Flat Christy returned earlier this week in a box filled with goodies! She had a miniature lei wrapped around her neck and a big silly grin on her face. After seeing all of the beautiful pictures and reading about her adventures with the Green family in Hawaii, I’m kinda surprised she came back at all! They were kind enough to share a delicious recipe with us in addition to opening their homes to us all and I want to thank you with all of my heart for such gracious hospitality! I hope you enjoy our visit with the Green’s as much as I did!

Letter from the Green’s:

Aloha Jordan Family!

We want to thank you so much for sending Flat Christy to come visit.

She arrived safely but a bit tired from her long trip across the Pacific.

Zoë, our one and half year old fashionista, decided that Flat Christy needed some Island Wear and decked her out in what’s known here as “aloha casual”.

Once FC was appropriately dressed in her flip flops, shorts, swirly shirt, and pink flower lei we set about making the wonderful gift she’d brought, cupcakes!

Funfetti is our absolute favorite and Zoë had fun pointing out the colors to FC, and Daddy, and everyone else =)

FC supervised Zoë as she measured and stirred and even scooped the batter into the pan.

Somehow Zoë still managed to get a fingerful of batter and pop it into her mouth, she’s got a sweet tooth for sure.

Nick, my wonderful husband, took the finished cupcakes to his Marines at work and they asked me to pass along a “thank you!” for them as well as a continuing thank you for all of your good recipes that I test out on them =)

Meanwhile, Zoë and I outfitted FC in a “wetsuit” (read: ziploc bag) to go with us to the beach.

She got a little sunburnt and hid out in the beach bag so we went home early and took a break for a lunch of taco soup (a la SouthernPlate.com) and a quick nap before we headed off to Queen Emma’s Summer Palace.

There Flat Christy pointed out that Katy must have royal taste because we saw the same golden forks that we’d seen on SP!!

On Saturday, after supervising the cooking of blueberry pancakes and bacon…

Flat Christy went kiteboarding with Nick at Kailua beach.

She has much better balance than I do apparently because she did very well and didn’t get dunked once.

We were all very impressed with her talents.

We decided to be bold and try a hike that afternoon to Maunawili Falls,

it was wet, muddy, and beautiful.

And then the next day was Sunday!

And Easter!! FC and Zoë both got a great basket from the Easter bunny and loved dying eggs.

On her last night here FC asked to have our favorite food for dinner and Nick was quick to pick Pasta Fresca with Parmesan Chicken.

This is his favorite food and we used to go to Noodles and Co to get it but we don’t have one on the island so he has overcome and adapted and now we make it at home.

It’s great when you can figure out how to make something you really love at home for less money and more personal satisfaction.

Then again maybe I’m the only one who jumps up and down when I get a recipe right…I’ve had quite a few failures though so success feels pretty darn good. =)

I hope you enjoy the goodies FC picked up to bring home with her.

She wanted to bring a pineapple because the taste of fresh pineapple is like nothing else in the world…but it wouldn’t quite fit =) We’ve loved having her here. We love living here and are so grateful for the opportunity to share our adventures. Have a great day and aloha!

The Green Family- Liz, Nick, and Zoë

P.S.- Flat Christy asked to stay until Thursday so she could stop by the Farmer’s Market in Kailua, it was amazing and she tried taro rolls, kona coffe, and poi.

She was especially impressed with the fried green tomatoes. =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you SO MUCH For letting Flat Christy come visit you and your wonderful family! Special thank you to that package you sent back, WOW! It was like Christmas in April for me and I drank every bit of that coffee in TWO DAYS! Best I’ve ever had! Brady and Katy say a big old thank you as well!

Here is Liz’s recipe for that delicious dish her family so graciously shared with Flat Christy!

Gratefully,

Christy

Pasta Fresca

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/4 to 1/2 diced red onion (large pieces, 1/2" in size is about right)
• 2 dashes of fresh, cracked pepper
• 1/8 cup of sweet white wine
• 1/8 cup of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Boil pasta until done, rinse, and set aside.
2. In a small bowl (I used a measuring cup, it worked great), combine the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sweet white wine, and one chopped garlic clove. Whisk until well blended and then set aside for later. (you'll want to start the chicken at this point so it's all done together)
3. In a saute pan heat about 2 TB of olive oil, saute one clove of chopped garlic and onions until tender but not caramelized. Add pasta and cherry tomatoes, cook until pasta is seared. When the pasta is seared, combine fresca sauce (re-whisk it real fast) and spinach leaves, cook until leaves are slightly wilted.

