Baby Shower, Nursery & My Creative Sister's Work

My sister, mom, nanny, Aunt Becky and Shauna all threw me an AMAZING baby shower in California. There were around 55 people and I felt so loved and blessed by everyone. It was truly amazing!!!! It couldn't have been any better. I will cherish that day forever!
I know it's cliche' but Truman's nursery has a vintage theme so my creative sister, Courtney, made all the decorations and art work for the baby shower. I then took it all home and have hung it in his nursery. She did such a FABULOUS job and I love every single piece. She did the definition of Truman, verses and quotes. I have to admit I cried when I read them. She is so talented!!!
So here are some photos of the baby shower, truman's nursery and my sister's artwork.

DIY Projects

It's been way too long since my last blog post. There's several more to come. Chet and I bought our first house in Kalispell and we've been remodeling it since October 3rd. Stay tuned for the crazy remodeling blog. Over the past couple months I've been re-staining furniture and working on things for the house. My Grandma gave Chet and I this awesome kitchen table and I re-stained it then put a coat of polyurethane to seal it. Now I need to find two kitchen chairs.

This dresser we got for free and I should have taken a before picture because the handles were so hideous looking but I removed the handles, stained it, put a coat of polyurethane over it and then put new handles that I bought at Lowes. Now it looks great for Tru's dresser/chaning table.

Lastly, I wanted something different as the main piece of decoration in our fmaily room and I remembered we had a pallet in our shop from when our countertops were delivered. So I got my stain out and stained the pallet and three pieces of leftover wood from our floors. Chet screwed in the wood floor pieces so there would be shelves for frames and such. It turned out great and I'm so happy with it. All of the staining I did with a heavy duty respirator mask so I'm not harming Truman inside my womb! :-)

Well there you go.....Three things refinished and it barely cost us anything.

Pear Butter Recipe

There are pear trees from the same property that we have all our apple trees. Chet had picked pears a couple weeks ago and I had them sitting on our counter for a while. I didn't know what to do with all of them and was about to throw them away when I got the idea I can make pear butter. It's very similar to making apple butter. 

So I started the lovely process of making pear butter and got a recipe from a family friend. I peeled and skinned 20 small pears, cut them up in quarter slices, cut out the core and seeds and let them cook in a big pot with a little bit of water. I cooked them for about 20 minutes until they were like moosh. Then I put them in my Ninja blender and blended until very smooth with no clumps. I put the pear sauce back in the pan and cooked them on low with 1/2 cup oranje juice, a little bit of nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon and three cups of sugar. I stirred occassionaly and cooked for another 30-40 minutes until the sauce was thick. 

In the meantime I boiled my mason jars amd lids to sterilize them. Once the pear butter was done I had to taste it, of course, and then put them in the mason jars, and placed them back in the bioling water to seal for about 10 minutes. And there you have it, homemade pear butter. I had some left over and refrigerated it and have been putting it on toast and even cottage cheese. It's so yummy! And works as a great gift. 

Applesauce and Canning

It’s that time of year…Fall! I love it even more now, because of the house we just bought. Chet and I bought our first house in Kalispell and it’s right in downtown and has tons of beautiful orange, yellow and red leaf trees. Another reason I love fall is because apples are ready to be picked. At the families apartment complex are tons of apple trees. We never knew there were fruit trees until two weeks ago, but now that we know it makes the backyard even better. We’ve gone picking several times and have given so many apples away. I made some delicious apple crumble pie, which I’ll have to write a separate blog about. The second thing I made was applesauce and Chet said it’s the best applesauce he’s ever had so I went to pick more. Well I had so much that I thought I might as well do some research online and learn how to can applesauce. So yesterday I peeled and cut all my apples, cooked them with water over the stove, mashed them, and then added some sugar and cinnamon and let it sit in the pan to stay warm. Meanwhile I boiled water and put the mason jars, including the lids, in the boiling water to sterilize them for 10 minutes. I then took them out with tongs and put applesauce in all the mason jars. I left ¼ in. on the top for room. I then sealed them tight and placed them in the boiling water for 20 minutes. Once that step was finished I took them out and pushed down on the top of each jar to make sure it didn’t make that popping sound. None of them did, which means they are canned properly. I enjoyed it so much and still have apples so I bought more mason jars at the grocery store today to do more canning this week. I definitely recommend doing this. It’s fun, very inexpensive and you’ll have applesauce all winter long and they even make good gifts!

