A weekend with family

We had a wonderful weekend with family. We played with the kids, started sea monkeys, visited some local scenic spots, built puzzles, rocked out playing Rockband on the Wii and watched some football in addition to simply visiting. I didn't get very many pictures as my camera has been acting funny. I am hoping that Ed will email the group pictures he took using his timer. (pretty please?) :) I did capture a couple of shots, though. I hope they are able to visit us again soon!! Thanks for flying out here! :)

Here is Grandma L with Abby:

Here is Auntie Kimberly with Joshua:

When Joshua takes photos...

Here's the kind of photo I end up with on my camera when Joshua takes control. (Well, this and very unflattering photos of my backside LOL) He's been really into his Transformers lately!

Menu Plan Monday

We're counting Weight Watcher points now so look for my links and recipes to include those points. :)

Gotta shed that baby weight. ;) Until I have time to calculate points for many of our favorite recipes, I will plan on using recipes that have already been figured out. I have several recipes that I have the points already figured out and will incorporate those as well.

Monday- Crock Pot 3 Bean Turkey Chili (I made a few changes and will share later if it turns out well. :) )
Tuesday- Split Pea Soup, homemade whole wheat bread
Wednesday- Beef Picadillo, a veggie and rice
Thursday- Potato Soup
Friday- Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken , rice
Saturday- Rice and Bean Stuffed Peppers
Sunday- Pasta Fagioli

Visit www.orgjunkie.com for more great menu ideas!!

Whole Wheat Bread

We have made this many times. I got this recipe from Jeremy's aunt Linda-thanks!!

Wheat Bread
1 TBS yeast
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 TBS honey
2 TBS oil (I use olive oil)
1/2 tsp salt

Directions: Disolve yeast in water. Let sit until foamy (about 5-10 minutes). Mix all of the ingredients together and knead about 25 times. (I use my mixer and dough hook to make all of my breads now, but I didn't used to and this is not a hard bread to make by hand.) Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. Punch down, shape and put on a pan to bake. Cover and let rise another 20 minutes or until doubled in size. Make a few slashes in the top of the loaf about 1/2 inch deep. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until golden and the bottom sounds hollow when you tap on it. Let sit for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
WW- 10 slices @ about 3 points each.

Rice and Bean Stuffed Peppers

I will have to add a photo after we make these. I haven't made them since the last time we were counting WW points (after Abigail was born) but I remember them being good. :)

Rice and Bean Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
6 medium-sized bell pepper
1 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)
1/4 cup dry white wine (I will probably leave this out since I don't have any wine right now. Might use chicken broth instead.)
2 TBSP cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup raisins
3 cups cooked brown rice
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 TBS grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cut off stems of peppers and remove the seeds. If necessary, trim bases so they will stand upright. In a large pot, boil peppers for about 2 minutes and then remove them with tongs, rinse under cold water to cool and set aside to drain.

Heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook just until soft (about 2 minutes). Add 1 cup of the tomato sauce, wine, vinegar, cinnamon, oregano, and raisins. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in rice, beans and almonds.

Fill peppers equally with rice mixture. Set upright in a shallow 1 1/2-quart baking pan. pour the remaining tomato sauce into pan around the peppers. Cover and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with cheese. Continue to bake uncovered about 15 minutes or until cheese melts and browns a little.

WW: Makes six serving at 5 points a serving.

Potato Soup

A super fast and easy yet diet friendly meal. This recipe is from my friend Jayne.

Potato Soup
1- 30 oz bag of frozen hashbrowns
2 cans chicken broth
1 pkg country gravy mix-dry mix envelope

Directions:
Brown hashbrowns a little in a big pot with non-stick spray. Add broth and prepared gravy. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
WW- about 3 points per cup
*This is great with shredded cheese and bacon but those would be extra points. :)

Pumpkin Crumb Cake

I love pumpkin! If you have a favorite pumpkin recipe, I would love for you to share. :)

Pumpkin crumb cake

This was really tasty!

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray or grease one 9x13 inch pan.
Reserve 1 cup cake mix. In a large bowl, combine the remaining dry cake mix with 1 egg and 1/2 cup melted butter. Mix well, and then pat into prepared pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Pour over crust.
In a small bowl, combine reserved 1 cup cake mix, 1/2 cup sugar, and 3 tablespoons softened butter. Crumble over pumpkin filling. Sprinkle nuts evenly over the top, if desired.
Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes.

(Note-I made this in an 8 1/2 x 11 pan and cooked it longer since it was thicker.)

