Cool Link To Check Out!

Just wanted to share a cool website with everyone - it will take years to explore all the links and articles but looks like some awesome stuff! Enjoy! Thanks to my friend Ann for sending this one to me - I love it!

http://oldfashionedliving.com

Pizza Dough

How could one get excited about pizza dough or any dough for that matter - dough? Really? Yes...I love making bread of all types, the smell of the dough, watching it rise, the olive oil coating the bowl and getting on my hands - it's a great moisturizer actually! So here's a gorgeous bowl of pizza dough that I threw together on Friday - we would have pictures of the pizza too but - well it got eaten to quickly!

Pizza #1
Mozzarella cheese, black olives, mushrooms with red sauce

Pizza #2
Mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and olives, red sauce also...

Pizza #3
Homemade pesto sauce, mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, red peppers and feta cheese

Cooking as Therapy?

You ever have one of THOSE days? A day when you'd just rather be ALONE? That happened to me and, well, as a stay at home Mommy with kids that don't go to full time school yet? Yaaaah, not gonna happen. That was my Thursday last week - ugh. No idea why, just a plain old bad day emotionally and physically wth? That is so NOT me!

Well the day progressed and I decided to cheer myself up I'd cook up something fantastic for dinner and use my "new" pasta bowl purchased at the Thrift store for 6 bucks! I'll blog more about that obsession later - I could Thrift store shop ALL DAY and be in seventh Heaven - bonus for our budget is that I NEVER break the bank haha....

So here's the new pasta bowl....and then there it is filled with a recipe I created..."Greek Pasta" and much to my delight it was good! Have you ever been in a bad mood and even what you cooked totally sucked? Not the case on my bad gloomy Thursday ~ much to everyone's relief! I think they were afraid it might be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that night. I basically just used stuff I already had in the house - then again I keep some rather interesting things around so it's usually easy for me to pull something off the wall together...

I don't usually include amounts unless I'm baking - I am the kind of cook that puts "some of this and some of that" just put in what looks good for the amount!
Chicken - about 2 breasts, cut up into small pieces
Onion and Garlic - chopped
Artichoke Hearts - I used marinated ones - cut into pieces
Black Olives (Greek ones would have been better)
Mushrooms
Feta and Parmesan Cheese
Pasta of your choice - any type would work

Saute the chicken in olive oil, salt and pepper to taste -set aside
Saute the onion in olive oil and then add the artichoke hearts, black olives, mushrooms and finally the chopped garlic, cook about 10 minutes on medium heat, add the chicken back into this in the pan...drain pasta and add to the chicken mixture and toss, add feta and Parmesan cheese on top and serve in a lovely pasta bowl!

Special Mommy Daughter Moment

Oh there we were my 4 year old little darling and I - me blow drying her new little bobbed haircut..so darling! I'm wearing my cute little Old Navy short sleeved t-shirt, so proud am I that I can finally SHOP in that store after losing 140 pounds, I get to buy modern cute things now! I am busily drying and brushing the little darling's hair, and I see a funny little smirky smile appearing on her precious little face....she then reaches out to me, aww she's going to HUG me! Ohhhh nooooo she's not, she is grabbing my arm FLAB and laughing! "oh Mommy, your arm is so shaky! hahaha"...

Yes I have come to terms with the shaky arm flab, I am a women in my mid-40's which is apparently the new "30's" haha...I've lost 140 pounds, there is NO hope for that skin to perk itself back to its once beautiful tautness but I guess standing there in my cute little shirt it was time for me to be knocked back a peg ~ Thank you darling daughter!

Rainy Saturday

I am sitting here enjoying the rainy Saturday...one little tot is asleep and other is on a date with her Daddy at the museum...I could be napping! Instead I am moving into untested waters...blogging? Me? Advised to go ahead and do it by friends..not sure that people really are all that interested in what I have to say! haha...I generally will not talk about politics as I find it all so boring, religion I will bring up as needed but will not preach to you unless you need to be saved.... just kidding. I will probably talk mostly about kids and cooking - my two favorite subjects!

I'm just a plain old stay at home Mommy and wife, realizing that everyday that passes is one less day I have with my girls as some day they will (gulp) leave our home to either go to college (please can't you just go to our local college?) or get married....UGH! As much as I want them to do that - I am nowhere near ready to think of these ideas for them....now you must realize they are only 2 and 4 years old but you know yourself how fast time flies.....sigh.

Last night's dinner was crock pot beef stew which hubby and I loved - kids picked at the parts they liked - when do kids start liking meat? hellllooo? Protein! Tonight is looking like Polenta with some shredded chicken with marinara sauce? I'm gonna just fly by the seat of my pants tonight with that....sometimes you have to do that and sometimes you have to just order pizza!