Poached Egg Salad with Chicken

Posted in Homemade Meals by Jennifer Szohr

Well guys, tonight I just didn’t have time to make dinner.

I came home from work and all I wanted to do was cuddle with my baby. I didn’t want to clean up the kitchen, or the nursery, or our bedroom. I just wanted to be with my daughter and kiss her belly while we laid in bed. So after bath time, story time and her last bottle I remembered I was starving.

So I looked in my fridge and here is what I got 🙂

You’ll need:

1 chicken breast
1 egg
Cheese {stinky cheese} I used Gorganzola because it’s what I had
1 Avocado
Spring Mix salad
Your favorite salad dressing { I used cranberry walnut dressing from Trader Joe’s}

Start by boiling a large pot of water! If you have never learned how to poach an egg that’s okay! You can watch a Youtube video here and learn in a minute! It’s a piece of cake and poached eggs are SO yummy!

First start with a bowl for your Spring Mix.

Then add your cheese.

Then, cut up and add your avocado!

{ Take your chicken out of the oven and place it on your salad! }

Finally poach your egg! Add it to the top of your salad and drizzle with your dressing 🙂

ENJOY!

Love,
J

6Feb2015

Homemade Chicken Marsala

Posted in Homemade Meals by Jennifer Szohr

Chicken Marsala is one of our favorite meals in this household! However, it’s a pretty complex meal and has lots and lots of added stuff! So I cut it out and made it much easier to make!

It probably takes about 20 minutes because of baking the chicken!

So here is what you’ll need:

4 chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom
mushrooms
5 yellow or red potatoes {whatever you prefer}
1/2 cup of dry white wine
3 tablespoons of butter & 1/4 cup sour cream
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to taste

1. Before I do anything I put a large pot of water on the stove to boil and preheat the oven to 425.

2. Place chicken in the oven for 20 minutes.

3. Cut up potatoes and place in boiling water let boil for 15 minutes or until extremely tender.

4. Cut up mushrooms {place in skillet and let heat for 5 minutes, covered.}

5. When mushrooms are tender add white wine. Let simmer another 5 minutes.

6. Add cream of mushroom soup to mushrooms.

7. Drain water from potatoes and mash in the pot. Add butter and sour cream. You can use the amount I recommended or you can use more or less! Then add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste 🙂

Serve with salad or veggies and enjoy 🙂 This should take about 20 minutes to make and serve! It’s a really easy clean up too!

Enjoy!

Love,
J

4Feb2015

{15 Minute Meals on a Budget} Southwest Chicken Sausage and Rice

Posted in Homemade Meals by Jennifer Szohr

So when my husband gets home we are going on a tight budget 🙂 To prep for this change in our lives I have started researching so many options for money saving. The biggest money saver is with food {for us}. We eat out a lot and on top of it almost spend $200/week on groceries. So I’ve researched and found 20 meals that are easy, healthy, and affordable!

I know so many of you are in the same boat so let’s do this together 🙂

For the next 20 days I’m going to be sharing my 15 minute meals & at the end of the 20 days I’ll give you guys a PDF of all the meals and the monthly grocery list with the costs and budget tools I use to spend less than $350/month on groceries and get to eat some awesome meals 🙂

So on the table tonight was one of my personal favorites: Southwest Sausage and Rice.

Chase and I made this a lot before be left because these Hillshire Farms chicken sausages are healthy and SO cheap at the commissary {$2.05 for 1}.

You’ll need the following:

Chicken Sausage
Mexican Cheese
Rice {white or brown}
1 can black beans
2 cups of corn {frozen}
Cilantro {I use frozen, Homemade}
Chili Poweder { 1/2 TSP}
Yellow Pepper
Avocado
1/2 cup salsa
Lime or Lime juice {add at the end for taste :)}

First cut up your sausage and saute it on medium heat for 8 minutes turning meat frequently.

While your meat is cooking it’s a good idea to put our rice on 🙂 I use minute made!

This is the easiest cilantro to use. I was out of my homemade frozen cilantro and who has time to keep up with fresh herbs? Unless you have a garden {which I’m working on}

When the meat is done cooking cut up half of your yellow pepper. THEN add all of your ingredients {except the avocado and cheese}.

Add your 1/2 cup of salsa. Let simmer on medium-low heat for 5-8 minutes.

My daughter is still at a great age…she can just hang out and sing with mommy while I cook. Super looking forward to the days where she is running around the kitchen while I cook #sarcasm

Cut up your avocados while you wait 🙂

When everything is done you can either MIX EVERYTHING TOGETHER {Rice and stir fry} or you can just place your mixture on top of the rice.

1. add avocado

2. Add Cheese

3. Salt and pepper to taste {optional}

4. Sprinkle with Lime juice

We like to eat as a family 🙂 Just the two of us.

Hope you enjoy your gluten free 15 minute meal!

Love,
J

4Feb2015

Between You and I

Posted in Inspired by Jennifer Szohr

So today I had a pretty rough day. Nothing exceptionally terrible happened or anything out of the ordinary. I just had a really tough day. At work: an endless to do list. At home: my daughter. I have a really great job that adds purpose and hope to my life. It has been a joy and privilege to work for this company. But there is something about having a baby at home that just twists my heart. So today as I helped Briana with Physics, Thor with Math, and Jessica with Biology, I couldn’t help but think what I would really like to be doing is reading “Goodnight Moon” to my 5 month old. Or maybe kissing her belly. Walking with her to the park. Singing her songs. Spending time teaching her. Instead I am here. With other kids. Awesome kids. But not my kid.

