Tuesday's review and Wednesday meal plan and Thursday recipe

Playing catch up, sorry. We've had a crazy few days. My Husband is switching to freelance from his full time position next week. It's a little scary and a little exciting. Our biggest concern is health insurance. There are a lot of freelancers here so there are options- it's just a matter o picking the right one and budgeting for it. This will be an adjustment but I think it is the right direction for now. If you know of anyone in the Visual Effects industry he can connect with- let us know. His portfolio and Resume can be found at ww

Menu Review:

The chili was excellent and even won a prize at our Trunk or Treat/Chili cook off. It is a barebones basic chili which is exactly how DH likes it. He doesn't like kidney beans either so the red beans in this recipe were perfect or his kind of chili.

I made the Pumpkin Gorgonzola pasta. Sadly it was too sophisticated for our tastebuds. I did like it better the second day. I LOVED the mushrooms and onions. I think I will make those more often just because I like them. I am the only one who will eat them but I had no problems eating them all. :) I made some italian sausage on the side to go with this and that went over well. I might be willing to try the pumkin sauce again with a milder cheese like Gouda or Mozzerella. The gorgonzola had to much bite and the pumpkin was too sweet in combo with it. But as I said I liked it better the second day. So maybe I just needed to give it time to blend better. Or maybe I didn't quite follow the recipe right? Anyway. I'm glad we tried it. We needed a fall experiment meal. :) I have tried other recipes from this site, Pots and Pins, that we LOVE. So I will continue trying her recipes and we will sophisticate our palate some more. :)

I forgot to put the pork in the crockpot before we left for church on Sunday so we had a letover night early. We needed it anyway...

Still love the Cafe Rio Pork and Lime Cilantro salad dressing. I have been using the leftover dressing on everything! I put it on angel hair pasta with spinach, grape tomatoes, and parmesan. SOOOO yummy! Love it!

I won hot wing sauce with my chili so I decided to put it to use last night and make Oven Fried chicken. I tried mixing the sauce in with the egg but it didn't flavor the chicken at all. I don't know if I didn't make enough or what... Suggestions? The chicken was good dipped in the wing sauce and cilantro lime dressing. We had salad too.

Meal plan:

Just a few changes to use up leftovers, celebrate halloween... that kind of thing.

Today: rio pork and black bean burritos
Fri: Dead Man on Worms- Pots and Pins winner! She was on Emeril for this recipe. So much fun! She has a photo up on her Halloween party post. Awesome party too!
Sat: Thai Peanut Chicken from Package
Sun: Tri- tip
Mon: Leftovers
Tuesday: Sweet and Sour Chicken

Recipe:

Oven Fried Chicken

2 tbs butter- melt and put in bottom of 9x13 pan
2 large eggs
2 TBS milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp seasoning of choice- I used Creole seasoning- I will probably use more next time- maybe two tsp?
Chicken- I used two large chicken breasts cut into strips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

mix eggs and milk together.

mix flour, cornmeal, and seasoning.

Dip chicken into egg mixture and then into flour mixture then put in the prepared pan.

Halfway through cooking, brush juices from the bottom of the pan on the top of the chicken. Total cooking time 45-50 minutes.

This is the first time I've gotten my chicken to stay breaded! Love it! I would recommend more seasoning as it is very mild.

Monday Mommy craft

So today is my opportunity to show off the crafts that I have been working on. I did finish a scrapbook page and a halloween costume this past week.
Obviously I just did the pants soooo they don't quite match the shirt. I still like them though and they are glow in the dark. :)

I used a template which I think I love! It is Yin Designs template 62. I'm guessing I found it through Ikea Goddess. The kit which I also LOVE is by Karla Marano. Her link is in my sidebar. The kit is called A Boy's Playground. It is great fun! She has a new kit out right now that is all helicopters and airplanes. Another of her recent kits is all about bumps and bruises! So cool!

Sunday Insights

My Plan is to review my week on Friday. I will be going over the things I did during the week that worked and those that didn't. I have various goals for myself and habits I want to create. On Fridays I will just lay out there what happened and then I will take two days to think about it. On Sunday I will make new specific goals for the week ahead.

This last week was rough. It started off poorly with a sleepless Asher night and just never righted itself. This is of course my own fault. I let it stay a down week. I have plenty of excuses for why I let it stay that way but the reality is I don't want this next week to be the same. So I will set some goals to change this week. They say writing goals down helps them to happen. My mission president was a firm believer in writing down goals and I trust him. I know it helps me to sort out my thoughts and focus my energies. I tend to get overwhelmed by my messy house so this helps me to refocus my stressed out energy and get the work done that I need to get done.