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Parmesan Encrusted Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 thinly sliced chicken breasts
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup bread crumbs (Parmesan or garlic bread crumbs work well, but plain bread crumbs will work just fine)
• Italian seasoning
• Parmesan cheese, not the powder just the grated cheese
• 1 Tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tsp salt
• 1 cup of cream
• 1 dash of olive oil
• a little extra Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Rinse chicken breasts in cold water and pat them dry. In one bowl, put one cup of flour, in another combine the other cup of flour, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, cheese, pepper, and salt. Dip the breasts in the plain flour first, then into the cream, then into the cheese mixture. After they're well coated, set them on a cutting board or rack to let sit for about 5 minutes to let the mixture soak up the cream and stick to the chicken better. You can use a paper bag to coat the chicken, kinda like a shake and bake bag, but I use a large cake pan and after breading them, I'll dump out the left over breading and use the pan to bake the chicken in the over, less dishes that way.
2. In a large, non stick saute pan or cast iron skillet heat oil until shimmery. Set the oven to 350 degrees. When the oil is hot and the chicken has set for 5 minutes, fry the chicken for about 2 minutes a side or until crispy on each side. A little bit over cooked is better than a just golden brown crust. When the breading is crispy, put the chicken into the cake pan with a little parmesan cheese on top and place into the oven for another 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through the center.
3. When the chicken is done, slice the breasts into short strips about 1/2" wide, plate the pasta fresca like a rice pilaf, and put the chicken on top of it. Add parmesan cheese to the whole dish with a little bit of Sriracha hot chili sauce on top and enjoy!

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Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.

~Grandma Moses

Submitted by Debra Whitten. Submit your quote here.

 

To see Flat Christy’s very first adventure and find out how you can have your family on the list of potential folks to visit, click here.

Thank you to the Green family!!! Please take a moment to thank them in the comments section if you can.

Aren’t these photos gorgeous? Have you ever been to Hawaii?

My parents have always dreamed of going but never been. One of these days I hope they get to!

Today’s post has been mulling around in my head for a few months now and it was all I could do to wait until today to write it. I had this neat idea a while back when I was thinking about how much I would love to get to visit some of y’all. I got to thinking of how neat it would be if I could see what types of foods you eat in your neck of the woods, what your family does together, what your town is like. See, I’ve always had a bit of a travel bug its just that I have seldom had the opportunity to travel! Soooooooo, I had one of those light bulb moments where I figured out how I could economically travel around, visit with some of you, and still be home every day to take care of my kids and put supper on the table. ~grins~ Flat Christy!

I presented the idea to several people to see if it was too far fetched (I tend to dream big at times so I try to gauge my ideas when I can) and it was well received by all. The next step was choosing my first guinea pig family! The Southern Plate Facebook Family page made that easy enough because I’ve gotten to know the Coer’s family pretty well through there. I sent a somewhat cryptic email to Amanda (the Mama of the bunch) and she was a good enough sport to reply with her mailing address. Two days later, Flat Christy was packed up in a box filled with goodies and an introductory letter (also a poem that I wrote to go with her, because I do love to pull out my rhyming abilities when I can!) and on her way to the great state of Texas!

I asked that they document her time with them and send back photos. My special request was that Flat Christy got to eat a family dinner and bring back a special recipe as s souvenir of her trip. Boy, did we hit pay dirt!

Amanda sent the most wonderful series of photos and the recipe looked so good that I just had to make it for our supper last night. Special thanks to Amanda’s neighbor, dear Miss Faye, who originally gave her the recipe for this delicious meatloaf. Amanda says it was a favorite of Miss Faye’s beloved husband and I have to tell you, my beloved husband went back for seconds AND thirds! (I think Miss Faye is onto something here).

I hope you’ll enjoy getting to see Flat Christy’s adventures with the Coer’s family as much as I did. She had quite the time! If you’d like to visit Amanda’s blog and thank her for so graciously opening her home to Flat Christy, just click here to visit Broke Chick On A Diet. While there you can also pick up some more yummy recipes and tips on decreasing the waistline, although I think the last photo of Flat Christy holds a hint as to how Amanda stays so slim, too (oh my)!

Hang in there because at the bottom of this post I have a short tutorial and recipe for Miss Faye’s Meatloaf!

And now, a letter from the Coer’s family…

Dear Christy Jordan,

We were overjoyed when Flat Christy came to visit us! She arrived on a Saturday. We came home after a Girl Scout event and our special guest was waiting for us. She was so thoughtful to come bearing yummy cupcakes and fun coloring pages!

The kids had a wonderful time helping Flat Christy get dressed for a busy day with our family. Each child chose something specific for her to wear: our youngest wanted to see her in a lovely striped shirt, our dear cousin who came to visit raved about Flat Christy in a cute denim skirt, our oldest daughter felt Flat Christy would enjoy wearing some colorful leggings and our son insisted she should be equipped with a set of martial arts “knuckle crunchers,” in case of a ninja attack.

