New Year Day: Recipe of the Week- Chicken Katsudan

This recipe came from our time in Japan. We made this for special occasions because it is such a process. We call it a "labor of love." This year it was our Christmas dinner.

Chicken cutlet (however much you want to make): Dip in flour, dip in egg, cover in bread crumbs (we made our own- crushed saltine crackers and wheat germ- half cup of each mixed). Your hands will get messy and you will have to replenish each of these bowls several times.


Deep fat fry in oil to cover meat for 10-15 min @350. Be sure to cook both sides. Done when brown and meat is cooked.

Remove chicken from frying pan and pour out oil. Sauce: 1/2 c soy sauce, 1/3 c water, 4-6 T sugar. (You might have to make a few batches of this sauce depending on how much chicken you have). Slice onion and dump in pan. Pour in sauce. When onion done, lay cutlets evenly in pan. Swish around in pan for sauce to cover chicken.

Take chicken out and put in pan. Serve over rice. All done! Be sure to make plenty for leftovers! YUM!!

Ultimate Gratituesday 2009!

For this year:
*Thankful for my husband's job celebrating 1 year in July at McFarland Cascade and also a raise last January.
*I lost 20 lbs after having a baby!
*I have had EXCELLENT health- no colds, cough, sore throat, zilch!
*We celebrated our son's 1st birthday the day after Thanksgiving.
*God's ways of growing me in what I learn at Bible study- I will share more on my "God's nuggets" posts starting Thursday, January 7.
*I have a very close spiritual girlfriend!
*God's ultimate love for me! I want to share His love with others every chance I get.

How has God blessed you this year?

Monday Non-mayhem: Cleaning, where do I start?

Enter Zone cleaning! I have wrestled with this question over and over and never came up with a good solution. Then, I checked out Flylady and her method of breaking the house into zones really caught my eye. I can be an all or nothing gal and I can turn circles trying to figure out where to start. When I do that, I give up, but not with this system!

So each week you focus on a different zone and by the end of the month you will have cleaned in each area of your house. Remember, this is a process, but at least you can make some headway in each room during the month.

Here they are: The five zones in your home
Zone 1- the entrance, front porch and dining room
Zone 2- the kitchen
Zone 3- the bathroom and one extra room (laundry, office, kids, guest)
Zone 4- the master bedroom
Zone 5- the living room

Also on Flylady's website she gives you a "mission" for cleaning in that zone each day for the week. I like when someone else has the plan. Happy Zone cleaning!

Next week: Monthly habits.

Gratituesday: SAHM

For 12 years I taught Kindergarten. When I found out that I was pregnant and my husband still needed a job I prayed earnestly to be a stay at home mom. That was my dream! God miraculously answered our prayer and gave my husband a job that would allow me to stay at home with our child. We didn't know what we were having and on Thanksgiving Day 2008 our Baby Blessing, Shrade Joseph was born. This is now my second year of staying home and not teaching and I LOVE every minute of it. Yes, there are hard mommy times, but nothing is more important in the world to me than to be with my son everyday. I am so thankful for God's provision. I am constantly in awe of this privilege. Blessings to you and your family!

Monday Non-mayhem: Weekly Home Blessing Hour

Hi everyone- I thought I would share my thoughts about cleaning and organizing on Mondays so you can get your week started right. Several years ago my friend, Donnetta, directed me to the Flylady website to help kick my cleaning to another level. I was half-hearted and checked the site to see what it was about. But now that I have a son and I'm home more, I would really like to get focused and organized. I will share what I learn from Flylady and any other sources that are helpful. So, take the journey with me!

First, Flylady is an acronym for FLY (Finally Loving Yourself)! Everyone who is learning to be a Flylady is a Flybaby! So I'll just start with the basics.

Today is Weekly Home Blessing Hour. This is where you have 6-7 areas that you clean for 10 minutes each and hopefully take less than an hour. This is how you bless your home every week. This is not detail cleaning. Here are my tasks:
-change sheets
-empty trash
-clean toilet, wipe bathroom counters
-vacuum (middle of the floors only)
-sweep and mop kitchen
-wipe doorknobs with disinfectant

You can choose your own list. Flylady has her list and I made it to fit my routine. Have fun!

