Cooking with Kayleigh and Zoe

I love simple things that keep kids happy and busy. And I love it even more when I can be in the kitchen with BOTH of the girls.

I've been craving trail mix ever since our visit to the Aadland's, so I had the girls make me some. Putting the ingredients in smaller containers and giving them tablespoons to do the dumping and mixing worked really well. And obviously the M&M, peanut, and raisin ratios weren't correct, so you just fix that when they aren't looking!

What's for dinner tonight?

Spinach and Goat Cheese Turkey Burgers and Baked Butternut Squash

These goat cheese and spinach turkey burgers are so amazing. I've tried many turkey burger recipes and this is hands down the best yet. Listed below is the original recipe. I usually add more goat cheese (because I love goat cheese!) and I top them off with carmelized onions. Since you just can't have a burger for dinner I make another family favorite: Garlicky Baked Butternut Squash. I usually double the recipe because leftovers are great for lunch.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Turkey Burgers

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven broiler.
In a medium bowl, mix ground turkey, spinach, and goat cheese. Form the mixture into 4 patties.
Arrange patties on a broiler pan, and place in the center of the preheated oven 15 minutes, or until done.

Garlicky Baked Butternut Squash
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, combine the parsley, oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Add squash and toss to coat.
Transfer to an ungreased shallow 2-qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 50-55 minutes or until squash is just tender.

Friday Fun Day

We've been so busy since we got back from Minnesota that I declared today Friday Fun Day. It's 1 o'clock and we are still in our jammies... We've listened to Tom Petty way too loud, colored, I snuck some cleaning in, Kayleigh painted a picture frame and a heart box, and Zoe finger and body painted! Now Zoe is napping, then we'll take showers, go to town, pick up an egee, come home and make a super yummy and healthy dinner, play with Daddy Dave, then hopefully I can talk Dave into watching Milk with me.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...

Wow. That's just about all I can say is wow. My life is never boring. Not that I want it to be boring, it's just that I wish excitment would come to us as fun and happy instead un-fun and unhappy.

Let's see... Zoe and I are sick for the 3rd time in 3 months. Zoe is way worse than me with a runny and stuffy nose and watery eyes. And I'm sure that her throat hurts because mine sure does. So, poor Dave had to spend his 32nd Birthday taking care of us and cleaning up from his birthday bash the night before.

Or house has also been infested with dog ticks. And of course it couldn't be, we have ticks come spray our house for them. It had to be, take your dog to get dipped and we'll come spray, but they didn't, so we found another company, spent tons of money, found 6 more ticks on Sunday (one of which was on Kayleigh and she was NOT happy!), company can't come on Monday because it's a holiday, I have to work today... so when will these ticks die?!! Side note, the exterminator said the chemicals they use could give us allergic reactions. HMMMM....

Before we were infested with ticks, we decided to find Kona another home. She left with her new family on Monday. I'm really sad about it because I know the girls loved her so much. But Dave and I just couldn't love her. I tried to put up with the smell, messes, and dog hair, but it turned out it was too stressful for me. I thought Kayleigh would be more torn up about it, but she just replied with, "Can I get a bunny, chinchilla, hampster, fish, or a turtle?"

Today, even though today has lots of opportunities to be crappy and stressful(taking both girls tok work with me), I'm going to stay optomistic and chant quietly to myself, "The days are long, but the years are short. Breathe." Hopefully I pack the right toys this time. And I'm going to pack twice as much food as last time. I am always amazed at how much my girls eat!

Just for balance... We do have some nice times in the midst of the not so nice.... Kayleigh really loves gymnastics, I went to a Mom's Night out chocolate pot-luck, Dave had a nice birthday party with friends and family, kayleigh got a cute hair cut, and our social calendar is full.

shout out

Justa quick shout out to my friends Sarah and Sarah.... Thank you both for blogging about your lives regularly. You guys inspire me and make my days brighter. XOXO

and P.S. your kids are adorable!