Weekend Recap & Recipes

It was a great weekend.  I had hoped to post this weekend but didn't get around to it.

Friday - It was the Friday before a holiday so my manager let us out at 11:30.  It was great to not have to stay late and to be able to have the afternoon to myself.  I went to lunch with a friend, which we so very, very rarely do just the 2 of us and we sat there for 1.5hrs.  It was a lot of fun.  I came home to these from my awesome husband.  (Sorry for the iPhone picture)

It was a great start to the weekend.  We picked up some paint for a project this week (I'll blog about it when I'm done), stopped by the mall and then grabbed some dinner.  All in all it was great to just spend the evening together.

Saturday - Since KC went out-of-town to play Ultimate Frisbee for the day, I had the whole day to myself.  I ran errands, had lunch with another friend and then started baking.  I love banana bread and save all of my rotten bananas in the freezer to make some banana bread.  The bananas started to pile up so I make 4 batches of banana bread, some for Easter and some to share with friends.  I also made an ice cream cake for Easter and it was delicious.  (Recipes below)  I love Funfetti cake and at the store the other day, there was a box of Funfetti cookie mix.  Yum, Yum!  I definitely made some of those for Sunday and they were delicious (despite the fact that I'm not a big fan of frosted cookies)!

Sunday - Sunday was Easter.  It's so hard not to spend the day with family.  I know it's been about 6 years that we've been away from them but that doesn't make it any easier.  We decided to go to 11:30 mass so we could work out beforehand.  It was packed.  We found a parking spot but ended up in the Fellow ship hall because the church was full already when we got there at 11:10.  It was a beautiful service, I just love the hymns that were sung.  After groceries, we lounged around and I made some pretzel salad before we headed over to eat with some friends.  We had a nice meal and everything was delicious.  Afterward, we watched Opening Night, which I will say was a little disappointing, but hey it's only the first game of the season.

I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous Easter weekend.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Weekend Recipes

Pretzel Salad
1 cup crushed pretzels
1 cup sugar (divided)
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz.  Cool Whip
1 stick of butter (melted)

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Mix pretzels, 1/2 cup of sugar and melted butter in a bowl.  Press into a 9x13" pan.  Bake for 7 minutes. Allow to cool.
• Whip cream cheese, Cool Whip and 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl.
• Break pretzel mixture into pieces and fold into cream cheese, Cool Whip mixture and enjoy!

Ice Cream Cake
1 vanilla ice cream (softened)
1 chocolate ice cream (softened)
1 tube chocolate chip cookie dough
Cool Whip
Caramel and/or Fudge topping
Candy toppings

I use a springform pan for this so it was easy to add/remove things and then cut when ready to serve

• Bake 1/2 of the cookie mixture in the pan and then remove from pan to cool
• Bake 2nd 1/2 of the cookie mixture and leave in pan
• Put 1 layer of vanilla ice cream over the cookie, freeze 30 minutes
• Put the other cookie (that was removed from the pan) on top of the ice cream
• Put 1 layer of chocolate ice cream on the second cookie, freeze 30 minutes
• Put a layer of Cool Whip on top, freeze 30 minutes
• Garnish top with Caramel/Fudge toppings and candy
• Freeze until about 10 minutes before serving, remove edge of spring form pan and leave on counter to soften

You could do this with many different types of ice cream.  I think it would be good to put a layer of fudge or caramel on top of the ice cream or cookie as well

Menu Monday - 4/5

Menu - Week of 4/5:

This week's menu includes some of our normal meals.

• Monday - Chicken Stir Fry Packets - We each put what we want in our stir fry into a tin foil packet and cook it on the grill, it's delicious.


• Tuesday - On my own - KC is out for a team dinner, so I'm fending for myself.


• Wednesday - Pasta alla Marlboro Man - KC loved this the first time but we're going to make some modifications this time.


• Thursday - Pizza Night - RIT Hockey is playing at 5, so we're all getting together to watch the game and order some pizza.


• Friday - Flex Day/Indian - I have Indian if we are around for dinner, but lately we seem to be out on Fridays.


• Saturday - Spiedie Chicken - I will marinade some chicken on Wednesday or Thursday and by Saturday it will fall apart in your mouth it's so delicious!


