Breakfast after Lunch

Ok, I'll admit it's been a while since I've posted.

Life is busy

But there's no sense in waiting for things to slow down

It's only getting faster.

So here's a little post about breakfast! :)

On a stormy Sunday afternoon, 3 girls were determined to find something to eat.

Originally they had planned on having take-out Chinese,

But after the weather got bad, plans changed.

Now they were home.  In the house. 

With nothing ready-to-eat, they would have to make something!

But what?

After some searching of freezers, they settled on a plan.

"Hm...."

"Waffles?"

........"LETS MAKE BREAKFAST!!!"

It didn't matter that it was 2:00pm.

It would be an after lunch brunch!

So they began to whip up ingredients

 

 

And brown sausage

 

 

Oh look! 

 

Run outside!

 

A rainbow after the storm!

 

Beat up the eggs

 

Cook the waffels

 

 

And a short while later...

 

 

A breakfast feast!

 

 

Yumm yummmm yummmmyyyy!!

 

 

Speaking of delicious feasts...

 

A happy Thanksgiving to one and all! :)

 

What are you thankful for this year?

 

What are you NOT thankful for? 

Is there a blessing in disguise in the things that are painful or frustrating or unpleasant?

 

God is always good, and always have something to be thankful for:

 

Because we can (and should) always be thankful that he sent his Son to die and take our burden of sin so that we could be right with God and know true peace, freedom, purpose and joy though Jesus Christ! :)

 

Buenas noches, amigos!

 

~

ISA

Mocha Coffee

There's nothing like warm beverages in the cold of autumn and winter!

Tea

Hot water

Chai

Coffee

Warm broth

Hot chocolate

Wassail


I'm a big fan.


Anyways, yesterday I discovered a new way to enjoy my coffee.

Mocha.

It's so yummy- you really should try it yourself!

• Brew 1/2 mug of very hot coffee (It doesn't matter what coffee you use or how you brew it).

While you're making the coffee, you can prep the rest of your beverage:

• In a large mug or travel mug, pour approx. 1/8 - 1/4 cup milk and 2 liberal scoops of instant hot cocoa powder.

• Now pour your hot coffee into your milk/hot cocoa mixture and stir well.

Tah-dah!

Mocha coffee! 

(Sorry, no pictures this time-  I was in a hurry to get out the door!)


It takes just a few minutes

It's delicious!

And you paid far less than Starbucks ;)


Experiment with the amount of milk/powder/coffee till you find your perfect ratio. 


Enjoy!

~
ISA

My Heart Is in The Highlands

 

On cold, damp October afternoons

My heart is in the mountains

In the woods

Soaking in the stillness and the overcast cloudy sky

The smell of the wet woods and leaves

The occasional crow, echoing in the distance

The amber, pine needle carpeted forest floor, which absorbs the sound of my footsteps

The pine trees, tall, dark and slender, with all but the very top branches dead and bare of needles

A group of deer a short distance away, who feel safe to move around on a wet, misty day

My cozy winter coat, with pockets to warm my chilled hands

The sight of my condensated breath in front of me

A rotten, slippery, fallen log, which gives way and breaks apart - *THUD* - under the weight of my step

The sight of a neighboring mountain, who's trees display a brilliant array of color

The nearby rustle of a squirrel in a tree

The clearing of open fields, green with clover

The cold damp setting in

Hiking down the mountain, from whence I came, giving in to gravity's pull and hiking briskly

Slipping and stumbling on wet leaves and rocks and I go down

Down

Finally reaching the bottom of the hill

Stepping onto the winding road, and hearing the crunch of my steps once again

Gazing down the road, towards the river

Turning

Just a few paces down the grey, gritty path

Turn to step through the entry in the old wooden fence

Up the ramp

 

The clunk of my boots on the porch

Quickly opening the screen door

Bursting through the front door

In the warm house

Sitting down in the living room

On a stuffed arm-chair

Boots off.

Coat hung.

To the kitchen!

Time for a mug of hot cocoa
 

 

~

 

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth ;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

 

~Robert Burns

Pumpkin Bars

Everybody knows it's not fall without something pumpkin!

Today's baking-with-pumpkin adventure was pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting!

 

 

These would be great for a thanksgiving dessert or family get together.

 

To make them a little healthier I used whole wheat flour in place of some of the flour, substituted half of the oil for applesauce and used neufatchel cheese instead of whole fat cream cheese.

 

As a general rule, anything pumpkin + cream cheese is a delicious combo.  I recommend it.

 

Buenas Noches!

