Wordless Wednesday – Camping

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Great Giveaways #12

Here are a few of my finds for this week:

Baby Shopping Cart Cover from Home Grown Families (Ends 7/28!)

Little Tykes Anchors Away Water Table from Minnesota Mamas Must Haves (Ends 8/5)

ShooShoos baby shoes from Minnesota Mamas Must Haves (Ends 8/9)

Tasty Tuesday – Rice & Peas with Rotisserie Chicken

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.

Every Monday, I plan on trying a new recipe. If it goes well, that’s what I’ll be posting on Tasty Tuesday. If not, I’ll post a tried and true (i.e. something I don’t have to think about too hard) ;)

This recipe called for smoked trout, which I didn’t have and didn’t think hubby would like. One of the substitution suggestions was rotisserie chicken, so that’s what I used. Turned out very tasty! Also, the recipe said that it was for 4, but I made 1 1/2 times the recipe, and it fed four plus only one serving of leftovers (for hubby’s lunch). I’m actually a little sad there was only one serving leftover, that means no more for me :(

[Photo courtesy of Food Network]

{Ingredients}

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas
• 2 tablespoons horseradish
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 6 ounces smoked trout fillet, flaked I used a rotisserie chicken from King Soopers
• Baby greens or pea shoots, for serving (optional)

{Directions}

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof pot over medium heat. Add the onion and thyme and cook until the onion is slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook, stirring, until glossy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until it's absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste.
• Pour the broth and 1 1/2 cups water over the rice and bring to a simmer, about 4 minutes. Stir, then cover and transfer to the oven. Bake 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
• Meanwhile, cook the peas in 4 cups salted boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Reserve 1 cup cooking water, then drain.
• Remove the rice from the oven. Stir in the peas, 1 tablespoon horseradish, the parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in enough of the reserved cooking water until the rice is creamy. Divide among bowls. Top with the trout, the remaining tablespoon horseradish, and baby greens, if desired. Drizzle with olive oil.

I used one of the many bottles of wine we brought back from our vacation to Palisade, CO. This time, it was the Cougar Run Dry Gewurztraminer from Carlson Vineyard, which also went excellent with dinner.

~S

Book Review & Giveaway – Venom and Song By Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper

I had the opportunity to review Venom and Song by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper. This is the second book in the Berinfell Prophecies series.

{From the publisher:

Now in the strange realm of Allyra, the Seven young lords confront a traitor in their midst, a creature-infested forest, teenage fears and doubts, inexplicable mysteries . . . and the Spider King himself.

In a rigorous training program that makes boot camp look like Disneyland, the Seven must quickly learn to harness their own powers, work as one, and elude the Spider King's spies. But as the ancient Berinfell Prophecies are revealed, the Seven soon discover their training might not be enough. To stop the Spider King they must also unravel the secrets of the Rainsong, travel to a creepy, trap-infested fortress to find the legendary keystone, and lead the Berinfell Elves in an attack on the Spider King's own turf. An epic adventure with powerful messages about true strength, forgiveness, and working together as one body that will grab the attention of intermediate readers.

Learn more about The Berinfell Prophecies at www.heedtheprophecies.com.}

When I got this book in the mail, I simply couldn’t start in the middle, so I actually got the first book in the series, Curse of the Spider King, from the library and read that first.

The series is young adult fiction, and reads like it. The story is engaging and fun. It was a little challenging to keep up with all the characters at first, but as the story went along and each character developed more, it became easier. I have read a ton of fiction similar to this that was not “Christian”, so I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of this series. It is still fantasy, but God and his Word are central to the beliefs of the elven race in the books. The writing is not as tight as I have read with some other books, but still very enjoyable, especially for the target audience of young adults. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, this series, and am looking forward to another book in the series.

Win it!

Mandatory: Follow my blog and leave me a comment letting me know a book you've read recently that you enjoyed (always looking for something new to read)

Optional Entries (meaning write a new and separate comment for each):

• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet about this giveaway. Mention @selabear in the tweet. Leave the link where you tweeted.
• Add my button to your blog, and provide a URL.- 2 entries
• Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and provide post URL- 2 entries

This giveaway will close on Monday, August 9th, at midnight MST and I'll announce the winner no later than Tuesday evening. Good luck!!

 
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

~S

Muffin Tin Monday

Join us for Muffin Tin Monday – this summer, there are no themes, so grab any kind of muffin tin, your lunch, and dig in!

Back Row: Mac’n’cheese, katsup, chicken nuggets
Front Row: Dan-o-nino, green beans, peas

We haven’t done a tin in awhile, so Kahlen was thrilled when I surprised her with her dinner in a tin. She ate everything but the peas, which she asked for, but doesn’t really like :)

~S

Menu Plan Monday – July 26th

Didn’t make half of the meals I planned for last week. Not terribly surprising, but I’m not really sure what we did eat all week :)
Here's the plan for this week:
Monday ~ Rice & Peas with Chicken (Will post on Tasty Tuesday if it’s any good)
Tuesday ~ Cashew Stir Fry Chicken
Wednesday ~ Cheater Pot Pie  (didn’t make this last week)
Thursday ~ Leftover Buffet (or out for date night)
Friday ~ Rehearsal dinner for Sister-in-law’s wedding
Saturday ~ Wedding!!
Sunday ~ Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Come visit me for my Tasty Tuesday linky party.
So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!
~S

Piggy Tales – Um, yea.

