Thanking You Now

Menu Plan Monday

Each week I make a menu plan. It resides on the side of my fridge and is difficult to find the recipes each night. In an attempt to keep the recipes in one place, I've decided to start making menu plan posts each Monday.

Most of these recipes are great but I do change some of the ingredients to make them healthier. For example you can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour, brown rice for white rice, skip the butter, add more veggies, use yogurt instead of sour cream etc.

Hope this will give you some ideas as well!


Breakfast:
Pancakes

Bagels with cream cheese

Whole wheat toast with egg

Cereal/Green smoothies

Amish baked oatmeal

Lunch:

Tortilla wrap w/mini carrots and hummus and mini orange

Mini pizzas on WW English muffins w/grapes

Chicken tenders with honey mustard w/apples

Egg Muffin Sandwich w/yogurt and mini orange

Dinner:

Tikki Masala w/broccoli

Butternut lasagna
Picture courtesy of Tasty Kitchen.

Baked potato soup

Red Beans and Rice

Tofu Lo Mein

To Bake for snacks and lunch boxes:

Granola bars (These are so easy and delicious! I use brown rice rice crispies)

Banana muffins (Another crowd pleaser. Sub WW flour for white and vegan butter for regular butter.)

For more Menu Plan ideas check out

To a New Year!

Here is our New Year evening. Not a ton going on but it was fun.



New nails for the New Year!




The smallest one put up a good fight but didn't get to see the ball drop.

Christmas 2010

At the Rockettes before they told us to put the camera away. Oops.

Easy Bakin' it.

Airzooka on pillow pet.

Such Happiness

I couldn't resist posting this picture. It's one happy girl at her end-of-season soccer party. I'm not sure if she's happy the season is over or if she's happy to be with her teammates.

Holy Half Shell!

There must be an R in the month because...Oysters!

My husband doesn't bring home the bacon, he brings home the oysters.

Jennifer Hoech

Tooth...Lost!

That's right, it's lost. Well not really, it's just out of its socket.


It was a fun filled 20 minutes while the tooth was manuvered this way and that. Finally, I just pulled it out because that baby was not going to stay in there overnight.

We were going to put it in this handy dandy tooth fairy pillow.

However, after discussing many options, we have decided on the tooth fairy jar.

If you haven't tried, it please do!

Can't wait for the tooth fairy visit. Someone is very concerned she will have a hard time getting into the house. We may need to leave a window open!

Busy Bear

This is the bear that has been with us for the past few days. Busy bear is to attend all our happenings while we document them.
I do have to say, we're going to have to invent things to do so we have something to write about!




Tomorrow we will play tennis, go on a nature walk and bake some muffins.

Jennifer Hoech

The band had their name on the window!

It's the little things....

Letter Boxing

If you haven't letter boxed, go do it now.

It's a bit like geocoaching but more fun for little kids. Basically, you print out clues that lead you to a hidden box. Each box has a journal and a stamp. You also carry a stamp and journal. You stamp the box's journal with your stamp and stamp your journal with the box's stamp. It's interesting to read the box's journal to see how many other people have found the box before you.

Eventually your journal becomes full with unique stamps as most are hand carved.


Some of the clues will take you on a bit of a hike. It also introduces you to new places around town that you many not otherwise visit.





Atlas Quest is a nice website because you can easily track the boxes you have found. There are many great features on the website that make it easy to find boxes.

There is also Letterboxing North America that is an ok site. It's just hard to keep track of what you've completed.

These boxes are all over the place which makes it easy to find one on just about every outing.

We're planning on planting our own box this summer. The kids are looking forward to writing the clues and carving their own stamp!

Embroidery

The girls each did a little embroidery project over the summer.

I really wasn't sure if the little one would be able to do the stitching but she loved it. She would just sit there and work on it for the longest time.

These are their own drawings that I transfered onto the fabric. I got the idea from Skip to My Lou.

The big girl even sewed her pillow together.

St Louis 2010

Lots of fun on our trip to St Louis. Here are a few pictures. Lots more to share in the next few days!

The Baby is Five

This year, we decided to take it easy on the birthdays. We just had a couple friends and their kids over for swimming and cake.

We also played Dance Dance. Such a fun game. If you haven't played, I highly recommend!

The cake was a choice made by the birthday girl. I was surprised to find out that Ariel lives in the Gulf. If you look close, you can see oil in the waters of the cake. Very impressed that the cake bakers are able to work current events into their cake making.

Frogs

Summer bugs and frogs. Or are they toads?

I've been listening to the kiddos laugh and squeel about the toads for the past hour. Honestly, it's been a long time since I've heard my son's high-pitched innocuous jubilations of delight.

Utter abandoment for all things cool and a too long reigned in release of excitement.

I would have gone out there to take pictures of him so excited but that surely would have ruined the delighted yelps of summer.

Summer. That's what it's for.