Gabbing with the Gafford's

Menu Plan Monday-Feb 6

2012-02-06T06:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Februray Y'all! It's been a couple of weeks since I posted my menu. Life has been a little crazy around here. Our sweet Nyla had surgery last week so we were preparing for it and not recovering from it. Thankfully she's doing pretty well, as long as we keep tylenol in her!

For January I challenged myself to only buy dairy, produce, fresh bread and anything Nyla ate since she doesn't eat what we eat, unfortunately. For the most part I stuck to that! I'm pretty proud at how I did so I'm calling it a win. I ended up having more meats leftover so we're continuing to eat from those for the month of February which is perfect. Also you'll begin to see more use of the crock pot, leftovers and soups this month. It's so not cold here but I'm making soups anyways. The groundhog saw his shadow this week and predicted 6 more weeks of winter but in Tennessee we're still looking for the first 6 weeks of winter. We need a huge cold snap here, mainly for the bugs! I've already been bitten a few times by mosquito's and I'm not happy about it! Alright, enough jibber jabber. Here's what's for dinner this week.

Monday: Crock pot cheesy chicken spaghetti

Tuesday: Bbq chicken enchiladas

Wednesday: Toasty sandwiches

Thursday: Spicy black bean soup, served over rice {new recipe}

Friday: America's Test Kitchen pepperoni pizza (I'm pretty excited about trying this!)

Saturday: Cheesy chicken and salsa skillet

Sunday: Sandwiches OR leftovers from the week

That's what's happening in our kitchen, how about yours?

Nyla's Surgery

2012-02-04T13:06:00.003-06:00

The big girl with her little hospital gown on. So sweet!

On Wednesday Nyla had her first surgery and hopefully one of her last! Mommy was not a horrible wreck but nervous enough about it. She had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids were taken out.

She hasn't had a huge amount of ear infections in the past year and a half it's just the most recent ones have lingered. She had a double ear infection right before Naomi was born that lasted 2 months! We tried 3 different medications and her ears finally cleared up. The bad thing? 1-2 weeks later she had another double ear infection. We were told to get a consult from an ENT and glad we did. It turns out not only she needed tubes for the ear infections but that she wasn't hearing at 100% out of her left ear. We noticed she wasn't finishing her words or pronouncing them clearly and now we knew why. We scheduled her surgery and patiently waited for the 2 weeks to go by so it could get done. It was a tough 2 weeks because Nyla was fussy from not feeling great and Naomi was sick with yet another cold and a little cough. We were more than ready for everyone to get well again!

The days before we had a lot of people asking when her surgery was and all the details. While some said they would pray for us, others said, "Oh that's no big deal." People, it is a big deal, it's surgery! Be sympathetic, especially if you have children that had the surgery. It may not be a big deal to you now, but it was when you were going through it. Don't you remember? I understand why people say that, they're trying to make you feel better but you don't know my feelings on the matter, it's my child, my baby and it's surgery. It's a big deal to me! That's something I have to remember when people tell me their little one is having surgery. Instead I'll try and remember to say, "Yes, Nyla had that when she was around 18 months. It's tough having to see your little one go through that but it's so helpful in the end. We'll be praying for your family." See how much nicer that is? Again, it's something for me to try and remember to do.

Thankfully, we had a super awesome Doctor. My dad has a friend that's a doctor and told him that whenever we needed to see someone let him know and he'd refer us. He referred us to someone he knows and he was great. He was sweet to Nyla, explained things clearly, made us feel comfortable and he loves Jesus; that's a huge deal to us. That's why my dad's friend referred us to him, one of the reasons anyways. And the best thing, he prayed with the three of us before they took her back. I mean really, how great is that? That meant the world to us! And it made it a little easier to let her go.

After the doctor left a nurse came in and asked Nyla if she wanted a warm blanket and Nyla went right to her and away she went. Thankfully they didn't make a big deal about it and just took her. Of course I cried. That's my baby they took away. I thought it would've been harder but I held it together. So out to waiting room we went, hoping it wouldn't be the longest 30 minutes of our lives. Our Pastor came and sat with us while she was in surgery and that helped pass the time. We talked a little about the surgery but more about other things and that helped me not focus so much on what was going on. And before we knew it we were being called back to see our sweet girl!

We were told to be ready for her "thrashing" in recovery and yes she was a thrasher! She scratched the right side of her face a little, was pulling at her iv and when she saw me started yelling, "mamamamama." They got a chair in our little recovery area and once we got her focus off pulling her iv off, she calmed down. I rocked with her and rubbed her head. If I stopped she would say "more" and sign it too. For one hour we sat there so they could get some fluids in her. It was a nice one hour of snuggle time with my baby. Y'all, it's rare for her to sit still for more than 5 minutes so you better believe I soaked up every second!

The hour passed pretty quickly, we got her dressed and were walking back into the waiting room headed for the exit and she threw up on Daniel. Yuck! It wasn't much, it didn't scare her but we went back in to talk to our nurse who had warned us it could happen. She gave us a throw up bag but thought it was probably an isolated incident. We got to the car, buckled her in, Daniel sat in the back with her just in case she got sick and good thing, because she did. She started coughing and then threw up a couple more times but was fine once we got moving. She dozed on the way home and went right to her bed where she was zonked for three hours. That was one of the best naps since she was a baby! When she woke up she had some water, scarfed some noodles and grapes and played as usual. We even went outside for a little while.

These past few days have been pretty good. She gets in her fussy periods but that usually means it's time for some tylenol, her breath is stinky from her adenoids coming out and her throat healing, but she's eating and sleeping well and getting plenty of fluids. She's up 1 or 2 times a night because she's hurting so she gets tylenol and a snuggle in the chair but she'll go right back to sleep after that. All-in-all we had a good experience with our ENT's office, our ENT, the surgery center and recovery.

We're glad she had the surgery and have noticed a difference in her speech already. I noticed it the next day actually. We go back in 2 weeks for her post-operation appointment and hope to have a glowing report. And then maybe we'll finally be able to have her 18-month well check-up, a month late!

Friday Favorite Finds

2012-01-14T09:47:00.002-06:00

Happy Saturday! I hope you're all getting your "honey-do" lists done and such. That's what we have going on here today. It's very exciting stuff! :)

I wanted to add my friday favorites that I've been eyeing the past couple of weeks. I don't get on Pinterest near as much as I used to but I still manage to sneak a couple minutes here and there. Here's what is looking good to me!!

From scratch Garlic Cheese Bread

Source: laurenslatest.com via Anika on Pinterest

French Toasted Angel Food Cake

Source: bhg.com via Anika on Pinterest

Chewy Low Fat Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies

Source: skinnytaste.com via Leigh on Pinterest

I'm linked up over at Joy in my Kitchen for Friday Favorite Finds. Come join if you've found great recipes or want more recipes to try!!

Menu Plan-January 9

2012-01-09T08:08:00.004-06:00

I hope you all had a nice weekend and were able to relax, I know we did. We had nowhere to go and it was wonderful. I love those kind of weekends where you can rejuvenate.

We have a fun week ahead of us, full of doctor visits, possibly Nyla's first haircut and "Family Fun Night" at our church as well as the usual church events and such. I'm doing great on my January challenge and haven't had to buy anything. It just goes to show we have SO much stocked in our freezers and pantry! I am popping into the grocery store today for milk, eggs and potatoes for tomorrow nights dinner but other than that I don't need a thing. Here's what we're having in our house this week.

Monday- Taco Soup

Tuesday- Bbq chicken baked potatoes, side salad

Wednesday- baked chicken, rice and vegetables

Thursday- Spaghetti (new sauce recipe from my new cookbook), I may venture and try SnoWhite's Olive Garden breadsticks but we'll see, side salad

Friday- Pizza, "Family Fun Night" at our church

Saturday- leftovers from the week or sandwiches

Sunday- leftovers from the week or sandwiches

What's cooking in your kitchen this week?

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check out her blog for more great menu planning ideas!!

Friday Favorite Finds

2012-01-06T16:46:00.003-06:00

I'm linking up with SnoWhite over at Joy in my Kitchen for her Friday Favorite Finds.

I've finally figured out how to embed the images from the very addicting site Pinterest! It makes these treats even more tantalizing!!! Head on over to SnoWhite's blog for more great recipes.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves! :)

Source: salad-in-a-jar.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Baked, whole wheat powdered sugar donuts

Source: thedeenbros.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Lasagna Soup

Source: rfgblog.maryjanesfarm.org via Ginny on Pinterest

Strawberry Valentine cookies

Source: cookinupnorth.blogspot.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Lemon cookies

Source: pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com via Ginny on Pinterest

Paula Deen's banana pudding

January= Freezer Month

2012-01-03T08:15:00.000-06:00

This month I'm cleaning out our freezers for all our meals. I'm only allowing myself to buy dairy, eggs, bread and fresh produce for our family in the month of January. We have SO much in our freezers that needs to be used and January is the perfect month to eat it and start fresh on my stockpiles. I think it'll be a challenge toward the end and we'll have to have a few meatless dishes, but it's worth it to clean out, de-clutter and challenge myself. I like a challenge in the kitchen!

My biggest assets will be to continue to menu plan each week and to have a freezer inventory to go by when planning. I used to keep an awesome inventory on my fridge but it's gotten away from me in the past 4 or so months. One of my goals this years is to keep that inventory up to date so I don't waste our precious grocery budget money. Since our pantry is a little easier to glance at for meal planning I won't inventory that beforehand. Below you'll find an inventory of our freezers (fridge freezer and deep freeze).

Refrigerator freezer:

Meats:

boneless pork chops-4

chicken nuggets-enough for one meal

cheeseburger-1

1 cup chopped, cooked chicken-1

7 oz sweet italian sausage-1

Fruits & Veggies:

12 oz raspberries-1

32 oz blueberries-1

12 oz carrots-1

12 oz corn-1

12 oz green beans-1

6 oz bell peppers-1

16 oz veggies for soup-1

Bread:

italian rolls-5

homemade tortillas-5

buttermilk biscuits-8

Misc.:

whole pecans-1

1 cup chimichanga sauce-1

homemade vanilla ice cream-1

pan hashbrown casserole-1

white beans-1

pizza sauce (2-3 pizzas)-1

Meals:

bbq chicken pizza-1

leftover ham-2 containers

Deep Freeze:

Meats:

1.5 lb grilled pork loin-1

1 lb sweet italian sausage-2

1 lb. pork kielbasa

2 lbs. chicken wings-2

1 lb. ground turkey-1

1 lb boneless chicken breasts-13

Fruits & Veggies:

12 oz snap peas-2

12 oz green beans-2

12 oz carrots-1

12 oz mixed vegetables-2

16 oz spinach-1

bananas for bread-6 (will make 3 loaves of banana bread)

10 oz strawberries-1

10 oz fiesta fruit blend-1

Misc.:

phyllo dough- 1/2 package

Meals:

9 inch pan enchilada bake casserole

9x13 inch pan pasta dish

container of taco soup

That does it for my freezer inventory. I actually had more than I thought which is great news so we may be able to eat meat every night which is what I'd prefer. I think this will be a great challenge for our family. I'm still going to take out our alloted $200 for groceries this month and use it to buy extra meats down the road and a 25 lb bag of flour at Sam's Club.

What are you challenging yourself to this month?

Menu Plan-January 2

2012-01-02T09:00:00.002-06:00

Is anyone else relieved Christmas and New Year's are over? It's just event after event with our families and I am worn out!

We created some great memories with our new family of four and enjoyed seeing all our family. I had to figure out a way to keep our toddler out of our Christmas tree, that was an adventure, Nyla loved tearing into her presents the first few times and wanted to just play after the first few presents and both girls did great traveling from place to place to all our events. After recovering from Christmas we spent relaxing nights at home and had a low-key New Year's. We went out to my parents house to have dinner with my dad while my mom was out of town visiting her parents and were home by 8. I definitely was asleep by 10:30 and it was great!

Now that all that is over it's back to business in our house! I didn't let any laundry or dishes get away from me over the holidays and stayed on top of my organizing goals. I have a large box that keeps getting items thrown into it each day to give to Goodwill. This house will be clutter free, organized and minimized in 2012! Getting this house in order is one of my big goals for our family. I want our lives to be defined by our love for Jesus, creating memories and having great family experiences, not all the stuff we may or may not own!!!

One of my other goals for the month of January is to use most if not all of our freezer stock piles. We have SO much food and it needs to be eaten. So I have big plans for our menu in the month of January. Read about the beginning here. Let's get to the menu for the week!

Monday-Bbq Pork Stew and grilled cheese sandwiches

Tuesday- Make ahead unstuffed shells, veggies

Wednesday-Ham and hash brown casserole, veggies

Thursday-Crispy pan-fried pork chops {(new recipe) from my new cookbook, America's Test Kitchen}, baked potatoes and veggies

Friday-Bbq chicken pizza

Saturday-leftovers from the week or sandwiches

Sunday-leftovers from the week or sandwiches

What's cooking in your kitchen?

Becoming a (Realistic) Minimalist

2011-12-15T10:30:00.001-06:00

The past year I've really been evaluating all the stuff our family has and has been bringing in. And I'll tell you that I'm a little overwhelmed by it all. We aren't by any means living in clutter city and I do keep an organized home but I'm coming to the conclusion that I want an organized home WITH minimal stuff. But what does that mean for me? And what does it mean for our family of four?

You may have seen the some articles that talk about pairing down your stuff or maybe the 100 things challenge but I can't help but think that's not realistic for most of us. It's not realistic for me. Yes, I want to get rid of a lot of items but how do I want to go about it? And what's realistic for us?

I want my girls to remember the experiences we create for them not the stuff they have. And isn't that true for us all? We remember the memories we've made not all the stuff we had in different parts of our life. Sure we remember some of the things but probably just 10% of those things (favorite doll, book, outfit). I want my girls to live their lives, not be bogged down by stuff and appreciate what they have. I don't want them to have so much stuff they don't appreciate it and just want more more more like society tells us.

I'm also trying to be content with what we have and that's a step in the minimalism direction. Why do I need 6 serving platters when I use the same 2 every time. Why do I need 60 shirts when I wear 12 of them? (Yes, at one time I had 60 shirts). At one time in my life all my "stuff" was important to me but now it's my family. When the girls get older and look at our house will they see stuff or will they have good memories that we helped create? I want that answer to be memories and not stuff.

So, in 2012 I'm going to be more content with what we have. I'm going to keep de-cluttering our lives one step at a time, one closet at a time. And I'm going to help my family create memories that will last forever.

What are some of your goals for 2012?

Naomi is here!

2011-11-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

She's here! Our sweet girl #2 made her appearance 1 week ago today. And we are in love with this beautiful girl!!

Here are a few pictures of our little family.

Naomi... yes she is a chunk. We love her rolls.

Yes, you are reading that right... 11 pounds and 4 ounces. It's no wonder I was totally uncomfortable the last 4 weeks or so. And she was 23 inches long too. Wow! Thank goodness for c-sections even if the recovery is a bit longer.

The proud Big Sister. She loves her! She is fascinated with her, obsessed with her piggy toes and loves giving her kisses. I hope that love continues. :)

My girls and me. It's totally weird saying that but it makes me so happy to have 2 beautiful blessings from God. I love my life!

First picture as a family of 4. Wow, there are 4 people living in this house now. That is totally weird. :)

So there you have it, a few pictures from our big week. I'm recovering nicely from my c-section. It's much better than the one I had with Nyla and I'm thankful since I have two babies to keep up with. Naomi is a great sleeper already and Mama appreciates that since I've been exhausted and have gotten little sleep the past 2 months or so. When I do sleep the quality is definitely better even if it's only for 3-5 hour stretches at night. We're all adjusting well as a family of four.

Thursday is the Big Day!!

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

Thursday is the day we finally get to meet our sweet baby girl #2, Naomi!

My c-section is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. We have to be there to check in and get prepped at 7:30 a.m. We are so ready for Thursday to get here. People keep asking how many days I have left, four! Woo hoo!

Please pray for safety for both Naomi and me, a steady hand from my doctor, that Naomi is strong and healthy and that nobody has complications. I'll post pictures as soon as possible!

Monkey Bread

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted a recipe so I thought I'd share this delicious breakfast recipe with you. It's got just 5 ingredients and easy to throw together. And it's always a hit wherever I take it! Enjoy.

Monkey Bread

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

4 (10 count) cans buttermilk biscuits

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 stick butter, melted

chopped nuts (optional) I like it without nuts :)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spray bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.

3. Cut up each biscuit into quarters.

4. Mix sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon into a bowl or pie plate.

5. Roll each biscuit quarter into the sugar mixture. Layer in the bundt pan. Between each layer pour some of the sugar mixture.

6. After you've rolled all biscuits in the sugar mixture pour rest of sugar mixture on top followed by the stick of melted butter.

7. At this point you can bake the monkey bread for 40-45 minutes OR cover and place in the fridge to bake in the morning. I really like to make this ahead and bake in the morning if I have time. The butter sits all night and makes a beautiful glaze on top of the monkey bread. But sometimes I only have time to warm up the bread the next day. And it's still awesome.

Menu Plan Monday-October 17

2011-10-17T09:15:00.001-05:00

October 17-October 23

Happy Monday Y'all! I hope you're having beautiful weather like we are here. I just love Fall. The cool, crisp air, a nice breeze and sweaters! My mum's are doing well and my yard doesn't look like it needs cutting and that is great. I'm finally back on track with menu planning and cooking, at least the next couple of weeks.

