Easter!!

Thank you God, for the sacrifice you made to save me!!

In our home, we believe that Jesus is the reason for celebrating Easter - but that doesn't mean that we don't "play" the Easter Bunny game.

One Easter morning, while hunting for eggs outside with all the kids we heard a little boy ask his mom what we were doing. "Those people don't believe in Jesus, dear." Um, actually?...We do. Thanks. We have found a happy balance between truth and game, that works great for our family. There are a lot of believers out there that do a great job of making the rest of us look like real jerks. Stop assuming....just love! Even if we we're hunting for eggs without knowing Jesus...how bout just loving us like Jesus does. Pray for us. Don't label us as Easter Bunny worshipers.

Rant over.....on with Easter fun!!!

Egg Blowing
Notice the sweet "Go Green" tattoo? Friday was Earth Day :)

Me: "Boys, now we're going to dye some eggs!"
Jordan: "We're gonna make them dead?"

We rolled up little messages and put them through the holes of some of the eggs.

"You are an Egg-stra Special Friend!"

Next time, we'll let them dry out for a day or two before putting the paper in. Our little messages of love were a little soggy - but still appreciated.

Mmmm....sugar cookies - absolutely zero nutritional value in these babies!

Apparently I didn't take a picture of them after the mountains of icing and sprinkles were added. Oops!

Just like Rice Krispie Squares but with chow mien noodles.

3 tbsp butter - melt in pot

add 4 cups mini marshmallows - melt

remove from heat - stir in a package of chow mien noodles

press into muffin tin - use an oiled plastic bag on your hand or you're in for a sticky mess

let cool - transfer to plate

add eggs - mini eggs, jelly beans etc.

I made all my boys Easter boxes this year. Not the most practical thing for hauling around while hunting for eggs, but they'll fit great on the shelves in their closet on the other 364 days of the year! I'll switch the name papers out for "Lego", "Bakugans", "Hotwheels" etc.

I might even try my blogging skills at a tutorial for these!

Yeah, that's an inflatable hammer. Our Easter bunny thinks outside the box.

I hope everyone's Easter was as blessed as ours was.

Happy Easter everyone!

Parmesan Chicken

Dinner tonight: Parmesan Chicken, Linguine Alfredo and Caesar Salad.

Chicken:
Panko, Parmesan cheese and pesto seasoning mixed together. Dip the chicken pieces or breast in a beaten egg and then into panko mixture, put in a shallow dish (with some olive oil) and bake at 375 until chicken is cooked (20-45 minutes depending on the size of the chicken pieces)

Pasta:
Just a simple alfredo sauce tossed over whole wheat linguine. I served the chicken on top of the pasta.

Caesar Salad:
This is a family favourite. I don't use a recipe so my measurements are not exact and it turns out a little different everytime:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp whole grain mustard
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
dash of hot sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese

Blend the ingredients together (I use a mini food processor), cover romaine lettuce or baby greens with dressing. I like to add a little more cheese to the salad and I make my own croutons by using stale bread and just sauteing them in olive oil and garlic.

This is a very garlicy dinner, so dessert is a must. And a glass of wine.

Easy Strawberry Pie

This is so easy to make and so delicious when it's done. It's a great way to use up strawberries.

 You need:
1 9" pie shell (make your own or cheat and use a store bought)
4 cups fresh strawberries
1 cup white sugar
3 Tbsp corn starch
3/4 cup water

Bake the pie shell.

Cut up half the strawberries.

Arrange the cut strawberries in the cooked pie shell.

 mash the other 2 cups of strawberries and put them in a saucepan with 1 cup of sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring, until boiling.

Whisk the water and corn starch together and add slowly to the boiling berry mix.

Lower the heat and simmer until thickened. Takes about 5-10 minutes. Keep stirring.

Pour the thickened strawberry sauce over the cut strawberries in the pie shell.

Put in the fridge and chill until set (a few hours).

You can serve this with whipped cream or ice cream.

Yum.

(ps. This is not a low calorie dessert, sorry)

Oops

I started a crafting and cooking blog and then did neither of either. Oh well. We've been sick and I've been working so it's an odd week for us.

It's a good thing Kelsey's been doing lots of this blog would be very lonely.

I started our garden, the seeds are germinating in our greenhouse as we speak. That is my productive move for the week. The next few days will have lots of fun stuff and I'll be sure to share some of those ideas with you.

It was staring at me yelling, "Sew Me!"

I bought some PINK pieces from the remnants bin a while back. You know, buy 1 get 1 free - Love that! Anyways, I saw them last night and couldn't control myself. I made a dress and a skirt. Oops!





I need a lesson in zipper installation! There is one in the back, but don't look too close. Still need to attach the straps. Anyone got a 3 year old girl I can borrow?




