Weekly Recipe: Honey Sesame Chicken

Welcome to all my new readers via the giveaway :) I hope you all stick around even after it's done! I try to post a weekly recipe, normally something simple as I don't have a ton of extra time!

This week it's a Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken



Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (thighs would be fine too)
Salt and pepper
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional - doesn't really add heat, just adds more flavor)
4 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 6 Tablespoons water
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Season both sides of chicken with lightly with salt and pepper, put into crock pot. In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic and pepper flakes. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 3-4 hours or on high 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 hours, or just until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from crock pot, leave sauce. Dissolve 4 teaspoons of cornstarch in 6 tablespoons of water and pour into crock pot. Stir to combine with sauce. Replace lid and cook sauce on high for ten more minutes or until slightly thickened. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, then return to pot and toss with sauce before serving. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve over rice or noodles.

(mine got a little over done, it's a bit dark in the photo, so I'd say keep an eye on it depending on the size of your slow cooker)

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway!

I am so excited to be able to offer all of you the chance to win a woman's dress from Shabby Apple!

I've browsed Shabby Apple's dresses before, I absolutely love them because they're vintage inspired yet modest, unlike a lot of clothes you find now. Plus, they have maternity dresses and little girl's dresses as well. Something for everyone!

Shabby Apple has given me the chance to allow one of my US readers to win a lovely dress! I seriously wish I was my own reader so that I could win!

The dress that I've chosen to give away is this lovely Spanish Steps dress. I think the natural tones in the white and tan will look good on any woman or young lady! I love the embroidery details on the skirt too. This dress retails for $86, and no substitutions will be made for the winning dress.


(to see more photos of the dress, simply visit the Spanish Steps dress page)

Even if you don't win the dress, Shabby Apple has given me a discount code for my readers good for 10% off your order. Simply enter "brokenfortress10off" during checkout. This code is only good for 30 days.

Here are the giveaway details...

Only open to US residents
Closes next Friday, March 2nd

Ways to enter:
(please post a separate comment for each entry)
1. Must be a follower of my blog, or become one and post a comment that you've done so.
2. "like" Shabby Apple on Facebook and post a comment that you did.
3. Visit Shabby Apple and come back and tell me what your favorite dress is.
4. Blog about this giveaway and come back and post a link to your post.
5. Post about this giveaway on facebook and come back and tell me that you've done so.
6. Tweet about this giveaway and come back with a link to your tweet.

Love

I've been thinking about this lately. How it's amazing you can love someone so much. And it's a different kind of love than the love you have for your significant other. I'm talking about the love for your baby.

I mean, Annamarie is just awesome to me. I can't imagine life without her. Yeah, sometimes nights are rough, but in the morning, I love that smile of hers.

I don't think it's something you can even understand until you have a baby of your own. I knew I'd love her, but it's kind of indescribable how it is now.

I love the stage she's at now, but I know I'll love it months from now too. The way she says "MAMA! MAMA!" when she's grumpy and crawls to sit in my lap melts me. She rests her head on my chest and I just love it. She doesn't do that for Steve.

I'm sure all you moms know this love I'm talking about. But I just had to write about it because it's amazing to me. A little piece of Heaven you get to experience here on earth.



My two loves!


Getting so big! She LOVES her baby mum-mums!


And she LOVES the big girl swing!




Make sure and check back tomorrow for my awesome giveaway! ;) (and it's something for all the ladies, not just moms!)

Swim diapers

This is what I did all last weekend, and I still have 5 more to make this weekend! I don't know how I would do this without Steve, it's hard for me to sew now, with Annamarie ripping everything out of my drawers. So he helps out when he can.

These are "testers" meaning people bought them at a discount and they'll give me feedback on sizing etc. Once I get that I'll be selling them on Etsy. And getting that patent ;)





This one is my favorite


The snaps take forever to put in. The sewing goes quickly, but when you have 11 to make, it gets kind of stressful. At least I'm over half way done with this batch!

And stay tuned later this week, I have one awesome giveaway coming up!

Mission Trip Fundraiser

I'm sure you all may remember Cara, from Hand Knit by Cara. She's been gracious enough to do a giveaway with me in the past, and I've done a few trades with her through my Etsy shop.

She recently asked me to post about a fundraiser she is doing for a boy at her church. He is going on a mission trip to Columbia, and needs to raise money to be able to afford to do so. Cara is hoping to help out by offering these headbands for just the cost of shipping plus any donation you feel moved to give.


I know a few of you have little girls, or these would make cute Easter gifts. So if you feel moved to help her out, contact her on Etsy or through her facebook page.

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

So busy!

Annamarie is 7.5 months and she's so active! It makes Mass really fun... or not.

Here she is in action this morning ripping apart my drawer


If you watch it, you can see how she can walk along things now too. She's going to be walking early I think.

I know every mom says it, but I do think she's very smart and she picks up on things very quickly!

Swimming!

As promised, here are pictures from our swimming this weekend!

I made her my cloth swim diaper, and it worked just as I hoped! Now I have them up for testing on a cloth diaper forum. After testing is done I plan on selling them and hopefully patenting them since they're unlike any other I've seen. Not many people can say they own a patent!

First time in a swimming pool!


So happy!






She actually seemed to really like it, which isn't surprising since she loves her baths. I might do baby and me swimming time with her sometime.