New Year's Day brings a RESOLUTION for me!

It's officially 2012!  

Did you celebrate big last night?  More importantly did you stay up until midnight?!

We didn't...  the hubby had to be to work at 4:30am, the prince isn't quite able to stay up that late yet, and I just decided that I'd rather get some much needed rest { ahhh }  

But before we all went to bed, we enjoyed a quiet evening with some much needed family time  { smile }

And with the new year also comes the topic of resolutions...

About a week ago the hubby and I talked about eating healthier once the new year came around.

I then decided that adding MORE vegetables to our vegetable lacking diet was a necessity!  

So we are going "all-in"...  

Photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

You may be asking...  What does "all-in" mean? 

 Well, for me it means that rather than just adding a serving of vegetables to each of our meals, instead the prince and I will try to eat a semi-vegetarian diet.  AND the meals that we have which include meat will be healthier/lean meats like boneless skinless chicken and ground turkey.

I made the choice to try a semi-vegetarian diet rather than going entirely vegetarian because while it would be easy-peasy for the prince and I to do, the hubby is a-whole-nother story.  Therefore our family meals will generally have the addition of a lean meat, while those that the prince and I have together will be almost entirely vegetarian.

Once I made this decision, I then turned to Pinterest for some inspirational recipes...  check out the recipes I've found so far here  { yummy}

Once I found the recipes I then needed to do some grocery shopping...

I have to say that grocery shopping is kinda enjoyable, dare I say fun, for me when I'm shopping for the components of some wonderfully-yummy recipes like these.

Tonight I was preparing some of the ingredients for the sandwiches I'll be taking to work this week... 

And I was using the new slicer/shredder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer, too.

Someone's little hand getting into the vegetables... like I've said before he { LOVES } him some veggies!

Next time I'll use the thicker slicer attachment and coarse shredder...  both the cucumbers and carrots were just a tad-bit to fine sliced/shredded.

Here was my inspiration...

Photo & recipe courtesy of MarthaStewart.com.

I chose to make the olive tapenade myself with kalamata olives because...

 1st- I've made it before and

2nd- I think that kalamata olives go fabulous with the hummus and the other ingredients 

{ yumm-o }

Here are the ingredients/recipe for my tapenade... 

{ FYI- I am not claiming that this is an authentic tapenade recipe, rather it's my attempt at creating the closest thing to what I know a tapenade to be without actually using a recipe

...  and I think it's pretty stinkin' good }

1 cup pitted kalamata olives

1 clove of garlic, chopped

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp kalamata liquid

Add all ingredients into your food processor and blend/pulse until you get the consistency you want and all ingredients are blended, I recommend finely chopped.

{ I've used capers previously, but didn't have them this time...  I highly recommend adding at least 1 tsp of capers to get a more authentic tapenade flavor. }

Tomorrow I will be making some soup...

Photo and recipe courtesy of MarthaStewart.com.

Cannellini Bean Soup to be exact and I can't wait...   

I'm hoping this will freeze well so it can also be for my lunches  { crossing fingers }

Oh! and in case you were wondering here's what the prince and I will be having for breakfast...

Photo and recipe courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

So as you can see { a lot } of the recipes I found came from MarthaStewart.com, but seriously I found the website to be a great resource (there were so many recipes), check it out!

Also another thing I'm starting to do...  I'm beginning to make the transition to ORGANIC products.  This will take some time, but if the price difference is minimal I'm pushing myself to choose the organic version.  

{ Stay tuned for weekly updates as to our progress with this healthy lifestyle change }

BTW, did you make any resolutions for yourself this year?

I would { LOVE } to here about them.

Christmas weekend was a blast!

So for my Christmas weekend recap I'm linking up with From Mrs. to Mama for the Show me Christmas link-up...

Our Christmas weekend started Friday night with the arrival of Grandma and Papa!  We were so excited for their visit, they were here for almost 3 full days.  The prince LOVES spending time with all of his grandparents, it's such a joy to see him with them and how happy they all  are when together.

For Christmas Eve, I spent the morning cooking a nice brunch for the hubby, prince and my parents.  I decided on doing brunch because the hubby had to work until 11am and I wanted to make a nice breakfast for everyone to enjoy, so by putting breakfast off for a few hours the hubby then got to enjoy it with us.

So for brunch we had whole wheat brown sugar banana bread pancakes...  

Recipe courtesy of "how Sweet it is", get it here.

