Our menu for April 27th ~ May 1st

A few months ago we found out that once again I’ll be eating the last trimester of this pregnancy watching my diet because I have gestational diabetes.  So what this means for my menus is that they will be well balanced and complete.

April 25th ~ Pancakes, eggs & sausage with milk
April 26th ~ Beef Enchiladas, broccoli, applesauce with milk
April 27th ~ Pesto pasta chicken, broccoli, applesauce, with milk
April 28th ~ Leftovers
April 29th ~ Pork chops, Potatoes, carrots, green beans, grapes, strawberries and bananas with milk
April 30th ~ English muffin pizzas with mushrooms and olives, veggies, fruit with milk
May 1st ~ Chicken pillows

As you can see we eat a lot of chicken.  I also have one dish this week that doesn’t have any meat too.  I get bored with the same old recipes all the time so I am trying to add at least one to two new recipes a week to our menu.

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Meal Planning

I have been working on getting back in the groove of planning our meals out.  For awhile I was just listing them or I would just pick off of our Family Favorites recipe list and that was dinner.  The only thing that I saw with that was that I was then trying to guess and flounder when it came to what would go with our main dish.  Well this last week or so our family has had hubby gone at work so I was just home with the girls.  And because I didn’t have a menu I was picking and choosing garbage from our freezer and the fast food places around and feeding the girls and I that way. 

This is something that I am not proud of, especially when we have lots of good food in the freezer and pantry.  I have decided that it is time to get back into planning out our meals for the week.  And since we most of us are home all day long I think I am going to do some extra work and plan out the whole day too.  This should help me with breakfast as well as snacks, and lunches too.

And while I have made this commitment to plan my meals again I was doing some research online and found a bunch of really neat and helpful websites.  And what kind of person would I be if I didn’t share them with you. 

So here they are:

Meal Plan Monday

Meal Planning Magic

 

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The absence of Manners and Coming Back

Silly Girl came out demanding to watch her Scooby-Doo.  I asked her where her manners were and why she wasn't using them.  She told me they went for a walk and weren't coming back.

I thought she was being really funny.  But at the same time I thought well if that’s the case then she didn’t really want to watch her movie as much as she thought she did.  My lovely daughter came around though in about 5 short minutes.
She came to me and told me she got same new manners and could she watch Scooby-Doo PLEASE.

How do you not laugh at this one?

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Building Your Long Term FS

In the month of April we talked about building your Long Term  Food Storage and to only store the items that your family will eat.    
In class Thursday night we started introducing the lesson with a small game. I don’t want all of you that weren’t able to attend class to miss out on our game so I set it up for you here at my house, took pictures and have it all set for you to try and figure out as well. The only unfortunate part is that you won’t be able to touch and taste like the class did last night.

Here is the picture below. Can you guess what each item is? There is a total of 28 in all. 

Happy Hunting and I hope you have fun!!!!

I started talking to the class and going over only storing what your family will eat. Right now I am not really good at cooking dried beans so for now we are storing canned beans and only a few dried. My goal is to continue to experiment with dried beans and then to store them instead.

The other food item that our family has decided to store instead of it’s counterpart is dried corn instead of cornmeal. Our wheat grinder can grind many foods including corn and so my thoughts were why not store something that will last longer. We are talking about a difference of months to years here.

Otherwise the basic Long Term Food Storage recommended foods are as follows:

Grains

Wheat

Flour

Corn (Cornmeal)

Oats

Rice

Pasta

Fats and Oils

Shortening

Canola Oil/Olive Oil

Mayonnaise

Salad Dressing

Peanut Butter

Legumes

Pinto

Black

Kidney

Split Peas

Lentils

Dry Soup Mix

Sugars

Honey

Sugar

Brown Sugar

Molasses

Corn Syrup?

Jams

Fruit drink powdered

Flavored Gelatin

Milk

Dry Milk

Evaporated Milk

Powdered Eggs

Cooking Essentials

Baking Powder

Baking Soda

Yeast

Salt

Vinegar

As a quick overview here it is all together:

Understanding Long Term Food Storage

• Understand the basic recommended long‐term foods and how they are used to help you determine what to store.

Determining What to Purchase

• Determine the quantities you will need by using our Long Term Food Storage Calculator (see tools section below)

• Start small. Work on a full 3 month supply, then move onto 6 months, then a full year

· Follow the BabySteps Checklists to help spread out your purchases over time

Learning to Use Long Term Food Storage

• Use food storage recipe books and websites on how to use your long term food storage

• Help your family become accustomed to eating your Long Term Food Storage. This will ease the transition in case of an emergency

· Talk to your friends and family members about how they use their food storage.

For homework read Checklist #4, Create a space for your food storage, and purchase a shelf for your food storage. Read Food Storage Lies…….Debunked (Step #4)

And once again the great girls over at Food Storage Made Easy made a spreadsheet to help you figure out what your family needs to put in their Long Term Food Storage.

