"Cookie Monday"

So this isn't a cookie recipe, and it's definitely not Monday, but work has been insane for the past four days because it is the last week before Christmas break and the kids are off the walls and I am going crazy trying to get everything done so that I can have an enjoyable Christmas break, but here it is anyway...

Cinnamon Sugar Pecans

(recipe and picture here)

These are so easy to make, and turn out soft and tender which is WAY better than the candied nuts that you buy at the fair or the boardwalk. You are not going to be in danger of cracking a tooth while enjoying these delightful treats!

The only problem you are going to have is stopping yourself before eating ALL of them. And an added benefit is that your house will smell amazing. I will tell you that it is a big time commitment because they bake for an hour, and you have to stir them every twenty minutes, but it is completely worth it.

I made a batch for Eric and I about a week ago, and we have been demonstrating a lot of self control and the small amount that we have left is still just as tender as when I took them out of the oven (although slightly less decadent because they aren't warm anymore).

Since baking that batch for us, I have made five additional pounds that other people have purchased, and I have to make another two pounds tonight for someone. They are very easy to make yourself, but if you'd like me to make them for you I sell them for $15 for one pound, and $25 for two pounds (plus shipping costs). 

Make sure that if you make these, you have someone to share them with so that you only have to feel guilty about eating half the batch instead of the whole thing!

Until next time,

~C

Preview: next Cookie Monday will be about my great-grandmothers lemon butter cookies which are a Christmas tradition in my household! I can't wait to make them with my Dad on Saturday.

A New Favorite - Cookie Monday

I wanted to take a short minute today (really short, I promise) to talk about one of my favorite new cookie recipes. They are called lemon crinkle cookies (recipe on Kitchen Meets Girl) and they are DELICIOUS. These cookies melt in your mouth and are the perfect amount of sweet and tart to satisfy any sweet tooth.

And the best part? They are fool proof! Really I mean it. If you can stir together ingredients, spoon balls of dough, and roll them in powdered sugar, these are the cookies for you! Here is a picture to get you excited about making them!

(Picture and Recipe here)

I will offer just two simple tips to make your cookie baking process easier. 

First, make them small. I mean, like actually small. They will look so strange on the cookie sheet, but here is my logic behind this suggestion. By making them smaller it is easier to ensure that they are cooked fully, and they are MUCH easier to eat. The first time I made these cookies I made them big. Like tablespoon sized dough balls, and while they were still amazing, you also looked like you had just been hit with a snowball from all the powdered sugar. Making them smaller allows you to just pop the whole cookie in your mouth with very little mess.

Second, make sure they cook fully. The recipe says to bake them for 8-10 minutes. Really push it to the 10 minute side (maybe even a minute or two longer). When they are not baked enough they are still yummy, but they are very difficult to get off of the cookie sheet (even when you use a silicon mat) and if you are serving them to guests, there is an egg in the batter, and that's just not a risk we should be willing to take.

I hope you enjoy this cookie Monday recipe and tips as much as I do (and more so my husband and everyone at his office - these are their favorite). If you try this recipe let me know how it works out for you!

Until next time,

~C

Christmas Cards

Do picture cards with no handwritten message from sites like Shutterfly and Snapfish count as what we used to consider Christmas cards? I am one of you! I send out picture cards just like the majority of the people, but I was thinking about how it used to be. You know, the "good old days".

Anyway, this year I am trying something new to make my Christmas cards more personalized (kind of). I wrote my first "Family Update" letter to mail out along with the picture card. Now, I know it's not truly personalized because everyone is getting the same message. But it did take more thought and effort than simply stuffing the pictures into envelopes. What kinds of things do you include in your family update letters?

I think this might be my response to all the negativity in the world. I am trying to grasp at traditions from Christmases of old, when the world wasn't so scary, and there were far fewer bad guys. I might be 27, but I still believe in the magic of Christmas.

