Fire on the Rhine Page

Last fall my husband and I drove to western Germany to take a dinner cruise on the Rhine River.  It was for a thing called Fire on the Rhine (check out the website here).  The highlight of the evening was an amazing fireworks show over the Rhine River with a musical background.  There were hundreds of boats of all sizes sharing the river for the show.  Plus they had the hills and castles all lit up with flares, it was beautiful!  Unfortunately, we didn't get many shots of the fireworks. 

Meal Planning Board

I know I just made a meal planning page the other day (you can find it here), but I really wanted to make a meal board.  I saw one on pinterest that looked like something I could do with mostly things around the house.  I picked up some ribbon and binder clips.  I already had the cork board and push pins.  I printed out recipe names on cardstock and on the back of them I will write where I can find the recipe.  I pinned the ribbon to the board and threaded the binder clips on them.  I also stuck in a pin between the clips to help the ribbon stay in place.  The cards are color coded for sides, carbs, main dishes and slow cooker recipes.  I also added some cards for eating out or leftovers.  The cup to hold the cards is the bottom of a propel bottle with a tab in the back for me to attach a binder clip.  And of course, no meal board would be complete without a couple take out menus. :-)  I finally put them in some page protectors so I won't have to reprint them.  And here's how it turned out.

Mini Couples Shoot

I love playing photographer, I just don't have much opportunity to shoot people.  Last spring a couple friends of mine and I wandered around town doing a mini couples shoot.  I really liked some of the shots that came out of it.  These are a few of my favorite shots.

Meal Planning Page

I'm constantly on the look out for some way to make meal planning easier.  I usually just do an excel spreadsheet, but I want to have something physical to hang in the kitchen or near the dry erase board where we keep our running grocery list.  I've since several great boards on pinterest that I'd like to make, but I'm limited on what I can get over here.  I created this sheet to hold me over until I can get back to the states.  I'm probably going to get it laminated so that I can reuse it week to week.  I like having it set up so I can make sure that we have some veggies with dinner every night.  My husband like having some sort of carb, so that's on the plan too.  It's here for you to download (I think I did it right).  Hope you like it!

Facebook Banner

I decided to make a picture collage for my facebook banner of some of the traveling I've done.  What do you think?

Modeling Scrapbooked Pages

Once upon a time and in a galaxy far, far away....  well, maybe not in another galaxy,  but it seems like it was forever ago and after being in Germany for over two years the states start feeling like a whole galaxy away sometimes.  Anyways, a few years back I did a little modeling.  I got some really great pictures from the shoots I did, but I've never done anything with them.  Until today.

 

More Planning Pages

I've been playing with a weekly planning page and came up with a couple of different options.  I think I have them set up where you can download them here.  The other pages I've done before are also there for your downloading pleasure.  Hope you like them.

Bunch of Random Pages

I managed to catch some sort of cold this weekend, so I really haven't felt up to cooking (or much of anything else for that matter).  Since digital scrapbooking takes so little effort, I've worked on a few more pages.  They aren't of anything in particular, I'm just working on getting through the last few years of pictures that need to be worked on.

This is another one I'm going to enter in the My Memories weekly challenge.

Baby Pages

I don't have kids yet, so I love adopting other people's children.  One of my favorites is my friend's son Chris.  Unfortunately, because little Chris just couldn't wait to come into the world, his dad missed his birth by one day.  Although I feel bad that he missed it, that meant that I was there for his mom when he was born.  It was the most amazing thing I have experienced so far!  Naturally, I would want to try out some of my fun new scrapbooking kits on pages the adorable guy and his family (including his puppy).

Garlic and Gingered Snap Peas and Steak with Parmesan Herbed Puffs

I tried something new with dinner, I've never cooked a steak by broiling it.  It had a hoison, ginger and garlic glaze.  I carried the ginger and garlic into the sauted snap peas.  I also added some garlic to the puffs to help the flavors carry through each part of dinner.

Hoisin and Ginger Glazed Steak

Ingredients

2 bison steaks, about 4 ounces each
1 tablespoon hoison sauce
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili garlic sauce or crush red pepper
Cooking spray

Directions

Preheat broiler to high.
Combine the hoisin sauce, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and chili garlic sauce.
Put the steaks on a pan covered in foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Broil for two minutes, then turn them and broil for another two minutes. Flip them again and brush the steaks with half of the sauce, broil for a minute. Do the same on the other side, broiling for 2 minutes or until they are as done as desired.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 2
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 208.6

• Total Fat: 4.1 g
• Cholesterol: 98.7 mg
• Sodium: 326.0 mg
• Total Carbs: 4.8 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 35.7 g

Ginger and Garlic Snap Peas

Ingredients


1 pound fresh snow peas, ends and strings removed
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup carrots, julienned
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon honey

Directions

In a large pan, saute the snow peas in the butter for three minutes. Add the carrots, garlic, ginger, and honey. Saute for another three minutes or until veggies are tender but still crisp.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 79.6

• Total Fat: 3.1 g
• Cholesterol: 7.8 mg
• Sodium: 21.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 12.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.6 g
• Protein: 2.2 g