How do you bless your home on a weekly basis? Open to your idea!

Next week I will talk about zone cleaning. Stay tuned.

Recipe and a movie: Soft Ginger Apple Cookies/ I Remember Mama

I really like ginger snap cookies, but I found a much healthier version with almost the same taste. Try it out:

Soft Ginger Apple Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 3/4 c. flour

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients except flour. Add flour until just blended. Drop by tablespoons on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. Yum!

(I made the little plaque at MOPS.)

Here's a movie to enjoy while your much on your warm cookies: I Remember Mama. It's a heart warming story about a Norwegian family settling in San Francisco in 1910. Don't forget the tissues.

Gratituesday! Hmm, no computer?

Well, last week our computer screen went black and I almost thought that my lifeline was taken away, but after giving it a thought, I decided that having a computer is a luxury, not a necessity. So I busied myself playing with my one year old son, cooking and baking, reading, exercising and writing a much needed letter to my grandma. Well, now our computer is back on and yes, I have missed it, but I also know that I could live without it, but not for long!!

Cookie Blog Carnival: MGM cookies!

I'm sharing MGM cookies with you today. I got this recipe from my grandma and we used to make these every Christmas. We loved rolling them out, tasting the dough, spreading with frosting and decorating. We are not sure what MGM stands for except that it could mean movie star cookies (my grandma lived in CA). (This is actually a picture of some cookies my niece and nephew made last year).

Cookies:
2.5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup butter
2 cups oats
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.
Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Add brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Using dough beaters, cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Add oats. Work dough with fingers until it just holds together.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on large cutting board. Place half of dough on cutting board. Roll to 1/4 in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Arrange on prepared sheets with a spatula. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 10-12 min and cool.

Frosting:
1 (16oz) package powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup butter softened
food coloring

Combine powdered sugar, salt, milk, vanilla and butter in a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Divide among 3-4 small bowls. Add food coloring. Frost cookies. Decorate as desired.  Add a healthy extra- non-fat powdered dry milk

Makes 2-4 dozen depending on the size of your cookie cutters. Enjoy!!


(2009) My friend Shelly, who invited me to this Cookie Blog Carnival, has a line up of some great prizes on her blog. So leave a comment here and then head on over to www.chiccraftychick.blogspot.com and let Shelly know you did so you can enter the giveaways. Thanks for stopping by!

PS. OK, here is a healthy extra for the cookie...
I used my Flour Blend (1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup white, 1 cup wheat germ) for the flour.

I guess I'm just a sneaky chef!

Gratituesday! God protected my son's finger

This weekend we went down to visit my sister in law in Bend. We had an unexpected visit to the ER on Sunday. My one year old son, Shrade, had a stool fall on his middle finger and split it open. He cried and bled for half and hour before we took him to the ER. There, they xrayed his tiny finger (no broken bones), and stitched it up. Thankfully he was sleeping at that point. He was a very good sport. He ended up taking a 3 hour nap and then got up to play and didn't even slow down in crawling on his gimpy finger. We are so thankful for God's protection for even a tiny finger!

Recipe of the Week: Ginger Peanut Chicken (my favorite)

Here's a yummy and quick recipe I got from my friend, Becca. She made this for us after we had Shrade. I just had to have this recipe.

About 4-6 boneless skinless chicken cut into chunks

Mix:
4 T. olive oil
4 T. soy sauce
4 T. peanut butter
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 T. sugar

Put chicken in a frying pan on medium and pour the peanut butter sauce on top. Cook until done. Serve over rice.

Check out other recipes at $5 Dinners.

Gratituesday! Our Home

I am so thankful that we have a home where family and friends can join us for special holidays and gatherings. This last weekend we had a nice Thanksgiving with my parents and some Home Group friends. Then on Sunday we hosted 30 people for Shrade's one year party. None of this would have been possible without all the hard work my husband has done to make this house a home. We bought this house the week before our wedding in hopes of using it to reach out to others in our community and that is what we do. We are so thankful to the Lord for this great opportunity.