Successful Foodie Week

We try a lot of new recipes for dinner and most of them don't pass our "we have to make this again list" but this past week every single one that we tried was awesome. They were very tasty and vegetarian. Some were healthy and some were not due to a lot of cheese. I realized we had a very cheesy week so this next week I will try to be cheese free.......a very tough thing for me.

If you are looking for new dinner ideas these are perfect and yummy.

Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms
3 ounces softened cream cheese (fat free)
1/4 cup mayo
1 jar (6.5oz) marinated artichoke hearts, finely chopped(save the marinade in the jar)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
several small portabella mushroom caps or 2-4 large portabella caps
1/4 cup bread crumbs

In a bowl beat cream cheese and mayo until smooth. Stir in artichokes and cheese. Spoon mixture into mushrooms caps. Combine bread crumbs and 2 teaspoons of marinade from artichoke jar; sprinkle over mushrooms. Bake for 10-15 minutes until mushrooms are tender. You can also grill these.

Stuffed Zucchini with Tomatoes and Mozzarella
(thanks to Pam Peercy for this recipe)
2 medium zucchini, cut length wise and scrape out seeds
2 plum tomatoes, diced small
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 tespoon white wine vinegar
5 oz mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Brush a shallow baking dish with olive oil. Place zucchini, cut side up, in dish. Season with salt and pepper. In small bowl combine 2 diced tomatoes, oregano and white wine vinegar. Stir and season with salt and pepper. Place mixture on top of zucchini. Bake about 20 minutes until zucchini is tender. Remove from oven and turn oven to Broil. Place mozzarella cheese on top of zucchini and broil for 1-2 minutes until cheese is browned.

Eggplant Parmigiana
1 small eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup flour ina small bowl
2 tblsp cooking oil
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup spaghetti sauce
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

Combine egg and 1 tblsp water. Dip eggplant slices into egg mixture and then into flour, coating both sides. In a skillet heat cooking oil and cook eggplant on both sides until golden. Drain on paper towels. Place eggplant in a 2 qt square baking dish. Sprinkle with parmesan and top with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

Squash, Pear, and Onion au Gratin
1 medium size butternut squash, cut in half, discard seeds and then cut into 1/2 slices lengthwise
1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 tblsp butter
1 medium pear, thinly sliced
3 tblsp bread crumbs
2 tblsp chopped walnuts
1 tblsp parmesan cheese
1 tblsp melted butter

Cook onion rings in a skillet in the 1 tblsp butter until tender. Arrange half the squash slices in a rectangular baking dish. Top with half the pear slices. Repeat layers. Cover with cooked onions. Bake covered with foil at 350 for 45 minutes until tender.
In a small bowl combine bread crumbs, walnuts, cheese and melted butter. Sprinkle over vegetables. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.


Ok now that I just planned your meals for the week I need to go find new ones for us!

He's a Warrior

Matt participated in his first ever race this weekend called the Warrior Dash. It is 3.01 miles of running and completing challenging obstacles like climbing walls, walking planks and spiderwebs, fire jumping, and crawling through mud pits. For a first time warrior he did great finishing at 32 mins and 50 secs. He finished 558th out of 6,746 participants and 125th for his age group. Me and my mom had a great time watching all these crazy people participate. We were really excited at the beginning and talking about trying it next year....and then we saw the people at the finish line and weren't so interested anymore. There was a variety of participants there wearing costumes or crazy body paint. Some groups were even in full business suits. Matt said it was a tough course but he had a blast.

Waiting to start with his group.

Ready, set, go!

After he started we walked around and checked out some of the obstacles. We were not able to see all of the race but this mudd pit was the finish line.

Fire jumping!

Here he comes approaching the finish line. At this point he said he was ready to be done and maybe the mudd would be refreshing but it was one of the tougher obstacles. The mudd was really thick and tough to swim through.

My mudd man. Yep he chose to go under and live up the full experience of swimming through mudd. It was on his teeth, in his ears, and lots of other places.

