Butterflies - Smithsonian

My husband took me to the butterfly pavilion at the Smithsonian this weekend! MAN was it crazy! There were so many people and of course everyone is waiting to see the cherry blossoms, which have arrived late this year due to the harsh weather.
While we were in the Museum of Natural History, we had seen the Hope Diamond, some strange looking stone formations, an Orchid room full of many different kinds of beautiful orchids and of course the butterfly pavilion. Here are pictures for you to enjoy from the butterfly pavilion. The butterflies were landing on people and their clothing, it was pretty sweet!

 The room where the butterflies were, was VERY warm, but beautiful! Full of flowers and an area with live caterpillars and cocoons. If you ever get the change, go! It was $6 a person and so worth it!

Since I have been dealing with issues with my knee and foot, I had to go home and rest my foot that evening. All in all, we had a great day!

Cinnamon Apple Oats & Honey

Do you ever have too many apples that you just have no cotton pickin' idea what you are going to do with them? It's not like you are in the mood to pick one up and take a bite out of it. What do you do? I figured it out! My mom has given me a recipe from my Mamaw for rhubarb strawberry crisp, don't get too excited just yet. That recipe will be for later, let's take care of our apples for now.

It's so good your lips will SMACK you!

Apples in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes

What you will need:
6 Cups of sliced Apples keep in mind the more you have the more of the other ingredients you will need as well!

4 TBSP Cinnamon
2 Cups of Oats
2 TBSP Butter
5 TBSP Honey

Don't turn the oven on just yet or it will get too hot in the kitchen. Slice the apples, I used a tool to slice apples with one movement and also cores the apple too! While slicing the apples, put them aside in a bowl. In a separate bowl add cinnamon, apple spice, and oats.  After the apples have been sliced and cored, turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Put butter in a skillet and turn the heat on to medium to high, add apples (You want a LARGE Skillet so you can turn the apples and coat with the butter). While mixing the apples in the skillet, you will add just a 3 tbsp of the oats and cinnamon. Continue to cook on the stove for 10 minutes until the apples begin to get soft and break down, but not too soft. Then add the apples to a baking pan, add the honey and rest of the dry mixture. Mix the ingredients well and bake for 25 minutes! Take out of the oven and enjoy!

Bowl of Delicious Apple Bake!

This goes great with vanilla ice cream or even by itself!

Pretzel Parmesan Chicken Breast

Today I wanted to make something special for my husband and use what we already have at home. He is NOT a bird man, he is all about COW, ground beef, steaks... but sometimes the bird just HAS to win and this was a day for bird!

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breast
2 c. crushed pretzels
1 tsp. Pink Salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. ground mustard
3 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese (the kind that you use to sprinkle over spaghetti)

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Add aluminum foil to a cookie sheet and spray with Pam Olive Oil. Add pretzels to a food processor to get 2 cups of crushed pretzels, then add salt, pepper, ground mustard, and crushed red pepper and blend well. Then put ingredients into a bowl and cover chicken breasts. Add the chicken to the cookie sheet and top with cheese. Cook chicken for 45 minutes.

Mouth Watering Meat Loaf with Dill Red Potatoes

Monday while I was at work, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice if your husband came home to a meal?" So, after work I went to the store, used his card, and picked up food for dinner. Now, we both DO NOT LIKE MEAT LOAF! Now it could have been how it was cooked or what was used, whatever it was does not matter anymore because we absolutely love this recipe! If you never liked meat loaf YOU GOT TO TRY THIS! My husband, who is extremely picky about food said he would be willing to eat this three days in a row!

Meat Loaf
2 pounds of 93/7 ground beef
2 eggs
3/4 c. crushed crackers
3/4 c. ketchup
1/3 c. water
1 packet Lipton Secrets Onion
2 cloves of garlic (minced)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together well in a bowl. Put the mixture into a meatloaf pan 13x9 preferably and cook for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. You can drain the excess grease into the garbage or a safe container, but not down the sink.

Dill Red Potatoes
7 Medium Red Potatoes
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 tsp hymilain salt
3 tsp black pepper
3 tsp butter
1/2 c. cream cheese
1/4 c. dried dill

Clean the potatoes and cut out the eyes, cut the potatoes in quarters and boil for 30 minutes or until you can easily put a fork in the potatoes. Remove the potatoes from the pot with a slated spoon into a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients along with a 1/4 c. of water the potatoes were boiled in and mash until all ingredients are mixed well.

