Grilled Chipotle Chicken Breasts

Grilled Chipotle Chicken Breasts

Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS

5 Chipotle peppers, seeded and chopped by hand (I was not able to find these fresh, so I used the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and it was still delicious!)
1/3 cups cilantro leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 medium shallots
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
1 tsp salt
2 chicken breasts

DIRECTIONS

Puree the peppers, cilantro, garlic, shallots and vinegar in a food processor or blender. With the machine running add the oil slowly and then the lime juice. This will be the marinade for your chicken.

Maridate the chicken for 1 to 3 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from marinade and grill slowly over medium fire, basting with excess marinade.

Asian Grilled Salmon

The Hubs and I have been trying out some new recipes. I wanted to share some of the keepers. These are not recipes that I wrote, just ones we found that we really enjoy! Here is the first recipe. There will be more to follow in future posts! If you try them, let me know what you think!

Asian Grilled Salmon (My aboslute favorite!)


1 side fresh salmon, boned but skin on (about 3 lb) (We usually only do 1 lb for our family of 3)

2 Tbsps Dijon mustard
3 Tbsps soy sauce
6 Tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp minced garlic

Lay the salmon skin down on a cutting board and cut crosswise in to 4 equal pieces. Whick together the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle half the marinade onto to the fish and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Place the fish skin side down on a hot grill (spray/brush grilling rack/fish pan with oil, to keep fish from sticking). Discard the marinade the fish was sitting in. Grill 4 to 5 minutes, depending in the thickness of the fish. Turn carefully with a wide spatula and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes. It will be slightly raw in the center, but don't worry; it will keep cooking as it sits. Transfer the fish to a flat plate, skin side down, and spoon the reserved marinade on top. Allow the fish to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

More Birthday & A Trip To Michigan

Here are pictures from the last 2 birthday parties for Elise, our trip to Michigan and a fun picture at the end!

Birthday Sign I made with my Cricut!

The only picture I was able to get with her bow on! I worked hard making that thing!

Grandma reading a birthday card and cousin John helping open presents.

Second birthday cake I made for Elise's Birthday!

Top of cake!

Just got to Michigan! Grandma & Grandpa took us out for lunch! She's talking to our waitress!

The bike Uncle Billy got Elise! She needs to get a little taller!

Posing for a picture before digging into the cake!

Having fun making a mess!

More fun!

At the pool with Grandma!

She loves water and coke bottles!

Swinging on Grandma & Grandpa's patio!

Back from Michigan! Elise loves this ride-on toy. She likes to lift up the seat, and get in! Here, Eric is pushing her around! I crack up everytime I look at this picture!

Check out this giveaway

Recently my friend got a beautiful custom made necklace! She is doing a giveaway on her blog! Check it out at here! It is all beautiful!

Turning One

Today my daughter is one and I can barely believe it! It seriously feels like she was just born. She is so much fun these day! She is running everywhere and has such a fun personality! She is becoming such a social little girl! Smiling and "talking" to everyone! She loves going grocery shopping!

On Sunday, Uncle Rex & Aunt Amy had a birthday party for Elise at their house! It was a lot of fun! They had lots of stuff to play with! Her swimming pool was filled with balls, there was a big tub of water outside with lot of cowboy ducks floating around. We had fun squirting each otherwith them! They got her a big pink bouncy ball, bubbles, a cute outfit, 2 animals on wheels, and a book!

Here she is ready to open her gifts. We moved her to the floor after this picture.

Listening to us sing Happy Birthday to her and ready to eat cake for the first time.

She gobbled it up and barely made a mess!

Eric & I bought this school bus for Elise!

It is soft so it won't hurt if she falls on it. If you run the front into something it makes engines sounds! It's cute and Elise really likes it. We didn't get her a lot because: #1) We are moving to Colorado in a little over a month! #2) She is getting lots of gifts from family.

