Cooking Thursday: Gingerbread Overnight Oats and Summery Pinterest

 

Hello beautiful Blogland Besties!

How's things for you this Thursday?

I had some honorary Aunties over for lunch - so that's why I'm getting to this post a little late. We had a great catch up and I served some monte cristo sliders with raspberry preserves, melon, veggie tray and apple cinnamon kringle. 😋

Here's the table all set. I used my blueberry placemats and some new linen summery napkins I had picked up. 

Since I'm talking about food - I thought I would share a few delicious looking dishes from my pinterest. 

I'm still thinking summer things - other then next week we're going to do a Christmas in July time when Annie's bf comes for a visit. She & I have made a plan. He loves Christmas and holiday music like I do. :) So I'm going to make a more holiday-like meal, a Christmas related treat, and we're going to listen to Christmas music and color (or they may do a lego set). Plus, I've already got some little gifts for them and Matt just for fun. So even though it won't be on the 25th of July - I'm still going to have my little "fix" before the end of July. 

But back to summer ideas....

You can find all of these on my pinterest board called "summer" if you click here.

I've always wanted to make this and I'm determined to do it before summer ends.

Annie has been into all things lime - so I may make these before she heads back to school.

this is a recipe for Italian grinder chicken salad - doesn't it look tasty?

my summer board also has all kinds of different red, white, and blue ideas for the season

It also has other summer related things - like summery quotes I've liked.

And of course there are several different Christmas in July ideas. :) 

even a doggy popsicle idea

This is not a pinterest thing - but I saw this on social media and my daughter & I both really liked it. We stretched out a fruit roll up and wrapped it around a coconut popsicle. It makes the fruit roll up a crisp texture and the strawberry flavor with the coconut was really yummy! 

Another fun Christmas in July idea was the overnight oats I made the other day. They were gingerbread flavor and I added some chopped walnut and some chopped apple (not shown in the pic). It was really good and definitely had that molasses gingery flavor. I found the recipe at a site called healthynibblesandbits.com I made it according to the recipe but tweaked a bit of the amounts and also added a little maple syrup and some chia seeds. Here's the recipe:

My hydrangeas are going strong! 

I hope you're still enjoying these summer days. They are so fleeting in the northwoods...so I'm trying to soak it all up before it's gone. (even though Autumn forever has my heart)😉

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy new week my Friends!

It's still been pretty hot in the northwoods. We did get some thunderstorms and a bit of rain - so that was helpful. 

It was a pretty quiet weekend. Annie was out-of-town. And I got a little stomach flu. I was fighting a fever, chills - the works. Thankfully I felt better by later yesterday and I feel more like myself today. So Matt and I mostly hung out indoors in the a/c. We watched some shows, napped, and he did a lot of yard work. Yesterday, we played some cards and caught up with Annie when she got home. 

We have some busy weeks ahead - still lots of summer things and folks we are trying to pack in before it all flies by. ☀️💛

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

half of an english muffin with a tiny bit of natural pb & banana,  iced coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

groceries, errands, Matt's childhood friend coming to visit and for dinner, lunch that I'm hosting for some honorary "Aunties" of mine, Ruby's haircut, the company we hired to redo one of our bathrooms in the Fall is coming this week to measure, we are going to dinner & mini golf with my Bro & SIL, I'm doing lunch with my bestie later in the week, my hospice work 

(yep a busy one)...and next week Annie's bf is coming to visit from FL for the week - so it will be a busy one too!

THINKING ABOUT: 

How I'd like to do a Christmas in July day (on just a small level) and what I want that to involve ....hmmmm? 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

watching our garden grow a little bigger every day :) 💚

CURRENTLY READING

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Jeopardy, Big Brother, AGT, I watched the new Little House on the Prairie series and liked it, The Five Star Weekend, some Christmas Hallmark movies taped for Christmas in July ❤️💚😊

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - lemon ricotta pasta with peas, roasted broccoli with parm, garlic bread

TUESDAY - 

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY -  

FRIDAY -

*not sure about the rest of the week because still setting the dates for what nights Matt's friend is visiting and when we're going out with my Bro & SIL. I'm going to make and bring food for my Mom& step Dad one night (she requested my slow cooker sweet & sour meatballs with asian style cauliflower rice). I'm also planning to make a brunch kind of lunch for my honorary "Aunties" and plan to make monte cristo sliders with raspberry jam and fruit. And maybe make cookies this weekend for Christmas in July??  - lots of ideas are brewing over here 😉

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

color, read, work on a Christmas gift project (while listening to Christmas music of course!)

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Since we really didn't go anywhere - all of my pics are from around our home sweet home. So of course lots of flowers and garden pics.  I wanted to share that my lilies are all popping open and I love the variety of colors we have. The peach ones haven't opened yet - they're usually last. The deep red ones always remind me of this pic of Annie when she was little.  I've always loved it and included it in her grad announcement a few years ago. ❤️

My Aunt sent this thank you too me knowing I love quilling. I think it's such a pretty art form:

The hydrangeas are also popping open...

The herbs are taking over their pots and the lettuce is spilling out of its pot. The garden is growing bigger now and I love how the cukes are curling around the chives:

I found this pretty garden iron flower cross I had bought when we were in AZ and had Matt hang it on my gardeners table. 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. 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 the wildfires to end.

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

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:

💗💗💗

I hope you have a week full of treasures Friends!

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

Cooking Thursday: Green Goddess Pasta Salad

Hello dear Friends!

