Project Life >>> April 2014 Part 2

Hello! Hope your week is going well. It's already Wednesday. Tonight I'm heading off on a 48 hour field trip with Max and all of the 5th and 6th graders at his school. We are riding a bus overnight to San Diego and will spend time at Sea World, an Aquarium, a floating lab and a BBQ on the beach. Should be a lot of fun without a lot of sleep.

The last two weeks in April were really fun and it was great to get it documented in my Project Life album. Even though it all just happened a couple of weeks ago, it was still so much fun to go back through my photos and see what we were up doing in April. Looking through photos and remembering everything we are able to do makes me grateful for this project.

Easter Sunday /  My Cool Boys /// iPhone Girl /// Easter Egg Hunt /// Egg Dyeing

Welcoming Kristen Home from Her Mission /// Cousins /// Last LAX Game /// Gramp's Birthday /// Chillin' on the Patio

Hooray for another completed spread. Okay, I'm off to pack for the San Diego Field trip. WIsh me luck!

Love Love Love

Miraculously my kids were all cooperative on Easter Sunday after church and they all agreed to a few pictures before changing our of their church clothes.

One of my favorite things about holidays is getting to document what our kids look like. It's such a fun way to really appreciate how much they are growing and changing each year. They are growing at lightening speed and taking photos helps me slow down and enjoy the moment.

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle High Five Kit /// Gold Cardstock

What We Ate - May 9

It's already Friday again! Time is flying by. In only two more weeks our kids will be out of school and it will be great to have them around more. Just need to get myself organized so they are busy with a good balance of work and play everyday.

We had a great dinner week and I improved on our eating at home this week. I made dinner 3/4 nights! I'm aiming for 4/4 next week.

Monday - Taco Night

Since it was Cinco de Mayo, I figured we'd have a Mexican meal with our favorite inside out tacos. I have changed things up a bit from how we used to make the tacos and now once the cheese is crispy, I add the toppings right on top of the cheese.

I cooked up some chicken and also used some leftover roast from Sunday and taco fillings. Then made some salsa and added sour cream, guacamole, rice and beans to our plates.

Tuesday - Pita Jungle

My sister Kristen is engaged and we were out wedding dress shopping most of today. We ran in from dress shopping to get Hannah ready for a school concert and then we were out the door again for the concert. By the time we were heading home at 7, I knew making dinner wasn't going to happen. So we stopped at Pita Jungle for one of my favorite meals. My favs @ Pita Jungle: Hummus Trio 2/chicken, Chipotle Chicken Lavosh Pizza and the roaster cauliflower w/tahini sauce.

Wednesday - Chicken Enchiladas

This was originally going to be Tuesday's dinner, but it rolled over to Wednesday. I don't know that this really needs a recipe since it's so easy, but here's how it came together.

2 cups cooked chicken (I thawed some cooked chicken from the freezer)
1 can of pinto beans
Chili Powder
Cumin
Garlic Powder

Mix everything above in a pan and cook until heated through. I just sprinkled in spices until it tasted flavored.

Taco sized Flour Tortillas (I almost always use corn tortillas in enchiladas but we had leftover flour from Monday, so we used those.)
Shredded Cheese
Enchilada Sauce - I used a bottle of red sauce from Trader Joe's

Pour a bit of sauce on the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan. Then fill each tortilla with the chicken mixture, roll and place seam side down in the pan. Optional: you can add cheese inside the tortilla too. Continue filling the pan until it's full with the filled tortillas. Pour the remaining sauce on top of the tortillas and then top with cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Thursday - Turkey & Beef Burgers

This recipe is inspired from the Pork & Beef Slider recipe from one of my favorite cookbook, What Katie Ate.

This meal can together is 35 minutes from start to finish.

Turkey and Beef Burgers

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 lb extra lean organic ground beef
2 Tbls. olive oil
4 Tbls. Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbls. lavender pepper (regular pepper would work too, but decrease the amount)
2 Tbls. mustard
4 chopped garlic cloves (I used dehydrated garlic shown in the picture that I bought at Sprouts)

Put everything in a bowl and mix together with your hands. Form patties into smaller slider sized patties. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Top with sliced cheese during the last couple minutes of baking.

Note: we don't have a grill right now or I'd probably grill the burgers if that was an option. But the baked burgers are super simple and don't require any flipping.

I bought slider buns that we topped with sliced tomatoes and avocado. Served these with frozen fries from Trader Joe's and some watermelon.

Luckily we had a couple of burgers leftover, so now I know what I'm having for lunch today.

Enjoy your weekend!

Project Life >>> April 1

Still loving my simplified approach to my Project Life album. Seriously, it only took a couple of hours and I was able to put the entire of month of April into the album. Two spreads for one month and it's done. Perfect.

Most of these pictures will never end up on a layout, but I love that they are showcased here. Nice way to showcases the bits and pieces of our family life. I love looking at all of these photos in one place.

