Coconut Chicken...You Won't Be Sorry!!

So this is the first time I have ever posted a recipe on my blog...SO here goes!! I am really more of a chicken lover than any other kind of meat and quite frankly I get so tired of always cooking with beef or pork because that's what my freezers are full of! So last week I decided to try this Coconut Chicken! This was a recipe I found online and tweaked it a bit to make it faster and more convenient to make.

My family *likes* chicken but not anywhere near as much as I do! When I made this for the family I also made an italian chicken because I was sure DD would be thrown off by the coconut and the Hubby well he has texture issues...Yep texture...Coconut is one of those that falls under the No-No category in textured food. Also the Hubby is a bit allergic to it, everytime I have *tricked* him in the past into eating or drinking something with coconut in it his throat will kind of swell and itch. BUT I did forget about this little inconvenience when I prepared dinner that night. I told him what I was making and that I knew he wouldn't eat it so I was making him and DD the other kind. But then after my first batch came up and I tried it and died and went to Heaven I told him he MUST try a bite! SO after I *shoved* umm I mean nicely fed him a bite he said "hmm yeah not bad...but I hope my throat doesn't swell in a minute"....OOPS...I only giggled a little after he said it....After I had the rest of dinner prepared I dished out DD and daddy the same chicken and J and I the GOOD stuff and then I look over and notice that the Hubby has added a *small* piece of the good stuff on his plate and I smirked just a bit ;)

J really liked the chicken and I of course LOVED it...Every yummy bite of it...Then the Hubby went back in to get his seconds only this time coming out with only the *good* stuff on his plate! And he sheepishly stated "that's some GOOD chicken"!! YES!! So then I got a little scared cause what if he ate it all?!?! I'm gonna fill you in on a little secret here...I don't eat leftovers...Nope. Sure don't. Because I don't like em. BUT with this I was planning on eating leftovers, yes sirree I was!! Luckily there was 2 pieces left and I had lunch for 2 days! YAY me!!

Okay, okay so here's the recipe!

Coconut Chicken

8 chicken cutlets, slightly pounded

Salt & Pepper

1 C flour

2 eggs

1 C Panko bread crumbs

1 cup sweetened coconut

Extra virgin olive oil

Pour a thin layer of olive oil into your pan (eyeball it, enough to get a good fry). Turn it on to a little over medium heat.

Take a cooling rack and put it on a cookie sheet and preheat the oven to 250*, you will put the finished chicken on the rack in the oven to keep it warm and crisp while you cook the remaining chicken. 

Get 3 shallow dishes, in the first one put your 1 C of flour, in the second one beat your 2 eggs with a splash of water, in the third one mix your bread crumbs and coconut together.

Take your trimmed and slightly pounded Chicken strips and salt and pepper both sides then coat in the flour first, then egg, then lastly the bread crumb and coconut mixture.

Then you need to check and make sure your oil is *frying* hot and fry on each side 3-4 minutes until it is a deep golden color.

Eat and enjoy! And NO I did not devour 3 or more pieces of chicken tonight after I made it just to share with ya'll!!

Football Fun! And YES I Spoke!!

So I thought I would just update on the situation from yesterday with the coaches. But first I want to talk about a concern brought up by one of my loyal readers. Ian said "In previous posts I read about multiple concussions. Are the effects from that worth continuing to play"? To answer this and clear the air, yes J had a severe concussion his freshman year from an incident he caused at a *no pads* practice where he tackled an upper classmen and caused himself a severe concussion. He was hospitalized for the day for observation but had no lingering effects from that. He has had a couple of hits to the head in basketball both times resulting in a broken nose and it was said by the Dr at the time *possible minor concussion*. SO when he had his physical this year the Dr said IF he had another major concussion he would likely be done with football for good. Our state has really beefed up the laws in this area and only allow so many concussions before automatic disqualification. At the first game of this season J had that episode where the EMT thought it was a concussion but also found his blood sugar to be low, and stated that too could have caused the symptoms that he was having. So after a trip to the ER and much research I found what I think is the real problem he experienced. I believe he has hypoglycemia, after the coach described his symptoms that night I thought about how almost every night after practice J would have that *ghost eyed* appearance and often be lethargic and a bit sickly feeling but always equating it to just hard practice. At that point I bought him some special protein bars and have been making sure he eats well before games and practice. Low and behold NO problems since! Literally he has felt great and had NO ghost eyes after practice or games! Until today...Guess what he did...Did not eat his protein bar and BOOM he had ghost eyes, although he said he did feel fine. So at this point I will continue to watch him of course and he himself is being very cautious in what he does.