Answers to the game:

1. wheat 2. flour 3. corn 4. oats 5. rice 6. shortening 7A. olive oil 7B. canola oil 8. mayonnaise 9. salad dressing (rand) 10. peanut butter 11. pinto beans 12. kidney beans 13. split peas 14. honey 15. sugar 16 brown sugar 17. jell-0 18. pudding 19. dry milk 20. fruit drink powdered 21. baking powder 22. baking soda 23. yeast 24. salt 25. vinegar 26. gluten 27. bisquick  28. buttermilk

Class handouts:
Class Assignment Sheet (where you will find what needs to be done, to be purchased and to be read.)
The last four are just informational sheets for you to look at and get ideas from: Food Storage Recipes, One Year Supply Guide, Bean Cooking Chart and Ezekiel Bread.

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Where We’ve Been and What We’ve Been Doing

Ok so for several months now I have been blogging about funny humor type stuff and not so much about us. Here’s why and what’s been happening.

As you may remember back at the very beginning of October I blogged and told you that we were expecting our parasite. Then after that I did one more quick blog update to let you know our little parasite is looking to be a boy.

In between that time in October and now we have had lots of changes and happy happenings in our family.
You might remember that we have been working on the shed out in the yard. We had to back fill the wall before the rain started and we couldn’t find anybody to help us, so here I was about nine weeks along helping Papa Bear. We had another helper too that day. And she was absolutely great. She worked so hard that we wore her out and my computer chair was the first place she found.

 

The girls dressed up for Halloween as the bad witch and the black cat.

This was Silly Girl’s 3rd year and Lil’ Monster’s 2nd year going Trick or Treating. And of course Silly Girl’s favorite part was getting all of the candy. This year I think Lil’ Monster was just along for the ride. I’m sure next year they will both get into it more.
After Halloween we had a nice family Thanksgiving down at Papa Bear’s parent’s house before the holiday and was able to see and enjoy the evening with everybody. Then that night we went over to my brother’s house.

About a week after Thanksgiving Papa Bear had some vacation time and so we took the girls to Monterey to see the Aquarium and the beach.


The whole time at the Aquarium the girls enjoyed see all of the animals but what they really loved was being able to touch and chase them. Right outside the doors here by the petting pool is the deck. We went out there for awhile to give the girls a rest and the next thing we see is the girls running around chasing the pigeons and seagulls. They thought that was the best of all. We probably spent more time chasing the birds than looking at the rest of the Aquarium.

 

We pooped the girls out really good at the Aquarium, they were both ready for stroller rides and naps. We couldn’t go to Monterey and not see the sea lions, we had to find them. We ended up walking down one of the piers and saw where the Coast Guard kept many of their boats and at the end was the sea lions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we were trying  to find and see what else there was to see in Monterey. We went to Pier 39, ate at Bubby Gump's for dinner but of course the best part was just watching the girls. We found Dennis the Menace Park and took the girls there where they had an absolute ball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slide was made of a whole bunch of little rollers. As you can see Lil’ Monster thought this was awesome. She would walk up the hill and throw herself over the edge to go back down the slide. She spent at least 20 minutes here going up and down.
This was a wonderful vacation trip that we took together. And after Papa Bear being gone so long that summer we really enjoyed having him home with us to have some fun.

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Fun glimpses into our Mayhem

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Christmas Time

At Christmas time Santa came and visited our house.  Here is a few pictures to show the fun the girls had.

The girls loved opening and seeing what was hidden in their stockings.

Santa brought Silly Girl a really cool doll house for her to play with.

And now Lil’ Monster finally has her own rocking chair to sit in.

Christmas was great again as usual.  We spent Christmas Eve at home with Papa Bear’s family.  I made a turkey and cooked for the family.  Then the next morning we stayed home again  with Papa Bear’s parents.  That night I cooked again, this time a ham.  We (Papa Bear and I) also figured something out; it is way to hard and stressful to have three big events in one week.  We cooked two big holiday dinners two nights apart and had Silly Girl’s birthday party right before the holidays too all while early on in my pregnancy.

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How to wash a Toilet………By the Dog

How to wash a toilet
This was simply too much of a time saver not to share it with you.

1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.

2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.

3. In one smooth movement put the cat in the toilet and close the lid. You may need to stand on the lid.

4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a 'power-wash' and rinse'.

6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift the lid.

8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.

9. Both the toilet and the cat will be sparkling clean.

Yours Sincerely,

The Dog.

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Are you a Whale or a Mermaid????

Recently, in a large city in Australia, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym.
It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.)

They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia.

Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them ... where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:

I want to be a whale.

P..S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver, and a piece of chocolate with my friends.
With time, we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy.
Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨

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