Wordless Wednesday

(Visiting Daddy's work and pretending to be "the boss".)

Menu Plan Monday

I think we'll be around all week so I don't foresee any menu changes this week unless something drastic happens. Friday's meal will probably be for lunch since hubby will be home that day and we'll head to my parents that evening for the Easter weekend. Here's what we're having:

Monday - Eat out - Buffalo wings

Tuesday - Shake & Bake pork chops, fried mashed potatoes, and green beans

Wednesday - Rosemary Chicken Pizza - I loved the BBQ chicken pizza we had from this site a few weeks ago so I can't wait to try this one!

Thursday - Crescent chicken bundles and salad

Friday - Shrimp Fried Rice

This is what I'm voting to have for Easter dinner this year instead of ham. I haven't made it before but I watched her make it on T.V. and it looked good.

Honey-Mustard Pork Roast with Bacon
This is from Giada De Laurentis @ foodnetwork.com

1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 T whole-grain mustard
2 T honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 (3 1/2 pound) center-cup, boneless, pork loin roast
12 slices bacon (about a pound)
*kitchen twine

Put an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven. Preheat to 350.

In a small bowl, add the Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, honey, garlic, and rosemary and mix together until smooth. Arrange the pork in a 9 x 13 baking pan and spread the mustard mixture evenly over the pork. Starting on 1 side, lay a piece of bacon, lengthwise, on the pork. Lay another slice of bacon on the pork making sure to slightly overlap the first piece. Continue with the remaining bacon, until the pork is fully covered in bacon. Using 3 pieces of kitchen twine, secure the bacon in place. Roast for 1 hour. Cover the pan, loosely, with foil and roast for another 10-20 minutes until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the pork registers 160 degrees. Remove the pan from the oven and trasfer the roast to a cutting board. Cover the pan with foil and allow the pork to rest for 20 minutes. Remove the kitchen twine and slice the pork into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Serves 6


For tons of great menu ideas check out www.orgjunkie.com.

Way to go Wildcats!

Last night the boys and I had our first chance to watch my oldest nephew, Brandon, play high school soccer. We've seen him play several other times along with his younger brother but never a school game. This game was a biggie! It was a play-off game and possibly Brandon's last high school game ever since he's a senior. However, the Wildcats played a great game and won 3-0 so they'll play again on Friday. Go #10!


The boys cheered on cousin Brandon along with my sister (Brandon's mom), my parents, and Brandon's girlfriend, Olivia. Olivia made the cutest sign for the game.

Alex and Zachary love their older cousins (and soccer too) and they are really funny and love to pretend to be Brandon and Tyler and call each other that. Here they're celebrating with Brandon after the game.

Lisa and Brandon.

I don't know who the Wildcats play in the next play-off game but Go Wildcats!!

Menu Plan Monday

I won't even comment on the fact that my menu is late again (well, other than this). Here's what we've got planned for the week.

Monday - Chicken enchiladas

Tuesday - eating soccer game food, I guess

Wednesday - Dijon chicken

Thursday - Garlic-mustard grilled beef skewers (from foodnetwork.com - Bobby Flay), roasted asparagus

Friday - Baked penne with roasted vegetables (from foodnetwork.com - Everyday Italian), garlic biscuits

On Saturday I made a really yummy BBQ chicken pizza for the first time. I even used the dough recipe with it. Hubby thought I must have got a California Pizza Kitchen pizza but I assured him that the pizza was totally made by me! We will definitely make this one again.

For some reason I'm having problems pulling up recipes from foodnetwork.com lately. Thursdays and Fridays meals both came from there but I couldn't link up. So, I did list who they came from in case you want to try and pull it up yourselves.

For hundreds of great menu ideas go to orgjunkie.com.

Early Registration

I'm not talking about voting here....I'm talking about Pre-K! I can't believe it's time already but today and tomorrow is early registration for school. Since Zachary turns 4 this summer, both boys will enter school together (unless we held one back for some reason). It comes at a good time for us I think. See, around the beginning of the next school year, hubby will be deploying overseas. So instead of the boys and I sitting around every day cooped up together and missing daddy they will get to go to school. I've been under the assumption (I know, I know, never assume anything.) that it was a half day Pre-K, either mornings or afternoons and I have spent the last few weeks wondering which would be best for us. However, today I found out that it's actually full day Pre-K. Hmmmmm...... That sounds like an awful lot of school for two little guys but I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. At least I hope so. The Pre-K I signed them up for is through the public school system so as long as we qualify (and we do by being active military) the boys should get in. Well, that and be one of the first 50 registered. They are only having two classes of 25 kids each. I do think we'll get in but we won't find out for sure until the summer when we should get a packet from the school. I could find a Mother's Day out program or a private preschool if I decide full time is too much for them but it will cost us. Public school is free. I'm pretty sure that the boys will even get to ride a bus to and from school. I know they will love it. But now....what do I do when they're at school all day? Full time Pre-K might be too much for Mama.

