Food Friday - Applesauce Glazed Pork Chops

Applesauce Glazed Pork Chops
Adapted from Show Me Nan

  I've been on the search for some new recipes that we like and that don't require me to make changes and eliminate dairy for Darryl.  This were so easy and tasted so good!  I did cook the pork chops for 45 minutes . . .20-25 just didn't seem long enough to get the meat cooked through. 

 Ingredients

4 bone-in pork loin chops (7 ounces each)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper


Directions

Place pork chops in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; spoon over chops. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a thermometer reads 160°. Yield: 4 servings.

Weekly Menu - The one with the Superbowl

Yes, we love Football so therefore we love the Super Bowl!  Past years, we've had all kinds of awesome snacks and dips and enjoy them all day long.  Well, the hubs and his "dairy issues" have put a nix on a lot of our favorite snacks and I've discovered that it is so easy to come up with "main dish" snacks but so hard to come up with snacky snacks!  And wait, can you believe that it is going to be February?

Here's the plan for this week:

Friday - I'm trying to get back into "Taco Night" but I came across a recipe for Baked Chicken Chimichangas that looked super good so I figured that kinda fit.  I'm going to make homemade salsa and guacamole to go along them and, of course, chips.

Saturday - Mac and Cheese for the Kids and we are going to order in.  I love getting a pizza and Darryl loves getting a Subway sub so we both are happy :-)

Sunday - So, today is Superbowl Sunday.  I have to main goals - 1)To have good food and 2)To have very little prep work or extensive cooking.  I picked stuff that could be prepped on Saturday for the most part or that went into a crock pot/large soup pot to cook all day!  We really have to eat lunch, then snack all afternoon, and have "dinner" so here's the plan.  After church, we are going to have Fajitas.  Simple Chicken Fajitas along with homemade salsa and quac.  Then for the rest of the day - Baked Teriyaki Chicken (More for when the game starts), Maple Meatballs (in the crock pot to nibble on all day), Bruschetta (to snack on all day), Fruit Salad (again, to snack on throughout the day), Southwestern Salad Dip (to snack on), Pineapple Cheese ball (for me) and crackers, Hummus (for Darryl) and crackers.  I also plan to make Molasses Cookies and Tie Die Cupcakes (for the kids!)

Monday - So, today I wanted something simple so we will have Goulash and bread.

Tuesday - Santa Fe Chicken, Green Beans and Corn Chips

Wednesday - Lemon Chicken, Asian Coleslaw, Carrots

Thursday - Chicken Fried Steak, Quick Cherry Marinated salad, Corn and Gravy

*As a disclaimer, we tend to have rolls with almost every meal because my kids eat them HA!

That's a lot of food but it sure does sound good!

What I'm reading

"7"
So this week I finished up the book "7" by Jen Hatmaker.  She dealt with 7 challenges over the course of 7 months in order to increase her awareness of certain areas.  The 7 areas were Food, Clothes, Possessions, Media, Waste, Spending and Stress.  Over all, the concept of the book was great - it put the concept of "fasting" into a modern day feel.  For example, during month one she only hate 7 foods.  She "fasted" from everything else and learned to appreciate tastes, flavors and her own health.  It also brought her closer to God as she cried out for strength to get through the day.  When I started the book I think I mentioned I had a different concept of what the book would be like and was a little turned off but I kept reading and changed my thinking.  Instead of thinking what she was doing was dumb crazy, I started thinking of things that I could do in my own life. No, I'm not only going to eat 7 foods or wear 7 pieces of clothing but I can limit myself on something I love and make sure our closets are housing only clothes we wear. Over all, the reason I picked this book to start off the year is because I wanted to focus on my theme, "Simplify" and this book made me do just that.  I do plan on working on my own "7" project and will post my goals for that project soon.  Would I recommend this book?  Yes, to someone who was looking to challenge and/or simplify their life.

Women Living Well
I'm continuing on with the Study of the book "Women Living Well".  This week the study started on the chapters about Marriage.  Chapter 6, entitled, "The Time-Warp Wife" talks about the simple fact that the husband is the leader of the home and the wife needs to be  helper, respecter, and allow our husband to lead.  Courtney really focused how figuring out how to help our husbands - even little things like getting him something to drink after a long day at work.  We can do this by knowing our husbands, not comparing our husbands to others, and don't wait for him to be deserving of that help.  Chapter 7 dealt with Marriage in the age of Media.  Obviously we all have much more media in our homes then we did even 10 years ago.  TV's, DVR's, Computers, Laptops, Phones, Ipads - you name it and there are distractions.  It's easy to both sit and type away at the computer but it is important to make time for each other.  I know that Darryl and I try to have conversation every night HA!  

