In the Kitchen {New Menu Additions}

     So recently, I have been trying to find a balance between homemade dinner and convenient food.  I like knowing what goes into my food, but I am not always successful at keeping up with this.  Also, I am not the only one who cooks in my house.  Who else you ask........why, my AMAZING husband cooks at least a couple of meals a week.  I know, I am greatly blessed to not only have a hubby who cooks, but he cooks pretty well too.  However, he does not like overly complicated recipes or having to do too much prep work.  (Especially when we have both worked a full day.)  With this in mind, on top of the fact that if it is quick and easy we are a lot more likely to make it and not order pizza or Chinese (which are less than a mile down the road from us.) 
     I have been doing some searching and this week found two new additions for our menu.  Hubby approves of both.  One is quick and easy, the other is just easy. 
     So.......without further ado, here are the two new additions.

Quick and Tasty Cheese Steak Subs from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Next time, we want to add mushrooms because our family LOVES mushrooms.  However, they were quite delicious the way they are.  Took me maybe 20 minutes to prepare.  I added some fruit to our plates and dinner was ready!

 

Rock Salt Roast Chicken by Mel's Kitchen Cafe

At first you are a little hesitant to plop your whole chicken on a BED of rock salt, but it DOES NOT make the chicken salty.  The flavoring from the lemon and garlic are subtle, but yummy.  The chicken was moist and perfect.  I had to add about 10 minutes of cooking time to mine. (4lbs chicken)  I served this with red mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.  YUM!!

 

And there you have it.  Two new recipes to give a try.  I have a few more lined up for later this week and next.  I'll let you know if any of them make the list.

 

~Dawn~

Baby Shower Fun

This past weekend my AWESOME Sister-in-Law and Sister-in-Law to Be threw me the CUTEST baby shower to celebrate the impending arrival of Munchkamoo #2.  I am due in 6 weeks with a little baby girl, so you can bet there was a lot of PINK at the party.  They did such a cute job, I wanted to share.

THE CAKE:

The ADORABLE cakes.  The one on the left is vanilla cupcakes and the one on the right is chocolate.  No awkward cake cutting moment with frosting all over the finger and having to touch everybody's piece.  Just grab a plate and a cupcake and your ready to enjoy.  I really liked this!

THE DECORATIONS: OWL THEME

Cute owl wall clings.  Can't wait to add them to the tree mural already in the room.

 

These cute little owls already found a home in my Valentine display.

My SIL Carrie made the ADORABLE bunting.  It is going to look so cute in Baby A's room.

My SIL to Be, Kim, made these diaper cakes.  SUPER CUTE!

 

FOOD, FAVORS and GAMES: 



 

Forgot to take a picture before we all ate it, but they did a yogurt bar as a little snack.  The shower was at 2pm so everyone had already eaten lunch.  There was granola, blueberries, chocolate chips, and strawberries to mix in with your vanilla yogurt.  YUMMY!  They also had a punch made with white grape juice and ginger ale.  I don't usually like ginger ale, but mixed with the juice it was VERY GOOD!

For a favor they made birdseed feeders to hang outside, since the theme was owls.

Game One: Memory Game - See how many of the items on the table you could remember after looking for one minute.  Our winners each had 18 items.

Game Two: Beach Ball Game - For this game there were cards that matched each color on the beach ball.  You had to do the color card that your thumb landed on when you caught the ball.

There were questions about baby car, questions about the Mom to Be, and silly Dare questions: Like sing your best rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Mrs. Pat our winner!

 

The GIFTS:  LOVE all the adorable baby girl things.



My good friend Jen hand made this adorable newborn owl hat.  I can just see the newborn pictures now!!! (We missed you Jen, hope you are feeling better!!)

A new Diaper Genie.  I know people have a lot of mixed opinions about Diaper Genies but we loved ours with Munchkamoo #1.  SO much in fact that we broke it shortly before he turned 2.  SO glad we have another one.

LOVE these ladies.  Carrie (SIL), Sally (Mom), Me, Kim (SIL to be)

 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU laddies for hosting this wonderful afternoon.  I really enjoyed it.  Can't wait to meet my baby girl.  Just 6 weeks to go!

 

~Dawn~

Weekend Entertainment - Winter Jam

I am SUPER excited!  This is where I will be on Saturday.......

