GIVING MYSELF A PAT ON THE BACK!

I amaze myself when I actually get motivated to cook. My family can thank blogging and Pinterest for the inspiration. Adam came over on Saturday for a visit. (Tristen was in Miami at a conference) We have been talking about how long it has been since I made a meatloaf so that was the plan for Saturday. I also had the new recipe for the potatoes and decided to make the asparagus I made a few weeks ago. I also made the Creamy Berry Goodness that I seem to make almost weekly! 

These can be found on my Pinterest board called Things I have made - check! Below are the direct links. I have been making this meat loaf for as long as I can remember so it is our family favorite. I almost didn't pin the potato recipe because it's one of those annoying long ones. Why do people make those? Yes they bug me!!! Also when I make the Creamy Berry Goodness I make heavy whipped cream and use two small Fage' Greek plain yogurts. I use about 2 cups of frozen mixed berries from Costco.

BALSAMIC ASPARAGUS

SCALLOPED HASSELBACK POTATOES

MEAT LOAF FROM FANNIE FARMER

CREAMY BERRY GOODNESS 

Click on pictures to enlarge....

My Fannie Farmer Cookbook is from 1979. It has always been my staple cookbook that I turn to for help. To this very day I still look up the timetable for cooking turkey every Thanksgiving!

As I mentioned in another post this was my first time making Corned Beef and Cabbage. I decided to make a Martha Stewart recipe I found. I also made some Irish Soda Bread for the first time. (I added caraway to this recipe) This meal was so good and I'm sure I will make it again next year. I also want to thank a woman at Trader Joe's for helping me with the selection of purchasing a corned beef. I was clueless! 

A few of my Easter decorations.
Mark and I will be alone for Easter. I'm trying to convince
him that we should go out for dinner. Doesn't that sound like fun?

I don't know why I haven't done this before but maybe because we always buy Romaine and I never gave it a thought. Mark has decided to eat some regular bib lettuce. It does remain fresher longer but doesn't have the vitamins like Romaine :(  Anyway I had a light bulb moment and decided to make myself some wraps. Doing low carb we normally do not have any bread in the house so I will roll turkey breast and eat cheese slices for lunch. It's been such a thrill to have these wraps.....so crisp and crunchy!

Have a Great Weekend.....

MARCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

It's March....I can hardly believe it! Why do these years have to fly by so quickly? Did you know that it's only 298 days until Christmas. Shush....you didn't hear that from me!

I have a few things to share with you but it's really just some nothingness however if you heard about the fires in Riverside, CA that certainly wasn't nothing. We could see the fire from our yard. There was one point where a huge amount of birds were swirling around in the smoke and then they seemed to get past it and move on. Obviously I never want anyone to get hurt or lose their home in a fire like this but my heart does feel for the animals that would most likely not have survived this fire.

 

 

I have a few recipes to share from Pinterest. I had 3 fails recently which makes me kinda angry. If your posting a recipe it should work....I'm just sayin'

Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Pork by Chief in Training. Nikki is one of my favorites and I do follow her in my reader.  This came out so good. I didn't have a pork roast but I had the thick boneless pork chops from Costco which worked fine. I just so happened to have a cooking sauce that I got from Two Sisters Gourmet which is from PartyLight which looked just like a salsa so used it. I don't know if it was the simmering sauce I had or not but this was excellent. I have searched and I don't see the salsa available from Two Sisters Gourmet anymore. I will try this again with her suggested salsa.

 

 

Also you will see the No-Bake Biscoff Cookies and these are also from Chief in Training. She has a new post recipe idea everyday! She must never leave her kitchen. I made these especially for Amber because she eats Biscoff by the jar. I love the stuff but it's not low carb, but that doesn't mean I haven't had a spoonful of it at times! These are actually good but I'm not a huge fan of a non baked cookie but I would make them again for Amber, she loved them.

Tomorrow morning I will be on my quest very early trying to buy The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Also Target has Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse on sale for $7.00 each. I only own The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn Part 1 which I watch almost daily. I can't seem to get enough of it. I was recently going to go to the show to see Part 2 again last week but it had left the theatre it was at so imagine my surprise when I saw it was being released this Saturday.

Downton Abbey Season 3 disk one arrived yesterday and I can't wait to start watching it. If you see me on Facebook you would know that I was washing my floors yesterday. Sometimes I mop them, or sometimes I use a Hoover machine that I have but then there are those times when you have to get down on your hands and knees to give the grout a good cleaning. So I am doing it in sections because we have a massive amount of tile in our house. Today I will be doing the kitchen and then I will shower and start watching Season 3. I'm really excited.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. We don't have an specific plans but we do need to make a run to Costco. I need to give Miss Skye B a bath but don't tell her....she will hide from me. If she would just stop laying in the dirt outside she wouldn't need one. She does this to herself!

 

ARE YOU PINTERESTED?

Probably not but here we go anyway.....I pin....so sometimes my family gets to eat! If nothing else Pinterest can be motivating or at least it's that way for me!

I started feeling better on Wednesday which was a good thing but it would have been nice if it had been Tuesday so I could have gone to bowling. Anyway I ended up making soup in my crock pot. I had come across this recipe for Slow Cooker (or Stove top) Vegetarian Black Bean and Rice Soup with Lime and Cilantro at Kalyn's Kitchen so of course I pinned it! 

 

I ended up doubling the recipe since I had the ingredients and was using a large crock pot. What I did do was leave out the juices from the additional cans used to double it. I was concerned that it might be too thin and we like a thick soup. I also added a small can of green chilies because Mark wants them in everything! This was so good and I will definitely be making it again.

 

I also wanted to share with you something I made a few weeks ago. I had never tried Spaghetti Squash and decided it was time. I had a recipe from Skinnytaste.com that I tried and of course I pinned it also. I loved it and will definitely be making it again. I also had some tomatoes to use up so this is what I did with the tomatoes and a pin from My Kitchen Affair for Parmasan Baked Tomatoes . So I buttered the spaghetti squash and topped it with the tomatoes. It was delicious!

 

 

 

 

Originally we were going to go out to celebrate Valentine's Day on Tuesday evening to avoid the crowds but since I was not feeling well that didn't happen. We have since decided to go out this weekend to see a movie and have a fine dinner. So on Valentine's Day I decided to make some PB M&M brownies and thought I would order a pizza since I had a 50% off coupon to use. We would have some wine and eat by candle light.

 

 

Well the Papa John's internet site was acting up and ended up being down. God forbid I need to make a phone call ....LOL! So I waited and tried again. It was working but it wouldn't go through. I ended up taking out our last Lou Malnati's which has to thaw for 30 minutes before we bake it for 40 minutes. Then the doorbell rang. Guess what?....yes the order ended up going through without confirmation to me. Luckily the Lou's pizza was still frozen so back to the freezer it went and off went the oven.

 

We had a very nice time at dinner and then we watched "What to Expect When Your Expecting." It was a lovely evening and just what we needed......

 

Card I got for Mark....