Alright, I'm back at it! Mike and I sat down to do our budget yesterday and from last month's spending I can really tell that meal planning has paid off! As listed in one of the comments from my last meal planning post, there is a group of women (I'm guessing mostly women!) that share their menu plans every Monday. I'm not joining in with them as I feel I have too much personal information here but feel free to check them out!
Meal Plan Monday Group
Monday: Tequila Lime Chicken, Potato Salad, & Lettuce Salad
Tuesday: Brats, Baked Beans & Lettuce Salad
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Roast Beef, Potatoes, & Carrots
Thursday: Salmon, Orange Cilantro Rice & Basil Garlic Green Beans
Friday: Beef tacos, Refried Black Beans, Chips & Salsa (okay, so it's not very "all-American" for Independence Day but I'm going to need to use up the left over roast beef some way!)
Off to the first day of swimming lessons!
P.S. Some of the recipes are linked so you can check them out if you're interested.
June 30, 2008
Meal Plan Monday
June 26, 2008
Additional Photos
Courtesy of Aunt Wanda
This just screams "Americana"
And so does this one....LOL!
Two sweethearts....
June 25, 2008
Vacation!
va·ca·tion 
–noun
| 1. | a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday |
Well, I don't know if this definition strictly applies to me anymore. It seems as though vacations usually involve more work than staying at home (yet another reason for a "staycation"). But we did have a lot of fun going to the least visited state, aka North Dakota. The car ride was, well, it wasn't as bad as it could have been - let's just put it that way.
We stopped in Moorhead to visit Susan and Maya. Maya has sure gotten tall! And now she likes to pose for pictures. Aunt Susan finally got to meet little (or not so little!) Libby.
When we finally got to my parents farm, the kids had lots of freedom to make up for the lack of movement in the car. Luke started out climbing on the hay bails with some tutelage from Papa.
Luke's desire to be a gun-slinging, fishing pole toting young man was appeased and increased by all the activities he got to do. There is old toy rifle of my brothers that he carried around the entire week (seriously, he would have slept with it if we would have let him!). He took it with as he and Mike went gopher hunting with my family. Hey, I even got to shoot a hand gun albeit my aim could have been better. The barn cats got lots of gophers to make them happy and full. The boys even went fishing as the fish were biting up at Lake Josephine. They caught some walleye one day and another day they got to see a garter snake eating a frog - pretty exciting stuff!
Abby had fun cleaning - cleaning the four wheelers that is. She spent a good hour plus using a brush and cleaning off the, well, the stuff that flies up when you are chasing cattle with a four wheeler.
We also went to the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck. It had been ages since I had been there! My whole family went. As a side note, my nephew and niece, Andrew and Grace were just so much fun! Little balls of sunshine is what they are....
My father asked Mike to do something for him - change the barn's exterior light bulb. Mike accepted it as a "man challenge" and helped Dad out!
We also did some geocaching on the trip. I think we've got Andrew hooked ;)
Then there was the All School Reunion. What a blast from the past! It was good to see many of my old friends. It is funny how there is this bond of living so many years together - so many common memories. And it is neat to see how everyone has and hasn't changed. Morgan still had me laughing, Steph was still "in charge," Leesa and Alycia were still easy to talk to (hey! fellow stay-at-home moms! or mom-to-be anyway) etc. etc....
I have to post this picture as it is a photo of Abby eating nachos in the school lunchroom. Man, I couldn't even tell you how many nachos I ate in that room!
And then, it was time to go home. We had one last fun evening in the hotel pool in St. Cloud...
Our crazy car ride home.....silly kids!
That's it in a nutshell. Any more info and your boredom tears would be overwhelming you. But it is good to "write" this all down for posterity's sake!
June 15, 2008
Flood Update
The river is receding. It has left one BIG mess. Lots of hearts are hurting and are broken. It will take a long time for the city to recover but I sense that most people really want to see the city recover and recover well.
