The Little Things Newsletter #432 – Life, laughter, and lots of great food!

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! Holy heatwave in Ohio. Yikes! The Midwest has been cooking all week and it sure hasn’t made me miss the Valley of the Sun. I’m super excited now for the cooler temps next week and the even better fall weather that is finally in the forecast!

This weekend I am up to my eyeballs in projects as we’re cleaning out the kitchen before our remodeling project begins on Monday. Wish us luck, as this is a first for us. Things sure won’t be boring at home for the next few months!

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Find out how easy it is to make delicious, crisp-skinned chicken in the oven with Italian Baked Chicken. This oven baked chicken with Italian seasoning has a crispy skin and juicy interior that makes it one of my all time favorite chicken recipes.

Thrown together on a whim one night many years ago while we were on the road, this Bacon Potato Salad rapidly became a family favorite. Filled with plenty of eggs, bites of bacon, and a bright dill pickle flavor, this salad has proven irresistible to everyone who tries it.

Tender, delicate angel hair pasta gets a carbonara-like glow up with a flavorful bacon and pea cream sauce in this delightful and simple dish. It’s a weeknight dish that’s easy enough for busy evenings but nice enough to serve company!

Oh, how I love these crunchy, tangy, quick green bean pickles! Luckily, they’re so easy to make, we can make them on repeat. These green beans are a fun new snack in our fridge and the kids have been devouring them about as quickly as I can make them.

Tender bites of chicken and shrimp are tossed with pasta and colorful bell peppers in a creamy, slightly spicy sauce to create this Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Pasta.

Blueberry Pie Bars are the perfect summery dessert for your next picnic or party.

Creamy, sweet, and just a bit tart, let’s give the summer a last hurrah of bright refreshing flavors with this Lime Ice Cream.

My FAVORITE THINGS this week are these freezable lunch boxes. All of my guys carry lunches each day, either to high school, the job site, or to the college campus. I found these PackIt boxes this summer and they work great. (I’ve had one of the sack-style PackIts for years now, so I knew it was a solid brand.) 

The lunch boxes aren’t huge, but they hold a good amount of food for the day. We pop them in the freezer each night, fill them in the morning, and they’re still cold when they get home 12 hours later.

What I’m READING: Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. My friend Rebecca recommended this one and I’m so glad she did. I laughed many times and thoroughly enjoyed following Tiffany and the Wee Free Men’s story. I immediately downloaded the next book in the series when I finished this one! 

“Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle—aka the Wee Free Men—a clan of fierce, sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men.” – I mean, seriously what’s not to love with a description like that??

What I’m LISTENING to: I introduced my youngest to Mamma Mia this past weekend and he loved the movie. (YAY! It’s such a fun one!) So, naturally, we’ve had the soundtrack playing in the car all week. It’s super fun music for driving and singing along.

“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:29-31 ESV

Wishing you a beautiful week full of little things that make you smile!

Mary