Buffalo Chicken Braid Bread

If you're anything like my husband and I, I had you at buffalo chicken! We love anything with that spicy buffalo sauce so I decided to try something new. On Pinterest I found a bread filled with spaghetti and it turned out really good so I thought why not try stuffing bread with other things. Ding! Buffalo chicken!!

So to start off you'll need the following:

• Rhodes frozen loaf bread (a refrigerated pizza crust would work too)
• shredded chicken (about two breasts)
• buffalo sauce (we used Buffalo Wild Wings Spicy Garlic flavored sauce)
• Ranch dressing
• shredded mozzarella or co.jack cheese
• optional* shredded parmesan cheese

1. Thaw frozen loaf bread according to packaged directions

2. Coat your shredded chicken with your buffalo sauce. I used about 2-3 tbsp.

3. Roll your dough into a rectangle. To make things easier on yourself, if you have a slipmat, roll your dough on there and then you can just transfer the slip mat onto a baking sheet.

4. Using a pizza cutter or a knife cut strips along the long sides of the rectangle. The cuts should be about 2" in, leaving about 4" along the middle.

5. Spread some ranch dressing along the bottom of the bread. About 1/4 cup should do. Be careful not to put too much dressing or when the bread is baking you'll end up with a soggy bottom. If you want to add a little more flavor, sprinkle some pizza seasoning (oregano, basil, parsley..) over the ranch.

6. Add the coated chicken on top of the ranch dressing, then top with the shredded cheese. 

7. Starting at one of the ends, start "braiding" the flaps across the top of the pizza filling. Pull the left flap to the right side, right flap to the left side, etc...

8. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, and again, if you want to be extra fancy you can add an egg wash on top to make it nice and golden brown when done baking. Transfer to greased baking sheet, carefully!

9. Let the braid rise for about an hour. 

10. Cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until bread is cooked through. 

When making this braid recipe, I only used 3/4 of the thawed bread dough (enough for my husband and I to enjoy two large portions with a portion left over for lunch the next day) and made buffalo chicken rolls with the remaining dough. In order to do this:

1. Simply divide remaining dough into equal parts and roll out into circles.

2. Fill dough balls with chicken and cheese.

3. Fold up the sides of the dough to cover the toppings, being sure to pinch and seal off the dough.

4. Place rolls, seam side down, into greased muffin tins. I topped mine with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

5. Let rise for an hour.

6. Bake in 325 degree oven for 20 minutes or until dough is cooked through. Dip in ranch and you've got a yummy snack!

I love this braid recipe because it's so versatile. You could add ham and cheese, pizza sauce and pepperonis, or steak and peppers for a Philly cheesesteak style bread. Like I said, endless possibilities!! 

Hope you enjoy! 

Jaxon's Rash

So about two weeks ago Jaxon started developing a rash under his chin/in the folds of his neck. I thought that it was just from drool and I tried to keep it as clean and dry as possible but that didn't stop it from manifesting into this horrible rash that took over his entire body. 

The rash under his chin was like red, raw skin with a lot of bumps. About a week after the rash started I noticed small red bumps all over his chest and stomach. We went to the doctor's office the same day (a Thursday) to get it checked out. The pediatrician said that under Jaxon's chin was eczema and on his belly was dry skin/beginning of eczema. I was told to put lotion on him and use hydrocortisone cream under his chin if he needed it. Well about two days later those little bumps spread to his entire body; I'm talking legs, arms, scalp, ears, even the soles of his feet. I did some more research online and found pictures of "prickly heat rash" and thought that looked exactly like what Jaxon had. So i stopped lotion immediately because if it was heat rash that was only making it worse. Well Monday came around and he still had the rash from head to toe so we went back to the doctors. Even a second doctor came in to look at Jaxon's rash and they told me they aren't quite sure what it is. It could be eczema, it could be viral. Great. You don't know, so I don't know what to do to help my son. By this time the rash had started making Jaxon itch. He even has a few scabs on his chest and back of his head from scratching so hard. Usually about twice a day it would flare up and get really red and then it would calm down again in several hours.

Well now it's a week after our first doctor's visit and the rash is getting better, but it's still not gone. His neck looks a lot better. It's still red with bumps, his chest and belly still have some red bumps and the rest of his body still have bumps everywhere except now they're flesh colored so you can't really see them. 

Jake and I have tried so many different things to help that I'm not sure which one is helping. We stopped feeding him his cereal, he gets lotioned/Emu oil every day, he gets a bath daily (but only use soap every 2-3 days), and we've been making sure he never gets hot. 