 Nice tackle!!

So moving on to today. I feel like I should also say that part of the reason I am hesitant to say anything to the coach is because I am President of our school's booster program so I try to mind my P's & Q's better than I used to ;) So tonight I had my weekly meeting at the school and talked to J after he got out of practice and he said that nothing else was said today about the trip. So I asked him what his plan was and he said basically he intended on seeing how the next couple of weeks play out and if they are still holding their winning streak then he will stay for his team, but if they have been losing he will not miss the trip. So me I was a bit frustrated just because I hate waiting! I'm such an impatient person!! Then while we were finishing up our meeting the coach walked by and I just instinctively hollered to get his attention and asked him if he had a minute to speak with me. He said yes sure he did. So I basically told him I was a bit upset with how things went down yesterday and I didn't know what he was trying to accomplish but I think his plan backfired because now J has a sour attitude towards football. And I told him that I thought it was low to throw in his face what the coach did to him last year because that caused him a lot of heartache and cost him his Varsity letter. Coach responded to say that J would not lose his letter this year and I told him well it wasn't just about lettering it was about being dropped to the JV team as a personal vendetta by the coach; and he (coach B) basically told J that it was justified thus sealing how J felt about the situation from the start; that he wasn't worthy of playing on the Varsity team. Coach responded to say that was not his intention, that he did not know ALL of the details of last years deal but he was simply trying to tell J that if he chose to go on the trip he would forfeit playing time because he would have to move someone else up and that person would have to be up to par but he didn't think it was possible for anyone else to fill J's shoes. And he said the reason J doesn't play on JV and never will again is because he's a starting Varsity player because that is how important he is to the team, that they need him there. So I told coach that he did not relay this to J in the right manner, that J was taking it as he was dispensable and not cared about. The coach was truly apologetic about that and said that when he approached J yesterday it was because he knew he was scared to come to him about it cause the Ag teacher had told him so and when he first started talking to J he didn't really want to talk back about it. He went on to say that he didn't want J to feel like he was being forced to choose and choose football over FFA which may lead to a resentment towards football so he tried to say it in the manner of if this is what you chose this is what we will have to do to fix the problem. I explained to him that J is the kind of kid that needs to know he is needed and respected and that he would not have answered back to him yesterday because he would see that as arguing or being disrespectful so therefore he doesn't speak. And this I know because that is how he is with everything, the way I taught him to be but he never got the part about it's okay to *talk* about a problem just don't argue with an adult...Anyhow the coach feels extremely bad about making J feel like this and is going to talk to him about it tomorrow, he also said he is the one who told J to wait and see how the next couple of games play out, if they are winning then they surely need him if they are losing then don't choose football over FFA it wouldn't be worth it, and J said yes coach did say that.

Start of Saturday's game

 Paving the way for our running back!!

Onto the game played this past weekend and yes I do mean *weekend*, what should have been Friday night football turned into Friday and Saturday night football!! We started out the first quarter of the game strong and scored a couple of touchdowns but then in the second quarter they kind of fell apart, it was like nobody was in sync with the other...At halftime the score was 21-14 with the other team in the lead, but during halftime a storm rolled in and the game was rescheduled until Saturday afternoon.

J Breaking up a pass~!!

He did it!! WHOO HOO #22~!!

 INTERCEPTION BABY~!!!!

Saturday afternoon these boys were on fire and so pumped when they got there. We had also planned a tailgate party last minute so that they would have food to eat after the game since it wasn't scheduled therefore no parents were bringing anything. They picked up the game at the 3 quarter and let ME TELL YOU! They brought it, and I mean BROUGHT IT!!! WOW it was an amazing game to watch they literally held the other team from scoring at all for the whole second half of the game and we ended with a score of 44-21!! YEAH BABY!!! It was such a victory for them!! They have now a 2-0 record so far and are facing a tough opponent this Friday night...It's going to be a nail biter for sure and I can't wait!!! 

