Celebrating Jamie’s first Fathers Day was a lot of fun yesterday, but we both recognize that Fathers Day can be a difficult holiday for many people. We talked several times throughout the day about how fortunate we are to have dads that play such important roles in our lives. Not one of our parents still has their dad around (my mom hasn’t had her dad since she was 11), and as we’re getting older we’re realizing how fortunate we really are. This year, sadly for the first time, we tried not to take for granted that we have a few really wonderful men to celebrate.
On a lighter note, our day was full of good eats! Jamie told me a few days ago that he just wanted to enjoy home-cooked meals instead of going out, and of course that was fine by me!
After sleeping in until after 8 (Hadley originally woke up at 5 for a bottle, sucked it down, and passed back out – Happy Fathers Day Dad!), we gave Jamie some cards (I’d given him his gifts days ago because I’m an impatient gift-giver like that) and scarfed down some homemade pancakes (with loads of chocolate chips by request for Jamie). I used this recipe but substituted all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour (we prefer the taste) and of course added some chocolate to Jamie’s.
After breakfast we headed to church (which we are finally starting to really, really like and of course we’re moving in 2.5 months – sigh) and came home to eat some leftovers for lunch. I warned Jamie not to eat too much because I had a big dinner planned!
After four hours in the kitchen, dinner and dessert were complete! I put together a dinner that was similar to a meal I had at Claim Jumper about a year ago, and it was a success. I couldn’t find the exact Claim Jumper copy cat recipe, but I did my best to find some recipes that were similar so that I could put it all together.
Yesterday’s meals were definitely not low in calories because quite frankly it was Jamie’s special day and that boy puts up with enough of my healthy cooking!
I don’t have a fancy name for this big dinner, so I’ll just call this exactly what it is – Spicy Chicken atop Cheddar Potato Cakes topped with a Creamy Tomato Vodka sauce, crumbled bacon, and a garnish of parsley. Are you drooling yet?
I have to throw in some pics of my girl during dinner. She makes us laugh.
The links to the cakes and sauce are above. For the spicy chicken, I coated six thin skinless boneless chicken breasts with olive oil and McCormick’s low-sodium taco seasoning before throwing them in the oven on 350 degrees for exactly 27 minutes. Perfection. Jamie usually grills our chicken breasts, but I don’t grill and I wanted him to just sit his little butt on the couch and watch soccer.
For the crumbled bacon, I rinsed the bacon under cold water, laid them out on a non-stick baking pan, and baked them on 365 degrees for 15 minutes. Once they cooled, I threw about six strips in my beloved Ninja blended and diced them up. Easy topping! I love crispy bacon but hate frying it up, so this cooking method is pretty great.
Dessert was awesome, and I’m kind of mad that I made it in the first place because now I’m going to want to make this all the time!
From Scratch Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls
Yes I’m serious.
I found the recipe here and the only tweak I made was cutting the recipe in half (though I did not cut the icing recipe in half because extra icing is always better, duh). So (so so so so) good.
If I wouldn’t have cleaned up as I went, I would have had dirty pots and pans up to my eyeballs! I love cooking from scratch, but I was pretty exhausted last night. Jamie said about 88 times that he had a great day, so I guess all that cooking was worth it to make my love feel appreciated. We really love our Jamie!
We ended our day with a jog/walk to burn off all of 5% the food we consumed throughout the day. It was nice to see so many others families out walking together and enjoying the beautiful night.
Today’s going to be a busy one around here because Hadley and I are flying to sweet home Alabama tomorrow! SQUEAL!
Gotta go pack! Have a good one!
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo