Mexican Polenta Casserole

Mexican Polenta Casserole

Who doesn't like a new recipe?! Oh well except for the kitchen scaredy cats. I'm sorry that was rude. But true. No I'm totally joking, but this was a recipe my mom made for me while she was visiting and I fell in love with it! Hope you enjoy it as well!

INGREDIENTS

1 tube of prepared polenta (18 oz)

1 package (10 oz)  precooked boneless chicken breast strips, shredded

1 cup bottled medium-hot tomatillo green salsa

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained & rinsed

1 can (15 oz) corn niblets, drained

6 scallions, sliced (about 1/2 Cup) *I actually omitted this ingredient

1 package (8 oz) shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (approx. 2 cups)

1. Cut polenta into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about24). In medium-size bowl, combine chicken, salsa, cilantro and cumin until well-mixed.

2. In 11x7x2-inch baking dish, arrange half the polenta slices over bottom. Drizzle 1/3 cup heavy cream over polenta. Top with half the beans and half the corn. Spread with half the chicken mixture. Sprinkle with half the scallions and 1 cup shredded cheese. Repeat layering. Cover dish with nonstick foil. Refrigerate overnight, if desired.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. (If casserole was refrigerated, let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.)

4. Bake, covered, in 375 degree oven until internal temperature registers 130 degrees on instant-read thermometer, about 50 to 60 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes: 8 servings at $2.75 each



Avocados - a powerful anti-aging food!!

I know that awhile back I made a few posts about an anti-inflammatory diet that I used to live by that completely got rid of all of my acne! This diet was created by Dr. Perricone and I still read posts on his blog quite frequently. I received this blog post in my email today and I felt it was worth sharing! I highly recommend any of his amazing products and especially his diets! they do amazing things for your body!

HERE IS THE ARTICLE DIRECTLY FROM WWW.PERRICONEMD.COM, WRITTEN BY DR. PERRICONE:

 

Avocados

Nature's Forever Young Secret

The evening before I was to submit my completed manuscript to my editor at Simon & Schuster, a headline from the UK's Financial Times caught my eye: "Scientists discover the secret of ageing!" it screamed in 24 point type. The article went on to explain how one of the biggest puzzles in biology - how and why living cells age - had been solved by an international team based at the U.K.'s Newcastle University.

Using a complex 'systems biology' approach, the researchers, in conjunction with scientists from the University of Ulm in Germany, embarked on a journey to discover why cells become senescent (grow old).

The research, published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology, shows that when an aging cell detects serious DNA damage, which may be the result of general wear and tear from daily living, it sends out internal signals.

These distress signals trigger the cell's mitochondria, the energy producing part of the cell, to make free radical molecules, which instruct the cell to either destroy itself or to stop dividing. The reason for this is to avoid the damaged DNA that results in cancer.

Many Perricone readers are familiar with my belief that the damaging diseases and cellular destruction associated with aging, begins with the mitochondria.

The mitochondria are tiny energy-generating units in the cell. They function as microscopic furnaces, converting food into fuel and are responsible for all energy production in the body. Although tiny, as the energy producing portion of the cell, the mitochondria play a huge role in the body. In fact, properly functioning mitochondria are vital in maintaining a healthy body and beautiful skin.
Unfortunately, the mitochondria are a constant site for free radical production and very susceptible to the damage that free radicals can cause. If we hope to preserve youthful function and prevent disease, it is critical to search for agents and antioxidants that will protect the mitochondria from free radical damage. We all know that fruits and vegetables contain the antioxidants we need to fight the inflammatory cascade generated by free radicals. So if we just increase our intake can we solve the problem?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. The majority of these antioxidants (while invaluable to other parts of the cell), cannot enter into the mitochondria.
Thus, the free radicals and their inflammatory cascade continue to damage the mitochondria causing energy production to stop and the cell to collapse and die.

Avocados to the rescue
Avocados are antioxidant powerhouses—but as you will discover, they have truly unique regenerative properties.

