Author: Lois Houston

I'm a sweet tea drinkin' southern gal who loves to cook, bake, crochet, and read. Check out my blog for posts about parenting, faith, books, crafts, planning, baking, cooking, and life in general.

In the words of the Terminator…

“I’ll be back”

Taking a little break for a few days… going to enjoy the springtime, my girls, and spending some time with family.

See you next week!

Six New Recipes to Try Soon

 

The weather is changing, and so is my palate – out go the heavy soups and stews and in come the lighter foods – grilled fare and salads.

Here are a few recipes that are on my list of things to try out soon:

  1. Asian Chicken Salad – this one was served by a friend at a get-together last week. It was soooo good. We all enjoyed it and the guys went back for seconds! She serves it “buffet style” so that everyone can put the things they want in there and leave out the things they don’t.  I will definitely be adding this to our menu plan soon.
  2. White chicken enchiladas – this is another one a friend made and we fell in love with. I actually made this one for dinner last Saturday. The girls loved it – as did SuperMan and I.  However, the tortillas get gummy when warmed over so this is not one to plan for having tons of leftovers. Freshly cooked, it’s delicious, though. And super easy. Deutsch: Tortilla-Chips, salsa, und guacamole ...
  3. Warm Bean Dip – thinking I may try this one night for a meatless dinner option. The girls are not much for beans, so it will be interesting to see how they like it. But, smothered in cheese may make it worth trying. We will see. I may serve it with some type of salad or just make it a “dip” dinner and serve with some tortilla chips and salsa.
  4. Another easy dinner idea (and a favorite around here) is baked potatoes and salad.  Here’s a nifty baked potato idea I may try one night.
  5. Grill cooking means hamburgers at some point in the month, too, but I always have a hard time with the bun – breads like buns and I don’t get along anymore. So, when I found this recipe, I decided it is also a must-try-soon recipe – Hamburger Wraps – where the “bun” is a tortilla! I love, too, that we can fix each one to suit everyone’s tastes.
  6. The girls have recently discovered the chocolate-chip granola bars at the grocery store – I have let them have them as a treat but have been on the lookout for my own version of this treat so that I can better control the contents and (lack of) additives that they have. I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest and think I’ll give it a go one day soon.

How about you? Have any good recipes you’ve been wanting to try – or that you have tried and would like to share?

Project Life Tuesday 3.13.12

3.13.12 what a weird number combination.

Don’t know why that struck me strange, but it did…

Anyway…

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday!
The Mom CreativeIf you are stopping by from The Mom Creative, welcome & thanks for clicking over! If you are not, you might want to click over there when you’re done here for some more great Project Life inspiration!

The pages are simpler this week and no inserts to share – I have been so busy with work and sick kiddos that the fact that the pages are complete is a major accomplishment for me this week. Still loving the project and being able to stay current with what’s going on in our lives with just a small time investment on Saturday afternoons. I’m guarding that creative time very carefully as it has become a little oasis for me in the midst of a lot of busy-ness in our lives.

Without any further chatter – here are the pages:

(sorry for the shadow – didn’t know it was there when I took the pictures!)

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(remember, you can click on the picture to see it larger)

The left side:imgp4042

Using my creative license and filled a journal slot with a little cut piece of the box of muffin mix the girls love and request at least once a week. I also included a picture of my brother and his family that they sent me. They are big skiers and go almost every weekend. So it is only fitting to include that here, I think.

I also made my own journaling card (yay, me!) and thought it turned out pretty well (This week) if I do say so myself.

I am loving using the smaller slots for the cell phone pictures and being able to capture all the little bitty bits of life that way – not being confined to only seven photos a week. I think I am averaging closer to 15 pictures that way.

I also used a nifty new program I discovered for my iPhone – PicFrame – that allows you to fit multiple photos into little bitty frames – which gives you even more options! (eek!)

Here’s one I did on Friday night:img_1126

I love how it turned out – and the program was very easy to figure out. This was my very first attempt.

I just stuck it into a 4×6 picture and added some journaling and another photo beside it… so I got four pictures and journaling all in one 4×6 photo! Pretty cool. (I did that part in PSE, not on the phone)

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The rest of the right side page was devoted to our Saturday adventures with our friends – a few stickers on the pictures for embellishments and that was about it – I kept it simple. The story is over on the left side page.

The quote card is from Design House Digital – 2012 Life Blocks by Audrey Neal. Love those.

The little starburst on my journal card is from there, too. Kate Teague – This Life

I can’t recall where the other things are from – mostly freebies, I think.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing a new favorite recipe with you. Smile

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Menu Plan Monday ~ 12 March

Achoo!