This is the seventh in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
This week is when I was 10 years old.
I’m seriously drawing a blank…This is what I get for not thinking about it earlier :/
Here’s the only picture I could easily find of me this year
This is me holding my 2-year-old soon-to-be step sister with our brother in the background. Don’t you just love my outfit? Never had much fashion sense, at least it mostly matches :)
This was the year my mom started seeing more of a close friend of hers whom she had known for several years and who would later become my second mommy. More on that in later posts…
~S

Wordless Wednesday – Denver Zoo with a Friend

 Every time we go to the zoo, I try to take a picture of the kiddos with this snake. I started when Kahlen was 7 months old, so I have quite a collection :)

 

Kahlen got to bring a friend this time, they had a great time together!

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Menu Plan Monday – July 19th

Ah, vacation…now back to reality. Well, sort of. Hubby has this week off, so not quite back to “normal” yet.
Here's the plan for this week:
Monday ~ Baked Pasta Casserole 
Tuesday ~ Leftovers
Wednesday ~ Cheater Pot Pie 
Thursday ~ Pizza
Friday ~ Taco Soup while camping 
Saturday ~ Camping (Mom’s cooking)
Sunday ~ Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Come visit me for my Tasty Tuesday linky party.
So, what are you having for dinner this week?
Link up at Menu Plan Monday over at I'm an Organizing Junkie or leave me a comment!
~S

Tasty Tuesday – Pappardelle with Snap Peas

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.

Every Monday, I plan on trying a new recipe. If it goes well, that’s what I’ll be posting on Tasty Tuesday. If not, I’ll post a tried and true (i.e. something I don’t have to think about too hard) ;)

Last week, I was on vacation with hubby, so no Tasty Tuesday.

This recipe came from Food Network Magazine too. It calls for pappardelle, which you can find the recipe for here. Of course, you could just use regular noodles, but the homemade ones are so tasty. I think if you just used store-bought ones, this recipe would classify as easy. With the noodles, it’s moderately difficult :)

{Ingredients}

• Salt
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 bunch scallions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 pound sugar snap peas, roughly chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced I left this out since I don’t like it, but you might
• 1 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bunch fresh chives, thinly sliced I left these out too, but just because I forgot to buy them
• 1/2 pound pappardelle see note above or go here for the recipe
• 3/4 cup crumbled ricotta salata or grated pecorino cheese or be cheap like me and just use parmesan

{Directions}

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Heat the olive oil and 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the scallions, snap peas, jalapeno and 1/4 tsp salt and cook, stirring, until soft, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and toss with the parsley and chives; reserve the skillet
• Meanwhile, cook the pappardelle in the boiling water until al dente, about 6 minutes. Reserve 2/3 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and toss with the vegetables.
• Pour the reserved cooking water into the skillet and add the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Bring to a boil, whisking until the butter melts, then cook until reduced slightly, about 2 minutes. Pour the sauce over the pasta, sprinkle with 1/2 cup cheese and toss. Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

~S

Piggy Tales - Homeschooling

This is the sixth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
My excuse for the late posting this week is that I was on a wonderful anniversary trip with my husband and just didn’t get the post scheduled like I wanted to.
This week is about when I was nine.
So, I’ve written before about how I was homeschooled and loved it, but here’s a few more reasons why.
This is at the Children’s Museum in Denver (I think) with some good friends. One thing that was always nice with homeschooling is that it didn’t really matter how old your friends were. This girl is a year younger than me, and a year older than my sister. She’s a twin so it was great for the four of us girls to get together, which we did very frequently.

I can’t find the picture right now, darn it, but there’s a picture of a whole group of us on a field trip to a museum in Denver. {Hooray! I found it!!}
We did many such trips, either just our family or with a group of homeschoolers. One day, we went to several different small museums related to Colorado’s history. Another day, we went to several different religious buildings such as a mosque, a Jewish temple, and a cathedral, all in Denver.
I loved being able to do my school work where ever and whenever I wanted to. My mom worked in Boulder (about an hour away) one day a week, and usually my sister and I would go to my grandma’s house all day. We would do our school work, but then when we were done, we got to do other fun things like play restaurant with real food or have a tea party for 20 of our “favorite” stuffed animals.
Nothing else specific is coming to mind about this year, so I’m calling it a night :)
~S

Wordless Wednesday – Happy Anniversary!

We’re on vacation in Grand Junction for our 9th anniversary! We had dinner at a delicious restaurant called Il Bistro after a nice rafting trip on the Colorado River today.

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Piggy Tales – Water World

This is the fifth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.

This week, the story is about when I was 8.

When I was 8, we started a birthday tradition for me that continued at least until I got married. My birthday is in August, the perfect time to go to the water park!

If you were in Colorado in the 80’s, this was about the only choice for a water park. I have lots and lots of fond memories from going.

