These are a few of my new favorite things.....

I had to share a few of my new favorite things in my house. They make me smile, so I thought they deserved and honorable mention!

One set of grandparent bought this new cute chair for Jonah for Christmas.  He feels so "big" when he watches his shows in it. Funny thing is.... I catch all of my other kids trying to sit in it....even my 14 year old!

 

The other set of grandparents go this cute table and chairs for Jonah. I love that we have this, especially now that we are expecting another baby that can share it with him. It has a cute little drawer for pencils and paper and he loves to sit and eat snacks at it!

 We have been wanting a new rug for the family room for a while. So, I went to one of my favorite places, Homegoods, and found this wool rug at a fraction of the retail price. With Spring on it's way, I wanted to play up the green in the walls a little more. I am ready for something a little more cheery. I found a few pretty green pillows for the couch also......

.....but this pillow got a place of honor because it was my favorite!!!!!

Soup

In the spirit of the rain we have been getting, I felt it necessary to make a couple of pots of soup. I figured that it is just as easy to make 2 different pots as it was to make one. Now I have some for lunches throughout the week, etc. or simply some to freeze. One pot I made was just a simple chicken and vegetable soup. Later it can be eaten the way it was made or pasta or rice could be added to it.The 2nd pot was a recipe I got from Trader Joes several years ago...you can tweak it as you like it.

I started with a pot of water and chicken. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for a couple of hours to make my own broth. In that pot, I added chicken bullion, chopped onion, and garlic salt. Once the chicken was ready to be shredded, I skimmed the broth and shredded the chicken and put it back into the pot. Then, I added 2 jars of Trader Joes' Salsa Verde (green salsa), a bag of Trader Joes' frozen roasted corn, 2 cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans), and a can of green beans (this was my own addition). As I got close to serving, I tore up tortillas into small pieces and threw those in the pot (I think the original recipe might have been chips...I can't remember). Simple but yummy. You can top with shredded cheeses, chips, sour cream or whatever you like.

Try not to judge the soup based on the picture. There have been so many things I haven't posted because the picture made it look unappetizing. I guess that is why they use fake things when they photograph food....because the really thing doesn't look as good....weird

Divine Dessert

When I was little, I use to fly to New Hampshire during the summer to spend time with family. My sweet grandma was always baking and always thinking of others. Any time we went to visit someone or someone came to visit us, she would whip up a quick treat. Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Bars are one of those treat that I remember her making on those occassions. Everyone always loved them. I made some for friends today and thought I would share the recipe! My kids came home drooling when they saw them (I made an extra pan for home.....I had to......that would just be plain cruel) :)

Here is the recipe the way I made it...super duper easy and quick. If you want to be frugal (like I have done many times), you can make the batch of cookie dough from scratch.

For a 9 x 13 pan:

* 2 rolls of Pillsbury chocholate chip cookie dough
* 12 oz bar of cream cheese
* 1/2 c sugar
* 1 egg

Directions:

Cream together the cream cheese, sugar and egg. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Slice one roll of hthe dough and place discs on the bottom of the pan. Slightly press together...there can be small spaces because they will expand when they cook. Spread the cream chees mixture over cookie dough. Add the other roll of dough, sliced on top of cream cheese.
Bake 30-45 min. Done when gold brown.

*If you use homemade dough, just divide the dough in half for top and bottom!

Enjoy! ♥

Acorn Squash with Chicken Sausage and Brown Rice

With the stomach flu out of our house, I am back to cooking. This Fall weather makes me want to be in the kitchen. Tonight we had another new recipe. First of all, I was excited about cooking brown rice in the oven. So much easier than on the stove. Rice, broth and spices, in the oven for 50 minutes and voila!

Then, I baked the acorn squash...yum!

Then, chicken sausage was browned in a skillet. I had chicken sausage with apples and Gouda in it. The chicken was removed and put in a bowl. Then, onions and red peppers were sauteed until they were tender.

The veggies and rice were added to the sausage in the bowl. Chunks of the squash were scooped out and added to the mix. The squash needs to keep 1/4-inch thick walls so they stay sturdy.

Then, the mixture was added to the squash "bowls" and put in the oven to "warm" for 20 minutes. I forgot to take a picture of the individual "bowls" that each person got.

Served with salad and whole grain bread...this was a yummy fall dinner!

Here is the link to the recipe that I used and modified:

Acorn Squash with Brown Rice and Turkey Sausage

I LOVE Fall!

