Friday Favorites 7/21/17

Happy Friday, friends! Today I am linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci to share my favorite things from the week.

My first FAV from the week is a pic from last weekend: Baby's first boating trip to KY Lake. Lee grew up boating, and has spent the last 5 years or so teaching me how it all works. Now I love it too, and I can't wait for our little boy to grow up boating, and maybe learning water sports if he's interested. We took a trip to the lake last weekend with some friends, and it was a great time. It was so nice to relax and disconnect for a few short days. I know our weekend trips with friends will be much different once baby boy gets here, so we're soaking this all in. We've gone boating several times this summer on the Ohio River, but this was our first all weekend boat trip for the summer. I'm looking forward to returning to the lake in a couple weeks with Lee's side of our family.

Baby's first boating trip

My second FAVORITE from the week is this dish: Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes. YUM! This side dish was so good, and maybe somewhat healthy. Lee and I both decided it would go in the "make again" list of recipes.

Bacon, veggies, garlic, cheese.. what more do you need?!

My next FAVORITE for the week is another food item. This one is not healthy by any means, but I like it anyways! Coffee mug muffins... so easy and something yummy I can snack on at work. They come in packets about the size of a hot chocolate packet. There's 4 packets per box, and you just dump one packet into your mug, add water (or milk), and microwave for a little over 1 min., and then you have a warm muffin! So far I've only tried chocolate chip, but I like it. I'm going to try blueberry next. According to the website above, they have all kinds of other flavors, too! I'm going to have to watch for those.

My last FAVORITE for this week is another boating pic from last weekend... this time, with Flat Jesus in the pic. Our church gives out these flat Jesus cards and you can color him if you want, and then take him with you on vacation. That way, if you can't make it to church on Sunday, you take a pic with Flat Jesus and use our church's hashtag on social media. Then the next week, before church service, everyone can see a slide show of all the fun places Flat Jesus has been this summer. I love this idea, and have enjoyed looking at every one's pics from this summer.

Flat Jesus went to KY Lake! Also notice our Cardinals hats... love it!! 

This weekend we are planning to mark some things off our to-do list around the house, finalize a few baby registry items, order our nursery furniture, and I have a prenatal massage scheduled. I got a gift certificate for my birthday, and I am so excited to finally use it! This will be my first massage since getting pregnant. I have a feeling this will be the highlight of my weekend. Happy Friday, friends!! 

Baked Brussels Sprouts and Sweet Potatoes

I never imagined I'd try Brussels sprouts OR sweet potatoes and like them! Pregnancy is doing all kinds of crazy things to my taste buds. I went to my friend Jenna's for dinner one night a few weeks ago and she served sweet potatoes, but not the kind you see at thanksgiving covered in marshmallows. Hers were prepared sliced, salted, and baked. I really liked them! Then I came across some Brussels sprouts at Aldi and decided to give them a try. So when I asked for recommendations on Facebook on how to prepare my sprouts, someone suggested pairing them with sweet potatoes, and a few people suggested olive oil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and bacon... so that's how this recipe came to be!

Ingredients:
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
8 oz brussels sprouts, cut in half
2 slices raw bacon
Olive oil
garlic salt
sea salt
pepper
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

To start, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line your baking sheet with foil for easy clean up (optional). Spray your foil with cooking spray. Spread out your Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes across your pan. drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle your salt, pepper, and garlic salt on your veggies. I don't have measurements for these seasonings bc I used a grinder for all of them. Cut your raw bacon into small pieces and spread out over your veggies. Bake for 40 minutes (or until crispy), turning halfway through.The last 5 minutes, sprinkle on your Parmesan. This side dish was so easy and so tasty! I've made it twice in the past 2 weeks!

YUM!

I usually get my garlic sea salt grinder at Aldi, but recently mine ran out and I couldn't find a new one there. I found this one at my local supermarket. I use this grinder on almost everything! 

Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Peppers

Now that warm weather is here, Lee & I  have been grilling like crazy. This is one of my favorite side dishes/appetizers to make when we are grilling out. Cheese stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon...anything with bacon and cheese is going to be amazing, but add in some peppers, and you've got a prize-winning concoction. I love making these peppers because I do like some spice here and there, but they can easily be made with sweet peppers if your family doesn't do spicy. I usually do a few jalapeños and a few sweet peppers all at once. Here's how to make them:

In this picture I used a jalapeño pepper, but the recipe is also really good with mini bell peppers. The bell peppers are sweet, not spicy, unlike like the jalapeños.

Ingredients
3 jalapeños*
3 mini bell peppers (any color is fine)*
4 oz cream cheese (1/2 block)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I have used colby-jack before, but the cheddar really is better)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
about a 1/2 pound of bacon strips, uncooked**
8-12 toothpicks (optional)
Aluminum foil

*The amount of peppers you will need to use up all of the filling will vary depending on the size of your peppers, but this recipe makes about a dozen stuffed peppers.
**Use any kind of bacon you like, but I do not recommend using thick cut bacon because this will take much longer to bake.

Start by  preheating your oven to 400 degrees and lining a baking sheet with foil. This will make for easy clean up. Slice the stem off of your peppers. Next, slice them in half long ways and pull out all of the seeds.

In a small mixing bowl, combine your onion powder, garlic salt, cream cheese, and shredded cheese. I use my hands to mix these ingredients together.

Next, use your fingers and press a small amount of the cheese mixture into each pepper. Make sure the pepper is full, but not over-flowing. Once your peppers are stuffed, wrap them in bacon. You may need to cut some of the bacon slices to fit the smaller peppers. If you want, you can stab them with toothpicks to make the bacon stay in place. I have made them several times with and without toothpicks, and they have turned out fine both ways.

I like to line my cookie sheet with aluminum foil because it makes an easy way to dispose of the bacon grease afterwards. Just fold up the foil and dump it in the trash! 

Place your peppers on your baking sheet and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the bacon looks cooked through. I usually set a timer and check my peppers every 15 minutes, because depending on the size of the peppers, they may cook quicker, or could take a little longer.

MMM!