Hashbrown and Veggie Breakfast Pizza and a Little Break

Hello dear Friends and happy Friday to you! I hope you're wrapping up your week and heading into a cozy fun weekend ahead. :) 

Life here is busy in the best ways. My Annie Girl is home from college and makes my Momma heart sing with happiness. 😍😊 

We have been enjoying lots of catch up time and even went and hung out with my Mom yesterday. Matt helped me get a new car and that arrives today. I am also going to give some time at the hospice facility. We plan on some fun for the weekend ahead, as well as getting the rest of the Thanksgiving groceries as I start prepping that meal by Monday (I have certain things I make each day leading up to the big gobble gobble). Matt has his surgery early next week. So all of that along with lots of Annie time and holiday prepping means I will be on here less and want to put my focus on family. So I'm going to take a little break - probably until after Thanksgiving. 

But first I thought I'd share this blast from the past and the updated version I made the other day. This is from the first time I made hashbrown breakfast pizza. I used thawed hashbrowns that I had put some butter on, baked, then took out and added ham, scrambled eggs veggies & cheese and baked some more. So very easy and so very good! You can find and read the full recipe here.

In the twist I made the other night I added some broccoli slaw to the hashbrowns to up the veggie and fiber factor. I also added some chopped onion. I put all of that in a bowl. Tossed the mixture with a little olive oil. Seasoned it and spread it all on a sheet pan. I preheated the oven to 425* and added some butter to the pan and preheated the pan in the oven with the butter for several minutes. Took out the hot pan and added the hashbrown mixture and baked for about 20-25 minutes. Then while that was baking I scrambled up about 5 eggs seasoning them as I went. When the hashbrowns were done I took them out and added the scrambled eggs...and what I had on hand - some cooked and broken up breakfast sausage, some buffalo mozzarella I needed to use up and a little shredded cheddar. If I had extra peppers or veggies I would have chopped them up and added them too. What is nice is how versatile this recipe is and just so good for using up whatever is in your fridge. I then put it back in the 425* oven and baked for another 15 minutes broiling just a little at the end. It always turns out so great and you can use as much hashbrowns/veggies as you want or as little. There isn't a right or wrong amount -whatever fills your pan or that you want to use up. 

bowl with hashbrown, broccoli slaw & chopped onion tossed with oil and seasoning

spread in pan and bake ( I had grabbed a large pan and it didn't even fill it - doesn't matter bakes all the same :) 

added scrambled eggs and whatever I needed to use up in the fridge and the cheeses

bakes up so yummy and I just cut it into squares and serve - we love ours topped with sriracha mayo drizzle ( I didn't get a pic of that)

If you like breakfast for dinner and you're looking to clear out what's in the fridge, this is a win-win for you! 😋 So easy and soooo tasty. Would be really great for a brunch as you could make a big pan or 2 of this to serve a crowd great! Add some fruit, maybe muffins or pastries and you'd have a wonderful spread. If you try it I hope you enjoy!! 

Also, I will come around and visit you Friends when I get a chance. For my Friends in the states, I wish you a very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving next week! Remember to set your scales back 10 pounds. 😉

Gobble til you Wobble! So very grateful for you All!! 

🍂🧡🧡🍁

xoxo

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello my Lovelies!

Are you ready to dive into a new week?

Can you believe it's the week before Thanksgiving time already?? The time - she sure is flying. There has been a chilly late Fall vibe in the northwoods filled with cold nights that bring a frosty deck in the morning and a glaze of ice on the bay. Cozy season is fully here. 

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. That's what went on around here. Besides Jesus time we also ran some errands - including a Goodwill drop off. We went out for dinner one night. And yesterday was a loungewear and football all day kind of relaxing day. I also have the majority of my Christmas shopping done and have already started wrapping gifts in Mrs. Claus workshop (my home crafting/office room). It feels good getting a lot of those details out of the way so I can focus on  family time, baking, movies, and decorating during the holiday season. 

And THANK YOU all again for the kind words regarding the saga that is this skin cancer stuff. The antibiotic is helping and I'm definitely on the healing track now...thank God's goodness. 🙏🏻

I've been making a Thanksgiving menu list and ideas. Now I need to break it into lists for grocery shopping trips (will probably do our favorite grocery store and Costco ahead). I love hosting it here. 🍁🧡 for many reasons but one is all the leftovers (the best part, right?). And especially for the family time. Looking so forward to having both of the kiddos in the nest for Thanksgiving. It's when my heart feels completely whole.  Annie comes home from college this week - yay!!! I miss her so much and can't wait to hug my Girl. I was talking to her yesterday and she was saying the same thing...that she needs her Momma. :) 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

vanilla greek yogurt with granola, coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

