Y - is for Yummy

I am sure that I am not the only one to use Yummy as my Y in this challenge. But since I like to talk about food and recipes I decided that Yummy was the most appropriate use of the letter Y for me. But Yummy is such a broad topic, so what should I write about today that falls under the title of Yummy. Well it's meal plans. I figured I would share the meal plans here in the Diva house for the next two weeks. I will be sharing some of the recipes, so this will be a good way to whet you appetitie.

Chicken Pot Stickers

Edamame in Pod

Southern Oven “fried” Chicken

Salad

Corn

French Dip Sandwiches

Onion Rings

Veg

Chinese Pepper Steak Wraps

Stir Fry Veg

Meatloaf

Broccoli

Potatoes

Linguine Alfredo 

Grilled Chicken

Veg

Pizza (sausage & roasted veg)

Salad

Chicken & Rice

Asparagus

Bar-B-Que Chicken

Grilled Corn

Pasta Salad

Grilled Pork Chops

Grilled Veggies

Herbed Brown Rice

Shish-Kabobs

Rolls

Stuffed Quesadillas

Black bean and tomato mix

Salad

 
So there are 6 new recipes in that group I hope that they all turn out as well as the rolls did earlier this week. Yum. Now it's time to go make that grocery list so that I can actually cook these things.
 
Until tomorrow.
 
~ DD

Tasty Thursday ~ Honey Wheat Crescents

I just bought this cookbook after looking through it at my MIL's over Spring Break. It has a ton of amazing recipes that I would like to try. Actually 109 so fat, although I am sure I will find more. So I decided to start with something that I already had all the ingredients for. So Bread it was. I actually haven't made bread in a while so I was surprised that I had everything on hand.

Honey Wheat Crescent Rolls

1 c. warm (105-155 F ) water
2 tablespoons honey
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1. In a 2-cup measuring cup, combine the water and honey; sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. In a food processor, combine the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt. With the machine running, pour the yeast mixture through the feed tube; pulse until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until smooth.
 OR
2. To mix by hand: In a large bowel combine water honey and yeast until foamy. Stir in the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour and salt. Stir until the dough starts to form around the spoon. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 min.
 OR
2. In a large mixing bowl with a dough hook attachment, put both flours and salt into the bowl.

Add yeast mixture from step one and run on med-low speed until combined.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (2-5 min)

3. Spray a large bowel with nonstick spray; put the dough in the bowel. Cover lightly with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise in a warm draft free place until doubled in volume, about 35 minutes.

4. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Punch down the dough.

Sprinkle the work surface lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the work surface; cut in half. Roll each half into a 10 inch circle.

Cut each circle into 6 wedges.

Roll each wedge, from the wide side, and form into a crescent. Place pointed end down, on the sprayed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging the rolls 1 inch apart/ cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft free place until they double in size, about 35 min.

5. Preheat oven to 375 F.

Bake the rolls until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, about 15 minutes. Remove from the tray and cool on a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temp. These can be frozen and re-heated.

Nutrition information - 1 roll - 103 cal, 0 g fat, 0 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat, 0 mg chol, 292 mg sodium, 22 g carb, 2 g fiber, 3 g prot, 7 mg calc. Weight Watchers Points 2.

I pretty much made the recipe according to the directions, well, mostly. I didn't measure the honey, so I am pretty sure I got too much in. I also don't have a food processor so I used my Kitchen Aid with the Bread hook and good old fashioned kneading.

These are not buttery crescent rolls, but they are really yummy. The girls loved them and they made the house smell amazing. Enjoy!

~DD

X - is for Xylophone, Xenophobia and Xanthan Gum

What do these have to do with anything? I don't know. I can't think of a real X word that I can blog about. I hate it when you use a regular word with an X as an X word. Ox is not an  X word, exit is not an X word. My brother and I used to play the alphabet game in the car when we were children. You know the one where as you are driving along the road you need to find signs with each of the letters of the alphabet in order. The decision about weather or not we would allow any letter in the word to be used or just the first letter was always an important one, one that usually hinged on where we were in the country and the likelihood we would see a word beginning with X.

