Our Day

It has been a busy week for me and the Hubbs, so we decided to set this day aside for the girls.  He's at work today, but the girls have off from school so we're spending the day doing fun stuff.  Typically, we'd watch a movie, do our nails and hair... you know, girlie stuff.  But the weather is so nice that we decided to do an outdoor craft - sidewalk paint!  This is all over pinterest and seemed easy enough, so we set out to make some of our own.  

Here's what you'll need: 
1 c. Cornstarch
1 c. Water
Food coloring 
Containers (some people use muffin tins.  I used Easter egg coloring cups)


Directions: 
Mix the water and cornstarch together. (I used my stick blender.  It was much faster.)
Pour mixture into your cup of choice
Add food coloring (as many drops until you like the color)


We ended using 5 cups of cornstarch and 5 cups of water and then divided them into 1/2 cup portions.  

  

The prep was easy and clean up was surprisingly fast.  It's a great project for kids to help with.  If you're a homeschooling mom, you could use this for a math, art, or science. 

After our painting project, it was time to move onto making these!  We just pulled them out of the oven and they look delicious!  

When Hubby gets home, we're going to have pizza and watch this.  

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Have you heard of this?  Do you have a Marcus Theater in your area?  If so, take advantage of the $2 movies!  Spy Kids 4 is playing tomorrow.  We're going to see it.  

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Do you have any exciting plans this weekend?  

  

FOOD

I enjoy food.  I do not enjoy cooking.  On top of that, half of my family does not enjoy anything remotely healthy.  But my family needs to eat.  I can get my husband to eat a salad as long as there is meat, eggs, cheese, and a lot of dressing to “cover the green taste” as he puts it.  So my meals have to almost be child-like but also something I’d enjoy. 

Thankfully, the internet is loaded with blogs and recipe sites.  I found one site in particular that I want to share with you:

I have found SO many great recipes on this website.  Here are a few that I’ve tried and have been family approved:

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes | We had enough left over that I used the rest a couple nights later and put it over tater tots (that’s inspired by one of Hubby’s favorite treats at Sonic)

Cheesy Potato Soup in the Slow Cooker | I added a bit more bacon to mine.  Good!

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken | I used different roles.  We had enough for leftovers. 

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup | This is what I’m making tonight.  I’m using bow tie pasta and turkey instead of chicken. 

These recipes were SO easy to make and you can adjust the recipes to your taste preference.  I’ve enjoyed using this site and will continue to do so.  I have a list of other recipes I want to try. 

With all of this cooking comes grocery shopping.  I do not like grocery shopping.  Surprised, right?  I went to a local grocery store and found myself getting stressed out as I walked up and down the isles.  The prices have gone up!  Even with my coupons I was still spending too much.  I decided I needed to do something different.  I am not a super couponer like some people I know.  I’m working on it.  But in the meantime…

I started shopping at Aldi.  

I was skeptical but decided to give it a try.  I’m SO glad I did.  It only took me 45 minutes to finish all of my shopping and I spent $89 for 2 ½ weeks of groceries! 

Before I went, I did some research to prepare for my shopping experience.  The only thing I knew is that you need a quarter for the cart and they don’t bag your items.  In my searching, I found another great website:

Read about where Aldi originated, what to do to prepare for your shopping experience, and even find some great recipes that can be made with everything you’ll find at Aldi. 

I have to say that over the past few weeks I have rather enjoyed my cooking/shopping experience.  I never thought I’d ever say that! 

Have a great weekend!  We’re expecting a snow storm.  I think I’ll run to the store to buy ingredients to make THIS to help us get through the storm

Enjoy!

Coffee, Calories, Stoves and Such...

What a weekend!! I attend a church with an amazing Pastor. She, yes, I said SHE, spoke at a women's conference over the weekend. It was fantastic! God has done some amazing things in my life this weekend. I'm still praying through some of these things but I will share them soon.

Hubby and I went on a date today. Actually, we had the time set aside to go shopping for an oven, but you know how it is when you have time alone without the kids. You have to work in some time for lunch, coffee, and catching up on all the things you haven't gotten to say to each other over the week. We had a fantastic time. I feel like we haven't talked in ages and it was so nice to look him in the eyes and have a conversation without interruptions. 

We ate at Olive Garden. I got Bruschetta, soup and salad. As Jeff was looking through the menu he said, "I don't like that they put the calories on the menu! Now I can't eat any of this stuff." *sigh* Ignorance sometimes really is bliss. The Chicken Fettucini Alfredo is 1440 calories. What?! That's more than I'm supposed to eat in a day! So, we talked it out and found a justifiable way for him to eat his meal - split it in half. Eat half now and the other half for lunch tomorrow. See? Problem solved. That was enough justification for him. He dug into his meal and enjoyed every bite of it. 1440 calories. Yikes. It kind of makes me wonder how many calories are in the other foods I eat. I probably should check into that...

Anyway, onto more exciting news, WE FOUND AN OVEN!! We went to my favorite store, Lowe's, and there it sat, in all it's gleaming glory. Really, it's just an oven but I have to make it sound more interesting than it is because I'm blogging about it. Although, there is this "steam clean" feature. You put a bit of water on the bottom of the oven (which you can do because it's a convection oven and the coils are hidden), turn on the self-clean, go back half an hour later and wipe it clean. It steam cleans! How cool is that?! Now if I could only get it to do carpets.

Here is a picture of our new household appliance:

Wow. What an amazing piece of machinery, huh? Fantastic. I can't wait to use my mad culinary skills and feed my family using this beauty. Again, it's a blog thing. There's nothing truly amazing about this oven, but it works and we can bake food in it.  That's a far cry from where we are now. 

So, tomorrow I'll be pulling out my cookbooks and reminding myself how to cook in something other than a toaster oven.  I love Pioneer Woman's Blog.  She makes me feel like I can do anything in the kitchen.  I think I'll try these recipes: 

Mini Meatball Sandwiches

Chicken Spaghetti

My Favorite Meatloaf - this one is covered in bacon.  Hubbs will LOVE it... maybe I should check the calories for him first *wink*  

BBQ Meatballs

Tiramisu - I've actually made this before.  Delicious!!  Time consuming, but worth it! If I can do it, you can do it.

What is your favorite tried and true recipe?  You know, the one you use for company along with the good dishes and fancy silverware...

Thanks for stopping by,