I love Fall so much. My favorite time of year is Christmas, but the sad thing about it is that once it comes, it's over. Does that sound weird? So, I actually love Fall because it is a stretch of time leading up to Christmas! I love the weather. I love the baking. I love the extra time we spend at home as a family, indoors, enjoying each other's company. I usually don't decorate for every holiday. I don't know why. I am just not a big fan of it. But I do enjoy little things hear and there that are a reminder of the season. (I do, however, enjoy decorating for Christmas).

Side note: one of my favorite stores is Homegoods. I find little treasures for little cost, and I often stumble on cute gift ideas. I was in there a couple of weeks ago looking for something and I stumbled on this cute little owl statue. He caught my eye and made me smile. So....I got him. And I got this cute pillar to hide my jar candles (that burn Fall scents, of course). I thought it was such a cute way to dress up those ugly jar candles (which I happen to love, becasue they last so long). So, they both joined my chalkboard on my bar with some fresh flowers from Trader Joes (another one of my favorite things)!

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Muffins

Tried another recipe.....and it was another hit. I am sure these recipes are not for everyone. And.....when yo compare them to the REALLY YUMMY food that is out there, I am sure they pale in comparison. However....my goal is to make healthy snack for my kids...ones with liw sugar and whole wheat flour and grains. So, I continue to search for new ones and experiment with them so i can build up a file of ones that my kids like. I found this one on Tasty Kitchen's website again. I discovered this website through my love for The Pioneer Woman and her blog. She is connected to Tasty Kitchen and tons of people share recipes there. Anyway, it is one of my favortie wensites to search for recipes....and they have ALL kinds....it's not meant to be "one of those healthy websites".

This recipe was featured to serve with dinner. After making it, I know why. It really isn't very sweet but it has good flavor. I added a bit of extra brown sugar than it called for...but not much. the kids enjoyed it for breakfast with homemade jam on it!

You can find the recipe here!

Leeks

Busy all day running errands...then picked kids up from school and needed to make a quick dinner. Found this recipe, Chicken and Leeks, and wanted to try it. I love leeks. I only started cooking with them recently but love them. My family also loves couscous, which the recipe called for. I added some veggies to the couscous and served a dinner salad. Chicken had great flavor and everyone loved it. Simple - but quick and tasty!

PRODUCTIVE, quiet weekend (..and lots of bananas)!! :)

Are you ready for this????...It's long but I will try to be as brief as I can. My husband went away to a men's retreat with our church and my kids went to grandma's. So baby and I had the house to ourselves! It was a dream. There are so many things I wanted to bake and get done and I was able to do it because I had a quiet house. We even got clouds, rain, and thunderstorms throughout the weekend. So....I lit some candles and enjoyed the quiet.

For most of the weekend, my kitchen looked like this:

One thing I accomplished this weekend was that I made my casseroles and got them in the freezer for our casserole exchange on Wednesday!!!

Then, I made the applesauce bars again (that I mentioned in an earlier post). This time I made 2 batches and froze one of them (since the recipe said they froze so well). Then, I made another batch of my kids' favorite: Monkey Bars (recipe posted earlier also)...1st recipe with bananas!! Last week I froze tons of ripe bananas, so when I thawed them....I needed to use them....all!

Then...I made 2 loaves of chocolate chip banana bread, with whole wheat flour and oats. I used raw sugar, in place of the sugar in the recipe. I kept one out and froze one. (Banana recipe #2)

Then, I made banana cookies (banana recipe #3!!!). I modified it by using whole wheat flour for half of the flour and raw sugar, in place of the sugar.

Next....I made 2 loaves of pumpkin bread. This was the one recipe I baked that wasn't with whole wheat flour or raw sugar. It is my mom's recipe and I grew up making this every fall. In my opinion, it is the best pumpkin bread ever (probably because of sentimental value...but it still melts in my mouth). Anyway, I wanted to bring treats to a sick friend's kids and I froze one for a staff meeting at my house in a week.

Finally, for the last of the baking....I made these breakfast muffins. I had to photograph the batter because it is made with flax seed meal, oat bran, carrots, apples, raisins, etc! Lots of goodness!!!

With all of that baking done.....I decided to start tackling the cleaning out of my closet (this has been a long time coming). I just started to rip clothes off hangers and throw them in a pile, with the hangers in another pile. After I bagged up the clothes, I was left with this mess. And....believe it or not, I have more clothes to go through. I'll save that for another day.

Hubby and kids came home and I had a "breakfast for dinner" planned. I got the recipe for this "Chili Egg Pouffe" from a girl in my bible study when we first got married. It showed up at many baby showers at that time! I haven't made it in years but it was always a favorite! So...I made it.

Then, I made multi-grain blueberry pancakes from scratch. Although....all I had were mixed berries. Everyone loved them! With cantaloupe on the side, it made for a yummy, Sunday night supper!!!!