I'll be 37 weeks pregnant with our sweet girl #2 this Thursday. And that is just crazy! This pregnancy has flown by especially the last 4 weeks or so. I feel like I've been pretty well organized in getting our stuff ready or the big day but you never know. The baby car seat was put in our car last night (just in case) and it's really weird seeing 2 car seats back there. I've got my packing list done, now I just need to get the suitcase out and pack! I may even start menu planning for November this week since come November 3rd I'll be in the hospital and a little busy taking care of two sweet girls.

The one thing I haven't done is made many freezer meals like I did right before Nyla was born. I may regret it but I just don't feel up to it and chasing a toddler around keeps me busy enough. I have some great recipes that I think will be easy to make for dinners and I'll be relying on my crock pot A LOT! And another great thing, it's soup season and those are always easy to throw together last minute. I guess I'm not too worried about not having many meals ready to go. :)

Here's our menu for the week. What are you making?

Monday:

Cheddar chicken and potatoes

Tuesday:

Spaghetti and artisan bread (addicted to this bread!)

Wednesday:

BBQ chicken packet, rice and vegetables

Thursday: 37 weeks pregnant!

Creamy chicken, bacon and tomato pasta {new recipe}

Friday:

Pepperoni pizza

Saturday;

Chicken Noodle Soup (my own recipe!)

Sunday:

Bean and Beef Enchilada Casserole (from the freezer)

I may be changing my menu around on Wednesday and Thursday and having soups since it's actually going to be low 50s here and windy. Brrrr! But we'll see. Have a great week.

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. For more great recipes and blogs check out her site!!

4 Weeks From Today...

2011-10-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

Four weeks from today we will have another sweet baby girl in our lives. It's really hard to believe it's almost here! In some ways this pregnancy has flown by but in other ways it's gone by at the same speed it did with Nyla. I'm more or less ready for the craziness to ensue around here. And by craziness I mean having 2 babies under the age of 16 months in the house. Yikes! I know I'll be able to handle it and some days won't be the best, but it is what it is. I'm so thankful to have so much help around us. We have both grandparents in town and plenty of people who would come by and help out if we needed it. I know I couldn't do it by myself. Single parents, God bless you! I don't know how you handle work and a family. Wow. I'm overwhelmed just thinking about what that would be like.

What I'll miss about being pregnant:

1. sweet baby kicks from the inside

2. when she has the hiccups

3. having a big, pregnant belly

4. being able to have babies :)

5. maternity pants

6. having one baby to take care on the outside and having the other on the inside to just feel moving around, that seems easier than what will be soon

7. one baby to tote around and loving on; I worry sometimes about giving enough time to each sweet baby, plus my husband, plus myself.

What I won't miss about being pregnant:

1. the headaches I've had the last few weeks, almost everyday, yuck!

2. the hip and back pain

3. waddling around like a duck :)

4. being hot all the time

5. going to the bathroom ALL. THE. TIME.

6. sleep not being so great the last few weeks b/c my hips are hurting so bad

I know having baby #2 will be awesome! But there are some things that I worry about on a regular basis. I know it's going to be hard somedays. It was hard with Nyla for the first 6-8 weeks. I know it will be a little harder with 2 babies. I just really hope that it will get a little easier each day as we all adjust. I want both my babies to feel lots of love from me and I want to give them all the attention they crave. Plus, I want to be able to rest a little in between so I can take care of myself. Having a c-section is tough on the body and takes a lot longer to recover. I just hope I can hang in there everyday to take care of everyone. Eeek! Obviously, I'm a little nervous about it. Yes, I'm not the first person to have 2 little babies close together, but it's a first for me. So, prayers are appreciated friends, truly appreciated.

Weekend + Menu Plan Monday-October 2

2011-10-03T13:18:00.004-05:00

I am worn out from our busy weekend with family and friends! We did something every night this weekend and I'm pooped. This is why my menu is late coming out.

Friday we surprised a friend from church for her birthday. Her husband set it all up to meet them at a restaurant for dinner then bought tickets for all of us to go see "Courageous" at the movie theater. Go see it. Bring tissues. :)

Saturday night we hosted a fellowship meal with our Connection Class, aka Sunday school class. I was busy all week getting the house ready, while Hubby cut grass and my mom and dad helped with outside stuff too. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful family. (Being 34+ weeks pregnant and hosting an event don't go hand-in-hand and I don't recommend it. I was exhausted all day on Sunday.) My daddy grilled pork tenderloin on the grill. I got about a 2 foot long tenderloin at Sam's Club for $1.99 a pound, spending under $20 for the whole thing, you can't beat that. Everyone else brought sides including rice, baked beans, rolls and of course dessert... cupcakes and cookies. :) We never eat poorly at get-together's.

Sunday after church we came home and crashed. All 3 of us climbed into bed and took almost 2 hours naps. We didn't even eat lunch, just went straight to bed. It was very nice. Then we relaxed all afternoon, went back to church for evening service and then dinner with a big group from church. We didn't get home until almost 9 and that made for a long day, adding to the long weekend. Let's just say I'm enjoying the low key day that is Monday today. :)

Side note: 1 month from today we will welcome baby #2 in our lives! Naomi will be here November 3rd (if not before). I've scheduled the c-section with my doctor and now await it to be scheduled with the hospital which will be 2-3 weeks out from the date. We're so excited and counting down the days! It also feels like crunch time so I'm nesting a little more and trying to do as much as possible the next 4 weeks for Christmas gifts, freezer meals and keeping a clean home. After November 3rd I definitely won't be getting out as much with 2 babies! I'm exhausted from thinking about it. :) Thankfully both sets of grandparents are in town and available for help and believe me they will be called a lot to help us!

Enough talking about stuff, let's get down to food! I haven't cooked but 2 things in the last 2 weeks. That is pathetic. We've gotten invited over for dinners, done leftovers or had cereal. Let's just say Hubby is having a hard time getting something for lunch since he always takes leftovers and there aren't so many in the freezer. Oops. :) Here's what I WILL be cooking this week.

Monday:

Parmesan Chicken Tenders, baked potato and vegetables

Tuesday:

Spaghetti and Artisan Bread

Wednesday:

Crock pot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti (family favorite, lots of leftovers!)

Thursday:

Tex Mex Chicken and Rice Casserole {new recipe}

Friday:

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday:

Stuffed Baguettes {new recipe}

Sunday:

Bean and Beef Enchilada Casserole-from the freezer

What's cooking in your kitchen this week?

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Pictures of my girl

2011-09-27T10:30:00.002-05:00

Since I'm at a loss as to what I want to post, I'll just post some pictures of my sweet girl. :)

Making a mess with my tupperware. This is so typical. Nowadays it gets pushed out of the way and Dada picks it up when he gets home since it's not easy for me to bend over anymore. I am almost 34 weeks pregnant after all.

Yes we wear colanders on our head. She hands one to me and I wear it and then she wants it on her head. I'm so glad I get to experience all of this. I would hate if I had to miss it.

We went to Olive Garden a couple weeks ago and Nyla wanted to read the menu to us. She is so sweet.

No, that's not coffee it's how the kid water came that day. It was hilarious seeing her drink from it though. She does like to drink from big people cups and this was no different.

We are visiting my mom at her church, she works there part time, and there just happens to be a box on the floor, well Nyla will climb into it. She's goofy like that.

Menu Plan Monday-September 26

2011-09-25T07:00:00.002-05:00

September 26-Oct 2

Seriously, October already?! I have got to get on my Christmas craft making and shopping before baby #2 gets here. Eek!

Last week was a cooking FAIL! I cooked on Thursday only. We had a couple from our SS class over to discuss our ideas for our new SS class and that was the only night I cooked. The other nights we had leftovers and whatever we wanted. We thankfully didn't go out and spend money just found plenty to eat at our own house. It just goes to show cooking gets thrown out the window some weeks and that's okay. I didn't beat myself up about it, we just laughed about it. Hopefully I'll actually make what's on my menu this week. :)

Not a terribly busy week ahead and I'm thankful for that. The only major plans, we're opening up our home to our Sunday School class on Saturday evening for a fellowship get-together thing. So I'll be keeping the house clean all week and anything other little things I need to be doing. So here's our menu for the week:

September 26th, Monday:

Dinner with MIL and bro-in-law for his birthday that was this past Saturday; we're going to Central BBQ....mmmm Memphis BBQ. :)

September 27th, Tuesday:

Cheddar Chicken and Potatoes

September 28th, Wednesday:

Hamburgers and homemade fries

September 29th, Thursday:

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet

September 30th, Friday:

Breakfast, Waffles and Bacon

October 1st, Saturday:

Sunday School party @ The Gafford Home

We make the main course and everyone else brings sides and desserts

October 2nd, Sunday:

BBQ Chicken Packet with rice and vegetables

P.S. I'm looking to make some items for our freezer to have ready to go after Naomi gets here. I have about a month to cook them on top of being 33 weeks pregnant, taking care of a toddler and getting Christmas stuff together. Any suggestions?

I made quite a few things before Nyla was born but I had much more energy. I'm looking for simple this time. Help please!

This blog is posted over at Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. For more great menu ideas, check it out!

Did You Marry the Wrong Person?

2011-09-22T09:43:00.002-05:00

Don't be thrown off by the title, this is a great read!

Follow the link and check out this great article on marriage and the imperfections that we all face.

Did You Marry the Wrong Person?

Menu Plan Monday-September 19

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

September 19th-September 25th

Sorry this is late, we've had a busy week and weekend and I didn't get around to posting this until now. Oops!

Monday, Sept 19th:

Frozen pizzas

I didn't feel like cooking :)

Tuesday, Sept 20th:

Mexican Verde Casserole {leftovers} We really liked this dish!

We never ate it last week so we'll try again this week

Wednesday, Sept 21st: New Bible study at church led by my Hubby, so we're excited around here about it. :)

Cream Cheese Chicken {crock pot, new recipe}

Thursday, Sept 22nd:

Friends over for dinner to talk about our new Sunday School class. Not sure what I'm making yet.

Friday, Sept 23rd:

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday, Sept 24th:

Stuffed baguettes {new recipe}

Sunday, Sept 25th:

Bean and Beef Enchilada Casserole {leftovers}

This wasn't our favorite, the corn tortillas made it soggy. We both decided it would be better with tortilla chips and once the leftovers are gone I won't be making this again. :)

Our House: After Pictures

2011-09-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the "after" pictures of our house. You can follow the link here to see the "before" pictures. There are some pretty big changes, unfortunately it's hard to tell from pictures. But we, of course, saw a big difference and are so thankful for them!

I tried to do them in order of how I had them on the "before" picture blog. I hope that helps you envision the changes. :)

In the rock corner is where the giant fireplace used to live. When we moved in our entertainment center was in that corner and our couch and loveseat faced that area. Unfortunately, it was awkward and the loveseat didn't fit great. I was sitting there one day thinking about how I could make the room better. I thought I could move the table and chairs where they are now and move the couches around (you'll see what I did in another picture). And it worked. And I do love to rearrange so that was even better. Hubby actually helped me too because he thought it was a great idea. And we're very happy with the way it all turned out.

The kitchen. Don't mind the sweet girl at the bottom having her snack.

As you can hopefully see we lightened up the wall color and this past Spring redid the kitchen. We got new countertops, more shelving, I painted the cabinets (that was a chore!), got new hardware for the cabinets, new sink and new faucet. We also added an extension to the counterop. Over on the left, to the left of the window you can somewhat see some open shelving above and below the cabinet. This wasn't there before. It was just a giant hole. And the countertop ended as well. It was so awkward. When we moved in I had a bakers rack there and stored some stuff but it wasn't functional and I had hardly any counter space to roll out dough and do prep work for meals. When we were discussing new countertops my mom suggested extending the counter to the wall and adding shelving above and below. Genius! I have a place below to store my mixer, bread maker, crock pot, mixing bowls and my Fiesta serving pieces and above to store my cookbooks, knives, small oven, and some decorative pieces. And it's perfect. The extension added 2 to 3 feet of extra counter space which is great for such a small kitchen!

I didn't have a picture of the other side of the kitchen but here's one. It has our desk with our computer and our small table. The table and chairs were my Great-Grandmother's and we got them recovered with some cute, retro fabric that matches our curtain colors. It's round but has an extension and 4 chairs, though we only use 2 of them plus a different one for the messy girl. :)

Here's a shot of the entire den. Over in the far right corner is where the fireplace was. As you can see we lightened up the bottom half of the wall and it's SO much better. I feel like we have a separate living area and dining area and I love it. It makes our room feel so much bigger. Yes, it's odd to have 2 sets of tables and chairs so close together but we'll probably get rid of the ones in this room and make it a playroom or something. We'll see.

After of the sinks. We chose this look for both bathrooms, it was just easier. New countertops, new sink, faucet, mirror, light fixture, paint for the cabinets and hardware too. It's way better than the crap that was here before.

This is the hall bathroom. I love the black cabinets!

New tile in the master. Remember the gold? It went bye-bye! We chose a more brown tile with flecks of gold-ish. I like it and wish we had done it in the hall bath too.

The master bath sink area.

I didn't take a picture of the hallway in the "before" pictures but any suggestions on what to do here? I've found a picture on Pinterest that I like. It's of different color and size frames and it rotates kids artwork. That might be kind of fun. But I don't know. Suggestions are welcome!

Next I'll do before and after of our bedrooms and closets. The closets are surprisingly awesome for a 1970's house... they're all walk-in's. They helped sell us the house!

Our House: Before Pictures

2011-09-13T10:15:00.001-05:00

Here's our cute little house, or rather before it was cute. It was just a little house in these pictures. :) We did some major overhauling in the house and I'm thankful. I'm not sure I could've lived with such dark walls and ugly fixtures and weird sinks. I know, I know. I would've managed but I'm glad I didn't have to. And when we moved in it was all ready and nothing had to be done after the move which is nice. I can't imagine workers being all around our stuff.

Here are some before pictures, tomorrow I'll show you the after pictures. :)

This is "the Beast" of a fireplace. It was gas and unattractive so we got rid of it. If it was wood burning I would've considered keeping it to help heat our home. But don't you love the big rock detail? I sure do. It adds character in our home. See what we did in the after pictures to spruce this area up!

This is the kitchen. See the dark cedar around the window and above the cabinets? It seriously was so dark in these two rooms. We took down all the dusty blinds since Hubby and I don't do great with dust. My mom made curtains for all the windows and I keep them open pretty much all the time to let the light in.

Den and "the Beast" of a fireplace. And more dark paneling. Eek!

Thankfully the floors were in great shape in most places. The kitchen has nice tile, this laminate flooring and the carpet are all in great shape. The only floor we changed was the master bath. Gold tile didn't suit our tastes. :)

Hall bathroom sink, not horrible but not great either. We changed it for deeper sinks and a prettier faucet. All updates in both bathrooms included new sink, new faucet, new hardware on cabinets, plus paint on cabinets, new countertops, new mirrors and new lighting. We kept them similar but painted the cabinets different. Black in the hall bath which looks great and a mocha in the master bath which I could go a little darker eventually.

Gold tile in the master bathroom. Yikes! That was ripped up and changed into a prettier tile.

And the master bathroom sink. Isn't it awesome?! I didn't stay of course. :)

It really threw you when you first walked in. It just made me laugh. I'm sure lots of people are thrown by some of this stuff but it was the style back in the day and it can be changed. You just have to look past it and be open to new possibilities.

And the toilet paper holder and towel bar were replaced with a stainless steel and it's much nicer too.

Come back Thursday for the "after" pictures. Thankfully it looks much better now.

"After" pictures.

Menu Plan Monday-September 12

2011-09-11T07:00:00.002-05:00

We are certainly making our way through September! Could this year go by any faster? Wow. I'm already starting to get Christmas gifts together for this year. I'm thinking gift baskets with a little of this and a little of that might be in order this year. But we'll see.

Here's what's cooking in the Gafford Home this week. I've got my one new recipe coming on Saturday and the rest are becoming go-to meals in our home and I like it. I'm continuing on the route of simplicity for me as the cook. I enjoy being in my kitchen but I just don't have time to do it all day plus I'm so tired when dinner rolls around.

Monday-Sept 12th

Smothered "Aussie" Chicken (a family favorite), rice and vegetables

Tuesday-Sept 13th

Your choice of sandwiches with homemade bread mmmmm

Wednesday-Sept 14th

Mexican Verde Casserole-leftovers from last month

This was a great hit in our home! It was easy to put together and I was able to easily split it into two 8-inch pans to serve one and freeze the other. I was also surprised at how much flavor it had since the recipe didn't call for any spices. But it's delish!

Thursday-Sept 15th

Spaghetti and 5-minute artisan bread

This bread was so simple to make and so tasty. We dipped it in olive oil and a seasoning we put in the olive oil, wow!

Friday-Sept 16th

Wheat-Blueberry Pancakes and bacon

Saturday-Sept 17th

Chicken and Pepper Pasta Bake {new recipe}

Sunday-Sept 18th

Leftover Homemade Ravioli

Repurposing Cribs-30 Great Ideas!

2011-09-09T13:52:00.002-05:00

I came across this link on a Facebook page I follow and I love it!

It's a link to 30 ideas on repurposing our old cribs. I have the (now illegal) drop side crib in our house and will probably be doing something like these ideas suggest instead of it just going to the dump with so much other stuff.

Check out this great site!

30 Ideas to Repurposing Your Old Cribs

Priority Time

2011-09-06T07:00:00.002-05:00

The past week or so Hubby and I have been reading the book of 1 John together, but separate. :) By that I mean, the same passages on the same nights but we do our own study of it and then talk about it once we finish. It's been such an encouragement to me! I don't think he has any idea how much of an encouragement it's been. I struggle with spending quality time with God. I'm a "quality time" person so you'd think I wouldn't have any trouble with it but I do. It's always hurried and it's just not good. I feel like I don't get anything out of it when there's plenty to learn. I struggle with how to read actively, ask the right questions and write down my thoughts, without just rewriting every verse and still getting nothing out of it. Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who has constantly encouraged me through this struggle.