But I have completely digressed from the point. Wait did I even have a point? No. I guess not. I will be posting a new recipe later today, so stay tuned for that.

~DD

Hodgepodge Wednesday - Brought to you by the letter W

1. What is something that bothers you if it is not done perfectly?
Things that bother me when I don't do them perfectly or things that bother me when others don't do them perfectly? I try really hard not to be judgemental of others because I know that not everyone feels like things need to be done to the same level that I do. Things that bother me when I don't do them perfectly. Well I'll just list my biggest little thing. Are they straight? It doesn't matter what, if something should be straight and even and it isn't it drives me crazy. Place mats on the table, towels hanging on the rack, my cutting board on the counter, even my towel that I set on the counter to air dry dishes has to be square with the counter.


2. What is one of your best childhood memories?
I don't think that I could single it out to just one. I had an amazing childhood full of fun and love and friends. There are very few childhood memories that I have that are unpleasant, and I think that is the best gift my parents could have ever given me.


3. Do you plan to watch the Royal Wedding and when was the last time you wore a hat?
No, probably not. I am not a huge celebrity watcher in any way shape or form. I love weddings though, so I might watch it. I actually feel sorry for both of them I cannot imagine having every single thing I chose for my wedding be picked apart by the media and every average person.

The last time I wore a hat was actually not that long ago, I love hats! I wish that I lived somewhere that I could get away with wearing the huge hats all the time. Speaking of which I really need to go get a huge summer sun hat.


4. Where do you fall in the birth order in your family? Do you think this has influenced your personality?
I am the first born. And I am totally a first born in every single way. I am demanding and bossy, I love ordering people around. I am nosey and concerned with everything that is going on with everyone around me. My poor husband.


5. Where do you think you spend most of your money?
Hmmm, bills. I guess that isn't the answer that you were looking for. In the disposable income category I would say that most of our spending recently has been on furniture and house decorations. We aren't people who go out to eat a lot, or have expensive habits, we rarely travel, basically we use the income that we make to live, we do this so that we can afford for me to stay home with the girls while they are young.


6. When you need to confront someone would you rather communicate in person, on the phone, by email or by letter? Why?
I HATE confrontation. I really do. I especially hate it in person, I have a very hard time remaining calm and rational when I am confronting someone in person, or even on the phone, so a written confrontation is my choice. It allows me to state my feelings in a rational manner and also allows me to re-read them before they are sent to see if I am being reasonable.


7. Dodge ball, freeze tag, kickball or jump rope? You have to pick one.
When I was a kid.... Jump rope. Now, kickball. I am not coordinated enough any more to jump rope. I think that I would benefit health wise from trying to revive my love of jumping rope.


8. Insert your own random thought here.
W is for...Wind and Wilting. The wind has been blowing so badly here that I cannot keep enough water on the garden and my plants are wilting. So I no longer have strawberries and peas. I can't wait to live somewhere a little more garden friendly than the desert.

V - is for Very New and Improved...

Diva Days of the Week.

After test driving the old Diva Days of the Week for a while, and participating in a few blogging challenges I have made some changes to the Diva Days of the Week. I feel like this new group will continue to challenge me on a daily basis both as a person and as a blogger, while also sticking to the purpose of this blog and allowing me to have some free time. I have a tendency to over commit myself sometimes and things fall by the way side. So you will see some new things and some old ones and hopefully this list of Days will better serve both me and you!