 

~

ISA



Crockpot Cooking Is Not My Forte

So today I made a discovery.

While in theory, the idea of tossing ingredients in a pot and leaving them to cook into a delicious meal sounds genius

In practice, crockpot cooking just isn't my specialty.

This morning I attempted made a chicken crockpot meal.

One piece of advice is: don't try cooking something for the first time for church potluck on a Sunday morning.

I put the chicken and sauce in the crockpot at the right hour and turned it on.

But then came the fatal error...

Putting the rice in too early.

It was microwave rice, and we don't have a microwave at church! 

There was nothing to do but put it in at 9 instead of 11.

But little did I know

That when I put that crockpot meal out at 11 o'clock for potluck lunch

My chicken and rice would become a sort of chunky, gross looking paste.

While the taste wasn't horrible,

The presentation was enough for anyone to think twice before serving themselves a helping.


So the moral of the story:

While all those crockpot recipes look easy-peasy

Crockpot cooking takes skill and these skills take time and practice to cultivate!


Hope you've had a refreshing Sunday-

May we all be relying on God for his strength and joy to serve him throughout the coming week!

Psalm 28:7
" The Lord is my strength and my shield;
    my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy,
    and with my song I praise him."

~
ISA

Carrot Chicken-Broth Soup

This is a recipe for soup!

You know that feeling when you're sick and nothing sounds appetizing?

Or what about when you're not super hungry, but you still need something for dinner.

Look no further!

Try "Carrot Chicken-broth Soup"!

Essentially, chicken noodle soup... only without the chicken or noodles ;)

It's so fast and easy!

Ingredients:
1 box of chicken broth (I used trader joe's) or frozen homemade chicken broth
Water (several cups)
1 packet of sodium free, msg-free chicken bouillon
3/4 bag chopped baby carrots
Celery salt to taste
Onion Powder
Salt to taste (if desired)

Combine the above ingredients in a pot and cook till the carrots are tender to your liking.

Enjoy!

~~
ISA

October Baking

Hi all,

How is everyone?

I'm ok, though not feeling terrifical, due to an oncoming cold.  But all things considered...

I'm thankful for each new day - for opportunities to learn, be humbled, and draw closer to the Lord! :)

Lately, I've been accepting this cool October weather as the perfect excuse to bake!

You've probably noticed the theme in my posts by now...

I like to bake.

Here are 3 recent recipes I've tried:

Sunday morning I made blueberry muffins.
(I believe this was the recipe I used).
Changed it up a bit by using whole wheat flour in them.
Also for the topping: melted the butter and added oats instead of flour.

The only negative about the muffins was... that I got them in the oven too late and was consequently 30 minutes late for church! :P

Still working on those time management skills.

Molasses cookies.

MMMMMMMMM!!!!

(recipe).

These are so good. 

If you've never made molasses cookies you really must try. 

It's like a ginger snap, only chewy!

There were originally a whole batch of them but now the above picture is all that remains. ;)

And last, but not least:

Peanut butter cookies!

You can find the recipe that I used here. 
The only changes I made were substituting margarine for the butter and rolling the balls of dough in sugar before pressing them with a fork and baking. 

These are delicious, though they tend toward the dry side.

Also: if you make your cookies small, know that this recipe makes a lot of cookies.  (roughly 6 dozen in my case).



Well, that's all for now.

Hope you're having a Terrifical Tuesday! ;)

Que le vaya bien!

~Isabel

Happy Thursday to You

Happy Thursday!

Here's a Peanut Butter Chocolate Kale smoothie to bring some color into your day.

 

Ingredients (measurements are approx.):

• 1/2-3/4 cup frozen Kale...
• 1 & 1/2 or 2 frozen bannas
• 1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 cup sunbutter (or peanut butter)
• Melted chocolate (I used semisweet/milk chocolate) w/ shortening or butter if you like. or cocoa powder.
• Milk (I used regular but you could use almond or coconut milk)

Add 1st 5 ingredients to blender, then add a little milk.  Try blending and add milk as needed till smoothie is totally blended.  Enjoy immediately!

~~
ISA

Fall and Fish

This might sound cliché, and I know it's slightly premature, but I'm so glad it's FALL! :)

Welcome back:
Sweater weather and pumpkin flavor,
Mugs of hot water,
Slippers and chilly evenings,
And the start of a new semester!


[Side note: As I write this post, I am listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, an ominous and dramatic song which builds to a riveting grand finale. You can listen too, by clicking below:

Fall is a nostalgic time.

Entering this season, memories of previous autumns return.