Hubby has been working HARD the last couple of weeks to get his thoughts down for a new small group he'll be leading at church (he'll lead and I'll make a snack). We've been talking about doing something in our home for 3 years, basically since we got married, but the timing just wasn't ever right. Now that we have a home we thought about hosting here but with a little one and another on the way there would be way too many distractions. So we decided to have it at church where childcare is available and there's another activity at church on Wednesday nights. :) It starts September 21st and we're so excited about it!

His first lesson for the study is "How to Study the Bible." It'll be about an 8 weeks study and I'm praying it will be an encouragement to everyone involved. Helping him and throwing out ideas has helped me already.

He's seen me struggle with my priority time with God and we started talking about it and what to do to help me and this study sprang from it. While he's been thinking and writing on this subject for some time things really started happening when we got into deep conversation about it. So I gave him a book I've had for at least 5 years to give him some ideas on how to teach on the subject and how to make it more accessible for new Christians as well as seasoned ones. He thinks so logically, which is great but can be hard for some people to understand. He wants me to help him keep it simple, since I think a bit more simply than he does. We are such different thinkers, hopefully that means we'll play off each other well to reach all the people in the study.

The book I gave him is Tim LaHaye's, How to Study the Bible for Yourself. It's a great book and while we both don't agree on a few of the things because we feel you can get bogged down in them, it's a helpful tool to get started on being more consistent with priority time.

I'm praying for God to prepare the hearts of those who are to come, my Hubby who is leading and all those who may be involved in the study and don't know the love of Jesus Christ.

Menu Plan Monday-September 5

2011-09-04T07:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Labor Day week! I hope you have Monday off to relax and enjoy being with your family. If not, I hope the work day goes by quickly for you so you can relax!

We have our usual week or relaxation and church activities that are always fun. I've got a new recipe I'm trying tomorrow and I hope it turns out well. :) Here's our menu for the week!

Monday-Sept 5th

Chicago-Style Pizza Pot Pie {new recipe}

We are thin crust people in this house so we'll see how we like a thicker crust.

Tuesday-Sept 6th

Parmesan Chicken Strips, mashed potatoes and vegetables

Wednesday-Sept 7th

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches on my new favorite bread... Wheat Buttermilk Bread from Joy in my Kitchen. This bread has replaced our store bought version and I couldn't be happier!

Thursday-Sept 8th

Layered Enchilada Bake-leftovers from last month (a family favorite)

Friday-Sept 9th

Pepperoni Pizza

I know, 2 pizza's in one week but it's a holiday week! :)

Saturday-Sept 10th

Lunch: Burgers and fries

Dinner: Sunday School Class fellowship; no details yet so we'll see if it happens. We'll have BBQ Chicken Packet with rice if fellowship doesn't happen.

Sunday-Sept 11th

Crock pot Lasagna (so good!)

I hope you have a great week cooking, I know I will!

This menu plan is posted over at Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check out her blog post for more great menu planning ideas!

Our Story

2011-09-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

This blog post is written to tell you, dear readers, how the beginning of Daniel and Ginny started and where it's gone since we met, married, bought our first home together and have brought 2 girls (almost 2) into this world. I'll try to make it shorter rather than longer.

April/May 2006

Daniel and I met at Starbucks along with 2 other people I had never met, through a girlfriend I went to high school with and worked with at a local golf course. It wasn't a blind date or anything like that, it was just friends getting together for coffee and then a movie where my friend L was housesitting. Daniel picked out the movie, "The Fog" and it was horrible! At one point I think I said, "Who picked this movie? It's the worst ever." I was being funny and serious at the same time. Now we joke to this day about that stupid movie. I think I actually bought it on dvd for $5 just because it was from the first time we met.

Summer 2006

We didn't see too much of one another. I worked long and crazy hours at the golf course. He occasionally would walk up there with our friend C and her dog. They'd pop in and say hi and stay a bit then get back to walking. That's really all I remember seeing of him most of the summer.

Fall 2006

I started really hanging with that group of people. There were about 5 of them in all. They were in a worship band and they practiced on Wednesday nights then we'd all go eat at Perkins and hang there for a good while just having a good time. They were visiting a small church and I was looking for a new place so I thought I'd try it out. I fell in love with it, the people, the atmosphere, but most of all they preached the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It was all I needed to hear, I knew this was the church for me. God lead me there for a reason. We're still there today, both actively involved on different teams, our Sunday School, dinners, etc. It's a great place for us.

This was also about the time I started having some feelings for Daniel. I saw him as a true Christ follower who wanted to do things differently than some people. I liked that. I had been reading Christian based books on finding your mate and praying about it.

When I broke up with my last boyfriend I knew I didn't want to date anymore just to date. I wanted to date with the purpose of marriage in mind. And I did that going into the relationship with Daniel. I went in with the attitude of if it doesn't go anymore within 6 months, I'm out and we'll just be friends. I really had a level head this time around. And I'm proud of myself for it.

January 2007

Daniel and I begin our courtship relationship. And it's wonderful. I love the fact that we were friends first so we got to know one another's real selves and not just the dating selves that put on airs for people.

August 2007

Our relationship has progressed and it's wonderful. He picks me up every Sunday/Sunday night for church, we talk together all the time and just enjoy each other's company. We get engaged on August 8, 2007. It's not a big or elaborate story of our engagement. It was just us and it was our style. We weren't wearing anything fancy or at a fancy restaurant. He was sweet, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. We went that afternoon to a friend of my parents and designed and bought an engagement ring. I unfortunately had to wait a week for the thing, but it was worth it!

Fall/Winter 2007

Let the wedding planning begin! We set our date for April 26. 2008. He like the date because it involved math. 4 +2=6 (month, plus first day number equals last date number. And 6+2=8. You get the picture. He said it would be easy for him to remember our anniversary. Such a math nerd!

We both decided we wanted very little to do with extravagance of a reception and more to do with the marriage itself. We did have quite a few guests as our family's our rather large, especially his, and our parents know a lot of people. We got married in the church I grew up in and that my parents are still actively involved in. And our reception was in the gym there on the campus. At the reception we had cake and punch for our guests and that was it. We just didn't want any more than that and I didn't want to deal with any more vendors than I had to. It was a simple affair surrounded by lots of love from those close to us.

And I didn't fret over small details or things that could go wrong. I knew things would go wrong, that's life. But I told myself and everyone around me, "It doesn't matter I'll be married." Isn't that the whole goal of a wedding anyways, being married? Yes, you want to create a nice atmosphere for your guests, but when did it become about impressing them? We just weren't interested in all the hoop-la of a fancy to-do!

Fast forward to March 2010:

We have been living in an apartment since we were married and are now ready to buy a house. We find one in April after I look at what seem like a thousand houses and put an offer in. Unfortunately, it was not accepted but thinking back now it wasn't going to fit into our budget and we may have struggled to keep the air running and pay the mortgage. We knew the max our mortgage could be, how much in utilities we could pay and it was just all too much. We were sad because it was a home we could've stayed in forever. But God knew we wouldn't be able to afford it. Thankfully we found one 2 days later, made an offer, it was accepted and we closed in the last part of May. While we loved the layout and the many different possibilities the house offered, it was a 1970's house and you could certainly tell. The previous owners had obviously not done much to it. The master bath had gold, octagon tile with a black sink and a hallway light as their vanity light. And that was in both bathrooms. Blech! There was a giant, dome shaped gas fireplace in the living room. I called it "The Beast." And it was SO dark in the kitchen and living area. It was great cedar but super dark and it just sucked the life out of you when you walked in. Thankfully we were able to pay some people to come in and do some updates for us. (Before & after pictures to come later this week).

June 2010:

So here I am 36 weeks pregnant and we're moving into our house. We had lots of help and I was only allowed to carry pillows and bedding, which was fine by me. I had been moving kitchen stuff over to the house all week so my kitchen would be set up and ready to go. I was just exhausted from the heat and all the emotional issues that go along with moving and saying goodbye to our first home even if it was an apartment. I think we had 12 people help us move and we knocked it out in less than 4 hours. Yep, I was prepared. I had been packing since we made the offer and it was accepted and left out only what we needed. This made the move so much easier! And everyone was thankful that I was so organized. I pointed people in the right direction when they go to the house as to where the boxes went.

July 2010:

Nyla arrives by emergency c-section, July 13, 2010 at 11:45 a.m. and she's a huge blessing to our already blessed lives! We live in the hospital for a couple of days and head home to start life as a family of 3. She is a healthy baby girl at 9 pounds 8 ounces and 21 inches long and continues to grow and grow.

March 2011:

We find out some surprising news... we're expecting again! While it's much sooner than we planned we are beyond happy with our blessing. A few months later we find out we are having another girl. We both were expecting a boy but are happy it's another girl so Nyla and Naomi will be so close in age. It'll be fun with them growing up so close together. And the added savings of already having plenty of girl clothes, etc.

August 2011:

So here we are in August, sweating it out. Daniel off to work everyday while I'm thankful to be able to stay home and raise our sweet Nyla. She's getting so tall and into everything but that's how we like it, most of the time. I have a little over 2 months to go before Naomi gets here and I've been nesting like crazy ever since I found out I was pregnant again. We'll be getting her room ready this month and then it'll just be a waiting game. Thankfully I have Nyla to keep me busy. This 2nd pregnancy has just flown by!

So that's our story. I hope I didn't bog you down too much. I left so many details out, but it makes for good blog posts later. Thanks for reading!

Naomi's Room

2011-08-31T16:04:00.006-05:00

Welcome to Naomi's room! We are so excited about the arrival of our second baby girl. I'm 30 weeks tomorrow and I'm so excited the room is done and ready to go. When we had Nyla last July we had just moved into our house and her room was completed when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. I did NOT want to do that again! I like to be ready and organized even though I don't want Naomi to come until I'm at least 37 weeks so her sweet little lungs develop. :)

Enjoy all the pictures of Naomi's room. It was fun to paint with Hubby, giving us the chance to talk to one another and fun shopping for all the great stuff and making our little projects for her. We did quite a few for Nyla's room not too long ago so we had to do some for Naomi. I'm so ready to meet our second baby girl!

Welcome to Naomi Carrick's room!

Changing area and shelves. These 2 pieces were both in Nyla's room and they were great to have. The shelves will soon be filled with diapers, wipes and anything else we need to keep handy.

Wow this is super blurry.

I originally made this for Nyla but since she's against hair bows it got moved into Naomi's room yesterday. Glad it transferred over though.

Cute lamp my mom recovered from leftover bed skirt fabric. We wanted purple this go around and found some cute fabrics.

Sorry about the blurry pictures, yuck.

I made similar pictures for Nyla, unfortunately I'm not too creative so Naomi got pretty much the same pictures. :)

Hubby's favorite one I did. It hangs in the middle of the 3.

Naomi's crib. This crib was the one my sister and I slept in when we were babies so it's pretty special to be able to have one of my daughter's in it. I originally wanted to use it for Nyla but my mom wanted to set it up in their house; it only got used about 6 times so we so could've used it for Nyla. Oh well.

Up close shot of the bumper pad fabric and ribbon ties. This is the fabric I fell in love with at JoAnn's and couldn't put done. It was VERY hard to match though which was the only set back. I wanted a different fabric on the inside of the bumper pads like we did for Nyla but because of the odd shades of color it didn't work out. It still turned out cute. My mom made all the bedding. She's so good!

Here's a picture Hubby did for Naomi. He's so good and the colors are perfect in her room. I'm in love with it! Now Nyla needs an original by her sweet Dada. :)

Leftover fabric and ribbon make for a super cute pillow. This is another creation on my mom's. This will be our chair to rock, snuggle and feed Naomi in. It was also in Nyla's room but since she could care less to be rocked it got moved. My mom did recover a chair for her room and it's totally cute. I'll have to post the changes me made to her room while in the process of creating Naomi's room.

And the curtain. It was just a plain, beige curtain so my mom used leftover bumper pad fabric and put about 20 inches tall on the bottom and topped it with ribbon. Then did about 10 inches up top (but not all the way to the top) with more ribbon. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

So there's Naomi's room. I hope you enjoyed the tour. We're very excited about it turned out and can't wait to see our baby girl in it! I hope she likes the purple as much as we do! :)

Menu Planning Made Easy

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm done with involved recipes, at least most of the week. I'm back to making simple meals for our family, meals that don't require a lot of prep time. I'm just tired, tired at the end of the day from chasing a 13 month, being 6.5 months pregnant, it's hot outside, dishes pile up, laundry needs to get done, I need a shower and a nap. I'm just tired. Who's with me?

I love menu planning and won't stop but the meals you'll be seeing here will be more simple than they have been lately. I'm back to recipes with few ingredients.

Menu planning, where to begin?

I do my menu monthly, it's just easier for me at this point. Yes, our plans change and I do move meals around but I don't let that stop me from planning the whole month so it's already done week in and week out. I used my colored pens (yes I love pens) to separate my weeks. I'll use light pink one week, orange the next and blue the next, etc. This just makes it easier to see what week and day we're on. I also mark through the day once it's done. So here's my steps for how I menu plan.

Step 1: Get out supplies.

I get out my recipe binder with my favorite recipes, any other cookbooks, my colored pens and this sheet. I write in my date (ex. Mon, Aug 29) in the smaller box and in the bigger box I write the meal plan along with where I can find it (ex. Parmesan Chicken Tenders-Binder; Baked Chimichangas-Taste of Home, pg. 171). I do this so I can find it so when it comes time to cook and I'm not searching to find my recipe.

Step 2: Start the process.

Pick out your favorite recipes and your family's favorite recipes and write them down. Ask your family to write out a few recipes that are favorites and start with those. I try and prepare as much variety as our budget allows a week. Some weeks it just happens that we have more chicken, like this week, and that's fine with us because it's all prepared differently.

I usually do one Mexican dish and one Italian dish a week since we like those so much. I also do either pizza or breakfast on Friday's and just switch every other week. Some weeks we have leftovers, but I do specify what leftovers we have to plan ahead and use my freezer inventory wisely. Some nights we just have sandwiches and chips too. On Wednesday's and Sunday's I make it easy on myself so we're not rushed before and after church. That's where the wonder of the crock pot comes into play most often. I like that appliance on those two days.

Step 3: Fill in the gaps.

This happens more times than not, I have too many chicken dinners here and I've already done sandwiches that week or breakfast and I'm not sure how to fill in my gaps. Hey, it doesn't always work out perfectly! So I just put in quick stuff, i.e. baked potato with bbq chicken (I always have cooked chicken in the freezer) or we'll do sandwiches again but I'll make a french bread loaf for something different or we'll have more leftovers. It doesn't matter, the fact is I'm planning and thinking ahead and it just works for me.

Step 4: Stick to it.

This may be the hardest step of all for me somedays. I'm craving something different or what's on the menu just isn't appealing. But here's where I don't go crazy... I just move my menu around and pick something from another day. *gasp* You can do that? Of course! I told you, I'm flexible when it comes to that. We do that probably once a week in this house. I don't fret, I just make sure we have all the ingredients for the other meal and adjust. The idea of "stick to it" is just stick to the monthly menu and try not to go away from it. Use what you have and what's available. And it's no problem.

This also comes in handy for not going out so much. People say, "oh we have nothing to eat in this house so I guess we'll just go out." Well that's great for some people but it doesn't work for us. We can't go out every single week, our tight budget doesn't allow. And we both try and watch what we eat and going out doesn't come in line with that. People say they have nothing to eat because they don't plan. If you plan ahead you will have all the food you need for that week's dinners. When you menu plan, make your grocery list, go shopping and you're done. It's that easy!

Step 5: Make it easy on yourself.

Don't pick crazy recipes you know you'll never make. So what if you have spaghetti every week?! Do what you feel comfortable doing and just get in the habit of menu planning. For a long time we'd have spaghetti and chicken fingers every week and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm going back to doing that and Hubby doesn't mind at all. I'll throw in a new recipe here and there to challenge myself and just to have fun with it (most likely on a Saturday when I have help wrangling the babies), but I don't go crazy. Look at my past menu's. They are so not elaborate and detailed. I just don't have the time to make big elaborate meals. If I want to make something somewhat fancy I pick a day where I'm not so busy, say a Saturday that I have free.

I hope that helps you as you venture into the world of menu planning. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try and help. I love talking about planning. I feel it's too easy not to do, but that's just me. :)

Gratituesday: On Comfy Chairs and Love

2011-08-30T07:00:00.005-05:00

Last night my Hubby wrote the sweetest blog about our baby girl. Yes, it brought me to tears as most of his blogs about our life together usually do. Read on and be reminded of our loving God's great love for us.

Here's the post:

From the Mind of Daniel:

Every once in a while we need reminders and perspective on the preciousness and value of love. Tonight was my reminder.

You see, our sweet daughter has been undergoing a barrage of teething the last few months. Not just any teething mind you, but the dreaded molars - the big ones - have been popping through. For whatever reason, the last one-year molar is soooooo close to erupting, which, by the way, might be the worst term ever for a tooth coming in, but has yet to break the surface.

Click her to finish reading this post...

This post is linked to Heavenly Homemakers Gratituesday!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here.
If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

Menu Plan Monday-August 29

2011-08-28T07:00:00.008-05:00

August 29th-September 4th

As you've seen or will see in posts I'm changing up my dinner menus and going back to make simpler meals. I'm still menu planning but the meals I'm using you may see more than once a month. :) I'm just needing to make life more simple and preparing simpler meals is a step in that direction. While this menu plan doesn't have too many of those simpler meals, I decided to go simple after this week since it was already planned.

