Dill Bread

I pulled the breadmaker out of the crawlspace and have been on a breadmaking kick lately! My oldest son loves fresh, homemade bread and would probably eat just that if I would let him!

Yesterday I had some cottage cheese in the fridge that I wanted to use up so I found a recipe in "The Bread Machine Cookbook" for Dill Bread which used cottage cheese and it was delicious!!

I would have taken a picture but the whole loaf was eaten up at dinner before I had a chance :)

The breadmaker recipe for a Medium loaf is:

1 C cottage cheese
2 eggs
2 T sugar
1 T dill weed
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 C bread flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast


Throw it all in and let the bread machine do it's thing! So good!!!

Touch of Avalon

Touch of Avalon is offering the first 25 bloggers to write a blog post about their site a $10 Gift Certificate.

They have a lot of great bracelets, necklaces, and other jewelry at very affordable prices.



I love Scrabble tile pendants and they carry these for only $7.00 a piece.




Shipping in the U.S. is a flat rate of $3!

Definitely a site worth checking out!

Happy Fall!

I finally started putting up some Fall decorations, not Halloween yet, just Fall. The Halloween ones we will wait for another couple of weeks.



It is supposed to be 80 degrees here today so it doesn't feel like Fall weather though! I am ready for it to be cooler. I already packed away most of the kid's summer clothes and put the winter ones in their dressers.

Slowly my walls will get decorated!

Since I am all about the Dollar Tree frames right now, I decided to sit down a the table with my children today and create more art to decorate with. I framed my artwork this time instead of theirs :) I haven't hung them yet though.

Stir-Fried Green Beans

I made my first recipe out of my More-with-Less Cookbook! For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is a great resource for healthy, cost-effective recipes.

Here is more info from amazon, lots of great reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-Janzen-Longacre/dp/083619103X

It is a very interesting book- with a copyright of 1977 some things are a little dated (like the costs of food in the beginning), but a huge majority of the recipes in the book use a lot of common ingredients that I already have on hand. I love this because there is no running out to the store to have to get that one ingredient that you don't have!

Tonight for dinner, since I had a pound of fresh green beans that I bought at the Farmer's Market, I made:

Stir-Fried Green Beans

&

Peanut Soup

The Stir-Fried Green Beans were a hit with my family - I added leftover rotisserie chicken, served over brown rice, and it was delicious! The peanut soup was not as good. I have always wanted to try it and it was easy to make but just not our thing. My youngest loved it but he was the only one. Since there is a lot left over he will be eating peanut soup for the next couple of days with his lunch!

My little artists

I remember reading somewhere awhile ago that a creative way to decorate your home was to frame your children's artwork. So, the other day I sat my 2 year old and 4 year old down with a box of crayons and had them create some masterpieces.





My 2 year old just used the scribble technique:





Whereas my 4 year old opted for holding a few crayons at once and turning them in circles on the paper:





I then went to Dollar Tree and purchased 4 frames that had matting with and hung my children's art. So for $4.00 I have 4 wonderful pieces of artwork- I think they turned out super cute!

Sweet corn!

My youngest and I went to the Farmer's Market today while my older son was at preschool. After a summer full of tasteless or just not-very-good tasting sweet corn, we have finally found the perfect corn-on-the-cob! Not only does this corn look pretty on the outside, the inside is flawless as well! It is SO sweet! It was such good corn that you didn't even have to pick through it to try to find good pieces. My youngest (just turned 2) picked out the whole dozen by himself and he did an excellent job! I just have to remember the vendor that we bought it from so I can get the same kind next time. The sign by the corn said "Honey Dipped." I am not sure what this means - I was thinking maybe it was a variety of corn but I don't see it anywhere online. Maybe it is just the vendor's synonym for "super sweet!" Whatever it means it is excellent!

I could eat it for every meal which wouldn't be a bad thing since there are a lot of health benefits associated with corn!:

From oohoi.com:

"Corn is High in Nutrients

One of the benefits of corn is that it is high in nutrients.

A few of these important nutrients are:

Thiamin (vitamin B1) which is used in the metabolism of carbohydrates.

Pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) which helps with physiological functions.

Folate which helps the generation of new cells � especially important before and during pregnancy.

Vitamin C which fights against diseases.

Corn is a Good Source of Fiber

One cup of corn provides 18.4% of the daily recommendation of fiber. Its high fiber content is one of the biggest benefits of corn. Fiber has been shown to help lower cholesterol levels and help reduce the risk of colon cancer. Fiber is also useful in helping to lower blood sugar levels in diabetics."

YUM!!

1st week of Preschool

My oldest son had his first week of preschool this week and absolutely loved it! We had gone to his Open House the week before and ever since that night he had kept asking when it was going to be Wednesday because that is the day that Preschool began.

This past Tuesday, the night before his first day, he decided ON HIS OWN (!) to go to bed at 6:30 pm because he wanted to be rested for school :) He actually fell asleep within 10 minutes too! He did the same thing, but at 7:00 this time, for the next day! I am liking this preschool thing!! Now if only I could get my other one to go to sleep at the same time! Wouldn't that be nice??