Kissy Face

Abby just cracks me up with her little "kissy face." I made this layout for the layout tag game over at Paper popsicles and combined it with the member of the month challenge at Feeling Scrappy (to use black and white photos).


Make sure to check out all of the awesome deals at Paper Popsicles! And Melissa has added some cool card kits as well!!

Menu Planning Monday

Ack! Where did the time go? I haven't posted anything since last Monday...oops!!
This week it is family favorites week. I have two of our faves on the menu this week.

Our #1 favorite is homemade PIZZA! We are having pizza on Saturday. Here's our favorite pizza dough recipe. I also use this for breadsticks (brushed with butter and parmesan) and calzones.

3 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (110-120 degrees F)

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes until foamy.
2. Combine flour and salt in a large glass or plastic bowl.
3. Mix all of the ingredients in the big bowl. Mix with a spoon until it is mixed enough to start kneading. Press it together with your hand in the bowl until it is all combined.
4. Knead until fairly smooth on a board. Add a little flour if necessary. (With whole wheat, it won’t feel as smooth as just white flour. I just knead it about 50 times and call it good.) *To be honest, lately, I have been kneading it in my Kitchen Aid Mixer...so easy! Then I follow the rest of the steps.)
5. Place dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking spray (or lightly oiled). Cover with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise in a warm area for about 30 minutes. I turn on my oven for a couple of minutes then shut it off to have a warm place without drafts.)
6. Punch down and let rest for about 5 minutes before rolling it out. (I used to let it rise for another 1/2 hour before punching down and rolling it out but this is quicker and it turns out about the same.)
7. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes…depending on how thin you roll it. Sometimes it only takes 15 minutes.
* It's good if you brush it with a little olive oil after baking it, too.
* I've also added different seasonings such as parmesan and Italian seasonings to it.
Another FAVE is Taco Soup. So easy and tasty. We're having it on Friday because I can make it then put it into the crockpot to cook until we are ready to eat.
1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix
1 pkg dry taco soup mix
1/2-1 lb ground beef (browned and grease drained)
1 can corn (don't drain)
1 can diced tomatoes (don't drain)
1 can pinto beans (don't drain)
1 can black beans (don't drain)
1/2-1 cup of water (I like it sort of soupy but if you want it more chili-like, don't add any water.)
**That is usually all I add if it's just us. But when we have more people over for dinner, I add extra tomatoes and beans. You could use kidney beans, too. It's very versatile. One of my good friends, Melanie, also adds bell peppers and onions to hers.

Directions-Add all ingredients to your crockpot (make sure you brown and drain the beef first) and cook on low all day or until ready to eat. You can cook it for only a couple of hours if you want.

And here's my menu for this week. Monday-Thursday are all new recipes for me(most from a cookbook and not online). I love trying new things! I will post the recipes if I like them. :)
Monday- Quick Kielbasa Skillet and a side of Swiss Chard
Tuesday-World's Easiest Black Bean Soup, grilled zuchinni and maybe some cornbread
Wednesday-Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie (I think I'll make homemade biscuits to use instead of the pie crust)
Thursday- Comforting Chicken Noodle Soup
Friday- Taco Soup (see above) and garlic muffins-we've made these muffins twice now and they are soooo yummy! I cut the butter down to 2 TBS and omit the onion (the first time because I was out of onions and the second time because we liked them so much the first time.)
Saturday- Homemade pizza, breadsticks and alfredo sauce for dipping.

Menu Planning Monday

Ack! Where did the time go? I haven't posted anything since last Monday...oops!!
This week it is family favorites week. I have two of our faves on the menu this week.

Our #1 favorite is homemade PIZZA! We are having pizza on Saturday. Here's our favorite pizza dough recipe. I also use this for breadsticks (brushed with butter and parmesan) and calzones.

3 cups flour (I use half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water (110-120 degrees F)

