Chicken Lazone

THIS HEAT THO!..... ugh, seriously the heat here in NC is ridiculous! I don't even want to imagine what it is like back home in the south! With that being said, on my last bi-weekly grocery trip, I cheated... I bought stuff for really quick meals, like, "sandwich" quick! As my family back home says, "It's catch what you can night"...haha, like every night this past week. However, even with the heat, I decided to cook Mr.Hooah a yummy Fathers Day dinner and we were not disappointed! This recipe was adapted from over at Plain Chicken! I made some changes to the recipe for us, so it would be a little healthier and it made our sauce a little less thick, but it was still delicious all the same! If you absolutely love chicken as much as we do, then you definitely need to swing by Plain Chicken and check out all the awesome recipes they have! This is a short post, I need to be cleaning instead of blogging today...we have family coming in this weekend and I am SO stoked to have not only my Aunt here, but my Uncle is coming too! I do have a special treat though, I think I am going to be doing a house tour for those of you who are interested! ATM, finishing the guest bedroom upstairs is my top priority before the Aunt & Uncle get here, so that will be a post all on its own lol.

-XO

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 lb chicken tenders
• 1/4 cup light butter, divided (I used Move Over Butter)
• 2 cups heavy cream (I used Half & Half)
• Your favorite pasta (I used Hidden Veggies spaghetti, Mr.hooah never even noticed!)

Combine salt, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper.  Sprinkle over both sides of chicken tenders.

In large saute pan, melt half of the butter over medium-high heat.  Cook the chicken tenders until done, about 8 minutes. (I cooked mine with some minced garlic)

**Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to directions on the box!**

Pour the cream and remaining butter into the skillet.  Lower heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5-7 minutes.  Serve chicken and sauce over your favorite pasta!

Aloha Zoo 2015

When you're military, you're always moving around... You're far from home... You don't always get to go home for holidays, or birthdays, etc... So, you make the best of the situation and you invite your Army Family over to celebrate together, because that is just what you do! I have to admit I have been blessed to have met some really awesome people, and no matter what direction the Army decides to take us, I know we'll all always remain friends. We have that "Army Family bond". Lol. So many good memories made and they are some of the best memories that I can honestly say I've got! From dinner dates, game nights, and unimaginably crazy parties (like our NYE/Birthday party for instance...lets just say there was a fireworks war in the backyard that videos proved to look like an old war video through the smoke and it literally took us two weeks to get all of our birthday cake out of our house. And I'm pretty positive there is probably still some champagne in the crevices of our living room ceiling fan)... And mini-getaway trips, much like this one! 

The Aloha Zoo is a little zoo made up of all sorts of animals that were rescued from terrible situations... there was a camel that had been bought for a nativity scene, then after the holiday was over, the people simply did not want it anymore.....?..... 

Like, really, people?! HOW can you do that?! It's just, SAD! 

But I am so happy that these animals are here and happy, rather than the conditions they were in before they were rescued! And I am so glad that we decided to go with our best friends and their son (we adopted him as our army nephew, lol) because even us adults got to enjoy feeding the animals and did I mention we even got to go on a "safari ride" and got to eat old fashioned shaved ice?! I think we probably had more fun than little man did! Here are just a few quick shots I got as we toured the zoo and fed the animals! 

-XO

Even Mr.Hooah enjoyed feeding them, don't let him lie to you...Haha.

Little Man & Mom feeding the goats! He wasn't sure what to think lol

There were Peacocks...

A giraffe!

These guys....

And Zebras (room-mating with an ostrich that had an obvious attitude problem)...OH MY!

And then this little guy was BRAVE & wanted to pet the python before the safari ride!

Little man gets it honest tho, because his dad was brave too! (I said HECK NO, in case you all were wondering! HAHA!)

