Menu Plan Monday!

Last week went pretty well though I tend to find that I have way too many leftovers. I think I need to build in more leftover days- at least 2 instead of just one anyway.

We LOVED the Cafe Rio salad. The pork was delicious and sweet and contrasted perfectly with the cilantro lime dressing. If I didn't explain it well enough in my last post it is a layered salad of romaine lettuce, black beans, cilantro rice (link to recipe in my previous post), shredded pork(recipe in previous Monday post), and cilantro lime ranch dressing(recipe link in previous Monday post). The hardest part was chopping veggies - so obviously it was pretty easy. The pork was especially easy and tasty. We will make this again. Maybe next week since I still have the dressing made.
The bacon cheeseburger rollups were also a hit. They are basically what they sound like. crumbled bacon, hamburger, velveeta(or 2 cups of shredded cheese), spread over pizza dough and rolled up spiral style then cooked for 25 minutes. I also added Montreal steak seasoning and Worcestershire sauce to the hamburger when I was cooking it. My hubby definitely wants this one again.
I added too many potatoes to the Carne Guisada. It was good but it just ended up tasting like steak and potatoes to me. I added carrots to it too. Tasty but a pretty basic recipe really. If you are in the mood for steak and potatoes it is a good one. I couldn't find all of the sofrito ingredients so maybe that's why it wasn't more amazing. I think I would add more sofrito next time. It's got a yummy salsa flavor that we love and would make it less boring. It was still flavorful- just boring.
Pizza was a hit too of course. DH had boring pepperoni and bacon on his half and I had pepperoni, bacon, red and green peppers, tomatoes and onions on my half (definitely the better half). It is so easy. I love homemade pizza. Trader Joes has a great Pizza dough for 99 cents too.

So this week we will be having :

Monday- Chicken Stirfry (I have an Iron Chef Garlic chicken sauce I will use with the chicken) and the stirfry I got in a bag at Costco

Tuesday- flautas w/beans and salsa (Costco flautas... yummy)

Wednesday- leftovers

Thursday- Chinese Chicken Salad and Gyoza(potstickers) (Got the Chinese Chicken Salad at Costco too- the dressing is awesome!- the Potstickers are LingLing also from Costco)

Friday- Chicken Tikka (from a jar)

Saturday- eat out or leftovers

Sunday- Meatloaf(still haven't gotten around to making this...)

Can you tell I went to Costco on Saturday? :) I love that place. This will be an easy prep week. But I have a bad cold so I need an easy food week. I put in two leftovers days- depending on the amount of food we have we may increase it to 3... Anyway... Enough about food.

Got to see baby Asher this morning. I had an ultrasound. I am now 30 weeks and the belly is getting in the way. :) Asher is weighing approximately 2 pounds 12 ounces. I'm not sure where all the other 23 pounds I've gained have gone! I guess the belly isn't all baby. :) Everything looks good so far- though they have the tech do the ultrasound and someone else reads it- I'll get the reading later. He is a flexible little guy. He had his foot up touching his forehead. He liked to poke back at the ultrasound tech. He looks a lot like Kaden did in unltrasound pics. Seems to have a similar nose. He must know that I am talking about him because he just started squirming around. :) Smart boy! I'm excited to take pictures of him in person and see how Kaden reacts to him. Fun stuff.

Here's a LO that goes back to the carefree kidless days. It's our Recipe for Love- appropriate for Menu plan Monday. :) I used Karla's Cupid's Crush for it and her Vintage Valentine frames. I also used a free template by Bianca Guimarães Team to cut the red heart paper.

My new LO

I scraplifted this LO:
http://www.digishoptalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=123388&cat=fav

I have had this LO in my faves for awhile over at DST. Karla Marano's new Cupid's crush elements inspired me to scraplift it finally. I used Cupid's Crush papers and elements, and her Heartfelt elements as well. All are available at www.divinedigital.com

I also used Retrodiva's Another Boho Alpha and Shabby Princess Harvest Spice Alpha for the title. Journaling font is Tom's Handwriting.

TFL!

I've got the scrapping bug!

Because of these new wonderful kits by Karla. They are available at either one of her stores - Divine Digital or Karla's Kaleidoscope designs.

Makes me wish I had a girl so I could do lots of girly LOS. My boys will just have to put up with a few lovey dovey/romantic LOs. Hubby will appreciate the appreciation if not all the frills. :) Maybe I'll have to do some LOs of my sisters and I. :) And I have some cute nieces I can scrap as well. Anywho.. here are the previews. Go check them out! And check back here again soon since I will be posting some LOs. :) We are all sick so we are taking it easy this week- meaning lots of movie time for Kaden and computer time for me.

