Travel Journals

On Pinterest I have come across quite a few travel journals. I had never really seen anything like them and I just fell in love with the idea. Since I am so over scrapbooking, I thought this would be a really fun and easy way to keep travel keepsakes together. 

Here are a few of my favorite examples:

 thecreativeplace.blogspot.com

This one is mostly pictures with a hand-written description of what the family did each day. She even put sea shells in a plastic pocket. It is held together with binder rings. (To see more of this journal and get instructions on how to make it, click here.)

iloveitallwithmonikawright.blogspot.com 

This one is probably my favorite of all of them. She kept the coffee sleeves from their trips to Starbucks, valet tickets, maps, brochures, and more. She included pictures and hand written notes on each of the items to remember where they stayed, ate, and played. It is all held together with binder rings. (To see more of this journal, click here.)

foundpaperco.blogspot.com

I really like this one because it's so orgnanized. She did use stickers and embellishments, but it isn't overdone. It has pictures, brochures, maps, and so much more. It is also held together with binder rings. (To see more of this travel journal and get tips on what to collect and how to put everything together, click here.)

I wish I would have known (or thought) about this before our trip to Northern California. I didn't keep anything except for pictures to remind me where we went and what we did. Every morning in San Francisco we would walk to Noah's Bagels for breakfast and I could have kept a napkin or something like that for my travel journal. I could have kept my hop-on hop-off bus pass, menus from Tacolicious, Kara's Cupcakes, and Asqew Grill, a chocolate bar wrapper from Ghiradelli Square, and a trinket from China Town. I could have written down how much I loved the clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls and the best garlic fries in the world at Fisherman's Wharf. 

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from San Francisco: 

 We loved all the history and architecture in San Francisco. These are the most photographed homes in the United States. One of them has been on the market for while and if you are interested in purchasing it, it will cost you 4 million (reduced from 7 million). You might recognize this row of homes from the show Full House.

 The Golden Gate Bridge in the fog. 

 All the people standing around are actually in line waiting for ride on the trolley.

Chinatown was so busy, but a lot of fun to see.

We also spent a few days in the Redwood National Park on this trip. The Redwoods were more of an emotional part of this trip (pictures do not do these majestic trees justice). We did a few hikes in the Redwoods and there is something very spiritual about them. I felt such peace walking through the forest and you could literally hear a pin drop it is so quiet. The forest floors are covered in in ferns and when you look up you can't see the tree tops. I just wondered what these ancient trees have seen in their thousand plus years of life; the fires which they survived, the earthquakes and floods, and the loggers. On this trip I learned that only about 4% of the trees were saved from loggers. It actually made my heart ache to hear that. Over 90% were cut down, a lot of them being much bigger and much older trees. But I am thankful for what is left and feel blessed that I was able to walk among them. 

Our last stop on this trip was Napa Valley. We only stayed one night so I didn't collect much of anything, even pictures. But it was gorgeous and I would love to go back and spend a few more days. 

I didn't take this picture, but it shows how gorgeous the Napa countryside is. 

I will have to put something simple together for this trip, but in the future I will definitely start collecting more keepsakes for travel journals. I would love to look back to see and remember everything we did. 

Roasted New Potatoes

On Pinterest I found a pin for roasted new potatoes that looked amazingly delicious. Unfortunately, the pin led me to the website of a food photographer. Her photographs of food were beautiful, but there wasn't a recipe for her roasted new potatoes. So, I made up my own recipe and I will share it because they were FaBuLoUs! I found a 5 lb. bag of new potatoes (aka super tiny taters) at Costco that included baby reds, baby purples, and baby yukon golds (see each of them above). Here's the recipe:

16 New Potatoes
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Fresh Chopped Rosemary
1-2 tsp Sea Salt
1-2 tsp Fresh Cracked Pepper

