Saturday, November 27, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving (and things)

Thanksgiving was a perfect day! I started off the morning by making chocolate waffles with my sister in-law Lisa(our new Thanksgiving morn. tradition while the guys were playing football) and my friend Emily and all of our kids (6total).  It was quite delicious, complete with whip cream on top (we did have some fruit too to balance things out, hehe)
Then off to Josh's mom and dad's for a Thanksgiving feast!
We had a lot of fun, the kids ran wild while the adults prepared the food. We did take a few moments to play this:
You get four people inside this stretchy material...
 you pulllllll back....two people(across frome eachother, run and exchange places, pullllling back again...
 sling shotting the other two across...fun fun fun...we even took riley and braden in-holding them-and went a little slower of course, they had blast!
The funny part is usually when someone gets tripped up on their own feet from running so fast and spinning around, they fall, taking the rest of the people down with them...hehe i promise it's funny...happy to report no blood or broken bones!

This is the dutch oven KING....seriously. Josh's dad has countless dutch ovens and the knowledge to use them. He cooked the turkey in this one and it was D.LICIOUS
A little photo op before we left home

This is where the "and things" comes in on my title of this post:
I found a new hair blog and have been doing riley's hair all sorts of crazy lately...not saying they are that cute, mostly like "woah" but some cute...im stretching my french braiding fingers so to speak...
Braden's first icecream cone of his very own
Our little man before church on sunday
Riley working on her work book...she has been SO into writing her letters, she can do a capital A,R,H,lowercase i and j, T,L,C,O,P,E,andY im so proud of her!
And braden using a fork...i have a video clip but it was lost in a drastic memory card download fiasco.
He speared the hotdog with his fork then took it off with his other hand and ate it...he's gettin' there!
Hope everyone was able to find a good deal or two on black friday!


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Easy, pretty quick and YUMMY dinner

Spanish Rice Dinner
Ingredients:
  • 1 box spanish "rice a roni"
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1.5 cups hot water
  • 1 can (16 oz) tomatoes cut up
  • 1lb ground beef made with taco seasoning or you can use chilli
  • 1 can corn (12oz)
  • 1 can olives (3.25oz)
  • 3 cups (12oz) cheddar cheese
  • 3 cups corn chips (fritos, etc)
Directions:
-Saute rice with butter until golden brown
-Add hot water, flavor packet and tomatoes, cover and simmer about 15min
-brown beef, drain add taco seasoning (see instructions on seasoning packet)
-combine rice, beef, corn, olives, dash of pepper
-stir in 2 cups cheese and 2 cups corn chips
-pu in 9x13 pan top with remaining cheese and chips
-bake at 400 for 15min
YUM! Enjoy

Monday, November 22, 2010

A Good Day

     The day started off "early" with Braden waking up at about 6:30 but luckily he laid in bed with us for a little mostly hitting just Josh in the face...
    Then door stairs for breakfast  The kids ate as they listened to church music (Book of Mormon Stories is one of Riley's favorite songs right now) and i started cleaning...
    We all played and cleaned until Braden's first nap...they were being so good i was able to "deep clean upstairs and down in about 2hours! They even both got a bath before Braden's first nap! 
    Riley and I bonded a little over some ABC games online while we waited for B.man to wake up...
    Lunch, play time...Riley's nap...I let Braden have a few M&M's after lunch and he screamed when they were all gone...that kid loves his sweets!  Braden and I just played until his second nap. He is so funny these days. He is understanding a lot-doesn't mean he'll do what you want him to. We have a bin in the kithen for coke cans/water bottles and he loves to get them out. When we tell him to put them back he walks towards it then screeches (another FAVE... lately) and shakes his head no and walks the opposit way.
    Braden finally says "up" on his own, not just when we remind him, and that is SO helpful!  He is also saying down and help when we tell him to...not very clear-one of those times when only the parents can understand it i think.
   A little side note. Braden shakes his head "no" when we tell him to sign "more" but i got him to sign "candy" today...haha that tells you something!
   Both took pretty good naps so i got that lovely "quiet time" and got a few things done and was refreshed when they woke up..
   Overall just a happy day. Some days i feel like we struggle all day long just to be happy and today it came so easy. Love it.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fall Recipes

With Thanksgiving right around the corner I thought I'd post 4 delicious mouth watering recipes...
I've tasted them all and have made two of them myself. You will not be sorry you made and ate these until you step on the scale (just a little warning)!

