Food on Friday and Upcoming Challenges

It is a jam-packed weekend here.  We have In-Law Dinner tonight, Girlie is coming home today for her race on Sunday, the High School Homecoming game is tonight, which it sounds like all three older kids are hoping to attend.  

Saturday we are helping my parents move into their new home; it's going to be a new beginning for them with my dad retiring at the end of the year.  There's joining hubby, who is hosting his district's picnic/outing/gathering, church and a birthday party.  

Sunday will dawn bright and early with Girlie's Rock 'n Roll half marathon run down in Denver, the postponed Boy Scout Rocket Launch has been reschedules for Sunday, getting Girlie back up to school, homework, and the two older want to go to a Youth Group bowling outing.  It's looking like this year's pumpkins will come out of the bin at the grocery store.

Monday . . . well . . .we'll all be useless on Monday.

It's weekends like this I wish I planned a menu - though I'm not sure when I'd be home to cook.  However, weeknights can be just as crazy.  It was this week, with all the Homecoming activities the boys attended, plus some church-related events they are both involved with, and an unplanned drive up to Greeley on Tuesday.  My planned menu was shuffled with an impromtu dinner out on Monday and Wednesday I couldn't deal so I went for pizza.  I have two recipes that remained on the plan but neither of which are easily shareable - they are locked to non-subscribers of Taste of Home.  I can't see them online because I don't know my member number to complete my registration.  Boo!

Buuttt. . .they are on Pinterest (though you can't follow the link, same non-member/register issue) but there are ingredient lists on Pinterest, just not instructions.  If nothing else, you can check out recipes I've cooked and we've like on my Cooked That board.

Beef Tortellini Skillet - This was okay.  A different take, for sure.  It wasn't very saucy, so the meat crumbles didn't "stick" with the tortellini.  I'm not sure how I'd fix this. . .maybe stir in the cheese when there's still a bit of liquid in the pan, instead of just topping the skillet.  Maybe add a bit more liquid at the end of the cook time and then add the cheese and stir to get a bit of "sauce" going.   Italian Sausage would be a good substitute, it wouldn't get as crumbly; I'd just drop the seasoning.  You can find the ingredient list with the Pin.  Instructions:  brown the meat; stir in the seasoning.  Then add the water, bouillon and tortellini.  Stir, cover and cook about 3 or 4 minutes until the tortellini is done.  Top with cheese.

Weeknight Ravioli Lasagna - This was great!  I love lasagna, but it can be a tad time consuming, so this is a great alternative.  I don't buy bottled sauce anymore, opting to use this Quick Marinara Sauce (I use tomato sauce instead of crushed tomatoes, depending on the season will sub in dried basil for the fresh, and I mince my garlic instead of smashing it.)  You can find the ingredient list on the Pin.  Instructions:  Spread 1/2 c sauce in a greased 11x7 pan.  Layer half the ravioli, top with half the chopped spinach, 1/2 c cheese and a cup of sauce - repeat layer.  Top with remaining sauce and remaining 1/2 c cheese.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 45 minutes.  

I also wanted to thank Ruth, who commented yesterday about my mom-scrapper-fail with my 17 y.o., aka the non-picture-taker.  She said:  Thanks for sharing! I feel for you about getting your kids to document their lives (especially the boys!) I wasn't good about documenting when I was a kid and find myself wishing that I had a photo of what my room looked like or more of my adventures when I was in band or speech team in high school...Sadly, all we can do is share with our kids that when they get older they might want to remember some of the details of life when they were younger and hope they try and capture some of it. I know it's so painful as a scrapper to not have any pictures to work with - I wonder if we challenge them to share one picture a day with you while they are away if that would work?  Well, best of luck!

Her suggestion of challenging them to take a photo a day is awesome.  My 15 y.o. needs no challenge, he's pretty good if I ask for a photo he'll get me one.  With my 17 y.o. I may have to break him in with one photo a week, though, LOL.  We were talking about it last night.  I said, "just group your friends behind you and do a group shot."  He said, "Mom, that's not me."  I told him it's just a group shot and he said he see.  I know his other friends are snapping shots, so I'm not sure what his challenge is.  But I thank you, Ruth, for the suggestion.

