Spaghetti Squash

I can't believe that we are only trying spaghetti squash now!! Where has this secret treasure been my whole life. I had heard so much about it but never really understood its goodness until I tried one. So readers now I share with you so you wait NO longer to try out this delicious vegetable.

First I started with a the spaghetti squash. After giving it a little wash I sliced it in half and took out the seeds from the middle. Inside the middle I rubbed a tad bit of olive oil and placed it face side down on a large cookie sheet that had a tiny bit of water on it. From there you simply pop it in the oven and let it cook for about 1 hour or until your fork can slide in nicely.

While it was cooking I whipped up a delicious pasta sauce starting by frying up onions, garlic and some spinach we had in the refrigerator that wasn't any good for salad any more. Once it was cooked down I add that mixture to my pasta sauce and using my hand blender pureed it so the spinach would not be noticeable.

When the squash was finished I turned it over and filled the middle with the sauce, added some Parmesan cheese and baked for a little longer until the edge turned a nice golden color!

We (hubby and I) couldn't believe how much this was like spaghetti noddles. It comes apart just like spaghetti. Can't you tell from this awesome picture that Micah took!!! It was a BIG hit in the house and we have enjoyed it a couple of times now since our first try! The best part was the spinach in the sauce never affected the taste one bit and I had to tell Micah it was actually in there!

So here is my Kate's Kitchen Question...do you enjoying spaghetti squash and if so how do you prepare it?

Pancakes

Some nights it is fun to have breakfast foods for supper and one of our favorites around this house is pancakes. And of course this special night we got real whipping cream and topped our pancakes with it and fruit.



So what are some yummy breakfast foods you enjoy for supper??

Dino gift

This is a gift I created last week for one of Eben's little friends birthday party. His mom who is an awesome party planner had a total Dino-mite party for her 5 year old little boy. The decorations looked great and the games included a dino egg hunt where the kids (and some crazy mama's) ran through the house looking for hidden eggs that were filled with lots of candy.

For the cake she did a great job of putting together a green dino with brown spots (mini pepper mint patties) and his "spikes" where Hersey kisses. It kind of looked like this picture

So of course for a rocking Dino- mite party like that I knew I needed to make him a gift using the theme. My idea came from puzzle time with Eben. Usually everyday he likes to sit down and do a puzzle and of course his dinosaur one is a favorite. While he was doing it I got out the camera got close to some of the Dino's in the puzzle and took some pictures. Than I printed them off (in larger sizes 5*7 and 6*8) and modge podged them onto canvas. When they were finished I hot glued some string on the back so they could be put up in the little guys room!

It was a fast and simple gift that made him very happy!

For more crafty ideas check out I love nap time.

No Whine with Dinner

So tonight I got out my new cook book No whine with dinner to try some new recipes. First off I started with Coconut Chicken Fingers(not the exact same as the new cook book). These were so easy to coat and they smelled so delicious when cooking in my cast iron pan! We served this with roast vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots) and asparagus. Oh ya and the little red sauce is sweet chili sauce we used for dipping.

Hubby loved these and so did the little guy!! Yippee it was a hit.

For dessert we tried the Carrot Patch Cupcakes which was another BIG hit in the house. Eben ate his up so fast and hubby thought it was the best cup cake he had ever eaten! I can't wait to keep trying recipes in this book and adding them to the Peterson's favorite recipes.

Scrap book layouts for decorations

So one thing I want to do this year is scrap book some of our favorite memories through out the year and use them as decorations around the house. Yes I love doing cards and I am still selling Scatter Joy Cards but I want to move up to a bigger canvas (12*12 to be exact) and I also want to use my supplies and gifts as gifts to friends and family members.

So here is my collection so far. New Years day snowman!

My new hair cut

A gift for a friend



A gift for my husband



A fun spring layout for our living room wall


And a fun spring layout for our mantal






So what do you do during nap time. Check out what these ladies do at I love nap time

Spring decorations

I love that the sun is shinning and the snow is finally starting to melt! We have now changed up our decorations from valentine hearts and love sings to things of spring!! So take a little look at our spring mantel.

