This has been an eventful week.  First, we sent our daughter off to China.  Thank you so much for all of your comments.  I loved hearing about others who have kids overseas and those who have gone overseas themselves.  It’s hard to let our kids grow up, but that’s the goal, right?

We got a surprise phone call from Meredith yesterday morning when she arrived in Shanghai.  She was able to make a Skype call from her phone.  I love technology!

Our family had another hard goodbye this week.  Our wonderful next-door neighbors had to move to Kansas.  We are going to miss them so much.  Our kids played together all the time.  They homeschooled too, so they didn’t think we were weird for homeschooling.  We borrowed ingredients from each other when we needed to.  Someone in Kansas is going to get fantastic neighbors.

Luckily, I still have quite a few neighbors that I borrow from (and they borrow from me too).  I think it’s rare these days to be blessed with so many friendly and helpful neighbors.   What do you think?  Do you have “borrowing” neighbors?

Ingredient Spotlight Highlights

There were so many good recipes shared in I.S. this week – 79 so far and there’s still time to link up yours.  Here are a few that caught my eye:

Italian Sliders from Pocket Change Gourmet look great.  That’s the photo of them at the top of this post.

Amish Cheeseburger Soup from The Better Baker sounds like a winner.

One of my sister’s favorite casseroles when she was young was Chowmein Casserole.  This version from Lisa’s Dinnertime Dish looks great.

This homemade taco meat from Many Makings looks easy and good.

Compassion in Tanzania

I’ve been following along with The Nester on her trip with Compassion in Tanzania.  I loved this post about how she met the young man she sponsors.  

And this one, where she talks about visiting another home of a Compassion child.  This really makes me want to write to my sponsored children more often.

I love how Nester makes a whole lot of friends using a bottle of blue nail polish.

There are more posts and links to the other bloggers who are also on the Compassion trip, but those are enough to get you started.  Go read them.  You’ll be glad you did.

99.9% of all the posts on my site are about food.  I hope you’ll forgive me for taking this post to write about family instead.

My oldest daughter boarded a plane for China this morning.

This is the same child who used to decorate the house for Chinese New Year and couldn’t understand why the rest of us weren’t as excited about the holiday as she was.

This same girl requested Chinese food for every birthday.

She started trying to learn Chinese when she was 10 years old.  She checked out the Chinese/English dictionary and wrote down all the “important” words after we sent her to bed each night.  Then she started studying with a friend from church who speaks Chinese.  Shu Mei taught her for several years and she’s taken other Chinese language classes. 

At times she’s thought about quitting her studies of Chinese.  It’s time consuming and she has no idea what she’ll do with it.  Even so, all of this is finally leading her to her dream of going to China.

This morning, she boarded a plane heading for Shanghai, where she will study at Shanghai University.  She’ll also get to do a bit of travel in China after the study abroad program is over.  I’m so excited for her!

To be sure, I’m also a nervous mama.  It’s not comfortable to send your child half way around the world.  But it’s not often that you get to see your child live their dreams either.

We’ve been joking that she won’t have anything to eat for all the time she’s there.  She can be picky.  She doesn’t really like meat, especially beef and Chinese people eat anything and everything!  Actually, I’m sure she’ll come back with some new favorite foods and maybe a more adventurous appetite too.

For dinner last night, Meredith requested Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Coconut Syrup.  I’m pretty sure when she comes home she’s going to want a big plate of Lentil Tacos and maybe a meal of Pasta Salad too.  There’s something about making a person’s favorite food that shows them you love them.

So, part of my heart is going to be in China through mid-June.  I can’t wait for this girl of mine to come home and tell us all about her adventures!

So many delicious recipes were linked up for Ingredient Spotlight this week!  I’m going to need to start buying more bananas so I can try them.  Here are a few recipes that caught my eye:

If you’ve ever eaten at ‘Ohana at the Polynesian Resort in Walt Disney World, you know about the bread pudding dessert they serve. Scrumptious!  Big Bear’s Wife made her own version of Pineapple Banana Bread Pudding with Banana Caramel Sauce that looks out-of-this-world wonderful!

Many Makings uses Kraft caramels in her Caramel Banana Muffins. I can’t imagine how good that would be!

These Strawberry and Cream Banana Muffins from Mo’ Betta look great.

This Chocolate Banana Cream Cake from Flour Me with Love is both gorgeous and mouth-watering.

Chocolate Banana Tortilla from Knit 1, Kids 4 sounds fabulous.

I love slow cooker oatmeal and this Overnight Banana Steel Cut Oat recipe from Sugar-Free Mom looks great.

