Weekly Menu 1/31-2/6

Oh my gosh, this was a busy weekend. And we didn't get much packing done either. I got a lot of cleaning done, but not a lot of packing. We did however, get a lot of little things done. Basically, everything I wanted to get done this weekend got done! YAY!!

The menu however is always a hard thing to figure out when your in the midst of moving. We got some grocery shopping done and even though we said it was going to be a light trip, we still came out close to what we would normally spend on a normal shopping trip. How does that happen? I'm blaming it on the frozen pizzas Josh wanted to buy.

We took the kids to California Pizza Kitchen last night, for one last nice family dinner before the rest of the house gets completely torn apart and the meals become a lot less thoughtful. And we had such a fantastic time! I tell you, I love that place because your money really stretches there. Josh and I never even mess with straying from their pizza menu. We go there, only for the pizza...and occasionally we'll have an appetizer too. I know they have a million other things on the menu that's delicious, but they are known for their pizza and Josh and I can split one and it's cheap and yummy. Grace and Eden both ate their pizzas and we're so good too. We had a great dinner together.

I don't really know the order of the menu this week. It's just going to be kind of whatever we both feel like having. But we bought some pepper turkey deli meat from the deli, and some bacon. So I imagine we'll be doing a lot of sandwiches this week and maybe pizza again one night.

That's basically the menu. Sorry it's not more impressive, but I promise it will get better once we're settled into the house :)

Egg in the Nest

Some may know it as Egg in a Basket, Bird's Nest Egg, or Egg Toast; just to name a few. But I know it as "Egg in the Nest." My mom has been making this breakfast for me for as long as I can remember, ( And I can remember pretty far back) and it's always had the same name in our family. But you can go ahead and call it whatever you like.

When I found out I was pregnant with Gracie, my mind revisited all of my childhood favorites. When they are old enough you can take them to your favorite theme park ( mine was Enchanted Forest), teach them your favorite Childhood board game (Hungry Hungry Hippos & Candyland), say your mom's favorite phrase to get you to finish eating or drink when your stalling around ( Down the Hatch), and feed them your favorite childhood breakfasts ( French Toast & Egg in the Nest). I have done all of these things with Gracie and now I'm beginning to with Eden because she is starting to get old enough for some of our  favorites.

I generally, don't make breakfasts though. I can bake yummy treats for breakfast and I can cook French Toast and even Pancakes. But I'm not great with eggs. My scrambled eggs never turn out as good as my husbands or the way my mom's did. So I leave the breakfast cooking to Josh. But I can make a really good Egg in the Nest and it is the one thing he asks me to make every year for his birthday breakfast.

The ingredients are simple. All you need are eggs, Veggie Oil, and your favorite slices of bread. (I like the multi-grain as pictured here because it's got little nuts and seeds in it.) You can also use a little bit of salt & pepper too.

Take your favorite large frying pan and pour some oil into the pan and get it nice and hot. The way my mom always taught me to tell if a pan is ready is get your fingers a little bit wet from the sink and flick the water into the pan. If if sizzles and pops, you are ready. ( If you don't have oil, you can use butter instead.)

You can use a biscuit cutter to make the whole in your bread, but since I don't have one, I just tear out a whole in the middle of the slice of bread. Stick your bread in the pan for about a minute and then crack the egg and pour the yolk in the hole.

At this point you could sprinkle some salt and pepper over the egg, but since I was making these for the girls, I left it out.  When it's been about a minute, flip the bread/egg over with a good spatula and sprinkle again with salt and pepper, if you want. Nobody is forcing you to Salt and Pepper your egg to death though :) Cook the egg for a couple of minutes on this side until it's at it's desired doneness and that's it, your done :)

This was Gracie's Plate

My favorite part is cutting into the middle of the nest and you get that beautiful warm yolk with the crunchiness of the bread. Mmm, mmm...So good!

And a meal isn't complete without a glass of Orange Juice and a bit of fruit. I make it a habit for my girls to eat fruit every morning with their breakfasts. Generally they will either share a banana or have their own, eat a cutie, or a bowl of diced pears. And fruit finishes off this meal beautifully. 

Make this for your kids this morning and let them get involved by tearing the whole in the middle of the bread, they will get a kick out of making their own nests ;)

Egg in the Nest

eggs

bread

butter/vegetable oil, whichever you prefer

salt and pepper

Either using a biscuit cutter, drinking cup, or just making a make shift hole in the bread yourself, cut a circle/hole into your slices of bread. 

