Sick Kids: Garlic Pasta with Veggies

Once again my children are sick this winter. We are on like round four over the span of three months. It is pretty widely accepted that garlic has natural healing properties. So, I figured getting a little more into my family's system wasn't a bad idea.

Garlic Pasta with Peas & Carrots

Ingredients 

• 1 box of pasta
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 dash of  onion powder
• 1 dash of basil
• 1 can of mixed peas and carrots, drained
• Parmesan cheese to taste

 In a skillet heat butter, garlic, onion powder, and basil. Do this until the butter melts. Add drained can of vegetables and stir. Heat for several moments until completely covered. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a pot, cook pasta by directions on the box. Drain completely but don't rinse. Quickly place pasta back into pot and add the butter mixture. Stir until pasta is coated. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Enjoy!

What's For Dinner?: Chicken & Cheese Burritos

I am so excited to start this month's theme, "What's for dinner?" My husband has been bugging me for sometime to do this theme. I am often very creative with my pantry. I love casseroles and one pot meals. I also enjoy playing with ideas inspired by recipes.

Today I will be sharing something that is completely my own creation.

Chicken, Bean, and Cheese Burritos with Homemade Mexi-corn

 Ingredients

•  2 cups cut bell peppers
• 1 can of white chicken breast
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can of chili hot beans
• shredded cheese
• tortillas
• 1 can of corn
• 1 packet of burrito seasoning
• 1 diced tomato

In a big skillet cook chicken and 1.5 cups of peppers until peppers are soft.

Add seasoning packet and mix. Add water as directed by packaging. Drain black beans, but leave the hot beans. In a separate bowl, slightly mash both cans of beans.

Add beans to the meat and pepper mixture and heat until warm. Stir often. Preheat oven to 350. When the mixture is hot, fill tortillas. I like to put the cheese first because it makes rolling the burritos easier.

Place rolled burritos on a baking sheet and bake until cheese melts. (About 5-8 minutes)

While the burritos are in the oven cook the corn, tomatoes, and left over bell peppers over medium heat. Add seasoning to taste. Stir frequently.

Remove food from the oven and serve immediately or cool to freeze and use later.

My children ended up liking this fine, but my hubby loved it. I served to with apple sauce and some left over cranberry sauce from another meal. It could also be served with rice, refried beans, or a salad.

The Doctor, Pirates, Oceans, and Butterflies

Basically, it was a busy bento day in my family. I themed each persons bento just for them! Mondays have come to be a day I enjoy. I plan all week and spend over an hour preparing the lunches on Sunday night.

It has been an awesome way to show my family I love them and that I am thinking of them always. Below I will share what I did!

 Above is my husband's Doctor Who themed lunch. The famous lines from the Doctor's wife seemed most appropriate, "hello sweetie". You can also see the cranberry bowtie and the TARDIS I created! The marshmallow person was supposed to be one of the many aliens that the Doctor has encountered.

  

The ocean scene was for my youngest little dude. However, I found out later that neither boy would really eat the noodles because they were blue. Oh well! You live and learn.

 

My oldest son is totally into pirates right now. So, it was an easy next step to make his pirate themed. If you can't tell, the islands on both lunches is apple sauce. 

Finally we have mine. I stuck to a floral idea for mine. I didn't really have any cool plans for mine like I did for the boys. I was very impressed with my pear/apple flower in the top and my pretty pinwheel sandwiches.

So, what did you do to make you Monday more special?

Creative Juices

Now my creative juices are finally flowing friends! I have a theme I will have such a blast with for the next three months. The official decision is...

March- "What's for dinner?"
April- How Does My Garden Grow (A look into apartment gardening with a barely "green thumb")
May- I dont have a title yet for this month but I know we will be discussing woman through out history that have done, said, or made things things happen and what I want to take from their lives. Should be a fascinating look into my feelings on what is important.

I can't make any promises about what will come in the summer, but I am so looking forward to Spring on my blog. I know it will keep you coming back for more.

Ive already started planning and plotting for all of them!

Anyway, just a little update. I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's day. My hubby and I will actually be celebrating it on Friday of this coming week because we were snowed in on the 14th!

I Wish it Were March

I am so excited about what the future holds that I just cant wait to tell you about it! In March I will be starting a series called "What's for dinner?" It will be following the crazy concoctions I make that my family has to eat every single night! I'm one of those people who rarely use a recipe or plan in advance for meals (unless its a special occasion). I like to throw things together and see how it goes! For meals that turn out well, I will share how I made it happen and create my very own recipes so you can try it at home. I just know it will be a fun month for everyone!

I also forgot to share with you all something else I am doing this year. I have set a goal for myself to have a party at my apartment every month. So far I have stuck to parties that people can come, eat, and buy! Most of my parties will fall in this realm. It will be a good way to make me feel at home and allow me to entertain, which is something I have always wanted to do. Just to catch you up, I will tell you the parties you've missed and whats coming up in the future as far as I know!

January- Norwex (It was themed " A Night in the Orient". Which ended up being an epic fail, so I planned a birthday party for my husband. The theme of Fandom was a hit!)

February- Tasteful Treasures (If you remember back to last summer when I read the book about sexual health, I was inspired to have one of these kind of parties. It ended up being a blast!)

March- Pampered Chef (Chocolate & Cheese, I can't go wrong there. It is looking to be one of my most popular parties!)

In the future I would also like to have a Tupperware, Stampin' Up, Origami Owl, and 31 party. Any other suggestions?

Another glimpse of the future I can share is that sometime in the spring I will be starting a series on small patio space, or apartment gardening. I have grand hopes of planting edible and lovely things! Before we get there I would love advice from people who know better since I am starting completely from scratch and with little prior knowledge.

Anyway, thats a small update on what the future holds! I also have some reviews and giveaways lined up, so it should be fun, fun, fun!

Are you ready for this?!

More to Mondays

There is going to be a little more excitement to Mondays from now on! My children both go to preschool for one day a week on Mondays. So, that means bento lunches are back! If you don't remember, go back to my Life, Lunch, and Fashion series where several of our bento lunches are featured. However, this time I want you to come along for the challenge. Let's make Mondays less of a drudgery. Let's make it the day we look forward to! Making bento lunches is just one way I give everyone in my family something to look forward to about starting a new week. I challenge you to find a way to make Mondays more exciting for your family. Perhaps you might want to join the bento craze! However you choose to do it, I want to know! Keep your eyes peeled for my bento creations and I will be looking forward to hearing what your doing to put "More to Mondays"!

Below are the creations I sent with my family today. I themed my boys to their personality, while I stuck with a Valentine's day theme for the hubs and I.

The Hubs' lunch- spicy love!

My Lunch!

Also, remember to be checking out DolceDellaVita on Instagram to see my 100 Happy Days challenge photos!

100 Happy Days

I recently saw this cute little challenge on Facebook that said 71% of people fail it. At this point my curiosity was spiked and I was determined to break the odds! So, I checked it out. Basically, they are asking you to be happy for 100 days straight. They don't really mean you have to be happy for the whole 24 hours each day, they just want you to find something to be happy about everyday. To prove it, they ask you to share a photo of the thing that made you happy that day. I decided I was up for the challenge! I have taken one photo a day and shared it via my social media. I plan to share it with you all as well.

I decided to keep mine a simple black and white so they stood out amongst my other photos!

If you think you might want to be a part of this challenge too, you can sign up for it over at 100happydays. I'd also love to be kept in the loop so please feel free to tag @dolcedellavita on Twitter or Instagram. You can also share it with my here or on my Facebook page!  Lets do this!