I was in the mood for some fruit salad, so I made some last night. I can’t think about fruit salad now without singing the Wiggles song. Anyway, I wanted fruit salad because of a picture I found on Pinterest. It had all kinds of berries and kiwi and it looked so good! Had to have some right away. Anyway, here’s my “recipe”:

Fruit Salad
1/2 pint strawberries, cut up
small box blueberries
small box raspberries
blackberries
1 nectarine, cut into cubes
1 golden apple, cubed
2 kiwi, cut up
1 banana, sliced
a little lemon juice to keep the apples from turning brown
1 can mandarin oranges

It was a little tart so I added a tiny bit of sugar, maybe a teaspoon. Then this morning I added some watermelon. I just didn’t feel like cutting it up last night. The watermelon helped sweeten it a lot and it was so good for breakfast! I think you definitely need to add some kind of melon, and some mango or pineapple might be good too.

Last night we also had Pampered Chef’s Deep Dish BLT Pizza, which I remembered liking a whole lot more. Maybe it’s because I’m sick, but it just wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be. I still like it, just not well enough to make often. :)

First up, I bought some Lego scrapbook paper [it is even bumpy and has the lego logo on each dot] in red, blue, yellow & green. I made banners to go all over the place by cutting the paper into 6×8 dot blocks. Then I cut up Kristopher’s Lego calendar from 2011. Then I just sewed the papers together on my sewing machine. Easy Peasy and so cute! I used a couple of the larger pictures from the calendar on the walls. Balloons hanging from the light over the table are fun. I put Legos in clear glass containers on tables to decorate as well.

In the living room, I set up this little table to greet guests. I wanted to have each boy sign the card, get a name badge and guess the number of Legos in the vase before doing anything else, but as guests were arriving I got sidetracked and they all ended up doing this in a bunch. It’s much easier to do that sort of thing with adults!

On the wall in the kitchen we also had “Bob”, who had lost his arm. He was drawn by Kristopher and playing that game was completely Kristopher’s idea. He did a great job with the drawing, but he didn’t win. Going first was not advantageous…with the arms the boys just felt for the previous arm and then placed theirs. So the farther down the line the better your chance. Try to make your arms flatter if you play this! Ours were curling up on the hand end. :)

I found a “favor pack” of Lego build kits that came with 4 each of 2 different designs. We had a little contest to see who could build their’s the quickest. The winner got a prize. While they were building they were very serious and it was completely quiet around that table. Totally different than the rest of the party! So funny to see the difference between the kids when they had something to work for.

After all the games I let the boys play for awhile, while I cooked some pizza and finished setting out all the food. My goal was to make Lego pizza like this blogger did. Mine was fine, but the pepperoni’s slid around during the cooking and so the pieces didn’t exactly look like they were supposed to. Still we had small rectangular pizza pieces with round circles. Good enough, right?! I also purchased the silicone Lego molds and we had Lego ice and Lego shaped chocolates. Some of the chocolate men went on top of cupcakes. I made a second cake since I didn’t know how many people I would end up feeding. For that one I used this idea and put marshmallows on top to create the Lego look. Not exactly how I pictured it either, but still a hit. To make the cupcake stand I hot glued some candle stick holders to the bottom of one Lego board and then set it on top of a larger one. The Hot glue peels off easily and it made a cute display. That gray board was actually mine when I was little. :)

Kristopher wanted to blow out his candle on a special cupcake, not on the big cake, so I just wrote 10 on one of the cupcakes. We prayed and then sang to him before eating any of the food. I had ice cream, but forgot to get it out…

After gorging on sugar, it was time for a little present opening. Kristopher got a lot of cool gifts. Several Lego items were included (how could they not be?!) and he got the two things he was most hoping for as well. It was fun to watch all the kids gather around him while he opened his gifts. They were practically on top of him. During this time he said some of the funniest things. He said he could barely breathe because everyone was so close. When he was done opening everything, someone asked him what he wanted to play with first and he replied, “before I play with anything, I want to clean up this mess!” My boy is so funny. This mamma is thankful that he wanted to clean it up though, less cleanup for her!

Near the end of party-time this fellow showed up:

He sounded like Kristopher and he had the same outfit as Kristopher, but he looked a bit older than 10… Boys will be boys. ;)

Everyone left with a little goody bag, containing a Birthday Lego man and some Lego soap, bought on etsy.