     Over the years my husband has always asked me if there were any artists I would like to see in concert.  I have never been able to give him an answer.  Don't get me wrong...I LOVE music, but I just don't get into all the "fan" things. 

     I might finally be able to give my husband an answer to that question and get to see the artist LIVE for only $10.  Can't beat that!

Here is the line up of artists for Winter Jam 2013.

Soooo....Which one is the artist I am SUPER EXCITED to see??????????

 

 

TOBY MAC!!!!!!!!

 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE his songs.

 

Here is another favorite.  I often think about this one when I am teaching.  God is welcome to come into my classroom any time and steal the show, and give me the words and actions to help reach each of my students.

 

 

 

I am also really excited that MATTHEW WEST will be there too.

 

 

Jason Castro is a more up and coming artist and he is preforming in the Pre Jam show.  I love his song about mountains in our lives.

 

 

It's going to be a super long day.  Since there are no tickets, you have to get in line early to get in.  At almost 8 months pregnant I hope I can make it.  This might be like the last big thing I get to do for a little while until baby girl is born.  We are taking the youth from our church, but I am still looking forward to getting to spend some toddler free time with my husband as we worship together!

 

 

Who is your favorite Christian Music artist??  Let me know in the comments.

 

~Dawn~

Crock Pot Love

     I LOVE my crock pot.  We use it quite often, but I would really like to use it even more.  My favorite part is getting in my car, after a long day of teaching, and knowing that when I walk in the door the house will smell wonderful and dinner will be ready or almost ready.  Sure beats take out, or leftovers any night. My husband will actually take the crock pot to the church, where he works on Wednesdays, and let it cook all day in his office.  Then, when I get there that afternoon we can have a good dinner before all the family ministry activities begin.  LOVE!!
    
     Oh, and a little tip I got from my sister in law.  On hot days I put the crock pot on the back porch and let it cook all day.  That way it does not add heat to the house. (We do live in Florida after all.)

Our FAVORITES (in no particular order):

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings by allrecipes.com
I add frozen mixed veggies in with this one.  Makes it a little like a chicken pot pie with out the crust. I also make my own "cream of whatever" soup (usually mushroom). I use only one can of biscuit dough and find this to be plenty of "dumplings."




Crock Pot Ravioli by Crystal and Company
This is a go to for easy and cheap.  It's often one my hubby cooks on a Wednesday night.  She uses cheese Ravioli for hers, but my family prefers the meat ones.  It's good either way. Add a salad and you have an awesome dinner!


Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff by allrecipes.com
The first time I made this I was very skeptical while it was cooking.  It looks a little "odd."  However, I learned to trust the recipe and once you add the cream cheese and get it all mixed together it tastes GREAT!  I usually serve it over egg noodles, but rice works too.



Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup by Mamma Loves Food!
I usually use whatever type of potatoes I have on hand and it comes out YUMMY every time.  I don't have an immersion blender, so I usually take out part of the soup and blend it in my blender.  It works.  Just don't fill your blender too full.  If the top shoots off while the blender is running its a HOT mess. (literally and figuratively - don't ask me how I know this!)  This one makes a ton, so there is always leftovers for a few days (and that's saying a lot at my house).


Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches by The Girl Who Ate Everything
Love this one and the meat comes out perfect for your sandwich.  I have used a few different types of rolls but it always tastes YUMMY!  We usually each add our own additional BBQ sauce depending on what we like.

 








      I have also cooked baked potatoes in the crock pot.  There are a ton of different suggestions for doing this.  If you search around the web or pinterest you will find them.  I rubbed mine down with olive oil and some coarse salt.  Then, I put them in the crock pot (no wrapping and no liquid) and cooked them for about 4 hours.  ( We actually went to church for my sons baptism and when we returned with everyone to celebrate they were ready for lunch.)  It was really convenient!

     And of course I love just throwing in some meat, veggies and a little liquid of choice (broth, water, pasta sauce etc) and letting it cook all day. 

Here is a link to my pinterest board that has a bunch of additional recipes I want to try out.  ENJOY!!
Yummy- Crock Pot


     In fact, tomorrow I plan on putting ribs in with our favorite BBQ Sauce before we leave for church.  Tomorrow night's dinner will be YUMMY!!

