Bacon-Wrapped BBQ Chicken with Apples

I was talking to my mom as I left the grocery store the other day...

Me: So, I think I'm gonna wrap some chicken breasts in bacon, 

put barbecue sauce on them and roast them in the oven. 

I'm gonna put apples on top somehow.

Mom: I'd put he apples on the side.

Are you just making this up off the top of your head?

Me: Why, yes I am.

Y'all. It is so good! 

Tender and sweet with a little bit of BBQ spice. 

Winner, winner (another great) chicken dinner!

Here's what I did.

Heat oven to 350

Place 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts on a baking sheet and season (I shake some Tony Chachere's on both sides). Wrap each piece of chicken with bacon securing the ends underneath the chicken.

I used about 1 and 1/2 slices if bacon per piece of chicken. 

Sprinkle brown sugar over the top and bake for 45 minutes. 

Top with barbecue sauce and continue baking for 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, peel and chop 2-3 medium apples, discarding cores. 

Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat, add apples, 1 tsp (or so) of cinnamon, 

2 tablespoons of brown sugar and reduce heat. 

Cook about 10 minutes stirring occasionally until apples soften to your preferred tenderness. 

Some folks like them firmer, others prefer them cooked to an almost liquid state. 

Y'all this is so great-can be made for a crowd for Sunday dinner or a weeknight supper. 

It was such a hit at our house and just enough spicy and sweet for everyone in the family. 

Ingredients list:

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

6 (or so) slices if bacon

1 Tbsp Tony Chachere's

4 Tbsp Brown Sugar, divided

1/3 cup barbecue sauce (more or less)

2-3 Tbsp butter

2-3 medium apples

1 tsp cinnamon

Enjoy! 

Even the best laid plans...

...are no match for the stomach bug.

I just feel like I need to post this because the last few days have been so busy I might forget what we've been doing.

Sunday morning Lizzy woke with the symptoms of the dreaded stomach virus right before we were to go meet Charles, Mimi, Kelsey and CJ to pick up Kelsey for the week. I tried to get Lizzy to rally, but just as we got in the car, another "wave" hit and cancelled the trip for her.

Joseph and Jay took our place and picked up Kelsey and brought her to our house in time for lunch with the West/Myers crew.

I served Miss Daisy's Turkey Divan, some fresh fruit, corn and green beans all from our local produce stand and Macaroni and Cheese, of course. I also made an angel food cake with pineapple which was good, but super sweet.

Lizzy seemed to rally and spent the rest of Sunday without incident so it was easy for me to send Joseph on his way to head to the gulf for some snapper fishing while we prepared for a fun time with Kelsey.

It rained almost all day Monday, so my plan for the zoo was a wash out. We did take Kelsey to our new Target with the elevator and escalator which was super impressive, then home for some painting, snacking, pool time, a trip to the post office to mail some letters to CJ, out to dinner at Milo's, then to the park and out for ice cream! Whew!!

Tuesday we just played around the house then Kelsey and I had a girls day with lunch at Taziki's and some shopping at the Summit.

We had BIG plans for a full day at the gym and pool with friends today, then again, just as we were ready to hop in the car this morning--Lizzy is sick again.

This time her symptoms were much worse and she seemed absolutely miserable. Jay and Kelsey spent quite a bit of quality time together today away from the little sick crying baby. I hope they had fun.  Honestly, today is/was such a blur. I just know I've never felt sorrier for one of my kids than I was for sweet Lizzy today. I just pray that its over now and that no one else gets whatever she had.

So, despite my big plans this week has been sort of flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. We've had fun with Kelsey here, even if there have been lots of breaks for extra baths and time to tend to Lizzy.

I have no idea whether we'll make it to Nashville or just meet someone halfway tomorrow to drop Kelsey off. I can't imagine taking care of my sick kids while out of town. I'm just super tired tonight, but need to do ten thousand things because I certainly don't know what kind of surprises tomorrow has in store! I would love a Diet Coke right about now to get things done, but we've stopped buying them and I'm too tired to go out and get some. Perhaps I'll spike my water with some extra lemons and see if that put some pep in my step?!?!

Here's hoping for a smooth rest-of-the-week WITHOUT ANY PLANS! :)

Father's Day and these funny faces

Another pretty laid-back weekend around the West house.

We celebrated Father's Day by having the Dede and Papa, Jenn, Sean, Weston and Davis and Sean's parents for dinner yesterday.

The boys played in the pool for about an hour before dinner and had a blast, then all ate great--so I feel like that was an "Ah-ha" moment by having them play and swim before dinner instead of trying to force feed three squirmy little fellas who just want to hurry up and get outside.