• Sunday - Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple Salsa

Hopefully we'll be doing some painting this week/weekend so I'm not sure how the menu will work out this week but I'm crossing my fingers!

Easter Themed Treats

Around the holidays I like to make desserts and bring them into work.  I usually try to make them holiday themed.

Last year I was trying to find some new treats to make and I stumbled upon Bakerella.  If you didn't know, she is the queen of cake pops and they are absolutely adorable!

Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Cake Pops and Spring Chicken Cake Pops

All Images

I tried my hand at the cake pops and they were well received and delicious but they can be time-consuming to decorate.

This year I've been searching for some more ideas of things to make.

Bunny Cupcakes from Bakerella

Source

Pillsbury

Below Images

Easter Chick Cookies

Easter Egg Cookies

Easter Basket Cookies

Cakes aren't popular around here so I try to make individual items.  I'm terrible with sugar cookies for some reason, so I'm not sure how I feel about the first 2 Pillsbury items.  Anyone else make Easter themed desserts or have other suggestions?

Menu Monday - 3/29

Menu - Week of 3/29:

This week's menu includes some of our normal meals.

Here's what it looks like for this week:

• Monday - Chicken Tortilla Casserole


• Tuesday - Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts and Tomatoes


• Wednesday - Ranch Turkey Burgers - a summer staple at our house - I can't find the recipe online, but it is dry dressing packet mix with some shredded cheese, mixed with ground turkey, it is delicious!


• Thursday - Chicken Stir Fry Packets - We each put what we want in our stir fry into a tin foil packet and cook it on the grill, it's delicious.


• Friday - Grilled Salmon - Just keep moving this around because we get busy by Friday.


• Saturday - Out/Freebie


• Sunday - Easter Dinner

Not sure what's going on for the weekend since KC might be playing some Ultimate, so we're going to play it by ear.

We're going to a friends for Easter dinner but I am making some things, I'll post some recipes for them later!

Menu Monday - 3/22

Menu - Week of 3/22:

This week's menu has some new recipes to try.  I'm looking forward to it.  Plus the weather is great so we're going to try to get some grilling in!  I updated the Recipe Round-Up page with some new recipes to try after stumbling on Annie's Eats blog (some of which we're trying this week).

Here's what it looks like for this week:

• Monday - Ranch Chicken with Oven Baked Fries


• Tuesday - Easy Italian Pasta – Despite just having this last week, we need a quick and easy meal because we have a softball scrimmage and KC wants it and will cook it, so I'm all for it!


• Wednesday - Chicken Tequila Burgers


• Thursday - Chicken Tortilla Casserole


• Friday - Grilled Salmon


• Saturday - Out/Freebie


• Sunday - Island Spice Pork Tenderloin

Last week we didn't stick to the plan that well (Monday - Wednesday was good), we had some things come up during the week and we made some modifications.  Thursdays thru Saturdays tend to be the hardest days to stick to the plan.

Meal Planner Tools


We're using Google Calendar right now, but last week I came across this Meal Planner Excel doc over at Livin' the Simple Life and I think it's a great idea.  It just might take some time to input recipes.  Has anyone tried it or anything similar to it?

As always, if you have other suggestions/recommendations, let me know, we're always looking for some new ideas.

Menu Monday - 3/15

Menu - Week of 3/15:

This week's menu is pretty simple compared to last weeks.  Not too many new recipes this week, just a carry-over from last week.  Last week was successful, see the recap below!  I'll be updating the Recipe Round-Up page soon as well.

Here's what it looks like for this week:

(Click to enlarge)

• Monday - Perfect Pot Roast - Carried this over from last week because KC was out-of-town over the weekend and wasn't going to be home in time.


• Tuesday - Indian - Butter Chicken Curry - We use the Kitchens of India Curry Paste and love it, it's so easy!  They also have naan at the grocery store in the bakery section which goes great with it!


• Wednesday - Easy Italian Pasta - This is one of our favorites, and another easy one.  We've modified it a little to use a can of diced tomatoes and I think it's better that way.


• Thursday - Ranch Chicken - Another easy one that comes right from the dry packet mix.


