All posts by Hubbard's Cupboard

Mom, Mormon Blogger, Computer Science Graduate, Photographer
Family Life

All the Hubbards Want for Christmas…

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Dear Santa,

Every year people ask us what we want for Christmas so we thought we could write a letter to the North Pole (or on a blog… haha) and you can let your elves know what’s on our list. Here are the things we want for Christmas and to make it easy for you we put them in their price range. 🙂

FREE to $1.00

  1. Christmas Card – We would love to hear from you this Christmas! Pictures would be nice too but completely optional! 🙂
  2. Facebook Post or Email – If a Christmas card is just too hard… no worries! We just want to hear from you!
  3. Text – No email? We’ll take a Merry Christmas text any time!
  4. Phone Call – Can you believe it? Talking on a phone… wow what a strange concept. 🙂 Yes we have a land line but you can call our cell if you like!
  5. Come Visit Us – We’ll be here all Christmas break!
  6. Read the Book of Mormon – If you tell us that you’ll read the Book of Mormon we’ll be ecstatic! Whether you’ve read it before or haven’t ever… this book changes our lives everyday and we know it will bring much peace and joy to yours too! We know the principles taught in the book are true. It’s free online or we can give you a copy.  Seriously… this is the best gift you could ever give us! We would be so happy.
  7. Something Homemade – You can make us something!
  8. Home Video – Dallin & May Bo love watching funny home made videos!
  9. A Vote for Mitt Romney – This would be an awesome Christmas present for us!… Especially if you live in Iowa or knows someone who does!
  10. Soup Ladle – Ok if you insist on buying something… you can get this at the dollar store. We currently serve our soup with a wooden spoon. 🙂

Under $5.00

  1. Baster – We bake a lot… don’t have a baster.
  2. Toys – Anything Micah can play with or put in his mouth!
  3. Your Child: What Every Parent Needs to Know – $3.95 used on Amazon.com (No need to buy a new one! Used is great!)
  4. Magic Trees of Mind: How to Nurture Your Child’s Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence – $3.73 used on Amazon.com (No need to buy a new one! Used is great!)
  5. Your Baby’s First Year: Week by Week – $2.76 used on Amazon.com (No need to buy a new one! Used is great!)
  6. Small Mouth Canning Lids – May Bo is starting to learn how to can.

Under $10.00

  1. Frisbee – For Dallin to play with his friends.
  2. Garlic Press – May Bo spends lots of time dicing garlic by hand.
  3. Parenting with Love & Logic – $9.98 used on Amazon.com (No need to buy a new one! Used is great!)
  4. Dough Cutter – Something that looks like this where May Bo can scrap dough off of the counter.
  5. Kitchen Timer – We tend to burn our cookies…
  6. Tie – For Dallin… baby Micah spits up on his ties. HAHA!
  7. Biking Glove – Dallin lost one of his glove so if you have one laying around… all we need is one.

Under $20.00

  1. Cooking With Food Storage Made Easy Cookbook – We always need ideas for cooking with food storage and we heard this was a great cook book.
  2. Carcassonne – Board game… buy this only if you can come play with us! 🙂
  3. Bang – Card game… we love playing games with our friends! 🙂

Under $30.00

  1. Pandemic – Board game… super fun. Come play with us!
  2. Ticket to Ride – Board game… Can you tell we like to hang out with our friends?

Other

  1. Development Toys – Anything for babies over 3 months.
  2. Restaurant Gift Cards – Dallin likes taking May Bo on dates.
  3. Good Parenting Books – We need help parenting Micah!
  4. Norelco 7865XL Shaver Blades – Dallin’s shaver is dull but it might be cheaper to just buy a new shaver.
  5. Camp Chairs – When we go camping… we sit on a log. 🙂
  6. Air Mattress – This would motivate May Bo to go camping with Dallin.
  7. Other Board Games – We currently have Monopoly, Mancala, and Cranium.
  8. Christmas Decor – We’re collecting for future Christmas. Used is fine! We also know that Christmas Decor goes on sale the day after Christmas. Belated Christmas presents are just fine!
  9. Christmas Ornament – We only have silver balls. Homemade ones are great!
  10. Mountain Bike Chain – Dallin’s broke and haven’t been able to ride his bike.
  11. Canning Supplies – Jars (we hear you can find these at the DI!), we have a starter kit but we don’t have a canner. Our neighbors let us borrow theirs.
  12. Sugar Free Desserts – Dallin is watching his sugar intake so anything that is made with Splenda, Stevia, or Agave would be a yummy treat for him!
  13. Any Book by an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – You could probably find this on your book self or find ideas on DeseretBook.com.