We are still doing well. It was so good to be in church this morning. Our friends are going to be able to go into their house tomorrow and remove any goods that they want to move. They will also meet with FEMA tomorrow... so the process of rebuilding is taking place.
We will be heading out of town for a few days so I won't be posting, so don't worry!
God bless,
June 13, 2008
The Flood!
I just wanted to post on here as I'm sure many of you have heard about the flooding in Cedar Rapids. The Richard Family is safe and dry, praise God! I am so thankful to be in the position to be able to help some of those who have lost so much. We have some of our dearest friends staying with us. They are such an encouragement to me as I see them handling losing so much and their faith still remains so strong. They are an awesome family! I am I so thankful for our church who desires to help and are bringing us food. God does provide, even the midst of straining times.
The kids are getting along well (there are 7 in the house now). Really, it is one big slumber party for them. We are on a water restriction due to the strained sewer system and the reduced capacity of the water treatment plants - drinking water only. So, we are getting very comfortable with each other.
I'll update as the internet will allow. But for now, God bless and stay dry.
June 09, 2008
Menu Planning
I'm trying to get into the habit of menu planning. I heard Donna Otto say in one of her podcasts that menu planning is the single most thing that you can do to help save money and time. Right now, I'm only planning supper menus for one week at a time. It seems as though we need to go to the grocery store for milk and fruit at least once a week so we might as well go armed with a list for that week instead of trying to come up with more than 7 menu ideas. So this week I thought I would post my menu for this week. I use the calendar function at google.com. If any of you would like to do this and hook up with mine then we could share menu ideas. In fact, I might think that your menu looks better than mine and swap!
Monday: Grilled Chicken and Southwest Pasta Salad
Tuesday: Chili & Butter Corn Bread
Wednesday: Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli & Rice Bake and Lettuce Salad (I'll make extra chicken tonight to put in this casserole)
Thursday: Beef & Noodles in Thai Peanut Sauce and Lettuce Salad
Friday: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Saturday: White bean ragu on Pasta (and probably Lettuce Salad)
Sunday: Leftovers!
June 06, 2008
Recipe Sharing
Hello there,
I wanted to share a new recipe with you all. It made some of the best homemade enchiladas that we've ever eaten. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. It was one of those days that I needed to go to the grocery store. But Luke was feeling icky with a fever that both Libby and Abby had had previously. So I couldn't go out shopping. On the menu was beef enchiladas. I had made roast beef two days before and had planned to use the left-over meat as the filling for enchiladas. But I had no enchilada sauce! What's a girl to do? Turn to the trusty internet and see what you can come up with, with the ingredients you have on-hand. So a quick search on allrecipes.com for enchilada sauce pulled up two promising recipes. After talking with Mike, I decided to go for the one that people said was "authentic" tasting even though there was no tomato in the sauce. I have to warn you that if you like Taco Bell over a more authentic Mexican restaurant, you may not like this as much as us. Oh and for you crazy vegetarians out there, people said this was great on spinach enchiladas too.
| Enchilada Sauce |
| Submitted by: Anna Marie Rated: 4 out of 5 by 90 members | Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes | Ready In: 40 Minutes Yields: 12 servings |
| 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 cup diced onion 3 tablespoons chopped garlic 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground cumin | 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 5 tablespoons hot chili powder 4 1/2 cups chicken broth 1/2 (1 ounce) square semisweet chocolate |
| 1. | Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high high heat. Saute onion until tender. Stir in garlic, oregano, cumin and cinnamon; saute for a few minutes. |
| 2. | Stir in flour and chili powder, stirring until sauce thickens. Slowly whisk in chicken broth; reduce until sauce reaches desired consistency. Stir in chocolate until melted and well blended. |
June 04, 2008
Last weekend...
Sorry for all the videos and not much "chat" but I think you'll get a feel for what our weekend was like. Mike and I were WORE out! But we had a lot of fun doing geocaches, identifying wildflowers, and eating s'mores...the list goes on.
