Polka-Dotty Place: H54F

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Friday, June 21, 2024

Friday Five

Happy Friday, Friends! It's been BUSY overe here so I am doing a quick Friday 5 post today.

Five highlights from our week and a lot of blog catch up work coming soon!

1. Florida Fun. We just got back from the best trip to Naples, FL. It's one of our favorite places. The weather was rainier than usual (record breaking rain the first two days!) BUT we got to swim every day, tried some new things, hit our favorite spots and enjoyed a week of extra family time.

2. My pots of flowers are bursting with blooms! I learned the best tip recently. If you are leaving on a trip and having someone water plants for you (thanks, Dad!), move your full sun plants out of the full sun for the week. I pulled all my patio pots into a line right up against our house. They still got sun, but weren't being roasted when I wasn't home to water them daily.

I am really proud because I planted these from seeds and I can't wait for them to bloom! Kristen, Your Zinnia seeds seem so happy here! Along with some wildflowers.

3. Surprise centerpiece. We hosted some friends for dinner this week and Kevin surprised me with fresh flowers for the table. He knows the table looks nice with a small bouquet and he guessed red flowers since I tend to do red, white and blue all Summer long. I asked him how he knew that I hadn't already bought flowers for the table. He said that since I did grocery pick up for the meal, he knew I wouldn't order flowers for the table that way. He was right. And so thoughtful! It helped pull together a perfectly pretty table.

4. It's good to be home! Any time Leo sees something with writing on it, he says "This says Leo on it!" claiming it as his. These binoculars had a product label on them and he was sure that it said LEO marking them his.

Our Midwest sunsets have been extra pretty this week!

5. Bucee's Banana Pudding. We visited Bucees a couple of times on our trip to Florida and I'm here to tell you: Get the Banana Pudding for dessert after you finish a pulled pork sandwich. They're both delicious. And you won't find a cleaner bathroom and gas stop. It's not the easiest or fastest stop to navigate with all the people, but it's an iconic travel must do if you're heading anywhere in the South.

Happy weekend! I hope you have a fabulous one. See you back here next week!

Friday, August 30, 2019

6 Easy Dinners to Deliver

Happy Friday!! Hope you've had a nice weekend and have a 3 day weekend ahead. We're excited for a long weekend and hoping to do some fun stuff around town. See you back here on Tuesday.

If you've been around here for very long, you know that I really enjoy delivering dinner to families in need. Sometimes I take meals to friends, neighbors, church members, classmates of Olive's, etc. I'm always listening for needs to be mentioned and then taking the initiative to offer to deliver dinner.

I'm not a gourmet cook that feels super confident making new recipes. I am just a regular home cook that loves cooking for other people. Have you ever listened to Amy Hannon (@eunamaes on instagram) talk about her mission of Love, Welcome, Serve and biblical hospitality? She's very inspiring when it comes to sharing your love of cooking with others.

I wanted to round up 6 meals ideas today to give you some easy, approachable recipes that you can make for your own family and are really portable recipes to share. Oftentimes I make double the recipe so my family has the same meal that I am delivering to a friend. Makes my life easier to just double the recipes and not meal prep two separate meals.

I try to deliver the following things: main dish, bread/sides, veggies, fruits and a dessert.

1. Charcuterie Board To Go
It's no surprise that I combined my love of charcuterie boards with delivering dinner. This was such an easy meal to put together. The meats required no chopping. I did chop two blocks of cheese. The fruit and veggies were really quick. I opted for baking some frozen Sister Shubert rolls vs homemade because I am not a bread baker.

meat & cheese
salty crackers/chex mix
Sister Shubert rolls
veggies & fruits
pumpkin cookies

2. Teriyaki Chicken Casserole
Remember when I shared this recipe earlier this month?? It was a big hit at my house and with my friends. She said her family said it was just as good as their favorite Tokyo restaurant in town :) I loved this no bake, healthy-ish casserole. It's so portable, colorful and delicious.

3. BBQ Chicken Quesadillas
This meal came together so quickly! I picked up everything I needed at Aldi - cherries, sweet potato chips, pulled chicken bbq, tortilla shells and shredded cheddar. I heated the chicken on the stove, made the quesadillas on the stove and delivered everything else right from the store. I did a mix of cheese and bbq chicken quesadillas so there was something for everyone. This meal was delicious. I"ll be repeating it for our family and to deliver to friends.

4. Pasta Dishes
Pasta dishes always rank high on my list when I am looking for a meal to take to others. I've made baked spaghetti, stuffed pasta shells, mostacelli, pizza spaghetti, regular spaghetti, alfredo, etc. There are tons of options. The pasta dishes travel well and reheat well for leftovers. I added steamed veggies, bananas, french bread and cookies. Everything was fully cooked and I left instructions for reheating it all in the oven. I didn't have time to cut up fruit so I sent bananas along with this meal.

