Food Friday - Fails.

So, this past week I tried a Crock Pot Pork Chop recipe that I planned to share here.  But, it was a fail.  First, I had to cook everything prior to putting it in the crock pot which, to me, is not a crock pot meal.  The purpose of a crock pot to me is to NOT have to cook!.  There was supposed to be gravy in the end (which you cooked and thickened first and poured into the crock over the pork) and it was just a watering pork liquid instead.  Therefore, I do not have a recipe to share this week but I WILL next week :-)

Enjoy cooking!

Weekly Menu

The best laid plans . . .. . Last weekend did not go as planned.  Darryl got hit with a bad toothache on Thursday that really messed with his weekend.  Friday night I don't even remember what he/the kids ate but once the kids were in bed, I ordered a pizza.  (LONG day!!).  On Saturday evening, we ordered in, as planned, and Darryl ended up getting so sick.  He got a sub sandwich that he has eaten before (recently) but this time it set off his stomach issues with a v.e.n.g.e.n.c.e.  It was so bad, he was up all night (for real); didn't go to church and, needless to say, we did not go on our family outing Sunday either.  I picked up McDonald's/Taco Bell on the way home from church and then I ran a few errands after the kids went to bed and picked up a subway sub on the way home.  So, I've shifted some meals around while also cooking some super mild dinners for the big D so he can get is stomach back under control. 

Here's the plan for this week:

Friday - Honey Chicken and Fries (A carry over from last week)

Saturday - Our normal - the kids get Mac and Cheese and we'll order in (or at least I will - Darryl may eat a PB and J HA!)

Sunday - We'll try this again - a family day so we'll eat in town after church before doing something fun.  Spaghetti will be on the plan for dinner.

Monday - Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We have a tradition in this house.  We did try Corned Beef and Cabbage several years ago and it still makes my skin crawl when I think about it so, instead our tradition is Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (My favorite crock pot version!), with Crash Potatoes and Rainbow Jello.  I also make Green Pudding with gold coins at the bottom :-)

Tuesday - I have a turkey in my freezer that I want to use before it actually gets to warm to have the oeven on for 3-4 hours during the day.  So, we'll have turkey, Stuffing, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans and Rolls

Wednesday - I'm starting to do "last time" meals (or almost last time!).  Those are meals that are winter meals . .. so today we'll have Turkey and Dumplings.  YUM!  Unless we get another cold spell (which we could, it is only March) this will probably be the last time we have this until next fall!

Thursday - What comes after the above meal?  Turkey Noodle Soup of course! 

I'm hoping that since most of what I need for the above meals I already have on hand that I can cut way back on the grocery bill this week!

March Goals

Well, it is March.  The days are longer and we are actually seeing some sunshine.  I will admit, again I think, that we hibernated this winter.  Besides it being cold and snowy, which I love, only having one car kinda limits what one can do!  Even on the days Darryl was home, he was home because of snow storm OR he had a day off and we got a snow storm!  Well, we are still one car-ed but at least the weather is cooperating a little more so that hopefully we can get out of the house more.  With all of that said, I made great plans for the February goals.  I even made an awesome (if I say so myself) calendar with goals written for each day.  That lasted for about five days HA!  As March is now here. . . . Well, almost half over as I just realized . . . . I do have some plans.

1.  The living room.  We are making big changed to,our living room.  I'll share the palan a little later . . . But phase one happens this week!

2.  Scrapbooking.  A few weeks ago Darryl asked me what I really wanted in order to make the house. Ore comfortable for me since I'm here pretty much 24/7.  Yes, I have a short, realistic list but one of those things is a place to scrapbook.  So, this month I'm creating that space.  More to come later!

3.  Scrapbooking part two.  I need to organize my projects and write everything down with plans to accomplish those items.  I have lost focus due to losing "my company" for all of my supplies.  

4. Date.  First, Darryl and I need our day out.  Second, I need my day out.  I gave it up more than willingly last month so we could go to the lake but, I'm hoping to make it happen this month!

