Father's Day Dinner & DIY

The saying "a way to a man's heart is through his stomach" rings pretty true for my husband, I am always trying to make his favorite restaurant meals at home which he absolutely loves. So for Father's Day this year (we are celebrating it today since we are busy tomorrow) I made him a copy cat recipe of his favorite meal from our very favorite local Italian restaurant DiCicco's for lunch. DiCicco's was where we had our very first date, he ordered the Rigatoni Scarface and I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo. We are still pretty frequent visitors but I've changed up my order since then, I am obsessed with their White Pizza, but my husband has stuck with the same thing...the Scarface.

 Italian White Creamy Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter
 3 tablespoons Flour

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
 3 tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

Salt

Scarface Ingredients:
Chicken Breast

Mushrooms

Rigatoni Noodles

 First things first I filled a pot with water then put it over high heat to boil.

While waiting for the water to start boiling I chopped up the mushrooms...

...and the chicken.

After my water started boiling I threw in the whole box of Rigatoni and let it cook. This is when it got fun, I had a pot or pan on every burner!

To make the sauce I put the butter in a pot over medium low heat and let it melt. I then added the flour and stirred until the butter and flour were totally mixed together. I then added the rest of the ingredients and mixed it all up until it was nice and creamy then I took it off the burner. 

At the same time I was sauteing the mushrooms...

...and grilling the chicken.

After my noodles were cooked I poured out the water leaving the noodles in the pot. I then added the grilled chicken, sauteed mushrooms and the Italian White Cream Sauce to the pot and mixed everything together really well. I let the pot sit on low heat until I was ready to plate it.

While I set the table I placed my French Bread in the oven to warm up.

Ta Da...our "fancy" lunch DiCicco's style. 

The Rigatoni Scarface was delicious, I was pretty impressed with myself! I wanted my hubby to feel like he was actually at DiCicco's so I used the same color of napkins that they use, the red and yellow.

One of our favorite parts of DiCicco's is the massive screen that they play some of the most amazing opera music videos on, so to make our lunch seem even more authentic I had Andrea Bocelli's Radio playing on Pandora....love him!

Lunch was a big hit with my husband and our son. The smile on my husbands face when he saw the table, heard the music and tasted the food was amazing.

For a Father's Day card my son and I scrolled through Pinterest searching all the cute DIY cards. As soon as my son saw this idea he was stoked cause he knew he was going to be able to paint his foot...such a boy!

Supplies:

Paper

Daddy's Shoe

Kiddos Foot

Paint

Sharpie

The first thing we did was paint the bottom of Daddy's shoe. At first my son picked out blue for his Dad's print but changed his mind at the last second. 

So we ended up painting the bottom of Daddy's shoe green then pressed it onto the paper making a nice big shoe print. 

We let it dry for a bit.

Then we painted the bottom of my sons foot blue, he was so excited about this part.

We carefully placed his foot over Daddy's print making a cute little blue foot print.

After the paint was fully dry I wrote the poem that my son had picked out for his Daddy then wrote a sappy little Father's Day note. 

It was such a cute, easy, fun way to show Daddy how much he is loved and how much he means to the both of us.

Waffle Taco

 I have been hearing about and seeing the commercials for Taco Bell's new breakfast menu non stop so of course I had to check it out. The only thing on the menu that really appealed to me was the waffle taco but as soon as I saw the picture my brain went "I can totally make that!" so I did...

For Four Waffle Tacos I Used:

4 Multigrain Frozen Waffles

4 Frozen Turkey Sausage Patties

4 Eggs 

Reduced Fat Mexican Blend Cheese

The first thing I did was cook the turkey sausages.

 Then I scrambled the eggs and sprinkled the cheese on top of them and mixed it in to make it all nice and melty.

As for the frozen waffles I put them in the toaster for a little bit to defrost them. But after I toasted them I put them in the microwave with a tiny bit of water in a plastic bowl then covered them and cooked them for 30 seconds in order to make them soft enough to fold in half like a taco.

Now it was time to assemble the waffle taco so I cut each piece of the turkey sausage in half, folded up the waffle like a taco shell, placed a piece of the turkey sausage on either side of the waffle then filled the middle with the egg and cheese mixture and....

 ....this is what I got, a healthier homemade version of Taco Bell's Waffle Taco complete with a side of fat free maple syrup.

Healthy Big Mac Meal

My husband really likes the Big Macs from McDonald's and when I was overweight, didn't care about my body and ate beef I did too. Since we are both now living a healthier life McDonald's has been ousted which means no more Big Mac's for us...from McDonald's anyways! When I took my son into McDonald's to play just the other day, we were waiting on my husband to get done with one of his many appointments, I actually found myself kind of craving a Big Mac. So for dinner that night I made us some healthy Big Mac meals.

First things first...the fries!

Supplies:

A couple Sweet Potatoes

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

Salt

Pepper

Peel, rinse and slice the sweet potatoes. Place them into a microwave safe bowl and add 1 tablespoon of water.

Place the bowl into the microwave and cook for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes, drain the water from the bowl then add the olive oil and all the seasonings. Mix everything together really well, making sure each sweet potato piece is covered in oil and seasonings.

Spread the seasoned sweet potato slices onto a baking sheet then bake them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, make sure you flip the slices after 15 minutes or the bottoms will get burned.

Now the fun part....making the Big Mac!