Super duper busy, quiet, productive weekend!!! Thankful to get so much accomplished!

First co-op

Yesterday, we had out 1st co-op group of the year. This is our 4th year, I think. We have 11 children and we split them into an "older" and "younger group". We study science and social studies and we try to incorporate holidays, seasons and occasional field trips. It was nice to all be back together. The kids really love it and seem to learn a lot in science and history. In Story of the World we learned about King James of England.

With that chapter, they had a porridge that was found in a 1615 cookbook called The English Huswife. They converted it, slightly, to modern day ingredients. So, we made that. It was actually really tasty bit looked a little strange because oatmeal was thrown in to thicken the broth.

The next recipe we made to go with our lesson was called Parkin (a traditional cake from the north of England.)

Anyway...the kids enjoyed the little meal and it helps to bring to life the period and location they are studying. It was a fun day and the kids were happy to be back together at our house!

Orzo!

So, I tried a new successful dinner recipe. This one I got from Tasty Kitchen (one of my favorite food websites by the way). It's called Orzo with Grilled Veggies and Smoked Sausage. I used Turkey Kielbasa from Trader Joes.

I started with chopped zucchini, yellow squash and red onion. Then, I drizzled with olive oil and mix in garlic.


Once it was all mixed, I put it on the grill, along with the sausage. The sausage had to come off a little sooner, so it wouldn't burn. The veggies stayed on until they had dark areas and started to almost caramelize a little. I was cutting up the sausage and making the dressing while they continued to cook. (the tomatoes got added to the grill during the last 5 minutes).



I've never used orzo before, but ave always wanted to. It is a pasta that is shaped more like a wide, flat rice. I found whole wheat orzo at Sprouts....happy mommy!

Anyway.....when everything was done cooking, it all got mixed together, and feta was added in.
Yummy!!!

And...while washing the dishes, the kids were outside playing and my son asked to take a picture of the "cool" sky!

Kitchen Floor!!!!!!!

So....I am going to try to briefly update you on our latest project that has been a LONG time coming. We had linoleum (YUCKY) in our kitchen when we moved in and carpet everywhere else. Several years ago, we put in wood floors. My husband was terrified of wood in the kitchen because we have had some water issues over the years. The plan was to put Travertine in right after the wood. Well, several years later, we were still sighing and complaining over our thrashed, ugly linoleum that was peeling and chipping and an eye sore!

My husband got a bee in his bonnet last Friday and started ripping up the linoleum. Now, we were committed. It was a long, arduous process. And...might I add....my husband has never laid a tile in his life. So, we went to the pool (after the boys helped him scrape some of the floor for a while) and he worked like a dog...poor guy. (And, it just happened to be well over 100 degrees).

On Saturday, the tile laying began. Let's just say.....being kept out of the kitchen for 5 days with 5 kids (including a baby) was NOT an easy task.....especially with a very very busy baby that wants to be a part of EVERYTHING.

So very proud of himself for helping! (and cute, too)

My cute husband - Working very very hard to get us back into the kitchen as quickly as he could.

Tuesday, while the kids were at class, my hubby finally got a little help! (real help). A couple friends came over and helped him grout the tile!...yeah....we are getting there!

How, may I ask, can we also keep the dog out....when her doggie door is in the kitchen?!

This was my view today...from my desk...in the kitchen!!!! Yeah! Table is out of the formal living room. Refrigerator is out of the family room. Pantry items are no longer scattered around the house. We are back!!!! The floor has been sealed. (I am told it needs one more coat of sealer but I am pretending it doesn't)!

No more linoleum......The end!

Back in the kitchen....kind of

Well, I have a lot to update...like pictures of our kitchen tile project. But for now, I am just so happy to be back in the kitchen. I haven't been able to cook or bake for days and it has made me quite sad. Today, my husband and a couple of friends got the tile grouted. So.....I decided to make a yummy dinner for a hot night. The tile needs to still be sealed so I can only spend limited time in there an my refrigerator and kitchen table, etc. are still in other rooms. But, I'll take what I can get right now.

For dinner, I made a cross between Pioneer Woman's Asian Noodle Salad and my friend's Asian Chicken Salad with Noodles!

Basically, you start with a mixture of lettuce and cabbage, green onions and red peppers.

Then you add linguine (I used whole wheat fettuccine)
Then you add grilled chicken: homemade Asian dressing:

And toasted almonds:

Mix it all together and .....Voila!

I asked my kid what they thought of it. My 13 year old son said, "I wish my mouth was bigger so I could get more in at a time!" I'll take that as him liking it! :)