Menu Monday | New Recipes To Try

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // September 25, 2017 // 5 Comments

It’s the last Monday of the month! That means I’m teaming up with my friends Come Home for Comfort and Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorite recipes from this past month that you HAVE to try!

Even though we were traveling for a lot of September, there were still recipes to be tried! We even got to try a few recipes at my parents’ home, thanks to shared pinned recipes between my mom and me! Win!

Plus, I noticed that wordpress blogs pop up these handy recipe cards! Cool!

Simple Baked Oatmeal | Cup of Tea Recipe

Simple Baked Oatmeal | We had a few mornings this month where it was “chilly” and I was craving cozy oatmeal. But baked oatmeal just makes it a touch more special, and it’s maybe even easier than preparing oatmeal the traditional way. I love this stuff! And it’s so versatile. This month I made 2 different versions – one with berries and then one with diced apples.

Roasted Beetroot, Goats Cheese & Walnut Salad

Roasted Beetroot, Goat Cheese and Walnut Salad | I pinned this recipe purely for the pretty pin picture! HA! But I hadn’t had a chance to make it. But thankfully, my mom made this at her house this month, and it was AMAZING!!! She roasted beets herself (and it looked like an obnoxious process) but you can buy beets already prepared at most grocery stores. But this was a simple salad that looks super fancy.

Southwest Quinoa Salad

Southwest Quinoa Salad | I’ve had this one pinned for a while, but it was my mom who made this one. And it was delicious!! It was one of those easy side dishes or it could have been great for a week of lunches. Either way you need to add this dish to your list!

Buckeyes | If you haven’t had these delicious chocolate and peanut butter candies, you MUST! They are a bit tedious to make, but not hard. And this recipe makes a lot of Buckeyes. I’ve made these plenty of times, and they are delicious each time. But I had to make them recently because I was just craving them! The last time I made them was the week before Elizabeth was born. HA!

What are some amazing recipes you’ve tried lately? Have you peeked in your trusty recipe box recently?

Follow Whitney’s board New Recipes We Tried And Loved! on Pinterest.

High Five for Friday #141 | Fall + Moana Tears

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // September 22, 2017 // 3 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

Happy First Day of Fall! Hooray! “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

What have you been up to this week? Can’t wait to hear about it!

1. Our trip back from Michigan last Friday went as well as it could. No one threw up, no one screamed the entire way, both kids actually napped part of the time… it went well! I tried a few different things on this trip to keep everyone entertained and all seemed to be fine! Road trips with littles aren’t for the faint of heart… but it can be fun! And this trip definitely was!

2. Our weekend obviously then needed to be chill and quiet. We didn’t make it to church on Saturday, and we all just relaxed and took it easy the rest of the day. Sunday was spent getting things put away, tidying and getting back to normal.

3. I shared this story over on Instastory earlier in the week, but I HAVE to tell you this funny Elizabeth story. My husband was out of town this week for one night, and when he’s gone we have a bit of a tradition to get french fries and watch movies in the afternoon. So we’re all sitting at the kitchen table, eating french fries, watching Moana. This is Elizabeth’s third time watching it through. And we’re enjoying it! About half way through the movie I take William upstairs to put him to bed. And then I come back down to finish the movie with Elizabeth. At the end of the movie, Moana is coming back to the island, her parents see her, and they all run at each other and have a family hug! I glace over at Elizabeth, and she’s clearly getting misty-eyed and her little lip is starting to quiver!!! So I ask her if she’s alright. And she BURSTS into tears and says “I don’t know!”. Oh my! So much emotion for a pint sized kiddo! So I have her sit on my lap to let her calm down. Once she’s calm and we talk about how she was doing, I find out that she’s sad Moana had to do all the sailing on her own, all by herself. And she was worried thinking about “What if I had to go on a boat all by myself”. Poor thing! It was quite the moment. As a parent, you’ve got to be on your toes for all sorts of scenarios!

4. Monday Elizabeth went back to school! She was so jazzed to go back, and all of her friends, who had been there for over a week already, were SO excited to see her! It was a delight!

