Sometimes the pivotal moments in life, the epiphanies come out of nowhere.

Last Thursday we woke the kids up to watch an amazing lightning storm out on the horizon and then everyone went back to bed/reading/baking/TV.

and then … 80 mph winds, hail, tornados and craziness.

We ran out of our house to check on the neighbors, to run down our street in the rain – through calf deep water on our street, dodging branches and debris… we checked on the elderly couple across the street and saw their driveway completely blocked by trees.

the next morning

We checked on everyone, met neighbors we hadn’t met before and when we determined everyone was safe – listened to breakers popping around us – watched some more lightning, took a few deep, albeit shaky breaths and then Nathan and I took a very shaken Princess back inside our dark house and put her in our bed.  I checked on Monkey and actually laughed, I have always said that boy could sleep through anything – and I was right.

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful with blue skies and only a few cotton candy clouds in the sky.

We surveyed the damage and again, said a prayer of thanks.

We were lucky, we only lost part of our patio roof and our big old mesquite tree – the one in all those pictures of my kids

It was pulled up by the roots and thankfully fell into the yard (punching several holes in the grass with its branches) and not across our driveway and vehicles

Both kids walked out the front door with wide eyes and their mouths open in shock.  After a moment of taking it all in they looked between Nathan and me and then ran inside, put on shoes and went straight across the street to our elderly neighbors house and started dragging branches from their sidewalk, yard and driveway.

Nathan grabbed his chainsaw from the garage and we followed them across the street and started dragging, chopping and clearing until the curbs were stacked high with debris and the driveway was cleared.

I was so proud of my kids, watching them work hard to clear our neighbor’s yard and driveway.  I felt joy in my heart at the sight of the people that I see them becoming.  The moment of epiphanie came for me when Monkey looked up at me his little face dripping with sweat, his eyes shining and he said; “Mom, we’re good people, we’re helping others before we help ourselves.  That’s because we are being brought up by good people”

My heart skipped a beat and I felt a powerful tug deep inside

A moment later he looked at me again and said; “Mom, I’m talking about you and Dad”

I realized then, again, just how much they watch us.  How much they see, how they’re looking even when we don’t realize it.

We have a precious few years to make that impact, to guide them, to show them the way by our own actions.

Our summer will be fun and filled with family memories, laughter, sunshine, fishing, boating and joy; but it will also be filled with trips to the food bank, choosing a child to sponsor, and filling a few back to school backpacks with supplies for others.

I want to teach them, by showing them that making a difference can be done in big ways with donations, volunteering and time, but also in the smallest of gestures – a smile, a kind word, a prayer…

How do you teach your children to make a difference?

Thank you, Hallmark, for choosing me as one of their “Life Is A Special Occasion” bloggers and allowing my life and stories to be a part of their Life is A Special Occasion program. While I am compensated for my work with Hallmark as a Life is A Special Occasion ambassador, everything posted is original and real and from our life

I don’t know if you need an excuse to have a delicious, relaxing, refreshing, cool, crisp glass of wine, but if you do…

Let me introduce you to your new favorite day.

The Gallo Family, yes those Gallos, have named today, May 9, 2012 – the First Annual National Moscato Day.

To celebrate – they’re hosting a blog tour (of which yours truly is a part) and this evening – from 9 – 10 PM ET ( 8 – 9 PM CST) I am a community panelist on a #GNO twitter party with Gallo Family Winery to celebrate National Moscato Day.

Have I mentioned how much I love what I do?

I immediately stuck it in our outside fridge (aka the beverage fridge) and started to read up on Moscato.

The Gallo Family Vineyards Moscato is a table wine, that boasts peach, honey and ripe citrus flavors that are perfect when paired with soft and hard cheeses, spicy dishes or even the most Texas of all Texas dishes – Chili. (this information snagged from the Gallo Family Vineyard info sheet that accompanied my wine)

I took them up on that challenge.

I paired the Moscato with a roasted red pepper and garlic brie with whole grain crackers, the wine is lighter and sweeter than I’m used to, but it was lovely.  Sweet, crispy, soft, light, refreshing – I really enjoyed it.

The red pepper and garlic brie had just a hint of bite, paired with a creamy savoriness and the Moscato cooled and teased and sated as it flowed over my tongue, a brilliant pairing.  Simple, soothing, lovely.

Next up -

a spicy pairing.

