Great Food...

Even though I have been workings TONS

here have been some of the foods i have made.

Notice, a few:)

 

Au Gratin Potatoes

I've never made this before, but i had too many potatoes to use. 

For this I used, (roughly)

8-10 russet potatoes( made two dishes)

1/2 lb of Velveeta Cheese, cut into small cubes

1/2-3/4 cup Sour Cream( 3 large spoon fulls)

2 tbsp butter for the topping

about 1/4 cup breadcrumbs

pepper and little salt

I pretty much just mixed all of the ingredients together, except the breadcrumbs and butter

so that every potato had cheese and sour cream on it.

I then put it into the dish and topped it with small tabs of butter 

with the breadcrumbs sprinkled on the top.

YUM, LOVED IT. I hate them because they have a odd cheese taste normally and are too watery 

for my liking, but this was perfect.

For Valentine's Day I made tri-colored

cupcakes for my clients at work. 

They really enjoyed them, and they were SUPER cute!

I made them using regular white cake mix, red food coloring, and strawberry flavoring oil.

All you do is pour 1/4 of the white cake batter in the muffin cups. (1 box made 24 cupcakes)

then you put a little red color in to make the remaining cake mix pink. Add strawberry oil (like 5-6 drops)

separate that in half and take one remaining half and color it a deeper red. 

 I used my PAMPERED CHEF Decorator Set

to squeeze the colors in the center. First the red then the pink.

(And the center has three different colors:)

For Austin and My 4th official year of dating, I made him

spicy burgers with fries and our favorite beers. 

I add veggies like green and red bell peppers, garlic, onion, chives and sometimes

roasted red peppers in my burgers to give Austin as many veggies as i can.

of course on whole wheat buns and

Austin's favorite... fries!!!

For those beer lovers, I had Fosters and he had Coors Light!

While craving peanut butter, i decided to amp up Austin's Grandmother's

DELICIOUS three ingredient PB Cookie. (She puts a chocolate star in the center,

however i didn't)

I made them 4 ingredient by adding Oatmeal(gotta get more fiber somewhere in these)

its just:

1 egg

1 cup sugar 

(i use half Brown Sugar and half White)

1 cup creamy Peanut Butter

and i added 1 cup Oatmeal

cook at 335 for about 8-10 minutes. 

Just so you know, once you start you can't stop!

Chicken Parmesan

I used what i had in the house and used the flat

lasagna no bake noodles and layered it with spaghetti sauce 

(about 3 layers)

then put slightly thawed chicken nuggets on the top together tightly

and put cheese and more sauce on top. 

Put in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes, 20 covered and 20 not. 

Man, I surprised myself on this one!!!

Those are just a few I had the camera near me. 

Hope you enjoy!!!

Lately.... & Great Family

As February ended and March started there has been some changes

in this Kimler home..

For starters, If you didn't already know, Austin was offered a position

as a captive agent for Bankers Life and Causality Insurance here in Davenport.

As this is a new career move, for him, and for us

he has been working very very hard and reading lots and lots. 

He started off this journey with passing his State Licensing Exam here in Iowa.

The next step was traveling to Cedar Rapids all of last week for training. 

See..

His main office is here in Davenport, but his trainer and mentor you can say

works in the Cedar Rapids network. 

He stayed with friends Sam and Eric in Iowa City and drove each day. 

I guess its true what they say, about not knowing

how much you appreciate someone or something until it's gone. 

Boy was that me.

You really learn more about yourself when you are faced with simple tasks

that you take for granted when someone else does it. 

Such as, locking the doors at night, someone else doing the dishes when you are too tired,

having the heater turned on to heat the room while you brush your teeth,

having the humidifier filled and mostly the security you feel when someone else is just simply IN THE HOUSE. 

Man, I know I can take care of myself,

but it sure is nice to have someone around you

and that someone being the most special person ever..

your husband. 

 

(on our wedding day!)

This is my first REAL (open, no plans, no schedules, only one appointment, REST) 

weekend I have had in a W H I L E. 

Austin came home on Friday night, and since then he has been reading

and working, but enjoyment has been had. 

We really enjoy being reunited. 

As you might know, we try to take photos of ourselves each night and here are a few before Austin left:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

and on the eve of his departure...

 (more photos were taken, with a sad face for me, however,

i didn't want to publicize to the world, how unfavorably

i look when frowning, which is why i try not to do it.)

He's back. And I Love IT, and HIM.

He heads back to CR again tomorrow morning, but only for the day. 

Also, for you all out there, a week from today we celebrate our 

1st Wedding Anniversary!!!

<3 C & A