In your skillet, heat your veggie oil and place the bread slices in the oil. Crack your eggs over the circle in your bread and let the yolk fill the hole. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. When the bread is golden on the bottom side, flip the bread. Sprinkle the egg again lightly with Salt and Pepper.  Cook for another minute or so and serve!

Linked Up at:

My Sweet and Savory

Comfy in the Kitchen

Kitchen Item of the Week: Potato Bin

It's been such a long long time, since I've posted a Kitchen Item of the Week. But here it is, at long last. :)

Let me ask you a question. How do you store your potatoes?

Potatoes, take up a lot of space and like to be kept in cool dark places. They're a pretty needy little vegetable.

When I was a little girl, my grandma bought my mom a potato bin. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen when I was little and my mom has been using it for like 16 years. But as I got older, I made no secret to her, letting her know how much I wanted it someday. I even went as far as trying to coax my dad into making one for me.

But, my mom finally broke down and gave it to me. I think she was tired of me asking for it and it was taking up space in her pantry hallway, so over to my house it came.

I remember, I stayed home from church the day Josh brought it home for me from my mom's house. He walked in the door carrying the bin...and said something like," Um, your mom told me to give you this...what is it, why does it say Taters, and your not really going to keep this in the kitchen are you?" LOL!

I do admit, though I thought this was really cute when I was younger, it is kind of hokey looking now, but I love it's purpose. To store my potatoes. 

I would like to repaint this and make it a more modern potato bin so it could match the rest of our home decor. And the word Taters on it, now reminds me of that scene in Lord of the Rings when Sam is telling Gollum what a tater is "PO-TA-TOE" and that even Gollum couldn't turn his nose up at it, heehee. 

Hopefully, once we've moved and got settled in and Spring decides to show it's pretty shining face I can turn this into a potato bin that goes with everything else :)

Sweet & Moist Pumpkin Bread

In my opinion, any time of year is a good time to eat some delicious pumpkin. I'm a fan of pumpkin in every variety, but I adore Pumpkin Bread. It makes a delicious breakfast or the perfect snack to munch on while you kick back and watch your favorite show.

I first got this recipe from one of my dear friends. We were friends in Elementary school, enemies in Middle School ( because she was dating a boy I liked, lol), and very close friends through out High School. Now, we live cities apart. But, She will always be my friend. She supported me at my wedding and I feel as though we are kindred spirits. We rarely see each other, but when we do, it's awesome. I just love her...So Thank You Cindy for always being kind wonderful you and being my friend...and for giving me this awesome recipe!

Every time I make this delicious bread, I get a million compliments. In fact, my brother in law, Jeffrey loved it so much, I made him a special loaf just for him on his birthday...but the sweet boy he is, I'm sure he shared with the entire family,  but he liked it that much. 

I generally make a loaf for our family, bring another loaf to church, and split another loaf between our families.  

The batter makes a lot of loaves, 3 normal sized loaves to be exact, so be a friend and share some of the love :)

Cindy's Pumpkin Bread

3 cups canned pumpkin puree

1 1/2 cup veggie oil/applesauce

4 cups of white sugar

6 eggs

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp ground cloves

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 9x5 loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a smaller bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. 

3. Bake in pre-heated oven for 45-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed. 

4. Enjoy with a loved one and cup of coffee and your good to go :)

This recipe is linked to:

Eat At Home

My Sweet and Savory
Comfy in the Kitchen

And Sweet As Sugar Cookies

Weekly Menu 1/24-1/30

I think we've all recovered now...I hope. Early last week the girls got really sick and then 2 days later, it hit my husband, and then me. I am now just starting to feel like myself again. Everyone else seemed to bounce back pretty easily, but for me, it's taken a few days longer. But, I'm on the mends.

Saturday, we signed the papers and handed over a hunk of money so that we can officially say...The House is Ours! Friday, February 4th, we'll have the walk through and get the keys and begin moving some things over like food and clothing; and hopefully a washer and dryer. We found one on Craigslist the other day for a really good deal so we're hoping to look at it on Thursday, when were back in Oregon City and pay the guy...and he's said it's fine to keep it there until we move on Friday. Which is really nice. But, it could always fall through, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. 

For this week and the following week, my menu will not be to exciting. I think towards the end of the week, I'm going to begin packing some of the food I don't plan on using as well as some dishes...so it's going to start getting bare minimum meals. I predict a lot of sandwiches in our future. 

