Truck Stop Biscuits

So, the holidays are coming and that means good food, cold weather and the means for weight gain...  Sigh.  I'm trying to be proactive.  Going back to my calorie-counting recipes, stopping eating after 7pm (including calories from drinks) and no wine during the week.  In going through my menu, I came across this recipe which I apparently have never posted, so here it is:

Truck Stop Biscuits
Serves: About 5, 1 cup servings

Ingredients:
1 (7.5-ounce) Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits
8 ounces ground beef - I like the Simple ones which are 100 calories each
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 1/2 cups skim milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 (8 oz.) pkg. low fat cream cheese


Directions:
Bake biscuits according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet sprayed with butter-flavored cooking spray, brown meat. Add spices.
In a covered jar, combine skim milk and flour. Shake well. Pour milk mixture into skillet with browned meat. Add cream cheese. Continue cooking, stirring often, until mixture thickens and cream cheese melts. Spoon gravy over biscuits.
NI for gravy: Calories: 279.9 Total Fat: 16.7 g Cholesterol: 60.5 mg Sodium: 334.0 mg Total Carbs: 14.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g Protein: 17.5 g

We'll also be signing up to run a Jingle Bell 5K in the area as well and looking towards events in January to participate in to stay motivated.  What are your tips for keeping fit during the holidays?

Menu Planning for this week

It was a wonderful weekend for our family.  I pray it was for yours as well.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and a special guest here in our home, then had some fun on Black Friday, put up our tree and finished with a wonderful message Sunday morning.

So, here's my plan to keep us on track this week:

Monday: Baked Spaghetti

Tuesday: 3 Packet Chicken and Polenta

Wednesday: Pork Tenderloin
Thursday: Truck Stop Biscuits
Friday: Pork Fried Rice (leftovers from Pork Tenderloin)
Saturday: no meal needed
Sunday: Leftovers

For lunches this week, we'll be working through the Thanksgiving leftovers. :)

Have a great week!

Reuse those Holiday Cards...

I unpacked all our Christmas decorations this past weekend following the Black Friday madness that was Target.  And stumbled upon a large, rubber banded stack of Christmas cards received in 2009.  I went through them, setting aside the photo cards from the cards with graphic fronts and thought of what to do with the later.

Then it hit me. 

Gift tags.

Supplies:
Holiday cards
Circle punch (square would work too, really anything- be creative)
Scissors
Hole punch
To/From tag- optional
Stamp Pad- optional
Ribbon

I punched out particularly nice areas of the card and then stamped the "To/From" (from the $1 bin at Michaels', by the way) and hole punched the top so I can easily add them to each package using curling ribbon.  Or you could omit the punch and just tape them on.

Have fun! 

What are some green ways you celebrate the holiday/advent season?

Have a blessed Thanksgiving... and Remember...

to keep in your prayers a safe day for those deployed servicemembers.

I remember when my husband was gone for our first Thanksgiving as a married couple to Iraq.  I was asked over the course of the weeks leading up to both Thanksgiving and Christmas innocent enough questions of "Will he get to come home for the holidays?"

The war(s) and defense of our nation do not stop because our enemies respect our holidays and traditions.  Our men and women miss holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, births of children and all the moments of daily life that we so often take for granted.  A first day of school, a first baseball game, the first broken arm.  So much.  Yet they almost always just nod and walk away uncomfortably when someone stops to say "Thank You".  They don't ask for recognition or praise.  They're just doing what they're lead to do...  And for that, I'm thankful to them (including my wonderful husband who ALWAYS puts our family first when given a choice) and their families.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ~

Christmas Cards- ordered!

Thanks to Shutterfly's ability to upload complete digiscrapped images for printing.  I used Jen Markatis's Deck the Halls from TwoPeasinaBucket.

4x8 Photo Card Print Your 4X8 Photo Card

Unique party invitations and greeting cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Menu Planning

So, for some inspiration this week, I popped over the the blog I post about meal planning on: I'm an Organizing Junkie and perused her menu from last week.  Definitely stealing a couple of those ideas!