If National Moscato Day were occurring during the 2 weeks of winter that we have down here, I might have taken them up on their challenge of pairing it with chili, however, it’s already hovering in the 90′s – so I decided to toss together a sriracha laden stir fry with chicken, broccoli, carrots and red peppers instead

Once again, the sweet fruity, crispness of the Moscato was perfectly paired with the slightly spicy – crispy – bold flavors of my stir fry.

Bravo – Gallo Family Vineyards – Bravo.

You have taken a strictly beer and red wine girl, and given her a new option.

I have several recipes that I can’t wait to pair with Moscato

• Honey Chipotle Glazed Salmon
• Shrimp Stir Fry with Spicy Orange Sauce
• Pasta with Scallops, Shrimp and fresh Basil

Here’s what I need y’all to do:

Go grab a bottle of Moscato and chill it.

Make (or order) something ridiculously delicious with a hint of spice – or throw together a creamy, savory cheese tray.

Invite some friends over, or pull up your laptop and join me (and a whole bunch of other fun people) for the Moscato Twitter Party tonight.

Seriously, do it.

I’ll be here ready to cheers you and toast to health, wealth, happiness, school ending, lost teeth, no burnt toast, whatever the celebration is.. let’s do it!

I’m participating in the National Moscato Day Blog Tour and Twitter party as part of a compensated partnership.  My time and talents are being compensated, but my thoughts and opinions and ramblings are 100% my own and never for sale.

Do you like spinach dip?

Do you like chicken?

Do you like quick, easy, classic and delicious?

If you answered yes to those 3 ‘questions’ ooo baby, do I have a recipe for y’all.

Spinach & Almond Topped Chicken

This is the 3rd and final recipe for the Hellmann’s Chicken Change Up Program

The first two recipes are here:

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

Baked Chicken with Cream Sauce

This recipe actually surprised me.

The theme for this challenge/recipe is a Twist on a Classic and I can’t tell y’all the number of times that I’ve been at a stuffy bridal/wedding/baby shower or luncheon with my Granny and seen spinach or almond crusted chicken and shuddered when the dishes have been served.

This is not your Granny’s stuffy, club, predictable, BLAH chicken.

This is juicy, delicious baked chicken that tastes like it’s been topped with your very favorite spinach dip with a crunch.

This is easy.

This is delicious.

What more could you want?

Oh – that your kids will eat it?

Both my kids had this for dinner tonight and BOTH have requested it for their lunches tomorrow.

insert pause for fist pumping and happy dancing here

The only things that I changed from the original recipe was to double it for topping and I think I’d add a dash of garlic powder.

The original recipe can be found on here

You can watch the recipe in video form by clicking play on the image below

While this post is part of a sponsored partnership between myself and Hellmann’s and One2One Network – all opinions are completely and 100% my own.

“Rachel, I don’t want you to grow up” – Granny, to a young me

my response

“Why Granny, Won’t you love me when I’m bigger?”

I don’t know how old I was at the time of that conversation, and I don’t remember her response to me, but now that I have my own children – I completely get it.

They want to grow up so fast

And I want them to stay small

They want to zoom through childhood and do it all…

I want to hold them and protect them and shelter them

It’s inevitable as we reach the end of this school year that the kids are already talking about next year.

NEXT YEAR when I will have a 3rd grader (the oldest grade in our Elementary School) AND a kindergartner!!!

Be still my heart

We talk about what their goals are, what they want to learn and accomplish and do over the summer and the next year and that inevitably leads to the ‘When I..‘ conversations.

When I’m a 3rd grader, I will know multiplication

When I’m a kindergartner I can show my teacher how I can read and I’ll get to do PE!

When I’m in High School

When I get married…

When I’m a Mom…

When I’m a Dad…

When I Grow Up

I go along with them and we play ‘When I Grow Up’

When Princess grows up she wants to be a veterinarian-dolphin trainer-teacher-mom-writer-artist!

Monkey wants to be everything his Daddy is.

I make them laugh when I tell them that when I grow up I want to be a photographer, writer, friend, mom – because in my mind I am still not grown up.

They find that really amusing

After every When I  conversation I tell them that they can be anything they want to be and their Daddy and I will do everything we can to support them and help them achieve their goals and grow into the people the are destined to become.

Right now we’re doing our best to give them the foundation they’ll need to become those grown ups.

Independence.