Monday

We're thinking Pizza. We don't know if we'll do a take and bake or make a homemade margarita pizza...but I think it will be pizza for sure.

Tuesday

Chicken Tostadas

Wednesday

Breakfast...not sure what kind yet.

Thursday

Chili Casserole

Friday

Leftovers

Saturday

I think we'll be celebrating my Father in Law's birthday

Sunday

I don't know.

I got a beautiful Spring Form Pan for my Birthday from my brother and sister in law, that I am so excited to use. They got me an awesome dessert magazine to go with it, but because I'm moving, I haven't even unwrapped my pan yet. I'm just going to pack it, and then as soon as we get settled and  back on a routine...I plan on making something delicious with it. :) So I won't be making any desserts or snacks for the next 2 weeks at least.

We're moving!!

Hello, everyone!

We have some news. The whole Cat family is moving!

We've found a home to rent a lot closer to our families ( about 10 miles from them actually) and so were going to  be moving. We've decided on a move-in day of February 5th, which is about 2 weeks away.

A lot of packing and preparation is going to be going on while we get ready for this move so that means I will probably won't have much time for a lot of cooking or blogging. I imagine we'll be doing very easy meals for the next two weeks.

I'll try and get on and post things as I have the time for, but sadly this means I'll be away from cooking yummy things in my kitchen and sharing them with you and I won't be linking up any dishes to my other foodies either. As soon as we get settled into our new place, I'll pick up where we left off. In the mean time, just say a prayer that we can get everything done in 2 weeks that needs to be done :)

Love,
Chels & Josh :)

Weekly Menu 1/17-23

My kids are sick. Well, they are still sick from their colds, but last night, we think they got food poisoning from a restaurant. So they spent the entire night ridding their bodies of anything that wanted out. It was a looong night! Today they are on a liquid diet till we feed them something bland tonight and them tomorrow they start more antibiotics.

We celebrated Josh's birthday Saturday night and it was a lot of fun. He got the Inception Soundtrack which he was really excited about, a couple of giftcards to Macy's, books, money, and some Starbucks Love...not to mention the Panini Press the girls and I bought for him.

Josh's mom made him his favorite cake. Josh isn't much of a cake person, so every year his mom makes him his special Texas Sheet Cake...do you want to know how old my hubs is? He is 26 years old now!

We still have to go grocery shopping. I may run out and do it later or if the girls are feeling up to it, we might do it tonight. But I do have a menu for everyone. 

I will say this in advance- we have more birthday cake in the house and so therefore, I will not be making any sweets this week. I know, I know, I said I would last week...but I guess I fibbed just a bit ;)

Monday

We're going to do eggs and toast for the girls tonight. Simple and Bland, but Josh will probably spice ours up a bit :)

Tuesday

Baked Potato Soup

Wednesday

I'm going to use the Honeybaked Ham in my freezer with artichokes and herbed rice.

Thursday

( Awana Night)

Chili Casserole

Friday

Homemade Margarita Pizza with a salad

Saturday

Josh is going to try out his Panini Press and make us sandwiches with chips

Sunday

Chicken Tostadas

Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

Well, that's it. I'm looking forward to Sunday's dinner, it sounds good to me...but right now, everything sounds good to me since I haven't eaten all day because I didn't want to make my kids feel bad since they can't eat till tonight. Now, that's love right there ;)

Have a great week everyone, and please try and stay healthy!

Mmm, Garlic Salmon!

Monday was Josh's Birthday and I wanted to make him a special dinner. Having your birthday on a Monday kind of sucks. It's the beginning of the week and your tired and there is still a long week ahead of you. But I wanted him to have a special evening at home with his ladies.

When I was scanning our grocery stores ad, I saw that Salmon was on sale. We don't get to eat a lot of salmon in our house because normally it's expensive and it doesn't play well with our budget. But they had salmon on sale for $5.99 lb and I thought...maybe, just maybe...that was something I could make work into our budget.

I called my mom to ask her about what kind of salmon it was and her thoughts. The salmon was a Wild Alaska Yukon River Kepa Salmon and she said, it's on the lower totem pole as far as Salmon goes, but that they've ate it many times and it's good. My thoughts were, I don't care where on the totem pole it is, if I can afford it, Salmon is Salmon and Josh and I love it and I wanted to get it for him. So I went to the store and got my groceries and Salmon and came home.

The menu  I had planned out was the Garlic Salmon, with baked sweet potatoes, a fruit salad, and seasoned corn. All delicious and healthy, but simple too.