Way Too Expensive for Santa or His Elves but No One Said We Couldn’t Dream about it 🙂

  1. Ipad, or Motorola Xoom, or ASUS Eee Pad– This is purely a dream… “Life is but a dream” 🙂
  2. New Super Mario Brothers for Wii – Dallin just beat Super Mario Galaxy on the wii and a new video game would be great for stress relieving on Friday nights.
  3. Dance Dance Revolution II Bundle for Wii – May Bo loves DDR and is a dancing machine!
  4. Wii Fit Plus Bundle – We’ve borrowed our neighbor’s Wii board for months now. We should probably return it. We love our generous neighbors!

Love,

May Bo & Dallin & Micah

PS – We don’t know how Santa will coordinate with his elves but you can leave comments on this blog if you like! What do you want for Christmas?

PPS – Christmas is not just about gifts… it’s about celebrating and remembering the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We give gifts to remind us of the greatest gift we already have which is the atonement of Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. We just really want to spend time with friends / family this Christmas. We love you!

Main Dishes, Recipe

Best Greek Recipe!

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To get to the point of the story… Dallin’s friend took us to a Greek restaurant in SLC a month ago. It was good but we ended up spending like $40 on very little food! I got to admit though… it was good food because the taste was something different than what we always eat. I couldn’t help it…. I had to make Greek food and I finally found time to do it! These are some of the best recipes… and it worked the first time! You REALLY have to try them.

It took me about 1.5 hours of prep time but you should start prepping 3-4 hours before dinner. The recipes are really easy though. Trust me it’s worth a try!

Greek Yogurt Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 small cucumber – peeled, seeded, and finely chopped
  • 1 green onion
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Stir together the yogurt, sour cream, vinegar, lemon juice, cucumber, green onion, garlic, feta cheese, oregano, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a bowl; cover and chill 3 hours or overnight before serving.

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Greek Pita Bread

8 Servings (Feed 4 people)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour (I used wheat)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
  2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured counter top. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
  3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed (see picture) and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.

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Not all of mine puffed but it was super exciting when they did!
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Greek Seasoned Meat
Feed 4 People

Ingredients

  • 1 lb of any kind of meet (Chicken, Pork, Lamb, Steak..) sliced in strips
  • 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 Small Onion Chopped

Combined everything. Cook the meet any way you want: grilled, pan fried with oil, baked covered with foil so the meat won’t dry out.

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Greek Gyros

Ingredients

  • Greek Cucumber Yogurt Recipe
  • Greek Pita Bread Recipe
  • Greek Seasoned Meat Recipe
  • Chopped Romain Lettuce
  • Diced Tomatoes

Directions

Use Pita Bread and top with Meat, Lettuce, Tomatoes, and a big heaping of Cucumber Yogurt Sauce! YUM!!!

Parenting, Pregnancy

What is it like to be pregnant?

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I used to be afraid of being pregnant. Now I realized that there really isn’t anything to be afraid about. It was all in my head! Being pregnant is great! I have no complaints at all. It’s so funny being able to feel the little baby inside poking me. I’m almost six months a long and it’s been a wonderful and spiritual experience for me and my husband. The love that we feel from Heavenly Father and the baby can’t be expressed in words! There are so many blessing to having children. Dallin and I have felt the most love and the Spirit in our home as we prepare for this little child to come.

It’s not weird having a baby inside of me. It feel really normal actually. Seeing the baby in the ultrasound was one of the best experiences for me. He’s just so cute!

I know I’ve been blessed with a good pregnancy so far and I’m super grateful for that!  I have to thank Heavenly Father and priesthood blessings for such an easy pregnancy. Other than some thyroid problems (which is easily fixable), I haven’t had any morning sickness and I’ve been able to go to school/work. I’ve been able to work out five times a week and I’ve kept a pretty healthy diet. I’ve been pretty much able to keep my previous lifestyle while being pregnant.

Let me tell you about the great perks about being pregnant:

  1. Food just tastes so much better! – I don’t even know why… I just think it’s because I have a bigger appetite and I get cravings for really delicious things like steak, hamburgers, ice cream, shakes, cheese, yogurt, fruits, and veggies… I used to feast on salads but now I just eat a big variety of foods.
  2. Maternity clothes are super comfortable! – No more worries about jeans being too tight. These stretchy pants are the way to go. It helps when the doctor wants me to gain a pound a week! The baby right now is gaining about half a pound a week so maternity clothes are highly recommended. 🙂
  3. You get to take naps! – For me, I had no excuses to take a nap during the day but now I have all the reason to take naps during the day. I only get tired when I’m out working all day but other than that I can make it from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM most days.
  4. Love at Home – There has been an increase of love at home. The Family: A Proclamation to the World explains how a family can achieve greater love and joy by living the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ one which includes having children and bringing them into a loving home. You really do experience joy in your posterity.
  5. Becoming a Mother is Fulfilling – I have never felt as fulfilled in my life doing anything else than bearing this child. I know this is what I’m meant to do.
  6. A Lot of Blessings – Just like having faith and following all the other commandments of God, we receiving blessings for doing what God wants us to do and being obedient.

