Sunday, September 30, 2012

Hello friends.  Sara here.  

The beautiful family that Lisa married into suffered a tragic loss this past week.  Lisa's brother in law, Greg, passed away leaving behind his beautiful wife, Amy, and their TEN amazing kids. Amy is in a very fragile state right now and the families

 are pulling together to do what we can to support them spiritually, mentally and financially. 

Lisa and her husband have expressed that for those who are interested, the most immediate need is money for funeral expenses. A memorial fund has been set-up as a PayPal account in case you can donate. Anything, even $5 will help: Paypal.com: GregDomgaardMemorial@gmail.com

Also, a memorial fund has been set-up for the family and kids:

America First Credit Union
Greg Domgaard Memorial Fund
Acct.: 9055609

100% of the funds will be used for funeral expenses and care for the ten children. I know now is a time everyone is touched by financial strain in one way or another. But maybe skip eating lunch out one day this week and donate, instead, to help this family. 

The Lighten, Domgaard and Platt families thank you for your support and prayers. 

Sara Jane

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Shauna: Halloween Costumes


 Fall is here! Can you believe it?  I love this time of year, so much anticipation for the upcoming holidays and so many exciting activities to do with the kids! Last weekend my husband took me and the kids up to Frisco, Colorado, it was the perfect first day of fall.  We rented bikes and rode through the Vail pass.  Let me tell you, it was GORGEOUS!!  The town also just happened to put on a firework show that night, and we had a blast! Now I am completely in the Fall state of mind! 

 


As we enter the holiday season my boys are getting more and more excited about Halloween.  Clark has been has been changing his mind about what he is going to dress up as, and I've been trying to gear his mind away from anything too nerdy, however they would make adorable Hobbits... I love the idea of sewing original costumes and last year Clark was Peter Pan while Wes was a French man.  This year Clark finially decided he wants to be a knight(pretty nerdy), and he insists that Wesley is going to be his dragon(even nerdier...).  


I've been searching Pinterest for ideas of knight costumes, and will probably watch Knights Tale to shed some further light on the situation.  For Wesley, I've decided to make something like this dinosaur costume from Pottery Barn Kids and modify it. Speaking of Pottery Barn Kids, have you seen their costumes this year? Ridiculously adorable and horribly overpriced.  They make for some great inspiration.



Also look at this adorable superhero costume!! I am in love.  This would be so easy to duplicate, and I'm sure you could find someone with a embroidery sewing machine. 



Well once I finish the boys costumes, I'll post them on here and hopefully they'll stay together long enough to go trick or treating!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Sara Jane: DIY Gifts

I am one of those annoying people who has 99% of their Christmassing (yes, that is a word in my home) done December 1st EVERY year.  I do if for two reasons: (1)  I LOVE the entire process of buying/making gifts and then giving them to others and (2) So I can really enjoy the entire month of December and focus on the family traditions that we have created within our own little family.

During the year, when I am out shopping, I am constantly thinking of who would like what.  Two years ago, I had my children's entire Christmas done in January (there was a fantastic sale I could not pass up).  This year, however, I have been slacking soooooo, I thought I would share with you some of the projects I have recently started working on for Christmas.  I love doing homemade gifts, especially for my children, so I can personalize the gift for the person who will be receiving.  Here are a few that I've started....

1.  Car Caddy
2.  Doll with carrying case
3.  Mini Coloring Tote
4.  Magnetic Scrabble Board
5.  Little man ties
6. Sticky Grams (such a cute idea for grandparents!)

I just finished one super simple gift this weekend and wanted to share it with you.

I went to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore this weekend looking for materials that would inspire me to do something crafty.  This store is one of my favorites!  Not only do they serve a pretty incredible purpose but they have random parts and pieces that you can't find anywhere else.  We got our beautiful claw foot bathtub at our ReStore for a steal!

Anyway....while there, I discovered their tile section.  After holding a tile for probably 3 or 4 minutes, I remembered seeing a coaster somewhere that a person had made from a tile and some modge podge.  Perfect!  I grabbed a few tiles (only $0.10 each!) and headed home.

For this coaster project, you will need, tiles (however many you want to make), mod podge (mine is homemade - Just a 50/50 mixture of Elmer's glue and water), decorative paper, felt, a clear high-gloss spray paint (not pictured), and a hot glue gun.