The special monounsaturated fats that they contain are extremely effective in combating free radical damage. However, according to a study by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the oil found in avocados can enter the mitochondria and fight the free radicals.
Remember this key fact; a young cell is characterized by its energy production. And as we know, energy production takes place in the mitochondria. Now, thanks to the avocado, we have the tools at hand to protect this critical portion of the cell and significantly reduce the negative signs of aging in all organ systems—including the skin. I enjoy a serving of avocado on a daily basis.

For a host of wonderful recipes visit www.avocado.org. One recipe I can personally vouch for is "Best Ever Guacamole." It is outstanding!

"Summer Dreams" Bulletin Board Idea

 I came up with this bright and colorful Summer Dreams bulletin board idea for the end of the school year! I am currently working with toddlers while I get my education degree so I just asked them something they wanted to do and we talked all about summer and things we do in the summertime. It was fun to hear what some of these little toddlers said and I had to include a couple of them below:

 (Her dad is a motorcycle racer - so "Vroom-Vroom" is his motorcycle)

I just loved the Hulk one! Cracked me up! If you work with older kids you can make this bulletin board a writing assignment and have them complete the phrase of "My summer dream is..." Then post them around the fun fish and ocean cutouts or on the border as I did. I purchased all the ocean cutouts at our local Schoolhouse Store so I'm sure you can find a similar one if not the same one at any teacher supply store.

Just remember the year is almost over - so keep your sanity and know it's just a moment longer!!

Mother's Day kid's craft

 If you are looking for a quick and cute Mother's Day Gift here is a simple and cheap craft your child can do (with a little help from you depending on age)! Simply make a hand print on a terracotta pot using acrylic craft paint. Brighter colors tend to look better, or at least not a color in the same family as the red/brown because I tried a pretty cherry red (pictured below) and I didn't like it as well as the bright yellow you see above. But it's up to you of course.

Next take a Terracotta paint pen (sold at craft stores such as Michael's) or a paint brush and more acrylic paint and write the child's name on the rim of your pot.

I decorated the rest with dot decorations using the terracotta paint pens and they turned out so cute, simple and something any mommy would love. Then plant a flower! We chose Marigold's because there was this adorable Mother's Day poem that went with them and sadly I can't find it anywhere so it's not in this post :( However if I find it later I'll come back and add it in.

Hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Easter at our house

We could just stop after that photo couldn't we? I did it to be mean. You know good and well the recipe for that is coming at the end of this post but you also know it can't be that easy. You have to sit here and endure the long drawn out recap of our Easter weekend first.

Not really.

But I DO want to focus on the REAL importance and meaning of Easter first before getting to the food. We don't celebrate the Easter bunny at my house. We celebrate the real reason for Easter and the reason this holiday came to be - and that is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! If not for his sacrifice and conquering power over death we couldn't live with the hope and joy and peace that we do.

And since photos speak a million words - here's how I explain the "joy" part that God has given to me...

Family. That about sums up my joy. (smile and far off stare)

I saw one of the cutest pics today that someone had posted on Facebook where a guy and girl were kissing. The guy held a sign that said "I stole her heart". And the girl held a sign that said "So I stole his name." My husband informed me that it was so last year (or whenever) but I thought it was adorable! Anyways I'm getting sidetracked. Recipe. Food. Focus.

Okay so the wonderful dessert you saw pictured above was a total mistake! I had set out to make an angel food cake ROLL. And as you can tell it is NOT a roll but a layered cake. Since I had never made angel food cake and I have made TONS of pumpkin rolls I read through the directions quite quickly and plopped that dough into a 9x13 pan covered with parchment paper. Yes. Yes I did. Anyone who has ever made angel food cake before is gasping right here saying "No she didn't!" But I did. And in case you are the innocent out there who, like me, has never worked with angel food cake, it rises. No that doesn't even begin to explain what it does. It TRIPLES in size!!

So after glancing in my oven and seeing this phenomenon take place I knew instantly I needed a back up plan. When it came out it was SO thick and HIGH that I made an easy decision. Slice this sucker in half and make it a cake!