Source- http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Crumb-Cake/Detail.aspx

Menu Plan Monday

Another easy week. We are pretty busy so I probably won't try anything new. (Well, maybe a new pumpkin recipe if I stumble across one...I have some fresh pumpkin puree I need to use. If you have a favorite pumpkin recipe, please leave me a link in the comments!)

Monday- Crock pot beef roast (we had leftovers last night instead of this so we'll have it tonight.), mashed potatoes, peas
Tuesday- Crock pot Mexican Chicken soup, salad
Wednesday- Chili and rice with some steamed brocolli
Thursday- out (if we end up going to Costco, we'll eat there)
Friday & Saturday- not sure yet...we will have family visiting :)
Sunday- Tuna Casserole with green beans

For a ton of menu ideas, visit www.orgjunkie.com

Halloween

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! I had a hard time getting our little ones to hold still for a good photo together...so here they are individually.

Joshua was Obi Wan Kenobi, Abby was Tinkerbell and Ellie was a little pumpkin. I was pretty resourceful and made Joshua's costume out of things I already had at home. (Jeremy has a couple of those lightsabers...they are really cool in person.) I also made Abby's costume but I had to buy about $10 in material/supplies. Ellie's was a hand-me-down from Abby. :)

We took the older two out trick-or-treating while Grandma and Grandpa D. stayed home with Ellie and handed out candy. (Thank you!) They had a blast!

New layout- My life...

This layout is for a challenge in the journaling class at Note~able. I specifically picked this photo of me to show that I rarely have time to do my hair or make up and am usually carrying Ellie around. But I completely forgot to write that in my journaling...oops!! Anyhow, this was a fun page to do and will be interesting to look back on in years to come. Most of the products here came from the Note~able store.

Hope you are having a great day!!

Menu Plan Monday

A fairly easy menu this week as usual. I do have a couple of non crock pot meals planned so hopefully I will find time to make them. I might do the prep work during naptime so it will be easier once dinner comes around. :)

Monday- Pasta (just regular old pasta and a jar of sauce), stuffed pizza bread sticks (I will use my pizza dough recipe ).
Tuesday-Porcupine meatballs, green beans
Wednesday-Crock pot Taco style lentils and rice made into smothered burritos (covered in enchilada sauce.) These lentils are so easy, tasty and healthy! Definitely a no meat favorite for us. I need to remember to take a picture this time since we eat this about every other week!
Thursday- Crock pot BBQ ribs (just some ribs with BBQ sauce on top), corn, potatoes and Easy Cheesy rolls (you must try these! Sooooo yummy!!).
Friday & Saturday- My parents will be here and we haven't decided what to make yet. :)
Sunday- Crock pot easy roast 2, mashed potatoes and peas

For more great menu ideas, check out www.orgjunkie.com

Crock pot roasts

I have three CP roast recipes that are super easy and yummy. I will share all of them with you (I don't have any photos, though. Sorry!) I usually buy a couple of roasts when they go on sale, cut them in half and freeze them. Then I toss in a small roast early in the day while it is still frozen and add the other ingredients. If it's a larger roast, I might start it on high for an hour or two. This just makes things easier for me to get dinner made and it works for us. :)

Crock Pot - Easy roast 1
Any beef roast or stew meat
1 envelope onion soup mix
Can of diced tomatoes
Directions:
Cook all day on low and serve over rice.
(This is really good leftover in enchiladas.)

Crock Pot-Easy roast 2
Beef roast
Package onion soup mix
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
Directions:
Cook all day on low and serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

Crock Pot- Easy Roast 3
Beef roast
½ cup flour
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 envelope brown gravy mix
1 can ginger ale
Directions: Coat roast with flour. Combine the other ingredients with the remaining flour and pour over the roast. Cook in crockpot all day on low. Serve with potatoes or rice.

Easy Cheesy Rolls

You must try these!!! Sooo good! I can see so many variations of this recipe. I am going to make a pizza version tonight using my pizza dough recipe. I also plan on creating a new post about making pizza dough...it is fast and easy.

Easy Cheesy Rolls
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 pkg. Pillsbury Grands Biscuits

Directions:
In a bowl, combine melted butter, parmesan cheese, dried basil, and garlic powder. Mix shredded cheeses in a separate bowl. Remove biscuits from can and separate into individual biscuits. Flatten each biscuit slightly and put some cheese in the center of each biscuit and fold the dough around the cheese to form a ball. Pinch the dough together to seal the cheese inside. Roll each ball of dough in the melted butter mixture and place on a baking sheet. Spoon any leftover butter on top of the rolls on the baking sheet, Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes until rolls are golden brown. (Took about 15 minutes in my oven.) Makes 8 rolls.

