What we are eating - Mississippi Pot Roast

 This is a recipe I've seen shared multiple places, often on Facebook, and I finally decided to try it.  I have a "tried and true" roast recipe that my mom used and I then used but I have a kid who doesn't like onions and my recipe has onions in it!  This one does not plus it is a great crock pot recipe! 

This was such an excellant roast - it fell apart it was so tender and the flavor was super beefy.  There wasn't a piece left - Josh couldn't stop eating it.  Honestly, I had stopped buying chuck roasts because they were always tough  . ... I will be buying them often now and making this recipe!  It was that good. 

Mississippi Pot Roast

This is THE BEST POT ROAST EVER!

Buy a chuck roast.

Put it in the crock pot.

Sprinkle Hidden Valley ranch dressing on top.

Sprinkle McCormick Au Jus mix on top.

Put a stick of butter on top.

Put about 5 Pepperoncini peppers on top. (I usually add more because we LOVE them!)

(You buy them in a jar.)

Do NOT add water.

Cook in crock pot on low for about 8 hours. Tastes AMAZING!

What we are eating - Yorkshire Pizza

 A good friend of mine shared this recipe which is an old family recipe of theirs - one that they made every single Sunday night for years while the kids were all at home.  I had saved it a year ago, forgot about it and it was shared again.  We enjoy pizza in this house but so often they aren't great.  Well, this one was really, really good.  I liked the simplicity of the crust and that it was one of those "impossible" styles that grows as it bakes.  

Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9x13 pan in the oven at 400 degrees. 

While that is melting mix together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and two eggs by hand.  Mix vigorously until air bubbles form (lots of air bubbles is best!) 

Pour the batter over the melted butter in the pan.  Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook for an additional 10 minutes. 

Take the pan out of the oven - lots of air bubbles is good! 

If you love garlic, add two cloves of garlic (crushed/pressed) and then add all of your toppings (I did sauce and mushrooms because I forgot to buy anything else !!) .  Once you have added the toppings, top with cheese!  

Put back in the oven until the cheese is melted.  

I didn't realize it until I was making it but my friend also shared their sauce recipe to make this "authentic" ---  Sauté a small onion and mushrooms until they are really tender.  Add an 8 oz can of tomato sauce.  Season with garlic (fresh if you have it) and oregano.  Salt and pepper the onions and mushrooms while they are cooking. Let it summer while the crust is cooking and then use it on your pizza! 

I served the pizza with salad . .. isn't it pretty? 

Summer Fun Week 2

 

Welcome to week 2 of our Summer Vacation Recap!!!  One nice thing is that all Covid-19 mandates are now lifted so at least when we go places we don't have to worry about limited capacity or masks.  That makes everyone happy.  I'm still a hand sanitizer general though and we wipe down everything with Lysol wipes before we sit down LOL  

Lets look back at our fun adventures:

Monday - Hair cut day :-)  Josh and Nate each got their hair cut.  Josh then went to Nana's for the afternoon while Nate had his friend over.  

Tuesday - Today we stayed home.  The kids took a bike ride in the morning and then we worked on a craft in the afternoon.  They worked on their pinwheels for about 20 minutes and then played hide and seek for the rest of their "non-electronic" time.  

Wednesday - Today is the elementary Library program so I took the Princess to her Foam Party while the boys stayed with Nana.  Nate actually went to his friends house for the day.  When we picked Nate up, everyone got a chance to see the kittens. (Sometimes there will be repeat info from our "week in photos" post since, well, sometimes it's just that fun!) 

Thursday - The kids got out a game to play after lunch before heading to the Library for the "teen" activity.  My mom took them again this week while the Princess and I hung out at home and enjoyed the quiet house! 

This week they did "reverse painting" which is where they had to finger paint on the back side of the glass to make their picture.  It's a cool idea.  

Friday - It's "Free Friday"!  Well, not quite.  Nate still has Tae Kwon Do on Fridays but we moved the time to the morning which is actually kind of nice.  Otherwise the kids get to enjoy the day without anything else going on.  

I think week 2 of summer was a success! 

Weekly Worship - Look What You've Done

This is a song I heard on the radio a few weeks ago and just really enjoy it.  I hope you do too! 

2021 Week in Photos #21

 Here's a look back at our week. 

Saturday and Sunday - I had plans to do some yard but woke up to rain so instead we just enjoyed a lazy Saturday before going to my mom's for an amazing dinner. 

My flowers sure loved the rain!  

Monday and Tuesday were both quiet days.  Well, Monday was haircuts but otherwise it was pretty quiet. 

Wednesday - Nate went to a friends house today and everyone else got to see kittens when we picked him up! 