5 Finances.  Do you ever feel nickel and dimed to death? And then you discover that you are the one guilty of spending all of those nickles and dimes!!!!!  I need to budget, budget, budget and rein in the money wagon to keep it parked in the "garage". 
6. Summer Planning. Last summer, I tried to do one activity a day (or so) with the boys just for fun.  That worked until it became hotter than hades but I'd still like to work on those plans now.  One of the keys is to have stuff on hand and ready to go otherwise, it doesn't happen.
7. Holiday Planning:  St Patrick's Day and Easter - need to plan a few fun things.  The boys keep asking about finding Eggs on the 17th (St. Patrick's Day) . . .they are so confused HA!
8. Cleaning/Organizing.  I've started going through the kitchen cabinets one at a time and cleaning them, rearranging the shelving (now there's an idea!) and cleaning out stuff.  I'd like to finish that this month.  Also, I have some work in the basement to do.  I usually do it in January to clean up after Christmas but, our basement was pretty much freezing (seriously - we put a thermometer down there and it stayed around 32 degrees all winter. )  If I can get that done this month, that would be good.  (If not, I'll do it in April HA!)

I think that's enough to focus on for this month.

 

The "Big" Closet Move

Ever since we moved the boys into what used to be our room (thus what was considered the "master") I've wanted to switch the closet organizers.  To be honest, I thought it was a 3 day project and even considered buying another closet system for the boys room so that we wouldn't be without a closet for . . .a week or two.  Yes, I am an over thinker.  Yes, we tend to not tackle projects because we think they will take too long.  Generally we are surprised and this time, we were, once again surprised.  In a matter of, well, an hour (for real!) we had our closet system out, the boys closet system out, and then the boys closet system installed in our closet.  The next evening Darryl hung the organizer in the boys room from ours.  That's it.  Crazy. 

So, here is the "before" of the boys closet:

Ok, my "dirty" little secret:

When we redid the boys room awhile ago, I painted around the closet organizer.  Needless to say, when we took it down, I had to run to Menards and get some paint mixed up to match the wall.  The boys enjoyed it though because they got to help paint this little section with me. 

Finally, the "after":

Yes, that is my child playing a video game that he can play better than anyone in the house, including his dad.  So, by doing this switch, I was able to shift the dresser into the closet which opened some more floor space in their room.  It also makes their clothes more easily accessible.  Before, Nate had to literally climb behind book cases to get to his stuff.  Now, they each have a half a rod on the same level and it works perfectly. 




The before of our closet:

The after:

Ahhhh, my baby is back home (hahahaha).  See, about 8 years ago, after living with an awful closet for a few years, I bought this system with some birthday money so that we could have a nice closet.  Yes, that is all the closet space we have but, amazingly enough, it holds most of our clothes.  Darryl's out of season and his dress clothes hang downstairs in the laundry room but considering the fact that they are, well, one - out of season and, two - he only wears dress clothes once a week, it's ok.  I love having a place for our shoes again and also some more storage shelves. 

After Darryl finished hanging up the boys closet system on Friday evening, I spent all day Saturday organizing clothes, moving stuff around and cleaning up the playroom.  Now we are ready for some more pick changes coming later this week!  We can't wait!

Homeschool Corner

Our "homeschooling" right now is very liberal.  We look for opportunities to teach and help the boys learn. 

A Few things we are doing:

1) Math - one of the bests times we have with the boys throughout the day for hands on learning is from 7:30-8:00 aka bedtime.  After reading a book they each pick out, we usually have time to chat so we've started doing math problems.  Just simple stuff like 2 + 2 or 5+2 . . things we can use our fingers for as a visual.  The boys enjoy that and can now answer some problems without "fingers".  Like I've mentioned before, we also count to every night.  When their clocks turn to 7:59, we start counting until they turn to 8:00.  That is the time that Darryl and I leave their room so it is good practice of big counting. 

2) Reading - As mentioned above, the boys pick out a book each (often the same book for many nights in a row - right now it is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom which we ALL know by heart!  and "How to Babysit a Grandpa" which the boys can tell most of that one as well.

We find, as every one knows, that reading to the boys at night increasing their language and also helps them to sound out words.  Not to mention the memory skills

3)  Games - I've mentioned before that the boys love games.  Generally they get games of some sort out at least once a day.  On a side note, it makes me wonder how people sell games at garage sales that have all of their pieces, in their original boxes.  I swear, we lose a piece every day and then find random pieces weeks later.  Games are HUGE learning experiences especially when I play and explain the rules to which Nate replies, "Well, mom, that is not how Josh teaches us to play." hahahaha 

I've shared some photos of my boys playing with their Letter Construction kit that they got for Christmas.  Even just yesterday, Nate had it out and was playing with Darryl.  He showed Darryl how to build them and then would sound the letter out and  name words that started with that letter.  So then Darryl would help him build small words like "Gum" and "Cat". 