Menu Plan Monday!

So last week- I cooked a lot but not every night...which is ok since we still didn't have to buy anything at the grocery store except milk. Matt had to work a lot of late nights so he ate at work. Kaden and I kept it simple on those nights.
The tacos were great.
The slow cooker roast was excellent though we ate it more as leftovers rather than the day I made it.
The chicken curry casserole is still a family fave.
The dreamy creamy casserole is very tasty. I will post the recipe for it later.

This weeks menu... I did the grocery shopping this morning- got most of it done... a few things were not available so I will have to try another store later.

Monday- Cafe Rio Pork salad and rice. The pork recipe I used is :
Cafe Rio Pork
Sweet Pork:

* 1 (3-5 pound) pork roast-boneless pork loin recommended
* 1 cup salsa-use Pace or one similar, not the fresh salsas
* 1 cup brown sugar, packed

Place ingredients in a greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW heat for 8-10 hours. Shred pork with a fork or potato masher before serving. Keep lid off after shredding for about 15 minutes so juice will thicken. Use meat in burritos, tacos, or salads. If freezing, keep juice and freeze with meat.

Tuesday- Bacon Cheeseburger Rollups. We had these at my sis-in-laws over christmas and she put the recipe in my cook book. They are yummy. I will post the recipe later.

Wednesday- Meatloaf

Thursday- Carne Guisada with Sofrito

Friday-leftovers

Saturday- Pizza- homemade(well I bought the parts to it- Trader Joes has yummy pizza dough for 99 cents :) )

Sunday- Chicken Enchiladas

I've got the pork in the crockpot- so we are off to a good start today. ..

National Hug Day contest

Alice Koh is giving away GC's to her store for lucky winners of her National Hug day contest- January 21st. You can check it out at her blog. Here is my entry for the contest:
Credits:
Alice Koh Designs(check out her blog above)-
Background paper- Wickedly Kirstie
Glitter stars- Starry Starry Night
Cords- Strap Basic

Shawnery Mathis(Plain Digital Wrapper)-
Yellow and Green stars- Fun Times
Cardboard stars- Beauty in Nature

Retrodiva(www.digitalfreebies.com) -
Alpha- Summer Picnic

Journaling reads:The sun rises and sets for Grandma on you little man. Grandma loved

getting in some loves and laughs during Christmas 2007. You made her happy by asking for

her and not being too clingy to Mama and Dada.

Quickpage giveaway

I guess I should have posted about this earlier. I am such a slacker sometimes... anyway... For my CT we all made Quickpages using Karla's Midnight Snow grab bag. It is a VERY fun kit with lots of wonderful bling. The QPs have been great all week. Mine just came available today. :) Here's the page that I created with it. Go to Karla's Blog to get it. Check out her previous posts from all last week for more... and keep checking for more this week. Quickpages are pages where all you have to do is pop in your pictures and add a title or journaling to the side and tada- scrapbook page done!

2 Christmas pages

Photoshop 6 has the most amazingly easy extraction tool. It took me two seconds to extract the images in the 2007 page. Awesome!

I scraplifted a page from lilypad designs for the 2007 page. The link is in my blog roll.

I used Carrie Bombria's Cinnamon Nutmeg kit, Aja Abney's My Wish for You, Retrodiva's Be Merry Alpha, Scrapprofessor's Believe, and Cinzia L's Friday freebie . :) Happy scrapping...

Menu Plan Monday!

A new goal to help meet our budget. We need to tighten things up so that we can afford a new vehicle. My husband's commuter car is about to become more expensive to maintain than it is worth. So he will most likely switch to my car and we will get a mini-van for me. If you know anyone interested in selling one... let us know. This week I want to make recipes that we already have ingredients for. I have one package of beef and several of chicken and one roast. So....

Monday - Tostadas and Tacos- using leftover taco meat and refried beans from tonight. :) So basically this meal is already done. :)

Tuesday- Slow cooker Roast- I actually don't think I have any onion soup so I will improvise with steak seasoning and onion powder instead. I did it once before and it turned out well. I'll serve this over rice with Corn on the cob on the side.

Wednesday- Cheesy Meat loaf- This is a recipe that my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. She gave me an awesome book. I am excited to try all of the recipes. We'll eat it with french fries and salad.

