Friday Recipe - Spicy Chicken with Sweet Potato and Mango

This is a low calorie recipe and it is absolutely fabulous! I made this for dinner and at first Mr. Man wasn't sure about it (he still isn't 100% on board with the mango, but he will eat a bite or two of it), but he always goes for a 2nd plateful! I took left overs to a friend and she just raved and raved about it. I serve it warm at home, but she didn't know she was supposed to warm it up so she ate it cold. I tried it cold, I have to say it was pretty tasty cold too!

Spicy Chicken with Sweet Potato and Mango
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups cubed peeled sweet potatoes (I did 2 yams actually and I think I got a little more than 2 c of cubed yams)
2 Tbls olive oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
2-3 Tbls low sodium soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3 Tbls honey
3 Tbls hot sauce, or to taste
1 ripe mango, peeled and cubed
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp cornstarch
1 Tbls warm water

Place the sweet potatoes into a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Simmer over medium-high heat until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in chicken, and cook until no longer pink in the center, about 5 minutes; remove chicken to a plate and set aside. Stir garlic into the skillet, and cook for a few minutes, until fragrant. Pour in the soy sauce, 3/4 cup of water, honey, and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer, then stir in the sweet potato, chicken, mango, and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir until hot. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1 tablespoon of water, and stir into the simmering mixture; stir until thickened. 


This can served alone, OR over steamed white or brown rice, OR quinoa or other pasta you prefer.

WOW

I've been gone a long time! Life has been busy, work has been busy and frankly I sit down to write and have nothing to write about!

This time of year seems like something is happening every day - we have graduations, birthdays, end of school year concerts and events. It is just non-stop!

Last weekend (Mother's Day to be exact) the family all did a 5k! The funds raised go to help homeless shelters! The boys ran with Mr. Man and Lady Bug and I walked it. We had so much fun. It is put on by the local baseball team so you start at the stadium and walk through downtown and end up back at the stadium! It is so much fun!

Since it was Mother's Day after the 5k we went to see a movie, then home to grill steaks for an early dinner/late lunch. Then I took a short nap and then we went to church. After church we had ice cream at Dairy Queen! Perfect Mother's Day!! I had a such a great day and was showered with cards and a new camera! (Lefty told his dad he wanted to buy me popcorn at the movie because he knows how much I like movie popcorn - isn't that sweet?)

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This coming Saturday the boys are running in a race and on Sunday Mr. Man is running a half marathon! Lady Bug and I will not be participating at all in either of these races but will be on the sidelines of both cheering everyone on!

Cat Pool

So Mr. Man took the kids out of town, just for an overnight trip, over the spring break to visit the town he grew up in. The kids had such a good time!

When they got home each kid was telling me the highlights of their trip and they all really had a great time. One thing I found funny though was Lady Bug telling me how the hotel they stayed in had a pool but she couldn't go in the big pool because it was too deep for her. So she says "I just stayed in the cat pool." I could NOT figure out what she meant by the cat pool.... Mr. Man clarified ... she was in the kiddy pool - which Lady Bug had translated to KITTY pool and then that became the Cat Pool! Too funny!

I've probably mentioned this before

As a mom that works full time outside of the house, sometimes chatting with my friends and family ( or reading their blogs) who stay home with their kids all day I feel guilty. I feel like my kids are missing out somehow. I feel like "other" kids have it so much better and my kids don't get their mom as much as other kids, I am not home schooling the kids and not home all day baking fresh bread for lunch and crafting all day.

When my boss cut my hours, at first I went in to a panic. How will we be able to afford a loss in my income? we are barely squeaking by each month as it is. On and on those types of thoughts went through my head. I have to admit though that the loss of hours has been so wonderful for our family, that now as my boss talks about adding back in some hours I get nervous. I don't want more hours (more money would be nice, of course!). I am enjoying the next best thing to being a stay-at-home-mommy - every single day of the week I drop my kids off at school and then three days each week I am off work in time to pick them up from school. On the days I pick them up from school, we go home and have homemade snacks, work on homework together, play games, and cook dinner together (sometimes). I love it. I get to work - which I really do enjoy AND get to be home with my kids when school is done.

Do I sometimes wish I could afford to stay home every day - sure do, but I will take what I can get for now!

