Snap Shots

This blog is just random pictures that I took when I just happen to carry my camera!  Here we are on a picnic close to the square in Bentonville.  It is just another park they have and my kids LOVE eating outside. It was a cooler day so we siezed it! 

 We did walk and Harry rode is bike!

 I never miss an opportunity to eat Table Mesa's salsa and chips!

 I am a big fan of our farmer's market! I also am a big fan of past times from my grandmother's house. I have mentioned before that I ate most of my dinners growing up out the coach's hospitality room or the consession stand. Those were never ever healthy. At grandmother's house she always cooked fresh veggies and veggies only tasted good at her house!  It was a mental thing!  Here is one of her simple meals I made this last week. You must snap the green beans and then cover them with water.  Add potatos and salt and cook all day long!  I just love that taste and the SMELL!

 This represents my kids so well!  Harry playing with weapons and Georgia Kelley in the books! Oh and a messy room!

 So, I am back on the green smoothie kick! I have been having one a day and in the smoothie I eat more greens than I normally do in a whole week!  Harry likes them too!  We call them Hulk drinks!  Georgia Kelley does not like them yet but loves the Isagenix shakes. Those shakes have a ridiculous amount of nutrience so I figure their even!  An easy recipe for a yummy smoothie is: a cup of spinach and mango with a little bit of ice and water.  It is shockingly delish! Another good one is spinach, pineapple, banana, and mango/blueberries!  Good stuff!

 I am so glad the whole family can play Trouble!  Harry is so goofy!

 Georgia Kelley's little personality is really blossoming! She loves to take things out and put them somewhere else! She is a big help with laundry! She cleans up anything that is spilled and loves to tell you what to do! We get told to "sit" and "book" quite a bit!  Not to mention "hold me" and "oovie"! 

Speaking of pasttimes, I am a big fan of lightening bugs and we live in a spec home without trees so, not lightening bugs! After church one night we hit Braums and then headed to a park to catch them!  It was so much fun! There were not as many as I had hoped.  We caught them like crazy at my grandmother's house last summer and I am sad we can't replicate the experience.

 Found them...now to grab them!

 1st one!

 Total of five!  YEAH!  We let them go at our house, we hope they will breed!

So much for a random look at what has been going on during the week the last two weeks!

New Year's Day Recipes

We had a some great food on New Year's Day if I do say so myself and since the recipes were shared with me, I feel I should share with you friends. You know if I make them, they are easy and low maintenance. These recipes are not just for New Year's Day they are for any day you want to make a quick meal. I struggle with time management and cooking is the the bottom of my list, like I have mentioned before the crock pot is my favorite invention!
Feel free to post your favorite recipes, it is always fun learning about new good recipes, saves the time of having to flip through a cookbook and crossing your fingers in hope that it is a good one!
Chad and I have a personal favorite, that he requests all the time, especially when the "boys" come over. It is called New Year's Eve Black Eyed Peas. I found the recipe from my best friend Lauren's sister's blog a long time ago, when I want to make it I search her blog for the recipe. I hope she doesn't care that I am putting her link on, it is so good I have to share! We eat it the first time with cornbread and the second time with chips. I have a batch frozen too!

Crock Pot Black Eyed Peas: secret ingredients are Louisiana Hot Sauce and Trappey's Tempero Pepper juice. Our good friends down the street, Trey and Darcy Fisher, gave us this recipe after we had dinner at our house! It is low budget yummy meal that is ready for you when you get home if you are planner, if not just make it in a pot and boil them for a long time! Here is the quick recipe:
Take dried black eyed peas or any dried bean (brown, northern, etc..) and let soak over night. Put them in the crock pot the next morning and cover with water about 3 inches. Add 2 pieces of bacon and a chopped onion. Then add a good amount of Louisiana Hot Sauce (we had a half a bottle, but make your own judgement, you can always add more later). Let them cook in the crock pot all day and then serve with a couple of teaspoons of the Tempera Pepper juice. You really can't beat this stuff!
We like to serve it with Broccoli Cornbread (I got the last recipe off the Internet, so not secret)!

Sausage Balls
Chad makes these, and he makes them PERFECT! It is a Ware house favorite.
1 lb sausage 1 lb shredded cheddar 3 cups Bisquick
Mix with hands and make in balls and bake 350 for about 10-15 minutes
Serve with BBQ sauce
You can't go wrong.

This next recipe is one of my favorites but, it is not extremely easy, but not hard either!
This is the Hick's House cheese dip. We back friends while eating this yummy spicy stuff!
I did not get permission to give out the recipe, but I can say, you will never make it as good as Matt or Holly, not matter how hard you try!
Take a stick of melted butter and mix it into a paste with 4 TBS of flour.
Add:
A few shakes of garlic salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp red pepper (i use Cheyenne)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 lb AMERICAN cheese (now this is they key ya'll) from the deli
In the microwave melt it with 2 cups of milk
Whisk until smooth
Once you go American you never go back to Velveeta!