my new favorite snack

This is probably one of my favorite food pins.  That's saying a lot because I have pinned a lot of recipes that are really good but not so healthy.  This one is super simple and healthy too!

Source: letstalkfitness.com via Nichole on Pinterest

So you take this...

Slice up the apples thinly then juice the orange and lemon over top.  Let it soak for awhile.  That's it. 

I have been using half of a lemon because the oranges I bought aren't very sweet.

Enjoy!

weekend recap

Dave and I started out our weekend by going to Cubby's for lunch on Saturday.  We hadn't been there for a long time and decided that it'd probably be the only time all weekend we'd be able to get a table there.  After lunch, we walked over to the music store so Dave could get some new guitar strings.  I thought these guitars looked kind of cool.

I did our taxes Saturday afternoon.  I'm glad to have that taken care of!  We also did our grocery shopping that afternoon.  I thought we'd beat the Superbowl shopping crowd but I think we were in the middle of it instead.

I made a new recipe for supper that I'd gotten off Pioneer Woman's reader recipes a few years ago.  It's called spaghetti loaf and it's really, really good.

It makes a huge amount of food though.  My husband has a big appetite and we were still only able to get one half eaten.

Spaghetti Loaf
Brown hamburger, then mix with spaghetti sauce
Prepare spaghetti noodles(I made a little over half a box) and mix with sauce
Cut a loaf of French bread in half lengthwise
Sprinkle garlic salt on bread, top with spaghetti, then top with shredded cheese

Bake in oven at 350 until cheese has melted


Sunday was a relaxed day.  We hung out and watched the pregame shows.  Dave visited his brother's family for awhile.  I stayed home and read .

I love Duck Dynasty so it was fun to learn more about the family. 

Of course, we watched the Superbowl.  Well, I half watched as I read.  I didn't think the commercials were very good this year, though I did like the Dodge farmer commercial.

Quite possibly my biggest accomplishment of the weekend was getting Dave to throw this sock away:

It's like he has an emotional attachment to his socks.  Maybe it's a guy thing?

Have a great week!

weekend recap

It was almost three weeks ago when I wrote that I planned to post more often. I haven't written a post since then. Oops.

We went to Sioux Falls on Saturday for a few events.  We went to David's cousin's diaper keg that afternoon.  It was the first one I've ever been to (or even heard of) but it seems like a good idea if you have a lot of drinking friends. Sort of a guy's baby shower I suppose.

Dave and his cousin, Chauncey

All the diapers they received (totally stole this from Chauncey's FB)

We had supper that evening with Tony, Jackie, Sarah, Conor, Annie, and Brian at a restaurant called Acoustic.  After supper, we went to a concert at the Orpheum.  We saw the Hadden Sayers Band.  Not something I'd normally think I'd enjoy but it was fun. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the 50 year old Snooki and her boyfriend in front of us.  Seriously, you'd think by the time you're that age you could handle yourself in public a little better.

We spent most of Sunday just hanging out around home.  I made these scones for breakfast...

I bought them at World Market in the fall and just got around to making them.  I threw some raisins in too... yum!  They were really good.

We did some grocery shopping in the morning but that was our only outing.  This was pretty much my view for the rest of the day...

I did get off my butt for awhile to make some minestrone soup for lunches this week.  I made it last week too and it is so good!  This is the recipe I used.

Dave went outside in the late afternoon and spotted some sundogs so I went out too and tried to get a picture of them. One is on the right side and the other is one the left side just above the tree.

Hope everyone has a great week!

weekend recap

Dave and I had a pretty laid back weekend.  We mostly hung out around home to avoid the college move-in crowds.  I did do some baking on Saturday.  I made some zucchini bread which was a total flop.

I think it sat in the mixing bowl too long after it was all mixed up.  It's the only think I can come up with anyway since I used the same recipe I used last year.  I made the pumpkin cream cheese bread too and that turned out really good!

It looked a little flat but I think that's because my pans were a little bigger than they were suppose to be.  It tasted good anyway!  I found the recipe on Pinterest.  Here is the recipe if you are interested.  I didn't do the cinnamon glaze or add in the nuts, and mine only took 40 minutes to bake (you can see all the holes where I tested it...I was a little worried about it coming out so soon).

