Happy Monday

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. I didn’t write a post yesterday for my Sunday Musings because I did one on Saturday and there wasn’t much else to add to it.

Still trying to plan ahead and make my menu plan, so here’s what’s on the menu for this week:

Monday – Coconut Curry, Cilantro Lime Rice and Naan Bread (the curry is a jar from Target!), ice cream for dessert.

Tuesday – Tacos, Home Made Refried Beans , Tinned Fruit

Wednesday – Crockpot Salsa Chicken (not sure if I will have this over rice or make enchiladas)

Thursday – Baked Ziti, Salad and Garlic Bread

Friday – Leftovers or Pizza!

I don’t know what I’ll do for the weekend, will think of that later on in the week.

Here’s something we finally had last weekend. . . one of my favorite summer time meals, hot dogs, bbq beans and home made potato salad – Yummy :-)

Also on the menu last week was Fried Rice, I’ve been doing this quite often with our leftover rice. It’s really quick and simple. . .

I simply sauté some green onions and garlic in a pan with a little sesame oil, add some frozen peas and corn and shredded carrot, cook for a few minutes then add the cooked rice, you’re basically just heating everything up at this point. Once the rice is hot add about 1/4 cup of soy sauce (or more to taste). Remove from the pan then scramble two eggs in that same pan, add the scrambled egg to the rice. It’s up to you what protein you add to it, this one above was shrimp fried rice that I made myself for lunch one day. Jason doesn’t like seafood so the next time I made this I used some left over pork – it sure is a tasty dish though.

So, here we are starting our second week of school and can you believe it’s September 1st on Wednesday – whoo hooo :) I really hope the weather starts cooling down now. September always used to feel like the start of Fall (until I moved to TX!), I hope we don’t have to wait long for cooler mornings. We had a couple last week but today it was already 79 degrees at 7.30am :-( It was too hot and humid to go walking so I popped in a dvd and walked in front of my tv!

Hope you all have a great start to your week.

Denise

Hello, it’s me!

Just popping in here to say hi to you all and wish you a wonderful weekend. Wow, didn’t that week go by fast? No? well it sure did for us. I’m happy to say Kristen’s first week back at school went really well. She did eventually see a couple of kids from her other school AND she saw a teacher from there too, the teacher must have transferred schools! She will apparently be Kristen’s new QUEST teacher once classes start.

So what have I been doing all week? I’d like to say I’ve been a cleaning fiend and the house is all spic and span, but that would be a big fat lie! I’ve been just easing myself back into a daily routine and in between that I’ve been knitting – ALOT! ;-) I can’t help it, it’s what I love to do.

A few weeks ago I knitted some things for my Etsy shop, I haven’t listed them yet because they are Fall/Winter items and it just seems way too hot to post about them. Here’s some fingerless mittens that I will be listing. I love the pink ones with the fluffy edging :-)

I’ve also knitted some chunky cowls and a fluffy pink scarf. I’ll hopefully get them listed in the next week or so (despite the heat we are still getting here, I’m sure it’s cooling down a little for some of you?)

So, since I have a few knits ready for my Etsy shop I turned to knitting for me this past week. I’ve also posted to my knitting blog but if you haven’t been over there (and you probably haven’t because I don’t have it linked to on this blog!) here’s a picture of my latest knit for ME!

I love how this top turned out (I’ll probably wear it on the shoulders instead of off like in the photo) but I can’t help think that it makes me look fat!! Ha ha, yes I know you’ll be thinking I’m crazy, but truth be told, I’ve gained back the 10lbs I lost over the beginning of summer (all around my middle) . . . . and I can feel it!

I ‘m happy to say I’ve started walking each morning again though, hopefully it will help me lose a little and start to feel a bit more energetic (I get to feeling so lazy and sluggish over the summer months). I’ll link up to my knitting blog on the left hand side – head over there if you’d like to see more. I’ve also knitted a little ‘nugget’ for Kristen this week and am working on a ‘Monster’ just for me (more about that when I’m finished it) ;-)

What are you all up to this weekend? I hope it’s a great one!

Denise

Falling behind

Well it seems I’m falling behind in here since school started this week! I haven’t posted my weekly meal plan and it’s already Wednesday. School is off to a good start for Kristen despite the fact it’s all new for her and she doesn’t have any friends there yet. Thank you all for your lovely comments and for your prayers. I know it will only get better with time for her.

So, what am I doing now that I have all day every day (except the weekends) to myself you might wonder? Well, making a start on clearing up Kristen’s bedroom is first on my list. It always seems to get cluttered and messy over the summer, I guess because she’s in there more often playing and hanging out with her friends. That has what kept me from posting yesterday, I was trying to make a good start on clearing it all up, getting it organized so she can then KEEP IT CLEAN on her own!

