Friday, May 16, 2008, by Leigh Anne
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
‘Feeding the people we love“
This version of Sweet and Sour Chicken has definitely become a family favorite. I found it over at Stephanie’s Kitchen and we have made it twice in the last month. I am not a big fan of the heavily breaded Sweet and Sour you usually get at Chinese places but this version is light and yummy! The chicken is just dredged in flour and then cooked in olive oil until browned. It is just the right amount of sweetness too.
It is great for a weeknight dinner because it is quick and easy to prepare. This time I forgot to add the red pepper (it was sitting, waiting, in the refrigerator) which makes the dish much prettier so just imagine some pretty red pepper slices in amongst the chicken and pineapple. Serve with rice and a nice green salad and you’ve got a great family night dinner! Enjoy!
Sweet and Sour Chicken
serves 4
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
6 tablespoons flour seasoned with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits (reserve juice)
1/2 cup pineapple juice (use reserved juice)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1/4 cup onion, sliced
Coat chicken in flour and fry in olive oil until browned. Drain and set aside. In same skillet, combine cornstarch, salt, pepper, brown sugar, vinegar, pineapple juice, chicken broth and soy sauce. Cook and stir until boiling. Reduce heat and cook for 2 minutes. Add chicken, peppers, onions, and pineapple. Cook until heated through. Serve over rice. Enjoy!
Popularity: 3% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Wednesday, May 14, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“Feeding the people we love”
When Jim asked me what I wanted for Mother’s Day dinner I tried to keep the menu as easy as possible since his culinary skills are limited to breakfast and what he can throw on the grill. I told him I would be in charge of dessert. I had been planning for weeks to make my ALL TIME favorite dessert - Boccone Dolce or “Sweet Mouthful” in Italian.
A local restaurant, Papa Haydens, that is famous for their desserts, serves this amazing dessert. I order it EVERY time I go there despite the dozens of choices on the menu. Not wanting to wait until we went to the restaurant to enjoy Boccone Dolce I googled the recipe and found this great version.
Boccone Dolce is a combination of melt in your mouth meringue, strawberries, whip cream and chocolate - YUM! Don’t let the picture of the dessert or the mention of meringue scare you away. It is actually very easy to make!
The first step is making the meringue layer. This meringue is not like the soft meringue that is on lemon meringue pie - this meringue is crisp and dry and melts in your mouth when you bite into it! Be sure and use egg whites at room temperature and a clean bowl in order to get your egg whites to whip properly. Also make sure none of the egg yolk gets in with the whites.
You can use any berries that are in season - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries (remember I live in berry heaven!) and if no berries are in season you can also use bananas. (except if you are me and you have texture issues and don’t eat bananas!) For Mother’s Day I used a combination of strawberries and raspberries.
Here are my meringue shells -
Meringue Layers:
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup superfine sugar (I was out of superfine and used regular)
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. In mixer, beat egg whites, salt, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until meringue is stiff and glossy.
Line baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Trace three, eight inch circles on paper (I used a plate)
With a rubber spatula, spread meringue evenly and equally over top of the circles. bake approximately 2 hours or until meringue becomes bisque colored. NOTE: The low temperature will prevent them from browning too quickly. Then turn off oven, open oven door and let meringues “rest” in oven another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully peel off parchment or waxed paper. Put cake on racks to dry until thoroughly cool.
Once cooled, meringues may be wrapped in saran and frozen or just store in an airtight container if using within the next 24 hours. NOTE: I wrap each meringue in several saran layers, then stack (gently!) in a large plastic container for freezing. Remove from freezer at least an hour before assembling.
Next comes the fun part - assembling it!
6 ounces of semisweet chocolate pieces
3 Tbsp. water
3 Tbsp. powdered sugar
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 pints berries, sliced
Chocolate curls (for garnish) I just shaved some chocolate over the top
Melt chocolate pieces over hot water. When perfectly smooth, remove from heat and cool (but don’t let it harden)
In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff; gradually add powdered sugar and then vanilla extract.
Slice berries.
To assemble, place a meringue layer on a serving plate, rounded side down. Spread a very thin coating of chocolate over it. NOTE: Go easy on chocolate, too much will make it impossible to cut cake! I used a pastry brush to spread the chocolate.