Spring has sprung and so has the pollen! We had such a nice weekend – hiking with some dear friends on Saturday morning and just enjoying the beautiful weather and company. We paid the price with sneezes and sniffles Saturday night but it was so worth it. The view from the top of the mountain was so pretty –

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This week it’s all about comfort food and easy suppers.

  • Monday: Chicken & Dumplings (requested by Big Girl)
  • Tuesday: Shepherd’s Pie (requested by Little Bit)
  • Wednesday: Fajitas (I’ll share my “recipe” later this week)
  • Thursday: (still have to figure this one out)
  • Friday: YOYO (you’re on your own)

The girls and I are headed to grandma’s for the weekend – I’m sure SuperMan will be cooking all sorts of concoctions in our absence. He likes to make things we don’t (like cabbage) while we’re gone.

NEED MORE IDEAS?

You can find more yummy recipes on  orgjunkie.comwhere you can find some great recipes and menu plans.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some updates to my Project Life pages.

Scrapbook Thursday ~ a little bit digital

I mentioned on Tuesday that I did a little digital scrapbooking last week – I thought I’d share the pages I made with you today.  The pictures are already in my Project Life album, but I had something I wanted to say beyond what I put in the album so I made these pages. I did this a few times last year and just stuck the digital pages in the PL album where they fit chronologically. I liked the mix of styles and how the finished product turned out so I will probably do the same again this year…

2012 Family Album - Page 004

2012 Family Album - Page 005

I also did my Roundup for February:2012 Family Album - Page 003

I haven’t decided yet if I will add these to the Project Life album (probably will) or maybe (thinking out loud here) make a small 8×8 album of these pages all by themselves… not sure yet. But I am loving the recap of the month concept.

You can click on any picture to see the page larger.

I’ll be back on Tuesday with more Project Life posts!

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Project Life Tuesday ~ 3.6.12

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday! The Mom Creative If you are stopping by from The Mom Creative, welcome & thanks for clicking over! If you are not, you might want to click over there when you’re done here for some more great Project Life inspiration!

I have a very photo-heavy post today –  lots of close-ups of the pages – things didn’t seem to show up in the larger pictures as well as I wanted, so I did some close-ups.

I also have a lot of inserts. I included some of the girls’ school work, my monthly calendar for February (from the front of the fridge) and the “formal” picture from the Father-Daughter dance.

Let’s get started:img_1357

Left side ^ with the weekly summary and highlights from the first part of the week.

Some close-ups:img_1369

And here is the page with the other side showing:img_1358

the insert:

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I think I’m getting the hang of using Photoshop Elements for my journaling and to make 2 3×4 pictures on a 4×6 paper so I can print them easily at home.

The back of the insert:

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A close up of my card:

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The calendar page insert:

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The other inserts:

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Big Girl’s “chore” list –

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And the right side page:

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With some close ups:

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I’ll be back on Thursday with some digital pages that I did last week.

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Menu Plan Monday

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you are having a good week so far. The girls and I are counting down the days until Spring Break – we’re ready, truthfully, for school to be out for the year. It’s these last couple of months that get really hard – the weather gets pretty and we stay outside later and later. It makes bedtime slip later and then we don’t want to get up in the mornings.

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It’s so pretty outside right now – it’s like nature is just showing off, revealing more and more beauty as the weeks progress. Dormant plants turn to buds. Buds turn to blooms, erupting in color and delighting our eyes.

Of course, there’s the pollen and allergies that go with it – but I think that the girls and I are getting a handle on that – thanks to Allegra!

Here’s what we have on our menu for the week this week. Trying to finish off some leftovers we had from the weekend and last week… along with some requests from the family.

  • Monday: Chicken Parmesan (with leftover spaghetti sauce)
  • Tuesday: BBQ chicken, mac & cheese & veggies (leftover from Sunday dinner)
  • Wednesday: Rotel Chicken Pasta bake(Big Girl’s request)
  • Thursday: Asian chicken stir fry (Little Bit’s request)
  • Friday: Seafood (SuperMan’s request) –maybe low country boil or salmon croquettes
  • Saturday: Hamburgers & Hotdogs (if the weather is nice)
  • Sunday: Ham, rice & black-eyed peas

I also made some beef stew in the crock pot last night so that SuperMan has something warm to eat for lunches this week.

NEED MORE IDEAS?

You can find more yummy recipes on  orgjunkie.com where you can find some great recipes and menu plans.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some updates to my Project Life pages and then later this week I’ll be sharing a recipe for something new we tried over the weekend that was a huge hit with the family, thanks to Pinterest!

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Totally Random Friday

Whew! We made it to Friday!

