Pizza Night: Spinach White Pizza

I found another fantastic pizza recipe!

I have a hard time trying to find pizza night recipes to try because whenever I google "homemade pizza" I get all sorts of dough recipes, and we've established that I am not a dough maker. So then I have to think of the type of pizza I want and google that. Like for this time, I googled "spinach pizza". And Voila... up came King Arthur Flour and their Spinach White Pizza Recipe.

We kind of goofed for this recipe, because we put ALL the cheese mixture onto ONE pizza.... looking back at the recipe it does say "Our Pizza Crust recipe is great; it make two 14″ pizzas, which is a perfect size for the amount of filling in this recipe." Woops.

Hubby and I alway try to figure out how to make whatever recipe better, adding sausage, more or less of stuff etc.... well he says, next time lets try to make the cheese layer thinner, like roll it or something (roll it? Ok hubby), and THEN it dawned on me that the picture I saw showed TWO pizzas.

It was still yummy cheesey goodness (just maybe a touch too much!)

Then just in case the girls didn't like our fancy shmancy white pizza, we did two flatbread pepperoni pizzas.

Clearly, Jillie was a fan!
 

Happy Memorial Weekend!

I wish everyone a safe and Happy Memorial Weekend and as a good friend shared on facebook today, we are...
Remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect & preserve our freedom and acknowledging those who protect & serve our country today.

Meal Plan #31

Sunday is...
Feta Topped Chicken (freezer) on the grill

Monday
Pork Ribs (sale)

Tuesday
Salmon (sale) with Honey Mustard Glaze

Wednesday
Shrimp, Pesto, Pasta

Thursday
Pork Tenderloin (freezer)

Friday
Hubby leaves for drill :( So... the girls are on our own

Saturday
With hubby gone, the girls and I may experiment with a new recipe

Last weeks recap

BBQ Brisket



Pecan Crusted Tilapia



Alice Springs Chicken
yummy, too much mustard for my taste... hubby liked the mustard but not the bacon. More bacon for me :) 

Andoulli Sausage, Red Beans, and Rice



White Spinach Pizza
PS - this was FANTASTIC!!!



Memorial Dinner #1 - burgers and veggies on the grill

Quick Memorial Day Craft {repost)

Hey guys!

Happy almost Memorial Day weekend! 

Unless of course you got off early!

Since I did not do anything new this year for Memorial Day craft-wise, I'll re-share last years wreath (which I just dusted off and hung up on my front door) that I saw in the Disney Family Fun magazine. It's so quick and easy you can run out, get the supplies, complete it, and hang it today!

Supplies
3 - 9ft strands of patriotic garland
1 - cheap wreath
hot glue gun
3 - 4x6 flags
Ribbon

I wrapped the garland around the wreath and glued the ends until I was out of space on the wreath. Then I added 3 flags for an extra touch. Lastly, I used ribbon to attach it to my wreath hanger.

VOILA!

Meal Plan #30 {plus a few recaps}

I totally flaked on last weeks meal plan... and just about every night I was rushing around trying to figure out what was for dinner. Bleh. So clearly, this meal plan thing works for me.

This week will be:
Sunday
Alice Springs Chicken (pin), with broccoli and homemade sweet potato fries (pin)

Monday
BBQ Brisket (which I was going to do Sunday, but I ALWAYS forget it needs to marinade 8 hours and I NEVER have the liquid smoke that I need)

Tuesday
Tilapia

Wednesday
We are going to Disney, so this will be a leftover day

Thursday
Pork Tenderloin (sale)

Friday
Pizza Night!

Last Week (in which I was quite scatterbrained) was:

Cheese Ravioli and Sausage Lasagna

Chicken Parm

Mashed Potatoes over Hamburger and veggies

Pizza Night

The week before...

Oven baked panko chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce and wild rice

Patty melt and mac n cheese Muffins

Chicken Boursin Bundles (with spinach)

Hubby's treat - broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken and steak

If you are interested in any recipe, please ask!

Embellished Hoodie Towels {Pinned there, Done that}

Another pin is done! Actually, this was an item on my "To- Attempt" list on my blog before I started a Pinterest account... so it's been hanging around my mind for a while. The Embellished Hoodie Towel tutorial I followed is by Tammy over at Not Just a Housewife.

I was really nervous to attempt this project for one reason... Step 2: The pleat. To be honest, I don't think I did it right. BUT... the towel is done, and not too shabby if i say so myself. (and it's hanging on the pleat... see?)

I ran into a few problems due to lack of sewing knowledge and experience and selection of supplies I think. When I cut my towel in half, like a hamburger as Tammy said, my towel was a lot smaller than hers. I am pretty sure it's because I used $4 towels from Walmart and they just run smaller. The other thing that didn't turn out overly good was my pleat, but it still hangs on a hook so I was at least semi-successful. This gift was given to one of Charlotte's friends for his birthday along with some bath toys. Clearly it was a hit because she asked me the very next day how to make it!

I like this hoodie towel better than the other hoodie towels I have made because this seems to envelope them more, if that makes sense.

See this is the other one (with a younger Charlotte), and the top of the main towel hangs below the shoulders because the hood part is longer.

In the new embellished one, the hood is shorter but deeper, and I like that.

Linking up: Keeping it simple, Marvelously Messy, Under the table dreaming, 

Teacher Gift {Last Day of School}

Today is Charlotte's last day of 2 year old preschool. Tear. Also, this is her last day of school at this preschool.

We are in the process of trying to move north about 30 minutes; and back when we put the offer on the house everything was going SOOOO quickly so we decided to register for preschool up there. Unfortunately, the house has stalled somewhat; tax lien, etc... joy. But that's a different story.