Anyway, here is my menu for this week (which we are already half way through!):

Monday – Creamy Pork Chops w/rice + green beans.

I found this easy recipe at frugalandsimple.com I thought Kristen might like these because she often asks for Campbell’s mushroom soup for lunch – I was right :-)

Tuesday – Breakfast for Dinner – we love this, (and it’s cheap!) and this week I did biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon and home fries.

Wednesday – Pork Fried Rice (using up the extra rice and left over pork from Monday)

Thursday – Grilled chicken and yakisoba noodles (from the freezer)

Friday – probably leftovers!

Saturday – Charro beans (from the freezer) and probably grilled chicken to make fajitas.

Sunday – I’ll make Crockpot Salsa Chicken again and freeze some for later.

A lot of these meals don’t sound as healthy as I usually make, but my budget is tighter now and I have a lot of rice and pasta that I really want to use up. I can eat these meals if I just watch my portion size.

OK, off to clean up some more!

Back to School

Well that’s another Summer break over, I wish it signified the end of the summer heat but it doesn’t. Today was 104 degrees! Right now it is 6.57pm and it’s still 100 outside :-(  Tomorrow will be 102. 

Today was the first day back at school, but for us (or should I say for Kristen) it also meant first day at a new elementary school. I mentioned in an earlier post (way back at the beginning of Summer) why we had to change schools but I still had friends on Facebook asking me why. So I’ll just say again that for the past few years Kristen has been going to the school she started Kinder in, that being the one we lived near before we moved to this house. When we moved 3 years ago to this house I just kept filling in a transfer form to keep her at the other school so she could be with her friends. This year our transfer request (and 200 others) were all denied by her school because they were full. So this year we have to start at the school we are correctly zoned to.

All that being said I was a little apprehensive about today as Kristen wasn’t happy about changing schools. Thankfully her day went well :-)

I took pictures this morning, just like I do every year on the first day back. I was disappointed to see that most of them turned out blurry! I have no idea why, it was light enough outside, I didn’t use a flash because I didn’t think I needed one. I think I got 2 clear pictures out of at least a dozen. . . so annoying.

She wasn’t overly excited when I picked her up, but at least there wasn’t any tears either. She said she didn’t see one kid that she recognized! We were hoping that some others from her school might have had to change schools too, but if they did it appears they aren’t in the same grade as her. Oh well, I’m sure she’ll make new friends in no time at all. She’s like her Momma and pretty social (read ‘chatty’) ;-)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about my menu plan and meals. Just wanted to share our ‘first day back’ with you all.

 

Denise

Sunday Musings – August 22nd

Had a busy day today so didn’t get a chance to get on here and post my Sunday Musings. It’s nearly 10pm as I type this so I just want to make a small entry before I head to bed.

Big day tomorrow, first day back at school! This morning I invited our neighbors over for a ‘back to school’ celebratory brunch. I made eggs and pancakes, Cheryl brought yummy maple bacon and AJ (Emily’s Mom) brought mini muffins. I also had Mimosas for us Momma’s :-) Orange juice, coffee, fresh fruit. It was a fun morning. Later in the afternoon Cheryl and I took Kristen and Connor to the pool ‘one last time’ (although if this heat keeps up I’m sure it won’t be the last time this summer).

This is the first year that Kristen isn’t excited about her first day back. It’s a new school, I know she’s a little nervous about not knowing anyone there, but I’m confident that she’ll make friends quickly and easily.

I always take pictures on the first day back, but for now I thought I’d leave you with a picture from the very first day Kristen went to school . . . PRE-school! She was only 3 yrs old! 3 yrs and 9mths to be exact.

She started with her little friend Stephanie (her mommy and I were good friends). I remember we both went out for breakfast after dropping the girls off. We were both so nervous about leaving our babies for the very first time. I think they were only in class for two hours that first day, but it was a long two hours for us!

Here’s Kristen last year - she was entering 3rd grade. . . .

I love you Baby Girl xxx

It’s Raining It’s Pouring

Ahhhh rain, lovely sweet, wet, cool rain :-) We finally got some earlier this week (Monday to be exact). I didn’t know it was forecast nor did I notice the sky turn a little darker, but all of a sudden I heard it against the window. The wind had also picked up a bit too. A minute after it started Kristen and Connor came downstairs and said they were going out front to ride their bikes! “It’s raining” I said. They hadn’t even noticed. But they went out anyway, and I headed out too with my camera.

