Weekly Menu

Hello!  I know this is your favorite post :-) HA!  Since I'm such a planner, I actually like this post and since this blog is a place I can track things through the year, this is still the best place for me to post this menu!  As I mentioned in last weeks post, this past week was b.u.s.y.  It got busier even after I posted the menu with a visit from in-laws and photos.  THIS is what was planned last week and below is what we actually ended up eating.
Monday - Macaroni and Cheese with Chips and Salsa.  My Father-in-law called and wanted to come over for a visit so we had to have a quick dinner before he arrived.  
Tuesday - Hot Dogs and Chips.  Since we ate tonight's dinner last night, I actually had to pick up something on Monday night that was easy for my husband to feed the boys tonight.  I left the house at 5:00 to take Nate for photos, got home at 6:30 and then went a few minutes late to ladies meeting before heading to the store to grocery shop.  Crazy.
Wednesday - Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin, Twice Baked Potatoes, Sauteed Cabbage with bacon
Thursday - Crock pot chicken, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Beans and Rolls
Friday - Pizza - I got hit with a bad cold/cough and, quite honestly, did not feel like cooking.  I'm supposed to sing twice on Sunday plus the following Sunday and just need to get well - right now, my voice is shot. 
Saturday - Lasagna and Garlic Bread YUM!!!  (I just wish it was colder out - lasagna is best enjoyed on a Snowy Day!)
Sunday - For lunch, we just had some Spaghettio's and chips after church. Then I left a Roast, Potatoes and Carrots ready for my husband to put in the oven for dinner while I headed to sing in a concert.  It sure was nice coming home to dinner! 

This is the plan for this next week.  Hard to believe we'll be butting up to Christmas with this plan!


Monday - Breaded Chicken Thighs, Parsley Potatoes, Broccoli and Rolls

Tuesday - Cabbage Rolls, Crash Potatoes and Green Beans

Wednesday -Swedish Meatballs with noodles, rolls and a veggie

Thursday - Chili, Homemade Bread

Friday - Coney Dogs (using left over chili) and Fries

Saturday - The kids have program practice so we'll eat lunch at the church before heading out to get Darryl to head to a family party.  The food is "snacks" so I'm taking Fruit Dip, Chicken Salad Roll-ups, Lit's Smokies and Cupcakes for a special little 3 year old's birthday!

Sunday -  Today we are celebrating Nate's birthday with the grandparents.  On the menu is:  Meatball Soup, Mac and Cheese (Because it is Nate's favorite - the Blue Box kind of course!), Salad, Bread.  When we walk in the door from church (the grandparents are attending the Christmas program with us) I'll have some Chips and Salsa and a pickle/cheese tray ready for nibbling so there isn't quite a rush to get dinner on the table.  Oh!  And Mountain Dew Cupcakes for Dessert with some Ice Cream of course!! 

 This will also be a week busy with making Christmas Cookies for gifts and a cookie exchange as well as some other "Food" gifts.  It will be a busy cooking week!!! 

Holiday Decorations

Today over at Kelly's Korner, it is "Show us Your Life Friday" and it is time to share our Holiday Decor!  Enjoy :-)

 Our stockings are hung by the . .. door with care :-)  I've never found a perfect place for stockings but around this doorway seems to work well. 

 My little collection of houses.  The gingerbread house on the right lights up and is a favorite of the boys. 

 We don't have a "mantel" so the top of the entertainment serves that purpose.  This year I did less decorating than I normally due but I made up for it with lights.  Christmas lights are so simple yet add so much to a room.

 The boys each have a tree and they each decorated their own. 

 Our tree :-)  I love it and love to turn off all of the lights in the living room leaving just the tree on - it is so peaceful.

 Our dining room tree- this is our "Jesus" tree so all of our ornaments from The Truth in Tinsel.  It will be very full by the end of December!

 I also love wreaths - there is one hanging on every door in the house!

 Our outdoor lights.  I love the Snowflake lights above the front door.  They make me smile :-)

That is it this year :-)  The boys love it and that is all that matters.  Merry Christmas!!!

Food Fri . .. Thursday - Beef Stew

Beef Stew
Adapted from Get off your butt and bake

I can honestly say that until a few weeks ago I had never made a true beef stew.  No real reason, just never had done it. I came across this recipe and was sold because 1)It is in the crock pot and 2) It has Worcestershire Sauce it and I love that stuff!!  The first time I made this it was a huge hit so I made it again recently and tweaked it slightly by putting in 1/2 the amount of pepper and salt that the recipe called for as it seemed a bit salty last time and a little "hot" (from the pepper) for my kids.  My four year old ate this stew - he loved the "chicken" and potatoes plus he helped me make it by putting all of the veggies in the pot.  I'm posting this with hopes that winter will soon arrive - both times I've made this stew we've had unseasonably warm weather and stew should really be eaten on a cold, blustery day! 

 

OLD FASHIONED BEEF STEW

YOU WILL NEED:

2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/2 cup flour

2 Tablespoons oil

1 bay leaf

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 onion, chopped

2 Knorr Beef Bouillon cubes

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

6 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 cup sliced celery

4 lg. potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

4 cups water

DIRECTIONS:

Coat meat with flour; set excess flour aside. In large skillet heat oil. Brown meat on all sides.
In slow cooker, combine browned beef, bay leaf, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, chopped onion, bouillon cubes, pepper, salt, sugar, and vegetables. Pour water over all. (Almost to the top of your slow cooker). Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hours. Turn control on high.
Thicken with flour left over from coating (about 1/4 cup) dissolved in a small amount of warm water. Cover and cook on high 10 to 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Makes 6-8 servings. Serve with warm rolls or warm french bread

