Elijah Lee

Last Wednesday, August 21st, little Elijah Lee joined our family.

He is an excellent baby, eating about every 3 hours and taking naps in between.

He loves swinging in his swing and sitting in his bouncer seat.

We are working on sleeping in the cradle, so far it is not his favorite place.

Three days after we got home from the hospital he was back up to his birth weight of 7lbs 10 oz.

He has the pouty lip down pat!

He spends an hour to and hour and half awake and looking around each morning and afternoon.

God has blessed us more than we could have ever hoped or imagined!

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: BBQ Hot Dog and Potato Packs

We like to try different recipes on the grill during the summer months.  We saw this recipe in the June/July Taste of Home and thought we'd try it.  We aren't very good at leaving recipes alone though and made several changes.  The first thing we did was substituted sausage for the hot dogs.  Because we went with sausage, we weren't sure about the barbecue sauce, so we just went with some seasonings like garlic salt and some steak seasoning to give the potatoes and onions flavor.  There are so many options when it comes to grilling foil packs.  See what you can come up with!  Enjoy!   

Picture by Taste of Home 

Ingredients: 

1 package (20 ounces) refrigerated red potato wedges

4 hot dogs

1 small onion

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

Directions:

Divide potato wedges among four pieces of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Top each with a hot dog, onion wedges and cheese. Drizzle with barbecue sauce.  Fold foil around mixture, sealing tightly.   
Grill, covered, over medium heat 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. Yield: 4 servings.

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Baked Taco Ring

Another quick Pinterest recipe.  What did we used to do without Pinterest??  Justin is not usually a fan of dinners like these because there tends to be a problem with too much bread and too little filling.  I snuck this into the oven one night before he was home.  I had tasted a taco ring once before somewhere and really enjoyed it.  I was hoping he would enjoy it too once he tasted it.  Much to my relief it passed the test and was added to the "Make Again" list.  It was very simple, easy and quick.  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 package (1.25 oz) taco seasoning mix
1 c. (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbs water
2 8-oz packages refrigerated crescent rolls
1 medium green bell pepper
1 c. salsa (optional)
3 c. lettuce, shredded (we used more — ¾ a head)
1 medium tomato, diced
¼ c. onion, chopped
½ c. pitted ripe olives
sour cream
Directions:
–Preheat oven to 375°. Brown the ground beef, then drain. Add taco season and simmer
–Unroll the crescent dough; separate into triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on a pizza pan with the wide ends toward the center of the pan, overlapping each other. It will look like a large sun with the points hanging half off the pan. There should be a 5 or 6 inch opening in the center.
–Spoon the meat mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough. (Filling will not be completely covered).
–Bake 18-22 minutes or until golden brown.
–Shred lettuce, dice tomato, onions, olives, green pepper, and whatever other items you want to put inside. Place them in center of the taco ring and use that as your toppings!

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Baked Cheesy Chicken Penne

This recipe has been on my menu for months!  For some reason something always came up and it was one that got skipped.  I finally made it tonight and am very glad I did!  The recipe is large, for 2 baking dishes.  Instead of making both I halved the recipe and just made one dish.  If you're not a tomato or mushroom fan it would very easy to leave them out.  I didn't have the mushrooms, but we did have the tomatoes.  It was very tasty!!  As we were eating I got to thinking I'll have to make another one and freeze it for after the baby comes.  Enjoy! 

Picture by: Real Mom Kitchen

Baked Cheesy Chicken Penne 
6 tablespoons butter, plus more for baking dishes 
kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound penne rigate (I used a 14.5 oz box of Ronzoni Smart Taste Penne Rigate)
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 8 ounces each), halved horizontally (I used some leftover cooked chicken)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
6 cups whole milk
10 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced (I used 8 oz of button mushrooms)
1 cup sliced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded provolone (6 ounces) (I used an italian blend that had provolone in it) 
1 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 6 ounces)

Preheat oven to 400. Butter two shallow 2-quart baking dishes. If you’re going to freeze one, use a disposable foil pan.  In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente; drain pasta and set aside.

While pasta is boiling, heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Season chicken with salt and pepper; cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Halve each piece lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise.  While chicken pan is still hot, toss the mushrooms in and saute until golden brown (3-4 minutes).  Use a little extra olive oil if needed.(Since I used left over chicken, I just cooked the mushrooms in the olive oil) 

In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot , melt butter over medium. Add flour and garlic; cook, whisking, 1 minute. While whisking constantly, gradually add milk; bring to a simmer.  Keep whisking frequently as sauce thickens, about 1 minute more. Add mushrooms and tomatoes; cook 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat and and gradually stir in provolone and 1/2 cup Parmesan.

Add chicken and pasta to pot; season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide pasta mixture between baking dishes.  If freezing, place remaining Parmesan cheese in a zip-top baggie.  If cooking, sprinkle on top.

Bake, uncovered, until top is golden and bubbling, about 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Freezer instructions:
To freeze, prepare through step 4 and then let pasta cool.  Cover pan well with plastic wrap.  Place extra cheese in baggie (for topping) on top and then cover entire pan well with foil.  Freeze for up to 3 months.  To bake, preheat oven to 400.  Remove foil and plastic from pan and set cheese baggie aside.  Place foil back on pan and bake for about 1 1/2 hours.  Remove foil, stir pasta, and top with cheese.  Return pan to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes (I only did 10 minutes)  or until mixture is hot and bubbly throughout.

This recipe was from Pinterest.  The blog it was originally posted on can be found here.

Even if He doesn't....

I went back and was reading a couple of Ann VosKamp's blog posts I had missed last week.  One of the posts was entitled "When You Just Want God to Show Up and Answer Your Prayers."   

She reminds us that God is not a genie, He is no puppet on a string.  So what if-what if He doesn't do what we so desperately want Him to do?  Where does that leave us?

Her answer, "And the three men before the fire, they whisper the startling answer in Daniel, the answer of all of holy writ and writhing humanity, "And even if He doesn't...." "

And then she had a list of "Even If's..."

"Even if He doesn't do what we beg, we are still His beloved."

"Even if He doesn't, He still is."

"Even if He doesn't do what we will, His will is still right and His heart is still good and the people of God will not waver."

"Real prayer has eyes on Christ-not the crisis."

"Even if He doesn't He does give enough-Himself"

"Even if He doesn't-He does still love us."

"If He doesn't-I will still believe, still believe-in Him."

"That which we fear might happen to us-might be the thing to produce deep faith in us.  Why be afraid of anything-when He's using everything?"

"God is answering all our prayers.  No one enters into the real joy of the Lord in spite of the hard times-but squarely through the door of the hard times."

Even if can be such a hard thing to remember when we are in the midst of a hard time, but what a joy to know that our God loves us more than we can comprehend or imagine.  His ways are perfect and are far better than ours.  "Why be afraid of anything-when He's using everything?" 

You can read all of Ann's post by clicking on the link at the top of this post or here.  Enjoy!

Taste of Our Home Tuesday: Ranch Roasted Potatoes

We do a lot of grilling in the summer and I am always on the lookout for different ways to cook potatoes.  I found this recipe on Pinterest off of Six Sister's Stuff.  I liked how easy it was so we gave it a try.  They were delicious!!    

 

Ingredients:
2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I have also used olive oil)
1 (1 oz) packet dry Ranch dressing mix

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place potatoes in a resealable plastic bag and add oil. Toss to coat all the potatoes in the oil and then add the dry salad dressing mix in the bag. Toss once again to coat all the potatoes in dressing mix until well coated. Bake on a baking sheet covered with foil for 35 minutes or until potatoes are brown and crisp.