Nesting Time...?

Not sure if what I am doing is considered "nesting" in preparation for #2, but whatever it is my husband is loving it! 

I use Pinterest for 2 things: food and kids. I love finding new ideas to do with my little girl and new recipes to use in the kitchen. I have made many muffins, new dinners, and most recently doughnuts!

No idea why, but I bought an extra thing of refridgerated biscuit dough at the store Saturday and am not a huge fan of eating them at dinner (although my husband is) so since I have a major sweet tooth I decided to try my hand at a recipe I saw online:  Doughnuts from Biscuits

Mine didn't turn out looking nearly as pretty as the ones on the blog I was looking at and I even burned a few small pieces since my oil was too hot:

After I buttered and sugar/cinnamoned them:

These actually taste amazing and my husband said, "better than any doughnuts at a doughnut shop!" Love that man :) haha 

After making these sugar-loaded mouth-watering yumminess I wanted to use up some fresh strawberries I bought on Saturday and some bananas that were brown and perfect for baking. I searched and searched and found this recipe:  Strawberry Brown Butter Banana Bread

These came out of the oven about the same time as dinner so after it cooled I decided to sample it to make sure it was worthy of serving to friends that are coming over... AMAZING! Another amazing thing is that the recipe calls for 2 cups of flour. I looked in my flour bag and after some measuring realized I had EXACTLY 2 cups of flour left! God knew what I needed. 

My finished product:

(Think my friends will like it?)

Last I did something that apparently my mom and my husband's mom used to do when we were growing up: an experiment with dinner! I remember often getting served dinner and asking what it was and the reply was always "food." OK mom, but what kind? "Good Food!" haha 

I made a whole chiken in my crock pot on Saturday and have been having fun figuring out how to use the leftovers. Have made mini chicken pot pies, chicken salad with craisins and almonds, and last night I tried to make Chicken Croquettes. After reading the recipe I thought it seemed pretty simple and starting to get to work. Hmmm I don't have seasoned dry bread crumbs, onion, fresh parsley and don't like pepper.  What does that leave me with? A new recipe made with panko bread crumbs, italian seasoning, onion powder, chicken, and eggs. I also baked them in the oven the same time as the Banana Bread was baking and was pleasantly surprised by how they came out! 

(almost forgot to take a picture, but my awesome husband reminded me at the last minute)

 The last thing I decided to tackle was a basic Sauce/Gravy for the Croquettes, but ran into a slight problem. The sauce calls for flour. Normally this is not a problem, but remember earlier how I was so thankful that I had EXACTLY 2 cups of flour left?!?! Well, I quickly remembered something I learned from my mother-in-law: blend up oats to make oat flour! After some quick blending and a lot of stirring I had a very yummy gravy sauce that my whole family enjoyed.

One last thing... my husband was able to get off work and be home with us at a normal time (which is an awesome rarity in this house) and he helped with the dishes and giving our little girl a bath! Woohoo for an awesome day of 3 loads of laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and making some yummy food. 

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