Menu Plan Monday - Sept 16, 2013

Good morning my friends! I hope you are having a great Monday – ours is a little soggy! It’s almost time to break out jackets and cozy sweaters.

This week some girlfriends of mine are having a fundraiser, and I’m pitching in to help. If they raise $5,000.00 for cancer research, the four ladies have committed to dye their hair PINK for the month of October! If you’d like to donate, please visit their page. They are also having a bake sale this week, and that’s where I come in.

All day on Wednesday while the littles are in school I’ll be baking up some of my favorites. Banana Oat Bread, Sweet Marie Bars, and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, all packaged up in an easy to transport fashion.

In between all of this baking, we need to eat! So, onto the menu plan for this week.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

 

Monday: Breakfast for dinner! Bacon and eggs quiche

Tuesday: Shake and bake chicken, stir fried veggies and rice

Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday!

Thursday: Turkey meat loaf (I’m making a HUGE batch to help fill the freezer!!)

Friday: Dinner out for mama! The hubs will be fending for themselves.

Saturday: Going to a wedding!

Sunday: Maui Ribs, baked potatoes and veggies. 
 
I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Fun, Practical Bridal Shower Gift

Hello my friends! I hope you all are enjoying the same sunshiney day we are having! I am here to share with you a fun gift I put together for my lovely cousin Kristin for her bridal shower this weekend. I love to give (and receive - hint, hint!!) practical gifts. This little gem definitely fits into that category.

After perusing my favorite idea site (Pinterest, of course) I found a cute way to package up household necessities and tie them all together with a poem. After following the pins to Mummydeals.org, I used the poem she had on the site and modified it a little bit to allow for Canadian products.

 

Here are all of the supplies I used to put together the present:

• Dawn dishsoap
• Joy dishsoap
• Brawny paper towel (couldn't actually find this in Canada)
• Mr Clean
• Shout stain remover
• SOS scrubbing pads
• Easy off oven cleaner
• Tide laundry soap
• Dial soap
• Bounce dryer sheets
• Fantastik cleaner
• Zest soap
• Pledge furniture polish
• Snuggle dryer sheets
• A Squeegee

I picked up a few little odds and ends to fill the basket, like air fresheners and sponges and tied it up pretty with clear cello wrap, ribbons and bows.

The poem goes as follows (thanks Mummydeals.org for the great idea!!):

As we gather with you to celebrate the DAWN of a new era.  Marriage is a journey.

Some days will be filled with pure JOY, but let’s take a moment to talk about the others.

There may come a time when you realize your big BRAWNY guy isn’t necessarily
MR. CLEAN.

When this and other little glitches occur, don’t SHOUT or send up an SOS.
Go EASY on him.

Hopefully the TIDE will change quickly, just DIAL back the anger and things will BOUNCE back to normal.

 We think you and _______ are a FANTASTIK couple with a ZEST for life and a sincere appreciation for each other.

We fully support you as you and ________PLEDGE to spend your lives as one.

We wish you all the best including love, happiness, lots of SQUEEGEES and time to SNUGGLE.

Here is a photo of me with my beautiful cousin, Kristin! She's going to make a lovely bride in a few weeks! Thanks for stopping by today, I really appreciate it!

Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Menu Plan Monday - Sept 9, 2013

Hello my friends! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. My weekend was full to the brim with excitement and adventure. We started out the weekend by heading down to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was absolutely amazing! 

 

Miss E  LOVES her penguins!

We left the house before dawn and got home well after dark, but it was well worth the drive.

This week we are finally back to our regular life schedule. Miss A should finally find out who her teacher is and Irish dancing starts this week - Miss E starts dance for the first time! I can’t wait to watch her prance around the house doing 1,2,3’s in a circle just like her big sister.

Recipe for this cheesy concoction!

I am hoping to spend my afternoon tomorrow getting a batch of freezer cooking going. With our crazy schedules, having meals pre-made and ready to go makes our lives just that much easier. I’m going to put together a few batches of our favorites: Baked Ziti, Chicken Pot Pie and Tex Mex Lasagne and Spicy Taco Filling on the side.

On the menu this week:

Monday: Salmon with rice and veggies

 

Tuesday: Freezer cooking day! Baked Chicken Ziti
Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday!
Thursday: BBQ chicken, potatoes and grilled veggies
Friday: Pizza night!
Saturday: Dinner out with friends
Sunday: Spicy thai chicken, stir fry noodles and veggies

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Back to School!!

Back. To. School. I can't believe summer vacation is over and we are back to school, dance, swimming lessons and everything else that comes with September.

 

Another thing I can't believe? That my firstborn ginger baby, Miss A, is all grown up and starting grade two! She has grown so much this summer and I couldn't be prouder of my seven year old! Here she is all dressed up and ready for her first day of school. School only lasted an hour today (? no idea why!!) but we got all dolled up for the first day nonetheless!

Miss E starts preschool tomorrow! One more year and my baby girl will be in kindergarten. This year she gets to spend learning and playing and making a million memories with the most amazing preschool teacher, Miss Leona. She was Miss A's preschool teacher and Miss E can't wait for school to start tomorrow. 

I thought I would have a whole bunch of organizing posts and how to be ready for back to school posts, but instead we played and partied right to the very very end of summer vacation. I think we'll have to work on some fall projects to share with you all.

Hope you all had a great first day of school!! More later this week,

Menu Plan Monday - Sept 2, 2013

Hello my friends! I hope you all have enjoyed your summer vacation, I know we certainly have enjoyed ours! School starts tomorrow, and with school comes the back-to-reality grind of life. One thing we do in our house to make life a little easier is menu planning. The hubs and I sit down together at the beginning of the month and make a menu plan for the month ahead.

