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! 

Weekly Menu - Father's Day Included

 Hello!  It's another week of food.  Next week I'll share a post about what I thought of our Hello Fresh Meals and if I'll do it again.  This week though, I'm back to cooking my normal stuff.  A few weeks ago I had some things on the menu that I didn't cook because of a mess of errors (like the meat got left on the counter not just overnight but for a day and half because I thought it was in the fridge!!) so I am going to throw those back on the menu this week! 

Friday - It's take out time! 

Saturday - Dinner at mom's 

Sunday - Father's Day!  Darryl get's to pick today and he picked Shrimp Quesadillas (we had them a few weeks ago and he said they are his favorite!) and Cheesecake with Fresh Strawberries.  I'm going to make a chili cheese dip to go with the quesadillas.  

Monday - Brats, Fries and BLT dip (a new dip recipe I've been wanting to try!) 

Tuesday - Crock Pot Fajita's (my mom's favorite so she will eat with us too HA!) 

Wednesday - Yorkshire Pizza and Salad.  This is a recipe from a friend that has been on my list forever.  It's supposed to be amazing so we shall see! 

Thursday - Mississippi Pot Roast (I have my normal roast recipe but wanted to try something different), mashed potatoes, and asparagus 

Pensacola Beach Vacation Days # 9 and #10

 These last two days are our travel days home! 

This was just before we headed out.  We had the luggage cart all loaded, had checked everything off the list and needed to load the truck.  Our view and our week were amazing.  Breathtaking.  

This is the iconic Pensacola Beach sign that you see just before crossing the bridge to the Island.  We were sad to drive by one last time! 

So, when we were driving down to Flordia, both kids said that visiting Mississippi was on their bucket list for this trip because we woudl be so close. Well, it would have ben an "easy" thing to do if the bridge wasn't closed but with the closed bridge it took some work to make this happen. We ended up driving through Mobile, AL which has not only some amazing bridges over the water, there was also a tunnel under the water.  

Yes, we made it to Mississippi.  From the sign, we now headed home with a first night goal of Nashville, TN.  As we were driving along, Nate's phone alarm goes off and he says, "Mom, did you get that Amber Alert?"  I'm like, no??  Then he says, "MOM, it's a TORNADO!!"  Yes, we were in the middle of a Tornado warning . .. not just one warning but several due to a big storm system.  Do you know how hard it is to figure out where a Tornado is when you have no idea where you are??  Well, it is hard!  Ironically, one of the things on Josh's bucket list was to drive through a tornado because he said that all the rest of our family has fun stuff happen to them but we never do HA!   

Our other adventure was that we stopped for gas and snacks at some out of the way town.  I was inside in line with lots of other people when a lady came in and started an argument with the cashier.  She was threatening him and he was threatening to call the police and they were both screaming as each other.  Well, Darryl was outside filling up the truck and couldn't figure out what was taking me so long and was concerned that something was happening.  He started to walk toward the building and I waved him away . . he was mouthing to me "Get out of there!".  Well, as soon as their was a path behind the screaming woman, I was out of there!!!  Uuugg.  

We stopped for dinner about an hour from our hotel at Waffle House (we needed one last Waffle House fix!).  We finally rolled into our hotel at about 9:00.  Darryl did much better on this hotel - it was brand new with perfect beds and all the bells and whistles.  We even got to enjoy breakfast in the breakfast room . .. in the middle of . .. a TORNADO warning!! For real!!!  I glanced at the TV where there is a Tornado warning flashing and the weather people all stressed out and noticed it was a local station.  Needless to say, I want to the front desk and asked - do we need to take cover?? She promised me we were fine because it was "in the next town over".   Crazy Tornados!!  

One last request from the boys was to stop at the Tennessee Titan Stadium again so they could go to the gift shop which wasn't open last time.  We did and picked up some fun stuff before heading for home.  Now, we are not effecient travelers.  I mean, if my brother Ken was riding with us, he would literally go insane with the amount of time it takes us at stops.  (He's like the speed demon of trips - no stops and you better have a strong bladder HA!).  At one point someone asked how long until we get home and the response was 3 1/2 hours.  We drive, made a bathroom stop, got back on the road and noticed that it was . .. 3 1/2 hours until we got home.  That happened 2 more times LOL  I guess what they say is true, the last 3 1/2 hours are always the longest!  

I think we pulled in at about midnight so we didn't do much except hug the dog and go to bed.  We unloaded in the morning and (sadly) had to return our amazing vehicle.  It kind of marked the end of vacation.  

We are all hoping and planning to go back to Pensacola Beach next spring break because we loved it so much.  

Pensacola Beach Vacation Day #7 and #8

 Days #7 and 8 of our vacation were days that we wanted to explore and then do our favorite things! 

This is our condo!  We were the second floor from the top in the middle.  It was amazing!  Such a great view being so high up. 

It took me all week to remember but I finally got a photo by a palm tree and, as the boys said, "It wasn't even a pretty one." LOL  Oh well! 

On Friday we swam in the pool and then headed out to explore our island more.  We had driven to one end of the island by going to Fort Picken's and now headed the other direction and drive through some amazing National Seashore Land.  It was beautiful and I didn't take a single photo.  We didn't make it to the end of the island but made it quite a long way (into the next town over actually) before heading back.  We also took time to do some more souvenir shopping.  We had shopped our first day but waited to go back until the end.  We all kind of had things in mind we wanted to pick up.  Dinner was at a place called Crabs on the Beach.  The food on this night was just amazing!  It was so good, in fact, that we voted to go back on Saturday night. 

Saturday we knew we wanted to do our favorite things one last time.  We visited the pool first thing and swam for just a short bit.  Then, we headed to Fort Picken's as there was one area Nate and Darryl had not explored the last time we were there.  The views are just breathtaking. 

Yes, they got locked up several times HA!  

Of course we had to head to the ocean one last time.  The waves were much calmer but we still had some fun on the beach. 

Finally, we headed back to Crabs on the Beach for what we thought would be an amazing dinner.  (This is the Parrot outside the restaurant)  Well, twice was not the charm because our service was awful and the food was not great.  I actually sent my food back because it was ice cold (like out of the refrigerator cold) and ended up eating some of Josh's fries because our server put his order in wrong and we ended up with a double order.  Oh well, they can't all be winners! I didn't let it damper my wonderful experience in Pensacola Beach.  

Once back at our condo, we all just tried to enjoy the last bits of time before heading to bed.  I sat out on the balcony as long as I could just watching the moon and listening to the waves.