2021 Weekly Photos #2

 Yes, I'm a day late but I still wanted to look back over this past week! 

We had a super quiet week.  

Saturday and Sunday - We enjoyed a great weekend of relaxation and football.  

Monday-Friday - We just enjoyed a quiet week.  Our friends were here doing school but Josh and Nate didn't have school to do so I think they enjoyed that a lot.  I did a lot of reading :-)  It was nice to be able to curl on on the couch with a blanket and a book and read.  

On Friday we even had some snow and it was pretty! 

This little guy just loves that we are home 99% of the time.  

You can't seem them but there were some gigantic flakes falling throughout the afternoon :-) 

Weekly Menu

 I know it's only week 2 but I am already trying to be much more intentional with meal planning and this is not just with dinner but also with my breakfast and with lunch.  If I don't specifically plan easy breakfast and lunch ideas, I struggle with eating healthy.  It takes more work on the planning side of things as I have to actually remember to plan those parts but when the stuff is in the fridge, prepped and ready to go, it makes it so much easier to quickly get my food!  

So here's the plan for the coming week

Friday - Dinner at my mom's this week. 

Saturday - Take out Friday Saturday (there are Saturday football games again this week!) 

Sunday - Lunch:  BBQ Cups, Fries and Onion Rings and veggies and dip (ok, I'm the only one that will eat the veggies but that's ok)  Dinner:  (Breakfast) Ham and Cheese Quiche, roasted veggies, and Fruit and Dip (our favorite!) 

Monday - (Pork) Pork Tacos with Mango Salsa (this is a new Slow Cooker Recipe), beans, chips and salsa and Salad

Tuesday (Beef) Since I made BBQ Cups on Sunday for lunch, I'm going to slip in another family favorite today that has no meat - Stuffed Shells.  I'll add parmesan green beans and garlic bread to round it all out. 

Wednesday - AirFryer - Crispy Chicken and Pickle Sandwiches and Daddy Fries - I might try to do these in the Air Fryer too.  (might as well jump in with both feet HA!) 

Thursday - (Chicken) Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas.  Beans, Chips and Salsa and Salad.  

I sent to the grocery store yesterday and was reminded why I stopped planning meals that called for specific ingredients during this pandemic - the grocery store is not carrying near the variety they used to carry and there are lots more empty shelves!!!!  For example - I needed Jumbo Shells for my Stuffed shells and there were NONE.  All brands were sold out (Seriously?) I ended up getting manicotti shells but still - I should have just planned Spaghetti HA! 

I'm on a Cookbook Kick

 

I've always enjoyed cookbooks but since the creation of Pinterest and the easy search of all things food I found that I used that search option much more than cookbooks over the last few years. 

Well, Darryl got me "The New Frontier" cookbook by The Pioneer Woman for Christmas and it brought back that love for an actual book when searching for recipes. 

I also got an air fryer for Christmas and, ironically, Nate had given my mom the Air Fryer cookbook as a gift.  Needless to say, I ordered myself one right after Christmas too! 

This quickly sent me down the rabbit hole of cookbooks on Amazon where I found Magnolia Table by Joanna Gaines and a Slow Cooker book both which have great reviews.  I have quite a few friends that post recipes from the Magnolia Table book as well so I'm confident I'll find some "keepers".  

I also have Taste of Homes "365 Days of Cookies" in my Amazon cart.  I'm looking forward to adding that one to my collection in the near future! 

Cookbooks become like old friends with pages that are "dog eared" along with splatters and handwritten notes.  I look forward to breaking in all of these cookbooks in the coming weeks. 

What We are Eating - Sweet Potato Casserole

 I did not do a great job at taking individual photos of my food!  So, this photo shows both my Green Bean Casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole. 

Today I'm going to talk about my Sweet Potato Casserole.  It is amazing. 

I found this recipe years ago on a blog I followed called Comfy in the Kitchen. 

I love that it uses real sweet potatoes that you cook in the oven and then scrap the goodness out to mix with everything else. 

I love that it has two toppings.  Now, the recipe tells you to do diagonal lines of each type - the streusel and the marshmallow - but in this house some people only like marshmallow so I do half and half.  The lines make it look fancier HA! 

You van find the recipe HERE: 

Sweet Potato Casserole

Prep time: 25 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 40 mins

Total time: 2 hours 5 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Clean and pierce sweet potatoes and bake for 1 hour or until tender
3. Let stand until cool to touch (about 20 minutes)
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350°.
5. Slice open sweet potatoes and take out insides, place in a large mixing bowl
6. Beat mashed sweet potatoes, granulated sugar, and next 5 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
7. Spoon potato mixture into a greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.
8. Combine cornflakes cereal and next 3 ingredients in a small bowl.
9. Sprinkle over casserole in diagonal rows 2 inches apart.
10. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
11. Remove from oven; let stand 10 minutes.
12. Sprinkle marshmallows in alternate rows between cornflake mixture; bake 10 minutes.
13. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

An Attitude of Gratitude

 It is so important to have Gratitude. Have you every noticed that when you look for things to be thankful for that you are over all happier?  Well, it is true.  Focus on the positive and you will be more positive.  

Well, while on lockdown (HA!) the ads on Facebook just sucked a person in sometimes!  I will even admit that I ordered Christmas gifts from the ads!  (And they all were great!) .  One of the ads was for this Gratitude Finder journal.  I clicked on it and decided to buy it about 6 times before I actually ordered it.  First, it is pretty AND there are multiple covers you can chose from so that you can pick what inspires me.  (Yes, the beach!) 

I also loved it because it is not dated and there are no real "rules".  At the top is a place to write in the date of the week and then, list the things that you are grateful for in the boxes provided.  In reality you can totally customize this anyway you would like that works for you! 

I also love that you can take a break - or forget - for weeks and come back to it to pick up again and never really feel like you are behind. 

I'm also excited to add this one to my daily devotions.  Josh got this for me for Christmas and it is a true day by day journal.  It gives some prompts to use as well which is great when you are feeling like you have nothing to be grateful for on a given day! 

How will you find Gratitude this year?  

January Reading Goal

 Last week I posted my stacks of books I hope to get through this year.  I'm going to break that down into smaller chunks and share my monthly goals too.  

These books come from my "stacks".  

Non-Fiction Books

Anything

Stripped (Written by a good friend of mine)

Fiction Book

Just Look Up

Bible Study

365 most important Bible Passages for Mothers

Refresh your Faith (recommended by a friend) 

Training Hearts - to use with the kids.  

The two Bible Study books above are coming in from Amazon in next couple of days.  "Refresh your Faith" was recommended from a friend who used it last year.  It is a daily Bible Study that looks pretty interesting.  "Training Hearts" was one that popped up as "recommended" when I ordered the first one.  It looks good and I think will be something good to do with the boys. 

Now, this list does not include all of the other books I read for fun!  

Weekly Worship - All Glory Be To Christ - The Petersens (LIVE)

I think you will recognize the melody of this song but with new words.  And the harmonies are amazing.