One last thing. The weather is turning cooler.  Daylight is shorter.  It's time to get snugged up inside.  A perfect time to reacquaint myself with my supplies and stash.  But I need a nudge, or a ginormous shove, to get back to my paper and scissors.  So, starting Monday, it's challenge time.  A challenge a day (weekdays) until the end of the month.  If you need something to get your rolling, too.  Tune in.

I'm off to tackle my list for today.  It's long and there's a lot of kitchen time on it.  Should I go for music or DVR to keep me company?

Happy Friday,

Throw Back Thursday Inspiration

While I'm highly inspired, and motivated, the clock is working against me.  Too many priorities that keep sliding in on top of my creative time.  That's not gonna stop me, however, from gathering the inspiration, and matching photos to kits for when I do have a bit of time.

This color pallet has that warm Autumn day touch to it; when the sunlight shines through those rich color-turning leaves.

You can find those colors in the Carta Bella A Perfect Autumn line which was in last year's October Bigger kit, and couldn't be anymore Fall if you tried.  But using the "B Sides" of the papers allows you to expand their use, i.e. the "Teamwork" layout above.

Another warm take was Echo Park's Made from Scratch line (left) from the November Bigger.  It has a more harvest, end-of-summer feel to it.

Just so you don't think the colors are simply Fall focused, check out the January Smaller kit's Simple Stories Daily Grind line (center) which was more everyday.  The Jillibean Sightseeing Stew line in the June Smaller has the color scheme, but is more travel focused.

And if you're like me, you have tons of ways to document your Decembers.  I have my December Daily albums, then my traditional takes on the big days in our family.  Just so you look outside that Autumn box, the Jillibean Holly Berry Borscht line (right) from the December Bigger kit, also uses this pallet.

If one of these kits is languishing away in your stash, go rescue it and use it.  If you don't have one of these kits, you can still search your stash (or purchase one of the kits mentioned above, they are priced nicely) for the color pallet and get creative.  

Happy Thursday,

We Are

Some weeks these look-back photos are such a mish-mash of things.  This is one of those weeks.  It's why I love pocket-page scrapbooking, in addition to my traditional books.  

Without the pocket pages, these photos wouldn't ever be in my albums.  There's no theme, there's no rhyme or reason.  There's not enough for me to create a layout.  For me this would be six one-photo one-page layouts. . .I don't roll like that, but if you do, well, I bow down to you.  

BUT. . .I do create ProjectLife® pages -sometimes it's all pockets, sometimes it's a traditional spread, sometimes it's a combo of both.  And it's all for these brief, sometimes odd, looks at our daily lives; at the what happens between the bigger events and occasions.

• We They are decked out for Halloween.  The Girlie and her suite mates, I believe, are single-handedly feeding the boys on the floor their allotted candy intake for the season.
• We aren't sure what leads the older boys to torment their younger brother, but it's a daily occurrence.  Luckily, in this case the younger brother thought it was hilarious; he liked his "elf ear."
• We are looking at snow back there.  Gone now, but it was there, which means it will soon be here.
• We are decorating sister's doll house (now home decor) for Halloween.
• We are postponed due to high winds.
• We are celebrating Generation Day during Homecoming Week.  Photo by my Freshman (in black) Now, how do I get the 17 y.o. to document anything with his phone (and this boy is going to France and Spain for Spring Break - we'll have no idea what it looks like). . .or am I destined to accept he's not ever going to capture his moments.  As a scrapper, this is a huge, hard-to-swallow, fail.

Happy Wednesday,

Food on Friday

I said yesterday that I feel like I've been behind all week.  So far today, I'm on task.  I've got conferences for the 7 y.o., dinner for the in-laws and general around the house stuff.  Seems easy enough.  There doesn't appear to be any reason to not make some forward progress, or at least catch up.  We'll see how it goes.

On week's like this, having a dinner plan is huge.  I don't have to think, especially on a night when gathering anything, let alone thoughts on what to make for dinner, was tough.  Having a weekly menu plan means I have all the items at my finger tips and we're less likely to eat out, or that I'll be serving up bowls of Cheerios.  A meal plan is one less thing I'm behind on.

Looking for some quick and easy, tried and tasted recipes?  I planned and cooked from my Taste of Home magazines this week.  I love this magazine (it's one of two that I get), and rotate them in and out according to the season.  

