Light Tortellini

Of course I love any kind of pasta, well except that wheat pasta. That's some bad stuff. I picked up some of the packaged tortellini in a Italian sausage & another with prosciutto. 

After cooking I put it in a large bowl & added dried garlic bits, a can of petite diced tomatoes & a small amount of olive oil. Mix it well & serve it up with a few cubes of fresh mozzarella. 

My toddler loved this too if anyone is looking for a great meal for kids. 

Flowers for Mother's Day

I remember art class vaguely from grammar school. Cute little crafty projects! I've been trying to reach down deep in my memory for some of these projects to do with Ash lately. With a little help from Pinterest, voila! 

I love flowers, but they don't last long & can get rather expensive so paper flowers are a great gift especially for mothers day when there's grandmas, aunts, neighbors, etc. 

You need tissue paper in the colors you like, scissors, & pipe cleaners. 

Cut a bunch of 5x7 rectangles of tissue paper in the colors you like. Stack them up & fold accordion style. You can cut half moons at the ends or cut a triangle to make a point on each end. 

Loop a pipe cleaner around the middle & twist off the end on the "stem". Fan out the tissue paper gently separating each piece of tissue paper. You can lightly spray with perfume if you'd like. 

Hope you all have as much fun as we did!

Ice pop great for kids

I've always loved ice pops but as I've gotten older I can truly appreciate the real fruit ones compared to the box of food dye pop sticks that I loved so much as a kid. I found some plastic Popsicle molds & decided to give it a try for Ash since he loves fruit so much. This is of course an easy teething helper!

Most grocery stores will have bags of frozen fruit that are individual fruit or a nice mix. I found a really nice one that had
strawberries, mangoes, pineapple, peaches and red grapes. You can really get whatever you prefer. Then I got a bottle of Juicy Juice mango juice.
I took about 3 cups of frozen fruit & 3/4 cup of mango juice & puréed in the food processor. I let it freeze overnight & we both thoroughly enjoyed our yummy ice pops!

Obsessed

Sorry I know it's been a little bit, but I've been crushing candy. This silly little game is more addictive than angry birds! I find myself needing my fix with any spare time that I have. HELP! I have been doing some cooking so I have a few new recipes coming soon! Oh! I think someone just sent me a life....

Strawberry spinach salad

A friend of mine told me of this wonderful olive oil & balsamic shop in our area called Bella Vita. I finally got a chance to go & I kid you not, I thought I went for a wine tasting. It was marvelous! The customer service was phenomenal as she took us through to taste everything. Even Ash got a few samples. If you're lucky enough to have one in your area I highly recommend visiting or go to their site. http://www.bvoliveoil.com
The woman there had us try apricot balsamic with lemon oil. Talk about a flavor explosion! I had to have it so a salad was born.

Strawberry spinach salad

Strawberries, sliced
Fresh spinach
Apricot balsamic
Lemon olive oil

Lay your spinach on your plate. Slice some strawberries on top. Combine the oil & vinegar. I found that a little more of the apricot made a better mix. Then just pour over salad. It's so flavorful, you really don't need much.

Strawberry Muffins

I love strawberries any way that I can get them. It's all too often that I can't find decent strawberries at the store so for this recipe I used frozen ones. I do try, but just like my blueberry muffins, I can never seem to keep my muffins from getting dyed from the juice. You can add some cinnamon for some extra flavor or even try swapping whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.

 

 

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup white sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup chopped strawberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a small bowl, combine oil, milk, and egg. Beat lightly. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Toss in chopped strawberries and stir to coat with flour. Pour in milk mixture and stir together.
Fill muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the tops bounce back from the touch. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans.

 

Onion & cheese roll ups

I had these for my husbands birthday party over the weekend & they were a huge hit! I found a garlic & lime salsa verde by Pace that goes perfect with this. You can make changes where you like. Add a slice of ham or serve warm with sautéed onions!

1 cup sour cream
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Scallions sliced. Amount to taste.
1 tbsp lime juice
10 (6 inch) flour tortillas
1 jar of salsa or salsa verde


Mix sour cream, cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, green onions, & lime juice.
Spread one side of each tortilla with the sour cream mixture. Tightly roll each tortilla. Place rolled tortillas on serving dish and cover with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour.
Slice tortillas in half. Serve with salsa.

Happy Easter!

  Easter was so exciting this year with Ash being a little bit older. For one thing, he didn't have chickenpox this year. We made him a little basket....errrr, maybe not so little. And then so did his grandparents & his aunt. haha Spoiled rotten! Just a little bit of candy but a lot of art things & toys. Don't mind momma & daddy's basket.

  Chris & I decided to get him a nice suit for the occasion. He was so handsome! I still just can't get over how big my baby is getting. It truly goes by too fast & I want to make sure I don't miss any of it.
We went over to my parents house for Easter for our family day. Immediately wanting to go outside, he began to spot the eggs right away. haha He knew exactly what to do for the hunt! We had to hold him off until his aunt came so that we could do pictures.

  He ran around the yard finding them all & putting them in his basket. Then he had a blast getting them all open to see what was inside.
  A wonderful meal. A wonderful family. Just a perfect day!

 

 

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Mystery goop

I remember as a kid a friend of mine showed me the magic of mystery goop that we would play with outside. We would pour it on her deck & watch it spread like water, but was nearly solid to touch. Way cool!
Ash is always looking to learn & try new things so I thought it would be a fun afternoon activity.
All you do is mix cornstarch & water together. That's it. Cleanup is super simple too. You just need a damp paper towel & your floor is clear.
I think that mystery goop kept him entertained for nearly an hour & perfect for a dreary day outside. Hope your little ones enjoy too!

Lemon Pound Cake

I found myself craving some kind of citrusy dessert yesterday & this lemon pound cake sure hit the spot!

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon extract
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
zest of one lemon
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp whole milk
1/2 tsp lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice with a mixer until blended.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil and lemon zest and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (It took an hour in my oven). Remove from oven and pour glaze over it, then cool in pan on a rack.
Glaze - whisk to combine

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

A friend of mine made these delicious cookies last week. I had to have the recipe! Now I can share it with all of you. Yum!

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups quick-cooking or regular rolled oats, uncooked

Heat oven to 375˚

Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; blend thoroughly. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Mix in peanut butter until well blended. Stir in oats, mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 4 dozen