Snow Day!

We got several inches of snow last Saturday so I took the boys outside to let them play. They had a great time. Graham just trudged around the entire yard the whole time and Owen ran around pretending he was one of the Wild Kratt brothers looking for polar bears and walruses. It was adorable. Here are the photos I was able to get with my real camera (one of my goals this year is to remember to use my digital SLR camera instead of my iPhone all the time). 

This face says, "I fell in the snow and it was COLD!" and also "Why won't you let me cross the street and go find the neighbor's dog?"

Menu Planning Monday

Tons of new recipes this week! Wheee! 

Monday: Skinny Taste Aztec chicken, quinoa, and avocado soup. This is one of favorite soup recipes from the Skinny Taste cookbook. We've made it many times since I got the cookbook and even though the kids are weird about quinoa, I make it anyhow. Because it's delicious. 

Tuesday: Bangin' Good Chicken Salad. This is a newer Skinny Taste recipe from the blog that combines two of her previous recipes: baked chicken nuggets and bangin good shrimp. I plan to feed the kids (and probably Tim) the chicken nuggets and make the salad for myself. 

Wednesday: Lasagna Soup. Yay for another new Skinny Taste recipe. I just checked her blog for the first time in a while and found several recipes that looked good. This one looks really interesting. It's either going to be really awesome or just kind-of so-so. We'll see. 

Thursday: Picadillo quesadillas. I have made Skinny Taste's crock pot picadillo before and it's super easy. This recipe basically takes that and puts it inside a quesadilla. It seems like it will be really tasty and I'm fairly certain I can get the boys to eat it without too much fuss. 

Friday: Slow cooker French dip sandwiches. I am trying hard to use all of the beef we have in the freezer so I found this recipe from Skinny Taste. I have never made it before, but it seems easy and tasty. Tim is really excited about it. 

Saturday: Steak with garlic parmesan fries and roasted broccoli. Again, I'm trying to use up the beef in the freezer and we have a ton of steak in there. Tim is our resident griller so I planned for Saturday since I'm fairly certain he'll be home in time to grill it (not something I can plan for during the work week). These garlic parmesan fries are really yummy so we'll be having my take on steak frites and some broccoli too.

Sunday: I haven't planned anything for Sunday yet. It's the Super Bowl so I kind-of want to make something really unhealthy and fun, but we also have a class at our church in the afternoon so I don't know what time we'll get home from that so we can feed the kids before the game starts. Maybe something in the crock pot? Eating out? We'll see. 

What are you cooking this week?

Menu Planning Monday

     Sorry this is late, but better late than never. We have some yummy recipes to try this week and (big shocker), they're not all from the Skinny Taste cookbook. And making a rare appearance... a dessert recipe. And it's a good one! You gotta make it! If you like chocolate and peanut butter even a little bit. 

Monday: Sweet n' spicy Sriracha-glazed salmon. This recipe is from the Skinny Taste cookbook and not on her blog, but lucky for you, I found the recipe elsewhere on the Internet. We just had this tonight and it was really good and super easy. Just make sure to let the salmon marinate at least an hour before you want to cook it. I served it with stir-fried carrots, onion, broccoli, orange bell pepper, and red cabbage. Owen was a bit picky about it, but Graham scarfed the salmon like I hadn't fed him all day. 

Tuesday: Corny blueberry banana pancakes. This is a Skinny Taste cookbook-only recipe, but she has other pancake recipes on the blog if you're interested. We'll see how these go over since Owen has decided he suddenly does not like blueberries anymore.
Wednesday: Crock pot chicken enchilada soup (except with ground beef instead...because there is a quarter of a cow in my freezer). This is one of our favorite soups and I am interested to see how it will taste with ground beef. We have small group so I'm making this because it's easy. And for dessert.... hold onto your hats, folks... Chocolate and peanut butter lover's brownies. This recipe is from my new Seriously Delish cookbook from Jessica Merchant at How Sweet Eats. It's not on her blog, but I did find the recipe online elsewhere for you to check out. Tim and I made them last week for a work potluck and they.were.amazing. Like, thank goodness he took all but one to work so that I didn't eat the whole pan by myself while hiding in my closet from the children. 

Thursday: Thai chicken lettuce wraps. This is another recipe from my new cookbook that I made last week. It made a ton of extra sauce so I froze half so I could make it again this week. She doesn't have the exact recipe on the blog, but if you use the recipe above and basically substitute chicken for the butternut squash, you'll have what I'm making. It's super yummy. 
Friday: Coconut chicken salad with warm honey mustard vinaigrette. This is an older recipe that I've made several times. It's super quick and yummy. I plan on feeding the kids the chicken strips with baked sweet potato fries and salads for Tim and I. 

Saturday: Chicken fajitas with poblano peppers. Tim and I went to a Mexican restaurant last week for dinner and he had this stuffed poblano peppers dinner except it wasn't a stuffed pepper as much as a stir fry with cut up poblano peppers and it was so yummy. So I decided to try to make it at home. This is basically it, so we'll see. 

Homemade Vapor Rub

This week I decided to try a brand new recipe using my essential oils. It was super easy to make and made a lot! I really don't like using the conventional vapor rub you can buy at the store because it contains petroleum products, so when I saw a recipe for making it at home, I knew I had to try it. 

Here are the ingredients:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup coconut oil

3/4 cup grated beeswax (I grated a one ounce bar and that was equal to 3/4 c.)

