Menu for 4/1/13-4/7/13

How was your Easter?

Mine was great!  Exhausting, but great.  Bailey got to wear her beautiful new dress with her adorable little sweater.  We went to Nana's house for lunch and ate fried chicken tenders and ham and chocolate brownie parfait (someone in my family calls it chocolate lush stuff) and then we went out to Grandmother and Papaw's house for dinner.

Honey yeast knots

Another crazy, busy Saturday for my family.  We showed up at Aaron's parents' house to find out that we had two extra guests for dinner.  Aaron's nephews spent Spring Break at Grandmother and Papaw's house.  Luckily breakfast casserole can be made to feed an army.  I had pre-made a dozen biscuits this morning so dinner only took about 45 minutes to get together.

Italian pasta salad

Hey Ocean was amazing!  I had so much fun at the concert.  The opening bands were great as well.  The first band was The Plainview, then Pocket Dreams played (they were really awesome, I was super impressed), and right before Hey Ocean was We Are the City.  I missed Bailey, but it was a really fantastic night.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.

DIY Chocolate Syrup

Tonight we had pizza baked spaghetti made with my homemade spaghetti sauce.  I made a whole box of linguini, poured the whole recipe of spaghetti sauce over it, covered it with 2 cups of cheese and about 25 pepperonis.  I baked it for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees and it turned out just perfect!  Bailey even ate real spaghetti noodles.  She's only eaten them one other time.

Menu for 3/25/13-3/31/13

It has been another crazy week.  It seems like every week is crazy here lately.  I was going to post yesterday, but by the time I got home last night I was too tired to even turn the computer on.  Yesterday was a busy day anyway.  I never stopped all day.  We were just about to leave the house when my phone rang yesterday.  I was packing the food up to make dinner at Grandmother and Papaw's house and it was Aaron's nephew calling to let us know that he and his brother and sister would be there for dinner too.  They're 10, 12, and 14 years old.  They eat a lot.  I suddenly had to double the recipe.  I grabbed some more chicken out of the freezer and another block of cheese from the fridge.  I had to grab another box of macaroni and Aaron had to run to the store to get cream of chicken soup.

Lasagna soup

It's new recipe night at our house!  I scoured my Pinterest "Dinners" board to find a recipe that Aaron would eat and finally settled on this one:  Lasagna soup!  It's an adaptation of a Paula Deen recipe, and who could possible turn down anything by Paula Deen?

Chicken stuffed shells

Didn't your mom make the best food ever?  When you think of the food of your childhood your mom's food should really stand out.  You will probably always compare everyone else's food to hers, even when you shouldn't.  Men do it all the time.  How many times have you heard a man complaining about his wife's cooking?  "That's not how Mama makes it," they whine.  Well, it may not be how your Mama makes it, but it's how I make it and if you don't like it you can go eat at your Mama's house.

Menu for 3/18/13-3/24/13

Wow!  What a fun weekend we've had!  A very busy week and a fun weekend.  We went to Ripley's Aquarium on Saturday with Grandmother and Aunt Shelia.  Bailey had a blast looking at all of the fish and the sharks and rays.  Her favorite part was the penguins.  They swam right up to the glass!  She even came home with a new stuffed penguin wearing a tutu.  It was a long day, but the look on her face when she saw all the fish was totally worth it.

Chili dog casserole

My house smells so good today!  I had chili simmering on the stove all day for tonight's dinner.

The past few days have been a little hectic.  Monday night we had beef stew and due to a tiny mishap in my grocery shopping I hadn't bought any stew meat.  I ended up running to the store before I could cook dinner and that meant dinner was late.  Tuesday we went to Nana's and Yaya's and got some adorable pictures of Bailey for Easter.

Menu for 3/11/13-3/17/13

Did anyone else have trouble getting up after the time change?  My morning was complicated by having spent half the night in the recliner with a fussy 16 month old.  I'm not sure what was wrong with her, but she had a lot of crying to get out before she finally settled all snuggly on my shoulder.  I'm actually really glad for the opportunity to snuggle because unless she is already asleep she tends to push me away.

Lasagna

The first year that Aaron and I were together I asked him what he wanted me to make for dinner for his birthday.  He said he wanted lasagna.  I had no idea how to make lasagna.  This was nine years ago.  It was before I could just get online and find a recipe for almost anything I wanted to make.  Since I didn't know what else to do I called my Nana and asked for her recipe.

Spicy sausage pasta skillet

I have been so excited about this recipe for weeks.  I don't know if I repinned it from a friend or if I discovered it on my own on Pinterest or when I was blog surfing.  I can't remember, but after making my post on Sunday with my menu for the week I noticed that one of the blogs I follow had the same title for her Sunday night post.  She must have found the recipe and gotten as excited as I did.  Hers sounded almost like mine, except of course I had to make a substitution to please the picky eater around here and hers used a different type of cheese.

Nana's creamed potatoes

A little less than a year ago my cousin had a handsome little baby boy.  He was premature and spent about 12 weeks in the hospital.  When J and her husband finally got to bring their little bundle home everyone pitched in and brought over dinner for a couple of weeks to help out.

Chicken and dumplings

When it comes to chicken and dumplings, I'm not a fan of homemade dumplings.  I don't particularly like fluffy dumplings.  They always just seem soggy to me.  Mom and Nana have always made dumplings with canned biscuits as long as I can remember.  Those are the dumplings I prefer so those are the dumplings I make.  Of all the foods that I make homemade because they are just better/fresher/healthier... I will never add dumplings to that list.

Menu for 3/4/13-3/10/13 and menu planning tips

I'd like to start off with the menu this time.  It will help you understand my process.

Crock pot Italian chicken and pasta

Crock pots are just a really wonderful invention.  For one thing, it makes it a lot easier to clean up dinner when everything has cooked together in the crock pot.  There's no need to keep an eye on dinner so there's more time to finish all of your other chores.  A crock pot meal is perfect for a new mom, a busy day of errands, or during spring cleaning when you just don't have time to stop cleaning and make dinner.  It's a huge help for moms who work outside the home as well.  I don't use mine as often as I'd like to, but I'm hoping that I'll get to use it more as I work through the recipes I've pinned on Pinterest.

Chicken taco casserole

Aaron likes most of what I cook.  He has some very picky tastes that I work around so that he's gotten to where he mostly just eats whatever I cook.

One night, about five years ago, I was at a friend's house and she was making supper for her family and she made this delicious-looking Mexican lasagna of sorts.  It had layers of flour tortillas, beans, rice, ground beef with taco seasoning, salsa, and lots and lots of cheese.  It looked so good that I decided I had to try it.