The list goes on. I’m so excited to see our little baby!

Child #1: Micah, Family Life, Parenting, Pregnancy

Baby, Baby Girl, Baby Boy?

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Lilypie - Personal pictureLilypie Pregnancy tickers

Yes, we’re expecting and we’re excited It is honestly the happiest feeling ever! We can even describe the blessings and how much joy we feel each day! It’s overwhelming how happy we are. We found out today what we are having!

Do you think we’re having a boy or girl? We’ll give you a hint! It’s not both! 🙂

Watch the video and find out!

Surprise! Do you have a baby name suggestion?

Family Life, Mid West, Travel

Over the River and Through the Woods!

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… to grandmother’s house we go! Dallin and I decided to visit Grandma Hubbard who lives in Robinson, Illinois with Uncle Ernie and Aunt Sue for our spring break.

Day 1: We flew into St. Louis and got a rental car. This is a nice zippy little Nissan that has super great gas mileage!

We saw the Mississippi River even though I thought it was a lake! First we had to grab something to eat. There were only bars in St. Louis… at least that’s what it seemed like but we found a Thai Restaurant. Dallin got something called a Tofu Lard Khing (http://www.senthaibistro.com/) it was the funniest dinner platter I’ve ever seen! It was a vegetarian dish.

I sat next to a medical student and a McDonald’s manager on the plane they both referred us to the City Museum (http://www.citymuseum.org/home.asp) in downtown St. Louis. It is basically a grownup playground. Dallin and I couldn’t believe it! It was the coolest museum ever. It was basically made out of junk and trash. They had a 10 story slide and Dallin convinced me to hike up to the top of the 10 stories… by the time I got up there I was too tired to walk back down so I decided to go down the slide. It was so big… Dallin and I spent 3.5 hours and only got through half the museum. It was one that you would definitely get lost in.


Recipe, Sides

Wheat Thin Cracker Recipe

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This picture is of a tomato basil cracker recipe.  I cooked tomatoes in the oven for about an hour in 200 degrees F. Then I put the tomatoes in a liquid measure and filled it to 1 cup of water. I put it in the cracker recipe and sprinkled onion salt and basil on top. You have to play with this recipe and make some fun flavored crackers like garlic and parsley or taco seasoning. It’s a really good cracker recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 and 1/2 cup white flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 cup water
  • salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, and 3/4 teaspoon salt. Pour in the vegetable oil and water; mix until just blended.
  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough as thin as possible – no thicker than 1/8 inch. Place dough on an ungreased baking sheet, and mark squares out with a knife. Prick each cracker with a fork a few times, and sprinkle with salt.
  4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crisp and light brown. Baking time may be different depending on how thin your crackers are. When cool, remove from baking sheet, and separate into individual crackers.
Desserts, Recipe

Cheesecake Cookie

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Ingredients

  • 1 package Cream Cheese, soften (8 0z)
  • 1/2 cup Sugar + 1 Tablespoon
  • 2 Tablespoon Cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2.5 cups Flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 320 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together Cream Cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Beat in cornstarch and vanilla.
  4. Stir in flour until blended.
  5. Drop by spoonfuls and press down cookie (or use a cookie press).
  6. Sprinkle with white sugar.
  7. Bake 12 to 14 minutes (cookies end up white)
Main Dishes

Chinese Steamed Eggs

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We had the best dinner today… I’m stuffed. We had beans, rice, and steamed eggs. It was so yummy! It sounds like a weird combination but it was our Brazilian mixed with Chinese dinner. It was great. Steamed eggs was something I ate all the time growing up.

Serving Size

  • 3 people

Ingredients

  • 10 – 12 small chunks of chicken (Size of a quarter)
  • 4 Eggs
  • 3/4 cup Water
  • 1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
  • 1 Chicken Bullion Cube
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Green Onion Chopped
  • Other Optionals: corn, green peas, frozen carrots

Instructions

  1. In a heat safe bowl (glass, stoneware, or porcelain), whisk eggs, water, salt, green onion, and soy sauce together.
  2. Add chicken chunks.
  3. Steam bowl in steamer for 40-45 minutes over medium high heat or until egg is cooked in the middle.
  4. Serve with rice.