Weekly Menu

 I made a couple of new recipes last week that turned out well so I will show those soon.  But . ... I decided to take advantage of continued discounts from Hello Fresh and ordered four meals for this week.  I got 50% off my order this week which makes it really still quite affordable and budget friendly plus we were so impressed with the last four that I wanted to see if the next four will be just as good.  

Here's our plan for this week: 

Friday - Our weekly take out night.  

Saturday - Dinner with my mom - I think we might cheat and get Pizza Hut because Darryl is on a road trip today with his dad.  (Well, it might get cancelled due to the forecast so we will see!) 

Sunday - Hello Fresh meal #1

Monday - Hello Fresh Meal #2

Tuesday - Hello Fresh Meal #3

Wednesday - Hello Fresh Meal #4

Thursday - Brats and French Fries.  We will also have Monkey Bread.  Why?  Because it is tradition.  The local Fireworks show is this evening and years ago Josh wanted Monkey Bread.  It is now a required item on the 4th of July while we watch Fireworks.  They are yummy so I don't mind!  

I'm really wondering how it is already July?  I feel like June went way too fast - I like summer to slow down a little so we can enjoy it and enjoy the time off school.  

Summer Goals

Did you happen to notice that I totally missed any goals for May and June? HA!  May was gone in a blink of an eye and it took me until June 17th to breath and have a moment to think about my summer goals!!  That's right - summer goals.  I learned years ago to set goals for the entire summer because I usually have bigger goals and more time to accomplish them verses during the school year.  I like to use summer to attempt to catch up on what I'm behind on too.  Considering the fact that we don't usually start school until mid-September I still have about three months to accomplish everything I want done!!  

Here's my plan (I know you are DYING to know this LOL) 

1.  Reading - I posted my summer reading goal earlier this week.    

2. Scrapbooking - 1) Match the printed album spines to the albums.  2) Order 2011, 2016-2018 photos for September and October and 2020-2021 photos for May, June, July and August by September 1st(ish).  3) Scrapbook March, April and May 2020 and 2021 4) Scrapbook at least one month in 2011, 2016-2018. 5) Add all memorabilia to any completed album (finally cleaning out my files!)  (Whew!  These are big goals!)

3. Completely clean out my file cabinet and organize it (a once a year project!) 

4. Progress through my "52 weeks of cleaning" list.  I got off track in April as we were getting ready for vacation so it is time to get back on track! I'd like to start September on the right week so I can finish strong. The main room I'm tackling is the kitchen but there is also the dining room, and finishing up the living room. 

5.  The basement - due to all of the plumbing things we had done, everything in the basement got shifted to one side.  Now the motivation is to get it all cleaned out so I can get to the Christmas decorations HA!  My goal for the summer is to finish the storage area of the basement - I had it about 80% done before the big shift so, really, this makes it easier to go through one bin at a time and then move stuff out!  

6. Our Co-Op - I'm sign-up to teach two classes this fall.  My goal is to have my lessons ready for the first 4 weeks (of 8) of class by September and to have the second 4 planned out.  

7. Outside - we are slowly (very slowly) working on some outside projects.  We finished one already.  The second one is the garage/fence area.  We also want to power wash some things and re-stain my swing.  

8. Darryl's list - this list is a mile long LOL  I'd like it all done ;-) 

9. Piano - The kids are starting back up with piano this fall so the goal for them is to practice at least one day a week just to get back what they learned before and to be ready to start again.  My goal is to work on my Christmas song I want to "record" and post in December.  

10. Birthdays and Holidays - 1) 4th of July - We need Fireworks and Fun.  :-)  2) Finally celebrating Nate's 11th birthday with HIS day (we put it off due to covid) 3) Labor Day = our annual camping trip. 4) Josh's 13th birthday 5) Thanksgiving 6) Nate's 12th birthday and 7) Christmas.  I need to plan and/or plan ahead for all of these events. 

11. The Olympics - I love them and watch as much of it as I can  . .. for real :-)  It's important enough to make the list. 

12. School - Clean out desks, make sure we have supplies for school and our co-op, figure out handwriting books, devotional books and any other "extra" stuff that is needed for the school year.  

13. The Garage - I actually cleaned up the garage a few weeks ago when it was nice and cool out.  But, I have some bins that have been sitting in the garage for a few years that I want to sort through and clean out.  it will open up some space on the workbench to clean all of that out.  

14. Cooking - Remember that Macaroon set I bought in the spring - I want to actually use it and learn now to make them. 

15. Finally - just enjoy the summer.  It's easy to get wrapped up in a huge to do list and miss out on the sights and sounds of summer.  I love hearing the birds and seeing flowers bloom.  I enjoy reading outside and listening to the rain with the windows open.  So, just . .. breathe.  Last summer we stayed home most days due to covid - I found that I actually enjoyed the slowed down pace of life so I'm working purposefully to not get too busy but just enjoy every day.  