He had a great birthday party and tomorrow we are looking forward to a quiet day of church and celebrating his and Kody’s birthdays with a nice dinner and, you guessed it, more cake! Back to talk about how I can’t believe 10 years has gone by tomorrow…

So, here’s what I’m trying now. For the past week or so I have only been eating foods off the Paleo Diet food list. This is not a “diet” per se, but a change in eating lifestyle that it would be healthier to keep for the rest of my life. Here is a list of most or all of the foods you can have. I can honestly say that I could keep to eating like this with an occasional treat, if the other 5 people in this house would eat like that too. I have cut out all drinks except water and one glass of juice (tomato right now) per day. Since I really don’t like water I have been adding some lemon juice and I’m getting used to it. After not eating a bunch of sugar or even bread (I had 1 piece in the past week) I do feel somewhat better. I am still exhausted, but I think that has more to do with 4 children and lack of good sleep. I am also still working out almost everyday. I moved up to level 2 of the 30 day shred again yesterday and I do feel like I am going to die at the end of every workout, like Jillian wants me to, but that doesn’t last long.

With all of this I am still not really seeing a change in my body though. I’m not sure if it’s there or not. I think maybe I’m not seeing it because I want immediate change – from fat roll to skinny flat stomach. At the beginning of my change I will admit that I was more concerned with being skinny and not caring how I got there, thinking that I was pretty healthy. Now I want to be healthier and try my hardest to live on the good stuff. Now, if I can just convert my family!

Here’s how I make pickles:

First, find yourself a bunch of yummy cukes. I ended up using just the two color pickling cucumbers, so I still have the pretty dark ones to eat. :)

Wash them, and slice them paper thin. I use the vegetable slicer that attaches to the front of my Kitchenaid standing mixer. This makes quick work of slicing all those cukes!

After you’ve sliced your cucumbers put them in a large pot. You’re going to want to use a Stainless Steel or Enamel pot. Do not use Aluminum or your pickles will taste funny. I used my brand spankin’ new Paula Deen enamel covered steel pot. I’ve wanted this since they first started carrying them at WM. So pretty!

Once they’re in the pot, sprinkle 1/2 cup Pickling Salt over them and then cover them with ice cubes and weight (I use plates). Put the lid on and leave them alone for 3 hours in the refrigerator, if possible. I’m pretty sure the salt/ice/weight combo helps to take water out of the cucumbers and make them crispier.

After your three hours, get your jars and seals ready. Sterilize the jars and keep them hot. Heat your seals. Drain the cucumbers well. Add the rest of your ingredients to the pot and bring all of that to a boil. Above is my set up.

Once the pickles are boiling fill the hot jars to 1/8″ below the top. Add the seals. The jars will seal themselves. Let them sit 4-6 weeks before enjoying. :)

Bread and Butter Pickles

6 quarts of cucumbers
5 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 Tablespoons Mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
5 cups vinegar (cider or white, I used a mixture)

Makes 6 Quarts. I use pints because I prefer a smaller pickle jar in the fridge. Do what works for you. These are super easy and so good!

I did end up going to the grocery store today. I did much better than I have done with my “couponing” and I wanted to document it and also share the best deals that I got so others can get them. I had trouble finding some of the things that I read about on other blogs, but overall I did pretty well. I spent $172 total at all the stores I went to. This included Kroger, Walmart & Rite Aid.

I stocked up on diapers (which I used $9.50 in coupons on) at Rite Aid for Kameron and the baby since they were having a deal where you spend $40 on Kimberly Clark products and get $10 in Up Rewards for a later purchase. I didn’t have a Rite Aid rewards card, so I got one. I am still a little unsure of how to use the rewards, but I ended up with $14 for later purchases! Plus, if I take their survey online I can get $3 off my next $15 purchase. So basically, it sounds like I’ll be able to get $17 of free merchandise when I go next time. This would be awesome!

At Kroger I saved 53% which I think is pretty good. My best deals are listed below:

Free: 6 boxes of Ronzoni Pasta (it’s on sale for 49 cents a box with the buy 10/get $5 off and then I used coupons for $1 off 2 boxes); 2 cans Crushed Red Gold Tomatoes (on sale for 49 cents each with a coupon for $1 off 2)

Other good deals: French’s Spicy Brown Mustard (part of the buy 10 and a Kroger coupon); American Cheese Slices (part of the buy 10 plus a coupon for $1 off); GM Cereals (some of these are on sale and with coupons they are good prices); Jazz Apples are 99 cents a pound; 2 whole fryer chickens for under $10 total; Ritz Munchable Pretzel Crackers for 99 cents each (part of the buy 10 special, plus coupons for $1 off each box); Naturemade Vitamin D $10.99 for 2 bottles (BOGO free, plus $1 off NM Vitamin D, plus $3 off any NM product)

The other things I bought were good prices for the items, but nothing special. The above were my best Kroger purchases!