As I sit here writing this, Eric is wrapping Christmas gifts and I can't go into our bedroom. I never really spend time in there during the day, but it was like the instant I couldn't go in, I thought of about five different reasons that I needed to get into the room. I'm trying to be a good girl and not bother him too much, but it is difficult. I think it is my turn to wrap gifts next.

As Christmas gets closer, what kind of family traditions (new or old) do you participate in? Let me know and I will share some of mine in my next post!

Until next time,
~C

...It's a Scary Thought

DISCLAIMER:
There will be quite a bit of negativity in this post. If you don't want to read it, stop now.

I am currently about one-third of the way through my fifth year of teaching. I remember being in the throws of my student teaching experience and the mentor teachers telling us that the first three years would be really challenging, but then in the fourth year you really hit your groove. I think in a lot of ways I have hit that groove. I am much more efficient at lesson planning (kind of) and grading. I also feel more confident with the decisions that I make in my classroom and when I'm planning. Where I do not feel "in the groove" is the overwhelming sense of dread and impending doom I feel nearly every morning as I drag myself out of bed before the sun.

I have often thought, as much as I believe that teaching is the right career choice for me, there are just as many reasons why I feel it is the last thing I should be doing with my life. Now, I understand that restarting at three different schools in the first five years (due to moving around to accommodate the start of Eric's career and his schooling) has not made this any easier. Nor has the simple fact that I have put myself into some pretty tough schools (student population). However, kids are kids, and I really believe that if this was my true calling I would be much happier than I am.

Eric and I are currently in the process of discussing another move (a big one). This move will take us closer to family, and hopefully allow us to purchase a home, and start a family of our own. With this discussion I have started to have the scary thought of changing careers. If I am moving and starting over in my personal life, maybe a parallel change in my professional life is also in order.

It seems that with my current career dissatisfaction, the chance to start again would be welcomed with joy and open arms. And it is... sort of. But I went to school to be a teacher, so trying to figure out what else I am qualified to do, or even what I am interested in is daunting. There are many career counseling programs, and Eric has even used Rockport Institute when he was questioning his career choice. But I cannot justify spending the money it would require to go through their program.

So, as a human living in the 21st century I naturally have turned to the internet for advice. So far I have read a few articles that made me feel ... better (?) about wanting to leave teaching. I also very much enjoyed "Leaving Teaching" from Word Press. But it is very challenging to decide what to do with the next step in my life, when I don't even really know the geographical location I am headed.

If you have ever gone through a career change, and you have any advice or wisdom to share, I am all ears. In the mean time, please enjoy these baby alpacas.

~C

Happy December!

It's my favorite time of the year, FINALLY! I love Christmas. There is something so magical about it that really helps to revive my soul. The music, the lights, the food, everything about the Christmas season brings me joy and makes me feel like a kid again (and we all need to feel that way sometimes).

In my house, Christmas cannot officially start until after Thanksgiving, and that is because turkey day is my husband's favorite day of the year. He also is part of the camp that feels each holiday should be celebrated before you move to the next. Unofficially, I have been listening to Christmas music since... sometime around Halloween. It is hard for me to keep track because Christmas music is what I use to help lift my spirits after a particularly challenging day at work. Currently I am listening to Christmas Radio on Pandora even though I have plenty of my own jolly tunes, it's nice to listen to all the different versions of the songs.

The weather here confuses me because it is December, and tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 60s for the high temperature. Of course, like in most places we have had our cold snaps and a few weeks ago on one of the chillier days we took Pippin on his first adventure to the beach. Eric and I go to the beach far more often during the colder months than we do in the summer. Traffic to the beach is more than Eric can handle. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures from Pippin's beach adventure.

<3 My two boys <3 

Pippin was very unsure about the waves. He wanted to go in the water, but when a wave would come he ran away!

Me and my fur baby.

Pippin didn't actually dig this hole, but we thought it was cute to make it look like he did.

