have you seen all the yummy chicken and turkey sausages they have at the grocery stores now? so many different varieties like chicken/apple or italian herb. on my last shopping trip, i spied a package of habanero/green chile chicken sausage and it spurred this super easy, fresh dinner entree idea.

first, slice the sausage links as well as half a red onion, half a red bell pepper and one jalepeno. then sautee them in a large skillet with a little drizzle of canola oil. while they cook, boil of pot of salted water and add a package of whole wheat penne pasta. cook the pasta as directed, drain and toss with a can of green chile enchilada sauce (available in the mexican food aisle). in a large colander, drain and rinse a can of black beans, a can of corn and a can of diced tomatoes and mix together.  i only used about half the bean/corn/tomato mix and added it to the sausage skillet and tossed everything together. then plate your dish! i put some of the green chile pasta in a bowl, spooned on some of the sausage/veggie mix and then topped it all with some chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of grated cheese. in all, it took less than 30 min to make and it was delicious!

adrian, claire and i ventured up north to flagstaff last weekend for a little overnight stay with our friends- mike, jina and baby lyla. let me start by saying the weather was DIVINE. i cannot imagine living in a place where the sun shines but you don’t feel like you are roasting on a spit. in fact, it felt so nice that i forgot to wear sunscreen and burnt my arms. ouch! we wanted to go to the cardinals training camp but the crowds were absolutely insane. i mean 10s of thousands of people insane. so we set up on the first practice field and relaxed in the shade. we got to see big red the mascot do some crazy backflips with a giant bird head on. it was pretty funny. here’s our little cheerleader:

then we walked around dowtown flagstaff and ate some amazing crepes on this cute little patio outside. nutella, ghiradelli chocolate, raspberry preserves and whipped cream? yes, please!

then we stopped by the famed macy’s coffee. my cappuccino was perfect!

after that we hung out at the hotel, played some pass the pigs with the olbinski’s and marveled at our 3 foot deep, reclaimed water, liquid/solid buttoned toilets. they were an experience to say the least.

the next morning we trekked back down to the heat with a little pit stop at the anthem outlets, yay!

it was a nice, restful weekend. claire was an angel on both car rides, was a little cranky at the hotel but then let us sleep most of the night. it was fun to get away with friends!

1. this is the coolest, freshest way to blog a recipe that i have EVER seen! i am in love with this blog. plus the author just traveled to paris, swoon.

2. speaking of paris, i am going to go to this french bakery/cafe in scottsdale ASAP. i am dying to know if their croissants come close to the undescribable perfection of france. i am crossing my fingers because the husband and wife duo who run it lived there for years. plus he is a fashion photographer and she is a former model for LV, YSL and Hermes. ACK!!! i think i might have found my favorite place on earth and it is only 25 minutes from my house! macaroons, espresso, croque monsieurs, quiche lorraine and crepes+fashion+photography=nicky heaven.

if you know me, you know that i LOVE to plan a party. and the fact that this party is my little girl’s first birthday makes it ten times more exciting than any party before. my head is a tornado of ideas and soon my hands will be sore from the amount of crafty things i will be creating but to me- it is pure bliss. here’s a little peek into my delightful madness:

- the colors are hot pink, bright orange and lime green. very punchy, very summery, very girly.

- i am taking it upon myself to create these flower pinwheels to display in metal buckets filled with gerber daisies. cute!

- i am also planning on hanging these paper flowers from the rafters of the park ramada.

- the food will be an all american bbq. that means skin-on hot dogs and buns from von hanson’s. no crappy grocery store wieners here, but authentic minnesota meat! (how cool is it that they have one lonely store out here in chandler?!) bbq beans and sides from our own joe’s real bbq, yum. and a few other dishes that i will put together.

- did i mention mini cupcakes yet? i’ve discovered that mini cupcakes are the WAY to go for parties. less mess, easier to eat and the silly skinny-mini’s who say “i don’t want dessert” can’t even resist a tiny bite of cake perfection. come on!

- there will be singing. yep. our good friend and church worship pastor, stephen cole, is helping us make the evening extra special by leading us in song. they will be songs that celebrate the gift God has given us in claire, reflect on the journey this has been in our lives and ultimately tell Him how much we love Him. and if you are a guest and don’t sing? expect to be STRUCK DOWN by lightening. just kidding. but really i might give you the evil eye and you DO NOT want to chance that.

so there are some of my fantabulous plans. i cannot wait to have our close friends and family there to celebrate claire and what an amazing little miracle she is in this world.

side note: i need to do more posts about random stuff in my life. i’ve realized that our family blog has become nothing but updates on outings/medical stuff and i have so much more to share than that! i miss using it as my creative outlet to share ideas and ponder new things. my goal is to change that and focus more on some of the little loves in my life. like cooking, baking, crafting, reading, music, shopping, the list goes on and on…

it’s lunchtime and i don’t feel like a sandwich. or a salad. or fast food. years ago my mom gave me this super easy, healthy and light lunch idea and i crave it. here’s the lowdown- arrange about 8 crackers on a plate (i use milton’s herb and garlic rounds.) then thinly slice up a roma tomato (or whatever kind you have around.) place the tomato slice on top of the crackers. sprinkle with shaved or shredded (NOT grated) parmesan cheese (i get the kind in the little plastic tub for quick use.) season the crackers with fresh cracked pepper and italian seasoning. drizzle a wee bit of balsamic over the crackers. microwave for about a minute and enjoy! they are fresh, zesty and filling. yummy!

