I have tried several pinterest recipes lately.
This one was for a
white chicken chili, using
turkey bacon and onions and celery and pepper to get it started.
Quiet lunch all to myself while Annette 'rested' in her room and Charlie napped.
Soup was delicious.
Isaac and I made these
shrimp tacos together the other night after the kids went to bed. That Pioneer Woman is pretteee good. They were AMAZING.We ate them up PRONTO. Isaac said this must be added to our meal rotation.
Another night last week, we made mini meatloaves and roasted veggies.
This was the first time I'd used this
exact meatloaf recipe, and I'll tell you, we have already made this recipe again it was so yummy and easy! MY CHILDREN ATE EVERY LAST BITE OF THESE!!
Even with the chopped veggies inside.
I used ground beef once and ground turkey the second time. They were equally as good. No lie.
While I was mixing the loaf, Annette and Charlie broke the broccoli and cauliflower into bite size pieces. When I'm roasting veggies, I've found the smaller the better, so they are perfect for this job.
I cut up some carrots and threw them on there too.
I roast my veggies Kalyn style. I didn't use Parmesan this time, but sometimes I do. She has such good tips for roasting. The foil keeps me from having to scrape the pan clean. And lemme tell you.... my family eats every last drop of these veggies every time we make them. They taste so much better than steamed in our Smith opinion, although we like steamed too.
Once I'd mixed up all the meatloaf goodness, I put them in the muffin pan. Why? It only takes 20 minutes to cook these all the way through, and they are so yummy in these mini portions. Then I topped them with the bar-b-q mixture that R. Ray recommends and popped them in the oven. I was a little doubtful about using barbecue instead of the more standard ketchup, but I'm glad I tried it. SO YUM.
While the meat muffins cooked, my kids were starting to drive me a bit nuts as it was about 5:40.
I suggested we set the table for Daddy. We don't do this often, but the kids sure do love it. I know some of you probably have it down to a science, but it's not that often that I have supper ready when Ike walks through the door. I'm not that talented or organized. Before I had kids of my own, I was sure this would be a daily occurrence. Somehow I never factored in how cooking with a 2 and 3 year old at your feet could get tricky. Thankfully, Isaac is a very understanding man. And is happy to eat salsa or edamame as an app instead of needing a whole meal when he walks through the door.
But on this occasion, it worked out. Annette put the tablecloth on all by herself. She helped Charlie set the table with some fancy Easter Bunny paper plates. And even wrote place cards to hang on the back of the chairs.
Presh!! And, yes, he's naked. Can't remember why.
And when Daddy came home the kids made him hide his eyes for our big surprise. Ha! I guess you can say we don't do this often enough!! Truly though, Isaac and I prefer to eat after the kids have gone to bed on most nights, anyways. So maybe I'm off the hook a little bit ; )
And here is my next project. Since we paint, create, and do science experiments on our table so frequently, and have created quite a bumpy, sticky, mess of a table, I decided to sand it down this weekend. It's amazing how a small power sander can remove nail polish and dried on glue and paint and old grime so much faster than Fantastic and elbow grease. It might just be my new cleaning technique ;)
It's a 20 dollar find from Savers, so I feel pretty free to do with it as I please.
Thinking I'll paint it with some new chalk paint I got at White Goat the other day.
Until then, it's all sanded and distressed looking. Perfect for more mess making!
We are off to a good start this week with another non-eventful library trip this morning.
Plus, we are looking forward to the circus on Thursday evening and the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday night!!
morgan
