Lets train: Tuesday

Showing posts with label Tuesday. Show all posts

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Show Tell Tuesday Favorite Recipes

Today I am linking up with Andrea for Show & Tell Tuesday.

The topic today is favorite recipes.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know I love to cook and I love to share recipes, especially family friendly recipes! I try and post 2 or 3 new recipes a month.

I had a really hard time narrowing down which ones to share....I just LOVE food!

I will share some of my favorite recipes from each category

(These categories can also be found in my Recipe Box)

Appetizers:

7 layer Greek Hummus Dip

Corn Dip

Watermelon Salsa

I made the Corn Dip and the Watermelon Salsa for 4th of July this year :)

Salads:

Cowboy Salad

Caprese Orzo Salad

Broccoli Salad

Soups:

Grammy's Split Pea Soup

Chicken Taco Soup

White Chicken Chili

Slow Cooker:

Easiest Dinner Ever

This is the most viewed recipe on my blog! Almost 2 million views! Crazy.

Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan:

Slow Cooker Ribs

Instant Pot:

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hope you got an Instant Pot today on Prime Day!

Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Savory Teriyaki Turkey Meatballs

Instant Pot Spicy Shredded Pork Tacos

Main Entrees:

Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers

Chicken Tortilla Casserole:

Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta

Muffins/Breads:

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Pumpkin Bread

Desserts/Cookies:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats

Caramelitas

Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a Recipe Box tab on the top of my blog, so you can click on that to see ALL my recipes.

They are organized by category as well!

So, there you go....just a few of my favorite recipes ;)

I think I was hungry while creating this post. LOL!

I have a few more recipes that I am working and can't wait to share with you...stay tuned!

Can't wait to check out some of your favorite recipes!

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Giving Tuesday

Did you know that today, Tuesday December 1st is #GivingTuesday?
What is #GivingTuesday?
From the #GivingTuesday Website:
We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Black Friday & Cyber Monday. Now, we have #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, December 1st, 2014, charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.
It’s a simple idea. Just find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to come together to give something more. Then tell everyone you can about how you are giving. Join us and be a part of a global celebration of a new tradition of generosity.

I love the idea of Giving Tuesday. It was started 4 years ago.
I think it is awesome and a great way to enter the Christmas Season.
One way I like to enter the Christmas Season is that every year on the first day of Advent, I watch a video from Advent Conspiracy as a way to prepare my heart for the Christmas Season.

I encourage you to watch it {turn the volume on for full impact}

When I first watched an Advent Conspiracy video 8 years ago, it struck a cord and made me re-think Christmas.
Do I think gifts & Christmas gifts are bad? No.
Do I like to shop? Yes.
But, I have changed the way I view gift giving.
The amount of money Americans spend on Christmas makes me sick to my stomach.

In years past, we used to exchange gifts with all my nieces & nephews.
It was ridiculous buying & exchanging gifts with all 9 kids.
My kids don't need that many presents & neither do their cousins.
So, a few years ago, we changed how we did Christmas. Each kid would pull a name & get a gift for 1 cousin. Much more reasonable than getting gifts for 9 cousins.

Several years ago, my sisters & I decided to stop giving each other gifts.
We don't need anymore "Stuff"
Now we do something fun together.
For the past few years we have gotten tickets to see a musical or Broadway show with my mom and having a girls day in San Francisco.
Spending time together is much more fun than getting a random sweater or purse.
This year we also adopted a family.

I also tell my sisters to NOT give my girls Christmas presents.
Instead, I told them to take my girls on dates so they could have one on one time with them for a few hours.
Spending time with their Aunties is much better than a random toy.

I encourage you to watch the video & see how you can turn your Christmas upside down.

And, in honor of #GivingTuesday, I have a list of organizations that we support and things we have done to give back:

Charity:Water - a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations fund water projects. Charity:Water is the organization we used for Project 320 in 2009 & 2010 & we were able to fund 3 wells in Africa. Kevin's high school small group funded a well in the Spring through Charity:Water during our church's Kingdom Assignment Outreach.

Heifer Project (donate an animal to give a family a source of food for a year. A few years ago, one of my students donated a goat in my name.Best Christmas present from a student. EVER.

Team World Vision: Last week I blogged about my Running Journey and that on December 12th I am running another 1/2 marathon, but this time I am running for a cause. I am running for Team World Vision. My goal is to raise $100 per mile I run....my goal is $1,310.

If you would like to donate, it is 100% tax deductible.
Any amount helps....$5, $10, $25, $50, $100!
Thank you for your support!

Compassion International - This is another awesome organization. You can sponsor a kid for $38 a month to give them food, shelter, education, health care and the opportunity to learn about Jesus in a neighborhood church program.
Kevin and I have sponsored Compassion children since before we were married. We currently sponsor 3 Compassion kids, 2 girls and a boy. The girls have the same birthdays as my girls and the boy has the same birthday as Luke. If you search the Compassion website you can pick your own child to sponsor & search by birthdate. My kids love that their Compassion kids have the same birthday as them :)

Other ideas you can do for Giving Tuesday or this Holiday Season:

Every year we go to San Francisco during December to check out the Christmas decoration & go to my sister's work party at the Embarcaderro Ice Skating Rink. If you have been to SF before, you know there is a big homeless population. So, when we go, I bring "Blessing Bags"
You can put whatever you want in your Blessing Bags.
I fill them with a $5 gift card to McDonalds, a granola bar, peanut butter crackers, fig newtons & a juice box & a new pair of socks. (You can also put in gloves/bottled water, hand sanitizer, etc)
A little thing for us to do & a big difference to those who receive it.

