Roasted Green Veggies

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My husband and I are trying to be more intentional about eating our veggies. These two recipes have helped! They are super simple, healthy, and tasty. I found both of them on Pinterest.

Roasted Green Beans

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Source: Skinny Taste

Ingredients:

  • 12 oz green beans, trimmed (make sure they are dry)
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 1/2 tbsp shredded Parmesan

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum for easy clean-up. Lay green beans out on the baking sheet and drizzle oil over them. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss to evenly coat.

Bake 10 minutes, shake the pan to turn; bake 5 additional minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with grated cheese.

(Click here for the original recipe.)

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

  • Same as the roasted green beans, just use asparagus instead.
  • (I didn’t use garlic powder in this recipe.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Season the asparagus with everything except the cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and add the cheese.

(Click here for the original recipe.)

Chicken and Rice

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Earlier this week I made up a chicken and rice recipe. Surprisingly, it actually turned out really well! I forgot to take pictures of the finished product :/. Here are some of the ingredients, though:

Chicken and Rice

You’ll also need chicken, rice, and broccoli.

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Dirt Cake

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This was delicious! I made it for a Christmas party we had (Yes, I know, I’m a little late posting this :/).

Anyway, I followed this recipe (I also copied it below), but did not add the gummy worms or chocolate rocks. Instead, I put red and green M&Ms on top. If you decide to use M&Ms, I would recommend putting them on top right before you are ready to serve it. Otherwise, the color runs into the dessert (I learned from experience) .

I also recommend only making this for a big get-together! If you have much of this leftover you will want to eat it ALL, and it’s extremely unhealthy. Continue reading »

Linen Organization

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Our linen closet has been a mess for quite a while now. It houses all our extra sheets, pillow cases, blankets, towels, and random household items like pillows, light bulbs, toilet paper, paper towels, games, etc. The unorganized sheets were bothering me the most.

While trying to decide how to organize the closet, I remembered there was a box tucked away in our basement, labeled “plastic zipper bags.” This was just what I needed to organize our sheets (sometimes it pays to be a bit of a pack rat :)).

Now, every sheet set and pillow case has a labeled home. I also need to label the sides so I can easily see what’s in each bag without pulling it off the shelf. I’ll do that one of these days. I’d also like to make the labels a little more stylish – I’ll do that one of these days, too.

Oh, I also put a nail in the closet to hold our floor cleaner (you can see that in the first picture). That worked out well.

I didn’t think to take a before picture, but here’s the after:DSC01043

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How have you organized your closets?

Meat Loaf Muffins

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My husband and I love the meat loaf recipe on the back of the Lipton Onion Soup Mix box. The only problem is it takes a whole hour to bake. Who has time for that? I’ve seen several posts on Pinterest showing meat loaf in muffin tins, so I decided to give it a try.

They were delicious! And, they only had to bake for 20-25 minutes! We made mashed potatoes and a cucumber and onion salad as sides.Meat Loaf Cups

Here’s the original recipe, along with my muffin tin variation:

  • 1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix
  • 2 lbs. ground beef
  • ¾ cup plain dry bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cup water
  • 1/3 cup ketchup
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine all ingredients.
  2. In 13×9 inch baking or roasting pan, shape into loaf. (Or, put into muffin tins. For me, this recipe made 15 meat loaf muffins.)
  3. Bake 1 hour or until done. Let stand 10 minutes. (Or, if you put the meat loaf in muffin tins, cook 20-25 minutes or until done.)

Memory Jar

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Our Memory Jar
(It still needs a little pizzazz, I know. I’ll do that eventually.)

After seeing this on Pinterest, I decided to start my own memory jar. I’m really excited!

My husband and I plan to fill our jar with notes of events (happy, sad, big, small, funny, odd, significant, seemingly insignificant, etc.) that happen throughout this year. Two ‘memories’ are in the jar already – yay!

At the end of the year, after reading all the entries, I plan to put them in a scrapbook. I can’t wait! This will be a good way for us to recap the year and see how the Lord has blessed us, guided us, and strengthened us along the way.

It’s not too late to start your own memory jar, so get goin’ already :).

Family Tree

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For 3 ½ years now, the large accent wall in our living room has been scantily decorated with our wedding picture. The wall needed something else (I’ve known that for 3 ½ years), but, until recently, I just wasn’t sure what.

I decided to put wedding photos of our parents and grandparents below ours. We couldn’t find wedding pictures for some of them, so we used what we could find. I was so pleased with the result – I love the history. It makes me smile :).

Here’s the before:

Before

Before
(I actually forgot to take a before picture, so I went digging through my computer for an old photo.)

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Deck the Halls!

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Our Christmas tree has been up since just after Thanksgiving. Last year, my husband had the bright idea (seriously) of storing the tree, fully decorated and intact, in our basement. It took literally 3 minutes for us to ‘trim the tree’ this year – how convenient!

The rest of our house; however, was lacking the Christmas spirit. This weekend, my husband and I finally had time to do a little more decorating. Using sticks I spray painted from our yard, unused treasures in our basement, and some items from Wal-Mart, we decorated our mantel (all while listening to Christmas music). The hubby even helped! He’s such a wonderful husband :).

Though we enjoy Christmas lights, decorations, gifts, and time with family, this is not the TRUE reason for the season. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior’s birth. Let us not lose our focus – Jesus is the reason for the season!

(You’ll see a window picture frame in the pictures below. Click here to see the post about that project.)DSC00534 Continue reading »

DIY Bulletin Board #2

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Today I finished the second bulletin board I began on the same day I completed this similar project.

My husband and I needed a place to put our lists – shopping lists, grocery lists, to-do lists, etc. Here was my solution:

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DIY Bulletin Board

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I finally had some time to be creative today. I started a couple projects and actually finished one of them. Yay!

(UPDATE: I finished the second project as well! Check it out here.)

I recently revamped my office (see that whole process here, here, and here). I finished the accent wall, but had nothing on any of the other walls. Given this is an office, I thought a bulletin board would be practical. The ones you find at the store are usually plain and ugly, so I made my own!

Here are the supplies/before picture:

Continue reading »