What We Ate: Zucchini Leek Melt

**After leaving my camera on all day, my battery was dead.. I plan on posting pics of these recipes as I continue**

My husband and I are battling with what we eat lately. I am coming off a pregnancy diet and, well to be honest, he is too ;-) We noticed that since we moved to Oregon, that our meat consumption was becoming a little more than we wanted. In an effort to lose some weight, reduce our meat consumption, and eat a healthy diet.. I am going to share some of the recipes I am trying out.

From 1000 Vegetarian Recipes we tried the Zucchini-Leek Melt. It was soooo delicious.

Here you go:
**I was in a pinch and didn't have time to make the melt with brown rice, so I used some homemade pie crust I had in the fridge**

For the pie crust: (makes 2)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for handling dough
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend flour, butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form (this may take up to 1 minute).

With floured fingers, press dough evenly into pan and up sides. Dip a dry-measuring cup in flour, and use it to press dough firmly into bottom and against sides of pan. Freeze crust until firm, 10 to 15 minutes.

Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up. Cool completely in pan.

Serves 4
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
4 cups sliced zucchini
1 cup sliced leeks (white and light green parts only)
3 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (or a pie crust)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese

If using pie crust, cook your pie crust at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes before making the melt.

1. preheat oven to 375
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and leeks and cook, stirring, until crisp- about 2- 3 minutes.
3. In a buttered 9 inch square pan, stir together the brown rice and Parm cheese. Top with zucchini mixture, then sprinkle with Swiss cheese.
OR
in a pie pan (after the pie crust has cooked for 20ish minutes, add the zucchini mixture and top with cheeses). Cook for about 30 minutes at 375 and then Lo broil for 10 minutes.
4. Bake at 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and is heated through.

So delicious!!!!

I made a salad for a side. We are growing lettuce and kale so I used those. radishes, carrots, etc. So yummy!

Happy Eating. Leftovers tomorrow.

My son's 3rd birthday

Huddy Turned 

Shocking as it is, yes, he did turn 3. My first thought of planning his third birthday was that we do something small with family, maybe some cupcakes. 

 

Then..

The party planner in me started to really take over. I all of the sudden started having all kinds of ideas. If you know me, you know, that those ideas can lead to big projects, late night crafting, building boats, hanging stars from ceilings.. etc etc etc. I mean, come on, I was an event planner in San Francisco in my past life.. it's only fitting. 

One night Huddy and I got to talking about his birthday and we started talking about a Polo themed birthday. It was genius and fun. Polo happens to be some of his favorite books (although he will make it clear that he does not care for the dragon.. even if he is a friendly dragon.)

Polo is a series of books without words. They are graphic novels if you will. The pictures are incredible and the stories that we have come up with are top notch. Adrian takes the medal when it comes to story telling the adventures of Polo. 

Polo is a dog that when he exits his tree house door, he is met with many adventures. 

Along the way he makes many new friends.

Here's how our adventure of Polo came to life:

It started with making the boat. It was made out of many old boxes we had around the house. Stroller boxes, moving boxes, Amazon boxes.. you name it. Then I wrapped it in brown paper and drew the lines on it and Huddy's name (where it says Polo in the book). The top I painted with some paint we had here at the house. The box was constructed without buying anything new, just some things we had around the house.

 

Then I made a shirt from felt for my little Polo. He was super excited when he woke up and opened his treasure box (like Polo has) and his birthday shirt was inside.

Then in the book there are these little green things that we call "Bee Boh Bee Boh's" We later learned they are called luniens from the very cool website : Chez Polo Website. Adrian, myself and Baby Nolan were all Bee Boh Bee Boh's.

Baby Bee Boh Bee Boh doing his funny face

The music for the party was from artist Gregory Toucas.

He did a lot of the music for the Chez Polo Website. I looked and looked for the music online to download, but was unable to find it. Luckily and thankfully, I emailed him and asked if he could send me the music. Gasp! HE DID! How amazing is that? I was very touched that he sent me the files for Huddy's birthday. Huddy was so excited when he heard the music in his play room. Thank you so much Gregory. 

 

The decorations were mostly made out of felt. 

The finished boat with Polo's lantern:

Polo's house with his friends:

The cupcakes with Polo and Bee Boh Bee Boh signs with the mushrooms and  Martin the cat.

In the book Polo plops on a cloud and takes out a bowl and spoon and starts eating cloud. I made the cloud out of felt stuffed with filling. 

Polo's friends hung around the room from their balloons

And the finished room with stars hanging from the ceiling

The food was kabobs from Polo and the Dragon. Polo invites the dragon over for dinner and the dragon flames some yummy kabobs.

There were balloons throughout the whole house:

There was a lot of fun had in the boat

But Baby Bee Boh Bee Boh was done!

Happy Birthday Little Man! 

Little Me Outfit

It is no new revealation that I get super giddy when I find out my friends either a) have a girl or b) having a girl. Little girl knits and clothing are just too darn adorable. I guess I count myself blessed that we are stopping at our two boys because I would be broke if we were to have a little girl. Although, I can't lie, there are times when I think.. maybe 1 more baby??? Then I have a lack luster sleep like last night and BAM! that desire is GONE! Tee hee!

Well that brings me to little Miss Abby who I made this outfit for. I took the design from the Yummy pillow and put it on a shirt. I really like how it turned out. Then, of course, she needed a matching skirt. Don't you love skirts? I have about 40 yards of fabric waiting for me to make my own skirts.. one day I will get to them.






And remember this coat?

It made it's way onto the Little Lulu Pixie. My sister in law blogs over at Yarns to Tell. You should check out her blog. I read it and am greatly inspired with her life of living with less and living in the moment.

You look adorable little Lulu!



How great it makes me feel to see my creations on little ones.

A Yummy Pillow

Oh, I cannot wait until my son's birthday is over so I can hurry up and make this pillow. Last week my friend sent me a pic of a pillow that she liked, so I just had to make it for her. I was so pleased on how this pillow turned out. The sunburst flower is made of half circle's layered upon layer upon layers! Then sewed all together.







I am getting ready to have my first ever giveaway on Made By Lora. I was thinking this pillow might be a good idea.. what do you think?