A restaurant that our family has come to enjoy is Yummi Yaki. Do you have one near you? We all love it! You pick your starch (rice or noodles) and then go through the buffet line to select your meats, veggies, sauce, and seasoning, and then hand it over to be stir-fried. It's comes to your table hot and savory and so delicious. It's a fun treat, but pricey for a family. But since getting a Blackstone, we can enjoy them at home! I do the prepping of the meats and veggies and my husband does the stir-frying. Everything is lined up on our kitchen island for each person to go through the "buffet" and fill their bowls with their desired ingredients. Then we take our bowls of ingredients ... Read more
Snapshot Saturday: A Week of Meals
Today's snapshots are all about food! I'm a food pic girl. If someone posts a photo of their lunch, cookie, or cup of coffee I immediately think, 'Oh, that looks good! I hope they share the recipe!' I also like to take pictures of my own plates of food (My kids and husband will attest to that!) as a way of sort of cataloging meal ideas. Today I’m sharing pictures of the meals we ate this week. I challenged myself to make as many meals as I could with what I already had in the fridge, freezer, and pantry and make them as healthy and colorful as possible. If food pics aren't your thing, I get it and it won't hurt my feelings if want to skip this post and check back another day. ... Read more
Snapshot Saturday: Hello, Summer!
Good morning! The wedding posts are still in the works and will pick back up next week, but for today I'm sharing a few snapshots of the week. When I did this several weeks ago as "Friday Five", I had several friends tell me they enjoyed it, so I've decided to make it a regular. Most bloggers post their weekly photo summary on Fridays but I'm going to make mine on Saturdays to keep Fridays open for "Fluff the Nest" posts. So here goes! With the wedding behind us, we feel like we finally began our summer break this week. The fun activities, slow mornings, summery foods, and evenings outdoors with crickets singing. Ahhh, I love it so! Summer Grilling We grill year around, but ... Read more
Weeknight Fried Rice
Our family is in a season of busy, bustling weeknights with my teen daughter going to evening soccer practices, and my son taking taekwondo two nights a week. It's taken some trial and error, but I think we've finally settled into a workable dinner routine that still gets us together around the table with a homecooked meal most weeknights. In order to make this work, I'm always on the lookout for meal ideas that are quick to put together and easy on the budget, but still as healthy as possible. I recently tried this Ground Beef Fried Rice recipe from The Salty Marshmallow blog that uses ground beef, rice, and frozen veggies. Our whole family LOVED it so I just had to share the recipe ... Read more
Family Nativity Dinner
For about the last ten years, our family has kept an annual tradition of a Nativity Dinner in December. Some years it's just us, some years we invite friends, and some years we use the menu for our small group Christmas party. Since we were home for Christmas Eve this year, we planned our Nativity Dinner for that night, with just us, and it was so special! I arranged my tablescape earlier in the month to stay set up through all of the holidays, New Year's included. My table arrangement is similar to last year's New Year's table, but with a few tweaks. And I kept with the same Christmas Biltmore inspiration I used in the den. This was such a fun and colorful table to put together, ... Read more
One Week. Six Meals.
I love menu-planning! But sometimes I get into ruts and find it helpful to look at menus posted on other blogs and Instagram. Seeing what other women are cooking really inspires and motivates me to get in the kitchen. Last month I participated in the 31-day "Happy Homemaker Challenge" on Instagram, hosted by Whitney at Come Home for Comfort, and one of the photo prompts was called "On the Menu". So after posting my menu for the week, I thought I might as well snap a photo of each night's meal and post them here. Our weeks are pretty busy, but I still want to put healthy meals on the table. These are a few of my easy go-to's for quick, healthy weeknight meals. Monday~ Greek turkey ... Read more
Mexican Pizza {On the Lighter Side}
When I was a teenager, my favorite thing to order off Taco Bell's menu was a Mexican Pizza. To me this was the ultimate fast food treat! Two fried tortillas with a layer of refried beans in between, and then topped with taco meat, cheese, and taco sauce. Add to that my soft drink of choice in those days--Dr. Pepper--and oh, it was such a good meal! There have been a couple of times I've replicated this delicious Mexican treat at home, and while it's pretty easy to put together, it's not so healthy. So I've come up with a healthier recipe for Mexican Pizza! Rather than frying the tortillas, they are toasted, and I only use one tortilla instead of two which helps cut the carbs back a little. ... Read more
New Year’s Menu 2020
Hello! It's back to my regular schedule this week, but, as promised, I want to quickly share some recipes from our New Year's Day lunch we enjoyed with our parents. After our moms have hosted all the holiday meals from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Joel and I like to take New Year's Day to treat them to a break from cooking and cleaning for company. Every year I go with the traditional New Year's pork, collards, peas, and cornbread, but this year we decided we needed a steak! Joel and I could not remember the last time we'd bought steaks, and thought it would be a nice surprise for everyone. New Year's Day Menu 2020: New York Strip Steak Shrimp and Bacon Stuffed Potatoes Roasted Parmesan ... Read more