Weekly Menu - The one where I have to cook for a Ladies Tea

On Saturday, our church is hosting a Ladies Tea and, I'm not sure how it happened, but I volunteered to help do the food with another friend of mine   I really don't mind but it does mean a lot of cooking!  With that in mind, our meals this week will be super simple both because I have too much cooking to do for Saturday and to try and keep the grocery budget in tact even with feeding a bunch of ladies!!

Thursday - Tonight I have a hair appointment and the boys and Darryl are spending the day with his dad so I'm really not sure what will be for dinner.  How's that for easy?  I'm guessing McDonald's or Taco Bell.

Friday - Spaghetti and Garlic Bread - super easy after cooking food all day for Saturday. 

Saturday - Pork Chops on the Grill, Baked Sweet Potatoes (I can throw them in the crock pot before leaving in the morning), Left overs from the luncheon (Fruit Salad, Cheese, Pickles, Olives)  and rolls.

Sunday - We may stay for the Pot-Luck at church this week and I'll just take Leftovers from Saturday.  (And if there aren't left overs I think the boys and I will pick up a Pizza and come home HA!)

Monday - Stuffed Shells and Garlic Bread with Green Beans

Tuesday - It is Taco Night!!!

Wednesday - Pancakes and Sausage

Thursday - Spaghetti and garlic bread - it is grocery shopping day again :-)

That's it!  This weekend is Mother's Day . . .I wonder what my husband is cooking LOL

My Birthday !

Here is what we did for my birthday . . . with just a couple of photos thrown in :-)

 Darryl took the boys shopping on Thursday for my "Birthday Party".  On Friday evening, they cooked a great dinner - Steaks, Baked Potatoes, and Strawberry pretzel salad.  After dinner, I was put in the bathroom and told to "Stay there mom, we have to hide".  Darryl and the boys hid behind the couch and shouted "surprise" when I walked into the living room.  Super cute!  The boys picked out special gifts for me - Nate got me a beautiful plant and Josh picked out the garden light.  It looks so cute by our porch.

On Saturday, Darryl took me away for the day.  We started with lunch at Smashburger, some place we have never been and really loved :-)  Then we headed downtown Grand Rapids where, thanks to the fantastic weather, we walked around downtown for about an hour (My husband loves Grand Rapids history; I love being with my husband so it all works out LOL) before going to the Civic Theatre to see "Anne of Green Gables.".  It was an awesome play and we really enjoyed it.  It was dinner time so Darryl took me to Bonefish Grill - a place I really love but Darryl, not so much.  My meal was great; Darryl's wasn't so it ended up being a cheap dinner since they comped us for his meal.  :-)  Finally it was time to shop!  My gifts are pictured above:
1) An electric can opener - I've wanted one for awhile plus mine was in pieces so it was a must.  I LOVE it - makes opening all of those cans for lasagna so much easier :-)
2) An Ice Cream Maker - This has been on my list for about 3 years and I figured if no one else is going to buy me one, I will buy it myself!.  So far we've made vanilla ice cream and I just made a batch of Strawberry ice cream today to use up the milk/cream so it would be wasted.  I love having home made ice cream in the freezer instead of cartons of store bought stuff!
3) A couple of soundtracks.  Darryl took me to Baker Christian Books so we could have coffee at their coffee shop and then I wondered around the store for a good hour. 
4) An external Hard Drive - I've been waiting for my birthday to buy this - I needed it for picture back-up

I really had a great birthday and am already looking forward to next year!

Too Cute Not To Toot

Lets start with food:-)  Strawberry season is coming and I thought that this recipe from I'm a Lazy Mom looks super good.  We like Brie but don't use it often so these seems like a treat :-)

Sticking with the food concept, check out these Peach Smoothies from Mia's Domain .

Every once in awhile a neat sign catches my eye and this one from A Pop of Pretty did just that.  Laundry room art is on my list of "things" to do :-)  (Plus I LOVE the red Washer and Dryer!)

Any time I leave home to do anything the boys coming running for "Hugs and Kwisses" so when I saw this idea from Moms By Heart, well, it caught my attention and got me thinking - wouldn't this be super cute on the table?

One last idea- this one is from Home Talk and would be a fun craft for the kids to make to add to the garden. 

Happy Crafting!

April Preschool

We are getting back into the swing of things this week!  I'm not doing quite as much as two weeks ago only because I'm also trying to get some deep cleaning and rearranging done this week before I start babysitting again next week :-)

First, I wanted to show you all this picture of a successful "science" experiment! Remember this photo?

Well - here is true success!

Isn't that awesome?  The best part was that they were in full "bloom" when the boys returned from my parents so it was so much fun to show them their plants!

Here is a "snapshot" of what we did this week!

 Working on our preschool lessons.  Darryl was home from work on Monday due to being ill and it was amazing to see how the boys responded to him being part of "class".  Josh especially was "showing off" what he know and was on perfect behavior. 

 Our Bible lesson that day was on the Tower of Babel so after class, we got out the blocks and tried building towers which quickly turned into  . .. .

 Building train circles.  Isn't that awesome.  I won't like, on Tuesday, this is what they did again in the afternoon but this time Josh built pretty much the whole thing and then the boys played with the track for hours.

 Monday was a beautiful day so we spent a good amount of time outside.  The boys found their first caterpillar.  Ever.  They were both freaked out by it so me, being the tough one, made my husband show them how to pick it up HA!  If I was a great mom I would have gotten a jar and made a home for it so we could watch it turn into a butterfly but am just not that good ;-)

 Remember we are studying plants and flowers right now?  Well, Darryl pulled out my ugly rosebush that had seen better days.  Then we all worked on planting some bulbs so hopefully they will grow!

