Faux Patio Camping

Husband finished his last final for the semester, and Little Nu's and I are ecstatic! I have so many ideas taking shape in my notebook of what I'd like to do for "our Holiday" aka Summer Vacation. Some of my ideas are big things like Disneyland, a trip to the Oregon Coast to visit the Sand Dunes, maybe a little gander at Monterey Bay Aquarium... then some, more "realistic" home-rooted ideas like building forts, making massive domino mazes and having a water gun family show down.

So, tonight as I returned home from a church activity and a few errands, I saw a wonderous sight on the patio! One of my very own checklist items coming to life! Husband had set up Little Honey's tent to take in the perfect, not yet scorching, evening air. We quickly ordered a Bug Off! screen from Amazon so that we can continue the faux camping while the weather is still fine. So thankful for our Prime account that allows us 2 day shipping, so we'll have it here by the weekend. Yay! Time to line up the chocolate, marshmallows, chocolate, grahams, and of course some chocolate... oh and don't forget the CHOCOLATE, for s'more action! My favorite is Hershey's Symphony with Almonds... delectable!

Candy Land, Toddler Approved!

Daphne played her first board game tonight! Candy Land was our battle of choice. She is really great with colors so it was a good game to start her off on.





She loved drawing cards, and seeing what color she got, and surprisingly enough she's already caught on to the importance of the "pink cards" as she calls them, which are the short cut cards to get to each different candy land. She would draw a card and say "pink card?" in hopes that she'd get one.





She didn't quite grasp the point of the race to King Kandy, so she'd loose interest until it was the next player's turn to draw a card, but she'll soon figure it out.



She even had a stroke of beginner's luck and won!

Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole... Adventure

So between moving and settling into our new place, we've picked up the nasty habit of... eating out. We've spoiled ourselves so much with various breakfast restaurants, Thai, local gourmet pizza, local Mexican hot spot restaurants, Italian... Chinese... gourmet burgers... Mongolian BBQ, you name it! We didn't hold back on the drinks either... frappuccinos, boba drinks, multiple smoothie quick stops! We are very fortunate to have so many great options for eating out (even some awesome food trucks! ... That's for another post... soon!) I finally had to practice some restraint and find a recipe to break in our kitchen. It seems like it isn't "Home" until you bake something or cook up a production in the kitchen. So after a month an a half, it was time to get to know my kitchen a little better...

I poked around on Pinterest for a recipe that called for things that I had on hand... chicken... broccoli... rice... cheese. I came across a simple casserole from Iowa Girl Eats that she calls: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Rice Casserole. Key interest in this recipe that caught my eye (aside from having all the 'right stuff,' is that it doesn't call for "cream of mystery" and it includes the option for brown rice (which i've noticed that I seem to have a heep of in my pantry, funny the things you unearth when you move!)

I also love how fool proof her instructions are, she puts in little tips that help things to flow so that you can be prepping one thing while the other is cooking and the next ingredients and tools are lined up, ready to go. I'm not the sharpest knife in the block when it comes to the kitchen. It seems inevitable that something is bound to break/get miss-measured/ accidental shortcuts taken/ ingredients omitted... But things usually turn out alright in the end, so I'm not entirely discouraged from clambering some new kitchen adventure!

Having said that, this "fool proof" set of instructions were not prepared for my knack for "recipe skimming." This was evident when I had the hood vent on full blast, window thrown open and Husband chiming in with, "why does it smell like something's burning?" My response, of course, (nonchalantly) "I'm cooking." We had a laugh and despite my incompetence, I was able to pull out with a champ dish.

We like to keep things simple and then conjure extra fixings afterwards on how to personalize the dish more to our liking - wich usually involves red pepper flakes <3

Overall, we loved the casserole and will for sure be making it again.

Here are some shots of the finished product:

Patio Endeavors

Living in a small space can be tricky, especially for us! We tend to always want to be fully accessorized as if we were in a 4 bedroom house (Someday we'll get there!) Our patio is no exception. However I've been feeling pretty good about that space in particular. Now that Daphne is big enough to engage in outdoor activities, we got a water/sand play table, a cute little deck chair that's tike size, and some great pails and shovels. Now that our patio is all dressed up with fun, its something that she and I enjoy on almost a daily basis. My favorite is when we chalk and blow bubbles. Here are some great pics of our patio endeavors!

