Happy Halloween!

A certain little lady went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood for the first time this year! It went so well, she even knocked on a few doors all by herself.

Here's our sweet little strawberry just before we went trick or treating!

We took the dogs out trick-or-treating and they got so many compliments because they were completely quiet and happy to sit nicely and wait for Hadley to get her treats. Such good pups!

We had some friends over for dinner and to go trick-or-treating with us so Hadley got to eat dinner in her costume... so fun.

MSP Airport Art Exhibit

I turned in my mixed media piece today for the MSP Airport 3rd annual art exhibit for airport employees and their families. So lucky that we have a very special family member that works at the airport, right?! ;)
The Metropolitan Airport Commission foundation does a really great job of sponsoring this showcase of kids, teens, amateur and professional artists so it is a lot of fun to be a part of! Last year there were so many great pieces in the exhibit so I can't wait until the reception on November 30 when we get to check everyone else's stuff out. They even had a chef intern that was making yummy appetizers too which was just icing on the cake!

I will definitely share pictures from the reception since it's much more fun to see art it in the context of an exhibit, especially a fun showing like this one.
Have a very Haunted Happy Halloween tomorrow everyone!! I'll share pictures of our fun on the flip side. ;)

Foodie Friday

Yesterday we got our first snow of the season.... oh the joys of living in Minnesota. Nothing really "stuck" to the ground but Hadley and I watched out the window and pointed at the huge, wet flakes over the few hours that it was falling pretty steadily. How is it already winter and more importantly why can't winter be shorter?

On Wednesday, I ventured into the world of homemade tomato sauce via my new {totally created by me} recipe for Baked Macaroni. I think it turned out pretty great especially since I combined different parts of recipes that sounded good to me but needed to be lower fat or more kid-friendly, etc. Admittedly, Hadley liked it better reheated as leftovers but she might have just been suspicious of the tomatoes.... much like her daddy.

Brittney's Baked Macaroni
Ingredients-
Easy Tomato Sauce (below)
1 package Jenny-O 99% Fat Free Ground Turkey
2 cups uncooked elbow noodles
2 small yellow onions
1 8-ounce block Neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat than regular cream cheese)
1 bag part skim Italian shredded cheese mix
1 tbspn butter or margarine
4 tablespoons reduced fat Parmesan style cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/8 cup canola oil
Salt and Pepper
Directions-
1.  Boil noodles for 7 minutes (al dente), then drain and set aside.
2.  Cook ground turkey in a saute pan until it is white all the way through, then add Easy Tomato Sauce and remove from heat.
3.  Chop 1 yellow onion finely (I used a Cuisinart food processor to make sure it was chopped as finely as possible). Move onion to microwave-safe dish and add 1 tablespoon of butter. Microwave for 4 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Mix cooked onions with the Neufchatel cheese until the mixture is well combined and smooth. **Setting your Neufchatel cheese out when you first start cooking makes it much softer and easier to work with in this step.
4.  In a 13x9 baking dish sprayed with olive oil or PAM, add a 1/4 cup of the turkey/tomato sauce mixture. Next, add all of the cooked noodles. On top of the noodles, smooth on the onion/soft cheese mixture as evenly as you can (it may not spread evenly -didn't for me!- but when it bakes it all liquifies so don't worry). Add all of the remaining tomato/turkey mixture, then top with the bag of Italian cheese and the Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake on middle rack at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
6. With remaining yellow onion, slice thinly into strips. Soak in the milk for 5-10 minutes. Put flour on a plate and heat the canola oil in a saute pan and heat to medium-high. Add the onion slices to the oil and cook for 30 seconds tossing in the pan. Use a slotted spoon to remove to paper towels to cool and drip-dry. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
7. Add fried onions to the top of the pan and return to the oven for an additional 5 minutes (watch that you don't burn the onions).
ENJOY!

Easy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients-

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 tspn italian seasoning

1 tspn onion flakes

2 tbspns olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped fine

Directions-

Combine in a saucepan and simmer on medium heat for 20-30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste after cooking.

