Just a little announcement… the Meal Plan Post will be on Fridays from now on.
I usually do my Meal Planning and grocery shopping on Friday of each week, so I thought it would be a nice change to move this post to the end of the week. Then, if any of you see any recipes you want to try, you’ll see this before the start of a new week. I also didn’t want to do two posts on Sunday evening, since I am now participating as a host for Motivational Monday.
I’ve been having great success with preparing meals for my family (most) nights and this is week THIRTY-FIVE of meal planning success for our household. This has been GREAT for us as a family, the kids are becoming less picky and aren’t begging for fast food or microwave meals, we have saved lots of money on not eating out and I’ve had the benefit of trying new recipes and enjoying lots of time in the kitchen (some days are more glamorous then others!).
Which, BTW… I finally found a taco soup WINNER (ding, ding!)!! I have been trying to find a perfect taco soup recipe and I tried a soup a couple of weeks ago and it was really bland. Well, Mix and Match Mama posted a taco soup recipe and I decided to give it a try, because I LOVE her recipes. OH MY, it was SO dang good! Some of the ingredients included a taco packet, ranch packet AND Rotel (oh, I love Rotel). You have GOT to try this taco soup, go HERE for the recipe. She calls it taco chili, but whatever… it is GOOD.
This Weeks Meal Plan:
Sunday – Order In
Monday – Spaghetti with Green Salad and Garlic Bread
Tuesday – BLT’s with Chips
Wednesday – EASY Crock Pot Beef Stew with Crusty Bread, recipe HERE
I was going to make this last week and we were so tired after a housewarming party that I couldn’t even get up to boil noodles… silly me. So, Brian ran out and BOUGHT spaghetti at Fazoli’s… I know, I KNOW. So, it is on the menu for this week.
Thursday – BLT’s with Chips
Just because, I can make this recipe twice… so, I might as well be cost-effective!
Friday – Pretzel Crust Pizza with Green Salad, recipe HERE
I love soft pretzels, so when I saw this pretzel crust pizza recipe on Pinterest I was drooling! I really can’t wait to try this, even though I’ll be making the dough from scratch.
Saturday – Leftovers
Autumn is having her birthday party today and we will have a lot of leftovers to eat!
Dessert: Marshmallow Apple Dump Cake, recipe HERE
4 ingredients. So easy. I’ve had this one pinned for awhile, so I can’t wait to try it!
NOW, to the exciting stuff!!
I also wanted to share some photos from when Autumn and I (Grandma and Nathan came, too!) went to the American Girl store to get her Samantha for her birthday last week. Her birthday isn’t for another week, but the kids had a day off of school and I wanted to go during the day to beat the weekend rush/crazies.
I always take a photo in front of the store… I don’t know why! What made it even better was that Samantha was being displayed in the window! (Can you guess which doll she selected?)
Autumn walked maybe 5 feet into the store and found her doll… Samantha, of course! I was hoping she’d select Isabelle, but Samantha won out!
Time for lunch! Can you tell she is bursting with excitement by her smile in this photo? What a cute girl, I love her so much!
Even Samantha is ready to eat!
Our napkin ‘rings’ were hair ties that we got to keep!
Grandma felt bad for Nathan and bought him a cow!
This photo made me laugh. Silly boy!
We got the birthday package, which included an appetizer and meal. I got pretzels for my appetizer and then a grilled cheese with tomato soup for my meal. The kids got pizza, of course! The food is always so cute at the AG cafe!
While we were waiting on the birthday cake, I got a somewhat decent photo of the kids together. I mean, it isn’t perfect, but I’ll take it!
Birthday girl!
Making a wish….
This is just the cutest little cake ever, I love how much icing is on it. Yum!
Blowing out candles… I can’t believe Autumn will be 6!!!
Cake and Ice Cream! (We all scream for ice cream!!!)
We are having a small ‘Frozen’ party with family this Saturday to celebrate Autumn’s birthday… and, we are supposed to get our first snow here in St. Louis! Usually I go ALL out on their birthdays, but this year I kept the decorations and food more simple. I just didn’t feel like I needed all the extra stress and late nights with an over the top party, especially when we are just having my parents and brother/SIL over. I promised the kids a ‘class’ party every other year… so, it is Nathan’s turn this year.
Her birthday is next Friday and I will be volunteering up at school and bringing treats in, so it’ll be nice to see her some at school on her special day. Autumn is asking to get her ears pierced this weekend (last year on her birthday she chickened out and hasn’t asked since), so… I may take her up there to give it another try… we’ll see. Her excuse for not waiting to get them pierced, is because her ear lobes will grow and get bigger…. and if she does it now it won’t hurt as much! LOL! Silly girl!
5 has been a wonderful year with Autumn. I am really sad to see it go. I sort of feel like 5 is the last ‘little’ year and now… she’s getting to be a big kid. I really miss my kids being little and it makes me sad… every so often I’ll count how many years I will have left with both of them, before they turn 18 and move out. Sniff. I’m not sure if that is normal or weird, but I am going to cling to every little moment I still have with them. And. well… they’ll always be my babies. 🙂 I have really enjoyed being at home with them since I left my job last February. It’s been wonderful and I am looking forward to our 3 day break for Thanksgiving and a three week break in December! Oh, and… maybe some snow days? Well, enough rambles.
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