Events of Last Night: A Pictorial

Picture it. Wednesday, July 30th, 12:30 AM

Amy revels in the fact that everyone is in bed and the house is all hers.

Peace and quiet. At last.

Let's check in with everyone else.



Where is Ella?

Unfortunately for her, Amy is oblivious to the fact that her dear daughter is no longer asleep.

12:35 AM - Suddenly, Amy hears a THUMP from upstairs.

Amy blames it on the kittens.



12:42 AM - Amy (still oblivious) hears small footsteps and then a voice from upstairs.



Amy goes to check on Ella and is met by this creature:



Amy (staying calm) asks Ella what she has on her face. Ella replies "chocolate." Amy asks Ella if it possibly could be Amy's make-up. Ella drags Amy to the fridge where she pulls out a container of chocolate frosting. Amy jumps on this prime parenting moment and explains to Ella the difference between the truth and a lie. Amy pats herself on the back for a stellar job well done.



Ella agrees to tell the truth and takes Amy upstairs to show her what is on her face. Ella stops at Spencer's room and says very seriously "Spencer gave me chocolate and told me to put it on my face." Amy tries not to laugh as she realizes the whole truth/lie conversation went right over her head.

Amy takes Ella to Amy's bathroom to question her near the scene of the crime. The evidence being make-up everywhere and dozens of crumpled up tissues with make-up on them all over the floor.

Ella finally tells Amy what she used after about 25 varying stories.

Amy gives Ella a bath. Once all the make-up and hair gel is off, Amy sees this:



Amy realizes her daughter is having an allergic reaction and needs Benadryl. Because Ella is on Amoxicillin and Motrin for strep throat, Amy calls a rude advice nurse who Amy believes cannot possibly have kids.



On the way down the stairs, Amy's daughter said this:



As if it never occurred to Amy at all that Ella should be in bed at 1 in the morning.

The advice nurse okay'd the use of Benadryl. YAY!!!!!



Amy put Ella to bed after taking the Benadryl. Amy stayed up another hour to make sure the rash wasn't spreading.

Guess what time Amy went to bed???

Did Ella sleep in the next day?

Nope. But she did look like this:

More about The Grocery Game (Time)

I've had a couple e-mails in the past week asking how much time The Grocery Game takes. Ya'll know that I am crazy busy with work, kids, church assignments, etc. I don't have time for anything else - which is one of the reasons I LOVE The Grocery Game.

How much time does it take me?

1 hour on Sundays (cutting and organizing coupons)
Approx. 45 mins. in the store usually on Tuesday morning.

That's it.

Certainly way less time than I was spending shopping pre grocery game. I'm not very organized so I used to make several trips to the grocery store weekly.

The beauty of The Grocery Game is that they do all the work for you. I get 4 of the same newspaper every week. I cut my coupons by stacking all the inserts together so I am cutting out 4 coupons at once. Hopefully that makes sense. I file them immediately into my folder.

Sometime before Tuesday morning I look at the list for the week on my computer. I check the items that I am going to buy and print the list up. I take my whole folder (which is alphabatized) to the store with me. The list is already organized in the layout of my store so there is no going back and forth trying to find anything, it just leads you through the store.

There are definitely other FREE ways to figure all the coupon stuff out. There are several websites and message boards. BUT, I like that I don't have to do anything. I don't have to look at ads and try to match them to my coupons. I don't have to know the 12 week cycle of stores and figure out if the sale is really at the lowest price. The Grocery game does all that for me. It costs me $15 every 8 weeks - that works out to be $1.88/week. I subscribe to two stores (Harris Teeter and CVS). It would cost me less if I just did one store.

Whew . . . The Grocery Game should be paying me for all this free publicity on my blog (LOL!). I hope this answered everyone's questions. I think I promised someone pictures of my folder. I will try and get to that in this upcoming week.