So there is the first step to my dessert. Bake an angel food cake in a 9x13 pan covered in parchment paper. When it comes out flip it over onto cooling rack. Once cool slice it in half. If at this step you're not sure what direction you cut the cake in half then please refer to the photo and figure it out. If you still can't figure it out, put the knife down slowly and walk away from the kitchen!

On the top of the bottom layer spread a thing coat of strawberry ice cream topping. Next, mix 8 oz cream cheese and 2 cups of Light Cool Whip in a bowl until well mixed. Spread this cool whip mixture on top of ice cream topping. Place the top layer back on and then cover the whole cake in whipped cream! And that's it!

Note: It is easier to cut through and eat after it's been refrigerated a day. Just a thought!

My beautiful friend...

I had the immense pleasure of doing REDO Bridal Portraits for my friend Danielle. Let me explain - she, like me, did not like or did not get Bridal Portraits done when she was married. So after me encouraging her that if she can still fit in her dress that she deserves a redo! And she asked me to take the photos. I HAD to share just a couple!

My first try at Senior Portraits

My hobby turned wild has caught a small fraction of attention on my Facebook. As a result a teenager from our previous youth group sent me a text asking if I'd take her Senior Pictures for her. Oh my. Are you for real?? You want me to take pictures for something that really MATTERS?!?!? Like this wouldn't be considered me just snapping a million photos like I always do and somehow getting some good ones amongst those?! Oh my. Well okay. I will, but just because you are one of my "girls". (I'm quite fond of my youth group kiddos ya know) So thus began my first try at Senior Portraits.

My opinion of showing a person in their real self is to take natural pictures - ones that you don't look like a stiff board and twisted in some weird way that no human being would really sit like that! You know what I mean. So here is a handful of my results from that long nerve-racking afternoon:

Valentine's Ideas

Yes I realize it is March. Yes I realize Valentine's was almost a month ago but if I tried to save these cute ideas we did until next year JUST to post them BEFORE the holiday then I'd forget. Trust me I would. I'm like that. So I thought I'll post them now and YOU can try to save the idea somewhere until next year! Cruel aren't I?

First I had to share this picture of my daughter in her preschool class. They do the classic Ice-Cream party where you collect every imaginable horribly sweet junk food you can find and let the kids make their own sundaes!

This is not for the faint of heart I will warn. Huge amounts of sugar are sure to be devoured by your little one! You've been warned.

As for my class with my energetic 2 year old's I started the morning with heart shaving cream trays!Just make hearts with your shaving cream and place a plastic car beside it for them to vroom around in it with and get nice and messy! And believe it or not when the two year old's had the trays versus putting the shaving cream directly on the table (which I'm known to do at times) they did keep it pretty well contained to their tray and their space. This even helped keep it off their clothes a little more! Huge accomplishment in my eyes.

We read lots of cute books which I really should have taken a picture of but I remember one was Corduroy's Valentine's Day and another one was Elmo's Fuzzy Valentine. Cute books and age appropriate. And we did too much art to explain but the one I wanted to share was this VERY simple idea for a card from your little one:

Make their hand prints where their thumbs face down and their pointer fingers almost touch and you will have a heart shape in the middle!! I glued a heart in the space to make sure the parents saw the heart shape. This would be easy to do for grandparents or aunts and uncles and pop it in the mail. This was a SIMPLE version but you could really jazz it up some and make it look even nicer. Happy crafting!

I'm a horrible person

I apologize. I apologize. I apologize. Wow I was just going through some old blog posts (again facing the cold hard reality that I have BARELY blogged lately due to increase in life activity!) and realized I had blogs that SAID I would continue posting on them such as my December "Spread the Love" quest which I only posted FOUR days worth! Again: I apologize!

