Menu for 4/29/13-5/5/13

What an awesome weekend!  Spent a night in NC and got to see Celtic Woman live, lil' P had his first birthday party (where Bailey ate her weight in fruit), and Aaron had his first experience being alone with Bailey overnight.  Needless to say, I am worn out!

Yaya's Sausage and Squash Stuffed Manicotti

I know I've said this before, but there's just nothing like my Mom's cooking.  And my Mom has a very interesting style of cooking.  She will see a picture or description of a recipe and try to make it without actually using the recipe.  Sometimes she totally misses, but most of the time her food is great, and occasionally she hits one out of the park.  This is one of my favorite recipes that is a completely original Yaya creation.

Refried Beans

Awhile back Taco Bell changed their menu (again) and brought back an item that I hadn't seen in at least 12 years.  I used to order them all the time because they were vegetarian and didn't have onions or tomatoes.  Tostadas.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

When I first joined Pinterest I pinned a ton of recipes (and not much else) and then just forgot about my account for awhile.  In the past few months I've come to kind of rely on Pinterest to help me find information quickly.  I use it for everything from knitting and crocheting stitches, to decorating tips (not that I use them that often, but I do get ideas), to organization and cleaning tips (including some recipes for homemade cleaners that cost a fraction what store bought ones do and are less toxic and clean just as well), to tips on parenting, and finally recipes of all kinds.

Menu for 4/22/13-4/28/13

This has been a very relaxing week.  Minus the frantic cleaning on Monday and Tuesday to get the house ready for my Mom to come over for dinner, we have had a week with lots of playing outside, staying in pajamas all morning, and chilling in front of the television.  Friday afternoon Aaron came home from work early and took Bailey out to his parents' house and let me have a few hours off.  I took a shower without listening for a scream, went to the grocery store without having to pry merchandise away from tiny, sticky hands, and then ate lunch while watching television at a volume I can actually hear and without having to hold the food out of reach of a little one.  It was a very nice bit of Mommy-time.

Admiral made fish last night (one of my favorites!) and Bailey sat at the table with us instead of in a high chair.  She did move around quite a bit, turning around in her chair and trying to stand up sometimes, but for the most part she sat and ate, off of a big girl plate, with a big girl fork, at the big girl table.  My dad was surprised by how well she behaved at the table.  She actually didn't turn her plate over either and that is one of her favorite things to do at dinner.  She ate almost 2 whole pieces of fish!  I think she takes after Mommy.

So this week is going to be strange.  Our schedule is getting swapped around some because Nana has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday.  We are going to take her a birthday cake (about a week late) on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.  There is no new recipe this week, but on Thursday I will be attempting to replicate one of my favorite meals that my mom created.  I'm a little nervous because there is no recipe to follow and I have to leave out the veggies that I liked so much in it because Aaron won't eat them.

Friday night I will be going to Cherokee, NC with Aaron's sister-in-law to see Celtic Women.  I'm excited!  We will be spending the night because the show will be ending around midnight (and who wants to drive 2 hours home after the show?) so Aaron will have Bailey all by himself overnight for the first time.  He did great when I went to Atlanta with my brother and I got home around 3:30 in the morning so I'm not worried.  I know he'll do great!  Then when I get home on Saturday we have to pack up to go to my cousin J's house for 'lil P's birthday party.  He's 1 year old as of yesterday!  I hope Bailey is good at the party because it is right around nap time for her and she will probably be super tired.

Honey Wheat Rolls

I absolutely love making bread!  I love eating it too and since I made my own butter for the very first time this week I have been dying to try it on some fresh, hot bread.  I also have been wanting to test some wheat bread recipes.

Bowtie Skillet Lasagna

Today is my Nana's birthday!  That's her on the right with her twin sister on the left.  She is an amazing and wonderful woman!  I love her so, so much, I just wanted to share her with everyone!

Creamy taco mac

Raise your hand if you actually like Hamburger Helper!

Okay, I don't love Hamburger Helper but there's something to be said for a meal that is so easy to get on the table.  It's loaded with all kinds of preservatives and tons of sodium and all that other stuff you don't really want to put in your body, but it's quick, it's hot, and most varieties are pretty tasty.  (I particularly like the Cheesy Chicken Enchilada flavor and I add some black beans to it then bake it in the oven with cheese on top and serve it as a dip with tortilla chips!)

