Leah's Favorite Things

My birthday is this month…and husb already bought me gifts. So this list is a little too late! That’s just the way I roll people!

Loving this! I would wear it with some darker leggings though!

Of course I love these!

This one

or maybe this one

My friend Marissa always calls me a trophy wife…so why not?

Don’t you love this movie?

I have put it on my Christmas list for at least two years…I don’t think anyone takes me serious when I say I want it!!

I’m diggin this too!

My tissues always get all bunched up and the sticky part stops being sticky…drives me nuts! Great solution Crystal!

She made this too. I like the middle one (which isn’t for sale) but I would need a different color.

That’s all I can think of right now. This is my problem…people ask me what I want for my birthday and I go blank. In July I will have a list of wants! It must be the pressure!

I haven’t given up on blogging…I just haven’t had much to blog about. I tricked you all into thinking I was interesting with all those travel pictures. Yeah…well travel and the holidays are up people! This is all I’ve got!

Husb and I are trying really hard to be purposeful about our spending because we would like to build this.

Isn’t that just the sweetest house…although I have improvements in mind that include white siding, red doors and windows, and a porch swing!

So, to do my part I’ve been dedicating myself to lots of meal planning and preparation. That means making husb breakfast, packed lunch and dinner. No more eating out!  It’s going well so far! Cooking very healthy and we have become regulars at the gym again.

I made Lindsay’s Garden Chowder. It was yummy…although I should have gone lighter on the salt.

Besides all that cooking…I’ve been watching this.

I just love this family! I like to think I’m one of the original fans…before they were big and on Oprah. But I’m sure a million other people feel the same way.

Tonight is homework club night…so yesterday I got to go craft shopping!

I will TRY to remember to take pictures of the finished project tonight…but you already know I’m a lame blogger…so you wont be too surprised if I don’t right?

Do you guys have any healthy budget friendly recipes you can share?

Yes…it’s flooding again. I have only had this blog for four months and I feel like I’m writing about flooding every week.

Well…what do we do when natural disasters occur? Go look at them of course!

The Snohomish river

My boiled peanut lady’s stand is underwater!

All funniness aside…I am sorry for those who had to be evacuated and whose homes are under water. That would be a horrible experience.

I spent two hours at the library helping K edit her argumentative paper for high school. That got my brain pumpin!

Also ended up going to Husb’s office…I don’t know how he talks me into it! It can be very boring. Thankfully, we had just checked the mail and I had these to keep me company.

This edition of Country Home is awesome…lots of great pictures and ideas!

Husb working away

He just moved into a new office building so I helped him rearrange and unpack.

As a thank you he drew me this sweet picture on his white board.

Actually, he said I always have boring backgrounds in my blog pictures and that he would fix that problem by drawing an awesome background picture.

I’m not convinced!

Eric and I were blessed with a gift certificate to The Herbfarm. It is listed as the #1 Destination Restaurant in the U.S. and happens to be in our town! They serve a nine course meal…no menu to choose from…you get what they serve.

This scared me a little…as I have been known to be a little picky. However, it was great! I got to pick the month and style of menu we attended…I picked “The Holly and the Ivy” a Christmas theme of course. The atmosphere, food, service all wonderful! The owners explain the background behind the whole restaurant and work along side their employees to serve you during the night. There were even Christmas carolers!

The meal takes about 4-5 hours…we arrived about 6:30pm and left around 11pm. You wouldn’t know it though…it went quickly. We didn’t take that many pictures unfortunately and the ones we have are pretty dark…but you can get a feel for it!

This is the main dinning hall where we ate.

This isn’t our table…but very similar!

Husb eating dessert

Bittersweet chocolate and malted milk chocolate terrine with eggnog ice cream and Douglas fir porter sauce. No, I didn’t memorize it…they let us take home the menu! It was very yummy!

All the portions were small like this…but sure did fill you up after 9 courses…I was stuffed! 

Husb bought me the cookbook…a sweet reminder of this special occasion.

A very fun and memorable dinner. It isn’t cheap but I recommend visiting if you have the opportunity.

Thinking of you Aunt Anna!

I made these for dinner last night.

I was a little skeptical…but honey…they were good! They had just enough heat to them and lots of flavor. Don’t be afraid of the lentils. They take about as much time and effort as making the rice.

Husb’s response to this meal: “These are good Lee…can I have another” and “Are we going to be vegetarians now?”. Two consecutive dinner’s with out meat and we are vegetarians…MEN!

That picture makes the guacamole and sour cream servings look huge! I promise I didn’t make a healthy dinner and then ruin it with condiments.

Aside from the French green lentils, the most exciting thing was the tortillas. I have a love hate relationship with them. I don’t like the flour tortillas you buy in the grocery store…aren’t even close to tasting like homemade ones. Well, an anonymous comment on Tammy’s blog saved the day.

I highly recommend these tortillas. They only take about 1 minute to cook up on the stovetop, are made with canola oil, and have a pretty good shelf life. I bought them at Costco in the refrigerated section for about $6.

Here is the recipe with the few adjustments I made. If you make them let me know how they turn out!

Lentil & Rice Burritos

• 1/4 onion, diced
• 1 T. Extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c. white or brown rice, fully cooked
• 1/2 c. lentils, fully cooked
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/green chili’s
• 1 can of black beans, drained
• 1 T. chili powder
• 2 t. cumin
• 2 t. salt  
• 1/4 t. cayenne pepper
• 1 c. shredded cheese, optional
• 10 tortillas (uncooked Tortilla Land brand)

1. Cook onion and garlic in hot olive oil for 3 minutes.
2. In a large bowl combine all ingredients except cheese and tortillas. Stir to combine.
3. Generously scoop filling into tortillas; sprinkle optional cheese on top of the filling, if desired. Roll up tortillas, place in a casserole dish. (If making this ahead of time, store in the refrigerator at this point.)
4. Place casserole dish in a 350 degree oven and cook until heated through, about 20 minutes. Top with sour cream and guacamole if desired.

I did it! I got my butt back to the gym after a long hiatus.

I had many reasons not to go but I made myself do it anyway.

Then we drove home and had a healthy dinner with two servings of vegetables.

Then I ate this.

Microwave s’mores that I read about on a blog today. It’s okay though…I shared them with husb (then licked all the leftover chocolate off the plate). I guess we will be making another trip to the gym tomorrow!