Top chocolate with a layer (about 3/4 inch thick) of whipped cream. Top cream with a layer of sliced berries. Place a second layer of meringue on top of this, and repeat filling. Top with final meringue, rounded side up, and frost sides and top smoothly with remaining whipped cream.
Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Garnish with several whole strawberries and chocolate curls.
This dessert is not the easiest to cut - I find using a serrated bread knife works well and use a sawing like motion. It definitely looks prettier before you cut it - I can’t seem to cut it as neat and tighty as the restaurant does
Enjoy!
Popularity: 9% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Monday, May 12, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“The take care of yourself stuff”
The nice weather is on it’s way to the Northwest - finally! In fact, I think we are going to bypass Spring all together and go directly into Summer with temperatures of 85-90 in the forecast for later this week. There is nothing like a sunny day and soaking in a little Vitamin D to help you feel renewed and alive again after a long, cold and wet winter!
The gardening bug has finally bit - much later than usual this year. The fact that my garden has been under water most of the winter may be part of the reason. I usually have my containers planted by Mother’s Day and dozens of plants lining the patio waiting to be planted, but it didn’t happen this year - maybe by next weekend but I did get my small herb garden in this weekend.
If gardening isn’t your thing or you don’t have much space to garden you might want to give an herb garden a try. You only need a small piece of dirt or even a large container will work! Herbs like 5-6 hours of sunshine a day and a dryer environment (which makes containers a great place to grow herbs).
Some people grow herbs for medicinal purposes, ointments or potpourri. I grow them for cooking. I love having fresh herbs just outside my back door so I can add them to things such as roasted potatoes or vegetables, herbed butters for corn on the cob, salad dressings and marinades for meat.
My favorite herbs to grow are rosemary (this will winter over year to year), chives, marjoram, thyme, oregano, parsley, flat leaf Italian parsley, cilantro and lots of basil. In the Northwest the slugs love basil so you need to keep slug bait nearby.
So if you are new to gardening or don’t have much of a green thumb give an herb garden a try - just get a container, some potting soil and a few herbs starts from your local nursery (even Fred Meyer has them), find a sunny location and you are ready to go. Next time you are cooking something that calls for rosemary, oregano or thyme just grab your scissors and clip some fresh herbs from your own garden!
Happy Gardening!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Renew
Saturday, May 10, 2008, by Leigh Anne
I hope all you mother’s are enjoying a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. When someone asked me what I was doing for Mother’s Day my reply was - “Nothing!” I doubt that will really happen but it is wishful thinking! Jim is cooking dinner but I told him I would make dessert.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish my mom - Mary Anne Best - a Happy Mother’s Day. You see - I do have the Best mom! Thanks mom for being the Best - in more ways than one!
A saying that we would repeat while growing up was:
“Good, Better, Best…..Never let it rest til your good is better and your better is best!”
Thanks mom for teaching me to always be and do my Best!
The picture on the card was taken last month on Prom night. Yes, I am the shortest of all the women in our family! Can you see a family resemblance?
Popularity: 13% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Uncategorized
Friday, May 9, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“Feeding the people we love”
This week’s Friday favorite is being posted by popular request. I served these yummy pita chips at a scrapbooking retreat I hosted last weekend at the beach. The girls loved them and requested that I post the recipe on the blog! I got the recipe from my friend Cherilyn when she served them at a church meeting I attended a couple of weeks ago.
I served them with hummus. I bought the Mediterranean hummus from Trader Joe’s. They have a great variety of different flavors of hummus (sun-dried tomato, red pepper, garlic, etc.) If you have a Trader Joe’s near you check out their selection. The chips would be yummy eaten just by themselves too. They are a quick and easy appetizer. Enjoy!
Just FYI - while at the scrapbooking retreat I made great progress on my 40 Days of Fanatical Focus goal of completing my high school daughter’s album before graduation. I completed 90 pages - her sophomore year of high school. Yes - that is ALOT for one year - a complete album. That is what happens though when your children get their own digital camera and take as many pictures as their mother does - it is a sickness!!