Summer Reading Goals

 I've struggled this year with getting through my reading goals.  As much as I love to ready my time is limited so I tend to read good fiction books to relax with verses books that will help with growth that I have to think about while I read. 

For the summer, I picked out some books - both fiction and non-fiction - that I hope to get through.  It does help that we have a "required" reading time of 20 minutes every afternoon.  Plus, I've scheduled reading time in the morning for myself specifically to read my non-fiction books.  

Here's my stack of non-fiction which also includes my Bible Study Books.  I have a harder time getting through this stack.  If I don't purposefully sent aside time to read non-fiction I will not pick them up - I will always pick up a fiction book first.  

My stack of fiction books.  I should also add that I have some on my Kindle I'm reading as well as one on my phone!  Yes, I read different books on different devices so that wherever I am, I can read and I don't have to worry about trying to sync devices.  I tend to carry my Kindle with me and will read it when I'm sitting somewhere like the Library waiting for kids or the park.  Whereas the Kindle App on my phone I tend to use when reading in bed or reading outside sometimes. 

This is the actual book I'm reading right now.  I read this one every (well almost every) afternoon when we all sit down to read for 20 minutes.  

I would probably get all of these read and more if I was back at the condo in Pensacola, sitting on the balcony listening to the ocean all day HA!  Oh well, I'll have to settle for my swing and my house!! 

Hello Fresh!

 Last week we enjoyed some meals from Hello Fresh!  I had been given a code for "free meals" and, yes, technically it would have been free if I didn't increase my order.  I wanted to get 4 meals for 3-4 people so that I knew we had enough for a basic week for all of us to eat.  I thought I'd share our recipes, our opinion, and our final review! 

Meal 1 - Hey Honey Salmon with roasted potatoes wedges and lemon green beans. 

Here's the truth, Darryl and I are not fans of Salmon but I picked this recipe for one reason.  Ever since our trip to Florida and all the seafood restaurants, Josh has been asking to try Salmon -- this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Once of my concerns was that the portions would be small BUT there was plenty of food and even leftovers.  Darryl gave this meal an A- but he said the green beans and potatoes saved it LOL  Actually we both felt the salmon was great quality and the Honey Mustard Sauce made it taste really good over all but it's not something I would need to make again.  Josh liked it but I'm not sure he loved it.  The roasted potatoes were amazing and I might add those to our normal rotation.  Over all day one was a success (granted as I am writing this - every single one of us is eating a bowl of cereal at 8:45 pm LOL ) 

Meal 2 - Beef Flauta Surpreme

This meal was a hit!  We all loved these alot and I plan to cook tacos in the oven from now on because the shell gets nice and crispy!  This meal took more prep time then I expected and putting it all together took more "work" then I thought would be included in one of these "fast, easy meals" so I'm thankful that we all loved them so much.  I did add some things to the meal - I added regular salsa, homemade guacamole, and chips.  We did have leftover's - three of the flauta's so there really was plenty of food for us to eat for dinner.  

Josh picked his up to blow on it . .. but when he blew on the end "Smoke" came out the end and it looked like he was smoking a big cigar.  Needless to say, this got a lot of laughs at the table. 

Meal 3- Korean Pork Tenderloin, Carrots, and Lime Rice

This meal was amazing.  I think it is probably my favorite one and it is all because of the sauce that is on the pork loin.  It was amazing.  This meal had much less prep and was so much easier to put together than meal #2.  I did have to cook the pork loin longer then the recipe said - but the pieces were really thick.  I served the rice plain because Darryl doesn't care for lime rice but I added the lime and green onions to mine.  I did also cook a loaf of Pillsbury French Bread (from the tube) and I'm glad I did because we actually ate all of the pork and the bread was a nice additional filler.  None of us are big rice eaters really and the carrots were good but just, well, carrots HA!  

Meal 4 - Sweet Chili Pork and Cabbage Stir Fry

I saved this meal to the end because it was the one I was the least confident about and I was 100% wrong HA!  It was a favorite - I loved the flavor of the sauce and the cabbage was still crisp.  Yum!  Darryl and I both loved it and I'm thankful for some leftovers!  Josh tasted it and said it was ok but he isn't a fan of the veggies so much so he ate a pizza for dinner tonight.  

My overall review - Hello Fresh is high quality food and the recipes are so tasty.  Darryl and I both agree, if we didn't have kids we would order almost every week; 4 meals each week; and eat out the other three HA!  Really though, if I could do it, I would order this for 3-4 of our meals just because it was so tasty and so easy to make.  My only true negative is that I had to read each recipe carefully since they were all new and I wanted to make them right instead of going off of memory with family favorites.  This might be something we order every once in awhile just as a break from our normal eating!  

