This side of the trough.

We have some bizarre weather going on here in the U.S.  The states, at least when I watched the forecast this morning, was split in half with a large trough of cold air across the west and a big trough of warm air to the east.

I'm in the warm air trough.  Well, that is at least until the weather changes tomorrow evening.

K and the neighbor friend played outside in the melting snow pile that used to be the igloo in the front yard.  They also were out back on the swing set.

What about me?  I opened up all of the windows and turned the fans on low.  I'm trying to air out the infectious funk that has been floating around here for about a month.  I had the windows open until 7:30 PM.  It was delightful!

Still, I miss the snow.  I welcome its return.

Pow! Right in the kisser!

The snow is melting and K and her friend were playing in it for a little while after school.  Michelle and I were hashing over some PTA stuff as K came up to me with a "snow" ball.  She raised it up and I said, "K, don't--" She threw it anyway.  It was an ice ball and smacked me in the side of the nose and mouth.

I was not happy.

I yelled at her.

"But Mom, I didn't mean to!"

I told her that I knew she didn't, but I told her not to and she did anyway.

That was 2 hours ago and my face still hurts.

I didn't lose any teeth and when I came in, the phone was ringing.  It was the neighbors across the street.

"Did you see me get bailed into the face with an ice ball?"

"Glenn told me to call.  He swore you got hit in the eye."

I told him I didn't get hit in the eye, but the nose and mouth.  K was in time out for about a half hour.  They asked if I had a bruise.  I don't think I do, but by golly it hurt.

Can't wait for soft snow to fall again.

"A B as in Boy minus!"

The phone rang at work today right on schedule-- 2:40 PM.  It was my rather excited child.  "How was your day, babe?"

"Mom, guess what?!"

"What's that?"

"I got my math test!"

"What did you get?"  I admit, I was silently cringing.

"A B!"

"A B?"

"A B as in Boy minus!"

I cried.  Literally, I had tears.  The child has worked so hard.

Hooray!

Weekly menu day!

The snow is falling softly outside.  It's that beautiful kind of snowfall that you see in the movies.  It is a grand thing.

We're gearing up for K-'s return to the local elementary.  Frankly, the 16 day break has been lovely, but we're ready to return to the grind.  With that, we've scoped out the lunch menu and other than tomorrow's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Tater Tots and Baked Beans, the rest of the week is (what I term) illegal.

Keeping that in mind, we also sat AS A FAMILY (as we will each week) and crafted a family dinner menu for the week.  Last night, I went shopping just for the additional things that we needed to make that list happen, as well as lunch items for the week for all of us.

Do you know how hard it is to shop for food that is good for you?  I mean, you have to dig through all the pre-boxed and all that to get to the nitty gritty.  It took me a while and I ran into a school dad who talked and talked and talked some more.  He's a lovely guy and I didn't have K- with me, so it wasn't a problem.

Here is week 1 of our menu planning:

Sunday:  Chicken and noodles with vegetables.  Broccoli salad.  (Reserve 1/2 chicken for Thursday.)

Monday:  Homemade macaroni and cheese, peas and salad.  Hubs will have leftover chicken and noodles, since mac & cheese is digestively illegal for him.

Tuesday:  Hubs is at a conference and K- has dinner with my in-law's.  Often, they reserve some leftovers for me.  If not, I'm sure that Mac & Cheese will be left over.

Wednesday:  I'll be taking K- to a school skating party, so I'm going to do a fly-through to pick her up.  Hubs will have a sandwich and a smoothie.  I can have a mushroom burger when I get home.

Thursday:  Chicken Salad Sandwiches (reserved and frozen from Sunday chicken), baked beans and salad.

Friday:  Morningstar Chick'n Patties, Sweet Potato Fries (do freezer clean-up on a few open bags we have) and coleslaw.

Saturday:  Soy "meat" tacos (with brown rice and corn) and Spanish Rice.

My MIL passed on her Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine and I've found a few recipes that I would like to plunk into our menu someday.  Here they are. (Click on the recipes to make them larger.)

 
          Credit for both of these recipes to:
           Cooking With Paula Deen, Nov/December 2012, Vol 8, Issue 6


Both recipes sound pretty good, but I know that the Broccoli Potato Soup is completely illegal for Hubs.  As for the Chicken Taco Soup, I may need to tweak it a bit, but it seems doable.

Have any good recipes that you've run across lately?  Feel free to link to your blog in the comments!

Have a great day!

"Mom, the book is so good that I can't stop reading!"

Today, K received the Kit Kittredge Collection book. She's a girl who loves herself some historical books.  She's been reading Those Happy Golden Years, which is a Little House on the Prairie book.  It is a bit more lengthy than I originally thought when I purchased it, but she's been working through it.  We added it to her other Little House books that we've picked up along the way.  Many have been purchased at a little Amish antique store that we visit when we're down that way.  She has a collection of AG Molly books, too.  She loves Magic Tree House and the adventures that they have.  It is wholesome reading that I don't have to worry about.  She learns different things, too.  Just like Addy.  We bought her the AG Addy book when we visited Gettysburg.  She read it most of the way home.  Occasionally, she would exclaim the current happenings from her spot in the back.  Going to Gettysburg, then reading a book on the way home about how slavery affected an American Girl named Addy truly drove home the lesson that we were trying to teach her about that part of our trip.

