Three Peas Create

That Hair!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 21:23:00 +0000

Being a parent is full of decisions - some small, some big, some that you never think about but just do, and some that you agonize over for far too long!! I never thought we would have to decide (and agree on) if we needed to cut Micah's hair before his first birthday! Since we first laid eyes on Micah and saw his awesome head of hair, we agreed we would cut it around his first birthday, if he needed it. But seriously, this hair is out of control! It gets in his eyes and nose constantly, and I'm sure it tickles his face. With family pictures, Santa pictures and holiday pictures all looming in the near future, we needed to make a decision. We finally decided that we both love his crazy hair, and that for now we would try to tame it and only give him a little trim in the front so it isn't in his eyes....now I just have to work up the nerve to do it! Lol

When did you cut your little ones hair? What finally nudge you to do it? I'd love to hear your stories!!

Have a great day!
Beth

My New Hobby!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:06:00 +0000

I have a new addiction...oops, I mean HOBBY! I stumbled onto it completely randomly while watching some of my favorite Youtube vloggers. I saw them doing it, and it just clicked! Not only is it fun and creative, but helps me with that whole struggle to be organized. 🙄

My new hobby is Planning with Stickers - sounds boring right?! Go look on Instagram, Pinterest or YouTube, I'll wait...🤔 I had no idea that using stickers to decorate your planner was a thing, but it is!! And it is really popular, there is a whole planner community! And the stickers 😍😍

Right now I am using a simple planner I got from a dollar store to practice, but I am excited to start using my new planner next year (which is so incredibly soon!). It took me a few weeks to convince myself to splurge on a fancy planner, but I think it will really help me stay interested - well that and the stickers lol.

You can read more about my planner journey on Mommy Needs A Plan. I have lots of ideas and thoughts that I'll sharing over there, but I'll be sure to do some planner posts on here as well! I'm also on Instagram under that name, so if you're interested come follow me!

Here is my spread for this past week, before I filled anything out. #beforethepen #practiceplanner

I am so excited to start using my Erin Condren Lifeplanner in January!!

If you want me to do a detailed post about what it looks like on the inside and the accessories I have - leave a comment! I'm always happy to talk your ear off about it!

So, there you have it! My weird new hobby, that will hopefully help me succeed in organizing my life! 😉😊

Have a great day!

Beth

Soup's On

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 19:00:00 +0000

Check this out! Soup's on! I know I wanted to post about power bowls. I will I promise! It started to rain here and get cooler. I have been wanting to make a hearty soup. I've been searching and searching. I haven't found the exact one yet. I want a little bit of beef stew and French onion but beef or mushroom barley. It all started with this mushroom barely soup I had. I licked the bowl, it was amazing.

This is a beef and barely soup in the slow cooker. They are instructions for stove top from the link I got this from.

I will say I will be tweaking these steps slightly. The barley needs at least 2 hours to cook. There wasn't clear directions. It said to simmer for 1 hour, so I turned it back on and let it cook for one hour. I tried it and it was still crunchy. We had take out for dinner ha! I put it on high for 2 hours and that did the trick. So if you're going to be putting this in the slow cooker I recommend at hour 5 you put the barely in.

Ingredients

2 pounds stew meat (the more marble the better)
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 cups of water
3 heaping tablespoons of better than bullion
2 sweet onions chopped
2 celery stalks chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1 cup barely rinsed
3 carrots shredded (to be put in the last hour)
1 russet potatoe shredded (to be put in the last hour

Instructions

Salt and pepper the stew meat. Add oil to pan and heat at medium high. In small batches (I have a Dutch oven did mine in 2 batches) brown meat in thirds so there isn't crowding. When all the meat is browned put it back in the pot and add 2 cups of water. Bring water to a boil, stir to get all of the delicious browned bits. Pour the beef and water plus the remaining 6 cups into the slow cooker. Add the celery, onions and garlic. Set on low for 8 hours. At hour 6 is when I would put the barley in. At hour 7 add the shredded carrots and potatoes cook for 1 more hour, hopefully this will turn out great! The flavors are so yummy and it smells so wonderful all day long. My husband and I had ad to try some so we had a late night bowl. We had ours with garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Who Would Have Guessed?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:14:00 +0000

Part Montessori/Part Organization/Part Distraction - this actually works to keep Micah away from the electronics behind and helps keep my living room tidy!!

So it turns out that the best way to help me keep my house clean was to have a child!! I have struggled with keeping all the parts of my house clean, on a daily basis, somewhere around forever. I have never been able to do it for more than 2 weeks at a time before something falls off the wagon (usually the kitchen), and once one part goes it all seems to go! Then I'm back to messes everywhere and no willpower to keep it clean! 😶

I definitely struggled with this problem the first 6 months after having Micah, but can you guess what happened to make the change?? He started crawling, and all of a sudden I couldn't ignore the messiness because he was all over it...oh, you don't want me to put all the shoes by the door in my mouth, pull all the laundry off the couch or play with the garbage bag...😫

So, I had no choice but to start cleaning and picking things up on a daily basis (well, almost daily)!! I also decided I wanted to teach Micah to be tidy and pick up after himself, but it would lack conviction if I didn't practice those skills myself. The third thing that prompted my tidiness was an introduction to the world of stickers in planners! I talk all about my new addiction on a different blog Mommy Needs A Plan (created so I don't overload this blog with planner stuff). I love using my planner and it really helps me get things done! I may do a post here or there about it, just because I love using it!

