Salsa Chicken

I threw this Salsa Chicken together as a variation of something my mother in law made once.  This is super easy with minimal ingredients. 

You will need:
Chicken breasts
Salsa
Cheese blend (I used Monterey Jack and Colby)
Rice

Set your oven to 350. Now, my boys are very picky eaters.  So when I made this I divided up my 9x13 inch pan with heavy duty tin foil.  I used two sheets to create pans within the pan instead of using two pans.  After you place the chicken in the baking dish, pour a generous amount of salsa over your chicken breasts.  For the chicken for my boys, I just seasoned with some seasoning salt.

Cover your pan with foil and bake covered for 25min.  Then remove the tin foil and continue to bake another 25min.  About 5 min before the chicken is done sprinkle with cheese.



Continue baking until cheese is melted.  While your chicken is in the last 15-20min of baking, start your rice.  I prefer brown rice, but you could also use white rice.  I also added a side of green beans, but you could use any vegetable or add a salad.

See...super easy and super yummy!!!  My husband and I got a meal with a little more flavor, while the kiddos got their version.  Hope you enjoy!!

 

<3 Ashley

One HOT Summer!

I don't know about you, but I cannot believe how HOT this Summer has been.  Even the Midwest got super hot! The fam and I ended staying inside a lot!  Since it is now September, I thought we would get some relief...no such luck! :/  While some of your areas may be cooling down, this past week for us has been another hot one.  I am going to give you just a couple of tips I have learned over the past year to help beat the heat. Since some of you may be lucky enough to have a cool down, you may want to save these tips for next Summer.

First let me say this, the heat is no joke!  Your body can dehydrate faster than you would ever think.  It is important to know how your body reacts to heat.  I learned in high school that I dehydrate very quickly.  I was laying out on the beach with a friend, sipping on a sports drink, but not really drinking much.  When we decided to call it quits and head to lunch, I blacked out on the way to the bathroom.  NO FUN!!  Unfortunately, my 6 yr old has the same problem.  He hasn't blacked out like me, but he has gotten an upset stomach and had a couple of the symptoms of being dehydrated.  Educate yourself on all the symptoms of dehydration.  If dehydration gets bad enough, you may need medical attention.  Some symptoms are sleepiness, thirst, headache, dizziness.  Click here for a full list of symptoms.  And don't forget, it is up to YOU to hydrate your kids...they wont ask for water in anticipation of going out to play!!!

If you know that you or your kids are going to be outside for a long time, prepare for it!  The day before is the time to start, especially for extreme heat.  Make sure you are getting in more than 64oz of water.  Your next step, about 2 hours before your activity starts,  you want to drink at least 24oz of water.  Then about 30min before the activity drink another 8oz of water.  Drink plenty of water during the activity, and I always give my little guy a sports drink after. 

This may seem like a lot, especially for your kids, but it works!  Anthony had a baseball practice and it was 95 degrees out and he got sick because he didn't drink as much as I thought he did. Since then, I measured out how much water his water bottle held and made sure he gets that water in before activity.  I mean, I stay on him until that water is all gone!! He had his first baseball game in 102 degrees and he was hot, but he made it through the game without feeling sick at all! SCORE! :)  If you have a kiddo that doesn't care for water (like my 4yr old), try getting them a fun water bottle.  I got my boys Spiderman water bottles like the one you can see here. 



Another thing we do when in the heat, is to wet a washcloth and stick it in the freezer, inside a plastic baggy about an hour before we leave.  We keep the cloth in a cooler, but freezing it a little before allows it to stay that much colder, longer.  Whenever the boys get too hot, or Anthony has a break we put the washcloth on the back of his neck.  This seems to help A TON! 







When we lived in St. Louis we read about this tip to cool your wrists.  So either take ice or running ice cold water and keep it on your wrists for 10 seconds (one one thousand...two one thousand...).  This is supposed to drop your body temperature 10 degrees.  We do this a lot with my 4yr old because he doesn't like the washcloth on his neck.  So we use this ice pack, we got ours from Walgreens...



We also picked up this ice pack...

I like this because if there is an injury, at home or while you are out, there is more coverage than the stiff brick ice pack above.  You can also lay it over the top of your head for a quick cool down. :) You can find something similar here.  I also like the flexibility so that you can line the inside of your cooler with them.  Using ice cubes in plastic storage bags can be very messy, this saves on that. :)

A few other tips:
~stay in as much shade as possible (duh! I know ;))
~don't where tight fitting clothing
~don't forget the sun block!!!
~wear a hat to help keep the sun off your face
~grab a mini, battery powered fan
~pour ice water on your neck and/or hair/head
~avoid carbonated beverages
~high-protein foods, spicy foods and "diuretic foods" should be avoided

I hope these tips help you beat the heat!  What tips do you have?!

 

<3 Ashley

Wedding Memories

After our wedding, I knew that I wanted to preserve my bouquet, hubbs boutineer and my keepsake garter.  I also knew that I didn't want to put it in a box to be forgotten.  So when we got home from the family vacation we took after the wedding I got the wheels turning to figure out what to do with them. (We took a honeymoon later.  We wanted to make the most of spending time with my dad so my side of the family all went to Orlando for a week. Read my About Me for a little more info.) Randomly I got the idea to put them in a shadow box, so that's what I did. :)

Because everything was last minute, (again, check out my About Me) we opted to have our 25 guests be our photographers.  The result was a lot of fun pictures, but not many "posed" pictures.  So the picture I used here is my favorite picture of me and the hubbs right after the ceremony.  I believe I got the shadow box from Michael's.  This particular shadow box had a felt back, some just have the hard backing.  I attached the photo and wedding program with velcro strips. I attached both sets of flowers and the keepsake garter with straight pins.

We didn't have wedding invitations made up.  If we had I would have used that instead of the wedding program.  I added the garter since I thought we were a little old to have it hanging from our rearview mirror. ;)  I LOVE this box!  (Not to toot my own horn, beep beep!)  I have it hanging in my bedroom and I enjoy looking at the picture and remembering that moment.  I did take a picture with the glass on, but since I am not a photographer it didn't turn out the best.  Here it is anyway...

 

I hope this inspires you to create your own variation!

 

<3 Ashley