Strength.

Confidence.

Love.

Thank you, Hallmark, for choosing me as one of their “Life Is A Special Occasion” bloggers and allowing my life and stories to be a part of their Life is A Special Occasion program.  While I am compensated for my work with Hallmark as a Life is A Special Occasion ambassador, everything posted is original and real and from our life

These honey mustard marinated, cornflake and parmesan crusted, baked chicken tenders are the 2nd recipe I’ve made and am sharing with y’all as a part of my participation in the Hellmann’s Chicken Change Up program.

Last month, I talked about our busy lives and shared with y’all my time saving Baked Chicken with Cream Sauce recipe that I made using Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.

It was easy, delicious, and best of all – quick!

This month for my Hellmann’s Chicken Change Up recipe – I’m talking about Picky Eaters and sharing a crazy delicious chicken tenders recipe that will have your pickiest eaters licking their fingers and asking for more.

Don’t shake your head at me or roll your eyes.  I’m serious.

My daughter stuck her nose in the air and straight up told me… I’m not eating any chicken that you make with cereal.

(Cue me grabbing my hair and checking for 27 MORE gray hairs at the attitude and stubbornness that surely have my dad laughing and making snarky comments about karma.)

Monkey, in all his peace-making-everyone-happy way, told her to just try one bite to make Mom happy.

(Cue my heart bursting)

For once, I actually followed a recipe to the letter (I know!) and I must admit, I’m rather pleased with the results – and the kids were, too!

Even Little Miss Nose in The Air LOVED these and asked if she could help make them next time.  And there WILL be a next time.

W. I. N.

Want this Picky Eater pleasing recipe?

Of course y’all do

As if this Picky Eater pleasing, easy to make recipe wasn’t enough…

Thanks to Hellmann’s and the One2One Network, I have a Picky Eater Pleasing Giveaway, too!

I actually OWN a Puzzle Sandwich Cutter and use it frequently – my kids LOVE IT.

This Picky Eaters Giveaway includes:

• Deceptively Delicious Cookbook
• Substituting Ingredients Cookbook
• Match & Munch Puzzle Sandwich Cutters
• Kid’s Bento Box
• Kid’s Chopsticks

I got to choose the giveaway that I wanted to do, and this is the one that I saw and immediately though – “I want ALL OF THAT!”

Congratulations to Greta for winning!

Want to win this wonderful Hellmann’s Picky Eater Pleasing Giveaway?

Each entry MUST be left in a separate comment:

There’s a total of 6 possible entries!!!

• (MANDATORY entry)  What’s your favorite Picky Eater Pleasing Recipe?
• Which item in the Picky Eater Giveaway MOST appeals to you?
• Share this giveaway on your favorite social media outlet – twitter, facebook, pinterest and share the link in the comments (up to 4 entries for this one)

The Giveaway on My Blog is now closed – but y’all still have until April 30th to enter into the Hellmann’s Chicken Change Up Sweepstakes!

• From now until April 30, 2012, parents across the country can participate in the Hellmann’s® Chicken Change-up by trying one of the featured Hellmann’s® chicken recipes, sharing their recipe reviews and providing their own advice for managing dinnertime obstacles.  After participating, consumers can enter into a sweepstakes for the chance to win a $5000 grocery store gift card and other daily prizes

 This Contest is Now Closed.

This giveaway is open from 10:00 PM CST April 11, 2012 to 12:01 AM CST April 17th, 2012.  Winner will be chosen by Comment Contest Plug-in and will have 24 hours to respond or an alternate winner will be chosen.

This is a sponsored post.  Hellmann’s product and additional incentives were provided to me.  All opinions stated are my own.

I have yet to figure out WHY, but for some reason February and March kick our family’s collective tails.

Just when  we start to feel like we’re getting our feet back under us again…

BOOM!!!

It’s kickball season and that consumes 4 to 5 nights a week.

Between kickball, school, work, and just living life… March to May make me feel like I’m living in one of those cartoons where the clocks all have hands that are spinning at a crazy fast pace and everything is in fast forward.   I feel like if I blink, I’ll have missed a day, a week, a month of life.

Would I trade a hectic, often sweaty, dirt filled, fast paced minute?

Hell No.

I will however, accept any and all advice, help, aid and anything else that makes our days easier.

