It's Saturday and I've been cooking...

I thought I would give you a quick update on the delicious/yummy creations I've made today for the family.

First for breakfast...

We had Mini Puffed Oven Pancakes...  or as we call them in my family mini dutch babies.

And here they are straight out of the oven, before the delicious and oh, so simple berry sauce is added.

My parents and I absolutely loved these and I highly recommend you make them yourself

{ hello little brother... I'm talking to you }

And before I forget... get the recipe for the puffed pancakes/ dutch babies and berry sauce here.

I strayed from the recipe and directions a tad...

Instead of using a mini muffin tin, I used my regular sized one and I was able to get 7 pancakes out of it, but I kept the cooking time the same.

I also added a touch (about a 1/4 tsp) of vanilla extract.

I chose to make a raspberry sauce, so I used about a cup of frozen raspberries and 3 tbsp of raspberry preserves.

ENJOY!

Lunch was at Subway, followed by a quick trip to Country Village to visit the chicken, duckies and choo-choo store.

And for dinner...

Creamy tomato penne with shrimp

(aka Penne a la Betsy by The Pioneer Woman)

Another delicious meal to add to the recipe "box" to be made again.

Get the recipe here from The Pioneer Woman.

Ok, now I've got to get back to the family...

have a wonderful weekend, lovelies!

Cooking and baking all day... hopefully!

I have been terrible at managing my time the last few weeks... 

and a few of my favorite things have had to sacrifice, cooking/baking and blogging.

AND... I am soooo sorry!

So to get back in to the swing of things I will be spending the next few hours cooking and baking

{ yay! }

And I'm sure you would all { LOVE } to know what I will be creating in the kitchen, right?!

Well here you go, a glimpse into my culinary exploration for this Sunday morning...

Soups

Only like the best Fall and Winter food EVER. 

Homemade Mushroom Soup, recipe & { amazing } photo courtesy of Season with Spicehere, get the yummy recipe here.

Vegetable Chowder, recipe and photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com, get the recipe here if you would like to try it for yourself.

I'm hoping that both of these will freeze well, seeing as they are for my lunches for the next couple of weeks.

Along with making some soups, I'll also be baking up a batch of these...

Whole Wheat Pita Bread, recipe and photo courtesy of Annie's Eats, get it here.

{ I'm hoping they're as amazing as the Greek pitas I get at Metropolitan Market }

And I couldn't make some pitas without planning for a meal of Chicken Gyros...

recipe and photo also courtesy of Annie's Eats, get it here.

In case you need some inspiration for your weekly meals, check out my  Pinterest boards 

for some yummy recipes...

for vegetarian recipes

for all other yummy, delicious recipes

Have you tried any new recipes lately?  

I've been doing quite well at this since the new year, we generally have 2-3 meals a week 

that are new recipes for our family...

it's so much more fun cooking when you get to experiment with new recipes { smile }

Have a WONDERFUL Sunday, lovelies!  On top of cooking and blogging, I'll also be doing a ton few loads of laundry.  { yippee... not so much }

2012 Resolution { update }

hello lovelies!

It's now been almost 2 weeks since the prince and I started our partial-vegetarian lifestyle

and it's going well-- { REALLY well! }

I've been surprised how easy it's been to find recipes that sound yummy to me and are also

hubby friendly/approved.   There's the pappardelle pasta and tomato basil sauce that we had last week... I was raving about it here.  Along with these meals...

Tortellini spinach bake in a creamy basil garlic sauce.

The original recipe from Our Best Bites is a creamy lemon sauce, but seeing as how we're not really fans of lemon for our pasta sauces I used considerably less lemon than it called for in the recipe, get it here, so instead the sauce became a creamy basil garlic sauce for us.

Petite lasagnas, recipe via Can You Stay for Dinner?...  get it here.

Delicious and lowfat, what could be better?!  Oh wait!  EASY to make, too!  And I now have lunches for a  few days in the freezer

Baked pumpkin pie oatmeal.

{ this is not a hubby fave... he doesn't like pumpkin pie }

I'm loving this oatmeal, I froze the extras and can now take it to work or just warm it up at home.

{ very yummy }

The recipe is from Inside NanaBread's Head, get it here.  FYI...  I didn't have any raisins on hand so instead I substituted the dried cranberries I had and they are fab!  

If you would like to try any of the fabulous recipes I've found, then check 

out my board on Pinterest here.

I love trying all of these new recipes, it makes dinnertime a lot more fun for me { smile }

And the prince has been having a lot of fun cooking with Mommy, too { even bigger smile }

Have a wonderful weekend lovelies!

A week in { Instagram }

hello lovelies!

It's been over a week since my last post, so I thought I would devote this post to catching 

you up on our happenings/doings for the last week.

So... with the help of Instagram { my new fave iPhone app } 

here's a peek at what we were up to this last week...

beautiful pillows I need at Target { I especially love the Chevron print }

baked pumpkin pie oatmeal, get the recipe here

ingredients for black bean brownies { thumbs down, must find a better recipe }

the prince's cookie from Central Market, almost to pretty/cool to eat { almost }

yummy little satsuma/mandarine/cutie, my morning snack

all the goodies for Mom Woods' birthday dinner { it was a hit }

the prince reading his george books

petite lasagnas { yummy & EASY to make } get the recipe here

waiting for our { yummies } at our fave teriyaki place

absolutely amazing cookies made by the prince & grandma Woods

cannellini bean soup { my work lunch }

veggie sandwich w/ roasted garlic hummus & homemade kalamata tapenade

{ FYI- we've been doing great with our resolution...  specifics in an upcoming post }

So what were you up to this last week?  I can't wait to here everything { smile }

Have a wonderful end to your week, lovelies!

Day 1- 3 recipes down...

On our first day of trying our new semi-vegetarian lifestyle, the prince and I had some yummy meals...

For breakfast, we shared an egg and avocado breakfast sandwich.

Quite delicious and a nice start to the day.  

Get the recipe here if you would like to try making one yourself.

Then it was on to my mid-day project, Cannellini Bean soup...

A tad bit of prep work, but well worth it.

All packaged up and now in the freezer, ready to take to work for my lunches

{ yum }

Get the recipe here if you would like to make a batch.

AND, last but not least, the masterpiece pasta we had for dinner...  

I'm telling you this dinner was 5 star, also hubby and prince approved!

Pappardelle noodles in tomato basil sauce with ricotta and italian chicken sausages...

{ DELICIOUS } and so very easy!

Here's what I used...

This type of pasta was a bit harder to find, luckily Central Market had it, all be it a tad pricey, but dinner was so yummy that I would totally buy it again!

Along with two cloves of garlic (minced) and 2 Open Nature Italian chicken sausages and this recipe.  

FYI, the recipe calls for 4 cups of marinara sauce, but the jar is only 24oz = 3 cups, don't worry just add the same amount of water and everything will work out fine...  you can also use less noodles, that's what I did, afterall.

Here's another glimpse at our dinner in the making...

SIMPLE, QUICK and DELICIOUS...  you must try it!!

We also had some wonderful rolls with dinner...

Also a must try! We warmed them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 325 degrees = scrumptious!

Have a wonderful week, I'm headed back to work tomorrow and the prince is now telling me he is ready for bedtime... so, goodnight!

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.