A light, but sweet Spring/Summer dessert!

Strawberry Lemonade Shortcake

I got this really easy & yummy dessert idea from Little Birdie Secrets. I found it through pinterest & tried it the very next day! 

              

  Ingredients: 

1 can of Lemon Creme pie filling

  Fresh strawberries

  Fat free whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix and pie filling together until well blended. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Cut cake into 12 squares. Top each piece with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. 

The best part is that it only has 240 calories and less than 1 gram of fat per serving!

Everyone loved it! I couldn't find Lemon CREME Pie filling so I just used a can of Lemon Pie filling. I also like to sprinkle sugar on my cut strawberries and let them sit for a little while before assembling the desserts... so that probably adds some calories, but it was delicious! 

Soccer Season begins...

This past Saturday was my son's first soccer game of the season. Keenan did great! He scored a goal, his team won... but what's more important is that he had so much fun! I could tell how excited he was before the game even began. I love seeing that smile on his face. I'm so glad that he enjoys a sport since my husband and I are NOT athletic people at all. haha

Here he is standing in line for soccer drills before the game started: 

As the game started, his little sister grabbed this flag she found and 

waved it around like a little cheerleader. It was too cute!

My boy in action - I am  SO proud of him!

What's for Dinner?

Tonight, I tried out a recipe from a sweet Facebook buddy named Mary. She started an awesome recipe exchange for our area that you can check out here. (Feel free to join, even if you are not local.) By the age of 25, you would think I'd have tried baked spaghetti before, but this was a first... and it was delicious!

Baked Spaghetti

1 lb spaghetti noodles
1 lb ground beef/turkey/pork (whichever you choose, seasoned the way you want)
1 tsp. oregano or Italian seasoning (dried is fine)
1 large jar spaghetti sauce
1 -8 oz package mushrooms
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, grated
1 can tomato paste
1 -16 oz container ricotta cheese
2 -8 oz containers grated mozzarella cheese

Cook spaghetti just until al dente. While the spaghetti is cooking, brown the ground meat along with the oregano, garlic, onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Once done, mix the ground meat mixture with the cooked spaghetti. Add the sauce and tomato paste. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat-add ricotta cheese and stir. Add 1 package of shredded or grated mozzarella cheese-mix. Pour mixture into greased 9 x 13 casserole dish. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and add other package of mozzarella cheese to the top. Place back into the oven, and bake or broil until the cheese is browned.

This is really good served with a Caesar salad and fresh garlic bread!

The only thing I omitted was the mushrooms since my husband can't stand those. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and had enough to fill a 9x13 pan and an 8x8 pan. Luckily, this seems like it will make really awesome leftovers!

A New Baby!

No, we are not expecting - we got a new pet... a sweet orange kitten that we named Archer. I saw a lady on Facebook post that she had a kitten in need of a good home & fell in love with his picture. He's about 6 weeks old, super playful and the kids love him! (John and I do too!)

1st Post

Why did I decide to start a blog?

Good question.  Well, I’m not a big talker. I don’t know why – it’s just always been easier for me to write my thoughts. And over the last few okay, six! years it has gotten harder and harder to find time/motivation to journal. In fact the only “writing” I’ve done in the past year has either been on a grocery list or inside of a birthday card… and even those usually end up looking like this after a few minutes, compliments of my 2 year old:

So, bear with me as I get accustomed to this new world of blogging – I can barely keep up with the blogs that I read, so you may want to wish me luck, too! I’ll do my best not to bore anyone. (no promises) 

What will I be talking about?

I may as well start with things I am passionate about. #1 of course, is being a mama. I have two cute little munchkins that are always keeping me on my toes. I have a little boy in kindergarten, & I will be starting to homeschool him in the fall. I’m sure I’ll be talking a great deal about this new adventure for our family, too.  I also have a sweet little girl who will be turning 2 soon (yikes!) so this should be a fun stage to cover with her.  Other than that, I love to plan parties and make crafts so look out for fun projects in the future! Here we go…