Check out my recipe index for all the recipes we eat in this house. I've linked them up to my blog, other blogs, recipe sites and google docs for a quick print out version.

Monday, August 29th:

Beef Chimichangas {new recipe}

Tuesday, August 30th:

Homemade Chicken Bowls

Wednesday, August 31st:

Baked potatoes with bbq and homemade bbq sauce

Thursday, September 1st:

Italian Chicken and Rice Casserole {new recipe}

made in 2, 8 inch pans for another meal another night

Friday, September 2nd:

Breakfast-Sourdough Waffles {new recipe}

I successfully made my first sourdough starter last week!

And this recipe makes a lot of waffles but I freeze our leftovers, especially breakfast items. Hubby likes to take different breakfast foods to work so I keep our freezer stocked for him.

Saturday, September 3rd:

Easy Chicken and Dumplings {new recipe}

This is a Paula Deen recipe I got from her magazine that I borrowed from a friend. I'm sure it will be tasty! And it's my first try and chicken and dumplings. :)

Sunday, September 4th:

Crock pot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

What are you cooking this week?

This post is linked at Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check it out for more great menu planning ideas and options!

Simplifying our Menu

2011-08-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

While I'm loving ALL the recipes being put out by all the blogs I read, I simply can't keep up! So I've decided I'm simplifying our dinner menu for September. More spaghetti with homemade noodles and bread, more chicken with homemade breadcrumbs, just more meals with less ingredients and more meals with food items I keep on hand. I'm having a hard time stretching our budget with dinners for Hubby and I and keeping fresh fruits, vegetables and milk in the house for Nyla. I'm used to it just being Hubby and I when it comes to food and I guess I still have that mindset but that hasn't been the case for months now.

So I'm back to simple meals in this house. And frankly, I'm exhausted by the time dinner gets here and recipes that have too many ingredients are bogging me down. I'll still be constantly looking at recipes and I'll try them occasionally when I'm not completely exhausted, I'll still be blog hopping and still blogging, but it'll be different topics here. I can't be all about the food anymore because it's not all about the food around here, it's so much more than that! I've got a sweet little family I want to write more about.

Blogging isn't coming easy

2011-08-25T08:56:00.003-05:00

Right now blogging isn't coming so easily for me. I feel like I don't have time to document all the recipes we try around here even though I want to tell you about some of them. I hate the name of my blog and have been trying out new ones and can't come up with anything creative. It's not just about recipes around here, at least I don't want it to be. I want it to be about our life as a little family; laundry, meals, outings, organization, menu planning, minimizing life, church stuff, Bible studies, encouragement, the puppet ministry I'm involved with, weight loss (after Naomi gets here) and so much more. I want it to be about so much more than it is now.

Any suggestions on blog names?

What sort of things are you looking for in a blog?

Help!!! :)

Menu Plan Monday-August 22

2011-08-22T08:51:00.003-05:00

August 22nd-August 28th

Happy Monday Ya'll! Sorry I'm late getting my menu out but wee had a nice relaxing day yesterday and I didn't want to give it up and I didn't plan ahead and schedule my posting. Sorry about that!

Here's what's happening in our house this week. For some reason I have a lot of chicken going on, some weeks that's just how it is. When Hubby looked at the menu this week he was really excited about what was planned even if there was a lot of chicken. It features a lot of his favorites, plus 2 new recipes I've been wanting to try.

Monday, August 22:

Grilled Chicken Roller (one of Hubby's favorites)

with mac and cheese and vegetable

I cook this in the oven and will use italian dressing

Tuesday, August 23:

Smothered Aussie Chicken (another of Hubby's favorites)

with rice and vegetable

Wednesday, August 24:

Hamburgers and mac and cheese

We go easy on Wednesday's since we have church

Thursday, August 25:

Mexican Verde Casserole (new recipe)

Friday, August 26:

BBQ Chicken Pizza (a family favorite)

Saturday, August 27:

Lunch: reunion on Hubby's side, we'll make a quick appearance since it's around Nyla's nap time.

Dinner: Breakfast

Sunday, August 28:

Lunch: Crock pot Brown Sugar Chicken (new recipe)

Dinner: Out with church people to discuss Sunday school class stuff

And I have no idea where the recipe came from so I can't link it to anywhere. I'll figure it out and get it on here. Sorry.

What are you enjoying this week?

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check it out for more menu planning ideas!

Gratituesday-August 16

2011-08-16T09:19:00.003-05:00

I'm thankful for...

My sweet Hubby! I just thought this vacuuming picture was funny. He still does vacuum for me every week which I love; I HATE to vacuum and he doesn't mind so it's win-win!!

Not only am I thankful he likes to vacuum I'm thankful for the man he is. He strives to serve our Lord and learn more everyday. He's getting together studies for a Bible study we're starting at church next month and I love being able to sit with him and talk about what he envisions for the study. I'm praying for him and the people that are to come to it. It's an exciting time in our lives! We have a sweet baby girl and another on the way in November and he's so in love with both of them. I'm thankful he's a loving father and follow of Christ. I couldn't ask for more!

What are you thankful for today?

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

Link up with Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday!

Menu Plan Monday-August 15

2011-08-14T13:30:00.004-05:00

August 15- August 21

Happy mid-August!

I have been doing so great with sticking to our menu. I'm so proud of myself. It's not easy with a toddler at your feet but thankfully my husband is home to wrangle her so I can get it done. She still escapes into the kitchen but I hope that means she'll like to cook with me someday!

Here's what's happening in our house this week:

Monday, August 15:

Fettucini Alfredo meal

from our Angel Food box ordered last month

Tuesday, August 16:

Bean and Beef Enchilada Casserole {new recipe}

I've been hitting up our local library the past couple of months and have found a huge section of cookbooks, this is a recipe from one of the books. I think the book was 9x13 casserole type meals.

Wednesday, August 17:

Baked potatoes with leftover bbq

Who doesn't have tons of bbq leftover in their freezer from all the summer's activities? This is a great way to do something different with it. Try our homemade bbq sauce too!

Thursday, August 18:

Chicken Taco Pasta {new recipe}

This is another meal from the cookbook finds at the library. It's made with ground chicken which I've never used so it'll be an adventure in new recipes and new ingredients!

Friday, August 19:

Waffles of Insane Greatness and bacon

I've been looking at this recipe for awhile and I think I'll finally try it!

Saturday, August 20:

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches {family favorite}:

made with homemade french bread rolls and homemade bbq sauce

This is a quick meal to throw together because I already have cooked, shredded chicken in the freezer from making my chicken in the crock pot. I also make some homemade rolls to go with it. So yummy!

Sunday, August 21:

Stouffer's Meal

from our Angel Food box ordered last month

What's cooking in your kitchen this week?

For more menu planning ideas see Menu Plan Monday's.

This post is linked to I'm an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Check out the page for more great ideas.

Friday Favorite Finds

2011-08-12T07:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with SnoWhite for her weekly "Friday Favorite Finds" where we share the recipes we've been spying this week. Hop on over to her blog and check out the great recipes!

Here are mine:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Monkey Bread

from: Picky Palate

Chicago Style Pot Pizza-Take 3

from: Eat at Home Cooks

Chicken Florentine Bow Tie Pasta Bake

from: Picky Palate

Just a few this week as it's been busy around here!

Enjoy!

Pizza Sauce-My Quest for the perfect one!

2011-08-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

French bread pizza-another favorite in our house!

The past few years I've experimented with so many different dough recipes until I found my favorite one. You can find the recipe here. I love it and so does Hubby. It makes a great whole wheat thin crust just the way we like it. I've been dabbling in homemade pizza's for about 4 years now and love the taste so much better than frozen, though I don't turn my nose up at frozen. If we're in the mood for one we certainly go get one but we try and make our own as much as possible.

Lately, I've been looking for our perfect pizza sauce and have yet to come up with one. I have one (recipe here) but I haven't liked it very much lately. I found another one from What Meghan's Making and tried it this past Friday but it's just okay to me. I feel like it could be our recipe but it's missing something, I'm just not sure what it is. And don't get me started on store bought. Yuck! I just don't like it; it tastes really fake to me and weird too. I can't explain it, it just does.

So, I need your help! I need a great pizza sauce recipe and I want to know your recipes. Please help!!!

Menu Plan Monday-August 8

2011-08-07T15:00:00.001-05:00

Week of: August 8-August 14

Monday:

Bbq chicken with sauteed peppers over brown rice

(My homemade bbq sauce recipe)

Tuesday:

Lasagna

(Unfortunately this is a store-bought version since I haven't found a great homemade version. Do you have one you'd like to share with me?)

Wednesday:

Lean Cuisine Meal

(We got it in our Angel Food box last month)

Thursday-Sunday:

Nyla, my mom and I are headed to Kansas City, Kansas to see my little sister. We were supposed to go in March but Ny got very sick and we had to call the ambulance; hoping that doesn't happen again and we're all healthy enough to go! So Hubby is on his own, but I have stocked the freezers with good meals so he won't starve!!! :)

Sunday:

Fettucini Alfredo

(We got this in our Angel Food box last month)

What are you cooking this week?

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Friday Favorite Finds

2011-08-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome Friday! I'm ready for the weekend and I know y'all are too!!

I'm linking up with SnoWhite at Joy in my Kitchen for her weekly addition of Friday Favorite Finds where we share recipes we've been eyeing all week long and can't wait to try. Come link up and join the fun!

Here are the recipes I've been looking at:

Crock pot spaghetti sauce

from: A Season for All Things

Crock pot spaghetti sauce 2

from: Joy in my Kitchen

I'm going to combine these 2 recipes to come up with my own, at least that's the plan!

Sourdough Starter/Bread

from: Annie's Eats

I've been looking for a starter for awhile and might finally take the plunge into the process, we'll see!

That's all I've got this week since we've been busy around here. Have a great weekend!

BBQ Cheddar Chicken Roll-Ups

2011-08-04T07:00:00.003-05:00

Last week I used some fresh vegetables (bell pepper and jalapenos) from my garden to help with this delicious chicken dish. I had leftover homemade tortillas in the freezer that I defrosted and was able to make this chicken dish in about 15 minutes. I like that kind of dinner night!

Because of the jalapenos the dish was a little spicier than we like, but the flavor was spot on.

Happy Cooking!

BBQ Cheddar Chicken Roll-Ups

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

1 each-large green and red pepper, cut into strips

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 lb chicken breasts, cut into strips*

1/3 cup bbq sauce (my homemade version)

4 whole wheat tortillas, warmed (homemade tortilla's recipe)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Cook veggies about 3 minutes, add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add in bbq sauce and heat through.

2. Spoon chicken mixture down center of tortillas, top with cheese. Roll up and cut in half.

3. Serve and enjoy!

*You could always use pre-cooked chicken if you're in a hurry. OR try my whole chicken in the crock pot, shred when done and somewhat cooled and freeze for later use. I do that all the time!

See wasn't that easy?? :)

Homemade Wheat Tortillas

2011-08-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned how much I love SnoWhite's recipes over at Joy in my Kitchen? Okay, I thought so, but I wanted to tell you again! :)

Quite a few months ago I ran across her wheat tortilla recipe. I saved it on my "recipes to try" list for awhile, then printed it out and it sat in my recipe binder for quite some time, months in fact. About 6 weeks ago I finally tried them. Yes, it seemed overwhelming looking at the recipe, I mean they're homemade tortillas for goodness sakes. I can easily buy them right? Well not anymore! This recipe is too good to go out and buy some now. And they're surprisingly easy to put together. Don't be daunted because they're homemade. They're actually quite fun to roll out! And they freeze great to be used later. I actually pulled some out of the freezer just last week to use and they tasted just as good as if they were hot off the griddle. So that's win-win.

Homemade Wheat Tortillas-from SnoWhite

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Yield: about 10-12 tortillas

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup warm water

1/4 oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

In a bowl, stir together oil, water, salt and baking powder. Slowly stir in 3 cups flour.

When mixed, knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, 3-5 minutes.

Form into a ball and set aside for 10 minutes to rest.

Cut dough in half and divide each half into 5-6 balls. Form them into balls and set aside for another 10 minutes (resting makes them easier to work with).

Using your rolling pin roll out on a floured surface, in an 8-10 inch circle. It won't be a perfect circle, don't fret!

Preheat griddle to 350 F and place tortillas in a single layer on hot griddle. Cook on there 3-5 minutes, per side, until a little brown and bubbly.

Then use in any recipe you like. They're worth it, try them!

Strawberry Fruit Pizza

2011-08-01T07:00:00.004-05:00

Fruit pizza, who doesn't love it? I had someone tell me the other day, "There for a while everyone was making fruit pizza at get-togethers, then suddenly they stopped. It's not like it wasn't good anymore!" And I couldn't agree more!

The past few weeks I've been spending a decent amount of time getting my recipes organized through Google Docs and have really enjoyed it. It's given me a chance to look through some of the recipes that I've collected but never made or haven't made in quite awhile. This is one of those recipes. It's actually a combination of recipes that I have. This recipe is for strawberry pizza and a fruit pizza I made a few years ago.

The variations I did were, no cool whip in the topping (b/c I didn't have any); 4 oz cream cheese instead of 8 oz and I added half a stick of room temperature butter. I also added more than just strawberries on the top. And for the glaze the container was only about 13 oz, not 16 and that was more than enough.

It was my first time to make this actual crust, I usually use my sugar cookie recipe, but this one was great and much easier to put together.

Strawberry Fruit Pizza

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Strawberry Pizza

From: Julie Richardson

Yields: 1 pizza

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups flour

½ cup powdered sugar

2 sticks butter, softened

Mix until like dough and spread over ungreased pizza pan.

Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes or until light tan.

Cool completely.

Topping:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 (8 oz) cool whip

Cream sugar and cheese together.

Add cool whip and mix together.

Spread over cooled crust.

Clean 2 quarts strawberries, sliced and mix with 1 (16 oz) jar of continental strawberry glaze.

Spread over pizza.

Refrigerate before serving, 2+ hours.

Store leftovers in fridge.

This post is linked to Blessed With Grace for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Menu Plan Monday-August 1

2011-07-31T07:00:00.002-05:00

Hope your week was good in the cooking department last week. Mine was! I tried a few new recipes, baked some cookies to share at church and just enjoyed being in my kitchen. I really forgot how much I enjoy spending my time there. I like cooking for my family and having some time in the kitchen to myself. That is rare these days with a toddler at my heels all day long. But it's worth it! :)

Looks to be another good week ahead in our kitchen! We picked up our Angel Food order yesterday and it has tons of meats and vegetables in it, a lot which you will see me using this month. I'm hoping the August menu will be just as good as July was through Angel Food. I felt like we got a lot of food for under $100. We'll see though. Here's what's coming up in our week in food! Get to cooking friends and enjoy!

August 1st-August 7th

Monday, August 1:

Pork chops with stuffing and fresh apples (maybe a little pureed apple for on top of the chops)

Tuesday, August 2:

Layered Enchilada Bake (a family favorite!)

I'll make it in two 8 inch pans and freeze the other after baking it so we have a quick meal for another night.

Wednesday, August 3:

Sandwiches and baked chips

I'll probably make the french bread and make smaller rolls for some fresh sandwiches. I tried it last weekend and it worked out pretty well, plus I just that love that bread!

Thursday, August 4:

Homemade Ravioli

I know, I know I must be crazy to make a homemade pasta but it's something I've been meaning to try for awhile and SnoWhite makes it sound so easy so I'm giving it a go!! The link is to her recipe and I'm going for it. :)

Friday, August 5:

Pepperoni Pizza

on homemade dough and a new homemade sauce I've been wanting to try from What Meghan's Making.

I haven't been too happy with my sauce lately and just need a change and store bought won't do. We tried some again and it just tastes funky to me. Besides I have fresh herbs in my garden that I need to utilize. :)

Saturday, August 6:

Dinner with our Sunday School class

the host family usually does a main course and guests usually bring sides and desserts so I'm not sure what I'll be bringing just yet

Sunday, August 7:

Hamburgers and potato fries

This post is linked to Organizing Junkies' Menu Plan Monday. See her page for more great ideas!

Money in the Drawer

2011-07-30T07:00:00.000-05:00

I go to open one of my kitchen drawers yesterday and what do I see? Nyla's money from her play purse. I laughed when I saw it! Who wouldn't? Her new thing lately is putting her toys in drawers, bags, whatever is open and she can reach.

So for her money she stood on her tip toes and dropped this in, I guess anyways. I didn't see her do it, but I've been finding her toys in my drawers. She loves playing in my cabinets and I think it's funny. Our kitchen isn't baby proofed; I just took all the chemicals that were under the sink and moved them into our bathroom closet and the hall closet, up high so she couldn't get to them. I didn't feel like I needed to baby proof and there's nothing really I mind her playing with. She usually goes for the plastic storage container cabinet and proceeds to dump its belongings all over the floor. But that's how it goes with a toddler in the house.

Thought I'd share this picture with you. It just made me laugh. Oh the joys of motherhood!

Friday Favorite Finds

2011-07-29T11:00:00.003-05:00

I'm linking up with SnoWhite over at Joy in My Kitchen today for her usual "Friday Favorite Finds." I haven't been snooping too much this week on recipes but I do have a few I'd like to try. Link up with SnoWhite if you have a list of your favorite recipes from the week!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Freeze

from: Kraft Foods

Homemade Non-Toxic Hand Soap

from: Heavenly Homemakers

Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

from: Lynn's Kitchen Adventures

Oreo Popsicles

from: Food.com

Frosty Strawberry Dessert

from: Food.com

Enjoy trying new foods this week! I'm trying a new pizza sauce coming up and a couple new dishes next week!