5. Take Out
Text your friends when you hear that they are sick or their kids are sick or that they could use a meal and ask them to give you their order for a take out place in town. I've done this for Panda Express, Pizzas and Chick-Fil-A. It was so easy for me to swing through a drive through and order them exactly what their family wants. My friends appreciated this just as much as meals I spent time preparing in my own kitchen. So if you're not a cook or don't have time to fix a dinner, just remember you can still take care of others and bring them a drive through or take out dinner.

6. BBQ Chicken/Cheese Pizzas
Remember how I've mentioned loving those naan flatbreads from Aldi?? They make the best pizza crusts. I delivered this meal to a friend with mac & cheese, oranges and Snickerdoodles. I made cheese pizzas for the kids and BBQ Chicken Pizzas for the kids. This is my BBQ chicken pizza recipe. I made the toppings the same and just subbed out the raw pizza crust for the naan flatbread pizza crusts.

Hope you found a new meal idea or two that you could share with friends this Fall!

What meals do you like to make when you take dinner to someone??

It's time to link up with my favorite blogging buddies for High Five for Friday. Join us with a few different blog posts and be sure to look around to find some new blog friends

Becky @ By BMG Blog
Della @ Della Devoted
Tif @ Bright on a Budget
Whitney P @ Come Home for Comfort

This link party is powered by Link Party Animal

Friday, August 16, 2019

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

Happy Friday!! I had a different post planned for you for today, but then I ended up making a new recipe for dinner last night that I had to share right away. It was easy, healthy and so good!

I know casseroles get a bad wrap. And I just don't understand it. I love casseroles! I live with a man who does not love them which means that I've had to get creative over the years. Swap out the really heavy, creamy, soupy casseroles, for colorful, fresh ones and he's a fan.

I came across this Teriyaki Chicken Casserole on Pinterest and was inspired to make my own version. We all enjoyed this casserole! All the veggies are really chunky so it's easy to pick out anything you don't love. It's also really tasty so kids and adults will enjoy it. It is the perfect meal to deliver to a friend. It travels so well and reheats well. I doubled the recipe and made one for us and one for a friend.

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole

3 cups cooked white rice
3-4 chicken breasts
soy sauce
teriyaki sauce
olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 chunk of fresh ginger
Salt and pepper
1 bag Deluxe Stir Fry Vegetables
1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets
1/4 bag match stick carrots
1 yellow onion

To save myself some time, I did the chicken breasts in the crockpot the day before. I just added frozen chicken breasts and about a 1/4 of a bottle of teriyaki sauce. Cooked on high for 6 hours, removed from crock pot and refrigerated. They were ready to shred the next day.

Cook the rice and line your pan with it.

Add a drizzle of soy sauce over all the rice.

While your rice is cooking, sautee your frozen veggies. I added all the veggies in together with a generous drizzle of olive oil. Once they were browned, I sprinkled a little sauce sauce on top.

While the rice and veggies are cooking, go ahead and start the sauce. Mince 2 cloves of garlic and one chunk of ginger, salt and pepper and olive oil in a pan. Heat it up and then add in the remainder of the teriyaki sauce from the bottle. Shred your chicken and add it into the sauce. Let it sit until it's ready to assemble.

Layer all the ingredient into the casserole dish and gently stir. Serve with soy sauce.

There are so many ways you can personalize this for your family! Change up the meat, switch to brown rice, change up the veggies to your family favorites, etc. I just love this casserole and will be making it again very soon!

It works great in a glass pan for home and a disposable pan for dropping off dinner to a friend!

Would your family like this??

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Friday, August 9, 2019

Healthy Choices Add Up: New Goals & Veggie Packed Recipes

I am kicking off the school year with a renewed healthy focus for myself. Life got busy in the Summer with the kids home and I let some things slide. I found myself feeling sluggish. It's hard enough to get back into the early morning routine of school so I knew I needed to make some other changes to be the best me.

New school year = new healthy goals for myself!

Anyone else feeling like they need a mid year restart?!?! Here are my goals:

1. Drink water all day
I don't drink any carbonated drinks. Never have. So my focus is really just paying attention to my water intake and picking water first as my beverage choice.

2. Eat real food
Buy less processed foods and focus on eating more veggies as snacks and with meals.

3. Exercise daily
Bike, walk, run, swim, play with my kids, etc. Something every day.

4. Be more mindful of when/what I'm eating
I say this because I am definitely a late night snacker. I stay up until 12:30ish most nights and it's so easy to mindlessly snack away the hours after the kids go to bed.

What healthy goals are you working on right now?

I thought it would be fun to see some recipe ideas for adding more veggies into my daily foods. None of them are complicated and they're all delicious.

Egg + Veggie Frittata
This is my favorite thing to meal prep for easy lunches all week long. Chop, roast and bake one day and then you've got 4-5 easy meal options. I usually eat a hearty slice of it for lunch.