Pita Chips
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh chives, minced
1 medium clove garlic, minced (I used 2-3 cloves)
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (fresh is best)
6 pita rounds
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Combine all ingredients (except pita rounds) in a small bowl and blend thoroughly. Cover and let sit for at least one hour at room temperature (I didn’t do this)
Cut each round in half and then separate into two pieces.
Spread pieces evenly with butter mixture.
Cut each piece into 3 triangles.
Arrange triangles on a baking sheet in a single layer.
Bake until lightly browned (about 5 minutes)
Recipe makes about 72 triangles
Serve with hummus
Popularity: 16% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Nourish, Recipes
Wednesday, May 7, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“Feeding the people we love”
What do you do with a ripe banana or two? Make banana bread of course! I have the BEST banana bread recipe. I can call it that because my maiden name is Best - so I guess every recipe I have could be called the BEST recipe 
But seriously, this banana bread recipe is the BEST! I have made this banana bread for years. The recipe came from one of those little softcover recipe books you can buy in the grocery store line.
Everyone I have ever made this bread for LOVES it and asks for the recipe. In fact, my friend Allison emailed me the other day asking for it and I promised her it would be on the blog this week.
Last summer when my friend’s teenage daughter had ACL repair surgery the one thing she asked for after her surgery was my banana bread. Of course there was a warm loaf of banana bread for her when she got home from the hospital.
So, if you have some ripe bananas on your counter you now know what to do with them and if you don’t have any - go buy some today!
Sour Cream Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bottom only of a loaf pan (or use 3 small loaf pans). In large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla; blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. Add flour, baking soda and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (about 40 minutes for smaller loaf pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. Makes 1 loaf.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Nourish
Tuesday, May 6, 2008, by Leigh Anne
Last week I shared with you my Health Goal for my 40 Days of Fanatical Focus - in addition to increasing my exercise I wanted to drink more water each day.
I am happy to report that I have been doing much better and most days I drink my whole water jug full! I must admit this has been a bit of a struggle for me. I confess - I am a diet soda drinker. I know it’s not great for me and my high school senior daughter loves to tell me how it causes cancer - but just about everything causes cancer these days, doesn’t it? I was proofreading a paper for my sweet college boy a few weeks ago and he cited a study that made the claim that ice cream causes cancer - yes, ICE CREAM! I refuse to buy into that one! But I have limited myself to a diet soda every other day.
Since drinking water is a bit of a challenge for me I have had to come up with some ways to make it easier and increase my intake. So today, here are my Top Tips for Drinking More Water:
1. Set a goal of how much water you want to drink each day and have someone hold you accountable. I place my big water jug on the counter each day so the rest of my family can see how much I have drunk. I don’t like drinking out of the big jug so I fill and refill a smaller water bottle until the big one is empty.
2. I place a smaller water bottle next to my bed and when I wake up I try and drink the bottle of water within 20 minutes of waking.
3. I carry a water bottle with me everywhere, I keep one on my desk and always take one in the car with me.
4. Before I drink a diet soda I make myself drink twice the amount of soda in water.
5. Each time I crave something sweet I drink some water first.
6. Before each meal I also drink another 8 ounces of water - it’s amazing how it decreases my appetite.
7. After each trip to the bathroom (and these are more frequent with all the water I’m drinking) I drink another 8 oz. of water or so.
8. I get real tired of drinking just plain old, flavorless water so I have found some different things to add to my water bottle to make it easier.
…I love adding those cute little individual packets of Crystal Light to my water. They come in all kinds of fun flavors - the Classic Orange is my current favorite. They are so easy to just throw in your purse too!
…If you’d like something a little less sweet my Aunt Dawn recently told me about True Lemon and True Lime. It is also a powder but it tastes like you just squeezed some fresh lemon or lime juice into your water. I found it at Safeway. It is light and refreshing.
…I also purchased a box of Greens to Go at Costco. Honestly - despite the advertising on the box that says “Guaranteed Great Tasting” I think it tastes like you are drinking grass but it really does make me feel better after I drink it. (I drink it really fast). In the late afternoon when I hit a little energy lull I mix some up and I really feel better afterwards and I am sure it is better for me than a diet soda!
