Sunday Morning Coffee Cafe

Hi Everyone!

So, I had every intention of posting this yesterday for the usual Saturday Morning Coffee Cafe; but life required my attention else where, so Saturday Morning Coffee Cafe is here on a Sunday! Did you all have a fabulous week? Mine was good, busy as always with kids, baseball, and life in general. Never a dull moment in life, is there?

Ok, so here we go with this week's Coffee Cafe. If you're new, this is where I post links to various things I've discovered that have caught my attention around the blogosphere, Pinterest, and general interwebz over the past week.  4 recipes, 3 crafts, 2 parenting related articles and 1 picture or quote to close out the week. So, grab your coffee and let's see what's been happening this week!

Also, before we get started, just a quick note that I will not be blogging next week. Just a lot going on and things to do, so I need to step away from the craft studio next week and focus on them!

Recipes: 

Who doesn't love Sesame Chicken from your favorite Chinese take out or buffet restaurant? Don't pretend you don't salivate over it when you see it! There's a reason it's the most popular item on the menu with perhaps Orange Chicken being the close second. I've been looking for a while now for a way to recreate it at home and I think this Sticky Sesame Chicken recipe may be just perfect! I like that it seems to have simple ingredients that I pretty much already have on hand. I intended to try this last night for supper; but life just kind of happened and it didn't work out that way. It's on the menu for this weekend though for sure!

Buffalo Chicken Salad from Hidden Valley  Eventually Spring will come and then Summer and that means lighter fare such as salads. I'm a huge salad fan; but I'll admit too, that I like a salad that eat likes a meal, especially if that's all I'm going to eat. I think it's pointless to try to convince yourself that the little side salad with spinach, tomatoes and onions with oil and vinegar you're eating is going to fill you up and that's all you need to eat. When you know, you're going to be right back in the kitchen making yourself a ham sandwhich a 1/2 hour later! So, a salad like this one that has some meat, veggies, cheese and dressing is right up my alley! And buffalo chicken is always a classic combination!

Hash and Egg Cups I love eggs...I think they're so underrated. I love eggs in all their lovely ways. I love them, boiled, scrambled, fried, poached...deviled. About the only way I don't like an egg is well...raw! Combining the egg and hashbrowns in one "cute as a button" cup?! Yes, please!! I think this would be a great recipe to serve at a brunch with friends or a big family Sunday gathering after church.

Homemade Chewy, No-Bake Granola Bars: I may solely be keeping the granola bar industry in business. We love chewy granola bars. They are fast, convenient and I don't know about you; but I can convince myself they're healthy long enough to get them into my grocery cart and home. So when I saw this recipe for a way to make them at home, I was initially a little skeptical because I really didn't want an overly complicated full of weird ingredients recipe. This, however, looks easy and "normal"! I can't wait to try this recipe!

Crafts:

This coffee card by Pauline took my breath away! It is one of the prettiest creations I've seen in a while. I just can NOT get enough of those gorgeous colors. The blues and grays with the deep dark browns?! OH. MY. WORD!! Ok, I'll be quiet now, so you can just enjoy a moment to look and admire this incredibly talented crafter!

It is 49 degrees in Iowa, people...2 days before the beginning of May. FORTY NINE! I just want Spring to come and to stay and winter to just go away and stay away. This card with all its pretty spring flowers by Jenny just made me smile! It was the perfect little dose of Spring on a cold day that I needed!

Finally, for crafts this week, I chose this Copic Marker cleaning tutorial by Kristie over at Odd Girl because my Copic caps are a hot mess! I never really actually thought about cleaning them; but then I saw this and realized that not only should I do it but that it's also easy to do. So, I've been working my way through my markers about 10 at a time in the evenings while watching TV.

Parenting: 

Middle school is hard; and not just for the kids! Maybe it's just me but I also seem to struggle a bit more with my son in middle school than I did with my daughter. My oldest son has always been a bit of an independent mystery. He's quiet, determined, and quite the perfectionist. He can be really hard on himself when he makes a mistake or does something that he doesn't think is his absolute best. He's not necessarily hard to talk to...but he's a little harder to get to actually talk to you. He's a minimalist when it comes to conversations! I love this article that gives you great ideas for conversation starters with your middle schoolers.


I also have a teenager daughter and while we have a great, open and honest relationship with relatively little drama; she is still a teenage girl and a bit of stress is inevitable. This article with different ways to help your teen through stressful situations will definitely come in handy.

Finally, last week I ended with a quote, so this week, I'm ending with a picture; and since baseball season has started, I couldnt' think of a better one than this!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and I'll sse you again after next week.