Chutes and Ladders is a new favorite.  I love it because it teaches counting to 100.  Getting the boys to go the right direction and follow the "Chutes and Ladders" has been a little tricky but we are getting there ;-)


4) Time - The boys love time.  They always ask me what time on the clock they can do something and are pretty good with telling the "hour" time. 

Now that our snow is starting to melt and, eventually, we won't have a lake in the yard, and I'm beginning to un-hibernate, I want to plan some activities to keep us busy over the coming months.  Some typical learning things with time, money, and writing letters and numbers and some fun stuff too.

Things my kids say

* Nate hit his hand on the table and tried to pretend it didn't hurt because it wasn't bleeding.  Then he said, "But mom, it really does hurt and when you hit your hand and it hurts, it makes the bone bleed so my bone is bleeding but you just can't see and when my stomach hurts it doesn't bleed because there are no bones in my stomach but my hand hurts because my bone is still bleeding.".  . . .WHAT??? LOL!

* So, as I've mentioned before, my boys like to talk about poop when they, well poop.  Nate is the most descriptive, naturally.  Well, he was getting into the bath, scratched his butt (cheek, actually), and looked at his hand.  Me, thinking I was being funny, said "That's gross . .. hahaha".  To which Nate replied, "What?  There was poop stuck in my poop slide, that's all".  A Poop Slide?  For real? That kid.

* While going through our normal bedtime routine, Josh asked to have a conversation with me and picked the topic of camping.  We chatted for a while when Darryl asked what we were doing to which Josh replied, "We are having a conservation!"  This made us all laugh as Josh continued to try to pronounce it correctly until he finally said, "this is just a ridunculess conservation!"  Needless to say, we laughed even harder!

* Josh was looking for his lost slipper the other night and stated that it had "whiskapeared"  . . . To which I added, it must have whiskapeared while he was whiskering (whispering). Hahahahaha

* Nate got out of the bath one night but was upset because,"there is still a hair bug in my hair because there wasn't enough water on my hair so how will I get it out and what about the my body bugs, mom, they crawled down my body and hid in my belly button! ". Then he used his towel to scrub them off.  Seriously, he comes up with this stuff all on his own!  

Tomato Basil Chicken

Tomato Basil Chicken 
adapted from Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom

Every once in a while, I see a recipe that looks good but as I make it, I seriously doubt that it will have any flavor.  Then, we taste it and it is a little slice of goodness.  THAT is this recipe.  Seriously, the chicken is perfectly flavored and the "sauce" is just butter, basil, tomatoes and salt and pepper.    This is now a family favorite and will frequent our table often.  I told my husband that I would like to grow some basil and tomatoes this summer for the sole purpose of making this dish "fresh from the garden".  For the sake of my husband, I used vegan butter instead of real butter and did not add the cheese "garnish" to his plate. 

This Tomato Basil Chicken will have you grabbing your fork at the 30 minute mark, which is great news when you need to have a nice, hot meal on the table quickly. 

Ingredients: (4 servings)

• 2 chicken breasts 
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
• 2 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 4 Tbsp cold butter
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
• freshly grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese, for garnish

Written Directions:

Season chicken breasts with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.  Add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to your skillet.  This may seem like quite a bit, but it will form the base for the sauce. 

While waiting for the oil to heat up, go ahead and get your water going for the pasta. When the oil is HOT, add the chicken breasts.  After about 4-5 minutes, the chicken breasts should be ready to turn.   You'll want to cook them on the second side another 4-5 minutes,or until the juices run clear when you pierce them with a small sharp knife.  If you pounded yours out thinner, they will cook faster than this.

After the second side has been cooking for about 4 minutes, go ahead and add in the fresh tomatoes that you have chopped up.  Next, add the fresh basil that you have chopped into ribbons, the cold butter, the minced garlic, and you will probably want to add some more kosher salt and black pepper to season the sauce.  Now give it all a good stir so all those flavors will marry together.

When your chicken is "done," turn the sauce down on the lowest setting to keep it all warm until the pasta is cooked, which should be any minute now.  At this point, if still waiting for the pasta, you can remove the cooked chicken to a cutting board, and after resting just a couple of minutes, cut the chicken into slices on the bias.   Divide the pasta among individual bowls, and top each with half of a chicken breast, sliced into pieces, and equal portions of the tomato basil sauce.  Top with more fresh basil and freshly grated Parmigiana reggiano cheese.