Delicious and very filling...  perfect for Christmas Eve morning  { smile }

Along with cooking brunch I also spent some time baking  { LOVE }

I found a recipe for some cupcakes that I thought would be perfect for Christmas...  

Peppermint Mocha cupcakes = delicious!!

Recipe courtesy of Bakers Royale, get it here.

More to come in a future post about these { PERFECT } cupcakes, I promise!!

We took these { PERFECT } cupcakes to Mom Woods' house for a yummy dinner of pizza followed by the Christmas Eve service at the First Baptist Church of Darrington.  

It was then time to get home so I could get to work on my last sewing project...  

Tutorial courtesy of Make it Perfect, get it here.

"Peek-a-Boo" toy sack { FILLED } with cars!  I was so happy with how easy this project was, I will definitely be making at least one more of these.

Christmas morning came at about 6:30am...  and there were lots of presents for opening followed with lots of smiles and even a few tears...

These would be the tears I mentioned...  Grandma was so very happy with the Shutterfly book I created for her and Papa all about the prince.  I will definitely be doing more of these for gifts in the future!

Here's a looksee at all of the great gifts I got this year...

A glass bowl for my KitchenAid mixer { LOVE }

A Silpat and new cookie/bar sheet { another LOVE }

The slicer and shredder attachment for my beloved KitchenAid mixer.

And a microwave, a gift for both me and the hubby.  We've been without one for almost four months now..  a BIG thank you goes to my brother and Claire for this AMAZING gift!

Christmas day was made perfect by all of the wonderful family and friends that we got to spend the entire day with...  

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, too!

Now bring on the new year!!

"She's a tad obsessed."

A direct quote or thought, I'm sure, from either my father or my husband, if not both, while I was organizing my Baking Center in our new place.  

We've been in our new place for a little over a month now, FYI we are LOVING it, and two weeks after the move I spent some time organizing all of my baking goodies on what I'm calling my Baking Center.  Grandma and Papa Kelly were visiting for the weekend so I had someone to keep the prince busy while I worked on my project.

The storage space in our kitchen is lacking since we no longer have a pantry in which to store stuff and the cupboards seem to be a tad smaller than they were at our last place...  therefore ALL of my baking stuff needed a new home to make room for dishes, canned food, etc.  I've really been into baking this last year, especially cupcakes, and thought it would be fabulous to have all of my stuff in one place, FINALLY!  So here's what I came up with...

We've had this white shelf for years now and it was the perfect foundation for my project.

Notice my KitchenAid is displayed front-and-center, I love that thing and the COLOR.  Have you seen the new glass mixing bowl that some come with?  Check it out here.  I must have one!  And in case you have now found yourself needing one too you can find it here at Macy's or here on Amazon.

**FUN FACT:  My kitchen paint color, if we actually take the time to paint, in many of our previous places has been a few shades lighter than my mixer...  each time we get paint I compare the swatches to the mixer to make sure they compliment each other and don't clash.  I guess I'm kinda obsessed with a fan of the Robin's Egg blue colors.**

Did I mention that we (yes the hubby, too) are obsessed with fans of coffee?  And we have a collection of coffee brewing supplies too...  how many do you see in the pictures?  If you guessed 4 then you are correct!!  There's the coffee maker on the kitchen counter next to the Baking Center; the green French Press on the top shelf right next to the canister with a Starbucks VIA package (Italian Roast) inside (and yes the VIA counts as one of the 4); last but not least... our Starbucks espresso machine- LOVE!

We definitely have fewer drawers now in the kitchen so I found the white "baskets" at a local storage store to put my measuring cups and spoons in, my cupcake decorating supplies, and the lids for our NUMEROUS travel mugs...  I told you we are obsessed with fans of coffee.  Don't even get me started on all of the Starbucks mugs we have hiding in the cupboards...  trust me.

And then there's the collection of mason jars that I have, only a couple are pictured here because I'm still working on perfecting my storage solution for these babies...  of course once I've figured it out I'll share with everyone.

Ok so that's my new Baking Center!  Who knew that sharing my completed project with you meant I would be sharing a few of my other obsessions along the way...  coffee- YUM... and blue- specifically Robin's Egg blue...  I think that covers all of them right?!  Oh wait!  I forgot STARBUCKS!

I feel so much better after coming to terms with my obsessions, thank you all for letting me share with you :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love Steph


I almost FORGOT!  Someone decided to help a little...