Processing Disorder meaning his numbers have gone up in his evaluations and he's gotten worse. We were trying to explain to Josh how Grayson throws a tantrum for 30 minutes to an hour straight. Well Josh couldn't really HEAR what we were talking about...until he witnessed it first hand. Grayson wanted to shake Josh's file cabinet. Well of course that's a no-no and I had to sit in front of it. Grayson threw a 30 minute tantrum. We tried EVERYTHING to calm him down. We gave him toys, we talked to him sweetly, we tried to do something funny, we tried everything and Grayson wasn't having it. I even tried to give him candy andddd nothing! He was throwing himself back, hitting me and TC, screaming, crying, the whole shebang! All he wanted to do was shake the file cabinet. This will be the first time I EVER say this, but I'm glad he threw that tantrum so Josh could witness the severity of them that he does quite often. Josh said that wasn't normal. Usually when a toddler throws a tantrum, you can distract them enough to where they calm down and forget about the tantrum and give them things where they completely forget about the object they wanted that started a tantrum in the first place OR when you ignore them, they eventually stop where a tantrum doesn't last more than 10-15 minutes....not Grayson. He will literally throw a tantrum from 30 minutes to an hour with no chance of calming him down. He was tired of being in that cramped room and he quickly got tired of the many toys Josh had. I'm glad that we were done with the evaluation when Grayson pitched a fit. It was embarrassing, it was frustrating, everyone in that building heard him including my aunt who works there. But I'm glad he did it. I'm glad he showed them his true colors. Now he doesn't act like that all of the time. He's a fairly sweet child who listens and is a good boy...the majority of the time. He just has his moments. Grayson doesn't do very well with men either only because he's always been around women more than men.

Josh gave us a packet of facilities that can come to our house and help whenever Grayson gets diagnosed. Josh will be calling us Monday to set everything up for an autism screening and more testing. It's going to be a run around process and I hate it but as long as Grayson gets the help he needs and fast, I don't care how many people we have to see. I am going to see if Grayson's original developmental pediatrician can do the screening like she said she could instead of getting him a new developmental pediatrician and then another doctor involved so we're eliminating as many people that Grayson comes in contact with so he doesn't get confused.

This doesn't change my child. He's still the same sweet, loving, fun-filled child he was before. This doesn't upset me in the slightest. I'm worried, yes but not because I'm worried about how we are parents are going to handle it. I'm worried about the process. I'm worried about getting him the help fast. This isn't the end of the world. It's just going to involve some help. As much as I'm beating myself over the fact we should have changed things when he was younger when it came to teaching him things instead of being on our computers and phones as much....I know I'm a good mommy. I know this can be "fixed" and controlled where he probably won't have any problems once he's in school because we're catching it early where we can reverse it. And if it doesn't reverse itself, so be it. We'll handle that. This isn't a matter of being upset. This isn't a matter of beating ourselves up over this. Only Grayson matters and this isn't anything to be upset over.

I've tried so hard to teach him shapes, colors, numbers, letters....it's just harder for him than it was for me to learn. And that's what these facilities will help us with. They'll give us tools to teach him in a different way that we don't even know yet. Preschool will always be a life saver to him because they also teach differently. Josh and Dr. DiBattisto say that this evaulation and even a diagnosis of autism will have nothing to do with him and Preschool. He'll still be able to go just as if he was a "normal" child. So I'm relieved about that. This whole thing is a big deal but it's not at the same time. It's just going to take more time and patience and it's not the end of the world.

This week has been very stressful. Not because of Grayson's appointment although we were anxious about it. Certain things are happening and it's just been very stressful. The other night, I put Grayson in our bed and this has been a nightly routine for a few days now. I love our time together. A lot of people tell me that he needs to sleep in his own bed and in his own room because if I don't do it now, he'll forever be in our bed. Because of course he'll be sleeping in our bed as a teenager lol NO! Anyway, Grayson knew I was stressed. He just cuddled me. We kept whispering back and forth so we wouldn't wake TC. When Grayson thought he had woken TC up, he rolled over towards TC to check and then patted TC like he was telling him, "there, there!" Lol! He then grabbed my arm, whispered me a song, rubbed up and down my arm, and just stared at me until I fell asleep. He was singing me to sleep and as he's seen from daddy, he knows that rubbing my arm or my back or playing with my hair gets to go to sleep. He knew I needed that. As much as I felt guilty for that because I don't want him to sense that I'm stressed and try to fix me because that's not his job....I was proud of him at the same time. He shows more compassion than an adult could ever dream of. And a lot of that is innocence because he doesn't understand how much compassion is taken away from people when they've been taken advantage of or have had wrongdoing against them. He hasn't experienced that. I love his innocence. He loves to run around outside barefooted. And boy does he run with no fear that he may step on something that could hurt his foot. Me on the other hand? I walk outside barefoot like I would if I was walking on fire! Lol! I wish he could keep that innocence forever. I wish he could stay little forever. I know I can't, but I wish I could protect him from the hatred of this world. I know I can't do that but at least I can teach him to handle negative things in a positive way. I won't be one of those smothering mothers although I wish I could lol.

