Happily Ever Mock

Archives for October 2014

Recap

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We definitely did! Here are a few pictures!



Hallie and Mommy Friday Night and 
Sarah,Hallie and I Saturday at lunch





Yesterday we had a long much needed day with Daddy and went to Church as a family! 

This week should hopefully be a nice quiet week as well.  I’ve been so busy lately that I have kind of let the house go, but the only thing we really have planned all week is story time on Wednesday! Speaking of which, here are some pics of story time last week I forgot to share! We went with another Mommy from our playgroup and her adorable daughter Luna! The sign of the week was “Eat”

 















 We are planning on going again this week! Looking forward to update you on that! Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday! 

<3 Kelly

Oh hey, Friday! Recent Recipes!

Oh Hey! Friday! Wahoo! We are so glad too! This week has been super crazy at our house! I’ve hardly been home because this baby is in high demand! So this weekend is going to be a lot about relaxing!

Tonight is Joyce’s Mom’s birthday and we are going out to dinner to celebrate.  I’m making her birthday cake…more on that in a few

Tomorrow: My other best friend, Sarah, is coming into town and we are having lunch with our Moms.  We grew up a few doors down from each other, and it has been a long time (aside from our weddings) that we have had a mother/daughter outing, so this should be fun!
Also My mom and I are doing a little craft store shopping for some various things we want to make for Hallie!

Sunday- Family/Church day and possibly a much needed date night for this Mommy and Daddy!e This will actually be our first one since Hallie was born, so yay!

Anyway on to the Oh hey, Friday business! I thought I would share some of the recipes I have made recently that actually turned out pretty yummy, so here we go!

1.) Spinach Balls-
These are a family favorite! I made them last weekend for a Christopher’s brother’s birthday dinner!

Displaying 20140927_140713.jpg

Ingredients-
1 pack frozen spinach
1 stove top stuffing package
1 finely chopped large yellow onion
6 beaten eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper

Steps-
Dump all ingredients in a stand mixer and mix well.  Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Form balls from mixture (about Half Dollar size) and place on cookie sheet spaced about an inch apart,

Cook at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until slightly browned

2.)  Chicken Schnitzel (AKA my husbands favorite recipe ever)
Displaying 20140908_182649.jpg
Ingredients-
8-10 boneless skinless chicken tenders
dash of salt
dash of pepper
dash of cayenne
3/4 cup of flour
2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups of seasoned breadcrumbs
1 lemon wedged
parsley
vegetable oil

Steps-
Prepare 3 separate bowls: 1 with flour, 1 with eggs with dash of cayenne, 1 with breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.  Heat skillet with vegetable oil over medium heat.  Coat each  tender with flour first, then egg, then breadcrumb mix.  Cook on skillet 4 minutes on each side or until fully cooked through.  Place on a plate with paper towels to soak up grease.  Sprinkle parsley and squirt lemon wedges over all tenders.

3.) Baked Tortellini Alfredo
Displaying 20140903_194756.jpgIngredients-
20 oz cheese filled tortellini
Displaying 20140930_192452.jpg1 jar Alfredo sauce
8 oz shredded mozzarella

Steps-
Cook pasta according to package and drain. Coat bottom of a casserole dish with some of Alfredo sauce and dump pasta into dish.  Mix with the remaining sauce and half of cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top of pasta and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

4.) Havarti Spinach Mac and Cheese

Ingredients-
1 box of rotini pasta or desired pasta
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 1/2 cups of shredded Havarti cheese
1 cup of cooked spinach chopped
1 Tbsp Garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Steps-
In a large sauce pan melt butter over medium heat
mix in flour and mix constantly until brown rue is formed
Add milk, whisking well until all lumps are beaten out.
When sauce is thickened (about 8 minutes) add cheese and spices and lower heat.  Mix in spinach and stir occasionally while cooking pasta according to package so the sauce does not burn.
Drain pasta and add sauce.  Viola! Delish!

