Roasted Peppers, Sausage and Potatoes

I am LOVING Pinterest and all the yummy recipe ideas I've gotten there.  A few have been flops but for the most part, I've added some really tasty recipes to my collection in the everlasting search to keep food healthy, interesting and affordable for our family.

I came across this recipe last week and want to give this blogger full credit for the recipe.  I made a few changes to the recipe and I think it made it even better and easier.

Roasted Peppers, Sausage and Potatoes

Roasted potatoes, onions, sausage and peppers roast in the oven with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and rosemary. Don't you love a meal that only dirties one pan? This is an easy one-dish meal that makes clean-up a breeze, and the smell in your kitchen will make everyone hungry!

This recipe uses a very low fat chicken sausage, with 75% less fat that pork sausage, and it's gluten-free, too.  I bought a garlic flavored chicken sausage but there are lots of different flavors you could try.

This dish was so easy to make.  Instead of mixing it all up in a bowl as she suggests, I just cut up all the ingredients and dropped them right into a Ziplock bag.  Add the olive oil and spices, pepper, onion and potato, seal the bag and shake until everything is coated.   I used red potatoes, and I only used one red pepper (which was plenty)...because they can be so expensive.

Preheat oven to 375.

4 - 5 medium potatoes (I like red)
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper

Chop up these three ingredients and toss into ziplock.  Be sure to cut them the same size so they all cook evenly.  

fresh Rosemary - 1 tsp (you can use dried if you have to)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 TBSP olive oil

Now add those three ingredients to the same ziplock.   Seal and shake to coat well.  

Line a large baking sheet with heavy foil, spray with nonstick spray.  Dump the contents of Ziplock onto cookie sheet.   Roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice up chicken sausage and set aside.  After 15 minute timer goes off, add the chicken onto baking sheet, and roast another 35 - 40 minutes.  Your house will smell wonderful!

We loved this meal.  And clean up is so easy, you've dirtied no bowls, and the foil can simply be thrown away. Easy peasy, healthy, tasty and inexpensive.  I can see trying variations of this with different flavored chicken sausages, adding mushrooms, artichokes, asparagus or other veggies, and maybe even squash, with the same method -- chop, coat and roast.   Yummy!

Gold Belt!

I haven't posted about Logan and taekwondo in quite a while, but he's continued to attend class two nights a week, and progress towards his next belt. This week all the kids earned tips towards graduating to the next belt level.  In Logan's case, this is a gold belt.  He is the only 5 year old in his class, and I just can't believe how focused and coordinating he is, and keeps right up with kids in there who are 3 or 4 years older than him.  He thrives on the motivation to improve and learn, and we simply adore his martial arts school.  The staff is phenomenal and I really can't say enough about their level of customer service and commitment to every child there.  We love what they teach - self discipline, respect, physical fitness, and focus.  And we love that Logan is passionate about exceling at this.

Tonight, the graduation ceremony was more a demonstration of what the kids have learned this past semester. They had all passed their tests already.   Here is a demonstration of Logan and his friend Will, kicking.  Logan is 6 months younger than Will, and all the other kids in class are anywhere from 1 to 3 years older.

savoring the magic

Mother Nature is giving us an early preview of spring today, with some simply gorgeous, warm, sunny weather.  After breakfast, Logan and I headed to the park to soak up some much needed Vitamin D. 

It was last minute so we didn't invite any friends to meet up, but it didn't matter since Logan ended up instantly befriending a few boys to play pirates with him.  He also brought his Mario note pad and drew pictures for everyone at the playground and  passed them out.  We've had some challenging days lately with him, and it was so nice to spend a morning together watching him laugh and be a five year old little active boy.  With a brand new fresh haircut!

Sometimes its so easy to get caught up in the every day routines of who needs to be where, when.  Its nice when you can take a couple of hours to just live in the moment with your kids and savor the magic of their childhood.



cousin lunch

I know, I'm totally slacking on the blogging lately.  Due to my new addiction to Pinterest, all my time online seems to be perusing home decorating ideas, dreaming of swimming pool designs, trying to find the perfect recipe, and drooling over things I can't afford.

So anyway, let me attempt to catch up, at least in photos. 

