What’s for Dinner?

 

Happy Memorial Day weekend. I hope you’re all having a fun time with family and friends. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of our servicemen and women, my thoughts and prayers are with you today.

We’re having a great weekend, spent Friday and Saturday night hanging out with our fav peeps next door (but I left my camera at Cheryl’s so I can’t share the photos yet). We tried some great ‘blue’ cocktails, inspired by this one from Val So Cal :-)

Actually I used Val’s exact recipe for this ‘Ice Blue Margarita, it was a hit with everyone.  You can click on the picture to visit Val’s lovely blog. Thank you Val. We also made an O--- S*x on the Beach! (I don’t know who comes up with these cocktail names!!!) which had pineapple juice in it that gave it a tropical taste – quite yummy, but sweet. I’ll share recipes and photos later this week.

Ok, so today is quieter, just me Jason and Kristen. I’m trying to decide what to make for dinner. Usually we’d grill out, it being Memorial Day and all, (which my fellow Brits might not know but this weekend signifies the start of Summer and BBq’s), BUT, I have all this to cook . . . . .

 

This is what we’ve harvested throughout the week! As you can see there’s quite a few different squash I need to start using. We have the yellow ‘patty pan’ squash, the usual zucchini, and 4 more lovely acorn squash. There’s also two bags of washed lettuce there, plus some radishes and one little beet! I’m thinking of making stuffed zucchini today, using Italian sausage and marinara sauce with mozzarella on top. I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I probably could also make Jason his zucchini bread too.

Other than that, we’ll just be ‘chillin’ today. Hope you all have a great day, whatever your plans.

KikiBoo Designs

I’m joining in with Kristen today for her ‘Show and Sell’ Party.

I’m having trouble uploading pictures to blogger – I’ll be back later to see if I can add them!

Kikiboo Designs is the new name of my Etsy Store. When I first set up my Etsy Store it was to sell my hand knitted goods, so I named it the same as my blog ‘The Knitting Den’  But then I started making craft/vendor aprons and the cute teacup bird feeders too. The Knitting Den name no longer seemed to fit. So, for a brief period I called it ‘English Rose Gift Shoppe’I enjoyed sewing the aprons but I get bored doing the same things over and over, so I introduced ‘shoe bags’ and Lavender Sachets. 

This cute Winnie The Pooh bag and matching Lavender Sachets recently sold in  my Etsy store.

The customer then asked if I could do a special order if she sent me the material. I was more than happy to, so this week I’ve been working on more sachets and some smaller bags for her.

So because I have enjoyed sewing these bags, including 21 sachets for this customer, it came to me that I like knitting things for baby, and I like sewing things for baby, so why not rename my Etsy shop and focus on ‘baby’ items.  I came up with the cute name KikiBoo for obvious reasons (if you’re new to my site, I’ll tell you – Kiki is what we call our daughter Kristen, and Boo is our little Shih Tzu). I added ‘and friends’ when I thought about the washcloths/dishcloths  I like to knit (which would be great gifts for Grandma’s and Aunties too), and the thought of making blankies for new puppies came to mind, so it would include our ‘fur babies’ too :-)

You can visit my Etsy store by clicking on the banner above.  And what do ya know, I decided to open up a new BLOG just for my store too (like I haven’t got enough of them, what with The Knitting Den, The Healthy Den, The Cooking Den!!). The KikiBoo Blog is where you can see updates about what I’ll be adding to my shop. It’s all a work in progress right now, but I’m hoping I can get more things listed very soon.

It’s starting to pay off. . .

. . . all our hard work in the garden, that is!  We have been enjoying some things from the garden the past week or so and I haven’t even had a chance to blog about it.

I’m gonna make this a super quick post, I just got back from a 25 min walk/jog around the neighborhood – it’s only 9.15am and already I’ve taken over 5000 steps! I should hit 10,000 today :-)

Last night Jason and I went out back as we usually do after dinner, and this is what I picked . . . .

Acorn squash, summer (yellow squash) and a zucchini, 3 peaches and 3 green beans!!! Yes, just 3 green beans, that is so funny I think. Usually we would get a lot more all at once, but this small crop we planted first didn’t do so well in the beginning, and there’s not much on them right now. We have another larger crop we planted a few weeks after that are looking really good, and we have a whole row of ‘pole beans’ that are growing up the netting really fast.

These aren’t the first peaches from the tree, we had some last week

 

We can’t remember what kind of peach this is but it’s definitely different to the other two trees – a much earlier producing one for sure, as the other trees have tiny peaches on, and they’re no where near ripe yet. But these babies were . . . and they were delicious.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to just pick them off the tree and sit on the back porch eating them, they’re so juicy, and still warm from the sun – truly amazing.