Summers in Montana

Summers are always packed full, very busy but amazing at the same time.....because family comes! I had my brother, Christain, come for a week and it was awesome. We had so much fun doing all the outdoor activities. Then my dad, em and Lexi came the weekend Christian was here and we hiked, went on the boat at the lake and floated the river. It couldn't have been any better. Well, unless Court was here but she comes in just 8 days and I can't wait.
Then a week in a half later my mom and Ron came for a week and we filled it with tons of fun activities. One of which was finding out the sex of baby Todd and having a revealing dinner party. We went to my 19 week ultrasound appointment and the technician put it an envelope and that night Michelle wrapped the appropiate sex outfit and Chet and I opened the gift box and it was a BOY outfit! We are so happy and thrilled!!

Coconut Curry Chicken

So I repinned a recipe from my sister, on Pinterest, and I made it Monday night. It was amazing! I will totally make it again and I highly recommend it. The best part is its healthy and so easy to make. The only thing I didn't add from the list of ingredients is corn starch, but I did add two things they didn't have listed: bamboo shoots and green beans. The bamboo shoots were from a can and I just drained the water and put them in the last hour of cooking. Then I added the green beans about 45 minutes before it was finished. What I liked abut the recipe is you purée over half the ingredients and it makes a delicious sauce, then you throw everything in the crockpot and let it cook for 6 hours.

I forgot to take a picture of ours but we even had leftovers tonight and it seemed to taste even better!
http://www.sweettreatsmore.com/2012/10/slow-cooker-coconut-curry-chicken/

And here is the recipe from the website:

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken

Ingredients

2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, cut into cubes

5 large carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, peeled and quartered

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1 large bell pepper, seeded and chopped (I used a green pepper)

1 (5 oz ) can tomato paste

1 (14 oz) can coconut milk

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1 jalapeno, seeded and halved OR 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tbsp water

1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Instructions

Grease your slow cooker with Pam. Place the chicken and carrots on the bottom of slow cooker.

Place the rest of the ingredients (except water and corn starch) in a food processor and process together until mixture is mostly smooth. ***If your food processor is too small to hold everything, process everything but the coconut milk. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl then mix in the coconut milk.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and carrots, mix well, then cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.

An hour or so before serving, mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved. Pour mixture into the slow cooker, stir to combine, and continue cooking for another hour. **This will thicken up the sauce. When the sauce is to your desired thickness, turn slow cooker to warm setting until ready to serve.

Serve over rice, with Naan, and garnish with cilantro.

Zucchini Lasagna

Last night I made zucchini lasagna and it was so good! We had leftovers tonight and I totally recommend it. The great part is there's no noodles so you save a lot of calories by replacing it with zucchini.
Here is the link to the website: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/zucchini-lasagna.html

And here is the recipe straight from the website:
Zucchini Lasagna
Skinnytaste.com 
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1/8 • Old Points: 8 pts • Points+: 9 pts
Calories: 345 • Fat: 17 g • Carbs: 16 g • Fiber: 2 g • Protein: 36 g • Sugar: 8 g
Sodium: 801 (without salt) 

Ingredients:  

• 1 lb 93% lean beef
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper - I used garlic salt
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick
• 15 oz part-skim ricotta
• 16 oz part-skin mozzarella cheese, shredded (Sargento)
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 large egg

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, brown meat and season with salt. When cooked drain in colander to remove any fat. Add olive oil to the pan and saute garlic and onions about 2 minutes. Return the meat to the pan, add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Simmeron low for at least 30-40minutes, covered. Do not add extra water, the sauce should be thick.

Meanwhile, slice zucchini into 1/8" thick slices, add lightly salt and set aside or 10 minutes. Zucchini has a lot of water when cooked, salting it takes out a lot of moisture. After 10 minutes, blot excess moisture with a paper towel.

On a gas grill or grill pan, grill zucchini on each side, until cooked, about 1-2 minutes per side. Place on paper towels to soak any excess moisture.

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl mix ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese and egg. Stir well. 


In a 9x12 casserole spread some sauce on the bottom and layer the zucchini to cover. Then place some of the ricotta cheese mixture, then top with the mozzarella cheese and repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up. Top with sauce and mozzarella and cover with foil.

Bake 45 minutes covered at 375°, then uncovered 15 minutes. Let stand about 5 - 10 minutes before serving.