First, cut your paper so that the paper squares are just slightly smaller than your tile.  Next, paint your tile with a thin layer of mod podge.  Place your decorative paper on top of the tile/mod podge.  Paint another layer of mod podge over the decorative paper.  Allow to completely dry (I had them dry over night) .  Finally, spray a coat of clear high-gloss spray paint on top.  To finish off the coaster, cut out felt squares to line the entire bottom of the tile (I simply traced the tile onto the felt) and glue them on with the hot glue gun.  So simple and they turned out really cute.


There are so many ways that you could personalize these coasters.  I will be making some for a certain family member that will have pictures on top of the decorative paper.  Another fun thing you could do is to first paint the tile and then add paper/pictures.  Or, how about adding stickers to say something fun.  The possibilities really are endless.

Until next week...

Sara Jane

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Allison: Crocheting Dreams

Hello, everyone!  I hope you're all enjoying the beginning of my favorite season... Fall!  I, on the other hand, am stuck in almost 100 degree weather, with only dreams of Fall.  In a few months, when the leaves have all fallen, and everyone is sick of gray, ugly days, then I'm sure I'll start my bragging about 65 degree weather in January.  But for now, I'm sad and homesick for the NW.

I was just sitting here at my computer and realized that it's my day to post.  Oops!  This two-kid business is still throwing me for a bit of a loop.  I just ventured to Wal Mart, and was enjoying a few minutes of relaxation before my newborn wakes up and realizes she's still in her carseat and not nursing.

I'm getting distracted... okay... today's post...

On our way home from the store, I stopped to get the mail, and found a package from my good, amazing friend, Chiara.  She had sent Norah this incredible little hat!  What?!  When I moved from Washington she was barely learned to crochet and had only made a couple of blankets.  Now, she could start a business!  It is truly amazing that we can go from not knowing a skill, to being practically an expert in all things related to that skill.  Chiara... I'm proud of you!  And I LOVE the hat!!

If Norah had been awake, I would have used her for the model... not a cup.  :)
A few posts ago, I posted a picture of the beautiful blankets that both my sister, Lisa, and good friend, Jen crocheted for Norah.  I have wanted to learn to crochet for awhile now, and have even ventured to my favorite teacher to learn... You Tube.  But, all it got me was a scarf that didn't quite look right, and another skill to add to my "Someday I'll Learn" list.  But for now, I'll leave it to creative people like Chiara, Lisa and Jen to make my kids cute things.  :)  What do you wish you could learn, but just haven't quite dedicated yourself  enough yet to learn it?

Hope you all have a great week!  Someone go jump in a pile of leaves for me.  :)


Allison




Monday, September 24, 2012

Lisa: Being a Scout Mom

Hello again!  Sorry, everyone, about last week.  I'm not fired, am I?!  I'll pretend I'm not. :)

So this week I thought I'd give you some of my ideas on being a Scouting Mom.  I have two boys, as you may know, and both are involved in Scouts.  My eldest got his Eagle rank last year and my youngest is still in Cubs.  With all that scouting, I have found a few things that really work for me in keeping organized and helping my boys!  Hopefully they are a help to you, too!

The first is clear nylon thread. 



Now, as you may also know, I am not the best seamstress. I try but don't really sew straight! This thread is the perfect solution for me.

See?  You can't really notice it.  Well, if you look closely you can but not from a distance!
 
It is available at most stores in their thread section.


Another useful thing is tot use baseball card holders to keep the blue cards they give with the scout awards.

9 Pocket Pages - Ultra Pro Plastic Sheet Card Pages (10 Sheets)

 When the boys go for their Eagle, they have to prove they earned their awards and know the dates they were awarded their different ranks and badges.  This is perfect to keep the blue cards organized and have all that information when they need it.  Plus it is nice for them to look at and see what they need to earn still.




















 

Here's some of my oldest boy's cards in the holders.  I just kept it all in a three ringer binder along with the merit badges he was working on and camp info. and projects, etc.  It is a little easier now that everything has gone digital but it is still nice to keep a hard copy in case a badge goes missing or isn't awarded.  I found these at Hobby Lobby.
 
The last thing I'd like to show you is a mother's ribbons that I got from our local scout shop.
 
 
It has one side for all the Cub Scout Mother's Pins and another side for the Boy Scout Mother's Pins (These are someone else's ribbon, by the way. I don't have a picture of mine!).  Like I said, I bought mine but these could be very easy to make and it is a lot easier for the boys to pin onto rather than their mom's shirt!
 
