Quick and Easy Meals

 As the kids get older, the homeschool lessons get more involved, and the husband's schedule gets all kinds of crazy, I find my typical meal planning and scheduling getting all kinds of messed up. I eventually find a new routine, but by golly does it takes awhile for a 'new normal' to get set in stone. 

Lately I've wanted to throw in the towel and resort to sandwiches and salads for every meal. 
Those are two of my favorite meals, so I'd be fine. My husband, however, would never be able to live off of light meals. He's a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so I must oblige his primal menu, right?

To get myself back into the swing of things, I've been tying to find quick meals or meals that allow me to set it and forget it for a bit.

After speaking with some of you guys, I figured that these recipes would be worth a share.

First off we have Pioneer Woman's Eggs in Hash brown Nests:

Link to original recipe here.

 I've linked the original recipe under the picture.

Here' are a few things that I did differently because:
A) I'm cheap and make food stretch.
B) I'm busy and like to find the lazy-man way of doing things.
C) I wasn't fond of the hash brown flavor in the original recipe.

• I baked the potatoes in the microwave.
• I used a potholder to hold the potato when I grated my hash browns because I couldn't wait ten minutes for them to cool.
• Next time I'll season the heck out of the hash browns using salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• Instead of using an individual egg per nest, I made a batch of scrambled egg mix and poured on top.(Eggs can get expensive!)

Here's my basic scrambled egg recipe:
5 large eggs
salt and pepper to your liking 
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder (a total guesstimation)
1 tbsp chopped green onions
1-2 tbsp sour cream
*optional* dash of hot sauce

Beat the fire out of the eggs using a fork until ingredients are blended well. Pour mixture on top of nests.
Then simply follow the rest of the recipe.


Next we have mini pancakes:

Recipe link

My friend, Jerian, introduced me to the joys of mini pancakes. They cook more quickly and kids can dip them in syrup or jam instead of dealing with the mess of tons of syrupy pancakes that have to be cut.

Recipe: 
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp white sugar
1 1/4 Cups milk (I used almond milk and used about 1/4 cup more than this to thin out that batter and it turned out just fine)
1 egg
3 tbsp butter, melted

Mix ingredients together and use a spoon to plop little circles of batter on the hot griddle. wait until you see bubbles in the batter on the top side of the pancake, then flip. Wait another minute or two and your pancakes should be done!

My kids eat theirs with a side of strawberry vanilla jam.


Finally, we have Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps:

Recipe link

• 10 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 lime juice, juiced
• 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• dash crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 (12 oz) cups cooked chicken 
• 1 (11 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1/2 green pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 1/2 container grape tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro (2 tsp dried)
• 1 can Black Beans

In medium bowl whisk together mayonnaise, lime juice, taco seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper flakes.  Stir in remaining ingredients. Coat evenly.
Cover and refrigerate 25-30 minutes before serving.

We  served ours in with lettuce on a whole wheat tortilla wrap, but it's also yummy on a bed of lettuce for a salad or on sandwich bread.



I was going to post my quick stir-fry recipe, but it occurred to me that I've never measured out my recipe, so that post will come later.

I hope y'all have a happy Thursday, friends!

Happy eating!
-Heather

Things I'm Obsessed With: Sewing Projects

First of all, whatcha think about the new blog look?!
I'm pretty stoked about it.

Now, back to business. I'm not quite sure what hit me this week, but I have been wanting to sew like crazy! Of course I took to Pinterest to locate all kinds of impossible-to-finish projects. Okay, well, not impossible, but time consuming and easy-to-mess up projects.

However, I plan on getting these done because, well, they're so practical and they're much-needed items around here.

First on my list is this wallet phone case. I've seen these sold, but there's something gratifying in making your own things. I have my material layed out for this project, I simply need to focus long enough to start and finish it.

 

Pin link here...

                                                       I mean, how cute is that?






Next is a pie carrier. Since I married a pie enthusiast, this is kind of essential to me. *sigh*

                                         

Pin link here...

Then we have a casserole carrier.
I mean, I'm Southern Baptist. I know casseroles and potlucks. Yet another essential.

Pin link here...