Boil the potatoes about 8-9 minutes until they are almost cooked through. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put the olive oil into a small bowl. Combine rosemary, sea salt, and cracked pepper on a small plate. When the potatoes are almost cooked through, rinse them quickly with cold water and then pat dry. Dip each potato (just the bottom) in the olive oil and then rub oil all over the potato. Roll each potato in the rosemary mixture and put on a parchment lined (or sprayed) baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Petunia Cell Phone Cover

I am a huge fan of Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bags, so when I learned on Pinterest that Petunia has cell phone covers for the iPhone 4, I was ecstatic. I will probably use my Birthday cash to purchase the new darling outfit for my new iPhone 4 (that I got for my Birthday - thanks Cory and Ella). By the way,  I couldn't of asked for a more beautiful fall weather on my Birthday. I spent the entire day with my family;  shopping, eating, and celebrating. We ended the day with delicious cupcakes from Dippidee.

5-Minute Freezer Meals

My Mom and I decided that it was time we stocked the freezer with ready-to-go meals. We use to do this all the time after we were inspired by My Girlfriends Kitchen (a place where you would go put meals together to take home and freeze - MGK is no longer in business). We thought it would be so easy to take our favorite recipes and make them into ready-to-go freezer meals. They are not pre-cooked meals that you would thaw and heat up. The meals are usually thawed and then cooked fresh but all of the prep work is done before hand making the process a lot quicker. In the next couple of months we will be doing meals that take a little more time because they will be made with ingredients from scratch and I will share those as well.

5-Minute Freezer Meals - Chicken Cordon Bleu and Beef Stew Complete Dinner Freezer Meals. They are called 5-minute freezer meals because they literally take 5 minutes to put together. The instructions for the freezer meals depend on your family's size and the amount of kits that you want to make. The Cordon Bleu freezer meal can be cooked from frozen when you are ready and the Beef Stew freezer meal can be cooked from frozen in a crock-pot.  

Chicken Cordon Bleu w/ Mashed Potatoes and Corn/Peas (4 kits for a family of 3 adults)

2 Boxes Tyson Cordon Bleu (6 per box, freezer section at Costco)

4 Packages Ore-Ida Steam n' Mash Potatoes (shown above, freezer section)

4 Packages McCormick Brown Gravy

2 Packages Frozen Peas

2 Packages Frozen Corn

Put three individually wrapped Cordon Bleu, 1 Package Ore-Ida Steam n' Mash Potatoes, 1 Package Gravy, and 1 Package of Peas or Corn in a gallon-sized freezer bag (yes, it all fits). Label outside with instructions on cooking the chicken. Freeze and enjoy any time. Cooking instructions found on all of the packaging. It can all be cooked from frozen. 

Cordon Bleu Freezer Meal

Beef Stew w/ Cornbread (4 kits, 1 batch of stew makes enough for 8 people at least)

4 1-pound packages of stew meat (I like to get it at the butcher shop so it's wrapped to freeze)

4 12-ounce packages frozen pearl onions (my favorite is Kroger brand)

4 12-ounce packages frozen carrots 

4 cans Italian Stewed Tomatoes

4 Bay Leaves

4 Packages Corn Bread Mix

Open can of stewed tomatoes and dump into a quart-sized freezer bag and seal (x4). Put one bay leaf in a snack baggy (x4). To make kits, put 1 pound stew meat, 1 package onions, 1 package carrots, 1 bag of stewed tomatoes, 1 bay leaf, and 1 package corn bread mix in a one-gallon freezer bag (again, it all fits). We even added 1 crock-pot liner to each kit. Write on bags to add 8-12 diced red potatoes, 1 1/2 cups water, and salt and pepper as well as the instructions below. 

All ingredients from the kits can be added into the crock-pot frozen. Add additional ingredients and cook on low for 8-9 hours. After 8-9 hours add 1/4 cup water mixed with 2 Tbsp flour to thicken (stir in and wait 15 minutes). While waiting for stew to thicken, mix and bake cornbread. Enjoy!

Beef Stew Freezer Meal

Note: The picture shown above says to add 2 cups of water. If frozen use 1 1/2 cups water because 2 cups will make it too watery.