This is where they all went to get cleaned off.

My warrior.

Today I am nursing his battle wound. Wouldn't be a true warrior without it. One of the courses was a blackened out cave like thing they had to crawl through. His knee met up with a tree stump and took a nice chunk out of it. It's deep enough to constitute stitches but we will see.

Hawaiian Luau

My Aunt Memare and Uncle Jeff have been to Hawaii several times and they wanted to share some of it with us. My grandmother hosted the Luau party at her house this weekend. It was good food and good times with family.

Here are some pre-party pics.

Mom and all her kids.


Mom and her two kids.

Me and my bro.

Little miss Carmen Marie and Papa.

Did I mention we have the best dog ever.....he is so tolerant of the things I do to him.

And it's always a blast playing with Cameron!

Veggie Burger- Accomplished!

I have tried several veggie burger recipes over the past year and I finally found one we both love. I was trying to copy one that we had at a restaurant so I threw some things together and it worked on the first try! Since this one is so dense it is pretty comparable to a real hamburger with hardly any fat since I didn't need to add eggs. Served up on these pretzel buns from the Zionsville Farmer's Market this was the best one yet.

I will try to share the recipe although I didn't keep track of my measurements but you can just have fun with it.

1 cup of cooked wild rice

~ 1 cup of black beans, drained and rinsed

shredded carrot

shredded kale

1/2 tespoon chia seeds (optional)

bread crumbs

choice of seasonings for flavor

Roughly mash up beans in bowl. Add rice, carrot, kale or any other veggies you choose. Mix well. Add enough bread crumbs so the mixture stays together to form patties. I fried mine in a skillet because I think that helped them stay together better but you can also try baking/ broiling them. Cook with any option until slightly crispy on both sides.

So some of my favorite weeks are when we get to spend quality time with our little kiddos and it's even better when we get to see more than one of them in the same week.

Last Sunday we spent the day in TH and had such a great time with Cameron playing outside and in his pool. It's the best feeling when they are old enough to run up to you when you arrive yelling Uncle Matt, Aunt Manda.

Friday night we got to babysit Gracie. She kept us on our toes showing off how well she can crawl now and she loved playing in the grass with Uncle Matt.

In the Shadows

So this is the latest look for our pergola. We added four angled pieces to give it more of a mediterranean look. The new pieces also made a perfect spot to hang flower baskets off of. Sorry for the shadows but I only seem to remember to take photos at this time of day.

And finally after weeks of waiting for this puppy to go on sale we have our patio set.

To celebrate the ownership of my first ever patio table I made yummy Vegan Zucchini Bread......well not so much to celebrate but because the zucchini was starting to go bad :) Bad zucchini is great for baking though!

Love the You that God Made

Every year around this time I try to be all summery and do my hair in that wet beachy crunchy style......it always fails. For some reason I thought this year would be different because I bought a new blow dryer and it came with one of those diffuser attachments. What was I thinking. It always looks like either I just got out of bed or a bird's nest.

So even though I learned at a young age to accept the long legs I would have to shop for the rest of my life, it took me 20 years to accept that my hair will always be straight! Don't get me wrong I love my straight hair b/c it is so easy to manage but sometimes a girl wants to mix it up. And by the way "perm" is not a word that we talk about. My mother probably learned when I was 8 that a perm would only happen once on my hair.

So straight it is 4-ev-ver!

This is what Cody thought of all my bathroom photo taking nonsense........

Concert of the year...so far!

So even though I had every intention of going to several great concerts this year I just couldn't manage to swallow the price of tickets. It's getting ridiculous. But I couldn't pass on going to see Mr. Brad Paisley and I am so glad I didn't. This is the 6th time I have seen him and it gets better every time. I joined the fan club this year just to see if I could get better seats and these turned out to be the best seats we have ever had! I mean look at them.....you can't get any closer. He did a great show and I felt like we were the only ones there because we were in the second row from the runway. I am definitely renewing the fan club membership next year.

(By the way I did not use the zoom for these photos!)