Spinach is good.

One of my New Years goals was to eat fresh and not waste. I'm proud to say I used a whole costco size bag of spinach without wasting ANY! Where did it all go? Now you will know! 

Easy pasta dinner! 

Pasta 

Bell peppers 

Fresh Spinach 

Chicken ( cubed, shredded, chopped, doesn't matter) 

Basil 

Mozzarella 

 (optional: crushed red pepper)

 Cook pasta 

Saute precooked chicken cubes in olive oil and basil 

Add chopped bell peppers and then Add spinach last 

**(if chicken isn't cooked already, just cut up and pan fry first before adding veggies, i just had some boiled chicken left over) 

~add dash of crushed red pepper if u want for a lil kick maybe a dash of salt to your own taste 

 Put on top of pasta and then add shredded mozzarella cheese on top!  

Taaada! Super tasty and easy dinner. Honestly i thought i was eating at an Italian restaurant for a second.  

Other add ins that might be good  -avocado -mushrooms - eggplant - zucchini? 

 Another variation of it that was amazing was this: 

Pork cubed/sliced into small pieces and seasoned with Montreal steak seasoning  

Can of Cream of mushroom

bell peppers

spinach 

(no basil or mozzarella cheese)

BUT MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE is...

frozen banana

Spinach

milk

natural peanut butter

(tastes like a milk shake) 

I've also put spinach in any other smoothie type drink, made salmon cakes with spinach, mashed potatoes, eggs...it can pretty much go in ANYTHING.

one more I remembered I made:

Spinach Tortellini Salad

Tortellini (cheese)

Portuguese sausage

spinach

olives

shredded cheese

Spinach just makes me feel better about anything I make with it pretty much. 

capturing memories in sand- or just salt dough ornaments

Just to solidify some more memories for Roxi, my good friend Kiley and her baby Ellie came over to make salt dough ornaments! We did hand prints, foot prints and then some other little designs. Getting the girls to open their hands was trickier than we expected and we snuck the footprints while they napped! We really liked the final product because they look like prints in SAND! and they smelled like cinnamon rolls! Heres the recipe we used:

1 cup salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup luke warm water 

Cinnamon 

we mixed it all up, rolled some out, made our prints and baked at 200 degrees until they were hard. Easy right? 

To decorate, I tried spray painting, some nail polish, and even just permanent markers. 

Perfect gifts for the grandparents, (made us look like legit moms) and the perfect personal touch to the driftwood christmas tree! not to mention easy on the pocket book.

I did notice that with the humidity here and the rain storms we experienced they softened up and were kind of fragile. But they dried out again before I stored them away. 

Christmas Cheer!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This was my second Christmas in Hawaii and our first holiday season as THREE! Last year I lacked the motivation to exercise my holiday spirit. Having a baby kicked me into gear! I'm responsible for facilitating her first memories (or at least first pictures that she can look back at)...EEK. For me that was enough to make me try and establish some of our own traditions (which is hard sometimes!) well technically they are not traditions yet because we've only done them one year, but I hope they stick. 

My first item of decor was a christmas tree made of drift wood from the beach.  

Our apartment is quite small, so a tree in the house was out of the question. So this 3 foot door hanging tree was perfect.  In Germany (where my parents are currently serving a mission, and we spent Christmas 2 years ago) the tradition is to decorate the tree on Christmas Eve. So, Des, Roxi and I walked down to Hukilau beach Christmas Eve morning and while Des was off roading with Roxi with the stroller in the sand, I collected our wood! 

At home I drilled holes down the center of each piece and threaded some rope through. Then decorated it with homemade salt dough ornaments! (Will post on that soon). I topped it off with a star fish a friend snagged for me in the freebie bin!

The final product was beyond satisfying, and I couldn't stop looking at it! I like the idea of decorating for christmas, but I want it to be my style. not red and green puke all over my house. I was sad to take it down, but set the wood free at it's proper home just the other day. =) I can't wait to make another one next year! Perfect Christmas Cheer!

As for the BIG morning, Roxi had plenty gifts to open and stayed awake for the entire gift giving extravaganza and Des' parents house. (After 8 am church of course)  

New Stroller

Fancy Christmas dress, Thanks Grandma Nona!

built in teether bow =)

Another Christmas Dress, Thanks Grandma Colleen!

New Year

2012 looks promising. Our theme for the year is FRESH and LESS!! 

FRESH: more fresh foods (less processed), more fruits, veggies and more water. better health! 

LESS: less waste, less junk, edit, SIMPLIFY, eliminate excess, and budget!

here's one of the inspirations for the LESS goal. watch this video

http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html

Roxi rang in the new year with some new choppers

and can now sit up alone

Now 5 1/2 months, where did the time go? You will soon know as I continue to post!