Saturday Morning Coffee Cafe

Hello Everyone!!

It's been a long time since we've met at the coffee cafe hasn't it?! I hope you've all had a fabulous summer. Mine has been fun and a little crazy...and very busy! Be sure to check (THIS) post from yesterday to read all about it!
Anyhow, back to business, right?! If this is your first visit to the cafe, welcome! This is a weekly post in which I highlight the things I've found around the interweb and blog lands, Pinterest etc that have caught my attention and would like to help spread the love a little. We're all just bloggers trying to get a little attention, right?! As always, I'll share 4 recipes, 3 crafts, 2 parenting posts and 1 quote or pretty picture to wrap it all up!

Recipes:

1. Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts: Last week my daughter turned 16! (Wow...where did THAT time go?!?) One of her requests for the day was for me to make home-made donuts. It had been quite a while since I had made them and decided that I would search for a new recipe instead of trying to resurrect an old one. These donuts were SO YUMMY, y'all!! I ended up filling the pans a little more than I should have, however. The recipe says it yields 6 donuts, I was able to get 8; but I think I could have easily gotten 10! They really were super easy to make. Give them a try this weekend, your kids will LOVE you!!

2. Chicken Enchiladas with Sour Cream White Sauce: Beef enchiladas are one of our favorite and often go-to- dinners. Still, it's nice to mix it up a bit as well, you know?! So, I've been looking for a
good white sauce chicken enchiladas for a while now. I ended up choosing this recipe for a couple of reasons: 1) it had easy ingredients, always a must! 2) I was able to make a couple of modifications and make an extra side sauce with dairy free ingredients for my son. In the end, I had one child that declared he liked it better than the beef enchiladas, one that said she liked the beef ones better! Oh well...can't make them all happy all the time, I guess! I would definitely make these again, especially as a quick and easy meal. It made a LOT of sauce, more than was necessary for the 8 enchiladas that we had. So, I would recommend either cutting back the sauce a bit or make more enchiladas

3. Cashew Alfredo Sauce: The dairy free modifications I made in the enchilada sauce encouraged me to look for a recipe for good dairy -free Alfredo sauce that I could try. This one posted by Krista over at Stay Fit Mom looks like it has tons of potential and looks fairly easy to make as well! I can't wait to try it!

4. Cracked Out Chicken and Rice Bake: I know...another chicken recipe! But seriously, can anyone   REALLY have enough to chicken recipes?! I don't think so... This recipe looks perfect for a week night meal. The only change I intend to make is with the rice. I realize that the instant rice probably makes it a fast meal to prepare. However, I'm pretty sure my daughter would disown me if I made a dish with anything other than Jasmine rice! I have cooked nothing but Jasmine rice for probably the last 12 years!! I'll take the extra time to prepare that first! Definitely looking forward to making this one soon!

Crafts:

1.  I love this CAS card by Karolyn over at Paper Therapy! The ombred chevrons with the heart cut out of them is easy; but also super clever! This card would be so easy to mass produce with different colors and even shapes.


2. This crisp and clean card from Nancy over at Creative Palette was just like a breath of fresh air. It just reminded me of a nice breezy summer morning. I love the white on white tag with the stitched circle is a very unique focal point. I love the blue, red and green with the flowers really pop against the white background.


3. Are you ever stuck for gift ideas? I know I am...all the time! Well, fear no more! These awesome DIY gift baskets from Landee over at Landeelu are here to save you!! (And me!) So MANY possibilities and ideas. This is such a great resource. You should totally go PIN this...go ahead...I'll wait!

Parenting:

1. Talking to your tween can be an experience unlike any other, that is for sure! It's almost harder for me to talk to my 12 year old than it is my 16 year old! Scary Mommy offers the perfect mom point of view in this hilarious article that will definitely be the highlight of your day!

2. Here's a simple truth that I've learned over the last few years as the mom of a few school age kids: The school year is exhausting! Homework, tests, projects, meeting, sporting events, band events, fundraisers and on it goes. If your house is anything like mine, it's just a non stop revolving door off just plain busyness. So when the summer finally rolls around, it is nice to just relax and rest and recharge! (Except summers like this one when we are moving...but that's a different story) When I read this article about Awesome Lazy Summers by Scary Mommy(big shout out to Scary Mommy this week!) I felt as though she was speaking to my soul, ya'll!! Let kids be kids during the summer! Growing up is happening fast enough on its own. We really don't need to rush it along, do we?!


Finally:

Have a great weekend; and I'll be back on Monday with a brand new card to share with you!