I really am too busy to keep up with my blog the way I really wish I could. And it's sad because man I have some incredible post ideas that never make it to pen and paper...um excuse me keyboard and computer screen. So today I just apologize. I will attempt to stop making posts that I must follow up on because let's face it I've been like Bob the Builder this last year - starting all kinds of new blog posts and adventures and not being able to finish ANY of them! well maybe a few, but most no.

But let's be serious, if you are a wife, a mother, a youth pastor, and well just a woman in general you often get overwhelmed and overextend yourself. Or maybe it's just me. But I really think not. However I did accomplish something I'm very proud of last year and that was that I completed Beth Moore's Siesta Scripture Memory Challenge to memorize 24 verses in 2011. And with increased hours at work, increased hours my kids are at school and just life I think often of the first 8 verses I memorized last year -they made up Psalm 121 in it's entirety. So if you feel overextended and under accomplished today may these verses comfort you too.

Psalm 121
"I raise my eyes toward the mountains, where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip, Your protector will not slumber. Indeed the protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep. The Lord protects you, the Lord is a shelter right by your side. The sun will not strike you by day, or the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all harm, He will protect your life. The Lord will protect your coming and going both now and forever."

(and yes I typed it from my memory so if a couple words are off I apologize)

Mother/ Daughter Day

So it's just one of the months where everything seems to be happening all at the same time! I was gone for two three-day weekends in a ROW! So by the end of all that my daughter was REALLY needing some mommy time! Which wasn't that hard to oblige her with! Since we are both off on Fridays I told her at the beginning of the week that Friday was girls day! I built it up all week, reminding her and telling her I had a surprise for what we would do that day. I came up with a Photo Scavenger Hunt!

The idea was this: Everywhere we went that day and everything we did - she had a checklist that she had to complete of items to take a picture of!

So for example - our first stop was Hobby Lobby. I needed a couple things and she actually enjoys shopping with me so on her checklist for Hobby Lobby were the following things:

1. Something made of glass
2. Something made of wood
3. A decorative basket
4. A mirror

I think that store was definitely the easiest because I mean holy cow the options are endless!!
We continued on with where we went for lunch included things such as a napkin, a ketchup packet (she wanted Chic-Fil-A) and someone else's shoe! A stop at the frozen yogurt store had items such as sprinkles, a plastic spoon and her finished frozen yogurt creation!
It went on a on because we had QUITE the full schedule for our day but I successfully wore her out (and me too in the process) and she was SO thankful for our day together! It was so fun and it's so important to take those moments to set aside time, yes even whole days, to just devote to your son or daughter. Would you like to see a couple of her pictures?? hehe...okay.

(picture taken in Hobby Lobby)

(picture taken in Tutti Frutti)

Don't you just love how I modeled her plastic spoon for her??! The day was so fun - try it with your baby girl (or boy)!

Valentine's Day Bulletin Board Idea

Here is a simple and cute bulletin board idea for the toddler classroom. The way it is shown here is by taking a coloring page of I think it's Tenderheart bear?? and having each child color their bear (pink for the girls and blue for the boys) Then I took ink stamp pads and put the kids thumbprints in the heart on the tummy and the pads on the paws and ears.

I used pink for the girls and purple for the boys.

Other alterations could include:

1. Printing out the kids faces and gluing them onto the Care Bear's face so it's literally YOUR students on the board!

2. If kids are older you can have them paint or decorate with something fuzzy like yarn or cornmeal or sugar (just dye the cornmeal or sugar to desired color).

3. If you have a small enough group print out all the different Care Bears (tenderheart, hugs and tugs, braveheart, grumpy, etc...) and each child can be THAT Care Bear!

How to entertain a little boy...

In my class this week we were learning about Abraham and Sarah and their trip to Ur. I had planned on bringing suitcases and bags with common items you would pack for a trip. The kids were going to have to pack the bags! However one day it was dumping rain and we had tornado warnings and I got distracted by the bad weather and headed out the door without the suitcases. So when I got to school I had to think fast! My idea for the kids was to make a road out of masking tape and have car and trucks out for them to TRAVEL on the road with!

