Running A Well-Oiled Family

Menu Planning Monday

This is really late, but I figured better late than never for those that like seeing our menu for each week and checking out some new recipes.

Monday: P90x Island pork tenderloin, sauteed brussels sprouts and sweet potato fries. This is a really yummy pork recipe and it's super easy. I shredded the brussels sprouts and sauteed them in olive oil with minced garlic and we also had sweet potato fries from Trader Joe's.
Tuesday: Cheeseburger salad. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe that we all really like. It's super quick and easy, which is important on weeknights when Tim doesn't come home until after six and the kids start going nuts.

Wednesday: We will be having taco night at our friends' house.
Thursday: Chicken enchilada soup. Surprise surprise, a Skinny Taste recipe. This is one of our favorites though and it's a crock pot recipe so I can make it in the morning and then not have to worry about dinner in the evening.

Friday: Pasta with butternut squash, spicy sausage, and spinach. Have you ever seen a recipe and thought, "That looks weird and interesting and unlike anything I would ever make?" and then decided to try it anyway? Well, that's how I came across this recipe. It's actually really good in a weird way and pretty healthy for a pasta dish. Give it a shot.

Saturday: Chicken parmesan with roasted vegetables. This is from the Skinny Taste cookbook and is so simple that it's ridiculous that it tastes as good as it does. It's one of my favorite recipes from the entire cookbook.

Menu Planning Monday

We are back from Thanksgiving vacation with family and are ready to get back into our normal routine and eat a little more healthfully (don't mind the pasta this week...) We are trying one new recipe and the rest are old favorites. I will include links and pictures when I can.

Monday: Fig Balsamic Roasted Pork Tenderloin with mashed potatoes and sauteed brussels sprouts. This is a new Skinny Taste recipe from her blog and one that I'm really excited about as a simple, yet filling and flavorful weeknight meal. While I was in town visiting my parents, I stopped by Trader Joe's so I could get the fig butter used in this recipe.

Tuesday: Rustic Italian Gnocchi Soup. This is a recipe from the Skinny Taste cookbook. We made it a couple weeks ago and really liked it so we are taking it to a friend's house on Tuesday for small group.

Wednesday: Creamy Basil Chicken Pasta. Basically, I am making this recipe, except I use jarred pesto to save time and I add chicken for protein. We'll have it with Skinny Taste's house salad.

Thursday: Taco meatloaf with turmeric-roasted cauliflower and black beans. This is a Paula Deen recipe that I have made since Tim and I first got married and it is one of his favorite meals. The cauliflower recipe is from the Skinny Taste cookbook. It's really yummy.

Friday: Aztec chicken soup. Another Skinny Taste recipe from the cookbook.

Saturday: Chicken broccoli casserole. This is a really good Skinny Taste recipe from the blog. I make mine with mozzarella instead of cheddar cheese and really like it that way.

I haven't made plans for Sunday yet. We tend to go grocery shopping after church on Sundays so we might wait and do it this weekend so we have fresher ingredients for dinner that night. What do you think about the menu this week? What are you eating?

New Christmas traditions

I cannot believe that Christmas is next month. We are just days away. I am not one of those people who wants to just skip Thanksgiving and I do get annoyed at Christmas stuff in the stores in September, but the holiday takes a lot of planning to give my kids the Christmas I want them to have as children and I don't want it to sneak up on us so I began planning in early November.
This year is going to be special now that Graham is a little older and also because Owen is old enough to understand more and do more. Christmas is always a little crazy for us because we always travel and never have Christmas at home so I like to have lots of Christmas traditions that we do throughout the month of December just as our family of four.
I am adding two traditions to some of our normal ones this year. I think we may still do the Christmas book advent because I really enjoyed that the past two years. I may swap out some of the books for a couple new ones, if so. If not, I will just have the books out and available for reading throughout the month.

The new traditions for this year are Elf on the Shelf and a Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Advent.
I never thought I would do Elf on the Shelf. I'm not big on trying to con my children into behaving during Christmastime, but I have seen all the cute things people have done with their elves throughout the season and I think it will be fun to surprise the kids every morning with their elf's antics. Owen in particular should get a kick out of it now that he is older. I plan to print out a calender of the month and write down my ideas for what the elf will be doing each day to make it easier on me.

Our second new tradition will be a Random Act of Kindness Advent. I found this idea at Emily Ley's blog and bought the set of 25 printable cards with RAK challenges on them, plus 25 "You've Been RAKed" cards. All proceeds from the sales of the RAK Advent go toward the Cystinosis Research Foundation. Last year, Emily raised $10,000 for the foundation. I am so excited about letting Owen help me to bless others with thoughtful surprises. I think we're going to have a blast. He may not understand it completely, but if it helps me get into the spirit and he learns by modeling my behavior, I can't ask for more. You can purchase your own set HERE.

What are some of your family traditions during the holidays?

That time Owen painted his brother...

