MENU MONDAY - 7/17/17

We had so many changes on the last menu! We ditched the coconut cranberry chews for dessert because I forgot to buy oranges to zest (pulled buttermilk cinnamon bread from the freezer instead), didn't make pumpkin pancakes because I'd forgotten that I needed to buy dairy-free milk, and skipped both Sunday leftovers and mandarin chicken pizza because Tim came home from a fishing trip with crab for one night and some other kind of fish for another. Hopefully we'll get back on track with an accurate menu this week!

COOKING IN ADVANCE (These are often spontaneous projects, so they'll include things we did at the last minute the previous week and/or plan on doing in the upcoming one.)
* broth from zesty crockpot chicken carcass (freezer)
* peanut butter
* seasoned mix of black & pinto beans (crockpot, freezer)

BREAKFAST
* pumpkin pancakes
* egg & veggie scramble
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with a rotation of the following toppings - brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix x4

DINNER
* leftovers (every Sunday so that we can have a day off from cooking)
* steak salad
* Holden veggies with avocado dressing / crockpot beans (freezer) / couscous
* broiled fish / garlic ginger green beans
* kale & feta casserole / brown rice
* Cuban black beans & coconut rice / tomato slices
* multi-colored bell pepper slices / mandarin chicken pizza

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* popsicles (finishing off the stash of dairy products)
* fruits and vegetables
* peanuts and dry roasted almonds
* popcorn with nutritional yeast, regular salt, or seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post.)

Notes: Any chicken breasts, 93/7 ground beef, applewood smoked ham, or pork tenderloins in our menus are from Zaycon Fresh. We've been making bulk purchases from them for few years and have been pleased with their products.

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. ** 

PUZZLES

Three Ws like puzzles and three Ws love them, so we often (usually, perhaps) have a puzzle being assembled on our coffee table. In fact, we recently started a Facebook group for local folks to pass puzzles around so that we can all do new puzzles without spending a bunch of money or needing a lot of storage space. It's called Puzzle Peeps, if you're interested and in my neck of the woods. No need to currently have puzzles of your own to share.

Anyway, I'm the first to admit I'm uptight about things that are insignificant in the big picture of life and firmly believe there's a right way to do a puzzle. So I figured I'd enlighten those of you who have no method to your madness and think puzzle chaos is perfectly acceptable. Ready?

1. Flip all the pieces right side up and push to the edges of your work space.

2. Pull all edge pieces into the center. For the sake of efficiency, this is ideally done as you're flipping pieces over.

3. Connect all the edge pieces.

4. Begin putting the inside of the puzzle together.

5. Smile because you finished another puzzle.

Of course, I have a few other tips.

1. Do not put loose pieces on top of assembled pieces. They're hard to see and just clutter up the puzzle.

2. Avoid chaos ...

... and choose order. That makes it easier to figure out which pieces can connect with each other.

3. Don't set loose pieces in open places because then you run out of room for assembled sections that need to go there.

Do you have preferences for how puzzles get assembled? What trivial things are you really particular about?

MENU MONDAY - 7/10/17

We're using up the last of the dairy in our home before cutting it out of our menus. None of us are happy about the change, but there are a variety of symptoms in multiple family members that are tied directly to dairy. At this point it would be irresponsible to keep consuming it. Our approach for now will be "don't choose, don't refuse". That means we won't be buying dairy (except for rare indulgences) to eat at home, but we won't turn it down when it's served elsewhere. We'll see how it goes!

NEW RECIPES FROM LAST WEEK
* garlic lime chicken - This recipe was mentioned in a Facebook conversation, so we gave it a try. Can't go wrong with lime!

COOKING IN ADVANCE (These are often spontaneous projects, so they'll include things we did at the last minute the previous week and/or plan on doing in the upcoming one.)
* two loaves of buttermilk cinnamon bread (freezer)
* peanut butter
* seasoned mix of black & pinto beans (crockpot, freezer)

BREAKFAST
* pumpkin pancakes
* egg & veggie scramble
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with a rotation of the following toppings - brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix x4

DINNER
* leftovers (every Sunday so that we can have a day off from cooking)
* crockpot beans / brown rice/ tomatoes
* employee (& their family) barbecue
* zesty chicken salad (this got skipped last week in favor of boxed cereal, a very rare purchase, at the end of a full day)
* venison (Silas is doing something with it, not sure what) / roasted broccoli
* black & red bean soup (beans from the freezer) / cornbread
* multi-colored bell pepper slices / mandarin chicken pizza

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* coconut cranberry chews
* fruits and vegetables
* peanuts and dry roasted almonds
* popcorn with nutritional yeast, regular salt, or seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post.)