Parmesan Herbed Puffs

Ingredients


3/4 cup water
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 12 pieces
3/4 cup flour
4 eggs
1 cup fresh basil, minced
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced


Directions

Preheat the oven to 400.
In a large pot, boil the water and butter. Add the flour and stir until it forms a smooth ball. Remove from the heat and let sit for five minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Stir in the basil, garlic and parmesan cheese.
Drop by rounded tablespoons on a greased baking sheet, about one inch apart from each other.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Serve warm.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 12
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 142.7

• Total Fat: 10.0 g
• Cholesterol: 83.8 mg
• Sodium: 179.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 6.7 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g
• Protein: 6.5 g

Puppy Page

I've been meaning to get more pages of my puppy scrapbooked, especially since I have some really fun ones of him running around the yard last summer.  Well, this weeks My Memories challenge helped me accomplish that.  One of their designers is retiring, so all of the her kits are on sale for $1.00.  The challenge is to use one of A Work in Progress's kits to make your page and nothing else.  She had an adorable Puppy Love kit that is just perfect for my furball.  So here it is:

I'm also very excited to annouce that my "First Kiss" page from last week one the My Memories weekly challenge!  I can't wait to find out what the prize is!

Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken over Grits

These is a great recipe for trying to sneak in a little more veggies into your diet.  The grits have some pumpkin in them, but because of the rest of the flavor in the dish you can't taste it.  My husband made the comment that this is great for the cold days we've been having.  And the slow cooker makes this a great dish for when you don't know when everyone's going to be ready for dinner.  Just make get the chicken started and whenever you're ready the grits only take a few minutes to prepare.

Ingredients

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup barbecue sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 1/4 cups water

1 cup quick cooking grits

1 cup canned pumpkin

3/4 cup shedded cheddar cheese

1 can no sodium chopped tomatoes

Directions

Combine 1/2 cup chicken broth, the barbecue sauce, chili powder, can of tomatoes (including liquid) and cinnamon in a slow cooker. Whisk to make sure everything is combined. Add the chicken and cook on low for five and half hours. Using two forks, shred chicken and let cook for another 30 minutes while you cook the grits.
In a large sauce pan, bring the remaining chicken broth and water to a boil. Stir in the grits and pumpkin. Lower the temperature and cook for another 5-7 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in the cheese.
To serve, place the grits in a bowl and top with the chicken mixture. If you would like, you can top with sour cream, green onions and/or cilantro (these haven't been calculated in the nutritional info.)

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 310.2

• Total Fat: 4.1 g
• Cholesterol: 47.5 mg
• Sodium: 859.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 46.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.3 g
• Protein: 22.5 g

French Onion Salisbury Steak with Garlic Cheese Toast

I really enjoyed how much depth there was to the sauce because of the red wine and tomato paste.  Plus the garlic cheese bread soaked up the sauce and was just delicious!  Add a side of broccoli and you have a great meal.  I also had some fresh rosemary in the fridge and chopped that up when I did the garlic.  It was fantastic on the toast and added just a little more flavor to the sauce.

 

Ingredients

Steaks:

1 pound lean ground beef

1 tablespoons dried parsley

2 tablespoons green onions, minced

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/4 cup red wine, dry

1/2 teaspoon crushed thyme

 Cheese Toast:

4 slices baguette, 1/2 inch thick, cut diagonally

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 cup shredd mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon shredded parmesan cheese

Directions

For the toast:
Preheat oven to 400.
Combine the butter and garlic, spread on one side of the toast. Mix cheeses together and sprinkle over butter. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bread is crispy.


For the steaks and sauce:
Mix the beef, parsley, and green onions in a bowl. Shape mixture into four portions and form each into thick (about one inch) patties. Lightly coat each patty with flour, save the remaining flour (you'll need 1 teaspoon). Brown patties in a pan with the olive oil, about three minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onion, sugar and garlic to the pan, saute for about five minutes, or until the onions start carmelizing. Sitr in the tomato paste and cook for an additonal minute or until the paste begins to brown. Add flour and cook for another minute to thicken, then add broth, wine, and thyme.
Place the patties back in the pan and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for ten minutes.
Serve on the toast.

Servings Per Recipe: 4

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 402.6

• Total Fat: 18.9 g
• Cholesterol: 85.2 mg
• Sodium: 719.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 20.4 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.3 g
• Protein: 31.0 g

Home Organizer: Two Day Planner Page

A little while back I made a planner page that I liked, but wasn't completely happy with.  I prefer to have at least two days per page, if for no other reason than I don't feel like printing out 365 pages plus all of the subsequent hole punching and trying to squeeze it into a binder.  Someone else commented that it would take a lot of ink to print each page, and she was totally right.  The page was very pretty but it was almost completely full of color.  Take that and combine it with the 365 pages that you have to print to have an entire year and forget it. 
So I decided to try it again, but this time cut down on the ink that would be required and get at least two days on it.  I also wanted to add a quote, something that would be inspirational to me.  Now, the same quote page after page would get old, so if I decide this is the page I'm going to use on a regular basis I would make a bunch with different quotes and just rotate through the pages.  Chances are that I'm going to try coming up with one that I like even better, so I won't worry about it now.