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes until foamy.
2. Combine flour and salt in a large glass or plastic bowl.
3. Mix all of the ingredients in the big bowl. Mix with a spoon until it is mixed enough to start kneading. Press it together with your hand in the bowl until it is all combined.
4. Knead until fairly smooth on a board. Add a little flour if necessary. (With whole wheat, it won’t feel as smooth as just white flour. I just knead it about 50 times and call it good.) *To be honest, lately, I have been kneading it in my Kitchen Aid Mixer...so easy! Then I follow the rest of the steps.)
5. Place dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking spray (or lightly oiled). Cover with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise in a warm area for about 30 minutes. I turn on my oven for a couple of minutes then shut it off to have a warm place without drafts.)
6. Punch down and let rest for about 5 minutes before rolling it out. (I used to let it rise for another 1/2 hour before punching down and rolling it out but this is quicker and it turns out about the same.)
7. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes…depending on how thin you roll it. Sometimes it only takes 15 minutes.
* It's good if you brush it with a little olive oil after baking it, too.
* I've also added different seasonings such as parmesan and Italian seasonings to it.
Another FAVE is Taco Soup. So easy and tasty. We're having it on Friday because I can make it then put it into the crockpot to cook until we are ready to eat.
1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix
1 pkg dry taco soup mix
1/2-1 lb ground beef (browned and grease drained)
1 can corn (don't drain)
1 can diced tomatoes (don't drain)
1 can pinto beans (don't drain)
1 can black beans (don't drain)
1/2-1 cup of water (I like it sort of soupy but if you want it more chili-like, don't add any water.)
**That is usually all I add if it's just us. But when we have more people over for dinner, I add extra tomatoes and beans. You could use kidney beans, too. It's very versatile. One of my good friends, Melanie, also adds bell peppers and onions to hers.

Directions-Add all ingredients to your crockpot (make sure you brown and drain the beef first) and cook on low all day or until ready to eat. You can cook it for only a couple of hours if you want.

And here's my menu for this week. Monday-Thursday are all new recipes for me(most from a cookbook and not online). I love trying new things! I will post the recipes if I like them. :)
Monday- Quick Kielbasa Skillet and a side of Swiss Chard
Tuesday-World's Easiest Black Bean Soup, grilled zuchinni and maybe some cornbread
Wednesday-Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie (I think I'll make homemade biscuits to use instead of the pie crust)
Thursday- Comforting Chicken Noodle Soup
Friday- Taco Soup (see above) and garlic muffins-we've made these muffins twice now and they are soooo yummy! I cut the butter down to 2 TBS and omit the onion (the first time because I was out of onions and the second time because we liked them so much the first time.)
Saturday- Homemade pizza, breadsticks and alfredo sauce for dipping.

Menu Planning Monday and Funnel Cake recipe

Well, technically it's still Monday here...barely. I had my menu finished early but didn't have a chance to type it up.

Monday- Out of the park burritos (LA style...see link on last week's post). These were actually surprisingly tasty. Also had some macaroni salad with it.
Funnel cakes for dessert-see below for recipe!

Tuesday- Homemade Pizza-I'll have to share the dough recipe when I get a chance.

Wednesday- Sweet & Sour chicken (soy chicken actually. And just a jar of sauce I keep saying I am going to use but haven't yet.), rice and sauteed spinach or other veggie

Thursday- Lentil Stew (same recipe as last week...I have a ton of lentils and it was quite tasty. of course, I added a few other spices and things. I can't ever just follow the directions!)

Friday- Chili. Not sure what kind yet. Steak, veggie or chicken chili. LOL Depends what I am in the mood for I think.

Saturday- Some sort of pasta. Jury's still out on this one. Quite possibly Spaghetti alla Ceci (Rachel Ray) Homemade breadsticks or fresh bread.

Sunday- Chicken & Dumplings(I have a YUMMY recipe that I have tweeked and combined various recipes until I got it just so. Will definitely share one of these days.), garlic peas (new recipe for me)

Funnel Cakes

I was craving a powdered donut. But since I really don't know how to make donuts and didn't have the patience to research a good recipe, I made my old faithful funnel cakes and doused them with powdered sugar instead. I originally got this recipe from All Recipes a couple of years ago and made a couple of small changes.

1 2/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 TBSP white sugar
1 egg (I actually used a vegetarian egg substitute which I like better...the dough tastes less "eggy". If you don't have this, I would probably try just 1 egg white instead of the whole egg.)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup of milk
Confectioner's sugar for dusting
Oil for frying(I used Canola)

1. Put about an inch of oil in a big skillet to start heating up. Technically, it's supposed to be 375 degrees but I don't have anything to measure that so I set mine about medium high.
2. Mix together the egg, vanilla and milk.
3. In a separate bowl, mix up the rest of the ingredients (except the powdered sugar).
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
5. Pour batter into a ziplock bag. Snip the end. Start with a small snip. you can always cut it bigger but you can't make the hole smaller.
6. Squeeze the batter into the oil, moving it around to make little swirly cakes. I fit about 3-4 per batch in my pan. Flip over when golden brown. I get about a dozen from this recipe.
7. Remove cakes and place on paper towels to soak up the extra oil.
8. Dust with powdered sugar. (I actually like a LOT of powdered sugar on mine...but I went with a normal amount for this picture so I didn't seem like a pig. LOL)

We have a winner!

