bruschetta chicken

Last night on my menu planner, I planned on grilling chicken for dinner. Unfortunately, the weather was still 85 degrees so it didn't make the experience very fun.  Good thing for a yummy creation.

Bruschetta Chicken
4 chicken breasts
3-4 tablespoons Balsamic Vinaigrette
Tomato, sliced
1/2 C Mozzarella cheese divided

1. I use Perdue Frozen Chicken Breasts that are already a great size. If you have thicker chicken, I would take the time to pound them to about 1/2" thickness
2. Stab a fork into your chicken about 8 times. This will allow the marinade to soak in
3. Place the chicken in a gallon size bag and pour the Balsamic Vinaigrette over it
4. Seal the bag and move the chicken around, making sure the whole chicken is coated
5. Refrigerate about 30 minutes
6. Place on your grill over medium heat. Cook about 4 minutes on each side
7. During the last minute of grilling, carefully place a tomato slice or two and a tablespoon of cheese over each chicken breast
8. Enjoy

I also threw together a vegetable for the side dish.  I originally wanted steamed broccoli, but it didn't look very good at the grocery store. I grabbed asparagus instead. Normally I bake it in the oven, but tonight I didn't want the house any hotter. I decided to throw it on the grill... what a delicious choice!

Grilled Asparagus
Asparagus ~20 stalks
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt

1. Wash asparagus and break off the hard part on the bottom,  like this.
2. Place the stalks on a plate and either drizzle with olive oil, or in my case, spray with olive oil until lightly coated. I use the Misto.
3. Sprinkle with sea salt
4. Place on grill over medium heat
5. Roll/rotate every 3 minutes until just tender with a fork. Approximately 10 minutes, they will be slightly charred.

xo, Erin

6 is the magic number

Over the weekend we planted not 1, not 2, but 6 trees! People have made comments like "Why are you growing a forest?"  Unfortunately, it's no where close to that.

All the yards around us have fences and all the yards also have zero privacy or trees. We want privacy, we want shade and we want trees! You have to start somewhere, so we began by planting trees.

backyard before move in, April 2010

Planting six trees ultimately meant digging six holes.  Greg was not excited about this.  Luckily, the ground was very soft from some rain and me watering the grass seed.

The first tree we planted was actually in our front yard.  We wanted to add a flowering tree to the right side of our driveway (looking at our house).  We picked up a very nice size Yoshino Flowering Cherry at Lowe's.  This is how it got home:

That night we got to work digging and had the tree planted and staked in about 30 minutes. Not bad.  We fertilized and watered immediately.  We must be doing things right because a few days later, we have flowers budding :) The size is great to start and we are excited for possibly a somewhat shaded driveway come the fall.

Next up was the backyard.  We knew we wanted to build at least one island and get some privacy as well.  We planted the red maple from last week in the back left corner.  Our plan is to find one more red maple to put back there.  That tree is taking off also.  Here are all the leaves that sprouted since last week.

We went to Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards and a few nurseries trying to decide what we wanted for the back right corner.  If evergreens/pines were cheaper, that would have been our first choice.  Unfortunately, we are trying to stay on budget and they were not the most cost effective tree.  We looked at some flowering trees, but I was being very indecisive.

Saturday morning we went to Green Acres Nursery.  They had just gotten a shipment of beautiful spruces in that were perfectly shaped.  Not only were they a little too expensive, the growth rate isn't the fastest.  We wandered around and I found a section of sale trees.  Quaking Aspens; a great price and size.  The saleswoman was trying to convince us they weren't that great of a tree and were very slow growing.  Since we never jump on anything, we left and did our research.   Everywhere on the internet, including Wikipedia, says they are fast growing and a great 'filler' tree.  Perfect.

Back we went to purchase 3 of them and start arranging them in the corner.  We moved them around a lot, and the final decision was that we needed 1 more! Then we finally got to work.

Our island will eventually encompass these trees

Staking and watering

We are happy with our purchases, but far from done in the landscaping category.  Praying for good weather this weekend. Then again, if it rains, I guess that means we can finally finish tiling ;)

xo, Erin

few words

Monday, you came too fast! We were gone 12 hours yesterday for our March Madness Rendezvous. It was an amazing experience! We got to watch NC State upset Georgetown and then watch the Spartans advance to the Sweet 16 (even though the game was not sweet).  It was a tough game for Michigan State, but that's why the call it Madness.