It's been a crazy week and we haven't done any color stuff and I haven't cooked any recipes. It's honestly been a spaghetti, tacos, hamburgers, frozen corndogs and frozen pizza kind of week! Haha! It's honestly been like that for the past 2 weeks since we were sick. But this coming week, it's on like Donkey Kong! Lol and I can't wait! :)

Sick As A Dog!

So I haven't posted in over a week...because we've been sick. Bleh! We're finally recuperating and feeling A LOT better! I'm still sort of sick but Grayson has finally gotten over it. I'm just coughing my lungs up is all lol

We haven't been able to do color weeks for 2 weeks because of this nasty upper respiratory infection going on. We've had no energy, been sleeping the majority of the time, and just been completely blah! Even our meal plan has been blah! Lol so no new recipes either! I really can't wait until Spring! Summer, you can go on with your hot self! Lol! My favorite seasons are Spring and Fall. As much as I love going to a pool or the beach, I just can't stand the heat of Summer. And as much as I love building a snow man and playing in the snow, ummm no! Winter can go on with its cold self as well! We have such bi-polar weather here in South Carolina, it's not even funny! Like today, it was GORGEOUS outside and we were in Summer clothes! Wednesday of this week, they're calling for snow! Really? What the heck? See, what did I tell you? BI-POLAR! Lol

Anyway, my dad came into town yesterday from West Virginia so we've been hanging out with him pretty much all day. We went to the park on this gorgeous day. I was SO proud of Grayson! He used to LOVE swings and slides. He started becoming very scared of swings so he switched to slides. A few weeks ago when I took him to the park, he was terrified of the slides. It was heartbreaking because that's literally all he can really do at the park minus climbing the stairs and playing on the little bridge. Today, he went all out! He got on the swings and the slides! He only stayed on the swings for a minute before screaming his head off but he begged me to put him in the swing. He then HAD to test out all of the baby swings to make sure all of them were the same and gave him the same feeling lol. But he went to the big slide and went down that over and over again, got on the tunnel slide a few times and got on the twisting slide once. He wasn't really amused by the twisting slide lol but he loved how his voice echoed in the tunnel slide. Of course there had to be a little mud puddle at the end of the tunnel slide and OF COURSE Grayson had to play in it lol. All of the regular non-baby swings had a huge amount of water underneath them. I hate that! So I wasn't able to swing WITH Grayson like he wanted. But he had fun with Pop-Pop at the park and wore his little self out!

We spent pretty much all weekend decluttering the house and moving furniture around in our bedroom. We have TOO much stuff! It's crazy nonsense! Lol! My photo studio's closet is full of stuff to sell and I'm at my wits end and I'm donating half of the stuff. We're supposed to be having a garage sale at my grandparent's house soon so hopefully I can sell a lot of this stuff. I'm thinking about renting a table at the flea market to get rid of some stuff too. I'm totally going to regret getting rid of all this baby stuff especially Grayson's old clothes if we have another boy in the future. I used to HATE getting my sister's hand me downs so I guess our future baby won't have to deal with that, right? Lol! I never knew as a kid just how awesome hand me downs are! I don't think anyone wants to wear their older siblings clothes and stuff, but it definitely saves money on the parents! Haha!

This week we'll be pretty busy! With my dad being in town until Wednesday, trying to get the house decluttered, and all of that fun jazz, we're going to be exhausted lol. This weekend, Grayson and I are going out of town for the day on Sunday for my nephew's birthday party. It's going to be loads of fun! It's honestly Grayson's first birthday party he'll be attending where he can actually walk around and kind of understand lol.

Next Wednesday is the big day though! We have our appointment with BabyNet and I can't wait! I'm pretty nervous but I know Grayson will do well. I just pray he meets their percentage in order to get occupational therapy. I know in my heart that Grayson doesn't have a severe case of anything and since I've been working with him and since both TC and I have taken a better approach at disciplining Grayson and overall treat Grayson, he's gotten SO much better! But I also know that he needs some kind of therapy to get over certain things in his life so he won't have a problem later on. If he doesn't meet the percentage, I just pray they can give me the tools to better help Grayson. I just really need help getting him on a schedule, especially a sleep schedule. I've researched, read books, taken everyone's advice (except for the two suggestions I'm strongly against), I've literally done everything....annnnddd nothing! I'm praying that I can get him on a schedule before preschool starts in August and if I can't, hopefully being in preschool and having to wake up so early will do the trick!

I'm in the process of planning for Grayson's 2nd birthday and I can't wait! We aren't going all out like we did last year for his 1st birthday party but it's still going to be big. Grayson wanted a Toy Story party this year but he's so into dinosaurs now, that I don't know which one we're going to do now. I guess we need to decide fast because he's birthday will be here in no time!

 Praying we can get back on track with our color weeks and meal plans this week. We slept pretty much all day today. We're just so tired from not being able to get much sleep from being sleep and constantly waking up all stuffy. We just haven't been able to sleep very well being sick and all. Catching up on sleep is no joke! Lol! But we shall prevail and get over all of it soon.

Alrighty! I'm hopping off of here to go edit pictures. I'm so behind it's not even funny from being sick! Wish I was a doctor or a teacher because they NEVER get sick! Lol! I heard they take something so they don't get sick on a regular basis. I need whatever that is like NOW! Lol