I was totally blown away by the number of comments for the prize! I hope you all continue to visit my blog and leave some comments. Your feedback really means a lot to me. I will be implementing some of your suggestions soon...thanks!!!

I don't really know how to do the whole random.org thing and make it work with the extra entries some of you got for posting on your blogs so I did this the old-fashioned way. :) Ok, so I suppose copying and pasting into Word isn't really old-fashioned, but you know what I mean. LOL

Here's the winner!!!



Congrats!! Please email your name and address to me at mrslokovic@yahoo.com.

I'll have another giveaway in a couple of weeks with some boy goodies so keep checking back. In the mean time, I'll have some new menus, recipes, layouts and cards to post. (And maybe I can find time to add a new sketch to warm us up for Sketchapalooza coming up at the end of October.) Also, make sure to check out the new card sketches I posted on my sketch blog (link in sidebar).

Have a great weekend!!

Who wants goodies?

Thought I'd have a fun giveaway this week! Just leave a comment to this post letting me know what you like about my blog and what kind of things you'd like me to post more. For an extra entry into the drawing, post about this little giveaway on your blog-let me know in your comment if you posted it. :) I'll pick a name on Friday. Thanks!!
(I'll have a boy themed giveaway in a week or two so check back!)

Card and a reminder

Here's a card I made for fun using a couple of goodies I received from Shaina! I won her blog giveaway last week! Fun stuff...Thanks Shaina!
And don't forget about the Design Team call for Feeling Scrappy! See details in an earlier post.

Menu for the week!

Here's my plan for the week. :) (Recipe links for most items.)

Monday- Lentil Stew and garlic muffins (maybe some sort of side with spinach)
Tuesday- Sausage Strata, salad (I can't find the recipe online...a friend photocopied this for me. If it's good, I'll share the recipe.)
Wednesday- Stuffed Pepper Soup (I am going to try to use soy beef in this one.)
Thursday- Southwest Chicken over rice
Friday- Chicken Alfredo pasta (just a packet mix for the sauce-I think I'll add some sundried tomatoes)
Saturday- 8 can dump soup (recipe from Jayne! See below.) and cheddar bay biscuits (I already have some made in the freezer that I just need to reheat-these freeze great!)
Sunday- Out of the park burritos (Never tried these but I have a package of hot dogs we need to eat soon. :)

8 can dump soup
Thanks for posting this one on the Feeling Scrappy board, Jayne! Sounds yummy!
1 can chili with beans
1 can chili without beans
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can veg-all
1 can potatoes
1 can tomatoes or rotel
1 can vegetable soup

Pour all cans into pan (do not drain) mix heat and eat.

1 cup = 1 point


Happy planning and eating!!

Menu for the week!

Here's my plan for the week. :) (Recipe links for most items.)

Monday- Lentil Stew and garlic muffins (maybe some sort of side with spinach)
Tuesday- Sausage Strata, salad (I can't find the recipe online...a friend photocopied this for me. If it's good, I'll share the recipe.)
Wednesday- Stuffed Pepper Soup (I am going to try to use soy beef in this one.)
Thursday- Southwest Chicken over rice
Friday- Chicken Alfredo pasta (just a packet mix for the sauce-I think I'll add some sundried tomatoes)
Saturday- 8 can dump soup (recipe from Jayne! See below.) and cheddar bay biscuits (I already have some made in the freezer that I just need to reheat-these freeze great!)
Sunday- Out of the park burritos (Never tried these but I have a package of hot dogs we need to eat soon. :)

8 can dump soup
Thanks for posting this one on the Feeling Scrappy board, Jayne! Sounds yummy!
1 can chili with beans
1 can chili without beans
1 can corn
1 can green beans
1 can veg-all
1 can potatoes
1 can tomatoes or rotel
1 can vegetable soup

Pour all cans into pan (do not drain) mix heat and eat.

1 cup = 1 point


Happy planning and eating!!

September How-To class is posted

My September How-to class is posted on Paper Popsicles in this thread! It's a school memories album that you can use to record small things about each year of school for your child. I used a bunch of Bazzill cardstock and some awesome 3 Bugs "Autumn" paper available in the Paper Popsicles store. I hope you like it!! Let me know if you make one! My kiddos aren't in school yet but I will make another one and hold onto them.