Yogurt Fruit Parfaits

For a quick, easy and healthy breakfast treat, try these parfaits!

Yogurt Fruit Parfaits

vanilla yogurt
mixed fruit such as blueberries, strawberries, raspberries
granola
small cups

In a small punch or juice cup, layer yogurt, fruit mixture, granola, yogurt, fruit mixture and sprinkle granola on top.

I usually use vanilla yogurt, but I've used other flavors that I've had on hand such as strawberry, cherry or blueberry. I usually buy a bag of frozen mixed berry fruit and thaw that for the fruit layer. When thawed, it creates its own juice and works perfectly with the yogurt. But you can use fresh fruit as well.

The granola that I use is some I make, but it can be purchased granola or other yummy crunchies!

These are best made fresh that morning and don't keep longer than 24-48 hours!

February spells C-H-E-R-R-Y C-H-E-E-S-E-C-A-K-E

I warned you this was going to be a monthly blog feature!! ;)

But it's true. Every year around Valentine's Day, I usually end up making cherry cheesecake. It's not something I make all the time, so it's a treat to have this month.

Yummy!!!!

Fresh bread. Warm. Right out of the oven. Sooooo gooooood!!!!

Baking for Christmas!

Erinn & I spent Monday baking and between the two of us we got tons accomplished!!!

white trash candy mix
peanut clusters
chocolate haystacks
chocolate/caramel turtles
chex mix
chocolate chex mix (puppy chow)
lots of chatting! ;)

Piles of clean dishes--they were used
and washed multiple times!

Mounds of yummy snacks!!!

It started out simple...

...and turned into a much bigger task.

Ingredient list in hand, I started downstairs to see what I had and didn't have for the Christmas baking I was planning to do with Erinn this week. That was my sole intent--to gather up those things to bring upstairs.

And then organization set in. It's been a while since I sorted through the freezer and shelves of "extras" and you know how one thing just leads to another? Yeah, well....that's exactly what happened.

First I did this shelf. Then realized that the pasta boxes didn't belong on the same shelf as the breakfast mixes which were all mixed up with the cake mixes! Which in turn led to sorting the entire stack of shelves, to the freezer and then the other stack of shelves.

Now? It's organized. Planned or not, I like it!

Sunday School Cupcakes

Cupcakes. For. Sunday. School. :)

Cinnamon Twists

I made these for a church brunch a couple weeks ago and they turned out so yummy and wonderful!! Plus they freeze extremely well! (Even when you've left them uncovered in the freezer for a week! ;))

Cinnamon Twists

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cream of tarter
3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
2 TBSP melted butter
approx. 1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients together. Cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Add milk and stir until moistened.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead in flour as needed until well mixed. Roll out dough into rectangle, approx. 1/4" thick.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar. Fold rectangle in half and cut into 1" strips. Twist strips and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
few tsp. milk or water to desired consistency for drizzling.

Mix together above ingredients and drizzle over warm twists.

These are delicious with or without the icing and are perfect for making ahead of time and freezing until needed!

Can I have a spring break too....please??

All the kids and teachers are thrilled to have this next week be spring break! Considering what I've managed to do the last few days, I really think I need one as well.

...sprayed sink & tub cleaner on the bathroom window to wash it. Windex works and smells much better.

...put away the milk in the cabinet instead of the fridge. Thankfully discovered that I did that only 2 minutes later.

...uncovered a pan of cinnamon twists in the freezer that I made the week before and totally forgot about.

...pulled a pan out of the oven momentarily forgetting to use a hot pad. Believe me, less than a moment later, full realization of what I did hit me.

...discovered my Google toolbar has disappeared from my Firefox browser and so far I've been unsuccessful in recovering it. Do you know how hard it is to live without that Google search box and bookmarks?!?!

...crossed something off my list only to rewrite it because I crossed it off, planned to do it that very minute and got distracted. Note to self: Don't EVER cross off my list until AFTER the fact.

...almost forgot one of my SS kid's birthday in spite of the fact that she has been reminding me for the past month. (You know what kind of tragedy that would cause?!?!)

Too bad I don't teach school and can't have that much-looked-forward-to-break. Of course, my job being the wonderful job that it is...I can take a break just about any time. And next week sounds like a perfectly good week to me. :)

Baskets & Treats!!

One of our projects at church was to fill 20 Valentine boxes, so last week as I was debating what my contribution would be, I discovered these cute fabric origami baskets. Of course! That was exactly what I needed!!!

I made some snack mix and packaged that in clear bags and then cut, folded and created over 20 of those little baskets and filled them with chocolate candies! Perfect! I love how they turned out!!!