I also put out my fall decorations on Saturday.  It makes me so happy to have them out.  :o)

We didn't do a whole lot the rest of the weekend.  I took some pictures Sunday morning while it was super foggy out.  I'll try to remember to post some of them later this week.  Otherwise, it was just a quiet, relaxing weekend.

Have a great week!

Easy breadsticks

Thought I'd share a simple trick with ya today that I learned from my sister-in-law, Annie.

Take some refrigerated breadsticks and some Italian seasoning...

open your breadstick container {I HATE opening those things!}, separate the breadsticks, fold each one in half and give it a few twists, then sprinkle the seasoning on top.

{I got a little carried away with my seasoning over on the right there}

Bake according to the directions on the breadstick container.

These are so simple and so good!  And, they make your kitchen smell really good while they are baking. :o)

Zucchini Bread

As I mentioned the other day, I made zucchini bread on my day off.  I used my new favorite recipe, which I found here.

Even though zucchini season is coming/has come to an end, I thought I'd share the recipe I used.  It's definitely worth saving until next year!


Mom's Zucchini Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1.Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3.Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4.Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

**I omitted the walnuts and 1/4 cup sugar.

Homemade Applesauce

So we had another snow day yesterday (yay!).  Since I was up early, I decided to run to the store quick and get some supplies to make homemade applesauce.

Do you have any idea how easy it is to make it in your crockpot?  I had no idea.

So this is all you have to do...

buy or pick some apples (I used Gala)....

peel them....

chop 'em up and throw 'em in the crockpot.....

dump a little water in, sprinkle a little sugar on top, a couple squirts of lemon juice, and put the lid on.  I had my crockpot on high and about 2 1/2 hours later it was ready.

So easy and so good!  I put some on my oatmeal this morning.  My new obsession is this website and all her oatmeal creations.  Who knew there were so many ways to eat oatmeal?

Anyway, back to the applesauce.  I used this site as a guide because I wasn't really sure how to go about making the applesauce.  Easy to follow, she even says it'd be hard to mess up.  And the name of her blog makes me giggle, cuz I'm mature like that (please tell me I'm not the only one).

Crockpot Chicken

Our supper tonight was so good and so easy.

I can't decide if that picture makes it look gross or appetizing.  Anyway, I just did a little prep work last night of washing potatoes, carrots, and the chicken.  This morning I just threw the potatoes, carrots, and some onion in the crockpot and poured a little water over top.  Then I put the chicken on top of that, put the lid on, and turned it on low.  Super fast and easy.  When I came home from work I just turned the temp down to keep warm so the chicken wouldn't dry out before supper time.

This was only the second time I've thrown a whole chicken in the crockpot.  I'm not sure why I don't do it more often.

Do you have any good crockpot recipes?  I'd like to start making more meals in ours since it's so darn easy.

Oldies But Goodies

Here are a couple more of my favorite Christmas time treats.  The links will take you to the recipe and also give photo credit.

Original Chex Mix Recipe

Puppy Chow

Peanut Butter Cookie Cups

Here's another of my favorite Christmas treat recipes.  I've posted this before but it's definitely worth revisiting.

Here's what you'll need to make the cookie cups:
Refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
Reese's peanut butter cups minis
Mini muffin pans
Cooking spray

 Grease mini muffin pan with cooking spray.  Roll PB cookie dough into 1 inch balls and drop into mini muffin pan.

 Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes.  Insert peanut butter cups into cookie immediately after removing from oven.  Let cool.  Run knife along edges of each cookie to remove from pan.

 These are so easy and so good!  The two packages of dough made about 55 cookie cups.

Golden Grahams Mix

Can you believe there are only 39 days until Christmas?!?  I'm so excited!! 

Since we are so close to the holidays, I thought I'd start sharing some of my favorite holiday recipes with ya all.

This is a new favorite and I don't really have an actual recipe for this one.   I have no idea what it's called so I'm just going to call it Golden Grahams Mix.  I went into the lounge at work one day and it was there.  I decided I'd make it at home that weekend so Dave could try it too.

What you need:
White almond bark - 1 lb.
Golden Grahams cereal - 1 box
Salted peanuts - 1 jar
Mixed nuts -small can
Pretzels - 1 bag

So, since I don't have a recipe this is what I did:
Melted half of the 1 lb bar of white almond bark in a 6 quart pot (I think that's the size I used).
Once melted, I dumped in a few cups of cereal, a couple handfuls of peanuts, about 1/4 of the can of mixed nuts, and a handful or so of pretzels.

