LIFE'S PEACHY!

Our neighbor's have all sorts of fruit trees in their yard, so when they share their harvest with us, we get superly duperly excited about it, especially when they involve donut peaches. We all plowed through these little babies at the dinner table one night and its deliciousness left us wanting more. We secretly hope our neighbor will ring the doorbell again to give us another bag. 

It is so sweet to just indulge in the simple things nature gives us. What fruits have you been indulging in lately?

FAMILY MEALS: 18

The only dinner I semi-prepared were bean and cheese tostadas...

The girls had theirs topped with a blob of avocado and I had mine with chipotles mixed in. It was good, but oh man, I'm tired of eating out and tired of bean and cheese tostadas. I want to get back in my kitchen and cook. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to be changing out floors and doing some house renovating, but being behind schedule two weeks isn't fun at all and is more challenging when kids are involved. It looks like it will be another week and half until things get back to normal around here. That's being optimistic though and realistically it will be two weeks until things settle down. 

Week 5/21 - 5/25

Monday: Dawn's Scampi

Tuesday: Sliders (gotta find a recipe)

Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

I can't believe it is pretty much nearing the end of May. Our kitchen hasn't been feeling very much love this month. Let's hope we can make up for it in June!

|week 17|week 16|week 15|week 14|week 13|week 12|week 11|week 10|week 9|week 8|week 7|week 6|week 5|week 4|week 3|week 2| week 1|

FAMILY MEALS: WEEK SEVENTEEN

Yup. Like I thought, not much cooking this week. We are still basically living upstairs and can't really use our kitchen much, so cooking is pretty much nada. 

Ben did make some black bean burgers, but even that was using some frozen patties he bought from the market...

In a pinch, they worked. We were out of buns, so good 'ole whole wheat bread had to do, and we added some avocados and chipotles and we called it a dinner. With a side of broccoli. Balance is good. It was yummy, we were fed, and that's as fancy as we get this week.

Now throw in some panda express, frozen pizzas, and maybe sunflower butter sandwiches and those are what our other nights comprised of. We have about a week left of living like this (there have been some hold ups), but we are getting antsy over here and can't wait to get this home back in working order. Plus, this mama is ready to decorate!  Next week, will be another quick and easy dinner week for us, but I will put a meal plan here from one of our favorite weeks just in case some of you need ideas. 

Week 5/14 - 5/18

Monday: Dawn's Scampi

Tuesday: Oven Fried Chicken

Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

When you can't cook in your kitchen, what's a quick and easy thing you put together?

|week 16|week 15|week 14|week 13|week 12|week 11|week 10|week 9|week 8|week 7|week 6|week 5|week 4|week 3|week 2| week 1|

FAMILY MEALS: WEEK SIXTEEN

One home cooked meal this week and that's because we are pretty much quarantined upstairs. All the carpet is gone downstairs and it is quite dusty, so the kitchen is only in use for quick things.

I did get to make some baked salmon...

I merged this recipe with the olive tapenade in this post and this is what came up. It was good, but I don't think it fit our taste palate. We like salmon with spice and though the flavors were good, they were just too mild for us. It did give me a chance to try baking salmon in foil, but for me this came out dryer than when we grill it. I prefer salmon grilled. 

For veggies we had roasted brussels sprouts...

Ben made it with a little bit of lemon juice, zest, garlic, salt, and pepper. This combo always wins with us. Here's a recipe you might want to try. Brussels sprouts are really good! Really!!!

I have a feeling there won't be much cooking again next week, but I will still plan, just in case. 

Week 4/7 - 4/11

Monday: Seafood Medley Pasta

Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Wednesday: Oven Baked Taquitos

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Pizza

What's your family's favorite vegetable?

|week 15|week 14|week 13|week 12|week 11|week 10|week 9|week 8|week 7|week 6|week 5|week 4|week 3|week 2| week 1|

SUPER QUICK SUNFLOWER BUTTER COOKIES

True's allergic to peanuts, so instead of peanut butter cookies, we do sunflower butter cookies. This is my take on the Sunflower Butter Cookie. Sunflower butter isn't for everyone. If you would much rather have peanut butter, which I happen to like much better, just substitute the sunflower butter for 1 cup peanut butter and you can add more sugar to the recipe, but I try to lessen it a bit for moderation's sake. Plus, I put in chocolate chips, so I think that is plenty sweet right there. Before I put them in the oven, some I sprinkled with sugar and some I sprinkled with salt. Your choice, do you want savory or sweet? I think I am more a sweet person, but savory is a nice change once in awhile.

The girls ate them up, so I guess I had happy customers. Share me some of your favorite cookie recipes!

MAKING MOCHI CAKE

After breakfast, we spent some baking. It is a good way to teach the girls sequential order and reinforcing following directions. I pretty much measure it all out for them and separate it in bowls and they just put it all together and mix. Brave did the flour mixture and True was in charge of the liquids. Lots of good things always come out of baking.

This is a cake first introduced to me from my BFF when she made it. I always like Asian desserts cause they are mildly sweet. Though, I really do love all desserts mildly sweet or super sweet... they all taste good to me.

Mochi Cake |from Week of Menus, originally from Gourmet Magazine 2005|

* I changed the ingredients up a bit, but pretty much followed the directions.