It was a HUGE hit! The boys especially loved taking the cars and zooming them down the road! It was an accident but I'm glad it happened. Now I only had about five minutes to make this one little road (as you can see in the photos) but you can get as creative as possible! Just tape a road onto a kids table or maybe make a whole map out of a cheap rug! The sky is the limit!

Here was my small version - and since it was such a hit I actually did it on most of the table the next day, excluding my little railroad track thing.

A good rest and a good read

Oh my sweet blog! How I've missed you so! However, as crazy as my fall and winter had gotten I really needed a true rest. I spent Christmas in Kansas with my entire family, then laid around and read as much as I possibly could on my Kindle and just finished spending three weeks with my parents visiting here! And I don't know what "parents visiting" means to you but to me it means that between my mom and I's cooking we eat GOOD food and a LOT of it, we get to go do something fun and magical cleaning fairies always appear while I'm away at work! Haha, it really was fun and I hated to see them go but it's time to get back to a regular schedule and hopefully some more regular blog posts! Wouldn't you say?!

I am working on a couple of posts for the future and one very good guest blog post which I think you will be highly interested in, however until then since I have been avidly reading during my break I decided to share with you what I've gotten myself into.

The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

I was leery of reading the series because yes it has all the Greek gods and goddesses and demigods etc. in it. However a friend in the faith whom I trust told me she read it to her older son and that she, and her boy, really enjoyed them and as long as it's to an older audience that knows this is FICTION then it does have some educational value along with a great storyline. With every god or creature it introduces it tells the history of it as per Greek Mythology. I have never known a lot about the subject so this easy reading series has been very intriguing to me. It has adoring characters and is written with humor and cliff-hanging suspense!

So I don't know what your thoughts are on the series but it has been some great reading and awesome entertainment to me for a few weeks now. I only have one book left!

Holiday stress-buster: Spread the Love Challenge

Over Thanksgiving I finally had time to catch up on all the magazines that have been staring at me begging me to flip through them! One of them was my Better Home and Gardens magazine and I loved this article in the back of the December issue that was called "Peace Offering". It was about tricks we can easily do that naturally fight stress and those bad free radicals it releases! The number one item was to "do a good deed daily." Here's what it said under it:

"Researchers have long known that altruism - such as volunteering at a hospital - raises levels of dopamine, a feel-good brain chemical that shields the body from stress hormones. What's interesting is that no selfless act is too small, says clinical therapist Serena Wadhwa, Psy.D., director of the TriQual Living Center in Chicago. To sustain a helper's high, aim to perform a simple act of kindness every day. Easy examples include bringing the mail to an elderly neighbor, surprising a coworker with a cup of coffee, or slowing your car on a busy street to let another driver turn. Optional: Singing "Joy to the World" as you do it."

So I have decided that I'm going to do just that. Not only do I have stress wrapping up Christmas Parties at school (my students and both my own kids) and finishing my final paper for my college class along with just the regular Christmas shopping, wrapping and mailing etc, but showing love is our mandate as Christians and we should be doing this daily anyways!

So for this entire month, yes even the few days AFTER Christmas I commit to do at least one good deed daily and I will post them all on here to help give others ideas. I challenge you to pray about doing the same, it's never too late to start.

Here is what I've done so far:

December 1st: Curled my daughter's hair. That may seem ridiculous but it was her Christmas Program and I asked her how she wanted her hair and she wanted it all curly and done up. So even though I was running VERY late to be there early for our staff photo I accepted being late and made sure her hair looked gorgeous! She was so excited and proud!

December 2nd: Made a Jingle Bell Necklace for my son. His school has the 12 days of Christmas and so every day of school in the month of December has a different theme to dress as. It was "wear a jingle bell" day and we have long lost all the necklaces and other jingle bell items so I found a lose jingle bell and put a string through the top and tied it off so he had a jingle bell to wear. Oh and to double up I cleaned his room up and gave him a freebie for the day :)

December 3rd: Complimented a girl's outfit. It said no deed is too small! My husband and I went on a double date with two of our old teenagers so yes I still call her a "girl" and she was looking all cute so I made sure I really complimented her and made her feel good!