This post is linked to At Home with Haley for Recipes I Can't Wait to Try!

Homemade BBQ Sauce

2011-07-28T07:00:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't love homemade? Especially if it's easy to throw together in one container. And it's something you use frequently. This is that recipe... homemade bbq sauce.

When we were visiting my Grandparents down in Georgia last Fall, so they could meet their first great-grandchild my Grandmother (a fabulous cook/baker!), she made some chicken and had this bbq sauce. It's one she's had in her foray of recipes for years and is used frequently. I took down the recipe and have made it ever since. I won't go back to a store bought bottle again!

BBQ Sauce-from Grandmama

Printable recipe here

Yields: 32 oz

Ingredients:

3 cups (24 oz) ketchup

1/2 brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup molasses*

1/4 cup mustard

2 Tbsp. vinegar

2 Tbsp. liquid smoke

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Red pepper flakes, to taste (I probably used a pinch)

Use a 32 oz ketchup bottle with 24 oz ketchup left. Add all ingredients. Shake well to combine. Refrigerate.

*I never had molasses in my kitchen until I talked to my Grandmother about it. She said she's always had it. And well, since she's such a good cook I decided why no?. And it is a nice staple to have on hand!

Homemade Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

2011-07-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

This an amazing ice cream recipe from Joy in my Kitchen. I am in love with her blog. Why? Because she makes their food from fresh ingredients just like I do in our house. And they're not too difficult. I've tried many of her foods and always love the new recipes she posts. I'm constantly printing off her recipes and putting in my recipe binder to try later. And they don't just sit in my binder I get around to trying them. I also love her dark chocolate ice cream recipe and her strawberry cheesecake ice cream recipe. And hubby loves just the plain ole vanilla ice cream. Yes, I have a thing for ice cream! :) Go to her blog, check out her recipe index. You won't be disappointed!

Without further ado the cookies and cream ice cream recipe!

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream-from Joy in my Kitchen

Printer-Friendly Recipe

1 recipe vanilla ice cream, as follows:

3/4 cup sugar

16 oz half and half

8 oz whipping cream

2-4 tsp vanilla (depending on how vanilla you want it to taste)

1. Make sure your ice cream bowl is frozen, usually best overnight.

2. Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until sugar is somewhat dissolved.

3. Pour mixture into your ice cream maker and follow the machine instructions.

4. Let the ice cream make for 30+ minutes, depending on the consistency you like and however long it takes the ice cream to come together.

5. Serve immediately as a soft serve or put in a freezer safe bowl for about 2 hours for a hard scoop ice cream.

Cookies & cream variation:

12-14 chopped/crushed oreo cookies

Add these after about 15 minutes of your vanilla ice cream making, just when the ice cream is starting to come together. Continue making 10-15 minutes until ice cream comes together. Serve immediately as a soft serve or freeze about 2 hours for a hard scoop consistency.

Note: My ice cream did turn a gray color from the cookies, but it of course didn't change the delicious taste of it. This ice cream is so much better than the store-bought version! Enjoy!

The Verdict: My sister raved about this and said it was better than the store bought! It's been awhile since I've made this and have to say I'm not craving it. It is a tasty tasty ice cream treat. And right now with all these heat we could all use something good to cool us down.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

2011-07-25T07:00:00.010-05:00

Mmmm cookies! Who doesn't love them? I know we sure do. I try not to make too many desserts around here since I'm trying not to gain a ton of pregnancy weight and Daniel is trying to lose some more weight. But yesterday I had a craving for cookies and I may have found a replacement for my sugar cookie recipe (even though I love my sugar cookie recipe!).
These are very similar to the wonderful cookies you can buy at the grocery store. You know the ones? They have the icing tinted to match the season/holiday and they throw some sprinkles on them. The cookies are very soft and the icing is good. Well, these are very much like those. The icing isn't the same. Daniel says the icing could be sweeter but I think it's good the way it is. Besides, it's not going to be a perfect replica! We even tried the cookies without the frosting and they were really buttery and sweet. Throw a few sprinkles on those before they hit the oven and that's a nice treat. Of course, the icing is an added bonus.
Enjoy!

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Printer Friendly Recipe

Yield: about 2 dozen large cookies OR 4 dozen smaller cookies
(pictured are the smaller cookies)

Ingredients:
For the cookies:
4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 ½ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs
5 tsp. vanilla extract

For the frosting:
5 cups powdered sugar
⅓ cup (5 ⅓ Tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
7-8 Tbsp milk (plus more, if needed)
Food coloring (optional)
Sprinkles (optional)

Directions:
Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and blend. In a bowl with an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and mix together on medium until soft and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl if needed after the eggs. Mix in vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients until just combine.
For 2 dozen cookies: Scoop a scant quarter cup of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly and place on ungreased cookie sheet, spacing each about 2-3 inches apart.
For 4 dozen cookies: Use a Tbsp cookie dough scoop and scoop dough, flatten onto the cookie ungreased cookie sheet, spacing about 1-2 inches apart.

Bake cookies at 350 F for 10-12 minutes or until just set. You don’t want to overbake these so they stay soft. The edges should be no more than very lightly browned, if browned at all. (I baked mine for 12 minutes and they were NOT brown on the edges, just the bottom. They were perfectly baked). Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting: Place powderd sugar in a medium bowl and add the melted butter, vanilla and milk. Whisk until smooth; add more milk if necessary, 1 tsp at a time, to reach desired consistecy (not too runny or icing will run off cookies). Tint with food coloring if desired. Use a spatula to frost cooled cookies; place sprinkles on top if wanted. Store in airtight container.

The Verdict: These were "Husband Approved!" He LOVES the cookies from the grocery store because of the thick icing. He told me to make the icing for these cookies a thicker consistency so I can spread more icing on top and I do agree with that. I felt like I had a lot of icing leftover, but it was because I thinned it too much and then wasn't able to pile it on the cookie like I wanted. So if you want a thicker consistency, don't use as much milk. If you want a thinner coating, use more milk.
These cookies are definitely a sweet treat. If you're looking to portion control only have a couple of these a day! :) But they're worth every calorie!

This post is linked to:

Tempt my Tummy Tuesday

Menu Plan Monday-July 25

2011-07-24T09:00:00.001-05:00

July 25-July 31

Happy last week of July! Can y'all believe we only have 1 more week of this month?! Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I've been thinking about it, but not sure what to do. It seems so early, but when you live on a budget you've got to think ahead like that!

This week ahead looks to be pretty good in food in our house. What's cooking in yours?

Monday-July 25

BBQ Cheddar Chicken Roll Ups

Tuesday-July 26

Chicken and Bow Tie Pasta

Wednesday-July 27

Leftovers, before church

Thursday-July 28

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

(made with phyllo dough and split into 9 inch pans, to save one for the freezer; I'm trying to do more freezer cooking to make it easier on me!)

Friday-July 29

Wheat-Blueberry Pancakes and bacon

Saturday-July 30

Late lunch/early dinner at some of Daniel's family's house for a swim party!

Pick up our Angel Food order from a local church in the morning

Interested? Go to their home site and find a local site near you. You can enter your zip code and find a local host site where you can pick up your order. We get a lot of food for the money. It just depends on the month as to whether or not we order; the menu does change monthly.

Sunday-July 31

Stouffer's Meal from Angel Food, before church

I'd love to hear what you're cooking this week. Leave me a comment and let me know!

Friday Favorite Finds

2011-07-22T08:15:00.000-05:00

I'm linking up this post to Joy in my Kitchen's Friday Favorite Finds where we share some good recipes we've been eyeing this week. There are some amazing cooks out there and I can't wait to try these recipes. Yummy!

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets

Skinny Taste

Mexican Layer Casserole

Clay in His Hands

Easy Strawberry Shortcake

Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Chocolate Truffle Torte

At Home with Haley

Homemade Pudding Pops

Heavenly Homemakers

Southwest Chicken Sandwiches

Cooking with Mrs Sea Monster

And of course the majority of the recipes I can't wait to try are desserts. Typical me! :)

First bounty from my first ever garden!

2011-07-20T09:00:00.003-05:00

3 bell peppers and 9 jalapeno peppers

This is our first full summer in our house and I have had big plans for a garden ever since we put an offer in last year. I wanted to start one last year but would've had no time with a new baby at home. This was the year to try!

For this years trial run I bought 4 tomato plants, 2 green bell pepper plants and 4 jalapeno plants. I planted them in big pots this year wanting to make sure I liked it before I put more money into building homes for them or tearing up my yard to make a garden. And I do like it!

I love seeing them grow from such a small plant to towering plants producing vegetables. I kept telling my husband and I mom, "If I get just one vegetable from each plant this year, I'll be happy." So far, I've gotten more than that from my bell pepper and jalapeno. The tomatoes are taking longer to produce, but I've got a few small tomatoes on a couple of the plants. And the plants themselves look healthy, I feel like they're in a good place so far.

As of right now I'd say I'll be doing another garden next year and may even expand what I plant and grow. Any suggestions on what I should have in my garden next year? What do you garden?

Baked Chimichangas

2011-07-19T09:00:00.003-05:00

Originally posted in August 2010.

I made these last night and decided to post them again since they are so delicious! Don't be daunted by the number of ingredients, they are really simple to put together once the chicken is cooked.

It looks like there are a lot of ingredients, but its for the chimichangas themselves and the sauce that goes with it. In three short steps, you have a delicious dinner that serves 6!

Baked Chimichangas

Printer-Friendly Recipe

2-1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast OR use this chicken recipe and measure out the 2.5 cups as directed

1 cup salsa

1 small onion, chopped (I used dried, minced onion)

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

6 flour tortillas (10 inches), warmed (or make your own, recipe found here)

3/4 cup cheddar cheese (I used mexican shredded cheese)

Sauce:

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth or make your own

2 tsp chicken bouillon granules or 2 bouillon cubes

1/8 tsp pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup half-n-half (fat free is okay)

1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies

1. In a nonstick skillet, simmer first 5 ingredients until heated through and most of liquid evaporates. Place 1/2 cup chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla; top with 2 Tbsp cheese. (Note: I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup and filled the tortillas all at the same time, making sure they were all filled evenly, then with a spoon, spread the mixture all down the middle.)

2. Fold sides and ends over filling; roll up. Place seam side down in a 13-in x 9-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes or until browned.

3. In a saucepan, heat broth, bouillon and pepper until bouillon is dissolved. Combine flour and cream until smooth, stir into broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in chiles; heat through. To serve, cut chimichangas in half; spoon sauce over top. (We measure out a 1/3 cup per serving, as the recipe states to do, instead of dumping all the sauce over all the chimichangas.)

(Note: I made the sauce right after I put chimichangas in the oven and it cooked, then sat covered until I pulled them out of the oven and it was fine.)

Yield: 6 servings

Enjoy!

Nyla is 1 year old!

2011-07-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

My birthday girl!

My sweet baby girl, also known as "Bird" in our house, turned 1 last Wednesday. Yes, I cried, not because I was unhappy, just thinking about all we've gone through in this past year. It's just hard to believe she's already 1 year old!

When I went to her room first thing in the morning on Wednesday I walked in and started singing "Happy Birthday" to her and immediately started crying. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. Then my mom came over before work to see us and give Bird a card and I started crying again. I just love this girl so much, I can't help it!

Since Wednesday was her official birthday we went to the Pediatrician and we thought we were going for her 12 month well check-up but little did we know she ended up having another double ear infection and that's along with the 4 teeth she's getting at the same time! We ended up not doing her well check-up and will go back in 2 weeks for her real check-up, plus a recheck of her ears. My poor baby was sick on her birthday, no fun! Thankfully, she's a tough girl and showed no signs of being bothered by her ears, that's how I didn't know she had one this time around.

Now she's on a stronger medicine for her ear for the next 5 days or so. She's doing really well with it so I'm think we'll be starting the process of whole milk today or tomorrow. I hope she does well transitioning because we are ready to quit buying formula, at least until our next one comes. I'm leaving the bottle around for a bit and will take that away after we try whole milk for awhile. I'm so nervous about all this. We didn't do pacifiers, so we never had to wean from those so this is our first try at weaning from anything! Eek! I know she'll do great because she's pretty good at transitioning to new things.

I'll post pictures from her birthday party later. Not that I remembered to take all I wanted but I've got something from it. I'm so bad about getting caught up in the moment and not snapping pictures that I want. Oh well, I'll work on that! :)

Menu Plan Monday-July 18

2011-07-17T12:00:00.003-05:00

This just in...I'm trying to get back into blogging!

We thankfully don't have a busy week this week because I am flat wore out. My baby girl turned 1 this past Wednesday and we had her birthday party last night with tons of people. Not only that, but I also co-hosted a baby shower for a girlfriend yesterday afternoon. Let's just say this next week I'm not planning on doing too much around the house but play with my girl and spend time with my man. :)

And since I've finally gotten back into menu planning (I know my husband is happy) I can actually post my menu. I've been slacking in the planning department for the past couple of months and it's really shown in our grocery bill and lack of leftovers for lunches and quick bites when we need them. But I have planned the rest of July and all of August and I'm stoked about that! So here's my plan for dinners this week.

Monday, July 18:

Baked Chimichangas w/homemade whole wheat flour tortillas (I replace the flour with whole wheat flour)

This recipe is a favorite in our house. I just ventured into the tortilla making stuff too and found it to be easier than I ever thought. And they're cheaper to make. :)

Tuesday, July 19:

Leftover grilled pork loin with brown rice and veggies

Wednesday, July 20:

Bbq chicken melt

This bread is great with it, store bought works just as well.

Thursday, July 21:

Cheesy chicken and salsa skillet

New recipe!

Friday, July 22:

Homemade pizza using this pizza dough

Saturday, July 23:

Dinner with friends

I'll be bringing my recipes and help her get started on menu planning!

Sunday, July 24:

Slow-cooker lasagna

This is a great recipe b/c you don't have to cook the noodles.

Tip: Use cottage cheese in place of the ricotta if you can't find ricotta; you can't even tell the difference!

Have a great week cooking!

This post is linked at:

Finding Joy in my Kitchen

It's Been Awhile

2011-06-17T19:54:00.003-05:00

It's been quite sometime since I've blogged, sorry. Raising a kid, being pregnant again and running a home are quite enough to keep me busy most days. I hate that blogging is the absolute last thing I think of doing, because I love to share recipes and pictures and experiences, but that's just what happens.

I hope life is good with you my dear readers. Hang with me, I'll be here and there with blogging.

What would you like to see me blog about?

-Ginny

BBQ Pork Stew

2011-02-15T06:00:00.004-06:00

This is a fantastic recipe, a family favorite now. It's so good and it's quick to put together. No more talking, we'll go straight to the recipe. Enjoy! :)

BBQ Pork Stew-from Grandmama Cook

Printer-Friendly Recipe

1-3 lb pork loin

1 Tbsp Grill Mates BBQ Seasoning

1-18 oz bottle smoky mesquite bbq sauce

1-14 oz can chicken broth

1-32 oz chicken broth

2-16 oz bags vegetable soup mix

2-14.5 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes (Hunts)

2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Rub roast with the dry seasoning and place in a foil lined 13 x9 in. pan.

Pour bbq sauce and 14 oz can of chicken broth onto roast. Cover tight with foil.

Bake 1-1.5 hours or until fork tender.

Remove roast from the pan and save the drippings.

Shred the roast after it's cooled a bit.

Pour drippings into a large pot.

Add the pork, 32 oz broth and next 3 ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

The Verdict:

Delicious and easy! It has a sweet flavor from the bbq sauce and it's just wonderful.

I used mesquite seasoning (grill mates) since I couldn't find the bbq seasoning. I also used just a Kraft mesquite bbq sauce and not smokey mesquite bbq sauce, as I couldn't find it either.

As for the vegetable soup mix I may try and and do my own next time. All the mix contains is ocra, corn, carrots, celery, potatoes, lima beans and peas. I think a bit of each would do the trick, maybe 1/2 cup to 1 cup? And the mix is expensive to me, when I have most of the other vegetables already pre-chopped in my freezer for other meals, but we'll see.

Also, the fire roasted tomatoes, Kroger has their own brand for a little cheaper than Hunt's, but that's personal preference. The ingredients list didn't have much on it that I keep in my pantry, but this soup is worth it!

I did double this recipe and needed a huge stock pot for it, but now I have some in the freezer for later, as in this week for dinner. :)

I took this to our SOUPer Bowl party a couple weeks ago and it was a hit. I know I'll be making this soup quite often in the winter!

Menu Plan Monday-February 14

2011-02-13T06:00:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Week! I hope you're all doing something special with your sweetie this week.

I'm thankful for Daniel and the wonderful husband and father he is. He's a wonderful man whom God has blessed me with and for that I'm thankful!

Not too much going on with us this week and that is a welcome change. We have been on the go quite a bit the past couple of weeks. I do know it's going to be warmer this week than it has been in quite a few weeks so we're going to take advantage of the warmer weather and go our for walks and play time!

In other news, my new refrigerator comes on Wednesday and I'm so excited. If you would've told me 5 years ago I'd be getting excited for a new refrigerator, I would've told you you were crazy! I'll post a picture of it when it gets here on Wednesday!

Have a great week and cook something new this week!

Here's what we're having this week; I'm trying quite a few new things. I need to get back in the kitchen!