Luckily, Jax has a dermatologist appointment in a week for another laser treatment so I can ask the doctor then about the rash if he still has it. 

Here are some pictures from when it had flared up once:

It's so frustrating not knowing what is causing this, especially when Jaxon is so itchy from it. At least I can be thankful that he doesn't have a fever and is eating fine. Hopefully this resolves itself soon.

5 Months Old

Can you believe my little boy is 5 months old today? That means in a month he'll already be half a year old!! It really is true that time passes by way too quickly.

Jaxon went to the doctors today and he weighed 17.12 lbs. Can you say big boy?! Despite never getting his tongue tie fixed, he is still gaining weight like he should be and that makes me so happy!

Other great news, Jaxon finally rolled from his back to his belly. He did it for the first time in his crib and has become quite the rolly polly during bedtime. He'll do complete circles in his crib, roll around, put his butt up in the air... you name it, he does it! But this means that he is now a tummy sleeper and even though babies are supposed to sleep on their backs there is no way we can force him to do so anymore. For a few days before he could roll over he would sleep on his side but once he rolled all the way to his tummy he refuses to sleep any other way. Thank goodness for the video monitor!

So we can add rolling back to belly, finding his feet, finding his thumb and starting cereal to his 5 month milestones! What a big boy, huh?

I had a great first Mother's Day yesterday. Jake made me breakfast in bed, I got a couple gifts and then he made me a yummy filet and lobster tail dinner! It was delicious! I hope all you other Mommy's had a great day as well. I wish I could have been with my mom on this special day, but luckily only a few more weeks and I can see her and the rest of my family and friends!!!

I haven't taken Jaxon's 5 month pictures yet, so I'll do that once he wakes up from his nap. I'll upload those pictures later.

Here is a video of Jaxon rolling back to belly!


The countdown is on! See you all soon!!

Inspired by Pinterest

I got the sudden urge to do all things crafty yesterday. So where would I look for inspiration? Pinterest of course!

First, I put together a cheap bookshelf I bought from Walmart. To add some color, I used scrapbook paper for the back splash of the shelves.(I just used Mod Podge to "glue" in on and to finish it on top.) I figured I'd put this in Jaxon's room or my craft room. Oh, and I must give Jake credit for the scrapbook paper. He picked it out all by himself!

Next, I thought the house needed more decorations, so I picked a picture from our first dance at our wedding and blew it up to an 8x10 photo size. I found a picture frame at Walmart that had a matte in it and instead of leaving the matte white, I wrote the lyrics to our first dance around it.   Then by Brad Paisley.  :))

And if that wasn't enough, I also bought a decorative curtain rod. Installed it all by myself using Jake's power drill (it took me a while to figure out how to change out the bits) and then hung pictures from it! I'm not crazy about how the two pictures of the side hang, so I'm going to redo those later today when I buy some more ribbon.

I also am almost complete with another craft inspired by Pinterest. I'll add pictures of it later.

Here's a sign I made for Jaxon's room::

The baby is waking up so now I gotta go!!

Eating Cereal

Well, I did finally end up giving Jaxon cereal. It was a big debate that I had back and forth in my head whether I should or not, but ultimately I chose to do it. Mainly the reason I did was because I wanted to make sure Jaxon was getting enough iron in his diet and since I always have a lower iron count in my blood I was just being cautious in case he inherited that from me.

The good news is... he loved it! I chose to not feed him the rice cereal since of the recent arsenic reports that have been circulating in the news and instead he got oatmeal cereal. I believe the brand is called Earth's Best Organic. Jax only gets cereal once, during dinner, and I feed him right after to make sure he still is getting plenty of milk. We mix about a tablespoon of the cereal with a couple tablespoons of milk and he gobbles it right up!! He does SO well with the spoon. I thought it was something he'd have to get used to, but he opens his mouth as wide as he can as soon as it leaves the bowl and is heading towards his mouth. I am going to hold off on giving him solids for another month probably. I want his little digestive system to be more mature than it is right now and to make sure he can handle it.

Of course we took tons of pictures of him eating his cereal for the first time and I took a video but for some reason the video won't upload. Just imagine Jaxon kicking his little legs in the highchair while the spoon comes towards him and he's kind of grunting at the same time. He's so cute!!

Daddy feeding me

Uhh, Mom... why are you taking so many pictures?

Okay, I'll look at you Mom for the rest of the time.

Mommy feeding me. She's more messy than Daddy!

Yummy!

P.S.- Jaxon found his thumb the other day and now sucks on it when he gets sleepy. It's pretty cute!!

Hope you enjoyed these funny pictures!


Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Jax