35 drops R.C. essential oil blend (or Raven or Ravintsara or a combination)

30 drops peppermint

15 drops lavender

 I melted the olive oil, coconut oil and beeswax in a Pyrex bowl over a pot of boiling water since I don't have a double boiler. It took a pretty good while for the beeswax to melt, but the recipe was not difficult at all. After it had all melted, I removed it from the stove and set it down to cool a bit before adding the essential oils. But make sure to keep an eye on it so that it doesn't start to harden up before you've poured it into your containers. 

This recipe makes a little more than 10 ounces of vapor rub. I bought three 2 ounce containers from Amazon for it, but still had enough leftover to fill a 4 ounce mason jar as well. I've been using it this week and it's really helping with Graham's congestion. 

Menu Planning Monday

I am going a lot of cooking from the new cookbook that I mentioned last week. I am really excited to try some new recipes (3 out of six). My weeks are running only Monday through Saturday now because I tend to menu plan on Saturdays now so that we can go grocery shopping after church since it's located so close to Kroger and saves me time during the week. So in case you were wondering what we had last Sunday, it was tacos. And this coming Sunday's meal will be planned later this week. 
     Last week, Heather asked how I was able to cook all these meals with two little ones. Honestly, I don't do too much prep ahead of time and I am fortunate that my boys will play independently in Owen's room while I cook for most of the time. And when all else fails, I put on a thirty minute episode of The Wild Kratt's to occupy them while I get whatever prepped and in the oven or on the stove. Soups are good because you just chop everything up quickly and put it in the pot to simmer. I do make double of some recipes so that I can make meals quicker on week days. For instance, this week I am making the chicken parmesan with a doubled recipe of the marina sauce from my freezer and I will be doubling the meatballs for my meatball soup this weekend so that I will have a second set of meatballs ready for if I make that on a weeknight sometime. 

Monday: Thai chicken lettuce wraps. This is a new recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook. It looks pretty quick and easy, which is important during the week when Tim doesn't get home until six and the kids are running around my feet crying and fighting.

Tuesday: BBQ chicken chili. This is also a recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook. I first ran into it though on the Skinny Taste blog where the blogger there posted the recipe because she and the author are friends. Tim and I both really liked it and since the weather is so cold lately, it is the perfect time to make chili. 

Wednesday: Chicken parmesan with roasted vegetables. This is a Skinny Taste recipe that is the best chicken parmesan I have ever made at home. It's baked so it's healthier and I make my own marinara sauce as well to cut down on sugar and extra sodium from jarred sauce. We also don't serve it with pasta, but instead with roasted carrots, red onion, broccoli and cauliflower and then top with some shaved parmesan. It's delicious! The husband gives is two thumbs up and even the kiddos like it (though it helps that I told Owen is it actually called pizza chicken, but you do whatever works).

Thursday: Creamy slow cooker chicken noodle soup. This recipe had me at "slow cooker." I am so interested to see how this turns out. It is from the Seriously Delish cookbook and contains all the normal ingredients for chicken noodle soup. Again, it sounds great during all the cold weather we've been having. 

Friday: Lemon herb chicken romano. This is another new recipe from the Seriously Delish cookbook, but you can also find it on her blog How Sweet Eats. I looks really tasty and although not super healthy, we'll be having it with vegetables again and not pasta to save on calories. Plus, my kids won't eat noodles. They're weird like that. 

  

Saturday: Italian meatball soup. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that I make all the time now because it is Owen's favorite recipe that I make and he asks for it a lot. It has lots of vegetables so how could I say no? If you want the recipe, you can check back on some of my past Menu Planning Monday posts to find it. Odds are you'll find it pretty quickly. 

And that's it for this week! What are you cooking?

Menu Planning Monday

I am finally back home after two weeks visiting my parents, in-laws, and friends back in Georgia. Tim and the kids and I are all happy to be back together and in our normal routine. I am also excited to be trying out some new recipes from some of the cookbooks that I got for Christmas. It is going to be super cold this week so we will be having soup at least three times. Plus, Tim bought a quarter of a cow's worth of beef from a guy he works with and our freezer is super full, so we will be having a lot more beef recipes than normal over the next few months. 

Monday: Aztec chicken, quinoa and avocado soup. We have had this a million times lately because it is just that good. Again, it is from the Skinny Taste cookbook so I can't post a photo of it or a link to the recipe. 
Tuesday: Mongolian beef and broccoli. This is another recipe from the Skinny Taste cookbook. It doesn't taste exactly like the kind you get from the Chinese food restaurant (does anything you can make at home?), but it is super delicious and fresh-tasting. 
Wednesday: Southwest black bean soup. This is a recipe from a new cookbook that I got for Christmas. It's called "Seriously Delish" by Jessica Merchant, the blogger at How Sweet Eats. 

Thursday: Lomo Saltado. This is a really unusual and delicious recipe from the Skinny Taste blog. I am making it to use some of the beef from our freezer stockpile, but it's really yummy and quick to make too. 

Friday: Stuffed pepper soup. This is an older Skinny Taste recipe that I have never tried until now. I've had it bookmarked for a while, but never got around to making it. Now that we're having such bitter cold weather, I think a new soup is in order. Plus, we can use one of the a million pounds of ground beef that we have in the freezer. 

Saturday: Homemade pizza. We'll be making regular old cheese and pepperoni pizza for the boys, but Tim and I will be having a recipe from the cookbook I linked to above. I made it while at my parent's house for New Year's Eve and it was super delicious. It is a pineapple and jalapeno pizza, but I added chicken to it. The sauce is delicious blend of barbecue sauce, shallots, brown sugar and garlic. Yum! 

What are you eating this week? Any new fun recipes? Trying to keep it healthy for the New Year? Let me know in the comments!