Here is me at age 8 with my sister and three friends. I’m the only one actually looking at the camera. We always brought along several friends since it was my birthday party. We would bring our lunch and play aaaallllllll day. My favorite part as a kid was the lazy river or the River of the Lost Pharaohs, a four-person tube ride that went in and out of tunnels and had animatronics people throughout.

The wait was sometimes over an hour for a three minute ride, but we felt like it was worth it! (The video doesn’t have sound and isn’t the greatest, but you get the idea)

It’s fun to go there now because I remember when most of the attractions were built or remodeled or remember going on them a bazillion times as a kid.  We’ve taken Kahlen once, when she was 18 months, and she *loved* it! We’re going to try to go every year, but with new baby last summer and crazy busyness this summer, we’ll just have to see how that goes.

~S

Wordless Wednesday – Getting Ready for the Fireworks

Notice her earplugs :) We got rained out on the 4th, so they postponed the fireworks until the 5th. It all worked out in the end.

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday – Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the right side, just under my spiffy new tabbed box.

Every Monday, I plan on trying a new recipe. If it goes well, that’s what I’ll be posting on Tasty Tuesday. If not, I’ll post a tried and true (i.e. something I don’t have to think about too hard) ;)

This week, I tried these delicious Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs. I found the recipe somewhere online, but can’t find the source on my printout, oops.

{Directions}

• 1 1/2 pound ground meat I used ground turkey
• 3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs I used regular bread crumbs and added Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk I used skim
• 1 whole Mozzerella Ball, fresh I used mini balls because that’s what was on sale :)
• Pasta
• Spaghetti Sauce

{Directions}

• Mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, egg, and milk in a mixing bowl. Add to the ground beef until just incorporates; do not overmix.
• Using a metal spoon, scoop out mixture in the size of the meatballs you’d prefer. Before forming into a ball, place a small amount of mozzarella cheese in the middle and form the ball around so that all of the cheese is completely covered. You now have three cooking options – choose whichever works best with your time frame:

1. Cook the meatballs and sauce in a crock pot on low for 6-7 hours.
2. Brown the meatballs slightly, leaving a pink/red center, then place in the crock pot with sauce and cook on low for 5-6 hours.
3. Brown the meatballs until almost completely cooked. Place the meatballs on a foil-covered baking pan, and bake for approximately 8 minutes at 350 degrees.
4. Serve with pasta and sauce, yum-yum!

~S

Preschool Planning – 4th of July

My turn to plan our school unit! This time, the theme is 4th of July. As I type this, my dear daughter is supposed to be taking a nap, but is too excited about the fireworks to sleep :)

To try and make this a little easier, I’ve decided this time to go through the activities one by one  and post either where I got the idea or the printable for it. Since some of them are combined, it might be not quite as simple as that, but we’ll give it a shot.

Here’s my overview page: 4th of July Unit Planning Sheet

And here's the Detailed Activity List: 4th of July Detailed Activity List2

Here’s what I used for each activity:

1. USA Coloring Page
2. Shape Race
3. Red, White & Blue Collage – Collected random craft supplies from my stash. Didn’t buy anything for it or print anything specifically.
4. F is for Flag Handwriting Page
5. Cherry Playdough
6. US Flag discussion (nothing special there)
7. Graham Cracker Flags
8. Match Flags (see page 1)
9. Make a Flag Windsock (nothing extra needed)
10. F is for Flag Dot Page (page 2)
11. Cupcake Fireworks
12. Holiday Sort
13. Sort Stars
14. Glitter Fireworks
15. Find the Fs
16. Flag Puzzle (page 3)
17. Bubble Wrap Stomp (nothing extra needed)
18. Loud vs. Quiet
19. Star Sticker Counting (pages 4-6)
20. Straw Fireworks Painting
21. Cutting Practice (didn’t find a good themed one, so I just used one that I liked. Scroll down a bit)
22. Edible Sparkler

Proverbs 15:1 song chart

Can’t wait to start this unit tomorrow!

~S

Piggy Tales – Road Trip anyone?

This is the fourth in a 15-week series that I’m participating in over at Mommy’s Piggy Tales.
This week, the topic is age 7. I really struggled with coming up with something, hence the late night post :)

Me, my mom, and my sister

It wasn’t that things weren’t happening, I’m sure, I just have very few distinct memories from this year.

I do know that around this time my sister and I started taking long road trips with my paternal grandparents. Every year, they would drive from Colorado to Wisconsin to visit relatives, and sometimes they would take us with them.

My sister and I had a great time. We had lots of adventures along the way. My grandpa is retired Air Force, so we would generally stay on base on the way there. I remember every time we went with them, they would buy us a new game to play in the car. Remember those little travel versions of Connect 4, Guess Who, and so on? I think we owned all of them eventually.

We would stop for lunch at a rest stop every day and break out the picnic things. It always seemed like a real meal because we had food that required a plate and utensils, not just sandwiches (although we had sandwiches too). We would stop for a good long time before continuing on our journey. I think that’s what made it successful to travel with us short people, I’m gonna have to remember that!

~S