A family favorite

Sausage and Peppers Italiano

Ingrediants that you will need:

3 bell peppers of any color you like

1-2 onion(s)(depending on how much you like)

1-2 packs of Italian sausage(I prefer mild or sweet)

2 cans/jars of speghetti sauce

rice

Directions:

Start off with cutting up your onion into meduim/large peices..and then sautee on medium heat while you are preparing your peppers.

While your onions are sauteeing, cut up your bell peppers into long peices as pictured below.

It takes just a matter of minutes to cut the peppers, so you should then be able to start cutting the sausage while the onions are still sauteeing.

Before you can starting cutting the sausage into peices, you will need to take the casing off of them. I like to run my knife gently down the casing for easy take off. After you take the casing off, you will then need to cut the sausage into about 1 inch peices, or bigger depending on how big you like. Refer to the picture below on what size I cut them.

After you cut them, you will need to get back to your onions and peppers. You should then add the peppers into the same skillet as your onions. Add the speghetti sauce at this time as well. Cover the skillet and cook on low heat.

Now you will need to start browing the sausage, but make sure not to cook it all the way. Once you have browned all the sausage, add it to the onion and pepper sauce mix. Simmer until sausage is fully cooked.

While the sauce is cooking, you will need to cook up some rice. You can cook as much or as little as you like. By the time the rice gets done cooking, so should the sauce as well.

Now for the final result

Photo of the Day

Kent's Favorite books

While we have been trying to potty train Kent, we have spent most of potty time reading. He got lots of books for Christmas, but these would happen to be some of his favorites!

The circle of life

Winnie

This is our sweet Winnie-girl. She would have been 3 years old(human years) in just a few short weeks. She passed away last night and is already dearly missed. We had gotten her for Dallas while I was pregnant with Kent hoping that having something to take care of would warm her up to the thought of having a baby around in a few months. We don't know how she died, but we have a thoughts on what we think happened. We, but mainly Dallas, is terribly upset..But we did promise Dallas a proper burial spot for her as soon as the ground gets soft enough. So, for now, we have her in a box in a safe spot. At least we have our Bella and we will focus on spoiling her like we did Winnie.

P.T. Bootcamp

Potty training has finally graced our house. We have been trying to get Kent familiar with it for some time now, but haven't felt we was very successful with it. The past week, Kent has been telling us when he needs to go..while wearing underwear. We have had a few semi-successful moments, but he seems to not sit long enough to completely finish. We have tried playing with smaller toys, reading, playing games, and even learning activities such as body parts, colors, numbers, and alphabet. He is a little behind most 2 year old with communication. So we are sitting for now and once we get the hang of that we will move on up to standing. I just need something to keep him there long enough to completely finish. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to share them!

Hot Spots

It seems as though I have had a rough time getting the house back into order after Christmas. I know it's January 12 and everyone has Christmas tucked away and their house back to like it never came around. I still have gift bags in a pile, a couple bags of ornaments that need to be put away and a cluttered house that half needs to go to a thrift store. It makes me feel lausy living in such clutter. I seem to always post help me things on Facebook because I have a few great friends on there that will give their helping advise when I ask for it. I had one friend tell me that Flylady was a great way to get started in de-cluttering my life and home. Thanks Michelle for tell me about Flylady! The step for day 1 was to have a shining sink. I usually ALWAYS have a super clean sink, but she gave instructions on how to make it shine like it was brand new. She said that you should wipe it dry everytime you use the sink. I have done a good job so far in doing that. It makes me feel great at night when I go to bed and wake up in the morning that have a clean and shining sink! I ended up skipping a few days because they was motivational steps and one of them required wearing shoes inside. That is against one of my house rules..no wearing shoes in the house. So, I skipped down to about day 6 and it said to tackle the hot spots in the house...I am not good at all this fancy blogging stuff, so I will just paste in here what she says about hot spots...

A Hot Spot is an area, when left unattended will gradually take over. My favorite analogy is of a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone it will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest. This is what happens in our homes. If left unattended, the hot spot will grow and take over the whole room as well as making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see. Your eyes are locked on it. Over the years my hot spot has migrated. As a child it was a chair in my bedroom. I would pile it to the ceiling. Right now I have two hot spots in my home: the dining room table and the bed in the extra bedroom. The dining room table is a staging area. We put the unopened mail there, as well as any thing that needs to go to the basement. Some times you cannot see the top of the table. This is the first thing I see when I walk into the kitchen. Granted, the pile has only been there since last night, but if I don't deal with it first thing in the morning, it will collect many more items by evening. CLUTTER ATTRACTS CLUTTER. The Bed in the extra bed room is just the same. I use it as a place to put things that don't have a home. Do you have areas like this that continue to grow if left alone? Does the rest of the family see this as a place to put things when they do not want to put them where they belong? It is our job to NIP this in the bud. Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop the Hot Spot from becoming a raging Clutter inferno! - FlyLady

One of our main hotspots is the shoe basket right beside the front door. We always kick our shoes off there as soon as we walk in the door. Our computer desk would be the next place that attracts most everything else other than clothing. Our coat rack would have to be next. Every coat gets thrown on it and to be honest, it looks like a bunch of slobs live here. I may not be doing the exact steps that are given to get your home back in order, but I am doing them in the order that they give. Usually, once I get on a cleaning frenzy, it's hard to stop. So, I could possibly have 4 days or more, completed in one.

Little Bitty Pretty One Pageant Dance

TBA

For as much as I hate getting up early of a morning with very little sleep, I always enjoy be able to walk out the door and take the girls to school. They are uaually quiet and it gives me time to think or just listen to my favorite radio station, Magic 96.5 Morning Show with Rob and Jeannine. I have been keeping stuff bottled up inside of me since about Thanksgiving, maybe sooner. There are some people that I know don't like me. What I don't get, is why would you be nice to someone or even be their friend on Facebook if you don't like them. I was never told that I have to like your ways, but Jesus said to love all! I love you, but not your ways. It is getting to the point with these people that I avoid going to functions if I know they are going to be there. I have sometimes just wanted to confront those people and just ask WHY don't you like me? What have I done that is soo bad? and ect. ect. ect. I think I am a fairly good parent. My kids know right from wrong, they are well behaved according to their personality. And when I say according to their personality, Steph has always had a very hyper side to her(she gets that from her dad) and it sometimes don't matter how much I talk to her about being good, she still slips. But with correction, she changes attitude. She is just basically your typical 9 year old. And what puts the cherry on this; it's my own family that is acting like this. I will be honest in saying, that I have a "sister-in-law" that most all of us don't like to claim her as that, but we do for the sake of my brother. She has lied, stolen, cheated, and done many other things in the past that make it hard to trust her. Just when we think she has changed, she does something (literally) stupid to proove us wrong. I think I need to stop while I am ahead now. If not, I will end up writting more which could result in me not being aware that I have posted names of these people.

Some of my favorite things

This is a little diffrent from usual. I have lots to say, but I would much rather keep the drama to myself and share to you what my favorite things are.

Beverages-
Dr. Pepper

Sweet Tea

Milk


Food
Papa Johns Pizza

Meatloaf

Bleu Cheese


T.V Shows
The Nanny

Whose Line Is It Anyway


That's just a few of the basics. I will write another time with more of my favorites. Be on the lookout for a video from the girls school pagaent back in March. It is really cute and it reminded me of exactly how proud of them I am. I know I am always proud of them and I tell them everyday, but it's nice to have a reminder every now and then.