Family portrait (this is the picture I used for our Christmas cards from Shutterfly)

For now it is lesson plans and grading for the next three weeks. Then we are very fortunate this year to get two whole weeks off for Christmas break, and I am very much looking forward to that needed time off from my students.

Until next time, Happy December and I hope the Christmas season brings you as much joy as it brings to me.

~C

Restarting for M-E

Summer is winding down (this is extremely upsetting, and if you are a teacher you will understand), and as the fall (and school year) approaches I have been doing some reflecting and realize that I need to start doing more stuff for ME.

This summer Eric and I expanded our family with a fur baby:

While Pippin has been a wonderful addition to our little family, he has certainly kept me busy during my break from school. Taking care of Pippin, and of course, making sure that I am also taking care of Eric has resulted in me having less time for my hobbies.

So... what I want to do is get back into this blog, get back into my hobbies (crafting, cooking, etc), and get back to myself.

I recently suffered through a bout of food poisoning (?). We really aren't sure what it was, but it wasn't nice, and it really did a number on my body. Over the course of about four days I lost seven pounds, and it really took me almost an entire week after finally being "better" to feel back to myself. I am not happy that I was sick, but I am going to try and turn the negative into a positive, and use this weight loss to really jump start my journey to get to my goal weight and be fit. I am sure I have talked before about my desire to loose weight before Eric and I start having kids, and I am hoping that this next step in our journey will start sometime in the next 18 months. :-D

Here is tonight's dinner recipe (I have fallen off the meal planning wagon - hopefully I will get back on soon) for a Teryaki Chicken Casserole. And I am off to do some crafting while Pippin is taking a nap after our lunch time walk!

I will leave you with these amazing pictures from the Paul McCartney concert that Eric and I were fortunate enough to see at Firefly back in June.

Until my next (food) adventure!
~C

Welcoming May

With this being the first full week in May, it is a very exciting time in my household. Eric's birthday, my parents coming to visit, and the beginning of all the exciting activities that we have planned over the next four months (trips, festivals, etc). 

But even with all these exciting events getting ready to take place, I still am trying to stay true to my meal planning routine. This is the start of the fifth month that I have been doing this, and I am hoping it is saving us some money (I'm not really sure how to even check this). If nothing else, it makes my life a little less stressful during the week, and it also has been a good way for me to make sure that we are eating healthy (mostly).

This week has presented some new challenges because I am going to be trying something new with Eric's lunches. When he transferred to his new office, he went from having an official lunch break, to not having any kind of break at all. At first this was really hard for him, but there have actually been a lot of benefits (i.e. he gets home earlier!). I have been still packing his same lunch (PB&J sandwich, fruit, and a snack), but recently have been noticing that he really just eats the fruit, and maybe the snack. The sandwich stays untouched because he just doesn't have time most days. Rather than wasting money on sandwiches that don't get eaten, I am challenging myself to find "quick snack" alternatives so that he can still get some of the nutrition that he needs, but is able to eat quickly in between appointments.

This week my grand experiment is going to be to make these peanut butter protein balls. I hope that they will taste good, and get him the protein that he will be lacking during the day. We will see how this experiment goes. That will dictate what I do moving forward.

Now for this weeks meal plan!

Before I get into the recipe links, a few notes. First, I apologize for the spelling correction marks. I am a math teacher, also Word doesn't recognize a lot of names of places. Secondly, my parents are coming to visit this weekend (arriving on Friday) so that is why there is more uncertainty in regards to what is happening for certain meals. It will depend on when they arrive and what activities we are doing. You can't plan for the unknown, so I did my best.

Now onto the recipes.

Baked Honey Garlic Chicken - I have made this before. It is a really good recipe. I may have even talking about it in a previous post I will need to go back and check. It is super simple and quick, and most importantly tastes amazing.

Tacos - no recipe required. I just buy the taco mix packets (I know I can make the seasoning mix on my own, but I just don't have time this week). The only "change" that I make is using ground turkey meat instead of ground beef. It's just an attempt to be a little healthier but still enjoy tacos!

