Garage Sale Loot and Cooking Limbo

Admittedly, this entry has only a little bit to do with food. I am just so excited about all the cool toys we got at a local garage sale this weekend I had to share. Check out the photo above to see what we got for a grand total of $18.00! My personal favorites are the Little Tikes workbench, the xylophone, the adorable ladybug-themed stroller, and the purple smiley-face mailbox.

Our Lima Bean really doesn't have tons of toys (because we don't want to spoil her and kids lose interest in them so fast anyway). Don't get me wrong, she has plenty---but our house doesn't look like a Toys 'R Us annex like so many other houses I've been to. She's happy with what she has, but lately I've thought her collection could use some freshening up. Time for some new excitement. A friend of mine has an absolute warehouse of gorgeous, fun toys in her basement playroom and she has gotten them all from garage sales. So when I heard a local church was having a kids garage sale, I was hopeful that I'd be as lucky as my friend has been.

So happy with what we got. And don't even get me started on Lima. She's loving this bounty of new toys, CDs, videos, and stuffed animals all in great condition. The workbench is her favorite right now; using the screwdriver fascinates her. She also loves dancing around with the Elmo doll and listening to the Sesame Street Travel Songs CD we got.

On to the food part of this entry...I've been in an odd sort of cooking limbo for the past few days. Win was travelling for a bit last week so I mostly prepared dinners that were things I like and Win isn't a fan of. Nice salads, random assortments of veggies and cheeses, and of course a huge bowl of macaroni and cheese one night. Ah, the decadence. Quick, good dinners but nothing that was worth blogging about.

I spent more time preparing food for friends. I had some friends over for a playgroup one morning and made this cinnamon swirl coffee cake. Tasty!



Then I made this chicken and rice dish to take over to my friend who just had a baby. She said they liked it and had enough left over for a second meal, so I was pleased it'll cover them for two nights. With a new baby in the house and a toddler already running around, any extra home-cooked meals are nice, even leftovers.

We've got more visitors coming in to town soon, so now I'm in the menu planning process. This week will include a few trips to the store and some thinking about what to stock the fridge with and what dinners to prepare. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.