Welcome to the sixth and final day in Amy’s kitchen. Amy has been very adventurous in her kitchen lately, trying out new things and getting reacquainted with some old favorites. We are very excited to see and share a week in her kitchen. We hope you enjoy this week in her kitchen.

Wow. It’s the last day you’ll be joining me in my kitchen. And what a week it has been!

When I was invited to open my kitchen to everyone at Happy to be at Home, I was a little nervous. I’m not a perfect cook or homemaker, but I think I manage on an acceptable level. Sure, I would love to make improvements, but I like a lot about what happens in my kitchen. And I like that I’m learning a lot right now.

This week I thought a lot more about the choices I made, but I didn’t do anything new to try and impress anyone. But just by being more aware, I think I made a few changes for the good.

For example, on my last trip to the grocery I actually remembered my reusable grocery bags. And when I still didn’t have enough, I bought 2 more rather than use and waste the plastic bags. (I only had 2 to begin with.) And then I took the same bags for my Target run.

Also, when I found myself with some extra time today, I began preparing my meal for Saturday. I don’t know that I would have done that before this.

And, of course I was more vigilant about snacks and breakfast, trying to keep away secret sugar attacks and keep the kids (and myself) munching healthy options.

So thanks for the invitation, and thanks for reading this week. I’ve really appreciated the opportunity to open my home and kitchen. And if you’d like to know what else goes on at my house (or in my heart) I hope you’ll consider stopping by and checking out MomsToolbox, my blog. I’ll be waiting for you there.

So, now on with our last day together here…

Breakfast was just a bunch of leftovers… that looked more like another birthday party!

I served a slice of the Blueberry Loaf from earlier in the week alongside those frozen smoothie popsicles! I think my kids thought I was a rockstar for a few minutes as a result.

After I finished my own breakfast with them I began to prepare the lunchboxes.  I packed some cheese cubes and ham roll-ups on toothpicks, peanut butter and graham crackers, nectarine bits and a milk box.

I had intended to prepare the brine for dinner the night before, but I forgot, so I prepared it after I dropped the kids at school. (You can brine anywhere from 4 hours to overnight. The longer you brine, the juicier the pork becomes.)

Then I realized I had some extra time so I decided to go ahead and get the Ziti ready for Saturday night. I don’t know about your house, but often on Saturdays we are a bit off schedule and dinner prep sometimes gets pushed too far back. This way I knew it would be ready. And it sure felt good to check that off my list!

Oh, and I now I have the opportunity to show you another cool feature in my kitchen: My pot filler faucet!

In making the Ziti, I used a pound of ground turkey rather than the ground beef and, except for the mozzarella, I mixed it all together, rather than layering the pasta and meat sauce. (I still put a layer of cheese in the middle and on the top.) Now all I’ll need for dinner Saturday is the breadsticks, salad and broccoli.

At about 5:30 I pulled out the pork chops and their brine and began dinner.

(These pork chops are a huge hit every time I make them, by the way. So if you’re interested, you can check out the complete recipe for those and the Ziti here.)

And as I was sautéing the apples, I decided to add just a little brown sugar and cinnamon to make them a bit sweeter.

6 p.m.: Dinner is served!

(The other bowl holds couscous, a very easy-to-make request from my husband.)

Well, that’s it. It has been a lot of fun on this end! I hope you’ve enjoyed it, too. And thanks, again for reading.

Thank you so much for your willingness to open your kitchen to us all this week Amy. It has been so much fun to see what you have prepared for yourself and your family. (It has also been a treat to see all those pictures of your beautiful kitchen!) Your tips and recipes have been a real inspiration.

Don’t forget to stop by Amy’s personal blog, Mom’s Toolbox, for some wonderful biblical encouragement and lots of other goodies.

If you are interested in participating as a guest blogger for this 3 Moms feature, please leave us a comment or send us an email at 3moms@happytobeathome.net. We are looking for a variety of women willing to open their kitchens for one week to all of our readers. You do not even have to have your own blog in order to participate.

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