WFMW - Clothes shopping with kids

The kids and I went to Target after swim lessons this morning. While there, I stumbled upon some darling MODEST dresses for Ella. I don't usually try on clothes with her in the store, I buy them and then return them if they don't fit. It's just not worth the headache otherwise. But Ella is now wearing an XS or S in girls clothes and at my Target those 2 sizes are gone quickly. I knew if I didn't buy them now we most likely would not be able to exchange for the size we needed. That's when I realized Ella was in a swimsuit under her swimsuit cover-up.

It was magic.

I slid her cover-up off and was able to quickly put the dresses on over her swimsuit right there in the aisle.

From now on, she will be wearing her swimsuit when we go clothes shopping . . . well, as long as she'll let me get away with it. So easy.

I wanted to include pics but the dresses aren't up on the website yet.

Trying on kids clothes in a bathing suit (on the kids - not me) is what is working for me this week. Shannon from Rocks in My Dryer is taking a break from WFMW for awhile. You can check out past WFMW ideas here Works for me Wednesday.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing
Curling Ribbon
Safe Plastics
5 Ingredients or Less
Laundry Tip
DIY Lip Gloss

Gas Prices

I was talking to a friend today about gas prices (Hi Irene!) and she said that prices around her have been dropping significantly. Not here. We were at $4.10 last week, I saw $4.01 a couple of days ago, and now we are back to $4.06. Her gas is now approximately $0.30 lower than mine!!! She lives about 45 mins away from me - no idea on the mileage.

So I was wondering 2 things.

What is everyone else paying for gas right now?

and

Are the gas prices dropping where you live?????

Am I the only one paying over $4.00 a gallon?????

On my radar

1. My mom and I went and saw Mama Mia (movie version) this weekend. I was so curious after seeing (and LOVING) the play how it would transfer to cinema. I was pleasantly surprise. Mama Mia is just plain fun no matter how it is packaged. You can't go wrong when a movie has the entire theater clapping, laughing out loud, and tapping their feet to the music. I do think the movie and the musical have different feelings. The movie moved around/cut out a lot of the songs. There were parts of the movie that I liked better than the play and vice versa. Meryl Streep was amazing (as always). I had no idea she could sing. Pierce Brosnan should never ever ever sing again. He looked so uncomfortable and sounded so bad. I actually braced myself when he would open his mouth - luckily they cut out much of his songs. But even with bad singing - it was still a blast! If you love ABBA and over the top musicals, I highly recommend it. I might even go again.

2. 10 Ways to Teach Basic Music Skills to Your Children (Even If You're Not a Musician). Such great ideas here. I'm excited to start some of them this week.

3. I read this post earlier tonight (Fussy linked to it on her blog) and I was completely blown away by it. I am in awe over her writing style and complete honesty. I have thought about it all night. She talks about the 70's and how choices we make aren't really free - there are always consequences. Read it. It's completely amazing. She also has a funny post about the Mac versus PC commercials here.

4. Deal Seeking Mom has multiple scenarios for saving money this week at CVS. She also shows how to get $29.33 worth of products for approx. $4.67.

5. I visited Genny's blog last week after she left a comment on one of my WFMW posts. She wrote a great post about trying to find the balance between wanting our kids to succeed and supporting them unconditionally.

Coupons, Oh how I love thee . . .

Check out what I got for $5.07 at Harris Teeter yesterday:

Broken down:

4 bottles of Windex - regularly $3.29 each
4 Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner - regularly $3.19 each
4 Tubes of Wet Ones - regularly $2.59 each
3 GUM Toothbrushes - regularly $2.99 each
4 Betty Crocker Warm Delights - regularly $1.99 each
2 boxes of Luigi Italian Ice - regularly $3.19 each

Total before coupons - $59.59
I paid - $5.07
I saved $54.52!!!