Kristen ran back inside to get her umbrella!

Boo doesn’t like the rain, he’d walk out in it and just as quickly turn around and run back.

He still wanted to do what most dogs do though . . . sniff the grass then make his mark! So Kristen assisted by holding the umbrella over him :-)

Who knows when it will rain again? We still have a lot of summer left I think. Ten minutes after this down pour the sun was out shining again! But thanks for letting me share some more outdoor (Wednesday) fun ;-)

Hop on over to Susan’s blog for Outdoor Wednesday and see who else is participating.

Denise

Menu Plan and Recap

At the beginning of the month (actually I think it was the last week in July) I set myself a grocery budget which was to last til August 22nd (one of Jason’s pay days). It was a pretty ‘small’ budget of just $200 for food for us 3, I also drew out an extra $100 for wine and beer because we like to keep that in for when we hang out with the neighbors, and yes I like to have a glass of wine after dinner each night.

$300 total - I thought I could easily keep within that budget because I had a lot of meat in the freezer and a lot of food (like pasta and canned goods) in storage. I didn’t do it! This week I used the last of my money and still bought about $18 worth of food that I put on the credit card. I still think I did good (some of that budget included buying a birthday gift for a friend because I didn’t use my CC for it, AND I bought about $30 worth of veggies and dip etc to make up two veggie trays to take to the party. I tallied all my receipts up and the total for food at the grocery store was about $235, still a little over, but that’s much better than the $600 or so that I think I spent last month. Jason gets paid this Friday and it’s amazing how different I feel about that, now knowing that it’s kind of ‘pay day’ for me :-) I will allow myself $250 for groceries this month because we need things like toilet roll and some personal items too. I’ll also be able to get in to a routine with my weekly shop because school will be back in.

So, using what I have (remember my new mantra!) here’s what I put on the menu this week . . . .

MONDAY: Tandoori Chicken, lime cilantro rice, corn – canned fruit for dessert.

I made this last night and took a picture. I just made up a recipe for my rice, simply boiled basmati rice, then I sauted some onion in olive oil and a little butter, threw in some cilantro and a little lime juice then mixed it in with the rice – very tasty!

TUESDAY: Sloppy Joe Sandwiches (we’ll be at horse riding til 6.45pm, so I like something quick when we get back, and we didn’t have these last Friday)

WEDNESDAY: Bean and cheese burritos (I made a crockpot full of pinto beans last week) I also have some taco meat in the freezer, I’ll use this too (Jason always has to have some meat with his meals!)

THURSDAY: Spaghetti and Meatballs (a great standby when I have meatballs in the freezer and a can of sauce on the shelf)

FRIDAY: Leftovers (we had a lot of leftovers in the fridge last week so I imagine this might be the case every Friday. If we don’t have leftovers, I’ll make Breakfast for Dinner) :-)

SATURDAY: Hot dogs, potato salad and bbq beans (we didn’t have these last week either, so I’ve put them on this weeks menu)

SUNDAY: Champagne Brunch! I’m having the neighbors over for a celebratory ‘back to school’ brunch. Bacon, eggs, pancakes, muffins, fruit AND. . . . Mimosas for the ladies :-)

I hope this post isn’t getting too long for you! I wanted to show you some of the things I made from last weeks menu. Mainly from the rotisserie chicken we had. I love rotisserie chicken, and I always try to get 2 or 3 meals out of it, usually it’s just two meals and I toss the carcass away. This time, I made the bbq chicken pizza the second night. . .

Using Pilsbury pizza dough I did a ‘half and half! One side is bbq chicken, and the other is just cheese and pepperoni for Kristen.

This was a big hit, Jason and I enjoyed both sides;-)

The carcass went in to a pot with some carrots, celery and onion and chicken bouillon (for my uk readers, that's like an oxo cube)! Me and Kristen have enjoyed this for lunch a few times this past week.

So, there you have it… a very long post about food! Let me know if you’re planning a menu this week. And head over to Orgjunkie for some other great menus. I love to surf and see what other people are having.

Change can be good. . .

I mentioned in my last post (the one before last actually) that I didn’t really like change. That is usually when I’m trying to do something that I’ve never done before or that is different from how I’m doing something now. I do like change when it comes to decorating ;-) or moving things around and ‘using what I’ve got’ (as my latest mantra seems to be).

You all know it’s hot here in TX, it’s all I seem to write about. . . the heat, oh the heat – at this time of year it’s no fun at all. When we start to get warm weather here in the spring there’s nothing we like more than sitting out on the front porch (often with our neighbors) watching the kids play. I posted about my front porch earlier in the year, you can read it again HERE.