The first thing I did was take a baking sheet and place some aluminum foil on top of it and sprayed it with cooking spray. Then I rinsed off my fish and patted it dry and laid it on top of the greased foil. Then I set my oven for 450 degrees.

Then I started mincing my garlic. Fresh garlic is one of my favorite herbs to cook with. I love the smell, and the taste and I love how my hands smell afterwards. When I was a kid, I would always beg my mom for her empty garlic powder container so I could play with it and take the cap off and take a whiff...it is probably one of my favorite cooking smells.

Then I took some sprigs of fresh organic baby dill and chopped that up nice and fine. And then I strayed from the recipe a bit. I took some butter ( Mmm, butter) and softened it just a bit in the microwave. Then I mixed in the garlic, dill, some salt and pepper, and lemon juice and mixed it together to make a delicious garlicky buttery paste.  I sprinkled my fish with Salt and Pepper and began lathering my fish in a sweet buttery spread. Then I sliced some lemons and placed the sliced lemons on top of the salmon along with a sprig of dill on top of each lemon. It looks like a masterpiece even then...and it wasn't even cooked yet.

When the fish was complete, I took another long stretch of aluminum foil, greased that and covered the fish and made a fishy tent.

Another great thing about fish, other than it's relatively a easy thing to prep, is that it cooks pretty fast. I stuck it in the oven for 20-25 minutes and I let Josh open his Birthday gift from me and the girls :)

What could it be?!

Ta-da, it's a Panini Maker!!!

By the time, Josh had read all of his cards, opened his gift and examined it and thanked me a million times, dinner was ready.

The Salmon ended up being a perfect doneness at about 23 minutes. But it smelled and looked so good sitting there in it's little buttery bath :)

The fish tasted awesome and we had a wonderful birthday dinner for Josh. I couldn't of been more pleased about my lower totem pole Salmon. It did the job just fine and I felt so healthy afterwards too...which is why, I ate a birthday cupcake that Josh brought home with him because his staff made cupcakes for him, so sweet :)

Garlic Salmon

Source: Allrecipes.com

Adapted by Me

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillet

salt and pepper to taste

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 sprig fresh dill, chopped

5 slices lemon

5 sprigs fresh dill weed

1/4 cup butter, softened- to make a paste

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Spray two large pieces of aluminum foil with cooking spray.

Place salmon fillet on top of one piece of foil. Sprinkle the salmon fillet with salt and pepper. 

In a small bowl make a paste with the butter and add the minced garlic and chopped dill and combine.  Spread the buttery paste over the salmon. Top with lemon slices and sprigs of dill.

Cover Salmon with other sheet of foil and pinch tight to make a tent. Place on a large baking sheet. Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until fish flakes easily.

Weekly Menu 1/10-1/16....and why I haven't been posting at all this week.

You're probably wondering why there hasn't been a Menu of the Week and why I haven't posted any recipes...seeing as though it's Thursday. Well, we've had a bit of a dilemma in the house this week and today is really the first day since Tuesday, that I've had a chance to type without being to uncomfortable.

Monday's are my weekly menu days, but we had a really fast busy weekend and I wasn't able to go grocery shopping till Monday afternoon and then I spent the rest of the day cleaning and Monday was also my husband's birthday and I made him a delicious dinner. So that's Monday's excuse. For Tuesday and Wednesday's excuse you can read about it over at my other blog 4Catz @ Home as to why I've been absent from the blogging world.

At this point it's Thursday and I don't see much of a point of posting my weekly menu because this week has already been such a mess and we've been kind of playing it by ear every night anyways. But I will go ahead and tell what we have done for the week and maybe what were doing for the rest of the week as well.

Monday

It was my Hubby's Birthday and I made him a delicious Garlicky Dill buttery Salmon dinner with Baked sweet potatoes, fruit salad, and seasoned corn.

Tuesday

 We had Taco Bell

Wednesday

Neither one of us felt like cooking since we were so tired after cleaning for hours on Tuesday, so Josh made Fried Egg Sandwiches...which we're delicious.

Thursday

( Awana Night)

I'm not sure about tonight. We have Awana at 6:30pm and we're looking at a house at 3:45pm...so I'm not sure.

Friday

Honey-Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry with rice

Saturday

We're celebrating my husbands birthday that evening so I think we'll do something before the party. Maybe use a giftcard out to eat.

Sunday

Um...Depends on how tired we are and if we go grocery shopping...but maybe Sandwiches.