The Skirt:





Still needs elastic in the waist - again with the needing to go to Fabricland.

What? No, that's not my son modeling his sister's skirt. Sister? What?......oh yeah....



What should I make next? Oh - Lunch for the SIX hungry boys? Good idea.

Karate Style Wrap Pants

Oooh, these are fun!
Again, I really need to go to Fabricland! These pants are missing their Velcro. They can be worn with the opening on the front or the back, then the strap gets wrapped around like a belt. The stripes are an old sheet, the brown are Sara's old curtains, I think.

Wrap in front:

Wrap in back:

And here's how I did it: "www. oh wait, there is no pattern, cause I only pretend that I know how to sew.com"

20 Minute Pants

I made these out of one of my husband's old T-shirts. I desperately need to hit Fabricland for supplies - next time I'll do a simple elastic waist. When I get an idea in my head, I usually want to do it right away, so instead of waiting for a free evening to shop, I used a drawstring instead. Of course, I've trimmed the strings. These pants are super cute, super easy, super comfy and you can make them while you're waiting for the pasta water to boil! I've got a few plain white T-shirts that I'd like to transform - Might even try some fun stenciling on those ones!








Here's how it's done: http://www.rookiemoms.com/make-some-easy-kids-pants/

Feeling Crafty

I was blog hopping today and came across a cute idea. She uses hers for hankies, I'll use mine for reusable baby bum wipes.

Another "just for fun" from my "fake it till you make it" sewing studio:

While looking at different mom's blogs....I see many dresses. Dresses that I want to make. Such beautiful dresses. Pretty fabrics, adorable patterns, oh dresses. Did I mention that I'd like to have a daughter some day? Um...I guess I'll go make some more pants. I made 20 minute pants for Sean last night out of hubby's old T-shirt. I'll share those later. So easy and cute. But first...dinner. Spaghetti tonight. My secret ingredient? Epicure pasta sauce mix. Again with the Epicure.

Bon Appetit!

1st Ever Blog Entry? - PORK

So we've got two 16 year old boys from Japan with us for 2 weeks. I'm doubling my family's meals right now. Man these guys eat a lot. I little glimpse into my future? (Aahhhh the grocery bills to come!) Last night I did super easy: Chinese 5 Spice Pork Tenderloin Pork Tenderloin (Cheapest at Costco) 1/2 cup soy sauce (I prefer Japanese over Chinese) 1/2 cup water 2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice (Epicure's my fav) - you're going to see that a lot....

• Put everything in a big ziplock bag and marinate for a few hours or all day


• Fry pork on all sides till browned


• Bake at 375F till internal temp reaches 160F, 20-30 mins (buy yourself a digital meat thermometer, just do it!)

Done! Yum!

Now it's today....and I ask....What should I make for dinner?

At the start

Dinner.

I'm always looking for new ideas for dinner. I have to cook low calorie (more on that another time), balanced and interesting meals that my whole family will eat. It's a challenge with my 2 picky eaters. I read a lot of cookbooks and spend lots of time online trying to be inspired. So tonight I made soup. Delicious butternut tomato soup with onion biscuits on the side. Three of the four of us ate it, which are good odds in my house.

We try to have at least 2 meatless dinners per week. One is almost always soup. The more I read about health, food and the food industry the more I want to eat more vegetarian meals.

Butternut Tomato Soup (adapted from Double Delicious):
1 small onion
2 stalks of celery
olive oil
one peeled and diced butternut
4 cups low or no sodium vegetable broth (I love Epicure's broths, low sodium and delicious)
1 can diced tomatoes (low sodium if you can find it - Eden brand is good, homemade is better)
1/2t sea salt
1/2t pepper

I started by roasting my squash in the oven for about 1/2 hour till soft. Then I softened the onions and celery in the oil in a stock pot. I added the squash to the stock pot, as well as the broth, tomatoes, salt and pepper. I cooked it at a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then I put the soup into the food processor and blended till smooth-ish. I garnished with a little Parmesan cheese. Makes about 6 servings at under 100 calories per serving. Delicious.

Onion biscuits (these are an Epicure recipe and I love them):
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups cold milk
2 Tbsp onion seasoning (Epicure's 3 onion dip mix is great)
2Tbsp melted butter (optional)

Mix the dry ingredients. Crumble the butter in by hand until mixture is course crumbs. Mix milk and onion seasoning together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until clumpy. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until dough holds together. Shape into an 8"square and cut into 16 squares. Put onto a parchment lined baking sheet (brush with melted butter if you want to). Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown at 425 degrees.

**full disclosure - I forgot to take a picture of dinner so the soup in the picture is not mine, but it's pretty don't you think?