And if you really want to know how I created those little treat holders, check out my embroidery blog here.

The ever-elusive tabbed folders

Doesn't it just drive you crazy when you discover that you are just a few short of what you need?! Well, even if it doesn't drive you crazy, it does me. :)

Last fall I totally reorganized and sorted my recipes and many of the ones Mom had and combined them all into one notebook, created my own folders, pages, etc. I wanted to use some fun colored tabs, so I dug around in my pile of office supplies and found 15 tabbed folders which I had previously bought and didn't use at the time. Perfect. I'll just use those.

They worked great! Large enough, easy to quickly scan and flip to...only thing is that I needed an additional 4 tabs to complete the last four sections. No problem; I'm sure Wal-Mart still has them. You must understand at this point that it's been over a year since I bought those folders and Wal-Mart has completely redone their store and they don't carry half of what they used to have on their shelves (which is an entirely other issue of frustration).

So, in and amongst my many trips to Hutchinson and Wichita last year and this year, I stopped at every Wal-Mart, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and even online looking for those tabs. I'd given up; apparently they are not making that kind anymore.

My choices now were: just use a different style for the last four sections (and every single time I would open my recipe book, I would think about those odd-matching tabbed folders - trust me, I would) or completely replace ALL the tabs and start over (not something I really wanted to do). But I decided I didn't have any other choice.

Then what did I discover when I sorted all my Bible teaching material? Yep, one more package of those exact tabbed folders. 5 tabs and I needed only 4 more. Perfect! Complete! Cross that off my driving-me-crazy-list!

The look & smell of Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
Everywhere you go...

....and so on and so forth as the song continues. Yep, it's looking more like Christmas here at home as well. Last week I put up all our Christmas decorations and started baking some Christmas candy.

turtles!

chocolate haystacks & peanut clusters!

chex party mix!

Luke 2:11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

One, two or maybe three ladybugs?

Ben, one of the boys in my Sunday School class, had a birthday last week and he was greatly excited by the fact that he is now 6 years old! So Sunday morning I brought cupcakes for his birthday!

Ladybugs just don't hang out in groups of one or two...

There's LOTS of them! :)

And then we had fun eating them and turning our tongues red and black. Maybe this was not such a good idea! :)


We also started decorating our books that we'll put all kinds of things in for this year - memory verses, Bible lessons, pictures...and whatever else I can think of!

Ben decorating his book.

Charlotte creating her book!

Mmmmm...mmmm...good!

Two coconut cream pies + church dinner = NO LEFTOVERS!

My list for today

Today I decided it was time to get out of my sewing room/office for the majority of the day. I've spent countless hours and late nights getting class files and student files ready for my new class starting in September and I need a short break from it before I dive into class lessons next week. Plus I have a list of other things that need to be done.

Here's my list:

-- chicken noodles & mashed potatoes for lunch
-- prepare minutes steak & sauce for lunch tomorrow
-- chop up & freeze wal-nuts
-- chop up & freeze onions
-- bake sugar cookies for Sunday School tomorrow
-- cook chicken for next week

And then, depending on how my days goes, I may start taking down all the 4th of July decorations and put up some fall stuff. First I'm off to tackle a few emails this morning and then get started on my list...

"Normal" feels so nice!

Ahhh...what can I say? I think the return to a normal week is happening! As much as I loved everything I did in July, I must say having the beginning of a normal week is just so wonderful. Two weeks of CEF camp, one week of Vacation Bible School and then this last week of returning to work and getting caught up on classes, emails, orders, sewing, paperwork and taping made for a very full and exhausting month! But I'm not sure I would have changed one bit of it!

As I was cooking several things for one of our neighbors who passed away last Friday, I kept thinking to myself, "I am so ready for a normal week. Normal week as in my schedule of work, cooking, cleaning, laundry and such...back to normal."

And how wonderful it felt to actually be working in the kitchen again! Thankfully, as was my plan, I had plenty of food for the two weeks I was at camp, the week of vbs and my catch-up week of business work. I haven't done any cooking for a month! Well, unless you call fixing hamburger helper or baking a frozen pizza (I didn't even bake my homemade one...desperate times call for desperate measures!) or warming up leftovers "cooking".

Over the weekend I was able to fully unpack from camp and put away things from teaching at camp and vbs, which felt so wonderful! And Sunday as I was planning out my week, I thought to myself, "I think I can actually go to bed before midnight this week." How wonderful! Now...just getting my body to adjust to that! :)

Normal is wonderful! Oh...and my two cats agree with me! :)

I don't think Dad will starve! ;)

This morning I spent 5 hours cooking/baking/preparing food for the next three weeks. I'm sure I'll have to fill in a couple things when I'm home on Saturday between two weeks of camp and also some during the week of VBS. But at least, this will be done and it will make it that much easier for me as my time will be occupied elsewhere.

