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Faith, Family, Food, Fun

Stick With Love

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Today is the official LAST day of winter break.

I told the kids last night that they were going to be fed, bathed, teeth brushed, books read, excuses for more milk done and IN bed tonight at 7:45.

Watch me.

I am NOT looking forward to tomorrow morning…

With that negativity out of the way, I must say that we had a nice, family weekend to say goodbye to the past three and a half carefree weeks.

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While my car was being serviced in Lawndale on Saturday morning, we all piled into Jay’s Jeep Wrangler and headed due west to the Manhattan/Hermosa Beach area and searched for a breakfast joint. We settled on Brother’s Burritos and were pleased with the casualness and local vibe at this little place. The kids shared Hawaiian Bread French Toast squares…

I was bad and had the egg, avocado, bacon and jalapeño burrito with spicy salsa. We ended up not eating lunch so I didn’t feel so bad.

After breakfast we let the kids play on the beach for a bit to kill time. Jay shot some great pics ~ it was overcast and a bit cloudy ~ perfect picture taking conditions.

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The fam also took a last minute trip into Hollywood for an appointment yesterday afternoon and then ended up at a new {to us} sushi restaurant right in our own backyard here in Valencia ~ Sushi One. Yelp gave it great reviews so we gave it a try. Jay and I shared a Sapporo and some rolls and the kids devoured the bulgogi {Korean beef} and steamed rice! Here they are with their after dinner lollipops…

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The kids played dress up and came up with this concoction:

Reminded Jay and me of LMFAO ~ the hair. Love it!

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Trying to be better at meal planning…cuts down on a lot of problems like not knowing what’s for dinner at 5:00pm, unnecessary trips to the market and going over budget on groceries.

I decided to keep it easy with familiar/already tried recipes this week since it will no doubt be hectic trying to get back into the swing of things routine-wise.

Here’s what will be on our table this week…

Monday : Half of a grilled beer can chicken {Jay’s off today so he can grill}, zucchini fries and TJ’s Harvest Grains blend {Israeli couscous, orzo, baby garbanzo beans & red quinoa}

Tuesday : Chopped taco salad with spicy sour cream ranch

Wednesday : Moo shu pork burgers w/ fruit salad

Thursday : other half of the grilled chicken in soft taco form with roasted butternut squash

Friday : Leftover moo shu pork burgers & tbd side dish

*****

I hope you had a splendid 3-day weekend {dreaming} of equality and kindness.

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~ the brilliant Martin Luther King, Jr.

Family, Feathered Nest, Fiestas & Fetes, Flip Flops On The Rocks, Food, Friends, Fun

100 & 3

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Today is special for a couple of reasons…

We celebrated Holden’s 3rd birthday.

This is my 100th post.

I’ve been at this blog thing for almost 4 months now and already at 100 entries. Wow! I didn’t think I had that much to say!

I’m having a lot of fun with it and am looking forward to the next 100! If I stay at this rate, we will be at 200 around the first day of Summer. Another reason to celebrate.

Speaking of celebrations, today we had a houseful of astronauts, robots, martians and aliens. Hard to believe my little space cadet is already THREE.

This was Holden when the guests started arriving:

Oops!

It was a BLAST! (pun intended)

Thanks again to all our little astronaut friends for coming to our planet for an afternoon of fun!

Below are a few recipes and links to the extra terrestrial eats:

For the “taco bar” I just browned up a couple packages of ground turkey and chopped onion and added 2 envelopes taco seasoning and a little water. I set out crunchy shells and small flour tortillas with all sorts of toppings lined up ~ shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, mango peach salsa, sour cream, jalapeño rings, cilantro lime corn salsa & guacamole. Everyone created their own taco masterpieces ~ super easy!

Battlestar Bean Dip

2 cans Campbell’s Bean soup with bacon

1 pint sour cream

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then transfer to an oven safe dish. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with Fritos Scoops or your fave tortilla chips. (Another yummy recipe from Melanie Corona!)

Pineapple Limeade (AKA Solar System Citrus Punch)

Midori Martian Margaritas

Cosmic Cake

Layered Cupcakes

Alien/Martian Sugar Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix

McCormick NEON food coloring

1 small container (12 oz.) white/vanilla prepared frosting

Gingerbread man cookie cutter

“Red Hots” candies

Prepare cookies as directed on package for “cutout cookies”. Roll out dough, as directed, and cut out with cookie cutter. Place only about 8 cookies at a time on cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes @ 350. Let cool and then frost with lime green frosting.

Lime green frosting:

I used about 25-30 drops of the green in one small (12 oz.) container of frosting. Frost cookies and then add Red Hots candies for the eyes!