At Walmart I didn’t have as much luck with great deals, but I did use a lot of coupons. My best deals are below:

Under $1: Ken’s Salad Dressing (92 cents each with coupon); Kikkoman Soy Sauce (74 cents with coupon); Mentos Gum (29 cents with coupon); Uncle Ben’s Rice (54 cents with coupon); Totino’s pizzas ($1 each after coupon); Suave Deodorant (47 cents after coupon)

A couple of other deals (to me anyway!): 4 cans Campbell’s Chunky Soup ($1.30 each after coupon); 3 boxes Hamburger/Chicken Helper ($1.25 a box after coupon); 46 ounce cans V8 ($1.54 each after coupon)

So, you be the judge. Did I get some good deals? Any suggestions on how to do even better? I’d love to be able to buy a cart full of groceries for $10, but I just don’t understand how to do it! It seems like there are just too many things that we need that aren’t on sale or that I can’t find coupons to get. Some things I just never see coupons for. Let me know if I’m missing something! Have a wonderful day! :)

Tonight I made Stromboli for dinner and it was so good I have to share the recipe! It is from the book Don’t Panic – More Dinner’s in the Freezer. I’m telling you these books are great. I think I will definitely make a couple of these to freeze for baby’s arrival. So simple and even the kids asked for seconds. That just does not happen in this house!

So, here’s the recipe:

Donna’s Stromboli

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed and slightly risen
4 cups shredded mozzerella
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg, beaten slightly
Pizza toppings of your choice

Marinara Sauce for serving

Roll dough into a 14×12 inch rectangle. Add any toppings you want. Sprinkle cheese over toppings, then sprinkle with seasonings. Roll into a log and seal all edges. Place seam side down on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

We used Pepperoni in ours and I didn’t add all 4 cups of cheese because it just looked like too much. And we served it with spaghetti sauce since that’s what we had. It was the perfect amount for our 5 person family, but as the kids grow I’m sure we’ll need more if that’s the whole dinner. :) So good!

For dessert I made an old favorite of ours that came from Kody’s and my old roomate, Lori. It is called Strawberry Surprise and is delicious!

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 quart strawberries
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces cool whip
strawberry glaze
Angel food or pound cake (I prefer pound cake)

In a pan tear the cake into pieces and spread to cover the bottom. In a bowl, mx cream cheese, sugar and cool whip and spread on cake. Spread glaze on top of that and top with cut strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The first is: Oriental Sesame Chicken Strips, Teryaki mushrooms, zucchini and onions, peas and noodles. I know the noodles don’t really go, but we’d eaten rice the two days before and I needed something else kid friendly with the meal. It was tasty!

The next was our dinner tonight: Chicken Fajitas, Southwestern Green Chile Rice bake and toppings. I usually use fajita seasoning out of a packet, but tonight I made my own. It was good! The rice bake was okay, but I doubt I’ll make it again.

Here are some pumpkin apple muffins that I made this week too. They are my favorite and are all gone. :) I am going to make some zucchini bread tonight to take their place. Wonder if I could do zucchini muffins?

Want to say a little about two cookbooks that I’ve been using a lot lately. Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer and Don’t Panic, More Dinner’s in the Freezer. My friend Courtney turned me onto these and I have made quite a few things from them now. Some of the recipes are just okay, but many are really good. The freezing instructions are also very nice. The first book is the better of the two in my opinion. The green chile rice bake and the oriental chicken strips in the above pictures are from these books. My bestie and I got together and made several things from them a couple of months ago too and they did freeze well. I will have to say that I like fresh food better than frozen; it sure does help to have meals in the freezer though. Anyway, if you’re looking for good freezer cookbooks check these out! I’m planning to make some meals to freeze before the baby gets here (only 2 more months!) so that we’ll have plenty on hand.

Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Veggie burgers
French Fries
Green Bean Casserole
String of Stars Sugar Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Cinnamon Apple Jello
Vanilla Cake
Peanut Blossoms
Eastport Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Waldorf Chicken Salad

If I get time I’m going to make Caramels and I still have to make mini sandwiches from the chicken salad and ham and turkey before guests arrive tonight! Now, I need to clean the house. Pictures will come later after the food is ready for display. I forgot to take pictures of the cute sandwiches and stuff… maybe cookie pictures sometime! :) I love making yummy food!

Chicken Tortilla – from Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer
French Onion – from a friend (Charlotte)
Chicken Noodle – from a friend (Yuri)
Creamy Potato – Bear Creek Soup Mixes
Chili – my recipe
Vegetable - Frisch’s recipe, my own recipe (I make both depending on my mood)
Vegetable Beef in the Crock Pot – from a friend (Kristen)

Of course we also have canned soup for lunch many days. Taylor’s favorite is Campbell’s Chicken Noodle and Kristopher’s is Campbell’s Cream of Potato.

