Roasted Veggies

RoastedVeggiesCooked

I love roasted vegetables – they are simple to make and healthy, but I hadn’t made any in quite some time. I bought some zucchini and mushrooms a couple of weeks ago and roasted them with onions. They were DELICIOUS! In fact, they were so delicious, I made more this week :). I had some tomatoes that needed eaten before they went bad, so I decided to roast those with mushrooms and onions.

Here’s the recipe:

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 small container of whole mushrooms
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 small onion
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • sea salt
  • black pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Cut the mushrooms in half, then cut the tomatoes and onions into pieces of a similar size as the cut mushrooms.
  3. Put all veggies in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil. Stir to coat. Add more olive oil if necessary.
  4. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper, to taste. Stir.
  5. Pour mixture onto a baking sheet and spread out evenly.
  6. Bake for about 15 minutes or until veggies are tender, but still have a little crunch. If desired, stir the veggies about halfway through (I usually don’t).

I’m not a huge fan of roasted tomatoes, but it’s just what I had on hand. Use whatever veggies you have! Just keep in mind, you may have to adjust the roasting time depending on how crunchy the veggies are that you begin with (e.g., broccoli would probably take longer to cook).

Here is another roasted veggie recipe you could try!

What is your favorite roasted veggie recipe? I’m always looking for new ones :).

Welcome Gift

Whenever someone moves into our neighborhood, I try to welcome them with some goodies. My go-to goody was Rice Krispie treats, but these are only good the day you make them. If the new neighbors weren’t home the day I made them, I ended up eating them all myself. Not good :/. Plus, you never know who may have allergies or other food restrictions. I decided to rethink my welcome gift and opt for something practical yet relatively inexpensive. After searching the Internet for a while, here’s what I came up with:

Welcome Gift

I wrapped a bottle of dish soap and a sponge in a kitchen towel, tied a cute little ribbon around it, and added a note welcoming the new neighbors to the neighborhood. You could even spice it up a bit by adding a fabric flower to the ribbon. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s practical and helps your new neighbors feel welcomed (which I would have loved when we moved to a new neighborhood!).

Our Unexpected Journey: She’s One…And Thoughts on Being a Mom

OneOur baby girl, who isn’t so ‘baby’ anymore, turned one this month! How is that possible?!? Many people have told me children grow up so quickly, but I never realized what they meant until this month when my baby turned ONE. Wasn’t it just the other day that I was holding her in my arms at the hospital???

Some moms say they wish time would slow down or that their baby would quit growing up so quickly. But, ya know, I’ve thought about it, and I don’t want to have this mindset. I want to be intentional about enjoying every moment.

This child of mine was longed for and prayed for years before she was ever born. THIS is what I ‘wished’ for, why wish for something else? I want to embrace every moment. I want to spend quality time with her. I want to teach her things…new words, new tricks, new animal sounds, right from wrong, about Jesus and how much He loves her, how to serve, how to be polite, how to run and jump and climb, how to do a summersault, how to pray, how to read and write, how to share, how to give hugs and kisses and high fives and fist bumps. I want to watch her grow and learn and explore and share and interact. I want to do all of this!

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Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

I was given some cilantro by a neighbor the other day and was itching to use it. I LOVE cilantro. I scoured my Pinterest Food Board and came across this Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake recipe. Most of the ingredients I had on hand, but I also had to do some improvising. Here’s the original recipe. My version is below.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Continue reading »

Praying Scripture for My Husband

PrayTheScripturesBibleIn a recent small group Bible study, we discussed the importance of and power in praying scriptures. If you pray directly from God’s Word (with the appropriate motives), you know it’s aligned with His will. How awesome is that?!?

I hate to admit it, but I’m just not great at regularly praying for my husband. Improvement in this area is a must! I’ve chosen several scriptures to pray for him, and I’m so excited to start praying these on a regular basis!

Oh, also, you’ll notice many of my prayers contain the phrase so that. Our pastor once suggested that our prayers should be so that prayers. For example: Lord, please help me be slow to anger, slow to speak, and quick to listen so that I am a reflection of you. I’ve come to absolutely love so that prayers. It makes me pause to think about my true intentions behind praying for whatever it is I’m praying for. Is it out of selfishness? Anger? Jealousy? Or is it out of care and concern for someone? Love for Jesus? My desire to be more like Jesus? I encourage you to begin praying so that prayers, too!