2nd transaction:

4 boxes Kix Cereal - regularly $3.39 each
1 California Pizza Kitchen - regularly $7.99
2 Red Baron Frozen Pizzas - regularly $7.39
5 ears of corn - regularly $0.50 each
4 Zone Bars - regularly $1.39 each
4 Bottles of Shout - regularly $3.19 each
4 Red Delicious apples (2.50 lbs) - regularly $1.69/lb.
Red Seedless grapes(2.02 lbs) - regularly $2.29/lb.
2 Cartons of Strawberries - regularly $3.99 each
5 Packages of Hillshire Farms Hearty Slices - regularly $4.49 each
4 packages of Hillshire Farms Ultra Thin lunch meat - regularly $4.49 each
2 things of Baby Back Ribs - regularly $13.72 and $13.78

Total before coupons - $141.90
I paid - $58.71
I saved $83.19!!!!!

Here are the items that were free:



The Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, and Shout were actually MONEYMAKERS for me. They were all on sale for under $2.00 and my coupon took $2.25 off so I was able to apply that difference to the rest of my groceries.

It is funny how since starting The Grocery Game in January how my perceptions of shopping have changed. I was actually upset when the toothbrushes were going to cost me $0.50 - that seemed so high to me! Spending money on household cleaners seems crazy to me now because I get them for free so often.

I love the deals and playing the game but I think the best part of couponing for me is that I now feel like a wise steward of my money. We haven't been able to donate to charity as much as we would of liked the past few years with law school debt, etc. but now I am able to not only get deals for my family, I am able to fill boxes with all the free items to take to local shelters. I feel more like I am doing my part.

There are also crazy Safeway deals going on right now. Buy 25 items there and they will give you a $20 gift certificate for the next time you shop. People are scoring this week (it runs through the 29th). If you have a Safeway or affiliate in your area check out
this site. She lists a couple different ways to save and then if you scroll down, there are links to other blogs detailing ways to save.

Another fun site about couponing is Money Saving Mom. She talks about deals at CVS, Walmart, Target, and other grocery stores. Her haul from this weeks shopping trip is unbelievable.

I'm off to cut coupons for next week!

Bedtime Blues

In typical Ella fashion, an hour after we put her to bed yesterday she popped up and started heading downstairs. We yelled up for her to get back in bed. This is the reply we got:

"Daddy! I have to tell you something important. Really Important. I forgot"

Because we are awesomely consistent parents we decided to let her come downstairs (could this possibly be why we have such bedtime issues??). We were not expecting what came next.

"I have this daddy (a bead). I need to make necklace for you. Right now daddy."

I wish I had recorded it so you could hear the urgency in my drama queen's voice. It was a matter of life and death. I could also tell that she thought what she was saying was so important, there was no possible way we could deny her this request.

Sadly, we did.

We even held out when she promised to make it "real pretty."

We couldn't help but laugh and she giggled her way back to bed where it took her approximately 2.5 seconds to come up with the next reason why she needed to be downstairs with us.

Someday she'll sleep, right???

WFMW - DIY Lip Gloss

This lip gloss recipe is fun, easy, yummy, and inexpensive (especially when making large quantities). For those of you new to my blog, I just returned from a week long girl's camp where I was in charge of crafts for 100+ teenage girls. This was one of the crafts planned for camp. I tested a couple different versions of lip gloss and this one is by far my favorite!

This is easy enough for preschoolers to do and still fun to do as an adult. I will be making lip gloss with my 2 kiddos tomorrow. I have strayed a bit from my summer schedule and crafts were pushed back to Wednesday.

I think these would make great Christmas gifts for girls to give to their friends, cute stocking stuffers, or even would be fun around Valentine's day. They also would be a fun activity to do at a birthday party.

Enough talking and on to the recipe!

Materials:

Paraffin Wax
Petroleum Jelly
Candy Melts
Coconut Oil
Grater
Wax Paper
Ziploc bag
Small container (I got mine here)

Instructions:

Grate paraffin wax onto the wax paper. Measure 1/4 tsp grated wax into the plastic bag. Add 1 tsp petroleum jelly, 1 tsp coconut oil, and 1 candy melt. Seal the bag. Fill a bowl with hot tap water and place the bag in the water for 3-5 minutes to melt the ingredients. Remove the bag and squish the ingredients around in the ziploc bag until well mixed, work quickly! Cut off 1 corner of the ziploc bag and squeeze into container. Place in fridge for 15 minutes.