9. I drink a bottle of water after I get back from my morning walk to rehydrate.
10. Finally, make it a contest. Find a partner - your husband, friend or neighbor and see who can drink the most water each day. Make sure there is some kind of reward or prize for the winner!
Do you have any tips or tricks for drinking more water? I’d love to hear what they are. Please share by leaving a comment below or if you are reading this in an email update or rss feeder please remember to click through to the blog post to leave your comment.
Happy Drinking (water drinking that is!)
Popularity: 23% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Goals, Inspire
Monday, May 5, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“The things that make you feel, think, laugh”
Having been involved in direct sales for 17 years I have enjoyed reading about other woman who have been successful in the industry. Of course, one of the icons of the direct sales industry is Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an amazing woman and I have enjoyed reading about and learning from her over the years.
Years ago, at the beginning of my direct sales career I first read about Mary Kay’s Five O’clock Club in her book “Mary Kay - You Can Have it All”.
Whenever people would ask Mary Kay how she managed to get so much done she would tell them about her Five O’clock Club and invite them to join her.
Yes, Mary Kay Ash would get up every morning at 5:00 a.m. That extra hour or two each day, before the rest of the world and her family got up, helped her to accomplish all that she needed to do - and she accomplished a lot. I have since read of many successful people who are members of the club too - everyone from Ted Turner to Gandhi.
When I was a young mom, home with 4 small children and trying to balance family with running a direct sales business and everything else in my life, there just weren’t enough hours in my day. After reading about Mary Kay’s club I decided to join. Yes - I decided to get up at 5:00 a.m. each morning. The thing I was struggling with at the time was getting my exercise in each day so I went to the gym each morning at 5:00 a.m.
Now - I’m not going to lie - it was painful, very painful! But I was determined to make exercise a part of my life and if 5:00 a.m. was the only time I could make it happen - I was going to do it. I will tell you that it did get easier - not a lot easier - but easier to get up at that time each morning.
I continued the practice of the 5 O’clock Club for a lot of years - sometimes using it to get my exercise in or other times using it to get up and work on projects I needed to accomplish.
As my children got older though and were gone all day to school I stopped being a member of the 5 O’clock Club. Maybe it was because I had more time to myself during the day to get things done or maybe I just got lazy! I have found that the busyness of life has it’s ebbs and flows - some seasons are crazy busy and others are just busy.
We are entering one of those crazy busy seasons for the next few months with sweet high school daughter getting to graduate and wanting to be involved in as many things as she possibly can and I want to be right there to enjoy it all too. I have a list a mile long of all the things I want to accomplish before graduation (including her scrapbooks!)
Several weeks ago I shared with you one of my goals for my Forty Days of Fanatical Focus - completing her scrapbooks (family goal) and increasing my exercise program. (health goal)
This week it was time to add in Focus Goal #3 - my spiritual goal. In order to accomplish this goal I am once again joining the 5 O’clock Club - with one slight modification - it is now the 6 O’clock Club!
For the last week I have been getting up at 6:00 a.m. each morning (this is a half hour earlier than normal) to spend quiet time reading my scriptures, pondering and working on a new assignment I have been given at church. I have been asked to be a Destiny Leader for our church girl’s camp this summer. Destiny is the “spiritual” part of camp - each day the girls go to Destiny to be spiritually feed and uplifted. In order to prepare myself for this responsibility I knew I needed to take time each day between now and then to prepare what I would say and share with the girls.
Being 17 years older than I was when I first joined the 5 O’clock Club I didn’t want to shock the old system too much so I decided to start getting up at 6 a.m. for a week and then this week it will be 5:45 a.m. and then I’ll push it to 5:30 a.m. the next week (So I guess it will be the 5:30 club eventually!)
I have loved this extra pocket of time each morning. It sets a wonderful tone for the rest of my day and is helping me to find the time I need to prepare for my new assignment.
Is there some project you have been putting off? Are you finding the time in your day for all the things that are important to you? If not - you might want to give the Five O’clock Club - or maybe the Six O’clock Club - the more members the better!
Let me know if you join and what you are using the time to focus on and accomplish.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Goals, Inspire
Friday, May 2, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“Feeding the people we love”
On Fridays I share a favorite recipe from the previous week’s meal plan - well this week we had no meal plan. After being on vacation last week I have had a hard time getting back into the meal planning/cooking mode.