We served a great dinner of Grilled Salmon, I roasted squash, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers and onions in the oven, as always made mac-n-cheese (and a few chicken nuggets for the under 30 crowd), a yummy huge salad and I picked up a low-carb cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and made some brownies for dessert.

Today we were at the "exercise place" as Jay calls it, bright and early then off to Whole Foods then home for snack, back to the gym for some pool time before storms come in this afternoon.

Check out this little sun-kissed sister!

Lizzy certainly has my complexion and is turning into a little brown biscuit.

Jay of course favors Joseph in the complexion department and is still a silly little turkey!

Lizzy is officially 15 months old now and goes for her check-up tomorrow. I think she's grown a ton, but we'll see what the doc says.

We're just about a month from Jay's 3rd birthday and he is currently boycotting any plans for a party or even having a birthday all-together.

Let's hope he comes around soon!

Wet weekend

Thanks for your concern "after the fall", typing that makes "the fall" seem so much more dramatic than it actually was, but I appreciate your chuckles and sympathy nonetheless.

Just to follow-up some major soreness and bruises showed up late to the party on Saturday morning leaving me to wonder exactly how I crash landed because the bruised and sore places are not at all connected to one another nor symmetrical.

But, the rest of the weekend was without incident, so I'll call it a win.

We didn't do anything grand on Saturday..I took the kids to the park, ran to the grocery for the 4th or 5th time this week.

We skipped church due to Lizzy's runny-nosed-ness. I just can't be the one to bring a sickie to the nursery to potentially bring illness to little babies or the sweet ladies in the nursery who work so hard to keep Lizzy happy despite her desire to scream like a banshee for an hour.

I am now convinced that her nose is related to yet more teething, so there's that.

Joseph and Jay were playing outside with the hose around lunchtime and it was so hot that Joseph got online and told me he was buying a kiddie pool to pick up at the store after lunch. As Joseph backed out of the driveway it started to rain....and he came home with this.

Yes, it is as big and above-ground-pool-like as you think it is.

It never stopped raining for the remainder of the day, but he still set it up and ran a series of 4 hoses to it to fill 'er up. Jay, Weston and Davis just HAD TO get in....then we forced their little Popsicle-selves out and even had to thaw Davis out in a warm shower.

We also hosted the West/Myers gang for dinner of burgers (grilled in the rain), potato salad, baked beans, Mac-n-cheese and strawberry pound cake. Which was delish.

And now we're off headed into another fun-filled week of Summer with no real plans, but I believe it will include lots of pool time either at either the gym or in our new kiddie pool or both.

Father's Day is upn us and despite the six-zillion "Father's Day gift guides" on tv and online I have no inkling about what to get Joseph this year. I'm sure we'll come up with something that he'll appreciate.

Today (Tuesday) the pool was warm enough for Jay to enjoy for a few minutes before naptime. He.loves.it.

The Wests this Week

It's been an unusual week for us, but not much exciting to report.

Lots of cooking and eating. Playing and keeping up with things around the house.

Just as I left to go get Jay from his last day of school last week, we got the unfortunate news that Joseph's grandmother passed away. It was a month to-the-day since my own grandmother's funeral.

So, we've been dealing that all that comes with a loss in the family while living our daily lives with our little ones.

I feel like I've heard dozens of messages lately telling me about the importance of the investment of TIME with your children. So, that is what we've been doing.

Joseph built this amazing swing...which has helped us all.

I've cooked, baked and fed us all into a comfortable place.

Lizzy went with us to Nanny's funeral on Thursday while Jay played at a friend's house. She has officially become a velcro baby as she would not go to ANYONE but me ALL day. My arm finally recovered sometime on Saturday. We then went to a buddies' birthday party and she did it again.

I believe we're starting to have "Sunday dinner" at our house. At least we did yesterday and plan to again this week. At first it will help us all to heal, then (hopefully) it will be a place of comfort and good memories for our children.

My mom always cooked on Sundays growing up (really, she cooked 2-3 meals a day, every day) and whomever wanted to come eat could. There was always a plate for you if you wanted to "fix" one. It just seemed normal to me as a child then when I was a teenager I looked forward to the time I could spend with my brothers and their families, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends.

It wasn't "Norman Rockwell"--we didn't even all eat at once, but it was consistently a time to come together, rest, eat and spend some time with loved ones. So, yesterday I cooked. Chicken and dressing, Squash Casserole, Macaroni and Cheese, Slaw, rolls, tea and peach cobbler. ("Yellow food" as Cathy would say)

Here's hoping for a great week and nothing out-of-the-ordinary for this crew.