No whammy, no whammy...

Well I hope we are not pressing our gardening luck, but...we got (more) new flowers! I actually feel like a traitor because I like these more than the "first" new flowers. :)

The purple "Seussical" ones are Ageratum Patina, the red are impatiens, and the green in the front is Creeping Jenny.

Here's hoping they all stick around! (Bloom and grow, forevvvverrr...)

Menu Tuesday, Veggies & Dessert

 Thai Chicken Pizza
Yum! This was a great "alternative" pizza. We usually have the sweet chili sauce in our fridge anyway, but I never would have thought to use it as a pizza sauce. We left off the peanuts and cilantro, and it was still really good. I think it would be fine with whatever type of meat you wanted to top it with, or you could double up on the zucchini for a veggie option.
{Recipe Here}

Hope you all had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend! We spent lots of time relaxing and met some of my family in Macon on Sunday for shopping, dining and visiting. :) They brought these fresh vegetables from my grandparents' garden, along with two roadside stand mangoes, so these (plus the corn, beans and peas in the fridge!) will go into our menu this week. The little cucumbers are becoming pickles already!

This Week's Menu:

Pork Fried Rice with Zucchini (leftover from last week)
Crock Pot Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with Fresh Veggies

Roasted Balsamic Vegetable Pasta with Yogurt & Mint
Potato Kielbasa Skillet


And for dessert all week...

Homemade oatmeal cream (creme?) pies!

Sorry, Little Debbie. These are much better than yours! The cookies are soft and chewy, and they aren't too super sweet. The filling is a different story when it comes to sweetness, but it all balances out, right? So good!
 
(We halved the recipe, which was a little challenging with the butter amounts and single egg in the original recipe. The half recipe made nine pies. And used almost two sticks of butter. It wouldn't be any harder to make the full recipe, so if you have more than two people in your house, are willing to share, and/or you have a pound of butter you're looking to use up...go ahead and make all 18!)
{Recipe Here ... ya know ya want it!}

Menu Monday

Happy Monday, yall! We went to dinner with Brooks & Caitlyn last night, and it was a great start to another week of "summer" (a.k.a. easy) dinners. :)


This Week's Menu:
Steak Sandwiches with Horseradish Dill Sauce & Tomato-Cucumber Salad
Spicy Chicken Tortilla Roll-ups with Black Beans & Guac
Pork Fried Rice & Watermelon
Thai Chicken Pizza

Saturday Song

This song randomly came on my Internet radio station at work one day awhile back, and I told Andrew to look it up on YouTube immediately. We've been listening to it for an instant good mood ever since. :)

Have a great weekend!

New Flowers

Our geraniums did pretty well last year, so we decided to give container gardening another go this year. We opted for a variety of flowers this time, although there's still a lot of green in there for now.

Some of the tags at Pike classify the plants as "spillers," "fillers," and "thrillers." The tags explain that you should have one thriller, fill the rest of the space with...um...fillers, and then use spillers down front if you are planting in a container. It would be most helpful if all the flowers were labeled as such, but they aren't. Alas, we ended up with two spillers, three fillers, and no thriller.

Angelonia

Zinnia

("Zahara Double Cherry" variety)

Purslane Pazazz Red Flare

(That at least sounds pretty thrilling!)

And the little white ones on the bottom right who didn't get their own photo are Bacopa Scopia Gulliver White.

(Who names these things? I tried to search this one on Wikipedia, and it asked if I meant "Bacon Scotia." No.)

Menu Monday

"Double Crunch" Honey Garlic Chicken
I kept seeing the pork chop version of this recipe pinned and re-pinned on Pinterest, and the blog author added a chicken version to "celebrate" the success of the first recipe. I prefer chicken over pork chops, so I decided to give it a go. This breading method was similar to how we make schnitzel, and I guess the "double" crunch comes in because you dip it in the flour twice. Our crust wasn't even close to what's pictured on the blog, but it was still really good! The seasoning (used what I had - not everything in the recipe) and sauce were great. Super labor intensive, though, so try it out only if you have some extra time and patience one night.
{Recipe Here} 

We've both been a little under the weather for the last week, and we were in Peachtree City for Mother's Day. (Sunday is usually our planning/shopping day.) So...this is a lazy menu. ;)  Husband points for Andrew since he went to the grocery store while I did laundry after we got home yesterday evening!

