Pinterest Inspired Cooking

Both girls are napping, so instead of being productive, such as doing some house work, I thought I would blog instead! :)

I went through my recipe board on Pinterest last week and decided to try out some new recipes and share!

Last night we had Southwest Black bean Casserole. I got the recipe from here http://pinchofyum.com/southwest-black-bean-casserole. I made a few changes. I omitted the bacon and I used a tablespoon of homemade taco seasoning instead of the cumin and salt it called for. It was very good and I will definitely make it again!

I made this incredible salad over the weekend. It was excellent and we were able to eat from it several times! Here is the recipe: http://www.greensnchocolate.com/2012/04/southwestern-chopped-chicken-salad.html. Of course I made a few changes to this one too! For the chicken I used a rotisserie chicken from the store, I did not add the crushed tortillas chips (just forgot to buy them!), I used a bag of romaine lettuce instead of chopping up my own, and I added shredded cheese. For the salad dressing part I used the homemade taco seasoning recipe ( I will share that too) and I also added some milk to thin the dressing out some.

These are balsamic roasted carrots = AMAZING! I love any vegetable roasted. It just gives it such a rich and different flavor. For these, all you do is set your oven to 400. Toss your carrots in a little bit of olive oil, salt & pepper. Roast them on a cookie sheet for about 20 min. Pull the carrots out and  mix the following ingredients together: 1 T of olive oil, 2 T of honey, 1-2 t of balsamic vinegar and 2 t of brown sugar and drizzle over carrots. Put them back in the oven for 5 min. I used a small bag of baby carrots. We had salmon with it. I put the salmon in some aluminum foil with a little olive oil, lemon slices, salt & pepper and about a teaspoon of dried parsley flakes. I set the wrapped salmon on the same cookie sheet as the carrots and they were both done at the same time. A very easy and quick healthy dinner!

Here is the recipe for the homemade taco seasoning. The source said it is from Rachael Ray. It doesn't have all the sodium that the store bought ones do! I will never buy the store brand again! :)

1 T chili powder
1 T ground cumin
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
1/4-1/2 T crushed red pepper ( I did not have this, so I just used 1/4 teaspoon of ground red pepper)
*(T=tablespoon)

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container!

Hope ya'll enjoy these recipes! Let me know if you try any of them out!

Instagram & Glasses

I finally started using the instagram app I have had on my phone for a while now. I love it! Here are some pictures I have taken recently of Kinley & Brooklyn. 

Here they are on the 4th of July! Love putting them in matching outfits! And nothing sweeter than little girls in red, white & blue! Kinley did not like the fireworks at all. I'm guessing it was the loud noise, so we didn't stay out long. 

Melt my heart!!!

Love that she's holding 2 babies!

So, little Miss Kinley had to get glasses. We had noticed one of her eyes turning in. We have had the glasses for a little over a week now. She was wearing them pretty good, about 4 hours a day. But, the last several days she has not done so well. I put them on her first thing in the morning and let her wear them for however long. I don't force it, because I think that would just make things worse. I'm hoping over time she will adjust and want to wear them more. But, I think she is so stinkin' cute! ;)

 I decided to take her to CFA and let her play. It has been a few weeks since she's been around any other kids and she had a blast. She did not want to leave!  I may or may not have had to drag her out screaming! I felt so bad, but we had already been there for almost 2 hours. 

Ha! This picture cracks me up! Brooklyn looks terrified about something and Kinley is all smiles! Love these girls!!

I'm taking Kinley to a Gymboree play & music class tomorrow. You get to go your first time for free. I'm excited to see what she thinks! We are also meeting up with a local playgroup on Friday. Looking forward to hopefully start making some friends! 

Back to blogging!

Well, I started a blog and then totally quit blogging! I don't really know why and it does make me kinda sad that I didn't keep up with it. That's ok, going to try and keep it up now!

So, we have moved to Shreveport, LA! I thought it would be good to get back into blogging to keep all the family and friends up dated and grandparents will enjoy the pictures! Also, maybe try to connect with some people in this area too.

I'm not going to lie, it's definitely starting to get a little lonely here. We've only been here a few weeks, but Jared is now working all. the. time......so it's just me and my girls! Yes, 2 sweet girls! Kinley is now 22 months and just as sweet as she can be and Brooklyn is 2 months and keeps me busy! She is growing too fast and sweet girl loves to be held! Having 2 so close together is fun and a challenge at the same time! But, I've just learned to just go day to day. I just have to accept that its okay if my house stays a mess! These 2 girls need me more than trying to worry about keeping a "perfect" house!

I'm really missing my playgroup now! I know Kinley is too. I'm hoping to find one here soon! We will start visiting churches this Sunday. I'm excited about that, but also a little stressed too. It's so hard finding a church home! And I know there will be many Sunday it will be just the 3 of us. It's going to be hard to go by myself (without Jared), but I know how important it is for us to go! Oh my, will this take some major preplanning the night before to get us all out the door on time! It will be great way to get to know people too.

So, Shreveport is nice. I'm impressed so far. There are so many big beautiful trees here. Of course it's incredibly hot and humid. So, we definitely stay inside a lot and not to mention the horrible huge mosquito's! Ugh!!

Ok, time to get dinner started before sweet Brooklyn wakes up from napping and wants to be held! Poor baby had 2 month shots today, no fun!

Talk to ya'll soon!!