Simply insert your husband’s name where it says my husband, and you’ve got a prayer personalized for him!

Prayer 1:

Lord, I pray that my husband loves You with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind so that all he does and all he is is a reflection of You.

Scriptures:

  • Jesus replied, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 (NLT)
  • And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NLT)   Continue reading »

Declutter Mission

Home HandbookI’m on a mission to declutter this year. We have way too much stuff for our space. Actually, we have way too much stuff, period. There’s no need for it. Why are THINGS so important to me? In the end, my things aren’t going to matter anyway.

Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, our pastor encouraged us to pick a word to serve as our theme for the year. I chose the word surrender, as in surrendering to Christ and His plans for my life. I really want to live a life for Him, but it’s just so dang difficult! Why??? Grrr.

Anyway, I think letting go of many of my material things is part of surrendering my life to Christ. My focus should be on the eternal, not the temporal.

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).

While doing some searching online, I stumbled upon Your Simple Home Handbook by Elsie Chandler. It has really good suggestions for decluttering, even though I probably won’t declutter quite to the extent suggested. I’m starting with baby steps! We’ll see how it goes. So far, all I’ve semi-decluttered is my closet. Pretty slow pace, huh?

What declutter plans have worked for you?

A Granny-Inspired Stocking

I adored my great grandma, affectionately know as Granny, and known to me as Grandma NeeNee (I couldn’t say ‘Granny’ when I was younger; it came out as ‘NeeNee’). In fact, I think everyone adored her. She was just fun to be around and very adventurous.

She would play teacher with me, and, of course, always be the misbehaving student. She would wade in creeks, play in barns, climb in fishing boats on land, and walk in pastures with me. She would write letters-in-a-bottle and throw them in the creek with me, allowing me to believe the letter would actually make its way down the creek, someone would find it, and said someone would call us back using her phone number I included in the letter. She did all of these things well into her seventies. Granny was just, well, Granny! Continue reading »

Update: Slow Cooker Freezer Meals

A couple of months ago we finished off the freezer meals I prepared back in May. In short, I was sooo disappointed with them :(! Here’s a quick summary:

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo:  At first, this tasted pretty good, but after several bites it just got gross.

Beef Stew:  This was actually edible and tasted ok. It’s not worth making again, though.

Maple Dijon Glazed Chicken:  We ate this over rice. Without the rice it would have been inedible. It looked really gross, too, lol.

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn and Black Beans:  This was ok. It would have tasted better served with tortilla chips. I won’t make it again.

Italian Beef Sandwiches:  We would definitely make this again. It’s one of our favorites. I think it tastes better as a non-freezer meal, though.

The original post is below with my updated comments included at the beginning of each recipe. Hopefully you’ll have better luck than I did with freezer meals!

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In preparation for our baby girl’s June 6th due date, I decided to make some freezer meals. With the help of my bother, I was able to prepare five freezer meals in less than an hour (including clean up). Not too shabby! The grocery shopping probably took an additional hour. I’m just not a very efficient grocery shopper, plus I just despise doing it! Look at all those groceries :/ (most of them were for the freezer meals, but not all).

Groceries

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Back to School: College Student Gift Baskets

August means back-to-school! If you’re looking for something to give a college student, a gift basket is a great option.

Some family members of mine are going off to college, and I wanted to give them a practical gift as they start this exciting time in their life. I opted for gift baskets because who doesn’t like a gift basket??? Plus, I really enjoy making them :). I scoured the internet for ideas of what to include in the baskets and came up with some ideas of my own as well.

I’ll share with you the items I included in the two gift baskets below. One is for a commuter college student, and the other is for a college student moving out on her own for the first time.

Gift baskets are so simple and also allow you to be creative! Buy a basket or storage container of some sort, cover the bottom with some crumpled up tissue paper, and start filling it with all the goodies!

Commuter College Student Gift Basket

gift basket college commuter

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Cookie Dough Truffles

I found the recipe for these no-bake cookie dough truffles on Pinterest. They only take a few minutes to make, plus the time it takes for the dough and chocolate to harden. The not-so-great part is they are definitely NOT healthy :(. It’s ok to indulge every once in a while, though :).

Cookie Dough

Cookie Dough Truffles

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