I have managed to keep my kitchen and living room clean and keep up with the laundry (washing, folding and putting away) for about a month now. This might not seem to be that long, but sadly it's kind of a record for me! I have found that it is easier for me to do almost all of the cleaning right after I put Micah to bed (dishes, wiping counters, vacuuming, ect). I do run laundry throughout the day and fold as possible but my helper is not so helpful, so I do what I can. I also put all of Micah's toys away with him. Obviously he doesn't help with that yet either, but he will hopefully learn that cleaning them up is part of our bedtime routine.

Every night I try to incorporate just a little bit more of the house into my routine. As each area gets easier to clean on a daily basis it gets faster to finish, giving me more time to clean somewhere else. Does this mean I have done dishes at 2am? Yep, but I was determined to keep the kitchen clean and now I don't need more than 30ish minutes to tidy the entire kitchen each night - including the dishes. My plan is to eventually spend no more than an hour every night to keep my house looking good 😎

Some of you are probably horrified by the thought of staying up just to clean, but I'm a night owl. If I go to bed before 1am, I'm probably sick lol. Cleaning before bed actually helps me sleep, and having an almost 7mo helps too (not as much as you might assume though lol) 😅. This weird routine actually works great for us. It leaves me with the majority of my day to spend with Micah, which he demands anyways, and I don't feel the stress to get housework done all day!! 👍

Here is what my living room looks like this morning...

It's 8:56 am - I swear!

I would show you the kitchen but I don't want to spoil the surprise...😘 See you next week!

Have a great day!!
Beth

Felicia's Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 20:57:00 +0000

Hi Everyone!

I'm so glad we are back at it again. I've missed blogging and I have been Pinning as if it's going out of style!

Though we all took a break, life still goes on. I had a huge lifestyle change over the summer. My husband and I decided to talk with a friend who transformed his life and learn what to do. We did what he said, got a calorie goal number and started off with 500 calories less than that. Just changing our food we have both lost 30 + pounds. I feel really good, of course as I'm still going to keep at this. We have both gave into cravings, which you must do, the point is to get back to eating healthier. What we learned though is that we felt awful after eating our cheat food. Not guilty but down, our bodies were talking to us, making groans. I'm finding it's pretty easy to choose well. My latest obsession is power bowls. Jamie and I have been making them. They are insanely good. I love food, anyone who knows me knows that I love food. Well I hope that with my future post you too will fall in love with healthy food.

You may wonder how we came to wanting this lifestyle change. We decided to start after our summer cruise. You've heard it before. I'll start on Monday, after the holidays. Well I've had enough I really wanted to start, my husband has even taken a break but I kept on it and I'm so happy I did. I caught up to him. He was over 30 lbs and I wasn't there yet. I know when he recommits he will loose faster than me. I was really worried about being on the cruise and gaining a bunch. I didn't, that ship was so big I walked a lot and maintained. Good to know right. Walking really does help. That is my next step. I feel pretty good, not as tired as before so now I'm ready to get back to the gym and kick this into high gear.

Our trip this summer was one we will never forget. I'm so blessed to have friends that took us, my son still talks about it. I remember my travels with my family that's what I wanted for him too. I never had a passport as a kid, didn't need one to travel to Canada. He does, that just makes me so happy that when we want to we can plan another trip anywhere. We really can now, not much stops us these days. He is down to one therapy. Which is huge! He is an awesome kid, it's amazing how much he knows. I love how he can carry a conversation and his thought process is so great. He comprehends a lot now. I just was thinking about that the other day. I wish he could pass school work by having a conversation instead of writing it down. We are always working on stuff to improve ourselves. This is just one of them.

I can go on and on! I've missed you all. See you next week with a power bowl recipe! Who knows I might post one later I might not wait!

Oh here is a picture of Hubbard Glacier....

Let's Start With the Best Thing Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 21:56:00 +0000

It took me a while to figure out what my first post should be about...there are just so many things I want to write about!!

However, I'm pretty sure everyone is most excited to hear about Micah 😊 I mean, who wouldn't want to hear all about the most adorable baby ever...oh wait, that's probably just me 😂 but he is seriously cute!

I have so many pictures with this expression Lol

Micah is already 6 mo + 3 weeks!! That seems like it flew by 😓. He was born at 6:50pm on Saturday, March 26th (the day before Easter), after 21-ish hours of labor. I'll probably do a post about that separately, mostly because if a new mom-to-be is searching for stories about labor I want her to be able to find it 😉. I read so many and I still had a completely different labor than any I read about. So anyways, long labor with lots of support from everyone waiting FOREVER! Things didn't go as planned, but it was still a positive experience with an awesome ending. Micah was 8lbs 2ounces and 20" long, and he had an epic amount of hair!!

