Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Baked Brown Rice and Peas

This meal has become a true family favorite!  One of my favorite recipe blogs is Mel's Kitchen Cafe and she did not let me down!

This recipe is truly the prefect combination of flavors - my husband said it reminded him more of the Bourbon chicken flavor than a true sweet and sour (which made him like it even more!)  The leftovers are even better!  I used peas as the veggie because it was quick and easy but afterwards realized how will it went with the rice - it made it more like a fried rice :-)  As the recipe states - I did actually double the sauce and I was very glad that I did otherwise I wouldn' t have had any sauce to use with my leftover meatballs and rice.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Serves 4-6
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (you don’t want the beef to be too high in fat because the fat will all pool at the bottom of the baking dish after baking – big time grody-ness in my book)
3/4 cup quick oats
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Form into about 12 balls, each about 2 inches in diameter. Place in a casserole dish. Cover with sauce (below). Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Sauce:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Combine ingredients and blend thoroughly. Heat in a small saucepan until combined and sugar is dissolved and pour over meatballs. (This dish is not overly abundant on sauce so if you enjoy things a bit saucier, double the sauce ingredients.)
*Freezable Meal: After covering the meatballs with sauce, cover the pan with two layers of aluminum foil and freeze. To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake covered without thawing for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 20-30 minutes more, until meatballs are cooked through.


Baked Brown Rice  (sorry, I can't get the italics to turn off!!)
*Note: This recipe doubles beautifully for a 9X13-inch pan.
*Makes about 3 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups brown rice
2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or water (if using water, add 1 teaspoon salt)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8X8-inch or 9X9-inch baking pan. Place the rice in the prepared pan and pour in the liquid. Stir to equally distribute the rice. Cover tightly with a double layer of aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for five minutes before removing the aluminum foil and fluffing with a fork. If your rice still has a bit of liquid on the bottom or conversely, if it is dried out, adjust the baking time up or down to make changes.

Variations:
Before baking, slice one small yellow onion into dices or half moons and caramelize and brown in 1 teaspoon of olive oil until golden and soft (about 10 minutes in a nonstick skillet). Stir onion into rice and broth mixture and bake according to recipe.
After removing rice from the oven and letting it sit for five minutes, remove aluminum foil and stir in the zest and juice from 1 lemon, 1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 apple, finely diced


If you try this recipe out - let me know what you think!

Show Us Your Life - Baby Shower Ideas

Kelly at Kelly's Korner is hosting her weekly "Show Us Your Life" series and today's topic is Baby Shower Ideas.  Just like wedding showers, I love baby showers.  I just think they are so much fun!  Mine were a little unique . . .the first one was held in the hospital because I was on bed rest in the hospital.  I had hoped to go home but when we found out the day before that I couldn't, my husband worked with the nurses and set it up in a great room at the hospital.  My others all had to be after so that I would be out of the hospital :-) 

Like I did for Wedding Showers, I thought I would share some ideas I've seen floating around on-line. 

I've seen this idea several times on blogland but found it over at Joy Ever After.  Basically, each guest creates/decorates a onsie for the new baby.  What a cute idea for the new mom to have as a memory of those at her shower.

I just love this Duck Punch Idea from Tidy Mom

Like so many people, I love the idea of the Milk and Cookie Theme for a baby shower - it just seems to fit.  Our Daily Obsessions shares lots of pictures and info to use!

Baby Shower Stuff.com has some super adorable paper products!  Made me want to order some just for fun :-)

These egg timers would be great party favors and can be found over at Wedding Favorites.Com.

What would a shower be without games?  Lil Luna offers this game up as a free download!  I'm saving this one so I have it for future use.

She  also shares this creative idea for a game based on the Price is Right.

I love the idea of brunch for showers and The Kitchen shows some really great food ideas for just such a shower!

And another Milk and Cookie Shower idea from Maddy Cakes Muse.

One last idea from The Cake Blog.  I love the colors and the turtle theme!

Make sure and check out Kelly's site for all of the link-ups!  I'm sure there are just tons of ideas out there!

Tot School - The Week we Set up

We are starting preschool on Monday.  Kinda crazy, but we are, so this week I've tried to focus on getting out "room" (aka the dining room) ready, making sure that everything I need is ready for week 1, writing lesson plans for weeks 6-9 (weeks 1-5 are done) and getting everything ready for week 2 - I'd like to always have the week we are starting and the following week completely done in baskets on the shelf.  Than, the next 8-10 lessons written.  There is often stuff (books, games, learning items) that I need to order so I'm budgeting a certain amount each month and will always try to order a month ahead of time so I'm ready to go!  I'm excited to start this but also know that it is a commitment - it means I have to set aside things I want to get done and purposefully focus on teaching each day.  I'm a little ADD sometimes so . . .I have to really focus on one thing LOL

First things first - our schedule.  I've mentioned before that I'm not a morning person but I am going to really work on this new schedule so that I can get things done that I need quiet time for first thing in the morning.