Power of a Positive Mom
 I set a goal last week to get a few chapters read in this book this week and I am happy to say I accomplished it :-) In one of the chapters I read, the author focused on the power of Encouragement.  How often do we only say negative things to our kids like, "Pick up your toys", "Stop hitting the chair", "Don't jump on the bed".  Sure, we need to correct and lead them in right directions but what about stopping to give them accolades.  After reading that chapter I have challenged myself to watch for those things.  Just yesterday Nate was walking on his "Monster Feet" so I took the time to tell him how great he was at balancing and how when he first got them he couldn't walk at all and now he takes at least 5 steps.  His smile was huge and then he said, "Mom, count my steps!".  He was so excited that I noticed.  The next chapter I read dealt with expectations.  It was really a chapter on setting goals for your kids.  Not that we should dictate what are kids chose to become but, rather, to watch their interests and what they are good at to direct them towards things so they can achieve good things.  For example, Josh loves to take photos and he does a pretty good job.  I'm watching that talent and, in another year or so plan to get him some help.  What a great tool to have in his "tool belt".  Nate can't wait for soccer . .. and swimming.  Little things to help them go in a direction to succeed.  It is so important to know your kids - their personalities and what makes them tick!

The List
I just started this book yesterday and haven't gotten far but the concept is breaking free from those lists we tend to make about our perfect lives.  I'm not 100% sold on this book yet for where I am at in life but I'll give it a couple of chapters and see if my mind changes.

Organize Now!  Think and Live Clutter Free
This is a book I picked up back in November and slowly started it.  It is a "week-by-week action plan for a happier, healthier life".  The concept is that there is a small section to read each week with an assignment to accomplish.  I had decided to start slow and then really pick it up in January so I could finish it by year end but, well, we already know I ran about three weeks behind in January!  Anyway, Weeks 1-17 are all about organizing your mind beginning with Organizing your Priorities.  This I did back in December - I made a list of the 10 most important priorities in my life and went from there.  Then came organizing a vision board.  This is where I'm at right now.  It's supposed to be something to keep in front of you to keep focused on what you want and yes, it is something that changes.  For example, one of the visions I have is to be able to camp often with the family and to accomplish that we need a camper.  I have a vision of what I want, we have some money put away for it and now we are waiting.  Once we get that camper, I can take that item down.  I finally moved a bulletin board to my desk area and want to print off some quotes and photos to put on my vision board for where I'm at right now.  My goal is to finish up my first "vision board" this week so I can move on to the next area :-)  (If I really get moving on the concept of this book, I will probably move this to its own blog post!)

Hands Free Mama
I just started this book as well.  I saw it in the bookstore last week and it hits on one of my goals which is to "unplug" more this year.  (As I sit at the table writing this post and my boys are watching cartoons HA).  I did not realize that it is also a book written as a year long project with the idea that you read a chapter a month and then focus on that item for the whole month.  I understand that building habits are so important so we'll see how it goes.  I think, depending on the chapter and my level of  . . conviction . . I may or may not read more that one chapter a month.

Wow, I've done some reading this past week!  I have been trying to take 30 minutes out first thing in the morning, after the kids are fed and happily watching cartoons to find a quiet place (a hard thing to do with 4 kids in the house) and read.  This allows me to get several chapters read from the above books.  Plus, in the afternoon, when two kids are napping, I enjoy getting to read as well.

February Goals

Lets be honest, I started out 2014 running about 3 weeks behind.  Wow.  I felt like I had a constant barrage of thoughts running through my brain as far as what needed to be done.  Then, I got a break.  My kids visited Papa and Nana, I got to take a day out for me and do some shopping.  January was a tough month in some ways - a good friend of mine almost died due to a massive infection after surgery (Like, the doctors took her organs out of her body to clean them off it was so bad), a Pastor friend of ours died from a massive stroke . . and he is "our" age, a friend went into labor 6 weeks early and delivered a surprisingly healthy little boy who weighed in at just over 3 pounds . .. while her husband was on a missions trip in Haiti trying desperately to get back home. On the flip side . . well, three friends had babies!  The one mentioned above, along with two others who delivered right on time :-)  Crazy month!

So, as January started winding down, I started thinking about February.  My goals in February come from two main places . . .my Goal Listed I posted earlier in January and the book "7" that I finished up last week.  AND, as I've learned over and over, I MUST print this list or it doesn't get done.  I also have to try and write the things into my planner so that they actually get into the calendar.

1. Piano Songs - this next month I want to practice and learn the following three songs: Beautiful, Moment by Moment and Fur Ellise.

