Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Food Find

12/14/11

My FF has to do with my girl. She has issues with dairy and I'm not keen on giving her much dairy anyway, so thanks to a friend, I found soy yogurt! I have looked at the stores that I shop at but haven't found it. The other Walmart carries it. It's actually a lot less expensive than what I thought. It was $2.60 for a 6 pack. That's a good deal! That's cheaper than regular yogurt and it's Organic. WAHOO! Abby had one tonight and loved it.
Here is my princess up to date. I put her snowsuit on for the first time this year.


She's so stinkin' cute!


Here she is in her winter coat and black boots. She had lots of fun walking/running down the street!

I can't believe she's going to be 14 months tomorrow! She's tons of fun and I love her :)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Italian Parmesan Bread Recipe

12/8/11

So the other night I made a rotini pasta dish and my hubby loves garlic bread but I didn't have any. So I whipped an awesome cookbook out that my mom gave me when I got married. I use it more and more :) It had an Italian Parmesan Bread recipe. So I decided to give it a try. You don't even have to knead the bread. Just use a mixer for this recipe. Once it's cooked then slice and put a little butter with garlic powder.

One.
Word.
WINNER!

Here it is....

Italian Parmesan Bread
Ingredients
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/4 cup butter softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, divided
melted butter

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 2 cups flour, butter, egg, sugar, salt and seasonings. Beat on low speed until mixed about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue beating for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining flour and 1/2 cup cheese; beat until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Stir batter 25 strokes. Spoon into greased pan (loaf pan). Brush with a little melted butter and and sprinkle a little extra parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

I decided to make meatball sandwiches with the bread tonight.

Now.
We.
Are talking.
Revolutionary :)

I will save that post for another day....but if you have my Cookbook (everyone should) then you can use that recipe with this bread. Maybe I will post it tomorrow, if you're so lucky ;)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Another proposal and 3 Food Finds!

So there was another proposal...5 years ago! HA. Kyle proposed to me 5 years ago on the 25th of this month and we started dating officially 7 years ago on the 24th. Wow. Time flies. Especially when you're having a great time.

Here's a picture of us 7 years ago....So young :)


Here was the scene of our engagement night. What a perfect way to end an all-day date. After dinner we came back to his parent's house and I walked in to this. Kyle sang me a song he wrote with his guitar and proposed. It was bliss.


I was pretty ecstatic....I jumped up and down for at least half an hour :)


Now moving on....had to squeeze 2 posts together! New Food Finds (FF)! I got 2 of these at Target (but I believe they are all there). The first is these Sweet Potato "puffs". Alexia makes organic and all natural foods. I checked the ingredients and it's a green light! They are delicious!!!! I really like sweet potatoes and I didn't know it cause I just never ate them. It's fun trying new fresh foods. Kyle and Abigail liked them so it's a winner for the whole family. They were $3.29 regular price. Not bad.

The next I had at breakfast. These are delicious too and Abigail loved them as well. Winner! These are a whole grain waffle with blueberries in it. It tasted yummy and there weren't unbleached or enriched flowers. It's low in fat and has a good amount of fiber. I ate them with eggs and fruit. Perfect start to the day. They cost $2.99 regular price, I believe.


The last is yummy as well. You sauté red potatoes, green beans, and mushrooms with parsley. This is delicious. Great side dish. Add some extra vegetables on the side with a lean protein and you have a perfectly balanced and healthy meal!!! Isn't finding this stuff fun?! Well, it is for me. And I love sharing. Oh, I believe this was no more than $2.99....It may have been $2.59.

I hope this helps give you more easy and convenient ideas for your breakfast and dinner table.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

13 Months

11/16/11

Someone turned 13 months yesterday. Wow! What's new? Abigail has a new tooth! It's making it's way out of the gums each day but broke through a week or 2 ago. That makes #3! She is more independent and wants to explore a lot. Mingling is fun now. She loves the youth group kids at church and has a lot of fun running around with them. It's cute cause there's always one or more to follow her around and want to hold her....kind of nice sometimes :)

This was Abby and Jack playing outside last weekend. They had a blast running around.

Jack....what a little stinker! He's so cute!


Look at that sweet face :)


There he is with his mommy. He is so big!



FIRST SNOW!

I ran her out in it and she had fun. She was running around sticking her tongue out!




New Favorite thing.....

....Playing in baskets!


She pulls them out and sits in them every day now. I think it's cute. Today she has been occupied with the laundry baskets and pillows off the couch. What fun. Her 2nd Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming up. This time she will actually do stuff! lol. Time flies when you're having fun!




