Wednesday, January 4, 2012

HAPPY 2012!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Celebration!! I also hope your "winter holidays" were happy and safe!

Hubby and I spent New Year's Eve with some good friends. We went to K's house, where we spent the evening celebrating with her, our other friend KJ, and KJ's hubby, M. K made us dinner, and KJ and I provided veggies and desserts. The five of us exchanged Christmas presents, played games, drank, ate, and had fun. K and KJ did their third annual “run down the street” at Midnight. M and I recorded it so we can all laugh at them when we're too old to continue the tradition. :)

While we were there, I was able to place the final order I needed to reach all of my Stampin' Up! goals for 2010! I reached the quarterly re-start goal the company set for me, as well as the title promotion!! PLUS, I managed to get the monthly goal which allows me to get a commission check!!! It's not much, but every little bit counts! Now I'm trying to think of a “business building” incentive to offer people for the quarter to celebrate my achievements. I was thinking something like, 10% off all orders or something? I'm still working on that, though. I'll certainly advertise on here, though!!

My lia sophia business is still at a stand-still, but I'm kind of at peace with that right now. I have a couple of prospects for the new quarter, which is great because the new catalog has been published and LOTS of pieces are retiring come the end of January! My Upline Manager is challenging her downline to complete certain tasks throughout the month to earn some of the new line jewelry, so I'm going to certainly give it a try!! Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to come up with the money to order the new catalogs... :-P

Oh, and in case you forgot (or didn't know), my birthday is only 22 days away!!! (Jan. 26) Feel free to celebrate – I know I will be!!!

HAPPY 2012!!!!

Cheers!

Interesting Dinner

So, last week, I found a recipe on Pinterest for a Foil-Wrapped Ranch and Bacon Chicken Dinner. I bought all the ingredients for it, but didn't get around to making it until tonight. It did not turn out as I had hoped, but Hubby said it was good. Let me just tell you - it did not SMELL good at all! At least, not while it was cooking. Once we took it out of the oven and unwrapped the dinner, it started to smell better and was more appetizing.

It tasted pretty good, but again, it wasn't what I was expecting.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it - it might be worth it for you and your family!!

4 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package of chicken stuffing
1 1/4 cups water
4 cups broccoli florets (I just got a 12oz bag of them in the bagged salad section at my grocery store)
4 slices bacon, crumbled
1 bag (12 oz) Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Ranch Dressing
Tin Foil
Cooking Spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit
2. Spray four large pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil with cooking spray
3. Mix stuffing and water together
4. Spoon 1/4 of the stuffing mix on to each of the sprayed aluminum foil sheets
5. Place one chicken breasts on top of the stuffing
6. Add 1 cup of broccoli to each of the foil sheets
7. Cover each stuffing/chicken/broccoli pile with shredded cheese and one slice of bacon, each.
8. Drizzle approximately 1 tablespoon of Ranch Dressing on each chicken pile.
9. Fold up the aluminum foil sheets over the chicken pile so it makes a completely sealed pouch. **Be sure to leave room inside the pouch for heat to flow through!!**
10. Place all four pouches on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes.
11. Take out of oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes, cutting slits in each of the aluminum foil pouches for ventilation.

If you end up using large chicken breasts like I did, you may need to check your chicken after the 30 minute cooking time. I ended up having mine in the oven for 50 minutes, total. The chicken pieces I used were VERY thick, so it took them a lot longer to cook. PLUS, I'm overly cautious with my chicken. As long as the internal temperature is 165 degrees, Fahrenheit, you'll be fine.

Like all my other shared recipes, you'll have to let me know if you tried this and what you thought of it!

Cheers!