Ruby spa haircut day, start Thanksgiving errands, home projects, finish blessing bag refills, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

I'm grateful Matt & I tag teamed the windows and got them cleaned inside and out this weekend. Good job off the list and in time to get ready to hibernate. He may even put up the outside Christmas lights soon - before it's too cold or snowy. We have some other home cleaning projects to check off the list before Christmas decorations come out the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

Listening to Christmas music while wrapping gifts and putting on pretty ribbons to make some of them extra pretty. 🎁

CURRENTLY READING

been so focused on craft projects, gift wrapping and mainly reading magazines

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor,  Ghosts, Holiday baking shows, Hallmark movies 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - breakfast pizza (the crust made from frozen hashbrowns roasted with broccoli slaw - will share recipe this week)

TUESDAY - might be out running errands? leftovers?

WEDNESDAY -  tacos

THURSDAY - spinach and cheese ravioli, Italian chicken meatballs, salad

FRIDAY - Annie pick?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

color with Annie, work on puzzle with my Girl, wrap gifts

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

FROM THE CAMERA:

There is a glaze of ice on the bay each morning now. The bird feeder has been very popular lately...which brings in the squirrels to clean up what falls to the deck. And that has Ruby keeping an eye on things. 

My crafting desk was so nice and clean but now it's become a Christmas workshop as I knock out wrapping the gifts I've picked up. It feels very satisfying to check things off the list with each gift that gets wrapped. I plan to do many homemade food gift baskets too. So I have an organizer (not pictured) holding baskets, ribbons, food gift bags, jars etc ready to go when I put them together closer to Christmas. Laundry baskets are filling up with wrapped gifts. Bubba loves to sit in the bay window and supervise my work.

Matt and I made the viral cranberry candy from social media. We did one bag of cranberries and halved the recipe - but the recipe calls for 2 bags of fresh cranberries. Soak them in a bowl filled with 2 cans of lemon lime soda and 1 cup of orange juice. Cover and soak them in the fridge overnight. Then the next day drain the cranberries. Toss them in a bunch of powdered sugar until fully coated and spread them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook in a 200* F oven for 5-7 minutes. Let cool fully. Then enjoy! They're sweet and tart and very crunchy. They make a satisfying and loud pop when you bite down on them. I think you could also soak them in prosecco or something like that if you wanted a boozy version. They are different and fun. Matt loves them!

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For safe travels for all the holiday travelers ahead. 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

The cozy time of year is the best, isn't it? Blessings on your week dear Friends. I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Happy Friday & Some Holiday Recipe Ideas

 

Hello Beautiful Friends and Happy TGIF to you! 

Do you have some fun plans for the weekend? We will probably be pretty mellow around here, other than church Saturday and maybe grab dinner out. And watch the Pack on Sunday of course. 💚💛

I got my stitches out yesterday so that's another step towards full healing. The line where the stitches were looks great and the doc did an amazing job. It's still a little red and has some minimal tenderness around the site so he wanted to be extra cautious and put me on an antibiotic for a bit. I will have it bandaged up when I'm out in the world to keep it free from contamination (& look less jarring for others) - but around home I'm keeping the site clean and just a little vaseline to try to prevent any scabbing. It will be a process to fully heal yet but so glad to be done with all the worst parts. Thank you again so much for all the prayers, love and support! Now Matt is up next and has his excision on his leg right before Thanksgiving. So if you could throw some more prayers his way...that would be wonderful and so appreciated. His issue is actual melanoma (the bad skin cancer) so praying they get it all and that will be that! 🙏🏻

Ok, enough health updates hopefully for a while. Lol I thought I would share that we were able to see the northern lights over our home the other night. They weren't as bright as when we saw them last Fall - but beautiful none the less. And a couple pretty sunset/twilight time photos too. It gets dark so early now and it sure looks like late Autumn around here. 

And since I missed posting for Cooking Thursday I thought I would still share a few recipe ideas today. 

First, I wanted to share that you can click on this link here and it will take you to a post where I shared some of the Thanksgiving recipes I like to use each year for Pioneer Woman's make ahead mashed potatoes and homemade pie crust. 

Also, this is a pic of the "liquid gold" I make each year to use for other Thanksgiving recipes. I like to do this as it gives me many cups of homemade turkey stock to use for them.

Here is what I like to do. 3 - 4 days before Thanksgiving I like to roast some turkey parts in the oven with some butter and herbs, and seasoning. (I will pick up some wings, thighs or a leg) I then use the parts to make a homemade stock in my big slow cooker. Sometimes I'll even get it all going in the evening and let it cook all night while I sleep. I will take the roasted parts and put them in the slow cooker with some onion, garlic, veggies, herbs, seasoning and about 10-12 cups of water (whatever fills it to the top) and cook on slow for 8- 10 hours. When it's done, or when I wake up the next morning, I will strain out the parts and veggies and I then have my liquid gold bone broth I keep in the fridge. I use it to do my make ahead homemade dressing, homemade gravy, and what's left I use for turkey noodle soup after Thanksgiving is done. The way this has so much flavor and allows me to make dishes ahead of time...makes it well worth the extra step of work. 

