April Recipes

I try very hard to not cook the same things over and over.  Of course we have our family favorites, but I also enjoy cooking new things.  I try to cook something new each week.  In the past, I have subscribed to many cooking magazines to get new ideas.  I would tear out recipes that interested me.  Just recently I create a new organized way to store and save these recipes.  You can read about that here - Recipe Binder.  Now I have Pinterest :) The nice thing about Pinterest is I don't have to print off the recipes.  I can pin them to my boards and quickly access them on my iPad when I am meal planning and cooking.  Here are my recipe boards if you want to take a look:
                               Yummy Snacks                                   Slow Cooker
                               Delicious Desserts                                Soups
                               Drinks                                                  Daily Dinners
                               Good Morning Breakfast                     Lunches

So here are the new recipes that I tried this month.

Peanut Butter Fruit Dip:  This dip was amazing!  I am trying to set a good example for you daughter and to eat healthier, which includes eating more fruit.  This dip helped to jazz up eating a plain apple.  

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings:  This is made in the slow cooker which I love.  I enjoy being able to put dinner in the slow cooker in the morning and have it waiting for me when I get home from work.  I have always liked chicken and dumplings, but have never found one that measures up to to the Banquet Frozen Chicken and Dumplings that I had as a child.  This came pretty close.  

Spicy Tomato Basil Soup:  Nothing beats a nice warm soup on a chilly day.  You won't think we would have chilly days in April, but it seems to be taking Spring a while to appear in Wisconsin.  This soup was really easy to make and was delicious.  I made a double batch and frozen some for another day.

Pepperoni Roll:  This is going to be a new family favorite.  We love pizza.  We could probably eat it every day so it is nice to find new way to serve the taste of pizza.  It is again very easy and quick to make on a busy week night.  The recipe uses frozen bread dough that you have to let rise.  To save on time, I use a tube of pizza dough instead.

Family Calendars

It seems like every day my family is getting busier and busier and it is only my husband, my two-year-old daughter and myself.  I can only imagine what it is going to be like with more kids or when my daughter gets to school.  I help know what is going on each day and to kept myself organized, I have fallen in love with Google Calendar.

I first started using Google Calendar at school when we switched from Outlook to Google Apps for Education.  First you are going to need a gmail account.  Then creating calendars is very simple.  Each calendar's events are given a different color so when you are viewing multiple calendars, you can use the color coding to help you stay organized.  I have created several different calendars that are color coded such as bills, birthday and anniversary, home, and work.  These are my personal calendars that I currently don't share with anyone.  

When I discovered how easy it was to share calendars with others, that is when I took off with it.  Currently, I have a family calendar that I share with my husband.  We both can add events to this calendar that will affect us as a family.  For example, if I have a meeting at work and my husband needs to get our daughter from day care, this appears on the calendar.  My husband shares his calendar with me so I know when he has meetings, needs to work late, etc.  

What I love about Google Calendar is the fact that I can access my calendars from anywhere.  I can view them on my iPad, Kindle Fire, and my Android phone.  Google Calendar also has a feature where it will email you every morning your daily agenda.  When I get to work, the first thing I do is check my email.  It is great to easily see what is going on that day.  You can also set it up so Google Calendar will send you reminders either as a pop-up or as an email for important events.  

If you are looking for a calendar to use to help organize all of you family events, give Google Calendar a try. You will not be disappointed.     

Master Bedroom Makeover

So the time has come!  With the help of my mother, I completely redid my master bedroom in one day!  I explained about the planning process here.

Here are the before and after pictures.  Enjoy!