My Goals for this week:

Potty Training: Institute a potty chart and prizes. Kaden will get a sticker on his chart every time he uses his potty. After 5 times going "#1" he can pick out a prize. After going "#2" once he will get a prize. I will encourage him to use the potty every half hour. He will wear underpants except during his nap and at night. I will not buy anymore diapers!
Exception: Tuesday morning will be off because of a doctor appt. for my DH

Kids: Kaden needs to be outside or do a physical activity everyday. It helps him behave and sleep better. My goal is to have him play in the backyard or at a park every day- weather permitting. Since we are potty training this week we will stick close to home. So this week the goal is to have him outside in the backyard (at the very least) every day from 9-10 am. If we can't go outside then I need to set up a physical activity for him in the house i.e. an obstacle course, jumping on the mattress, dancing, rolling balls (or bowling)...

House Cleaning: I will do dishes every day.

Budget: I will not spend any money this week except on neccesities like Milk. No justifications! We don't need it!

Spiritual: Read scriptures and say prayers everyday.

Creative: I will finish one of my christmas projects and do one Digiscrapping Blog header.

So hear goes... A new week....

Ghost feet

So it turns out that 1 lb. of baking soda is how much comes in one box. So I did have enough. :) I got this idea from www.susiej.com and it is going to be a new family tradition. Yay! Her instructions are awesome. It was very easy to make the dough and we even have some left for more fun play! Here's a photo journal of the creation process.

Kaden helped me roll out the dough. Make sure you leave it a little on the thicker side so that they can leave a good imprint.



Also wash your kids feet before putting them on the nice white dough. :) I realized how desperately my floor needs to be swept and mopped during this procedure too. yikes!

Such a cute little footprint! After this I used a butter knife to cut out around the foot just like the instructions say. And now it's time for the face.
Kaden would have jabbed the ghosts over and over again I think. So he needed a little guidance to make a face.
The finished product! Ta-da! I added holes at the top because I think I will make a garland or ornaments for a halloween tree of sorts out of them. We did one of Kaden's feet twice - oops! We did do his other foot too, but just once. Asher did it too. This was a lot of fun and I am excited to make it a tradition.

My plans for this site

So I kind of want more readers on this site... but that means I need to do the work to get you here and keep you here. I haven't done that. I think I will change the title. I haven't been doing too much digiscrapping lately. I need to do some. I will still post scrap pages when I do them... I have been learning to use my sewing machine lately though. Hmmm... I like to do everything. So I will post a little of everything here. Toddler activities (we're going to make those ghost footprints tomorrow :)), recipes we like, menu plans, crafts, scrapbooking... just whatever we do that is fun and creative. I'll menu plan on Tuesday after we get our store ads. So that will probably be a wednesday post. Maybe I will make something up for each day of the week to post about... Monday Mommy Craft day, Tuesday menu plan review day, Wednesday menu plan, Thursday Recipe day, Friday Week in Review day, Saturday Family Craft or Activity, and Sunday Insight day. They don't rhyme or have assonance or whatever... but they will get us by. Anything you would rather read about? I'll take suggestions... I'll start tomorrow with a play by play of Family craft day. Well and I will post my menu plan now so I have it in my head too...
So this is extra long menu planning because I made a big shopping trip this week and I can't go shopping for another two weeks except for milk and fresh veggies.

Menu Plan
Fri.- Flatlander chili from allrecipes.com - I am leaving out the green pepper and celery and substituting onion powder because hubby is picky
Sat.- Pumpkin Gorgonzola pasta from Pots and Pins ...something with hamburger for lunch- tacos or mac n cheese
Sun.- Cafe Rio Pork salad well I will use this dressing recipe but for the pork I will just stick it in the crockpot with one cup of salsa and one cup of brown sugar. YUMMY!
Mon.- Tri Tip with this seasoning - maybe in the crockpot?
Tues.- Leftovers
Wednesday- Thai peanut chicken with rice noodles- using packet seasoning and instructions
Thursday- Quesadillas
Friday- Bacon hamburger roll-up- hamburger(seasoned with montreal steak seasoning and worcestshire sauce), bacon, and velveeta spread out on pizza dough and then rolled up so the dough swirls through the hamburger and bacon. Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Get the dough as thin as possible so it cooks in the middle.
Sat- Sweet and Sour Chicken
Sun. - Chicken over rice(DH's recipe- he will make this)
Mon.- Leftovers
Tues.- find a tri tip recipe
Wednesday- find a pork recipe
Thursday- Mac n Cheese
Friday- Curry Chicken and Broccoli casserole- basically this recipe except I cook it in the oven at 350 for 45 min. and I use more cheese and I might use more curry?

