What We Ate - November 7

Hello! It's been several months since I've shared a "What We Ate" post and I decided that it was time to try and get back into the swing of it again. Hopefully it will motivate me to continue planning meals. I love gathering meal ideas and hope you get some inspiration on new meal ideas here.

Sunday - Grilled Pizza

Grilling pizza is probably my favorite meal to make at home right now. We've been perfecting our homemade dough recipe and I used this recipe as a starting point, but added 1/4 cup of olive oil instead of the suggested amount. The increase olive oil was inspired by this pizza dough recipe.

I quadrupled the recipe and we had enough pizza to feed 14 hungry people plus a small amount of leftovers.

Our favorite topping combo this week was a honey BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's, mozzarella, blue cheese crumbles, thinly sliced green apples and peppered bacon crumbles.

Monday - Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

We love tacos around here and this week I decided to mix things up and make a veggie mix instead of meat to fill our tacos. 4/5 of us loved it, so I'm thinking it was a success.

One of my favorite things about this meal is that I heated the leftovers from breakfast and topped it with an egg. Two meals in one!

Tuesday - Oatmeal Waffles

These tend to get added into the dinner mix every couple of month and everyone loves them. Some topped them with strawberries and cream. I choose to top mine with a little almond butter and pure maple syrup. Bonus: these are gluten free if you use gluten free flour.

Wednesday - Hawaiian-Style Turkey Sloppy Joes

This recipe was recommended to me by my sister and I thought we'd give it a try. I haven't made sloppy joe's in years and it was good to have them again. This recipe had a nice sweetness added by the pineapple juice. Instead of the apple cider vinegar, I added some Trader Joe's BBQ sauce. Everyone loved it, so this is a keeper.  I cooked up a few zucchinis and a red bell pepper as a side dish.

Thursday - Trader Joe's Orange Chicken + Pei Wei

Thursday nights are always crazy around here with choir and soccer practices and I didn't have time to prep dinner. Luckily Audrey was home at dinner time and cooked up some Trader Joe's Orange Chicken plus some fried rice. I picked up a salad and lettuce wraps at Pei Wei to round out the meal.  I had 5 minutes and home, so I threw food into a plastic container and then Max and I were off to soccer. Sorry for the terrible picture - I snapped it in a dark parking lot with my phone while at at soccer practice.

There's a look at what we ate this week. Now it's time to plan out dinner for next week!

What We Ate - April 24

Hello! Well, it's already Friday again and that means I get to share my meal plans from the week. If I was getting a grade for completed meals, it would be a 50%. Not so great, but that's how life goes sometimes. ON the bright side, we did have two great

Monday - Homemade Pizzas

Okay, this is the most requested dinner from Max, so I try to work it in at lest once a month. I usually buy the pre-made pizza dough at Traders Joe's and divide the dough into smaller pieces and let each person make a personalized pizza.

Our favorite toppings:

Pepperoni
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Pesto
Olives
Fresh Mozzarella Slices

No real recipe here. Just roll out the dough onto a baking sheet, maybe drizzle it with a little olive oil and add toppings. We sometimes as marinara and sometimes don't. Just depends on our mood. Bake at 425 degrees until the crust is finished and the cheese is melted.

Tuesday - Skinny Orange Chicken + Garlic Fried Rice

I had to laugh at the irony of doing a "skinny" recipe along with "fried" recipe. It all balances out, right? Technically the rice isn't fried, so hopefully it's not too bad.

Photo Credit

This was the first time I'd used the orange chicken recipe and it was a hit! Every last piece was scrapped from the bowl. I added a lot of broccoli to the chicken.

My go-to recipe for cooking broccoli is to spread it on a baking sheet, toss a little olive oil, salt and pepper on it and cooking it at 325 degrees in the convection oven for 10 minutes. The brocoli browns and gets a little crispy. Love it!

The Garlic Fried Rice recipe is one that I've made many times over several years and we all love it! I always double the recipe and then freeze leftovers for a future dinner. I also cut the amount of butter in half from the recommended amount in the recipe. Instead of the ham listed, we use Boars Head sliced peppered turkey.

Wednesday - Joe's Farm Grill

For some reason, most of our family was open at 5:30 on Wednesday and Ward suggested that we go out to dinner. Sounded good to me!