These Sock Monkey Cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade are adorable!

I have had a blast sharing Ingredient Spotlight with you and these last few months have been really fun!  It never fails that I learn new ways to use ingredients that I keep in the pantry and fridge.  I’ve also discovered new blogs to read and made new friends.  I hope you’ve found the same!

Here is the schedule for the next 5 months.  This takes us all the way through September.  I have skipped a few weeks because I’ll be doing some traveling for family vacations and because July 4 falls on Wednesday.  Most of us will be busy with other fun stuff that day.

You can always find all the links to past Ingredient Spotlights by using the navigation bar at the top of the blog.  The list is nested under Menus & Planners.  

May 2 – Honey

May 9 – Ground Beef

May 16 – Strawberries

May 23 – Garlic 2012

May 30 – Off

June 6 – Yogurt/Sour Cream

June 13 – Fresh Herbs 2012

June 20  – Sausage and Hot Dogs

June 27 – Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries

July 4 – Off

July 11 – Chicken Legs

July 18 – Tomatoes

July 25 – Off

August 1 – Sweetened Condensed Milk 2012

August 8 – Zucchini

August 15 – Frozen Whipped Topping 2012

August 22 – Corn 2012

August 29 – Jalapenos, banana peppers, chipotle peppers and other hot peppers

September 5 – Eggs 2012

September 12 – Peanut Butter 2012

September 19 – Cornmeal 2012

September 26 – Frozen Bread Dough

I’d love for you to join us! You can join right here on this post (just scroll down).  I’ll post this at the top of the page, so it’s easy to find tonight.

I’m looking forward to chatting with you!

The photo above is of my stand mixer, nearly 15 years old and a new coffee maker that I bought for Jim’s birthday.  The KitchenAid mixer is one of their least expensive models, but still pricey compared to other types of mixers.  It’s been well worth the money.

The coffee maker was a splurge.  Jim loves coffee and I knew he would enjoy it.  A few weeks ago though, the burner started smoking and nearly caught fire.  He called Cuisinart and they sent us a new one!  That’s good customer service.

I also have a blender that I bought cheap.  It never worked right and finally, we had to throw it out.  Now I need a new one, and I’m thinking it might pay to buy better quality.

What do you think? 

This is a conversation we’re having in the Ebates Savvy Living Community.  I’m excited to be a new Community Leader for Savvy Living.  I’d love to have you join me there.  Actually, you can chime in from right here on the blog.  I’ve embedded this conversation below.

If you’re not familiar with Ebates, you’ll want to check it out.  You can get cash back when you shop online at stores like Target and many more.  Cash back is always cool!

Disclosure: I have been compensated for my role as Community Leader in the Ebates Savvy Living Community. However, all opinions are my own.

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Wow! There are over 100 links to recipes that use cream cheese for this week’s Ingredient Spotlight.  There’s still time to add your link and to enter the giveaway for a deep covered skillet too!

Here are a few links that caught my eye:

Bakeaholic’s Extra Cinnamon Bubble Bread with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Glaze has been on my mind ever since I saw it on Wednesday!  Check out that photo at the top of this post!

These Easy, No-Bake Cheesecake Bites from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom look so pretty.

I love taquitos and these Baked Mini Chicken Taquitos from Giving Up On Perfect looks great!

I want to make and eat these Incredibly Easy Fruit and Cream Cheese Danishes from Lisa’s Dinnertime Dish.

Anything with Nutella sounds great and these Mini Nutella-Frangelico Cheesecake Bites from Angie’s Sweet Natured Treats are no exception.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad is a classic for a good reason! (from Picture Perfect Cooking).

We always have fun talking in the International Delight Coffee Talk Community.  Here are a few conversations we started this week.  Join us!

Check out these new conversations from my community

LIVE Chat! Tuesday 3/27 Spring Delight @9pm EST
What do you love most about Spring? How do your meal plans, home
organization, and attitude change when Spring comes around?

This Tuesday our fine group of community leaders will gather to
share what delights them about Spring and we’d love to hear what
delights you as well!
Join us Tuesday 3… read more…

Favorite Apps?
I am app crazy lately! Last night, we were out later than
expected and realized we didn’t set the DVR for Survivor
(can you believe the instant
Karma for Colton?) when I realized my comcast app would
allow me to set the DVR right there from my smart phone sitting in
the restaurant!
What are yo… read more…

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Disclosure: I have been compensated for my role as community leader in the International Delight Coffee Talk Community.

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