Winner Dinner #1

We have this idea in our family called winner dinners. These dinners have to meet some pretty stringent standards. It has to be fast and easy, healthy, all 4 of us have to like it, and the kids have to like it enough to eat it quickly. If it meets all those requirements, it receives the prestigious title of a "Winner Dinner."

So I thought I'd share the Winner Dinner we had last night.

Winner Dinner #1
(Fix the potatoes first so they can be baking while the chicken is cooking.)

Easy Parmesan Garlic Chicken
½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 env. Italian Salad Dressing Mix
6 boneless, skinless Chicken Breast Halves
½ tsp Garlic Powder
Olive Oil
Heat olive oil in skillet. Mix garlic powder and salad dressing mix. Moisten chicken with water, coat with garlic and dressing mix. Place in hot skillet. Cook chicken on medium high (almost high) until cooked through, turning chicken to cook both sides. Turn heat down to medium. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over chicken and heat till cheese is melted. Serves 6.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
-1. 2 pounds fingerling potatoes
-1. 5-8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
-1. 3 tablespoons olive oil
-1. 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
-1. 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
-1. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Heat oven to 450°. Grease a large shallow baking dish with olive oil or spray with olive oil spray.
Scrub potatoes and cut large ones in half. In a large bowl, combine the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss potatoes with the garlic and oil mixture. Arrange the coated potatoes in a single layer in the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
Serves 4.

Spinach and Tomato Salad.
Fresh Baby spinach and fresh tomatoes mixed together. Serve with ranch dressing for the kids!

Jello Popcorn

I am surprised how many people I have come across lately who have never tasted--never even heard of--jello popcorn. It is a fun cooking idea for a party snack or to make into balls and give away to friends for Christmas or Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day or whenever. Here is the recipe:

Jello Popcorn

• 1 package jello (whatever flavor you like--or whatever color matches the holiday you are celebrating)
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 bags microwave popcorn (or about 5 to 6 quarts popped popcorn if you don't do microwave popcorn)

In a medium sauce pan, combine the sugar, jello and corn syrup. Cook on medium heat, stirring continuously until sugar is dissolved. Pour immediately over popped popcorn and stir until well coated. Store in a covered container if you just want eat it around the house or form into balls while syrup is still hot and pliable, then wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper. Now they are ready to give away.

Lil' Grey Sweater-Makeover

This little girls sweater was $3.74. My little girl needed a longer sweater than what she had, but finding one was a trick. I saw that there were many people "fixing" sweaters to meet their needs. So I thought it was a great idea and did it too. It is an easy craft idea too. I took the sweater and sewed two zig-zag stitches down the middle, next to each other. I then cut between the stitches. I added a button and small string to hold it closed. Also, I rolled the sleeve cuff up about three inches.

....... New knee length sweater for my little beauty girl! As she was getting out of the car to go to school, I heard one of the teachers comment to her, "Cute sweater". That did my heart good!


-Tara
more pics

Doll for baby

Want an easy homemade doll idea? I made this little one for Christmas this year. In fact I made two of them. One for each of our littlest ones.

This is how the sock doll looks before it's dressed and without hair.

This is a picture I found online of the very pattern I used. It's vintage and my sister Judi gave it to me. Thank you Judi! Of course I changed it a bit.

Sewing up this little dollie was fun!

This image kind of explains part of the process.

Here's our little Natelle with her's. (Huggy, huggy)

Here we have a beautiful, happy little girl.

"Yup, this is my baby..."

And Lucy flashes her "Miss America" smile.

And she laughs!

Having a "heart to heart!"

To see more pictures go here.

Joanna

Travel Size Garden

I thought I'd left my need for small container garden ideas back at college. Suddenly, I'm finding the need to rediscover them. I've lived in 7 different places in the last 4 years and I'm tired of leaving behind my veggies! So this season, my garden is in small, movable pots.

My larger fruits and vegetables are in the larger pots of course (like melon, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes). These larger pots are at least one and 1/2 feet in diameter and a foot or 2 deep. I planted strawberries and peppers in the medium pots (about 1 foot in diameter), and in the smaller containers (6-9 inches in diameter) are flower seeds to draw in the bees and helpful critters when the time comes for pollination.

I'm also trying a new plant - Nasturtium, pronounced nah-STUR-shum. It's an edible flower with a bit of a spice to it. The gardener at the nursery suggested I try them. He says his favorite way to use it is on a fresh garden salad. It looks beautiful and adds great flavor supposedly. Sounded like an adventurous thing to try, so here I go. :)

I planted my seeds not quite 2 weeks ago and the squash and 2 cucumbers plants have already sprouted! Yay!

Ivory Sweater Make-over.

Do you see this lovely ivory sweater I bought for $5.00 on clearance? I got an extra big one so I could alter it and have fabric to make little embellishments.

(I washed it first...don't want any shrinkage.)

So this is what I did: took up the sides, and cut out little circles for flowers out of the pieces that were cut off.

Then serged the edges of the flowers. (Not sure that was necessary.)

Then I kind of pinched them in the middle and sewed them, creating little flowers.

Next they were sewn together on a small strip of fabric creating a little corsage.

And there you have it. My ivory sweater make-over.

I think I'll wear it tomorrow...(smile)

Joanna

If You Chance To Meet A Frown...

Being the mom of all girls can be exciting. Especially the drama. So, to keep my sanity I have a rule that I strictly abide by during stressful moments. "Only ONE girl gets to cry at a time. If the baby is crying, then it isn't your turn. When she is done, you may have a turn to cry."

Amazingly this idea works. You have to say it with a straight face and really mean it, though. And when they are all done crying, then it's my turn. But usually by the time everyone is done, we have all forgotten why we wanted to cry and end up laughing instead.