HOO-RAH!!

To Speak Or Not To Speak...

So I'm a little annoyed tonight...Okay maybe just a hint more than annoyed and really perplexed on what to do!

J is an active member of his high school's FFA chapter and really does a lot of things and experiences a lot of things through FFA. He has been a member for 3 years now and truly LOVES it! He has even considered becoming an Ag teacher when he gets older so that he can share FFA with so many other students...

But J is also a football player...With football obviously comes team dedication, I mean this kid dedicated his entire summer to weights and football and has worked SO very hard to earn his starting position on the Varsity team.

You would think that as teachers and coaches at a mutual school they would encourage these kids to be involved with different high school activities whether they be sports or academic clubs. But nope that's not always the case...Especially not for J...

Last year in October J went to the national FFA convention for his very first time in Indianapolis and had a blast!! This trip was not all fun and games either, they had a girl from who lived just a few miles from our county and was in a different chapter die on the trip. She was well known and loved by our local kids. She had a heart condition and had unknowingly been infected with the H1N1 virus which then caused her heart to stop. Another kid not from our area at all fell from a ledge and lost his life. So this trip wasn't the funnest experience for him but none-the-less he is ready to go again this year.

Last year J was the only sophomore on the Varsity team and when he went on the trip his football coach was very livid. Actually livid enough to take J's starting position and move him down to JV. It was extremely hard as a parent to watch this happen because he never imagined in a million years that his coach would treat him that way. He did miss a game while he was gone on the trip and yes it was a game they lost. But it wasn't like they had a winning season, I mean their season total was 2-7, so it wasn't like he cost them the game! I might add those 2 wins were both when J was still playing Varsity ;) So maybe he did cost them the game?! HA HA just kidding!

Needless to say he lost a lot of respect for his coach after that. And then this coach was forced to resign and one of the reasons that happened was because of the way he treated the kids. He was very partial to some and not so much to the others. J had always been one of the "good" kids until that trip. So fast-forward to this year and J is again starting Varsity and really proving to be a great asset to his team. Our new head coach has been great thus far and I have had no complaints! The only thing J has mentioned is that he tends to use a lot of foul language at practice (I'm no angel either BUT I'm not sure that's right) and he doesn't give praise the way he claimed he would. He basically told these kids he's a motivator and wouldn't try and make them feel bad as a way to motivate. But on occasions it has happened. Which I told J that he can't expect it to be all roses, this guy is coming in to a group that needs a lot of guidance so sometimes things will be tense. After their game this past weekend and their WIN the coach was super towards them. The way I expect a coach to be, not complaining still while they had just won. He gave them all great words of encouragement and told J just something to work on but didn't make him feel stupid about it. To me that means alot!

SOOO Friday night at the football game J's Ag teacher comes up to me and says I told Coach B about J going to convention this year because J is afraid to talk to him about it thinking he'll get the same treatment as last year but this coach isn't *that* kind of guy. So I was kind of glad that his teacher had taken the initiative to push J along to tell coach. THEN today happened...

Getting a little peck on the cheek from sis after a nice win!!

J comes home this evening after practice and was pretty ticked. He said that after his weights class today coach B said to him "so I hear your thinking about going to the FFA convention this year" and J tells him yes he is considering it. So then Coach says "well just so you know if you make that decision, you'll lose your starting position and your playing time will be reduced BIG time...AND I totally agree with what the coach did to you last year, you deserved it for leaving your team" this discussion continued for a while with the coach basically saying those same things and J just saying "yeah okay"...OH MY GOSH...Are you SERIOUS?! Then the assistant coach says to J after school today "I hear your thinking about going to convention" J says yep thinking about it, coach Z says "well that could be a bad choice for you"...OMG!! Are you freaking kidding me!! Oh maybe I should throw in here that J will not actually even miss a game this year but he will miss 3 days of practice so they technically couldn't start him but he could still play after the clock started. UGHH!!!

