Wordless Wednesday

Hee Haw

I attended the MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) Convention this past weekend. It was held at the Opryland hotel in Nashville. I went with 4 other moms from our MOPS steering team.

It was a fun time. There were 4,000 other moms there! We had awesome Worship, great music, and interesting speakers and workshops. One of my favorite bands, Plumb, was there. I’ve always wanted to see her in concert, but never had the chance until this weekend. She gave a great show. Matt Redman and Matthew West were there too. I got home last night and all my boys were so excited to see me. They had a fun time while I was gone.

Plumb rocking it out

Um, yeah, I was in Tennessee

Me with the other moms from our group.

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

I have Wordless Wednesday, and now I have Tasty Tuesday instead of Recipes of the Week. Hope you enjoy these! I made this Spinach Pie for lunch one day. It was so tasty and good for you. Thankfully everyone in our house loves spinach, but Brooks says he prefers raw spinach. I like to buy my spinach at Aldi, it's the bagged kind and cheap.

Secretly Delicious Spinach Pie

• 5 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3 roasted garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 1 dash salt
• 3 slices cooked bacon, chopped (optional)
• 1 large flour tortilla
• 1 1/2 cups any blend shredded cheese
• 3 cups fresh spinach

1. Mix the first six ingredients (eggs, bacon, milk, garlic, lemon pepper and salt) in a bowl. Set aside.
2. Lay the flour tortilla in a glass pie dish, press gently - does not need to lay perfectly flat against dish.
3. Sprinkle only 1/2 cup cheese on tortilla.
4. Sprinkle remaining cheese and the spinach onto tortilla in layers, and press gently.
5. Pour egg mixture evenly over spinach, be careful not to pour any outside of tortilla.
6. Bake in oven at 365 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Insert fork in center and it should come out clean.
7. Use sharp knife to cut into pie slices and serve hot.
8. Other options: Instead of garlic, you can use 1/4 cup onions. For added flavor, serve with homemade salsa.

I've finally found the perfect coffee drink. I was making them with frozen coffee cubes, but found this recipe and Ryan has declared it the best.

Instead of buying the instant mocha flavored coffee, I substituted it with this:

Cafe Swiss Mocha Flavored Coffee


1/4 cup Powdered Creamer
1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Instant Coffee
2 TB Powdered Baking Cocoa

Process in a blender on liquify until well blended. Store in an
air tight container.  


Mocha Latte Smoothie

• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons instant mocha flavored coffee
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee
• 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
• 1 cup ice

1. Place all ingredients in blender and blend on high until smooth.

Airplanes!

The boys love airplanes and helicopters. A couple weeks ago, Purdue had a full-scale model of an unmanned military airplane out at the airport. Their preschool is right by there, so Ryan took them to see it one afternoon. They got to go out on the tarmac to take a look at it, along with a few other planes that were out there, including a "white truck" (FedEx) plane. There must have been a class in session because airplanes were taking off like crazy too.

Saturday we met Memaw and Pawpaw in Champaign for the afternoon. After lunch, we headed over to a small airport that had several airplanes on display. They loved seeing them all up close. Their favorite thing though was the medical helicopter that landed to refuel.

Hudson's preschool class is taking a field trip to the Purdue Airport this Thursday. He is so excited!

We found the coolest dvds at the library the other day. Old School Sesame Street. It's episodes from 1974-1979 and it is the coolest! And there is no Elmo! I totally remember a lot of it and the boys like to watch it while Hudson does a breathing treatment. I love to watch it with them.

Wordless Wednesday

Labor Day Weekend

We took a day trip to Chicago on Saturday. It was a beautiful day outside and we all had a great time. We started off the day with a stop at the Jellybean. Brooks and Hudson love it and last time we were in Chicago it was rainy and cold, so it was fun to see it in nice weather.