The first few weeks were tough with a huge learning curve, the last few months were a lot of work but a lot of fun too! Seeing Micah grow and learn every day is so neat, and figuring out what works and what doesn't for our family. Instead of rambling on forever (because I easily could), I made a list of things to share...

10 Things About Micah at 6 Months:

1) He weighed 17.5 lbs and was 27" at his 6 mo check up - and he has definitely grown since then.

Micah and Zoe (She's almost 5 and on the petite side)

2) He is already wearing some 12mo clothes! Partially because he wears cloth diapers, but also some of his 6 mo clothes are just too tight already.

These are supposed to be 12mo pajamas 😅

3) He loves books. He likes to look at them, chew on them, pet them and have them read to him. He will play with them on his own, especially ones that have pictures of real things. His favorite book is Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type and it has been since I started reading to him around 8 weeks.

This was taken when he was 3 1/2mo's 😍

4) He is a mover. He has needed to be in motion from the first week, but his favorite thing was to rock (I'm pretty sure crawling is now his favorite). I have put a lot of miles on my rocking chair, thankfully it is pretty comfortable! He even moves in his sleep - he waves his arm around when he is sleeping.

Just chillin'

5) He is always working towards learning the next thing. For example, the same day he officially crawled for the first time (hands and knees, not scooting) - he immediately started trying to walk on his hands and feet. This kid doesn't take a break 😅 I get exhausted just watching him work so hard at everything! Lol

He loves this dump truck, and recently figured out how to push and pull it.

6) He officially started crawling on his 1/2 birthday!!! 😂 He hasn't stopped since! I'm equally proud and terrified...

Good thing I cleaned back there!

7) His favorite foods so far are zucchini and yogurt. He has tried bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, egg yolks, carrots, toast with butter and organic teething cookies - and he likes all of it. We do a modified version of Baby Led Weaning, which I'll do a post about soon.

Not too bad since he did 95% of the work himself (I just put it on the spoon and gave it to him).

8) He hates using a bottle, especially if we are at home. The only time he takes one without complaint is in the car, if we have been out and he didn't eat. The best option I've found is a silicon squeeze bottle (This one), it will do liquids or food, and he seems to like it.

I think he likes that he can drink from it without tipping his head back...and he can chew on it 😆

9) He loves singing. He likes it when I sing to him, but he also really enjoys watching Mother Goose Club on Youtube. This is a great distraction when I need to fold laundry or start dinner, or he is just having a hard day and we both need a break. It also really helped when I was sick!

Books and a song about a train...what else do you need?

10) He loves to talk. He will spend all day babbling. The one that makes me laugh the most is his 'I'm learning something' cry - seriously he will whine/cry when he's learning something new. He did this for hours when he was learning to crawl.

He just learned he could crawl between the wall and his high chair and he whined the whole time Lol

So there you go, ten things about Micah! He is so much fun to hang out with every day, and I am so lucky that it is possible for me to do just that!

Have a great day!

Beth

On The Blog Again...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 19:01:00 +0000

I hope you read that and sang it in Willie Nelson's voice ( you're welcome 😂).

So it has been a ridiculous amount of time since I have posted anything - pregnancy kicked my butt and then I had a new baby...and so on. Now that Micah is a little over 6 months old, I feel like I can maybe make this happen again on a regular basis.

After talking with Felicia and Jamie, we decided we all missed blogging and will be contributing as we each can. I am excited, and isn't it a little convenient that it is just before the holidays?!! I have so many ideas and projects planned!! Plus now I have mommy stuff to talk about...

Today, I am just here to say hi...soo...HI 😀😄😆😊😘🤗 We missed you and we're excited to start sharing again!!

Have a great day!

Beth

PS - just in case you didn't get my reference https://youtu.be/bOamLKAb-g8

Thankful Cheese Ball

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 20:32:00 +0000

I made a Pin, Jamie sent this to me. I thought how perfect just in time for Thanksgiving! It's wonderful! Everything pairs well, the nuts add a little crunch, the cranberries add sweetness and the Worcestershire sauce adds a savory spice. I hope you try it out.

Ingredients:

1 8oz block softened cream cheese
8oz shredded white cheddar, I used cougar gold
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1-1 1/2 cups dried cranberries (I used 1 cup)

Recipe

In a food process or bowl, pulse of mix cream cheese and shredded cheese mix until combined. Add salt and Worcestershire sauce pulse or mix well. Hand mix in the pecans and then cover with a big piece of plastic wrap, shape into bowl. Place in refrigerator for 30 min, press cranberries onto cheese ball you can serve or put back in to the refrigerator until ready to serve, up to 3 days.

Serve with butter crackers!

Big News!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 21:06:00 +0000

We're having a baby boy!! His due date is April 8th (which is why I bought an Easter onesie lol).

