Birthday Dinner:)

.. so last monday night was my birthday dinner! my birthday was actually a month ago when we were in Mexico for my brother's wedding, but life has just been so crazy busy that this was the first chance that my whole family could get together to celebrate! last week, i didn't get a chance to cook, but i did get the chance to make my own birthday cake! usually my dad decorates it and he does a phenomenal job! but this year i wanted to do it as i had bought a frosting spatula and  hadn't had a chance to use it yet; this was the perfect opportunity. originally i was going to make my cake from scratch, but then i realized that as silly as this may sound, i love the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix. it is seriously the best. so i just used a box cake mix and canned vanilla frosting.

 one thing i learned with canned frosting is that if you dye it, it does something funny to the frosting and then it becomes very soft and does not hold up too well. by the time we ate the cake my flower was drooping down the side of the cake.

 For the meal we had:

 bagels from Panera: blueberry, french toast, chocolate chip, and cinnamon crunch.

 sunchips

 watermelon.

and for the main course, Marston's salad!
Marstons is a restaurant in Pasadena, California, where my mom grew up. they make this really great salad dressing and on the back of the dressing bottle is this amazing recipe. the recipe for what in the salad is below.

every year i celebrate my birthday with my Aunt Lynne, whose birthday is the day after mine!

i can't believe i'm already 17! next year at this time i'll be getting ready for college! it's crazy how fast time flies. i remember when i was little, looking up at seniors and thinking wow, they are so grown up. i feel very blessed by all the great family and friends that i have in my life!


oh yes, one of my birthday presents was a subscription to the Food Network Magazine ! so be looking out for some new recipes from there!

Marston's California Orange Salad

4-6 chicken breasts
2 heads Romaine lettuce, chopped
(or 2 heads iceberg lettuce and 1 head red-leaf lettuce, chopped)
1 avocado, chopped
4 handfuls of candied pecans, chopped
6 oz. black raisins
1 large apple, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
12 oz. Mandarin oranges, drained
4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
8-12 oz. San Pasqual Dressing.

 

Basil Chicken Strips w/ Parmesan Vegetable Rice

... a while back ago i went up to Michigan with my brother and two of my cousins (Steven, Kim, & Jojo) to visit my cousin and her husband(Jim & Maria)! We went thrift store shopping,

 ice skating, 

had a pizza cook off (between Maria and Jim, quite entertaining.) and we even went to P.F. Changs. (gotta love their lettuce wraps.) Anyways while i was up there staying at my cousins' very cute house, Jojo and I browsed through her cookbooks. she had this one awesome cookbook that had pictures of almost all the dishes (i love it when recipes have a picture of the food!) well i found a recipe for  Basil Chicken Strips w/ Parmesan Vegetable Rice. i just got to try them out a few weeks ago and they where AMA-Zing! the Parmesan Vegetable Rice was my favorite, and i ate wayyy to much of it! I hope you try these easy recipes out because mmmm, they are so tasty!

Recipes: 
Basil Chicken Strips (i 3x this recipe for 5 people)
Ingredients
1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. dried basil
Directions:
  In a large resealable plastic bag, add chicken and flour, seal bag; toss to coat. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the chicken; saute for 5 minutes stir in the red wine vinegar and basil; cook until the chicken is no longer pink.

Parmesan Vegetable Rice
Ingredients
1/2c. uncooked instant rice
1/2c. chopped green pepper
2 tsp. butter
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 garlic clove minced
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. celery salt
2 Tbsp. shredded parmesan cheese, divided
Directions
  Cook rice according to package directions. Meanwhile in a small nonstick skillet coated w/ cooking spray, saute green pepper in butter for 2 minutes. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the tomato, salt, celery salt, and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add the rice and 1 tsp. cheese; heat through. Sprinkle w/ remaining cheese.

Mexico

...okay so it has been about 2-3 weeks since i've posted, and i apologize for that. the reason for me not posting wasn't because i was lazy, but because i was in mexico for my brother's wedding! it was a B-E-A-utiful wedding! Kali (my new sista!) did a great job, and i'm so happy to have such an amazing person join our family!

 the couple. aren't they so cute?

our family. (my siblings and i all got to be in the wedding!)

  and now for an update on my garden! when i got back from mexico i could not believe how much my plants had grown! and the weeds :( but with some hard work i got my garden back in order!

 my squash!

 the peppers.

 tomato plants

 my corn.

 okay so it's out of focus but this a blossom on one of my potato plants!

and my one and only sweet potato left, i started out with 5, but 4 of them died :(

and my carrots and onions, which in fact grew so much that i picked some of them for supper the other night!

aren't they beautiful?!

  I'll be posting an actual food post tomorrow:)