Menu this Week

M: Baked Stuffed Sweet Peppers (recipe below)
T: Parmesan chicken breasts with corn and tomato salad
W: Homemade pizza
Th: Leftovers
F: Grilled steak, spinach and beet salad, sweet potato fries, rhubarb spritzers
S: Smoked BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, watermelon
Su: Out to dinner!

For my pepper recipe, the filling is enough to stuff at least 5-6 large peppers. Any leftover filling use/freeze for quesadillas or homemade soup.

Stuffed Peppers

Red, yellow, or orange peppers
2 lb. ground beef
1 cup instant rice
1 jar spaghetti sauce
¼-1/2 cup onion
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
½-1 cup chopped mushroom
Shredded parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper

Slice tops off of peppers, remove seeds and ribs.

Brown ground beef with some garlic powder and pepper. Remove from pan.

Drain most of fat, add some olive oil and sauté 3/4 cup of chopped mushroom and a ¼ onion (more or less to taste). Salt and pepper.

Make 1 cup of instant rice. Salt and pepper rice.

Combine all ingredients, mixing with ½ jar of spaghetti sauce.

Stuff peppers and bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. Top with parmesan cheese last 5-10 minutes.

{this moment}

Inspired by Soulemama

Stormy

So stormy lately. Fabulous lightening, thunder and wind. But amazing the amount of sunshine we get in between bouts. Feeling thankful.

Natural History

image found via High Street Market

I've been daydreaming about some things to spruce up our home. I realized I have a lot of found objects and bits of nature collected. I love this display of natural history.

Father's Day

We had a wonderful weekend despite a long power outage. Breakfast with friends, swimming in the lake, gardening, Chinese food, candlelight. He really is a super dad.

Dinner this Week

In the interest of eating less meat and more fiber, I've been trying to incorporate beans into our family diet more often. I can't wait to try this Black Bean Confetti Salad by Smitten Kitchen.

This week:

M: Swedish Meatballs, brown rice, spinach salad with feta and strawberries
T: Spicy Orange Chicken with rice and steamed broccoli
W: Macaroni and cheese with ham and peas
Th: Hot Dogs on the grill, crispy potatoes and baked beans
F: Homemade Pizza
S: Grilled Tenderloin, Garlic Mashed, wedge salad
Su: Roasted chicken, grilled asparagus, strawberry spinach salad

{this moment}

inspired by soulemama

Birthday Party for Two

We had a combination birthday party for my son and daughter since their birthdays are about a week apart. It can be hard thinking of a party theme to incorporate boys and girls, along with an age gap. After discussing with my daughter, we decided on an "under the sea" adventure with crabs and mermaids.


Oh what fun we had!

Invitations and goodie bag stickers by whoosinvited. She was so wonderful and combined some of her designs to fit my crab/mermaid theme. I loved them. The cake had a faux-fondant buttercream, with rock candy and fondant decorations. I'll have to practice some more with that buttercream base. Very delicious though.

Bouquets of wild daisies in vintage Ball jars. Fish fruit snacks, little squirt guns and a couple sidewalk chalks for thank you treats.

Paper and ribbon banner with some 'under the sea' animals and free aqua and melon polka dot paper courtesy of Creature Comforts.

Lemonade and slip-n-slide, perfect combination for a hot day.

Sunshine pinata and water play. We had a water balloon toss scheduled, along with crabwalk races but we never even got to them, everyone was having too much other fun.

Striped paper straws, mermaid and crab cupcakes, and fishbowl jello. This is my favorite buttercream recipe to use.

I bought a few yard of a soft, shimmery tulle at the thrift shop for one dollar, and used it to decorate the buffet table.

My little sweetpea dappled in frosting, and the poms strung from the porch. Enough to make anyone smile.

Boy and Girl Birthday Party Solved

We went with an "Under the Sea" theme.

Totally inspired by these mermaid cupcake toppers and crab liners . Aren't they pretty?

More details coming up.