A little bit of this and that

We have had such nice weather over the last month or so, this week has brought some high winds but the temperature is still very nice. I have been walking a lot and getting some good exercise! Woo hoo! Love spring weather!
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Had been using an online program to store all my recipes but wasn't as happy with it as I wanted (it was free so you know what they say "you get what you pay for"!) so I decided to create a recipe folder on my home computer and store it on a flash drive. I finally got all my recipes put in only to have my neighbor give me a stack of cooking magazines - I will, no doubt, find more exciting recipes to try out!
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The kids have been invited to so many birthday parties lately I feel like we are constantly shopping for and wrapping up presents and driving all over to the different parties! I'm getting worn out!
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Spirit has been practicing a specific song on his guitar to play for the talent show, he is getting pretty good at it, but I am getting pretty sick of hearing that song over and over and over and over.....
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So when I volunteered to be the secretary for the PTO at school for next year, who knew they actually meant I needed to start now?!! It's ok, I have been having fun with it!
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Not related to the PTO secretary position, I volunteered to prepare a flyer for the school to advertise for a supply kit they are selling. No one told me until the day it was due, that it was MY responsibility to find someone to translate it to Spanish. So I asked the principal for some suggestions and every one was "too busy" to help me. So then the school secretary suggested Google Translator. I did that and then got nervous it wasn't accurate. When I took the Spanish and put it in the Google Translator and told it to give me the English on it... ya, it did NOT translate accurately! So I ended bribing the Spanish speaking school secretary to look at it. Only cost me a Starbucks - not bad. I am SO glad she looked at it because there were several things she changed! Well worth a Starbucks to me! Funny thing is, the person responsible for copying it emailed me asking how I got Martha to translate that for me so quickly because she "never does anything that fast for me!"
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Freaking out about what to do with the kids for summer daycare. I can't afford full time daycare for three kids and although the kids say the summer is short when you are the parent paying for daycare it is a LONG time!! 11 weeks of daycare is a lot and is extremely costly! I am hoping and praying for a mom I can swap care with OR a nice inexpensive college student to help me out!
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Well, that's all for now folks! Have a good day! :-)

Really?

I may be callous but the show Bachelor or Bachelorette really disgusts me. I watched that show, I admit, the first few seasons. Then I started really looking at - analyzing it I guess you could say. I listen to the Bachelor or Bachelorette, whatever the case may be, carry on about these 12 (or more) girls/guys that "I am really falling in love with".... isn't true love with ONE person? How can you be "in love" with all those different ones at the same time? I realize there are varying shades of love, like I love my brother, but not in the same way I love my husband. But it appears that these people are describing the love you have for a spouse. That just doesn't seem right.

Then I get equally as annoyed by the ones who aren't chosen - "I had so many feelings for him/her and I just don't know why I wasn't picked?" This is a competition. Is this REALLY how you want to meet your spouse? You competed amongst a bunch of other girls/guys and just happened to be the last one standing after 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS people!!! Six weeks is not nearly long enough to really get to know someone. I knew of my now husband probably 6 weeks before he ever asked me out on an official date! I am sure there are exceptions to this rule, but those exceptions probably don't involve a large group of other potential mates you are fighting against!

Then there is the one who gets chosen, how many of them have gone on to say how hard it was to watch the taped shows and see how their bachelor/bachelorette treated the other potentials on the show and how hurt they were to watch them passionately kiss someone else. I am not sure what they expect?

I guess I am disgusted that the men and women go on this show and degrade themselves down to a level that is so wrong. I don't know any of them individually but surely they are better than that. Out of the last 13 or 14 seasons only 3 couples remain together - this should tell you something.

I feel bad that these people have such little self esteem that they would attempt a show  like this.

I am sure I will offend people with this post, but I was so bothered when I got online and saw all the talk about it I had to post this.

Young Eagles Flight Lessons

On Saturday the boys got to go to a small local airport for a flight lesson. They had the best time E.V.E.R. This was hosted by EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association - the experimental part does not make a mom feel at ease!) The group is called Young Eagles and they are encouraging young kids to get involved in aviation.

The flights were for one child at a time, there were probably 8-10 pilots and their little Cessnas there. They would take one kid up for a 30 minute flight and they let the kids ask questions and once up in the air the kids were actually allowed to take the controls and steer (or whatever it is called when you are flying!) After the flight the pilot signed a certificate of completion and also signed the child's Flight Log Book!



Lefty was a tad bit nervous when he found out that Spirit would not be with him. As we walked towards the plane, the pilot actually invited Mr. Man to sit in the back seat for the flight (not all planes had a back seat). So Mr. Man took a camera up and was able to get some aerial shots from up there.  At one point Lefty was climbing, climbing, climbing and the pilot said "So, do you know what it means to stall?" and Lefty said he didn't and the pilot says "Well, you are about to find out unless you bring us down a bit!"

Another story I heard was that they were heading straight for the mountains and the pilot calmly says "Do you see those big things in front of us? Well you might want to do something about that because they are much bigger than we are!"

I heard from Mr. Man that Lefty was not the smoothest pilot and was jerking them around quite a bit. The pilot looked back at Mr. Man and said "Are you ok back there?" and he said yes and the pilot said "good! Because if I was sitting back there I would be hurling!" We had a laugh about that after the flight!

All the pilots were amazing to work with and you could tell they were so excited to share their love of planes with all these eager kids that showed up bright and early on a chilly Saturday morning!




Lefty and Mr. Man getting buckled in the plane before take off



Mr. Man excited as could be to be taking a flight - he was more excited at this point than I think Lefty was!





Lefty and Mr. Man heading to the runway for take off



Lefty getting ready to fly!

Arial view from Lefty's plane



Lefty taking the controls!

Lefty and his pilot, Jerry after the flight



Another arial view

Spirit and his pilot went flying over some major landmarks in the area and really had a great time! Spirit was able to steer and turn the plane from side to side. He is anxious for when he can go again! Spirit didn't have a camera with him, nor did he have a parent with him and that is just the way he wanted it! He had a blast!

Now here are some pictures from Spirit's flight:

In the cockpit


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Mr. Man shaking Spirit's pilot's hand after the flight.



The pilot, Bob, signing Spirit's Flight Log Book

This was certainly a day we will never forget!