Life with two boys is certainly an adventure. And yesterday was probably the biggest, most hilarious (afterwards) craziness they have ever gotten into. It began when I walked into Owen's room to find he had dumped out all four of his red storage bins from his bookcase. I told him to please put the toys back in them and not to come out of his room until he was finished. I then went into the kitchen to do the dishes and fold some laundry as I was trying to get out house picked up and clothes clean so we could get ready for traveling for Thanksgiving.

I heard lots of noise coming from Owen's room, but thought nothing of it because cleaning up for Owen means a lot of throwing stuff where it belongs. It wasn't until Graham came toddling out of the bedroom looking like Mel Gibson in Braveheart that I knew something much more sinister was going on.

Owen had somehow broken the doorknob protector off the door to his closet where I store things I don't want him getting into (for good reason, obviously) and had gotten into all his art supplies, taking every cap off every marker he owns, opening paints and painting his brother's face and his own, dumping out crayons and beads and puffy paint and glue and the entire inside of the closet was a mess.

I dumped both boys in the bath and was able to clean up relatively quickly (somehow they managed to keep the majority of the paint on themselves and not the walls and furniture, thankfully) and all was well, but it was definitely an early bedtime and mommy needs to relax type of night last night.

So the moral of the story is this: check on your sons every 2.5 minutes (if not more often) or they could be painting one another.

Menu Planning Monday

Last week was a super tasty week. I think one of my favorite meals was the Rustic Italian Gnocchi Soup from the Skinny Taste cookbook, which was the only new recipe I tried. It's not listed the website, so you'd have to buy the cookbook to get the recipe. Or pay me to share it with you. Whichever.
Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday: Lomo saltado. This Skinny Taste recipe is a Peruvian beef stir fry. It's unlike any other recipe I've made, but really tasty. It includes a weird variety of ingredients - potato, yellow bell pepper, jalapeno, tomato, and red onion - that all magically come together into something delicious. And the recipe is on her blog if you're interested.

Tuesday: Take out.

Wednesday: We have church small group tonight. We're supposed to bring homemade pizza. I will be making mine using Pioneer Woman's pizza crust recipe, but I haven't decided on toppings yet. We do have a container of Trader's Joe's refrigerated pizza sauce, which is amazing, so we'll probably use that. The crust recipe is super simple and easy though. It can make several at once and you can freeze crusts to use later as well.

Thursday: Trader Joe's pesto chicken sausage with roasted vegetables and house salad. The chicken sausage is something yummy we picked up this past weekend when we went to Trader Joe's. The side dishes are both from the new Skinny Taste cookbook. The roasted vegetables recipe is my favorite way to cook vegetables right now.

Friday: Italian meatball soup. Yes, we are having this again because we still have meatballs in the freezer and because Owen requested it. And it is hard enough getting him to eat lately so whatever he wants that also happens to be relatively healthy, he gets!

Saturday: Leftovers of the soup with crusty French bread. Yum!

Sunday: Slow cooker Moroccan Chickpea and Turkey Stew. This is a new recipe for us this week from Skinny Taste (the blog, not the cookbook.) It's unlike pretty much anything I make and I have only cooked with chickpeas a few times, but Gina from Skinny Taste has never really steered me wrong, so I decided to give it a shot. Either way, it should be an easy meal I can throw in the crock pot before church in the morning and we can have dinner ready and the kitchen cleaned up for the most part in no time on Sunday night.

Well that's it for this week! Anything look good to you? What are you making this week! Comment below and include links if the recipe is online!

Cinnamon Vanilla Sugar Scrub

One of my newest oils is cinnamon bark, so I decided to make a little something with it: cinnamon vanilla sugar scrub. It contains simple ingredients that I had around the house and smells amazing! I used it in the shower last night and really loved it. I felt so soft and moisturized afterwards.

Most of the ingredients are ones you probably already have around your house. And it's super simple to whip up. It took me less than five minutes.

Cinnamon bark is an awesome essential oil. It has anti-inflammatory properties and is antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and a circulatory stimulant.

The recipe calls for: 1 cup packed brown sugar, 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 3 drops of cinnamon bark essential oil. I combined the sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon bark oil first and then added coconut oil until it reached the consistency I wanted. I recommend using liquid fractionated coconut oil because normal coconut oil will harden again even if you melt it. You know that summer is officially over when your coconut oil goes back to a solid state all the time.

The best thing about it is that you know all the ingredients inside. No preservatives or synthetic ingredients. You could even eat it if you wanted. I'm not going to lie... I tasted it. And it was yummy.

This scrub has a delicious warm wintery scent and would make a great homemade Christmas gift. Put it in a pretty jar and tie a ribbon around it and you're good to go!

Fall fun!

This past Sunday, Tim finally had a day off work. Of course, he needed to spend part of it doing some things around the house and in the yard, but we managed to have some fun in the midst of doing chores. He took the boys outside with him while blowing and raking leaves and they had a great time.