Sunday: Crock Pot Honey Glazed Ham with mac & cheese
Monday: Garlic Parmesan Chicken with Couscous and Broccoli
Tuesday: Spaghetti Ham Bake
Wednesday: Ordering out Pizza or leftovers- a break during turkey day prep!
Thursday: We are responsible for: turkey, scalloped potatoes and corn casserole
Friday: Wild Rice & Turkey Soup (made with leftover turkey)
Saturday: Mexican Casserole ala Megan

What are your plans?  Hosting, traveling, volunteering? How will you spend Thanksgiving? 

And will I see you in line on Black Friday? ;)

Reflections

Some of you know me well enough to know the community I grew up in... rode my bike around...  walked to the post office to pick our mail up everyday... and the woods I hiked around while visiting my step-dad was shaken to the core this week.  I'm still in mourning for the lives lost and the senselessness of it all.  And the one survivor whose ordeal we will never understand.

I was also shaken by the realization that with it being dark out, being a mother (and having children to distract me during my every task), I am a target.

My kids gymnastics center was offering a free women's self defense course put on by a new dojo opening in 2011 and I thought "Thanks God.  I don't need another sign except this one staring at me right now."  So, I went.  I am so, so glad I did.  I'll be honest, it wasn't easy.  When I punched and acted through every scenario, I wanted to apologize profusely to the nice young men who were helping us by volunteering their time and bodies so that we could learn how to be better equiped at protecting ourselves and our families.  They challenged us to think ahead of time- what would I be willing to do to get home safe?  Who depends on me to do so?  And reiterated...  I AM worth fighting for.

We had a nice family day of just normal activities so I took the chance to journal about my day in a scrap page and also participate in my own challenge this week over at TwoPeasinaBucket.  My husband snapped a couple of pictures before we headed in to a birthday party and I used one in my layout. Click the title to see full credits.

Thanks for listening...  and to add the families hurting from these senseless murders in your prayers tonight.  We can't know God's plans but we can ask His healing for those in pain.

Reflection

Exciting News!

I love getting exciting news from the digicommunity.

Owl Tree Studio is now offering kits individually.  I've been saying membership to the site is a great way to go, but here's an example of why.  Each full kit is priced around $5.  Every month for a flat fee of $10, you get 5 kits.  See the math?  That doesn't even count all the freebies, extras and quick pages offered up to members too.

And the REALLY exciting part?  See the details here about winning $10 to use in the store!  All by helping spread the news...


Here's a layout I did about a concert in the park with my kids this summer using Felicity by Wild Blueberry Ink.

So go spread the news!

New Template- perfect for holidays!

You can seriously do so much with the latest template release from Simply Kelly Designs!  I used it along with her freebie "Power of Pixels". 

Circle of Memories

It's 30% off right now- go ahead.  You KNOW you'll start taking tons of photos next week through New Year's and having a fast way to scrap them will be fabulous.



Menu Planning

Menu planning for the week ahea-

It's a busy one... lots of evening activities which isn't something our family does much.  So earlier dinners with easy clean up was my goal:
Monday- Buffalo Chicken Pasta
Tuesday- Leftovers (husband has dinner out)
Wednesday- Asian Crock Pot Chicken
Thurday- Crock Pot Lasagna
Friday- Chicken Curry
Saturday: Megan's Red Pepper Soup
Sunday: French Dip Subs with parm zucchini rounds

I willl be asking my husband to make breakfast this weekend & requesting these Pumpkin Donut Muffins! Yum!

Simply Fabulous Templates by Simply Kelly Designs

I love working with designers.  Not only do they give me the benefit of using their products for my scrapping, but they understand that sometimes life just doesn't go as planned... and well...  it's life. :P

So, here are is my layout for Kelly's latest layered template.  I get asked ALL the time how difficult or complicated digital scrapping is, how you do it, and it's very hard to really explain.  But it's easy to see how having someone do the laying out of where things go, matching sizes of shapes, determining text paths for you before you even sit down to scrap yourself can be a time saver.  Simply clip your papers to the blocks as they're outlined and you've got a layout in a few minutes. The kit I used to make this was the awesome freebie available from the Blog Hop from Design House Digital last weekend.