Notes: Any chicken breasts, 93/7 ground beef, applewood smoked ham, or pork tenderloins in our menus are from Zaycon Fresh. We've been making bulk purchases from them for few years and have been pleased with their products.

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. ** 

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for opportunities the big boys have to work. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

FREE SMOOTHIES

These two rode to Dutch Bros. for drinks yesterday, Naomi with her spending envelope and Devon with a gift card. They discovered upon arrival that the gift card machine wasn't working, so Naomi offered to buy a drink for Devon and he said he'd return the favor on their next trip to Dutch.

They placed their orders, then the barista told them that the car that had just pulled away had paid for their drinks. Happy, grateful kids!

Of course, they're also silly kids who posed as tough-looking members of the Dutch Mafia.

In related news, this is the second free drink Devon has scored in the last couple weeks, one at each local shop. Lucky kid!

SOME JUNE PICTURES

I already shared some on Facebook, but here are a few pictures from June that didn't make it into any previous blog posts. 

6/5 - Dad and I waiting for Devon's birthday party to start at Ibach Park.

After spending all morning at church and all afternoon at Devon's party. I wanted to relax, but my feet were dirty and sore. I decided to kill two birds with one stone by filling the sink with hot, soapy water and grabbing a book to read. I was totally relaxed when Naomi walked in the open door. She snapped a picture because she thought it was funny.

6/14 - We accidentally ended up matching with white shirts and almost identical zippered sweatshirts.

6/18 - He loves to pet Mama Cat while she eats.

6/19 - I pulled our wedding pictures out of our closet so that I could post one on Facebook and was shocked to discover hundreds of ants and eggs. So gross!

6/22 - My phone rang one night and the voice on the other line was one of Devon's buddies from his year in public school. They hadn't spoken in three years and Devon was thrilled to talk with him.

6/27 - Up a tree ...

... with help from Silas.

6/27 - Spending the night in a hammock he received as a birthday present.

6/29 - He got behind the wheel five minutes after getting his permit and this picture was taken about 15 minutes later, just after driving around a nearby church parking lot and then driving half a mile home.

MENU MONDAY - 7/3/17

We didn't try any new recipes last week, but there's one on this menu that I'll share next week if we like it. My kitchen goal for this week is to start planning and prepping food for a camping trip we're taking next month. 

COOKING IN ADVANCE (These are often spontaneous projects, so they'll include things we did at the last minute the previous week and/or plan on doing in the upcoming one.)
* double marinara and freeze half
* peanut butter
* seasoned mix of black & pinto beans (crockpot, freezer)

BREAKFAST
* pumpkin quinoa bowl
* egg & veggie scramble
* doughnuts at church
* oatmeal with a rotation of the following toppings - brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, homemade peanut butter, maple almond butter, raisins, dried cranberries, fresh or frozen fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and/or energy mix x4

DINNER
* leftovers (every Sunday so that we can have a day off from cooking)
* cumin lime black bean quinoa salad / corn on the cob
* new recipe / roasted broccoli
* zesty chicken salad
* creamed eggs & toast / smoothies
* black bean & rice burritos with avocado dressing/ frozen veggies
* buffalo slaw / brown rice

SNACKS & DESSERTS
* fruits and vegetables
* peanuts and dry roasted almonds
* popcorn with nutritional yeast, regular salt, or seasoned salt (kernels from the WinCo bulk department that get popped in my Lodge Dutch oven, but you can see my thoughts on both the wonderful Dutch oven and the fantastic West Bend Stir Crazy in this post.)
* M&M blondies (except we're using up some leftover white chocolate chips instead of M&Ms)

Notes: Any chicken breasts, 93/7 ground beef, applewood smoked ham, or pork tenderloins in our menus are from Zaycon Fresh. We've been making bulk purchases from them for few years and have been pleased with their products.

** This post contains affiliate links and we're grateful when people use them. **