WAIT FOR IT... (HIMYM reference)

One thing that I try to do even amidst all the crazy, is make sure we eat well, and that doesn’t mean paper bags and drive thrus.

I want real food.

Food that comes from my kitchen, and that’s a hard thing to do when schedules are colliding like kids in a bumper car ring.

If I don’t want it to be drive thru, if I haven’t planned enough for the Slow Cooker, and sandwiches just won’t do… I’m not left with many options.

Unless I want to throw one of those frozen skillet meals together and let’s face it, I’d rather not because I’m not a fan of frozen meals.

THERE.

I SAID IT.

They are always lacking,  Lacking, flavor, texture, taste, substance…. you name it, they’re usually lacking it.

USUALLY being the keyword. As of about a week ago, I ate my words and I blame Zatarain’s.

Apparently March is frozen food month.

WHO KNEW?

Zatarains knew and they sent me a box filled with a whole bunch of CRAZY frozen deliciousness.

I was hesitant, but I threw caution to the wind, especially when I saw the Ready in 10 minutes on the front of the bag.

I tossed the Blackened Chicken Alfredo into my big skillet with a bag of frozen veggies (we were hungry and I wanted to make this stretch), put the lid on it, cooked for 5 minutes, removed the lid and stirred and cooked uncovered for about 8 more minutes until it was all bubbly and Nathan was hovering around the stove drooling.

I have to tell y’all, the smell was amazing.

The taste… pretty damn good.

Nathan actually stood at the counter and ate this out of the serving bowl.

This would be straight up delicious as is.

The addition of the frozen veggie blend and crushed red pepper flakes just takes it to a heightened level of deliciousness.

I’m curious now – do any of y’all doctor frozen meals?  If you do, what do you do?  What are your favorite tricks?

DISCLOSURE:  I’m a Zatarains Krewe Member/Ambassador.  

I received a box of frozen meals from Zatarains.   I chose to cook them and I chose to write about this meal.  I am compensated for my participation as a Zatarains Ambassador, but all opinions, ideas, recipes and thoughts are my own unless otherwise stated.

School. Kickball. Work. Homework. Play. Life
Somewhere in between all of that, we’re supposed to fit in quality time, family time and healthy meals.

Go ahead, laugh. Sometimes I do.
One of my favorite recipes is pork chops with a dijon cream sauce, the only problem – it’s somewhat time consuming and with kickball starting – that’s 4 nights a week, at least! I need quick meals, delicious meals, healthy meals, most importantly though, meals that the entire family can and will eat.

When I was contacted about working with Hellmann’s for their Chicken Change Up Program, I knew immediately that this was the recipe that  I wanted to re-work into a new and delicious Time Saving post.  I went and picked out the yummy Hellmann’s with Olive Oil (my favorite), some boneless skinless chicken thighs and a few other ingredients and immediately jumped into the kitchen to get started.

I chopped up a couple garlic cloves, juiced and zested a couple of limes, whisked that together with some Hellmann’s with Olive oil and a little dijon mustard

I laid my chicken thighs out on a foil lined, rimmed baking sheet, sprinkled each thigh with fresh cracked pepper and then topped them with Hellmann’s mixture.

Those chicken thighs went into a preheated 400 °F oven for 17 minutes and my kitchen started to smell like a savory piece of heaven.

After 17 minutes, I pulled them out of the oven, let them rest for a few minutes while I plated up some steamed veggies and a dinner roll

Oh, ya’ll.

Y’all.  Y’all!

I may never go back to the old school way of doing this AGAIN.  The actual hands on time is under 10 minutes! The results were just so yummy!

This chicken is SO juicy and full of flavor and holy, yummy, deliciousness!  The creaminess of the Hellmann’s, the tang of the lime juice and zest and the savoriness of the garlic and dijon.  This is one of the most flavor packed, juiciest quick chicken dishes that I’ve ever made, especially considering it was baked.  Usually baked chicken is more like shoe leather, this …. this is mouth melting yummy.

Just FYI -

• From now until April 30, 2012, parents across the country can participate in the Hellmann’s® Chicken Change-up by trying one of the featured Hellmann’s® chicken recipes, sharing their recipe reviews and providing their own advice for managing dinnertime obstacles.  After participating, consumers can enter into a sweepstakes for the chance to win a $5000 grocery store gift card and other daily prizes.[1]

[1] NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Hellmann’s Chicken Change-Up is sponsored by Conopco, Inc., d/b/a Unilever. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18 or older. Begins 12:00 PM ET on 03/01/12 & ends 11:59 AM ET on 04/30/12. For official rules, visit the ‘Chicken Change-Up’ tab on the Hellmann’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hellmanns

And now for my disclosure: This is a sponsored post.  Hellmann’s product and additional incentives were provided to me.  All opinions stated are my own.

