An Opportunity From Roberts Dairy

When I first talked about getting into blogging my SIL Jody (Iowa Geek) recommended that I sign up for Mom Select. I am really glad that I did. I have gotten some good opportunities through them. My most recent one was to try out some products from Roberts Dairy. I jumped at the chance. I really enjoy their products so I was very excited when I found out I was selected.

When my package arrived it contained coupons for free product and some yummy recipes to try. I made one of the recipes for my family the other night and will share it with you at the end of this post. Roberts has great coupons on their website and are always adding more. They also have a site full of yummy recipes. You can find Roberts Dairy products in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and parts of Colorado, Illinois and South Dakota. So go check them out.

The recipe I chose to make for my family was the Chicken Enchiladas with Cottage Cheese. The cottage cheese in the recipe had my husband and I worried and after they came out of the oven they looked really wet. Well, they were wonderful!! They had a great texture and weren't wet at all. And the cottage cheese added a great extra layer of flavor. I HIGHLY recommend these! Here is the recipe:

Chicken Enchiladas with Cottage Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil)
• 2 boiled and shredded skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 7-ounce can chopped green chile peppers
• 1 1-ounce package taco seasoning mix
• 1/2 cup ROBERTS SOUR CREAM
• 2 cups ROBERTS COTTAGE CHEESE (I used the 1% cottage cheese)
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 12 6-inch corn tortillas
• 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 10-ounce red enchilada sauce

Preparation:

For meat mixture, heat oil in medium skillet over high heat. Add chicken, onion and green chile peppers and saute until browned. Then add taco seasoning and prepare meat mixture according to package instructions.

For cheese mixture, mix sour cream with cottage cheese in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper and stir until well blended.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make enchiladas, heat tortillas until soft and place a spoonful of meat mixture, a spoonful of cheese mixture and a small amount of shredded cheese in each tortilla. Roll tortillas and place in a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Top with any remaining meat and cheese mixture, enchilada sauce and remaining shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

This post courtesy of

Everything I Know I Learned From Sesame Street.

Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 10:00 am. our TV is turned to one thing....Sesame Street. Other than clapping and cheering occasionally during The Price Is Right and dancing with Ellen during The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Zoe really could care less about TV. That is until that fateful day about two months ago when I turned the TV to Sesame Street. She was GLUED!!

I am not a big fan of sticking kids in front of the TV so I never minded that she didn't watch. But I really don't mind Sesame Street because of how educational it is. I know that I loved watching it as a child and I am glad I get to share it with Zoe! We found out how educational it was the other day.

Lately Zoe has been saying two word over and over again. But we couldn't figure out what they were? We knew she was saying something and wasn't just babbling because it was rhythmic and the same every time. We were stumped and then Jarod said that he thought she was counting. So I started counting..."1,2,3,4". And sure enough she said back..."Wah, Two, Eee". We were shocked! We were even more surprised that she said Three (Eee).

Where in the world did our 16 month old learn to count to three? We kept racking our brains because even though I read to her a lot I haven't really counted with her. Jarod suggested Sesame Street because they count on there...but I didn't think so because her counting was so rhythmic. Then yesterday while we were watching Zoe's favorite part of SS (Elmo's World) I realized that Jarod was right. Elmo always counts something during Elmo's World and it is rhythmic! So mystery solved! We will definitely keep watching Sesame Street.

Sometimes $20 Does Go Far!

Jarod and I decided we wanted to hit up some garage sales today. So we got onto Craigslist and clicked on their garage sale link. We weren't sure if we would find too many on a Thursday, but we were in luck and found three that we wanted to check out. Our goal was to find 12 month summer clothes and 18 month fall/winter clothes for Zoe.

First sale we hit was kinda close to us...as in still on the south side of Des Moines. Unfortunately the clothes in her size were the wrong seasons. I did manage to find one 12 month skirt and one 18 month long sleeved onesie.

For the second sale we drove to Grimes which is about 30 minutes north of us. This one was a HUGE neighborhood sale. There was about ten sales on this block. We found a lot of good stuff at these!!!

