Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Menu Monday

Chris and I just took two weeks "off" from coaching and opening the gym to enjoy some summer time!  We spent the week that Lily wasn't with us at home relaxing in stay-cation mode!  We did as little as possible, lol.  We have a "Can We Get It All Done Before The End Of Summer" list like Lily's and so we worked on it a little.  My friend Courtney kept Ava Grace so we could go on a date - just the two of us.  We also did a double date night with my brother-in-law and sister(ish)-in-law (only the ish because they aren't married quite yet) with Ava Grace along for the ride.  We went to Cherokee Steak House on the lake and marked it off our list - it was a great evening with great food!  The rest of the week we watched movies, took naps, and just enjoyed being home.  The second week, with Lily, we spent on "vacation" with family!  We spend time in Murfreesboro with Chris' family and then headed to Chattanooga for the second part of the week with my family and the annual 4th of July bash!  It was SO. MUCH. FUN.  All of it... the stay-cation, the vacation, time with both side of the family!  We enjoyed every moment!

Anyway, that explains the long break from blogging.  Now it's Monday and although I haven't been doing Menu Monday over the summer because we are much more laid back and unpredictable during the summer, we have been cooking great recipes at home!  I thought I would share some of our favorites from the past few weeks!  All of these are worth trying out!  Yum!


(Picture and Recipe from Kayotic Kitchen - Click HERE to see original post)

We made stuffed Zucchini the other day!  It was literally a meal in itself - we didn't even need the grilled chicken I served with it!  I was kind of surprised at how much Chris liked it!  It is Zucchini stuffed with onion, bacon, cheese, and spices!  So good!  Click HERE for the full recipe.  They were very quick and easy and the only adjustment I would make is to leave out the curry, but that is just because I don't care for the taste of curry.  :-)


We have grilled chicken a lot lately.  It's one of our favorite foods and we probably have some variety of grilled chicken at least once, usually twice, a week!  There are so many variations of marinades, cuts of meat, and ways to serve!  We do grilled chicken in all kinds of marinades, we like breasts, thighs, legs... we do kabobs, sandwiches, you name it!  Here are two GREAT marinades we have used recently:

Our all time favorite...
(seriously, BEST MARINADE EVER)
(picture and recipe from What's Cooking Chicago? click HERE for original post)

Honey Chicken Kabobs
(We use it for kabobs and just grilled thighs or breasts)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves minced garlic





A no-name marinade recipe -
I can't even remember where it came from, but it's so very good:

1-2 Tbs vinegar
2-3 tsp herbs of your choice (I used Crushed Peppercorn and Garlic rub from The Pampered Chef - SOOOOOOOOOOO good!!)
1-2 Tbs Mustard (I use Dijon)
1-2 tsp garlic/onion powder (I use one of each)
1/4 cup oil
salt
pepper



Last night we had stuffed peppers that were really good.  I liked them most because they were NOT a "southwest" stuffed pepper like most recipes and not stuffed full of rice.  Chris liked them a lot too, so I know it's a keeper!  I can't remember where I got the recipe from, but it was very quick and easy to prep. 

Preheat to 350 degrees,

Brown 2 pounds of ground beef

Combine beef with 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 cup cooked rice, 1 Tbs parsley, 1/4 cup milk, 2 Tbs sauce mix (below) and 1 Tbs Cajun seasoning.  Season with salt and pepper as well to taste.

Sauce: Mix 1 can tomato soup, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/3 cup water, 1/4 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper.

Cut 4 bell peppers lengthwise and take out the stems, ribs, and seeds.  Stuff.  Place in a 9x13 dish.  Cover with sauce,cover with foil, and bake for 1 hour.

This recipe made enough for Chris and I to have dinner and then I froze two sets of peppers for meals in the future.  I also made a big batch of twice baked potatoes to freeze for future use.



I have lots more recipes to share, but I'll save them for another Monday!  Hopefully you'll get a chance to try some of these out - I know you'll love them!

1 comments:

Sarah said...

these recipes sound really good! Thanks for sharing them! And glad you all had a nice 2 week break! And glad your back from vacation. I missed your blog posts.