Friday, June 28, 2013

Dinner--Chili Lime Mahi Mahi with Sweet Corn Quinoa

Well it has been a long time since I wrote a post!! Guess I should write a post about our vacation. We also did lots of fun art projects today. So while I work on other posts later, I will start with what I made for dinner.

I keep reading articles about all the crappy stuff that is in our food.  Ingredients that are illegal in other countries. Yuck. While I know our habits won't change overnight, I thought I would try to move us in a better direction.

I made a trip to Costco this week for meat. While there I bought some Mahi Mahi.  While surfing Pinterest this week, I saw recipes for Quinoa & decided we should try it.

So dinner tonight was....

Chili Lime Mahi Mahi with Sweet Corn Quinoa


Doesn't it look yummy?  That's because it was!!

The fish was easy.  We had a Stubbs Chili Lime rub. I wanted to use a recipe found here that called for McCormick's Mojito Lime seasoning, but our Kroger didn't have it. So if you need a recipe, I'm betting this one is good. I will try it next time or when I can find the seasoning.

Our side dish was the quinoa. I really didn't know much about it other than it has a lot of protein. I used this recipe, found here. The only change I made was using frozen corn instead of fresh corn.  I used nearly a whole 12 oz bag.

So that's it.  Kevin & I loved it! And if our kids weren't picky and more willing to try new things, they would have liked it too :)

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Happy Birthday Sweet Savannah

Today we celebrated Savannah's birthday with a party at a local church's playground. Earlier this week, the forecast was for a high near 90--yuck, but it's June what do you expect??

Then the forecast started changing...a storm front would be moving in.  We had no Plan B.  
I prayed & prayed for no rain from 10am-noon.  Just let us get the party in, then rain/storm all you want!

Woke up to a great forecast, the party was on!!
Breeze was blowing & it was about 82 degrees. Perfect!

Let me backtrack just a bit to tell you how the party came together...

At some point, a few weeks ago, Savannah decided she wanted a Bubbles party. This was after she said she wanted a jelly bean party...not sure where her ideas were coming from. Of course, I searched Pinterest for ideas for a bubble themed party.

I made invitations using Excel. It was easy. This isn't the best picture, but I can't find a printed copy so I'm trying to take a picture off my computer screen. You get the idea. They were cute!

Used this idea and make it my own.


Here is the birthday girl with her cake & cupcakes.
For the cake topper, I bought a wooden "5" from Hobby Lobby, painted it pink and glued gumballs on it. 
Found the idea here for the topper & cake decor.


Got to use my cupcake stand!! If you didn't see that blog post, find it here.

I used candy to decorate the cake. Two sizes of gumballs and Sweet Spots. Found them a the Dollar Tree.


I made mini strawberry cupcakes for the kids and a large layer cake for the adults. Each layer was a different color. 

(Got the idea from here.)

We hired a local girl & her mom to make balloon animal/creations for our party guests.



The kids loved it!! So did Kevin :)



The party was lots of fun. I'm thankful to Bellevue Baptist for allowing us to use their park & pavilion. And I'm very thankful for God that the storm front moved through at 11:45 just as the party was wrapping up. Answered prayers!!

And here are the bubble wands we sent home with each guest.


Tonight, we had a family cookout at our house. More presents and sweet stuff! I made a cookie cake and made an "S" on top out of M&Ms.

Find idea here.

I made the cookie recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. The key is to use Butter flavored Crisco. (It's a birthday, there are no calories on birthdays...) I cooked it in a smaller sized pizza pan. YUMMY!

Even if we weren't fans of Duck Dynasty, this shirt would still be perfect for Savannah. She is Happy, Happy, Happy almost all the time. So blessed to have her for a daughter.


Successful and exhausting day. It was a great party day!!