Chicken Lettuce Wraps...Try it!

By popular demand (ok, for Em and Alyssa), here is the infamous Chicken Lettuce Wrap “recipe”. Now if you haven’t realized yet, I don’t generally follow recipes (same with Alfie), I am one of those pinch here, dash there, stir and taste kind of cookers, which makes it tricky to share recipes. But most of the recipes I do are really easy and pretty tough to mess up, so here we go…

Ingredients:

Ground Chicken (or turkey works well too)

Sesame Garlic Sauce (the Wegmans version works well too)

Chili Garlic Sauce aka Asian Hot Sauce

White Vinegar

Spicy mustard

Soy Sauce

2 Garlic Cloves

Water chestnuts, diced

1 Head of Iceberg Lettuce



First off, Alf and I have made these a TON and it was such a pain in the rear trying to get large enough lettuce leaves to really dig into the meal. So finally, when we were going to make a huge batch for a party we gave good ole’ PF Changs a holla and to ask if we could buy their lettuce cups, hoping they would share their secret, and they did!! So first fill a LARGE bin or bowl or if your sink is partitioned plug half of it and fill it with ice and water to create an ice bath. Next take your head of lettuce and with the core facing down, slam it onto the table… like SLAM IT. This will make the core “pop” and easily removable. Then place that de-cored head of lettuce into the ice bath to soak. Got it? Let us move on… hahahah get it?? Lol pun…lame, I know.

Next get a deep pan and drizzle some olive oil in it. Place two minced garlic cloves into it (or 1 tbsp of pre-minced garlic), once it is aromatic…oo big word… add in your chicken. As your chicken is cooking, get your water chestnuts. You can buy them diced, but then do some extra chops to make them even finer. *Side note: I am NOT a fan of water chestnuts, like I typically will pick them out of my meal, BUT this MAKES the dish and if you look very closely at PF Changs they in fact have water chestnuts in theirs as well.* Ok, go back to your chicken and make sure it is cooking, and break it apart like you would ground beef. If you have one of these,
 

it will make your ground meat cooking experience a whole lot easier

Once the chicken is cooked, add in your water chestnuts. Then add in a good drizzle of the Sesame Garlic sauce… enough to flavor your chicken. To make a little go a long way, use less Sesame Garlic and add in some soy Sauce. Tasting as you go, to make sure you like the flavor. Let it simmer to mesh all the flavors for a minute or 2, then take it off the heat.

Now to make the sauce, or Alfie Juice as we call it… At Changs you know how they come to your table and mix your sauce right there? And on that tray they have a few things: Soy Sauce, A red thick Sauce, Mustardy stuff, and White vinegar. Ahh so technical I am with the names.

In your own bowl, start with a dollop of sesame garlic sauce. Add in some soy sauce, enough to dilute it. Next determine how spicy you want it. The Asian hot sauce is HOT, so use VERY little. Add a bit to the sauce. In the event you made it too spicy, vinegar is typically used to cut the heat, so add some of that and then reflavor it (since it may taste too tangy from the vinegar) with more soy sauce or more sesame garlic sauce. Alfie likes to put in some spicy mustard, which is also an option, but that is a personal taste preference.

Now go back to your beautiful head of soaking lettuce. The leaves should fall off far easier now ( you are supposed to soak it for an hour, but really who has that time??) Remove some leaves and dry it between some paper towels or a dish towel. Once dry, fill with your chicken, drizzle on some Alfie Juice and get to eating!! BUT WAIT!! What about those white crunchy noodles?!? Well we have tried high and lo how to replicate those crispy white noodles they have, but can’t for the life of us figure out them bad boys! So instead we use crispy chow mein noodles.


Sprinkle a few of those on and mmm. BANGARANG! (10 points if you can guess the movie that is from…)

Enjoy!

Just your average week...

Confession: I am in a funk.

It’s a work meets stress meets home life meets stress meets momma-hood meets stress. Who’s with me?! I know for certain I am not alone and I find cheerful solidarity that there are other mommas out there who are equally as ready some mornings to rip their hair out, throw up their hands in surrender and shout “ Jesus take the wheel!! This momma feels like a hot mess!!” Ya know?

So this week has just been the cherries upon the whipped cream upon the caramel upon the ice cream sundae of craziness. It all started last weekend. I love my weekends. I do. Who doesn’t? But I have a new found respect for you single parents. Alfie was sick this weekend and on top of the cold he was suffering from achey breaky backy painy (he broke his back, back in the day, random, during a softball game…church softball might I add… we were dating, newly dating and he spent an entire summer…or at least it felt like…in a fun little back brace, with his new girlfriend…me…driving him around) so he literally did nothing and couldn’t do anything all weekend. So that left an awful lot of mommy and Colty time. Like a lot of it. Like Friday, Saturday AND Sunday of me and the kid. I was essentially single parenting for the weekend and you real single parents are SAINTS! How you do it everyday without a relief of another parent to buffer is beyond me, so here is me tipping my hat (or cheersing a double shot of tequila, cause Lord knows you probably need that more than a freakin’ hat tip, I know I did!)

