Creating Memories

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

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

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

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...

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...

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

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.