Are you ready for some cake?!

I now realize that if you ask myself or my brothers what they want for their birthday it is pretty much always going to involve chocolate and peanut butter! I remember growing up and a large majority of our cakes included this combo… good thing our significant others don’t mind having that combo around because it is here to stay!

I made this cake for my brother’s birthday on Monday. My back has been acting up so I simply used a Chocolate cake mix and made a three layer cake. I broke out the peanut butter and cream cheese to make an amazing frosting which made me think using some chopped up Reeses was not exactly optional — it was the perfect topping to this delicious cake!

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• 1 1/2 c. Peanut Butter
• 3 c. Powdered Sugar
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract *optional

Cream the Cream Cheese and PB together and add in the the Vanilla. Slowly beat in the Powdered Sugar and voila! Enjoy!

Have I ever mentioned that I love my family. My parent’s are two of the most supportive people that I know — they are always there for me and my brothers and support our decisions and goals in life. My brother Joe is just the most smiley and funny guy around; he will light up a room with that smile. My oldest brother, Tim, truly lives his life for the Lord and is a great example in my life. I just thought you should know that I am blessed (… and I know it :)

This last week we didn’t have the need for much of a dinner plan — we went out with family, the hubs worked late a couple of nights and so the nights in between were kept simple (a.k.a. sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches!). Here is this week’s dinner plan, excited to eat a bit healthier this week and try a couple new recipes! Have a great week!

This week’s Dinner Plan:

• Monday: TJ’s Mexican Chicken with Steamed Veggies and Rice
• Tuesday: Valentine’s Day Dinner :)
• Wednesday: Easy Garlic Chicken with Steamed Veggies and French Bread
• Thursday: Dinner with Community
• Friday: Chicken Quesadillas (using leftover chicken) with Salad and Mango
• Saturday: Date Night
• Sunday: Grilled Fish Tacos with Salad & Mango

Snacks:

• Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies from the other week week (G got sick so he couldn’t have sweets)
• Left over treats from the week
• Fruit!

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I have a dear friend who is always uplifting me with joy and encouraging me to live life for the Lord. Needless to say, I am very thankful to have her in my daily life! For Christmas I decided I wanted to make her something special and encouraging. With all of the issues with my back, I had to keep it fairly simple but I love the result!

This 8×8 frame was the perfect base and I pulled out some scraps of paper that have a simple blue and gray scheme. My 2.5″ scalloped heart punch ended up being perfect to fit 4 hearts across and I hopped into Illustrator to print out the Scripture, Psalm 136:26. I chose this verse because I think it is always important to remember God’s love for us and to thank Him always. I feel that my friend is constantly reminding me of these things and therefore I wanted to give that back to her.

Each of the hearts were “popped” up with some foam tape for added dimension and I scattered several cute buttons for the fun of it. It was a fairly easy project and I have a feeling a few more of the special people in my life will be receiving these as gifts throughout the year because the entire thing comes from my heart — always important! {photos taken with my iphone}

I already took the time to sit down to figure out this week’s Dinner Plan — I know that last week I said I may or may not do this every single week but last week it helped greatly! If you haven’t seen the Meal Planner/Shopping List and Pantry Inventory that I created {and are available on my Etsy Shop}, I will have a post up soon with how they work  and how they have helped me! Im excited to see how much time and money I save from using these two tools!

This Week’s Dinner Plan

• Monday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Fresh Fruit & Soup
• Tuesday: Buttermilk Roasted Chicken with Roasted Veggies & Potatoes
• Wednesday: Chicken & Cashew Stir-Fried Salad
• Thursday: Dinner with Community
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Date Night
• Sunday: Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

Snacks:

• Real Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies (Cookie of the Week)
• Healthier Peanut Butter Brownies

Thanks for stopping in! Have a wonderful weekend!

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Hi Friends! Yep, I am still in organize and clean mode… this little place has tons of stuff just jam packed in so I am working as hard as my broken back will allow me. I thought I would share a couple of more photos of my progress. The first is my new basket filled with hosting items, such as, paper goods, plasticware, etc. I thought it would be great to have a centralized basket that I could just pull out when guests show up.

And my bottom shelf in my pantry… DON’T JUDGE ME! This was a catch-all type of shelf and it did too good of a job living up to that title… This is where I now store my large containers of broth, drink syrups, grains, flours and a couple of other consistently used items.

My latest venture is Dinner Planning! This will be my first week actually laying out a plan for our dinners. I’m thinking that having it all planned out will save us from eating out so often (save money and no more gained weight!) and keep me from having multiple grocery trips per week.

I definitely can’t promise to share my meal plans every week but from time to time I plan to share the recipes and my plan for the week. Keep in mind that there are only two of us in our household, but many of the dishes I make are made to have leftovers so I only have to cook several times a week (genius, right?!).

So here is the first plan of the year (better late than never…)

• Monday: Baked Potatoes with BBQ Chicken and Corn
• Tuesday: Broccoli and White Cheddar Mac n Cheese with Fresh Fruit
• Wednesday: Nacho Ordinary Taco Salad with Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing
• Thursday: Dinner with Community
• Friday: Leftovers
• Saturday: Date Night
• Sunday: Coconut Lime Chicken with Chiles

Snacks:

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars (my “cookie” of the week)
• Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Many of the recipes linked above were found on Pinterest, which I am guessing will be my main source. But Google and AllRecipes.com are a huge resource — I tend to search for recipes with the word quick or easy in the title or description, I love to cook but I also enjoy life outside of the kitchen :)

Have a great week everyone!

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Hi Friends, I’m going to share a little secret with you about my handsome hubby — this guy can easily eat 2-3 packages of cookies on a weekly basis! It is beyond me when I purchase a new package of cookies and it is gone within two days! Therefore, I am putting another step toward saving money by eradicating  those 2-3 packages of cookies that often times cost $3 each (and sometimes more, ugh!).

Let me introduce you to Cookie of the Week — I have decided that I could knock out two birds with one stone by baking a batch of cookies on a weekly basis. First, I have 3-4 delicious cookies for my handsome to snack on and second, I get my baking fix! The latter is equally important ast the first because I seriously must bake something yummy weekly in order to be a joyful and pleasant person. It is a stress relief, sometimes a challenge and honestly, I feel like it’s what I’m best at.

The cookie of the week will {usually} be a new recipe each week. Yes, I threw a usually in there because I can’t make any promises — some weeks can get pretty crazy and I am leaving room for my standard chocolate chip cookies to do the job when those weeks come along. For variety, I will be baking half of the cookies and freezing the other half of the dough so that each week I have two types of cookies to bake for my handsome {insert good wife points here}

This week’s cookie was Chewy Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies by The Girl Who Ate Everything. The cookies turned out just as we would have liked, although next time I would add a half teaspoon of coconut extract because the coconut didn’t stand out as much as I would have liked. I didn’t have any limes on hand so I used the lime juice I had in the fridge and the zest of a lemon because I was afraid the lime juice wouldn’t be enough to stand out. I suppose we will never know but the flavor was perfectly delicious with the lemon zest (also, I only did about 1 tablespoon zest because lemon can be so strong).

The cookies turned out like a Sprite flavored sugar cookie and the texture was great. Next time I would like to use the lime zest and coconut extract to see what I get! Great combo! Below is a close up shot, just because! You can see the yummy sugar glistening alongside the lemon zest. Yum, yum. Have a great week everyone!

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