The lip gloss has a nice coconut flavor. You can also add 1/8 tsp oil-based candy flavoring if you want a different flavor.

If the lip gloss ever changes color or smells - throw it away.

Fun crafts for kids+ is what is working for me this week, for more wonderful ideas visit Works for me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing
Curling Ribbon
Safe Plastics
5 Ingredients or Less
Laundry Tip

Cub Scout Day Camp

Spencer spent July 7-11th with his pack at Camp Snyder. It is such an amazing camp. It was built 2 years ago and is the only camp in the US that caters to cub scouts. This years theme was "Travels Through Time." He had a blast. He spent his days swimming, learning archery and how to shoot a BB gun, going on archeological digs to find clues to a treasure map, hiking and going on nature walks, experiencing the "Wild, Wild, West," doing arts and crafts, and so much more. He had crazy skills with the BB gun and was called the "marksman" of the group. He came home absolutely exhausted every day. I went up with the boys on the last day of camp. The staff put on a crazy scavenger hunt. Each pack was given a list of approximately 40 employees who were hidden somewhere in the 350 acre campsite. We had 2-1/2 hours to get as many signatures as we could. Although it was HOT, it was neat to be there during this so Spencer could show me all the different areas of the camp. After lunch, each pack performed a skit. We did the classic JC Penney skit. Although it was extremely HOT, muggy, and tiring, I am so glad that I got to spend this time with him. He turns 10 in a couple of weeks and I have felt him slightly pulling away these last couple of months as he grows older so I am jumping at any moments I can steal away with him. Here are some pics from the day:




And one pic in color so you can see just how beautiful the trees are:

Sunday Summary

Covering the last few weeks -

1. I survived both cub scout day camp and girls camp! Nothing like camping in Maryland mid summer. Heat, humidity, snakes, mice, teen drama, a trip to the ER, and a whole lot of fun! I'm so sad it's over but have already started planning next year's crafts. Yep, I've been roped in to being the stake's craft lady next year. Good thing I LOVE girls camp.

2. Ella has turned into quite the little fish. It's amazing how quick kids progress with private swim lessons. She jumps right into the pool every morning even though the water is freezing. Spencer is looking forward to starting swim again tomorrow. He only had 3 lessons before scout camp. I was impressed that he remembered everything from swimming lessons two summers ago. Ella loves to watch him during his lesson. She tells me she will "swim like Spencer soon."

3. We got two kittens yesterday! I have been both dreading and looking forward to their arrival (did I mention that I'm slightly allergic to cats??). The kids have been working hard all summer to prove that they are responsible enough to care for pets (I'll have to post the cat contract they had to sign later). I never thought of myself as a cat person but I have fallen for these kittens hard. They are so incredibly sweet. Spencer's kitten is black with white paws - she is named Indy after Indiana Jones. Ella's kitten is grey. Her name changes every hour, so far she has been Rainbow, Garfield, Cinderella, Luigi, Ariel, Roxie, Donkey Kong, etc. If I had known the endless hours of entertainment that kittens provide a preschooler, we would have gotten them months ago.

That's all for now . . . too tired to go on. I will post pics of our adventures soon. I'm glad to be staying put for awhile :)

A day in the life

How NOT to renew your license:

Drive 20 minutes to DMV.
Stand in long, long line with 3-year-old.
Me: Hi, I need to renew my license. Here are all my forms.
Nice DMV lady: We are going to need to see your marriage license.
Me: You mean the paper I was holding and decided not to bring?
Nice DMV lady: Ha-ha (courtesy chuckle).
Me: Okay, I'll be back in about 45 minutes.

