Happy Easter!

Yummy Dessert

Last week when I was at Krystal's house I ate 2 of her desserts cheesecake and strawberry macaroons. Oh my goodness both things were so amazing! The cheesecake was very creamy, thick and rich. It was perfect plain without any fruit. I could have ate the entire little cheesecake. Luckily I refrained myself from pigging out on cheesecake. 

Now lets talk macaroons.....mmmmmm. Last year Krystal made peanut butter and jelly macaroons which were OUT of this world! This time she made strawberry macaroons. They were filled with nutella and jam. I am not a fan of nutella EXCEPT on strawberry macaroons. I ate 4 of those bad boys! 

I took a bite of the cheesecake and Krystal says you are going to eat your dessert before you take a picture. Picture? Ummm who thinks of pictures when there is delicious dessert in front of my face. 

I took a picture of Krystal's untouched dessert. lol

Pictures from Last Week

Last week one of my employees brought Vietnamese sandwiches in for lunch. These things are AMAZINGLY delicious! Yummy meat on a crunch baquette topped with veggies. Oh these things are one of the best sandwiches ever!

I spent the night at my friend Julie house. Her dog finds my butt a comfy pillow!

I looked outside my window because I heard A LOT of talking below. The entire front of the building had TONS of people. I guess Charles Schwab had a fire drill, so everyone gathers in front of our building. Luckily they made it snappy and got back to work. lol

Lacey bought a Relay for Life bag in my honor. The bag will have a candle in it lighting the trail for the walk. It was so sweet! I feel so honored to have my name on that bag as a cancer survivor!

Easter Menu

I am cooking Easter dinner on Sunday. My father in law recently brought us 50 pounds of potatoes. I have been trying to figure out how to use these potatoes, so they don't go bad. I decided to make a potato bar for Easter. I am going to make bake potatoes and mash potatoes with various toppings. Bacon, cheese, green onions, sour cream, and I am not sure what else yet. 

Our menu will have:
Ham
Potato Bar
Salad
MIL is bringing a salad & deviled eggs

I can't wait for the yummy potatoes! 

Beef Stew

Last week I made stew in the crock pot for dinner. I love coming home any night of the week after work with dinner waiting in the crock pot. I have started to pull out the crock pot to make life easier. I want to eat healthy, but I don't want to spend an hour fixing dinner. I am even more determined to rarely use a box or prepackaged freezer meal. I want to make our meals from ingredients I know exactly what I am adding to our meals. One item that is hard for me to give up is frozen pizzas. I know a lot of people do not like frozen pizza, but I do. I should start making my own and I might challenge myself to do so. 

Back to the stew! I had bought organic stew meat at Fresh & Easy on clearance for about $2 bucks. My father in law brought me 50 pounds of potatoes he got for free. I bought carrots at Costco for $3 for 10 pounds and we received some fennel in our organic veggie box. 

1 pound stew meat
3 carrots - chopped
5 small potatoes
2 whole tomatoes - we had frozen tomatoes from our garden last year in the freezer
2 bulbs of fennel
4 cups of broth

20 minutes before serving I made a flour and broth mix. I cooked this part on the stove, so it would thicken up. I used 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup broth. I brought it to a point, let it get thick and then added it to the stew. I made some garlic bread and served it with the stew. It was really yummy and filling. 

Wordless Wednesday

Mint Jeans

I have really wanted a pair of mint jeans. I tried a pair on recently at Marshall's, but I didn't buy them. I keep seeing mint jeans and want a pair soooo bad. I have stopped shopping because my closet is full. I have plenty of clothes and need to stop spending money. Well I was at Target the other day and I saw mint jeans. I found a pair on clearance, tried them on and loved them. I decided for $20 I could buy a pair. I decided to check out Pinterest to find some mint jean inspiration pictures. Below are the pictures I found. 

I am going to wear my mint jeans with a white tshirt, taupe cardigan and leopard scarf. I love how fresh and springy mint looks. 

Menu Monday

This past weekend I was able to see two of my friends. Both of them inspired me food wise. Krystal made some delicious blueberry lemonade. I have been trying to get Art to stop drinking Redbull and drink healthier stuff. He is NOT a fan of water. He said if you had to drink hot water out of a canteen in the dessert I would not drink so much of it now. Well he heard something on the radio about Redbull and has decided to stop drinking it. I told him I would make him some strawberry lemonade. Julie has been making homemade bread. I ate a piece and it was soooo yummy, fresh and soft. I am going to try to make bread. 

Last night I made strawberry lemonade with lemons from the inlaws lemon tree. It came out really good. I haven't made any bread yet, but it is on my list. 

Dinner Menu:
Crock Pot Potato Soup
Frozen Pizza
Steak & Swiss Chard
Leftovers

Krystal, Elena (Cookie) and Me

Me & Julie

OOTD

Here are a few pictures from the past week. I have been mixing patterns and loving it! I also am trying not to buy any new clothes. I have so many clothes and I really need to stop spending money. We have a lot of vacations coming up this year and I need to be saving money to have fun in the sun!