There will be no sweets this week. I promise to make something next week, I swear I will. I was going to make something this week, but because it was hubby's b-day, his work staff made him cupcakes and we've been eating those for the past few days and then someone else brought him donuts to take home last night. I don't know how many more sweets I can take, lol! 

Spaghetti with Zesty Bolognese

I was supposed to be at the gym. But the hubby ended up coming home from work later than expected which would of pushed dinner to an even later time. So we decided that I would not worry about my gym commitment and instead we turned on some Michale Buble, poured some glasses of wine ( only for the over 21 crowd) and made dinner as a family instead, and I'm so glad we did.

Grace had been sick the last few days and Tuesday was officially her turn around day. I think between the antibiotics her Doctor had prescribed and the homemade chicken noodle soup I had made Monday night...she was well on her way to be 100% again. Which is a relief. As a parent, you worry when your child is sick. So we decided since she was feeling better to have some fun with dinner and make something I thought the kids would really enjoy...and it just happened to be a recipe I had yet to make before.

The Tuesday night meal was Spaghetti with a Zesty Bolognese Sauce. I've never made a Bolognese sauce before, but I've ordered it from restaurants plenty of times, so when I came across this recipe in my Kraft Philadelphia Cookbook, I got excited because this looked like a yummy and easy fake out way to make a delicious meat sauce.

As I mentioned in my Chicken Noodle Soup post the other day, I had saved half of my itty bitty onion for this meal. My husband was not to thrilled that I insisted on using it, ( he really and truly loathes onions) but in the end, seeing as I am the woman of household and almost always get my way, I won the battle and proceeded to get my onion out of the fridge.

I got a ton of feedback from some of my friends about easier ways to endure the fragrance of the onion and weeping of eyes, so I decided to take one of the suggestions and bite down on some bread while I cut into the onion...hoping that it would help absorb the awfulness that the onion brings when cutting it. I have the picture to prove it...please don't laugh.

Okay, you can laugh...I guess I'm not to afraid of embarrassing myself. And the bread trick did work...but after awhile, the onion does take over. But I had enough time to chop the onion up before my make up was ruined this time.

Once I had the onions chopped, I added 1/4 cup of light zesty Italian Dressing ( this is a Kraft book after all) and allowed the onions to cook up in that for a few minutes before adding my meat.

Now, normally when I cook with anything that normally calls for beef. I substitute it out for ground turkey breast because it's so much better for you. But, let's be honest, we're making a meaty "zesty" sauce here and to cheat it of beef would be a shame. So I did buy the leanest sirloin I could find ( and I found it on clearance too) and used that instead. 

We allowed the sirloin to brown up and soak up the flavor of the onions and dressing and at this point we started our noodles of choice for the "spaghetti" part of the meal. I myself am not to fond of regular spaghetti noodles. Don't ask me why, but I prefer angel hair pasta. But this is where we put our pot filled with water on the stove and allowed it to come to a roaring boil. I always, always salt my boiling water before adding pasta. It really does give a bit of flavor to the pasta.

When the meat had finally browned and got a nice rich color to it, we added in 1 can of tomato sauce and 1 can of diced tomatoes, undrained, and brought it to a boil. Then, we reduced the heat and allowed it to simmer, for 15 minutes which was just long enough to get our noodles to Al Dente.

Our pasta taste tester happened to be my sweet Gracie girl who was more than thrilled to help out make sure our noodles were cooked to perfect.  :)

While I drained the pasta noodles, Josh removed the Bolognese sauce off the burner and stirred in some Neufchatel cream cheese until it was well blended. Served along side a salad and some last minute made garlic bread ( our garlic bread went moldy) and it was a perfect meal!

The meal was surprisingly light and really very delicious and smelled so good. And since Grace wasn't feeling under the weather anymore and both she and Eden ate so well, we decided to surprise them with a little after dinner dessert. 

We had some ice cream that needed to be used up in the freezer, so this seemed like the perfect time to get rid of some of it. And I can't say my girls were too unhappy about it :)

Kraft's Spaghetti with Zesty Bolognese

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 15 min.

Makes: 6 servings

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup Kraft Light Zesty Italian reduced fat dressing

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce

1 can ( 14 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained

2 TBS Neufachatel cream cheese

12 oz. Spaghetti, uncooked

1/4 cup Kraft 100% grated Parmesan cheese

Cook onions in dressing in large skillet on medium heat. Increase heat to medium-high. Add meat; cook stirring frequently, until browned. Stir in tomato sauce and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in Neufchatel cheese until well blended. 

Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package.

Spoon sauce over pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese.

This recipe is linked to:

Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight

End of December Grocery Summery

I had no idea that when I wrote this post for last month ( November) and I told you that I had already come in under budget for our first grocery trip of December that spending less trend would continue. I just added up everything for December and I'm still in shock!

I guess it's mainly because we skipped one full week of grocery shopping and we did do fast food a few times. But still, we are under by a lot in my opinion.

Our Monthly grocery budget is $300.00

We spent $ 219.62

With a difference of $80.38 :)

We saved $35.88 with coupons.

So the savings with coupons wasn't as good as it was last month, but that's okay. It didn't really feel like we skipped a week of shopping and we still managed to buy all the stuff I needed for all of my holiday goodies and buy Christmas gifts. Yay for us!

I did go grocery shopping last night...by myself....which I think it's been a year since I've grocery shopped by myself ( Gracie is sick so Josh and Eden stayed home with her) and I came in under budget last night too. I hope this sticks because it's awesome!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

I stood in my kitchen hovering over my cutting board and thinking about my next choice of action. I had just chopped and sliced 3 carrots and 2 long stalks of celery. But I knew now at this moment I had to make a decision about my next vegetable. Should I cut up all of it and use it? Should I chop half and reserve half. Or should I just forget I had the vegetable all together and throw it back in my potato bin where it had been residing for the past week.

Weekly Menu 1/3-1/9

Happy 2011!!!!

Did everyone have a wonderful, fun, and safe New Year's Eve?

We had a very relaxing and low-key New Year's Eve which I think was really good for our family. We used a giftcard that we had received from my Grandma for a Christmas gift and treated the kids to Olive Garden. It was so busy there but thanks to Josh using the Call Ahead Seating method, he called Olive Garden on his way home from Salem ( which is about a 35-40min drive) and we were able to get seated right away because the wait time was about an hour. Grace really enjoyed her kids Fettuccine Alfredo, Eden snacked on breadsticks and ate the salad, and Josh had the Chicken Alfredo, and I tried the Parmesean Crusted Tilapia. Josh stopped by the Redbox on our way home after dinner and picked up Knight & Day and we got a bottle of a Spanish Champagne for us adults to toast at Midnight.

Grace has been sick since Christmas Day so the kids pretty much went to bed right away and we started our movie and fixed a bowl of popcorn until 10 minutes till Midnight. It was such a lovely evening. The movie was really good ( and I am not a Tom Cruise Fan) and pretty mild in terms of conduct...which I appreciate. Then we watched the Ball drop and toasted our champagne in our wedding flutes and had our annual New Years kiss <3

The rest of the weekend has been really low-key...mainly for Grace who kind of had a relapse in her cold. She seems to be feeling better tonight which is good because I'm about ready to get her into the Dr. 

Josh is making dinner right now, so I could work on a few blogs. He's making a homemade pizza tonight. This is our second attempt at this. The first time, our crust was huge...and though it was really good...it was really huge. So tonight, we're trying my sister in law's recipe that she had on her blog, The Rookie Cookie for a Whole Wheat Thin Pizza Crust. She's been making homemade pizza for awhile now, so I'm going to trust her on this one ;) I'll let you know in next week's menu how the pizza turned out :)

Monday

Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup and some rolls or biscuits

( My mom suggested I make this for Gracie since she's sick)

Tuesday

Spaghetti Bolognese, salad, and garlic bread

Wednesday

Chicken BBQ Sandwiches and my mom's homemade macaroni and cheese...with some fruit

Thursday

(Awana Night)

Leftovers or Chili Casserole...I'm just not sure what I'll have time for.

Friday

Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots, and gravy...and rolls

Saturday

I am really hoping for a date night...but if not, we'll either do leftovers or the Chili Casserole

Sunday

I'm super excited about this coming Sunday. We're celebrating my dad's birthday and having an amazing brunch breakfast at The Quey Restaurant at the Red Lion Hotel in Vancouver Washington. We've been coming here ever since I was a little girl as a tradition for my dad after Christmas. They have the most amazing breakfasts!

That night...I want to make a Baked Potato Soup from Our Best Bites. 

I won't be making any desserts or treats this week. I need one more week of a break. I'm sure you all understand. If I get ambitious, I'll make some muffins...but it's sooo cold and windy here right now, oatmeal for the mornings and  rich warm dinners seem to be enough for right now. Next week...maybe I'll plan something delicious to make. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!