There you are.  A few ideas for how to help as the mom of a Boy Scout!  See you next week!
 
Lisa

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sara Jane: Spray Paint

A few years back, I discovered spray paint and all the fun, amazing, creative ways that you can use it.  My last spray paint project was our TV stand.  It is BRIGHT yellow and so very pleasant in our family room.  I haven't used spray paint in quite a while though so I decided today would be a good day to get reacquainted with my old friend.

For this project, I went to our local Goodwill store and found these three great pieces:  two tins (each $0.99) and one ceramic rooster ($1.99).  Then I headed to Joann's (which happens to be next door) and picked out a few colors that I liked.  If you don't want to spend oodles of money on spray paint, Walmart has cans for only $0.99!  Its not the most quality spray but it works fine.

Anyway, here are the three pieces I bought today:


First up was the rooster.  I have a special place in my heart for roosters.  Last year, we bought four chickens.  My chicken's name was Mrs. Pettitoes.  She was absolutely beautiful but one Sunday, when we came home from church, she was crowing at our back door and we realized that Mrs. Pettitoes was actually a MR. Pettitoes.  I was sad....

Anyway, I love roosters.

For my rooster, I wanted him to be a deep red.  To start, I sprayed my first coat and let it dry for about 15 minutes.  Then I sprayed another one.  Remember to use short, even sprays for the most even color.  After that coat, I only had to do a few touch up sprays in little cracks and here is how he turned out...


We don't have a permanent home for him yet but I am hopeful that he will have a nice place in my kitchen one day soon.

Next up were my tins.  I have seen spray painted tins all over Pinterest lately so I thought I would give it a try.  Well, the first tin (the one with the handle in the picture above) didn't turn out so well.  Since it is rather hideous (very gloppy and runny), it is now a small trash pail in the backyard for the kids.  The second time, I remembered to slow down and take my time (something I am constantly reminding myself of).  This one turned out perfectly!  For this tin, I sprayed very small areas to start. It took me about three coats and about 30 minutes to get it just right.  It turned out the perfect color and really transformed the tin.


I will definitely be spraying more tins around the holidays to use as the wrapping for gifts.  I love how they look!

Since I had this beautiful tin, I decided that today was a good day to do the cookie of the month for my father-in-law.  I tried out something new and loved how it turned out.

Using my favorite pie crust recipe, I made little cookies (simply make the dough and shape it how you like, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top then bake them at 450* for about 7 minutes or until lightly browned).

While I could eat pie crust all day long, I know not everyone likes it so I put a small jar of some pear jam my husband just made in the middle.  We had to test everything out before we gave them away and let me tell you, they were scrumptious!  It tastes exactly like you are eating a bite of pear pie.


I have decided that I will one day soon make an entire platter of these pie crust cookies and then put out all my favorite jams - blackberry, strawberry, pear, peach- and just eat pie all day.  Yummmm!

Happy crafting, my friends!

Sara Jane

Allison: Banana Bread Alternative

Hello, hello!  I'm actually going to try to post a "normal" post this week!  My newborn is napping, and my 2 year old is momentarily "happy" (aka not being crazy), so I thought I'd hurry and post.

I've had some bananas getting overly ripe on my counter for the past few days now, but the thought of making banana bread AGAIN, didn't sound very appealing.  For some reason, I keep buying bananas, and they keep going bad.  That equals A LOT of banana bread.  This usually isn't a bad thing, but I wanted another option.



Then this morning, I saw a recipe from one of my favorite bakers over at Cookies and Cups.  This is such a fun blog, where Shelly posts so many amazingly-devilish recipes.  When I saw her recipe for Banana Bread Cookies, I knew I had to try them.  So... I did!  :)  You can find the recipe here.

These cookies aren't exactly what I had imagined, but I really like them!  In Shelly's recipe, she used chocolate chips (which I wish I'd tried).  I used raisins in my version, and thought they came out tasting like a cross between oatmeal cookies and banana bread; two of my favorite treats!  Shelly also posted a recipe for Maple Cream Cheese Frosting (Mmm...), but I didn't have enough cream cheese to attempt it.  You better believe I will next time!

They were so good, Isla kept trying to sneak one.  :)

Regardless of whether you try this recipe or not, you should definitely go check out Shelly's blog.  Everyone have a great week!