Yay!! I am so excited to share this with everyone! We waited until we were past the first trimester before sharing the news with anyone, even our parents!! It was hard, but it was the right thing to do for us. After we told our family, we started sharing it with our friends and more family. It hasn't been a secret, but I wasn't ready to share it with Facebook or on the blog. I'm not sure if I can really explain why - I just wasn't ready. So now I am 18 weeks and 4 days along, and man does it seem like time flies! I am almost halfway there!! It's scary and exciting and slightly surreal all at the same time!! This is something we have been wanting, waiting for and planning for a long time...a really long time. Everyone told me that waiting wasn't worth it because you can never be ready for a baby, and that is partly true - there will always be something else that needs to be done or paid for or earned. However, the biggest benefit to waiting is being ready mentally and emotionally. The second is that I get to stay home and that was a HUGE deal for both Eric and I, and probably the biggest reason we waited as long as we did. We feel it was well worth the wait :)

So, if you're curious about how the pregnancy is going here's the short answer...I nap/rest a lot and I hate food. Lol! The first 3 months I was extremely tired and needed a nap after doing anything, and I was nauseous (a word I never spell right and had to look up lol) 24 hours a day. Then I started feeling better and got a sinus infection with headaches and a cold with a cough (at the same time!!) for the next 3ish weeks. I finally feel more like myself, which is a relief. I have so much to do and nothing was getting done!! I finally got my house clean and started doing some projects for the nursery that I'll share in future posts. The only thing I am still struggling with is food - I don't really like food, but hopefully that will change soon.

You might be wondering why I haven't blogged for awhile. Well, it's hard to write about anything when all you want to do is sleep, you can't share the few projects you do get done and food is a negative 20 on your 1-10 scale of fun stuff to do. I don't think anyone wants to hear about my toast and cream cheese obsession...

I will try to get back on track for posting regularly, but I make no guarantees ;)

Have a great day!

Beth

P.S. - I know everyone is going to want to know if we have picked out a name yet. We are still looking and thinking about it, but we still have 150 days to go...deep breaths lol

P.S. 2 - I am a little behind on pictures so I still don't have my 16 weeks picture done - when I finally get one taken I'll share it (Hopefully by then I'll actually look pregnant instead of just normal lol) :)

Twice Baked Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 20:22:00 +0000

It's been awhile since I have blogged. I don't know what happened why I stopped or got overwhelmed. I'm coming back with my usual, I see something-I make it-then blog about it. I need to get back into my groove.

What better recipe to come back with than a twice baked potato! These were a hit with my family. I actually just wanted a baked potato but my family isn't as thrilled as I am. I know right! I think I could eat one everyday!

I haven't made them in awhile so I dug a little too deep on 1 potato so I had to toss the skins. That actually worked out just fine. These will still turn out really well if you don't destroy your skins like I did. The great thing about this recipe is that you can make it your own.

Ingredients

3 potatoes

2 Tablespoons Oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 slices of bacon

3 green onions, sliced

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup heavy cream

pepper to taste

4 Tablespoons butter cubed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and dry potatoes, prick potatoes with fork to allow steam to escape. Rub with oil and sprinkle with salt. When oven is preheated place a piece of foil down on the oven place the potatoes on the rack and bake for 1 hour. Pull out and let cool on counter for 10 min or cool enough to hold

Meanwhile cook bacon, I cut mine before I cook it, crumble. Add bacon to a big bowl. Add 1 cup shredded cheese, green onions, butter. sour cream and pepper. When the potatoes are easy to hold. Cut in half and scoop out filling but leave a little bit of potato so that the filling can be held up. With a masher or hand mixer combine ingredients. Fill each potato half evenly and top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes.

Potatoes are absorbent so if you need to add more of the liquids (heavy cream, butter or sour cream) do so. I think I will add a bit more liquid just to fluff it up more. I was looking at a bunch of different recipes and they had all call for a little bit of sour cream so I doubled it.

This was a wonderful recipe the green onion with bacon is my all time favorite flavor for potatoes. Let us know if you make this and or what you added to yours!

Have a great weekend!

Dish Hoarder vs Realistic Minimalist - You Can't be Both!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 23:05:00 +0000

Wow, September has been such a busy month! I have been really distracted and unfortunately have been working on things that just aren't interesting enough to blog about! I can only do so many posts about cleaning out our 'storage rooms' - we had 2 rooms that were full of things we haven't gone through since we moved into our house 4 years ago. I was bored even thinking about it lol. We also had a houseguest for a week, which is why we were doing so much cleaning! It was a lot of fun having my dad here for a week, but we mostly played video games, watched movies and ate junk food! My kind of vacation (and luckily his too). And then I was feeling sick for awhile so I wasn't even making anything fun to eat - unless you want to hear about my bagel consumption?? Lol, but now I'm hopefully back on track!