Pulled Pork BBQ - again another cop-out. I buy the pre-made stuff. I know this really isn't healthy, but it's pulled pork BBQ, how healthy can it be. This week there was a coupon for Lloyd's brand products and so that is the option I went for. Typically I just pick whichever is the least expensive.

Breakfast Casserole - this is a family recipe passed down from my Aunt. I have included the picture of the recipe here for you. It is easy and delicious!

Italian Drunken Noodles - another repeat recipe. I have written about this recipe before (picture here), but as they say "If it aint broke, don't fix it!"

I must sign off because I have lots to do for the rest of the day. Here is a glimpse at today's schedule:

Go to the gym

Meal Plan

Laundry

Grocery Shopping

Book Club (The House Girl by Tara Conklin)

Lesson Plan/Prep for the week

As you can see I still have plenty to do!

Happy cooking!

~C

Meal Planning & Desserts

Now that things have begun to slow down at school as we move toward the end of the year, and my personal life seems to be leveling off from the recent roller coaster that it has been on, I figured now is as good a time as any to get back to this blog.

When I thought about what to write for my "come back", I knew that I could post about what I have been cooking/baking (and I will be doing that, no worries), but I also thought that I would try to start something that I could make a little more regular: meal planning.

Since 2015 started, I have been meal planning each week. Now this may not be as "hard core" as some meal planning, but I sit down on Saturday or Sunday morning, and I plan out all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the whole week. I try to account for eating the leftovers as well, so that we have less waste. Then once I have all the meals planned out, I put together a huge list and go to the store. I think I may have written about this process before, but what I want to try and do now is give you guys my weekly meal plans (and recipes). I have had a few friends that have asked me to share, so I figured I would share with you as well!

April 26th - May 2nd (I plan Sunday to Saturday)

So each week this gets printed out and hung on my refrigerator. It keeps me on track and honest, and it also prevents a lot of frivolous spending throughout the week.

I get the majority of my recipes and ideas from Pinterest, so feel free to follow my boards (here). I will warn you that I am in the process of reorganizing my recipes so that they are easier to get to. I used to pin all recipes to my "Food" board. Well this was fine until I realized that I had over 700 recipes pinned, and no sort of organization. So I am not working on breaking them down into a better system.

Here are direct links for the recipes for this week's dinners:
Port Tenderloin w/Sweet Potato Fries
Meatballs (for Ziti & Meatballs)
Quinoa w/Black Beans - for the grilled chicken I just season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook them on my George Foreman grill.
Hamburger Recipe (also cooked on the George Foreman) - I make these regular sized, it is really just the seasoning combination that I use from this recipe.

I wish I could share the Greenwood Chicken BBQ with everyone, but it is a local treat and they keep the recipes very close to the vest.

As you can see, other than dinner, we really keep it simple. Eric likes eating the same meal every day for lunch, and breakfast is just quick and easy (we aren't super human, and we don't drink coffee).


As far as the shopping list, some weeks are smaller than others. Since I have begun this meal planning journey I have really developed a solid pantry with most of the staples that I need on a regular basis. My spices cabinet has also begun to overflow, and so at this point, I am pretty well established for the majority of the recipes that I find. Occasionally I will have to do a larger shopping trip (especially when the staples run low), but I typically try to spend between $40-$60 a week. I know this is high for just two people, but I do my best to budget as best as possible. Eric and I like to have nice dinners, and so we are ok with spending a little more than we maybe should.

Now, I do not have many pictures of dinners that I have made recently, but this past week I did quite a bit of baking (thank you Pinterest) and so I wanted to share the two sweet treats that I made!

First I made coconut cupcakes. Now I am not a huge fan of the Barefoot Contessa, but these turned out AMAZING. 