5.) Super simple chocolatey goodness cake-
(I am making this today, but I have made it SOO many times and every time people are begging for the recipe…I am usually embarrassed to give it to them because it is so easy!

Ingredients-
ANY chocolate cake mix. I like Devils Food or Triple Chocolate, but any brand/kind will do!
1 bag of milk chocolate chips
1 cup sour cream
1 3.5 oz chocolate pudding mix
(all ingredients such as eggs/oil on cake box recipe)
1 large whipped chocolate frosting

Steps-
Start preparing cake according to directions on box in mixer
add sour cream, 1 cup chocolate chips and pudding mix to cake mix and beat well

Bake in 2 9 inch greased cake pans according to cake mix directions
Let cool completely.
Place one cooled cake on cake stand and spread chocolate frosting over the top of the cake to form a filling. Place 2nd cake on top and finish frosting cake.  Decorate with remaining chocolate chips.

Hope everyone enjoys these recipes and please share your favorite recipes with me!
<3 Kelly
Linking up with September Farm

The Many Faces of Hallie- Get me a bottle!

“Stop everything and get me a bottle!”
There are so many things that this face could be saying! I’d love to hear your own! Please leave your caption in the comments below so that everyone can get a good laugh in! PS, don’t forget to follow along by email, and check out the other Many Faces of Hallie posts!
(PPS…in actuality I caught her in the middle of a yawn!)
Happy Thursday-
<3 Kelly 

Shake Your Tail Feathers

I was lucky enough to have my husband home on paternity leave the first 2 weeks of Hallie’s life.  The days passed quickly though and by the 3rd week, he had to return to work. 
 So, here I was a brand new mommy alone with my baby girl for first the time trying to get her on a schedule and keep the house in good shape as well.  Towards the end of the week I had a pretty good schedule down and was folding clothes one day in the living room after getting Hallie down for a nap.  I was just thinking to myself “Wow, way to go Momma!, you got this! You’re like Super Mom! The baby is asleep, the floors are vacuumed and mopped, the kitchen is clean and I’m folding the… When all of a sudden a loud chirping interrupted my thoughts.
Before I could figure out where it was coming from, a bird shot out of our fireplace and started flying frantically around my house.  Having visions of bird poop all over my freshly cleaned house, I panicked! I grabbed a mop from our utility closet and started chasing it around the house.  
When the darn thing flew into Hallie’s room I started fuming! It landed on the windowsill and I ran after him (I’m just assuming here) yelling at  him in a hushed voice (Mom’s you know how that goes) “If you wake up that baby, I’ll whack you!” I finally shooed him out of her room and shut the door behind me, miraculously without waking Hallie! 
I continue running around like a chicken with my head cut off, mop raised above my head, closing doors behind me so that I could keep him (again just assuming) in the main part of the house where I had both front door and back door open and waiting.
Finally after about 20 minutes the bird found the back door, and I slammed it after him praying to never do that again….FAST FORWARD to last Friday.
Hallie was down for her morning nap and I had just stepped out of the shower when I heard Stella barking her head off from her crate! Assuming the worst I ran out to the main part of the house in just my towel to see ANOTHER damn bird (PROBABLY THE SAME TROUBLE MAKER!) flying around my house! SERIOUSLY! You can’t make this stuff up!
This time I got smart, and the FIRST thing I did was close Hallie’s bedroom door, followed by the rest of the doors in the house. Then I ran to our bedroom and put on my bathrobe, closing that door after me.  I grabbed the same mop and started chasing him (It was most certainly a he) around, trying to usher him toward the open back door.  I was seriously a sight to see. Wet hair, bathrobe, mop raised running after a BIRD like a crazy person! Yelling all the while! 
Let me tell you something….birds are dumb.  This bird flew into 2 windows and a mirror before he finally found the open door another 20 minutes later!
Luckily I escaped both experiences without having to clean up bird poop…just some feathers!
I hope you never have this experience at your house, but if you do know 2 things.
1.) It will happen when you are the only one home and  your kids are asleep and
2,) Your husband will laugh when you tell him about it!
<3 Kelly