Fall is a time of anticipation... for Christmas, the end of classes, concerts, vacation and more!

Soon it will be even colder and the leaves will fall.

And then comes snow!

Maybe I'm moving ahead too quickly with my seasons. :/

Yay fall!

Ok, enough of that.  On to more important things...

Like Salmon.

 

Today I'm going to tell you how to make a "Honey Mustard Brown Sugar Salmon."

 

It's a family favorite.

 

Even those members of our family who don't like seafood like this recipe.

So whether you are a seafood fan - or not - it's worth trying!

 

*This recipe is adapted from a separate salmon recipe (from allrecipes, I believe).

 

Anyways, here's our version.

 

Warning: I tend towards the "glug-glug cook" side, so the measurements are not exact.  Adjust it to your taste liking.

 

Ready?

 

Here's how you do it:

 

Get your approx. 1 pound of salmon (if frozen) and allow it to thaw in a zi.plock floating in a bowl of warm water.

 

Meanwhile, mix your sauce.

 

Sauce:

Approx. 1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar

Approx. 1/4-1/2 cup raw honey

" 1 Tbsp. Braggs amino acids

" 1 or 2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Liberal amount of ground black pepper

Approx. 1 Tbsp. Spicy Brown Mustard

 

Mix all that together in a small bowl with a spoon or spatula.

 

Grease a glass 9x13 and preheat your oven to 375*F.

 

Lay your slab(s) of salmon in the pan and score them deeply and parallel with a knife.  This will help the sauce to get into the salmon.

 

Now pour/spread the sauce on the salmon. 

Make sure you get sauce into the salmon where you scored it so that the flavor really gets into the salmon.

 

Bake at 375*F for 15-18 minutes, or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

~~

ISA

Zucchini Pizza

Tonight seemed like a good night for a healthy, tasty dinner.

Something with cheese maybe?

 

But what?

 

We had a large zucchini in the fridge, so I decided to search for a good zucchini recipe.

I found a recipe for "Zucchini Pepperoni Pizza" and settled on that.

Minus the pepperoni.

 

And Mmmmmmmmm was it good!

 

Want to try it yourself?

 

Here's how I did it:

Preheat oven to 400*f.

Get a large Zucchini, wash it, and cut it into flat slabs.

 

 

If you're making sausage pizza, get your frozen sausage out now and start browning it in a pan.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, place your zucchini slabs on a greased tinfoil covered cookie sheet.

Sprinkle slabs with salt, pepper and oregano.

 

 

Slide your zucchini into the oven and set timer for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

Now get out your pizza sauce and mozzarella or (cheese of choice). 

 

 The sausage should be fully browed by now.



After the 15 minutes is up, remove the zucchini from the oven. 

Top with sauce, cheese, and lastly sausage.

 

Slide it back into the oven for another 15 minutes or till cheese is melted/browned to your liking.

 

 

The finished product: 

 

 

 

What an awesome way to use those overgrown zucchini from your garden!

One zucchini easily feeds 4 people.

This turned out to be a quick, easy and delicious summer dinner.

 

So what are you waiting for? 

Go find yourself a monster zucchini and make yourself some pizza!!! :)

 

 

Buenas noches!

 

~

ISA

Coconut Chia Pudding

Today, I decided to put one of my Pinterest pins to good use! :)

I found the recipe for this healthy dessert on kitchenconfidante.com, though I omitted the sugar since our coconut milk was already sweetened.
And the idea of adding Mango was inspired by a separate pin.

Here's how I did it:

Coconut Chia Pudding

First, pour approx. 12oz of sweetened coconut milk in a glass and add 1/3 cup chia seeds.

Stir until well combined.

Place glass in fridge to chill.

Next, peel & cut 1 mango, and chill in fridge if desired.

Now wait 2-3 hours

(though I didn't wait quite that long)

for your chia seeds to expand.

Ta-dah!

Your pudding is finished!

Pour it into bowl(s), top with mango, and enjoy!

 

The finished product was delicious! 

It's like tapioca pudding, minus the dairy.

And the mango chunks added phenomenal flavor.  

 

 

 

 

 

G iordano's

And now, I'd like to give a plug for Chicago style deep dish pizza.

If you haven't had real deep dish pizza: you, my friend, are missing out.

The above pictured pizza was delicious.

G!ordano's stuffed cheese pizza.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I personally helped with the consumption process. :) 
 
 



 

Alex

And lastly, here's a picture from a month or so back of

Alex, a Silver Laced Polish rooster.  

A docile but noisy rooster.