We have been menu planning for about a year and it's been amazing. Not only do we always know what the plan is for dinner, but having a plan keeps our food budget in check and means that we aren't constantly running around after school trying to find something to eat.

Recipe

Another menu planning tip that we find really helpful in our house is to have a stockpile of ready-made freezer meals all ready to go. We have a pretty jam-packed schedule during the week so having some meals that just need to be popped in the oven makes life so much easier.

On The Menu This Week:

Monday : Pasta Alfredo with Chicken

Tuesday: BBQ chicken breasts, baked potatoes and grilled summer veggies

Wednesday: Lasagne Wednesday (it's back!!)

Thursday : Perogies and sausage

Friday: Brinner! Breakfast for dinner!

Saturday: Dinner out! The girls and I are heading to Seattle for the day!

Sunday: Turkey burgers and fries

Thanks so much for stopping by today! If you would like to check out some amazing recipes and menu plans, check out Org Junkie's Menu Plan Monday!

Sweet Marie Bars

Hello my friends!! What an amazing summer it has been! So amazing, in fact, that I have not posted a single blog entry in over a month. I made a promise to myself this year that I would take time and just enjoy, and I certainly have enjoyed this summer. I'll have updates on the new and exciting goings-on in a later post (they involve babies, lots of babies!).

 

I'm back today with another yummy recipe to share with you guys. A massive group of us (around 35 of my closest family, friends and neighbors) made the trek out to a local waterslide park in August. We usually make this trip right around the date of Miss A's and my friend Kelly's birthdays. This year was no exception!

Last year I made some amazing Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes (that I apparently didn't post on the blog!). They tasted amazing, but in 32C heat, they melted by lunchtime. I knew that this year I needed something without icing, that would hold up in the crazy heat. Voila - Sweet Marie Bars! I had made them a few years ago, and a quick internet search found a recipe I could use.

Sweet Marie Bars
Adapted from AllRecipes.Com

Ingredients

1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 packed brown sugar
3 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. In a saucepan over medium heat melt the corn syrup, peanut butter and brown sugar.

When these ingredients have melted all together into a pot of luscious goodness, remove from the heat and add the rice krispies.

Mix really really well and press into a buttered square pan.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and put in the oven for 2-5 minutes, just until the chocolate chips are melted. Remove from the oven and spread the melted chocolate chips over the top of the pan. Pop the pan into the fridge until the chocolate is firm.

The last time I made this recipe I doubled the amounts and made an 11x13 pan. These were gobbled up at our waterslides adventure, with just a few leftover for the rest of our week.

I am making these again this week for a party at work, I wonder if they will last till lunchtime!!

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this recipe.


Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Hello my friends! I'm back today (after a MONTH away?? How did that happen??)with a recipe!! Last week while aimlessly scrolling on Pinterest I found the most beautiful looking recipe. Now, for an event to make this lovely dessert. Lucky for me (and in turn, all of you) my co-worker and friend starts a new job next week. We are having a big potluck for her, and this lovely cake is my contribution!

I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about baking the crust, but it turned out golden and gorgeous. And the filling? OH. MY. WORD. The FILLING. It is unbelievable! Soft and light and creamy and glorious. I may have to find a way to make individual éclairs so I can use it in my Quest for the Perfect Cupcake!!

The only issue I ran into was with the chocolate pudding. Since my Walmart didn't have a 5.1 oz box, I ended up buying two regular sized boxes and just keeping the excess pudding out for the girls. Win-Win! Now, without further adieu, here is the recipe!

Chocolate Éclair Cake

Recipe adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything.com

Ingredients

Crust:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Filling:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 102g boxes instant vanilla pudding
4 cups milk

Topping:
1 8 ounce container cool whip (enough to cover the cake, I didn't use the whole container)
Chocolate syrup (you could make your own, but I just used ice cream topping)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking pan. If the sides of your pan are too heavily greased, the batter will not stick to the sides. Not a huge deal, but it's prettier if the base bakes up the sides.

Here is the crust pre-bake, I tried to pull it the whole way up the sides of the pan

Éclair crust: In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and use your arm muscles to stir in that flour. At this point, I transferred by batter to my Kitchenaid mixer bowl, because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to mix fast enough - it worked perfectly! Mix in one egg at a time, mixing completely before adding the next egg. Spread the mixture in the pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. The mixture will be very wet.


Here's the crust after baking, all puffy and golden brown

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Check it occasionally during baking to ensure the crust doesn't burn. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. The crust will likely be puffy and have big bubbles, just leave them, they'll go down on their own.

Filling: Whip the pudding mix and milk according to package directions. When it's all mixed up, remove 1/4 of the pudding into a separate bowl. This excess pudding is not needed for the recipe, so you can enjoy it anytime! Put the pudding into the fridge and wait until it is fully setup before moving on to the next step.

Whip cream cheese in the bowl of your stand mixer. If you don't have a stand mixer, I hope you have strong arm muscles because this process takes a while... Once the cream cheese is nice and smooth, slowly add the pudding to the cream cheese, and continue to whip together. Mix until there are no lumps and the mixture is nice and smooth. This took almost five minutes in my mixer.

When the crust is completely cooled, pour the filling into the crust. Spread out until it is evenly distributed over the entire crust. Top with a layer of cool whip (or if you are really good, some homemade whip cream) and drizzle chocolate syrup on top.

I hope my friend loves this cake as much as I loved making it!! Thanks for stopping by to read today, I really appreciate it!



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.