Yesterday we made homemade ice cream and German chocolate cake (Dad's favs!!) for Dad's birthday today. And just think - he'll have an entire two weeks to eat it ALL by himself!! :)

bbq meatballs
hash brown casserole
home made bread rolls
lasagna
cinnamon rolls
caramel frosting
enchiladas
layered lettuce salad
German chocolate cake
cheery cobbler
home made ice cream
chicken casserole

Turning this....

...into this!

Seven Layer Salad

This is a quick and easy summer salad that Mom used to make quite often and everyone in our family loves it! It can also easily be adapted with whatever veggies you have on hand.

Seven Layer Salad

1 pound bacon
1 large head of iceberg lettuce (rinsed, dried, chopped)
1 red or yellow onion, chopped
10 ounce pkg frozen green peas, thawed
10 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
5-6 boiled eggs, sliced
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
2 TBSP white sugar
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook bacon until crisp and then crumble and set aside. Prepare the dressing by whisking together the mayo, sugar and Parmesan cheese.

In a large flat bowl (use a glass bowl or dish to show off the layers) layer the following:
chopped lettuce
chopped onion
thawed peas
sliced boiled eggs
crumbled bacon
mayo mixture
shredded cheddar cheese

Refrigerate until chilled. Can also use broccoli, cauliflower, carrots or other veggies to add to the layers.

Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas - Yummy!!!

I found this recipe for chicken enchiladas and cheese (everything is better with cheese!) a couple months ago and I've already made it a couple times. It's quick, easy and very yummy!!

Easy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas

1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup picante sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack & Colby cheese (can use other cheeses as well)
6 flour tortillas
1 small tomato, chopped (opt.)
1 green onion, sliced (opt.)

Stir the coup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder in a medium bowl. Stir one cup picante sauce mixture with the chicken and cheese in another large bowl.

Divide the chicken mixture among the tortillas. Roll up the tortillas and place them seamside down in an 11"x 8" shallow baking dish. Pour the remaining picante sauce mixture over the filled tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil if needed.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling. Top with the tomato and onion and sprinkle with more cheese.

A glimpse of my day through photos

fresh cinnamon rolls

sink full of clean dishes

bowls of pancake flour

fresh fruit salad

clean folded laundry

finished quilt block

my babies!

Just a few of random morning thoughts....

What's on my mind this morning? Well, I have a mound of paperwork that I'm sorting and filing that I've put off for quite a while and that's rather mindless work, so my mind has drifted to a few other random thoughts....

My blog sidebar - Yes, those of you who are faithful readers have probably noticed that my sidebar is badly in need of a tune-up! Christmas music is still up and it's April??? There are some broken images and links that need deleted/repaired and some additions to be made as well. I need to put that on my list.

Skittles, Scamper and Snickers - Those sweet little kitties of mine! I've decided to get Skittles spayed so this will be her last litter of kittens. And I need to take Scamper and Snickers in for their kitten shots. I'm also wondering *just what* the car ride into Dodge will be like??? Add that to my schedule.

Defrost the freezer - I just did this not too long ago. And that's what's so frustrating about it. I put a can of pop in there last week and left it too long (I didn't think it was THAT long, but it must have been long enough) and it left quite a frozen mess as there is frozen liquid all over the door and shelves. Work that into my schedule this month.

Digital scrapbooking - Yes, I know I mentioned that recently, but I can't get it out of my head. I'm just itching to work with some freebie themes I found online. Another of my goals this year is to learn Photo Elements and Premier Elements. I've already worked through some tutorials and swarms of ideas are rolling around in my head. Plus I'm considering doing a new theme for this blog and using some scrapbooking elements to create it.

Spring cleaning - Sometime in the next two months spring cleaning has to be done. Partly because Jen and Kris are moving out and we are doing some rearranging of rooms and furniture and what better time to clean from top to bottom than when the room is empty?! Plus I skipped it last year as we just had new windows put in and why clean new windows??? Plan and schedule spring cleaning.

Grandma - I'm headed to Grandma's house for a while this afternoon. She loves for us girls to come over. I need to remember to pack my computer to show her Krissa's apartment pics; she'll enjoy seeing those. And I need to drop by the fabric store in Montezuma to see if they might by chance have some fabric to match the bathroom towels. Oh, and that's the other thing - bathroom curtains. I still need to do that.

There's a few more thoughts rambling around in my head, but for now it's time to quit typing and start filing.....:)

photo from allposters.com