If you are ever in Phoenix, I highly recommend working in a visit to Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert. My favorite menu items are the fried green beans, BBQ Chicken Pizza and the Bleu Cheese Burger.

Thursday - Little Caesar's and Smoothies

I had a great plan, but this night ended up being a bit crazier than planned. We were gone from 3:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Choir rehearsals, a lacrosse game and a couple of visits to friends filled our night. Little Caesar's was all we could manage since it was fast and the kids wanted pizza. I only ate one slice because honestly it's not my favorite. Once I was finally home, I made myself a smoothie.

Here's my go-to smoothie recipe:

1 banana
1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 orange/cutie peeled
Enough almond milk to cover the fruit

Blend and enjoy! This makes to hearty servings.

Friday - Banana Bread

This isn't going to be our dinner, but I did bake up a bunch of banana bread today and so I thought I'd share the recipe. We had 9 very ripe bananas sitting on our counter and it was time to make some banana bread. I had pinned a no sugar, no oil, no butter banana bread recipe on Pinterest and decided it was time to give it a try.

I tripled the recipes (we had a lot of bananas!) and think it turned out deliciously. The tripled recipe made four mini loaves plus a regular sized loaf. I did mix a handful of mini chocolate chips into the regular sized loaf because I couldn't resist adding a little chocolate.

The good thing about skipping a couple of our planned meals this week is that now I'm ahead for next week!

Happy weekend to you.

What We Ate - April 18

Everyone has to eat, so I've started a new Friday feature here to share what we ate during the week. Hopefully you will find a few new dinner ideas here.

Monday - Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Ward and I were lucky enough to be given tickets to a Phoenix Suns game on Monday and the tickets included dinner. Got to love that. But our kids were all going to be home and needed something they could make for themselves. So grilled cheese was on the menu.

What goes better with grilled cheese than tomato soup? This tomato soup is a quick recipe that I've made many times. The soup tastes so fresh and delicious and it only takes a few minutes to put together. I highly recommend you give it a try.

Tuesday - Honey Lime Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Corn Tacos

This was a Pinterest find and it was really delicious. I used pinto beans instead of black beans, but other than that, I followed the recipe. It was a perfect meatless meal and I'll definitely be making these again. The honey and lime added great flavor to the taco filling.

I used my "inside-out" cooking method to crisp up the cheese on the tacos.

Wednesday - Bean & Cheese Burritos + Salsa

The teenage girls at church did a fundraiser on Wednesday where they sold homemade bean burritos and salsa. Of course, I wanted to support them. We picked up two dozen burritos. I plan to freeze most of them and then have them on hand for quick lunches.

I hear the girls used this salsa recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Even though I didn't make these burritos, I do like cooking up a tasty pot of bean for burritos. Here's my go-to recipe for crock pot refried beans. All you need is beans and tortillas and dinner is ready.

Thursday - BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Since we'd gone meatless all week, I decided that I'd better throw some meat into our meal plan. I just put a 3 pound roast in the crockpot, poured 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce over the roast and cooked on low for 8 hours. Before eating, I shredded the meat with two forks. This was a perfect meal for our busy come and go night and dinner was ready whenever people were ready to eat.

We used little slider buns and topped the meat with avocado slices and coleslaw.

It was a bit of a simple dinner week around here, but sometimes that is just what is needed.

What We Ate - April 11

Hello! I've been thinking about this blog and that I want to mix things up a bit around here. This has mainly been a space where I share my scrapbook layouts and I still plan to do that. But there are so many other things I also love in my life and want to share more about other things too.

One thing that is important to me is weekly meal planning. No plan equals poor food choices, grumpiness and a bit of stress around our place. So I do my best each Monday to plan and shop for our meals for the week.

I try to keep things easy on myself and only plan and buy for four dinners. Of course, we buy things for breakfast and lunch too, but those are pretty much the same every week (English muffins, cereal, apples, bananas, strawberries, sandwich stuff) so the main planning is for our dinners. We get together with our extended family on Sunday and I just usually make one thing for that meal. Friday and Saturday nights are generally no cooking nights and we go out, do takeout or get together with friends. So that leaves planning out Monday - Thursday.

Something I'd like to add here on the blog is a "What We Ate" post each Friday to share what meals we've had during the week. I'm always looking for new dinner ideas and I hope sharing our plans might help you out with your meal planning.