So needless to say J has said that they can kiss his behind and he will quit football over this. This kid lives and breathes football! Just goes to show you how backing someone into a corner and threatening them will cause them to act! Seriously folks, I told J tonight that I am in agreement with the coaches about not leaving his teammates high and dry. They have only played 2 games this year but they have won both of them, already breaking their win records from the last 5 years at least! So I told him to imagine if JW their quarterback chose to leave and go on a trip thus leading to his ineligibility to play, he would be so disappointed because they wouldn't have a chance without him. So while I'm in agreement with the necessity of needing him to play I am NOT in agreement with how the coach went about it. Seriously to make him that mad that he wants to quit simply to prove *his* point...Not good...

I think the coach should have sat down with him and said all of those things in a non-threatening manner and J would have immediately thought of what is best for the team and chosen to not go on the trip. So I really feel like telling this guy, our coach that his method of communication outright sucks!! Especially to dredge up last years coach's vendetta! So that's my dilemma...To speak up or not to speak up...At this point I do not know what J's decision is going to be. Both the Hubby and I think he should stay home and do what he set out to do but yet I feel so bad that he has to miss a trip that means so very much to him!

Always Cherish Those We Love...

I had such a great weekend and I couldn't wait to share it with you all! Unfortunately that great weekend is a bit of a memory now after today. Almost a year ago I posted about numerous sad things that were going on and in that post I mentioned my friend Dennie, at the time he had just been diagnosed with cancer but it was unknown what type and stage it was. Shortly after that post it was found that Dennie had a very aggressive cancer that started in his pancreas and had metastasized to his liver. It was a very odd cancer in origin as it wasn't an actual "pancreatic cancer" it had actually died off in the pancreas and had been spreading for many years the Dr's said. It was likely to have been there close to a decade before it moved into the liver and took on a life of it's own.

I should tell you here that this is not the same friend I told you about here, that is a different friend who is currently fighting his terrible battle with cancer...

Let me tell you about Dennie, he was 40 when he was diagnosed and was the husband of my lifelong best friend Shanna. I was the Matron of Honor in their wedding. He was a great Christian man who dedicated his life to God's calling, was he perfect? NO! He fought trials just like us all. Dennie was actually a very good friend of my other life long best friend Trisha and they had met through church. He had a daughter (whom he pretty much raised) and my friend had 2 daughters so they spent alot of time together with their girls. Dennie had a best friend named Mark and he helped get Mark and Trish together who have now been married for 7 years I think. After that they always felt so bad for Dennie because he was single and would make an awesome husband! That's where Shanna comes in, they introduced the two and they pretty much hit it off from the start. They were married within a year, Shanna had 3 kids from her previous marriage and Dennie had the 1 daughter. Then after being married for a year or so they got pregnant and had a son of their own.

Such a handsome man!

Dennie and Shanna shared a somewhat hard life together. Even though they were both awesome people who loved each other dearly they had problems they couldn't get past. After about 5 years of marriage they ended up separated which was around the time that Dennie was diagnosed. Their divorce was actually finalized after he was getting fairly sick...In any case Dennie had a great support system and first tried chemo but then after the Dr's decided that the cancer was not responding to the treatment they gave him an option, they told him that he could have surgery to remove half of his liver and with that scenario he had a 50% chance of dying on the table and there was no promises that it would work. He chose not to do the surgery and decided to try a natural healing clinic in Colorado. I am not sure what the clinic did for him, but I do know that they teach you about taking care of your body and trying to kick start your body to fight the cancer itself. Unfortunately this did not work, so Dennie was then left without any options.

Dennie with his little sidekick ;)

He fought this battle for almost a year, the cancer ravaged his body. He no longer looked like a man in his late 30's, he looked like a very sick man in his 60's. He spent months in so much pain from the cancer spreading and growing massively in his body. So big that he could point to the area that was forming under his skin. His quality of life was not something good it was terrible, the last few months of his life he couldn't even stay awake longer than a few hours a day and needed constant care to do even the simplest of things...I bring this up because there is so much confusion among some people where they think that only chemo treated patients will lose all ability to do anything and lose precious quality life time. It is simply not true...Not that ALL cancer patients will go through what Dennie did, but patients with cancers of that nature will.