 

I did make a mistake with the frosting, that actually ended up working to my benefit. I was doing about a million other things while making these cupcakes, and when I went to make the frosting, I completely forgot to add the powdered sugar! I was extremely upset at first because I thought that I had ruined them. However, the sweetness from the cupcake, and the sweetness from the coconut on top made it so that the tartness of the frosting without the sugar was actually a good balance! If I were to make these cupcakes again, I would likely add the powdered sugar, but it is something for you to try out if you are super into sweetness.

My second baking adventure for the week was strawberry shortcake cupcakes from Sally's Baking Addiction.

  

The homemade strawberry whipped cream was to die for. I really think that I will make the whipped cream again anytime I need whipped cream for something (as long as it goes with strawberries of course). These were the perfect amount of sweetness and were light enough that you could enjoy them without feeling stuffed.

I will try to come back next week with a new meal plan, and new cooking/baking adventures.

Leave me a comment if you try any of the recipes, and let me know how they worked for you!

Happy cooking!

~C

Renew, Refresh, Reboot

Winter, you were a mighty foe, but I think we have made it out the other side. (Hopefully). This was our first winter at this most southern latitude, and I must say, initially I was concerned about whether or not I would get a winter. For all of December, and most of January it was gray, slightly overcast, and raining the majority of the time. Then February came with full force. Eight snow days later (usually in groups of two) and I have had my fill of winter. This week we are projected to be in the fifties most days, and I am very much looking forward to it.

This new shift in the weather has also resulted in this feeling of a fresh start. I know March is an odd time to restart something, but it is better to restart when the urge strikes (at least I think it is). As part of my restart, I want to get back into writing here about food, and life, and just things that interest me in general. The pickled eggs and all you might even say. So here we go with an update since it's been two months (exactly! how crazy) since my last post. 

I will start with food! When 2015 started I decided that one of my goals was to be better about the portion of our budget that gets spent on food. Now, the fact that we both have full time jobs, and very few expenses at this point in our lives means that I have a little more flexibility, but I thought: 'If I start these habits now, then I will have great strategies to use later in life'. After reading many "how-to's" on budgeting, the one idea that I really felt I would be able to successfully accomplish is advanced meal planning. That's right, meal planning done in advance of two hours before dinner needs to be made. I used to have the terrible habit of going to the store every other afternoon (sometimes every afternoon) and picking up the ingredients I needed for that night's dinner, and only that night's dinner. This resulted in a lot of extra spending of items that I was hungry for, or craved, or just saw and bought.

My new and improved meal planning happens Saturday morning (typically) and I plan out all the meals for the whole week. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners (snacks I just restock as needed). Then from my plan, I make a master grocery list, and go shopping once, for the whole week. The only items that I purchase during the week are milk and salad, and occasionally fresh produce if I won't need it until the end of the week. These items can spoil if bought to far in advance and so I buy them as needed, but make sure that these are the only items I purchase when I make my additional trips to the store.

Now, when I say that I plan the whole week, I mean is really plan it. I account for leftovers, and when those will get eaten so that we don't have to throw away food that goes bad. And the part that really has made a difference for me is that I print out the plan, and post it on the refrigerator. This keeps me accountable for what is coming, it helps me not waste food because items no longer go bad, AND it let's Eric know what is coming! I cannot even count how many times he has come home from work and said "I have been looking forward to this dinner all day!" What a great feeling that gives me, and it is nice to know that he was looking forward to it as well.

Since I have been out of the blogging world for a while, I have also dropped the ball on taking as many pictures of my creations, but here are the few that I managed to capture.

 

Italian "Drunken" Noodles with Spicy Italian Sausage

This recipe was SO delicious, and relatively easy to pull together. I look forward to making it again, but for now I am trying to limit my number of repeated dishes!

Easy Lo Mein

You can of course tell by the picture that I didn't use traditional "Lo Mein" noodles. These are just Great Value brand egg noodles, but they were still delicious. And, this recipe truly is "easy" as the title claims. It was quick too! The hardest part? Cutting up the veggies!