5:30 (ouch!) - Get up, walk on the treadmill for at least 20 minutes
6:00 - Shower and get ready for the day
6:30 - My quiet time and breakfast
7:00-8:00 - Munchkin arrives in this time frame, he usually plays for a bit and is ready for a nap
8:00-10:00 - This is time that I have to get laundry going, do my weekly chores, and work on my to do list.  My kids wake up sometime during this time frame and eat breakfast.  This will be their playtime too.
10:00-11:00 - Bible and ABC/123 time.  This is something that both Josh and Nate will participate in each morning; The Munchkin also gets up between 10 and 10:30 so he'll be eating his snack with us too.
11:00-12:00 - Playtime for the kids/chore time for me. 
12:00-1:00 - Lunch time/clean up and our Circle Time
1:00 - Nate goes down for a nap/quiet time for Josh (he usually watches cartoons)
1:45 - Munchkin goes down for a nap between now and 2:00
2:00-3:00 - This will be focused time with Josh working on Math and Reading skills.  Most things will only be 20 minutes long but sometimes we may have other activities to do. 
3:00-4:00 - Kids wake up, snack time, play time
4:00-7:30 - This is our busy time - the munchkin is picked up, I get dinner ready, we eat, clean up, play as a family, clean up toys, kids take baths and than bedtime.
7:30-8:00 -Time with my husband (he goes to bed by 8:00)
8:00-10:00 - Time for me to work on lessons, blogging, scrapbooking, or just relax watching TV.  I'm going to really work at going to bed by 10:00 since I'll be getting up at 5:30. *A disclaimer - I also get up in the middle of the night with my husband because of his work schedule which is why that 5:30 time is so hard!

It is actually a pretty straight forward schedule.  Because we are a family that tends to sleep late - I've pushed things to lunch time/afternoon that others may get done all in the morning.  One of the great things about homeschooling is making a schedule to fit you :-) 

Here are some pretty pictures of what our room looks like and a few things I made this week for school!

This is our center wall.  It includes our monthly calendar, our Magnetic season/weather calendar, a palm tree to go along with Chica Chica Boom Boom and a bulletin board (still missing !)  My husband will hang it for me this weekend and we'll use that to post our weekly verse, song, letter, number, color, ect. 

This is our current shelf.  The top still houses my Creative Memory albums but the bottom three shelves are for school.  The bottom shelf houses our sensory bin, a bin with games for future weeks, and it will also include a bin for each of the boys.  The second shelf houses bins with supplies and than the third shelf up holds my baskets with two weeks of plans and our arts and crafts bucket. 

This is one of the projects I worked on - quilted letters :-)  I made an "A" for each boy and will be making the entire alphabet over the course of the next few months. 

Finally, this is my new "baby" - it is the perfect printer!!!  I love it so much because it has just made getting stuff ready each week so much easier!!!  It is a dream :-)

Starting next week, I'm planning to move this post to Sundays.  By doing that, I can include activities from the entire week instead of just a few days. 

On a separate note - I have become an Amazon Associate which just means I can link items to their site and, if you click on those items anywhere on my blog and purchase that item, I will be compensated.  Thanks for clickin'!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving . . . that I can take hot showers again :-)  No, we didn't lose hot water but, in the heat of the summer, I take cool . .ending with cold . .showers every day.  It is too hot outside to be hot!  Now, though, with the really cool mornings, that hot shower is fantastic!

I'm loving . . .my new printer and I haven't even used it!!  It just came today and I'm in the middle of set-up but it LOOKS awesome and I can't wait to print that first page!  Top thing on my to do list is to get it all set up tomorrow :-)

I'm loving . . . my new snack.  A half a bag of Jiffy Popcorn, thrown in a bag of snackwells Chocolate drizzled Carmel corn, shake alot.  Than it is the great combination of salty sweet!!

I'm loving . . .that we got to see Thomas the Train this past Saturday with my parents.  The storm was not so fun but the main point was to see and ride the train!

I'm loving . . .that I'm continuing with my scrapbooking.  I am now working on August 2010 and plan to be done with those pages by Thursday which means I'll be less than a year behind!  If I can keep this up, I'll be done with 2010 by the end of September (if not sooner) and will be current with 2011 by the end of November.  WHOO WHOO!!