This is how it looked back then, notice my lovely fresh summer flowers! As pretty as it looked I must confess those wrought iron chairs really aren’t comfortable at all. Not to mention there’s only two of them so when the neighbors came over we had to get out the folding camping chairs (or they even brought there own).

So, I had an idea a couple of weeks ago! Even though it’s still hot, the evenings are starting to be bearable and with a nice breeze I can manage to sit out front for a while, especially as the kids are starting to play out again. But seating wasn’t comfortable so I decided to do something about it. My idea was to take our ‘comfy’ seating from the back patio and move it to the front porch.

This is the furniture I bought from Target last year ready for my sister coming to visit. We sat out the back a lot during her visit, but as soon as she went home we just never went out there (again because it was just too hot, especially in the afternoons and evenings when the sun was setting)

Here is all that furniture now sitting on the front porch. I moved it all myself last weekend while Jason was working! It’s a slightly different L shape, but it fits. . . . and it’s VERY comfortable :-)

And here’s a couple more views. . . .

I love sitting out here now, and it will only get better as the days cool down and the evenings get even cooler. I can still see us sitting here (so long as it’s dry) for the rest of the year. I will probably bring a throw (or two) out here in the Fall.

As for the back patio? Well I moved the table and chairs under the porch area again, so we still have seating if we want to go out there.

This gets a lot of shade in the mornings and it’s nice to take my coffee out here. The flower beds need some clearing up though, but guess what . . . it’s TOO HOT to do it right now! So that can wait til Fall too.

I really like the changes I made, I hope you enjoyed sharing them with me.

I’m linking up with Met Monday today over at Susan’s Blog. Check out all the other participants and see what changes they’ve been making ;-)

Denise

Sunday Musings – August 15th

Well I must say I was thrilled to read all of your lovely comments from my Friday post :-) It’s nice to know I’m not that boring, even when I don’t have anything to post about. You gals are the best!

Can you believe we are heading in to our last week of Summer Break! In one way it feels like it all went so fast, and yet it also feels like ages ago that we broke up for Summer. One thing I can say is (as usual) I am SO ready for school to start. Not that I don’t like having Kristen home with me every day, she’s at that lovely age where she entertains herself a lot during the day and is no problem when we go out shopping for groceries. We’ve enjoyed baking cookies together, hanging out at the pool, visiting the library, getting groceries together, going out for ice cream and lately going horse riding. I really enjoy her company (most days) ;-)

But after 12 weeks I miss the daily routine of school life and I think she does too. She’s always eager to get back to school and see her friends again. Unfortunately this year she won’t see her ‘old’ friends, but I’m sure she’ll make new ones pretty fast.

This week Kristen had her second horse riding lesson, and loved it just as much as the first. I showed a picture of her earlier this week brushing ‘her horse’ Spud! Here she is riding again, learning how to grip with her legs and sit up straight :-)

While she was brushing her horse I wandered around the stable a little and snapped a couple of shots.

There are quite a few ‘barn’ cats that are just snoozing away, they probably can’t do much else in this heat!

I was going to add a little video from my camera but I’m using WLW and can’t figure out how to do it on here, it seems to want a URL, but in blogger I just upload the file just like I do a photo. I might try to add it in blogger later.

I was busy cooking in the kitchen yesterday, but will leave that for my Tuesday post. Gotta plan my menu again today, my budget has ran out! But Jason gets paid again next Friday… not that we don’t have money in the bank to buy food, I’m just trying not to use it and use up what we have instead. It’s amazing how much more you appreciate your $$$ when you’re using cash and not plastic!

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. I plan on taking Kristen round to the pool later as it’s closed tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t be too busy.

Denise

I don’t know what to blog about!

I’m sitting here having my coffee, surfing around the blogesphere and thinking I should write a blog post (because I haven’t posted since Wednesday) but I honestly don’t know what to write about?

I’m sure that’s happened to many of you before. And the dilemma is, do I post just for the sake of posting or do I not post and just wait til Sunday and sum up the week in my ‘Sunday Musing’ post? (and how many more times will I say post in this post!)

Well you can see what I decided. . . . because you’re reading this post :-) And to be honest I only decided to blog so I can use the Windows Live Writer again to see if I can get used to it. A few of you asked what I thought about it and my response could only be ‘it’s ok’. But that’s because I had only used it once and you’re asking a gal here who does NOT like change! Well, not when it comes to using new stuff, especially on the computer. I like to stick with what I know, and if ‘what I know’ works, then I see no reason to change it. But I’m trying it again. Melanie told me how to make the pictures larger and I’m sticking with the usual font so it should look the same but the best part of WLW is that I don’t have to resize my photos before adding them.