As you can see by clicking on the recipes, most of the ones I use and love have come from other blogs, which I have found by way of Pinterest (follow my boards here!). The internet is an amazing resource, and although I do have my tried and true recipes that I use my cookbooks for, searching on Pinterest is fun!

In addition to meal planning, I have also been trying to find healthier recipes to help with another "reboot" project that I just very recently started. Rebooting myself. For Christmas I was blessed enough to get a Fitbit. For the first two months, I really just wore it, tracked my steps and my sleep, and never paid much mind to "meeting my daily goal". Within the past few weeks (maybe it's cabin fever), I have really begun feeling the urge to get myself in shape. I have goals that I want to reach, but never felt much motivation to get there. With the Fitbit, now I have the motivation. I can typically get about 7,000 steps in a day without too much effort (I teach, so I am on my feet and walking around always), but those last three or four thousand only ever came on a rare occasion.

I am currently riding a three day streak of reaching over 10,000 steps (the first day I made it over 15,000! - this did involve a 6 mile beach walk, but still) and I hope to continue this streak. Although the weather has been much nicer this week, it is still a bit brisk, and so to get myself started I have been doing one of my Zumba DVDs each day. I hope to eventually see results, but I am aware this might not happen right away. With summer quickly approaching, I am just trying to slowly work toward my goal right now. I don't know that I will ever feel comfortable sharing my "numbers", but maybe one day...

For now I will leave you with my recipe for dinner tonight (maybe I will post a picture later). The "recipe" is really just for the mixture of spices, but it is called "Brown Sugar Spiced Baked Chicken". My plan is to put it on chicken wings, so hopefully that will work! 

I hope that maybe this has inspired you to renew, refresh, or reboot something in your life! I will leave you with this quote:

"You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you're successful, sometimes you're not, but it's the average that counts."

Until my next adventure,

~C

A Little Organization and a Whole Lot of Cooking!

Well, I had been doing pretty good with updating this blog. I even managed to give an update right after my hectic Thanksgiving hosting gig. Then I don't know what happened, because I still did things that I want to share, but the holidays just go so quickly that I did not have two seconds to post even a picture. So I hope to update everyone today on what I've been up to (if anyone even reads this), because let's face it, I don't feel like lesson planning or grading.

I will start with the organization. I have realized that cleaning, organizing and cooking (a.k.a. household chores) make me... abnormally (?) happy. I have yet to encounter others who enjoy doing chores as much as I do. Although, I have always known I enjoyed these activities. I used to say that I would have been in heaven as a 1950's housewife. But alas I live in the 21st century.

I think it would be really cool if I could be a professional organizer, but I have no idea how to start a business like that, nor am I really at a place in my life where I can take that kind of risk. In the meantime, I have been trying to do some organization projects around our apartment to make if feel more homey. My most recent project was to tackle the "upper level" of our walk-in-closet. We are so very fortunate to have a very generous walk-in-closet, but the upper shelf left a lot to be desired. Eric and I had just fallen into the habit of throwing piles of clothes and random stuff up there with no real rhyme or reason.

To try and gain some control over the madness I went to Walmart (I know this isn't necessarily ideal, but it's what I've got access to right now). I purchased these cute storage cubes some in the tan color and some in the gray pattern. Below is the result:

I was able to take the piles of random clothes and provide some order. I was also able to get the random assortment of goodies that we use less frequently and hide/contain them in the upright containers.

I know it seems a little unorthodox to have the "top" of container pointing outward, but it has forced us (me) to take the time to make sure everything is put away properly and neatly after we do laundry. Since I took this picture I have added another container, and shuffled a few things around, but this is still pretty much what it looks like. The best part? I was able to get this amazing organization for about $30 worth of containers and about an hours worth of time. 

In addition to the upper level organization, I am also in the process of weeding out my clothes by applying a trick that I read about here from a pin on Pinterest. When Eric and I moved over the summer I put my clothes into the closet with the hangers backwards, so I am planning on going through in July to see what is still turned around. 