Since I have the Thanksgiving menu on the brain, I also thought I would share some recipes I may try new this year. One is for this homemade cranberry sauce from Sally's Baking Addiction. It's similar to one I've done before but different enough I'd like to try it. You can find it by clicking here.

I had pinned some appetizers that look and sound wonderful for the season and thought I would share a few. Like this one for roasted pear, cranberry & brie flatbread. You can see the recipe if you click here.

Or I like this idea for a roasting sweet potato rounds in the oven and topping with seasonal toppings. This one uses goat cheese (& I'm the only one that likes goat cheese) - so I would probably change it to a ricotta cheese that I would add a little honey and lemon zest to. And then top with craisins, candied walnuts and a drizzle of hot honey. Or maybe a sweet balsamic drizzle.  You can find the original recipe I plan to adapt if you click here.

How about you? Do you host Thanksgiving? Or do you go somewhere and bring a dish? Do you have tried and true favorites...or like to try something new? 

Happy Homemaker Monday

 

Hello dear wonderful Blogging Beauties!

Thank you so much for all the prayers, love and support on my last post. My face surgery went well. They were able to get all the cancer cells with only one shave in the Mohs surgery. I felt so badly for other people that were up there all day long, due to having to go back for multiple cuttings. I was there only about 2 hours. It was a heftier surgery than I thought it was going to be though. It required internal stitches and 8 stitches on the outside of my face. I have a line from right below the corner of my eye all the way to the bottom of my nose. I took a pic to show my kiddos and they said I look like one tough Chick. Lol I'll spare you the more gruesome pic, but here is one from right after the procedure to show you how it requires a large dressing on my face. It got pretty swollen and black and blue - but even that is getting better now. I will get the stitches out later this week and then it will take a several weeks to more fully heal up. Fun, fun. 

So needless to say it was a pretty quiet weekend overall. Matt has been the biggest Sweetie and taking very good care of me. It got really cold here over the weekend and we even had our first snowflakes flying in the air! It didn't accumulate to anything...but Mother Nature was letting us know it's just a matter of time. ❄️

 

 

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

some cereal with fruit, coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

laying pretty low this week, get stitches out, do hospice work from home, working on hibernation projects (cleaning out cabinets etc), Christmas gift projects, may start wrapping as I've gotten a fair amount of shopping done and I can bag them up all wrapped to then store away until we decorate for the holidays

THINKING ABOUT: 

lots of holiday things on the brain

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

My comfy bed and pillow! I had to sleep in the recliner for several days after the procedure and it made me appreciate my bed that much more. 

CURRENTLY READING

?? - doing more crafting etc lately

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor,  Shifting Gears, Ghosts, Holiday baking shows, Hallmark movies 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -  leftover ham & scalloped potatoes, asparagus

TUESDAY -  Matt made us some steaks Sunday...maybe leftover steak to go with eggs (breakfast for dinner) with leftover asparagus and side of fruit

WEDNESDAY -  pasta bolognese, salad, garlic bread

THURSDAY - Asian soup dumplings, cauliflower rice, edamame, veggie spring rolls

FRIDAY - order in?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

sketch and paint, crochet, work on Thanksgiving menu and shopping lists

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

Today is the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. You may remember the song by Gordon Lightfoot? It has real meaning here as that ship loaded up on iron ore in the city where I live that day, and left from the harbor just a few miles from our bay. I was only 4 at the time, so of course I don't remember it. Today they will have a commemoration ceremony over Lake Superior at this lighthouse, where Matt & I hiked this Fall:

They will be ringing a memorial bell 29 times for each man lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald. If you haven't heard the song or story I'll include the lyrics and a video of the song here:

THE WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

FROM THE CAMERA:

Since I've needed to be restful I've been coloring, watercolor painting and other crafting. :) 

It just looks like November around here. And it got cold enough to have snowflakes swirl and little bit show up on the deck. We got out the birdfeeder and the deck is completely empty and everything is put away for winter. The squirrels come to clean up the scraps the birds drop from the feeder, and it drives Ruby crazy. Lol 

I put away the more Halloween kinds of Fall decorations and Thanksgiving ones are more featured now. I was watching a show on youtube and the gal had cats and Bubba sat and watched with me! Lol 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Blessings on your week ahead Friends. 💗

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.