40 Rocks and Rolls

Today my handsome fella turned 40.  Yesterday I asked him “What would you like for breakfast on your birthday?”  His reply: “40 cinnamon rolls”….not just cinnamon rolls but 40 of them!!!   Have no fear, I was up for the challenge!  Look what I made:

Then there was the gift.  I wanted something that was “40-ish” but not mean.  So I came up with “40 Rocks!”.  The girls and I each wrote, on a total of 40 rocks, things that we love about him and put them in a jar that he can keep on his bookshelf.  The girls loved my idea and we had fun sitting down while Brad was at work Tuesday evening to finish up our gift for him.

    

We had a great morning!

Of course dinner wasn’t too shabby either…pulled pork and fruit salad topped off with the birthday boy’s favorite cake (compliments of some awesome friends).

 

Now….how did I make those mini-cinnamon rolls?  Well I googled “easy homemade cinnamon rolls” and found this recipe:

To get enough to do both numbers, the 4 and the 0, I did two batches

Mini-Cinnamon Rolls

In a small bowl mix together:

• 1 Tablespoon of slightly melted butter
• 4 Tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon of flour

Open:

• 1 can of crescent rolls

Take half of the dough and separate at the vertical seams.  (I pulled the dough into the four rectangles to create the rolls)

Press the diagonal seams of the dough together so that the dough is smooth.

Spoon the cinnamon mixture onto the dough.

Roll the short side up and continue with the remainder of the dough.

Cut into 2 inch slices…I got four out of each rolled section, but if I had thought ahead and cut 5 in each then I really would have had 40 cinnamon rolls!

Place all the rolls on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes

 

When the rolls have cooled, mix together the icing.  I forgot about the icing until after I took the pictures and we were all ready to eat- I threw it together but it needs work….here is what the “googled” recipe said to do:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk….and by typing that I realized my problem….I put in 2 Tablespoons of milk.  No wonder my icing was a bit runny!  So make sure to use two TEAspoons and your icing should turn out better than mine!

Must Haves! A Book No Parent Should be Without

Have you ever found yourself saying the same things over and over to your kids?

Do you stand stupefied by something you see or hear in your kids and realize you need a change of direction….quick!

I have.

In the last few years, I have found some resources from an excellent team that are all home runs!  Each time I read something written by this dynamic duo, I am empowered with easy to read and quickly applicable discipline to raise my children.

Guess what! This duo has just finished their most recent book and I want you to know it is a “must have” .  The Christian Parenting Handbook by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller will give you 50 heart-based discipline strategies that you can use for kids from ages 2 to 18.  It is what I call a “nightstand book” as it will be one that you will want to keep close by to refer to over and over again as different things come up with your kids.  They give you practical strategies to use with your children rather than just telling you how your kids should behave—-love that!  They emphasize the relational aspect of parenting and how to separate firmness from harshness.  You will read solutions for sibling conflict and how to teach kids to be solvers rather than whiners.

Turansky and Miller are founders of the National Center for Biblical Parenting.  They have written several books and this one pulls many of the strategies discussed in various books all into one excellent resource.

If you purchase the book this week, April 29th -May 5th, you can also get $400 worth of parenting resources FREE…yep….you read that right—Free.  Too good to be true?  Check it out for yourself!

I read an advance copy of the book and couldn’t stop highlighting, underlining and placing stars…it has so much you will want to place in your parenting toolbox.

I encourage you to get a hard copy of the book from a major book distributor this week so you can also get the $400 worth of Free resources which includes an electronic copy of the book and many other excellent items.

My only regret about getting this book now is that it wasn’t available 10 years ago when I was beginning this discipline process with my toddler.  But I have it now and it is never too late to make changes for the good.  Don’t wait- add this book to your parenting resources today!

As a member of The Christian Parenting Handbook Launch Team, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and the opportunity to promote related giveaways and activities to my readers.

All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.

Must Haves!

Each family has to find their own rhythm and beat but there are some tools that every family should have as a part of that process. As I discover a “must have” item, I’m going to share it with you because this blog is about Recipes for the Table and for Life.  So when I find an ingredient to help the recipe for family life, I want to share it with you as a good family life is even more important than a good meal on the table!