Today, I wanted to talk about an idea I've been twirling around in my head - I saw this great video about someone who is trying to live a minimalistic lifestyle and as part of that has reduced their daily dishes to 1 per person. At first I was ready to jump up and do it - that would reduce my dishes to almost nothing and I doubt it's a surprise to hear that I hate doing dishes. Then I realized that having just 2 of everything would mean I would have to hand wash dishes between every meal...wait I would definitely hate that! Lol

So I've been trying to figure out what would be more realistic for us. I think I've decided that 6 of everything would be more realistic - then I could go an entire day without having to do dishes and could just run them each night. Hopefully putting all of my extra dishes in the pantry will kind of be 'out of sight, out of mind' and I can keep from just getting more out. As you can see from the picture above, I have plenty of 'more'...and I just can't seem to get rid of any! I really need to figure out what I need to keep vs what's ok to give away! All the dark blue dishes are from our wedding...I literally have enough serving dishes for a WEDDING!!

Besides dishes, I also need to work on figuring out what I actually need prep wise. For example, I've reduced my mixing bowls but I still have 4 glass bowls, 4 metal bowls, plus 2 large metal bowls - and this doesn't even include my tiny bowls (I have at least 30 different bowls that hold less than 1 cup) or my Tupperware bowls (I have 3 large drawers full of plastic containers)...this is AFTER I went through everything and got rid of what I didn't think I needed!!! I think I have an addiction! So yeah, I'm going to have to go through it all again and really make some hard decisions - I don't even use the smaller metal bowls but I just can't convince myself to get rid of them!!

So my goal in the next few weeks is to take a hard look at my kitchen and work towards being a Realistic Minimalist. We are only 2 people - I don't need enough dishes to feed an entire football team!!

I'll post about my progress when I've got my cabinets organized! Wish me luck, there may be some crying involved. :)

Have a great day!
Beth

Blueberry Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 03:45:00 +0000

I'm back! Yay! I have been really absent! I just haven't had time to tend to the blog, that will all change now. I'm getting into a routine now that my big boy is in Kindergarten...yeah that happened! I was stressing out, mildly! I had no room in my head to post. He's all settled now. Love his school and his teacher, I'm so happy! On to the recipe!

This has some sour cream, it sure does help keep it moist and tart. I have blueberries in the freezer that need to be eaten.

I bought another cookbook, shocking I know! I like to keep tabs on my favorite chef/TV host cookbooks and I clicked (ebook) on one that had a similar name that I look for. Once I realized I kept browsing because it had brunch in the title. I love breakfast foods, I really like brunch too. I purchased it and started flipping through and bookmarking almost every recipe. It's so good!

In the front of this book was a blueberry muffin recipe, I had to try it. I'm so glad I did!

This makes 24 muffins. You will need 2 muffin tins, greased or with liners if you want. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. *Bring 4 large or 3 extra large eggs to room temperature.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
12 Tablespoons unsalted softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
*4 large eggs at room temp
1/4 cup half and half
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sour cream
2 ish cups frozen or fresh blueberries

In small bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. In a large bowl combine butter and sugar beat for 3 minutes on high until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, add half and half, vanilla and sour cream. Add flour mixture, mix until just as you see no more flour. Fold in blueberries and using a scoop fill your muffins wells. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Now mine took longer, I think my oven is breaking. Just bake until the edges turn golden brown.

I really hope you try these, they come together quickly and they are scrumptious!

Adapted from Bubby's Brunch Cookbook

Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese...kind of

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 20:56:00 +0000

Wow! I can't believe how quickly it feels like Fall around here! For some reason, Fall always makes me want to get out my slow cooker. I know most people like to use them during Summer to keep the stove off, but I don't have to worry about the heat so for me it's Fall!! Luckily, Felicia agreed and our Cookbook of the Month is for Slow Cookers! Unfortunately, I won't be using a recipe from there this week - I wanted to make mac & cheese, but their recipe called for condensed cheese soup. I understand why - the cheese sauce tends to get grainy in slow cookers - but if I'm going to use something like that I might as well eat Kraft (which is my favorite even though I get told how awful it is everytime I tell someone I still eat it - it's my go to when I'm sick)...

Since I was thinking about making (and eating) mac & cheese for hours, I really wanted it! I decided to try making my own, since there are lots of people who think it turns out fine. I tweaked the recipe enough that it's definitely my own, and I like it enough to use it again (but it's still not Kraft...)

3 cups milk
Sprinkle of garlic powder, paprika and pepper
4 cups of shredded cheese (I used the Mexican 4 Cheese kind)
3 cups pasta, your choice, uncooked

Butter your slow cooker. Add all of the ingredients and stir together. Set it for low heat, but it will only need to cook for about 2- 2 1/2 hours. I stirred mine every 30 minutes until it was thick and creamyish, and the pasta was cooked.

So, yep tasty but grainy...hmm but I had an idea! I put some of the mac on my panini press and grilled it (I usually like to fry it in a pan, but it was easy and I was hungry) and I feel like it was totally worth making now. So I'm going to put the rest in the fridge, and fry it up for lunch tomorrow (and maybe a few days after - there's a good amount).