Allison

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Sara Jane: Pumpkins!

Hi friends!

From now until January, be prepared for way too much excitement in my posts.  Like I told you last Wednesday, I LOVE everything about September, October, November, and December.  I love all the food, the decorations and the overall excited/giving spirit that most people seem to have.  

I'm not sure if it is the changing of the seasons or what but I have had way too much happiness in me the last few weeks.  Its the kind of happiness that all you want to do is turn the music up way too loud to sing and dance.  Yesterday, I tried to channel that happiness into something productive for the blog.  

We have had this huge pile of wood sitting outside of our house since July.  A lot of it is wood we picked up from my in-law's house, the pallets were delivered to our house by a friendly neighbor, and then there are just lots of scraps of wood from some remodeling we've been working on.  Hmmmm, what could I do with all this wood???  PUMPKINS!


This project was so easy.  I went through our huge pile of wood...


and found a few random pieces that I thought would make cute pumpkins.  I also I had my sweet hubby cut a few little pieces for the stems. 






























Then came the painting.  I had a few little helpers for this part.  For their pumpkins, they painted then entirely orange.  For my pumpkins, I did the first coat white.  When that coat was dry, I painted an orange coat on top of the white.  For the stem pieces, I simply painted them green.

When everything was nice and dry, I distressed the wood with a piece of sand paper.  If you don't like that look then just omit this step.  Next, using my glue gun, I glued a piece of thin wire, which I curled, and the green "stem" to the top of the pumpkin.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  When I finally dig my harvest decorations out of the attic, I will decorate with leaves but for now, these will simply sit on my mantle as they are.  They brighten up my living room....I LOVE them!



I never feel like my posts are complete until I share with you a favorite recipe.  Today, I thought I would share with you a recipe my sister-in-law, Micky, gave me.  Gingersnap Pumpkin Pudding.  I have seen several recipes similar to this one but I have not liked any of them as much as I do this recipe.  It is always a hit when I have it at parties.  I use it mainly as a dip for gingersnaps or fruit although I am positive you could eat it by itself.  It is absolutely delicious.  We have it several times during the fall.  If you love all things pumpkin, you must try this gingersnap pumpkin pudding!



GINGERSNAP PUMPKIN PUDDING

Ingredients:
* 1 3/4 cup cold milk
* 1 package instant cheesecake or vanilla pudding mix (the small box)
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
* 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
* 3 gingersnaps, crushed
* 1 cup whipped topping

Directions;

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix together for 2 minutes.  (I use my electric mixer for this part).  Stir in the canned pumpkin and the pumpkin pie spice.  Let stand for a few minutes or until soft-set.  Fold whipped topping into pudding.  Sprinkle the crushed gingersnaps on the top. 

There you have it folks.  Have a great rest of your week!

Sara Jane

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Allison: Almost Back To Normal

Hello, hello!  So, I really don't have a recipe or craft to blog about, but I've honestly missed contributing each week, and just thought I'd do a quick "Hello!" post.  :)

My baby is officially two weeks old now, and I am completely in love!  Our little Norah Lee is the most perfect, beautiful, easy baby that there ever was.  I may sound like I'm bragging, but you would too after living with this little girl the last two weeks.  With my first daughter, I was still feeling the effects of delivery at this point.  But this time around, I feel ALMOST normal after only two weeks.  Amazing.



I thought I'd share some very basic details from the delivery, in case any of you are interested.  For the rest of you, skip this paragraph.  :)  My doctor said that she would induce me after 39 weeks, since this wasn't my first baby and I had been dilating since 36 weeks.  We checked into the hospital on Monday, August 27th around 7:30 am.  By 8:30 am the pitocin was going and my antibiotics had begun for my positive Strep Group B Culture.  By 9:45 am, the contractions had become pretty regular.  They broke my water around 1 pm, and I got the epidural around 2:30 pm (amazing!!).  After that, everything seemed to happen really fast.  At 4 pm, the nurse said that I'd stopped progressing from 7 cm, so she increased my pitocin.  At 4:30 pm she came back in to check me, and said I was at a 10 and the baby was ready to come!  My doctor was there in the next few minutes, and after one contraction, and 3 pushes our little Norah entered the world.  It was the craziest, fastest delivery!  As they handed me my little one, I was in shock and just kept saying, "I can't believe she's here!".  I pushed for 3 hours with Isla, so this was quite a different experience.  But we were so glad she was healthy and had all 10 fingers and toes, and was as beautiful as could be.