I change this recipe up every time I make it. I just add in whatever veggies I have on hand that week. I'll give you the recipe I made this time in a 9x9 pan. I've also used loaf pans. I think the loaf pan version is my favorite, but this square pan worked, too.

14 scrambled eggs
yellow and purple onion
sweet peppers
2 big handfuls of spinach
1/2 an avocado
2 sweet potatoes
turkey sausage crumbles
olive oil
feta cheese
Montreal Steak Seasoning

Roast veggies first with olive oil and seasoning at 400 for 20 minutes. I put all veggies on the pan together. The onions and peppers will be done first at around 20 minutes. The sweet potatoes take more like 30 minutes and do best when you stir them around a time or two.

Chop up spinach and avocado.

Start layering in a greased dish. I usually just do one layer of each veggie, but I had a ton of spinach. I did two layers of spinach and one layer of most other things.

Add scrambled eggs on top last. I started out with 8 scrambled eggs, but had to go up to 14 to cover all the veggies!

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and check. It looked pretty good, but the center was still liquidy.

I bumped the temp down to 325 and continued to bake for another 15 minutes until everything was set.

I let it cool and refrigerated it for the week. I sliced 4-5 large pieces for lunch. It's so good!

Veggie Packed Salads:
I try to keep baby spinach on hand because it lasts so much longer than mixed greens. I buy a big tub at Aldi or Sams. If I have leftover spinach, I'll freeze it for smoothies before it goes bad.

Veggie Packed Stir Fry:
I made this for a super quick dinner one night. Ramen noodles, TONS of veggies with a little stir fry sauce on it and then added in some shredded chicken. I kept everything separate so we could build our own bowls based on our preferences. We all liked this meal.

Crunchy Veggies:
My whole family loves crunchy veggies so I work them into our lunches and dinners as sides.

Taco Veggie Bake:
We all love Mexican food. It's so easy to make and my whole crew likes it. I made this stuffed pepper bake for the adults and the kids enjoyed soft tacos. Same meat and toppings for both. But giving them options for how things were combined made it work for everyone.

I quartered sweet peppers, topped them with seasoned taco meat and then all the veggies - onions, more peppers, tomatoes, olives, avocados, cheese, etc. We added sour cream, lettuce and salsa to our plates as toppings. I ate a few chips which worked out better than a whole plate of nacho chips that I might have eaten before.

Now I'm starving!! Haha

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!

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Friday, July 26, 2019

The Best Parts: Loads of Family Fun

It's the final weeks of Summer and we're busy doing a mix of relaxing, enjoying our time off together and getting out to do fun things! It is really fun to be able to stay up late and play outside. Kevin's still working/teaching/counseling/researching all summer long, but his schedule is a little less busy. We enjoy the extra time with him and went out of our way this week to celebrate our family's birthday (our anniversary) with the whole family.

The best parts of our week were:

I booked one of our favorite babysitters for a surprise date night on our anniversary. I also booked reservations at one of the nicest restaurants in town as another surprise. Kevin loved both And speaking of things I LOVE... let's talk about this shirt dress. It's from Time and Tru from WAL-MART!! It was under $20 and I get so many compliments on it. And it has POCKETS. I can't wait to check out the Fall Time and Tru line.

Kevin surprised me with roses. Lots of roses. He came home on Tuesday with 2 dozen hot pink roses from the grocery store. They were gorgeous and so affordable. Yay! Then he came home on Wednesday with 2 dozen light pink roses. I mixed the bouquets to recreate our wedding flowers and put them in our fanciest wedding gift vases. They're just gorgeous!!

We went to a local arcade for some half price fun on Tuesdays.

We had several cool days to go on family walks after dinner.

Olive and I have been working hard on photographing, researching, reading, writing and learning all about butterflies this week. There are so many hanging out in our yard this time of year. It's been such a fun project to do with her. Stay tuned for more details on our butterfly unit.

We went to Stables Steakhouse for dinner. Everything is horse themed and it was so fun! The food was amazing. The booths (in horse stalls) were so cozy. I think it's our new favorite spot.

I love living near a college campus! We really enjoy walking through ISU's campus. It's so pretty!

We've been checking out new parks around town. The kids like to say they're training to be American Gladiators.

These are Fletcher's favorite shoes. I stopped in Family Dollar to pick up crayons that were on sale. They were all sold out so we started exploring the store. These cute sandals were regular priced $5 and marked down to $3.50. We bought them and loved them so much that I went back to buy a back up pair for this Summer and the next size up for next summer. He can put them on himself, they're great for wide feet, they're so cute and comfy. They come in white, blue and pink.

We had some really warm weather earlier in the week which kept us looking for all the indoor fun. Our children's museum has a really fun space exhibit. The kids got to talk to people from NASA and hold a meteor rock.