Monday - Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Ravioli plus a pre-made salad

I picked up both of these things at Trader's Joe's.  Love that place. Their salads are really delicious and are filled with a great variety of items. I seriously couldn't put a salad like these together for less than $4, so I pick them up pretty often. The butternut squash plus quinoa is my favorite.

Okay, I admit, this isn't the fanciest dinner. But it was fast to prepare and almost everyone in our house ate it without complaint. My kids like to drizzle a little olive oil + balsamic vinegar on their ravioli. I prefer a quick sauce that I whip up:

Garlic
Olive Oil
Spinach
Can of Diced Tomatoes
Pepper
Splash of Whipping Cream

Sauté some diced garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes and then toss in a couple handfuls of spinach and a can of diced tomatoes (juice goes in the pan too) and some pepper to taste. Mix around for a couple of minutes and let the spinach wilt. If you are feeling decadent, pour in a splash of whipping cream. You won't be sorry. 

Tuesday - Dad's Enchilada's

At the request of Ward, this is what we had for dinner on Tuesday. I could be most favorite comfort food meal. They got the name "dad's enchiladas" because they are named after my dad since he made them for our family when we were growing up. He still makes them for us from time to time even now. He didn't do a lot of cooking, but he did make these fabulous enchiladas.

Wednesday - Oatmeal Waffles with Strawberries + Cream

These are my all time favorite waffles! Lots of oats and no flour. They are hearty and delicious. Plus, who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?

Thursday - Meatball Sandwiches + Cantaloupe

No big and fancy recipe for this one, which makes it perfect for a night when you need something you can prep in the morning in 10 minutes and have it ready to go at dinnertime.

Here's what you need:

1 pound extra lean ground beef
1 pound ground sausage
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
Rolls
Cheese (optional)
Crockpot

This made 20 meatballs.

Just mix the ground beef plus the ground sausage together in a bowl. Then roll the meat into golfball sized pieces and put them in a crockpot. No seasonings needed for mixing into the meat because the sauce adds the perfect amount of flavor after simmering with the meat all day. Pour a jar of marinara sauce over the meatballs and turn on the crockpot to low for 8 hours.

We served the meatballs on toasted rolls and added a slice of smoked gouda cheese. Everyone must have liked it because we didn't even have one leftover meatball.

Okay, there's a looks at "What We Ate" this week. What do you think? Do you like see what other people are making for dinner? Do you plan meals out or just take it a night at a time?

Hello, Hello

It's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and today I really starting missing it. Since I was missing blogging, I figured it was a sign that I should get back here and start typing! I have been busy creating things, connecting with friends and spending some quality time time my family. So far this year is sharing up nicely!

Today I thought I'd share a few fun things I've come across recently.

First up, I love this free cut file from Chickaniddy Crafts. Just stop by their blog for the free download. Ideas are brewing on how to put this to good use on a layout.

This heart snapshot mix print from Minted came to my attention today (via an email in my inbox!)

Of course, with my love of photos, this spoke to me and I decided to order a print for our family. At first I thought I'd fill this with photos of my husband and I and give it to him for Valentine's Day, but since we aren't big into gifts on that day, I decided to just fill it will favorite photos from 2013 and not have it be a gift. I ordered the smallest size (8 X 8) and I'm excited to have it arrive. I'm thinking about displaying it in my scrapbook room, but will wait and see once it arrives.

If you haven't tried Minted yet, I recommend it. We used them for our Christmas cards and they were fantastic. You can use this referral link to get $25 off your first order with Minted. Sweet!

I love this art print. It sums up my main goal for this year which is to intentionally connect with my friends and family more this year. I hope to be more mindful of the way I'm spending my time and more aware of the little things that are most important.

With the new year, I got myself back in gear and have been planning out our weekly dinner menus and doing the shopping on Monday each week. With our busy schedule every afternoon and evening, it make things run so much more smoothly when there is a plan (and food in the house.) I've recently discovered the blog Melanie Makes and it's a great resource for easy and delicious recipe ideas.  One recipe we tried was her Slow Cooker Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches. Delicious!

One last item for today. These waffles are calling to me. I got an ice cream maker for my birthday last year and we've enjoyed mixing up several batches of ice cream (my recent favorite was Salted Carmel from this Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream Cookbook.)

I'm thinking fresh baked waffles filled with homemade ice cream sounds like a perfect treat. Do you think it could count as dinner and dessert all in one?

Thanks for stopping by today!