for the love of cooking and eating and eating

The holiday seasons brings out the cook and baker in me.

It also brings out the eater.

I have cooked, our friends have cooked.  I feel the need to eat everything in sight the last week or so of December.

I even made pancakes for the first time!  

I know, I know, but I burned them once years ago and never looked back.  Gary is usually the pancake maker in this house.  

We love nachos and Layla's tortellini soup was a hit!

Our favorite easy peasy lunch is meat and cheese on a Hawiian roll.  

I will never forget the cheeseburger I ate.  It was bigger than my face and oh so good.  I dream of that thing, because I am a cheeseburger LOVER!

I am giving up the fries and sweets soon though.  I am getting back to my version of clean eating.

I let myself enjoy the holidays with no worries, and now it's time to get back to working out and our normal dinner time routine!  We have been so busy and I miss our evening meals together at the table.  The new year is upon us!

basketball boy

Santa brought our family a basketball goal for Christmas.

Gary and I love to shoot hoops, but we aren't huge basketball fans.  Hayden told us in the fall he wanted to try basketball in the winter, so we signed him up!  We didn't even own a basketball until Santa brought one to us.  Hayden is so excited about getting better at shooting hoops.  He has been outside as the weather permits going nuts dribbling and shooting.  I can't wait to see him get better and better!  I love the confidence of kids.  They don't care, they just wanna play!!

Merry Christmas! 2013

We had a wonderful day celebrating!  We hope you did too!

Christmas Eve 2013

We opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift of PJ's!

We all look forward to new pj's every year.

Lily was curious too!

I loved my pj's.  They are footed and so warm!

After we all put our pj's on the kids spread the reindeer food and crawled into bed for the night!

We had to put Lily inside because she was eating the oatmeal and sprinkles!

My little chef!

Layla is a wonderful chef!  She made our dinner, tortellini soup, for us today.  
She pretty much did it all.  She read the recipe, gathered the ingredients, opened all the ingredients and added them to the slow cooker.  This was our first time to make this particular recipe and I'll share it one day, but it needs help. The flavor was amazing, but Layla and I both agree we will make it different the next time!

Layla was beaming when we sat down to eat.  I'm so thankful she loves to be in the kitchen as much as I do!
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Holly Jolly Christmas Choir Program

Last night the kids sang in their schools Christmas program! It was a very sweet program and of course I got teary eyed!

The choir director, students and teachers worked so hard to put together a lovely program. I enjoyed every second!

Layla loves singing and now wants to join the choir. I'm so excited for her! All the kids go to music at school, but choir is optional. I know she'll love being a part of the choir. It was one of my favorite things as a kid!

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A fun visit to Santa

We took the kids to see Santa last night. 


There wasn't a line and Santa was so sweet to actually talk to the kids about exactly what they want this year.  They sat on his lap for almost 5 full minutes!


Layla asked for bunk beds for her room and a giant craft set.


Hayden asked for bunk beds for his room and a BB gun.  Santa was very matter of fact in telling Hayden that if he got a BB gun there would be certain rules to go with it.  He was very nice and told Hayden to never shoot living things.

I'm excited for Christmas time and I can't wait to see what Santa will end up bringing!
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No school today!

We woke up to beautiful snow!

I didn't even realize snow was in the forecast, so I woke up just as surprised as the kiddos!

Hayden was feeling yucky early this morning, so he and Daisy just chilled on the couch.

Once he started feeling better we played games. Headbands is always a fun game to play!

I'm making a crock pot full of potato soup for dinner and thinking about baking something sweet. This time of year makes me want to eat junk. I'm trying to be good, but it's so hard. Heating the oven heats the house...that is my excuse for wanting to make cupcakes.

Happy snow day!

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One year old pup!

Lily is one today!

I can't believe this pretty, loving and spunky pup is one!  We got her in Feburary of last year and she has been the best addition to our family.  We just love her so much!!

Happy Birthday Lily Jack!

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GingerBread Houses!

Back in November the kids made gingerbread houses at a workshop here in town.  It was so fun because we went to The Castle and the ladies had everything set up for us.  We paid a fee for each house and the kids got to build their houses and eat candy.

This is Layla's house:

I love the curvy Chex cereal sidewalk!

I also love the fire pit, and it's lit!

The side of the house features the dogs food and water bowls.  The dog is there also, but she's hard to see.  She's made of tootsie rolls.

Layla did a wonderful job and I barely helped her at all.

Here is Hayden's house:

I did have to help him a little more.  He needed it, but I tried to make him do as much as possible.

Hayden has a fire pit and a log pile!

He ate more marshmallows than he used on his house.

I will sign the kids up for the gingerbread workshop again next year.  I don't have the patience to build the houses here at home.  The lovely ladies of The Castle guided us and helped me so much.   I couldn't get the walls to stick and it made me crazy!  They also clean up everything!  It's win win and we have loved having the houses on display as Christmas decorations.

sloppy joe .... sloppy sloppy joe. casserole

Somewhere floating around the internet I came upon a recipe for Sloppy Joe Casserole.  I thought it was on pinterest, but I looked on my boards and couldn't find it. Anyway,  I thought it sounded perfect for the kids.  I loved Sloppy Joe's as a child.  I loved the messy bun that falls apart while you eat it, but the clean up was awful.  Sloppy Joe casserole isn't sloppy at all, but it sure is tasty.  I've made this casserole several times, but tonight was our favorite way!

I love hiding veggies in this recipe.  Tonight I used zucchini, carrots and onions because it's what I had on hand.  You can use squash, or just about any veggie in my opinion.  The sauce of the Sloppy Joe mix makes it all taste like yummy pie.

So here is what I used:

1 carrot, chopped 1 medium zucchini, chopped 1/2 a white onion, chopped 1 pound ground turkey 1 can of Sloppy Joe sauce 2 refrigerated cans of crescent rolls 

I sauteed the chopped veggies in olive oil and set them aside.  I browned the turkey and then drained it and added the veggies and Sloppy Joe mix to the turkey.  I let it simmer for a bit while lining a greased pan with the first container of crescent rolls.  {Just smash them out flat on the bottom of a baking pan.}  Pour the warm Sloppy Joe goodness onto the crescent roll, then place the other container of crescent rolls on the top of the mix.

I baked it in a 375 degree preheated oven for about 24 minutes.  It started to look brown and I didn't want it to over cook.  I thought it would need to cook longer, but it was nice and warm and the crescents were even slightly crispy.  It was so good!!
I'm not sure why we love this so much.  The kids struggle with casseroles sometimes because they don't like all their food together, but they ate every bite.  I'm happy they got veggies without me having to MAKE them eat them.
It's such a great meal for a cold winter night!