White Veggie Lasagna "Cupcakes"

I have been LOVING veggies of all sorts lately. And lets not even get me started on wanting Mr.Hooah to let me invest in a juicer...haha. For the mean time, I guess I'll just stick with the new line that V8 came out with. It's a fruit/veggie mix...the Golden Goddess (it has sweet potatoes, yellow carrots, orange carrots, and orange juice) & the Purple Power (consists of beets, purple carrots, and green apple)! They're my two favs for sure! With all this vegetable love going on, I decided to give this recipe White Veggie Lasagna "Cupcakes" a shot & I have to say that I am really glad that I did! As I have mentioned before, I have never been disappointed with any of the recipes I have tried from over at Emily Bites and if you haven't checked her out already, you're missing out! I only had mini muffin tins so I went with it. They still turned out great but in bite size bites. Mr. Hooah was even a fan even though these are meatless! To be honest, you don't even miss meat in these babies! These would be great to add to a vegetarian menu & being "cupcakes" moves them to the "fun-food" category! Hope you enjoy these as much as we did! 

Oh, & did I mention these are Weight Watcher friendly too?!

Ingredients:

2 tsp. EVOO

4oz zucchini, shredded

3oz broccoli, diced small

2oz carrots, shredded

2 tsp. Italian Seasoning, divided

¾ cup light Alfredo sauce

16 wonton wrappers

4oz fat-free Ricotta cheese

1c. shredded 2% reduced fat Mozzarella cheese

2 tsp. grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Pre-heat the oven to 375. Lightly mist 8 cups in a muffin tin with cooking spray and set aside. 

• Bring the oil over medium heat in a large skillet or sauté pan. Add the vegetables and cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are cooked and slightly softened. Transfer the vegetables to a mixing bowl and stir in one teaspoon of the Italian seasoning. Add the light Alfredo sauce and stir to combine.

• Push a wonton wrapper into the bottom of each of the eight sprayed cups in the muffin tin. Using about half of the ricotta, spoon evenly into the wonton wrappers. Follow by spooning some of the veggie mixture into each cup (using about half the total mixture). Sprinkle about half the mozzarella evenly over the top of each cup. Press another wonton wrapper on top and repeat the layering steps with the remaining ingredients. Top each finished “cupcake” with ¼ teaspoon of Parmesan cheese and then divide the remaining teaspoon of Italian seasoning over the top.

• Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes before removing from muffin tin.

(Skinny) Taco Pasta

I have been making all sorts of healthy changes and swaps to our weekly menus, Mr.Hooah is a tricky one to please as you all know! I have been all over Pinterest looking for different healthy recipes and I finally found a new one that we hadn't tried yet. I have had several different versions of "taco pastas and fiesta pastas" over these past few years and some of them were the same but this recipe is not the case! I have tired several recipes from over at EmilyBites and I can honestly say that I have never ever been disappointed with anything I have made from there. Her recipes are amazing! And this is one of those amazing recipes! It is cheesy, filling, and easy-peasy. I don't know about you, but that is everything I like all rolled into one! Lol. You can find her original recipe here Cheesy Taco Pasta since I did things a bit different (i.e. the corn, greek yogurt, and ground turkey)! Mr.Hooah surprisingly loves this too, which is great because this is a sneaky way of tricking him into eating something healthy lol.

-XO for now!

(Sorry for the pic quality, this was done via phone, I didn't have time to break out my camera!)

Taco Pasta 

8oz wheat pasta (I used Barilla medium shells)
1 lb ground turkey

1 tsp. garlic
1oz packet reduced sodium taco seasoning

1 can corn, drained
1 ½ c. chunky salsa
½ c. water
¼ c. plain greek yogurt
1c. mexican style shredded cheese

Salt & pepper to taste

• Cook pasta according to package instructions.
• While pasta is cooking, place ground turkey in a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up the turkey as it cooks. After turkey is browned, add in the garlic and cook one minute more then drain any grease from pan. Add the taco seasoning, salsa, water and corn, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 5 mins or until pasta is done cooking.
• Once pasta is done, drain pasta and add it to the meat mixture. Add the greek yogurt, cheese, salt and pepper and stir to combine well. Remove from heat and serve immediately.