     Oh, and whatever you do, DON'T drop a glass spice bottle from the top of your spice cabinet into your crock pot.  It will break.  :(  Guess I will be getting a new crock pot in the near future.

     I hope you find something you want to try.  What are some of your favorite crop pot recipes?  Let me know in the comments section.

~Dawn~

2013 Blessings

     Every new year we make all these resolutions of the things we want to change.  Most of the time our lists are daunting and difficult and only serve to remind us of how far from perfect we are.  At the end of the year we realize we have accomplished little, if any of our resolutions, feel like failures, and then start the process all over again.
     Now don't get me wrong, having goals is important and wanting to improve our lives is worthwhile, but getting so caught up in the process is not healthy. 
     This year instead of resolutions I am going to count my BLESSINGS.  There are SO many things already going right and good in my life.  I don't want to lose track of those things.  So without further ado here are 10 blessings I already have in my life.

In no particular order:

~  My Job - I love being a teacher.  While it can be very trying at times, I truly do enjoy helping each of my students reach their potential and celebrating their accomplishments.

~ My son - My little guy just lights up my life.  Being three, the world is a great big place of discovery.  He is so bright and quick witted.  I enjoy watching him learn new things.  When he runs up to me and says "Mommy, I missed you!" and throws his little arms around my neck (even if I just ran out to store for a minute), it makes my heart melt.

~ My Mom and Dad - My Mom and Dad might be the best mom and dad ever.  They are always there for me and my family, and they have fantastic relationships with all the grand kids.  I love my daily chats with my mom on the way home from work.  Many times she has listened quietly while I rant and rave about an issue.  My parents offer suggestions, but I feel like they try hard to listen to what I have to say too. My Dad is always around when we need help with the house, or building some crazy project for our little guy.

~ My In-Laws - You never know what you are going to get with your in-laws.  Mine are great!  Despite it taking some time to get to know each other (being so far away makes it difficult), I feel that they have made, and continue to make an effort to get to know me.  This past Thanksgiving I was able to cook side-by-side with my mother-in-law, in her kitchen, and we had a great time!  It means so much to me.

~ My friends - I don't have a ton of friends, but the ones I do have are genuine.  Many times our lives get so crazy that we don't get to see each other much, but when we finally get together, we fall right back into conversations.  I LOVE that!

~ My Church - After years of searching for a church with a pastor that I could connect with we have finally found it.  He has answered so many of the questions I have had about Faith in the past.  I have learned more in the last year and a half than I had in multiple years before.  I am looking forward to continuing my growth in my Faith.

~ My Husband - He is the most AWESOME husband ever.  He always supports me (even if he thinks my idea might be a little crazy.)  He helps me around the house, and is an amazing dad to our son.  I love watching them play together and grow their relationship.   

~ My God - This past year I have grown closer than ever before with God.  I know He is working in our lives everyday.  I am learning to rely on His plan for my life and for our family.  While I am far from where I want to be, I look forward to making our relationship even greater.

~ My Pregnancy -  I am super excited that our little girl will be joining our family in March.  So far everything has been great with this pregnancy and I feel very blessed to say that.  The blah feelings, joint/ back aches, and excessive trips to the bathroom (even in the middle of the might)  are all made bearable by remembering the beautiful miracle God has given our family!

~ My Brothers, Sister-In-Law and Sister-In-Law To Be - I can't say enough good things about my extended family.  My brothers, sister-in law, and sister-in-law to be are AWESOME! I love that we get excited to all get together. All the cousins play well together. I might not have any sisters, but my brothers sure did do a good job of picking out two awesome women to be my sisters-in-law.

     With so many AWESOME blessings already in my life I am super excited about what 2013 holds for me and my family.

What about you.  What blessings are you counting this year?

~Dawn~

The Start of Something New

Welcome to my blog.  It's a little of everything.  I'm starting this blog to keep track of family milestones (we have some big ones coming up this year), fun crafts and projects (I just got a new Silhouette Cameo for Christmas - SUPER EXCITED!), yummy things I make (love to try out new recipes and I want to do more freezer meals), and whatever else strikes my fancy (teaching, toddlers, babies, children's ministry, youth ministry...etc.). Join me on this journey into the world of blogging. :D

Dawn