Note from Ward /// National Siblings Day /// Watching General Conference /// School Report /// Pool Permit & Pool Progress!

New Deck /// Making Jam /// Aunt Carla's Birthday /// LAX Girls /// Suns Game /// Hannah & Friends

There you have it, another week complete. Love that.

Super Fab Egg Dyeing

One of my favorite Easter traditions is coloring eggs with my kids. This year Max and Hannah each had a friend over on one of their days off from school during an April/Easter break and I decided it would be a great time to color eggs. (Audrey had school and didn't color with us.)

The kids spent about an hour each coloring a dozen eggs. It was great to see them all really get into it and try out cool things with the dye. They are at a great age where dyes aren't spilling all over and we don't have tears over super silly things. Enjoying this stage in life.

No one in our family is a very big fan of hard boiled eggs, so when the kids wanted to do egg/spoon races and egg tosses with their eggs after color, I was all for it. They had a great time racing and tossing for quiet a while. Loved this creative activity follow up by more creative play.

Layout Supplies /// High Five Kit /// Sweet Treats Add-on /// My Fave Add-on

What We Ate - May 3

It's been a bit of a crazy eating week. I considered not even posting about our meals this week because it was a cooking at home fail. On the other hand, we had a great time connecting with family and friends at several fun events this week. So, I figured, why not share what we were up to this week. Plus we had one of my all time family favorite comfort foods, Chaulpa, and knew I wanted to share the recipe.

Monday - Leftover Pasta + Salad

My sister had made a huge pan on pasta on Sunday and she kindly shared a bunch of the leftovers with us. So I heated up with pasta, made a salad and dinner was ready.

Tuesday - Chalupa

My sister Kristen returned home from an 18 month church mission to Virginia on Tuesday. It was fantastic to see her and get to actually talk to her. She was allowed a phone call on Christmas and Mother's Day plus a weekly letter, so communication was pretty limited with those of us at home. Here's our group at the airport welcoming her home.

My mom fixed Chalupa for dinner which is a combination of pork roast and pinto beans that cook together for hours. Then you layer chips, chalupa and all of your favorite taco toppings on your plate. Delicious!

Chalupa Recipe:

3 - 4 lb. pork roast
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 tsp. organo
1 tsp. salt
water to cover the roast
2 cups of dry pinto beans
2 Tbls. Chili Powder
1 Tbls. Cumin
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies

Cook everything on low in a crockpot for 8 hours until beans are tender. During the last hour, shred the meat and allow it to continue cooking in the sauce.

Our favorite toppings: lettuce, diced tomatoes, green onions, olives, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

Here's the recipes for my favorite salsa that I made for dinner on Tuesday: Homemade Salsa

Wednesday - Liberty Market

After going to Audrey's last lacrosse game which ended near 7 pm, we decided to head to one of our nearby favorite places for dinner, Liberty Market.

If you are ever in GIlbert, AZ, I highly recommend a stop here. My favorites are the white pizza, picnic salad and capresse salad. If you have room for dessert (we didn't), you should give the Salt River Bar a try.

Thursday - KEZ Woman of the Year Dinner

One of my close friends was nominated at one of a Phoenix radio station's Woman of the Year and she invited Ward and I as her guests at a banquet honoring all of the nominees. It was such a cool experience to get to learn about women making a big difference in our community. Plus, they served us an amazing dinner that stated off with this salad.

Dinner was a mini filet mignon, fish, potatoes and veggies. The evening was topped off with an amazing chocolate tart. We felt pretty spoiled and indulgent. 

Friday Night - Chelsea's Kitchen

Our boys were away on a church Father's and Son's campout, so it was girls night out with my girls and some friends. We were up in Phoenix for a choir festival and after looking at Yelp to see what was nearby, we noticed that we could walk to Chelsea's Kitchen. I ate one of the most delicious burgers ever. If you are even in Phoenix - go here! They also have a restaurant in the Phoenix Airport (terminal 4) so if you are ever flying through, grab some food here.

Well, you can see it was quite the week for delicious food with no cooking on my part. It was almost like a vacation! I'm sure it will be back to reality next week.

High Five!

Have you seen the new May Scrapbook Circle Kit, High Five? I'm in love with the bright and cheerful colors in the kit! It's always interesting to have a final kit come together. The planning starts months ahead of time, but it seems that there are always final touches and changes right up until we pack the kits. This kit really came together just how I'd hoped!

So far, I've created to finished layouts and have another one in the works. This layout I want to share today is the first 8.5 X 11 pages I've put together in years. I must say that the smaller page size felt more relaxed with less space to consider and it was a fun process to put it together.

It's a pretty simple page, but the white space balanced with the bright pops of color just felt right.

This was a random picture I took while we were driving to a choir concert for both of our girls. I love that this picture helped me tell the story of the concert in the journaling without even including an actual picture of the concert.