So along came Monday. Bright and shining hateful Mondays. Nobody enjoys Mondays unless they have the day off. So work is well…work and deadlines are rapidly approaching putting momma on edge more than a little. Same as Tuesday…just compounding. And we enter Wednesday. Well Wednesday was the accumulation of all things Friday through Sunday PLUS Monday and Tuesday leaving me NOT my usual happy camper (ok, bad analogy, I can’t imagine me ever a literal happy camper, so let’s go with happy sun bather).

**WARNING- miiiiight make you gag so don’t read on a full stomach***

Prefacing this with we had Chinese for dinner. Colty too. He likes it. General Tso and rice. Mmmm. Little guy eats like a champ. But around 1am I awoke to Colty (who yes, sleeps with us, no judgment please…lol) thrashing and sitting up. So I picked him up and held him, trying to rock him back to sleep when, yack. 30% on me, 60% on colty, 10% on the bed and 0% on Alfie (go figure). So of course I corral the lil puker into the bathroom to try and clean him up. Alfie shouts over to notify me the bed is still good, although I know for a fact he got some on my side, so I kindly (haha I am sure that at 1am I was definitely kind…who isn’t?) requested a sheet change anyways. And he complied and brought new jammies for colty. I had just gotten him cleaned up and into a new outfit when YACK again, all over himself. DANG IT! Enter another new outfit for Colty(since I had managed to catch the entire contents of this puke session in his top. Yeah all rice and chicken and… peas?! It was hilariously nasty and I chuckle to myself as I hear, and reminisce of, Alfie complaining about the stench. It reeked of Vienna sausages and cat food. Gross. So finally Colty is cleaned up, new jammie on and we pop back into bed this time with a towel down incase another puke round happened. And you know it did. This time though Colty decided to situp (on the towel) puke and then WHAM face plant right into the puke, then roll to the side and push himself up by sticking his hand right into it. So extremely nasty! Oh yeah and did I mention I looked over and he was chewing. OMG I almost lost it. Al.Most. Lost.It. One last final cleanup of the lil man, complete with NO Jammies (lesson learned) and new towel, around 3am we finally all got back to sleep. Just a typical night with a sick child…right? Luckily he wasn’t really sick, so I’m guessing dinner didn’t sit well!

Well hopefully the weekend can recharge this momma!

Adults and Social Media…

Confession: Adults who don't know social media but use it, drive me crazzzzy!

Sigh... wow tough topic, right. Because when I think of this I instantly think “old people and facebook” and then from there you KNOW my thoughts go to all the things they do WRONG to abuse this privileged. My personal favorite being when they sign their name on a wall post. HELLO when you post on the wall the picture AND YOUR NAME are on the post. You don’t need to put a “love, Kimi” at the end, cause HELLO I know who is posting it! Oh and hey, I even have a handy picture of you just in case. Lets talk about that too. (Although you get those random people who have landscape pictures or celebrity/cartoon/crazy pictures and not something that can identify them like a family member, or pet or HEY here’s an idea, A PIC OF YOURSELF). Facebook is also not your chance to redeem yourself with sexified pictures of yourself or as I like to refer to them as “Glamor Shots” (haha remember that place in the mall?) Nothing worse than an adult who should know better, in seductive poses or crazy “took my picture in the mirror with my cell phone” Yeahhh lets leave that to the under 25 crowd. Ooo and how about the “I post EVERYTHING” adults?? “Status: Buffy and Binky just crapped on my face…lol hilarious, gotta love ‘em!” that’s too much folks, far far too much, keep it to yourself. Or the “Lets air my family’s dirty laundry” (and call it a prayer request…hey-o, I went there,) how about popping that info into a message or better yet send it to a prayer chain. Ahhh and what about the “I comment on EVERYTHING”. Really? Sometimes its ok to let a status or photo go up without popping a comment (or 10) on it. It’s ok to chuckle to yourself and move on. If all I see when I scroll my newsfeed is items from 1 person, that’s too much. OH and anything more than a few follow up comments on a status is too much. Do we have to have 2 people engage in a full on conversation via commenting?? Can you take it off line or to messaging or hey how about you pick up the phone and CALL EACHOTHER! Lol (my pet peeve is being a first to comment and then having a bazillion people comment after and getting updates on all those comments. Yes I admit, sometimes I will actually NOT comment just because I don’t want to deal with that- baby announcements are the worst for that!!). Oh and no thanks, I don’t want to play Farkle, buy a goat for your farm, a couch for your apartment, a sword for your knight or whatever new game or life simulation you are playing. I am ok using FB solely for stalking (as it should be used).