We picked up a couple CTA passes and some Garrett's popcorn for a morning snack. We hopped on a bus and headed to Navy Pier to go to the Children's Museum. We are able to get in for free with our membership to our local museum.



The boys loved the area where they could build, and also the place where you make your own airplane to launch.

We then hopped on the train to head up to Roscoe Village for lunch at our favorite Guatemalan restaurant. The boys love to ride the train, and particularly the red line since it starts as a subway and then turns into an elevated train outside of downtown. We enjoyed eating lunch outside and then headed across the street to scour for bargains at Village Discount.

Sunday, Ryan has his final race of the season at Town Run Park in Indianapolis. It was sprinkling at the start of the race and unfortunately turned into a harder rain. I took the boys to Trader Joes during the race (they take 2 hours) and we arrived in time to see Ryan finish. Unfortunately, he didn't have that great of a race due to the rain and to an early spill which left him scraped up and bruised. No broken bones or bike though!

Today we meet some friends at Chick-Fil-A to get some free food. If you were wearing team apparel, you got a free chicken sandwich. The boys love to play in the play area there.

Recipes of the Week

I made this rice bake last week to have with steak. It went perfect and I will totally be making it again. Ryan has been taking the leftovers for lunch.

Spinach Parmesan Rice Bake

Ingredients

• 1 (330 g) package frozen spinach (cooked according to package directions then hand squeezed dry to remove excess moisture)

• 2 cups cooked white rice or brown rice (use cold rice for this)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese or swiss cheese (can use feta but reduce to only 1/4-1/3 cup crumbled)
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (or to taste)
• 1/3 cup chopped onion, chopped or 2 large green onions, chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder)
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk or half-and-half cream
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (or to taste)
• seasoning salt (to taste or can use white salt)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, for topping
• grated mozzarella cheese (add on the last 5 minutes of baking) (optional)

Directions

1. Set oven to 350°F.
2. Generously grease a 11 x 7-inch baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients with a wooden spoon, mixing very well to combine.
4. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.
5. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish.
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
7. Bake, uncovered OR covered for 25 minutes, or until set (over baking of this casserole, causes a heavier texture, if you prefer a lighter-textured casserole, then bake JUST until set).
8. Top with mozzarella cheese the last 5 minutes of baking (if using).
9. Note: for a more fluffier texture casserole, 4 eggs may be used.

We were hungry for french toast, so I baked up this bread. It's the perfect bread for french toast, it's pretty dense. This will be my french toast bread from now on.

Challah Bread

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons margarine, cut up
• 3 cups bread flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Add the water, the egg, the margarine, flour, sugar, salt& yeast to bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
2. Use white or sweet bread cycle.
3. Remove bread from baking pan after 10 minutes, then finish cooling on a rack.

I had some hotdogs in the fridge that I needed to use. The boys love hot dogs, but I don't usually buy them because I don't like them (and what they usually have in them). I had gotten these free and they were all beef, so I guess they aren't too bad for you. Anyhow, the boys loved these muffins. I left out the cheese.

Corn Dog Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 (8 1/2 ounce) packages cornbread mix

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 5 hot dogs, chopped
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Combine mix and brown sugar, add eggs and milk stirring only until moistened.
2. Stir in drained corn, hot dogs, and cheese. Batter will be thin.
3. Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full.
4. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until tops are brown.
5. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Wordless Wednesday

1st Day of Preschool

Brooks and Hudson headed off to preschool this afternoon. They are at the same preschool, but in different classes. Brooks is with the older kids and has new teachers. Hudson is with the younger kids and has the teachers Brooks had last year.

They were really excited to be starting. Hudson was especially excited and practically ran to the door when I told him it was time to go to preschool.

Brooks's class starts 15 minutes before Hudson so we stayed in his class until it was time to go to Hudson's class. When Hudson had to leave, Brooks told him they would meet at the motorcycles at outdoor time and race.

Ryan is famous!

Well...not really. But he did get on the front page of the newspaper today.