It's finally here!

So I guess there was a little mix up with my new baby bouncer and it was delayed in being sent, so after a few quick and apologetic emails, my awesome, wonderful, beautiful new bouncer arrived tonight right as I was getting dinner ready! Isn't it pretty? I hope to be able to get some good use out of it with Emilie, and tons more use when another little one joins our family someday, should we be blessed with another baby some day. (I think this bouncer is making me baby hungry!)
And speaking of dinner, I made lettuce wraps using tofu for dinner. I've never cooked with tofu before, and I've only eaten it a handful of times, but I'm trying to branch out, expand my horizons and all that, so I thought I would give it a try. Not too bad. The recipe for the lettuce wraps is from a wonderful cookbook Jarom got me for Christmas called 52 Weeks of Proven Recipes for Picky Eaters and I love the book! I've tried a few different recipes and we have all loved them, even my picky little man. (And just to clarify, the recipe calls for meat, and I made it with chicken the first time, so this was just a little branching out on my own tonight.)I also made a batch of egg rolls to go with our dinner and they were very good too. Jarom was a bit skeptical when I told him what I was making because there was no meat involved! He said that I better make up for it with a double dose of meat tomorrow. That's my man.

Last night we were able to go to the Draper Temple open house with the kids, and our friends the Jaffa family came with us too. We had to wait for quite a while in the chapel before we were able to get on the bus to go up to the temple, and the kids were getting a bit restless, but the wait was well worth it because the temple was truly stunning inside!
Isaac has dubbed the Draper Temple as his since we used to live in Draper and would drive past the construction site often. He was very good as we walked through and was very fascinated by all the different rooms, especially the baptismal font. I'm so glad to have been able to share such a wonderful and peaceful evening with my children so that they could get a glimpse into the sacred atmosphere of the temple.

Here we are towards the beginning of our waiting while we still had a few smiles.The Jaffa's also waiting, with a couple fewer smiles.

Cheerios Bars

I've been in a bit of a funk lately with work and the kids and trying to keep up on the mountains of housework, so I don't have too much to blog about, so I'll just pass along another recipe. This is one that my mother-in-law emailed me last week, and since we always have Cheerios laying around, I made this up for dessert and the kids (and Jarom and I) enjoyed it too. Jarom's brother, upon hearing what we were eating, said, "So basically it tastes how Sacrament meeting smells?" And yeah, I guess that pretty much sums it up.

I give you, Cheerios Bars. (Side note, I'm out of chocolate chips, I KNOW! so I didn't put any of those in, but I will next time for sure!)Cheerios Bars

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

3 cups Cheerios cereal

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1/2 cup salted peanuts (optional)

In a small sauce pan, bring the honey & sugar to a boil over medium heat. As soon as the sugar is dissolved remove from heat.

Stir in the peanut butter until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine Cheerios, peanuts & chocolate chips.

Pour the peanut butter & honey mixture over the cereal mixture and stir until well coated.

Spread into a buttered 9x9 pan.

Let cool, cut into squares and enjoy!

And one more!

I don't think I've ever done three blog posts back to back like this, but in addition to all the cooking I'm doing, I'm also having fun with my kids! Or trying to, at least. On Thursday, we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point with our friends and had fun seeing all the dinosaur bones and neat exhibits.

Here are Isaac and Lincoln in front of the Utahraptor.Isaac next to Alex playing in the sand and water play area.Rachele with her brand new little baby boyIsaac digging in the sand trying to find dinosaur bones.And standing next to a bones exhibit. After a while, he started getting a little freaked out by all the dinosaurs and just wanted to go home.And Emilie has reached another cute little milestone - she's started clapping. I love it. I try to get her to clap all the time, and she gets such a cute smile on her face when she claps. I just love it. Here are a few quick clips of her cute and contagious clappiness.

Breadsticks

I am just in a cooking mood these days, so I hope you are enjoying all these recipes! I just have one more to share tonight, with more to come next week.

My friend Brea posted a recipe on her blog a while back for her homemade bread sticks and I knew I wanted to give them a try, so last week when I made spaghetti, I made the bread sticks too and they were not only super easy to make, but so yummy! Since Brea's blog is private, I hope she doesn't mind if I copy her recipe here and share it with you.
Brea's Bread Sticks:

2 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbls. yeast
1 2/3 c. warm water
1 tsp. salt
3 c. flour

Mix above ingredients add another 1 c. flour or more to make a soft dough. (Usually I add just 1 then let rise. After I add just a little more to work with it). Cover and leave 10 minutes. Grease sheet cake pan and spread dough out. Melt 1/4 margarine. Spread over dough. Sprinkle on salad supreme, onion, garlic salt, garlic powder or Parmesan cheese. Cut in half and then lengthwise in strips. Let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Caution, this will happen, even as you try to document your own bread stick triumph:And this.

Cream Cheese Wontons

It's not often that I make something with no real recipe to be guided by, but the other day, I had a hankerin' for some cream cheese wontons. I think I'm just in a Chinese food mood lately. (And no, I'm not pregnant.) I had Jarom do a quick google search for recipes as I was on my way to the store, but the recipes were pretty vague, so I tried to just come up with my own version, and they turned out great! I made the first batch last night, and my parents were in the area and stopped by and were able to sample my first attempt. I had a bunch of left over wonton wrappers, so I made some more tonight and they turned out so good too. Here's what I did:

For the cheese filling, cream together:
1 package of cream cheese
1/2 to 3/4 cup of shredded cheese
1 T dried onions

Then just put about a teaspoon ball of the cheese mixture on a wonton wrapper, seal up the sides with water, and put them on a plate. I covered them with a towel as I was working so they wouldn't dry out too much.Then fill a large frying pan with oil, get it nice and hot, and drop those lucious babies right into the oil. Let them sit for a few minutes until the wrapper is covered in little bubbles, you don't want them to cook too much. Flip them over with tongs and let the tops cook for another minute or two. And voila, you have a wonderful, delicious, crispy wonton that even kids will eat! Just ask Isaac, he ate tons of them!

Quick and Easy Fettuccine Alfredo

I love alfredo sauce. I could totally become obese on good alfredo sauce. I've tried a few of the bottled varieties in the stores only to be met with utter disappointment - it tasted nothing like the sauce I would get at restaurants (especially the Spaghetti Factory!). But for some reason, I was hesitant to try making it from scratch. WHY?!?! I'm kicking myself for all the time I was missing out on one of the most wonderful, rich, creamy sauces known to man. I got this recipe from a friend and now this wonderful gem is part of our regular meal rotations. We just had it for dinner tonight and I just have to share it with you. My tummy is still so happy. It's really that good. If you don't make it soon, you will hate yourself. Just sayin'.Quick Fettuccine Alfredo

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. dry fettuccine (although any pasta works in a pinch!)
1 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. butter
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (not the canned stuff)
pepper to taste

Cook fettuccine in a large saucepan according to package directions. Drain well. In the same saucepan, heat cream, butter, and salt over medium-high heat, bringing to a boil. Remove from heat. Add fettuccine and cheese, tossing to combine well. Continue cooking over low heat, tossing continuously, about 2 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Sprinkle with pepper.

Grocery Shopping helps

As the kids were enjoying a mid morning snack, I watched a few minutes of Studio 5 and saw a neat segment on surviving grocery shopping with kids. Click here is a list of some great games to play while shopping. They also have printable BINGO cards for kids to play while shopping. The ones with pictures/words work really well if you laminate them and let the kids use dry erase markers while you're shopping. It's also a cute way to teach kids their food vocabulary.