Matt's Quinoa Corn Stirfry/Salad

Because I love all of you and care about your health, I have asked my brother Matt to share some of his delicious yet healthy recipes with us on my blog every once in a while. Remember his amazing protein pancakes?! yum Well you can enjoy them for breakfast and then move on to his delectable Quinoa Salad for lunch. (I'm curious to see what he will come up with for a dinner entree AND I happen to know that he is working diligently on a healthy cookie for us to enjoy for dessert!)

Quinoa Corn Stirfry/Salad

 

 

Quinoa (1 cup)

Corn (1 can or equivalent fresh)

kidney beans (1 can or equivalent fresh)

1-2 cups of fresh cilantro

1 whole tomato diced

spices (salt or pepper to taste)

- cook quinoa separate

- stirfry the remaining ingredients, and drain excess water before combining with quinoa (unless you want to eat it as soup, which is another option, in which case add about 1 cup of water to vegetables in stirfry)

- combine quinoa and stirfry together in mixing bowl

- You can eat this warm right away, or chill it and make a tasty, filling cold salad out of it for the next day.

- depending on your taste, a little bit of hot sauce or cayenne pepper seasoning is a great addition to it

Enjoy.

Thanks Matt!!!!!!

Toy Storage

Lately it has been getting harder and harder to keep the house somewhat clean and organized with two little ones (and all of the toys that they accumulate.)

I have had my eye on this basket at Target for a while and I am so glad I finally bought it! It matches my decor in the house and when we are one day (not ANY time soon) out of the toy phase...I will still be able to make use of it so I consider it a good investment!

Baby Girl Gift

Shaun and I were supposed to visit an old friend this weekend, but Maddie got really sick so we are going next weekend. I am very excited because our friend and his wife are having a little baby girl this April! She is actually due right around my birthday. I wanted to get their little girl a little gift and I was so excited to get to use the beautiful gift tags my mom got me as a Valentine's gift.

Does anyone else get more excited for the packaging than the actual gift!?

Although I must admit that what's inside this particular gift is super cute....baby Gap was having sales this weekend and they have some amazing baby girl clothes! Of course I had to get a little something for Miss Claudia, I couldn't resist this bathing suit and sweater because they were so cheap with the sales!!

Seriously how cute is this bathing suit!!!!!!!!!

I only wish i could've found a matching one in Maddie's size!

SPRING PLEASE!!!

Sorry I haven't posted as much lately, it's been a busy week and I have had no time for any interesting projects! I was hoping to have a special engagement session to share with you all today, but unfortunately Mother Nature didn't get the memo that extreme wind is not the best weather condition for an outdoor photo session. Hopefully, I will have some lovely photos for you soon. For now, we are just wishing for some beautiful spring weather ASAP!!! In the spirit of that, we decided to start Maddie's first indoor garden!!

Hopefully the seeds do well and we can add them to the garden that my parents planted for her first birthday!

 ( I will have more pictures of that later!!!)

Sister Love

I have been slightly disappointed lately because Maddie seemed to be very disinterested in her little sis Claudia. But then as of Thursday something switched and she suddenly decided that she had a new little best friend. So, I decided to take advantage of this phase and capture it with an impromptu photo shoot!

Backsplash Anyone?

Well...it is almost time to start our mini kitchen make-over. Shaun just has a couple tiny projects he wants to complete before we get started. I am really excited. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, but there is one thing that I simply can NOT make up my mind on. I literally have been pondering what I want to do for a backsplash for MONTHS now! For our kitchen I know I do not want any kind of extravagant or ornate kind of tiling...I want something simple and clean but still charming. You know what I mean? I can't decide whether I want to do a simple subway tile or wainscoting.

 or...

I would really really really appreciate any of your thoughts or opinions on this matter as my deadline for decision making is creeping up on me!!! Help!!!

Shed/Playhouse

Our shed arrived a few months ago and as I had mentioned in a previous post we want to make the front half of it a play house for the girls. Shaun is VERY excited about this project and there is even talks about running cable out there. I know. So here she is.....a warning: the ugly window above the door was an error the shed company made and we will be removing it and replacing it with some prettier ones.

Isn't the little door so cute! Maddie already loves going in there even though there's nothing inside. Now if we can only make it look more like this...

Valentines

A special Valentine for my amazing husband!

It might look better than it tastes unfortunately because there may have been a diaper emergency in the middle of making it which caused me to burn the marshmallows slightly! oops

I also wanted to share this adorable heart shaped plate and cup that my mother gave to me when I moved into my house. It is part of a set that she bought  when I was a little girl and we were shopping in Jim Thorpe. Those trips were some of my very favorite memories with my mother and I loved this set so much that she let me have it!

amore

A little bit of Valentine's Day around my house...

Looking forward to doing a little Valentine's Day baking with my two loves for tomorrow!

Hearts

My mother got these adorable doorknob hangers from England for the girls for Valentine's Day.

 This one is for Claudia's room.

And this is for Maddie's room.

Maddie's Big Girl Room

Here are some very poor quality pictures of Maddie's room in our first house. I didn't take any "before" pictures in our current house but since we moved here when she was six months old we literally did the exact same thing as her room in our first house.

Just looking at these photos brings back a flood of wonderful memories of becoming a mom for the first time...there is just nothing like bringing home a new baby. As reluctant as I was to change the decor, I just felt like it really didn't suit Maddie anymore. She is such a "big girl" now, so I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, things have been kind of busy lately and I haven't had time to get new bedding or curtains, but I didn't want to leave you all hanging much longer. So this is what we have so far.

 This tea set was a Christmas gift for Maddie from Gigi and Pop.

 This pillow was an early Valentine's day gift from my mother (Gigi) to Maddie.

 This vintage high chair was another Christmas gift for Maddie from Gigi and Pop. They gave Claudia a similar one but painted pale pink to match Claudia's dresser.

 My husband "doesn't get" this mirror in her room, but I think it adds the perfect amount of warmth.

 Isn't this the prettiest tiara?

 I ended up going with a soft pink for the walls and although I was nervous about doing a pink room I am so glad I did. It is really pale and sometimes almost looks white.

This adorable keep sake box was a gift from my baby shower. It says congratulations on the arrival of your little princess. Inside I keep special cards and items that I'm sure Maddie will love to look through one day.

So that is what we have so far and Maddie loves her new room...she says she likes it much better than yellow haha.

Homemade Peanut Butter Cake Filling

 I made this cake in preparation to celebrate  Superbowl Sunday with a bunch of my fellow rowdy Giants fans (and some other not -so- Giants fans, but whatever.) Unfortunately, the girls are sick and I will be watching the game from home... cakeless, administering antibiotics. Lucky for me it is hard to be mad at a 2 year old and a 7 month old.

You can use a chocolate cake mix and icing of your choice. But, between the layers I made a peanut butter filling.  It's quite simple to make...you just mix (using an electric mixer) a cup of creamy peanut butter with 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter (softened.) Then you GRADUALLY add 2 cups of confectioner sugar. (This part can get a bit messy.) As you are mixing, add 3-4 tablespoons of heavy cream until you get the consistency you like. You can also add vanilla extract, but be careful because a little bit goes a long way.

I have made this cake twice in a one week period and have not been able to taste it yet!!! Is there anything fair about that???