Since then, we've been blessed with a baby that sleeps a ton during the day, and has already slept as long as 7 1/2 hours straight at night.  What?!  I'm not complaining, and we are loving every minute with her.  Big sister, Isla, is still adjusting, but loves her little sister.  She's always there to comfort her when she cries, and loves to hold her hand.  I'm so grateful for my two girls, and my amazing husband.  Today was his first day back to work after taking two weeks of paternity leave, and we miss having him here.

I had to add one of Isla.  :)

Believe it or not, I'm itching to start a new quilting project and can't wait to find an extra 1/2 hour to craft a little, so I have something to share on here.  Thank you for all your thoughts and expressions of support, especially from my sisters.  Love you girls!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Lisa: Caprese Chicken with Balsamic Reduction

Hello, again!  Anyone else ready for fall and cooler weather?  I cannot wait!  We just had our Fall Festival at my children's school and I was going to post pictures of the Bake Sale portion that I was in charge of but, unfortunately, I didn't get any taken because almost right away, my youngest son broke his arm while getting out of the bounce house!  I won't give you details because it still makes me queasy but we spent part of the night at the ER.  He was really brave and didn't cry or make a fuss.  At one point, though, when he had to sit up for an x-ray he turned pale and he told us "Um...I kind of feel like I'm going to fall asleep right now!"  We took him right away to lay down so he didn't pass out!  Needless to say, I'm ready for no drama!  I'm ready for cool, snuggle-down-with-a-warm-blanket kind of days.  For stay-indoors-and-avoid-bounce-house kind of days!  Hopefully fall comes really quickly and brings those sorts of days! 

As summer is winding up around these parts, I thought I would share with you a recipe that my sister-in-law made for me once: Caprese Chicken with Balsamic Reduction.

 


 It sounds fancy but is really quite easy and so tasty!  If you like balsamic vinegar, then this is the recipe for you!!  You can find the recipe here. 

Well, that's it for me this week.  Next week I'll try to be more creative!!

Lisa






 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Shauna: Christmas Preparation



September! I can't believe it is already here.  I feel like after August is over it's a straight race to Christmas and I'm often behind on all the preparations, slightly disappointed I didn't plan and do more.  This year I decided Christmas prep starts in September, and while buying toys is oh so fun during Black Friday, I'm not sure the prices are really all that much better then a regular old end of Summer clearance.  

 
     The Gifts

In preparation for the kiddos, I started looking at my 'for the kids' Pinterest boards for inspirations.  Land of Nod had these adorable comfortable chairs for kids that I pinned a few months ago.  I was really tempted to buy the $125 chair, but knew that was a completely outrageous price for our budget, so I pinned them and pined.  When I checked back on them today I realized they are on clearance for under $40!!  So I bought them and they are going to be wonderful presents for the boys (especially for our family movie night).  




We also wanted to get the boys a toy to play with for Christmas, so we decided to get something from Play Mobil.  Have you seen these toys? They are amazing.  They have a toy for every occasion (even a toy nativity set that I want really badly!). The company has a pretty awesome Egyptian play set (on sale for $50 from $70), so I decided to look online to see where they are the cheapest.  After a little shopping around I realized Toys R Us has up charged about $10 (with free shipping) from the PlayMobilusa.com website.  I also checked our local toy store for prices and they are more expensive than Toys R Us  so it looks like you save about $10 by buying from the company website. One of the great things about this toy set is that it comes in several different boxes.  The boys will love opening all of the boxes, and it's big enough that it will be easy for them to share...hopefully!


So altogether the toys and chair come to $110 total, which I don't think is too shabby considering it is for two boys, and that their grandparents give them money for Christmas, which will go toward the gifts as well.  I'll probably make them a few homemade things from material I already have (scarfs, PJs, picture books) and add some stuff for their stockings too.  All in all I feel great about this Christmas and couldn't be happier that their shopping is all done.  Now I just need to get them excited about all things Egyptian

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Sara Jane: Let's try this again...

We have had a busy week here in Oregon.  In the midst of all the busyness, I finally found my card reader so I'm going to try this headband tutorial, again.
Bea modeling the headband....the only way I can get her to stand still is to feed her.  So, excuse the mouth FULL of grapes.
For the first headband, all you will need is a piece of elastic, one inch shorter than the head it is intended to fit.  You can find decorative elastic at any craft/fabric store.  For this headband, I used a simple thin piece.  All I did was, after measuring and cutting the elastic, glued the two ends together using my glue gun.  It's that simple!