Our vacation delayed her first day of school by a week. But this kid had a GREAT first day yesterday! #firstdayofpreschool #firstdayofschool

A post shared by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Sep 19, 2017 at 12:55pm PDT

5. Today William goes to Elizabeth’s school too! He will be going just one day a week, so that means on Fridays I will have mornings completely free! This is crazy. I actually am excited to have a morning of cleaning ahead. Am I the only one that enjoys cleaning??? But this little guy has turned into such a fun guy. Thanks to a neighborhood walk with just him I realized he talks a little! He says “I see” and he also loves trees. He points at each tree and says this odd little “ree” word. I didn’t realize it was tree until he ran up to a tree and said his little word. It’s been fun watching him hit the toddler phase!

This guy. Don't know who he inherited his morning energy from ? #boymomlife #likemommylikeson

A post shared by Katie (@ktcupoftea) on Sep 20, 2017 at 9:36am PDT

Today’s featured blogger is Erin from Perfectly Port! She’s passionate about encouraging women to pursue life with a smile and laughter! Her corn bean salsa recipe looks delicious! And her 5 Fall Mom Fashion Must Haves were spot on. I need to find a longer cardigan! Swing over and say hello to Erin!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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High Five for Friday #140 | The Family Vacation

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // September 15, 2017 // 4 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

Oh friends, I’m just oh so embarrassed that I completely MISSED last week’s post/link up! Ugh…. I’ll explain, but basically…. I forgot what day it was…. what did I miss??? Can’t wait to catch up with all of you!

So since last Wednesday (10 days ago) we’ve been on a meandering family vacation that’s taken us from North Carolina, and then to Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and then Michigan! As you’re reading this, we are driving back home and hopefully we have sleeping children.

Wishful thinking…

But by the time last Friday rolled around, I seriously was in a road trip daze. I couldn’t remember what day it was… but things are slowly getting back to normal.

So for today’s post, let’s catch up! I’ll share my five favorite moments from this past week and a half.

1. We doubled our distance and time up to Michigan because we wanted to make a few pit stops first on the way up. The first was to visit some dear friends who recently moved to Chattanooga! It was great for everyone to spend time together. It’s always hard when friends move away, but everyone is just a drive away!

2. Day 2 took us north to Kentucky where we stopped to see the Ark! It’s a replication of Noah’s Ark and it’s a sight to behold. It was… expensive. Like, very expensive. A “not sure it was worth the ticket price” expensive. BUT it was really cool to see, the kids enjoyed it and I may have had some misty eyes when we walked up to it.

3. We did something we haven’t done before as a family – go to a city parade! They don’t do parades in our area of North Carolina (or at least not big ones with marching bands, etc.) so when we heard there would be one while we were in town, we hustled up there! We went to Allegan, Michigan, and met up with my husband’s aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a BLAST! Easily one of my favorites from this trip. There were over 100 floats, several high school marching bands, fire trucks, tanker trucks, candy galore! The kids loved it and I couldn’t get enough of it.

4. If you’re ever in southern Michigan, plan a trip to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan! It is a small zoo, but if you have little ones, you’ll love it! It’s totally manageable, and their exhibits are great. We really love their Africa section. Elizabeth gets so excited to feed CeeCee the giraffe each year. William was BUSTING every time that giraffe stuck her tongue out to eat. It was such fun!

And they really win at zoo signs!

5. Anyone else love exploring new playgrounds when they are on vacation?? We found a really great one in downtown Kalamazoo called Upjohn Park. So many things to explore there!

Honestly, this was the fastest moving vacation ever! We spent so much time visiting friends and family, driving around to explore new places… it’s a vacation where we need a vacation post-vacation!

Today’s featured blogger is Justine from Charm City Ciemny’s! She’s a mommy blogger to a sweet baby girl. LOVED her “what’s in my diaper bag” post because you know I love diaper bags! And her fall bucket list has some real winners, especially football every week 🙂 Swing over and say hi to Justine!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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High Five for Friday #138 | New Purchases + New Month!

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // September 1, 2017 // 5 Comments

Welcome to High Five for Friday – hosted by me, Becky, Tif, and Della! Come, read up on what we’ve been up to this week and get to know some amazing bloggers down below!

Happy First of September! Wild…. where did this month go?