Adopt a Family, Feed the homeless, Make a Blessing Bag
Angel Tree, Operation Christmas Child,
Donate cans to a Food Bank.

Do Something this Giving Tuesday & this Christmas Season.

It's not about the gifts. It's about the birth of Christ.
It's about loving others.

Make this CHRISTmas meaningful.
Spend Less and Give More this Christmas Season.
Happy Giving Tuesday!

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Show Tell Tuesday Home Tour

I don't know about you, but I LOVE looking at other peoples houses.
I love going to Open Houses, I love looking at houses on the internet.
It's not just because I am nosey (well, maybe a little bit!) I just really love seeing how other people live & how other people decorate. I love how everyone's styles are so different & unique.
I have blogged about most of our house before, but today I am updating some of the rooms ...plus our Living Room/Dining Room Before & After that I have yet to post!

Thanks for the fun link up Andrea!

Let's start with the kitchen, since this is where I spend most of my time!

Here is our Kitchen/Family Room:

Opposite View:

Kitchen Table & Eating Area:

The photo above was taken last summer.
We are actually in the middle of construction right now....we had to get a new french door because the one that the previous owner installed 10 years ago was installed incorrectly, it was leaking & causing dry rot.
This picture was taken today....Construction Zone!!!

I got a smaller French Door & had it moved over 18 inches so that next time we update our kitchen, I will have 2 more feet to put in counters & cabinets (we don't have a lot of counter space or storage in our kitchen)

We also had to get a new kitchen window as well, since it was also leaking (I got rid of the garden style window & just put in a flat picture frame window)

It was also leaking & causing dry rot.
We are hoping to have the trim work & painting completed this week!
Fingers crossed.
Family Room:

Another view of Family Room:

If you want to see Before & Afters of the Kitchen/Family Room from when we first moved in, check them out HERE

Here is our Master Bedroom:

You can see the Before & Afters from our Master Bedroom Re-do HERE

(Last year we actually took out the hardwood floor in our room & put in carpet in our room, so that is another change we made since I posted the Before & After of our room)

Kate's Room:

She got this new comforter for her birthday in January.

This is the 3rd time we have given her room a facelift.
You can see the Before & Afters and more pics of Kate's room HERE

Claire's Room:

Claire wants a new comforter for her birthday, since Kate had this one for her first big girl bed and Claire has had it for 4 years. She says it's too "babyish"

You can see more of Claire's Room and some Before & Afters HERE

Luke's Room:

The other side of the room:

We will probably get rid of his crib later this summer & put him in a big boy bed. Sigh.
You can see more of Luke's Room HERE

Here is our Guest Room/Office:

The other side of the room "the office"

You can see more of our Guest Room/Office Before & After HERE

Here is a BEFORE of our Living Room/Dining Room:

Our house was built in the 1970's when conversation pits were all the rage.
The conversation pit was right in the middle of the living room & dining room. Totally awkward & waste of space. For the first 4 years we lived here, I just put all the kids toys in the pit, so it was like their playroom.

Even more awkward, this is where our fire place was & it was wall of painted white brick:

Last Fall, I had saved up a lot of my Rodan + Fields earnings and we got rid of it of the pit!

Kevin ripped the floors and took out the wall of white brick:

The pit was about a foot lower than the rest of the living room/dining room, such a weird design. I don't know what builders were thinking in the 1970's

Then Kevin took out all the horrible railings that surrounded the pit:

Then our contractor built up the floor to the same level as the rest of the room:

And added dry wall around the old fireplace:

The next phase was adding a new fireplace, we went with a gas insert

And a simple mantle:

The next phase was ripping out part of the wall so that we could add a French Door to the backyard. We have a lot of parties, so we wanted more access to the backyard to keep good flow going through the house (Our door had to be ordered & it took about a month to get in)

Framing up for the new door:

New door in:

Then, we had to add more flooring so that it continued on with the original living room & dining room floor:

Of course, the original flooring had been discontinued, so we re-used the boards that were in the pit AND we took out the hard wood floor in our bedroom (and put in carpet) and used some of those floor boards for the new area:

Kevin did all the flooring himself and he did an amazing job! Eventually, we want to re-do all of our floors with a dark hardwood, but since the majority of our house is hardwood, we are going to wait, because that is going to be a huge project!

Here is the final reveal:

I also moved the direction of our dining room table:

Got a new rug for the living room & some new throw pillows:

This room is SO much more user friendly now!!

This project was started the last weekend in August & was completed the day before Thanksgiving! It was a labor of love.

I am so thankful for Kevin's hard work with parts of this project & I am thankful that my side gig of Rodan + Fields paid for the new door & the new fireplace..and the new rugs & pillows.... :)

The final stop in our home tour..... our backyard:

Another view:

And, our side yard where the garden is:

These pics were taken 2 years ago, that is why our grass is so green. Now, our grass is DEAD since we are on water restrictions because of the major California drought we are in right now :(
You can see more Before & Afters from our Backyard HERE

Hope you enjoyed our house tour!
We have lived here for 5 years and have done TONS of work on our house, but we like doing house projects :)
Be sure & check out the Before & Afters to see what it looked like when we first moved in.
If you want to see our old house, HERE is that home tour :)

As you can see from these pics, I am VERY simple (and kind of boring) with my decor.
I don't like clutter, so I try and keep things light & simple!
Thanks for coming along on the tour & I can't wait to go check out your houses!

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And, don't forget to enter my $250 Nordstrom Gift Card Giveaway {HERE}
Giveaway ends on Friday!