Summer Fun - Week 1

We had a good first week of summer break!  Here's a recap of what we did! 

Monday - We started out our first day of the first full week of "summer" helping Nana!  Josh and Nate worked on mowing her grass.  

 

Tuesday - "Roll a Monster" - I had this activity all prepped for a co-op class two weeks ago but we never got to it so it was perfect for today! 

Wednesday - We headed to the park today!  We actually went to a town a little further away because I had to go to the UPS store.  We took a walk on a trail over the river for fun and had a picnic.  We had planned to get ice cream but the shop which is open "12-9 everyday" was not open by 12:30 and we had to get home! 

Thursday - Thursdays are for the Library Program for the Teen Group which all three boys fall into as they are all going into 6th and 7th grades.  My mom actually took them as I was waiting for the well guy to arrive so I don't have any photos but they had a blast playing human kahoot (a quiz game that is normally played on a device but in this case they spun a wheel for points and answered questions . .. so basically trivia acroding to my kids LOL)  

Friday - Free Day!  This just means they don't get sent outside or have "No electronics" time :-)  I think everyone was ready for a day of nothing :-) 

What a great first week of summer!  I'm thankful for all we were able to do and look forward to the coming weeks.   

 

Weekly Worship - Hello Unknown

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook and I think it is awesome.  Laura Story as an amazing story so when I hear her songs I know she is writing and singing something from her heart and life. Enjoy! 

2021 Week in Photos #20

 Here's a look back at our week! 

Saturday and Sunday we worked on our landscaping project and finished it up! 

Well, first on Saturday I had errands to run in order to pick up the last stuff I needed to finish the project.  There happened to be a fair food truck parked near by so I treated myself to a Lemonade and Elephant Ear!!  

I love my flamingos!  Darryl and I both have always wanted them in the yard so this was perfect. 

We are really happy with how it turned out!  It only took us about 15 years LOL  

Monday - We went to my mom's so the boys could mow her yard and she served us lunch too!  

Tuesday - This was our first real day of our routine.  We had outside time in the morning and, while the kids played in the hose, I did some weeding on our next little project in the yard.  Here's my yard disclaimer:  We hate yard work.  This year, though, we decided to just take tiny little parts and work on it just bits at a time and find ways to make it easy to maintain.  So our new project is working on this area of landscaping as well as the fence side. There are black eyed susans growing in this bed that I just love but they get beat up some with kids, dogs, and rain!  We also had plumbers here doing the final work on our bathtub pipe repair that's been a few years in the making :-)  

Wednesday - I'll talk about this in my Summer-Week 1 post next week too but this is too cool not to share here too!  I needed to go to the UPS store to send school books back so we went to a local park for a picnic and a hike.  We came across this amazing bridge!  We had just started across when Darryl called to tell me the well repair guy was coming to look at the well so we had to cut our walk short.  We will have to go back a different day and walk all the way across the bridge. 

Isn't this just the coolest thing???  

I also worked on cleaning and organizing the dining room.  I always forget to take true before photos so these are mid-progress. I ordered two new shelving units so I could finally work on this room! 

And, we also had the well repair guy out as well.  He thinks our well pump, which is under warranty, has gone bad or is clogged.  So, next week he will come back, pull it up, and try to get it fixed.  We are hoping it is a warranty related issue so they can just replace it at no cost for the part. 

And, the after :-) It looks so much neater and everything has a place -even the piano books :-)  Plus, we can actually get to the piano again!  The last 6 weeks of school also cause everything to kind of pile up plus, throw in a vacation and things were a little crazy! 

My little flower garden :-)  Those red flowers are from when my dad was in the hospital.  A friend from church brought them so we'd have something to plant and not just at :-)  Well, they are thriving and I just love them! 

Thursday - Look who was back today! 

By about 8:00 on Wednesday night we had almost no water.  So, Thursday morning Darryl called them again.  Our "guy" arrived mid afternoon and worked until it was fixed.  Our pump was clogged so he had to clean it all out.  Thankfully it worked when he put it back down the well and we have amazing water pressure once again.  You never realize how low your water pressure has been until you get it back full force!  Hopefully we are done with plumbing repairs for awhile! 

Friday - Nate and I are heading to Black Belt Testing for his instruction tonight.  Molly is going to now be high enough ranking that she can own her own studio and I believe she plans to do just that!  She is a great instructor and Nate learns well under her leadership so we are excited for her new adventures! 

What a week!  Some weeks are really boring and some are not - this week was NOT!