• Friday - Grilled Salmon - Haven't tried this recipe yet.  I'm not big on cooking fish (though I do like it), but it's Lent and we abstain from meat on Fridays during lent.


• Saturday - Out - I'm giving us a freebie day this week.  We did very good last week and didn't eat out once (or I didn't, KC was out-of-town which makes it hard).  That's unusual for us, we usually go out ~2x a week, but are trying to cut back to 1x


• Sunday - Chicken Parmigiano - I made this a few weeks ago and I've been looking forward to it again.  It's a simple recipe if you need one, let me know.

New Recipe Menu Recap:

• Tuesday - Chicken Enchiladas - These were delicious!  We loved them.  I think I might make a modification next time (use salsa instead of pico-de-gallo in the chicken), but otherwise it was a hit and will be added to the rotation!


• Wednesday - Pasta alla Marlboro Man - Another delicious first!  The rosemary flavoring was strong, but I didn't mind it.  I might use diced tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes next time.


• Thursday - Chicken Curry - This is not a keeper in my book.  Though KC really wants a curry recipe, so if anyone has one, please pass it on.


• Sunday - Perfect Pot Roast - We're having this tonight, I'll update next week.

If you have other suggestions/recommendations, let me know, we're always looking for some new ideas.

Weekly Menu - 3/8

Menu:

We've decided to post a weekly menu on the Google Calendar and make sure that we get the supplies to make the meals when we go to the grocery store and that we stick to our eating at home better.  I love that Google Calendar allows you to create separate calendars (in this case we created a Dinner calendar) and share it with someone else, so hubs can have input as well.  We tend to plan 1 or 2 meals and then when I get to the grocery store the rest is just random stuff I pick-up that we can put together quickly.  We're hoping that this way we'll try out more meals and if we like them, we'll plan them again in a few weeks.  Here's what it looks like for this week:

(Click to enlarge)

• Monday - Dinner at a Friend's House - I had something planned, but we were invited over last minute, so I moved things around.


• Tuesday - Chicken Enchiladas


• Wednesday - Pasta alla Marlboro Man - Hubs is really, really looking forward to this.


• Thursday - Chicken Curry - He's also looking forward to this one, me, not so much, I don't like coconut and curry is not in my top favorite things either.


• Friday - Portobello Quesadillas - Since hubs is out of town this weekend this is a guilty pleasure for me.  I observe no meat on Friday's during lent and he doesn't like mushrooms.  I am beyond excited for this meal! (Kinda lame, I know)


• Saturday - Lasagna - He also doesn't like Ricotta cheese, so another of my favorites that I rarely get to make is lasagna (or stuffed shells).  I thought I'd make some lasagna this weekend for myself (and a few friends that will be around) and enjoy it (and the leftovers next week) when I can.


• Sunday - Perfect Pot Roast - This just looks too good to pass up.

I'll try to post this each week.  If you have other suggestions/recommendations, let me know, we're always looking for some new ideas.

Grocery List Keeper:

We both have iPhones, so we've been looking for a way to share lists for the grocery store, etc.  This would be really helpful because he's not that great at remembering everything I said we needed beforehand.  So far we've been using the Grocery G Lite App.  There's a regular version you can pay for we're just trying to determine if it's worth it.  Yesterday a friend recommended Grocery iQ.  Anyone have any other suggestions?

Weekend Recap & Random Info

It was a pretty good weekend even though I had to call in to work periodically.  I didn't take any pictures, I need to get better at doing that.

Friday

Hubs and I went out for sushi and it was delicious.  I don't think that we've ever been out for sushi just the 2 of us but it was nice.  We got to get rolls that we both liked and finished them all!  After that we spent the evening home together and just caught up on some TV shows.  It was nice to just spend a quiet evening together just the 2 of us.

Saturday

We spent most of the day cleaning the house, working outside and doing little things (I had to call in to a conference call for work).  We made some chili in the crock-pot, for probably the last time this year. :-(  For dessert I made Rocky Road brownies and they were pretty good.  I made some modifications - doubled it, used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar for "cake-like" brownies, pecans instead of almonds and 1/2 of the chocolate chips were butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, yum!  We'll be adding these to the keepers list.