This first tool I want to share with you is perfect for teaching the Bible in a creative and innovative new way.  Phil Vischer and his team at Jellyfish Labs created the What’s in the Bible? DVD series and it is exceptional!  My girls enjoy the storytelling, the songs and the characters that explain all kinds of Bible history, explain what different words mean, and just do an all around top-notch job of explaining God’s story.

The series now includes all of the Old Testament and two DVDs in the New Testament (as of April 23, 2013).  Each DVD has two 25-minute episodes.  The focus audience is Kindergarten through 5th grade but I can guarantee that if you watch with your kids you are going to learn some new things too!  We don’t have every single volume yet in our family library but I’m sure we will one day.  The volumes we do own we have watched over and over again.  We even purchased a CD of the songs to take with us on our long drive last summer from Pennsylvania to Texas.

You will not be disappointed in this series.  It is fun, engaging and educational.  I’ve included a video from the creator, Phil Vischer, from the very beginning of the project.  He shares why he created this series.

A Great and Easy combination: Inside-Out Stuffed Peppers and Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

A few months ago, at the Moms4Moms group I attend at Faith Community Church one of the specials was on kids helping in the kitchen.  A recipe on the handout was Inside-Out Stuffed Peppers, it is a great one to have in your menu plan and my girls have each helped make it.  I’ve even taken the recipe on the road and shared it with my Mom and one of my Aunts and Uncles when I was in Texas recently–they loved it too.  The only catch to the recipe is that it takes an hour in the oven.  So you have to plan a little in advance.

Then a friend posted a recipe for what looked like a delicious, easy bread from The Virtuous Wife on his facebook page and I thought….hmmm….that might be good with the Inside-Out Stuffed Peppers.

So this weekend, I tried them together and Y-U-M.  I served some fruit and it was an easy meal that pleased everyone at the table.

Inside-Out Stuffed Peppers

In a skillet brown and then drain:

• 1 lb ground beef

Add to the browned and drained ground beef:

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 can chopped stewed tomatoes (or diced if that is all you have…but stewed is a better flavor.  I chop them right in the can using kitchen shears.)
• 1 large green pepper chopped
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice (I prefer Uncle Ben’s)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Transfer to a greased 2 quart casserole dish

Cover and bake at 350° for 1 hour or until the rice is tender

Uncover and sprinkle with

• 1 c shredded cheddar cheese (or whatever kind of cheese you have on hand…mozzarella would be good, Italian blend or even colby-jack)

Return to the oven until cheese melts.

(This is a recipe you could prep the night before or even earlier in the day and then pop into the oven when you get home.  It could take a bit longer to warm but not too much.)

 

Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (but if you are cooking the Inside-Out Stuffed Peppers your oven is already at 350°!)

Place in a bundt pan:

• 1/2 stick of butter

Put bundt pan in oven and let it melt.

While the butter melts, cut into quarters:

• 1 can of refrigerated Grands biscuits (each biscuit will be cut into 4ths)

Toss the biscuit quarters in a bowl mixed with:

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

Once the butter is melted, add the biscuit mixture, sprinkling with any cheese and garlic that gets left behind in the bowl.

Bake at 350° for 20-22 minutes until golden brown.

Turn out on a dish (you may need to run a knife down the sides a bit) and enjoy!

It was light and fluffy and even warmed up well when we had leftovers.

Kids in the Kitchen: Pepperoni Pizza Pinwheels

I had a very cute assistant tonight help me prepare our dinner.  She donned her new apron from her Mimi and got right to work preparing our fun pepperoni pizza pinwheels.  It is yet another recipe from the Southern Living Ultimate Quick and Easy Cookbook (I gave a HUGE hint at dinner tonight that the cookbook would make a great Mother’s Day gift….I said something like, “It would make a great Mother’s Day gift.”…subtle ehh???)  It is quick to prepare and yummy to eat!

My very cute assistant.

Pepperoni Pizza Pinwheels

Unroll on a cutting board into a rectangle that is about 12 x 9:

• 1 (10 oz) can refrigerated pizza crust —I used the Pillsbury thin crust pizza crust you find in the refrigerated biscuit section.

Sprinkle the crust with:

• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
• Pepperoni slices

Roll up the crust, starting with the long side.  (This was a bit tricky as the crust had warmed up some.  I got it started and rolled it several times before my assistant took over.)