The First Snow

Back on November 25th, we got our first real snow on a Sunday morning.  To give you, first, a little back story to the start of day . . .. the day before my husband's car died when he was leaving work so the boys and I drove in to get him. The plan was for us to take him to work at 3:30 AM on Sunday so I could have the truck to take the boys to church because they had practice for the Christmas program.  When we got up and saw the snow, we both kinda grimaced . . . .every time I have to take my husband to work (or so it seems) we get ice or snow.  We went ahead and loaded the kids in the truck and headed out.  Our road to the expressway was a little dicey but we figured it would be ok . . then we got on the expressway and it was a solid sheet of ice.  Needless to say, we turned around and went home because I was not about to drive home on roads like that - I've lost control on black ice before and did not want to do it again.  We came home, went back to bed and the kids actually slept until almost 9:00.  As soon as they were up they asked to go outside and, since we knew we would not make it to Sunday School, how could we say no?  :-)  The boys were so excited - Josh stepped outside and just smiled from ear to ear - he loves snow.   Two things they noticed right away, first, Nate wanted to make a snowman but quickly realized there was not enough snow and Josh said, "Mom, I want to make a snow angel but we need more snow - it has to cover the dirt and leaves!"  So yes, they will have lots of fun in the snow this winter.

(Maybe next time I'll even put shoes on and step outside to get photos ;-) hahaha)

Too Cute Not To Toot

It's Christmas Cookie Time!! I came across this fun cookie recipe over at Moms Crazy Cooking and they looked so good!  Now, I will say, sometimes it is hard to find those specialty puddings but you could always use vanilla or white chocolate and had a tiny amount of peppermint flavoring :-)

This next idea comes from Parents.com 
and it made me laugh out loud when I saw it.  Seriously, the next family party we have, I'm so going to make people play this game :-) 

Check out these awesome Apple Chimichanga's from Juanita's Cocina..  I used to buy a frozen version of these from Schwan's years ago but these look so much better.  Can't wait to try them out!

(I can't get a photo to upload right now but these look too good not to just post anyway!)

This next "idea" is actually multiple ideas from Attempting Aloha and includes not only the idea for the photo I'm sharing but tons of ideas for organizing the toys and art supplies that quickly take over a home.  Quite a few of them caught my attention as I will be working on getting the boys play room put together this winter.

I never believed the fact that when you have kids, your vehicle is trashed most days. But guess what?  It's true!!  It just seems to happen - toys, books, mittens, hats- everything ends up in the vehicle but never comes out.  Just Sew Sassy shares a fairly easy tutorial of how to make a great over the seat organizational "thing" that I love.

One last idea for this post and it comes from Bible Fun for Kids (Why haven't I ever seen this site before??).  I love that you can get the figures in color and in black and white!)

 Happy Crafting! 

The Grinch and Some Tinsel

Once a week I what to share what we did with our Tinsel advent study and our Grinch Countdown. I'll try to limit my photos so that the post doesn't get too long!

December 1st:

I decided that I wanted to do the Tinsel advent study in the morning.  It's a nice break before lunch and the ornaments are supposed to be fairly quick.  Day 1- the Study was on the fact that Jesus is the light of the world.  While we talked about how we don't like being in the dark but it's ok when we have a nightlight, the boys made some Stained Glass Candles.

 I've gotten smart in my old age.  Glue and toddlers is one huge mess.  Instead we "painted" with our glue and the boys loved it. 

Now, the book says the entire lesson and craft will take about 30 minutes.  My almost three year old was done in 20 minutes; my four year old perfectionist was done in 90 minutes.  I will say that Josh's ornament took days to dry - he really loved painting with glue.

The Grinch countdown I decided to do in the afternoon because some of the activities, like today's, are fun snacks or they are crafts that may take longer to do.  Today's pocket held the card with just the title of the book and then a small gift for each boy and an unpopped bag of popcorn.

 We made this fun popcorn snack that I shared "HERE"

Then they each got a new ornament for the tree since we were decorating the tree today.

December 2nd:

Tinsel - We did not get to our ornament craft today. I put it off and shouldn't have because then we didn't get to it.  It's ok though, because I can make it up later this week.

Grinch:

Aren't these adorable?  I saw these at Walmart for $2.89 each and couldn't resist - they are Little Sock Monkey Stuffed Animals for Christmas.  The boys loved them.

December 3rd:

Tinsel:

Today's ornament was a crown to remind us that Jesus was the promised king. Now, my kids love paint. To paint two small Toilet paper tube crowns, we went through a whole thing of paint. Oh, and Josh painted . .. the paint bottle too. Due to the high amount of paint use, we had to wait to finish this project :-)

Grinch:

December 4:
Tinsel:

We finished up our crowns by adding Jewels to them.  I've realized that this year, our goal is just to do one thing each day - it may take us two days to finish an ornament and that is ok :-)

Grinch:

We made these (premade) cookies today for our countdown activity.  They are supposed to be Micky Mouse but they look a little like a frog I think HA!

December 5:
Tinsel:

Can you tell what these are?  No?  really? HA! These are supposed to be faces but my boys got a little glue happy with both the wiggle eyes and the yarn for the hair.  Creativity is good, right?

Grinch:  Ok, we are doing our countdown every day but I've discovered that the boys just want a "treat" so I've decided to make it easy for me and instead of trying to do a crafty thing or anything else on some days, I just make sure there is a treat in the pocket - M and M's, Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kats.  That is what makes them happy :-)

December 6:

Today's ornament/lesson was about the Angel who announced that Mary would give birth to the savior.  The craft in the book was a little too hard for my boys so I printed off this picture and had them color it.  Then I glue it to some card stock.  This gave us a break from glue today :-)

December 7th
We did nothing today - well, actually we did lots but it was because we had a couple of guests with us all day so we did not do either our Tinsel or Grinch activities today :-)