Sharing...

It's been awhile since I've scrapped a full sized layout.  I just finished one this morning and would like to share it.  The design was adapted from a Becky Fleck sketch.

You may recognized the photos as those I took for our Christmas card.  She looked so pretty that I wanted to remember it with a layout.

After creating my Christmas cards in assembly line fashion I thought I'd give that method a go for regular cards.   Ordinarily I'll just grab my scraps and wing it, rarely making the same card more than once or twice.  This time I started with design in mind and created six each of the same card.  Not only did this save me a lot of time but it will also help me when make assembling multiple gift packets so much easier.  

I lifted the design from a card created by Cristina Kowalczyk.

And this one was based on a design by Kelly Rasmussen.

Tonight Meg will get her first taste of a baked sweet potato.  This will be interesting....

This Week's Menu

On the menu this week...

Monday - salmon filets/ mashed cauliflower/veggies
Tuesday - BLT/grilled cheese/baked beans/veggie
Wednesday - grilled sirloin/baked sweet potato/salad
Thursday - sloppy joes (ground turkey)/ au gratin potatoes with onion/veggie
Friday - marzetti/salad
Saturday - clam chowder

I made the mashed cauliflower tonight and thought it was delicious.  Randy liked the taste but wasn't that thrilled with the "pre-chewed" texture.  Meg? Well, Meg gagged...but please don't use her as a culinary review.  :-)

Mashed Cauliflower 

cauliflower (one head) 
cream cheese, softened (2T) 
butter, softened (3T) 
grated Parmesan (I used shredded) (1/4 cup) 
salt 
pepper 
chicken stock (to flavor and thin...I probably used 1/4 cup) 

Cut the cauliflower into medium chunks and boil for 6 minutes or until well done. While it's cooking, add all the ingredients (EXCEPT for the chicken broth) to a mixing bowl. Drain and blot the cauliflower to remove the water. Add the hot cauliflower to the bowl and mix until well blended. Add the chicken stock slowly until you get the desired consistency. 

I will definitely be making this again.  

Do You See What I See?

Recognize these?

They're itty bitty, teenie weenie strawberries!  We only have 3 plants so we won't get many but this is very cool.

We've also been snacking on these cherry tomatoes...

But I'm most excited about these....

This is Randy's first attempt at growing Roma tomatoes.  We have lots of them on the vines and I can't wait for them to ripen.   I believe we have some beefsteak tomatoes out there as well.

On the cooking front...

The verdict is still out on mashed cauliflower.  Randy came home on Wednesday wanting to free me from the kitchen so we went to Chili's for dinner.  Meg discovered that she likes Cajun Chicken Pasta so I guess it served double duty. ;-)  Therefore I ended up skipping Weds Grilled Parmesan Chicken/mashed cauliflower and used the chicken breasts for last night's Chicken Parm and pasta.  And tonight, instead of ham/black eyed peas, Randy will be getting leftover glazed pork/black eyed peas which I now have in the crock pot.  Meg and I will dine on leftover chicken parm.  (It was very, very good.)

I will leave you with this photo I snapped on my Iphone last night.  The animals were all looking out for  Meg who has been home sick with a cold for the last two days.

Random thoughts on meal planning....

I realized last week that by actually cooking meals and having everyone ready to sit down to eat around 6-6:15, I'm losing my running window.  Not that I've been doing all that much of it lately but I am hoping to get back into it full force now that things have settled down.  Soooo, it looks like I'm going to have to go back to early mornings again.  It's not that I mind so much but I do find that evenings are much easier for me.  Since I did very little running in Nov and virtually none in Dec I started out today with a brisk 2 mile walk.  My old creeky body wasn't that happy about it but I'll get used to it again.  But my ears were very happy.  :-) Thanks again Clay for my new earbuds.  They're awesome!

I also discovered that meal planning seems to cost a lot of money in groceries. I've spent about $400 in the last two weeks alone!  But thinking about it....we haven't gone out to eat in two weeks, my Sam's shopping trip ($136) will last two to three weeks (I split all chicken/pork/steak/ground turkey before freezing), portions of a few of the already prepared meals have gone into the freezer,  and I've stocking up on pantry staples such as spices/cooking wines/etc.  With that in mind I'm hoping my grocery bill drops dramatically in the next week or so.

The best part of this whole thing is that Meg is actually trying new things.  She ate a big bowl of tortellini and pasta sauce (when I made the chicken tortellini soup), took a bite of oven potatoes and didn't gag, and heartily ate her pork and brocolli last night.  If you know my daughter you'll understand just how much of an accomplishment these things are.   She hates mashed pototoes (I know! right?) so it will be interesting to see how she does with tonight's mashed cauliflower.  :-)

A New Week

The weather in Florida right now is GORGEOUS and very Goldilocks... as in not too hot and not too cold.  We spent the day out on the boat yesterday and had the best time.  We anchored off one of the intracoastal islands with two other boats filled with friends and had a very relaxing afternoon.  The kids roasted marshmallows and explored the island and the beach for treasures, the guys did some fishing and we ladies just hung out and got caught up on our holidays. This was the one and only catch of the day.