Once it is rolled up, moisten the edge with water and pinch the seam to seal.  (We wet our pointer finger and thumbs and pinched it shut—my assistant liked that!)

Cut into 1 inch wide slices and place about 1 inch apart on a large jellyroll pan (15 x 10 inches or so) that has been lined with foil and then lightly greased.

Bake at 400° for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden.

While those bake, whip up some sauce.  I didn’t want to waste opening a jar of spaghetti sauce like the recipe suggested so I made my own.  I opened an 8 oz can of tomato sauce then doctored it up with some Italian seasoning blends I have in our pantry.  There was more than enough.

Serve immediately with warmed sauce.

I made this on a night that Brad was not home so I just sliced apples and served the pinwheels….done.  BUT we ate all but one pinwheel.  So if we were all home, I would serve this with a salad and some fruit; even then it is a quick and easy meal.

Grilling Goodness: Chicken-and-Fruit Salad

The absolute best thing about our house is the ability to have dinners on the deck on a gorgeous evening.  Tonight was one of those evenings.  The trees still aren’t green in our view but the evening was perfect nonetheless.  We fired up the grill too in order to make another new recipe from the “Southern Living Ultimate Quick and Easy Cookbook” that I checked out from our library (I’m going to have to purchase one of these as I’ve rechecked it now three times and I want to copy way too many of the recipes.)

Not the best picture of our deck but this gives you a glimpse at why it is so wonderful. This was from the end of April last year. Our deck is up in the trees.

 

Chicken-and-Fruit Salad

Plan Ahead- Chicken and Pineapple need to marinade for 6-8 hours.

Place in a ziploc bag:

• 4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I like to prick my chicken with a fork to help the marinade ooze into the chicken a bit more)
• 3/4 cup of Lawry’s Santa Fe Chili Marinade with Lime and Garlic (the recipe calls for a lime and garlic marinade….this was the closest I could find!)

Seal the chicken in the ziploc bag and chill for 6 to 8 hours, turning occasionally.

Cut into fourths:

• one cored fresh pineapple

Place the pineapple into a ziploc bag and pour 1/4 cup of the marinade over the pineapple. Seal and chill for 6 to 8 hours.

Ready to Grill:

Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the marinade.

Drain the pineapple.

Grill chicken 5 to 6 minutes on each side or until done.

Grill pineapple 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

Meanwhile:

Wash and prepare:

• 1 head of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups of strawberries, halved
• 1 cup of raspberries

Once the grilled items are cooked as needed, cut chicken into strips and the pineapple into bite-sized pieces.

Arrange the lettuce, chicken, and fruit into bowls.

You could toss the fruit with some of the marinade before adding to to the salad or just let each person add extra marinade as desired.  We just added as desired as my girls don’t really care for dressing on their salad.

This was a great dinner and easy to prepare.  Everyone left the table happy….even the extra child that joined us for dinner!

From Flip-Flops to Snow Boots

Last week I was in Texas helping my Aunt who is fighting her battle with cancer.  While there I was wearing flip-flops and enjoying the sun on my back.  Then I return home and not three days after wearing flip-flops I’m pulling out snow boots!

YUCK.  I was not happy about the snow.  I sat down to read “Jesus Calling for Kids” a wonderful devotional book by Sarah Young which we purchased for our children yet I get so much out of it too!  The title for the day was “No Grumbling, Please” and the verse was a portion of 1 Corinthians 10:10 “And do not grumble.”  One of the “read on your own” scriptures was 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances.”  The devotion talked about how grumbling is telling God that I don’t like how things are going….that I disapprove of how He is doing things and complaining shows an ungrateful heart.  I thought about my flip-flops and snow boots.

To me….

Flip-Flops represent all things good—sunshine, warm, long days, happiness.

Snow Boots represent gloom and muck.

I would rather have flip-flops but regardless, God provides and I am to be thankful.  In the good times I am thankful for flip-flops and in the bad times I thank Him for the snow boots to endure the gloom and muck.

It takes more work to be thankful in the snow boots but that is what I am to do.  I watched my Aunt this last week try so hard to be thankful in the midst of her “snow boots” of cancer.  It is hard…it takes effort, but it is what 1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to do.