Button Down: Old Navy

Sweater: Target

Jeans: Old Navy

Shoes: Bass

Button Down: Thrift

Stripe Shirt: Gap

Skirt: JcPennys

Shoes: Toms

Sweatshirt: Target

Jeans: Gap

Shoes: Bass

Cardigan: Gap

Tshirt: Target

Skirt: Rue 21

Shoes: Payless Shoe
Scarf: Amazon

Granny & Kaleb Time

I have watched Kaleb a couple Saturday's while Amber & Marcus are working. Each time we have a photo shoot. He has a good routine and I squeeze picture taking in during the happy times. This past Saturday was my favorite. He is laughing and talking a lot more. Plus he is at a good age where he doesn't grab things off his head or face and lets me snap pictures like a mad woman. 

Mommy's Little Monster

Well Hello! 

Nap Time!

I told Kaleb smile for Grandma and he cracked up laughing. It was so funny! I guess he found it very funny to call me Grandma. When I ask him to smile for Mimi I don't get a response at all. 

I was mixing his bottle & snapping a picture of him at the time same. He was NOT happy the bottle was not ready STAT when he first made a squeak!!! 

Grandpa even took a turn! 

SUPER MARIO! 

Mimi I am exhausted after all those pictures - Thanks Kaleb!

Mother of the Bride Dresses

I went to David's Bridal last week to try on some bridesmaid dresses for Lacey's wedding. Lacey gave me 2 options to pick from and luckily one of them was amazing! I was pleasantly surprised to find out I needed a smaller size than I thought.  The dress is soooo comfortable and I know I will wear it again. I can't wait to get my dress!

While I was there I decided to look for some dresses for my mom. I am sorry, but the mother of the bride/groom dresses are HORRIFIC!!!! Who designs these things? Some of them were so awful no one would ever leave the house in them. I tried to grab some pictures from David's Bridal website, but they have the stealing picture option blocked. Hey people I would have linked back to you. :)

Here are the dresses I did find and send to my mom. I also took pictures of the tags, so she can easily find them in the store. One thing I really like at DB is the fact they have the style # on hanging tags, so it is easy to find the dress. I think these dresses would be very flattering on her. Hopefully she will go try them on soon =)

Bart Happenings

Please take a look at the lady on the left. She had 2 flowers in her hair and it made it look like horns coming out of her head. 

This guy was not on Bart, but I did a double take of his outfit. It would be SUPER cute on a girl, but it just looked funny to me on a guy. I could never imagine my dad or husband wearing something like this. He looked like he was going to Easter dinner. 

The chick above had a HUGE suitcase. You can't even see how huge the suitcase is from this picture. She kept moving it to the wrong side of the train and had to keep moving. I was sure the stroller was going to bust in half. Then she started SCREAMING on her phone - she did NOT have enough money to be eating at Golden Corral every night. She wanted to go to her friends house to eat and save her cash. Why EVERYONE on the train needed to hear this I have NO idea! 

Wordless Wednesday

The prankster is BACK!

On Saturday evening I came running in the door & ran to the bathroom. I sat on the seat & I hear a BAM. I thought oh crap I broke the seat. I'm hovering over the seat because I don't want my butt pinched. I get up look - nothing. Seat is perfectly fine. I thought one of our sky light poles must have fell - nope. Hmmm I no idea what the noise was, so I forgot about it.

We come home later that night from running errands. Art runs to the front bathroom. He never uses that one. I was super cranky & yell why would you run in there when I said I have to pee super bad.

I went to the back bathroom & very quickly he is standing in the bathroom door laughing. I asked what is so funny. He asked if I heard a big pop. Nope. Then I remembered early.  Evidently he put one of those poppers you throw on the ground under the toilet seat. When I sat down that was the BAM.

We both cracked up when I told him about the earlier incident. I need to keep a list of these to pull on my parents when we visit.

Menu Monday

Monday - Gouda Risotto with roasted veggies

Tuesday - crock pot stew 
I am going to make my own stew recipe based on what I have on hand. Stew meat, carrots, fennel, potatoes, frozen tomatoes from our garden, broth - cook for 7.5 hours. Then add 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup broth and bag of frozen peas and cook on high in the crock pot for 20-30 minutes. Hopefully it will turn out good. Hopefully there is enough left over for Art to eat while I am gone.

Wednesday - Turkey chops and mac & cheese

Thursday - Krystal's House - I can't wait to taste what she whips up!!!!

Friday - Julie House!

Happy St. Patrick Day

Check out our little Leprechaun! I took a bunch of pictures yesterday again. I told Kaleb smile for Grandma & he cracked up laughing. I guess he found it funny to call me Grandma. He doesn't laugh or smile when I ask him to smile for Mimi.