Can I confess something? This summer I have been so quiet on here. And I’m ok with that! I’m actually really focused on just enjoying each little tiny moment. I don’t even remember to take pictures. I’m just… here. I may get better and more consistent in the fall. But for now, I’m just oh so content!!

But anyway, how was your week? Fun? Busy? Boring? Let’s share!

1. Vacation Prep! We’re heading out of town next week, with an epic multiple day road trip from North Carolina to Michigan. So this week we spent time buying a few fun things for the car, snacks, and beginning a little packing of toys and other smaller things. I was also busy thinking through a packing list. Some folks like to reuse a packing list. I don’t. I like to plan each trip on its own.

2. Our weather this week was AMAZING! It was hard to stay inside each day. We had a great time running around the backyard and exploring the neighborhood. We even snuck in a chance to visit a new-to-us park in Durham. It was a nice one! It had 2 different play structures, a walking trail AND a trail that connected to the city-wide biking trail. There were even clean, fully stocked bathrooms! This may be our new favorite spot!

3. I purchased a few new things this week. The first was an updated planner for the academic year. My family still operates on an academic calendar, so I thought I should update my planner. I’m always bouncing around in planner land, trying different ones. It’s fun for me! But this new Day Designer by Blue Sky daily planner is nice! I decided to give the daily planner a whirl, since I’ve found that when I’m doing my daily planning I like to do more time blocking. It’s been working well this week!

I also bought a new fitness tracker watch thingy. What are they technically called?? I’ve had my eye on a FitBit one that was over $100! But one evening I was doing a late night Amazon scroll (anyone else do that?) and stumbled across this generic version for under $30! It has all the features I was wanting, including sleep tracking, steps, and alarms. So awesome! I’m really pleased with it so far!

4. Lazy dinners have been the name of the game this week, and will probably be that way next week 🙂 I didn’t do a huge grocery shop this week because the goal is to eat all the things in the fridge before vacation. Lots of random pasta creations and cheese quesadillas. Speaking of dinners, did you catch this week’s round up of new recipes we tried this month??

5. Last night marked the start of the college football season!!! YAY! I layed in a supply of new Ohio State gear, and we stayed up late last night to cheer on the Buckeyes for their first game. I LOVE FOOTBALL SEASON!

Today’s featured blogger is Dara from Not in Jeresy! She blogs all about her family’s adventures in Kansas! I LOVED looking through her pictures from her recent trip to Cuba. So neat! And she has a great mini city guide to St. Louis if you’ve got the itch to travel soon. Swing over and say hi to Dara!

How was your week?? Can’t wait to hear all about it!

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Menu Monday | New Recipes To Try

by Katie @ Cup of Tea // August 28, 2017 // 3 Comments

It’s the last Monday of the month! That means I’m teaming up with my friends Come Home for Comfort and Polka-Dotty Place to share our favorite recipes from this past month that you HAVE to try!

I know it was August, BUT I was craving so much comfort food this past month. There were some good recipes to be adding to your Fall cooking rotation.

Creamy Coconut Green Curry Lentils | I was craving something warm and cozy one week, and ended up choosing this. MAN was this delicious! It required a bit of time – lentils needed to soak, and then it cooked for about an hour. But it was delicious and gave us left overs for days. And when I ran out of rice to eat with it, we had leftovers with crumbled up tortilla chips and that was good too! Definitely try this one!

Creamy Green Bean Casserole | Confession – I didn’t make the fried onions from scratch… seemed too much effort. But this was just delicious! I realize it was August, but I was craving this and it hit the spot!

Oven Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken | My husband really doesn’t like Chinese food. But he liked this! I ended up buying a pack of Gardein’s Crispy Chick’n to use in place of real chicken. But tofu would have been just fine too, just not breaded. The sauce was quite good! And it was pretty simple to throw together, especially considering I cheated with pre-breaded faux chicken.

Greek Tortellini Salad | I’ve made several variations of this, but it’s just such an easy quick dinner. And I like this kind of recipe because you don’t have to use EXACTLY all these ingredients. Just use what you have on hand!

What are some amazing recipes you’ve tried lately? Have you peeked in your trusty recipe box recently?

Follow Whitney’s board New Recipes We Tried And Loved! on Pinterest.

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