I LOVE my preschool.. er... Charlotte's preschool. It is part of the church that we go to and I am the VP of the Parent/Teacher Committee. Makes me sad to leave.

So for the last day of school, I put together a box of goodies for her teachers.

 Filled with some crafts I threw together, snacks, scent satchel, and stationary.

The adorable s'more printable from Domesticated Lady.

 Another super cute printable for candy bars from Anything but Perfect.

Lastly, I made a lemon sugar scrub using the tutorial at Under the Table Dreaming.

Audiobooks::. Now popular?

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Audiobooks have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

My very first "Audiobooks" were mom reading "Millions of Cats", Snow White and various other kids stories into a microphone into a large tape recorder to record her voice on tape (while us kids tried to be quiet as we sat and watched). Then we would listen to her read us stories as we went to bed.

Genius right? Clearly mom missed out big because it was around that time (mid 1980s) that "the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year in retail value" (src). If only she had thought, hey this is a great idea, I'm going to invest in this we might be living large, lol. In fact, my Grandfather got in on this audiobooks thing too for the library recording books onto tape for the blind.

My first non-mom-recorded audiobooks (that I remember well) are Mr. Poppers Penguins and Fantastic Mr. Fox... both of which have had movies come out; funny huh? Oh and you have no idea how excited I was when I learned those movies were coming out because growing up, I just about knew those books by heart.

The next two stories that come to mind have bugged me for a few years now because I only sort of remember them, but I know I listened to those all the time. One was a mermaid story set in Holland and I distinctly remember "swept out to sea, swept out to sea". The other was set in 1800s or early 1900s and had something to do with an apple orchard.

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But I've had a breakthrough, (don't laugh because I'm super excited). I just tracked down the mermaid one! Hansy's Mermaid by Trinka Hakes Noble. This popped into my mind randomly so today I googled, "swept out to sea" mermaid Holland dykes and I FOUND IT! It's funny how some things stick with you. I totally remember it now. But initially all I could remember was "swept out to sea, swept out to sea".

(Woo hoo, as I was looking for an image for Hansy's Mermaid, I saw a picture for Apple Tree Christmas... and yup, I just found the 2nd story that has bugged me!)

As a family, we would drive from New Jersey to Illinois and Kentucky every summer and guess what we did on the road trips, well other than eat snacks, play game boy, and bug my brothers? Yup, listen to Audiobooks. Louis L'Amour when we were younger and graduating to Stephen King as we got older... it's just a thing we did. And still do. People (for the most part) always made fun of us or at least giving a weird looks.

UNTIL NOW, apparently.

In the past week or so I have been bombarded with the knowledge that people (that I know!) are listening to audiobooks all the time.

It started last weekend in North Carolina where a bunch of college friends were hanging around after the kids had gone to bed and the subject of audiobooks came up. It turns out that most of the people there listen to audiobooks in the car, traveling, etc. Interesting.

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So then we get home and while watching TV this past week I have seen the commercial for Audible.com at least a dozen times. They are running a promo that you can get a 30 day trial and download an audiobook to try out. This is actually what I did last week because hubby wanted to listen to Hunger Games book 2 and I was like 65th on the library wait list.
The website was super easy to use and I had no problem transferring the book to my Zune. On this commercial they have people actors saying they listen to books because they don't have time to read (yup, that's me), and they listen in the car (yup), at the gym (yes.. and I get weird looks when I tell people this one), around the house, etc.

So this is the cool thing to do now? Sweet!

{Pinned there, Done that} Mac N Cheese Muffins

Last night hubby had a meeting and then went out to work with a coworker of sorts, so the kids and I were on our own for dinner. I briefly though about ordering in... but changed my mind. Looking through my freezer (and pinterest) I decided to make Patty-melts with some frozen cooked hamburgers and Mac n Cheese Muffins  (which was this pin) from Emily's Bites. She even gave the nutrition information which I thought was fun.

Now, I will admit, since I was winging it, I didn't have all the ingredients, and I added some more. I didn't use the whole wheat or high fiber macaroni... I just had plain ole' pasta. Also, I did not have Gruyere cheese so I just used all cheddar and Colby. Lastly, I had some frozen, chopped turkey in the freezer so I threw in about a cup of that.

I LOVED THIS! My youngest was a little scared because of the "Green" in it (spinach of course), but my oldest, who is 3, ate a good amount.

Success. The leftover muffins are in my freezer for the next time hubby abandons us for dinner and I don't feel like cooking gourmet.

Weekly Meal Plan #29

SUNDAY was...
Chicken on a Salad

MONDAY
Cajun Chicken Breasts, Broccoli and Cheese, and rice

TUESDAY
Tilapia with Spinach and Tomatoes

WEDNESDAY
Salmon with a Honey Mustard glaze

THURSDAY
Chicken Parm (since we didn't get to it last week)

FRIDAY
Pizza Night - I think we may try little portobello pizzas

SATURDAY
Oh... who knows. We may be on the boat late so dinner is up in the air.

Last weeks recap
will be next week because we are unpacking from vacation... and I have no idea where my camera is... bleh.

... BUT here is hubby cleaning the fish that we had for dinner last Sunday

{Pinned there, Done That} Healthier Mozzarella Sticks

OK, I'm going to be honest, this pin  from Every College Girl didn't turn out as fantastically as some of my other pinned recipes had.

However, I am quite sure that it is due to user error because I (a) cooked it a touch too long and (b) I forgot to spray oil on the sticks before baking them.

Woops.

Still yummy... I mean really? Hot gooey cheese with a bread crumb coating? yes please!

I will give this another shot soon.