Someday...

...I would like to live here.

Has It Really Been 17 Years?

As I sit down to write a recap of my fun filled weekend, it never ceases to amaze at how. fast. time goes by.

My dear friend Sarah came up to visit this weekend, making the 5 + hour drive just to see little old me.  It was so nice to have more than our typical 3 hour chunk of coffee time to be able to sit and visit and shoot the breeze.  Plus, she and her husband have a little girl a tad older than Peanut--who had an absolute GRAND time spending time with her new friend.  Peanut slept in until 9:30 yesterday morning (she normally gets up around 8 am) and then proceeded to take a three hour nap yesterday afternoon.

She was plum worn out. 

Anyhow, back to my original point.  How fast time goes by.  Sarah and I have been friends for nearly 17 years.  We met in French class our freshman year of high school.

Yes, I realize I am dating myself.

I was brand new to the high school and knew no one.  Actually, that's not quite true--my neighbor down the street was a year older and he picked on me mercilessly like an extremely annoying older brother.  But other than him, I knew no one.  And Sarah befriended me.  She was Sophie and I was Elizabeth (our French class names).  We graduated high school together and went to the same community college and college together.  We also took a fabulous trip to Hawaii together when we were the ripe old age of 21.  Fun times.  I was her maid of honor and she was one of my bridesmaids (my sister was my maid of honor) when each of us got married.

But, oh, how time changes things.  Instead of talking fashion, dating, and that creepy economics professor, now our conversations are centered around potty training, stretching a dollar, and how we can't believe that acid washed jeans are making a come back once again.  I mean, really--wasn't once enough? 

It was such a fun weekend.  And it was relaxing--I mean, it was for me--I hope it was for Sarah too.  :)   We talked and talked and watched our little girls be rambunctious together.  It was great.

It just so hard to believe that we have been friends longer than we haven't.

We are old.

Good thing life gets better with age.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know.  Isn't this a standard Baking 101 recipe?  Chocolate chip cookies are hardly rocket science.

However in my recent interest in the whole foods movement (you can read about it here and here--this is some stuff I've come across and have found very helpful--oh, and those sites probably only scratch the surface) I am trying to stay away from "man made" fats like vegetable oils and shortenings and going back to fats like good ol' butter.  And who doesn't love butter?   

This butter love presents a problem though.  I don't know about you, but whenever I make cookies with all butter--while they taste fabulous, they usually are a big pooled mess when they come out of the oven.  They simply don't retain their shape. But then I got smart.  

After I scooped out my cookies on the cookie sheet, I stuck each sheet in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.  (The freezer would work too and with half the time, but I just don't have the room!)  The cookies get nice and hard and then I pop them in the oven and bake as directed--and possibly a minute or two longer. And will you look at these beauties?   Nice, round cookies that retain their shape.  No pooling. 

In addition, I've been using more and more whole wheat flour in recipes to make my baked goods a little more nutritious...so when I make things like chocolate chip cookies, I only have to feel half as bad.

At least that is what I tell myself. 

This recipe is derived from the one my mom gave me in my recipe box.  I have modified it, but they are still darn good!  

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2/3 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar (the original calls for 1/2 cup...I am trying to reduce the sugar too...)

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup white flour

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1-2 cups chocolate chips

Cream sugars and butter.  Add in vanilla and eggs, mix until smooth.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips.   Drop by spoonfuls or cookie scoop on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes--or about 12 if you don't refrigerate.  :)

Now, when I ran this by DH (using whole wheat flour in the cookies), his response was "What's the point of chocolate chip cookies?"  That isn't what I wanted to hear...so then I did what any good wife would do...I ignored him and made them anyway.  And guess what?  He ate like three in a row.  Score one for me! 

This recipe is linked to:

Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Blessed With Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap   
Life As Mom Ultimate Recipe Swap

We Are THAT Family  Works For Me Wednesday

Menu Plan Monday

Just one meal roll over to this week...something always seems to come up! However, it's still nice to have the meal plan in place anyway to avoid that "dinner time dilemma."  We are having some visitors both this weekend and next, so we are very excited!

Sunday-Guacamole turkey burgers, oven fries

Monday-Sweet & sour pork and rice, steamed veggies

Tuesday-Coconut chicken cutlets, rice, green salad

Wednesday-Cobb salad & focaccia bread

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday-Baked Potato Bar

Saturday-Baked salmon, rice pilaf, steamed veggies

For other great menu ideas, click here. 

Her Newest Obsession

It's pretty stinkin' cute.  As soon as she and Daddy are both up in the morning or as soon he comes downstairs or gets home from work....she wants to play "blots" {blocks}.  Now.

Daddy builds some pretty magnificent castles.  Fit for a his princess. 

Works For Me Wednesday-Lasagna Tip

I was watching a cooking show a while back and they mentioned an easy way to make lasagna was by using the "no-cook" noodles.  That way you don't have to bother boiling the noodles and then potentially tearing the noodles when you are layering the lasagna.  That truly is a great tip--a real time saver. 

 

 (source)

But you know what?  You don't have to do that. 

