Let's spice things up!

It has been months...I think about 9 to be exact, since Jeremy and I have gotten to go out by ourselves. It is kind of hard to round up a babysitter for 3 kids 4 and under. Our nearest family members live over 45 minutes away so that isn't usually an option either. But we don't let things like that get in our way!

We both think it is incredibly important to make time for us as a couple. This is why our kids are in bed by 7:30 every night (with some exceptions) because it guarantees us several hours of time to ourselves without interruption. There is some sacrifice in this, as they are all usually up by 7:00 am, but it is worth it. The other way we make time for ourselves is date night. I know you are thinking that I just said we hadn't been out in a long time, and that is true, but we still make date night happen even if we can't get out. It had been awhile since we had a date night in so I was glad my husband suggested it this week because it was enjoyable as always and much neede. In fact, we are reinstating a weekly date night in and hopefully once in awhile we will even make it out of the house together!

Here is what our date looked like this week (the PG parts anyway!). We fed the kids and put them to bed and then spent time in the kitchen making our dinner together. Cooking with your spouse can be so much fun and we don't get to do it often because he is either at work when I am making dinner or he is keeping the kids occupied. Now this is where we spiced things up....remember, I said PG so I am only talking about the food here! We decided to make Cajun Chicken Pasta, which happens to be another Pioneer Woman chicken recipe, so I will share that with you as well.

Jeremy cooked the pasta and prepped the vegetables:

I cooked the chicken, veggies and sauce. The seasoning called for a Cajun spice mix which I didn't have on hand so I used 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper, 3/4 tsp Paprika, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. It had the perfect amount of heat for us. I didn't get any more pictures of the process as it went fast and we were trying to enjoy the time spent together, but check out the original recipe for ingredients and awesome step by step photos. Doesn't this look delicious?:

We paired this with some french bread. I roasted some garlic and threw it in the food processor with butter and Parmesan cheese and gave it a good whirl. This made a perfect topper for the bread and was especially good when we popped it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Cue candlelight, a little Nora Jones in the background, and a glass of wine or two and we had the perfect dinner date. It was absolutely interruption free which wouldn't have even happened at a restaurant, so I would say that this was even better than getting out!

Butter Chicken and Lemon Garlic Broccoli

As promised, I am going to cook my my through our 40 lbs of chicken using recipes from The Pioneer Woman. Now technically this first recipe isn't from Ree Drummond herself but it is on her cooking blog, Tasty Kitchen so I think it counts (and really, who is going to argue with me?).


Butter Chicken caught my eye because well, it had the word butter in it! But actually there is very little butter and instead it is an Indian recipe. Here is the recipe as the author wrote it. I will say that while this was delicious, I would make some serious alterations to the recipe myself. Everything involving the chicken was great. Great flavor and easy to throw together the night before. And the sauce tasted good but there was such an overabundance of it that I would change the proportions next time. My suggestion is to omit the can of tomato sauce all together and use about a cup of cream. I am guessing this would be a more accurate sauce to chicken ratio.

If you are a rule follower, like myself, and must follow the recipe as written the first time through I can offer a tasty solution to the excess sauce problem. We refrigerated the sauce and the next day for lunch tossed it with a box of cooked penne pasta and then topped with cheese and baked at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. So good!

All in all I would give this recipe a positive review as it was really delicious and I was able to make use of the extra. After serving this atop a bed of brown rice I quickly steamed up some broccoli which I tossed in butter, garlic and a splash of fresh lemon juice. Definitely a flavorful and filling meal!

No really, I'm getting around to it!

Awhile back I told you all to get ready, that I was going to be dazzling you with some amazing chicken recipes to use up that 40 lbs of chicken we got from Zaycon Foods. I then realized that I hadn't even begun to look for said recipes. Being a woman of my word I decided to get on that and came up with a fabulous solution that was both quick and easy for me and I hope, beneficial to you all. After making those yummy stuffed mushrooms the other night and revisiting the same site to try a chicken spaghetti recipe for tonight, I decided that I would dedicate this box of chicken to The Pioneer Woman's amazing chicken recipes. She has tons of them all ready for me to try and she has yet to disappoint. As I cook through some of these recipes I will be sure to come back and fill you all in on how it goes. So while I am going to end this with another "stay tuned", I promise not to leave you hanging!