 Supplies:

Turkey Burger Patties (2 per burger)

Shredded Lettuce

Sliced Cheddar Cheese

Wheat Hamburger Buns

Fat Free Thousand Island Dressing

1/4 of an Onion chopped

Dill Pickle sliced

Chop your onion and slice your pickle.

Grab your buns.

You will need one top and two bottoms, one of the bottoms is for the center of the burger.

Grill your burger patties.

Time to assemble...

Bottom Bun
Thousand Island Dressing
Shredded Lettuce
Cheddar Cheese
Turkey Patty
Onion
Bottom Bun
Thousand Island Dressing
Shredded Lettuce
Pickle Slices
Turkey Patty
Onion
Top Bun

And vuala...

A Big Mac meal made at home! Of course it didn't taste the exact same since I used turkey instead of beef but it was pretty darn close and super delicious and filling. The fries were tasty and the fresh brewed tea was great to wash everything down with.

For My Very Special Valentines

Yesterday was Valentines Day and like always I tried to make my son and husband feel extra special. I had been plotting and planning for about a month and both surprises, one for my son and one for my hubby, turned out really well. Our Valentines Day was a lot of fun and was really tasty too!

For my son's surprise I made up a Valentines Day treasure hunt...

My Supplies:

Scissors

Ribbon

Stapler

Note Cards

Treasure:

Valentines Day Balloon

Chocolate Kisses

Toy Car

Maze Game

Mini Lego

Kool-Aid

Book

Leap Pad Game

My husband took my son to the park so when they came home my son found this on our front door.

Clue: "Valentines Day is a day of love, now go to the place of the bubbling tub."

His treasure and his next clue were hanging over our hot tub. 

Clue: "We love your hugs and your kisses, now go to the thing that cleans our dishes."

His treasure and his next clue were hanging on the dish washer. 

Clue: "You wheelie are our favorite little boy, now go to the thing that holds your toys."

His treasure and his next clue were in his toy box.

Clue: "You are a-MAZE-ing that's for sure, now go to the thing that's covered in fur."

His treasure and his next clue were sitting on our dogs bed.

Clue: "We will never Lego of you...we'll never let you down, now go to the place where you climb high off the ground."

His treasure and his next clue were laying on the top bunk of his bunk bed.

Clue: "You are one Kool kid indeed, now go to the place where we read."

His treasure and his next clue were sitting in the chair in his room.

Clue: "Your #1 in or book and in our hearts, now go to the room that hangs Great Grandma's art."

His final treasure was sitting on our bed in our room.

"Your final prize: a new game to play! We love you Little Man, Happy Valentines Day!"

Our son had a blast with this treasure hunt and loved everything he got, the smile on his face made my heart melt. I will definitely be doing this again!

For my husbands surprise I made him a copy cat dish and dessert from TGI Fridays...

For dinner I made his favorite Sizzling Chicken and Cheese. 

I used this recipe from Recipe Secrets for the chicken, peppers and cheese and this recipe from What's For Dinner? for the super yummy mashed potatoes. 

Dinner was tasty...

...but dessert was amazing! 

I made a Brownie Obsession and it was melt in your mouth delicious!

I made the brownies from a box mix but I didn't let them cool like the directions on the box say to do. Right after taking the brownies out of the oven I cut out a couple slices and put them on our plates. I topped each of them with some hot chocolate fudge, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce and a bit of chopped pecans.

Yum-yum-yummy

I hope you all had a great Valentines Day filled with love, happiness and surprises... 

Happy Valentines Day!

Homemade Happy Meal

Every single time I ask my son what he wants for dinner he tells me "chicken nuggets, fries, apples and some apple juice." What he just requested was the 4 piece Chicken McNugget Kids Meal from McDonald's. He is obsessed which doesn't make me that happiest since McDonald's food isn't the greatest for him, plus they cost a bit of money! So I decided to make him a home made happy meal to make both of us happy.

Ingredients For Nuggets:

2 slices of Wheat Bread

1/8 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/8 teaspoon Salt

1/8 teaspoon Pepper

1/8 teaspoon Onion Powder

1/2 teaspoon Parmesan Cheese

1 Egg

1 tablespoon Fat Free Milk

1 medium Chicken Breast

First things first toast the pieces of wheat bread.

Place the toasted bread into a food processor. 

(If you don't have a food processor put the toast into a zip lock bag and crush with a rolling pin)

Process the bread until you get some nice fine bread crumbs.

Chop the chicken breast into bit size pieces.

Place the bread crumbs into a zip lock bag then add the garlic, salt, pepper, onion and cheese. Mix everything together well. 

In a small bowl beat the egg and the milk together. 

Place the chicken pieces into the milk egg mixture and toss them to coat well.

Place the milk egg coated chicken pieces into the zip lock bag with the bread crumb mixture. Shake until every chicken pieces is fully covered in bread crumbs.

Place a cooling rack into a small pan then place the pieces of chicken onto the rack.

Bake in a 400 degree oven until they are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. 

Fry Ingredients:

1 medium Potato

1 1/2 tablespoons Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Peal and wash the potato. 

Cut it up into long thin little french fries.

Pour the olive oil, salt and pepper into a medium bowl then add the potato slices.

Toss them in the oil mixture making sure they are all well coated.

Place the potato slices on a baking sheet.

Bake them in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, flip the slices over and bake for another 10 minutes.

Here is my sons home made happy meal, toy and all! His face lite up when he saw it! He ate every last piece, which almost never happens, so I would definitely say this meal was a success.