Dennie sharing his last Father's Day with his kiddo's

I am so saddened to share that Dennie passed away early Sunday morning with friends and family all around him. They knew he was getting ready to leave them as his system started shutting down Saturday, however they did not expect it to be so quick. Dennie left behind 2 children, 1 daughter who is the same age as my DD of 11, and 1 son who is 3 1/2...He also left 3 children who still considered him their stepdad and my other friends 2 girls that considered him as an uncle. He will be missed deeply but he will never be forgotten.

A smile that will never be forgotten...

So my message today is simply this, treasure those you love and never take a single moment for granted. I think we are all guilty of it, I know I sure am!

Then to just top everything off this Sunday afternoon J's 9 month old Australian Shepherd was struck by a truck and killed...Struck by a truck that was driven by a friend of his! She was never a dog to go in the road so we don't understand what she was doing out there! J's friend had passed our house a few minutes earlier and was not driving fast like people usually do down our dirt road and when he came back down the road he said she just flew out from beside the mailbox that sits on the other side of our road, I was very thankful that this young man at least came to our door and told the Hubby what happened, he felt extremely bad about it...She was a sweet little girl and incredibly loving! She also liked to bark...ALOT...J is very upset over this, I wish I could just take the pain away! What a crappy way to end a previously great weekend...

Chevy at 3 weeks old...I'm sure I have more current pics but I just love this one of her!

J's Little Trip...To The ER That Is...

Right from kickoff the game was awesome! J played both offense and defense and I just love watching him play! We scored a touchdown within the first few minutes of the first quarter and that just paved the way for our boys' 31-12 win!!! What a great start it was...Well so I hope...

Let me back track here a couple of years....Going into his freshman year J was on the JV team, so they started their 2 a-day practices before school actually started then on the very first day of school at practice before school they were still no contact (so no helmets, pads, etc) and J was having a hard time with one of the coaches and basically got mad and had a temper tantrum...Coach screamed at him to do something so he takes of running through the football dummies and plows into one of the junior classmen who weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 lbs and lays him out. He said instantly ALL of the guys started cheering for the freshman who just took out a junior and he thought it was pretty funny until he stood up and started blacking out then couldn't hear out of his right ear. Coach asked him if he was ok and then had him sit on the sidelines to rest. After a bit his hearing came back but his vision was a bit blurry but he was released to head on to class. Within the first few minutes of class his teacher knew he didn't look right and asked him if he needed to go see the nurse, he said yes maybe so. Just as he was leaving the class he felt sick, like he might throw up so he's running trying to find a trashcan and well found one but a bit late and ended up wearing it trying to avoid getting it everywhere else...So I get a phone call that he's "not feeling well, bumped his head during practice". So I rush to the school to find my kid sitting in a chair in the office NOT WITH THE NURSE covered in throw up and barely conscious....I WAS PISSED!!! I proceed to ask what the heck is going on in here and why is no one taking care of my kid and WHY did they not call an ambulance if he's obviously in bad shape?! And why the heck did they not give him some clean clothes?! They then tell me that "oops sorry...We've been having trouble with our computer system so we didn't notice"...So they then call his coach who helps him get changed and tell me what happened. I then zoom him to the ER and my boy had a pretty bad concussion, he spent all day there under observation and I had strict observation guidelines for a while after that. So since then he has suffered a couple of mild concussions in basketball so I'm a bit worried about this..

Our school doesn't have the best of equipment for our boys and we were going to buy J a new safe helmet this year after last year one of our boys on the team was lifeflighted out of a game with a massive concussion and never allowed to play football again, and a lot of this kids injuries to his brain were due to the crappy helmet he had..So sad for him! So luckily our new headcoach insisted on some new equipment and basically the top 10 kids that showed dedication to the team were awarded this new stuff and J was one of those kids! Score one for my pocket book LOL!

