Spreading my seed....

It's almost time to start the garden!  Woohooo!

I want to try some new things this year, so I picked up sugar snap peas and 2 variety of lettuce seeds.

Since planting them last week, they've begun to sprout!  

Yay!

Shrimpy

Made Skinnytaste.com's Angel Hair with Shrimp in Tomato Sauce today... Soooo good, Sooooo easy.
T loved it.  Mags loved it.  I loved it.  It was a winning trifecta of yumminess.....

Click here to get the Recipe for this delish dish!

At the lake, and the livings easy

Spent spring break up at the lake... Mag's LOVES throwing "wocks" into the water.

It was absolutely adorable to watch her frolicking on the beach with Sadie-doggie and her Dziadziu.  I didn't think she would ever want to come inside.

And then, it got even better.  She got to go on the swing!  Her FAVORITE thing to do in the whole world.  And it's oh so much better when you've got mommy and Babci swinging right along side ya...

Such a great few days away from the grind!

NaNa Bread

I found a delish banana bread recipe in a Parenting magazine forever ago (as in probably almost 10 years ago!)... I've since lost my old, crumpled, batter stained copy, but have adapted a recipe that I think is spot on...
Here's what you need

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 overripe bananas

1/2 stick of butter

1 egg

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (or milk if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 325.  Mash the bananas in a bowl.  Add flour, sugar, baking soda, egg, and salt.  Melt the butter in the microwave, then pour into the banana bowl.  Stir everything together.  Add in almost all of the chocolate chips, stir again.

Pour the batter in a greased loaf pan.  Sprinkle the top with the remainder of the chocolate chips.  Bake for 70 minutes at 325 F.

Ta-Da!

Good thing I love chocolate...

Mags keeps insisting on sitting on the kitchen table and staring affectionately at the "funny" (aka bunny) she got from Baba for Easter.  Only a grandma can get away with buying a 2 year old a chocolate bunny that's half her height!  I see a glass of wine, a bunny ear, and a gossip magazine in my near future ;)    Sounds about right.

You've Got Mail

Our mailbox was down right ugly... fugly, some might say.... giving it a little TLC has been on my to-do list, and since I'm off for Spring Break this week, it was time to get her done...

Here's a before shot...

Isn't she a beaut... NOT.  Some of the wooden slats were loose and would blow off on windy days, and it was all kinds of weather beaten looking...

So, I took off the mailbox, and painted the post with some left over exterior deck paint I had in the basement (which means it's a free paint job, gotta love that!)

I removed the house numbers and spray painted them with an oil-rubbed bronze color (which I already had in the basement as well)... Then I screwed on a new, sparkling-white mailbox  :)

It may not be the coolest mailbox you ever did see, but it's ten times better than what we had before.

And, best of all, this was a quick & CHEAP update, all it cost was the price of the new mailbox (about $15 at Lowes)... 

What a crock....

I'm crockpotting today!

Here's a link to the recipe for Sweet and Savory Ribs found on Allrecipes.com.

I've never attempted ribs before- and doing them in a crock pot sounded soo easy.

All I did was slice up a nice big onion and place the slices on the bottom of the crock pot, layer the country style ribs on top, then pour a combo of honey smoked bbq sauce, spicy brown mustard, and maple syrup all over everything.  It cooks low and slow for 8 hours...

How EASY is that!
Hubby thinks its one of the best meals I make (probably because it's a MANLY meal, centered around MEAT lol)

For a side, I'm whipping up some stuffed zucchini, which is one of my favorite zuke recipes.

Here's the recipe found on Rach Ray Mama Elsas Stuffed Zukes

I follow the recipe loosely, it serves as more of a guide for me...

I'm making only 3 zucchini, and omitting the fresh basil (not willing to pay the extra few bucks for it, although in the summer when my basil in the garden is practically waist high, I add plenty)...

I also don't toast up the bread crumbs like the recipe says too- I can't be bothered to dirty up another pot.  I hate doing dishes.  So I just kind of toss everything together at the end, and sprinkle some bread crumbs/cheese on top of the stuffed zukes before baking.  This is a very yummy side (though I know it seems kind of labor intensive), so I make enough for 2 nights  :)

Nice Bunny I High Five

Happy Easter!!!

Mags was such a good girl at church today... I could not believe it!  She quietly colored in her new Tangled (of course) coloring book for pretty much half of mass, and spent the other half munching on crackers and doing a balance beam routine on the kneeling thingy (not sure what the official name is lol) The best was when she clapped and shouted "YAY" everytime we had to stand during mass.  The people around us thought it was the cutest thing, and of course we did too!

And the lucky girl even got to see the Easter bunny outside after mass.  He went over a lot better than Santa this year (since she refused to sit on Santa's lap and then cried hysterically when mommy tried to convince her to take JUST ONE pic... fail).  The bunny may have been a bit more appealing because they had 2 bubble machines going on overdrive on either side of our furry friend, and NO ONE loves bubbles more than my girl.  Plus, the bunny handed Mags a bottle of bubbles to take home.  So Maggie wound up and gave him a big high five!  On the way home she kept saying "nice bunny, I high five, bubbles, high five, bunny nice"  in rapid succession.  Hysterical.

Sweet Success

The house smells heavenly... all due to this baby

So proud of myself (pat on the back).... Hope it tastes as good as it looks :)
Egg Bread Recipe

My first time....

I've been pinterest-ing like a madwoman lately!  As I stumble on things that get me excited, I've been click-happily leading myself to lots of awesomely neat blogs.  It's fun.  I like it.  I decided I want to try it too.

So this here's my first post.

Don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm sure I'll get my groove on as time goes by.

I can't believe Easter is on Sunday.  I had the rare opportunity to run to Target sans child this morning= awesome.  I love putzing through the aisles without a toddler to entertain.  I picked up such fun and cute stuff for Mag's Easter basket, which is Tangled themed.  Since she's OBSESSED with Tangled.  To the point that we watch it daily, sometimes numerous times.  Hubs and I have had Tangled songs in our head for weeks, we catch ourselves humming them, syncronizing, and belting them out together.  It's kind of a problem.   My favorite is when Mags decides to do her best princess dance moves and insists on Daddy doing them too.  Theres nothing better than seeing your lil girl and your guy dancing to Disney.  So Cute!

Right now, the hubby is in the driveway with our little princess and a big ole bucket of chalk...and I'm making Easter Egg Bread!  I'm hoping it turns out deeelish.  I found the Yummy Easter Egg Bread recipe on Allrecipes.com... It's currently rising on the oven, but I'll check back later to "show and tell"