Here is our day in pictures. Sorry if you are not a Spartan fan. I promise to be back Tuesday with house updates.

Thurman Cafe in Columbus, was told they are the best burgers in the country

Our Big Heads before the game. They made us break the sticks off at security

Draymond Green. Enough said.

Spartans during the first game, sitting 5 rows in front of us.

Thornton & Green signs. Their families definitely appreciated them

Greg & I waiting for the game to start

Announcing the team

One of the MANY tv timeouts

haha Sparty

halftime 

Love from Sparty

Green interviewing after the game

Our 'signs' were a huge hit!

What an amazing experience!

it's the freakin' weekend

baby I'm about to have me some fun!


First off, it's Friday so I'm linking up with Lauren for High Five For Friday.  Great things happened this week and even greater things will be taking place this weekend.

Second, do not read numbers 3-5 if you aren't a fan of college basketball and March Madness.

1. I have officially applied for my Master's degree! I have been dragging my feet since I graduated almost 4 years ago. I was unsure exactly what program I wanted to go into and where I would be living. Since moving to Ohio 2 years ago and landing my dream job this fall, my final decision is to get my Master's in Special Education. Cross your fingers I get accepted, I am anxious to finally get started.

 

2. The weather has been great this week! Windows down, sunroof open kind of weather.  We have been keeping up with watering the grass seed and been thankful for some rain showers as well. Murphy loves the sun and fresh breeze in his face.

3. March Madness has begun and I have been anxiously waiting for Michigan State to play. Their first game is tonight vs. Long Island University

March Madness practice and love for Izzo

4. Last night we broke down and bought tickets for Sunday's game. I have been watching all week and prices have been slowly dropping. I'm assuming Michigan State will win tonight to advance them. I also assumed ticket prices will jump back up after the game is over.

Green and Thornton, 2 amazing leaders

5. The tickets we bought for the game Sunday are FRONT ROW behind the basket! We are so excited about this opportunity to watch Michigan State play and be so close to the action. Look for us on tv ;) 

Our view :)

Don't say I didn't warn you! Go Green and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

xo, Erin 

adventures

This is what our Wednesday night consisted of:

1. Water the grass seed
2. Wash windows
3. Wash screens
4. Play frisbee
5. Go muddin'
6. Plant seeds for our vegetable garden

Let me expand on numbers 4-6.

We enjoy walking to the 'park' that's in the back neighborhood by us. This park consists of a decent sized grass area, basketball court and a small playground. We usually play frisbee for awhile, then walk back home.  Tonight we were busy so we drove there instead. This is what the area looks like where we play. It's nice in the summer because it gets shade at night.

We started warming up and throwing farther and farther.. until this happened:

Greg got overly ambitious and the frisbee drifted a bit. He looked around to find a stick or something because it was too high to climb and reach.  He happened to find a piece of log laying on the ground by the tree. It was fate. He thought he would just throw it up and knock the frisbee off the branches.

Great idea.. until on the second throw, the log got stuck right next to the frisbee. At this point, I was trying to catch this on camera while not laughing too loud. 

Greg found another log. 

Success!

We took the long way to get home for some fresh air in the Jeep. There is an old park near our house that is normally gated, but seemed to be unlocked today. We quickly turned around. Greg never turns down the opportunity to explore in his Jeep and go muddin'.  Yes, they call it muddin' around here. It really just consists of driving on grassy hills that are sometimes muddy. Here is what it looked like:

The picture quality isn't the greatest, I had to use Greg's iphone. I had no idea our night would turn into such an adventure that I would need a camera. We are definitely taking full advantage of this amazing warm weather and daylight savings time!

Last up, planting our vegetables. We start growing our vegetable garden inside. This year, we decided to plant sweet peppers, hot peppers, beans, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes.  The zucchini and beans get planted right into the garden come May. We grabbed our supplies needed to start the other seeds and got to work. 

Solo cup with holes to drain

fill the cups with garden soil

label the cups and plant the seeds

place them in a common area and water

Have you been taking advantage of this gorgeous weather?

xo, Erin