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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Night at the Farm!

Tuesday night we had a picnic at Papa Bruce's Farm in celebration of the end of 4H at school. I brought Landon and David along for the fun. The farm is owned by the father of one of our teachers at school. The farm even inspired her to write a book called Papa Bruce's Barnyard. Check the book out, it's a really cute book and talks all about the farm! Here are some pictures mostly of the animals since Landon was a little afraid of them.





Wordless Wednesday

Monday, May 26, 2008

Balloons Everywhere!

This weekend was Freedom Weekend Aloft at Heritage Park kind of back away from our house. It's basically a festival with bands performing concerts every night over Memorial Day Weekend. They also have hot air balloonist who come from all over to launch. The great thing about living so close is getting to see the balloons. Here are some shots I got from our house and my parent's house:



Fajita Lasagna

This looks so yummy and it puts fajitas (which I like) in lasagna form.
You will need:
1 pound ground beef
29 oz tomato sauce
1 pouch fajita mix
1 bell pepper
1/2 onion
2 cups cheese
8 lasagna noodles
1 Tbs. olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef and drain and rinse well.
2. Mix browned ground beef with tomato sauce and fajita mix. Cook until boiling and then simmer while completing step 3.
3. Cut bell pepper and onion into small pieces and saute using olive oil.
4. Spray a 13x9 dish with cooking spray. Spread 1 cup of the sauce/meat mixture in the bottom of the dish. (sorry the picture is blurry)
5. Place 4 noodles over the mixture.
6. Place 1 cup of sauce/meat mixture over the noodles.
7. Spread the bell pepper and onion over the mixture.
8. Cover the bell pepper and onion with 1 cup cheese.
9. Cover the cheese with 4 noodles.
10. Cover the noodles with remaining sauce/meat mixture.
11. Spread 1 cup cheese on top.
12. Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes on 350. Let sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Our FUN Saturday

We had so much fun today. We started off the day by going to the zoo. We ended up not staying there too long since it was close to lunch time and Landon was ready to eat. After the zoo we had a picnic at the park. Here's Landon having a blast:After eating lunch, we went for a walk to Falls Park. David has never been so we decided to hike the 1.3 miles there. It was a nice walk and I was surprised Landon would get close to the water.
We then walked out onto the bridge over the falls and river. Landon wasn't thrilled about being that high up over the water.
Landon fell asleep in the car and we were able to get him into the house and he stayed asleep. He was a tired little boy.

Shishkabobs and Brown Rice

Since it's Memorial Day Weekend we had to use the grill. We made yummy shishkabobs with my favorite brown rice. Here's the recipe for the brown rice:
1 1/4 cup rice
1 can French Onion soup
1 can Beef Consomme soup

Mix all of this together and cook the way you would normally cook rice. So easy and so yummy!

We also made shishkabobs out of steak we had in the freezer. We tried this marinade and it was pretty good:

Here's the marinaded goodies:
Getting ready for the grill:
Sizzlin away (I ran out of green pepper):
All done and cooked up right (according to David):
YUM!:

This is a great summertime meal and I am looking forward to having it more this coming summer. So easy and so good.

Landon's verdict: he ate mandarin oranges and played with the "stabbers" (aka skewers).

Strawberry Pretzel Desert

YUM! I got this recipe off of Landon's playgroup message board and I am sorry I waited so long to make it.

Here you go:
1. Crush 2 cups of pretzels
2. Mix the crushed pretzels with a stick of melted butter and 2 Tbs. sugar.
3. Spread evenly into a 13x9 pan and bake for 10 minutes on 350.
4. While the crust is baking, mix 8 oz cool whip, 8 oz cream cheese and 1 cup sugar.
5. After the crust has cooled, spread the mixture on top.
6. Place sliced strawberries on top of the mixture.

7. Mix a large pack of strawberry jello, 2 cups of boiling water, and 3/4 cup sugar and pour over the top of the strawberries.

8. Place the dish in the refrigerator and allow the jello to set.
I think next time I am going to cut out the sugar except the sugar that goes in the crust. It was good that sweet, but it was too sweet. This of course will make it a tad healthier as well!

Landon's verdict: he liked the mixture of cool whip, cream cheese, and sugar but that's it.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Cheese Grits, Eggs, and Sausage!

YUM! I love having breakfast for dinner. It's quick, easy, cheap, and yummy! I found these great sausage patties/links a while back. It's really turkey, but it tastes so much better and is so much better for you than regular pork sausage. I love Jimmy Dean's version especially since they are precooked and all you have to do is warm them up!


I currently have a loaf of regular old white bread in the bread machine right now. We ran out of bread yesterday so I am trying some made from the bread machine. I need to look at my recipes and see what else I can try this weekend since I am off for 3 WHOLE GLORIOUS DAYS!!!