THE BIG 3-0

I was pumped when I heard that Jimmy Fallon was taking over as host of The Tonight Show. I have loved that guy since he was just a baby on SNL, and I couldn't wait to see what he would do in the prime late-night time slot. So Dave and I tuned in on the night Justin Timberlake stopped by, and right in the middle of The History of Rap Part 5, it occurred to me that the target audience for the show was not going to get that bit. I mean, The Tonight Show is for parents and my parents would NEVER relate to a Skee-Lo or Kanye West song. But wait. If the target audience of The Tonight Show is parents, and I now have a child, that makes me a parent and therefore the new target audience?! It literally occurred to me in that moment that I'm not a kid anymore.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno made my parents laugh and I didn't get anything besides an occasional headline or Jack Hanna with the animals coming to visit when I was growing up, and now it's all jokes that Kinley won't get, but I find totally relevant--wearing out VHS tapes, the McDLT, doing the Roger Rabbit, etc. The guests aren't my idols, they are my peers. I am thirty and that is weird. 

My songs are on the oldies station. I heard TLC's "Waterfalls" on the Jon Tesh Radio Show when we were in Cincinnati and thought there had been a mistake until I realized that while the memory of dancing to that tape (yes, cassette tape,) at a slumber party in fourth grade is fresh in my mind, the song is actually 20 years old. Bananas.

My favorite shows are on Nick at Nite. Home Improvement, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Roseanne, Full House. We overheard our waitress at Bob Evans a couple of months ago telling her friend that she had found a great show on Netflix that was really old, but surprisingly great. I automatically thought she must be talking about The Golden Girls. Nope. She was talking about the great super-old sitcom FRIENDS. I choked on my chicken strip.

On every other birthday, when I've been asked if I feel any older or different, the answer has always been no. But this year, everything seems different. I have a mom haircut. I sometimes wear yoga pants and sneakers to Target. My once spotless Altima is now covered with a layer of crumbs, toys and extra diapers. I laugh at jokes on The Tonight Show. And I honestly couldn't be happier about any of it. 30 feels comfortable.

Maybe 30 isn't something to dread. Maybe it's the beginning of real life...worrying less about what people think of your outfit and hoping you don't look fat, and more about enjoying what you've been given and loving every minute. Maybe 30 is all about hakuna matata. And yoga pants and sneakers. And crumbs. Lots of crumbs.

COPYCAT MAX & ERMA'S TORTILLA SOUP

Dave and I had our first real date at a Max & Erma's and went there a million times after that. I always used to order the same thing--French onion soup and potstickers and those super delicious warm chocolate chip cookies. So random, but so yummy. On one fateful visit they were out of my favorite soup, but our waiter talked me into trying the other option, tortilla soup, and I loved it! I loved it so much that I went home and googled it and found a copycat recipe that tastes so much like the original that I can't even tell the difference. It's so yummy--creamy and cheesy, a little spicy, super filling, perfecto! I've made this soup many times and everyone always goes back for seconds. The recipe makes a ton so it's great for company and it also freezes and reheats really well...there's just one drawback. It involves opening what seems like a million cans.

See what I mean? Whenever Kinley's Aunt Peanut comes to visit, I always make this soup and it's her job to open all the cans and dump them in, but this would also be a great job for older kids.

Okay, recipe time:

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp red chili powder

1 lb chicken tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces

2 cans Cream of Chicken soup

2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup

2 cans Cream of Celery soup

2 cans Cheddar Cheese soup (you can amp up the spicy factor by using the fiesta cheddar soup)

1 32 oz box of chicken stock 

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 cup chunky salsa

1 4 1/2 oz can diced green chiles

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the chicken and onion with the chili powder in the olive oil over medium heat until chicken is almost cooked through. Toss in the minced garlic and finish cooking.

Now, start dumping! Every other ingredient goes in now...

Give it a quick whisk...

That looks much better. Now, all you've gotta do is bring it up to a boil and then drop the the heat down to medium low and cover it. You've gotta stir it pretty often, but just let it cook and develop the flavors for about half an hour.

