Some recipes, a new kitchen tool, and my new hobby.

It's going to be a big weekend around!  Tonight is the Homecoming game and tomorrow night is the dance!  I'm hoping that we can win this game and that both kids have fun at the dance.

You know I'll be here on Monday with a weekend recap but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a few good things I've found. 

The first thing that I have been loving and using daily is this:

This is a milk frother that I purchased for $9.99 on Amazon.  I have been using it every time I make a cup of coffee.  I use it to mix my collagen powder into my coffee as well as to froth up the milk.  Something about the frothed up milk makes the coffee taste so much more like coffeehouse coffee.

Yesterday I used it to whip up a low carb peppermint mocha!  I just put a tablespoon of cocoa powder in a cup of hot coffee and blended it with the the frother.  Then I added a dash (a little less than 1/16 of a teaspoon) of peppermint extract and Stevia and blended that. And then I added my cream and frothed that and then I added a dollop of whipped cream.  A cheap and low carb alternative to my favorite Starbucks drink!

Last night I tried a new meal out on the family and it was a hit!  It was this recipe for Mozzarella and Pesto Chicken in a crock pot. The only thing I did differently was to use thin chicken breasts instead of the full sized ones and I cut down the amount of butter to half.  The chicken was flavorful and moist and I will definitely make it again.

I served it with a side of sauteed thin green beans and blistered tomatoes as well as this recipe for cucumbers.  I will also definitely be making this cucumber recipe again!  Cucumbers are a nice low carb side that Dan and I both like.  I used one English cucumber and cut the ingredients for the mayo mixture in half and added just a little extra vinegar to make it a little looser.  DELICIOUS!

I've been working on our family tree using Ancestry.com.  Dan's father had done a lot of research on the Cotell side so I'm trying to get all of that information input.  Dan put it all into a computer program called My Family Tree Maker in the mid to late 90s.  Of course that was a program you had to purchase from Best Buy and install on your computer.  I think we have a floppy disk floating around with all the information but no computer with a floppy drive and who knows where the disks are for the Family Tree Maker.

It's fun when Ancestry.com gives you a hint about a relative and you are able to add more information to your tree.  It's also interesting learning things about your relatives.

I learned that my grandmother's parents (on my father's side) were first cousins.  I am a little grossed out by that fact but I guess it was a common practice in the 1800's.

I also learned that many of her relatives are buried on a family graveyard near where she grew up.  This graveyard is just a few miles from the Moravian church they attended and I'm hoping to find it and check it out soon. It's just a few miles from here and I never even knew it existed!

Have a great weekend!