Have a great day!
Beth

Caramel Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 02:43:00 +0000

I'm not sure if this was really a fail. Or maybe I failed, the frosting wasn't really wasn't working. I re read the recipe and I was supposed to mix it (frosting) until creamy and have spreading constancy. I put it on the first layer and it seemed fine. It didn't spread well, so it looks horrible. I only took a picture of the cut cake and not the whole cake.

With that little tweak it would have been awesome. It taste great. One of my better cakes in fact.

You will need 2 - 9 inch cake pans greased. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients

1 8oz container sour cream.
1/4 cup milk
1 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream caramel frosting

Combine sour cream and milk in a small bowl. In a large bowl beat butter at medium speed until creamy gradually add sugar beating well. Add eggs 1 at a time beating well after each addition. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Alternating with flour mix and sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, remove from pans onto cooling racks and let cool for 1 hour.

Whipped cream caramel frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar.

Meanwhile make the caramel sauce. In a small pan melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar; bring to a boil stirring constantly. Stir in whipping cream and vanilla. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool for an hour. Transfer to a mixing bowl and gradually add powdered sugar beat on high until creamy and spreading constancy.

Spread frosting between layers, top and sides of cake.

Enjoy!

Leslie's Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 19:56:00 +0000

I don't know who Leslie is but bless her. This is my favorite, family and friends too, casserole. It is my ultimate comfort food. This recipe is great for a pot luck or freezer meals. Depending on your size of family you can get 2-4 dishes out of this. We are a family of 3 so I could put this in 4 and have it be plenty. If we're really hungry then 3 is also great.

I just have to say real quick, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging. My mind has been racing, evidently for no reason. It's the first year of kindergarten for my kiddo this year. So I have been acting like a crazy women. Plus my husband has committed to a couple of huge events and we had a friend from CA stay with us. So it's been crazy all around.

I really like that we have started our cooking from our cookbooks. Today's recipe is my most used recipe from Southern Living, Comfort Foods.

Like I said this makes quite a bit. You can scale it down if you need to. This really does freeze well. I prepped a little. This recipe is forgiving though. You can prep the beginning and then prep as you go.

You will need a big baking dish or 2 - 9 by 13's. I was also just thinking if you wanted, you can throw this in the slow cooker. The ingredients are all ready cooked it just needs to reheat. Preheat your oven, if cooking right away, 350 degrees Fahrenheit. A family size skillet or a smaller skillet and big bowl to mix the ingredients in. I forgot how much it makes so I needed a bowl to mix everything.

Ingredients
2 - 6.2oz fast cooking long grain and wild rice mix
1/4 cup butter
2 medium onions, diced
4 celery sticks, sliced
2 - 8 oz cans sliced water chestnuts, drained
5 cups chopped cooked chicken
4 cups shredded cheese, divided (16oz)
2 cans of cream of mushroom (if you have time make your own it's worth it)
1 cup milk
1 16oz sour cream
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 cups bread crumbs
2.25 oz sliced almonds

Prepare rice as instructed in a medium pan. Meanwhile in a large skilled melt butter, sauté onions and celery. Add water chestnuts, chicken, 3 cups cheese, cream of mushroom, milk, sour cream, salt and pepper. Stir and remove from heat. Pour into pan(s) when ready top with bread crumbs bake for 35 minutes or until bubbly. Top with almonds and the remainder of cheese and let bake for 5 minutes. To tell you the truth I have combined the crumbs, cheese and almonds altogether and baked the whole thing. I actually think it tast better this way. I have talked about my dislike of bread crumbs before so this mixture helps.

If your wondering why my dish looks so small I just baked off a little for Xander and me for lunch. The rest I'm keeping for a potluck this weekend. The more this dish sits the better.

Also like I said I've been slacking so there will be another post later today and 2 more on Monday.

I hope you like it as much as we did.

Wacky Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 23:17:00 +0000

One day I was browsing my Facebook and I ran across a picture of the yummiest looking chocolate cake! I serious thought about that cake for 2 days before I finally got off my butt and made it (well, actually I did very little - I had a kitchen helper lol). What made the cake more interesting was that it was called Wacky Cake, because it has no eggs, butter or milk in it - and yet it looked sooo good! Well, I would definitely say it was well worth making! The cake went together in 10 minutes and only used one pan and a fork (and the measuring stuff but those don't count ;) ) ...and it was moist and tasty!! The frosting took more time and was good but very rich - unfortunately I didn't save the recipe so if I run across it I will definitely post about it.

1 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbsp cocoa (unsweetened)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare an 8x8 pan by wiping with a small amount of oil. Combine the dry ingredients in the same pan. Make 3 holes and place the vinegar, vanilla and oil in seperate holes. Cover the whole thing with the water and mix completely. Bake until knife is clean when tested, about 25 minutes.

Easy, right?! I will definitely be making this when I have a craving for a fast easy cake! I got the recipe from here.