Don't forget the blog hop that Kelly's participating in here. 

Along a Curve Template 

Blog Hop with Simply Kelly Designs

Hop Along Here!



It's Tuesday... and that means...

Another fabulous set of releases from the designers at TwoPeas!

My first work is using Jo Hanna's new kit Vanilla Sky.

Love



I really can't say how much I am enjoying being a part of the CT there at TwoPeas.  It's a lot of talent and I was really happy to be asked to guest during the call earlier this fall. 

Back to Menu Planning...

Monday:  Chicken Parm Sandwiches
Tuesday: Baked Potato with Chili & Cheddar cheese
Wednesday: Herb Baked Chicken with Mashed Potatoes
Thurday: Spaghetti Carbonara
Friday: Penne with Tomato Sauce
Saturday: None needed
Sunday: Open House with refreshments- order pizza after

Gratitude 2010- Days 3-5

Same credits...  Enjoy.  Oh and the second one?  Yup, that's a quilt I finished last night :)

Guest Who!

is guesting on the Creative Team over at TwoPeasinaBucket for November? :)

Here's my first layout as park of this awesome team of ladies.  Truly, what a treat to be asked. 
Using new kits this week from Polka Dot Pixels (Family Day) and Edeline Marta (Snap it Templates) this layout went together SO easily!  What great kits to pick up while the ENTIRE DIGI STORE AT TWOPEAS IS 25% OFF!

Lovely Day

Thanks for looking :)

Gratitude- Day 2

Once complete, they will be bound and printed at Shutterfly. 

Day 2:  Friendships

All layouts are using the November Collaboration Kit from Owl Tree Studio & the Date it labels from Wild Blueberry Ink from October's offerings at OTS.

Pizza Balls

Awesome recipe posted by a friend of mine that works well for packing in lunches and is a great "let the kids help" type of meal.  I used mini pepperoni on mine, but obviously you can use whatever you have/want.

Pizza Balls
Ingredients

Pizza Dough:
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105*-115*)
1 1/4 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
2T olive oil
2T honey
1 tsp salt

Filling
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni and any other fillings you'd like
marinara or pizza sauce for dipping.  You can make your own using tomato sauce (the kind that already has basil, oregano and garlic in it is an easy start), pizza seasoning and maybe a pinch of sugar.
parmesan cheese
olive oil
pizza or italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400*.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in medium bowl.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Beat vigourously 20 strokes.  Let rest at least five minutes.

Roll dough out into a rectangle on a lightly dusted surface.  Using your pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares (mine made about 15-16).  Place your fillings and cheese in the middle of each square then fold them in until a little pouch is formed.  Don't worry about putting sauce in the balls, you'll dip them in it instead.  Place the dough ball into a lightly greased pie pan seam side down leaving a little space between each ball (they will continue to rise a bit).

Once all of your dough balls are in the pie pan brush the top with olive oil and then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and pizza seasoning. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until tops are light golden brown.  Let cool a bit and then enjoy!

Gratitude Project

It's a combination of things really...  combining the idea of the December Daily projects with the 30 days of Gratitude post I saw late last month.  So these simple pages (after all, when we think about counting our blessings, it almost always goes back to being thankful for the small, simple things, yet those are what we always forget in the hustle and bustle of our days) will be combined for a finished bound book when I'm done.  Each one will have a Bible verse about Thankfulness or Gratitude.

And of course, you'll forgive me for being a tad tardy in posting Day 1.  It's another TDY week.

Kit is from the November Collab from Owl Tree Studio

Oh and my menu for this week?  It's leftovers...  I think my fridge is seriously full of them.

November Releases are AMAZING

over at Owl Tree Studio

At 9pm EST, there will be a chat with designer of the month Karla Dudley.

Her stuff is seriously gorgeous.  And her kit "Be You" is no exception.  Here's what I created with it this month:

I also used it to create the cover for my son's annual book-

 Don't forget to join us TONIGHT at 9pm.  Be there or... well... ya know ;)