Just a Dude and His Three Ladies!

Touchdown Miss Parker

2009-05-20T19:23:00.008-04:00

Going to Vegas really cheap!!!

2009-05-09T08:54:00.007-04:00

VEGAS BABY!!!

Sin City done as cheap as possible!

1. Getting to Las Vegas: There are a couple of ways to save money getting to Vegas. The first way is to find the airport that gets you there cheaper. It's easy to get on a travel site online and check flight prices from different airports. My person al choice is Kayak. It uses most of the other travel cites to get cheap flights. It also lets you pick another cite to search at the same time. That makes it pretty easy to compare prices. If you don't live in a city with a major airport you'll pay extra to fly. If you live an hour or two from a major airport it's cheaper to drive there and fly to vegas. My last trip we saved over $200 on each flight. I like to think of it as paying for the rest of the trip!

Creamy Apple Bacon Chicken

2009-05-07T17:58:00.006-04:00

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast, either whole or cut into pieces
* 2 Medium apples, cut into pieces
* ¼ cup apple juice (see below for alternatives)
* ¼ cup chicken broth
* 2/3 cup heavy cream
* 2 Tablespoons oil plus one more of oil, butter, or bacon grease
* 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
* 4 -6 strips bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
* Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

1) Heat 1 to 2 Tablespoons fat in pan. I don't like to use more than half bacon grease, as it burns. Lightly brown apple slices in pan. You don't want them to be too soft, just to the point where you can start to easily put a fork in them. ***Remove apples. (they will get mushy if you don't)

2) Add another Tablespoon of oil, and brown chicken on both sides. The chicken probably won't be cooked through at this point, which is OK. Push chicken to one side or to the edges. Add the chicken broth, which should deglaze the pan. Add the rest of the liquids and herbs and simmer until reduced and chicken is cooked through. (If you use chicken broth again instead of apple juice add 2 - 3 table spoons of sugar. You can use splenda) *** see notes

3) Add apples back into pan. Mix well, covering apples with sauce and reheating apples

4) Serve with crumbled bacon bits sprinkled over the top.

Notes:

One-quarter cup apple juice has 7 grams of sugar, spread over 3 servings. This is less apple juice than any container you can buy, so I will sometimes just add water or chicken broth and zero-carb sweetener to the sauce, or even apple-flavored herb tea.

The chicken breasts can be either left whole, cut in half, or cut into bite-sized pieces. I like the bite-sized pieces for taste, but use the larger pieces when looks are more important. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides

Great Dessert!

2009-04-13T14:47:00.006-04:00

Wild Berry Crisp

4 cups of ripe berries (I like Strawberries and Blueberries)
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 stick melted butter

Butter a 8-inch square baking dish. Put the fruit in the bottom of the dish: sprinkle 1/2 cup of the sugar over them. In a bowl, mix together the flour 1/2 cup of sugar and baking powder. Add the beaten egg and mix well with fork or your finger tips until the flour is dampened and in small clumps. Scatter the flour mixture over the fruit. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top. Using the back of the spoon or your fingers distribute the butter over entire dish. Bake at 375 for about 50 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling and the top is browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.

If you need to make a bigger dish 9x13:
Cover bottom of dish with fruit almost to top. Fruit will reduce when cooked.
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 sticks of butter

Use same method as above using 3/4 cup of sugar over fruit and use the rest for the crust. Cooking time will increase about 25 minutes. Check to make sure fruit is bubbling and crust is browned.

This is great for family functions or when having guest!!!

Colic, Reflux or just plain fussy?

2009-04-10T23:02:00.013-04:00

Our little girl is 3 weeks old, and bless her heart she cries all the time. She goes from zero to sixty in .05 seconds! Here is just a little back ground information. She was born one week early, and she weighed 5 pounds, seven ounces. She has a clean bill of health, and she has her one month Doctor's appointment next week. She is being breast fed and has "normal" diapers throughout the day.

Now let the screaming begin! She is quite the fussy little one! She doesn't cry at certain times of the day, so much as all day. It seems she is either eating, (sometimes crying while eating) sleeping or crying. She cries and throws her head back. Sometimes she cries and pulls her knees to her chest. She spits up a good bit and has hiccups a couple of times per day. We have tried everything except earplugs!

We tried Gripe Water for a couple of days, but it is not FDA approved. So, we stopped using that. We use Mylicon after almost every feeding; we call it her "desert"! We have heated up dry rice in a sock and put it on her tummy. We burp her in between each breast. We hold her upright after feedings. We have searched the net and have seen some funny stuff. Did you know for only $36.95 you can buy a DVD called Baby Fart Aerobics. It tells you how to move the baby's legs and other body parts to make him/her pass gas! We have seen tummy massage info on how to massage the baby's tummy to make her pass gas. There are special swaddling blankets that help babies from crying. Heck there is even a baby hammock that swings all night that will help your baby with gas and sleep! There is even a site that tells you what the baby wants or needs from the different sounds they make while crying! This one made Oprah!

Internet diagnosis is making us crazy! So, from all the different searches we have concluded that our baby has colic, reflux and all the while is just a normal newborn that is working this whole being out of the womb and in the real world thing out. If we bought all the gadgets we could spend a thousand bucks in no time. Or, we could use my parents tried and true method of driving around in the car! Gas is a little cheaper but it wouldn't take too long to burn through some cash! We have pretty much decided that in this "fix it now" world, that this may not be a fix it now kinda problem. Or maybe I'll just fork out the 36.95 and start my girl on the Fart Aerobics!!! Then again, we maybe the couple you see in the grocery store wearing ear plugs because we forgot to take them out at home!

Links:

Colic or Reflux - http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/colic/isitcolic.asp

Baby Fart Aerobics - http://www.colicinfant.com/

This Cry means what? - http://hubpages.com/hub/Why_is_my_baby_crying

Gripe Water - http://www.coliccalm.com/gripe-water.htm