Happy Valentine's Day! Filed under ( berries, blog finds, cake, holiday food, main dishes, Soup )

Happy Happy Day of Love my friends! Throughout my life, Valentine's day and I have gone through a wave of good times and bad.

It's great when you're six and collecting sugar filled Valentine's from your friends.

Bad when you're sixteen, single and watching all of your friends take home flowers from their boyfriends.

Amazing when you're nineteen and have found the love of your life that you plan to spend forever and ever with.

Horrible when you're twenty one and realize that plans have changed.

And it's elating when you're twenty-eerhf and you wake up to the man and children that really have become your forever and ever. I still don't know how I got so lucky to have such a sweet family, I just love them!

But being the broke students that we are, Valentine's day is one holiday that we don't celebrate much. Usually a nice dinner suffices. And after visiting some amazing food blogs for ideas, here is what I plan to make.

Kim, one of my favorite blog friends from Stirring the Pot, completely knocked my socks off with this Triple Pork Split Pea Soup. Thick flavorful bright soup filled with three different kinds of pork. And as you'll remember, I do love pig!



I just barely met Megan from Food and Whine, but I already love her blog. She has these fun Jello Hearts that I know my kids will go nuts for.


And for dessert I turned to Deborah from Taste and Tell, who devoted some time experimenting with red velvet. It was so hard to choose what to choose from her lineup, but I finally decided on these Red Velvet and Strawberry Trifles because my daughter loves strawberries. How pretty do they look!


And that is how I will be spending my evening with the people that I love. I hope you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones too!

Blogtastic Eats Filed under ( blog finds, bread, coconut, fruit, meat, meatballs, nuts, turkey )

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the best things I've made have come from other people's food blogs. I mean, you guys really know your food! The tragedy is that there are SO many great bloggy dishes, and only three meals in a day, I never feel like I'll be able to try them all. But even if I don't, rest assured, your pictures and descriptions always leave me drooling, and hungry! Here are two great finds that I recently tried, and must be shared.

I found these fantastic meatballs over at Gina's Weight Watchers blog. And while I'm not quite as strict on the diet as I should be (ahem), I still really try to eat delicious but healthy foods like this. Have you ever tried the potstickers from Costco. No, not the ones in the freezer, the fresh one, made with chicken, yeah, those! Aren't they awesome? These meatballs taste A LOT like them. They even come with a similar tasting sauce. They are juicy and full of flavor and were a hit with the whole family. You can find the recipe here.

Thanks Gina!


The second thing we made was Coleen's Pineapple Banana Bread. This was a bread that I just couldn't get out of my head, and I'm so glad I didn't! It's like summer in bread form. With the combination of banana, pineapple and coconut, it's the closest you'll come to eating a Pina Colada. Definitely try this, especially if you are buried in three feet of snow and need some sunshine in your house! The recipe can be found here. Thanks Coleen! And here's a picture of my daughter when I told her we were going to make banana bread.


She gets excited.

Is anyone else out there having a snow day? Not only is my girl home from school, but my husband is as well! I have to tell you, waking up to a lazy weekday morning, and having aebelskivers with my husband is not a bad way to start the day, although I'm not quite sure about having the deal with the snow everytime. Stay warm my friends, and keep cooking up those wonderful dishes!