You can use plain ol' lasagna noodles.  And you don't have to boil them either.  Now, you do have to plan ahead and let it sit.  All you simply have to do is layer your dish with your uncooked noodles, tomato/meat mixture, and cheese mixture as you normally would then put the pan in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it.  Allowing it to sit overnight is best, but  I made lasagna just last week around lunchtime and we ate dinner between 5 and 6 pm.   I cooked the lasagna for about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven and it was cooked perfectly.   No undercooked noodles.

I have to admit when I do this, I always worry there won't be enough moisture, so after I layer the lasagna, I usually add about another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water, just to be on the safe side.  And it turns out wonderful every time.

In addition, purchasing your standard lasagna noodles is about a 60% savings over the "no cook" variety!  (At least where I normally shop.)  How awesome is that? 

For other helpful tips, visit Works For Me Wednesdays at We Are THAT Family. 

 

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

I have very fond memories of weekend breakfasts as a kid.  My Mom used to do lots of canning when my sister and I were younger and one year she canned apples.  Lots and lots of apples.  The apples were cored, peeled, and sliced and then canned in their juices with sugar and lots of cinnamon.  They were so yummy.  

One Saturday morning, my Dad was cooking breakfast (his specialty) and he decided to put some of these apples in the pancakes he making.

Life has never been the same since.  

So I had some apples that I needed to use up.  And I needed to make breakfast this morning.  Of course, you can see where this is headed...while these pancakes don't include the delicious canned apples of my youth, these pancakes were still very good.

In addition, I have been trying to make things a little healthier around here, so I made these with some whole wheat flour.  And yes, these pancakes were still good despite that!  Of course, you can always use the whole amount of flour with all purpose flour if you so desire. 

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Apples: 

Peel 1 large apple and seed and core it.  I diced mine up pretty finely, however as I was doing so, I was thinking it may be just as easy to grate the apple--whichever you prefer.  Mix the apple with several teaspoons sugar and about 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  Set aside.

Pancakes:

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1 cup milk

1 large egg

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Mix melted butter, milk, and egg.  Add sugar, flours, baking powder, salt.  Mix until just smooth.  

Heat griddle to about 375 degrees.  For each pancake, pour about 1/3 cup of batter and sprinkle about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the diced apples over the batter.  Cook pancake until bubbly on top and edges are starting to dry.  Turn and cook other side until golden brown.  Serve with syrup and additional butter, if desired.  Who doesn't want more butter, though? 

This recipe is linked to:

Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Blessed With Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap  

Menu Plan Monday

This planning my menu a month at a time is so nice...although it was a pain to do all at once, I don't dread each Saturday, thinking I need to plan my menu.  I just might have to do this more often.  So without further ado...

Sunday-BLTA's (avacodo's--didn't get to these last week)

Monday-Baked Potato Bar

Tuesday-Pork fried rice and sub gum

Wednesday-White Bean and Tuna Salad

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday-Taco Salads

Saturday-Hot dogs, pasta salad, sliced fruit

For other great menu's click here.

Appreciate It All

So I just watched this video tonight....um, can you say tear jerker?

I've been reflecting a lot on my role as a mother.  Probably because of Mother's Day?!?!?  I can hardly believe it's almost been two years.   

Crazy.

After the gift from my mom and seeing that video, it's almost as if God is trying to reassure me in my role as a stay at home mom and remind me of how thankful I should be in the ordinary...it's all those little moments that make it worthwhile.

Like the fact that she is ready for the NBA...

 

If you believe that, I've got some great ocean front property in Arizona available....

 






Or that she now loves her sunglasses as much as Mommy does hers...

and how I could learn a thing or two about dancing from her~

and how running at the park and blowing bubbles and having pigtails are some of the simpilest joys in life...

and how we won't always have lazy Saturday mornings with late breakfasts.  And that we got to go out and play in our pajamas and bed hair with our "bite" {bike}...

and those other moments are SO not worth the fuss I think they are at the time.

Like when the Peanut appeared to be ready to have quartered pieces of sandwiches, rather than the diced up little bites I had been giving her....

...only the next day to find her licking the peanut butter and jelly off the said quartered pieces of bread and not eating the bread at all.  Grrrr.....

Then there was the day that she finally seemed to be ready to leave a barrette in her hair (boy, I was kidding myself on that one), as she left it in for several hours!

I kid you not, as soon as I got the picture of the barrette in her hair, I turn around and she is pulling the barrette out of her hair.  I guess she figured the photo opportunity was done, so no need for it any more.  

But I keep reminding myself, like the author of the The Gift of the Oridinary Day, just to appreciate each day.  Pretty soon she is going to be deciding which colleges to apply to and which electives she is going to take.  The house will be too quiet once again just as it was only two eighteen years ago.  And the silly barrettes and sandwiches will only be a memory and how I just wish I could get those days back.    

Just enjoy it all, Jackie....it's really not that big of a deal. 

With A Heavy Heart

I am so, so, so sad.  My most favoritest television show EVER has been canceled.  For those of you that are self-proclaimed Law & Order junkies like me, the FINAL episode will be airing May 24.

I do like SVU and apparently another spin off of the original is in the works, but it's just. not. the same.

I think I need a tissue.