Drive 20 minutes home, 3-year-old has fallen asleep.
Carry sleeping 3-year-old inside house and put on couch, run up 2 flights of stairs grab marriage license.
Come back down the stairs and realize your child is missing.
Run up and down all flights of stairs looking for child.
Open front door and find her sleeping on the porch (why, why, why???).

Drive 20 minutes back to DMV.
Get out of the car and pick up forms.
Realize your old license is not with the forms anymore.
Search the entire car while silently cursing VA heat and humidity.
Go back into DMV.
Wait in LONGER line with 3-year-old.

Me: Hi, I'm back. This time I have all my forms but no longer have my old license. Did I leave it here?
Nice DMV lady: Let me check. (She looks everywhere.) No, we don't have it.
Me: Do I absolutely need it?
Nice DMV lady: Yes. I'm so sorry, I've had days like this before.
Me: I'll be back in about an hour.

Retrace earlier steps to see if the dang license dropped somewhere.
Check Target customer service.
Get suckered into buying a toy for cute 3-year-old.
Check Mall Lost and Found. (Our DMV is in a mall accessible through Target).

Drive 20 minutes home.
Search car again and find license in the crack between seat and floor.
Wait 20 minutes for other child to come home from scout camp so they can share in the fun.

Drive back 20 minutes to DMV with both kids.
Stand in HUGE line.
Me: I found it! Do I have everything?
Nice DMV lady: Yes, take a seat and wait for your number to be called. (I was hoping for more enthusiasm - doesn't she know how much will power it takes to keep dragging kids back and forth from the DMV?).

Start time: 1:15
End time: 6:30

What a day . . . thank goodness I have 8 years before I have to do this again.

WFMW - Laundry Tip

I love this product. So far I haven't found a stain that it hasn't removed. Ella's clothes are ALWAYS covered in marker, food, dirt, etc., so I usually have to carefully pretreat everything. Not anymore. I hardly pretreat any of her clothes, I just let All Small and Mighty do its magic. We have used it now for about 2 weeks and I can't say enough good things about it. Never thought I'd be raving about detergent.

We usually use All Free and Clear because of my kids eczema. I think we have finally outgrown that stage - they haven't reacted to the change in detergent. But if you have kids with sensitive skin, there is an All Small and Mighty Free and Clear. Wow - that's a mouthful.

(Quick disclaimer: I just realized this sounds like an advertisement. I'm in no way involved with All or have any family members on their payroll - just super excited about something that has been cutting laundry time in half :))

Fantastic new laundry detergent is what is working for me this week, for more wonderful ideas visit Works for me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing
Curling Ribbon
Safe Plastics
5 Ingredients or Less

Just don't tell Dr. Oz

As I sit here typing this, Spencer and Ella are upstairs in Spencer's room having dinner and watching a movie. I enticed them there with chicken, potato chips, bananas, soda, and the promise of a popsicle. Great dinner, huh? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today. Girls camp is next Tuesday and it just dawned on me today that I am responsible for crafts for 109 girls and need enough stuff to fill up approximately 10 hours of time. I'm pretty much ready but panic mode has set in. There are some minor things that I should've been working on the past couple of weeks but kept putting it off. I am the queen of procrastination.

So, why, you might ask am I sitting her blogging instead of working on crafts. Well - I just walked through my house and it looks like a bomb has exploded. Every. Single. Level. I have crafts all over the main floor of the house. When Spencer came home from scout camp today all the neighborhood boys rushed right over. Upstairs is filled with legos, bionicles, action figures, and xbox controllers. Ella hit her room at some point today and tried on various ensembles, which of course resulted all of her clothes being dumped out of her drawers. The basement got the same treatment, all the dress up clothes are out and scattered everywhere. Spencer's robot has been given a dress, hat, and shoes. I wouldn't care so much except I had cleaned the entire house this morning so the craft mess I made wouldn't bother me.

Ella (bless her cute little heart) just really wants to do ALL the crafts with me ALL the time. I was counting on Lance coming home and taking over. So Ella and I braved the Virginia heat and humidity and went bike riding this afternoon to fill up time until Lance came home. When we came home, Lance was in his scout shirt and walking out the door. Ugh! I forgot it's scout night.

