It's a .....

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...boy and he is due in May!  No, not in my family :-) but Kristina's good friend Monica who was in her wedding last fall.  Kristina put on the shower today and it was a really fun time and nice for Monica to be surrounded by her family and friends.  Do you find that more new parents today want to know the sex before the birth?  Back in day we maybe could find out with the ultrasound but almost everyone I know just found out at the birth.  Though when Danielle was born, the intern first said "It's a boy,..... no wait, it's girl!"  I'm thinking a cord was in the way.

Back to the shower... Kristina had planned quite a spread - party subs from Subway, pasta salad, veggies and dip, buffalo chicken dip, fruit.... I brought deviled eggs and cucumbers sandwiches (and lots of white serving dishes.....I have a few)

These sandwiches were the easiest.  Take 8 oz. of cream cheese, mix in a package of dry Italian seasoning mix, spread on cocktail bread and topped with a thin cucumber - best to assemble right before eating but you can make spread up to a day ahead.

Kristina had a couple of games... one was guess the number of Trix in the baby bottle.... 1329 if you want to know!

This game was cute - we divided up into teams and were handed a frozen cup of water in a dixie cup with a plastic baby... our goal was to get the baby out and the first team to do so yelled  "My water broke!"  Pretty funny watching grown women race to a sink or using hot coffee, or trying to smash it in a towel.  The team I was on won and we used hot water

After the games and gifts, we had dessert

It was a great shower and I wish all the best to Cory and Monica and their new arrival - Baby N - though they know the sex, the name is in the vault until the big day!

And one more item, Kristina and Benj made this towel cake (with a beany baby from her past - see knew they would come in handy some day!)

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Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

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Please take my word for it and don't judge this recipe on looks alone.  While this soup was not easy to take a picture of (a real blah color), it was very delicious!  If I had a smell-o-rama, you would love it! Ginger, soy and sesame oil really are quite flavorable together....  It says it serves 4 but Mr. John and I split it... but at only 154 calories a serving, it was a calorie bargain!

Recipe adapted from BH&G Chicken Dinners
Printable recipe





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Skillet Shrimp and Orzo Casserole

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What do you get when you cross shrimp with orzo pasta?  Something yummy!  I must confess (again) I bought one two new cookbooks this past week.  But this time they were kinda gifts from people who gave me Amazon gift cards.  I especially was drawn to America's Test Kitchen Pasta Revolution.  Not only does it have some great recipes but it also provides many helpful tips.  So here was my first choice!

The ingredients

A must for this recipe is a skillet that is oven proof.  After cooking most of the ingredients on the stove, it is finished off in the oven in the same pan. 

Veggies are sauteed

Orzo is browned and then broth is added

Tomatoes and peas are tossed in

The shrimp is nestled in, topped with feta and baked about 15 minutes

Done!

Stayed tuned - I know I'll be trying more recipes from this cookbook!
Printable Recipe

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Crispy Pork Medallions

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Me:  Hey John, dinner's ready
Mr. John:  Ok (looks at meal).  Wow, nice that we are having the other white meat for a change.  I like pork!

And like it, he did!  This was a quick and easy recipe and hit the spot for him - he worked outside all day and even mowed the lawn.  That has to be a record, mowing on March 25th in Minnesota!  I think next he is eyeing up the boat and wondering when he can go fishing.... 

Tonight's cast of characters - only 4 major ingredients

A mixture is made of panko crumbs, S&P and fresh minced parsley

The pork is spread with the Dijon mustard on both sides, dredged in the crumb mixture, and fried for 2 minutes until golden brown, flipped and finished off in the oven

Dinner was served along with Uncle Ben's rice and green beans squirted with some lemon juice and sea salt.  The pork was verrrry tender and the mustard provided a nice little zip to it.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light
(printable recipe)

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Orange Chicken Kabobs with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

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It was really fun to fire up the grill a few days ago! and it was really fun to make this recipe.... One of the ingredients is orange marmalade... what a great flavor to go with chicken.  The dipping sauce had honey and a dijon style mustard... wonderful combination of flavors - a little kick to it also!

The marinade ingredients

The chicken is marinaded about an hour, drained and grilled

We also had asparagus that night and that was easy to prepare by grilling alongside the chicken

The dipping sauce ingredients

Once the chicken was done, I served it over a 90 second Uncle Ben's rice along with the sauce... deelish!

Recipe from BH&G Chicken Dinners
(Printable recipe)

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Pasta with Sausage, Spinach and Tomato

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Happy Wednesday! The week is half over and tonight I'll be watching Survivor - do any of you??   But before that it was time for another quickie meal with only 5 ingredients and about 20 minutes.  Gotta love the easy, good ones when you need something in a hurry.  Mr. John liked this one as it had one of his favorite ingredients - hot Italian sausage.

The ingredients

After the sausage is browned and the tomatoes added, it is time to wilt the spinach

Add to the pasta with some mozzarella cheese and dinner is done!  And another colorful meal!
Recipe from Kraft Food and Family Winter 2007 edition
(Printable recipe)

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Minestrone Soup with Chicken

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Kinda hot for a soup night but I had some veggies that I needed to use up and was inspired by a recipe I found in the BH&G Chicken Dinner magazine (is anyone counting?  I think this is about the 5th-6th recipe I made from this publication).  I love when the meal looks colorful and is full of healthy ingredients.... this will help you achieve your daily intake for the food pyramid!

The ingredients

The chopping

The formal attire

The eats... (I would also recommend sprinkling with some parmesan or romano cheese - I felt it needed a little extra kick and that did it for us)
Enjoy!
(Printable recipe)

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