Prints, Fabric, Food, & Fun

A few weeks ago I found some prints that I KNEW were perfect for the nursery. You know that moment when you see something and you HAVE to HAVE it. That’s what I felt when I saw these prints. I found them at Art.com and they finally arrived on Saturday. Take a look:

See Hedda! I told you I would figure out how to get some red in the room. :)

On Saturday some fabric I ordered also arrived!!! I have been looking for fabric to make some blankets for the nursery. I am not going to purchase a big bedding package because I know I would not use it. I won’t use a bumper, the crib has a drawer so there is no need for a skirt, and the quilt usually ends up on the floor any way, so I decided I wanted a nice fleece and some flannels. I knew this time of year would be the best for finding polar bear themed material. I haven’t found anything, so I widen my search to snowflakes and polar bears. Again, as soon as I saw these I fell in love. The fleece material is so soft. It is going to make the perfect blanket for Polar Cub. The flannels are perfect too. Things are coming together.

Sunday I spent some time in the kitchen. First I made Sandra’s pumpkin bread. I hope you don’t mind Sandra, but I made some changes to give the bread more fiber and protein, and to take out some of the fat.

Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sucanat
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup applesauce
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp all spice
½ tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quinoa flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup soy milk
1 small can (15 oz) of pumpkin
Cream sugar, eggs, applesauce, and oil. Add pumpkin. Mix all dry ingredients and add alternately with soy milk to the pumpkin mixture. Bake in two greased loaf pans at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

This bread was wonderful! It is my new favorite pumpkin bread recipe!

After the bread went into the oven I started some sauce. I began making this sauce a while back. I make a huge double batch and then freeze it in small bags. We ran out a few weeks ago. I had a jar of sauce in the cupboard so I used that one night last week. Well, that was the last time I will try that. What a difference between the good stuff and the jar. My sauce has lots of veggies, garlic and basil. We love it.

While the sauce simmered I made spinach lasagna that BB had been asking me to make for weeks. In the past I always used jarred sauce, so I did it the same this time. Last night I was asked to use the homemade sauce from now on. I’ll take that as a compliment.

While the lasagna sat to cool I went down to feed the dogs. I was gone for maybe 10 minutes. I came back upstairs to candles, a bottle of wine, and the football game turned off!!! After a day of cooking it was a wonderful surprise. I wish I would have made the lasagna WEEKS ago!

Have a GREAT one!!!