Cheesy Italian Herb Bread

Italian Chicken Subs

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes

Baked Chimichangas

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

BBQ Beef Stew (recipe to come)

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday. Hop on over to Laura's blog to check out other great menu's this week!

Tips for Organizing and Minimizing

2011-02-09T11:38:00.004-06:00

Below are a few tips I use when I organize. Of course, they're not full-proof and they won't fit everyone's lifestyle and personality. But I hope they help you get a start if you're looking to have less in your home.

1. Separate boxes

Get out 3 boxes or bags. Use one for "keep"/"maybe," another for "give away" and the last for "trash." Fill each up into the desired boxes. And get help from someone if you have trouble letting go. My rule of thumb is if it's been 6 months since I've worn, used, looked at it, it's time to give it away. But if that's too much for you, make it 1 year. Sometimes I even keep things for another 6 months to see if I may end up using it/needing it. But after that 6 months, I let it go if it hasn't been used.

2. Start small.

You may have a large space you want to conquer, but start small so you don't get overwhelmed. I suggest your pantry or laundry room. Those are usually small spaces with not too much going on, but are always in need of a spruce. Once you've accomplished that small space, move on to a bigger area.

3. Pull everything out... well maybe.

Some people say to pull everything out, some say don't. I say do what you want. I tend to not pull every single item out of a closet I'm organizing. If I did this, I would have no room to look through the stuff I pulled out. I do a section at a time. I pull out that section and go from there. Once I pull it out I use the 3 box theory and start filling them up. Once they fill up, I get another box for each area and start going again. Some spaces will take you more than an hour or a day. I spent 2-3 days, when I had free time, to clean out our 3rd bedroom closet. Do some when you have a free moment. Sometimes it helps to walk away and re-evaluate some items you think you need to keep. Get away, get some perspective and come back and start again. You'll be surprised at how much you get rid of this way.

4. "But I'll need this a year from now."

How long have you been saying that? 2 years? Don't you think it's time to let it go? Again, I've done this. But you finally realize you haven't used it, so you probably won't use it. And if you need it, you could borrow it from someone or go to Craigslist or back to Goodwill and pick it up. Be careful not to do that too much, otherwise you'll be back in the same boat you were before. Really consider how much you will use it if you buy it back.

5. Always have a "give away" box going.

Keep this on a high shelf or space out of your way and when you come across something you don't want, throw it in the box. Don't let this box be see-through, as you'll see things that you think you'll want later. When this box gets full, haul it away. And start another box.

These are just a few tips to help you get started. Do what feels right for you, that's the most important thing. You need to feel comfortable with getting rid of your stuff.

Check out these blogs for more inspiration of minimizing and organizing:

Frugal and Simple

Small Notebook

Gratituesday: My girl

2011-02-08T10:39:00.004-06:00

Gratituesday: My girl

I'm thankful for this sweet and beautiful face. I have been truly blessed by my loving Savior for this little blessing.

This post is linked over with Laura at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday.

What are you thankful for this week?

Chocolate Silk Pie

2011-02-05T05:00:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week I posted a recipe for an easy pie crust. And that pie crust is for this delicious chocolate silk pie. Yeah, it was pretty good! So, I'll just go ahead and get right to the recipe.

Chocolate Silk Pie

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's Dark Chocolate would work well)

3 eggs

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 unbaked (9 inch) deep-dish pie crust (frozen pie crusts would work just fine)

whipped topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place ungreased baking sheet in oven to preheat.

Place sugar and cocoa powder in large mixing bowl. Stir until just combined. Gradually add eggs, evaporated milk, melted butter and vanilla. Mix until blended, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl and mix again, whip until smooth and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.

Pour into prepared crust. Place pie plate on baking sheet in oven and bake for 55-60 minutes OR until center puffs up and pie has set.

Cool completely on a wire rack. Garnish with whipped topping, if desired.

Enjoy!

I doubled this recipe and froze the second pie after it completely cooled. I'm saving it to take for a Super Bowl party tomorrow.

I baked both in the oven at the same time and upped the time to about 70 minutes. I did start out at 55 minutes, as every oven is different and checked the pies every 5-6 minutes. I felt like the pie didn't set in the middle when I was looking in the oven, but as it cooled, it did and it wasn't mushy or runny in the middle. It was a little warm when it was served and it was perfect!

It was a very chocolaty pie and good. And the whipped topping made it better. The crust was amazing and it was a very pretty pie. I hope you enjoy!

Friday Favorite Finds

2011-02-04T09:00:00.001-06:00

SnoWhite over in Joy in my Kitchen is doing a linky on your favorite recipes. Go join the fun! I am!!!

Here are my favorite recipes I want to try soon!

Breakfast Items in the crockpot

A Year of Slow Cooking

Giant Breakfast Cookies

Heavenly Homemakers

Italian Chicken Subs

Food Plus Heat

Cajun Chicken Noodle Soup

Cooking During Stolen Moments

Dutch Oven Chicken and Brown Rice

Food Plus Heat

Homemade Applesauce

Frugal and Simple

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

What Meghan's Making

This post is linked to Joy in my Kitchen's Friday Favorites.

Easy Pie Crust

2011-02-02T06:00:00.002-06:00

I love to bake... obviously from my recipe index!

Recently an old friend on my mom's came into town so I brought a dessert to the dinner party. The dessert was Chocolate Silk Pie and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The homemade pie crust was just as good. I love a good crust on a good pie. In my opinion, if the crust is no good, the pie is ruined. So here's my recipes for an easy pie crust.

Easy Pie Crust-from Kitchenaid

Printer-Friendly Recipe

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening, well chilled

2 Tbsp butter, well chilled

5-8 Tbsp cold water

Place flour and salt in large mixer with paddle attachment, mix about 2 seconds. Cut in shortening and butter and mix until the mixture is the size of peas.

While the mixer is going, add water 1 Tbsp at a time, until moistened and begins to resemble dough (it won't quite come together like a ball, but close enough).

Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and chill 15-30 minutes.

Roll one half to 1/8 inch thickness, roll onto pastry roller and unroll into ungreased 8 or 9 inch pie plate. Pour in pie filling and if recipe calls for 2 crusts, repeat above step and place on top of filled pie. If recipe is only for 1 crust, wrap other crust well and freeze. (I doubled the recipe I was doing so I made 2 pies, baked as directed and cooled completely, wrapped well with clear wrap and froze. It was just great.)

After you've rolled your pie crust and filled it with desired filling, bake as directed by recipe you are using until golden brown. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday-January 31

2011-01-30T09:46:00.001-06:00

I don't know about y'all but I'm wore slap out (as my Grandmama would say) from a busy weekend! :)

Friday, Nyla and I met up with my Mom at the mall to walk around and talk. Saturday, Daniel, Nyla and I took advantage of one of our Christmas gifts and went to The Memphis Zoo (1 year membership) and were there for a good bit of the morning. Saturday evening an old friend of my Mom's came in town, so we had dinner out there. Then Sunday, we went to church in the morning and had a fellowship meal at church Sunday night! Whew, I'm tired!

This weekend isn't much different. Saturday night we have plans with our Sunday School class to go to dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse. Daniel and I are taking advantage and using it is our monthly date night, so no sweet baby Nyla that night. And Sunday evening is our annual Souper Bowl party. Yes, you read that right, it says SOUPer Bowl. We bring a soup to share and then hang out and watch the game. It's always good times. I'm very excited about the soup I'll be making. I will make sure and take a picture and post the recipe. It is super delicious!

You'll also see leftovers galore on our menu this week. Our freezer has decided it's going out of commission... again (it did this a few months ago, we got it fixed, but it's not cooperating)! Thankfully, we have a deep freezer, but it's pretty well stocked, so all my uncooked meats, vegetables and Nyla's homemade baby foods were the only food items able to fit in there. Unfortunately, my convenience meals are stuck in the freezer that's dying. So, we'll be eating on them a lot this week.

Here's our menu:

January 31-February 6

Bbq chicken, rice and vegetables

Pork loin with potato fries and vegetables

Bbq chicken pizza (a family favorite)

Leftovers-convenience meals

Leftovers-Cheesy Chicken Rotini

Spaghetti Warehouse, Saturday night with S.S. class

Unfortunately, because of our dumb freezer, I won't be trying any new recipes, that makes me sad. But hopefully soon again. I'll still be posting a couple of recipes in the next couple of weeks, desserts and appetizers!

Have a great week!

Living with Less

2011-01-26T19:30:00.002-06:00

I love the blog Frugal and Simple. I love that R and her sweet family love living simply and not get bogged down in all the "stuff." Her blog is a constant reminder that you can live a happy life with little. Her blogs encourage me to purge more than usual and get rid of the clutter in my life and house. If you haven't checked out her blog, head on over there. You will be encouraged by her and her sweet family. They love the Lord, save for their future and aren't surrounded by clutter. It's refreshing, when in other cases, the whole world is telling us we need this, this and this to be happy. Well I don't think so and it's nice to have others who feel the same way.

Some of my goals for 2011 include de-cluttering and purging of unused items. I'm not one to keep a bunch of items around, I'm good about through my clothes every 3-6 months, books, etc. I don't like a bunch of knick-knacks sitting around, it's more for me to move around when I have to dust. I don't like picking up a bunch of stuff that we don't need in our lives. If I have to pick up all day long, then I don't vacuum, dust, etc, because I'm tired from all the picking up I just did. It's annoying! So as January is almost over and I feel like I haven't de-cluttered much, that's what I'm spending this week doing, de-cluttering.

We recently added a new addition, sweet Nyla, and she comes with a lot of stuff. But we've really tried to not have an overabundance of baby stuff, we don't feel its needed. We don't buy into all the "stuff" they say babies need now. So today I went through her closet and her stuff and now I have a pile that needs to go to Goodwill. A great start for her stuff!

Yesterday I went through my cookbooks and found about 8 that I've used once or never, they are stacked by the door to leave the house.

Tomorrow I'll go through all the books on our bookshelves. We love to read and our collection shows it! But, why do I need so many books when I have a local library where I can check books out for free?! And Daniel has an IPad, with the Kindle app, so we can buy books (or get some for free) for that and save them there, instead of piling more books on the bookshelves.

Next week, I have plans to clean out the 3rd bedroom closet. It's full of craft supplies, puppet ministry books, Daniel's paint supplies, personalized card packs I never sold, my Mary Kay products for my business and so much more. It needs a good cleaning for sure! It's on my to-do list because it has become a catch-all and it's awful. Every time I walk in there it makes me mad! That is the next big space to be de-cluttered and organized:)

And then, we have a storage closet off of our carport, oh my! It needs de-cluttering for sure. That will wait until the Spring when it's a bit warmer.

I want to live with less. I can't take it all with me, so why do I need it now? And a lot of it, I rarely look at. My rule with clothes, if I haven't worn it in 6 months, I probably won't wear it. I need to do that with all our stuff. If I haven't opened a drawer containing that item or used whatever it is I'm looking at in 6 months to a year, it's time to give it to someone who may appreciate it more than I do.

What do you want to de-clutter in 2011?

How are you making steps to get there?

What areas do you need help to de-clutter?

Menu Plan Monday-January 24

2011-01-23T06:00:00.003-06:00

We've been enjoying some good food in our house the last couple of weeks. I just love that menu planning keeps me on track to keep cooking. We know we'll have a nice hot meal each week and that is a HUGE blessing.

I'm making a new recipe this week, the beef enchilada soup. I can't wait to try it, I know it'll be delicious! I think we're in for some more cold weather, so this will be great to keep us warm.

I'm still planning 7 meals a week; 5 weeknight/weekend dinners and 2 weekend lunches.

Have a great week! Are you trying anything new this week?

January 24-January 30

Pizza

Wheat-Blueberry Pancakes, eggs and bacon

Chicken Vegetable Marinara

Beef Enchilada Soup-from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures... I can't wait to try it!

Velvetta Cheesy Chicken Rotini

Homemade chicken tenders, waffle fries (from Angel Food Ministries) and vegetables

Leftovers

This post is linked to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

California-Style Barbecue Chicken Pizza

2011-01-20T05:00:00.002-06:00

We LOVE pizza in this house!

Let me rephrase... We are CRAZY about pizza in this house! We eat it for lunch or dinner at least once a week. It is pure deliciousness, in our opinion. Since we eat it so much, I'm always on the hunt for new pizza recipes. Well, I've found my new favorite one (at least for now)!

It's from Kraft foods. This is one of my favorite sites and it made me happy to see this wonderful pizza recipe. It's California-Style barbecue chicken pizza. And it's great. And easy. I'm all about easy these days!

I tweaked it suit it to our needs and will even do some different things the next time I make it, which will probably be this weekend. :)

The measurements for this recipe are personal preference. It depends on how much meat, cheese, veggies, etc you want on your pizza. Make it to your tastes. I'm not one to create recipes, but on pizza I know how much of what I like, so I feel comfortable eye-balling the ingredients.

California-Style Barbecue Chicken Pizza- modified from Kraft foods

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

-cooked, shredded chicken (I always have in the freezer my shredded chicken I make from crock pot chicken, so I just use that). I probably used 1/2 cup-1 cup of chicken

-red bell pepper, green bell pepper and yellow bell pepper slices, sliced or minced; I use 1/4 each of the bell peppers

-1/2-1 red onion, sliced or minced

-barbecue sauce; I used 1/3 cup this time, I think next time I'll use 1/2 cup next time, it needed a little more in our opinion

-1-1/2 cup mozzarella cheese or cheese or your choice

-pizza crust; homemade or store bought (I made my bread maker pizza dough, then my bread maker died, so I mixed it in my stand mixer and let it rise 1-2 hours, then cut it in thirds and used one of those thirds, this made a thinner crust; we're all about the thin crust in this house).

Directions:

1. Make pizza dough, if homemade, roll out to right consistency for you. Store bought works fine too!

2. Place barbecue sauce and chicken in bowl and mix together until chicken is coated (this will help the chicken from drying out).

3. Spread a little more barbecue sauce on the pizza crust, if you want, as you would pizza sauce.

4. Place veggies, chicken mixture and cheese on pizza.

5. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-15 minutes, as every oven is different. I started mine at 8 minutes, took it OFF the pizza pan placing the pizza right on the oven rack for another 5-6 minutes, until cheese was bubbly and crust was brown and crunchy.

6. Cool a bit, cut and enjoy! It's awesome!

Gratituesday-Jan 18

2011-01-18T10:08:00.001-06:00

This post is linked up over with Laura at Heavenly Homemakers. If you're grateful for something, head on over to her blog and link up!

Today I'm grateful for:

1. My sweet husband for going to work everyday so I can stay home and raise our daughter. I know not everyone can do this, and it's a huge blessing for us!

2. A healthy 6 month old baby girl. We went to the Doctor last Friday and she's on the right track for everything, and above all for others. She is the length of an 11-month old and the weight of a 9-month old. We have a big, strong and healthy girl!

3. I'm really thankful for a pantry and refrigerator stocked full of food. I went grocery shopping yesterday and got everything on my list, plus a few more things and I know not everyone is able to do that.

I've been thinking a lot about hunger in our world today. It's in our world, our country, our state, our county and our city. While I don't see it very much, I know it's there. I've never experienced being hungry or going without a meal, I can't imagine what it's like. So the past couple of weeks I've been extra thankful for having all the food I could possibly need!

What are you thankful for?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Bread rising tip

2011-01-18T06:00:00.001-06:00

It's cold outside, basically in every state. It's been cold here in Tennessee, that's for sure. We usually have mild winters with a few days here and there or some pretty cold weather, you know 20's. That's cold for us down here in the South. :)

We keep the thermostat pretty low in the winter too, saving those dollars and energy. We keep it set at 68 degrees about 90% of the time. We'll turn it up first thing in the morning and at night when we're getting ready for bed, just to warm it up a bit.

My problem with the 68 degree temperature set, my bread doesn't rise well. I love baking bread too, especially in the winter. A nice, crusty french bread to accompany some soup... count me in!

So here's a tip on getting your bread to rise, even in the colder months.

Put in in the greased bowl as usual and cover with a towel. Place it in the oven. Turn the oven on to KEEP WARM and set the timer for 2 minutes. You don't have a "keep warm" setting? Then set your oven to 170 degrees F for 2 minutes. Don't forget that timer. Once the timer goes off, turn the oven off and leave the bread in, don't open that door and let that warm air out! No peeking!!! Let your bread rise as directed on your recipe. As soon as it's done, open your oven. Did it rise? Great! This has worked for me every time I do it. I even do it in the summer, so I know it will always rise!

Enjoy your bread!

Menu Plan Monday-January 17

2011-01-16T06:00:00.001-06:00

Not an overly busy week this week, which is good. I've got a couple of play date's scheduled over the next couple of weeks, which I'm very excited about. I have got to see more people and get out of this house a little more than I've been doing! So the play dates will be great for Nyla, but great for Momma too!

And I'm planning 7 meals a week, 5 dinners a week and lunches for Saturday and Sunday.

January 17-January 23

Pizza

Down-Home Cheesy Bacon Chicken

Chicken and Pepper Pasta Bake

Taco's and Rice (homemade taco seasoning mix-It's so good and a BIG money saver, those little packets add up!)

Creamy Beef and Noodle Bake

Leftovers

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2011 Goals

2011-01-13T09:24:00.004-06:00

I have so many goals for this year, thankfully I wrote them all down in my handy-dandy notebook and hopefully I'll be able to check them off at the end of the year. If not, I WON'T beat myself up about it and feel guilty. Too many times I've done that in the past. I will not do it this year. I will take it one day at a time, one goal at a time. If it doesn't get done, fine because life does happen and I can't do everything!