December 4th: I bought Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce for a bridal shower! This one is bizarre and let me assure you I had a bag full of other good things for the bride-to-be, however this BBQ sauce was actually on the registry which we later found out was because the groom had the registry gun!! I know the guys always feel sort of left out when it comes to wedding gifts so I bought him the BBQ sauce to make his day!

T.T.A.R. Day 3

Obviously I spent my day having fun with friends and stuffing my face which is why this post is minutes from the midnight hour. And since Thanksgiving is over and you no longer need recipes for that wonderful occasion that our digestive system is so dearly paying for now I want to share on of my favorite comfort Christmas treats! It involves the following two things:

Peppermint Ice Cream Hot Cocoa

And it's just that. You make your favorite blend of hot chocolate. I adore creaminess so I have always made mine with milk but I'm sure if you are happy with your water kind that it will work just the same. Next plop in a scoop of peppermint ice cream and enjoy the creamy peppermint flavor it brings! I always eat some of my ice-cream before it all melts! The hot and cold with the peppermint flavor is divine! And it's my favorite winter curl up on the couch treat! So after what I'm sure was a whirlwind of a day and possibly lots of fun yet stressful times with familia in your house (or travelling to theirs) you deserve to sit your butt down in your favorite spot and kick your feet up. While you're at it, sip on this hot drink - it just makes it that much better!

THANKFUL THOUGHT:

Okay so I really thought all of these would be from my kids but of course as soon as I WANTED my kids to be funny - they stopped being funny! Well that's not all true. They said some hilarious things today such as when my son and daughter started playing chase at our friends and my husband told them not to run in the house - my daughter quickly and politely asked, "May I walk really fast then dad?" However that has nothing to do with thankfulness so I will simply join in the spirit of the day (since it will be over in 6 minutes) and say that I am extremely thankful for a loving husband that absolutely adores me, beautiful healthy children that are respectful and love God, and for good friends, the kind that truly care, that we could spend a wonderful day with! Love and hugs to my family scattered all over the US today - love you bunches! And to my blog family - ENJOY your family and the holidays you have with them!

T.T.A.R. Day 2

Do you see that delicious chunky sweet yummy-ness to the right in the picture above?? That would be the feature of today's recipe and one that I will be making in T-minus 1 hour. It is a Chunky Pear-Apple Sauce and I found it from a random cookbook from the library a couple years ago. Here is the description straight from the cookbook:

"During autumn holidays, the aromas of slow-cooking fruit and sugar evoke a real feeling of nostalgia. At Thanksgiving I make a point of serving a crisp-tasting apple compote, and with the addition of succulent, fragrant pears, I find that the smooth flavor combination marries well with the savory herbs and spices used in the stuffing, gravy, and-of course-the turkey."

CHUNKY PEAR APPLE SAUCE

6 Anjou or Comice pears, slightly under ripe

4 apples (preferably a mixture of Granny Smith, McIntosh, and Golden Delicious)

2 TBLS Fresh Lemon Juice, or more to taste

1 C. Apple Juice

1/2 C. Sugar, or more to taste

1 tsp. Finely Grated Lemon Zest

1. Core, peel, and cut the pears and apples into large chunks. Toss them with the 2 TBLS lemon juice in a large heavy pot.

2. Add the apple juice, 1/2 C. sugar, and the lemon zest. Stir and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until the fruit is tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes.

3. Uncover the pot, stir, and continue cooking to thicken the juices, 5 minutes more. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if desired, stirring carefully so as not to break up the fruit too much. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Then transfer to a container, cover, and refrigerate for as long as 4 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Makes 8 cups

Thankful Thought:

Last night at dinner I asked my daughter what was something she was thankful for? My comedian of a husband pipes in before she answers, "I'm thankful I'm not a turkey!" Of course my daughter amused by this (although she probably has no idea why it's funny), then answers, "I'm thankful I'm not a dog!" Of course I follow up with why? And after a moment of thought she says, "No, actually I've always wanted to be a dog."