 Then we have possibly one of the most genius ideas ever. It's a Velcro bed skirt tutorial! It just Velcroes to your box spring mattress. I can't tell you how many times I went to put on my bed skirt and ended up an anxiety-ridden, sweaty mess after my mattress fell on me and I couldn't get out.

I. Could. Have. Died.

So this... this is life-saving, people!

Pin link here...

Yep... It's getting to be that time where my oldest is about to lose some baby teeth. I probably should hustle on this one then. I plan on making two, so I can just switch out pillows, therefore, have minimal chances of waking the child.

*sings*
I'm a geeeenius!

Pin link here...

Finally, we have a gorgeous purse/ bag/submarine (that last one is most likely what my husband would call it on account of it's size). I have a slight obsession with purses that I have managed to get under control throughout the years.
By 'under control', what I really mean is my husband asks me, " Do you really need another purse?" so often that it sucks any kind of fun out of buying one. Now I must resort to making them, because I haven't tired of hearing the same question asked about fabric yet.

So there...

Pin link here...

These projects should keep me busy for a couple of months (fewer if I had it my way).

Thanks for taking a peek at these fun projects!

Happy sewing!
-Heather

Thank God for Fridays

Hey, friends! This week has been a bit of a roller coaster, but it was nothing that we couldn't handle.

HOWEVER, I personally am thrilled that it's the weekend. Hello! I finally get to hit the yard and get it looking nice again. 

It's our year of living intentionally at our house (we have gotten a late start though) and we're trying to make the most of the time we have. 

Here's a little how our yesterday went:

What we did:

I had an eye appointment early for CONTACTS! Woo hoo! I can't tell you how nice it is to not have my glasses sliding down my face constantly. I went to push my glasses up the other day like I usually do and I managed to stab myself in the eye.

I'm a genius. 

That evening, the kids and I went to Papaw's to teach them how hard work in the yard earns them Oreos. 

Unfortunately, too many Oreos kept Sofia up with a tummy ache last night. 

Be glad I don't have a picture of that...

Josh and Sofia worked on replacing our headlight in the car.

She didn't learn much other than how to be ridiculously cute....

While Josh was at the store getting the headlight parts, he surprised us by buying Frozen! We've watched it 3 times already. When we aren't watching it, we're singing the songs. 

Our poor Josh. 

What we ate:

While I was waiting for my eye appointment, I was researching and thinking of snack ideas for the kids that involve fruit (since it's about to  be pretty affordable) but I wanted it to be more than just fruit. 

I like to complicate things. 

I found some strawberries on sale and grabbed two boxes and some vanilla Greek yogurt. 

Snack #1:

Yogurt dipped strawberries

Yeah, it's basically what it says. 

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Dip strawberries in Greek yogurt a few times and lay on the cookie sheet. 

Let freeze about an hour. 

(I say an hour because I'm lazy and forget to check on things for a substantial amount of time sometimes. This was one of those times. They may be done sooner.)

When fully frozen, cut tops of strawberries off and cut in half. 

I stored mine in a freezer bag. 

Snack #2:

Strawberry frozen yogurt pops:

Take half a container of strawberries and 1 cup Greek yogurt and place in a blender. 

Liquify the fire out of it. 

Pour into ridiculously cute Popsicle molds and place in freezer. 

I didn't measure when I made these and ended up with a yummy smoothie afterwards. Kind of like a "good-job-at-making-these-fun-snacks-Mom" reward. 

Snack #3 

Peanut butter dipped banana slices:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

Take two bananas and slice each slice thick enough to stick a Popsicle stick in it. 

Melt 3/4 cup peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. 

Stick popsicle sticks into your banana slices and dip into the beanit butter until covered.

 Lay on cookie sheet for an hour or until frozen. 

Again, I stored these in a freezer bag. 

For lunch I made lemon chicken on a garlic butter/ Parmesan covered bed of noodles and garnished with cherry tomatoes and basil. 

I don't have a recipe for this because I threw it together and then decided to take a picture because I thought it was pretty. 

Oops

What we read:

Our lesson books for our first Sunday school class!

We teach our first class tomorrow. We're nervous, of course, because we don't know the youth well, and they don't know us. But we'll manage!

So, there's our Friday, friends!

Have an awesome weekend!