This was made with My Memories software, so I'm not sure if I'm able to make it downloadable.  I thought I read that I wasn't able to "distribute" products made from the software, regardless of whether or not I'm charging for it.  I have emailed them asking for clarification.  Soon as I find out that I'm allowed to let people download it I'll change this one and the other one.

Polar Bear Plunge 2008 Page

I know it seems like I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately, but I'm really enjoying it.  Having the program on my computer lets me to work on it while I'm watching TV.  Plus I get to relive some old memories and finally do something with the pictures from some of my adventures (other than stick them in a folder in cyberspace).  Today's page is one that just made me smile when I stumbled on the pictures in my computer.  It's from my second year doing the Polar Bear Plunge, which is ran by the Maryland State Police as a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.  If you've never heard of a Polar Bear Plunge before, the idea is that you run into a body of water in the middle of winter somewhere really cold.  Bonus points for ice on the water.  It's crazy, insane, maybe slightly stupid, but it was for a good cause and was a lot of fun.  I wasn't able to convince anyone to run in with me, but I did have my friend there for moral support.  She was also kept track of where the blanket was for when I got back out of the water, probably the most important job there :-)

Bastogne Memorial Walk Page

In December of 2010 I drove from Germany (almost the Czech border), through Luxemburg to Belgium to participate in the annual walk in remembrance of the Battle of the Bulge that was fought in Bastogne.  It was cold, there were hills (lots of hills), ice, slush, puddles, mud and wind.  But you know what, it was one of the best times I've had.  They had people dressed in a bunch of uniforms, new and old, taking part in the walk.  There were also different sights set up where you could see what it was like in the head command post (complete with a guy sleeping in the corner), soldiers digging foxholes in the field and a tank display. 
In typical Sarah fashion, I found a bunch of people to talk to during the 16 miles that I wound up walking (it was only supposed to be nine).  I also had a little series of mishaps that involved riding in a cop car looking for my car when I thought it was stolen (it wasn't, I apparently couldn't remember where I had parked it) and parking my big, obviously American vehicle in what later became a walking only zone filled World War Two restored vehicles (it was a parking area when I parked).  I was escorted out of the area by a very nice policeman who insisted on blowing a whistle the entire time I was driving out, as if people couldn't see the ginormous white trailblazer coming at them.  (I think he was just trying to see how red I would turn.)  It was a great time and I wish could have gone back this year, but at least I got to experience it one time.
I know I'll scrapbook the rest of the pages at some point, but I wanted to do another one for the My Memories challenge this week because I enjoyed how different it was from my usual method.  The entire page was made using the A Time to Travel pack from Albums to Remember.

Welcome to Italy!

Greetings from Aviano, Italy!  I got here a little later than I intended to, so I'm not going to be able to scrap anything tonight.  But I am pretty excited that I was able to get pictures of three of the country signs, so I thought I'd share them with you.  Maybe tomorrow night I'll work on a page with them, depending on how late my class goes.

Heading to Italy

I won't be posting recipes this weekend because I'll be in Italy for a class, but I might be able to post some scrapbooking pages.  I'll also be taking my camera and I'll try to get out to get a few shots.  If I have time I'll head to Venice and do a little sightseeing there.

My Memories Scrapbooking Challenge: First Kiss Page

I made a page for the weekly challenge from the My Memories blog.  It was suppose to use three pages, five elements, one picture cropped into a shape other than square or rectangle.  I prefer to use more pictures and less elements, but it was fun to give it a try. 

Silly Puppy Page

I'm trying to work on an album for our animals.  Here's the pages I have so far for my dog.  I still have pages for our two cats to work on, but at least I have a start on it.

Crispy Chili Lime Chicken and Sweet Potato Fries

Tonight's is relatively easy, crispy chili lime chicken, sweet potato fries and broccoli.  I cheated a little bit with the chicken and instead of adding the chili powder and lime zest like it says in the recipe, I just used Pampered Chef's Chili Lime powder.   When I took the chicken out at the halfway point I added the fries to the baking sheet and threw it back in the oven.  The broccoli was just the microwave steamable frozen stuff, so that went in the microwave a few minutes before the chicken and fries were done.  Everything was done at the same time, which is always nice when it happens.

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon lime zest
1 tablespoon chili powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine the panko bread crumbs, lime zest and chili powder in a large, flat bowl. Place the chicken breast in the bowl, one at a time, and press the crumbs onto the chicken. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Turn over and bake for an additonal 25 minutes. Check to make sure the chicken is fully cooked before serving.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 2
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 263.3

• Total Fat: 4.6 g
• Cholesterol: 90.0 mg
• Sodium: 147.9 mg
• Total Carbs: 21.0 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g
• Protein: 34.5 g





Ingredients

2 Sweet Potatoes
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400.
Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into thick strips. Put in a plastic bag without holes with the cumin and garlic salt. Shake bag to throughly coat the fries. Arrange on a cookie sheet in a single layer and bake for 30 minutes (depending on thickness), flipping halfway through.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 92.4

• Total Fat: 0.9 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 31.3 mg
• Total Carbs: 20.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.0 g
• Protein: 2.1 g