2. Books.  You can see the updated list HERE.  I do have some goals for this month: 1) To Finish "Power of a Positive Mom", 2) To read "The List" and "Good and Angry" 3) To continue on with the "Women Living Well" study 4) To start "Hands Free Mama" which is a year long study and continue with another year long study on Organization.   

3. Plan Darryl's birthday weekend

4. Finish up our taxes

5. Do school lessons at least two days a week

6. Plan some fun things for Valentine's Day

7. Create and keep up financial paperwork

8. Scrap booking - I worked last month to try and organize my stuff to make it more user friendly.  This month I really want to start conquering projects.  I'm going to work on three areas starting this month and continuing on throughout the year.  One, finally going back through all of my albums and making sure everything is 100% complete.  I wold like to get through albums 2000-2003 which includes our wedding and honeymoon albums.  Two, I want to work on some special projects  and get those current, in albums.  This month I want to be current on the boys Christmas ornament albums and birthday question albums.  Three, working on photos.  The goal this month is to finish June and July 2013.  In order to accomplish this I really have to plan some scrap booking time!

9. Bible Study - To continue on with the two Bible Studies.  So far I've kept up with them even if I haven't spent as much time doing "study" as I would like.
10.  Scripture Memory - Lets keep it real, I memorized one verse last month.  I didn't catch that there were weekly verses with the "Living Intentionally" Bible Study until week 2 so I'm going to work on memorizing those verses each week during February.
11. Still need to order that "Word a Day Calendar"
12.  Living Room - Never did get that "Vision Board" done so I'm going to work on that again this month.
13. The Date with the hubs this month will be his Birthday Weekend.  I'm working on some plans that I can hopefully pull off  . ..
14. The whole Teeth thing - My plan is to do the Crest Challenge for the entire month of February.  The commercial says you'll notice a change after two weeks so a month should be even better!  The kids have done better at brushing their teeth twice a day but we need to work on it more.
15. Simplify - I'm still working on going through the kitchen cupboards but I'm also adding the Bathroom to this list for February.  I want to make the storage in that room more useful AND clean out the stuff we never use.  I've redecorated some in there and want to finish up the mini-room makeover in February.
16 - Me Time - Need to pick my day once I figure out our schedule for February.

18. Working on Caring for others - I am working on something that I just want to do before I say anything about it.  :-)
19.  Get my cleaning schedule back into motion including those once a month projects to keep everything running nicely.
20. Learn to Use my Cricut
21. Take the boys to see the Dinosaurs at the Museum AND attempt to get to the lake shore to see the HUGE amounts of ice on Lake Michigan (this is something Josh has asked to do so we'll see if we can get there!)
22. (Don't Laugh) Watch as much of the Winter Olympics as possible.  I just love this event - especially learning all of the stories behind the athletes and seeing the underdogs come to the top!

That seems like enough to keep me busy this month :-)  

If you are interested, here is a recap of January's goals and accomplishments.

What to Blog About . . .

I usually do some sort of odd Homeschooling post today but . . .we haven't been doing much.  We are in the middle of "The Long Winter" and I don't mean the Little House Books either ;-)  I, personally, am enjoying a true Michigan winter.  The snow brings a softness and quietness to the world.  Even yesterday as we drove to church, the snow was falling, the drifts were piled high, and the trees were covered - true beauty.  Last winter I felt discouraged by the end because it was so . .. brown . . .and wet . . but this year is fabulous.  With that said, it is also the coldest it has been in decades.  On Tuesday, the high is supposed to be 5 degrees with a windchill of between (wait for it . .. ) -30 and -40 below.  Reminds me of my days at college :-)  With it that cold, the kids are not going outside at all.  One one hand, it sure is nice not to spend 30 minutes getting them dressed for outside to only play outside for 15 minutes but, they would enjoy playing in the snow.  For the record, yes, my Christmas stuff is still up.  I like having 10 fingers and don't want to lose them to frostbite just to get Christmas decor down!  We at least unplugged them :-)

So that's all for now - stay warm and maybe, since we are stuck inside, we'll do some class work this week.  Maybe. 

What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail

Normally on Sundays I like to post the funny things my kids have said/done but they have been gone most of the past week so I don't have much to share.  Instead I thought I would share a blog post I read recently on the topic of Goals.  If you know me at all, you know I love goals and planning so this was a great read for me!
What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?

Arms that Hold the Universe

Yesterday, we attended a funeral for a friend and former pastor of ours who died this past Sunday from a massive stroke that occurred early Sunday morning. On Monday morning, as I was driving to town, this song came on the radio and it just "fit".