In an effort to eat healthier, I have given up a lot of yummy goodness. But I am attempting to find a way to make things a bit healthier for me. One thing I made a take on was jalapeño poppers. This recipe makes quite a bit. I made half of the recipe and it was enough for Brad and I to have at lunch and dinner on a Saturday during football season (obviously with other appetizers). They can get a bit spicy, and they aren’t perfect. But they scratch that itch for me!
This fall we really didn’t get to spend enough time at the Gardens. It was just too wet or cold. We did make it to see the Galaxy of Lights then we spent one morning there too. We walked around the children’s gardens, but we also went out discovering other areas on that day too. Check it out below!
Christmas is so special now that we have Melody in our lives. And now that is she getting older, she is able to understand more about everything that revolves around Christmas. And we are still as busy as every during the holidays.
The first time I had poppyseed chicken was when we ordered from Alabama Bliss. I wanted to remake it, but we had quite a bit of leftovers to work through in our freezer first. I finally made it a few weeks ago, and I really liked how it turned out. I think what we had from Alabama Bliss was much better, but I feel like foods are almost always better when someone else makes it, ha!
So I have been meaning to write this post for quite a while. I honestly kept forgetting about it. “Reviewing” restaurants hasn’t been as much of a priority to me the last year because it is hard with a two year old to have time to take pictures of food. I am lucky to eat my food before it is half cold, ha! So back when we were living at a hotel during our kitchen renovation, we were staying right across the street from Taco Mama. It is fairly new on our side of town, and I had yet to try it. I know many people who rave about it, so I really wanted to eat there. One night we finally had dinner there.
For this year’s trip to Opryland, we wanted to go back at Christmastime. Last year we visited in the summer, and while it was far less crowded, it wasn’t as festive. They did have events going on, but nothing can compare to Opryland at Christmas. We loved our visit in 2016 at Christmas, so we decided to do it again!
One afternoon Brad was craving Cracker Barrel biscuits. I offered to make regular biscuits, but those were not what he wanted. So a few days later I went to the grocery store and decided to get some buttermilk and try making them. I personally don’t have a biscuit preference and can’t tell a huge difference, but Brad can. I found a recipe online to try. They turned out great, especially according to Brad. See below!
Since this is Melody’s first year of preschool, it is also the first year I have to do teacher gifts. I went back and forth with a lot of options I found on Pinterest, but I ultimately decided to do something similar to the dance teacher gifts. Instead of mason jars, I opted for mason jar cups. Since it was a cup, I decided to do their first initial instead of something Christmas related. Lastly, I include a gift card to a local bakery.
We have contemplated when the right time to take Melody to see her first movie would be. Well Brad is off for most of December, so we thought that would be the perfect time. We wanted to go in the morning time so that she was happier, and it would be less crowded. We opted to go see Wreck-It Ralph 2. It has enough Disney cameos throughout the movie that it would keep her entertained through that.
So back when we used to go to PF Changs (aka before Melody), I loved ordering the chicken lettuce wraps. They are fairly healthy (in comparison to the other menu items), and they taste amazing. Brad hates them though. Well one week when he was out of town for work, I finally decided to try and make them at home for dinner. They were great! They were also much easier to make than I expected. I may try making them again and freezing them for lunches. I have made some before, but they weren’t near as good as these.
This is Melody’s first year in dance. And since Christmas is during the dance year, I wanted to do a small gift for her teachers. She has one teacher and two assistants. For Christmas, I decided to get them all the same gift. One of the assistants is a boy, so I had to keep that in mind when deciding on a gift to give. I also wanted something that representing dance in some way. This made things really difficult. But I fell back to a super easy gift of chocolate. Chocolate works for all genders and most people like it. So I knew I wanted to do something like that. I had found some cute ideas with mason jars that made the jar look like a reindeer. Well that was a bit too much work for me. So instead, I played off the idea of mason jars, and I decided to decorate them with vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo. See how I did it below (oh, and this could easily be done without a Silhouette!).
I finally had Melody’s two year pictures taken about a month ago. Luckily it was a warm day since I bought her a yellow smocked dress to wear a year ago, ha! She did fairly well, and all of that is thanks to Brad and his crazy antics!
I have been trying to do more crafts with Melody on the days we are at home and not involved in preschool or dance. One of the Christmas crafts I wanted to do was a felt tree. I liked this idea because she could move the ornaments around all season if she wanted since no glue is involved. She had a lot of fun making it and was super proud of the results!
Stuffed bellpeppers always look amazing to me. I would see them at Costco, and I would always want to get them. But it never made sense to buy them from Costco because there were way too many in a package for us to eat. I have made something similar called bell pepper boats. They were decent, but I am not a huge fan of cooked bell peppers. I am not sure why I made the stuffed bellpeppers for this reason. But the filling was actually pretty good. And it is fairly healthy. Brad loved the entire thing. So if you like cooked bell pepper then this will be for you. The only thing I left out of the original recipe was the pickle relish. Brad hates pickles so I knew this was not an option. Next time I would also leave out the mustard. It was overpowering throughout the meal. But we also aren’t huge mustard eaters.
A month or so ago, we finally found time to get with my aunt who is a photographer and get some family pictures made. The setting was great for fall pictures; the weather was warm however! We survived our warm sweaters and were able to get some fairly decent pictures! Hopefully we won’t wait so long to take family pictures again.
I was really hoping Santa pictures this year would go off without a tear. Melody’s first year doing Santa pictures with my aunt went about as perfectly as it could. They were gorgeous! Last year we were unable to do pictures with my aunt, so we went to see a mall Santa. She was terrified! She was going through a phase were she was scared of most men and elderly people. Her fear as minimized a lot, but she still has general stranger danger. But we have really talked up Santa and shown her pictures to help with this year’s pictures with my aunt.
Melody had her first school pictures a month or so ago. When visiting Brad’s parents one weekend, she bought Melody the most adorable dress. She planned to have it monogramed, but I really wanted it for school pictures. So she let me take it back for pictures, then I brought it back to her for the monogramming. It is such a cute dress! Well Melody and pictures don’t always jive. She loves to take selfies on my phone, and she will usually crack a smile for Brad if he is behind the camera. And she will even sometimes smile for my nicer camera. But I knew with neither of us there it was a long shot. And I was right! See both her individual picture and class picture below. She was over pictures from the start, ha!
I love one pot meals, but they are hard to do now with Brad having diabetes. Most one dish meals are full of carbs, or just aren’t good at all. So when I ran across a meal with chicken and asparagus, I thought I had to try it! I wasn’t too fond of the tomatoes (although Brad liked them), so next time I might try some squash or another non-green veggie.
Thanksgiving 2018 is in the books! We had a lot of fun, ate a lot of food, and spent a lot of time with our families!
Since Melody was born, Brad and I have been attempting to go to the Galaxy of Lights Walking Nights at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. The first year the crowd was insane and we couldn’t get in. The second year, we had things going on and couldn’t make it. This year, they allowed us to buy tickets before we went. So we picked a day a few weeks in advance and bought the tickets in advance to save time. It was originally required, but a few days before the event, they did state they would allow people to buy at the gate.