I have up a cute layout of Jaelyn that is spring colors along with a egg tree that I pulled together. Of course we have our pastal Easter eggs and a little jar of bubbles. Even though the sun is shining its still pretty cold out there so we have been blowing bubbles in the house. Eben loves having a bubble party. It works great to get the floor all wet and soapy for a good moping afterwards.



Eben and I created this little robins nest decorations out of jute and blue foam eggs. And what would spring be without chalk.

Of course the other side of the mantal has a pot of tulips and the gum ball machine!

Oh I can't wait for the weather to get warmer, to be outside more with the kids, to be riding our bikes, planting our garden and the list just goes on and on. But for now I will enjoy the warm sun shinning in the window as I hangout on the couch.

Hat make over

For some reason when the sun is brightly shining I love to clean and organize. Maybe its because we see more mess in the light! hehe....So while organizing lady J's stuff the other day I came across this hat that was handed down to her. Its a cute hat that says its 18months. Unless she has a very BIG head for her age it fits nicely now so I decided to spruce it up a little bit by adding a rosette that I made the other day.

I hot glued the flower onto the hat to make it stay on there good and the little red button matches great as well!! I am very pleased with how it turned out.

* it was hard to get a good picture of the finished product on a squirmy 6 month old but she did have a good photo shoot! Even got a picture of her with her two new bottom teeth (top picture)

For some more creative projects check out I love nap time

cookie pizza

On Sundays we like to have family movie night; complete with popcorn of course. This week we decided to enjoy a fun cookie pizza with our movie night. This little treat was so delicious and simple to make. It was a lot of fun picking out the toppings and putting them on the pizza together.

Here is the cookie crust recipe I used.

INGREDIENTS: - 1/2 cup of softened butter - 1/3 cup of firmly packed brown sugar - 1/4 cup of white sugar - 1 egg - 1 teaspoon of vanilla - 1 1/3 cup ofunsifted flour - 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda - 1/4 tablespoon of salt - 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (more if you wish)and/or nuts DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 2. Grease a 13inch round pizza pan 3. Measure butter and sugars 4. Cream butter and sugars with mixer 5. Beat in egg and vanilla; mix well 6. Reduce mixer speed and gradually beat in flour, baking soda, and salt until well mixed. 7. Fold in chocolate chips (and/or chopped walnuts) 8. Spread evenly on pizza pan. Dough must cover pan to the edges. 9. Place in oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until dough feels set and dry to the touch.

When the pizza came out of the oven I spread peanut butter all over it. Then we added for our toppings crushed peanuts, smarties, and crushed butter fingers!!

Oh man it was good and the topping possibilities endless. What kind of toppings would you use???

Taco Night

We love taco night but since the Daniel fast this night has changed just a bit! Instead of using meat we have been using mashed black beans. It still taste very yummy and with all the fixing in the soft taco shell you can't even tell your missin the meat!!!

So how do you dress your taco?

Closet Makeover

For some reason I have started to get a house makeover bug. I just want to change things up by painting and move things around! But I know for now I need to wait for a better time to paint (like when we can open windows) and until spring when I can give everything a good cleaning a move around. So for now I will just add stuff to what we already got.

I love in our bed room we have two closets. So with that I decided to spruce them up a little bit by adding some brown vinyl letters (cut out from my Cricut) to put on the doors.

I love how it adds a fresh new look to our room without costing a cent.

For more great craft ideas check out I love nap time!!

Bread Machine Bread

Everyone around here loves the taste of home made bread!! I really love it but I don't always enjoy the mess of kneading the dough and getting flour all over the place. So instead of me doing it I cheat by placing all the ingredients into the bread maker and putting it on the dough cycle. When its done I punch it down and place it into the bread pan, let rise a little more then bake it. Fresh delicious home made bread.....yummy. So here is my favorite bread recipe that I use; it came from my brother in law.

1 1/4 Cup water/milk (I do about two parts water to one part milk)
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
2Tbsp sugar
3 cups flour (I do 2 white 1 whole wheat)
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp yeast

Place in bread maker in order listed. Put on dough cycle. When finished
punch down and place into bread pan. Let rise and then bake in 350 oven
for 30 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped.