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Weekly Menu for the Week of June 10

June 9, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

We are apparently going to have glorious weather here this week - which also means a lot of sneezing in the sun! It's okay because I cleaned out the garage last week, so hopefully I can give myself a reprieve from the sneezy nose and watery, itchy eyes. Fun times, guys. If you don't struggle with allergies, count yourself blessed!

Father's Day is this weekend and we always celebrate the dads with pies around here - it's a little church tradition we have, and so for your recipe inspo, I'm going to point you in the direction of my Pie board on Pinterest. So many amazing pies are pinned there and I highly suggest you make one for the dad in your life. [Read more...]

"Pantry to the Rescue" Oven Baked Fried Chicken

June 6, 2019 By Chelsia Rief 1 Comment

Got drumsticks in the freezer? Rather with dealing with hot oil and the mess it makes, try this easy, healthier oven baked "fried" chicken!

Grace, our oldest (you may remember her from the Friday Morning Pancake post), just got her permit and she is so excited! This stage of her life...I guess I thought I had so many years. I remember when we first started the "Cooking with Gracie" series, back when Grace first showed an interest in learning how to cook. It was a way for to add a "class" to our homeschooling year with Grace and then she just took off and now she's making pancakes every Friday morning, trying new recipes, and really serving our family with this interest and gift!

And now...she's learning how to drive! Where does the time go?

Learning how to cook is similar to learning how to drive. It takes practice. It takes hours. It takes patience, and if you're lucky, you'll learn to love to cook, like many learn to love driving! [Read more...]

Grace's Friday Morning Pancakes

June 4, 2019 By Grace Rief 1 Comment

Gracie whips up these pancakes nearly every Friday morning - they're easy, quick, fluffy, and delectable. They're Friday Morning Pancakes!

I am so pleased to be writing another post! Especially this one! I am very excited about these.

My siblings and I are homeschooled, as I'm sure you already know; we end school a little earlier than most kids. We have school Monday-Thursday. Friday is my family's chill out day, or pizza day, depending on who you ask. It's the day when we wind down and prepare for the weekend ahead. Recently, pancakes from scratch have become our Friday morning tradition! We get up a little later then usual (although I still get up at 7), and I get myself ready for the day (I know, I know - I still like to look nice, especially in the morning). The kids come down in their pjs usually, and depending on how early Ruby wakes up, she comes down, too. Then, sometimes we put a show on, other times we just chat or they read books, and I start making pancakes. [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of June 3

June 2, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Happy "official" first month of summer. I can't believe summer actually starts this month and I CANNOT WAIT! However, this week in our neck of the PNW woods, we haven't officially gotten the go ahead yet. It's looking like it's going to rain a few days here.

WHY?? But it's been sunny all weekend, so...

Maybe I shouldn't complain too much. Now that it is officially June, my allergies are in full force, too, so maybe the rain will give me a bit of relief from my seasonal suffering. One can hope, right?

We were gone over the weekend visiting Josh's sister and her family in Washington, so I haven't actually gotten my menu completed yet, but I'll throw on here a few things I was thinking about making anyways and who knows, maybe the weather will cooperate for us and we'll actually make them, too! [Read more...]

Weekly Menu For the Week of May 27

May 27, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. Grace had some of her friends spend the night and we just took it easy the rest of the time. Of course, we grilled our favorite (and only) rib recipe from the blog. We hope to get more rib recipes on the blog this season!

Do you have any other grilling recipes you'd like to see? Or how about any particular summer recipes?

We did a lot - and I mean A LOT - of recipe-testing last week and I hope to get some of it shot this week for all of you - and I think they are really good, easy, family recipes that are simple.

My favorite kind of cooking! [Read more...]

"Pantry to the Rescue" Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Chicken

May 21, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

This recipe for Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Chicken lets you get a tasty, nutritious, and affordable dinner on the table with minimal effort!

The first time I ever made a roasted chicken was in the slow cooker and this was probably 10 years ago. I remember that my mom came over to show me the steps and, well, maybe provide a little moral support with a good hearty shake at teasing, too.

At the time, I had just started this food blog and learning how to roast a chicken was one of the ways in which I hoped to learn to grow. I mean, you can do a lot with a whole chicken if you know what you're doing, like making soups, grilling - looking at you beer can chicken! - smothering them with delicious rubs, using them to make other meals (or...you can just do I do and buy a whole rotisserie chicken from Costco), or in this case, use the whole chicken for one particular meal.

But in all of the years that I've been roasting a chicken for my family, I've only ever cooked it in the slow cooker that one time. Why? I don't really know. I guess part of me thinks that there is something sort of special about roasting a chicken in the oven with a bunch of veggies and potatoes. As nice and delicious as that sounds and is, it is a bit more work and to be honest, right now in my current season of life, using the slow cooker meets my needs a little better than a roasting pan.

Any other moms feel me on this? [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of May 20

May 19, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I hope you all had a great weekend! The highlight of ours was definitely having the chance to participate in the Steps for Life walk on Saturday, benefiting a local non-profit that supports expecting women and mothers in need. It was so encouraging to see record-setting turnout and fundraising numbers for this humble but important organization. On a personal note, my sister works for First Image, so it was nice to be able to show support for her as well.

The rain held off for the event on Saturday, but it's back now to keep me company while I hopefully test three to four new recipes this week. With our homeschool year being over for Christian and Eden, I should have a bit more time to test during the day, and since the weather doesn't look particularly fantastic, I won't have to feel like I'm wasting time not photographing. I can just work work on the taste and recipe factor! [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of May 13th

May 12, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day weekend! We celebrated Grace's 15th birthday over the weekend and then they all celebrated me yesterday. Josh grilled Tri Tip (we used this recipe from The Food Charlatan) and asparagus and Grace made some baked rice...and it was perfect! It was a very relaxing evening at home, which was exactly what I wanted.

We have another super busy week coming up this week (don't we all this time of year?!), but after this week I think things are going to return a bit back to normal. We're going to celebrate my mom's birthday, Christian finishes school this week and Grace finishes all but one class, too. Then we've got lots of errands as well as the Steps for Life event - which I think I might try to run...! Busy week, but all good things - so not complaining. [Read more...]

Bacon Chicken Ranch Skillet

May 9, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Whether you top this bacon chicken ranch skillet with regular or avocado ranch dressing, this combination of tasty proteins and vegetables is a favorite!

It's a love/hate relationship I have with social media. As a small business/blogger, it is important for me to put my stuff out there if I want to be seen and then have people come to my site for dinner inspiration and encouragement, not to mention the DIY adventures we go on!

I really try to set barriers in place for when I'm off my phone vs when I'm on it. For instance, I tend to watch IG stories while I get ready in the morning. I prop my phone up on my makeup case while go about my hair and beauty routine and then I'm off for awhile until I need to post something, which typically ranges from food, DIY, motherhood, marriage, and my own personal relationship with Christ.

Of course, stories can either be quick or long, depending on what I'm sharing or talking about. I've recently been sick, so I wasn't online a whole lot for a whole couple of weeks, and when I was, it was only snapshots or a few videos of my kids. Just enough exposure to have a presence in my tiny corner of "the net."

Do the cool kids still call it the net? Editor's Note: No. Who remembers that movie?? [Read more...]

One Pan Chicken Sausage with Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes

May 7, 2019 By Chelsia Rief 8 Comments

This recipe for one pan chicken sausage with roasted asparagus and potatoes is easy, healthy, kid-friendly, and can be prepared a bit ahead of time!

It's been awhile since I've shared a one pan meal. I'm constantly trying to come up with new ideas for dinners that maybe give me a bit more time to breathe around dinnertime because Ruby likes to be held, the kids sometimes have tasks that need my attention, or maybe I just don't want to be rushing around at dinnertime.

I'm sure you all relate to this right?

The great thing about this meal is that it can be all prepped ahead of time, like an hour or so before you're ready to get going, so that can be nice when the actual cooking comes into play. Otherwise, it's a bit of prep work at first, but then you do get that last 15-20 minutes or so where you can sit on the couch, catch up with your spouse, or maybe read a few pages of a book. Not too many...but a few! [Read more...]