Not to mention I’m almost 4 months into my life without my husband. As he is on the other side of the world. A man who, as you know, has been the greatest blessing of my life. I’ve said it before so I’ll say it again, being a single parent is a rough business. Only a select few people truly understand what it is like to go days in and out without your husband. Alone with your darling(s). It’s a rough business.

So it was a hard day. It’s been a hard month. A hard 4 months. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking and walking. Always alone. Always in solitude. And Between You and I sometimes I doubt God and His goodness. His faithfulness. His ability to heal. His desire for good things in my life. I have a constant battle in my head “Is God really good?” I struggle and wrestle with my faith.

Faith.
Faith.
Faith.
I have to say it over and over again. What is my faith? WHERE is my faith?

I close my eyes. Inhale. Try to pray.
I see my friends blog. I see her heart breaking words. Words of tremendous loss. 3 babies to be exact. And my heart aches. I get updates from one of my best friends, Kelli. Who has suffered the past 7 years of her life with Lupus. It seems to only get worse. Now she waits for a transplant. And my heart aches. I think of a woman’s blog I follow. She had a baby around the same time I did. But she doesn’t have a baby anymore. My heart aches.

And between you and I, I just simply do not understand. Faith. Have faith. Where is my faith?

I can’t tell you why bad things happen to good people. But I do know this “What Satan intends for evil God uses for good” and even in the worst times we have hope and hope does not disappoint us. {Romans 5} I’ve watched God do this in my own life. When I opened my hands and let go of everything I was holding on to, trying to control, God changed the mess that was my life into something amazing. But as we all know, this isn’t always the case. And false hope can kill us. Faith you just have to have faith. Trust in the Lord. And I wrestle with this statement and I ask God “how?”

I opened my devotional for the first time in a long time the other day and it said this {Give up the illusion that you deserve a problem-free life. Part of you is still hungering for the resolution of all difficulties. This is a false hope. Like I said to my disciples “in this world you will have troubles.” Link your hope not to problem solving in this life but to the promise of an eternity of problem free life in heaven.}

Understandably, we have problems to solve on a daily basis; however, this passage is talking about something deeper. Suffering. It happens a lot. It feels pointless. But where is our hope? Faith. I have to believe there is something greater than me. That God is greater. That He is good. No, I don’t have to believe it I choose to believe it. But does that make the suffering any easier? Usually not. But it does give us hope and hope does not disappoint us. It grows our faith. In plants our roots deeper and deeper into the truth.

But I still sit there in my room. Looking at pictures of my husband. And I’m restless. And my faith is weak. And Between you and I, I doubt. I doubt a lot of things.

And then I think…

{Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our heart} Romans 5

I think as Christians, pain and suffering are some of the hardest things to deal with. It shrinks our trust in people and in God. But it is not meant to shrink it but to grow it. In Romans 5 we are told that suffering builds our character, which in turn gives us hope. And when all is said and done our faith maybe ragged, torn, and ugly. But there is hope. Hope that God is still doing good things.

Joy doesn’t just come to us. Faith isn’t the easiest thing to grasp. I don’t know a single Christian that hasn’t wrestled with God. Questioned the suffering. We have to make a choice. Wrestling with all of these is us choosing. It is our faith.

So when my day ends and I wrestle with God and look at my life I have a choice to make. So I sit in the rocking chair in my babies nursery and I read her “Goodnight Moon” before bed. She giggles. She kisses. She looks at me.

I inhale. Hold my breath. This is good. She is good. And I exhale.

And then I pray for the mommy who has lost her baby. Pray for what? I’m not sure. But I pray. That just maybe there would be peace; and perhaps someday, joy.

Because God gives us hope and hope does not disappoint.

I pray that today you can sit back in the midst of your suffering and inhale deeply all the grace and hope God offers us. And it’s okay to be mad. It’s okay to wrestle. It’s okay for your faith to be ugly. Be kind to yourself. Absorb all that grace has to offer.

Love,
J

2Feb2015

{Homemade Teething}

Posted in Homemade Mommy by Jennifer Szohr

Isla Jane got her first tooth. We didn’t even know it until she was playing with her nanny {aka her aunt}. My sister text me “Isla has a tooth!!!”

I, of course, instantly started to cry. How is my baby already getting a tooth?

I made her some {Homemade} teethers and she loved it! Instead of spending money on a toy I just used what I had.

You’ll need:

Ice Cube Tray
Pacifier
Breast Milk or Formula 🙂
Bib {for when you have to use the teether}

First I made 4 oz of formula and then poured it into 3 ice cubes places. Then I placed 3 pacifiers in the formula. I set it in the freezer on an even surface for 4 hours and BAMMMM. I had some {Homemade} teethers for baby IJ and she loved it!

She chewed & sucked on it with hardly any mess. I assisted her by helping her hold it and toward the end I just took it away and gave her a new one. I didn’t want her to choke on any tiny parts!

I hope this helps all you beautiful mama’s with teething babies!

Love,
J

Tangible Joy

A Mom Blog

Monthly Archives: February 2015

Poached Egg Salad with Chicken

Homemade Chicken Marsala

{15 Minute Meals on a Budget} Southwest Chicken Sausage and Rice

Between You and I

{Homemade Teething}