I had a whole bunch of apples that were starting to get a bit soft. Rather than letting them go completely bad, I decided to make applesauce. Applesauce is easy to make in a slow-cooker. And it tastes so delicious and looks so yummy. To make the applesauce, follow these 5 steps: Peel, quarter, and… Read More Easy, Unsweetened, Homemade: Applesauce
Hey everyone – I hope that you’ve had a great weekend! Joe and I have a few things going on this week. We’re going to a Plunket parenting class where we’ll hopefully meet some other mums and bubs. The menu for the week will be pretty low-key with lots of veggies and healthy options. Here’s… Read More Menu Monday
Moving to NZ has forced me to pay a lot more attention to what we eat. Food is more expensive here, and things that are readily available in the States aren’t on the shelves of our local grocery. While I wouldn’t mind if the food prices came down a bit, overall, this increased attention to… Read More Easy, Unsweetened, Homemade: Granola Bars
It has been a long time since I’ve posted a “Menu Monday”. Time to resurrect that tradition. Lately, I’ve been making a lot of recipes from Eating Well. I’ve subscribed to their email service and have been pleasantly surprised with the suggestions that they send. I’m trying to do a better job of using fresh… Read More Menu Monday!
I’ve been cleaning and organizing a lot these days. One of the big tasks on my “to do” list was to reorganize the pantry. While not exactly terrible, it was messy enough that finding something took awhile. Also, I wasn’t always sure what we had and what we didn’t, which resulted in sometimes buying extra… Read More Foreign Food
Hello, my lovely readers 🙂 I hope that your week is off to a good start. I know that many of you have been cold in the States, but it is hot-hot-hot here in New Zealand! Parts of the South Island made the news for reaching 40.3C {104.5F} over the weekend! It hasn’t been quite… Read More Warm Weather, Womb Updates, and Winnings
Lately, my desire to grocery shop has gone out the door, down the stairs, into the elevator, and landed in the basement. Then, it’s been crushed by one of the cars backing out of the car-park and rolled like a tumbleweed onto the sidewalk, where it’s been further kicked around by passing pedestrians. Can you… Read More Grocery Shopping + Cooking
Poor Chris has been putting up with a lot on my end lately. He’s such a sweetheart about it, but the fact is that I haven’t been as active around the house as usual. Dinners aren’t always made, laundry has been a bear to tackle, and he puts up with it and doesn’t complain. So… Read More Cheesecake
First up – the giveaway! I’m probably decreasing my odds of winning by doing this, but you should head on over to Miller’s blog and check out her giveaway {it’s for a great book}. She’s a sweet Southern transplant who’s moved to the Midwest and takes amazing pictures. I love reading her posts and hearing… Read More Menu Monday… and a giveaway!
Shortly after coming to New Zealand, I noticed something. There seemed to be a lot of carrot cake – in coffee shops, at restaurants, served at get-togethers, at the hospital cafeteria… you get the idea. Not surprisingly, I found myself dreaming about cream cheese frosting and nutty, delicious baked goods. When I mentioned this to… Read More When Good Carrot Cake Goes Green {It’s the Baking Soda, Stupid!}
Hey everyone – hope you had a great weekend. Mine was fun on Friday but went downhill from there: sore throat, runny nose, cough, bloodshot eyes… the works. I slept cradling a Kleenex box instead of my husband, and each morning, the floor looked like it had snowed 2 ply lotion tissues. Yuck. I loaded… Read More Menu Monday
Hey everyone – hope you had a great weekend. Ours was busy. I went to a cute cafe in Ponsonby called “Agnes Curran”, stopped in at Milly’s Kitchen Shop, checked out a store called “The Mad Butcher”, went to Mitre 10 for some things {the equivalent of a Lowe’s in NZ}, and looked at furniture. … Read More Menu Monday!
New Zealand, believe it or not, isn’t exactly known for it’s Mexican food. I know, I know – hard to believe! Tortilla chips here taste a bit differently, and for the most part, we’ve seen only 1 – 2 brands of salsa on the store shelves. There are smaller specialty stores, but gone are the… Read More Homemade Salsa in New Zealand
Since I started work this week, the menu is a lot of easy, quick-prep meals. Anything that can be made in advance is good! Chris is so funny – when I told him that I was going back to work on Monday {this was last week}, he was excited… at first. Then a few hours… Read More Menu Monday
A word of caution: this dessert could lead to declarations of love and/or spontaneous marriage proposals. Use wisely! I decided to make Chocolate Death for a church get-together. Once a month our church has an open discussion on Sunday nights. It’s jokingly referred to as “stump the pastor”, because it’s a time when anyone can… Read More Chocolate Death
I haven’t done a Menu Monday in awhile. I was working a crazy schedule prior to our move: I worked, slept, and that was it. I ate once a day, if you can believe that {no, that wasn’t a diet plan – I was too tired to eat and too busy at work to take… Read More Menu Monday
Hello, my lovely readers! Hope y’all are having a great week thus far. Ours has been busy, but that’s a post for another day. We had some friends over for dinner this week. The apartment is still pretty barren, but in this case it was a good thing. Our friends have a little one who… Read More New York Pizza in New Zealand
These are Dutch Kiss Cookies. They are delicious. Why are these cookies Dutch? Two reasons: (1) this recipe is from my mom, and her grandparents were Dutch, and (2) the “secret ingredient”, almond paste, is used in several traditionally Dutch desserts and pastries. So I started calling them “Dutch Kiss Cookies”. Seemed to make sense… Read More Dutch Kisses Are Always Sweeter
