A Few Favorites...

A few recent favorites...from the kitchen.

I'm always looking for EASY food to make because the thought of spending all day in the kitchen making food and cleaning up from meals makes me crazy. I've done several different meal planning websites in the past but this is the one I've been doing for the last 6 months or so. I'm too much of a picky eater to eat everything on an entire week's menu, but it has expanded the recipe lists I can choose from and my family loves most of the dishes I've made from this! They're also great meals that 'travel well' and are great for giving meals to anyone who just had a baby, etc.
Make 5 Dinners in ONE hour


Some of the dinners from the site above are crockpot meals and we do some on our own too. But, as I shared in a previous post, I hate the yuck of cleaning dishes...especially the crockpot! So these little babies have been a fantastic addition to my kitchen and actually make me ok with using the crockpot for more meals.



When I'm in a pinch and don't know what to make I grab a bag of these Jimmy Dean sausage crumbles...which I have on hand most of the time. It's simply sausage (turkey or pork) that's ready to go into eggs, on homemade pizzas, put in a skillet with some potatoes, or whatever else you can think of to do with them.





Another thing that I LOVE and wish these had been invented when my kids were all babies...baby food pouches. These are the perfect way to give applesauce or baby food when you're in the car, at the zoo, the park, or anywhere you can't sit and spoon-feed. Love! The biggest downside is that they are expensive and I really wish you could buy the pouches and fill your own. With any luck, that will probably be something available by the time Henry is too old for them. Sigh. :)






And finally...a new show I'm somewhat addicted to on TLC. It's Extreme Couponing. Have you watched it yet? Crazy and amazing! I follow several coupon blogs and am getting more savvy with saving money on groceries...but the people on this show don't really pay for groceries at all! Can you imagine getting carts full of groceries for $5? Or a couple baskets of groceries where you are paid to take it all out of the store? Wow! I won't be getting as crazy as the people on this show because in order to get the good deals they often spend 40+ hours a week looking at coupons...but if I can knock money off of our grocery budget I'm all for spending a few hours trying!

Raindrops on roses...

Whiskers on kittens...snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes...
I bet you're singing it with me right? Although I can't say that any of the things from the song are among my 'favorite things' - but here are a few that are at the moment.

1. JoJo's Num Nums
I'm always at a loss for something new to cook. (that I will like and the kids will eat too) My friend Joanna recently started a recipe blog and it's the best! You won't be sorry if you try some things. I recently made the 'Spaghetti Pie' and knew it was good when my husband had thirds - and the kids went back for seconds. We had it the next day for lunch and the same happened again! Yum! I actually made my grocery list this week based on some other things I want to try. :)

2. Promise Tangeman
This fabulous photographer and graphic artist has a great blog and is someone I pretty much just admire. She did the design, photography, and put the word out about my friend Holly and her little girl battling a brain tumor. (prayforkate.com)
I actually set time with her to do pictures of the hubs and I when we were in Phoenix but we weren't there long enough to work it out. Next time for sure!

3. Watching my friends run while I sit at home. :)
I trained for a marathon once...and about the point I was running 16ish miles I went skiing on vacation and ended up with a bum ankle just weeks before the race. (although it happened in a gracious fall...I assure you)
I hate running and the only reason I did it was to prove to myself I could do a marathon. Maybe once I'm done having babies one after another I'll give it another shot...maybe. In the meantime - I'm living vicariously through my friend Amy and 'Team Mitch.' They are inspiring...running in honor of a friend who recently died leaving his beautiful wife and young kids. They run to create a scholarship for aspiring pilots. Well done ladies - I'm cheering you on from my couch! :)

4. Wen
Cheesy alert - this is something from an infomercial. A week or two before Isa was born I had a disastrous hair coloring experience at a local place and it seriously damaged my hair. I literally can't get a comb through it when it's wet. So I thought something like this was worth a try. It is! It's more of a conditioner than a shampoo because it doesn't lather at all and feels like a thick lotion. But it works amazingly well and has done the trick.

5. Trex fencing
We have needed a fence since Elliott was walking basically. Now we REALLY need one because there have been several times (like today) when Elliott lets Emma outside when we don't even know it. Scary! Since we started looking I mostly knew what I did NOT want - and Trex has always been my dream. I've compared everything to it and all other products out there fall short. This is the only company right now with a high quality dark color pvc fence. It's gorgeous! Why does beauty have to be so expensive? So the dream of having a beautiful, perfect Trex fence ended today when I got the 6th quote on it (the 'best deal' we've been given so far) and the price tag was over $19,000! (and that is not even with installation - that's just the product itself)
As soon as I heard that - I went right down to another fence company we've worked with and put the deposit down on a much uglier (but semi-ok) fence. Bye, bye Trex. It was fun dreaming about you in my yard while it lasted.

6. The 60s
No...not the era. I'm talking about the weather! When the temps hit 80 I get pretty uncomfortable. (I'm not a hot weather fan) But I love, love, love the 60s and lower 70s. Today was a gorgeous day! I hope spring lasts a little while before we slip fully into the heat of summer.

7. Haverlee
There are lots of reasons I love my friend Haverlee - but I had to mention her on my favorites because she often leaves me comments on blog posts. I love comments because it lets me know people are actually reading. :) So if I'm following your blog watch out...I may be leaving comments much more frequently.

8. Paint
My last favorite on the list for today is paint. Any kind of paint...any color. I love how paint instantly changes the look of something. The basement is now painted (and just about done - yay!) and the paint made it all feel 'finished'. We also painted our kitchen and it made such a difference. I always liked having stark white walls with my white cabinets - but Michael couldn't stand it. So now our walls are dark, dark, dark...almost black and we love it! Inevitably when I'm pregnant...I always feel like painting something and changing things. I have 2 more rooms to paint this summer and can't wait! I love paint!