Have a great day!
Beth

Blueberry Sweet Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 22:29:00 +0000

My kitchen is still filled with things from the pantry, but I decided I really wanted to make blueberry muffins anyway! I used the recipe for our Cookbook of the Month: Southern Living Comfort Food. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It was really easy and I would totally make it again though. I ended up not having blueberries (oops, they sat too long), so I stole the can of blueberries out of the boxed mix I had shooting around lol. I definitely think the fresh ones would have made them better!

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup fresh/frozen blueberries
Extra sugar

Preheat your oven to 400° and add muffin cups to your muffin tin (or grease it, but that's so much more work lol). Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix the milk, oil and egg together and add to the dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries. Fill muffin tins up 2/3 and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Bake for 20-25 min until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool.

Enjoy!
Beth

The Pantry...Again?!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 21:00:00 +0000

I was hoping to get some baking done over the weekend, so I would have something yummy to share (plus I feel like I'm letting our awesome Cookbook of the Month down lol). Unfortunately for my stomach (but fortunately for my kitchen!), we worked on installing the pantry cabinets and started putting on the doors!!! BTW, by we I mean Eric did all the work and I helped lift things and handed him stuff :)

Eric did such an amazing job getting all of this put together, and I am sooo happy with the results! I was even able to start putting all of my china and knick knack's away up top. As you may notice it is higher that I can reach, but I'm not to worried since it's all things I'll only need a few times a year when I want to change what's on display around the house.

What all this meant was there was no baking - I just got the mess cleaned up (shoved back on the shelves) last night, and even more will have to come back off once he's ready to replace the veneer on the lower cabinets. So no recipes or fun stuf...just pictured of my pantry that I could stare at all day long!

Have a great day!
Beth

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 03:24:00 +0000

I was thinking of this idea and then I was talking to a friend about the flavor so I went out on a search. I found this recipe. I search for Banana Oat Cookies and they were all the 2-3 ingredient healthier recipes. I wanted a yummy cookie with lots of flavor. I change oat to oatmeal and I was successful!

They turned out soft and scrumptious! I had planned on throwing in nuts, it was smelling so good I decided not too. I didn't bake them all so I will add some tomorrow when I finish baking them!

Ingredients

3/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas or 1 cup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon cornstarch
3 cups old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil or a silplat!

In a medium bowl with a hand mixer blend butter, egg, vanilla, banana and sugars. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, corn starch and baking powder blend until combined. Hand mix the oats in. Using a cookie scoop drop by rounded spoonfuls. They do spread out but not too much. Flatten the tops slightly with the back of a spoon. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let rest a little before moving to a cooling rack to complete cooling.

I think you could enjoy these for breakfast, they are similar to oatmeal!

I adapted from this recipe.

Enjoy'

Progress Made on the Pantry!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 22:41:00 +0000

I don't have a lot to talk about today because we've been working in the bookshelf boxes for the pantry all weekend (well, mostly)!! So, here is a picture of the boxes!! I'm so excited, but we still have a lot to do to install them and finish the trim edge...back to work!!

Have a great day!

Beth

Fresh White Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 00:13:00 +0000

It rained a little this week. The Fall season crept into my mind for a little bit, I began pinning warm dips. I came back to reality when the heat came back and had an ice cream bar! I do love baking, luckily we have AC so that I can. One of the program's we are working on in Xander's therapy is independent activities. One of them is making a sandwich. Every time I buy bread it doesn't get eaten, so I figured I would make it instead. It always gets eaten!

I messed up a little, luckily it all worked out. I set out the butter but forgot to put it in towards the beginning. Then I didn't add the remainder flour, I should have realized it didn't look right. It's been awhile since I made bread from scratch.

This is my new favorite recipe and I will be making this again. This makes 2 big loaves.

You will need a big bowl, oil, 2 loaf pans, stand mixer with the dough hook, paddle attachment, foil and a clean towel.

Ingredients

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 2/3 additional warm water
9-10 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup melted butter to brush on the tops

In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the yeast and 3/4 cup warm water with the paddle attachment. Let activate for 5 minutes. This is where I prep the other ingredients. Add sugar, salt, butter and additional water mix until combined on slow. Adding 1 cup at a time, add 5 cups of flour to the mixture until smooth. Still on slow add remaining flour. Remove paddle and attach dough hook, knead for 10 minutes. Lightly grease a large bowl. Put dough in the bowl and turn it once to cover the dough in oil. Cover with clean towel and let rise for 1 hour. Grease your loaf pans.

Punch down the dough. Divide by 2 and roll each out about 12 by 12 squares. Then start rolling one of the edges like a burrito. Tuck the ends and place in a loaf pan. When both are in their pans cover again with the towel and let rise agin for an hour.

Just before they are done rising, preheat your oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Move your rack to the second from the bottom position. Bake for 15 minutes and then cover with foil to prevent the tops from burning and bake for 15 more minutes. Brush the tops with 1/4 cup melted butter and let sit for a little bit before you slice. I usually can't wait, I like warm bread with butter!

I got this wonderful recipe here.

