Categories
Home

Summer Fun: Painting the Sidewalk with Water

shannonkay-paintwithwater
Guinevere enjoyed today’s fun activity. It’s super easy and fun.

Guinevere’s painting in action.

Categories
Home Kitchen

Meal Plan Monday – Paper Plate Weekends

Meal Plan Monday

I have a complaint: Fall will not happen! Last week Dallas Raines told us that on Sunday we would have a high of 79. This did not happen. It was in the 90’s! Now I’m looking at next week’s weather predictions and I’ll have to push soup off another week. It’s just too hot for soup!

  • Monday – Pink Spaghetti, – I will record the recipe this time. It was amazing last time I made it. Serve with Broccoli
  • Tuesday – Breakfast for Dinner
  • Wednesday – Pizza, Salad
  • Thursday – Honey Cashew Pork Stir-Fry (try something new day!)
  • Friday – Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken (grilling Friday!) going to go off of this version.

Paper Plate Weekends – This weekend we started Paper Plate Weekends. This is to cut down on the pile up of dirty dishes over the weekend. I even got some festive fall paper plates and as much as possible we used paper plates for the weekend. It worked pretty well. I think it’ll save water too.

Linking up at Menu Plan Monday.

Categories
Home Kitchen

Meal Plan Monday: Taco Like a Pirate

Meal Plan Monday

Apparently every fall I attempt to really get back down to both meal planning and blogging. I looked back at my past “Meal Plan Monday”s and found that I had restarted last year also on the week of Talk Like A Pirate Day. And the last one I did was the week of Halloween last year. Oops. I have Pinterest now, so maybe things will be better?

  • Monday – Macaroni & Cheese, Green Beans. I need to make double to bring dinner to a sick family.
  • Tuesday – Our first day of MOPS! We’ll have chicken & rice stir fry for dinner. I’m also bringing an egg dish and a bread for our first MOPS meeting.
  •  Wednesday – Taco Like a Pirate, it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day!
  • Thursday – Chicken Caesar Salad, Toast
  • Friday – Grilled Turkey Burgers with potatoes and corn on the cob.

Lunch Options

  • Pepperoni Sandwich (Jerrod’s favorite)
  • Leftovers
  • Almond Butter & Banana Sandwich
  • Quesadilla

Linking up at Menu Plan Monday

Categories
Home

Wedding Album

I finally ordered a book for my wedding album. Yes it was 3.5 years ago…

http://images-community.shutterfly.com/flashapps/slideshow/slideshow-ui.swf

Click here to view this photo book larger

You’ll love award-winning Shutterfly photo books. Start your own today.
Categories
Home Kitchen

What’s for Lunch Wednesday

I’m trying to get back into the habit of packing Jerrod’s lunches for work.

So, here’s yesterday’s, roast beef sandwich with cheese and spinach, grapes, and roasted corn. He also got some chips in a baggie.
IMG_1166

Today, pasta salad, pepperoni, and orange slices.

IMG_1164

Bento Lunch

Categories
Home Kitchen

Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

These may be the best cookies I’ve ever made. Actually they might be the best cookies I’ve ever tasted! Seriously, I don’t have a big sweet tooth. I can pretty much eat one cookie and I’m set. These were gone by the end of the next day.

Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Adapted from The Best White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Recipe
Yield: about 18 cookies

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips(or chunks)
  • 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
  • pinch salt
  • cinnamon
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F
  2. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy.
  3. Add eggs and salt and mix well
  4. Stir in 1 1/4 cup flour and baking soda. Add a little more flour if it looks too wet.
  5. Stir in chocolate and macadamia nuts.
  6. Drop spoonfuls on a parchment lined baking sheet
  7. Bake about 10 minutes (remove when edges are golden brown and you’re not totally sure the center is done)
  8. Remove from baking sheet to cool*

*This is where I would say to cool them on a wire rack, but I don’t have one so I just put them on a plate. Nothing terrible happens, although they sometimes stick together a bit.

Categories
Home Kitchen

Soft Honey Wheat Bread

20111026-211557.jpg

I’ve been making bread for over two years. I was making great crusty breads I loved, but I lacked a favorite wheat bread. I wanted something a bit softer, and all the wheat breads I’d tried so far were a bit too dense and just didn’t seem to work with peanut butter in my opinion. My favorite store bought wheat bread is Roman Meal with the round top and I’d been trying to make a bread along those lines. I think this is my winner.

Soft Honey Wheat Bread

  • 1 cup warm water
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 2TB brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1tsp salt
  • 2 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
  • 2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 packet)
  1. Combine warm water, butter, brown sugar, and yeast.
  2. Let sit 5 minutes.
  3. Add egg, salt, and honey.
  4. Stir in flour with a wooden spoon or stand mixer’s dough hook.
  5. When combined, continue mixing with dough hook for a couple minutes or knead by hand a few minutes.
  6. Cover and let rise in bowl for about an hour.
  7. When ready to bake, form into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan.
  8. Slash the top and let rise another 40 minutes or so.
  9. Brush top with melted butter if you like and bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
  10. Cool fully before slicing.
Categories
Home Kitchen

Meal Plan Monday

It can be so hard to plan consistently!

  • Monday: Butter Herb Italian Pasta with Ground Turkey, Broccoli
  • Tuesday: Tacos, Corn
  • Wednesday: Baked Chicken, Green Beans, Rice Pilaf
  • Thursday: Macaroni & Cheeseburger, Salad*
  • Friday: Pizza

This is an experimental dish where we put macaroni and cheese on a cheeseburger. I have several versions of this I want to try. I’ve done a skillet type “cheeseburger macaroni”. This time I plan to try the straightforward macaroni and cheese on burger method. Crazy? perhaps.

Categories
Home Journal

Meal Plan Monday

Thursday and Friday’s meals from last week didn’t happen because on Thursday we went to Disneyland and on Friday I went shopping with my sister and just picked something up on the way home.

  • Monday – Scalloped Potatoes and Ham, Broccoli (I’m also bringing this dish to MOPS the next morning)
  • Tuesday – Spaghetti with Zucchini
  • Wednesday – Muffin Tin Cheeseburgers, Tater Tots, Salad
  • Thursday – Orange Chicken, Rice, Green Beans (but it’s also my sister’s birthday so I’m not sure if it’ll happen)
  • Friday – Homemade Pizza

 

Categories
Home

Meal Plan Monday

I tried a new thing this week where I made a spreadsheet with columns for protein, carb, and vegetable and then one for days of the week, dragged something from each column into each day and picked meals based on that. Made it really easy to plan my dinners! I think I’ll try it with lunches next.

  • Monday – Baked Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Rolls
  • Tuesday – Breakfast for Dinner
  • Wednesday – Macaroni & Cheese, Broccoli
  • Thursday – Tacos, Corn, Salad
  • Friday – Italian Fried Rice