I got this recipe from Real Mom Kitchen who got it from the World Wide Ward cookbook from Darleen Capson in South Windsor, Connecticut. :)

New sketch challenge and layout

I posted a new sketch challenge and layout over on the Note~able message board. I hope you'll join me and create a layout using this sketch. Please share if you do!!

Crafty time with the little ones

Joshua and Abby love when I pull out things for them to be crafty. I wonder where they get that from??? :)

Recently, we were on a finger puppet kick...I made the finger puppets (following their directions) and they put on shows. The newest sets are the three little pigs and the big bad wolf and a set of five baby ducks and their mommy. (I also have a stack of monkeys that still need to be finished!) Here they are putting on a show- (I didn't make the big puppets Abby is using.)

Sometimes they like to use paints, glue, glitter, crayons, etc. Yesterday, we punched a bunch of shapes out of some construction paper and they went to town with a glue stick. THIS, my friends, is when I try to bust out a scrapbook page! LOL The baby was napping and the munchkins were happily creating. And I finished one page for Sketchapalooza. (My desk is right next to where they are working.) Anyhow...here they are.

And here is their new art display area. The amount of papers on the fridge was getting out of control. They have to pick and choose what to display now.

Here's to being crafty! Happy Friday!!

Menu Plan Monday

I've gotta have a plan and it's gotta be easy. :)
Monday- Homemade beefaroni, corn
Tuesday- CP Split pea soup (not sure what recipe yet), easy cheesy rolls (never made these last week)
Wednesday- CP Sesame Pork Ribs, rice, egg rolls
Thursday- CP Mexican chicken soup
Friday- CP Italian chicken (just chicken with some Italian dressing in the crock pot), a veggie and rice
Saturday-CP taco chicken (just chicken cooked with some taco seasoning and a little water(or salsa) then shredded-will probably make burritos
Sunday- CP Magic meatloaf (new recipe), mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic peas

Crock Pot Sesame Pork Ribs

CP Sesame Pork Ribs

1 medium onion, sliced (I chopped mine)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup soy sauce
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup honey
2 TBS cider (or white) vinegar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground ginger
¼-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (I left this out)
Country style pork ribs
Sesame seeds
Chopped green onions

Directions: Combine everything except for the ribs, sesame seeds and green onions in the crock pot. Put ribs in the slow cooker and pour sauce on top. Cover and cook all day on low. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and green onions for garnish. Serve with rice and a veggie (I threw some baby carrots in to cook in the sauce.)

Layouts and how-to

I posted an easy little how-to on the Feeling Scrappy blog this weekend. You can see it here-http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/

Here are some layouts I have to share with you. This one was for the first challenge in the Noteable journaling class.


I did both of the following ones at the same time since I already had all the papers out. I also used a similar design for both which helped me get these done quickly.
The first one is for Joshua's album and the second is for Abby's.

Guest Designer Call at Note~able!

Here's the information from the message board...I hope you all check it out and apply!!

Note~able is looking for a guest designer to work with products from our December kit! We are looking for a fun easy going person who loves journaling and title products. If this is you then you must apply!

To enter please send a link to your gallery and 3 of your favorite projects featuring journaling products to noteablekit@yahoo.com. Please keep your pic sizes under 600 pixels. Please send your emails by 11:59 p.m. on October 31.

Designer will be chosen and notified soon after. You will receive products in our December kit to create with and you will be featured on the blog for December. You will also receive other supplemental products to create with as well since we are not a traditional kit. You must create 2 or more projects with atleast one being a layout. Further instructions will be given on a time frame but you will have atleast 2 weeks to complete your work. Due to timeframe of shipping we are accepting on U.S. residents at this time.

Good luck!

What am I working on??

Any guesses as to what I am working on?

Here's a hint...it's something fun that's coming up soon!!!

Anyone? (Bueller???)

Ok, ok, I'll tell you.








Are you sure you want to know???









Sketchapalooza layouts!! The designers have created some fabulous sketches and I have been itching to dive back into scrapping (I've done a little bit, but not much in the last two months!). The picture shows what I pulled out to work on my first page for the class. (I also added paint and glitter after I took the picture.) I finished the layout last night and can't wait to share it during Sketchapalooza!!

Read about the class and sign up here- http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/search/label/Classes

It starts October 26th so start organizing your photos and prepare for a month of scrapping!!!