We went to the zoo this morning with Grandpa & Grandma! We had a blast! We went to the petting zoo! She didn't want anything to do with the goats. They are very friendly and one of them wanted us to pet her so much, that she was rubbing up against us. I think she was pregnant and needed a back massage! She was considerably larger than any of the other goats! My other favorite part was the Wild Bird Walkabout! There were so many birds! I was sure a bird or two were going to fly into my head! Grandpa & Grandma got her a shirt and cup from the zoo for her birthday! She seemed t really like the cup.

She missed her first nap and passed out in the car. In fact, I'm pretty sure she was sleeping before we left the parking lot! She barely stirred for the transfer from the car to her crib.

Saturday, is her birthday party and Sunday we fly to Michigan!

Celebrating 27 Years

On Tuesday, I turned 27. I will admit that I was not exactly excited to be moving from my mid-twenties to late-twenties. It's quite the change! I have always enjoyed birthdays and becoming another year older. Then this year rolled around, and well that excitement was gone.

So, my birthday started out with my daughter throwing up. Lots of clean up and crying. She ended up falling asleep sitting up in my arms. Too bad I had to put all her bedding in the wash. I laid her on our bed while I set up the pack n' play, then moved her. She slept for a while then seemed to feel better once she woke up. My Mother-in-Law came with pedialyte and flowers to help me. She had not been feeling well either. Turns out, several people caught the stomach flu or something like it at our Mother's Day celebration. In the afternoon, I got a text message from Eric telling me I was not to cook dinner or do anything difficult for the rest of the day. When he got home, we went to Olive Garden, then to Andy's for dessert.

Wednesday night, I started to feel bad. I caught what Elise had. I didn't sleep well and woke up feeling miserable! My Brother-in-law came to get Elise and watched her for several hours so that I could rest & get some sleep. I was starting to feel much better by the end of the day.

Friday night was my birthday celebration with our family! It was great! We had brats and chicken sandwiches, fruit salad, chips & salsa with Ice Cream cake! I got some great gifts! I got some great sewing books! I can't wait to try out the patterns! Here they are:

This one is for my business.

I also got some cooking utensils! They are Rachael Ray.

These spoons attach to the side of the pot! It is great!

This works great for transfering veggies from the cutting board to the pan!

I also got a new cartridge for my Cricut. I've been wanting this one since I got my Cricut. It will be great for cards & invitations!

So, in the end, I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you to all my family! I am so blessed!

It's been a crazy month and it's not over! Next Wednesday my daughter turns 1! ONE! I can't believe it! Time is flying! We are having 2 birthday parties here and one when Elise & I go to Michigan. We leave next Sunday and come back the following Saturday. I can't wait to see my family. My Dad also has a birthday and my sister & brother-in-law's 5th anniversary!

Mother's Day & Such

On Saturday, Eric ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. He really enjoys running and I enjoy watching him run! I considered running with Elise, but I haven't been running for very long. Here are a few pictures from the race.

Notice, everyone ready to start their watches.

Warren won! Eric use to run Cross Country with him.

RJ came in second. Notice that he ran in cut off jeans!

This is Bob, Eric's Cross Country Coach at UT Tyler. He was 4th place.

Here is Eric finishing! He finished 7th! It was a good race and we enjoyed ourselves!

Apparently, I put my sunglasses on my head frequently! She was playing with my sunglasses and kept putting them on her head like this.

Here she is stting in her chair. She loves to play on our back patio!

On Mother's Day, Eric made me breakfast in bed! It was so good!

He made me Baked French Toast with Blueberries!

He got me these Rachael Ray Bubble & Brown stoneware baking dishes! I've wanted them for a while! I even use the smaller one to make dinner tonight! I made Parmesan Crusted Chicken!

Elise has started to want to ride her toy! She can push herself backwards. She hasn't mastered going forward yet. I love this face! Haha!!

Raquet and Jog was having a sidewalk sale on Saturday, so we went to check it out! Eric got some new shoes and we found these boots for Elise. They were only $5! They will fit her for a while! They will be great for winter in Colorado!

This morning, I tried them on her and she cried when I took them off! So she spent some time walking around with them on!

I entered Elise in a Parenting.com modeling contest. You should all go here and vote for her daily. Here is the picture that I submitted.