1 lb box of Mochiko Flour

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 - 14 oz cans of low fat coconut milk

5 large eggs

1/2 stick of melted butter (allow to cool)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

The recipe said to put in the oven for an hour and a half, but ours only needed to be in the oven for 50 minutes and it was ready, so I would watch closely to determine its readiness. Also, I wanted less sugar in ours and I used low fat coconut milk. I think it came out fine and the girls seem to like it, but if I trying this type of cake for the first time, I would say follow the original recipe exactly. It isn't as sweet as I have had it in the past, but it is still sweet enough. Our favorite part of the cake were the edges. The edges are tasty! I think next time when I make this, I might do it in a cupcake pan sans liner, so there will be a whole lot of edges!

We made it after breakfast, but the girls waited until snack time (4 pm) in the afternoon to eat it. Judging from how fast it went, I think they would say it was worth the wait! This recipe might be next on the list.

MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE

Have you tried it? Oh it is so good. By far my favorite way to drink hot coco and it was perfect for today's rainy day. The girls gulped it up during snack time and I still have a little bit left in the fridge. It is even good to sip on cold and the tablet is really yummy to nibble on.

What's your favorite way to make hot coco?

SOMETHING YUMMY

Visit MADE and I will teach you how to make Chocolate Crispies. So simple. So easy. And so good!

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TUESDAY NIGHTS

Tuesday nights are becoming more special here because that's the night we get together with some of our friends, particularly the BFF and her hubs and another gentleman from our church family, to share dinner and life. Dinner comes first and we all indulge, joke, and talk, after which the boys and girls separate and the boys have their accountability time together and Lin and I do our own version talking about things we struggle with, how to love God more, how to love our husbands more, etc. Of course, all the kids get put to bed after dinner and sometimes Ben and the boys do it to give the men some practice since they aren't yet fathers and other times the girls do it.

Speaking of putting the girls to bed, last night they were so cute because as I was taking all three big girls upstairs for bed, they said, "Mom, we have a show for our church family." I hesitated because it was already past their bedtime, but then let them do it because they weren't being shy and I wanted to take advantage of it. They had me call everyone to where the stairs are, and once they were all there, they proceeded to sing "So Long, Farewell" from Sound of music. It was the cutest thing!!! As stubborn as my kids are sometimes, they can be such heart melters too.

Ben and I are so blessed by this time and getting to know our friends more, though Lin and I are pretty much like sisters, but our husbands are quickly becoming better friends and we secretly think they want to be BFFs like us. Guess that is not so secret anymore. Anyways, we have all taken turns at making dinner and everytime the Parks bring dinner, it becomes a new favorite for Ben and he raves on and on after the food after company has gone home (and for days after too).

Last night was no exception. They brought Korean tacos and oh. my. gosh. So Yummerz! I was so hungry and loving it that I only took a picture of my plate pre-digging in and post-digging in. I didn't even get a picture of anyone else or the entire spread that was on the table. I plowed through 5 tacos and Lin and I out ate the boys. Our tummies were telling us we were full, but we listened to our taste buds. I officially declare that they can be in charge of food every week!

The recipe they used was Korean Beef Tacos from here and you can be sure this will be going in our recipe staples and I have a feeling this may be our Friday night dinner and I want to try it with shrimp. We definitely love our Tuesday nights with delicious food, friends, and discussions that spur us love God more. So, Lin and John... what are you brining over tonight? Who said we can't do it on Wednesdays too?!!

PAPPY CAKES

Seriously, Ben is just the best. I wake up Saturday morning and the girls tell me they have a surprise, but I have to wait. Shortly after, Ben comes upstairs with a brown paper in hand, makes us girls all sit on the bed together while he reads aloud what he has on his brown paper. He says, in a decree-like fashion...

After which he says we all need to go downstairs. Though, this is where there was a slight change of plans as I just happened to notice True has red dots and bumps all over her foot and upon closer inspection, they seemed to be all over her body. A few calls here and a few calls there, we determine she may have chickenpox or is having a late reaction to the chocolate chip cookies she had the other day. Eventually though, the surprise gets back underway.

What was it? Well, Ben had prepared a buttermilk pancake batter from this recipe and had bought a griddle (that he so slyly kept hidden away for a couple weeks) and pancake batter dispenser, had little pancake add-ins ready and we were about to recreate our own version of Slappy Cakes from our Portland trip almost exactly one year ago. That man is good! We were going to make our own pancakes right at our own table at home... so fun!!!

We made hearts, bows, shapes, spelled out our names, made little creatures, and some funny faces all the while devouring all morning long. Heck, Ben and I even had our own round of tic-tac-toe. Not to mention, we threw in some chocolate chips here, some berries there, and some bacon bits may have made it into some of the pancakes too! Seriously, all super yummy!!!

The girls seemed like bottomless pits as they were eating everything up all morning long. I feel we may have ourselves a new little family breakfast tradition coming on. Ben says he had planned to do this little surprise later in the month, but he was much too excited that he had to do it sooner. I am glad he did because pancakes were just what my tummy needed Saturday morning! We all definitely love us some Pappy Cakes!!!