Maybe the answer to these clear generational gaps, is for there to be a facebook by generations. That way we can avoid the skanky generation and their booza-palooza bar pics and hangover shots (ohh how i miss thee...lol), the marrieds and “im having a baby” generation can status to their heart content about their awesome wedding or adorable babies (yeah that’s totally where I now fall…lol) and then the adults old people can do whatever they want and be non-internet savy together. Ahh that would be the dream, right??

"Why so serioussss??"

SERIOUS POST! SERIOUS POST!!!


Confession: I am not a fan of serious posts (which is why I don’t do them often), BUUUT today is an exception, so read on….

So Alfie and I joined a bible study with some friends and this week was our first official week on the marriage series we are doing. And it was great!!

In all honesty I went into it kind of grumbly…. “ugghh it’s a week night”, “grrr I’m going to have to rush from work to pick up colty then eat and rush there”…. “oye its going to be a long day”. You know the typical weeknight with children issues every family deals with. But God certainly worked through my grumbling heart.

The first lesson was centered around women needing love and men needing respect and how we interpret that from our spouse and it touched on Ephesians 5:22-25 (Wives submit, husbands love your wives). Now I have heard that text a bazillion times, just like every married Christian and have always been frustrated with the concept of submitting. For me, in my head, submitting was to be weak. To blindly follow and leave the fate of myself and family in my husband’s hands, especially when it came to something I felt I could do/plan better for. But boy is it a symbol of a strong wife to fully submit to her husband, to put in his hands (and ultimately God’s) the future of herself and her family. What I often forget it to look at the rest of the verse: wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. I am not just told to submit and to do so with mediocre actions. I am commanded to submit to my husband in the same extent that I would to the Lord. Yikes! YOWZA! Which is again explained in verse 24: Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Oh sweet Lord…Really? In everything??? Just the thought of those 2 little words makes me want to baulk. “Well surely He doesn’t mean everything.”, “He must only be referring to little things and things Alfie is good at.” Nope, I am pretty sure “in everything” is clear to mean EV-ER-Y-THANG. And that is one GIANT pill to swallow, because I certainly do not submit well or often, let alone in everything. But I am supposed to, supposed to hand over those reigns I like to control and essentially give it to Alfie (and more importantly give it to the Lord, and trust that Alfie is doing the same).

Whiiiiiiiiiiich if you think about it is a lot!! A lot of responsibility for the head of the household. Yet this was God’s plan and I am sure in his design of man he equipped them far better to handle that responsibility than us ladies. But the cool part is verse 25: Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. WOW. When you think of that kind of love, so powerful that they would DIE for you, it’s not that hard to submit to, right? Because when you love something THAT much you can’t help but think of them in every action/ decision you make. You can’t help but to put them as such a priority. So if your husband loves you THAT much, then the submission should be rather easy, because YOU and your wellbeing are so much his purpose and goal (because he loves you so much) that he would do everything with you in mind. DING DING DING!! I GET IT I GET IT!! HELLO! Yes, this is me with a GINORMOUS light bulb going off!! LOL

And WOW that was only week 1!! CAH-RAY-ZEEEE. Great discussion (we were all there until 9:45 talking, when it’s supposed to end at 8, that’s how well it all went.) LOTS of laughter, lots of “ahh-haa” moments as you realize couples similar to yourself, lots of great stories and “examples” . Definitely looking forward to next week. :)

I’ll show you what’s up!

Confession: I think I am tough.

Like mad tough…yo… But apparently I am the only person to think that! Alfie and I were having a conversation a few weeks ago, and somehow got on the topic of fights…. Like fist fights… Oh that’s right, I had a dream he was beating up his brother Tommy (random dream) so I asked him if he thought he would beat Tommy, and he looked at me with the “Duh, of course” expression (but then when on about they would never be in a physical fight, so why are you asking…lol gee just humor me would ya?!). So then we kept talking about him being scrappy (lol) and fighting. Me, being a typical female (who compares themselves to just about everyone), asked the question (clearly starting with someone I thought for sure would be an easy win): “If I was fighting Christy, who do you think would win?” Alfie:”Christy”; Me: “W.T.F?!?! I’d totally beat her” (I mean come on, home girl can’t do a pushup, but now Alfie thinks SHE could take me in a fight?!?! Appalling! haha) So of course I then asked about Susan… Nope, Susan had me beat too (busted knees and everything… but I kinda figured that, she seems like she could take me out.) Lor?? We both chuckled at that for I KNEW she could kick my arse. How about Cassie? Hmm, again a no-go Alfie’s money was on Cassie (he thought her and Dave “rough housed” ...bow chicka wow wow…lol, but I think he said it would be more hair pulling and slapping….gee might as well throw in some pillow fighting there buck-o). And the list went on, pretty much with the only person I would beat would be Mom. REALLY? MY MOTHER? Come on! There is something wrong when the only person you could beat is someone 25+ years older than you. He clearly has not seen my skillz. Especially my cardio kickboxing skillz. I got that Boom Boom POW and some speedy jab, jab, punches complete with bobbing, weaving and full body momentum. Momma can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee! THAT’S RIGHT! Haha. No no no, apparently I am easily beatable! Lol maybe I need to start doing “bro punches” into his arm so he can rethink my non-fighting ability.

