Picnic Day

My kids love it when I let them have a picnic in the living room. This is usually something I do when its rainy, and dreary outside so that we can all get in a better mood.

Pineapple Bread

My awesome calendar this year has a new recipe every month. The recipe for April sparked my attention enough to try. This pineapple bread was so yummy I am going to have to make lots and lots.

Pineapple Bread

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray

2 Eggs

1/2 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3/4 C Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

3 T Orange Juice

1 1/2 C Pineapple Chunks, drained

2 1/2 C Flour

3 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 C Walnuts, chopped

Directions:

1. Spray Bread Pan

2. Beat eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and orange juice together. Stir in pineapple chunks.

3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

4. Add dry ingredients to pineapple mixture.

5. Fold in walnuts.

6. Pour into sprayed pan.

7. Bake at 350 degrees F. Check at 50 minutes. Test to see if toothpick comes out clean. If not, check every 5 minutes until done. Cool in loaf pan for 15 minutes and then move to cooling rack.

8. Store in refrigerator.

We all love this bread, my kids are big fans! :) I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Turkey Bean Chili

Dave found this recipe for a healthy chili, and so I decided to try making it. It was very easy, although I did cut the recipe in half. I took pictures through the cooking process so that you could see just how yummy, and easy it is!!

First: I cooked 1 lb ground turkey with 1 green pepper and 1/2 onion (I don't like a lot of onion so I only used half, you can use all you want). When the meat is no longer pink, drain and pour into soup pot.

Second: I added to the meat 1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, 1 can (15 oz) black beans, 1 can (15 oz) chili beans, and 1 can (28 oz) diced tomato-all with their juices. I also added 1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper, 1/2 tsp ground Cumin, and 1/2 tsp Chili Powder. Bring it to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Third: Serve as soup with cheese and sour cream or as a nice chip dip! And Enjoy!

Life passing by...

I haven't blogged in awhile, so I thought I would just say something. Life seems to be going by very fast lately. I think its because we do the same things over and over every week, and there is rarely something out of the ordinary, except my kids of course. They are always testing me, making me smile, and just being plain cute!!! I love being a mom, most days, when the kids are actually getting along and being civil with each other. Then we have days where they just fight non-stop, and half the time they do it just get the other one to scream and get mad. WHY? I don't understand these days, but we get through them. Luckily, I have the BEST husband in the world. When he gets home from work on the bad days, he will give me a break, and just take over for the night. Its so nice to have someone that understands when I need to just go in another room for awhile and be by myself!! I really am a lucky girl to have such a wonderful husband, and 2 amazing kids!!

Lets just hope that March is full of sunshine, and happy kids!! :)

Listen to this playlist: shrilly_princess's Playlist

Snow Day

These pics were taken awhile ago, but they are really cute, and I feel like sharing them!! I let the kids play in the snow. This was back before they were so sick all through January.

Vika was posing for me!!

And then Conner asked me to take a picture of him on his bike!!

I really can't wait for spring. I am in desperate need of some warm weather, and letting the kids out of the house!!!

Just Vika being silly

Last week I was trying to have a great discussion with Vika while Conner was at preschool. I drove to the temple parking lot, and because it was so cold we stayed in the car. I told her some things we do in the Temple. And then I was telling her that we need to be like Jesus. She got really confused and said, "But Jesus is a boy, Mom!" I laughed and tried to tell her that even though he is a boy we need to be like him because he was always nice to others and he is a great example for us. She wouldn't listen to me anymore because I was asking her to be like a boy!!

She just cracks me up sometimes!!! I love her and her smart little brain!