So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for my favorite (today), Chicken Tortilla:

Chicken Tortilla Soup
From my “Don’t Panic – Dinner’s in the freezer” cookbook. Since it is from a freezer cookbook the instructions have a cooking day and a serving day. It can be made all at once and eaten then. See my notes at the end for changes I usually make.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 Tablespoons oil for sautéing
2 pounds chicken, baked or broiled, chopped or shredded
14 ounce can diced tomatoes
5 ounce can RO*TEL tomatoes
1-14.5 ounce can beef broth
1-14.5 ounce can chicken broth
1-10 ounce can tomato soup
1½ cans of water – use soup can
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Serving Day Ingredients
Grated Cheese
Tortillas, cut in 1 inch squares, fried in oil until crispy and salted
Avacado, sliced or cubed
Sour Cream
Fresh diced tomatoes
Fresh cilantro

Cooking Day: Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 30-35 minutes. Cool. Freeze, using the freezer bag method.

Serving Day: Thaw. Reheat stock in pot until heated through. Ladle soup into bowls and top with your favorite serving day ingredients. Makes 5-6 servings.

My recipe notes: This is probably my most favorite soup, now. I have done the chicken many different ways and I think my favorite was leftover marinated grilled chicken. It gave it a little extra flavor. I always shred it. Instead of using 5 ounces of RO*TEL I use the whole 10 ounce can of tomatoes with green chilies. I also add green peppers, banana peppers and corn, because I like the color and I think it tastes even better with them. I serve it plain (without toppings) with the fried tortillas cut into strips. These are so good to dip in the soup and taste so much better than store bought chips. You have to eat all of them when you make them. They aren’t good saved for later. Try this soup – you won’t be disappointed!

I have my favorite plates on the cabinet tops. The bowls were out last night for our vegetable soup, which is one of my favorite things to eat. Those bowls are from my Aunt Gayle a few Christmases ago. I still need to add a bowl and mug set for Kameron. I just love the snowmen and how heavy the dishes are! On my small shelf (that Kody hung for me to display things on – yay!) I have the house I’ve had for several years and the platter that I bought this year to take to a Chinese auction and then promptly came home with. I have a towel that matches and bought a second towel to cut in half and make two small aprons. They’ll be perfect for wearing when cooking to wipe hands:) I pretty much feel like I live in the kitchen and when it looks like this I enjoy being in there. BTW – navy, white and gray just make me so happy together and the kitchen is possibly my favorite room in the house all year:)

I also promised cookies yesterday, if you came back later. I have finished 3 kinds so far and have 3 to go. I ruined one batch of candy as well and have one to go…not ruin! The Eastport Sugar cookies make it Christmas to me and hopefully I will get my favorite candy, cream cheese mints, done soon. Here’s what I’ve finished and the recipes to go with them if you want:)

Eastport Sugar Cookies: My mom made these every year (that I remember) and now so do I. They are such a good simple sugar cookie.

1/2 C butter
1 egg
1/3 C milk
1 1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
1/2 t cream of tartar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg and milk. Sift dry ingredients together and work into the batter. Let stand overnight or 4-6 hours. Roll thin onto a floured board. Cut into shapes and place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 for about 12 minutes. (I find that my oven finishes them in about 5 minutes though, so be careful!)

Brickle Blond Brownies: I’m not sure where this recipe came from, maybe someone can remind me, but I could eat the whole pan. They are so good and simple!

1 1/2 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
6 oz Bits ‘O Brickle
1 t baking powder
1/2 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar, packed

Cream butter with sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Blend in dry ingredients. Stir in Bits o Brickle. Spread in a greased 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (again, mine needed slightly less time)

Peanut Blossoms: I know everyone makes these or a very similar version, but they are a favorite! How can you not like a crunchy peanut buttery cookie with a bit hershy kiss on top?! I usually make a double batch because if I don’t they don’t last very long…

1 3/4 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1/2 C butter
1 t vanilla
1/3 C peanut butter
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar, packed
1 beaten egg

Sift dry ingredients. Cream butter and peanut butter. Add the sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla. Mix all ingredients together well. Shape dough into blls using rounded teaspoon. Roll balls in sugar and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and top each with a hershey kiss (the cookie should crack.) Return them to the oven for 2-5 minutes. With these I find that it helps to le them cool for a long time before trying to stack them in the tin because the chocolate takes a long time to re-harden (is that a word?), but if you don’t care how they look just throw them in as soon as the cookie part is cool!

My Penuche that I’ve never made before didn’t work…it turned out more like caramels and I don’t know what happened. I still have Chocolate iced cookies, Sand Tarts (a family recipe), Iced Sugar cookies and Cream cheese mints to go. I hope to have a good variety for the next couple of weeks!

Usually, I make a coffee cake on Christmas morning, but I think this year I will try to make some homemade cinnamon rolls…can’t remember what recipe I was planning to use though.

Just in case you thought I was baking all alone, let me show you my little helper –

I hope you have a blessed Christmas and that your kitchen is filled with warmth, love, family and wonderful baked goods!