Meals as a Mrs. ~ Luscious Lemon Delight

Last fall, after a creamy oozy not too spicy Mexican dinner of Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos, I served this Luscious Lemon Delight dessert since Adam tends to favor lemony type desserts.  It was light and refreshing!!  It would be the perfect conclusion to a meal during these hot summer days!!

For this go around, Adam chopped the pecans but next time we decided we would use the food processor.

The recipe called for a 9x13 pan but I used an 8x8 one and it was fine!

This delightful dessert slid from the plate all the way into my belly.....hehe!

"The most intense joys in life arise when we are able to elicit joy in others, as a foretaste of heaven...This joy, the fruit of fraternal love, is not that of the vain and self-centered, but of lovers who delight in the good of those whom they love, who give freely to them and thus bear good fruit." -Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia 129

What a nice reminder in the above quote to always try to put others ahead of yourself and to truly will the good of the other ahead of your own needs.  Sometimes this is easier said than done but we should never stop trying!!

Meals as a Mrs. ~ Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos

This creamy oozy warm dinner of Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Taquitos was really good.  After eating this Mexican dish for dinner, we finished up with a frothy light dessert!

This is always my favorite part of a crock pot recipe...the part when everything is dumped in and not mixed up yet as you wait for the ingredients to melt and blend together.

This was SO creamy.  When I make this again, I might add a little more chicken to soak up some of the liquid and dial the creaminess factor back a notch.

SO good with the avocado slices on top and the peach mango salsa!!!

“I can live the spousal meaning of my body as a single woman. Fasting from dating gives me freedom over my desires, so they don’t rule me or determine my actions. In the school of self mastery I learn to possess myself so that someday I can fully give the gift of myself in whichever vocation I am called to express my identity as wife and mother. Even better, every time one of my teammates needs me, or I pray for a mission supporter, or speak to a group of students I am making myself a gift to others and living out my call to love and become a gift.” Lindsay Fay - Culture Project Missionary

Meals as a Mrs. ~ One-Bowl Fudge Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love chocolate and peanut butter desserts.  In fact, when rummaging around the pantry for a snack after Vacation Bible School ended early this afternoon, I ended up sticking a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter and some milk chocolate chips in the microwave to melt them together...then topped off this creamy concoction with crunchy Lo Mein noodles.  I swear this made up snack tasted like chocolate covered pretzels minus the salt.  Mmm!

If that crazy concoction that reminded me of some of my funnier pregnancy snacks doesn't get the taste buds going then maybe this actual recipe of a delightful dessert I made earlier this year will.  This recipe for One-Bowl Fudge Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting was really easy to make and yielded yummy results.  The extra creamy peanut butter frosting was a nice touch to the fudgy chewy brownies and I know that my brothers, who are also fellow peanut butter chocoholics, would appreciate this dessert too! 

"Having studied and taught St. John Paul’s Theology of the Body for over fifteen years, I see the world and Christianity very differently. I used to think that a good Catholic emphasized the soul over and against the body, redemption over and against creation, God over and against man, etc. TOB, however, helped me to see that God loves His creation so much that He wants us to 'receive it as a gift' (TOB 13:4), especially in seeing how the body teaches us about God Himself who is a fruitful communion of life and love. In my talks and in the new curriculum I am writing, the BODY is the point of departure, for God created the visible to reveal and bring about the invisible: love! Love for union is another way of describing Christianity. The Body, then, is the Center of our Faith, for Christ’s Body and our bodies tell us we are meant to love: Jesus says, 'This is my Body, given to you,' and we disciples reply, 'This is my body, receiving You.' Fruit ensues whose byproduct for us all is joy." - Monica Ashour of Theology of the Body Evangelization Team

Meals as a Mrs. ~ Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

This recipe for Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef required me to move out of my cooking comfort zone and boy am I glad I did!  It was a delicious dinner and I'm excited to make it again soon as the dish was flavorful, juicy, and tasted really good with the rice mixed into it and a baked potato for a side. 

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy our colorful measuring utensils???

I overestimated on the amount of carrot that would garner us one cup...oopsie.

A great relationship isn't about about solving someone's problems for him or her, it's just about making sure the person never has to face the problems alone. - James Sama

Meals as a Mrs. ~ Cheryl's Fancy Pants Chicken

This recipe that I saw floating aroundon Facebook is hands down one of my favorite meals that I've prepared.  I made this last winter on the same night we had the Salted Caramel Apple Cake that turned into an Avalanche Trifle Cake dessert in honor of the snowstorm we had that week in January.  ;)  

Anyhow back to dinner before that yummy dessert, without further ado, here is the recipe for this oh so good chicken dinner.  The name of this dish cracks me up too:  Cheryl's Fancy Pants Chicken...!!

We ate this chicken dish with baked potatoes and Adam drank some left over beer from when our friends, Ashley and Vaughn, visited us the weekend before the snow arrived.

"The Creator has assigned the body to man as a task, the body in its masculinity and femininity, and that in masculinity and femininity he assigned to him in some way his own humanity as a task, that is, the dignity of the person and also the transparent sign of interpersonal 'communion' in which man realizes himself through the authentic gift of self."

                                                                                  - St. John Paul II, TOB 59

Meals as a Mrs. ~ BBQ Pineapple Baked Chicken

In the winter, just before a big snowstorm, I made this BBQ Pineapple Baked Chicken dish that had me dreaming of warm weather and summertime.  For some reason pineapple dishes make me think of the summer.  I liked this recipe as it was savory and juicy with terrific flavor!

Notes:

1. The sauce was a bit on the thinner side so when I make this again I will probably add a little more BBQ sauce and drain the pineapple juice a bit to try to thicken it up a bit.
2. I used chicken breasts instead of roasting chickens.
3. The recipe says to bake for one hour but I only baked it for 40 minutes.
4. After adding the sauce, the recipe says to bake for 30-45 minutes but I found that I only needed to bake it for 30 minutes (probably since I used chicken breasts instead of whole chickens).

The Purpose of Marriage:
 

"...to make us holy, not merely happy. It is the laboratory for learning to love. It's the school for learning sacrifice. It's the university for learning unselfishness. It's the lifelong course for becoming like Christ. If you are married, the number one tool God uses to shape you is your spouse!"

                                                       

                                                                    - Pastor Rick Warren, Humanum

Meals as a Mrs. ~ Creamed Pearl Onions

Pearl onions are a relatively new vegetable for me.  I already knew I loved Vidalia sweet onions if sauteed or fried as onion rings.  What I didn't know was how much I would like pearl onions until Adam introduced them to me when he made me Beef Bourguignon for the first time a couple years ago.  In fact, I like the pearl onions in this stew so much that when we make it, Adam will double the amount of pearl onions in addition to the extra mushrooms he puts in for his tastebuds.

So when I discovered this recipe for Creamed Pearl Onions I was super duper excited to try it.

Maybe my expecations were too high.  Perhaps I should have left my love affair with pearl onions alone and just kept it to the beef stew.  I was greatly disappointed by this recipe as the side dish of these veggies didn't taste at all like how I thought they would taste and I learned that I definitely prefer the pearl onions in their original format of being in the stew without the cream or anything else added to them.  If it's not broken, why fix it right??  I am curious though.  Do any of you have any recipes that use pearl onions??