We have a future plumber in our house . . .. hahahahaha.  It was just too cute not to post :-)

The rest of the week we did lessons, played outside, went to gymnastics, made a trip to the grocery store, visited the Library and even surprised Darryl by attending a concert he had on Wednesday night.  Looking back, it was a busy week!

Happy Birthday

Whose birthday is it, you ask?  It is MINE!   Yes, my birthday is today and I love it!  To me, birthday's are a day to celebrate you and I personally think they should be a holiday.  (And a paid holiday at that HA!)  It is especially nice when the birthday falls on a weekend, wouldn't you say???  How old am I, you ask?  Why, I'm 41!!  Yep, I admit it too! I've earned this year and I want to celebrate it - no reason to hide it, right :-)

My husband has planned some fun for us today and I plan on using the whole weekend to celebrate this great day so with that in mind . ..  .I'm taking a blogging break.  I'll be back Monday with my normal Homeschooling post.

Have a great weekend and feel free to celebrate my birthday where ever you are at!

Food Friday - Pesto Chicken and Tortillini

Pesto Chicken and Tortillini
adapted from Live Laugh Love! Cookbook

This is the first recipe I've tried from my "new" Cookbook that I bought like 2 years ago.  How sad is that?  Over all this was a  good recipe plus it was so easy to throw together - even on a Sunday night when I hate to cook!  Probably my one "complaint" with this recipe is that the chicken and the pasta taste the same so you really need a couple of different sides to go with this - my husband and I talked about it at dinner and decided that roasted carrots (and even zucchini) would go great with this because the carrots would add color and a totally different flavor.  I also would suggest just some good french bread with this since the pesto is a strong flavor.  The original recipe called for two containers of prepared pesto.  Folks, that is a lot of pesto - YIKES.  I actually cut many things in half for this recipe so I'm going to share my altered recipe. 

Ingredients:
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips (I cut each of mine into about 4 strips)
1 container prepared pesto
1 package frozen (or refrigerated) tortellini
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Place chicken in baking dish and spread some pesto on each piece using about 1/2 the container.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Sprinkle with 1 cup of cheese and place back in the oven until the cheese is melted.  While chicken is baking, cook tortellini according to package directions, then drain.  Mix drained pasta with the rest of the pesto (or to taste) and add remaining cheese. Serve together.


 

Weekly Menu

Welcome to the week of my Birthday :-)  I love my birthday, to be quite honest.  I feel like I've earned my year and want to celebrate it!  I also start babysitting again this next week so we'll be transitioning back into that routine once again too.

Here's our plan:

Thursday - Spaghetti and Garlic Bread.  Yep, it is grocery shopping day and I have learned that the last thing I feel like doing is cooking after shopping for hours so this is starting to become my "go to" grocery shopping day meal!!

Friday - Tonight's dinner is my birthday dinner with Darryl and the boys . I've learned that I don't want to cook on my "Birthday" but, in order to do that, I have to plan!  We are going to have Steaks on the Grill (Darryl gets to cook!), Baked Potatoes (I love to cook them in the oven so the skins are nice and crisp too - then I dig out the inside and make my own Stuffed Potato Skins YUM!), and Strawberry Pretzel Salad.  I'll be honest - Darryl doesn't like the salad BUT it is my birthday dinner and I love it so I make it every year HA!   I will also make my own birthday cake - Chocolate Turtle Cake :-)  I used to always have Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting with M and M's on top but the Turtle Cake is the best . . Maybe I'll put M and M's on top of THAT!

Saturday - Today IS my birthday :-)  Darryl has plans for us today so I won't be cooking.  My mother-in-law is coming to watch the boys so I'll leave gourmet food for her to cook like Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs, etc HA!

Sunday - I'll be honest, this is still part of my birthday weekend so the last thing I want to do is cook!!!  So, for lunch today Darryl will grill some Hamburgers for us and we'll have homemade fries.  (Did I mention I picked up the exact Deep Fryer I was looking for - at Walmart off the clearance rack for $19.00?? Sure did!)  For dinner I'm not sure what we will have . . .. I'm guessing pizza :-)

Monday - This is our first day back to babysitting.  I don't really foresee any problems today so it isn't really a big deal but in order to plan ahead a little, I think we'll have Lasagna and Garlic Bread.  I can put the lasagna together throughout the day as needed and have it in the oven in plenty of time

Tuesday - Gymnastics!!!  Taco's are my go to meal on these days because it is ready to go in a moment.  I found a new Avocado "dressing" for Taco's on Pinterest I want to try with these tonight.

Wednesday - I'm tired and I'm just typing this menu!  Breakfast is becoming my "go to" Wednesday night meal.  So Waffles and Sausage will be good for tonight.  Sometimes my husband comes home before practice but I'm never sure until the last minute - this is an easy meal to serve to all of us. 

WHEW!  What's coming up next week?  A friend and I are cooking all of the food for the ladies tea at our church.  I'm thinking that we will be eating very simple meals at home next week because I'll use up all my "cooking desires" on Saturday!! 

Did you notice I didn't pick any recipes from my recipe books I picked out for the month.  It was kind of ironic that I picked a Pressure Cooker to learn how to use after the recent events.  These "busy" weeks tend to take me back to the tried and true recipes that I know how to make quickly :-)