Sunday

We had some beautiful weather on Sunday and I went for a 5 mi walk on one of the trails around a local lake and it was beautiful out!  After the hubs got out of work we had softball practice.  Hubs has never played before and he did great.  I'm so happy he'll be playing on our team this season.

We had some birthday dinners to celebrate so we went to Brasa the Brazilian Steakhouse.  If you've never eaten at a Brazilian Steakhouse, it's an experience.  You're meat comes out on swords (anywhere from 10-12 different kinds/cuts) and you have a little stone (or coaster-like object) in front of you that is green on one side and red on the other.  If you want them to stop by you when they bring out new meats, then you have the green side up and if you don't then you put the red side up.  I would recommend not eating much for the day before you go!  There is also a cold/hot bar that goes along with your meats.  I enjoyed some of the cuts of meat better than others, but definitely ate too much.  The pineapple with cinnamon is my absolute favorite!  It was a bit pricier than we had all remembered but we were celebrating 2 birthdays so, I guess it equaled going out 2 different times.

Source

Random Info

• A new Stampin' Up order is coming in today, hopefully I'll be able to spend some time making some cards and card sets for gifts for people.  New supplies always make me excited!


• I finished my first 4 times through the first circuit of the 30 Day Shred and will be starting the second work out this week.


• I really really want spring to come and quickly!  The weather was a tease!


• We might be going skiing again in a few weeks!  We had so much fun at Snowshoe Mountain over Valentine's Day weekend.


• We got a Save-The-Date in the mail for a destination wedding next March!  I'm really pushing hard to go, it's just so far in advance to plan already, who knows what we'll be doing 1 year from now.


• I finished "The Last Song" last night.  I liked it, I didn't cry as much as I normally would because I had been reading it in small chunks.  It wasn't my favorite Nicholas Sparks book but I'm glad I finished it before the movie comes out.


• I'm swapping my books for March and April because someone is going to give me "The Help" instead of me going out and buying it.


• I added a picture to my sidebar listing what I'm reading now and I what I just finished reading.


• Hubs is out of town this weekend again, but that makes for a fun meal planning week (I'll explain more in my next post)


• We watched the Academy Awards last night briefly.  I don't usually watch them, but I enjoyed what I saw last night.
  
  
  
  • I thought Sandra Bullock looked fantastic (and I loved "The Blind Side")
  
  
  
  

Source

• 
  
  
  
  • I didn't recognize Cameron Diaz at first, but I thought she looked great as well
  
  
  
  

Source

• 
  
  
  
  • There are many others that I liked and disliked, but those are my favorites so far!  I have pretty simple fashion tastes so there were quite a few popular ones that weren't my favorites.
  
  
  
  

Have a great day!

Recipe Round-Up

(Source)

I like to think I can cook fairly well (though I'm better at baking than cooking I think).  Most of what I've learned and cooked in my repertoire is from my mom.  She's passed some great recipes on to me and I have some from my grandmother as well.  The only thing is, my family tends to eat fairly "simply".  Chicken was a staple at my house when I was a kid and because of that, we don't eat chicken as often at our house.  We try to spread it out and venture into new areas as often as possible.

My hubs is a good sport and tries everything I make.  He also likes to look for recipes and he'll even suggest them sometimes.  Once it's been tried at our house, and liked, it get's moved to the "approved" list.

(Source)

I use one of the Recipe Organizers from the Hallmark store (the binder type) thanks to my MIL last Christmas.  It works great for me and allows for plenty of expansion opportunities.

I've decided to add a page to the blog, that is a round up of all the recipes I have gathered from around the internet that I would like to try or have tried and loved them, etc.  You can check out this page for the listing so far.  I'll try to update it frequently.  If you have any suggestions for sites to visit for recipes or cookbooks to buy, let me know, I'm always interested in new suggestions.  If you've tried any of them and liked them, let me know as well.  When I try a few of the other recipes, I'll try to post pictures as well.

Also,  For those that visit the blog directly, sorry for all the changes, I'm trying to find a layout and background that I like.  I'll get there eventually!

Happy Cooking!