Monday was of course Presidents Day, no school for the kids.  We spent the day at Grandma Lynn's, meeting up with Jessica and cousins Josh and Maya for pizza, Just Dance 3, and s'mores.  Fun stuff!

tubular tubing

Took an overnight trip this past weekend with four other families to Wintergreen Resort for our annual snow tubing.  We went last year, and back in 2009 (after dropping Logan at Grandma's since he was only 2 then).  Last year, we also snuck in a second tubing day trip to the much closer Whitetail Resort with some of the same friends.

We always stay at the same hotel (a nice, clean Holiday Inn with an indoor pool, free hot breakfast and game room for the kiddos, and the staff allows us to pretty much take over the lobby and throw out a food spread with drinks a-flowin'.  Its hard to say if the hotel party is more fun than the actual tubing. This year I'd say yes, simply because it was only 7 degrees at the top of the mountain Sunday.  We all had at least three full layers of clothing on and after an hour we were about done and ready to bathe in hot cocoa.   My butt cheeks took the entire three hour car ride home to get warm, with the seat warmers turned up full force. 

Last year, Logan was a little scared going down the hill.   You do go really fast, and its a long ride.   However, this year all fear was gone and he laid back to enjoy the ride.  This was Dylan's third year, and he's pretty much a professional.  I'm glad we got to go tubing, since we've had next to no snow at home this winter!

We always go with the same friends, give or take a few families. This year the group was smaller, people had other things going on.   We didn't get a big group picture..it was just too cold and windy to hang out after our session and everyone pretty much ran to their cars.   I did get a few photos, risking frost bitten digits.

crime and punishment

Yesterday, we ventured into DC to check out a new-ish museum we had never been to before - The National Museum of Crime and Punishment.  I've always had a minor obsession with serial killers and mass murderers.  I don't know why, but I've enjoyed reading about true crimes for as long as I can remember.  I think it stems from just trying to understand what goes on in peoples' heads that can make them flip out to that extent.  And the boys love anything having to do with weapons. 

We read that the museum is kid-friendly, with lots of interactive exhibits from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the bottom level of the museum is also the studio for America's Most Wanted.  We thought if perhaps we came across something too scary at the museum, we'd just turn their attention to the next exhibit.   But it wasn't too scary at all.  On the contrary, it was such an interesting place!  The boys really enjoyed all the weapons, and learning which presidents have been assasinated.  The lie detector was a bit hit too.   We spent quite a while reading about the history of crime and criminals from medieval times, to current.

Our first stop was to grab some lunch, and we did so at a pizza joint near the museum called Pi.  It was tasty, and a really cool space.  Best of all, the boys were on their absolute best behavior all day, which just makes for an awesome time together.

Then, it was onto the museum..  I couldn't use my flash inside the museum so some of these are a bit dark. They have tons and tons of archived documents throughout the place, so they keep the lights dim.

Right away, I knew we were going to see lots of cool things. Especially when the infamous Ted Bundy's VW was in the lobby.

We read about the Pirates of Ocracoke Island, NC.  We'll be going to that island this summer when we go to the beach.

They had an old Western shootin' gallery, which the boys always love..

The car used in Bonnie and Clyde



 some of the actual guns used in Scarface and the Godfather movies

I had forgotten about the D.B. Cooper hijacking of 1971.  They never found any trace of him or his parachute after he jumped out the plane.

They had tons of artifacts from infamous serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy's creepy clown make up kit:

and David Berkowitz "Son of Sam" (a creep birthday card he sent to someone):

They had a police line up you could stand in and pretend someone was trying to identify you, Andrew and I enjoyed that one.  And the boys loved the lie detector.  I'm not sure Dylan passed?...

A prison cell, complete with hole dug out of the wall to crawl thru to the other side, which Andrew did.

A wall of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

Police Motorcyle and car simulators

One of our favorite parts was the shooting range.   There was a guy working the computer and he had different scenarios to pull up on the screen, i.e. carjackings, robberies, etc.  When it was your turn, you got to shoot at the perpatrator.  Then he'd tell you how many times you fired your weapon and how many hits.

The boys both did great, but when Andrew and I got up there, I missed every single shot.  We were too busy laughing that if anyone ever breaks into our house, they better watch out for Logan, who had the best aim of all.

A totally cool museum, with so much to see and do.  It way exceeded my expectations and I'd love to go back sometime, when some of the temporary exhibits change.  Its right  next to the Verizon Center, and half a block from the Spy Museum as well, so you could really hit a couple of other places and make a whole day of it.