Enjoy!!!!

I don't have any pictures because we ate this meal!

Farmers Market Day 2 6.22.2014

Today is Sunday 6.22.2014 and I just HAD to get to the Farmers Market that some people made a fuss about yesterday. Well, I went and have to be honest it wasn't as huge as the one I went to yesterday, but that isn't what matters. What matters is there is healthy food and YOU CAN eat healthy and NOT spend a lot of money!!!! 

 The first Farmers Market (Cameron Station, Alexandria, VA) I went to today (I went to two of them) does not have organic produce, this didn't make me thrilled as I am trying to show you that it is possible to eat healthy - organic and not spend your life savings. However, I did learn what they do is spray the pesticide and let it wash away in the rain and don't reapply it to the buds. Well, I guess that is better than giving us wax fruit we find from the supper market (GROSS)!

How can you tell the difference between organic and non organic? Well, the organic produce look strange and funny, they do not have a perfect shape. Just like a real pearl, a real pearl is not perfectly round when it is found instead it is very ugly and funny looking. What retailers are doing is they are making the food appear to us by how "great" it looks and unfortunately, many of us are falling for it.

 There were peoples crafts from painted drinking glasses to jewelry, baby clothes, baby booties and so much more!

 Anyhow, I did have fun and I got some Amish cookies, a loaf of gluten free bread, berries and veggies.

The second Farmers Market (Tysons Corner, - 8400 West Park Drive in MacLean, VA) was interesting. There was a food truck that served crepes with nutella and savory crepes.
Coco Loco with bananas, nutella, and coconut

Crepe Love Truck

 

There was another person I spoke with and they said they are not organically certified, however their produce is grown indoors (hummmm) and they don't use pesticides (I like this already). Then I went to another tent and they said they use a minimal amount of sprays. I asked, minimal? He then told me they only use the sprays when they need to and since the produce is locally grown and does not have to be shipped for 3 days to reach it's destination they don't need to add any sprays due to transport, which I thought...minimal is better than an overhaul of sprays. Here I purchased peaches & golden apples (suckers are huge) with raspberries, cherries and strawberries ($30)!!! 

Tyson Farms WV

Gypsy Hill Tea & Spices

Della J's Delectables

 Gina's Pacific Jam and Jellies

Arno's Pastry

Sweet Nuna

Hidden Creek Farm

Valley View Bakery

Over all this weekend I did spend a pretty penny on food at the farmers market, but that was my fault. I should have stopped when I ran out of cash, instead I pulled out the plastic. I had more than I needed, but I just couldn't pass up the other goodies. Well, next time I won't be getting as much.

It is better to get what you need instead of over extending yourself and getting more than you need.

It's an EXCUSE!

Today was a wonderful first day of summer! This morning it was raining, but I was not going to allow that to stop me from going to the Farmers Market in Old Town today!

Many people say, I'd like to eat healthy, but it's expensive; I can't afford it, I have other things I am doing right now, I don't like vegetables/fruit and the list goes on (I have heard it all - so I believe). So to prove that eating healthy is not expensive as society, media and big companies say it is let me share with you what I did today!

First I went to the ATM got $80.00, I shouldn't need any more than this right? Ok, keep reading and you will see.

My first stop was to this stand where I got 3 yellow zucchini, 2 green zucchini, 3 cucumbers, 3 large tomatoes, rhubarb (2.5 lbs), and 4 white potatoes~ Guess how much? $10! In the grocery store this would cost you about $13 (depending on your grocery store).

Then I got two heads of broccoli for ----- $1 each!

I went to another area where I got a pumpkin squash and a yellow flower looking squash for $7.50.



Across the way was another stand where I got
purple beans (yeah strange right!) and 2 eggplants for $5.00.

            Then I got some lavender for $4.00

Daisies for $5.50

                 Amish cheese curds for $6

                                                   Bath salts for 1 each! so I got 4 = $4.

                           And finally I got Sunflowers for $6 (with a free rose)!

A total of ---- (trumpet) --- $49!!! Oh yeah and I stopped by Dunkin Doughnuts and got a coffee and French Cruller (my fav!). So this left me with $31 - 2.75 (Dunkin) = 28.25!

Did this prove to you that you can eat healthy organic wholesome foods and not kill your budget? I sure hope so, because what I am going to do is prepare each of these items I purchased and post the recipe on here.