 Meg (in the sweatshirt) and her friends...

My new year's resolution to plan and cook a nice dinner every night has been going well.  I stuck to my meal plan last week and all four meals were very good.  Our personal favorite was the Spicy Bean Burritos.  These were absolutely delicious!   I followed the recipe and fixin's exactly with the exception of adding in some leftover shredded chicken.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  I see this as being a 'go to' dish because of it's simplicity.

One of my goals is to reduce meal portions because Randy is not keen on lefovers.  It will take some work on my part.  We ended up with quite a bit of chicken tortellini soup and bean mixture leftover....enough to carry us through Saturday and Sunday.  The remaining soup (yes, there was still enough for another meal) has been frozen away for another day as well as a nice portion of shredded chicken.  (I boiled a 8 lb roaster last week and used it for the soup, burritos and a future meal.)

This week's menu includes -

Monday - Turkey Burgers/Baked Potato Wedges/Corn on the Cob
Tuesday - Parmesan Grilled Chicken (recipe courtesy of Catherine)/Mashed Cauliflower/Frozen Veggies/Rolls
Wednesday - Brown Sugar Glazed Pork/Baked Potatoes/Broccoli
Thursday - Chicken Parmesan/Salad/Rolls
Friday -  Black Eyed Peas with Ham (the fresh peas were BOGO last week so I need to use them up....plus it gives Meg and I an opportunity to finish leftovers)
Saturday - Crock Pot Chicken and Angel Hair Pasta
Sunday - Open

I did my Sam's shopping yesterday morning (with girlfriends which always makes it more fun) and am headed out for the smaller staples in just a moment.  I really loved only having to make one trip to the grocery store last week!  That alone is excellent incentive to keep up the momentum.

As for my December Daily...I  finished it last week but need to clean up my craft room before I can take photos.  It looks like a bomb went off in there.  :-)

Easy Going Week

After all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays it's great to have a nice, slow week.  Meg started back to school on Wednesday so I've had a couple of days to relax, catch up around the house and play in JulieWorld.  I've got three more days to complete for my December Daily album and I'm really liking how it turned out.  I've also spent some time editing photos.  I'm beginning to think I'll never be caught up but I'm still plugging away on it.

On the dinner front I've successfully fixed the first three meals on this week's menu, all of which got a thumbs up.

Happy New Year!

Twenty Twelve.  It has a nice ring to it.  Let's hope it's everyone's "year."

Are you a resolution type?  I am.   I may not always succeed 100% but my resolutions always seem to have a positive impact on my life/goals/accomplishments.  We'll see how I do in Twenty Twelve.

This year I have the usual "eat better, lose weight, exercise more" resolutions that seem to be roll overs for just about everyone.  But to help me  and my family attain these goals I'm vowing to do something that I've never been good at....MEAL PLANNING.

I am such a planner/organizer you'd think this would come easy for me but trust me, it does not.  Dinners, for the most part, are "winged" here at my house which often times means throwing something together at 6 PM or going out to eat because I didn't plan ahead.  I'm hoping to put a stop to that this year by following my friend Catherine's lead.  Every Sunday she plans her weekly meals and makes her grocery list with a trip to the store on Monday mornings.  She's agreed to be my coach.  :-)

The biggest obstacle I will face is going to be to get my entire family to eat the same thing.  My husband hates casseroles and isn't big on pasta which happen to be my favorite types of dinner (he refers to casseroles as "pre-chewed food") and my daughter will not stray from spaghetti, pizza and basic chicken/steak. They both eat red meat.  I do not.  I'm not crazy about the meat/potato/veggie thing (his favorite meal) but thankfully we both love soup. I am going to need a creative mix of menus and some very open minds.   I've explained to Meg that she will be required to take one bite of every food that I think she will/should like.  I know I 'll have to initially adapt her dinner according to the planned menu but I'm counting on an expanding palate.  

I did my grocery shopping for the week yesterday (yay!) for this week's menu....

Tues -  Black Eyed Pea Soup   (Made this last night pretty much according to the recipe but halved it,  no red peppers and substituted chicken breast for the turkey.  We both really liked it. I did not require Meg to try this one.  I'll save my battles for the things I think she will like.)

Wed - Baked Potatoes Topped with Veggies

Thur - Chicken Vegetable Tortellini Soup    (Meg will eat chicken and tortellini so I'll probably start her out with a lesser version made on the side.)

Fri - Bean Burritos  (Meg will get chicken in a hard taco shell...after she tries a bite of these.)

Sat - Turkey Burgers with Oven Fries and a Veggie

Sun - TBD

Randy is already laughing at me, convinced I will fail.  (He knows me soooo well.)  But I'm determined to get my family to eat better, reduce the "what's for dinner" stress and hopefully save some money to boot.  If you have any good recipes please share.

Wish me luck and here's to everyone's 2012 resolutions!