Ok..two weeks of planning- I will update as things may change (especially if I get lazy or we need to have more leftover days.) Suggestions for pork tenderloin and tri-tip recipes are welcome. I got some on sale this week and have frozen a lot. Thanks! Hope you enjoy my blog makeover. I hope to use it to make me more accountable for some goals that I have. So at least it will serve my own purposes even if no one else looks at it. :)

Halloween Quilt giveaway!

I am lucky enough to know Nan of Pots and Pins personally. She is just as much fun in person as she is on her blog. For her one year blogaversary she is giving away this gorgeous circle quilt. It's pretty much Awesome. Go leave a comment for a chance. While you are there check out her recipes. Her Chinese Chicken Salad dressing is our favorite and a regular meal at our house. I even made it for my Mom-in-law when she came to visit. I just bought the supplies to make her Pumpkin Gorgonzola pasta this weekend. I am very much looking forward to it.

Fun toddler activities

I am having soooo much fun looking at various activities to do with my toddler for Halloween. I think they will be a great resource after Halloween based on what I have seen on their sites. Now I just need to do more of the activities instead of just look at them. Here's one that I think would be fun to do every Halloween and if I had 1 lb of baking soda I would do it today.... found at www.susiej.com

Peaceful Protest

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSLI497299._CH_.2400

This is amazing! This is a sign of freedom at work. Many will read it and see only the Anti- American sentiment but really it means that we have done our job right. They are learning to be free. They have learned to express their views without forcing their views. They are taking charge of their nation!

Quilt giveaway

Check out this GORGEOUS quilt by Pigtails and Snails. I am sooooo jealous of her talent! Wow! Wow! Wow!

Sorry, I have just been posting about these amazing giveaways. I am drooling over them all though. Everyone is so amazingly talented. It is so inspiring to me. No worries I will be posting some of my own creations again soon. Maybe I will even have my own giveaway. What would you want me to give? let me know...

Thirty Handmade Days

Check out Thirty Handmade Days for the best giveaways! Today she is spotlighting Everyday Celebrations who has the coolest quiet books and advent calendars! Everyday Celebrations is giving away a Halloween quiet book that I know my boys would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. We are always looking for more things to keep Kaden quiet in church. Plus he just plain love books. Wish me luck in winning the giveaway!

Little Ant Design

Little Ant Design is highlighting Halloween this month. Check out the site for fun ideas. The site is also having an awesome giveaway of one of Tim Turner's Ghoulish gallery art. Those are the cool changing pictures that show a respectable ancestor at one angle and a grotesque creature at another angle. My Husband LOVES this pictures and would hang them year round at our house if we weren't worried about the two year old. :) Matt bought the supplies to make his own last year. He made one for his brother for his homemade present (One of their family traditions is a homemade gift exchange). The brothers all made a feature length comedy, western, horror movie a few years back. He took some stills from that and made a movie poster with changing faces for the four brothers that starred in the movie. It was pretty fun and NOT easy to do. I think once our kids are older he will have to make one of the family to hang during the month of October. Eventually I think we will decorate for Halloween like most people do christmas- a month in advance. I'm partially excited to start that tradition and partially creeped out. :) Hopefully we won't scar, I mean, scare our boys too bad. :)

I added to the doll

I decided she looked a little drab so I added a felt collar, buttons, and pockets. They are all made of felt so they shouldn't be aa choking hazard right? My niece is 2 so I'm not really worried about her but she does have a newborn brother. :) I handsewed everything on and I think I did it pretty securely if not so neatly... She definitely has a handmade look to her. Hopefully she will be well loved.

pretty dang proud

So I LOVE the fabrics I found for this blanket. Since I don't quilt it- it's not a quilt- I haven't gotten that far in my skill set yet. But I do piece together the top. I got this "pattern" from a Joann's kit and I have used it many times now. It is the best for me since I don't have to match any corners. I haven't figured out how to cut or sew straight yet either. :) I made this for my nephew Nathan. I have enough fabric to make one for Asher too :) Sorry the photos aren't better- one more thing to work on... :) The blanket is 30x36 and I will "stitch in the ditch" to help it keep it's shape. The circle fabric is on the back. Kaden loves to name the colors of the different "ants" on the alien fabric. I just love it...