I wanted to take a moment out of our holiday break to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas. It didn’t seem right to let the day go by without telling you all how much your support of Dine & Dish means to me. From your comments, emails, cards and gifts sent in the mail, I’m always overwhelmed by the kindness of the readers of this little space on the web. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again… I have the best blog readers on the internet. Thanks so much for continuing to be here! It means so much to me.

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I’ve been thinking about how life is going to be with four kids. It seems as if the people I know who have more than three kids either live in complete chaos, but really make it work for them or they are totally organized. I’d be dreaming to think that I am going to turn into Martha Stewart by the time May rolls around, but I do think I have a few months to get some good systems back into place. I want to get on top of my menu planning, scheduling, cleaning, freelance writing, hobbying, etc. I think the best way to live, especially with kids, is as simply as possible. No – this doesn’t mean we are giving up toilet paper and completely clearing our house out, but I do want to do some major de-cluttering, restructuring and planning.  If I am going to be the best “Mom-in-Chief” of my household, as Michelle Obama likes to call it, then I need to simplify and stick to it.

One way I like to simplify my menus every week is to throw in a few meals that I know I can whip up quickly. There are some nights where eating out just seems easier than cooking, but if you have a few “quick” meals scheduled for your week, you will be less likely to be tempted by the thought of eating out. Two food items that I know I can always turn to for a dinner time quick fix are shrimp and Italian sausage. Shrimp and Italian sausage thaw super quick (which to me is important because I am constantly forgetting to take the meat out of the freezer to thaw out) and cook quickly, don’t require a lot of extra ingredients to make a meal out of them, and it shakes up your weekly menu a bit with something besides the typical beef or chicken.

As I begin my goal planning for the next year (which is something I am getting my kiddos involved in too and encourage you to do the same) you’ll hopefully be seeing a lot more planned out meals on a weekly basis from me. You can bet that in that rotation you will begin seeing a great deal of things that can be put on the table fairly quickly. I’m going back to basics in order to begin my journey to simplicity.

I adapted this Italian Sausage and Peppers recipe from the Taste of Home website. Talk about simple and delicious… the recipe fits my new plan perfectly!

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The funny thing about being pregnant, for me, is that it doesn’t really feel real. That is, until you sit in that dark room, anticipating the sonogram, and the second that wand hits your tummy you see the outline of the little human moving around. Moving, kicking, double flipping. It is always such a neat moment and one that I know I am very blessed to experience.

Today we found out that our baby, who will be joining our family in May, is a little girl. I know that we were all a little shocked because I would have bet money that I was having a boy this time around, but we are thrilled none the less.

The good news is that our little Leah Katherine (I *think* that is going to be her name, anyway) is an active little thing. I was so relieved to see all of her activty because on the way to the doctors appointment I was telling Nick how nervous I was because I hadn’t really felt her move lately.  Either there was something wrong with the baby or we had a lazy kid on our hands. Turns out I was wrong!

The bad news is that the doctor told us she has a possible obstruction on her heart. My doctor didn’t seem overly concerned. She said it could be something or it could be just a shadow or something. My placenta is also low lying and they couldn’t see her kidneys, but that is probably because she was moving around so much.

Anyway, I have a level 3 sonogram scheduled for the 31st and will keep you all posted. I’ve always wanted to have one of those, so I guess this is my chance!

And to tie in a recipe, one of the reasons I thought I was having a boy is because I have been craving a lot of the same things I did with our oldest. Breakfast food, tortillas and cheese and carbs. Banana Bread has been a favorite of mine this pregnancy as well. I have had the chance to try out a bunch of different recipes, even though I still have one recipe that is my absolute favorite.

The recipe I’m sharing today is from a Taste of Home Cookbook. It is a lighter version of the other banana bread recipes I try. It isn’t my all time favorite, but for a lighter version it is pretty darn good! I hope you enjoy it.

Banana Nut Bread from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in bananas and sour cream. Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir into banana mixture just until moistened. Fold in nuts.
Transfer to a greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Yield: 1 loaf (12 slices).

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My husband and I love seafood. In fact, if we are going out to a nice dinner, a seafood restaurant would top our choice of places to go. Cooking seafood is one of my favorite things to cook. My kids love it, I love it, hubby loves it. We have become quite the fish family.

Of course, living in the midwest is nothing like what some of you experience living on the coast. Fresh seafood is not something that is readily available at a price I can afford. A lot of the fish we buy comes frozen from Costco. Either way, we do with what we can get our hands on and enjoy to experiment with different varieties and flavors.

I am slowly but surely building up my seafood recipe repitoire. In fact, I imagine that a lot of the recipes my kids will remember when they grow up have something to do with seafood. That is what I love about family recipes… they can be from the past generations, the current generations and then what the future generations take and do with them. The family recipe box is ever expanding!

What is your favorite family recipe? Do you think it could win you a $1000 Williams Sonoma gift card? How much would you love it if your favorite family recipe won you that coveted KitchenAid mixer you’ve had on your wish list forever? The Viva Diva Family Recipe contest is going on now. Remember to enter your favorite family recipe and you could possibly be one of the big winners! Head over there now before the rush of the holidays gets the best of you… you can enter until December 15th. Good luck!

Side note – you have until tomorrow night to win one of two Taste of Home annual cookbooks from a giveaway partnership between Kate from Kate in the Kitchen and I. Go to this post to enter to win.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia (from Recipezaar.com)

25 min | 5 min prep

SERVES 2

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OK – Kate has so many Taste of Home cookbooks to give away! As promised, some of our giveaways are going to be quickies. Here we go…!

The first person to comment on this post (and keep in mind that some comments if the person is commenting the first time go into moderation, so I’ll have to check times) will be the winner of the Taste of Home Annual Cookbook from 2002.

The comment must include the correct name and correct age of Kate’s son (the handsome cutie pictured above seen holding his baby cousin).

The answer can be found in Kate’s Blog, Kate in the Kitchen.

Ready? Set? Go!

Bummed that you weren’t the first to comment with the right answer? Don’t fret… you can still win! We have lots more to give away and our first giveaway is still going on over at this post.

Sign up to have Dine & Dish delivered to your email inbox to receive the latest news right away! See the right hand sidebar to sign up!

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Whitney, Stacy and Cathy… today is your lucky day! The Random Number Generator selected you all as the three winners for the Pizza Hut gift certificates. Soon you will have the chance to try their new Tuscani Pasta and an order of breadsticks. Congratulations to you and thanks to everyone for participating. A special thanks to Pizza Hut for this great opportunity!

I have to apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. We recently found out that I am…. Surprise!… expecting baby number 4. I have been incredibly sick with this pregnancy and just haven’t had a whole lot of energy to cook. It is hard to write a food blog when you aren’t cooking! Anyway, I promise that things will be back to normal soon and appreciate you all hanging in there. I am slowly but surely starting to get my mojo back, at least a couple of days a week. Cooking supper and then being able to eat it these days is a monumental milestone. I can’t wait for this all to pass.

In the meantime, I have a cookbook to give away! I have multiple copies of The Taste of Home Cookbook and would love to give one to you. This is one huge cookbook full of recipes from trusted home cooks, like you and me. If you like Taste of Home magazine, I promise you will love this cookbook. To enter to win, please leave a comment after this post telling me what your number one favorite cooking magazine is. All entries must have a valid email address. Comments can be left up to midnight CST on Monday, October 27th and the random drawing will take place the next day. Thanks and good luck!

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