i have been singing that silly presidents of the united states of america ode to peaches for the last week since i was so excited about picking them at schnepf farms. does anyone else remember that song? movin to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches. ugh. i will never get it out of my head.

anyway, my mom (and claire of course) accompanied me out to the big ol farm in queen creek, where we picked peaches in the breezy sun, got eaten by mosquitoes and peed on by some stray farm dog. can you believe i am speaking of desert-y, barren phoenix? in fact, the guy ahead of us picked over 100 pounds of peaches and was from florida. he said they were better than theirs. yup. even better was you could eat all you wanted in the orchard for free, and luckily we brought wipes because these are the juiciest, sweetest peaches i have ever tasted. perfect. here’s some pictures from our day:

my mom is so pretty.

yum. and they are organic, the farm has never used pesticides in 45 years.

did i mention my mom is silly?

we had to document claire’s first farm visit even though she slept through it all!

the sleepy girl. so cute. sweeter than any peach there.

over valentine’s weekend, adrian took claire, lily and me on a picnic at the farm at south mountain. almost 6 years ago, adrian and i tied the knot there under the canopy of pecan trees as the sun dropped behind our gorgeous mountains. just sitting there with our beautiful baby girl and lovable puppy was a amazing reflection on how fast times passes and what huge changes life brings. it was a great day. claire was awake and happy the whole time, i fed her the bottle for the first time in public and she did a good job. lily was an angel as always and had fun chewing on all the sticks lying around. if you live in the phoenix area and have never visited the farm, i beg you to add it to your schedule. it is a true gem in our desert and a wonderful place for fresh, organic, local food as well.

this week we celebrated two annual occasions in the vender/evjen families. last saturday was tamale time at adrian’s dad’s house. we get covered in masa and red sauce but we have a blast making them! it’s a day full of joking around, great family time and most of all seriously yummy rewards when we get finished. the hours of work are definitely worth it! i think adrian has ate two dozen tamales himself since then. here’s a pic from that day of claire and her tio eric who came into town for the holidays:

and yesterday the girls of the evjen family (plus our new addition of matt’s gf yasmine!) got together to bake like crazy ladies. we made cookies, bars, bark, balls and i even tried my hand at a disasterous macaroon recipe. hint: when it calls for parchment paper don’t try to sub wax paper, it does really funky things to your oven and cookies! we spent the evening getting covered in flour, doing our best whitney houston impersonations and laughing until our faces hurt. i look forward to this time with my mom every year and i am so happy i get to share it with two very special girls now. here’s a pic of us gorgeous ladies:

hope you had a fun time preparing for your holidays!

we seriously have the best friends ever. there’s a group of 5 couples that we meet with regularly from our church, some are old friends and some new but the support, love and fun we share is unmatched. they are the kind of people that you know would do ANYTHING for you and can always count on. they’ve been our prayer warriors through all of this, our gracious help when i was stuck on bed rest, and our entertainment when we need some social time. tonight a bunch of us got together for dinner @ one of our fave places joe’s farm grill- it was a great time! the highlight was our friend’s one year old daughter, evie, saying “bye claire, i love you” over and over and helping adrian push the stroller. too sweet for words. here’s a couple pics of adrian, me and claire bear tonight.

yesterday i made my parents and adrian dinner and rediscovered my love for this unique spicy-honey cashew chicken recipe that i haven’t made in forever. it’s adapted from a rachael ray one. trust me, it’s got heat so if you are not a fan of the burn then don’t use the chili just the sauce from the adobo can. think if it as a southwest twist on a chinese food staple. hard to explain but sooo good! and it is a breeze to make!

Spicy Honey Cashew Chicken

ingredients

• 1 TB vegetable oil
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch chunks
• montreal steak seasoning (eyeball it)
• 2-3 TB soy sauce (eyeball it)
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 red bell pepper (thinly sliced)
• 3/4 large onion (thinly sliced)
• 1 small can water chestnuts, drained
• 3 TB chipotles in adobo sauce (1 pepper diced and 2 TB sauce) (find it in the mexican food section) or sub 1 and 1/2 TB ground chipotle powder
• 1 TB ground cumin
• 2-3 TB honey (eyeball it, 2 good size drizzles around the pan)
• 1/3 cup real maple syrup (not the fake stuff)
• 1 cup cashews (sometimes i use more to make it extra crunchy)
• small handful of chopped cilantro

directions

brown the chicken in the vegetable oil over med high heat. season with steak seasoning while cooking. after it’s done, drizzle with the soy sauce and move to one side of pan. add garlic, onion and red bell pepper to the pan. cook 3 minutes then add water chestnuts. mix veggies and meat together in pan. add chipotles and cumin and toss to coat. drizzle with honey and maple syrup, then toss to coat. turn off heat and mix in cashews and cilantro. serve over brown rice.

money saving tip

i buy frozen boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloins in bulk from costco. so all i do with this recipe is put the chicken i need in the pan, season it while it cooks, then remove it when it’s just done and chop it into the 1 inch chunks on a cutting board. then i throw it back in the pan and drizzle with the soy sauce and follow the recipe from there. i also buy the chopped garlic in a glass jar. i think it’s 1/4 tsp equals one clove of garlic. makes it go by faster if you don’t chop it yourself!