Monday, November 7, 2011

The Proposal!!

11/6/11- date of proposal

So...last night we got the privilege of seeing my brother-in-law, Erik, and my soon-to-be Johnson sister get ENGAGED! So exciting and fun! Erik asked us to be apart of this night and keep it a secret...from everyone. If people know me, this was hard! But I did so good and didn't let it out to family members! What an amazing feat. lol. Anyways, with their permission in telling this, on to the good stuff!!!

Yesterday Kyle and I left at lunch time and headed to Ikea. What fun to have the day and be excited for what was coming. We shopped at Ikea and bought a few things for the house. We also bought a vase and some flowers for the special night....now Rebecca can keep it forever if she wanted and can always look at it and remember that night :) (I'm so sentimental). So then we went to Panera and hung out but decided to leave almost an hour earlier than we were going to just to be EXTRA prepared....we were. But it was good.

We arrived at the Conrad Hotel in downtown Chicago and found the room. All the while Erik and Rebecca were at Shed Aquarium and she had NO IDEA what was awaiting her! The hotel room was huge and beautiful. The balcony was also amazing and very large. Perfect setting.

We lit candles and had the vase with the flowers on the outdoor foot stool thing. There was music playing also. While we were waiting we had to test the camera :)


The beautiful view...


Kyle and I hid when they came and I could hear Rebecca saying, "awe this is amazing. How'd you do this?" ;) Then we crawled across the floor to peak and see the proposal. It was fun. They looked over the ledge at the beauty of Chicago for a few minutes. Then Erik gave Rebecca a present (decoy) of a necklace. Then he managed to get the ring out of his sock without her realizing what was about to happen. He got down on one knee and proposed (other things were said prior but we couldn't hear). Excitement and shock were heard in Rebecca's voice. She said, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, yes!" You could tell she was truly surprised! With tears in my eyes I just watched their hearts melt with each others. What a wonderful moment. They had some smooches (of course!) and looked at the beautiful view some more. What a perfect night!!

This was before we came out and Kyle was taking pics thru the window...little blurry

Excitement!! I was shaking a little myself with joy (maybe a little bouncing too...hehe)


They went inside so Rebecca could capture the ring in a better light. She loved it



I like the silhouette pics.






We had a couple dances together on the balcony and they just were floating on clouds. What a wonderful night!!!!

I just want to add that I am so so excited for you guys. I admire your relationship and your commitment to Christ. Your relationship reminds me so much of Kyle and mine when we were dating and I am not going to lie, I love it! But I admire Rebecca so much. She is an absolute gem and I'm glad Erik pursued her and cherishes her. I am excited that I can FINALLY make comments about planning a wedding in a serious manner now. But really, you are a wonderful woman, Rebecca, Erik couldn't have picked a better one to spend the rest of his life with. I am excited to have you as a Johnson sister as is the rest of the family :) Love you both!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Following Daddy

11/2/11

Someone loves being outside...and the other day her daddy was out mowing and blowing.

So OF COURSE she wanted to be following him :)

She followed him front the front and now to the back.

She was running her heart out to get to him and tripped....

...but that didn't deter her!

She made it! Very interested in the blower.

Ahhh now her Daddy gets to hold her.

I love my family :)

Friday, October 28, 2011

Italian Penne Recipe

10/28/11

So I came up with this recipe...It may exist out there I just didn't look for it and thought it up..FYI. So I thought I'd share. Really excited to eat it. I'll let you know how it tastes. ha.

Started with whole wheat Penne noodles that were sitting in my lazy-susan ready to be used.

Then I cooked some grass-fed, hormone/antibiotic-free ground beef (1/2 lb). I put garlic powder, minced onion, pepper, and italian seasoning in it.

Then I made my sauce. Used some Hunt's All Natural sauce and tomato paste. I also put Tomato Basil cooking creme in the dish. Threw in italian seasoning, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, basil, parsley, pepper, and some chili powder.

Put sauce at the bottom of the pan so no noodles would stick for some reason.

Layered the noodles and meat.

Then sauce.
Then mixed it with about 1/4 of the Philadelphia Cooking Creme.

Then I added some leftover cheese ravioli stuffing I made last week cause it's delish!! It was cottage cheese with an egg, 1/2 cup low fat mozzarella, and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese mixed together. I will bake it at 350 for probably 30 minutes. And bam a new dinner!!