This Week's Menu:
Caprese Pasta Salad with Roasted Zucchini

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken over Rice with Broccoli (Thanks, MacKenzie!)

Spaghetti with Caesar Salad and Roasted Mushrooms (minus capers)

Slow Cooker Roast, Carrots & Potatoes with Honey and Balsamic

For Mother's Day brunch yesterday, Andrew made monkey bread (mmmm), and I made fruit salad with an easy dressing I found on Pinterest (of course). I didn't take a picture, but it was great! I used green grapes, strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and green apple. Then for the dressing, you mix together equal parts lime juice, brown sugar, honey, and chopped fresh mint. You could start with two tablespoons of each and make more if you need it. Yummy! 

Menu Monday

Bacon, Cheddar & Green Apple Panini
Thanks to Brooks for suggesting this sandwich combo! It was a great warm weather dinner and a little something different for us. I think we'll make it again. (Those are kale chips in the background. I continue to be amazed at how tasty and genuinely "good for you" they are. They're addictive. See also: They are repeated this week!)

Another spring week has flown by, and we're keeping it low-key in the kitchen again. :)

This Week's Menu:
Double Crunch Honey Garlic Chicken over Rice with Roasted Green Beans

Steak with Cilantro Sauce and Fresh (Creamed) Corn & Salad

Bowtie Lasagna

California BLTs with Kale Chips

Herbaceous

We finally planted our little herb garden last weekend, and I am so glad! Tiny packets of fresh herbs are $1.99 at Publix and almost always go bad before I can finish them up. These little potted herbs are about $3.49 at Home Depot and grow all spring and summer -- even into fall. Easy choice!

This year we got flat leaf parsley (x2 - I use this most frequently when cooking), chives (can put 'em in just about everything), dill (a new choice this year!), basil (yum), and thyme (mostly because I have a pot for it...).

Then over by its lonesome, we have mint. It's in a pot by itself because mint (described on the label as "aggressive") spreads out a lot, and last year it did not play well with the other herbs in the long planter. The super strong/woody roots grew so much that the others had no room.

We loved having mint for mojitos all summer, and since all of the mint plants at HD were huge, I'm thinking we'll also use it in lemonade and tea this year.

Obviously, we just have a little patio, but we have had successful crops of herbs each year with just regular old potting soil in containers, lots of sun, and lots of water. You can too, Katie B.! ;)

I also have to mention the paisley tablecloth. I love the little table our herbs sit on, and it was definitely marked as a patio table in the store. I used it inside for a long time, but after having been outside for a couple of years, the top has cracked and totally mostly peeled off! Really attractive. It's pretty small, so I figured I would just make a round cover out of oil cloth for it. Then I pinned instructions on how to do this and it involved extensive math, so I figured I would buy one.

Would you believe how few places offer round vinyl tablecloths?? I really didn't think it was a unique thing to look for... I finally found a random blog post from 2011 about how you could use these elusive round vinyl tablecloths to make portable baby changing mats. The blogger said they had "TONS" at HomeGoods for $5. Since it was a year after that blog and I hadn't been able to locate a single decent one online (aaand because of my terrible luck when looking for something very specific in a store), I just knew they wouldn't have any now. But I still had to go look.

I was amazed! A whole giant bin!! And still only $4.99.
At 70" round, it has a tad too long of a "drop" (learned that on the tablecloth measuring site) for our tiny bistro table. But it sure does look better than the alternative. I limited myself to purchasing two. For now. :)

Hope you have a great weekend!