Day 2: Snow Day

Today...

My sweet 3 year old had a tough day. Lots of emotions and moodiness. I think the post-holiday blues have set in a bit. All the rush, fun and excitement are over and it can be quite a let-down. Even I feel sad that my favorite time of year is coming to an end, so I can understand where she's coming from. I just need to work on having more patience with her during those moody moments. 

My energetic 2 year old had a blast playing outside in the snow. His rosy cheeks and giggles of delight made all of us smile. 

I broke my no yelling at the kids resolution this morning, and got really upset at myself about it. Yelling is a bad habit that I've developed, and I'm determined to break it in 2014. I've spent the rest of the day reminding myself that a bad habit like this can take a long time to break, and the best I can do is keep working on it and not give up. 

My husband was out all morning running errands for me, and when he came home we all went out for family time in the snow. Watching him was almost as much fun as watching the kids, he had so much fun with them! 

We had one of my favorite and easiest to make meals for dinner tonight. Of course, it's a crock-pot meal! That thing rivals the coffee pot as my favorite kitchen appliance. (Although when push comes to shove, the coffee pot totally wins.)

Crock-Pot Tuscan Italian Chicken

INGREDIENTS
4-5 Chicken breasts, cut in half (if they're really big, I cut them in 3 strips)
1 Bottle of Trader Joe's Tuscan Italian Dressing

DIRECTIONS
Grease the sides and bottom of the crock-pot (makes clean up much easier.)
Place chicken in bottom of pot
Pour entire bottle of dressing on top
Cover
Cook on low for 4 hours (Stick to that 4 hour cooking time. Any longer and the chicken dries out. Had that happen today for the first time. Kept it in for 5 hours. It was dry but still delicious. I'll be extra careful next time though!)

And that's it! So easy, so good. I almost can't call it a recipe, it's so easy.

*I served it with pilaf rice, steamed peas, and baked Sweet Potato chunks on the side