Weekly Menu Planner - October 15th

I must say that last week was a pretty good success as far as my menu - we actually ate the meals I had planned :-)  Except for one - my husband ended up making it home on a night he is normally gone so my taco salad plan turned into Meatloaf with Sweet Potato Fries and Peas.  (He's more of a Taco Guy, than a Taco Salad Guy!) 

So, what's on the plan for this week? Check it out below!

Saturday:  Breaded Chicken, Peas, and Potatoes (I don't usually decide what kind to make until the last minute)

Sunday: Lasagna, Garlic Bread and Salad for lunch and Chicken Quesadillas, Chips and Salsa for dinner.   (I just realized that I only have 2 jars of homemade salsa left - I totally missed the tomato season so I think I'll have to buy some from the store and make up a half batch or something!)

Monday: Nacho Casserole and Crock-Pot Corn Bread

Tuesday: BBQ Ribs, Corn, Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday: Taco Salad (a repeat from last week that I didn't make) and Chips and Salsa

Thursday: Creamy Chicken Burritos, Chips and Rotel Dip

Friday:  We are going to a place called Yesterdog for my sons birthday.  It only serves hot dogs :-)  We started this tradition last year and plan to continue it :-)

Snacks: Pumpkin Scones, Pumpkin Cinnamon Roles, Breakfast Bread, Oatmeal Scotchie Cookies

The recipes in Italics I will share IF they turn out tasty! 

Food Friday - Pork Tenderloin and Baked Potatoes

I must say that we had some awesome meals this week!  Even on Thursday night my husband said to me "No one can cook like you and you have just gotten better and better over the past ten years."  Well, that always makes a person feel good!  I had a hard time choosing what to post today but I decided to go with the Pork Tenderloin and Baked Potatoes that we had early in the week.  Even the kids loved it (even though they thought it was Chicken HA!)

Pork Tenderloin
Adapted from: Confessions of a Homeschooler

I love that this slow cooks in the oven verses the slow cooker.  The kids and I were outside and I could smell it cooking all afternoon (I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed it too!).  It was so moist and tender and the seasonings on top just set it all off!!  A few things - I used a 1/2 of a pork tenderloin which was about 3.5 pounds so I cooked it for about 5 hours.  Also, I did not have Onion Salt so I used onion flakes and it worked fine too!

Ingredients:

• 1 Pork Shoulder (or butt) Roast (Mine was about 7lbs)
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Salt
• Onion Salt
• Crushed Pepper (I didn’t put too much b/c of kiddos)
• Parsley

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees
• Place roast in roasting pan, and coat generously with Olive Oil
• Sprinkle a good amount of remaining ingredients over roast and ‘rub’ in so that the roast has a good coating of spices.
• Cook uncovered at 275 for about 6 hours (this may depend on the size of your roast, mine was about 7lbs) It should have a nice salty crust on the outside when it’s finished, and your house will smell wonderful!

Baked Potatoes

I know, who doesn't know how to make baked potatoes?  Well, I had one of THOSE moments.  My oven was busy with the roast set at a low temp so I had to come up with another option for the potatoes when the light bulb went on - the crock pot.  It isn't a new idea - my brother did the potatoes that way at Thanksgiving last year but I never thought about it before!  It is so easy :-)

Ingredients:
6-12 Baking Potatoes

Directions:
Pierce the Potatoes with a fork and then wrap each one in tin foil.  Place potatoes into the crock pot and do NOT add water!!!  Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 2 1/2 - 4 hours. 

How easy is that???

A Fun Little Video

Ok, so I saw this video posted on Facebook today and shared it there.  It seriously made me laugh out loud.



Please understand, this is being posted for the humor only - it is not a stand, not meant to start a debate or anything else :-)  Personally, I've always found Family Feud to be a fun and funny show (depends on the hosts and I actually happen to like Steve Harvey!) so that makes this even better!

Enjoy - and Hopefully I'll get back to my normal posting; I've been spending my evenings working on some other projects and therefore haven't had time to blog :-)

Making Your Home a Haven - Week 2

Please feel free to refer back to my week 1 post Here

Courtney, at Women Living Well, is hosting a Fall Challenge around the theme of making your home a haven.  Last week the challenge was to light a candle and pray for the family.  I did better at praying for my family then I did at lighting the candle - it's been pretty warm here this past week so lighting a candle just wasn't on the top of my list!

This week - we have to "Sing, Dance, Smile, Swoon" - just have fun!

This weeks challenge is to Play soft music every day in your home and then to focus on using peaceful words and maintaining peaceful relationships. 