The library

Yesterday after having lunch with Chris he decided to keep Alex at work with him for the rest of the day (two boys would be too much for work). That's fun for Alex but what about Zachary? I decided that it had been too long since we had visited the library and Zachary had always loved it so that's where we went. We noticed that the train tables, which were always a big hit, were gone but Zachary still had a great time playing games on the computers in the kids room. We found out that the library had a pet snake and lizard of some sort. I also got a library card. I don't think I've ever had a library card before but plan to use it often now. It did stink that I had to pay for it because I'm not in the city limits though. It was only $25 for the year and with the amount of books I read that's really nothing. I checked out three books yesterday and now I can check out up to 50 books at a time - not that I need that many. Next time I plan to get some for the boys too. Yea free books!

Menu Plan Monday

Somehow my menu plan for last week just went out the window. Hubby was gone one night and then we had friends over another. We just didn't get to stick to the plan so this week we'll try again on most of the meals. I did make Fruit and Cheese bites
for an appetizer for a get together over the weekend and I thought they were good.

Monday - Grilled steak, veggie packets on the grill, fresh tomatoes - all courtesy of hubby!

Tuesday - Crunchy onion chicken, rice, and squash

Wednesday - Crescent dogs and french fries

Thursday - Garlic chicken spaghetti

Friday - Crab legs, shrimp, red potatoes, and corn on the cob

I also bought some fresh blueberries last week and the boys and I had some yummy muffins twice. Here's the recipe I used:

Blueberry-Lemon Muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 t. baking powder
1 well beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil
3/4 t. salt
3/4 to 1 cup blueberries
2 T. sugar
1 t. grated lemon peel

Stir together thoroughly the first 3 ingredients and salt; make well in center. Combine egg, milk, and oil; add all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. Combine blueberries and 2 T. sugar and fold into batter along with the lemon peel. Fill well greased muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. While muffins are warm, dip tops in melted butter and then in sugar. Makes 12 muffins.

For hundreds of menu ideas go to orgjunkie.com.

A little scary

Two days ago the boys and I were getting ready to go outside and play. I told them to go and get their socks and shoes from their rooms and I went to get mine. Before I could get mine on Alex came rushing into my room and said that Zachary was crying and then something about a heavy thing fell. I had no idea what he was talking about but ran to check on Zachary (who I didn't hear crying). He was in his room laying flat on his back with his dresser pinning him to the floor from his chest down. Thankfully he wasn't badly hurt, mostly scared I think. He does have a nice scrape under his nose (that boy always scrapes up his face!) but that's it. He told me that his toes hurt but he got on his socks and shoes and we went to play as planned and he hasn't mentioned it again. Yea to Alex for running to tell me his brother was in trouble!

The injury:

Just like Aunt Joey

Sorry if this is a little bit of an "insider" thing today but on several occasions I've caught Alex laying on the floor watching T.V. with his bottom in the air just like this. I just never managed to catch it on film. Then, I saw him laying the same way in a chair. It just cracked me up! My sister used to lay like this when she was little all the time. She would even tuck her arms up under her body. It doesn't seem very comfy to me but I guess Alex thinks so!

Watch out American Idol! (Corrected)

Here comes Zachary!


Here's what he's singing (by Chicago) of course subbing in Mama since he's singing to me again. Not exactly correct lyrics to the song but close enough.

If you leave me now You'll take away the biggest part of me
Oo, oo, oo, no, baby, please don't go
Oo, oo, oo, girl, I want you to stay

*This post was edited to change the video. I had put one that only sang one line. This is the "full" version.*

Menu Plan Monday - late again

I'm late with my menu again this week. I just can't seem to get it together lately. Hubby is usually home on Mondays so it's an extended part of our weekend here and we often eat out so I forget about my meal planning for another day. Anyway....here's what's on the menu for the rest of this week.

Tuesday - Baked Ziti with garlic bread (this was scheduled for last week but we didn't get to it)

Wednesday - Crunchy onion chicken with green beans and rice

Thursday - Garlic chicken spaghetti and more garlic bread

Friday - Crab legs and shrimp (as requested by my 3 year old!) with new potatoes and corn on the cob

For more great menu ideas go to www.orgjunkie.com.