What's Cooking Wednesday, Family Birthday Party and 3 Months Old!!

I've been on the look for some good crockpot meals that are easy 'One-Pot Wonders.' I've found a few that I'm going to try in the coming weeks. I tried the first one last night. It ended up being very adapted from a recipe int he January 2011 Parents Magazine. They called it Simple Paella. Paella is a Valencian Rice dish (I had to look that up).

What you'll need:
Nonstick cooking spray
3/4 cup chopped sweet peppers (I used about 3/4 each of a red and green pepper)
1/2 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup uncooked regular brown rice (by regular, they mean not the kind that cooks in 5 minutes)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
24 oz diced chicken breast meat
1 cup frozen peas

**So I told you this was adapted....the original recipe also calls for 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (I just didn't have any), 1/4 tsp ground turmeric (I googled this and it said it had a bitter taste and I didn't really want to buy any), 12 oz fresh or frozen shrimp and 12 oz tilapia (I like chicken better and knew my family would eat it better than with the seafood).

What you'll do:
1. Coat a 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray; add peppers, onion and garlic.


2. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine broth, rice, thyme (and other spices if you choose to use them). Microwave on high for 4 minutes, or until just boiling. Pour over vegetables in cooker.


3. Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 3 hours. About an hour before you'd like to eat, stir in chicken (or seafood) and peas. Cover and cook for another 45 minutes. Enjoy!



Last weekend, M1 and M2 had their family birthday party (and their final birthday party for this year!).
We ordered a 6-foot party sub from Subway. It was enormous and plenty of food for our crowd, but something fun and different that we hadn't done before. We still have a bowl full of mayo and mustard packets if anyone is in need of those things!!


The girls chose a Tinkerbell theme and we ordered the most adorable cake from HyVee. The fairies are stampers on the bottom (they don't work that great, but they are cute).


For gifts, the girls got a lot of adorable new clothes, new jammies, books, and a Wii.



If any of you follow snappy casual, you'll recognize these cardigans...Kelsey wears (one of) hers very often. I'm going to order my second one this weekend. They are so wonderful and versatile. My girls have already worn theirs out for breakfast, to the pool, and over their jammies in the evening and morning.



M3 is now 3 months old! The time has flown and she's getting so big! Eric took some pictures of her last weekend so hopefully I'll be able to share those on here soon! She's found her hands (and sucking on them is a sure sign of hunger!). She absolutely adores her older sisters and is sure to smile at the first sight of them. They enjoy singing to her and telling her stories.