Some simple ways to do this - if you play in instrument, take time to play it this week.  I'm so guilty of not playing the piano in front of my kids because they like to join me.  I have a wedding to prepare for so I guess now would be a good time to start practicing during the day :-)  Another idea - just play CD's.  I have a 5 disc player so I try to pick 3 kids CD's and 2 grown-up CD's (so I don't go crazy singing "The Wheels on the Bus"!)  I find my kids play better and are better behaved when we listen to music more than watch TV.  I used to be really good at keeping the TV off but this summer, with the horrible heat, we sat and watched tons of TV and now, my kids love "toons"!  I'm still trying to get back to the music though :-)

Once you have the music going, we need to work on ourselves :-) Take time to think before you speak and don't use harsh words.  Pretty simple, right? HA!  Not really, I know but the one thing that I try to do is have patience.  Of course, everything my kids do tends to be slower than I would like or there are extra laughs, flips, and running around but, instead of getting upset, I've starting stopping, even sitting down on the bed or on the floor and laughing with them.  I find that when I am patient, I am also kind :-) Isn't it amazing how those two things go hand in hand?   

You can read Courtney's full post by clicking HERE

What I'm loving Wednesday

I decided to take a week off from my weekly "What I'm Loving Wednesday" post and instead share a video for a song I heard on the radio this week that I really just loved.  Enjoy :-)

Do you Pin? How about a Challenge?

Have you gotten addicted interested in Pinterest yet?  Well, if you haven't signed up and need an invite - feel free to share your e-mail address and I'll send you one.  Be forewarned, it is addicting and wastes more time than facebook :-)  So, I've been "Pinning" like crazy but, like so many other folks out there I'm starting to feel like all I do is Pin - I never do!  I'm following the inspiration of others and am taking the Pinterest challenge and I'm going to try and complete one item that I've pinned each week.  Honestly, there are a lot things I pin that I will never, ever use or make so I'm also trying to delete some things too. 

Anywho, this is my first project - it just happens to match up with a baby shower I went to recently and I think it might become my "go to" gift for showers.   The inspiration came from Little Birdie Secrets and looked like this:

Aren't they just adorable? 

Well, here is what I did for mine version!

I'm not going to write out the tutorial - please visit the inspiration site for that but I will tell you a few things I learned. 

1.  The smaller the onsie (the "frosting" of the cupcake) the easier it is to roll.  I bought 3-6 month onsies and they added some extra thickness to the overall cupcake. 

2.  Buy the right size coffee filters.  I bought the small ones on accident - they did not work (which is why I didn't use them!

3.  Instead of using a "cupcake" box I used a wipe container and purchased extra wipes to put in it later.  You could buy a full box of wipes, remove the wipes and put them in a Ziploc bag and give them that way instead.  I just happen to always have empty wipes containers!

4.  You could modify this based on the relationship you have with the person - if it is someone you work with or just go to church with but don't know well - just do the simple one I did above with blankets, onsies, a toy and some spoons.  If it was for a really close friend, I would add something else - maybe even a gift card to Target or something so she could shop for herself or I've seen Lollipops made out of washcloths and even "Frappes" made out of all kinds of cute things - you could do the whole food theme! 

My first "PIN" creation was a huge success!

Too Cute Note To Toot!

I thought I would start this week with a non-Halloween related idea.  I ran across this cute idea for a frame at a blog I follow called Lines Across my Face.  It is such a simple idea yet makes a great impact.  It would make a great baby shower or wedding shower gift and is so original! 

I love this Halloween post from Oopsey Daisy.  The Subway Art and Glitter trees are just so bright and colorful plus she has a link to print your own art!

My husband and I have talked about putting up window boxes for years so I'm really just putting this idea in the post as a reminder as well as an idea from Our Seven Dwarfs.

One thing I like to do at various holidays is to hang things from the ceiling.  I find it adds a lot of dimension to a room so when I saw the tutorial for these yarn spheres, I wanted to share.  Check it all out over at Red Couch Recipes.

Sassy Sites is one of my favorite blogs and on Monday, she shared a super easy but super cute Halloween Decor idea. 

I usually share Teaching Ideas over on my Mommy School post on Sunday but I thought I would plug this one in here since I haven't started that post yet.  Check out this cute preschool pack over at Over the Big Moon.

This next idea is from Occasionally Crafty and is a pumpkin party.  I also have one child with an October birthday and I am planning on a Halloween themed birthday party in the next year or two so I wanted to save this idea for future reference :-)

Sorry for the short post this week - I'm running a little behind on getting my posts written so I don't have the time to search out all of my normal linky parties!  I usually make it up in a future post :-)