Bountiful Baskets

I have to start this post off by thanking my friend Dallas for introducing me to the wonderful world of Bountiful Baskets. It is AMAZING! What is Bountiful Baskets, you may wonder? Let me share this pearl of wisdom and hopfully you'll treasure it! Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op that is completely run by volunteers. Each Monday you can place an order for a produce basket. It is typically over $60 worth of produce for the tiny price of $15. That's right, fifteen smackaroos! As you can see from the picture above, it is a worthy investment! James and I can't ever finish that much produce so we usually end up giving some of it away so it doesn't go to waste. Ordering opens at noon on Mondays and closes on Tuesdays at 10pm and then on Saturday morning you drive to your local pick-up station for your basket. It is such a great idea! But wait, I haven't even shared the best part of Bountiful Baskets... drumroll... the BREAD!!! They have the yummiest 9 grain bread in the world. It is only 50 calories a slice and much tastier than the cardboard version that SaraLee makes! Even better, it is only $2/loaf! We usually only order from Bountiful Baskets every other month so we buy this bread in bulk and freeze it. We ordered 15 loaves on our last order!!! It is fabulous and I highly suggest that you check it out! Here is their website... enjoy!

http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/

*I just realized that this post sounds like a paid adverstisment or something, but honestly... I really do just love Bountiful Baskets that much!!!

A New Holiday Tradition

This year we decided to start a new family tradition in memory of James' amazing mom. She was an incredible cook and breakfast foods were her specialty! In her honor, we decided to make yummy breakfast foods for dinner every night this past week. We had fun cooking together while trying to recreate her recipes!

(Photo evidence that James actually DOES know how to cook!)

Yummy German Pancakes

Our new Black Friday toy was a Belgium Waffle Maker!

James' favorite breakfast food is biscuits and gravy so I attempted to recreate his mom's classic recipe and I failed miserably! It turned out alright, but it was nothing like the original!
All hail Paula Deen (she's my fav)! We devoured these egg McMuffin's!

This time of year it has been especially hard to be without James' mom. There are so many Christmas memories with her which made this "cooking week" extra special! Miss you, Mom!

Gobble, Gobble!

We had a fabulous Turkey Day! We started out with a scrumptious feast with James' family... check out my yummy pecan pie! (don't mind our bro-in-law acting crazy in the background)

Next stop was my family's house for round two of feasting!

Dad carving the bird!

It's my family's tradition to hit the movies after our Thanksgiving dinner and this year we saw the much anticipated Harry Potter 7! It was awesome and we can't wait for the final movie!

After the movie, we all went back to my parents house for turkey sandwiches... and it wouldn't be Turkey Day in our family without putting olives on our fingers!

The final activity of Thanksgiving was "Psycho Shopping" as James calls it! Black Friday shopping is a tradition in James' family so we donned our winter gear, braved the freezing temperatures, and scored some major holiday deals!



Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without expressing our gratitude! Here is a list of the TOP 10 things we are thankful for:

1. Our Awesome Families
2. A Warm Home - especially in this blizzard!
3. Friends
4. James' Job
5. Our Health (except for the mighty cold I have right now!)
6. Freedom - thanks to all of the men and women who serve our country!
7. Our Faith
8. The Miracle of Adoption
9. Our Sweet Kitty
10. TiVo (what would we do without it?)