March Madness or a weekend with no plans
This past weekend was pure madness- we had no plans! No games, no practices, no tournaments, no board meetings, no competitions- NOTHING. It was nice, but weird. When you get used to the way a thing is, it's odd when the way is different.
That isn't to say that we did nothing. We were just able to do everything on our own schedule.
Friday evening for dinner, I made copycat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets. I thought it would be great if the nuggets really tasted like CFA's nuggets. Alyssa loves CFA (we all do but she's the pickiest and therefore most noteworthy member of the family when something is liked) and always seems to want it on Sunday's when CFA is closed. I found the recipe on a food blog whose recipes I'd tried several times before. It sounded promising but I kept my expectations low! I thought the nuggets turned out quite good and definitely reminded me of CFA's. We all liked them... except for the fussiest of fussies- Alyssa. She did comment that the insides looked the same as CFA's (that would be because they both contain, you know, chicken!). I thought the breading was pretty similar tasting to CFA's. I didn't deep fry them but rather pan fried them. I'm sure that accounted for some of the difference in taste.
Jacob spent Friday night with AJ. On Saturday morning, the girls decorated bags to put candy in for Easter for Uncle John and Uncle Jay. The girls worked on Easter cards for them last weekend when Ceci and Sophie were here. Saturday late morning we took a family trip to the mall. We split up, of course. Jacob got some new spring clothes at American Eagle while Alyssa got a shirt at Justice. Abby got a pair of casual shoes at Payless. Then we had lunch at Chick- fil-A. Alyssa got her good nuggets, after all! $40.00 later, we left CFA will full bellies and me wondering why Alyssa didn't like the nuggets that I made. It would be much cheaper to make the nuggets at home!
Jacob hung out with friends when we arrived home while the girls played the rest of the day together. I picked up Penn Station for dinner for four of us while Donnie picked up Chinese for Alyssa. WHO DOESN'T LIKE PENN STATION?? The fussiest of fussies, Alyssa, that's who. Jacob saw a movie with AJ and friends Saturday evening.
On Sunday, we went to church (late service) and spent the rest of the day resting, for the most part. It was nice to have nothing pressing to do. I cleaned up the kitchen well (not really resting at that point) and went to the store. When I said we had nothing planned as far as activities to do, that was true. We did, however, have an important event occur at our house Sunday evening- the watching of Wrestlemania! I took no part in this, naturally, but the WWE fans in the house enjoyed the six hour extravaganzia (two hour pre show followed by four hours of Wrestlemania).
While the watching was going on, I finally began our taxes (yes, doing taxes sounded much more appealing to me than watching Wrestlemania!) and also made one more copycat CFA item- CFA's chocolate chunk cookies.
Donnie and I especially love Chick- fil- A's chocolate chunk cookies. They are so warm and sooooo good! I found several copycat CFA chocolate chunk cookie recipes online and all were slightly different; all claimed to be the most authentic CFA tasting cookie. I ended up following this recipe. I knew the kids liking the cookies was going to be iffy (but I wasn't concerned about them really as I was making these for Donnie and me to enjoy!!) since none of them like oatmeal cookies. All of the CFA copycat cookie recipes called for oatmeal but not a whole lot- they are not an oatmeal cookie but they do contain oatmeal. I was pleasantly surprised when all of the kids liked them. Alyssa said she preferred these to my original CC cookie recipe. That was quite a compliment! One thing I was unable to add to them was chocolate chunks. Kroger stopped selling Nestle chocolate chunks a few months ago. So, I had to use regular semi sweet chips and milk chocolate chips. The chocolate chunks in CFA's cookies really give them that distinctive and very chocolaty taste in every bite. The cookies that I made reminded me a bit of CFA's cookies but they were definitely not exactly it. I may try one more copy cat recipe for the cookies. I'd really like to replicate the taste of CFA chocolate chunks cookies at home.
Our weekend ended up being Chick- Fil- A-y, low key and just fine!
Here are my masterpieces!
Here is my mess!
Up close: they bear some resemblance to CFA's nuggets
Saturday morning- assembling the Easter cards for Jay and John
Decorating bags to place candy into
Chocolate! The girls enjoyed sampling a few pieces before placing candy in each bag.