Here are my goals:

Family and Budget:

-plan 7 meals a week, 5 nights for dinner and lunches for the weekend

-eat at the table 5 nights a week as a family, with no electronics

-date night with Hubby once a month, no baby

-proper wills and insurance

-tithe $ to our sweet church

-stick to grocery budget and menu planning monthly

-plan a schedule for housework, 1-2 things a day

Personal:

-keep up with both blogs, update twice a week each

-weight loss goals (see below)

-drink 64 oz of water daily

-re-goal monthly where necessary (mostly weight loss)

Spiritual:

-follow the "Slackers" one year Bible readings as best as possible, not beating myself up if it doesn't get done

-attend Connection Class (that's Sunday School in our church) and church regularly

-talk to Hubby about what we've been reading and studying in our Bible studies

-pray with Hubby (this one is hard for me b/c prayer is SO personal for me)

-memorize 1 scripture weekly

Puppet Ministry:

-recruit 2 new people for the Spring show

-have 2 big performances for the entire church this year

Weight Loss:

-weigh-in last Saturday morning of every month

-set goals for the next month after monthly weigh-in

-workout 5 days a week

-2 days of cardio (Wii Fit, walk, run, video)

-2 days of weight training (Core Secrets, Wii Fit)

-1 day of Yoga or Pilates (I've got to work on my flexibility)

-rest 2 days a week, doesn't matter what days

I have written out in my notebook the last Saturday of every month that I'm supposed to weigh-in and I have a space to re-goal for the next month. I lost 20 pounds before I got pregnant and I want to get back on track with that, I have a lot more to lose.

I weighed in last Saturday and I have the number I want to be at by the end of the month. I will do this every month so that number is with me each day, giving me determination to get there!

I'm not setting unreasonable goals, but realistic ones. I know when I work out hard and eat the right foods, good things will happen. It's just a matter of putting my mind to it, praying for strength and being proactive and just getting it done.

Those are my goals for 2011. I know, they're pretty ambitious! Some I've done in the past, some I did last year and want to continue and some are new. Writing the goals down keeps them real. They're always there for me to flip back and look at. I can re-goal at any time and I won't beat myself up if things don't get done. Life does happen and we do have a little one and things just don't happen as we plan, God has other plans sometimes.

What are your goals for 2011? It's never to late to get some and write them down!

Check out my recipes!

2011-01-13T08:51:00.004-06:00

I've have indexed all my recipes to make it easier for you to find them.

Look up on the left of your screen. Do you see "Recipe Index?" Great! Go there to see all the recipes.

I promise to start posting more recipes, because I actually do cook 5 times a week, sometimes more, so it's not like I'm short on recipes!

Having a Baby Makes Blogging Hard...

2011-01-12T13:22:00.004-06:00

I've come to the realization that being a full time wife and mother makes my blogging, well, not really happen a lot of weeks. Sorry about that. I'm trying to keep my sanity most days and blogging just doesn't come as easy these days.

I've made a goal for 2011 to blog twice a week. I feel like that's all I can do right now. Between taking care of the baby girl, keeping up with the piles and piles of laundry and all the other housework, cooking dinner, visiting family, spending time with Hubby, keeping up with my Bible studies, trying to read other books and picking up all the stuff that having a family brings, blogging is last. I do hate that. I love to write. I love to post recipes. I love to have this blogging outlet.

Lately, I've struggled with keeping up with everything. Lately I've struggled with who I am now. Wife? Mother? Housekeeper? Cook? Friend? Daughter? Sister? Yes to all and so much more. I wear so many hats these days. I am tired a lot. I love my life. But I'm tired. I'm frustrated. I have no time for myself. When I get a free moment I'm picking up stuff and cooking.

But I'll figure it all out. I have a wonderful support system. I have a loving husband and a wonderful family who is more than willing to help out when they can. And they do, very often.

Blogging will come back to me. It just takes time. I cook 5 times a week so it's not like I don't have recipes to post. But I cook and I want to eat, not take pictures and worry about posting stuff. But I'll be back. I know I've been saying that lately. But blogging is an outlet for me and I need an outlet. A place for me to talk and express myself. I've made some friends through blogging and it's time to keep up with it all.

Thanks for being here. Thanks for your patience.

Recipe Index

2011-01-01T18:00:00.017-06:00

While I'd love to share all these recipes through this blog it seems impossible for me to get to them all so this recipe index includes the few recipes I have on my blog, recipes from my favorite blogs and links directly to Google Docs for recipes I have uploaded there. I've made these yummy foods over and over again in our house and they are favorites. I hope you find some good food and inspiration to keep on cooking!
(If you find a link doesn't work properly let me know so I can fix it. Thanks.)

Breakfast/Brunch:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread

Apple Muffins (great freezer breakfast)

Applesauce Loaf

Banana Bread

Blueberry Banana Muffins

Breakfast Pull-Apart Rolls

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Cinnamon Roll Toast

Citrus Streusel Quick Bread

Cranberry Nut Bread

Lemon Blueberry Scones (great freezer breakfast)

Monkey Bread (a family favorite!)

Muffins (blueberry, banana-nut, peach-nut)

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

Overnight Caramel French Toast

Strawberry Muffins

Wheat-Blueberry Pancakes (a family favorite and great freezer breakfast)

Breads:

Bagels (freeze great)

Biscuit Breadsticks

Bread Crumbs

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

English Muffins (freeze great)

Focaccia Bread (no knead)

French Bread (a family favorite)

Full-Proof Pizza Dough (freeze easily, portion out first)

Homemade Tortillas (great freezer meals)

Pumpkin Loaves

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

Raw Apple Bread

Simple-Pull Apart Rolls

Strawberry Bread (uses fresh strawberries)

Strawberry Bread 2 (uses frozen strawberries)

Whole Wheat French Bread Rolls

Appetizers:

Apricot-Bacon Cheese Ball (Ginny's favorite)

Bruschetta (I toast the bread a little first b/c I like it good and crunchy)

Cheesecake Dip

Chex Mix

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip (great with butterscotch chips too)

Deb's Dip (oh so good and a get-together favorite!)

Easy Apple Spread (a get-together favorite!)

Marinated Cheese (nice for a brunch, baby or wedding shower)

Sauces and Seasonings:

Alfredo Sauce (similar to Olive Garden)

BBQ Sauce

Garlic Seasoning (great on breads, with pasta's, etc)

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Pizza Sauce

Pizza Sauce 2

Spaghetti Sauce

Side Dishes:

Asparagus (in the oven)

Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese Bread Crumbs

Mashed Potatoes

Potato Bake Casserole

Spaghetti Salad (great with all your favorite summer veggies)

Skillet Potatoes with Bacon & Cheddar

Sweet Potato Casserole (Ginny's favorite)

Dinners:

Baked Chimichangas

BBQ Cheddar Chicken Roll-Ups

BBQ Chicken Melt Sandwiches

BBQ Chicken Packets (easily makes as many as you want)

BBQ Chicken Pizza (family favorite)

Cheddar Chicken and Potatoes

Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Skillet (great without pasta and on tortillas)

Cheese Lovers Pasta Roll-ups

Chicken and Pepper Pasta Bake (replace chicken for sweet italian sausage)

Chicken Nacho Bake

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Foil-Pack Chicken Fajita Dinner

Foil-Pack Taco Chicken

French Bread Pizza

Grilled Chicken Roller (oven, 375 degrees F for 20 minutes)

Ham

Homemade Chicken Bowl

Layered Enchilada Bake

Leftover Spaghetti Pie

Marsha's Mexican Chicken

Mexican Chicken

Parmesan Chicken Tenders (family favorite)

Pizza

Pizza Bread

Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing

Pulled Chicken Sandwiches (family favorite)

Saucy Pepper Steak (I sub chicken occasionally)

Simply Lasagna

Smothered "Aussie" Chicken

Taco Pizza

Three-Cheese Baked Ziti

Three-Cheese Manicotti

Weeknight Ravioli Bake

Crock pot Dinners:

Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti (a family favorite)

Crock pot Country Chicken

Italian Parmesan Herb Chicken and Potatoes

Slow-Cooker Lasagna

Slow-Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken

Whole Chicken in the Crockpot

Soups:

BBQ Pork Stew

Chicken and Bacon Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Desserts:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread (great for breakfast too)

Apple Dumplings (a crowd favorite)

Berry Bliss Cake

Blueberry Turnovers

Bunny Cake (great for Easter; I use chocolate icing and no coconut)

Brownies

Carrot Cake

Chess Squares

Chocolate Chip Brownies (family favorite)

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake (best ever cheesecake!!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Pie (so easy!)

Chocolate Icing (family favorite and great with any cake)

Chocolate Silk Pie

Chocolate Snowflake Cookies (great holiday cookie)

Chocolate-Swirled Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate Trifle

Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Crock pot Berry Cobbler

Crock pot Cheesecake (Ginny's favorite!)

Divine Chocolate Sauce

Double Fudge Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Easy Chocolate Pie

Easy Pie Crust

Easy Pie Crust 2

Frozen Peanut Butter Turtle Pie

Fruit Pizza

Ginger Snaps

Layered Strawberry Cheesecake Bowl (a crowd favorite)

M&M Cookies

Magic Peanut Butter Middle Cookies (childhood favorite of Daniel's)

Mile-High Peanut Butter Pie

Mini Pecan Pies (great holiday cookie)

Multi-Colored Cupcakes (great for kids!)

Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Peach-Blueberry Cobbler (low-cal)

Pecan Pie

Peanut Butter Blossoms (great holiday cookie)

Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Crunchies (Daniel's childhood favorite, from his Grandma)

Saltine Toffee

Scotcheroo's (a family favorite, easy to put together)

Simply Sensational Strawberry Shortcake

Snickerdoodles

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies (great without the icing and just sprinkles)

Strawberry Cake/Cupcakes

Sugar Cookies (a family favorite)

Strawberry Fruit Pizza

Strawberry Glaze Cheesecake

Strawberry Pretzel Squares

Thumbprint Fudge Cookies (great holiday cookie)

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vanilla Pound Cake (pair with Divine Chocolate Sauce)

Cool Treats:

Butterscotch Ice Cream

Cake Batter Ice Cream

Chocolate Almond Ice Cream

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (Ginny's all-time favorite)

Frozen Cherry Salad (great to pull out as a side dish, sweet for a wedding/baby shower)

Fudgesicles

Ice Cream Cake

Ice Cream Cookie Pie

Ice Cream Pie (childhood favorite of Ginny's)

Lemon Stuff (Frozen Lemon Pudding)

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

Drinks:

Hot Chocolate Mix (great holiday gift)

Vicki's Wedding Punch (used at our wedding!)

Happy Christmas Week!

2010-12-19T06:00:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas Week friends!

Can you believe Saturday is Christmas? Where has this year gone???

It's flown by in this house, for me at least. At the beginning of 2010 we were expecting our first child with great anticipation and I was only about 8 weeks along. In March and April we started the loan and house hunting process. Oh my! In April we found one, put an offer in and it was rejected. :( We kept looking, found another great one, put an offer in and it was accepted. May 21st, we closed on our house and officially became homeowners! Wow! The next week work began, to update bathrooms and paint the 1970's wood paneling living room and replace fixtures. We moved in one month later, Father's Day weekend, and were on our way to the hospital on Father's Day, but false alarm, it was just a urinary tract infection that gave this Momma horribly back pain for an entire week. Then 3 weeks later, back to the hospital we go and after 2 hours of pushing without success and an emergency c-section later, Nyla Virginia was finally here. What a joy! And now 5 months later, we are seeing the continued blessings in our wonderful life. All from our loving God!

I hope you find time in your busy schedules to sit down, pray and reflect on what the season truly means. God sent His only Son to us, born in a barn, to God fearing people. What an amazing gift He has given us. I'm so thankful for His wonderful love, grace and patience with me. He is an awesome God!

May you thank Him for the blessings He has given this year, the good times and the trying times. They were all done to teach a lesson. Praying for another great year in 2011.

Merry Christmas!

Angel Baby

2010-12-16T07:48:00.004-06:00

My sweet baby girl was an angel this past Sunday at church. The children are starting to put on a Christmas program each year and the preschool/nursery come in for a couple of songs and play a nativity. My sweet girl got to be an angel in this year's nativity, her natural role. :)

We were afraid she wouldn't do very well, with few naps and all the people, but she did great. She got a little fussy right before we went in and once for about 10 seconds when we were sitting up there, but I called her name and that helped. She just needed to see Mommy's face.

Her are some pictures of her big stage debut! :)

Baby Jesus was played by a sweet friend's little boy, Knox. He's 2 months older than Nyla and he did great too. His Momma was worried he'd freak out too, but our babies did wonderful!

Smiling at her people!

For her costume, she wore all white and the Preschool Director covered and exersaucer with all white and made big cardboard wings and attached them to the exersaucer, along with the halo so Nyla wouldn't have to wear them and bug her. It was so sweet. She was sitting on top of boxes behind baby Jesus so everyone could see her. It was so fun!

Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs

2010-12-07T06:00:00.004-06:00

Ummm... can we say delicious?

I'm not one to go all out on side dishes for dinner, I'm content with a baked potato or rice, but I saw this recipe while I was watching Food Network one day and saw how easy it was and wanted to make it. I planned on make it for Saturday night for our Sunday School Christmas party. Hubby ended up not feeling great, so we didn't go, but I still wanted to make it. Glad I did.

It's cheesy, but not overly cheesy, a little crunchy (I love a little crunch) and quick to put together. It was a hot and delicious side dish for us to enjoy, a special treat.

Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs- modified from Giada de Laurentiis

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

nonstick cooking spray

4 pounds of russet potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 14 small to medium size potatoes)

1 cup milk (I used 2% and a little heavy cream; the recipe called for whole but I don't keep that around)

1 stick butter, melted

1.5 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese

3 Tbsp plain dry bread crumbs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel and chop potatoes and cook in a large pot of boiling salt water for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender; drain.

2. Return potatoes to pot and mash well. Mix in milk and melted butter, mozzarella cheese and 3/4 cup of the parmesan cheese (reserve 1/4 cup for topping). Season with salt and pepper.

3. Place potato mixture into greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle the bread crumbs and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese on top of mashed potatoes.

3. Stir bread crumbs and 1/4 cup reserved parmesan cheese and sprinkle

4. Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, until topping is golden brown.

This is a great make-ahead recipe and can be refrigerated up to 6 hours.

Serves 6-10 people

The Verdict:

Um, awesome. It had that classic mashed potato taste, but with some extra cheesy goodness. We loved the topping and I upped the bread crumbs from 2 to 3 Tbsp, because we like an extra crunch. It was a great change from mashed potatoes and was warm and yummy on this chilly night.

Menu Plan Monday-December 6

2010-12-05T20:00:00.001-06:00

How was everyone's weekend?

We were busy around here. Saturday I had a basketball game, then a puppet performance for our kids at church and Saturday night we were scheduled to go to our Sunday School Christmas party, but Hubby ended up not feeling well enough to go, so we stayed home. I was okay with staying home since I'd been on the run all day. It was nice to get into bed at a decent hour and get some much needed rest! I sure hope we're not getting sick around here!

Looking at the week ahead, it looks to be like a usual week, which I'm totally okay with. I have basketball practice tomorrow night and that's it as of right now. So yay!

December 6- December 13

Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti (a favorite in this house)

Lasagna (already made, in the freezer)

Chicken Vegetable Marinara (we never had this, so we'll try again)

Chicken Enchilada Soup (a soup mix I bought at a craft fair)

Overnight Blueberry French Toast-from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures (I love overnight french toasts, you can see one we enjoy here)

What are your favorite dinner items?

Have a great week!

2010 Christmas Wish List

2010-12-02T20:05:00.003-06:00

I've been reading a lot of wish lists this year for gifts and I thought I'd join the fun!

Here are my top 10 wants: (in no particular order)

1. A new waffle maker. I love waffles! And we do breakfast frequently in this house, so it makes sense. We have one now, but I'd like to get a bigger one and just update what we have.

2. New cookware set. I like this one and this one and this one (I'm addicted to green stuff right now). I've had our set since we've been married (almost 3 years), which isn't very long, but I'm ready for something a little nicer than what we have. I was conscientious of being frugal on our wedding registry, I just chose that route of picking less pricey items. And now that I cook every night, I want a set that's nicer and more durable. I also want something that is oven safe. And a dream would be something that is dishwasher safe too. I HATE washing my pots and pans in the sink. It's annoying.

3. Hey, it's a wish list. I want this!

4. Corningware set. I've wanted a set for a bit, but have continued to go back and forth as to whether I really want it. So I'll just add it to the wish list.

5. Yep, we've wanted a juicer in this house for a long time. And this is the one.

6. A new toaster oven, just not sure which one. Suggestions?

7. A bread maker. Mine died this week, sad!!! This is the one I had and it was great because it was free! A girlfriend at church gave me hers a little over a year ago. I was looking to borrow one and try it out to see if I'd use it enough and she said I could have hers because she never used it. I just hate the thought of needing a new one because the good ones aren't cheap.

8. Yes, I want a fryer. Yes, I know fried foods aren't great for you. But, there are a few things I'd like to make from time to time and frying on the stove top just is gross. The grease flying everywhere and then the clean-up, no thanks!

9. Another mixing bowl for my stand mixer. I have one but I'd like another since I bake frequently.

10. The Food Network magazine subscription.

Well, that's my top 10. As you have noticed most of the wanted items are for the kitchen. It is my favorite room in the house and I want to spend most of my time in there. Somedays that happens and others not so much. I do have an almost 5 month old, that would be why. But that is okay. I'd just like updated kitchen stuff and new stuff too, so when I'm able to get in there and cook I have everything I need. :)

Menu Plan Monday-November 29

2010-11-29T10:57:00.003-06:00

Did everyone have a great Thanksgiving? I hope you counted your blessings one-by-one. I tried and there were too many to count! Our little family is extremely blessed! I am so thankful.

