What's for dinner tonight?

If you are anything like me and have a lot of time on your hands today you will be glued to your computer. Why? you ask. You mean you haven't heard?! Well, then, let me fill you in. Today is Swagbucks' third birthday. So what? you say. Well they are throwing a huge bash and are just throwing away tons of swag bucks all day long. Plus they will be finishing off their cryptogram that has been going on all week. They will give you the final letter and instructions on how to solve it for a swagcode that is bound to be worth big bucks! If you aren't a member of swagbucks yet, today is the day to sign up! You get 30SB right away if you sign up (as always), but you will get a bonus 50SB if you enter a special code (available only to new members)! For more info on the "Birthday Swag-a-thon" as I like to call it and info on how to sign up for SwagBucks please check out the latest entry of my other blog Rockin Tips.

So now back to the point. If you are going to be glued to your computer you aren't going to have much time to plan a dinner for the family. That's where this entry will come in handy. I found this recipe through SwagBucks TV videos and thought today would be the perfect day to post it. Enjoy.

Creamy Chicken Florentine

prep time 10 min

total time 22 min

makes 4 servings, 1-1/4 cups each

photo by:

kraft

What You Need

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup  halved red pepper strips

1 pkg. (6 oz.) baby spinach leaves

1 tub  (10 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Savory Garlic Cooking Creme

2 cups hot cooked penne pasta

2 Tbsp.  toasted pine nuts

Make It

COOK chicken and peppers in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 5 to 6 min. or until chicken is done. Add spinach; cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until wilted. Drain all but 1 Tbsp. liquid.
ADD cooking creme; cook and stir 3 min.
STIR in pasta; top with nuts.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Substitute uncooked deveined peeled medium shrimp for the chicken; cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until shrimp turn pink. Continue as directed.

UPDATES

1) i received my sync cord in the mail and installed the "optional" software that most did not have but was actually needed! I hope to either tomorrow (after babysitting) or saturday to begin uploading all the photos from on my phone :-) then update that cookie blog entry! :-) :-)

2) Regarding yesterday's 1st blog entry from Mashable:

HPOA Jenny Was a Fake!

Yesterday, we fell in love with “Jenny,” a young woman who quit her job through a series of amusing whiteboard messages. Alas, this one was too good to be true. “Jenny” is really Elyse Porterfield, an aspiring actress from Glendale, California.

The prank was created by brothers John and Leo Resig for their humor site, theCHIVE.com. Peter Kafka from AllThingsD grew suspicious of the story yesterday and did some digging. Porterfield has also tweeted confirmation of her role in the stunt.

A word from Jenny (16 Photos)

Author: John

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We couldn’t have pulled this one off without the help of this adorable young woman. You’ll see in the coming days she’s as smart as she is sexy. Leo and I will now return to our bottles of Jim Beam and enjoy the rest of this wild ride…

Chive On,
John

I made cookies!

ORIGINALLY POSTED 7/26/2010 at 5:25 PM EST

Just made Splenda's Choco Chip Cookies as seen on their website and they came out sooo yummy. I made a couple small substitutions tho. I used 1/2 cup of splenda brown sugar blend instead of the 2/3 cup each of brown sugar and splenda granular the recipe called for. I also used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 cup heath toffee bits instead of 1 cup of regular chocolate chips. The cookies taste soooo amazing! =) They didn't come out quite right (I probably didn't use enough splenda brown sugar blend) cos they spread a bit too much and were still raised in the center. But boy are they tasty! This was my first time ever baking cookies from scratch on my own so I am glad they were a success!  Updates will follow with modified recipe and pictures!

UPDATE 1  7/26 11:51 pm
The Recipe! :)

Choco-Chip Cookies
INGREDIENTS
• ⅔ cup butter or margarine, softened
• ½ cup SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar, SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener and vanilla together in a medium mixing bowl. Mix until well blended and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape sides of bowl. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Place level tablespoons of cookie dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire cooling rack.
 

Nutrition info (per serving of 1 cookie)
Calories 90 | Calories from Fat 45 | Fat 5g (sat 3g) | Cholesterol 20mg | Sodium 90mg | Carbohydrates 11g | Fiber 0g | Sugars 7g | Protein 1g
 

Serves: 36
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time 27 Minutes

© McNeil Nutritionals, LLC 2009

http://splenda.tastebook.com/recipes/1397015-Choco-Chip-Cookies


UPDATE 2  7/27 11:40 pm
I keep trying to transfer my pictures from my microSD on my phone into my camera and onto the laptop but no luck yet. Will try again tomorrow with the pc instead. grr. sorry for the delay!


UPDATE 3  7/31 6:27 pm
Couldn't upload pix onto the pc either. Tried assorted things including using a different microSD to SD adapter and using my dad's camera, but no luck. I've got some sort of issue with the microSD communicating to adapters. Then I figured since that wasn't working I tried sending the pix in a multimedia message (MMS) from my cellphone to my email, but I had issues with that too. Couldn't send or receive MMS. Called up AT&T on the 28th regarding the issue. Talked to two different people and we tried some things but no luck. They told me to call up Samsung who make my phone to help me reset it. When I tried calling the were unavailable so had to wait till day before yesterday (29th). So I called them up again and got my phone reset and tried to resend the original msg. No luck there. They told me there was nothing else they could do and I could either send my phone in to get repaired for $70.65 (odd amount if you ask me) or I could call back up AT&T Tech Support. So I called back AT&T and spoke to a third person over there and we tried some of the original steps again (which Samsung had me try) and voila...it just worked... So now my phone is fixed but I still can't send the message to my email. I was told that if I send a mms to another phone it won't cost me anything extra but if I send to an email it will cost more for data charges so I was at a loss for what to do. Asked my friend Dan who's a bit tech-y and he told I could just buy a sync cable for it. So for the rest of that day and most of yesterday I searched for a reasonable price for the cable and i checked ebay like crazy but most were in hong kong and didnt have the cd to help set it up right. Finally I did a google search and came across this American company who had it with the setup CD..all for $2.54! I read online it could cost $40 from samsung????? yikes! that's insane! So I just ordered it from http://www.suntekstore.com/3-4ft-USB-Sync-and-charge-Cable-%5E%5ECD-for-Samsung-A767-A137-A867-i907.html. Cost $2.54 + free shipping + insurance! =D Should be here in a couple of days and I'll set it up immediately and finally upload the pix of my cookies to this blog! =D YEY!!!!!!!!

UPDATE 4 8/7 4:06 PM
I am still waiting on that sync cable to arrive. The listing said it would ship first class mail with insurance but it's still a no-show. Hoping to get it tomorrow-again! Seems like I'm constantly waiting for tomorrow with it. :(

Recipe of the Day

Blueberry Cream Cheese Crumb Bars

This is a guest post from Thibeault's Table.

I went looking for something to  bake using  Blueberries and found a very appealing picture of a Blueberry Crumb Bar on The Homebased Mom's blog. 

Adapted the recipe slightly to use up a package of Philly cream cheese. 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Crumb Bars
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Adapted from: http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/blueberry-crumb-bars

1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 C. fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tsp. cornstarch

4 ounces cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

Vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust.

Cream the cream cheese with sugar. Add beaten egg and vanilla. Stir well to combine. Drop by tablespoon over the blueberries.

Crumble remaining dough over the top.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.