Which brings me back to dinner. I excitedly told my kids "Let's have a fun movie night! You can eat dinner in Spencer's room! I'll give you chips with dinner! and soda! You can even stay up late!" They are both still young enough that they don't realize I am just buying myself some free time to work on crafts uninterrupted.

Earlier in the day when I was organizing beads, Dr. Oz was on Oprah(a repeat of an episode I hadn't seen). He was talking about kids and weight. He said the upcoming generation will be the first generation in history to have a shorter life expectancy than the previous generation because of the nation's obesity epidemic. That really surprised me. He said it is not just diet, it's also lifestyle. He asked the audience how many people walked to school when they were kids and almost every hand went up. He then asked how many of them let their children walk to school and I saw only one hand raised. He had some great suggestions. One that I have already been trying to implement is to get more fiber in the kids diets. What I didn't know, was that he thinks we should try and get most of their daily fiber intake in the morning. That way they will concentrate better and be able to focus while at school. I really should rewatch this so I can explain it better - but I really don't have time. My SIL Michelle added flax seed and spelt to waffles when we visited her and the waffles were great - so I might start trying this in the morning.

But here's the kicker, his #1 suggestion for kids/weight was to not let them eat in front of the TV. While watching the show, I was smugly thinking about how we never do that, we have family meals around the dinner table. About 15 minutes ago, I realized that not only were my kids eating while watching a movie, they were eating mostly junk. Score one for mom. But it's summer so it doesn't really count, right????

If you don't see any posts the next couple of days, just know that I am knee deep in beads, hemp, lip gloss, jewelry, candle stuff, leather working, and paint supplies over here.

Oh happy day!

One day of scout camp did what almost 10 years of parenting could not do - SPENCER ATE AN ACTUAL SANDWICH! Gotta love peer pressure. Those of you with picky kids will understand. Spencer's normal sandwiches consist of jelly and white bread. No peanut butter. Nothing else. He has had a jelly sandwich every day in his school lunch since he started kindergarten. We have begged, pleaded, and bribed him to try other sandwiches but the kid wouldn't budge. But the first words out of Spencer's mouth when he came home today was "Mom can you start making me ham and cheese sandwiches? They're great!" I don't think I've ever been so surprised.

So I used that leverage with dinner tonight. We were having potstickers and rice. Spencer was disgusted (as usual) by the potstickers. I reminded him that we had been telling him for years about other sandwiches and how he had missed out by not trying them. He then surprised me again by eating the potstickers and asking for more. It was a happy happy night tonight.

Unfortunately, the same reasoning did not work with apple pie. Wouldn't even try it. Go figure.

Oh - he is having a blast at scout camp ... archery, bb guns, swimming, water slides, archealogical digs, time machines, paddle boats, what more could a 9 year old ask for?? I'll be at the camp with him on Friday and will take some pics.

Unfortunate news

I got a haircut.

I now look like this.



With a lot more frizz.

And a lot more bangs.

The end.

On my radar

1. My mom and I went and saw Mama Mia at the National Theater in DC last night. What is is about Swedish pop music that makes me so incredibly happy? By the end of the performance I realized that my face had been in a permanent smile the entire time. Such fun. I was so glad for the encore numbers because I just didn't want the night to end. Unfortunately for my kids, we bought the cast recording which meant on our 1-1/2 hour drive today they were treated to me belting out ABBA songs as loud as I could. Ella said "mama stop the singing," and Spencer begged for anything else but I just tuned them out . . . afterall it was ABBA!

2. Color Coded Nature Walks: Isn't this a brilliant idea? I think it would be so much fun for the kids. I'm going to try and incorporate it into next week's schedule. Fun, cheap, educational - just my cup of tea.

