This week, on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m sharing some of our favorite Cheescipes (see what those are all about below) and board games, as well as meal prep and plenty of outdoor family walks.
I call this “No Sweat Sweetie” – it’s perfect for an easy, no fuss, fun game night cheescipe (a cheese recipe = CHEESCIPE).
Top a cracker with a dried apricot and cube of Great Midwest Cheese mango fire cheddar and you’re already winning for serving the best snacks!!
We love having game nights- see how to have a virtual game night post for some ideas…Great Midwest Cheeses are the PERFECT snack for any game night, and they have so many awesome flavors!
If you’re free today (8/1) at 1:30 pm, Nick and I are doing an IGTV live cooking! We have a very Wisconsin themed menu! I’ll be making beer brats and Nick will be making Wisconsin brandy old fashioned sours. We’d love for you to tune in!
To tune in, you can do so by visiting my Instagram profile and where you see my profile picture, the circle around it means I have stories. When I’m doing a live, there will be a button at the bottom that says ‘LIVE‘ and you can click that and watch. Or, if you follow me and you are signed in to the app on your phone, it’ll show all the ‘live’ stories first. Don’t worry, I’ll save it to my IGTV so you can re-watch later as well!
New On The Blog:
So many great new things on the blog. In case you missed any posts, here’s what we published this week
- Remoulade Sauce – we put this on basically everything
- Catching up with the Kelnhofers – our weekly family update from last week
- Meet the Sweetphi Team – so excited to introduce you to two ladies who are such a great help
- Serbian Sausage Cevapcici – a family recipe that’s tradition at special occasions.
- Love List – weekly list of some of my favorite things. This week features special features from Bridget and Alyssa too!
- Our Favorite Children’s Books – it’s impossible to list all of my favorites, but this is a great start.
What to Make:
You know I love things that can be made ahead of time, so these are a few quick things I like to prep and eat throughout the week:
- 5 Ingredient chicken salad – also a fave of Nick’s!
- Pepperoni pasta salad in a jar – great to grab and go
- Chocolate hazelnut date energy bites – a protein snack that tastes like dessert.
- Pesto chicken salad – another chicken salad that we can’t get enough of at our house
What I Made:
- We made lots of recipes from my 5 ingredient cookbook for meal prep and then ate it throughout the week.
- We made the yogurt marinated chicken and green beans and sweet potato fries.
- Instead of making the recipes in the oven or stovetop, we grilled them!
- Sweet potato fries on the grill are so so good – 5 minutes each side by the way!
- We also added some Italian sausages and then had those with marinara and mozzarella on rolls with the other grilled veggies. Recipe for an amazing marinara is in my cookbook too!!
- Also, I was so very proud of this kids lunch and how many fruits/veggies it had on it…all about balance, right? Also on the plate is oatmeal raisin energy bites.
Reader Comments:
Sometimes a simple comment says it all. Take some time for a little self-care and think about starting your own nighttime skin care routine:
- “You just inspired me to spend more time on my own skin, thanks.”
Reader ReCreations:
- A reader sent me their recreation of my 5 Ingredient vegan and vegetarian meatballs. How good do those look?!
Links from Around the Web:
- I’ve heard a lot about ‘The Floor is Lava’ show on Netflix, so I am going to snag this game for Ben. Hoping it’ll keep him busy for at least 30 minutes.
- Oh, and as far as games Nick and I enjoy – this one is becoming one of our favorites. And, of course, we enjoy our Cheescipes while we’re playing!
Item from Amazon you didn’t know you needed:
- Cherry pitter – you would not believe how many times I’ve used this stupid tool this summer…but it really works like no other for cherries!
What I’m Reading:
- Started reading The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. It’s ok but I’m waiting to really get into it…anyone else? I’ve heard it’s “such a good book” from so many
What I’m Watching:
- I started watching Indian Matchmaking on Netflix. I’m hooked, anyone else watching it?
Personal Stories:
- If I could call one picture quintessential summer, it would be this one of Ben.
- Oh my goodness, my little princess Frankie picks her nose whenever I want to take a picture, lol.
- The twins are so welcoming when I come home and climb all over me.
- We saw the most beautiful sunflowers on a walk, as we walked by, Ben plucked one…oops!
- Freddie got caught!
- On one of many walks, we saw this ‘go Brewers’ chalk, also Ben always finds so many fun rocks and has to stop every two feet.
Did you know?
- Did you know that we have videos on many of our favorite recipes? They’re great to watch for a quick intro on how to make the recipe!
Popular This Week:
- Most visited blog post: zucchini cheddar bread from Carla Hall’s cookbook
- Most liked Instagram post: this remoulade sauce that we use on almost everything!
- Most pinned image: I love this summer salad of chicken and arugula
- Most viewed YouTube video: this video for tasty salted caramel cookies are topping this list this week.
- Most purchased item: I just got these amazing mini bowls with lids – They’re ON SALE and they’re great for ice cream and food storage
Have you tried a flavored cheese before? What do you think? I’d love to hear, so just leave a comment below and let me know.
Corrie says
Ooh! I’m gonna consider the lava game–gotta get my kiddo more active, even when it’s too hot to play outside. Let us know what you think!
PS: We’re originally from the Midwest, but have only recently started making beer brats. (Weird, I know.) The recipe we’ve been using calls for the brats to be grilled after cooking. Do you ever do that? (And I’m totally going to try your Instant Pot brat recipe next, by the way.)
Sweetphi says
We’ve been playing the scavenger hunt game so much, it’s so fun to have my 3 year old running around the yard trying to find a leaf lol.
My instant pot recipe you saute them and then cook them with beer, so you don’t grill them, but traditionally you make them/boil them in beer, then you grill them 🙂 so it just depends on how much time you have. If you’re wanting a quick weeknight recipe, I’d definitely recommend the IP, if you’re wanting a more ‘weekend’ or traditional beer brat, then I’d recommend the boiling/grilling route (oh, one other thing I really love about the IP version is that the onions cook and get caramelized with everything, so you don’t have to cook those separately!)
Corrie says
Ooooh, I really do have to try the IP version. Thanks! PS: I’ve been cooking down my beer/onion liquid into a relish, adding honey and fennel seeds. It’s so good over brats!