This is a great dish to prep ahead and put in the fridge or freezer. It's also an easy recipe to double and make two pans of at the same time if you are looking for something to take a friend or if you'd just like an easy meals to throw in the oven after a busy day.
Today, I'm making Bourbon "Crack" Chicken in the crock pot (of course!) and I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and haven't tried it yet. My philosophy with Pinterest is that if you Pin it, you should try it otherwise, what's the point? If you haven't been on Pinterest, I highly recommend you check it out.... and FOLLOW ME to see all of my crazy recipe/craft/art/decor inspirations!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND:)

Spooky Halloween Taco Dip

My sweet grandma made my recipe for Halloween style taco dip last night and her results were awesome! It was the hit of the party and I'm so glad I was able to help her pin down such a winner.


Spooky Halloween Taco Dip
Ingredients-
1 can refried black beans
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies, drained
1 cup salsa of your choice
1 cup sour cream
1 cup guacamole
1 1/2 cup shredded cheese
2 green onions, sliced
2 cup shredded lettuce
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1 small can whole black olives
A couple large bags of tortilla chips
Instructions-
1. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the refried beans and taco seasoning.
2. On a large Halloween platter or plate, spread the beans in an even circular shape. Leave room around the edges for the garnish.
3. Sprinkle green chilies over. Smooth salsa over. Smooth guacamole over.
4. Place your sour cream in the end of a ziploc bag. Cut the corner off. Squeeze sour cream on top of guacamole in several concentric circles (or octagon shapes for a more authentic look). Using a knife or the handle of a fork, run lines lightly through the sour cream to make the web shape.
5. Sprinkle lettuce in a circle around bean dip. Sprinkle tomatoes and green onions over. Sprinkle cheese over.
6. Make a "spider" out of a black olive. Half an olive to make the "body" and place in the middle of the dip "web" then slice halved olive to make the "legs" it's so spooky! :)
7. Garnish with spider and serve with tortilla chips.

ENJOY!

Holy POTTY Batman and Tuesday Ramblings

This morning marked a very important occasion in our house! Hadley tugged at her diaper so I thought that I needed to go change her-- no big deal, so I take her to her room. I soon realized that the diaper was still dry from when she had gotten up over an hour before and she was antsy. I took her into the bathroom and perched her on the toilet (we don't have a potty chair yet, I thought all of this was months away at the very least). Within thirty seconds she did her tinkle business and grabbed for the toilet paper to wipe!!!!! Wow, she already knows what to do?! Last week, my sister-in-law had mentioned that she thought that Hadley was showing signs of being ready so I was watching for "signs" of being interested. I definitely wasn't thinking that her pulling her diaper was a sign this morning until I put a lot of things together really quickly and rushed her into the bathroom. We don't want to rush anything (it's so early!) so if she gives any hint that she's interested or wants to try to go then we will let her otherwise we will see how it goes over the next month and beyond. Quite a development right?!! There will be a potty chair purchase this evening..... so exciting.

I am lucky to have 20ish minutes with both kiddos asleep right now, so that's how I got the chance to sit down and write. We have curry chicken going in the crock pot recipe here and I'm also working on a Pumpkin Banana Bread to send to work with Jim tomorrow. AND I have to reorganize the Tupperware cabinet since Hadley got to play with everything in there this morning after her Big Girl moment. :) The photo above is of Hadley on Sunday in the yard, I posted it to facebook but I thought I should post it here too in case anyone didn't get to see it yet. I may use it on our Christmas card; she is such a little beauty!
Last night I made a knock-off of PF Chang's Mongolian Beef and it was AMAZING. It's a must try if you love Chinese/Asian food. It was seriously the best thing I've cooked this year!! The only modification that I made was that I didn't fry the beef in 1 cup of oil like the recipe describes-- I only used 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 2 tablespoons of water (yay for cutting fat out) and it was still so good. You must try it!

NINE MONTHS!

As of today, I have kept up blogging for nine whole months!! I had tried blogging before and only stuck with it for a few weeks so this is a major accomplishment.

I would like to keep updates and pictures of Hadley flowing on the blog along with a mixing in a lot more D.I.Y. projects and home improvement content. Some of my favorite daily read blogs are about decor and I would love to share more about what we have done around here! I also will commit to more personal updates because I love sharing with my family now that we are all a lot more spread out.

