Trying to Eat Healthy...

Eating healthy at our house is always the goal, but sometimes or really more often than not that goal is not reached and we fail miserably.  There always seem to be a birthday, event or something to delish to pass up at the store.  Well, I am really trying to do better since summer is coming and swimsuit weather is right around the corner. 

So today for lunch I made one of my all time favorite healthy salads that are so yummy and so good for you!

Don't you just want to dig in right now and eat the whole bowl!  I sure do!  I found this recipe last spring on www.allrecipes.com and tweaked it a bit to better suit our tastes.

 

Here is the recipe.  Enjoy!

1 head of romaine lettuce, chopped

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

1 can black olives sliced

1 red pepper, chopped

1 orange or yellow pepper, chopped

2 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 cucumber, sliced

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

Mix all together and then make dressing.

 

Dressing:

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 lemon, juiced (about 2 1/2 tbsp)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 - 1 teaspoon onion powder

salt to taste(this is key! don't skimp)

pepper to taste

 

Mix dressing ingredients together and dump on salad and mix thouroughly when ready to serve.

Eat and enjoy! 

 

What a great way to welcome Spring!

 

 

 

Wintery Day Makes For Wintery Fun!

Here in the Midwest, we are experiencing 6-8 inches of snow.  This makes for a great day to stay home, catch up on housework, watch movies, snuggle, take a nap and our favorite activity...make snow icecream!!  It is so yummy, only  takes a few minutes and requires some simple ingredients that you are sure to have on hand.  The smiles that will light your kids faces will be worth the effort of getting some clean snow to use! :)

 

Snow Ice Cream:

First start off with clean, white snow.  Like shown above. 

You will need 4 cups.

Then add to the snow 1/2 cup milk or cream.

After that add 1/4 cup sugar.

We also add 1 tablespoon vanilla. But it's not necessary.  Mix well and serve alone, with sprinkles or chocolate syrup.

Any way you eat it, its yummy and cold! :)

 

 

 

Enjoy and have a lovely, wintery day!  I'm off to enjoy my icecream and a cup of hot tea!

 

 

oooh, yum! Apple Pie Bars!

Yesterday, I was given some apples.  Paula Red apple to be exact and they were yummy!  Crisp, sweet and juicy.  I have been craving a favorite fall recipe of mine for awhile now and finally I could make it! 

Apple Pie Bars!  They make a bar pan full, so feel free to share with friends, or eat a whole row yourself...oops! :)  Hey I was hungry, it was right before supper and... well um they tasted good, maybe too good because I'm thinking another row for breakfast would be pretty amazing!




just before the top crust is put on. Yummmm!


Here is the recipe I know you just can't wait to make these!
Apple Pie Bars
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 egg yolks with milk to make 1 cup. (save those egg whites for later in the recipe)

Mix all these ingredients into a ball and divide in half.  Roll our half in bottom of bar pan.

Peel/ Slice 6-8 apples (I always do at least 8)
add 1 cup sugar or more to taste (brown sugar is best!)
1/3 cup flour ( if you forget to add this like I did, oops, they still turn out delish, maybe a tad runny...haha! )
1-2 tsp cinnamon

Mix apples and sugar and cinnamon and then pour onto crust.
Dot with butter
Roll our second half of crust and put on top.  Pinch sides all around.  Brush top with egg whites that you've fluffed with a fork.  Poke holes in crust.
Bake at 425 for 10 minutes
then 375 for 20-30 minutes.

After it's done, mix some powdered sugar and milk until you get a somewhat thick consitency and drizzle over bars!

Then just try to resist waiting until they are somewhat cool so you don't burn your mouth.

These are so good and so worth making!

 

For some reason it won't let me make this picture bigger, but even this size  is making me hungry! I think it's time to go eat some more before my kids finish them off, they are that good!

 

Yummy Soup for a Cool, Brisk, Fall Day!

Today the sun is shining, but it's really quite deceiving.  When you step outside, the weather is brisk, the wind is blowing and it's really a great day to stay inside and enjoy some warm, cozy foods like soup! 

Quite a few years ago, a friend gave me a simple, inexpensive recipe for soup that I have used over and over.  It has also been a much requested recipe as well.

Potato Leek Soup
3-4 Leeks - Cut the ends of and the greens.  Slice the leeks down the middle and then run them under water to clean out all of the dirt that likes to hide in the layers. Then chop them up somewhat fine.
1 Stick of butter
5-10lbs of potatoes depending on your family size. Peeled and cut into chunks (not overally large)
Water
salt and pepper to taste- salt is really key to this recipe being yummy!

Melt the butter in your stockpot.  Add the leeks and cook until they are limp.  Add potatoes, salt and pepper  and just cover them with water.  Cook until potatoes are done.  Then either with a blender, or one of those nifty hand blenders, mix the soup until desired consistency.  (We like ours to have some chunks of potatoes left, but not too many as the more you blend the thicker your soup.)  After you have done this add more salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

What I love about this soup, is that today when I made it, I didn't have any leeks, so instead I used a nice sized onion and it tasted just as good! 

 

So warm and filling on a cool, fall day!

Love everything about Fall!

 

There's just something about Fall that I love!  Maybe it's the cooler weather or maybe it's the leaves changing color and crunching under your feet, could be that bonfires are just so much more fun in Fall, or the fact that I absolutely adore anything made with pumpkin, or apples or cider.... on and on it goes. 

My love affair with Fall started when I was a little girl, and my mom would begin to decorate our house with leaves from outside, pinecones and a few pumpkins tucked here and there.  The house began to smell heavenly each day as a pot of chicken soup, or some fresh baked cookies were sitting on the stove waiting for little hands to enjoy! 

Now it's my girls who look forward to Fall.  Each claiming it to be their favorite season!  We all love to decorate our house and have done so since they were quite little.  This year, I added a project into the decorating mix.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of it along the way, but I know there are tutorials out there on how to do this.

First I found an old suitcase, (one of the benefits of my mom owning a home decor shop) then we ripped out the lining inside it and my dear husband cut it in half the long way.  We then added some wood on the sides and attached picture hanger....And your ready to hang!

Enjoy these lovely Fall days before all too soon they are gone and winter sets in!

Whew! Been so busy! But finally a project!

Life has been so busy these past few weeks!  The three older girls went to camp for a week, then when they came back our youngest went and the rest of us had Teen Time every night for the week.  Then we had a surprise party to attend, and then we left for a week of vacation.  So much fun, but not much time for projects. 

Finally I was able to work on something yesterday, and I love how it turned out!  Of course, my camera stinks so you don't really see how great it looks, but oh well!

Awhile back I bought a cute end table for $4.95.  It looked like this:

One of our cats decided that this was a nice place to get out of the sun! 

I kept trying to decide what color to paint this, but finally decided on a teal that I had left over from a previous project... I do so love teal!

I also used some leftover stain and worked quickly painting an area with the stain, and then wiping it off.  I love the effect that gives.  I went ahead and dry brushed some white onto the handles and wahla!  Finished in just a few hours! 

I really love when projects only cost $4.95 and add a splash of color to a room! 

Busy Summer, but easy project!

Whew!  It has been awhile since I've been on here.  Summer is always such a busy time at our house and this year has been no exception!  Girls coming and going from camp, teen time at our church for a week, camping, wakeboarding, swimming....anyway, I tend to neglect the internet when I get busy. 

The great thing is I did find some time to do a fun easy project that I just love with some old barn board.  The idea was inspired by a friend on Facebook who did something similar.

We don't really have barn board laying around, but we do have an old horse shed that has a barn door. 

After sizing the door up, I asked my husband if I could take a board off the door, since the building is really no good anyway. 

So I pried a board off with the help of my husband (who wishes I would stop getting so many ideas:) )

I had to take out ALOT of nails!! And then I was ready to start.

I used an old cereal box to cut out the letters and then traced them onto my board!  After I cut them out then I spray painted a bunch of frames to hang on the wall along with my letters.

Of course I had to use my favorite color spray paint!

And here is everything put up on the wall!  As I take pictures, I will add them into the frames, but for now I like the look!  It sure was better than a blank wall!

Since this was so much fun, I went ahead right away and made another set of letters and added those in the kitchen!  Of course my junky camera never makes things look as good as they do in real life, but you get the idea!