We had an amazing first Thanksgiving with our little girl. She did great traveling to 2 different places. We were nervous she would be overtired since her napping hasn't been great lately, but she took great naps before each event, making our lives much easier. For that we are thankful!

My 5 meals for the week are so delicious and I'm so excited about them. Three of the recipes are new and ones I haven't tried before and a couple I've made and they are wonderful. If the new recipes turn out to be good, you could see them on here!

Don't forget, I only plan 5 meals a week now since we stay fairly busy most nights and 5 is all we have time for most weeks. Enjoy!

November 29-December 4

Chicken Vegetable Marinara (from Kraft Recipes; new recipe)

California-Style Barbecue Chicken Pizza (from Kraft Recipes; new recipe)

Fiesta Beef & Black Bean Enchiladas (from Kraft Recipes; new recipe)

Chicken and Rice Soup (I made this a while ago and froze in it separate servings, so it's ready to go! And it's amazing!!!) And I'll make some French Bread to go with it.

Bacon, eggs and french toast (Hubby makes the best french toast!)

This post is linked to:

Organizing Junkie

Double Fudge Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

2010-11-17T06:00:00.003-06:00

This cake is AMAZING!

We had a family friend come into town last week for a business trip and he was able to come by and have dinner with us. I was in charge of dessert, shocking I know!

I've been addicted to The Food Network lately. I can't turn it off. Seriously, I can't. It's on 24 hours a day. Okay, maybe not 24 hours, but 8 hours. Any who, I saw this dessert and knew I wanted to make it. It's decadent, chocolately, rich, and oh so good! And it was easy to make. I know I know, I say that about every recipe, but it really was. Yes, the cake is made from scratch, but it's not 800 ingredients and it's probably stuff you already have in your pantry. So, go and make this cake!

Double Fudge Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Modified from Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cocoa powder

2 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

3 large eggs, at room temperature

3 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the frosting:

24 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour 3, 9 inch cake pans.

2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, until they're well incorporated.

4. Combine the buttermilk and sour cream.

5. On low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture alternately in thirds, starting with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix the batter only until blended.

6. Pour the batter into prepared pans (its thick and dense, so you'll have to spread it a little). Bake for 15-25 minutes, checking after 15 minutes by placing a toothpick in the center. If it comes out gooey, put it back in the oven for 2-3 minutes at a time. If the toothpick has little crumbs on it, it's done. Take it out of the oven, cool on a cooling rack in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely.

While your cakes are baking, start on the frosting.

1. Place the chocolate chips and heavy cream into a bowl a set over simmering water. Melt chocolate and cream until smooth, stirring occasionally.

2. Off the heat, add the corn syrup and vanilla and stir to combine. Allow this mixture to COOL to room temperature (this is important so do it!).

3. In your stand mixture or hand mixer, place cooled chocolate mixture in the bowl with 1/2 stick unsalted butter (room temperature) and beat on medium speed until thick, 5-10 minutes.

4. Spread the frosting onto the cooled cakes. And enjoy!

The Verdict:

This cake was very dense and delicious. It tasted a little dry and was crumbly, so I may not leave it in the oven as long (I think I baked it for 20 minutes), but it may be crumbly because it's such a dense cake.

The frosting was AMAZING! It was easy to put together and spread great on the cake. I felt like it was going to fall off the cake because of the consistency, but it looked beautiful and stayed on. The corn syrup made it so shiny and beautiful.

I only used 2 of the 3 layers I baked (saving one for something else) because it looked like it was going to be so tall and I just felt like we didn't need so much cake for the event I made it for (there were only 6 of us!). But if you're making it for a big family gathering or a potluck, use the 3rd layer. And the 3rd layer will probably make it look more dramatic and beautiful. And there was more than enough frosting for all 3 layers. I should've put it on a little thicker, I felt like it could've used more.

My mom really liked the frosting. She said it wasn't overly sweet and had great texture. Everyone seemed to enjoy it!

Creating Memories

2010-11-15T06:00:00.002-06:00

This year is our first year as family of 3! What a big deal, especially when it comes to Christmas cards and photo books!!!

I love receiving Christmas cards. I get to see how people have changed, what's been happening in their lives and so much more. It's just so much fun to open up the mailbox and see all the cards we receive. I also love going to my mom's house and seeing all the ones they get. They get so many and I love seeing all the designs of the cards and the recent pictures of the families. So exciting!

I also love taking a picture for a Christmas card, designing one and mailing one out. This year, I'm using Shutterfly for my Christmas card needs. I recently found Shutterfly, was recommended by a friend, and I love it. If there is something you want to do with your pictures, go to their site and design it (it's easy) and in an instant you're done! It's fantastic!

Some of my favorite items and things I have in the making:

I'm designing 2 photo books for Christmas presents (shhhh!). And I'll keep doing these for us and her since I'm not into scrapbooking.

I'm making some thank you notes with N's pictures on them. This is my favorite card. I just love having a bunch of pictures on them so people can see her doing different things! And of course, we have about 500 pictures of her, so we have plenty to choose from and it may be difficult to choose from all we have, but I can always have different ones made later one.

And my favorite right now, Christmas cards! I am having so much fun looking through their selection and I think this may be the one I like best as of now. I will definitely be designing some sort of card for our new family of 3 using Shutterfly.com!

Are you thinking about sending out Christmas cards for 2010? If so, check out Shutterfly.com for TONS of cards and gift ideas!

I've had great experiences with Shutterfly. They are quick, reliable and a great deal. And the easiest part? You can design your stuff from the comfort of your own home! You can't beat that!!!!

Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday cards absolutely FREE!

Visit Shutterfly.com for more details.

-Ginny

Disclosure: In exchange for writing this post, I will receive a promotional code for a package of 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. Thoughts and opinions about my experience with Shutterfly are my own.

Menu Plan Monday-November 15

2010-11-14T17:00:00.000-06:00

Since my life has changed in the last 4 months (Happy 4 months to my sweet girl this past Saturday!), my menu planning has changed along with it. In October I may have cooked 10 times and I hate that! I'm so busy and exhausted by the time dinner time comes along, that it rarely gets done. Because of that, I'm changing how I plan our meals each week!

I'm going to plan 5 meals a week and cook them when I can. For awhile when I was able to cook, I'd cook 2 or 3 meals and freezer the ones we didn't have for dinner. I'm l going to try that approach these next few weeks, get my freezer stockpile up and still do something I love. If I'm only able to cook 1 meal, so be it, I'll cook the next day maybe during N's nap time.

Here's the plan for the week. It's in no particular order, I'll cook from this list for the week and we'll pick what we want each night. I'm only doing 5 meals a week because we can have leftovers 1 or 2 nights and we usually have dinner with some of our family once a week. Of course, we'll see how the week goes and if some of these items even get cooked, but I'm hoping!

Creamy Baked Ziti

Mexican Chicken (I bought a cookbook 2 weeks ago and this is a recipe from it; I'm super excited about this cookbook. I already made a soup from it and it was fantastic!)

Chicken Enchiladas (same cookbook)

Chicken Fingers and baked potatoes

Pizza

Dear Bleach

2010-11-12T06:00:00.001-06:00

Dear Bleach,

I have to say, I used to not like you. You smell, you burn my nose and throat when I use you and you're just a lot to handle.

Up until Sunday night, I didn't love you. Now, I do.

You see, I have tile in my shower. I'm not used to tile, so I didn't know how to really clean the grout and get all the black moldy looking stuff out. Yeah, that's a lot to admit, it wasn't horribly gross, but it bugged me. But then, I put you into a spray bottle and you changed my life. I sprayed you in my tile shower after I showered and let you go to work. The result you ask? The next morning I looked in the shower and it was all clean and wonderful. All black stuff gone and you looked great. And no back breaking work.

Now, you do still burn my eyes and nose and you smell and I need to use you when I won't be back in my room, but you do a wonderful job.

So here's to you bleach! You do a great job. Thanks for you hard work, so I don't have to.

Sincerely,

Ginny

Convenience Meals-Money Saving Tip

2010-11-10T06:00:00.003-06:00

We're all trying to save money, cutting budgets here and there. We're always looking for ways to save a few pennies. There are so many ways to save some money and we do this thing every week day... It's called leftovers!

Yep, leftovers. I think people really overlook leftovers and don't use them and toss them out. What a waste of money! I'm not into wasting money, especially when it comes to food, the one thing we can control.

We love leftovers in our house. I try (yes, I said try) to cook 5 times a week and whatever we don't eat goes in it's own container, with a label, into the freezer and placed on our freezer inventory list. This inventory list is to always know what we have to eat in the freezer, saving us time and money. We call them "convenience meals." They're an easy grab from the freezer and are always delicious. Most everything freezes well, so there's no excuse in our house to go out to lunch every weekday.

Hubby works away from home and he loves his leftover lunches. He gets many questions each week as to what he's brought from home and what smells so good. That makes me feel good and know he's eating a good lunch and is taken care of while at work. I just love knowing he's well fed. :)

Now, I know not everyone has enough food to have leftovers, but if you do every once in a while, this is a great way to save your leftovers.

When I see my freezer meal stock getting low, I try and cook a little more to build this back up so we always have good and hot meals to eat.

1 year ago today...

2010-11-08T08:07:00.005-06:00

Happy Girl!!!

1 year ago today we found out some AMAZING news. We were expecting our first child. Talk about mind blowing!

The week before I suspected I was pregnant so I took about 3 pregnancy tests, but they were all faintly positive. Now, I've never been pregnant before, so I didn't know if this meant I was or maybe was. So I scheduled a doctor's visit with my Nurse Practitioner and come to find out, I was 4 weeks pregnant. Waiting in the waiting room was the longest hour of my life! I was shaking and my heart was racing and my palms were sweaty, it was weird. It was an insane experience.

I don't even remember what I was thinking when we were finally taken back to one of the exam rooms. And when Sandy came in and said, "Congratulations!" I was floored. Daniel and I looked at each other and smiled and hugged and just had so many thoughts running through our head. As this pregnancy wasn't planned, it was definitely a surprise! But a fantastic surprise!

Now one year later, we have an almost 4 month old! I am amazed by God's blessings daily. We have a healthy, happy, smiley, big (15 pounds) baby girl. And we couldn't be happier with her and our life with her. It's hard to remember what it was like before her. I heard so many people say that and didn't understand it until she came along, I so get it now. It's an amazing, rewarding, scary, complicated and exhausted experience. But I wouldn't change a second of it. I'm enjoying every single moment, even the fussy and cranky moments. I know that all this won't last forever and I have a few short moments with her being little and super dependent.

1 year later I'm thankful for her and for my supportive husband, our wonderful families who can't get enough of her and for all the spoiling they do. They take wonderful care of all 3 of us!

Blessings,

Ginny

This blog is changing...

2010-10-31T21:08:00.002-05:00

I've come to a new chapter in my life. The life of not only a Christ follower and wife, but now a mother. I've been a mother for almost 4 months now but am finally realizing how much I've changed and my family is changing.

With those things in mind, the look and content of this blog are changing. Yes, I'll still post recipes because I am still cooking and I love to cook, when time allows. But I also want to focus on what I'm reading, what I'm doing with my Husband and daughter and what's going on in our lives in general.

So, stay tuned for some new posts and some of the usual stuff too. I hope you'll stick with me as I figure some things out. I know I haven't posted in awhile but it's because I'm off being a mother and taking care of our lives. Stay tuned!

Creamy Crock Pot Cheesecake

2010-09-03T06:00:00.006-05:00

Yes, you read right, cheesecake in the crock pot. Oh my!

My sister came over Wednesday night for dinner and a visit so I made crock pot cheesy chicken spaghetti and french bread. I wanted a dessert that I wouldn't have to fool with while I cleaned house and took care of N. This cheesecake was the perfect dessert. While I don't usually make dessert for just us, I wanted to try this recipe. It took me maybe 10 minutes to prep and I threw it in the crock pot and left it for 3 hours, awesome!

Crockpot Cheesecake: modified from A Year of Slowcooking

Printer-Friendly Recipe

Crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

2 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp melted butter

Filling:

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (unwrap them and zap them in the microwave for about 30 seconds; mine needed a little more)

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup heavy cream (I actually didn't have heavy cream, so I used half-n-half as a substitute)

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp flour

Directions:

Find a heat resistant dish that will fit in your crockpot. You will be making a water bath for the cheesecake.

I used a 9 inch round cake pan in my 6 quart oval crockpot. The cake pan sat on the rim of the crockpot and somewhat floated in the crockpot filled with water, but was still stable.

You could also try a 1.5 qt Corning Ware dish in a 6 qt oval. I didn't have this so had to opt for the 9 inch cake pan.

Place graham crackers in a plastic zipper bag and crush; I used my rolling pin. Put a cup of the crumbs into a bowl with melted butter and brown sugar and stir until wet and crumbly; it's best to use your hands. Press crumb mixture into bottom of pan you're using (I tried to push mine up the side of the cake pan a little bit too). Use the bottom of a drinking glass to make an even layer of crust.

In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, flour, cream and vanilla. Pour the cheese mixture on top of the crust.

If you use the cake pan like I did, fill the crockpot almost to the top so it covers the majority of the cake pan; 1/2 to 3/4 up the cake pan. If you use a Corning Ware dish, add about a cup of water to the bottom of the pot. Be careful not to splash any of the water on the cheesecake.

Cover and cook on LOW for 2-3 hours, checking after 1 hour of cook time, just in case. The cheesecake is done with the edges are no longer shiny and have set. Gently touch the cheesecake, if you don't get a bunch of cake on your finger, it's done.

I cooked mine for about 2 hours and 10 minutes. After yours is done, keep cheesecake covered and unplug crockpot. Leave it in the crockpot for 1 hour; transfer to refrigerator for about 2 hours before serving. I left mine in there about 3 hours, I like my cheesecake cold.

The Verdict.

Awesome! Hubby and Sister loved it. They all said it was really creamy and delicious. I loved mine as well. It was the consistency I like in a cheesecake and was really creamy. Hubby would of liked a little fruit topping and I agree. I love plain cheesecake but I do like a fruit topping too, preferably strawberry.

I also loved it because I didn't have to turn on the oven and heat the whole house. And using the crockpot to make cheesecake just blew my mind.

Note: As most cheesecakes are, it was even better the next day.

This link is posted to Flash Back Friday.

Overnight Caramel French Toast

2010-08-24T06:00:00.003-05:00

I made this a couple weeks ago and it was delicious!

I prepped it all the night before and refrigerated it until the next night. What a great dish to take to our Sunday School class for the next "1st Sunday breakfast." I'll pop it in the oven the morning of and cut it into smaller pieces to serve more people.

Overnight Caramel French Toast

Printer-Friendly Recipe

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

12 slices white or whole wheat bread (I used whole wheat, could also use your own homemade)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon, divided

6 eggs, beaten

1-1/2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a small saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

2. Pour into a greased 13-in x 9-in. baking dish. Top with six slices of bread. Combine sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon; sprinkle half over the bread. Place remaining bread on top. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar, set aside.

3. In a large bowl, add the beaten eggs, milk, vanilla and remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Pour over the bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight (I refrigerated mine for about 20 hours and it was fine).

4. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes (I baked mine about 30 minutes and that wasn't long enough, definitely needed 35+ minutes in my oven because the middle was a little mushy).

Yield: 6 servings

Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday-August 23

2010-08-23T07:54:00.003-05:00

August 23-August 29

We're venturing out and trying new recipes again this week. We liked most of the things I made last week, especially the Baked Chimichangas. I'll have to post that recipe on here soon, although I didn't take a picture of the finished product, oops!

It's cooling off here. And by cooling off I mean the low 90's. Oh well, it's something better than what we've had and hopefully it's a taste of the near future.

Here's what's on our menu for this week.

Monday, 23:

Chicken Piccata

from Taste of Home cookbook

Tuesday, 24:

Ranch Pork Roast (crock pot)

from Better Homes cookbook

Wednesday, 25:

Enchilada Stuffed Shells

from Taste of Home cookbook

Thursday, 26:

Phyllo Chicken

from Taste of Home cookbook

Friday, 27:

Blueberry Buckle

from Better Homes cookbook

Saturday, 28:

Hawaiian Baked Chicken

from Taste of Home cookbook

Sunday, 29:

No meal plan yet, will make one of the dishes above if it doesn't happen during the week or we'll have leftovers

*Any meals you'd like the recipe for, leave me a comment and your email and I'll email you the recipe.

Easy Chocolate Pie

2010-08-17T07:00:00.006-05:00

I posted this originally back in March, but since it's so hot, I figured I'd repost it again. An easy and cool dessert recipe. No baking and turning on the oven needed!

Easy Chocolate Pie-Mom's kitchen

Printer-Friendly Recipe

1 12 oz container cool whip, thawed

2 extra large Hershey's milk chocolate bar, melted (dark chocolate is great too)

1 graham cracker pie crust (chocolate graham or Oreo crust works too)... I used a chocolate graham this time

1. Mix melted chocolate bar and cool whip together until blended.

2. Dump into pie crust and cover.

3. Freeze 4 hours or overnight.

4. Enjoy!

Yes, it's as easy as that and it's so good!

This link is posted at:

*Crazy Daisy, Tuesday Tastes

*Blessed with Grace, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

*Grocery Cart Challenge, Recipe Swap

*Colleen's Kitchen Recipe Swap

*Cookin' for my Captain, Flashback Friday