Hmmm, in saying that I really don’t have any photos to share today, so now I will have to go find one that I can add (because you know I don’t like a post without pics, and I’ve already had one of those this week!)

Ahhh, that’s better! Not that it looks like that out there though. That is my wishful thinking. I only wish it was wet and rainy today but it’s not . . . it’s bright and sunny yet again, with a high of 101!

I’d really love to see a sky like this again, just for today, just to stay home and feel cozy, curl up and read a book with Kristen, or knit while she watches cartoons. . . just for today. Soon our summer break will be over, we have only one more full week before school starts back on August 23rd. I don’t mind really, Kristen doesn’t mind either, she’s eager to start her new school and make some new friends.

But for now I’m going to enjoy yet another lazy morning, grab another cup of coffee and surf yet another blog :-) Thanks for dropping by this morning, I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my ramblings. Have a great weekend.

Another post for today....

I just remembered I told my sister that I would post the picture of us 3 from Cheryl's (surprise) 40th birthday party. She doesn't use Facebook so she hasn't seen this yet! So here it is. This was taken at their friends house where the party was hosted. . . Cheryl hadn't turned up yet!

I still have all my photos 'stuck' on my camera so until I get them transferred to my puter here's a couple more that I took from Cheryl's sister's FB page ;-)

As you can see it was a Luau theme. I went over in the afternoon to help set up the decorations and set the tables. I have a lot more pictures of the tables where you can see the flowers and shells we put out, they looked so pretty.

Apparently Cheryl isn't a great fan of cake, but she loves her Mom's homemade cherry pie! So that is what they brought out for her when it was time to 'blow out the candle's :-)

More yummy desserts were set up inside.

I'm linking up to Outdoor Wednesday at a A Southern DayDreamer. Head on over to see more great outdoor posts.

Trying out Live Writer

Well I’m typing this entry in Windows Live Writer and it’s the first time I’ve used it! Melanie mentioned this week that she used WLW but now she can’t because she is using a Mac and it doesn’t support this software. I had to admit I’d never used it and told her I thought writing in blogger was just the same? But I got curious and thought I’d try it out. It obviously looks different to blogger as I’m typing this but once I post it I’m sure it will look just the same to you. Other than the fact I’ve changed the font!

I’ll make this short and try to post it. Above is a picture of Kristen from last night at her 2nd riding lesson. First she got to brush ‘Spud’ before helping put his saddle on . . . . then she got to ride him :-)

I’ll share more picture on my Sunday post. Today we’re staying home to catch up on housework and laundry. . . but first, more coffee!

Thrifty Tuesday - Eating on the Cheap!

It's Tuesday, so once again instead of my usual PW recipe post I'm going to share how our previous week went and how the recipes (some I haven't tried before) turned out.

Monday was an easy meal... our favorite spaghetti and meatballs ( need to take a picture next time I make this, I'd like to have a picture of each meal on my list so I can make my own printable menu). I didn't have any garlic bread in the freezer so I made these 'Paula Deen garlic cheese biscuits. . . .

I've made these many times before and they turn out great every time. HERE's the recipe from the Foodnetwork site.

On Tuesday I made the easy bbq chicken breasts from Kraftfoods.com and they were super tasty. How simple can it get, just brush bbq sauce on to the chicken and grill! I didn't even marinate these... added a little more bbq sauce once they were nearly cooked, then took em off the grill. . . . mash potato and corn are two of my favorite sides - yum :-)
Wednesday's dinner was even easier.... these were a big hit with Jason. Again from Kraftfoods, bbq chicken melts. . . .

Take some of the bbq chicken you grilled from last night, add to a sliced hoagie with bbq sauce, red onion and swiss cheese on top, pop under the broiler for just a few minutes until the cheese is melted. I served these with a salad for each of us.

Thursday was birthday cake and pizza (and yes we ate in that order!)

Friday I made the 'mac & cheese lasagna HERE (forgot to take a picture) so here's the link and picture from Kraft website. . .

I left out the green bell pepper because I knew Kristen doesn't like it, and I'm happy to say it was a hit with her :-) I used just a plain ole box of mac too (not the 'deluxe' kind the recipe calls for!)

And finally, I made more applesauce from the apples off our tree. I think next time I make this I'll try adding NO sugar and that way I can call it a healthy dessert (if it's not too tart!). I for one would prefer no sugar, I like things on the tangy side ;-)

What a neat way to serve it though - in a martini glass, cheers!