I was kinda craving pie, apple pie to be specific, but didn't really feel like doing the whole pie thing.  Enter Rustic Apple Galette with Butterscotch Sauce.  Galette is just a fancy way of saying don't-worry-about-a-crust.  A Galette is pretty much a dump cake, but in pie form.  It's even easier if you use pre-made pie crust.  This one used orange juice and orange zest mixed with the apples, which was a different and interesting take.  It didn't have the saucy-cinnamon apple thing going that I enjoy in a pie, but it was good.  The butterscotch sauce was divine.  I will certainly make a Galette again.

These Smothered Burritos are my Mexican fix for the week.  They were a five ingredient speed meal.  Seriously, browning the meat was the toughest thing.  They were really good and definitely need the cheddar to hold up to the green sauces; if you want a gooey cheese, use a Cheddar Jack.  The recipe says it makes four, but I got eight - those must be some seriously filled burritos.  Plus, my Costco raw tortillas probably aren't the 10" called for, so I'm not sure they would not have held the amount of filling the recipe stated.  I simply laid out the eight tortillas and evenly split the meat between them.  We topped ours with sour cream and avocado slices - PERFECT! 

We were having some pretty cool days, so my planning included comfort foods like this Garlic Chicken Rigatoni.  Only one of us does mushrooms in this house, and he ain't the cook, so I left out the mushrooms.  I also could not find sun dried tomatoes NOT packed in oil.  Well I made several rounds in the aisles I thought they'd be in and found some, in all place, the bulk aisle, but I didn't need 2 1/2 pounds of them.  So, I used oil packed, rinsed them and set them in water.  To tell the truth, I'm not sure what difference it made - I like sun dried tomatoes so next time I wouldn't bother with rinsing, though I'd still drain off most of the oil.  I liked the flavor, but there wasn't a lot of sauce, which I'm not sure it's supposed to have anyway.  I might add cream to it next time to get that saucy coating on everything.  I opted to use a chicken breast, but you could do rotisserie and skip the garlic powder and flour.

I was looking for a bar for In-Law dessert and then for lunches the rest of the week.  Well, these Glazed Apple-Maple Blondies were good for dinner, but not so much for lunches.  They were way too moist to hold up in a lunch that is squished in a back pack (store them in the 'fridge.)  Don't get me wrong the bars are awesome, but between the apples keeping the bar itself moist and then the glaze, the amazing glaze, there was just no way they wouldn't be mush in a lunch.  Next time I might put the glaze on the side and see if they are better for packing.  Serve it up with sweetened whip cream or vanilla ice cream and dump the sauce over them all.

Is my theme clear yet, comfort, comfort, comfort and Cajun Beef and Rice fits right in.  I didn't have instant brown rice, and I didn't think my regular brown rice would cook in the dish (it is supposed to be a one skillet meal.)  It wasn't any big deal to cook the rice separate and eliminate that part of the recipe.  The downside is that it was a little dry, so next time I'd add beef broth to the mix AFTER adding the rice to the skillet, which would take care of the problem.  Also, because, in my way, the rice doesn't simmer with the beef mixture I might add some seasonings to the rice as it cooks.  My other option would be to dump the rice in while there was still some liquid and let it finish cooking down in the skillet.

I keep trying to figure out how to get to the pumpkin patch this weekend, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to.  The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, which means huge crowds.  The 7 y.o. has his rocket launch on Sunday, but the rocket is not even started (hubby is leaving over the weekend for work., so he'll miss the launch - hopefully he'll get to the rocket tonight.)  The 17 y.o. is doing dinner with friends.  The 15 y.o. is doing some shopping for Homecoming Week.  I imagine we'll figure something out.

Happy Friday,

Throw Back Motivation

If you've been around at all, you've heard this before, a lot . . . I L.O.V.E Fall.  Just love it.  Adore it.  It's the best of all the seasons, though it is far too short.  I tend to hoard  use sparingly this season's kits, more than others; probably second only to Christmas.  Today though, it's time to dig out a kit and use it, whether you get past fall stories down, make some cards for fall occasions or create some home decor, like a fall banner.

This color scheme just reads autumn to me.  Earthy colors, but still a bit of brightness to them.

You (and I, 'cause I'm feeling this is a hoarded saved kit) can find this color pallet in the Lawn Fawn Into the Woods line that was in the October Bigger kit.  It was a great line, with smaller graphics, that worked well with busier, colorful photos.