Yummy Pumpkin Bread
(this one is actually from allrecipes.com (Pumpkin Bread IV) with one little adjustment)

Original Recipe Yield 3 - 9x5 inch loaves
Ingredients:
3 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 cups white sugar
6 eggs
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour    (the bread i tasted subbed 1/2 of flour for oat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
*mini chocolate chips(add as many of these in if you'd like...i'd highly recommend it)
Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2.In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Brown Butter Frosting
Yields 2, 8in. loaves
Ingredients:
1 spice cake mix
1 large package instant vanilla pudding (5.1ounce)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup pumpkin (100% pure pumpkin)
3 eggs
Directions:
   1.Mix all ingredients together.
   2.Pour into 2 -8in loaf pans (9in also works or 4 mini loafs) *be sure to spray pans before!
   3.Bake at 350 for 40min or until toothpick comes out clean.
   4. Frost when cool
Brown Butter Frosting: (a must do-wont be the same w/o it)
   1/2 cup butter browned: in a sauce pan, let butter cook on LOW heat, stirring constantly until butter BARELY turns brown. Take off heat IMMEDIATLY.
   Then add to butter:
  2 cups powdered sugar
  2 table spoons water
  1/2 tsp. vanilla
   Mix well and pour over the tops of the bread.

"Charlyn's French Bread"
This is SO easy to make, tastes great and makes a lot!

Dissolve in small bowl:
2 tablespoons yeast(i always use 3-5 tablespoons)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. sugar
***if you've never dealt with yeast before, ask someone or google it so you don't kill your yeast. (my "secret" trick is to measure out the yeast and set aside, run tap water until it's how you'd like your bath,- realllllllyyy warm but not "hot"-this is the trickiest part- i test on the inside of my wrist. Take 1/2cup of that realllllyy warm water put in the small bowl and immediatly add yeast that you set aside. i'd do about 1tablespoon of sugar and wait 5-10 min) if the yeast was killed nothing will grow in the bowl and you have to start over, but if you did the water temp. just right you will see the yeast start to grow and you can continue on with the recipe!
In Large bowl combine:
2 cups hot water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup oil
-mix well
Add to the mixture:
-3 cups flour and mix well.
-yeast mixture from the small bowl
-Add 2-3 cups more flour (i always need 3) and mix well.
-Leave in bowl and let rise for 1hour mixing a few strokes every now and then.
-Divide dough into 2-3 pieces (depeneds how long you want your french bread roll)
-Roll out each onto a floured surface into the length desired, then roll of lenthwise like a jelly roll.
-Put on greased cookie sheet, sealed side down.
-Slash top of dough diagonally with knife.
-Brust with egg white.
-Let rise 30min. more
-Bake at 400 for 25min

Last but certainly not least-as you will need this to have something to dip that french bread into:
Mimi's Santa Fe Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. valveeta cheese
1/2 onion *i of course would chop this SUPER fine so there is no chance of feeling an onion in my mouth.but that's just me!
1 can diced tomatoes with chilis
1 can pinto beans with jalepenos (these make the soup pretty spicy, so be sure to sub out if you or the kids don't want that)
1 can corn ***i was not told what size cans to use, i would guess a 15 oz can.

Directions:
-Saute onions
-Brown mean, drain
-Mix all together, warm and enjoy!
***a crock pot works really well for this! Remember the cheese needs to melt, so allow enough time for the "warming" part.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and that these recipes help to kick off the season...Let me know if you tried any and what you think! Feel free to drop some off at my house too! (wink wink, but really you can if you want, ha)