3. Blog Nosh Magazine. I am so excited that they have finally launched. Their tagline is "satisfying your craving for fresh voices and delicious content." They have totally delivered. I have enjoyed almost every article I have read over there and have been introduced to some very fun blogs. Head on over . . . you won't be disappointed.

4. Laughed out loud reading this post about Wii Fit (scroll down past all the white to read it). My Wii Fit is mean to me too. Yesterday it told me that if I encouraged other people in the house maybe they would work out more. A little passive aggressive, dontcha think?

5. Which movie mom are you? Saw this on somebody's blog this week (don't remember who or I would totally give you the credit). I am the mom from My Big Fat Greek Wedding - Maria Portokalos. Love it.

Great Craft

We did a craft last week that both kids loved so much I had to go back to Michael's and pick up some more. Let me tell you why I love these little suckers:

1. They are easy enough that Ella can do them with minimal assistance.

2. See the little squares all over their bodies. You have to peel each square off and stick them on one by one which takes forever. That means I have a lot of time to get stuff done while the kids are occupied.

3. They are $1 each at Michael's.

4. Both my 9-year-old and 3-year-old love these. It's not often that I can find something like that.

Here's what the box looks like in case you want to pick some up:

These pics are from a couple days ago. Yesterday they both made blue mice. I got a migraine halfway through craft time so Spencer helped Ella finish hers and then cleaned up the whole craft mess (we did other crafts today as well). He was so sweet, when he was done cleaning he told me he would take Ella upstairs and play with her so I could rest. He is turning into such a responsible young man. Thanks Spencer!

WFMW - 5 Ingredients or Less

I have been looking forward to this weeks Works For Me Wednesday, it is a themed edition: 5-Ingredients-Or-Less. I love simple fast recipes so I can't wait to see what everyone contributes.

This is my go-to recipe when I need to cook something fast and easy, or when I haven't made it to the grocery store because I usually have the ingredients for this on hand. My husband "invented" this a couple of years ago. It is so yummy! I don't have a name for it. Sometimes we call it Mexican Chicken (but it's not really Mexican), Spicy Chicken (definitely not spicy), or the more usual title "that really good chicken dish you make with diced tomatoes." Without further ado, here's the recipe . . . . . (posted a la Pioneer Woman style minus the ranch, amazing kitchen, great photos, and witty remarks).

Ingredients:

You need 3-4 FROZEN chicken breasts (do not defrost), approx. 1 cup shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand) , and 1 can Del Monte diced tomatoes - Zesty Mild Green Chile flavor. We have used other types of diced tomatoes in a pinch, but this is our favorite.

Step 1:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place frozen chicken breasts in an oven safe dish that has a lid.

Step 2:

Pour can of tomatoes over frozen chicken. Spread around with spoon so all pieces are covered somewhat.

Step 3:

Put lid on dish and place in oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Usually closer to 45 minutes. Take dish out of the oven. I usually cut one of the chicken breasts in half to make sure it's fully cooked. Sprinkle cheese on top and place back in oven with lid off until cheese melts. I went a little heavy with the cheese in these pics. Here's what it will look like done:

See all the juices from the chicken and tomatoes - the chicken is so incredibly moist.

Step 4:

Serve over rice. My sweet husband took this last picture for me because I had a migraine and went to bed. If I had made side dishes tonight, there would have been only half a chicken breast on top of the rice. I also put a lot more sauce on my rice than he does, but that would have been a very ugly but yummy picture. I'm off dairy, so when I make this for myself, I don't include the cheese and it still tastes great.

So there you have it - our favorite easy dinner.

Here's a shorter version of the recipe -

3-4 frozen chicken breasts
1 can Del Monte Diced Tomatoes - Zesty Mild Green Chile flavor
1 cup shredded cheese.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place frozen chicken breasts in oven safe dish. Put lid on. Bake for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Remove lid and sprinkle cheese on top. Put back in oven just long enough for cheese to melt. Remove and serve over rice.

Easy recipes are what works for me this week, for more wonderful ideas visit Works for me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing
Curling Ribbon
Safe Plastics