Chicken Lettuce Wraps Chopped Salad

2016-06-16 11.56.16Sorry this isn’t the best photo. I will try to replace it later with something more glamorous. But as a big part of this blog is to catalog the recipes that the family has deemed favorites, I want to get this UP.

To be perfectly honest, only the adult members of the family are gaga over this recipe, but both kids like it well enough. Tabby prefers to eat the chicken and dressing separate from the salad and add ranch or ceasar dressing (her faves) and Ben mostly just likes the chicken, but I think as they get a little older, they’ll come to love it like we do.

The original recipe comes from Skinny Taste and we make very few tweaks.

Ingredients:

SALAD DRESSING

  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/8 tsp kosher 
salt and pepper

CHICKEN

  • 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
  • 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 4 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (or more!)
  • 
4 tablespoons less sodium soy sauce
  • 
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
  • 2 pounds ground chicken
  • (2) 8 ounce cans water chestnuts, drained and diced
  • 1/4 cup chopped unsalted peanuts

SALAD

  • 6-8 cups of mixed lettuce, chopped
  • grated carrots (optional)
  • random additions like snow peas or chinese noodles (optional)

 

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oils, honey, ginger, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste to make dressing. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the hoisin, vinegar, Sriracha, soy sauce, and ginger. Set aside. Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray then add the chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the water chestnuts and peanuts to the pan. Pour the reserved hoisin mixture on top and cook for 1 to 2 minutes to heat through.

Remove from the heat and set aside. We like this very well when the chicken is fresh from the stove and even better when it’s been chilled in the fridge – very refreshing!

To serve, combine lettuces, carrots and any other additions. Top salad with chicken mixture and drizzle with dressing and toss.

A Maker Kind of Weekend

2016-06-11 13.48.24-2It was a good weekend. Mostly they are.

The highlight of the weekend was Denver’s Mini Maker Faire. It’s quite a bit different (smaller) than the main Maker Faire in Bay Area, but it was fun! And cheap ($20 for us all!). And we got to do some cool stuff. Like make little cars (above).

2016-06-11 13.54.43And try out weaving …

2016-06-11 10.44.19And make light up pins …

2016-06-11 09.04.50And show off my McGyver for president shirt (it was a hit).

We were there for over 4 hours and luckily it was a mostly indoor event, because it was HOT! HOT HOT! Summer is here.

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Afterward, we had naps (Matt and I) and then sent the kids off to the community center so we could have a date night. Ahhhhhhh Grown Up Time. I’m a fan.

In other weekend news:

  1. We had people over on Friday (jerk chicken cook off, natch)2016-06-10 18.11.28
  2.  Tabby got to kitty-sit (OH JOY!) and had a playdate.
  3. We finished off two more benches (except a little sanding and some sealing)2016-06-11 16.48.52
  4. Ben got his own playdate and some quality time on his skate board.
  5. We had (different) people over on Sunday for burgers.

Yes, no complaints. I do love me some summer.

 

 

Raingutter Regatta

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Being as that I am a girl with no brothers, I have little experience with the boy side of scouting. Which is actually part of what makes Ben’s Boy Scout events so much fun. It’s lots of new stuff.

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For the uninitiated, like myself, the Raingutter Regatta is the maritime equivalent of the Pinewood Derby. You build a boat, paint it, make it a sail and race it in rain gutters against your fellow scouts.

We (of course) discovered that this event was sooner than we’d thought on Monday right after Matt left for a business trip (that wouldn’t have him home until today), so I got tasked with turning the rectangular wooden piece and dowel we were given into y’know … boats.

Fortunately, I have been paying attention during shop time. And I was able to complete the task with little fanfare.

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The kids painted them and off we went.

DSC_6322Ben competed against fellow Wolf Scouts and Tabby was in the “family” (mostly sisters) bracket.

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It was a double elimination tournament (I learned how those work yesterday), and both kids won their first 2 races and lost their third.

DSC_6360Which netted them 3rd place in each of their brackets!

DSC_6365Not too shabby for our first go. More importantly, they had a great time!

 

Tabby Bakes

DSC_5743This kid loves to cook. So when I suggested that as a potential summer goal, Tabby jumped all over it. Better still, she decided she would be in charge of producing the dessert for our family meeting.

DSC_5773The first week, she tackled caramel stuffed chocolate chip cookies. I’d love to link to the recipe for you, but I have no idea where she got it. She found the recipe on her own, had me buy the ingredients and then she executed – beautifully. She did have me help chop the caramels and preheat the oven, but that was it. She even did cleanup.

DSC_5772And they turned out beautifully!

DSC_6257This week, she tackled pretzel cookies, which I’ve had pinned forever. I picked this one (it was my turn) partially because it intrigued me, partially because it was easy (we were coming back from camping that day) and partially because you could stuff them with ice cream and we had a 1/4 tub of vanilla in the freezer just taking up space.DSC_6268

The hardest thing about this recipe was making the “pretzel flour” in the food processor, only because getting the thing together so it will run without some practice is tricky. She had some help with that and stuffing the sandwiches.

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As you can see, they were a hit.

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I can’t wait to see what she comes up with the rest of summer! And maybe next summer she can start making dinner!!

 

We’re on Lake Time

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We got out of town Thursday night and headed Jackson Lake. It’s a nice state park about 90 minutes from our house. It’s also in the opposite way from most of the traffic, so it really is 90 minutes.

DSC_5825Though much of it lacks shade, we got a great loop to setup on and had decent shade. The first night, we setup, got the kids to bed and did some camp fire hanging.

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Friday was the beach day. I got to paddle board …

DSC_5991and the kids got to swim.