Then I just mixed it all together until everything was pretty well covered.  Next, I dumped it out onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.  I stuck in the cookie sheet in the fridge while I did the next batch.  Once the almond bark was hard, I just broke it into pieces then put it in a bowl.

I know, not real exact but you could really alter this anyway you want.  More cereal and less nuts, more nuts and no pretzels, etc.  It's so easy and really good.

If know or have a name for this let me know!  :o)

Recipe: Spaghetti Casserole

So one of the things that I've enjoyed about having my husband home every night is being able to cook a meal each night.  I enjoy meal planning (most of the time) and I like to cook (most of the time).   When I was here by myself I'd eat cereal, popcorn, or whatever else I could find to feed myself.  It got old but I wasn't going to make a whole meal for myself.

One thing that makes meal planning easier is my recipe binder.  I don't always need a recipe but it does give me ideas.  A couple years ago I decided to gather all my recipes and put them in a binder.  It has been so much nicer to just go to my binder for a recipe than try to dig through various magazines/cookbooks. 

I rarely post recipes on here and I'm not sure why.  Blogs have been a great source of new recipes for me.  I guess it's time I start sharing more too.

I made spaghetti casserole for supper Tuesday night.  We don't have it often but it is really good.  It's nice too beacause you can make two pans of it at once and freeze one for a future meal.  I usually just make mine in a 9x13inch pan so we leftovers for lunches.

Sorry about the crusty appearance of the paper.  It got splattered on a time or two before I made my recipe binder. 

Oh, and don't bake it for 55 minutes unless it's one you've taken it out of the freezer.  It only takes about 15 minutes or so if you make it and bake it the same night.

Weekend Recap

I started out my weekend by watching a little of this on QVC Friday night....
and making some of these for a baby shower....

On Saturday we went to Sioux Falls to do some shopping. All we bought was 4 pieces of scrapbook paper. Pretty exciting huh? We ate at the Olive Garden for lunch...so good! We spent part of the day at my sister-in-law's place. We had an awesome supper there and some really good cake too!

.

On Sunday I started working on a craft project (sorry about the sideways pic)....

and we did some fall cleaning. Five bags worth of stuff to donate to Goodwill!

We had planned to pick pumpkins in the afternoon but it was just too windy. We stayed home instead and watched The Soloist. I made some really good chicken & dumplings soup for supper. You can find the recipe here, it's a lower calorie version.

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I've kind of been avoiding posting about this but I'm finally at a point where I'm proud of my progress so......

My friend Nicolle and I became weight loss buddies a month ago. We've been emailing each other back and forth to share tips, recipes, and encouragement. It's really helped having someone to talk to! I've lost 11.2 pounds since we started 4 weeks ago, and have lost exactly 20 pounds since July. I might lose a little faster if I didn't eat at places like Olive Garden, but I've been taking every Saturday (or Sunday, or both) off. It's helped me from feeling deprived and keeps me going. :o)

Some fall and muffins

Well I hadn't planned to be away from my blog so long. Things have been really quiet around here lately so I haven't really had anything to share. Sometimes quiet is nice though.

I went to our local Garden this past weekend. There were lots of signs of summer around yet...

But there were lots of signs of fall too....

There were lots of crunchy leaves to step on too as I walked around.



And in honor of fall starting tomorrow and our awesome, cool weather today I decided to try the super easy pumpkin muffin recipe I found.

The ingredients:

Dump everything together and mix (that's 1 cup water). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

The result:

It's a low calorie recipe I found here (nutritional info listed too). Mmm...they are so good! Some reviews said something about tasting just like pumpkin pie. I wouldn't go that far, but they are definitely tasty :o)

Makin' Paula Deen Proud

A couple days ago our niece Sarah was looking for a dessert recipe to try. I offered to let her look through my recipe binder to see if anything caught her eye. She picked out a Paula Deen recipe that I had found on Bakerella called Deep Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake. It wasn't a recipe I had tried so it sounded like a good choice to me too.

Here's Sarah at work making the cake:

All mixed up and ready to go in the oven:

Straight out of the oven:

After it fell (it's suppose to) in all it's rich fudgy goodness:

It was really good! It's super rich but very good. Our first baking session was a success!! :o)

Our next venture will be the Bakerella pie pops.