Make-up Monday - This one stays the same, I will be reserving Mondays for anything that got ignored or forgotten the week before to give me a clean start.
Fitness Tuesdays - I will start sharing some of the things that I am doing in my life to improve my overall fitness level.
Hodepodge Wednesdays - I will continue to join in the Hodgepodge Wednesday fun! I am enjoying it!
Tasty Thursday - I will be challenging myself to share at least one new recipe a week. I will get these together and up on Thursdays.
Clean it Up Fridays - On Fridays I will be sharing some of my favorite cleaning and organizing tips with you , as well as concentrating on getting my house weekend ready with a good cleaning.
Family Saturdays - This is a day for family. I will be sharing some of the things that we do as a family to stay connected, not only in my immediate family, but with our family that is far away as well.
Take it off Sunday!  - Get your mind out of the gutter! This will be my free day, my day off. Everyone needs a day of rest.

U - is for Unmotivated

Although I am not feeling this way today, thank goodness, I actually feel this way a lot of the time though. I have these lists of things that I need to be doing, but all that I want to do is sit and watch the Cooking Channel or play a game on Facebook. I often sit there and wonder what it is that makes me feel like that is more important or me interesting than living my real life.

I gave up Facebook games for lent. I am pretty sure that I shared that already. After the first few days of feeling like I needed to be playing them, I found that I didn't miss them at all. Now at the end of the season of lent I find that I really don't want to restart any of them. It is amazing how much more motivated I am to live my own life when I remove that addiction from it. So I have tripled my motivation to do things in my home and with my family by removing one of my excuses to keep being unmotivated.

After seeing what a big difference it made in my day to day life I will keep looking for other things that I use as an excuse to be unmotivated. If it is something that I can fix as easily as I did with the games than I will do it. I challenge all of you to look at the things that you use as a reason to avoid doing the things that you need to be doing. Are they something that you can remove from your life? What is it that makes you unmotivated? Take it away, I promise that it will make your days more enjoyable.

T - is for Traveling a Recap

Well we are home, mostly unpacked and getting the girls calmed down. It was an interesting trip, good and bad interesting.

I was successful in my goal of calm and easy airport trips, the girls did an amazing job getting through the airport both times, including the red eye flight that we took. They really are great little travelers. The only bad thing that happened was that at the end of one very bumpy flight in a very small plane AJ got air sick. The good part about it was that it happened as we were landing at our destination, so it was over quickly.

We did an amazing job with packing. I didn't forget anything that we needed, and I don't feel like I over packed (too much). We made it home with everything that we took and only forgot one gift which is also amazing. We did everything in carry-ons for the plane so that we didn't have to pay that ridiculous baggage fee and I was proud that we weren't one of "those people" who have a carry on that is so big that it can't fit into the bin without help from three people squishing it, and a body builder to lift it.

The time with family and friends was, as it always is, a blessing. While the trip wasn't long we did get to spend some special time with everyone that was home and available to us and that was great. We did a lot of fun things and had a lot of laughs. Also there was a lot of relaxation which was amazing. DH and I were both getting to the point where we needed a few days off.

The only huge glaring fail of the entire week was my food intake. I didn't just forget healthy eating every once in a while, I dove off the healthy eating train head first into the fast food. Yikes. I won't go into detail about my fall from good food, but I will give you one statistic that will illustrate my point. In 9 days I gained 7 lbs. Double Yikes. So now that we are home it is time to get that under control.

So that's it, the recap of Spring Break 2011. All in all I would say that the trip was a huge success. We loved our time over there!

~DD

S - is for Sorry so Behind... Again

Well, not really so behind, but I'm behind for the April A-Z challenge. We have been travelling back home and I never seem to be able to find time to blog when I am travelling. I was going to write out the story of what happened on our vacation, but it is so unbelievable that I am afraid to even write it down. The highlights/lowlights were 6 hours in clothes that were covered in vomit from my 5 year old getting air sick, car breaking down in the pouring rain, no power in the house we stayed at, and 43 hours with no sleep. After those days were over though the trip was great. Really fun!

So now I am home and hoping to get things all put back away and back on schedule, including this blog. All I have to do is get T done sometime tonight so that I can do U tomorrow. Too bad I am clueless as to what I am going to share. Here's hoping that inspiration strikes me sometime soon. Now off to go put away some more clothes.

Happy Easter!

~DD