K absolutely loves reading.  She can't go in the car without a collection of books with her.  During break, she has logged in a bit of reading.  Grant you, she's slacked from her usual routine and hasn't read quite as much as she does during school.  Still, she has faithfully logged her reading times and I have to remember to sign them before she goes back.

That reminds me.  Flashlight was supposed to be out and the book closed 8 minutes ago.  I think I need to go double check.

Have a great night!

I tried to tickle my brain with a Q-Tip.

Yes, yes.  I know.  Q-Tips are technically for make-up use and craft projects.  I get it.  I'll preface before I even tell you my story.  I know that you shouldn't put them in your ear, but I do and I will again.

New Year's Day, I was in the bathroom and K- had called for me to come look at something.  I was being a busy, multi-tasking mom and decided that I'd grab up a Q-Tip, stick it gently in my ear, grab the flosser that I wanted, plunk it in my mouth and I'd be off and on my way.  It all worked and before I started hoofing it down the hall, I went to grab hold of the Q-Tip and ended up jamming it into my head instead.

Dang that hurt.  Tears didn't come to my eyes, but it was close.  I walk into the kitchen with the flosser still hanging out of my mouth while clutching my right ear.  At that same time, Hubs hobbled up the steps ouching about how he just banged his baby toe into the step.

We were quite the pair.  All the while, K- is sitting there, rubbing my arm and telling Hubs how sorry she was that he tried to rip a toe off.  Poor kid.

My ear pained.  There was no blood, so I was hopeful.  My hearing wasn't compromised, so that was promising.  I really didn't look forward to visiting my doctor to inform him that I was trying to tickle my brain, but instead tried to stab it with a Q-Tip.

Not good.

A couple of days and several Advil later, my ear feels like an ear again.  I promise not to multi-task with a Q-Tip sticking out of my ear.  I refuse to give up that good time feeling of a Q-Tip ridding me of squishy feeling ears after a bath.

No way.  No how.

Have a great night!

PS  I'm laughing because I do want y'all to realize that I knew that my brain wasn't right there.  :)  One heck of a sore eardrum was the stabbing recipient.  :S

Eating and not wasting.

I am embarrassed to admit that I cleaned out our freezer today and threw away far too many things.  I had meat that looked freezer burned, so that got flipped.  I had leftovers that were well intentioned on the freezer front, but moved their way to the back and were forgotten.

Never again.

I cleaned and restructured the freezer today.  Hubs wanted a Nutri Bullet, so we purchased him one with Christmas money.  I found that the grocery had frozen fruit on sale BOGO, so we've stocked up on that and the Greek yogurt that they had on sale.  He and K- can continue to enjoy their smoothies in the morning and at night.  Our freezer can accommodate their healthy snack choice.

I have basketed the meat.

I have basketed the vegetables.

Everything is well within sight.

I shall never freeze leftovers again.  They just get wasted.  :(

The grocery ad comes in Friday's mail.  We're going to sit as a family to map out the menu for the following week.  We'll take into account what we have on the downstairs shelves and in the fridge and freezer.

No more waste is our motto.

We had spaghetti tonight.  We enjoyed garlic butter crescent rolls and have some left for tomorrow.  Not only are we trying not to waste, but we are being more mindful of serving sizes.  I made the entire box of spaghetti noodles knowing that we wouldn't eat all of them, but I would have enough of everything left over for the following recipe.  It has been in my file for years and I decided that we shall try it tomorrow.  As I type, Hubs and K- are building a doodling robot and the Spaghetti Pie is baking for tomorrow.  Here goes:

Spaghetti Pie

8 oz. spaghetti noodles (we had whole wheat linguini noodles)
2 eggs, well beaten
2 T butter (or Smart Balance)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 1/2 cups Ricotta (Cottage Cheese for me!)
Mozzarella and Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated (whatever you have would work)
Spaghetti sauce

Boil noodles as directed on package and drain.  Return to pan and add the 2 T butter; stir until butter is melted; add the well-beaten eggs and grated Parmesan.  Pour into a well-buttered (or Pam) large deep dish pie plate; spread around bottom and up sides making your "crust."  Spread Ricotta (or Cottage Cheese!) over all the noodles.  Top with your spaghetti sauce; top with grated cheese (as much as you'd like.)  Bake at 350 F for approximately 20 minutes.

We've reused our leftovers before we could forget about them.  I have baked it already so that all I have to do tomorrow is to heat it up.

I'll continue to report our success and :gulp: failure, if we have any.

Ding!  Spaghetti pie is ready!

Have a great night!