Oh my children, my children. (Smile)

Until tomorrow...

be thankful and make sure your turkey is defrosted!

Top Ten Tuesday

Oh and just because it's been so long since I've linked up - I decided to post a Top Ten Tuesday thanks to inspiration from Diaper Diaries! OK my top ten are the things I want to get done over my Thanksgiving holiday:

1. Bake, decorate and of course EAT holiday sugar cookies with my kids!

2. Go on a family hike and have a picnic lunch.

3. Finish the painting I'm doing for my daughter's bedroom.

4. Complete all my homework (unfortunately).

5. Bake the most delicious chunky pear-applesauce and pumpkin pie EVER to take to our friend's that are hosting a Thanksgiving Feast!

6. Blog every day this week.

7. Enjoy some TV shows and movies with my hubby - and I was DEVASTATED to find out that this week there was no showing of "Once Upon a Time" which has become one of our favorites!

8. Make sure I'm prepared for my lesson on Monday because my boss is observing me!!

9. Get out and set up ALL my Christmas decorations!!

10. My favorite - enjoy as much hot cocoa with peppermint ice-cream as I possibly can!!

Want to participate?? Just click on the Top Ten Tuesday logo at the top of this page!

T.T.A.R.

Do you like my acronym? It stands for a Thankful Thought And a Recipe! I am actually home all week and have been enjoying my time off like no body's business!! In other words I am loving this break! In my new found free time (short lived as it may be) I have been inspired for some blog posts. My first is to share a few of my tried and true Thanksgiving recipes and to also insert a thankful thought. However these aren't the mushy gushy thanks that you may be used to seeing on blogs and Facebook this time of year. Hopefully they will all come from my kids. And you all know that no one ever knows what will come out of their mouth!

So to start off I have an alternative dessert recipe, aside from the traditional Pumpkin Pie (which even when I make this recipe I STILL must make a pumpkin pie too!), and most have heard of it: Pumpkin Roll. It's goodness is incomparable! It's sugary, cream cheesy goodness! And it really is quite simple, it's just time consuming. But the great part is that you can easily make it a day ahead because it has to chill in the fridge before serving anyways.

PUMPKIN ROLL

2/3 C. Pumpkin (100% pumpkin)

3 eggs

1 C. Sugar

3/4 C. Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

FILLING:

8 oz Cream Cheese

1 tsp. Vanilla

1 Tbsp. Butter

1 C. Sugar

Mix all ingredients. Cover a 9 x 13 pan with wax paper (covering entire bottom and sides of pan) and spray paper w/ Pam cooking spray until covered. Pour dough onto wax paper. Bake for 17 minutes @ 375 degrees. Take it out and with a damp tea towel flip it over. Let cool for about 10 minutes then remove wax paper and roll the bread up with the towel. Cool for 4 hours. Once cool mix up first 3 ingredients of filling. Once thoroughly mixed, add sugar. Unroll the bread and remove the towel. Spread the filling on top (leave about an inch from the end because as you roll, it will push the icing). Roll it back up with the icing now. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. When ready to serve, cut into slices about an inch thick.

TOTAL TIME: 6 hours SERVES: About 12

I would have had a picture because I just made one this past week when we had some friends over for a game night, however we devoured it quite quickly and my photo thought was a little late, sorry :(

Now for the thankful thought: This morning my son was digging through his backpack and found his pen pal letter. They do pen pals within the school and he recently received a new letter. We were reading it to him and at the end of the letter his pen pal told what he was thankful for and then asked my son what HE was thankful for. My son, without missing a beat, replied, "I'm thankful for hunting for prairie dogs." And after a response of laughter we calmed down and asked him why to which his reply was, "Cause it's fun! And I get to collect bullets." Don't worry he means the bullet shells. I just found that hilarious and thought I would share. Until tomorrow...

Stay calm and ENJOY the holidays!