When you think it's ready, just plop some in a bowl and top it with shredded cheddar and crunched up tortilla chips. 

We always have tons left over. If Aunt Peanut is here, we just eat it over and over for lunch every day of her visit while watching Roseanne in our jammies, at least that was how it went pre-Kinley. But, if she isn't here to help me gorge on this delicious stuff, I usually just freeze it in big Tupperware containers. I've never left it in the freezer for more than a month, so I'm not sure just how long you could save it. But when you are ready to reheat, just toss the tub in the fridge a couple of days before you want it for dinner and then just heat it up on the stove. It always tastes just like it did the first time. 

I know it sounds weird to mix all those cans of soup together, but trust me, it all comes together in a super yummy way. 

MESS-FREE WINDOW PAINTING

All of the details for this super fun one can be found over on our brand-new and super rainbowy website in a list of our top ten ultimate favorite

CREATIVE PLAY IDEAS FOR BABIES + TODDLERS

See you over there!

xo Cara

MINI CHICKEN POT PIES

I tried a new recipe a couple of nights ago that was not only super fast and super cheap, but also super yummy. 

I found the original recipe for these beauts on, you guessed it, Pinterest, but I amped them up a lot. The original recipe, from Second Chance to Dream's blog was really simple and it used canned chicken. Cows will speak German before I will eat chicken from a can. I have weird rules about meat--it can't have a bone, it can't have skin, it can't be any shade of blood and it definitely cannot be a meat product that isn't refrigerated. Gross. Eww, that makes me think of Vienna sausages with their jelly and, even worse, those Gerber Graduate Meat Sticks (yes, that is the real product name)...shudder. 

Well now that I've completely sicked you out, let's get cookin'!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-size pieces

Small onion, cut however you want--I did thin half rings

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables

1 can cream of chicken soup

Heaping 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 cans flaky layers biscuits (The original recipe called for just one can and that's what I did, but there was a ton of the yummy filling leftover, so I'm guessing you could at least use most of a second roll of biscuits if not all of them.)

Heat the olive oil up in a medium pan over medium high heat and drop in the onions and chicken. Season with salt and pepper and poultry seasoning. Cook until chicken is cooked through and onions are translucent.

I use this poultry seasoning on pretty much every chicken dish I make, and even some things without chicken. It's pretty yummy and I totally recommend it:

While your chicken is cooking, thaw your veggies in a colander in the sink under hot running water.

When the chicken's done and the veg is thawed, dump them together in a mixing bowl and add the cream of chicken soup and cheddar cheese and stir it all up. Now's a good time to taste and see if you need to add anything :)

Now it's time to break out the biscuits. You've gotta flatten each one before stuffing them in your greased muffin tin like little pie shells.

Now it's time to fill those puppies up! About two heaping tablespoons in each will do it:

Pop them in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown, and dinner is served. 

The verdict was a unanimous YUMMO!!

We had buttered noodles and applesauce with our mini pot pies. We were all filled up and still had enough leftovers for lunch today. 

The original recipe said they freeze really well and suggested freezing individually so you could take them to work or school for lunch. We didn't have enough leftover to try it, but if you follow my suggestion about two rolls of biscuits, you probably would have enough to try freezing some.

My mom tried a leftover one today and she suggested substituting the chicken for tuna and the cream of chicken for cream of mushroom. You already know how I feel about canned meat (that rule definitely includes fish,) but if you happen to like tuna, that might sound yummy to you...just passing on the idea.

Chicken pot pie dinner in 20 minutes on a cold, snowy day? Sounds perfect to me. 

JELLO PLAY DOUGH RECIPE

Well friends, I feel like I know you well enough now to hand over my top secret go-to homemade play dough recipe. This stuff is crazy awesome. It feels like the real stuff that comes in the yellow can, but it smells so yummy. I wouldn't recommend eating it, but since it's made out of real food ingredients and it's not full of chemicals you probably won't throw up if you do.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, naturally! It came from a website called playdoughrecipe.org, I'm sure from the name you can gather they have a ton of different recipes for the stuff.