Fresh Assorted Fried / Roasted Vegetables

In my last post, I showed you how to make my Salsa Meatloaf, and on the plate I had my favorite fresh roasted vegetables.  My family loves these, with any meal, and they taste so different from any other vegetable serving, that they are gone right away!

In this vegetable dish, I have many vegetables!  Keep in  mind, these are all FRESH veggies, nothing from a can!  Zucchini, carrots, yellow pepper, red pepper, onions and some spices, that's it! 

If I had had other fresh veggies on hand, I would have used them, too!  These are just what I had on hand at the moment.  Sometimes I use tomatoes, or broccoli, or celery.  Anything will work, as long as you like them!  What I find, is that when I use all these different veggies together, my kids will try them and find that they really do like them.  So, they'll eat more, and that's great!

To begin with, I chopped my carrots, and cooked them in water briefly, just to soften them up a bit.  I knew everything else I was using would cook quickly, and the carrots would take longer, so I wanted to cook them up and soften them a bit.

Not long, just a few minutes!

Next, I chopped the rest of the vegetables I would be using.

Make them into big chunks, not small.  You want something to bite into!

 I took out some chunked zucchini from my freezer and let it thaw (this just took a few minutes)

Pour some olive oil in your frying pan.  About 2 Tbsp. I had some minced garlic and I put that in the oil.  To this I added the onions and peppers in the pan, on a med/high heat and gave them a quick fry...stirring as they fried, until they were nice and browned on one side. 

The carrots were added next, and I kept stirring until they also were browning nicely.  Last, I added the zucchini.  This was because they were the softest vegetable (remember I took them out of the freezer), so they would take the shortest amount of time to cook.

I shook on some Lemon Pepper Seasoning, and some pepper (because I love pepper!).  Then I served on the dinner plates:

This is so easy, and quick, and it's a great way to use up your vegetables!  Serve it over rice, and you don't even need to have a meat (we love it this way, too!).

Let me know if you try this, and how you like it and  if you add anything to yours!

Enjoy!!

Salsa Meatloaf

This is one of the easiest, yummies ways I have to make meatloaf!  Because the salsa has so many good, tasty foods in it already, there isn't much else to add!

Seriously, when I make this, it's GONE, every bite! 

I make 2 loaves. 

 One to eat now, and one to freeze for later!  I love making freezer meals -  that means a delicious, easy meal on a day that I'm too busy to be in the kitchen for hours!

This recipe will be for 2 loaves:

3 lbs. lean hamburger (you can substitute ground turkey also)

2 C. salsa (mild, medium, hot, whatever you like)

1 medium onion

2 eggs

1 tube crackers

2 tsp. minced garlic (you can omit this if you don't like it)

Put thawed hamburger in bowl.  Add all the other ingredients on top.  Mix together well.
 

Place mixture into 2 loaf pans.

Now, here you can put some more salsa on top of the loaves....right there in that little alley down the center of the loaf.  I forgot in my haste to get them in the oven, but normally this is what I do.

Bake at 350* for 1 1/2 hours.

See all the lovely little pieces of tomatoe, pepper and onion inside?

I served this with rice and fresh veggies!

Yummy!! 

How do you make your meatloaf?

See the vegetables here?  I will tell  you how to make them soon!  My family eats them right up, too!

Happy Birthday to 2 of our children today!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!! Ü

Teeth, the Flu and Illusions

I don't know what it is with teeth lately, but lets say that the Tooth Fairy has had to dip into her Fairy Bank quite a few times this last month. 

 Like, 5. 

Not only these 5, but there has also been one child who had a baby tooth that never fell out and it had to be pulled.  Did you even KNOW that a baby tooth can last beyond the age of teens?  I didn't.  Then there was the bridge system/crown that had to be replaced, and a root canal done on the same system.  All in the last month.  So, when I say we have had a tooth situation going on here, I really mean it! 

 Ü  <----- and that, folks, is a toothless grin lol!

Lately, we've also had the flu here.  It has gone from one person to the next, taking turns at least and not two at a time!  Still, it's enough to keep busy with cleaning and disinfecting and making lots of soups. 

While checking out some things on the internet I found this really fun Illusionist's paintings, check them out:

     A bird made of leaves, so fun!

Van Gogh...or a field of grasses

A musician being watched over...

A young man playing flute for his lady friend.

These are all hidden images by the painter/illusionist Oleg Shuplyak, from the gallery here.

For those of you wondering when I'll be reopening my shops, the answer is soon.  Very soon.  I have some things I'm working on yet...some new products I'm working with, and some new designs.  For me...a different system of doing things to finish getting in place.  All good things, and I can't wait to share them with you!  I'll let yu know as soon as I am open again!



Clear Stamp Tip

Clear Stamp Tip

I love the versatility of clear stamps, don't you? The best thing about them is that you can see exactly where you are stamping on your project, no guessing about where the image is going to land once you lift your rubber off the paper. The one thing I don't like about clear stamps is the image, it isn't as crisp as rubber. Or so I thought. Here is a tip on helping you get the best image you can from your clear stamps! Let me show you how!

Here is the set I used....

 I love the little birds inside the tree...do you see them?

To begin with, first I attached the image to the clear block that best fit the stamp, like so.....

then got my stamp inked up....
and stamped it on my paper...

See how the image is not completely filled in? How the right side is more faded and there are a lot of blotchy spots when the ink balled up on the image and didn't cover it smoothly to give a nice impression? That's what I'm talkin' about!

Here is a tip on how to have a clearer image:

First stamp your image in Versamark. I know, it is a watermark pad....just go with me on this...

Now....stamp your image onto your ink pad (the Versamark won't hurt your inkpad)....

Okay, now stamp your image on your paper: (I did it twice because I needed two)

Notice the difference? A much better image for your time!

Here is the card I made with these images:

And for those of you who get the catalogs from stamping companies, you may just recognize this card! This is the card Iwas totally inspired by for this project:

I hope you are inspired by this, happy card making!!



Reindeer Noses

This year I went crazy on making sweets for the holidays!  Instead of just my usual cookies, I also made Reindeer Noses (shown), caramels, fudge, pretzel rods, peanut brittle, chocolate covered peanuts, coal candy, and chocolate covered Oreos!  So many delicious treats!  I made up 15 trays to give away to my husbands co-workers and friends.


Here is one of the goodies I made, they are called Reindeer Noses, and they would look like a reindeer's nose, if they were made with all chocolate Hersehey's kisses and red M&M's. I chose to use Hershey's Hugs and assorted colored M&Ms for a fun colorful change.  There are many different ways you can make these, using different kinds of kisses and colors of M&Ms!
                                                                     

If you would like to makes these, here is the recipe I used:

Reindeer Noses

You will need:

Square pretzels

Hershey Hugs

M&M's

That's right...only 3 ingredients!

On a cookie sheet, lay down a piece of parchment paper, so chocolate doesn't stick to the pan..if you're like me, you don't want the mess to clean off afterwards!

Cover pan with pretzels squares.

Lay one Kiss on center of pretzel.

Cook pretzels in oven set at 200* for 4-6 minutes. 

When you take the pan out of the oven, immediately set M&Ms in center of Kisses and push down slightly.  Let set for a few minutes and Eat Ü!!

That's it!!  Easy!!