Taco Seasoning

I love tacos, and quesadillas, and taco salads, and... well, you get the picture.  I love tex-mex recipes.  I love almost any recipe that calls for taco seasoning!  What I don't love?  The crazy additives and sodium content of packaged taco seasoning mixes.  In fact, the first two ingredients on the list for my favorite brand are maltodextrin and salt, neither of which are in my recipe.  There is also MSG (yuck), yellow corn flour (why?), partially hydrogenated soy bean oil (gag!), ethoxyquin (preservative, ick!), and silicon dioxide (which is basically sand and while it's supposedly harmless when used in such small amounts in foods to keep powders from clumping, it still bothers me that I'm eating sand).

Taco Tater Tot Bake

Tonight's dinner certainly wasn't pretty, but it was packed with flavor!  I love anything "Mexican" even though most of what we Americans call Mexican is really Tex-Mex.  I like foods with taco seasoning and green chiles.  I adore beans and corn, enchilada sauce, and who doesn't like cheese?  So when you put all of that over delicious tater tots it creates a wonderful mixture of delicious flavors.

Menu for 4/15/13-4/21/13

I spent part of yesterday at my best friend's house for her cousin's wedding shower.  I provided some of the food for it as well.  I made tea cakes and petit fours since it was a tea party.

The tea cakes are a family recipe.  I will be sharing them eventually.  The petit fours were especially simple.  I did have some complications but they were caused by time constraints and not by the instructions.

Banana poke cake

This week I have been completely swamped.  Monday afternoon as I was making dinner, on the phone with my friend, discussing the tea cakes and petit fours for her cousin's wedding shower/tea party, I got another call from a woman who is a sales rep for 31.  She asked if I could make her 8 dozen black and pink, purse shaped cookies by Thursday.  I should have turned her down, especially knowing what all I had on my plate (the wedding shower food, Aaron's mom's birthday cake and dinner, and ya know, all the stuff I normally do during the week) but she said she would pay me double, so I couldn't bring myself to turn down the money.

Menu for 4/8/13-4/14/13

This week is Aaron's mother's birthday.  I am responsible for bringing cake for her birthday and I have decided to go with a banana poke cake (which I found on Pinterest).  I am also providing the sweet goodies for a wedding shower with a tea party theme.  I will be making petit fours and tea cakes.  I'm hoping the petit fours are not difficult because I will be attempting to make them the same day as the cake and the tea cakes, and I will be working Saturday morning (you know, for actual money) so I won't have most of Saturday to get it all together.  I would also prefer not to work on them too late on Friday night since I will have to get up early on Saturday, and Bailey has a habit of being up all night on nights when I need to be sleeping.

Breakfast burritos

I try to keep a variety of foods in our breakfast menu because it seems like Bailey gets tired of things quickly.  I can only feed her Cheerios and bananas and yogurt so many days before she flat out refuses to eat it anymore.  So today I tried out an easy new (to her) meal.

Crock pot Italian chicken and vegetables

I think my family may have discovered a wonderful new idea.  Tuesday night for dinner at Yaya's house we had a leftover swap.  My brother brought leftover pizza, I brought Spicy Sausage Pasta Skillet, and Yaya had a to-go box full of delicious Mexican food.  My brother and I shared Yaya's leftovers and Yaya ate mine.  Bailey had the pizza.  It was a brilliant plan.  We all got rid of our leftovers and got to eat something new.  Bailey particularly enjoyed the meaty pizza.  She's used to having veggie loaded Calzones instead.

Honey white sandwich bread

In case no one had noticed, I make a lot of homemade bread here.  I have nothing against store-bought bread.  I just happen to like the taste of homemade better.  I make my own hamburger buns (in fact, I haven't bought hamburger buns in at least nine months) and several kinds of rolls including garlic knots and honey yeast rolls.  I make some delicious pizza dough with rosemary.  You should smell the house when the pizza is cooking; the whole place smells like rosemary.  I make a peasant bread that doesn't require any kneading and is absolutely fabulous and deceptively easy.