So he now has a Revolution helmet that is designed with superior safety features! So back to the game...He was playing an awesome game and during the 3rd quarter he got tackled and I noticed when he got up he kind of stumbled and bit and my mommy heart flopped, but he bounced right back and went to have his leg stretched so I guessed that was the problem. Then right before the end of the game he took a running back out of bounds and when he went to hit the kid the kid dropped his head and hit J helmet to helmet (so he told me later, I couldn't see it). After their little victory celebration on the field the team walked through and he stopped to give me a hug but seemed a bit funny to me. He just seemed a bit tired I guessed, I mean he had just played almost the entire game. He went on to shower and then some of us parents were going to be feeding them after the game so we were getting ready for that when a freshman girl comes up to me and says they need you by the locker rooms J is getting checked out by the EMT's. I was like WHAT?! She showed me where he was and the EMT said he was being checked because when the coach tried to talk to him he didn't know where he was or what he was doing. He looked at me and I saw something very familiar in his eyes, I see this alot and have always thought he was just tired when he came home from practice. They had checked his vitals and all was good but when they checked his blood sugar it was low, which is not abnormal after just having played a hard game but a little bit lower than it should have been. And with his prior concussion history they wanted him checked out. So I told them I would take him in but I wanted him to eat (he had not eaten since lunch) and see if this helped at all. So they had someone go with him to shower and then he came out to eat and within minutes of eating his lethargy subsided...BUT he still had a slight headache so off to the ER we went.

After we left I asked him what exactly happened with the coach that brought this to his attention and J said the coach thought he looked "ghost eyed" which to me made total sense because that is exactly how he looks after practice many times, but when the coach asked him these certain questions about the date and where he was and what he was doing he said J did not answer correctly but J says he did. He says the coach was being over-reactive, but I agreed that he was being slow to answer when I first walked up. The ER DR seen him and basically told us to treat this as a very minor concussion and so we did; we followed all the rules but I am not so sure that's what it is. I really truly wonder if he doesn't have something going on with his blood sugar. After thinking back on all of these times I have thought that his eyes looked *funny* or he seemed really tired he always says that he's "just tired" or "he's weak", and many other things. So he is now going to be on a stricter diet and eating special protein bars before practice and 2 before games to see if they help. Yesterday they practiced for 4 1/2 hours and he did 10x's better than he normally does and he had his bar before he went! So we will continue to watch him and pray that this helps!

Gotta LOVE It!!

Is anybody else ready for football season?! I am SO ready!!! More for high school football but I love big kid football too ;) J will be playing for his 3rd year at his high school, he's a JUNIOR this year OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Kind of makes me sad....Oh anyhoo....Last year he was the only sophomore starting varsity and that was a big deal for him! Let's just say that my boy is small...Well he's 5'8 and 125 lbs so he's pretty much outweighed by everyone in the league! But he is awesome at football! He plays WR and Cornerback. Last year he kind of got jipped out of his varsity letter and I was extremely ticked!! J is very active in FFA and he attended the national FFA convention and missed a game so after that his coach was ticked because he "chose" FFA over football and well basically didn't let him start the rest of the season. He still played Varsity but coach would throw him in after the start and you have to play a certain amount of quarters to letter, I think he ended up 1 short by those guidelines. We had so many parents talk to us about this and even school staff that didn't think this was fair as J also had played in a summer passing league representing the school and that should have counted towards his letter, but well the coach got what he wanted...And then...After some other *things* that the coach wanted by not recognizing other well deserving kids for all league awards etc. he lost his job. YEP...They forced him to resign! J truly was sad about this because as a teacher and coach before all of this J really loved him!

So since then we now have a new head coach and new assistant coach and well the team's spirit is renewed! Actually the whole county's spirit for our school has been renewed! This new coach comes with a lot of experience and has already in the few short months that he has been with our school brought so many ideas for us to use in many areas outside of football! I am the president of our booster club at the high school and he comes to us with ideas to raise funds for the school, really great ideas that have been a HUGE hit! So we are very thankful to have him join our school!

So with his new arrival is a whole revamp of the team! J is starting Varsity again this year and I am so excited for him! Our school has been recognized by local sports magazines and media outlets as "the school to watch out for this season"!! What a compliment for our boys! They held their annual scrimmage game last Friday and will have their first game this Friday and we are SO very excited!!! The scrimmage game went good! Of course the coach had a million complaints, but that's his job! To show them what needs fixing! So here's to a great football season for all!

That's mine #22~!!

I missed the catch but got the run!!!

Not the greatest picture but that smile is worth more than money can buy~!!!

Okay I am just throwing this in here....It has taken me 2 DAYS!!! to get this posted! Thank you SO much Blogger for these ridiculous changes! UGHH!!!