Menu Plan Monday (with recipe links)

This week is really busy and stressful so I am taking the easy road this week. ;)

Monday---famous pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans

These pork chops are fabulous and my kiddos actually request them. I hate pork chops but LOVE these! I change a few things up on the recipe though-2 eggs is plenty, use Lawry's salt in place of regular, bake uncovered and be sure to broil at the end for nice browning.

Tuesday---homemade pizza

Wednesday---turkey burgers, chips

Yummy! These burgers grilled up marvelously and tasted wonderful! I served them up on grilled homemade honey wheat buns saved from last week and loaded them with sliced Monterey jack cheese and fresh tomatoes from the garden.

Thursday---out

Friday---out (I have a wedding cake to do that night so I will be busy!)

Saturday---Chinese

Sunday---pizza at Steph's

I will post reviews on recipes as I make them. If you look back to my previous menus, you will see my comments added. ;)

Best Pie Crust EVER!!

Holy cow, this is the best pie crust that I have ever had the pleasure of eating. I don't even really like pie crust. I have been known to take a spoon and simply hollow out a pie because I didn't want the crust to ruin the filling. To me, crust is only to help contain the pie and make it pretty. It has never been worthy of eating, in my opinion. I can now officially say that I have finally had a pie crust worthy of eating! This recipe is simply the bomb and my taste-testers agreed. My crust tasted buttery like a croissant and the texture was pleasantly flaky. It does take a little time to make but it is soooo worth the results. Trust me on this one. Go to this blog to get the deets on how to make this sinful concoction. She has it down to an art with easy to follow directions and photos to help you along in the process. Enjoy! :)

BTW-The pie pictured above was of the apple variety but this crust would be good for any kind.

Emerson's Big Day

I can't believe that both of my kiddos are now school-age. Wow. Emerson couldn't wait to complete this milestone today. He drove me nuts all morning because he was ready to go to school. It's too bad that he had to wait until 12pm to go. The morning dragged on forever for my little guy, lol. Once we got there, I showed him where to stand in line and then I watched him make his first trip into the cafeteria for lunch (afternoon kindergarten has lunch at 12pm and then school from 12:30-3:30pm). It was incredibly sad. I have been waiting forever for this day as I am not a mother who enjoys babies/toddlers but it really affected me. I had to rush out of there before I burst into tears. My heart felt a little broken as I sat in my car this afternoon without having my little copilot behind me. Emerson has always went everywhere with me and I can honestly say that I am going to miss that.

Meal Plan Monday (includes recipe links)

Today begins Hayden's first full week of school and Emerson's first day of school. E has afternoon kindergarten so he goes from 12-3:30pm. Half day school is one of the things I hate about Colorado. Full day kindergarten isn't funded. In NC, 1/2 day wasn't even an option and I had never heard of it in public schools. Oh well, Emerson is bummed but he will just have to wait until first grade to be a full-time student.

One thing that I am going to take advantage of this afternoon is grocery shopping by myself. I know I can go alone in the evening or on the weekend because Clayton is home but it is so much less crowded during the daytime on the weekdays. I already have all my coupons clipped and my list made. FYI-I paid $104.10 for $346.65 worth of groceries last week using the grocery game list to do my shopping. That's a savings of $242.55!! Everything was brand name, no generics.

Now that my kiddos are both back in school, I am ready to get more organized and back into a routine. My first plan of attack today is to create our weekly meal plan. Having a plan makes the week go smoothly since I know what I am making for dinner each night. So here's our menu for this week:

Monday-taco night

Tuesday-beer butt chicken (lol), roasted potatoes, fruit salad, beer bread

-The chicken was good but nothing to brag about. I prefer to roast chicken in the oven without using a beer can as a prop, lol.

-We didn't care for the fruit salad as it was too sweet. It would have been better without adding the pie filling.

-The beer bread was too die for!! Next time I will make it without the Italian seasoning though. The crust turned out super crunchy from the butter. This bread is best right out of the oven because the crust will soften if wrapped up.

Wednesday-spaghetti, French bread with garlic spread

-The spread was amazingly good but it will make you stink, lol. It has a lot of garlic. We tried it cold on sliced bread and we broiled it on top of hot bread. It was excellent both ways.

Thursday-easy and quick swiss steak, rice, sautéed zucchini

-Not good at all. We didn't like it.

Friday-homemade pizza

Saturday-famous pork chops, buttered noodles, green beans

-We didn't make this because we had too much going on but it is an awesome recipe.

Sunday-hamburgers on honey wheat sandwich rolls

-Holy cow, these rolls were the bomb! The texture was amazingly soft and they really were impressive. I don't ever want to buy buns again.

Back to School

Hayden Gray-7 years
2nd Grade

Today is the first day of school for Hayden. He was excited to go back and see his friends this morning. He has a really nice teacher and I think that this school year is going to go well for him. :)

Good luck my sweet big boy!!

Emerson-Baseball (Rattlers)

This was Emerson's first year getting to play and he did great! He played mostly t-ball but they started pitching towards the end of the program. He did well batting and rarely missed. His strength is definitely pitching though. I am amazed at his accuracy.

Hayden-Baseball (Dragons)

Hayden did really well this year with baseball. I was disappointed in the TRPR program though. It wasn't very instructional and I feel like he got nothing out of it. He was also disappointed in it so next year we will try to go back to LBL which is a much better program. It costs a lot more but the experience he got from it last year was remarkable.