Well I’m chalking up my poor win predictions to my kind, gentle, biblical spirit and Christ-like attitude….(LOL totally kidding). Alfie just knows me too well! Well enough to know, I am a lover (hey-o) not a fighter!

Yo! I'm Back!!!

KI-MI’s back ALRIGHT….dum dum dum dum dum dum Oooh yeah. Oh. My. Stars She’s back again…. Blah blah blah… AM I ORIGINAL??? Yeahhhh. AM I THE ONLY ONE??? Yeahhhh. AM I SEXUAL….noooooo. (lol that’s clearly not how the song goes but oh well) Lol I was going to keep going with my rendition of the BSB hit. But I didn’t want to give you more than you could handle on a “I’m Back” post…So here we go…


Sooo... I have decideddddddd…..to follow Jesus…lol kidding, I mean I had, a long time ago, but that's not the point of this post, the “I have decided” reminded me of that old school tune. Phew, tangent aside (and second song for the post…craziness), shall we see what I decided??

I have decided this is The YEAR… OF THE HOUSE … (don’t you just hear an announcer on that? I do! Makes me snicker… wow tangent #3 and not even to the point of the post yet! WRANGLE YOURSELF IN GIRL! It’s the coffee I swear it’s the coffee!) So a fellow blogger sibling said I should do a New Year’s Resolution with something different each month. And I started a list dedicating a month for a person and getting all jazzy with spiritual stuff and then I nixed it (yeah I’m so going to hell for that right?? Lol kidding) I decided I should be doing that EVERY DAY not on a monthly focus (haha way to bring that on back and get a jewel on my crown for that one eh?) soo I decided to do something different. And then it came to me: The YEAR ( year year year)… OF THE HOUSE (house house house). In which I will dedicate each month to a home project-o. This could be fun right? I have Mr. I- can-make-stuff-with-my-hands-manly-man-man (Alfie) to assist me (although he doesn’t know about this yet) and Mr. I-can-derail-any-project-efforts-with-the-touch-of-my-pudgy-little-curiousity seeking-fingers (Colty) to make things a little tricky. So a pleasant mix of easy and tough! Should be good!

SOoo, what to put on the list? I thought of going by room buuut then I remembered that I am not a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills with that many rooms and thought of making the hallway a “room” or the foyer a “room” and I think it could be a go! So here goes the list by month….

January-

• Upstairs hallway: Free hand the lyrics to My Redeemer Lives on the wall (yeah bold AND zesty, I know…risky too but I want something handwritten on the walls and that song is such a reminder. I love it.) Oh and probably add some other small photo on the other 2 walls (maybe add the linen closet handle
• Phase 1 of the craft room (organization- just weeding through what stays and what goes, and tossing what goes)
• Nursery (put up the curtains, make a set for the other window
• Put back on the adorable bedding mom made Colty (its not like he sleeps in there, might as well bring the cuteness back in…. yeah I know, I know)
• Try my hand at recovering the seat cushions on the rocking chair in a solid blue

February – Master Bedroom

• Hang my giant frames
• Make the leaning mirror (swoon, this is going to be amazeballs)
• Make some gray striped curtains
• Paint the lamps
• Recover the lampshades
• **Make farmhouse bed** (ambitious but I’ll add it to the list to keep me accountable)

March- Guest Bathroom

• Paint horizontal stripes
• Paint giant frame/hang it

April - Guest room

• Paint white
• Paint dresser yellow
• Make and hang curtains
• Get a side table
• Paint lamp

May- Dining Room

• Paint
• Lay wood floor
• Redazzle curtains
• Redazzle buffet/mirror
• Create centerpiece for dining room: http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-dining-room-centerpiece.html (Christy easy centerpieces for Snattys wedding??!!)
• Add a rug
• Add some color

June- kitchen/foyer

• Tackle backsplash/ tackle front door and new foyer lighting

July- Family Room

• Ottoman

August-

• 4 Season Room

September – Master Bath

• Repaint
• Hang curtains
• Add a wall thingy

October –

• Wing back re-dazzle (2)

November –

• holiday craft-tastic

December –
Nothing :)
So there, in a nutshell (haha, oh Emily and Lor) is my 2012 YEAR….OF THE HOUSE List. It's clear i stacked the year based on things i know i want to do and put the unclear less-vision areas for last! Let’s see how I do!!