Alyssa at Payless at the mall
My version of CFA cookies...
Out of the oven
That isn't to say that we did nothing. We were just able to do everything on our own schedule.
Friday evening for dinner, I made copycat Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets. I thought it would be great if the nuggets really tasted like CFA's nuggets. Alyssa loves CFA (we all do but she's the pickiest and therefore most noteworthy member of the family when something is liked) and always seems to want it on Sunday's when CFA is closed. I found the recipe on a food blog whose recipes I'd tried several times before. It sounded promising but I kept my expectations low! I thought the nuggets turned out quite good and definitely reminded me of CFA's. We all liked them... except for the fussiest of fussies- Alyssa. She did comment that the insides looked the same as CFA's (that would be because they both contain, you know, chicken!). I thought the breading was pretty similar tasting to CFA's. I didn't deep fry them but rather pan fried them. I'm sure that accounted for some of the difference in taste.
Jacob spent Friday night with AJ. On Saturday morning, the girls decorated bags to put candy in for Easter for Uncle John and Uncle Jay. The girls worked on Easter cards for them last weekend when Ceci and Sophie were here. Saturday late morning we took a family trip to the mall. We split up, of course. Jacob got some new spring clothes at American Eagle while Alyssa got a shirt at Justice. Abby got a pair of casual shoes at Payless. Then we had lunch at Chick- fil-A. Alyssa got her good nuggets, after all! $40.00 later, we left CFA will full bellies and me wondering why Alyssa didn't like the nuggets that I made. It would be much cheaper to make the nuggets at home!
Jacob hung out with friends when we arrived home while the girls played the rest of the day together. I picked up Penn Station for dinner for four of us while Donnie picked up Chinese for Alyssa. WHO DOESN'T LIKE PENN STATION?? The fussiest of fussies, Alyssa, that's who. Jacob saw a movie with AJ and friends Saturday evening.
On Sunday, we went to church (late service) and spent the rest of the day resting, for the most part. It was nice to have nothing pressing to do. I cleaned up the kitchen well (not really resting at that point) and went to the store. When I said we had nothing planned as far as activities to do, that was true. We did, however, have an important event occur at our house Sunday evening- the watching of Wrestlemania! I took no part in this, naturally, but the WWE fans in the house enjoyed the six hour extravaganzia (two hour pre show followed by four hours of Wrestlemania).
While the watching was going on, I finally began our taxes (yes, doing taxes sounded much more appealing to me than watching Wrestlemania!) and also made one more copycat CFA item- CFA's chocolate chunk cookies.
Donnie and I especially love Chick- fil- A's chocolate chunk cookies. They are so warm and sooooo good! I found several copycat CFA chocolate chunk cookie recipes online and all were slightly different; all claimed to be the most authentic CFA tasting cookie. I ended up following this recipe. I knew the kids liking the cookies was going to be iffy (but I wasn't concerned about them really as I was making these for Donnie and me to enjoy!!) since none of them like oatmeal cookies. All of the CFA copycat cookie recipes called for oatmeal but not a whole lot- they are not an oatmeal cookie but they do contain oatmeal. I was pleasantly surprised when all of the kids liked them. Alyssa said she preferred these to my original CC cookie recipe. That was quite a compliment! One thing I was unable to add to them was chocolate chunks. Kroger stopped selling Nestle chocolate chunks a few months ago. So, I had to use regular semi sweet chips and milk chocolate chips. The chocolate chunks in CFA's cookies really give them that distinctive and very chocolaty taste in every bite. The cookies that I made reminded me a bit of CFA's cookies but they were definitely not exactly it. I may try one more copy cat recipe for the cookies. I'd really like to replicate the taste of CFA chocolate chunks cookies at home.
Our weekend ended up being Chick- Fil- A-y, low key and just fine!
Here are my masterpieces!
Here is my mess!
Up close: they bear some resemblance to CFA's nuggets
Saturday morning- assembling the Easter cards for Jay and John
Decorating bags to place candy into
Then they decorated the outside of the mailing package
Chocolate! The girls enjoyed sampling a few pieces before placing candy in each bag.
Alyssa at Payless at the mall
My version of CFA cookies...
Out of the oven
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