DSC_5837I’d say they had a pretty good time (this might be my new favorite pic of Ben – look at those freckles!!) …

DSC_6103… even this big girl who’s getting way too sassy.;)

DSC_5821… and especially this old man dog, who got naps and shade and pets and walks and illicit foodstuffs and a dip in the lake.

 

To Mom on Her 68th Birthday

Mom&Dad's WeddingDear Mom,

Today is your 68th birthday. I’m guessing you’re getting a pretty good look at the happenings from up in heaven, but it’s just not the a same as having you here to share it with us. We miss you, darnit. I want you here so I can give you a silly gift and we can take you to dinner and make you a birthday cake.

It would be so great to have you at work to share in the successes and joy in the company you loved so much and worked so hard with Jim and Grandpa to make into a warm, inviting, ethical, fun culture.

I want you to be able to play with the kids and not just see, but experience what amazing little people they’re becoming. How Ben can read and write so well now and how he picked up rollerblading like it was walking. How Tabby can do complex equations in her head and can bake the most perfect chocolate chip cookies without a lick of help from me or anyone. How they can both doggedly sit at the piano and learn new pieces.

I want to travel with you – to experience places that I know you’d love – France, England, cruising with Mickey. I want to experience entirely new places with you. I’d be fine staying home too. Mostly, I want you here so you can be sharing in all the fun we have. I don’t feel guilty about it. I know you’d want us to keep having fun, but I just want you here to share it with us. Just being with you would be awesome, even if it was at the bottom of the proverbial well.

Selfishly, I want your good advice and your caring words. I want hugs when the world gets just too rough. I want to be able to call you up on the phone for absolutely no reason at all but to say hey. To tell you about the great book I just read and the plans for the weekend and the pretty new sheets I bought just because I know you love that sort of thing.

Obviously I don’t get a choice, because this isn’t the one I’d make.

I think about you often and sometimes I can hear you. I guess either I really listened or you’re still talking (not so hard to believe, given your personality). I’m OK with either.

Keep shining down on us. We’re turning our faces up to you.

Jess

Family Meeting #3

2016-05-23 20.09.39Monday marked Family Meeting #3.

This one was a little different as we had a family photo shoot right in the middle of prime family meeting time. We tried so hard to protect this, but the photo shoot had to be moved because of weather and the weather made us do it. Argh.

So photo taking was our activity.

We also 1) paid allowances, 2) went over the summer goal chart, 3) had cookies, 4) played Machi Koro

All in all, a good meeting. Next go-around I want to implement gold stars and I want to come up with a rotating system for picking the fun activity (from a list) and the treat (same).

 

Scouts and Hiking and Denver!

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We had a wonderfully full weekend (again).

We got things started off right by hosting a couple of our closest family friends (friend families?) for dinner and the planning of our EPIC road trip, scheduled for August. Matt cooked jerk chicken. We drank mint juleps and wine. The guys played around in the shop, the kids watched a movie and the ladies took a long walk around the ‘hood.

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Matt and I got up earlyish on Saturday and took a run around our neighborhood. With views like this, even an early morning run is pretty awesome.

2016-05-21 07.49.15We met this little guy (probably 6″ long) on the trail. He was still cold and immobile in the shade and I was fine with that.

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After our run, the kids headed to karate. They had to make up the lesson they missed Thursday while we were at the school art show and anniversary celebration. They’re both doing great and Ben is ready to test for his purple belt!!

Following karate, Matt and Ben went to see a man about a new tool for the shop and Tabby and I went on to event #2 of the day – Girl Scout field trip to the animal shelter! I don’t think Tabby could have picked a better field trip.

I of course, was inundated with requests to take home a new pet, particularly a cat. As I am severely allergic, saying no was easy. Though Tabby did meet this guy and even I had to agree he was pretty awesome. His name is boss and he’s about 2 years old and he’s the biggest love bug. All he wants to do is snuggle and is practically climbing out of the cage to do so with everyone who passes. Ahh well. I know he’ll find a good home.

After the shelter tour, we went home and had lunch and after that, we headed off to Ben’s Cub Scout bike rodeo where I took (somehow) 0 pictures. What’s up with that?

We went back home for the second shower of the day and headed off to my cousin’s graduation party where I again took 0 photos. Seriously, what’s up with that??

2016-05-22 09.58.46Sunday I got up and went to the store while Matt worked on our picnic lunch that we took when we went hiking with friends. We hadn’t hiked at Red Rocks before (just gone to concerts and movies) and it was a fun place to hike! The kids were minimally cranky and kept asking us for math problems the whole hike. Ben is doing multiplication very well and Tabby has advanced to solving some pretty good equations (3x²-8=40).

2016-05-22 10.51.06The trail was particularly fun for the kids because there were some neat nooks and crannies to crawl up into (see first pic above).

2016-05-22 11.08.57Our old man dog had a nice hike too, but he does show his age. Lots of huffing and puffing and a little limping at the end.

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We had just a little free time between the hike and heading to my dad’s house for dinner. He made us ribs and potatoes and corn on the cob, plus a rum cake to celebrate Matt and Ben’s birthdays (belatedly).

Who could ask for anything more?

Family Meeting

NicholsFam

A few weeks ago, I told Matt that I wanted to start having regular family meetings. I said I wanted to have an agenda and a family credo and snacks. This is exactly the variety of corny/cheesy stuff that Matt instinctively rolls his eyes at and internally GROANS. We’ve both been through way too many corporate team-building sessions with mission statements to be wary of this sort of thing and I get it. But to his credit, he heard me out.

I made the following argument: The kids are getting older. School, activities, friends, devices, etc. are encroaching more on our nuclear family and while that’s not wholly bad, it’s important that we are deliberate about protecting family time. We need to also be deliberate about communicating what values, activities, lessons, etc. are important to us and teaching the kids a few things. To his credit, he saw what a fabulously great idea it was and got on board. 😉

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