Menu Plan Monday- Nov 14th

Well Happy Tuesday! Its foggy and gloomy here. In fact schools have been delayed due to fog, giving me an extra hour this morning to get things done. How am I spending the time? Blogging and coming up with my menu that I neglected yesterday. :) Last's week potato crust for our quiche worked great. I had never used a potato crust before, even though there was a recipe in my Simply in Season cookbook. It was so easy, I used my food processor to shredded the potatoes and then pressed them into my pie plate with some oil. Prebake for about 10-15mins and ta da I have a crust. :) For our birthday party on Sunday I was in charge of cake. I used Gluten-Free Goddesses recipe for GF chocolate cupcakes. I didn't make the icing, although I want to try it in the future. The cupcakes were really good. Everyone enjoyed them. Point for me. This weeks I'm going to keep things as simple as possible. We leave for Kansas on Friday afternoon. I want to try and not have too many leftovers that will have to be thrown out. In case I'm silent again for awhile, its probably due to our Kansas trip. We'll be spending a week at my mom's visiting with family for Thanksgiving. :) Ok here is the menu for the week.

Monday: Cheese corn chowder with GF biscuits
Tuesday: Coconut milk curry over rice
Wednesday: Midweek meal at church
Thursday: leftovers or other simple meal
Friday and Saturday eating out while traveling
Sunday: At my Mom's! Hopefully she will feed us ;)

For more menus visit Organizing Junkie.

New Additions

After years of wishing and wanting, my wonderful husband gave me cats for my birthday. Three weeks after my birthday, after taking family pictures in the morning, we all piled in the car and drove to the Humane Society (although I didn't know where we were going at the time). I could hardly believe it when Mark said I got to pick out which cat to adopt. I could even get two if I wanted. At the counter was a beautiful female kitten who was just so cuddly when they let me hold her.

But I wanted to look at all the others first before deciding. After looking at all the beautiful cats ranging from kitten on up and after the boys spooking two cats I had fancied we found Homer.

 He didn't jump at every little noise the boys made and even came up to them to stiff/ check them out. It was obvious that he was a keeper. So after introducing Homer to the kitten out in the lobby (who's name was Slippers) we filled out paper work and brought them home.

 However while Homer seemed to fit his name, Slippers just wasn't sitting right with me. But I didn't know what to name her. Mark's brother Eric suggested Penny. Which worked great because we had already discussed Penelope. Penelope for those who don't know was Odysseus's wife in Homer's Odyssey. However while we like Penelope, we weren't sure it fit her. But Penny is perfect for our little kitten.

So now I have two cats. Homer who's just over a year. And Penny who while her paper work says she is four months her vet thinks she is younger. She is still so little. Although she is growing quickly. I keep noticing he is already bigger then when we brought her home. Homer is the laid back cat. He is lazy, tolerant of the boys picking him up, and very talkative.

 Penny is the ornery one. She playful, energetic, and always into sometime.

 She too puts up with the boys, but will often run and disappear the first moment she can when they are around.

 Even after almost a month I love them completely. Its truly great to have cats around. :)

Dinosaur Train

For Halloween this year, Ian and Cai wanted to be characters from PBS's Dinosaur Train.

 If you have never had the pleasure of watching this kids PBS show, you are missing out. ;) My boys love it. And why not. dinosaurs and trains together? What's  not to love? Actually in all seriousness, its not a bad show. The main characters consist of Buddy,  a T-Rex, who is adapted by a Ptreranodon family which includes Mom, Dad, Tiny, Shiny and Don, and Mr Conductor (the train conductor) who is a Troodon. Just about ever episode has them riding the Dinosaur Train to meet and learn about different dinosaurs in the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous time periods. It's amazing what new things I've learned about dinosaurs from watching this with my boys. Anyway, Ian wanted to be Buddy

 and Cai wanted to be Tiny.

So I made it happen. With an XL orange sweatshirt, baseball cap, hot glue, foam balls and paint for Ian. Oh and lots of plastic bags as stuffing.

 For Cai I used a M green long sleeve men's shirt, a foam visor, foam balls and paint.

They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. The boys loved them for sure. And there were even a few people who recognized who they were without prompting. :) Score for Momma!

For Aiden I had gotten a brown 2T sweatshirt and money ears that I had planned on pairing with his brown sweats and a red T-shirt. Instant Curious George. Sadly, Aiden did not like the ears. So then he was going to wear our Elmo costume that was giving to us by a friend in KS.

 But after wearing it around the house all afternoon he did not want to put it back on after I took it off to change his diaper before heading out. So I laid the Elmo, the Curious George, and Cai's Thing 1 costume from last year on the couch and had him choose. Thing 1 was picked.

Can't complain too much, I spent alot of time on that wig last year, it was nice to see it used again. :) We went trick-or-treating with Josiah in my sister-in-laws neighborhood.

 One up and down her street is just long enough for the kids. Two, I happen to know many of the people living there from church and other places. And three it's fun to trick-or-treat with your cousins. I felt alittle bad that we didn't go in our own neighborhood, but by the time we got home they boys were way past tired and done. Next year, there is always next year. Right?

 By the way isn't Josiah's zebra costume great? Rachel made it with black sweats, white duck tape and felt. She wanted to be able to use the sweats after she was done since they are actually Ian's and I'll want them back for the other boys later.  So impressive. It was a great Halloween. Fun was had by all.

Next year Ian tells me he wants to be a ghost. We'll see if he remembers that a year from now.

Taken by Ian while I was making dinner. I was a ballerina if you can't tell. 

Me I'm thinking Miss Piggy for myself. Any excuse to dress up I'll take.

Menu Plan Monday- Nov 7th

Wow over a month has passed since my last post. I have not deserted this blog, just got steamrolled by life I guess. Quick update: We are moved into our new home! Still have stacks of boxes, but we are in and living to the best of our ability. My birthday gift came three weeks late in the form of two wonderful cats. We love them. Mark severely sprained his ankle. He was on crutches for a week; off now but still limping. It will be a long healing process. He was pretty lucky he didn't need surgery. Aiden turned 2 years old on the 5th. :) Hard to believe my baby is a two year old. How did he get so big? Really I think I'm still in denial. Anyway I'm hoping to do longer post in the near future to let you know what is happening here. But for now I"ll stick to menu planning. And on that note, it should be said that while I have failed to post my menus, I have not failed to make a menu these last several weeks. As always we don't always stick to my menus, but at least I have them as a reference.I've gotten a couple of new gluten free cookbooks too, which is fun. So here is this weeks menu.

Monday: Crockpot chili
Tuesday: Sweet potato and black bean burritos
Wednesday: Green spaghetti  (the bottom of this post has my recipe) with side veggie
Thursday: Quiche with a potato crust
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: Cheese corn chowder
Sunday: Groundnut stew and Joint b-day party for Aiden, Mark and cousin Josiah

For more menus visit Organizing Junkie. Hope you all have a Happy Monday!