The last one was in Ankeny. It took us about 15 minutes to drive to Ankeny. This one had a lot of nice furniture (which we don't need), lots of knick-knacks (REALLY don't need) and a few antique items. A bit of a let down since they advertised kids clothes. However, just as we were leaving a car pulled up. The family that got out grabbed a card table out of their car and I instantly wondered if the goodies may have arrived. I did notice that a little boy had gotten out of the car, so my hopes for girl' clothes were fading. Then the father got a little girl (who was older than Zoe) out of the car. So Jarod hopped out to see if they had girl clothes in the sizes we were looking for. They did!! I snagged several items. The best part....she wanted everything gone so it was all a quarter each!! One of the quarter items was a brand new looking jean coat!! SWEET!!

So how much did we spend total? $20!! What did we get for that $20? Well, here is a list. I am also going to post a couple of pics at the end of the list of a few of the best items!


5 Shirts
5 Pairs of jeans
1 Pair of shoes
1 Pair of shorts
2 Skirts
3 Sets of PJ's
1 Dress
1 Hooded Sweatshirt
1 Jean Jacket
A set of Baby Einstein CD's (6 CD's and a board book)
3 Books (2 of them were Eric Carle board books for only a dollar each...SCORE)

How Do You Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well?

So last night I kinda freaked out my hubby a little. I seem to have episodes of precognition from time to time. Last night was one of them. We had checked out some books from the library on Friday. Four for me and two for him. I am on my third book and he is still on the first one, so of course I have been teasing him. Well, last night we had been reading in bed for awhile, and I was getting tired. So, I finished my chapter and put my book up. A few minutes later Jarod decided he was done as well.

As he was putting his book away I decided to tease him. I grabbed my book and said "How far am I.....hmmmm page 108. He replied that it is not a race. I laughed as I turned the lights off.

After a few seconds he said "I'd be lucky if I was on page 108."

I said "I'm sure you are farther than that." He decided he wanted to see, so I turned the light back on for him to find his book.

As he was reaching for the book I said, "I bet you are on page 130....2....132." He opened the book then said, "132 lucky guess."

No way!! I told him he had to be joking. But, he showed me that he was ready to start a new chapter and the first page of that chapter was 132. He said it freaked him out a bit. LOL! I know this sounds minor, but when you put it together with other episodes I have had...it is a bit spooky.

I have had many minor episodes since I was little. But I can remember 2 major ones. The first one happened when I was around 2. My mom said I was playing and the phone started to ring. I sat up and told her it was my aunt on the phone and I told her what my aunt was calling about. My Mom answered the phone, it was my aunt, and she told her all the same things I had just said. Mom asked her if she had talked to me recently and had told me any of that. She said that she hadn't talked to me for a couple of days and had just thought of what she needed to call about right before she called. Mom said it freaked her out.

Then when I was older, my dad and I were watching a lottery show. I think it was for the Illinois lottery. On the show they had 4 different lottery games, a 3 number, 4 number, 5 number and a 7 number one. The model moved to the 3 number game and the balls started spinning. I called out a number right before it was pulled up the tube and I was right. Next number...same thing...called it out and was right. I finished off the 3 number game 3 for 3. 4 number game...same thing 4 for 4. 5 number game....5 for 5. Each time I called the number before it was in the tube so I couldn't have even seen a bit of the number to guess. 7 number game was next.....I got the first 6 right...and then I got cocky. I made a smart comment to my dad and I guess broke my concentration because I got the last number wrong. I just remember the awestruck look on my dad's face. He couldn't believe I had done that.

Now I know...everyone is going to wonder why I haven't won the lottery yet. Well, it seems that my precog abilities (or something to that effect) are very near sighted. I can only do that right before the number or conversation is revealed. I can't control it because I have no idea when it is going to happen and it does not seem to happen that often anymore.

Ok....now that I have freaked you all out...or just proven what a freak I am....I will let you all go without telling you that I also believe ghosts are real and about all the personal experiences I have had. I can't give away all the skeletons in my closet in one post, now can I?

Wordless Wednesday-First Trip To The Zoo

For more Wordless Wednesday head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Wordless Wednesday-My Monkey Girl

For more Wordless Wednesday head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Now This Is What I Call Common Sense!

My uncle sent this to me and I decided to pass it on.

The St. Petersburg Times Newspaper asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President:
Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:


There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:



1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings -

Unemployment fixed.



2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered-

Auto Industry fixed.



3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage

Housing Crisis fixed.


It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes..

Do you want a Poken?

Well I do!! And lucky for me Jody over at Iowa Geek Reviews is giving one away. Head on over and enter. Be sure to tell her I sent ya!