The only meal I made this week, (grilled cheese and tomato soup doesn’t count) that would have been blog worthy - I burned. Although I am known to set off the smoke detector frequently I don’t usually burn things to where they are inedible very often - in fact, I can only think of one other instance where I burned dinner so badly it couldn’t be eaten, charred might be a better description.
It was the summer we were married, we were living in an apartment and I put dinner in the oven to cook while we were at church. Well, it cooked, and cooked and cooked so much that when we got home from church it literally had turned to rock, hard charcoal!!
So today I will share a “Family Favorite” from a few weeks ago.
Recently I have been having fun making different types of homemade pizza for dinner. When we go out for pizza we usually order the ordinary, boring - cheese, pepperoni or Hawaiian. But lately we have had fun experimenting with different pizza toppings.
A few weeks ago we tried Rosemary Chicken Pizza, a recipe I had found on Sisters Cafe food blog. A fun blog where a group of sisters share favorite recipes.
The combination of lemon grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary was yummy!
So next time you are in the mood for pizza, don’t reach for the phone - try Rosemary Chicken Pizza instead.
LA Notes: I used my Pampered Chef pizza stone and heated it in the oven before putting the pizza on it. I also sprinkled the pizza stone with cornmeal. During tomato season you can use fresh tomatoes instead of sun-dried if you want, just add a tablespoon or two of olive oil.
1 large lemon grilled chicken breast, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped (for 1 tsp. dried)
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
A batch of your favorite pizza dough
Toss all ingredients together with 1 1/2 cup cheese. Spread mixture over dough and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake at 400 for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown. let rest for several minutes then cut into wedges and serve!
Lemon Grilled Chicken
2 chicken breasts
juice of one lemon
1 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. oregano
Marinate chicken overnight or for several hours. Grill. Yum! This is perfect for salads too.
Popularity: 39% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Friday Favorites, Recipes
Thursday, May 1, 2008, by Leigh Anne
“The things that make you feel, think and laugh”
As a child I loved books and I loved to read. Thanks to a mother who loved to read I have been a life long reader. One of my favorite childhood memories was our weekly trip to the library in my hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. In fact, Kenosha had a seperate children’s library, an old church that was turned into a library just for children.
As a child I loved all the usual - Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, Pippi Longstocking etc. I also loved biographies I remember some of my favorite were Helen Keller, Jane Addams and Florence Nightengale.
I still love to read - my favorite genres now are memoirs, historical fiction and anything by Jane Austen or other authors of that era!
My declutter project this past week has been to clean out and organize all the books that have accumulated around and under my bed. I try to keep our master bedroom clutter free but my side of the bed just seems to be a magnet for books. In fact when I gathered up all the books this is what I found…..
There were 36 books by my bed. - o.k. -so they weren’t exactly this neat and tidy!
I guess I am a bit optimistic about how much reading I can actually get done each night before I fall asleep.
That pile includes my current “read” which is Eat, Pray, Love and the book I need to read for book club that is in a couple of weeks Three Cups of Tea. There are business books, church books, current best sellers and two little known novels by Louisa May Alcott Inheritance and A Long Fatal Love Chase along with the third book in the Vampire series by Stephenie Meyer, Eclipse, that I need to get read before the fourth one comes out in August!
So many books, so little time…..
You may have noticed a new little feature I added to my blog -a listing of my most “Recent Reads.” (Scroll down on the right hand side) I hope you’ll enjoy this new little feature and if you’re looking for a good book - check out my list.
One of my favorite questions to ask people and one I’ve been known to ask everyone, even complete strangers, is “What’s the best book you’ve read recently?” I keep a running list of their answers in my little notepad so I am never wanting for a good book to read!
I’d love for you to share with me “What’s the best book you’ve read recently?!” Just leave a comment below and let me know. Remember, if you are reading this in a rss reader or through an email update you will need to click through to the actual blog to leave your comment.
I look forward to hearing from you and adding your favorite book to my “To Read” list! Happy Reading!
Popularity: 31% [?]
Print This Post
Categories: Inspire, Recommended Reads
RSS Subscription
E-Mail Subscription