Mom's Spanish Rice

Need a quick/easy dinner tonight?
We are having Mom's spanish rice! It cooks up so fast and is so yummy.
This recipe is from my mother in law (I hope it's okay that I share it!) and I think is originally Grans recipe. I needed to type it up to share with my sister, but thought I should share it with any of you that might be interested too :)

1 pound ground beef
1 28 oz can Deifratelli seasoned diced tomatoes (sorry...it has to be Deifratelli...I just watch for them to go on sale)
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 c. minute rice

Brown ground beef (I've made it with ground turkey before, but my husband would much rather ground beef, so tonight...it's ground beef). Add seasoned salt as bronwing and drain. Add 1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes , 1 can tomato sauce. After it boils, remove from heat and add 1c. minute rice, uncooked. Stir the rice into the mixture- over for about 5 minutes or until tender. Enjoy!

Banana Nut Muffins

This is a great recipe for banana nut muffins that is super quick and easy because it uses biscuit mix. What a great way to use up those over-ripe bananas!

Ingredients (makes 18 muffins)
3/4 c. sugar 2 1/3 c. biscuit mix
1/3 c. vegt. oil 1 1/2 c. mashed banana's (about 3)
3 large eggs 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (can I just say that I LOVE chopping
1/2 tsp. vanilla walnuts with my pc food chopper?!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 18 muffin cups.
2. Combine sugar and vegetable oil in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at med. speed until well blended.
3. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add biscuit mix and bananas. and mix well. Stir in walnuts.
4. Fill the prepared muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean, about 17 minutes.

Perfect with a warm cup of coffee...ENJOY!

Happy Homemaker Monday

The weather in my neck of the woods:
46 and sunny

Things that make me happy: seeing our teenagers excited about spreading the good news of Jesus Christ!

Book I'm reading:
still working through "The Excellent Wife" and "The Power of a Praying Wife" reading both with other people, so we are just slowly plugging through them :)

What I'm enjoying on TV:
Just started watching "Undercover Boss" on Sunday nights...I cry every time...neat show.

On the menu for dinner:
buttermilk pancakes
On my To Do List:
laundry
grocery store
bathroom
vacuum
mops phone calls

New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:
Banana nut muffins made with biscuit mix...so yummy! I'll post the recipe soon.

In the craft basket:

finally got the hot glue...hope to get these hair bows made this week.

Looking forward to this week:
So looking forward to the warm weather coming our way..should be in the 70's by Thursday! Also looking forward to making Easter sugar cookies, dying eggs, making resurrection rolls and celebrating a risen Savior on Sunday!

Tips and Tricks:

save and freeze bananas that are overly bruised or too ripe to eat. Thaw them in a bowl, then slip the fruit from the peels.

My favorite blog posts this week:
P.S. Your Hands are Beautiful
Today's the Day
Comparison Unmasked

No words needed (favorite photo or picture, yours or others you want to share):

On my prayer list:Still praying for my sis in law, Jill...it seems like she has been discharged today! Praying for continued healing and praising God for the answered prayer so far!
Praying for wisdom and patience as parenting a toddler as proved to be a true challenge lately.

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:
"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples." John 8:31

Easter Egg Hunt

We are having a great Saturday!

Seth was so kind to spend some Daddy/daughter time with Hannah this morning while I got to get out of a while. I enjoyed some Mom 2 Mom shopping with my friend Trenda. When I got home (with some cute new summer outfits in hand) we had a super quick lunch and headed up town to the Easter Egg hunt. Hannah had a great time filling her basket with eggs and watching the Easter Bunny. It was a cold day, but it was nice to be outside and see the sunshine!

Hannah was super good at picking up those eggs!

Hannah loved just watching the Easter Bunny. She would walk up to him and just stand there shrugging her shoulders (she does that when she gets excited). It was pretty cute :)

Family Day

We love Friday's with Daddy! It's been a while since we've had a family day, because of traveling here and there, so we were super glad to be home today and enjoy a day together. Mommy had a dr. appointment this morning, so that was our first stop. Daddy and I played and she was done real quick...then we headed to the mall. We walked for a while then I got to play! I loved running, sliding, and jumping all over the play area. Mommy and Daddy could hardly keep up with me.

After that, we got to see some puppies at the pet store. One of the ladies that works there let a little Lab puppy come out and play with me. It was so much fun! He gave me kisses all over and chased after his toy! (Mommy didn't get any pictures because she was busy chasing both of us :)). I loved this little Basset Hound puppy too...Mommy and Daddy said that maybe one day I can get a puppy. :)

It's always fun to have lunch at the mall...I loved the noodles from the Chinese place!

We dropped off a few birthday treats to friends with bdays and then headed home for naptime. What a fun morning!

Growing SO fast!

I'm a big 2 year old now...and have been busy showing my Mommy and Daddy what a big girl I am. All of these things happened in just one day last week...my Mommy was a little overwhelmed with how quickly I'm growing up!

I spent my first full day in big girl pants last Tuesday. I did great all through the day...but did have two accidents after nap time. Mom said that was pretty good for my first day! I do love my big girl pants though!

I had a snack (jello with Mandarin oranges..mmmm) at my little table after nap today. When I was done, I took my dishes to the kitchen and put them on the counter!

I love to help Mommy make dinner. That night we were having Chicken Tortellini Soup...yum! I had fun helping Mommy open all of the chicken bullion cubes and plopping them in the water

see my concentration face? Mommy says this is good for my fine motor skills....and she loves that I have little jobs to do in the kitchen now. :)

I was super excited when I got it open!

When Daddy got home from work, we decided to go for a walk. I went to my room, got my boots and then put them on all by myself! I'm a big girl!!

I'm learning my ABC's

I'm having so much fun learning my alphabet! The kindergarten teacher in my Mom has her already keeping track of the letters I know....and I'm almost half way there! Here are the letters I know so far (I recognize them in uppercase):

R, B, A, M, H, Y, N, C, O, P, I, & G!!

and did you know that I can count to 14 and I know all my colors? Maybe Mommy should get a video :)