Happy Thursday to you and I hope you're doing well. 💗

It has been rather interesting here in the northwoods. First we had days of 90 to 100* temps. Now we have had wildfires from Canada and also some areas closer to us in the states and the Boundary Waters too. So we have been enveloped with a thick blanket of smoke. It looks like we're fogged in, but if you go outside it smells and tastes like you are in the middle of a campfire. It's the worst air quality we have ever had in our area. We have always been known for our pristine air, lakes, and forests. And with the environmental issues affecting our world we are once again dealing with wildfires. I have lived here my whole 54 years and never had these issues until the past 4-5 years it has become a regular thing. I pray for all those truly suffering through this and hope it clears up soon!🙏🏻 

So needless to say, this summer has now started to feel like we are trapped indoors. We only go out when truly necessary. We haven't been able to mow or do the yard projects that need catching up. I know there are far worse things... and I'm grateful we are healthy and don't have issues from the air. But it's frustrating when our summers are already so short. 

This was the sun coming up this morning:

I was out (quickly) watering my flowers earlier today. Our lilies have been popping out and I took this pic and you can see off to the right the thick haze:

But I'm sure you didn't pop by to listen to my belly achin'. Lol 

What I wanted to share for a recipe today is this green goddess pasta salad. I follow a young gal on social media called cooking.em and she does a lot of healthy twists on yummy food. And I knew Annie would especially love this salad... so I made it for us all a few weeks ago. 

Now with the worries about fresh produce - it may not be something you want to make right now, as it has a bit of fresh produce and herbs. But I'm sharing it anyways as it was really yummy and fresh and you may want to make it sometime. 

 

The recipe is below but she had a video for her instructions. So I will share what I did. I boiled the pasta (I used tricolor veggie pasta). While it was boiling I washed & cut up the fresh veggies and herbs. When there was about 2 minutes of boiling time left I threw some frozen peas, frozen edamame, and fresh asparagus (cut up) into the pot too... in order to blanch them a few minutes. Then I drained all into a big colander and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking of the pasta and veggies. I put all into a big bowl.

To that bowl I added the cut up fresh veggies of pepper, cucumber and instead of green onion I threw in some chives from my garden. I tossed everything together. 

I then blended all of the dressing ingredients in the blender. 

I then put the dressing onto the pasta and mixed it all together.

I didn't use arugula - I had some spinach to use up. So I added that and some mozzarella balls (I wanted to use mozzarella pearls but they didn't have them at the store). So I cut the balls smaller - but you could just cube up some cheese too. 

This was really easy and so fresh and tasty. It's wonderful as a side for a BBQ or to have as a main dish. If you wanted to add more protein, as a main dish, I would throw in some grilled or rotisserie chicken too. Here is the recipe:

Enjoy! And have a great weekend ahead. xo

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello Friends and Happy Monday 😊

Are you in the heat of summer right now too? It's been in the 90's here the past couple of days and we have a few more hot days ahead. We don't get too many days in the 90's in the northwoods...so I think they always feel extra warm to us. Plus, they typically come with quite a bit of humidity. So I was doing all of my outside chores nice and early. And my workout - as I have been increasing the time I spend in my workouts each day...so I work up a good sweat!  So I wanted to get it in before it got too warm.  

I sure give a round of applause to the person that invented air conditioning!! Lol 

We had a fun weekend at the lake. Matt's Mom used to be part of putting on a production there each year. Though she's not as involved anymore, she still has a connection to an artist that brings his group up to perform now in the park each summer. He is from her old home town and he was one of her students when she was a teacher there. He has a "big band" type band he is the lead of - and also an 80's band. This year the 80's band came to perform and they were awesome!! So fun and brought back such fun memories of my youth. I'm biased, of course, but I think the 80's were the best!! 💗

We also had fun hanging with Matt's folks and did some chores around the property. As well as playing cards in the a/c, watched an Avengers movie, and spent one whole afternoon swimming in the lake (we didn't want to get out!) It was so nice on such a hot day. 

Now I've been back home and catching up with Annie and chores around the house. So it's on to the week ahead....

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

ice protein coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

groceries, errands, my MD appt, yard work (when the weather cools down), hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

How I'm treasuring the time with my Annie while she's still here this summer. I'm so grateful to get quality time with her. 💗

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

golfing with my Hubby 😊

CURRENTLY READING

Nothing new at the moment

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Jeopardy, Big Brother, AGT - need to catch up on some other shows too

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - 

TUESDAY -

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY -  

FRIDAY -

*not sure about the menu this week - we need groceries but want to check in with Matt & Annie about things they may want for this week (& will bring some things to my Mom too)

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

hopefully read, work on projects

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

We had so much fun at the 80's concert in the park with Matt's folks. People came over in their boats and pontoons (as the park is on the lake) and would listen from the water too. 

I had to wear my "sincerely yours, the breakfast club" t-shirt 😉

some of the hot weekend we hung out in the a/c at the cabin and I was coloring on my ipad - I guess I had Christmas in July thoughts going on. Lol

Ruby thought we were going on the pontoon and ran right onto it. We had to coax her off and tell her it was too hot for a ride that day. 

But we loved swimming in the lake and this family of ducks floated on by :) 

Some moments back at home:

Matt & I like to still date one another, even during the day while he's working at home (he's been extra busy these past few weeks). So we often send one another a sweet text, or a pic, or something funny. So I had sent him some love along with this pic the other day. He is the sweetest most hard working Honey. So so grateful for him! ❤️

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. 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 healing for my Mom. For my step Dad fighting pneumonia.

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

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:

I love this because I love scrapbooking and paper ephemera and tangible memory things. It's hard for me to get rid of things. I'm such a sentimental softie I guess. Do you like those things too?

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

Have a blessed week!