I guess you could say "His crow is bigger than his bite." ;)

 

 

Hope you're having a splendid summer!

 

Muy sinceramente,

 

~

ISA

 

 

 

Lemon Tea

I don't know if it's is allergies or a cold, but I'm experiencing a bit of a runny nose/soar throat right now and, needless to say, I'm not particularly enjoying it.

But there are some good things about being sick.

If you're extremely sick (at the moment I'm not), you get to stay home and sleep in!

And no matter how sick you are, you can always drink Lemon Tea!!

That's my favorite soar throat remedy right now.
Lemon tea is so simple to make:
Hot water + fresh lemon juice + a spoonful of raw honey. 
And it's so warm and soothing. 
The steam is good for the sinuses and the lemon/honey soothes a soar throat.
True, it's not permanently soothing.  Which is why you might end up drinking cup after cup of "lemon tea".  But extra fluids can't hurt when your body is fighting a virus/cold/flu.
Just don't overdo it on the honey if you're gonna drink a bunch of tea.

So what else have I been up to?

Well a lot of things.

Hemming and hawing.  Planning.  Spending time with extended fam :)

Working.  Walking.  Staying up too late.

And as always, a little bit of cooking/microwaving... hehe.

Microwave Single Serving Brownie 

(Picture taken before microwaving).

This brownie was chocolate-y and delicious.

 

 

 Mexican Chip Dip

1 can Refried beans, (1 cup-ish) sour cream+taco seasoning, 1 can tomatoes with green chiles, and some shredded cheddar cheese.

Yummmmmmmmy.

 

 

 Microwave English Muffin pizza.

This was disgusting. 

I think that some things are worth taking the time to bake and follow a recipe, and it would seem pizza falls under this category. :P

 

 

 

Well, that's what I've been up to.

 

How about you?

 

Hope you are having a superb summer. 

 

Enjoy what's left of it, don't get sick, and if you do catch a cold- DRINK LEMON TEA! :]

 

¡Que le vaya bien!

 

~

ISABEL

A Quick Hello

Hello!

You thought I'd fallen off of the face of the earth, I bet?

Nope.  I'm still here!

I've just neglected my blog terribly.

Anyways, this is going to be a short post, cuz it's late and I don't have much time.

It's been a busy few months.

Hard to believe summer is here... how time flys!

So much to be thankful for.  God is good.

I want to introduce you to our little flock!

This short clip is all I'm gonna post for now.

Meet Gucci, Alex, Rhubarb, Tiffany, and Strudel!

Hello from the long lost Blogger

Hola amigos!

It's February!

And time marches on!

Weekend follows week which is followed by another week, etc.


It's in the midst of standard weekday mornings that I get lost in thought while going about the usual tasks.

I think about what needs to be done, and what I'll do first, second, third, etc.

I think about comparisons, like how the wax paper on a roll of stamps looks strikingly similar to the paper for "fruit r*ll ups".

And sometimes I think deep, profound thoughts- and I try to remember them. But it's hard to remember many details after a few busy hours.


So busy! 
Business makes time seem to fly!
And business can make one feel exhausted as ever!

So here's a verse for any of us who can relate to the feeling of busy exhaustion:
Galatians 6:9 (NASB) "Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."



And now, I leave you with a photo and a thought provoking question.

The photo?

A turkey at an intersection. 

(Yes, I took this picture:)

 

The question?

"Why did the turkey cross the road?"


~~
Isabel

Welcome to 2013 :)

Happy New Year!
Wow- has it really been a year since the start of 2012?
Time does fly!
Maybe I'll do a post about 2012 happenings.

Life has been busy, busy, BUSY!
I've been booking almost every free minute I can find,
But it's good to just sit and breathe now and then!

I havent made any New Years Resoltions yet.

We haven't gotten much snow this winter.
But while looking at the little bit we got, I was walking home the other day thinking about how it reminded me of a whole bunch of white dandilion blossoms blown all over the grass, nearly covering it!

It was a nice dream.


Random thoughts:
Isn't it a comfort to know that God has a plan for your life, and they're GOOD plans! :)
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Remember: God didn't promise that things wouldn't be complicated or hard.
But he promises to be with us through it all. We just gotta trust him.

In other news-
My deary sister just turned 17 in December!

Love ya Em.<3

I had a good Christmas. I hope you did too!
We had family over and had a fun time of catching up, enjoying delicious food, and playing games.

(Apples to Apples)

 

I'd love to tell you more about the holiday season happenings- but since it's getting late, I'll save it for another time!

Feliz Navidad, y Happy New Year!

Sinceramente,
~~
ISA