Thursday- Chicken Broccoli Curry Casserole- This too is a family favorite and also is included in the cookbook my sis-in-law gave me.

3-4 Chicken Breasts Preheat oven to 375

1 bag frozen Broccoli florets mix everything but the croutons and butter

2 cans cream of chicken soup in a 9x13 pan. Save some cheese to sprinkle on

1 cup mayonnaise top.

1 1/2 tsp curry powder crush the croutons in a bag with a rolling pin

2 T lemon juice mix with butter and sprinkle over top

Grated Cheddar cheese Cook for 45 min. or until Chicken is cooked

1 cup croutons Serve over Rice

2 T butter, melted

My sis-inlaws recipe calls for cooking and shredding the chicken first but my family always just cooks it in the casserole. If you use chicken tenderloins you don't even have to defrost it first. :)

Friday- Enchilada Casserole- I cook one can of enchilada sauce with two chicken breasts in the crockpot on low all day. I throw the chicken in frozen so it is super easy. I shred the chicken about half way through the cooking time so that it soaks up the sauce better. I layer the chicken, corn tortillas and cheese in a pan and cook it in the oven for about 20 minutes to melt the cheese. This is a family favorite and very easy.

Saturday- Leftovers - though this night may rotate to a different one earlier in the week if I get too tired.

Sunday- Creamy Dreamy chicken and Spirals casserole- another recipe from my new cookbook.

Woohoo- don't have to go grocery shopping this week. :) Gotta love that!

Check out My Wooden Spoon!

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

The Prize:

The winner will receive a brand new
Hamilton Beach 4.5-qt. Eclectrics Stand Mixer, Pineapple Yellow!!

About the mixer:

From Hamilton Beach’s “Eclectrics” line, this all-metal stand mixer comes with a host of accessories - a Flat Beater for cakes and cookies, a Dough Hook for bread and a Wire Whisk for whipped cream or pudding. The 4.5-qt. stainless steel bowl comes with a Pouring Shield that helps prevent splattering while in operation. The pouring shield has a built-in chute for adding ingredients. Powered by 400 watts, the stand mixer has a two-way mixing action to ensure all ingredients are incorporated into the mix. The quick-release, tilt-up head assists when removing the bowl. 9 x 14 x 14-in. When you’re ready for a kitchen re-do, don’t call in the carpenters! Instead, “counterscape” your kitchen with Hamilton Beach’s retro-designed, affordably priced electrics in happy, sun-saturated colors. Their “Eclectrics” line includes updates to those classic appliances from the 1950s. All of their “Eclectrics” are available in six colors: Apple Green, Moroccan Red, Pineapple Yellow, Intrigue Blue, Sugar White and Licorice Black.

Getting back in the groove

I love love love this photo that I took of Kaden back in April. He looks so serious! I saw this kit today in the freebie's section of Scrapartist and the Word art was just too perfect to resist. I love the bright colors of the kit and the bling. The kit is My Wish for You by Aja Abney. I believe she is a new designer at Scrapartist. I have been waiting for the right kit to scrap this photo. This seemed just right.

I added some more bling by putting in some of the silver swirls from Karla Marano's grab bag available at Divine Digital. :) Gotta love the bling!

Finally did some Scrapping!

Well technically I have done a 4 or 5 pages since I last posted. What a slacker am I ?! Sorry! Life has been busy. We spent two wonderful weeks in Washington for Christmas. It was so great to have Matt for 2 weeks and to see both of our families. I have lots of fun photos to scrap. Photos are so inspiring! I have some funny Kaden stories that I need to scrap too. He is starting to talk a lot and it is very funny. He is quite a character. So anyway... pages...



I used Scrapproffessor's freebie kit Believe. I just love the expression on Kaden's face and the fact that the words on the page are in direct opposition to what Kaden wants to do. :)

I used Karla Marano's Autumn kit to put together the above page. Plus I used an alpha from Retrodiva. You can find the autumn kit at Karla's store in my sidebar.

This page of Thanksgiving break fun at the park was made using Karla's Blessings kit. Go to her store in my sidebar.
I used 3 of Karla's kits to put this page together. And the title is Shabby Princess Harvest Spice. Karla's kits that I used are Backyard Buganza (solid orange ribbon), Rainbow kit (stars), and Pastel breezes (the three papers I used).

The first three pages I did as part of a brag book for my dad. That's what he requested for Christmas. The bottom LO I created for a challenge by Rose at Rose Mcdigital Designs. Check out her blog in my sidebar as well!