One Thousand Posts

This is the One Thousandth post on this blog.

One thousand notes, recipes, tidbits, pictures, random thoughts…

One thousand moments of my life our lives recorded here.

I admit, I had no idea what I was doing when I started From The Land of Monkeys and Princesses

I had no clue when I started talking about lemons and road etiquette, that this blog-thing, this online note taking would someday lead to friends across the world and even introduce me to some down the street.

I had no idea where it was going to go, I didn’t even know there was a “where” that it could “go”

It was a place to store my stories, pictures and recipes – a place for family who were living in Australia, Kentucky, the wilds of Texas and elsewhere to check in on the kids and see what we were eating.

It’s  pretty clear from my first posted recipe, that I had no idea how to format a post, write a recipe for a post or do any such thing – but then, I wasn’t thinking about an audience.

I was writing to remember.

To share.

To archive.

I was writing for them:

I’m not a scrapbooker and physically hand writing anything for long periods of time (5 minutes or more) causes me pain.

So I started this blog thing.  I didn’t tell anyone, about it.  It was a secret, something that was only for my family and something my kids could someday look back upon.

Something they could read and see, a way for them to experience life as they lived it, when they lived it, through their mom’s eyes – you know, before I was all ancient and stuff.

These were my daily, and not so daily, notes and little bits of life, my recordings, memories, photographs and takes on the things that happened… nothing more than the every day – and yet, now… 4.5 years later, I look back on them and I laugh.  I cry.  I roll my eyes…

and I thank God that I have each of these memories.

I thank God that I have this space to tell our stories, to share them, to store them, to treasure them.

My kids know about this space.

We talk about it, they ask me to take pictures of them and share them with the internets and to put their stories and sillies on my blog

Someday, my kids will look back on this space, these posts and they’ll read my words, see their pictures and re-experience their lives.

I can only hope and pray that it means as much to them as it does to me.

I can’t believe this is month 5! The final month of my VELVEETA and Ro*Tel® partnership with BlogFrog!

This month was a recipe of my choice and since I grew up on Chicken Spaghetti, I decided to update my own chicken spaghetti recipe and use Penne pasta instead of spaghetti noodles, and topping it with Panko instead of shredded cheese and broiled it for the last few minutes to get those all nice and golden brown and crispy.

The stars of this month’s recipe were traditional VELVEETA & original Ro*Tel® along with a cream of mushroom soup with garlic and lots of veggies

This recipe is super quick, delicious, yummy and very family friendly! If you want to spice it up a little bit – use the VELVEETA – pepperjack or mild mexican or even the Hot Ro*Tel®.

I’m really loving this new twist on an old favorite and I hope y’all will, too!

Don’t Forget about the amazing Weeknight Wow Sweepstakes!!($1,000 given away each week, and one grand prize winner of $15,000!)

My other VELVEETA & Ro*Tel® recipes:

• Spicy Cheeseburger Pizza
• Pepperjack Corn Chowder
• Easy Cheesy Santa Fe Skillet
• Arroz Con Pollo Con Queso Con Ro*Tel®

VELVEETA® and RO*TEL® are hosting an amazing sweepstakes to encourage simple, easy weeknight family meals and entertainment ideas. Winners will be picked each week, and the more points you collect the more chances you have of winning! Grand prize winner will receive $15,000!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of VELVEETA/RO*TEL. The opinions and text are all mine.

One of my favorite parts about conferences is coming back home and reflecting.  Reading over my notes, reading my friends’ notes, IM’g, Skype-ing, and Twittering about all the ideas, inspiration and information whirling and swirling inside our heads.

Capturing the moments, both in words and images and then sharing them – that is a powerful and beautiful thing.

I haven’t yet written my recap – I’m still swirling.

I want to see your recaps, hear your thoughts and share the images, words, ideas and everything that moved you, changed you, inspired you and has your heart on fire.

Please link them up here and then visit each other, too.

You know those people you didn’t meet – you’ll meet them here in the recaps.