WooHoo! Wednesday

Today I'm WooHooing about my oldest son Austin who is about to turn 18.  He will be 18 and graduating from high school all in the same day.  I can't believe that this day is already here.  He will graduate from high school, and by summer's end he will have his associate degree as well.  

I'd say that's something to WooHoo about!  I've been busy getting ready for his special day, and I can't wait to see what his future holds, and what God has in store for him

WOOHOO!!!

I love you Austin; Dad and I are really proud of you!

I linking up with Marla  Always Nesting

Menu Plan

Hello All, Hope your enjoying this beautiful spring week!  Well at least it's beautiful here in Georgia.  

Over this past weekend I baked some potatoes, 5 lbs. to be exact.  We ate a few with our dinner Sunday night, but we had plenty leftover. You'll see those making a reappearance in some of my menus this week.

By the way this is something I commonly do.  If I'm going to cook something that takes a decent amount of time or energy, I cook extra- saving time, energy, and money.  Also another tip...if I am baking something (like potatoes) that take an hour or so in the oven, I always crowd the oven.  I put in a loaf of banana bread and roasted some broccoli and onions with the potatoes.  If your gonna cook, after all, you may as well make thee most of your time, right?

Here's what on the Menu this week:

Grilled eggplant sandwiches with marinara sauce, potato salad (used those baked potatoes) with fresh herbs from my back porch!
  The baked potatoes gave a really nice flavor to the potato salad.

Minestrone potatoes... This recipe has become one of my go to quick and healthy weeknight meals.  I heat these soups and pour them over baked potatoes that I've drizzled with a little olive oil & salt and pepper.  Sometimes I top with cheese.

Paella with venison sausage  -I don't eat sausage but I'll portions some out for me before adding the sausage.

Chili, Cornbread and Guacamole

Grilled Scallops, Grilled Chicken, Green Salad, Sweet Potato Fries or Rice

Fettucini with peas, capers and lemon zest, green salad

Enjoy!
P.S. I always love if you have recipes or cooking tips to share

How My Garden Grows

Spring its here, and it's fair to say that I've got a bad case of spring fever.  I'm just loving this beautiful weather, the sunshine, longer days, and everything coming to life.  I've been busy, busy, busy working in my yard and garden, but the results are well work the effort.

Here's what I've been up to:

I've been planting lots and lots of flowers

tomatoes and peppers

I planted lots of herbs, here is mint and lemon balm.  The smell is amazing!

Basil and Dill

greek oregano, lavender, and rosemary (my absolute favorite herb)

parsley

I painted my front porch

I found this spray paint with different colored speckles in it.  I really like the result.

Remember this rock project post?

Well, I continued with that same idea around the perimeter of my house.

My husband says I'm depleting our neighborhood's rock resources.  My boys think it's "outta control"  I tell them "You want to play XBOX; go get me 5 rocks."  Just kidding, sort of!

front view

continuing around

side view

back of house

I surrounded a fire pit with stones.  Watching the flickering fire at night is so relaxing.  Next I think I need to add a water feature. I can hear it now drowning out the sound of my boys, ahhh.

Also a future project is to paint the back porch.  I'll post pictures after I do it.

P.S.  I'm linking up to Marla at Always Nesting

Menu Plan

Leftover night...we had piles of food in the fridge from the weekend that need to be used this week.

I'm going to start adding a leftover/buffet night to my weekly menu.  It's a great way to save time, money, and the environment...less shopping, less waste, less energy used to prep.

Do you have a leftover night?

Garlicky green beans, whole wheat spaghetti, and Aidells Chicken Meatballs- I found this brand at Costco, and my guys love them.  Every time that I've made them, they eat them up everyone and want me to make more!

Breaded fish, homemade baked apples, roasted carrots

Dittalini with parmesan, garlic olive oil, and butter and steamed broccoli

Going out

Homemade Pizza, everyone gets to pick their own toppings, green salad

Taco salad bowls- I'm going to try these yummy looking taco salad bowls out that I found over at            Frontier Kitchen                                            

                      

Lemon blueberry Muffins

We had these Lemon Blueberry Muffins for breakfast recently, and the syrup I made was outstanding.  My boys couldn't get enough, so my husband said "You better Blog it."

i used about a cup of blueberries, a couple tablespoons of Agave syrup (I don't measure use less or more depending of you sweet tooth), and a quater of a lemon, peel and all.

I blended it in all my trusty Magic Bullet.

By the way, buy these in bulk and use them often.  They're sooo good for you!

The finished product.  We poured this all over our muffins!

So excited eating these, I almost forgot to photograph.

Been away for a little while...

I've been away for a little while, and have missed all my blogging buddies!  My family went to Vail for spring break, but I'm back now and have been cooking up a storm.

Before I get into all my cooking posts, enjoy a few pics of these breathtaking mountains

Now for the cooking

My son was home sick from school recently so I made him a homemade lemon chicken soup.  It was delicious if I do say so myself and loaded with antioxidants, which is exactly what he needed.

I used a variety of veggies including carrots, onions, spinach, parsley and lemon.  I also added some quinoa (it's a complete protein ya know) and brown rice.  

First I sautéed the onions and carrots in olive oil.  I would have used celery but didn't have any.  

Then I heated about 4 cups of chicken stock.  After that was heated, I combined the two.  Next I added salt and pepper, a bay leaf, parsley, spinach, quinoa, brown rice and boiled another 20-30 minutes.  When it was done I squeezed in  about a half lemon's worth of lemon juice.

Unfortunately we gobbled this up before I photographed the final product, but trust me it was Great! 

Spring has Sprung

Yes, Spring has Sprung...in my closet at least.   It's been such a long cold winter that I've decided if an item didn't look like spring, act like spring, or talk like spring, it was gone.  Well maybe not totally gone, but banished to the spare room closet anyway.  I'm such a visual person, that all those winter clothes were dragging me down.

This is more like it!

sooo much less too look at

it also makes it easier to get ready in the morning

Wouldn't it be fun to paint the closet pink, get rid of those wire shelves, replace them with some vintagy shelves, and hang a ridiculously gaudy chandy from the ceiling??

Well, a girl can dream!

Master Bedroom Update

My Bedroom has come a long way from this post.  I've gotten the new bedding I wanted.   I did keep with the color scheme I had in mind, green and gray, but it needed a little pattern.  Sooo I decided to add pattern in the form of black and white.  I really love the drama it added.  I'm by no means done I'm never done), but am moving in a direction that I'm really loving.
Check out where I am so far:

new bedding, that I must say I LOVE!

redid my dresser top/dresserscape if you will

repurposed wine rack for my necklaces

I spray painted these place mats gray.   I like the texture and color they add to my dresser top.

I laid a scarf across the top of my dresser to add a little pattern.

I'd love to add a little something on either side of the mirror.

I go this cute lamp at Tar-jay, just the right amount of pattern.

A view from one side

I moved my file cabinet/nightstand from here

to here

I also "pimped it up"

& check out this jewelry box I spray painted and sanded

I plan to cut those barstool legs in half, and make them cute little footstools.   I just need to find some round cushions for the tops.

I really like the way these stools look at the foot of my bed.  They sort of mirror the circles in my bedframe, don't ya think?

OK, ladies let's look at a few before and afters.

Before this small dresser wasn't working.  It was WAY too under scale.

I moved it to my son's room.  It worked much better here, and I had forgotten that I got them both at Ikea.  They were from the same line of furniture and matched perfectly!

You can read more about that redo here

furniture layout before

and after

SO, what do you think?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestion.