Sunday, December 18, 2011

Meal Planning Sunday

The holidays are finally winding down and I am so happy for that.  Shopping is done and after this weekend all the gifts will be wrapped.  We plan on having a low key Christmas and I will only have to cook dinner for the four of us.  As much as I like entertaining and having family over I'm kind of glad I don't have to do a big tada for the holidays.

Sunday - Roasted chicken, mashed potatos and steamed broccolli
Monday - Spaghetti, garlic bread and salad
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Doc's Chili & Jalapeno Cornbread
Thursday - Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup of choice
Friday - Family will go out to dinner - I'm thinking Chili's
Saturday - Leftovers

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Feeling a Bit Crafty

This year I feel a bit like Martha Stewart...I've never been very crafty or creative for that matter but lately thanks to Pinterest I've been doing more  than I thought I could.  This year for all our good friends I made Cookies for Santa and sent out with the gifts we had bought for their kids.  It was a lot of fun putting these together and we even have enough ingredients left over to make our own Cookies for Santa and of course sample some for ourselves. 


This was after filling the jars.  I printed the label and instructions on round labels I picked up from Staples.  It looks so much better once the labels and cloth and ribbon are put on.

I was pretty happy with my finished product and am sure our friends kids are going to get a kick out of making cookies for Santa.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Flavor of the Month

Last week I didn't share anything that I had made over the weekend.  This weekend I got back to baking and making something tasty for the family.  Last month it seemed like each weekend I was using pumpkin as the base for my tasty treats.  December I have decided to go with egg nog.  I love egg nog but just have never used it before in baking.  I'm glad that I tried it because now I love egg nog even more.  It just feels like Christmas to have a jug of egg nog sitting in the fridge for whenever I get a hankering for it...Sunday I made Egg Nog Pound Cake.  It was yummy.  I think that little bug and myself have eaten most of the loaf since then...(I did take half of it to his babysitters house for them to enjoy there as well).



Ingredients


1 (16-oz.) package pound cake mix

1 1/4 cups eggnog

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Beat all ingredients together at low speed with an electric mixer until blended. Increase speed to medium, and beat 2 minutes. Pour into a lightly greased 9- x 5-inch loaf pan.



2. Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).



Southern Living DECEMBER 2009

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Sunday, December 11, 2011

Meal Planning Sunday


I'm back to planning my meals.  I took all of last week because I just didn't feel like making a plan.  And you know what...it totally bit me in the behind.  I need to have a plan because if I don't we eat like crap and spend way more money then we really needed to.

Sunday - 3 packet Pot Roast - with some veggies and potatoes.

Monday - Crock Pot Ham Potato soup - Weight Watchers

Tuesday - Slow Cooked Carnitas tacos

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Grilled Salomon & asparagus

Friday - Hubby's Christmas Party

Saturday - Turkey Meatloaf, green beans & mashed potato's

Thursday, December 8, 2011

13.1

I officially finished my first half marathon on Sunday.  Hubby and I decided to do the Rock n Roll Marathon series in Las Vegas.  As sore as I am still I am so glad that I did it.  I finished in 2hrs59minutes.  I was surprised at that since I had not trained very well the last few months.  I was hoping to get done in at least 4hrs.  Hubby is certain he doesn't want to do another one but I'm already planning on signing up for a Mermaid series half in February.  I can't say that I really love running but I love the challenge of getting out there and finishing.  Plus people think that your really cool just because you say you do half marathons...  This time around I think I will work on training a little better to get my time down to at least 2:30.  Now that I am feeling a lot better I can get back to the gym and start Hal Higdon's half marathon training on Monday.  Here are a few pictures from the run.



Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Last Post

Well not my last blog post but my last tasty blog post involving pumpkin for this year.  I've been in love with pumpkin baked goods for the last 3 weeks now but it is finally getting to be a bit old.  Even my son wouldn't eat any more sweets yesterday because he's tired of the pumpkin flavor...I made these Cream cheese Pumpkin Roll bars on Saturday and I must confess that I could have eaten the whole pan of them if my family had let me.

Ingredients:




Cake

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin

1/4 cup water

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt



Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg



Directions:



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and water until well blended. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin/butter mixture and combine until well blended. Spread about 2/3 of the batter evenly into the prepared pan.



In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and ½ teaspoon of vanilla until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over the pumpkin batter. Dollop the remaining pumpkin batter over the cream cheese batter and spread out as evenly as possible. Use a table knife to swirl together the cream cheese and top layer of pumpkin batter. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the center of the pumpkin batter springs back when touched. Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars.*One thing that I like about pumpkin roll is that it is served cold, so we put these bars in the fridge and ate them cold- they were delicious! You could eat them at room temperature too. I also thought that they were yummier on the second day (if they last that long!).

Recipe from: Let's Dish
 
Tween giving her thumbs up seal of approval.  Of course the dog was trying to be a part of the taste test as well.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Where did the Weekend Go?

Really it's Tuesday??  I would really like to know where my five days off went...and Monday just vanished... Good side to that is we leave for Vegas on Saturday and I'm taking Friday off to spend with the kiddos.  It's going to be our first weekend away without them.  First weekend away from our little bug ever...I'm feeling really sad but I'm also excited to get to spend some much needed alone time with hubby.  We are also running the Las Vegas Rock n Roll Half Marathon.  This is also a first for both of us.  I"m nervous since I haven't trained like I should but I'll run/walk my butt across the finish line just to mark that off my bucket list.

I'm excited to say that I did not have to look to blogs or Pinterest for weekend outfit inspirations.  I was able to dress myself quite well all on my own.  Without further ado as you all sit on the edge of your seats wondering what I wore over the weekend....

We celebrated our Thanksgiving on Wednesday.  Since we were traveling as well as preparing the entire dinner I didn't want to be to uncomfortable...
Top - Kohls
Jeggings - JC Penny's
Boots - Target last year (similar)

My little tween wanted in on the picture taking action:
Sweater, Pink skinnies - Kohls
Shoes - Vans

Saturday we had our son's godparents over for dinner.  Again I was cooking and cleaning so I wanted to remain cool but casual

T-shirt - Forever 21
Tank and ballet flats - Target
Jeggings - JC Penny

Sunday we went to 8:30 mass.  I used to get all dressed up to go to church but noticed no one else did so now I go a bit more casual

All from Kohls