Resolution Update #2

Did you keep your resolutions? I know by this time of year, a lot of people have given up their resolutions. I have to admit that I haven’t done as much as I could and I’ve not been as consistent as I would like.

Getting Healthy:

We did join the YMCA and I love it there. I haven’t taken advantage of any classes yet, but I look forward to doing so in the next month! I also love that Man-Child can go there and get a little exercise in as well. He likes to play racquetball. I’ve been trying to eat healthier as well. I have lost a few more pounds. This brings the total weight lost to 6 pounds! I’ll take it!

Getting Organized:

WOW ok so where did the month of February go? Because seriously I feel like I got nothing done! I had wanted to do my kitchen and so did not get that done! So it’s moved down my list to March.

Family Time:

 

This month Man-Child and I went to the Tacoma Glass Museum, with some friends. It’s a really cool place the glass art is amazing! The gift shop is just scary though! All those breakable pieces that cost more than we make in a month. Yeah I couldn’t wait to get out of there!

This month was so so on resolution keeping and I hope next month is better! How’s your resolution keeping going?

ENJOY!

Honey Lemon Wellness Tea

I don’t know about you but I’ve got this icky nasty cold that will not go away! So I’ve been to the Doctor and first it was a sinus infection and now they say it’s just a cold! ICK! I am ready to feel better. So I’m up to trying anything! I’ve seen lots of tips and tricks and this one seemed easy enough to try. It’s just honey and lemons and hot water! What’s easier than that? And it really does help! Did it cure me no, but it tastes good and did make me feel a little better!

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

Honey

Lemon slices (about 1 lemon)

Mason jar (I used a pint size jar)

 

Here’s how you make it:

Place lemon slices into a small mason jar. Fill the jar to about ½ an inch from the top with honey. Screw on the top and place in the refrigerator. Let sit until you need it. As you use it you can add more lemon slices and more honey. I’ve had mine for about 5 months and I’ve used it a few times. To serve add a tablespoon of the lemon honey to a mug and pour in hot water. Sip and enjoy.

Swedish Pancakes

My Grandpa Buzz was larger than life! I have so many great memories of him! If you saw my post on Chapman's then you know he owned a Rock Shop. I remember thinking it was so cool to go rock hunting with him! We also used to stay with him on Thursday nights while my Mom and Grandma went to an art class, we would fix him dinner and he would grade us! He never gave us an A so that we would have to keep trying to improve. He also made the BEST ice cream Sundays. But the one thing he made that we only had once a year was Swedish Pancakes! They are this heavenly fluffy eggie “pancakes” which really taste nothing like a pancake at all it’s more like a soufflé. These are so good, not necessarily good for you but since you only make them once a year it’s all good!

Here’s what you’ll need:

6 eggs

1 cup Milk

1/3 cup Flour

1/2tsp Salt

1 stick Butter

Lemons

Powdered Sugar

Cast Iron Skillet or oven safe skillet

Here’s how you make it:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the stick of butter in the skillet. Place skillet in the oven and let the butter melt. Meanwhile place the eggs, milk, flour and salt into a blender. Blend until combined. When the butter has melted completely, remove the pan from the oven and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. It will be golden and fluffy when it’s done! Cut into pieces and sprinkle with powdered sugar and squirt on some lemon juice.

Enjoy!

Hopscotch Mat

I had a totally different blog planned for today, I’m making a rag rug, well attempting too, but it’s taking a little longer than I planned and I ran out of materials so I needed something else for today’s blog! What do I do? Call my Sister of course! I made my niece a Hopscotch mat for Christmas a few years ago. So I had her pull it out and take a million pictures for me to use! This really is a great little mat, and a perfect thing to have on hand during the winter when it’s too icky to be outside and the kiddos are driving you up the wall a little rambunctious!

Fun Fact: The original hopscotch courts were over 100 feet long and used for military training exercises.

Here’s what you’ll need:

A rug (mine was 6ft x 2ft)

Duct Tape

Spray Paint

Number Stencils

Here’s how you make it:

First decide how big you want the squares to be. I made them big enough that their feet would fit in the squares. I made a total of 8 squares. Figure out where to place each square and the pattern you want to make. Cut the strips of Duct Tape to make each square. Inside each square place the stencil and spray paint the number. That’s really all that involved! This is so easy and yet such a great indoor game!

ENJOY!

Family Dinners: Chicken Marsala

Do you sit down to the table with your Family for dinner? We used to do it all the time, and then for whatever reason we got out of the habit. But we are bringing back Family Dinners at the Merrill house! I think it is so important to sit down as a family and share about your day. We do this thing when we do sit down at the table as a family it’s called High/Low. Everyone at the table has to share one good (high) thing that happened during the day and one bad/not so good (low) thing that happened. This is a great way to see what’s going on in your child’s life. And it’s a great conversation starter! We’ve actually done this when man-child has had friends over and its fun to see how other kiddos react to it. I’m sure they think we are cRaZy in the beginning but they usually get into it as well. I know our lives are busy and maybe you can’t sit down to dinner every night try making it once a week to start with. Sunday’s are the day we really like to make sure we all gather together. So dust off your tables, clear out the clutter and make time to sit down to a Family Dinner.

When you do sit down to that Family Dinner why not make a yummy Chicken Marsala to enjoy with all that conversation! Just remember don’t talk with your mouth full!