I'm loving . . my little family! 

What are you loving today?



Too Cute Not to Toot!

It is back to school time so this idea for a chore "chart" from Thirty Sixth Avenue is just perfect for older kids.  It makes them more self-sufficient yet you can still be in control :-)

Here is a great gift idea or an idea for your own counter - it is a perpetual calendar using your own photos.  The idea comes from Pressed Down Shaken Together.  This would be a great use of all of those photos you get from your photographer instead of just sticking them in a scrapbook :-)

This is a smaller idea for books shelves (that I keep putting off) for my boys rooms.  I might need to plan a trip to Ikea . . .check out this simple idea from My Life and Kids.

This Name Puzzle from Sunscholars is such a great idea.   I am going to add this to my preschool ideas for later this year starting with the boys first names :-)

Sassy Sites shares another great idea for a chore chart.  This one is specifically for the family on Saturday - but what a great idea.  (She has a vinyl shop so you can order right from her!)

I hope you enjoy these cute ideas :-)  There are so many more ideas out there but for today, these caught my eye!

Good Morning Girls Group

It was about this time last year that I mentioned finding a site called "Good Morning Girls".  It is a devotional accountability "site".  It was originally started by a group of friends who just e-mailed each other each day to say what they had learned in their quiet time.  Well, it grew.  It grew so much that they started this site and saw the need for women to find accountability partners.  The original goal was to find finds, co-workers, others from church to be in your group but, a great need was seen . There are many women out there who don't have those resources or maybe they don't feel comfortable enough to ask other people to join in with them.  So, through this site, you can connect with women all over the world to be in your group.  Last year, I posted on the comment page what I was looking for and it didn't take long to have a group.  We started out, if I remember correctly, with 13 people in our group.  After some shifting around as some people found that this wasn't for them for various reasons, we dropped to just 5 members and have held strong.  We took the summer off as two of our "groupies" had babies at the end of May but are looking forward to starting back up in a few weeks.  There are many ways you can "run" your group - we chose to set up a private blog.  We then each took a day and on that day, it is our responsibility to write the original post of the day about what we learned in our quiet time.  Than, everyone else just adds a comment to that post stating what they learned. 

So, are you looking for an accountability group?  If you are, check out the Good Morning Girls - I know you'll find a great group to join!  This particular link will take you to information on this falls book study.  The study that they will post on the site is the book of 1 John.  You do not have to follow this study - you can do your own thing - they just offer this up for those that are looking for something.  Last winter, we did the book of James and it was really great.  I love the S.O.A.P method that is talked about - it really works for me. 

I just wanted to take time to share this before it gets to late for you to join up!  And, if you are really interested in joining up and would like to be in my group - just let me know.  I think we may lose one person in our current group (but we could take more!) - I would just need to check with the others in my group first :-) 

Weekly Menu - The Week of August 20

Hello!  I did not have a chance to post a recipe on Friday as I normally do because I was out scrapbooking!!!  We did have a couple of HUGE success recipes last week though so I'll be posting those soon.  This week, I've decided to throw in a "Leftover Or" meal and I hope to make it something weekly.  I've found that we are ending up with more leftovers because I can't just cook for two anymore!  My boys eat (sometimes) so I find I cook enough for 4 - meaning I usually cook enough for 6 - leaving us left overs.  I've deemed Thursday as my leftover night but I have a back up meal that is easy to keep on hand. 

So this week we are eating:

Saturday: Out - we went to see Thomas the Train with my parents and than went out to dinner afterwards

Sunday: Brats on the grill, baked beans, and chips

Monday: Citrus and Soy Marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Sweet Potato Fries, Asparagus and rolls

Tuesday: Grilled Island Chicken, Cauliflower Popcorn, Stuffed Zucchini

Wednesday: Homemade Mac and Cheese and Hot dogs

Thursday: Leftover night OR Beef Tips and Noodles with Garlic Bread

Friday: Chicken Scaloppini, Green Beans and Rice

Baked Goods: Buttermilk Lime Shortbread Bars and Double Chocolate M and M Cookies (I'll be honest - I baked the cookies today . .. but ended up turning them into bars because they were so "loose" - I have tasted one yet but I'm thinking this might end up being a "fail" . . .)

Now that it is cool enough to grill (Yes, it was so unbearably hot and humid in July, it wasn't even nice to grill!) I've thrown in several grilling recipes.  We are "charcoal" people so our grilling window only goes to the end of September (if the kettle is cold, so is the charcoal LOL).  I'd like to be able to grill out 2-3 times a week and get back to my original goal at the beginning of the summer . .. Hamburgers once a week!!!

Enjoy :-)