This week has been a little better than the last two – not quite as hectic and definitely not as much drama. Which is good, because I think I wouldn’t have been able to take another week like that so soon.

I thought I’d share some totally random things with you today …

Are you with me?

Good!

Here we go:

New snacks/treats I’m loving:

Have you seen these adorable little guys?
Triscuit Minis? Seriously? Seriously dangerous is what they are.  SO good and crunchy with just the right amount of salt – perfect for sprinkling on a salad (like a crouton) or in soup, or just munching by the handful (not that I would know anything *ahem* about that) – Little Bit loves them in her lunches.

Keebler® Coconut Dreams™ cookiesAnd I wouldn’t be surprised if some Girl Scouts have a hit called out on that little elf who lives in the tree over at Keebler – have you seen these?
Oh my.
They taste almost exactly like the Girl Scouts version. So yummy. Dangerous.

Other sweet things –  just not things to eat:

IMG_0131Can you stand it? SO cute!

This was at the Father-Daughter Dance a few weeks ago – I guess you can tell it was a 50/60’s Sock Hop theme. My mom made the poodle skirts and the girls were so excited to be on a date with Daddy.  They went to Steak & Shake for dinner and then danced the night away. I don’t even know how much of my various hair products SuperMan put in his hair to try to get it to look like a greaser’s hair – but I can tell you it was very fluffy the  next day. HA! (that’s what he gets!)

And the sweetness just continues – Sweet Treats from Sweet Friends:
If you follow me on Facebook, you may recall I posted a little note on Monday:

I am craving petit fours – what’s up with that? and anyone want to bring me some?

And then, not too long after that I received a text:

I felt like taking a drive. Go check your mailbox. Your mail has arrived.

I sat there a little perplexed, but given that this was a good friend of mine, I thought “Okay, I’ll go see what’s up.” and out to the mailbox I went.

Guess what I found?!?

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You guessed it! Petit Fours from my sweet friend Leigh Anne.

I was just overwhelmed and thrilled (and I popped one in my mouth right away – that’s why there are only three here – hee hee)

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(that’s supposed to be “so crazy” but I was too excited to catch the typo)

So, that’s the best part of my Friday Five. Sweet friends bearing sweet treats.

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I’ll be busy today nursing my sick big girl – poor thing can’t seem to catch a break these days – now it’s a nasty virus (head cold type thing) that has her miserable and running a fever.

Looking forward to scrapbooking and maybe sewing some this weekend. Hope to have some things to share next week.  I’m also trying a couple Pinterest-inspired recipes for dinner this weekend. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

Project Life Thursday ~ 3.1.12

Playing catch up here – this is last week’s set of pages – I ended up doing two weeks at one time over the weekend as I didn’t have any time to work on the pages the weekend before.

Here are the pages from last week:img_1354

The left side page with the 8×11 insert – holding Big Girl’s poem for her Social Studies project and some random things on the back.

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the right side page ^

and the close ups of each pocket page:img_1351

Being able to add some journaling on the photos themselves (now that I’m figuring out PSE) makes more room for more pictures, which is nice.

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I’ll be back next Tuesday with the next installment. Smile

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What I’m Reading Right Now

Or, rather, what I just finished reading.

‘cause it was so good I couldn’t stop.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen

by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Such a cute, cute book. And a quick, light read. Which is what I needed right now.

The story reminded me of growing up in the South and of living in a small town (which isn’t so small anymore) like we have for the last 20+ years. Living in communities where everyone knows everyone, everyone has an opinion about what you do and what you don’t do – and they usually share whether you ask or not.

It’s the story of a young girl, the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher who was the son of a preacher and the grandson of a preacher… all having tended to the same flock in the same small town of Ringgold, Georgia. Catherine Grace Cliine’s mother drowned when she was just a little girl.  She and her sister grew up in the shadow of her daddy’s preaching and constantly missing their momma and wishing things were different than they were.

The girls are loved and cared for, both by their daddy (who is doing the best he can) and by their neighbor, Gloria Jean Graves, a divorcee whom her father doesn’t exactly approve of, but he allows her to fill the gap left by their mama’s death.

Catherine Grace decides that she is leaving Ringgold as soon as she is 18 – the story follows her as she grows up, anticipating and planning for that great Exodus.  The storytelling is poignant and beautiful, the language true to a Southern girl – especially one from this neck of the woods. It felt genuine and real. I could imagine this was Catherine Grace telling me the story in real life, not a fictional story.

She finally makes her escape and heads to the big city of Atlanta only to be forced to return home because of a tragedy which changes her life forever.

It’s the story of finding happiness where you are, of how everything we do affects others (whether we intend for it to or not) and of the power of community.

I would highly recommend it – I thoroughly enjoyed it.