Fort Tunnel

There are so many little activities that I can't wait for Daphne to experience. Simple indoor activities like hide and seek, "Don't step in the lava" and building forts, all classic rainy day activities! And though today wasn't a rainy day, I couldn't help but wonder what her response would be to a fort/tunnel.

We have a large adult sized nap mat that I half way folded to make a tee-pee-like tunnel.

She was skeptical at first... I sometimes wonder if she is slightly claustrophobic like her daddy...

She didn't seem to want to go through unless she could see through to the other end. Once she could see that there was light at the end of the tunnel, she would proceed through in a hurry!

Notice the slight blur! She's goin zoom zoom fast!

After a few test runs, she deemed our fort experience acceptable. Big smiles and giggles!

I can't wait to kick things up a notch and make a little fort/tunnel obstacle course!

Tank Top Storage

Tank Tops/camisoles are the bread to my bread and butter, every day look. I feel naked if I go out of the house without a tank top as an undershirt or just an added pop of color! I have a range of colors and I have them by the armfulls. I don't know if I'm the only one desperately obsessed with these or not, but I thought I'd share with you how I keep them organized and under control.

There are two different styles of hangers that I use to organize these little lovelies in my closet space (which is nearly zilch!!) I rely on tie and belt hangers to keep them accessible and orderly.

Here is an example of a belt hanger ( like the one here from Amazon) as a tank top hanger!

And here is an example of the tie hanger! These are fairly inexpensive, here is a set of two that I found on Amazon.

I stagger the tank tops forward and backwards on the tie hanger so that it keeps the bunching to a minimum.

I prefer the belt hanger because it spaces them out and I don't have to sift through them to find the right color. They both work great though! Much better than the alternative!!

Hope this helps those of you questing for total organization!!

Pin It

For those of you Pinterest browsers who enjoyed this post, please also consider my MAKEUP STORAGE example as well! Enjoy!

Meat and Tatoes.

Tatoes! We are a meat and potatoes kind of people. Little Daphne is no exception. Just the other day as Hubby and I were sharing lunch, Daphne showed interest in trying my slab of beef jerkey.

Just as a side note, she didn't show a lot of interest in food until right around her first birthday. She has since been more open to trying new things. We have always tried to keep a good routine of sitting her with us for meals and offering her food, sometimes she takes to it, but most times she doesn't. She almost always enjoys meat though. So, when she showed interest in my beef jerkey, I decided to give it a share. Here is a snapshot of my little carnivore. We sometimes call her Daphadon.

In honor of my little Daphadon and her meat and potato heritage... I thought I'd share one of our staple potato eats. ...I have only been dabbling in cooking for a short while, so the simpler a recipe the better, and the QUICKER I can get it on the table and in our tummies!! This recipe was inspired by a local restaurant that is a favorite of ours. They specialize in Basque food and one of our favorite things that they serve is their Creamy Red Potatoes. We'll call them Buttery Soft Potatoes for blogs sake.



BUTTERY SOFT POTATOES

4 medium gold or red potatoes ( I prefer red)

16 oz organic chicken stock

1/4 Cup of Butter

Water

Salt & Pepper to taste.



Cut the potatoes into 1 Inch cubes and place into sauce pan.

Fill the pan with Chicken Stock and Butter.

The potatoes need to be fully immersed in the liquid, so add water until it reaches 1 inch above the potatoes. Cook on medium high for 20-30 minutes, or until you can pierce through the potatoes like soft butter. To speed up the process, I use a nifty little technique that I picked up from Pinterest, original source is from Jamie of DIY Home Sweet Home. You Place a wooden spoon on top of a boiling pot of water and it helps prevent it from boiling over. I've tried this with a couple of different things and it works like a charm, I'm in LOVE with this trick!!

Once they're all soft, scoop them out and enjoy!!

My husband LOVES when I make these potatoes for dinner! Every time I make them he raves about how yummy they are!

I hope you like them too! Enjoy!

Pin It