Here’s a meal I did last week…. rather eclectic but we wanted to eat what was harvested from the garden – We had soup I made with the chicken from the Farmer’s Market. Our first acorn squash were ready, so I roasted two with a little butter and brown sugar. You can see a small bowl of plums (they have all gone from the tree now – we didn’t get as many as we did last year, and they were smaller, but still so good)

Here’s one just before I picked it off the tree!

There’s also a bowl of salad from our garden. I’ve since cut much more, just look at the bowl fulls I got this week:

The corn is getting high but I don’t see any ‘ears’ yet! Cantaloupes are flowering as are the watermelons. Peppers are starting to grow better too. It’s all looking great.

Linking to:

Outdoor Wednesday

Tuesday Garden Party

Renaissance Fun!

The Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie, TX (near Dallas) runs from April to end of May every year. Jason mentioned last weekend that he would love to go there. We’ve been to a Renaissance Festival many years ago when we lived in MD (before Kristen was born), when we told Kristen about it, she was super excited :-)

Here’s some photos (especially for Nenna) :-)

  

  

 

Kristen of course was on the lookout for anything ‘wolf’ . . .  this is actually a coyote tail, she just had to have!

  I have more pictures to share but this seems a lot for today. I’ll post more tomorrow. I really will try to post more this week, so much to show you in the garden, and my crafty stuff ;-)

Have a great Monday.        

Weight Watchers – Cookbook Review

Some time last year, as a way to encourage myself to eat healthy I decided to ‘splurge’ and buy the Weight Watchers At Home Kit. I didn’t want/need to go to meetings and at the time I didn’t want to join the online program either. The At Home Kit was perfect for me. I received lots of motivational books, along with the WW food calculator, cookbook  AND a free subscription to their magazine (which I love).  I stuck with the plan for just a few months though, then kinda fell off the wagon during the Summer and Winter months.

When I decided I needed to get back on track with better eating and exercise I was a little sad to find out that Weight Watchers had revamped their whole program! It was now called Weight Watchers Points Plus. It meant all the material I’d just invested in was rather obsolete, even the calculator wouldn’t calculate the food points correctly (all that had changed too). But still, I was sort of excited too. A new year was approaching and I really wanted to get back to eating healthy (I’d really let me myself over-indulge during Christmas!).  So, this time I DID join on line, and 5 months later I am still following the plan (most of the time) AND still feel motivated because I check in with a group of girls at the forums every day. Accountability is the key.

I bought a new WW calculator but I didn’t buy a new cookbook. I had to recalculate the points of a recipe when I made it using my new calculator. . . . .  that is, until now.

Now I have :

Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook, 4th Edition. And it calculates the PointsPlus for every meal :-) 

The WW New Complete Cookbook has been completely revised and updated to reflect the way Americans are eating today. Packed with 500 delicious and nutritional-conscious recipes, this new edition of the cookbook helps people stay on track and achieve their weight management goals, including information and values for those following the new PointsPlus program.

When I first received the book I spent most of the evening just browsing through it slowly. Turning every page and almost drooling at some of the wonderful photos!

Really? Nachos Grandes!!  That’s what I love about Weight Watchers – NOTHING is off limits :-) The book is filled with great recipes from Breakfasts and Brunches to Slow Cooker Classics and everything in between. My only problem?   . . . deciding what to cook first!

I decided to make this Chicken and Rice dish. It looks so savory, AND I had all the ingredients in.

To be honest looking at the recipe photo, I thought the dish might be rather complicated, but I was happy to see there was only 4 steps to it, and step #1 was preheat the oven to 350!  This was going to be easier than I thought.

I didn’t have ‘chicken parts’ (breast, drumstick and thighs') just skinned chicken thighs, so I used those….. sautéed in a pan til browned (then remove)

then cook bell pepper, celery, garlic and onion for about 5 minutes. I added some small diced patty pan squash that I just picked from the garden too :-)  Next I stirred in a can of tomatoes and some chicken broth, once it was boiling I added rice and oregano (I didn’t have any saffron that it called for).

Transfer everything (including the browned chicken) to a casserole dish and cook covered for about 25 minutes until chicken is cooked, then add some frozen peas and cook covered again for 15 minutes.  I took this picture before I’d added the peas!

   

Just as I expected, this was a really savory tasting dish. I loved the veggies in it and the thighs were really nice and moist. I had more of this the next day for lunch and the flavors were even more intense.

I can’t say enough good things about Weight Watchers, I love that I can eat all of the things I like, nothing is off limits. It’s teaching me to watch my portion sizes and to eat lots more fruit and veg (all free points) :-)  I can’t wait to try more recipes from the book.

