Food & Things

How’s that for a title?!?!?!  I sound super profesh.  I just have random things to share, but mainly of the food variety.  You know I love my food.  It’s so true.  And while we’ve made major changes to our food over the last few months I still believe in the power and love of baked goods.  I just do.  It’s in my genes.  And I love that.  Long live #bakedgoodscanchangetheworld

Today I made THESE…my first batch ever of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  My life is changed.  So flippin’ good.  Call me crazy, but typically oats don’t scream “Eat me.  I’m delicious.”  That is for the exception of yummy peanut butter no bake cookies…Josh Kelley’s favorite of faves…and Carmelitas.

Sidenote:  A friend one time told us he wouldn’t eat Carmelitas because they looked healthy.  OhEmGee.  I was all yeah because 3 sticks of butter and a ton of brown sugar, chocolate and caramel is legit health food.  End sidenote.

Now THESE oatmeal circular pieces of heaven made me a little teary eyed.  I am hooked on the oats now.  Minus all oat recipes which include raisins.  Some peeps on Instagram tried to change my mind on this, but I just don’t think I can do it…raisins do not belong in desserts.  There, I said it.  It’s not you, it’s me…no, really it’s the raisins.  Raisins are not dessert material.  I’m standing firm and unwavering.

Now for a crazy good and healthy lunch.  I snagged this little gem of a recipe from Jami Nato’s instagram.  If you don’t follow her, you should.  She’s hysterical.  I already had cooked shredded chicken in the fridge, so I made up a batch of this dressing and had 4 solid lunches from it on 4 different days.  Soooooo easy and sooooooo good.  I don’t use oils, so I just left out the lime oil.  Easy as pie.  Pie sounds good right now.  A few days I even got a wild hair and ate this salad with sweet potato chips.  Just try and stop me.

Okay dinner stuff.  I’ve tried a couple of new recipes lately.  I’ll start with my sad dinner.  I made this Sweet Potato Turkey Chili.  I don’t know what possessed me to do this since we’re not big fans of sweet potatoes in the first place.  Unsure as to why I thought I’d be game in chili form, but I did.  Josh Kelley and I put our blood, sweat and tears into the making of this one Sunday for a weekly dinner and then I just couldn’t do it.  It actually tasted good…good flavoring…but the texture did me in.  Couldn’t do it.  So I did what any normal person does and tried to think of another semi-large family and try and pawn it off on them for their dinner.  It worked.  Thank you Freeman family!

I love crockpot chicken for taco nights.  Totally a favorite, but THIS recipe is the best I’ve tried yet.  I ditched the rice, cheese and cilantro.  We like spicy things and this had more of a kick to it.  So good.

These Turkey Meatballs are awesome.  Huge hit.  Spaghetti squash on the other hand…big nope.  It was my first attempt, but again with the crazy weird texture.  My head said “You can do this Laura”, but my mouth said “No.  Spit this out like now.”  So weird.  I probably didn’t cook it long enough or something, but it tasted nothing like noodles.

And tonight we had Ancho Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Slaw and Avacado Cream.  Just go right now and make these.  Who cares if it’s almost 10 o’clock at night and you’ve already had dinner…or you’re already asleep…make them and be so happy you did.  Massive hit.  Everyone ate them right up…minus Amon, but he seriously never eats dinner lately…3-year-olds know nothing about good tasting food.

 I taught a Bible journaling class last night and it was just so good.  It’s seriously one of my most favorite things to talk about.  I love sharing about my journey, but also hearing the thoughts of other people.  It’s just such a life-giver…such an encouragement.  I’m in James right now and have highlighted, underlined, colored, boxed in almost the entire book so far.  A friend said last night she thought God made up for Romans with James.  Total truth.  Romans almost ended my Bible reading all together 🙂  James is my scripture jam right now.

I am coming to Memphis on Friday January 29th to teach a class…6-9.  Message me HERE or email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com if you’re interested in coming.

I’ve been painting like mad this week and it totally makes my heart happy.  Give me all the colors of the world.

And I’ll leave you with this sweetness.  Swoon city.

Tomorrow is Friday!!!  The weekend is upon us.

Happy Thursday!