THIS WEEK WITH HADLEY
Hadley continues to love to dance! It's probably her favorite activity. She has started to get over the excitement of being able to toddle around on her own.... yes, raiding of the kitchen drawers has begun. If I'm not watching her, she will grab spoons, measuring cups and ladles to run around with. We locked all of our kitchen cabinets months ago and those work beautifully so maybe we need drawer lock too. {As the family cook, I feel like I'm in prison -via baby locks- in our kitchen already.... more locks? g r e a t.... but for sanity's sake it's better to do it because chasing her every moment is not in my mommy game plan.}

Thanks for hanging around for nine months and continuing to read. I can't wait to celebrate our 1st Blogiversary on January 19, 2013!

Holiday Stress... Alas, I'm NOT Martha Stewart

Okay, so I promised myself that this week I was going to make an effort to get real on this ole' blog. Not that I haven't been "real" but I wanted to blog so that I could write down what I'm thinking about and my opinions. This is my tiny place to get real in a world so caught up in being politically correct and outwardly inclusive of everyone that I get overwhelmed. If this doesn't interest you, then don't read it thankyouverymuch.

Today, I want to write a little bit about the terrible, ulcer inducing stress that I personally feel around the holidays each year. This is in an attempt to find ways to be more at peace around the holidays and not pass the internal pressures I've felt for so many years on to my sweet daughter. I haven't felt real enjoyment during the holidays since I was school-aged. :( There has to be a better way.

GIFTING & SHOPPING
I've grown up with the giving of holiday gifts being thought of as an overwhelmingly super important expression of love. That is a lot of pressure. If you haven't put enough prep and thought into each of your gifts, it can seriously cause disappointment and bad feelings with other family members through the next year. I would love to de-emphasize the importance of gifting family and find better ways to show each other how much we CARE AND LOVE THEM. It's not worth five months of shopping (stress and stomach aches) to find the illusive "perfect" gifts. Maybe Dr. Suess had it right and we all just need a little resfresher.... "And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"  -- How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 1957

I'm pledging to family that I will simplify shopping this year AND learn to make a list of what we actually will give each person/couple then STICK TO IT. I will not (for the first time in years) spend weeks second guessing each choice. I will shop no later than the after Thanksgiving day sales and then we will wrap everything up and be done DONE. That will help reduce the "pressure to be perfect." By just not second guessing everything this year, it will be a huge improvement. I will still spend time wrapping and embellishing the gifts, channeling Martha Stewart herself, but I won't get too crazy and over the top like I have in the past.

FINDING SOME HOLIDAY PEACE
My sweet friend C came by yesterday to chat about this subject and she did an amazing job of making me feel less like an island in terms of my personal holiday stress. She opened my eyes to the fact that there are many different things that people feel stress about related to the holidays that I luckily haven't had issues with but I'm so not alone and that's nice to know. You may feel stress about hosting a large group each year or you may have a difficult time dealing with the family interactions that come with the holidays. If you've dealt with serious stress about the holidays and found great methods to cope, please take a few moments to email me. I would love to compile some (anonymous) real life scenarios on how to cope and improve your holiday cheer quotient through stress reduction in a future post to help anyone who may be looking for better ways to deal.

I'm thinking that it might be nice to have some holiday yoga sessions with friends or family beginning at Thanksgiving and going through the holidays. Is it wrong to give a gift like that to myself? In my mind, it would be amazing to have a spa treatment and yoga session with special people instead of exchanging presents. I could certainly use the opportunity to relax and slow down mentally. If that sounds interesting, please let me know. ;)

IN THE END. We want Hadley to really love giving gifts to each family member without stressing/feeling overwhelmed/not enjoying actually getting to be with everyone. I don't think that we can do that until I can break the cycle of stress and pressure that I've felt for so long. Thank goodness I have Jim because for real, the guy is so thoughtful year round with everyone that he will be a huge part of making things better. I actually was thinking that maybe we could do some homemade/D.I.Y. gifts this year with Hadley's help in order to "up" the personalized and thoughtful quotient in our favor... Pinterest ideas are already being pinned!