 

** I received a review copy of this book from Wiley publishing in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and thoughts are 100% mine **

Patiently Waiting

+++ Blogger has been having issues and removed all our posts from yesterday! Some seem to have them back but I don’t so I’m posting this again, because blogger seems to be back up (but my post is still missing)!

 

Well this week is running away from me yet again! Can’t believe it’s nearly Friday, not to mention that we’re already just about half way through May! Kristen and I have started counting down to ‘school’s out for Summer’ . . . . it’s only 3 weeks away :-)

So, what am I patiently waiting for, you’re wondering? Well, I got this on Monday . . .

Jason surprised me early for Mother’s Day and told me last week that he’d ordered the new Ipad2 for me :-) It was on back order from Apple for 2 weeks so he knew it wouldn’t get here in time, but he just couldn’t wait to tell me. I received the cover yesterday, and today they emailed Jason and said the Ipad has shipped :-) I am beyond excited!!!!  It’s not often I want a new toy/gadget. Remember we got the new Nexus One phones last year (I bugged Jason cos I thought I wanted a smart phone) but neither one of us used them much at all. I really don’t call anyone during the day (sad to say), and I had to keep putting my reading glasses on to read and send texts! After 5mths we sold them (thankfully getting back nearly what we paid for them, via Ebay), and I just use a basic Verizon phone for emergencies!

But the Ipad! Now there’s something I can play with – all day, EVERY day!  Kristen’s piano teacher has one and she’s been letting me play with it every week while Kristen does her lesson! I told Jason weeks ago that I’d made up my mind, I was getting an Ipad for Christmas (we’ve been really good with our spending lately and I couldn’t justify just going out and buying one, it had to be for a special occasion). A few weeks later I told him, it would actually be nicer for my birthday (cos that’s October and I wouldn’t have as long to wait – cos I really really couldn’t wait). Of course every time I saw the commercial for it on TV I would ooh and ahh over it. It was a few days after that, that Jason said he couldn’t keep a secret, he’d ordered the Ipad for me that day :-)

So, while I”m waiting, I’ll share the rest of my Mother’s Day pictures with you. Jason still wanted to give me something on Mother’s day, so he and Kristen went out shopping! I told him I didn’t need flowers, they will just wither and die, I’d rather have something that will last and we can plant in the garden . . . they came home with these:

We already have some grapes but we wanted more, and this one is actually a concord grape (hopefully it will ripen so we can eat the grapes), the others we have are all wine grapes – merlot, chardonnay and a pinot I think. We have yet to have ripe grapes off them!

This is a pretty Esperanza plant, I love these yellow flowers.

And, I didn’t take a full picture of this, but it’s a little fig tree :-) You know, I really don’t know what a fig tastes like. I’ve seen them in the store (not very often, they must be very seasonal), but never bought one. I’ve heard they’re an acquired taste, but I’d really like to have some and be able to put them on a cheese platter or something when they’re ripe.

And lastly,  more girly girl pictures from Sunday :-) Next to my lovely new grapevine of course!

Kristen sure is getting tall!

  

I wrote something else after this picture, but I can’t remember what it was and it isn’t showing up in my saved copy on Windows Live Writer!

Never mind, It’s FRIDAY – that makes everything better!

Have a great weekend.

My Wonderful Weekend

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. I certainly did. Although it wasn’t one of those Sunday’s where I just put my feet up and knit the afternoon away … I was busy in the kitchen making a lovely meal for my sweet little family – and it was exactly what I wanted to be doing! 

Trying to take pics of myself and me and Kiki together!

gifts for ‘Mom’ (that’s Jason’s Mom, not me!)

and here’s my Mother’s Day Lunch Menu!

I wanted to make something that I really liked and that I know my mil likes too…. one of the things we both enjoy is salmon and asparagus – but ‘our men’ don’t really like that (Jason doesn’t like fish AT ALL!) so I came up with the idea to make a salmon and asparagus quiche, and also a bacon and gruyere one for the men.

We started with Mimosas (which I forgot to take a picture of, with pretty pink ribbons wrapped round our glass!) Then we had cheese and crackers and bread and dipping oil.

 

Salmon and Asparagus Quiche

Pretty table with my plate!

 

Jason, his Mom and Kiki.

I’ll share more photos next time, and tell you what I got for Mother’s Day :-) Don’t want this post to get too long.

I have to head out to the ENT for a check up this morning. Last month he changed my meds as I was starting to get an infection. I’ve felt pretty good since then so I’m assuming he’ll keep me on the same stuff. Also got to go to the post office to mail some things I sold on Etsy!