Anyway, we came back home and had lunch, put Brooke down for a nap and watched the movie, Hachi. Morgan was curled up on the sofa with Sandy, appropriately enough, as the movie is about the love between a man and his dog.
This movie is rated G and is just wonderful. For those of you with Comcast ON DEMAND, you can rent it for free! My dear emotional friends, grab some tissue. If you are an animal lover like myself, this story will pull at your heartstrings, but it's a great movie for the whole family - and based on a true story.
We enjoyed some cookie cups filled with ice cream during the movie. We turned an ordinary cookie into a cup. I placed cookie dough on the bottom and sides of a muffin tin and made 6 cookie cups. They puffed up as they baked (shorter cooking time than normal cookies), so right when I took them out of the oven, I used a spoon to sort of press the middle of the cookie to give it a "cup" shape. I let them cool and then scooped some vanilla ice cream into 2 cups - one for her and one for me.
Then I drizzled a little chocolate sauce over the whole thing. Delicious! Nothing but a cookie and some ice cream, but served like this, it was super fun!
After Brooke's nap, Morgan, Brooke and I went to Ace Hardware and picked out some craft supplies to make homemade chalkboards - one her for her room and one for my new house to hang in the hallway between the boys' rooms. We found two unused wooden boards that I found in the basement. We bought some paint and a container of non-sanded grout. The recipe to make chalkboard paint if you have a paint color that you like, is to mix 1 cup of your favorite paint with 2 TBS of non-sanded grout. I tweaked the measurements as we only used a tiny bit of paint.
Here's Morgan mixing the grout and paint together in a bowl.
We placed newspaper on the counter and laid our board down and painted away! When they were dry, we wrote all over them in chalk.
Then we wiped them dry and placed our hooks and wire on the back for hanging! Simple and the cost was under $10.00! To complete her chalkboard, we're going to hot-glue some ribbon to the top.
Now let me just say here that I am not a masterful crafty person. I love crafts - I love planning out crafts, but when it comes down to it, I do not have the golden touch, by any means. But this does not keep me from trying new things all the time. I LOVE creating things myself - for the satisfaction and speciality of it. What I'm saying is, these projects don't have to come out perfectly - if they were perfect, they could be store bought, so to those of you with kids who enjoy crafts, try it!
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Several of you have asked me about meal planning. I will tell you what I'm making this week. I actually sat down this morning and made a list of meals that I will make.
- Sunday: I am making mini hamburger sliders tonight with a side of organic boxed mac-n-cheese, roasted vegetables, and a steamed artichoke with a side of smart butter dipping sauce (couple TBS of Smart butter with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and cracked pepper). I bought a pound of ground sirloin from the Fresh Market and will make little mini burgers that I'll either grill or just cook in a pan on the stove. I have a pack of whole wheat slider buns in my freezer that I'll use.
- Monday: Poppy Seed Chicken. I am boiling a couple of chicken breasts and shredding them into small pieces. I mix together 1 can of fat free cream of chicken soup, 8 oz of light sour cream and 2 TBS of light cream cheese. Put the shredded chicken in a Pyrex sprayed with Pam. Pour the chicken soup mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle heartily with poppy seeds. Crush up some Ritz Crackers and sprinkle this over the whole thing. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly. I will steam some broccoli and make some reduced fat crescent rolls to serve on the side.
- Tuesday: Because I work on Tuesdays and Champ has basketball, this is a day on which I like to use the crock pot, but I didn't plan a crock pot meal, so I will probably do breakfast burrito roll-ups. My kids LOVE these. I'll cook some turkey bacon, scramble some eggs and roll up bacon, eggs, salsa, sour cream, and cheese in a whole wheat flour tortilla. Serve with a side of unsweetened applesauce.
- Wednesday: "Homemade" Chicken Nuggets. I'll cut a few chicken breasts into nugget sized bites. I'll toss them in some mustard. Then I'll mix together some breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and put that into a zip lock. Add the chicken pieces, close the top of the zip lock and shake vigorously. Put them on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until done. I'll serve this with twice baked potatoes and roasted Brussel sprouts. I'll bake the potatoes in the oven while I simultaneously steam a head of cauliflower. Take the potatoes out of the oven, cut a slit in the top and scoop out the potato and place in a bowl. When the cauliflower is done steaming, take about half and mash it together with the potatoes (your kids will never know!). I pour a little ranch dressing in - a little cheese - scoop it back into the potato skins and I'm done with my twice baked potatoes! I'll use the other half of the cauliflower to make a twice baked potato but without the potato - add some cheese and what not to the cauliflower and mash it all up - that's a nice carb free side for me! I'll also cook some green beans.
- Thursday: Back to work for me, so I need something easy and quick - nothing better than Taco Night! Old El Paso to the rescue. I always cook a small pot of black beans (which I drain and rinse - then cook them in chicken broth) as the side. I bought some white American cheese today at the deli because it was on sale, so I'll make some of my "homemade" cheese dip on the side - and I bought an avocado to make guacamole. I always serve tacos with a lot of shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes and my boys end up making a big taco salad.
So, nothing special but there are a few menu ideas for you!