Once she was dressed (and armed) we headed to the park. While the children played, Flat Christy and I walked a mile around the track and jammed out to some awesome Turkish pop music.

When we returned home, Flat Christy was so gracious to help prepare dinner.

She was also introduced to Duke.

Duke was not the least bit put off by the knuckle crunchers…

Her cooking advice was invaluable and dinner was a big hit.

She enjoyed playing “Cooking Mama” on the Wii (she’s a natural!) and then she traveled outside to play with the children after dinner.

The chalk she brought was put to good use by Rowena!

(3 Dimensional Christy’s Note: Can I keep this kid??)

Once the sun was down, we all sat down together for a family Bible study with Flat Christy seated next to Dad.

She helped us tuck the kiddos in bed.

Later that evening we struggled through a very tedious passport application together.

Sunday morning we all got up and headed out to Midtown Baptist Church!

Flat Christy loved the wonderful coffee and breakfast items available in the Sunday school room.

She was also very happy to help out in the church nursery.

We felt that our guest needed a nice lunch after all she did to help, so we took her to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.

If you come to Texas, you just have to have some tex-mex food!

After lunch we showed her some of the sights of our little town.

We then headed home to play some dominos.

That Flat Christy is one savvy domino player!

Vivian doing school work..

The next day she helped us get through all our school work.



Rowena doing school work



Daniel doing school work while Flat Christy keeps an eye out for Ninjas with her knuckle crunchers..

While the older kids were busy finishing some projects, Flat Christy, Vivian and I snuck into the living room to shake what our mamas gave us with some fun belly dance moves and great tunes.

Later that afternoon, we baked the cupcakes and enjoyed a nice treat after a long day.

We saved the rest to share with our church’s Monday night high school study group.

We dearly loved having Flat Christy over at our house. Give her a big kiss and hug from the Coers family!

Sincerely,

Amanda and The Coers Family

Thank YOU, Coer’s family! You are AWESOME. I appreciate you opening your hearts and your home to Flat Christy and all of the Southern Plate Family, it was such a joy! Gratefully, Three Dimensional Christy

Flat Christy brought back a slow cooker meatloaf recipe for us!

To make Miss Faye’s Slow Cooker Meatloaf (courtesy of the Coer’s family) you’ll need: 2 lbs ground beef (I’m using ground chuck because it was on sale), tomato soup, cream of mushroom soup, package dry onion soup mix, and one egg. Note: My eggs were a bit on the small side so I’m using two

Place meat, eggs, and onion soup mix in a large bowl.

Moosh it all up really good with your hands.

Cooking is not for the squeamish so just get on in there. Hands are washable! Besides, it often takes someone dealing with the messy side of things in order to be able to produce something lovely, such as dinner. There is a valuable life lesson in there that I could pull out and drive home for ya but I’m woefully lacking in caffeine today and seeing how busy Flat Christy was has gotten me flat tired!

After its all mixed up well, shape it into a loaf and place in bottom of slow cooker.

A loaf can be whatever shape you’re in the mood for. I was in a round mood today.

Pour can of cream of mushroom soup over it. I spread mine around a bit with the can.

Pour can of tomato soup over.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

(or high for four hours)

THIS WAS DELICIOUS, thank you Miss Faye!!!

It kind of had a Salisbury steak taste to it – family gobbled it up!

Slow Cooker Meatloaf!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef or turkey
• 1 large egg
• 1 packet onion soup mix
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can condensed tomato soup
• *1/4 cup ground flax seed (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix beef, egg and onion soup mix. Roll into “loaf form” and place in slow-cooker. Cover with condensed cream of mushroom soup. Pour one can condensed tomato soup over the top. Set slow-cooker on low and cook for eight hours or high for four.

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*Amanda sometimes mixes in a quarter cup of ground flax seed with the meat to sneak in Omega 3 and fiber… don’t tell her kids!

Who will Flat Christy visit next?

I’ll send her out again in the next few weeks. She will arrive with a box of goodies, dressed all in white and waiting to have her wardrobe designed. She hopes to visit with other families, get to enjoy a family dinner with you, and bring back one of your yummiest recipes! If you’d like to invite Flat Christy to your house, let me know in the comments below. Please include what state you live in, if you have children (not required!), and what you think Flat Christy would enjoy doing with your family. I’ll choose the next family at random and email you for a mailing address when she’s ready for her next trip!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are that guy who’ll decide where to go!

~Dr Seuss. Submitted by Rhonda Singleton in honor of Read Across America week.

Submit your quote here!