Homemade "Chicken Nuggets" and Ketchup

So my two year old is an extremely picky eater. So I'm always trying to come up with things she'll actually eat. Now I admit these take a little more effort than going through Wendy's but our kids are worth it right? Well most days anyway and today was one of those days.

Generally speaking if I'm going to this much trouble I like it to work for everyone in the family. This one does but it's not a favorite for me but do the kids ever love it. Also if they don't eat them all (which they won't) you can frig or freeze them.

So here it is:

"Chicken Nuggets"

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 slices whole wheat bread
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1-2 chicken breasts (or ground chicken if you want to make it easier)
• 1 small egg
• 5 tbsp ketchup
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1 1/2 cups corn, fresh, frozen or otherwise (could be substituted with peas, zucchini, cauliflower, carrots whatever your kids like, corn is sweet and blends in)
• s+p

1. Saute onion and garlic in evoo till translucent and tender, set aside.
2. Soak the bread in milk and tear into pieces
3. Place chicken in a food processor or blender. Pulse for a few seconds.
4. Add everything else but corn and blend for a few more seconds till well combine.
5. Transfer to a bowl and stir in corn.
6. At this point you could store this in your fridge overnight or make it immediately.
7. Put some flour out on a plate. (You could also use bread crumbs or panko) With one hand/spoon scoop a golf ball size of chicken into flour and roll around until coated. Pat softly to remove excess flour and form into "nugget" shape.
8. Heat veg oil in a pan over medium to medium/low heat.
9. Make one fritter to test for seasoning and adjust.
10. Cook about 4-5 minutes per side until cooked through.
11. Serve with Homemade Ketchup.

Homemade Ketchup

• 2 cans hunts tomato sauce
• 1 (heaping) tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tbsp dark brown sugar

1. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium/low and cook, uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Christmas!

There may not be two things I love more than Christmas and my family. To get them all together in mass quantities this year just made my little heart burst! I love, love, love Christmas! This year was no exception. We went up to my parents to stay the night on Christmas eve. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, small Christmas program and stories, and Christmas PJ's.

Man do I ever love this baby girl.

Bug getting her Christmas jamas.

She was so excited!

This girl loves Ariel!

Grammy Grams.

Ju-ju.

The Fam

Liam riding our oh so sweet and patient dog Bear, Christmas sweater and all. Poor thing.

Christmas singing although I was completely without voice! :( I look forward to performing and singing carols on Christmas eve for months! I was bummed but it was still fun.

Christmas morning!

Coach opening the calendar we made him.

Bug getting very excited about all her princess paraphernalia.

Nana!

Margaret and Bob came for breakfast that morning. I love Etta lovingly strangling Liam and his face in reaction.

It was a super fun holiday with family, friends, music, and presents!

I love Christmas and all it stands for. I love being reminded of Christ and the reason we're all here on earth. I love being with my family at such a special time. It's just so magical and special and I can't wait till it comes again!

November Baby

I know. You're probably thinking didn't we already do Halloween? However this was at our totally fabulous Fall Carnival Relief Society activity. We had all sorts of fun booths. A "Wax Museum" to learn candle making, a Candy Bar where you could make gifts for friends and other sisters (this also tied in with our lesson about friendship and not judging others) , a Pie Contest where you could enter a pie and learn how to make the perfect crust, a Fishing Board where you could fish for a treat and info about another sister, donuts on a string, and a "Masquerade" where you could paint faces. Now would you believe I was the only one who painted my face. A bunch of stuffed shirts I say. ;) It was really fun and a success despite the lack of face painting.

This however was not as fun. How do you discipline this girl without laughing hysterically? She got up to the counter, into my purse, into my make-up bag. She took it down to my carpet and started to do her make-up. My $20 mascara was all over her, as you see, and my floors.

*giggle, giggle sigh*

I'm not sure what's cuter...when she wears my shoes or her dads...

Me oh my how I love this boy.

Etta doesn't like taking naps. Etta really doesn't care for her black out blinds. Etta loves to read. So she found somewhere to relax where she could see her books. Then she fell asleep. This became quite a habit for a while.

That is one fine piece of lasagna I'll tell you what.

:)

Playing with some of the last fall leaves of the season.

Goodbye fall, hello winter.

Halloween Hoot 2010

So are you dying yet? As any mother of two tiny people knows it's nearly impossible to get a picture like this sans Photoshop. Two engaged, open-eyed, smiling faces? I mean really. But scouts honor, no head swapping occurred in the editing of this picture.

It kind of made my day.

Moving on to love some more on my giraffe and princess. Etta was dying over Cinderella at this point. Cinderella was everything. Cinderella is now completely old news and Sleeping Beauty (affectionately known as seeping doodie) is all the rage.

Bug trudging through the rain, parka and wellies in tow giving me her best "I don't recall superman wearing a jacket" face.

Hiding from the rain in a slightly less successful picture of everyone except my sweet hubby. Isn't he a looker?

Come on...

Miss stole my look.

Who wore it better?

(What you don't see after is Etta fist dropping Abby and stealing her heals)

Actually Mason, despite popular beliefs blood is actually a reasonably small part of the vampire bat’s diet...

Awwwww...

The witches (and warlock? not sure if that's what the dunce cap is indicative of :).

Mom and Pops

Cowboy and cowgirl were about the only cop out I could muster last minute much to coaches chagrin. He wanted to me to return this shirt once it was tainted by western culture.

I'll eat you up!

Classic Jacqueline, classic.

All in all we had a fabulous Halloween.

I burnt a hole in my table with one of the fifty candles I had lit but kind it of looks like a knot in the wood.

It rained and poured all over our evening but now Etta thinks trick-or-treating consist of going to 10 houses and going home.

Etta got way more candy than she could handle at our trunk-or-treat but it ended up supplying the goodies for the abundance of kids we got at our house this year!

It's all about the silver lining folks.

I had a blast and love dressing up my little kiddies so they look totally ridiculous and adorable.

Happy Halloween! (in January)

Septiembre 2010

September is always a fun month. Rob and I celebrated our 4th anniversary which seems crazy. I can't believe that we've been married for 4 years and have two kiddos. Pretty wild.

Schools starts which was always my favorite time of the year. It's still warm but you get peeks of the fall weather that's to come.

We had plenty more time playing outside with friends and family.

For the first time we went up to the farms at thanksgiving point with some good friends. Etta was all about the animals but was pretty freaked out about feeding them.

The girls were loving the flower gardens.

Etta was loving the little houses they have...in this case it was a jail, which come to think of it didn't really make sense there. Anyway, Aubrey snapped this scary picture of Etta.

We had plenty more days lazing around the house.

This is pretty classic Liam at this point in his life. If you left him anywhere long enough, no matter where, he would just pass out.

And of coarse playing with Jimmy as much as possible.

They did both these poses of their own accord, totally unprompted.

We also went to the park more than you can shake a stick at. This girls loves her swings.

August 2010

August was super fun. Tons of playing, swimming, and friends. We climbed trees...

Rolled around in the grass...

Played with jimmy....a lot.

Played lots of ring around the rosie...

Had some summer love...

And badly needed a de-mulleting...

So Ms. Lauren gave Etta the cutest little girl hair cut I've ever seen...

We tried to just trim it up but it wasn't looking good so I said just get rid of it!

And she was adorable!

We danced around in mommy's shoes, always a favorite...

Had lots of awesome bed head...

Did some of the cutest things ever...are you kidding me? Come on...

Always drawing and reading this one...

Never stopped being in awe of how awesome Liam is...

And drew some more, not sure what it is about this table...

We just had a blast playing around and enjoying the summer before school started again.