Enjoy!

Yummy Peanut Butter Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 23:15:00 +0000

Felicia and I had so much fun doing recipes from our Cookbook of the Month last month!! We hope that you were inspired to pick up a favorite cookbook and make a new recipe too! This month we chose Southern Living Comfort Foods!! My mouth starts watering just looking at the cover :)

For my first recipe I chose OldFashioned Peanut Butter Cookies! I always forget how much I really love them, until I can't stop eating them!! These are amazing and you get a lot of dough out of the recipe. I ended up being too impatient and I made drop cookies before seperating and putting the rest in the fridge. I plan to only make a few at a times so I don't eat to many at once! I also want to try making Nutter Butters with them...mmm I can't wait to try those and I'll definitely share.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla

Cream the butter and peanut butter together then add both sugars and continue until combined. Mix in the eggs. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in small increments, mixing thoroughly between. Add the vanilla and mix until everything is well mixed.

For immediate cookies, preheat the oven to 375° and drop scoop fulls onto parchment paper. Roll the balls in sugar and use a fork to press the centers down - making the traditional criss cross pattern. Bake for 7-9 minutes. The cookies are done when the edges are just turning golden - this will give you crunchy outsides with soft insides!

For cookies later, refrigerate the dough by wrapping it in plastic. When you're ready to make them, simply follow the steps above. You will just need to roll the dough into balls instead of using a cookie scoop.

Ta-Da delicious peanut butter cookies in less than 20 minutes!

Have a great day!
Beth

A Personalized Scrapbook and Eiffel Towers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 23:50:00 +0000

This was a really easy project and it was fun to make something that was personalized for Felicia for her birthday. After looking for something ready made and finding nothing - I decided to do it myself! I took a plain white scrapbook and used Mod Podge to adhere the scrapbook paper to the cover. I laid it out first to decide how I wanted to look (don't just go slapping on whatever lol), then I spread a layer of the mod podge onto the bare cover and covered it with the base paper. Then I painted on another layer over that and added the detail (the eiffel tower - which I cut out). I then put 3 layers of Mod Podge on top of all of it, waiting 30 minutes between each one. Once it dried I was all done!! See didn't I say it was easy!!

I also used the same eiffel tower stencil (I drew it on plain drawing paper to use for a few things) to make silhouette 3D eiffel towers for table decorations. I just cut out two of the same size outines, cut one in half and glued them to either side of the second one. I used foam paper so they would be sturdier, but I think any heavy duty paper would work. These were really easy too - but they were pretty time consuming. I think it took about an hour and a half to make 5 I think. (It was really, really hard to get a good picture of these - but there were pretty cool!)

Has anyone guessed the theme and color scheme used for Felicia's party yet? I think we were too subtle! Lol

Have a great day!
Beth

Caramelized Onion Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Felicia) — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 04:21:00 +0000

I could eat this dip with a spoon! I have to admit, I licked the bowl. Very simple ingredients too. I will be making this again.

You will need a large skillet, a medium skillet and a bowl that holds about 4 cups.

Ingredients

3 lbs yellow onions about 3 large and 1 small, thinly sliced
1/4 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons white vinegar
1/3 lb bacon
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream

In a large skillet heat oil at medium heat until it shimmers. Add onions and reduced heat to medium low to low depending on your stove, stir occasionally. The onions will get deep in color, it takes about 45 minutes. Take off heat, add vinegar, stir and let cool.

In a medium skillet cook bacon on medium heat. I sliced my bacon before hand so that I didn't have to crumble them. Either way works just fine. Drain the bacon on paper towels.

In a bowl mix sour cream, mayonnaise, bacon and onions. Serve with a spoon, just kidding! Crackers, flat bread, pita or the classic potato chip would be great. So would vegetables!

I have to tell ya, I won't find that packaged onion dip edible anymore. Luckily this is pretty quick to put together.

This concludes our cookbook segment. We are so glad we choose Lucinda Scala Quinn Mad Hungry Cravings.

We look forward to sharing our other cookbooks with you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Heart Pie Pops

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 22:21:00 +0000

I just have to say that these are AMAZING!! They are really easy to make and are completely worth the extra time. Everyone will be impressed with them! You can use any preserves or jam that you like - or make your own! I cheated and bought store made pie crusts, but since I had a ton of other things to make I didn't have a lot of time.

Heart Pie Pops

Pie crust
Filling
Sugar
Butter
Sticks

Preheat oven to the temperature suggested by your pie crust directions. Roll the pie dough into 1/8" thick and use a cookie cutter to make the hearts. Place a dab of filling into the center of half of the hearts and spread it to 1/4" from the edge. Press a stick onto the length of the center - just to the edge of the filling. Cover with a second pie crust and firmly press the edges. Use a fork and indent the edges for a decorative edge. Brush on melted butter and sprinkle with sugar, then poke with a fork on either side of the stick. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

See it's easy - it just takes a little time! I made them with cherry preserves and no one could stop eating them - they were just so yummy!!

Have a great day