The color scheme was also found in the 2013 October Card kit.

If you haven't hoarding saved these kits, you can find the scheme in several other Apron Strings kits like the September '15 Card kit, the Smaller June '15 kit (all packs) which has a more generic everyday event kinda feel, and the March '14 Bigger kit (bottom) which has a decidedly Spring-like feel.

It's a toss up today...grab one of these kits and put some stories down or make plans to create more stories with a trip to the pumpkin patch.

Happy Thursday,

We Are

We are running behind, it seems all this week.  I'm not sure what happened, or is happening, but I'm like 12 hours behind where I should be.  So far, thankfully, I haven't forgotten anything, but I'm definitely behind the pack, and, I think, losing ground.

• We are sick, but managing.
• We are enjoying some pre-bed coloring time with mom.
• We are envious of the sister who not only Pins things, but creates them.  She tinted the Mason Jars we would be using.  Too cute!
• We are enjoying some pre-crafting snacks.
• We are CRAFTING!!!  Dang, it feels good.  Cutest Halloween count-down calendar.
• We are blessed and proud.
• We are receiving a pre-ceremony hug.  The 7 y.o. later, unprompted, called out "Yeah, Tommy!" as said brother accepted his second academic letter, for his Sophomore year.
• We are nailing the group selfie, which wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the long-arms of the Letterman.
• We are loving these past couple days of grey, cool, rainy weather.
• We are She is experiencing some serious fog up north.  She said you couldn't see the large hall in the foreground just a few hours before.
• We are needing to sleep in sister's bed tonight.
• We are She is set for Halloween and, more importantly, NHL opening night.
• We are She is rocking the live streaming and all is right in the world.

Happy Wednesday,

Food On Friday

Sooo . . . hubby was out of town all week.  I had a sick child home for two days.  Hubby was out of town.  I didn't get my menu pulled together until Wednesday morning, with a grocery store trip that afternoon.  Oh, and hubby was out of town.  Because of those things I was pretty unmotivated to cook, let alone get a menu together.  I, eventually, came to the realization that I still had three hungry boys at home and probably should feed them something, instead of watching them pour cereal for dinner.

If you are feeling equally unmotivated, then these recipes are your ticket.

Smoked Sausage is a staple in my freezer.  It's so easy to toss into a number of recipes, warm up on the grill or douse with a barbecue sauce.  So naturally this Oven Roasted Smoked Sausage and Potatoes was coming to the table, eventually.  I used parchment paper (I did coat it with olive oil as the recipe suggests) which, for me when oven roasting, gives a nice caramelized edge to foods.  I probably could have reduced the cook time by 5 or 10 minutes but only because a couple slices of sausage were a little over-browned.  It served the five of us, plus leftovers.  It was great.  The smokiness leached into the potatoes.  The sausage was crispy on the edges, the cheese was gooey.  It was all good stuff.

We are having these Cheese Enchiladas tonight.  I've made them before and they are really good.  The recipe makes two batches, so I usually halve the recipe.  One of these days I'll make both batches and freeze the second, I just don't typically have room in my freezer.  They are quick to pull together, even with making the enchilada sauce that comes with the recipe.  They are cheesy and warm.  They'll be perfect for the cool temps and rain expected tonight.

It was a crazy busy day yesterday.  It was day two of the child home from school.  Hubby was returning home, so a round-trip out to the airport.  We had parent-teacher conferences right after school for the High Schoolers and they usually take at least two hours to make the rounds.  From the conferences we, well hubby and the 15 y.o., headed out to the first Confirmation class.  Knowing that's what my day looked like, I planned something that would be good hot or not-so-hot,  These Meat-atarian Sub sandwiches are the ticket.  I have made them on French Bread, but it can be quite a mouthful, so I made these 40-minute Buns to build the sandwiches on.  I had planned to make Hoagie rolls, but I keep forgetting they need a night-before start, if not an early morning start.  The sandwiches are hearty and saucy and good for on the go.

The weather is supposed to turn decidedly fallish this weekend.  The boys have plans tomorrow, if the weather holds.  I am heading to my sister's for a little fall crafting.  The Boy Scout Rocket Launch that was to be Sunday, has been moved a week, so I'm faced with an open day.

Happy Friday,