After the headband is on placed on the head, you can then clip flowers or bows directly to the headband.  This is perfect for new little babies who may not have a lot of hair.


 Whenever my girls wear these headbands, I always get compliments on them.  Try it!  They're soooo simple!

For the next headband, I grabbed one of our plastic headbands (you can buy then in packs of 2 or 3 at the Dollar Store), an inch of elastic (ribbon works great also) and, again, my glue gun.  First, I glued one end of the elastic to the underside of the headband.


Then, making a loop, glued the other side of the elastic across from the first piece.


Again, so simple!  I have found that these headbands are perfect for my daughter's ubber thick hair.  Regular flower clips don't stay put in her hair very well but when I attach them to this headband, not only does her hair stay out of her face (which is quite remarkable on its own) but the flowers NEVER fall out.  Perfect!


Before I go, I wanted to share one more little fun thing I did this week.  For Asher's birthday, we had lots of family over for dinner and dessert.  We had mac and cheese, lots of different sides including this one and yummy cake for dessert.  After all of my parties, I like to send my guests home with a little gift to say thank you.  I LOVE giving gifts away at birthdays because they are so unexpected.  For Asher's birthday, I made a "Construction Scene" cake that had lots of tractors on it.  Each child at the party got to take home one of the tractors.  It was perfect.  For the adults, I made some caramel, put it in a lovely jar with an apple on top and tied it in a ribbon.  I'm not sure what everyone else thought but I thought it was pretty cute.


The caramel is the caramel used in my caramel popcorn recipe...just in case you don't want to look there, here it is:


Caramel

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 cups packed  brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 T water
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 T vanilla extract

Directions:

Combined all ingredients, except vanilla, in a large sauce pan over medium high heat.  Stir until butter melts.  Watch the mixture carefully as it can burn quickly.

When the mixture comes to a soft boil, continuously stir for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar.  If it comes to a rapid boil, turn down the heat so it doesn't splash out and burn you!

Take the pan off the heat and add vanilla.  Stir until combined.

Save any unused caramel in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  It saves pretty well for a few weeks.

There you have it folks.  Have a fabulous week!

Sara Jane

Monday, September 3, 2012

Lisa: Moving and Eating!

Well, here we are.  What a difference a week makes!  My family and I have moved from our little house in the wilds and back into suburbia.  I have to keep reminding everyone not to yell and be to wild since we have neighbors now.  We like our little rental and are glad to be done lifting, packing and moving but we also long for permanence.  I guess, though, with all this moving about, we are creating adventures for ourselves and our children!!

This weeks post is another easy one but such a delicious salad, I just had to share!!  Here at my house, we have certain days in the week for certain foods: Mondays and Thursdays are fish, Tuesdays are salads or soups, Wednesdays are meat free, Fridays are fun days like tacos or burgers or pizza, Saturdays are the days my husband and I go out so the kids make their own meals and Sundays are our big dinners of the week with a roast or something like that.  I like to try to find easy but delicious salad recipes, since that sometimes doesn't seem like a meal (at least to my teenager!).  This one is perfect and such a good light summer meal. 


Teriyaki Chicken Salad with Avocado and Mandarin Oranges

1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2-1 bunch green onions, chopped
2-3 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 bag of coleslaw mix cabbage

*Combine and chill.

1c. Teriyaki sauce
1 lb. chicken breast

*Marinade the chicken for at least 15 minutes.  Cook on grill or in a pan until cooked through.  Set aside.

1-2 avocados, peeled, pitted and diced
1-2 cans of Mandarin oranges, drained
your favorite sesame dressing
slivered almonds, optional

*To serve, place the lettuce mixture on a plate and top with chicken, avocado, mandarin oranges, and almonds, if desired.  Pour over your favorite sesame dressing and serve. 

It is delicious!  All of my family loves this one, although some don't like the avocado.  If I serve this for lunch for my hubby and me, I usually don't have it with the chicken and it still is so good.  The lettuce mixture of cabbage, Romaine, cilantro and green onion is perfect for a side for the rest of the week, as well.  It's an all around great meal!!  I hope you enjoy!!

Lisa