Now on to my cooking adventures! I have been quite busy over the past month due to my ever growing confidence in the kitchen. I am not going to try and put these recipes in order, but just get through them.

 Breakfast Christmas Morning (eggs Benedict).

 Christmas Day dessert: eggnog creme brulee

Christmas Eve dinner: pork medallions with cranberry and pear chutney

First is our breakfast Christmas morning. The only real recipe we used to make these decadent eggs Benedict meals was for the Hollandaise sauce. I really enjoy the recipes that the Pioneer Woman uses and in many ways I look up to her. The recipe that she has for Hollandaise sauce in the blender was much, MUCH easier than the last time we attempted to make it by whisking the sauce by hand. The only deviation from a "traditional" eggs Benedict was that we used bagels instead of English muffins.

For the eggnog creme brulee, I had originally intended to eat it Christmas Eve, but my lack of time management resulted in us having it on Christmas instead. It was a very simple recipe that you can find here, and I really believe that anyone with ramekins and a brulee torch can make it without messing it up! This was the first time I ever made creme brulee and it turned out wonderfully! It was also nice to finally get to use our creme brulee set that my Mom had gotten us for our anniversary in August.

What I did manage to accomplish was a yummy Christmas Eve dinner despite a multi-state ingredient search that ended up in me having to change the recipe (something that I NEVER would have attempted even six months ago). The recipe I was following was for pork medallions with a cranberry and fig chutney from my favorite cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens. I spent a solid three hours on Christmas Eve trying to locate dried figs, but it was to be a futile search in the end. I went to more stores than I would like to admit, and even crossed state lines hoping that would help. In the end I had to admit defeat and replaced the figs with some diced pears. It worked quite nicely and still made for a great Christmas Eve meal that I was able to share with my husband.

After over eating for Thanksgiving, Eric asked that we eat more vegetables in the weeks that follow. Our first attempt at this was a very successful stir-fry (pictured below) that we threw together without a recipe. You read that correctly, we didn't have a recipe and it turned out great! I was so surprised and thankful, and this really helped my confidence in the kitchen.

Stir-fry: beef, snap peas, baby corn, bell pepper, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, carrots, and broccoli.

After Christmas vacation (see I told you these were out of order), it was back to the daily grind for me at work and that also meant that I became mostly responsible for picking out and making dinner for us (again I love this, remember the '50s housewife comment?). My first dinner of the new year was these wonderful lasagna rolls (below) that I found with a list of healthy recipe ideas from this website. Even Eric, who can sometimes be picky about these things really liked them.

The only adjustment I had to make was that I used regular lasagna noodles because I could not find whole wheat noodles (healthier versions of food are very difficult to find where we live).

After making the lasagna rolls I needed another meal, because I didn't want us to eat these three days in a row (plus I wanted to take them for lunch too!). We have been having bitterly cold weather for this area (the windchill as I write this is 14 degrees) and so to warm us up on a day similar to this, I made this quick and easy chili (recipe). 

 Mine is the one with cheese. Eric isn't a huge fan. I think we both would still rather have my Crockpot version of chili, but this had to do for a weekday.

As we get ready to watch the Patriots vs. Raven's playoff game I will leave you with a little bit of Christmas cheer (yes I know that Christmas is "over", but not here!). For the fourth year I made another successful batch of my great-grandmother's lemon butter cookies. The recipe has been in my family for a long time and when I make these cookies every year I always feel that I am connected with all of my family members near and far. 

Lastly, I will share a collection of pictures of my Christmas decorations for this past year. Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorite things to do, and as we move to (hopefully) a townhouse, and eventually a house, I look forward to being able to decorate even more. The most exciting new addition to my decorations this year, was our stockings!

The bottom left picture is my pineapple plant! Everything got a touch of the Christmas spirit!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with plenty of food, family, and love. May this new year of 2015 bring you and your families health and happiness, and of course plenty of new food adventures!

~C