 

Here’s what you’ll need:

¼ cup flour

½ tsp Garlic Salt

¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper

½ tsp Oregano

4 Boneless skinless Chicken Breasts (pounded to about a ¼ inch thickness)

4TBSP Butter

4TBSP Olive Oil

¾ cup Marsala Wine

1 cup sliced mushrooms

 

 

Here’s how you make it:

In a plastic zip bag place your flour and all the seasoning, shake it up a little to get it mixed up! Then Place the chicken breasts, one at a time, into the bag and shake to coat the entire breast. Remove the Chicken. In a medium sized skillet, melt butter in the oil over medium heat. Place the Chicken in the pan and let brown, turning over once. Add in the mushrooms and the wine. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink! Serve with angel hair pasta, or a nice salad for a lighter meal, we may have both ;)

ENJOY!

Lemon Truffles

In December I showed you how to make Thin Mint Truffles. They are so good right? Did you try them? So I thought what’s something I haven’t seen that sounds good? Lemon Truffles! I know a fellow Army Wife who loves lemon desserts. So with her in mind I came up with this recipe. It also makes me think of spring and well honestly I’m so ready for spring and summer to get here! I’m ready for the warm weather to be here again! I kind of wish that winter was just until after Christmas, then it could go. Don’t get me wrong I love the snow and all the wintery stuff you can do in it, I’m just ready to be warm again! And it’s not like we even have snow here so far this year?! Crazy right? Oh well that’s me.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Lemon Crème Cookies, finely crushed

1 8oz package Cream Cheese, room temperature

16 oz White Chocolate chips or White Almond Bark

Here’s how you make it:

In a mixing bowl combine the crushed Lemon Cookies and the Cream Cheese, mix until everything is incorporated. Shape the cookie mixture into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Place the balls into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile melt your chocolate chips, I like to use the double boiler method but you can also melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals be sure to stir the chips in between heating. When the Chocolate is melted take the truffles out of the freezer. And using 2 forks dip them in the chocolate until they are evenly coated. Roll the truffles along the side of the bowl to remove any excess chocolate. Place the truffles back onto the baking sheet and let set. You can sprinkle some lemon rind on them or some sprinkles, just remember to do it before they set up. Place them in the Refrigerator to harden quickly and then store them in a container until you are ready to eat them.

ENJOY!

Love Letters

EFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFEFE

I don’t have a lot of decorations for Valentine’s Day. I have a few baskets and a couple of glass bowls. I would like to have a few more things. So this year I wanted to add something new. I thought about making a wreath but I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. So I decided to buy letters that spell out the word LOVE and just paint them and put them up in the house!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Wooden letters

Spray Paint

Here’s how you make it:

Lay paper down over the surface you are going to work on to protect it. Spray the letters with the paint; you may need to do more than one coat. I had to do. Now if you wanted to Glam it up a little you could add some glitter while the last coat is still wet, sprinkle on some glitter over the letters. When the paint is dry apply a coat of Modge Podge. This is to help set the glitter. Let dry and then place the letters where you want to display them!

ENJOY!

Rustic Pasta

Valentines Day

We LOVE pasta in this family! If I hadn’t done the genealogy research myself I would think my husband was Italian! But nope he’s Irish and English and German! But he really likes pasta, like he could eat it several times a week maybe even everyday! I think pasta is a good dish for Valentine’s Day. For this dish I wanted to use a different shape of pasta, I mean there are so many out there and we always use the same ones over and over so for this dish I chose Cellentini.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Your favorite type of pasta

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2lb ground beef

1/2TBSP Dehydrated onions

½ TBSP Garlic Powder

½ cup Parmesan Cheese

1TBSP Italian Seasoning

Pinch of Sugar

Salt & Pepper to taste

 

Here’s how you make it:

In a large skillet brown the ground beef, add in the onions. Meanwhile in a sauce pan boil the pasta, strain when it’s done. When the beef is browned add in the garlic, tomatoes, Italian seasonings, sugar and salt and pepper. Stir and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix until it’s all mixed together. Serve with some crusty French bread and a salad!

ENJOY!

 

Chocolate Chocolate Cheesecake

fFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Valentine’s Day! is just around the corner! We celebrated a little early this year since the Hubster was going to be gone. His favorite dessert is Chocolate Cheesecake. I decided to amp up the yum factor a little this time and make it double chocolate cheesecake, cause really the only thing better than chocolate is more chocolate. Now if I was to make it again I would make the chocolate topping into a ganache instead of just the melted chocolate, not because of the taste but simply because ganache is easier to cut through than hardened chocolate! J We will still celebrate Valentine’s Day just the man-child and I but I had to make the Hubster special things before he left. After all he is my Valentine!

Here’s what you’ll need:

2-8oz pkgs cream cheese

2 eggs

1tsp vanilla             

3/4 cup Sugar

3TBSP Coco Powder

3TBSP Sugar

3TBSP Butter

Graham Cracker Crust

 

Here’s how you make it:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine Cream Cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla and mix until creamy. In a medium sauce pan combine coco powder, sugar and butter, melt over low heat stirring continually so the chocolate doesn’t burn. Continue stirring until the chocolate is smooth remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Add a cup of the cream cheese mixture to the chocolate, stir. When it’s combined add it to the rest of the cream cheese mixture and stir until no white is showing. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust, bake for 35-40 minutes until it is set in the middle. Let cool. Meanwhile melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler (or at 30second intervals in the microwave) When melted pour and spread over the cheesecake. Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.

ENJOY!