Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A Fun 'Frozen' DVD Release Party

If your kids are anything like mine, or even if you don't have kids but appreciate great animated movies (I know I do - I'm super pumped the new Muppets movie opens on my birthday!) then you were probably counting down the days until Frozen came out on DVD. Occasionally, when a highly anticipated movie comes to the theater (Despicable Me 2) or like yesterday when Frozen came out on DVD, I try and do something fun for the girls to get them excited about the movie. When Despicable Me 2 came out we made Minion Cupcakes. For Frozen I decided to make it into a mini-party. Here are some of the things we did:


I purchased two foam crowns and sticker gems for the girls to use as decorations. I also bought them some sparkly necklaces and rings to use for dress-up.


Here are my beauties showing off their completed crowns. I also bought a roll of silver wrapping paper and blue glittered tissue paper to decorate the table.


Apparently everyone was in the market to purchase Frozen toys because the Elsa's Ice Palace below and the Polly-Pocket sized Anna doll we're the only two toys from the movie I could find at Walmart, and Target and Toys R Us weren't much better. I'm glad we got the movie (and the toys) first thing in the morning because by the afternoon, several of the stores were sold out of the blue-ray version. The larger, talking dolls were from Target back when the movie first came out to theaters and the marshmallow snowman is my attempt at making an edible Olaf.
(sorry for the poorly exposed cell phone picture here and below)


At our little party we also had "Frozen Punch" which was just blue Kool-Aid in a glass rimmed with white and blue sugar crystals. The girls loved it!


For dessert that night we had blue Jell-O "ice" cubes. They're really cool because it's a layer of blue Jell-O on top of a layer of clear. However, since I only used one packet of each color and used the Speed-Set method for my blue layer, mine didn't turn out nearly as cool as the inspiration ones seen below.


I found this cute Olaf printable on Spoonful's website for the girls to color while waiting for lunch.


The last thing I made for the girls are these capes. There is a scene in the movie when Elsa sings "Let It Go" while building her ice palace. This is by far .K's. favorite scene and we watch it on YouTube on average twice a day with her reenacting every moment of it. Anyway, there is a part where Elsa lets her cape fly off while singing, "The cold never bothered me anyway." Up until this party, .K. had been using a fleece blanket fastened with a hair tie as her cape but it was too long, too big, and I worried she would trip on it while twirling and dancing.


I found these two inexpensive, different shades of blue fleece baby blankets and even though I couldn't open them to see exactly how big they were, I kind of guessed that if they're for a baby, they're probably not too huge. As you can see in the picture below, it hits at a perfect spot on .K. and it's small enough to just cover her shoulders without being too big, too heavy or too bulky. Awesome!


The second part of the equation is keeping them closed. I wanted to do something a little fancier than just a hair tie but it also had to be easy enough that .K. could do it herself so she could let it fly during just the right part of the song. As you can see on .E. below, I found these super cute heart shaped toggles that I hand-stitched to two of the corners.


However, the girls don't even have to worry about doing the toggles themselves because they can just slip the capes on and off over their heads. Here you can see how long the same sized blanket is on .E. Thankfully it's just above the floor because she loves to copy Big Sis and run around the living room wearing her cape too.


Here they are dancing together while watching Frozen. My favorite part about these capes is that .E. prefers to wear hers in the front, like a giant tabard and then do somersaults and that cracks up .A.


And just like in the movie, our beautiful girls may be different, but I know they will love each other forever.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Recipe: Lemon Chicken Breast

Hello Folks! About two weeks ago I wrote a post about an app I've been using called Lose It! and two cook books I've been using to make 400 or less calorie meals.

This past weekend I was out of town visiting my bestie, her husband and their beautiful new baby. While I was gone, A did some grocery shopping. One of the meals he was going to make was Lemon Thyme Chicken. He didn't have the chance to make it while I was gone so I decided I would make it last night. A quick Google search landed me on this recipe from The Food Network and I'll tell you what, it was delicious! Even K was happy to eat it. She's not the most picky eater and she will usually eat chicken but since it was something new I wasn't sure how she would like it. Thankfully she loved it! The other great thing about it is it falls under their "Healthy" category and it is under 400 calories.


Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup good olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons minced garlic (9 cloves)
  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
    (We used a moscato which is a sweet white wine which was delicious.)
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 boneless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)
    (The original recipe called for the chicken breasts to have the skin on. I prefer no skin and the recipe works for skinless chicken as well.)
  • 1 lemon

DirectionsPreheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the garlic, and cook for just 1 minute but don't allow the garlic to turn brown. Off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 by 12-inch baking dish.

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them (skin side up) over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn't browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Serve hot with the pan juices.


Nutritional InformationCalories: 393  |  Total Fat: 19.5 g  |  Saturated Fat: 3 g
Protein: 49 g   |  Total Carbohydrates: 3 g  |  Sugar: 0 g
Fiber: 0.5 g     |  Cholesterol: 145 mg  |  Sodium: 745 mg


We made this with a side of broccoli and I used that to soak up the extra pan juices - so good!