One word Wednesday...

YUM!

What's for dinner?

I am such a bad housewife, I never know what is for dinner. But in an attempt for change that the kids and I made up a general weekly menu. Sunday is Pasta, Monday is my choice of Meat and Potatoes (MeTato Night) and Wednesday is sandwich and smoothy night. We all like this one for various reasons, it is no surprise that I like it cuz is a no-fuss meal.

Tonight I was in the mood for soup to go along with my sandwich so I found this Asian Chicken Soup recipe, it was easy and it was soooo yummy! I actually had all the ingredients, that never happens. There might be hope for me yet!!!

A bit of balance

Of late I am suffering from Burn Out. This is just not ok. With the busiest season upon me and school in full swing I just can not stop. So what to do. Well, cook of course. Today after working a full day I actually stopped working at 5:00 just like a real worker! I cleaned up the house and studio while the kids did webkinz on our computers. (they met and play online, weird right?)

I then took a break, flipping the channels I settled on Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meals. And then I did the unbelievable... I made what she was making! What was really shocking was that I actually had every single ingredient! Wow that panty list has helped out!

Let me tell you the BBQ Chicken Burgers with Slaw are super yummy! The kids wouldn't eat then but Mr. "Don I never eat burgers" loved them. I used ground turkey and also cut the fat and sugar in half. Still, they were wonderful! The slaw was great too. With tons left over I look forward to tomorrows lunch. Unfortunately the sweet potatoes fries are all gone!

Now with a full belly and bed time at hand I feel a bit of balance. Now if these kids would go off to bed and I could snuggle up for a movie with my man! I could get used to this! Happy weekend!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

I love the sign, made with loads of love! Maddie spent hours on this!

Pumpkin shaped pancakes! Yum! Janet sent me this link for halloween foods. I didn't make pumpkin flavored pancakes but I did use the idea for the shape! Maybe next week I will try the spicy pumpkin pancakes!

But the best part was this!

We treated Don to an afternoon at the Movies! The Nightmare Before Christmas!!!
It's back and its in 3D. Maddie and I sat there singing the entire show. Can you tell this Movie is a family favorite! We even own the soundtrack!

This cracks me up. It looks like a pagan ritual! But really it is birthday brownies! Not at all homemade but very, very yummy! I think they were much better than my recipe! I need better recipe of brownies, any one have one?

UPDATE! keep the recipes coming and I will post them! Kimmy if you read this I need the no pudge brownies!

Here is Christie's favorite brownie recipe!

BROWNIES

From Cooks’ Illustrated

1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped medium (optional)
1¼ cups white flour
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
12 Tbsp (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
2¼ cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325.

Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler. When smooth, remove from heat and whisk in sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking until thoroughly combined.

Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Add to chocolate mixture in 3 additions, stirring until batter is smooth.

Bake in a 9x13 pan 30-35 minutes.

G is for sweets?

Who knew there were so many great, gooey sweets out there that begin with the letter G!
Suzanne I found this for you!

Galaxy® Chocolate Fondue

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

115g Galaxy® Hot Chocolate Powder
115g unsalted butter
170g Sugar
115g Single cream
1 tsp. vanilla essence
Strawberries, cherries, marshmallows or other fondue dipper of choice.

Preparation: Melt butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Remove from heat and stir in Galaxy® hot chocolate powder. Gradually add sugar and single cream, mixing well.

Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until hot and smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla essence. Serve warm with fondue dippers.

While surfing the web looking or information on Galaxy bars I found the yummiest blog I have ever seen! My father-in-law and this chocolate vain's would die for half of what you can find here! Chocoblog! Brilliant! A blog devoted to chocolate! My dreams are renewed! I would like to thank Dom for letting me swipe his photos! Many thanks! Here is what chocoblog has to say about Galaxy, Suzanne you may disagree, but that is why there are different chocolates so we can all find our true favorite!

I need some chocolate, NOW!

d is for...

Date night with Husband!

So when I made my giant wall calendar for what I HAVE to do every week in order to get done everything I added Date Night. Date night is Friday night. No computers, no modern june, no miscellaneous crafting, and preferably no kids! Well we had our kids and we all had fun!

First off dinner for "Two". I made the kids pizza early so that we could eat alone while the kids went off to play. No luck with being alone, Maddie was there reading to us, entertainment?

Our Dinner was yummy, I doctored up a frozen pizza. Its is so easy to make them really tasty toss on some fresh ingredients and you are set.





Watching Quick Fix Meals with
Robin Miller on the Food Network has finally payed off, I was thinking ahead and made extra turkey bacon that morning just for the pizza.

So I wanted to run off to the bed room with my honey, NO not for THAT for a movie! But instead we had a family game night! That was a blast. Everyone got into their jammies and played a game or two or three.

Don has supplied our home with some of the best board games around, I wonder if it was all that "Dungeons and Dragons" in high school. He is a gamer through and through. I love my Geek, I will teach Maddie that Geeks are the best men to Marry because they won't be off playing golf all day and then drinking in some bar every night with their Buddies. Nope former geek turned Dad will be at home on a Friday night to teach his little girl to play chess.

Now that is a great date!

My feelings exactly!

My feelings exactly!

I wish I got a better shot of this lovely painting. I really love it! It matches my mood this week. I didn't even get the artist's name.

Our neighborhood has several new places to haunt. Today we went to a great new restaurant, The Northside Grill. This place has been lovingly gutted and completely remodeled. The food is well priced and the kids love it. Good for me! And the best part is we can walk there -- it doesn't get better than that! For a much better idea of what to expect, check out this blog entry about the NSG over at River City Food and Wine. A blog that just so happened to mention my Modern June aprons found at House of Lukaya. Thanks for the shout out!

The Modern Pantry

As you may know I am on a quest to become a foodie! I am also trying to fine tune my life and create some helpful routines. I also could stand to lose about 30 extra pounds. Not an easy list to concur but I am chipping away at it.

On Saturday I started to create a pantry list, weekly menu and shopping list. I had a feeling it could take all day. My tooth had me a bit doped up and I was WAY fuzzy. I was also really cranky so doing something away from my family was helpful. I hate when I take it all out on them. I am a mess.

I was looking at my copy of Rachael Ray 365 and I realized what I need was a pantry list. A list of items that I always have on hand. She doesn't have one so I grab The Healthy Kitchen. There is one there but not in the right format I need a bulleted list that I can copy that I carry to the Groc (what I call the grocery store). A list that I have on my fridge so when I run out of something I just circle it and buy on the next shopping trip.

I need a cheat sheet! First I found this list at Cookinglight.com that I think I will love. It has three panty list one for the beginner, the intermediate and the advance cook. I like that the say that the list is long and that you are not expected to go out and spend a fortune right away. Good point.

I then found this Mexican Panrty items list. Yum! Summer eating = Mexican Food!!! I wonder if I could find a Mediterranean food pantry list? Yep, it took some time but I found a nice little list for the Mediterranean Pantry

I totally forgot about Leanne Ely. I know her from my active Fly Lady days. I am sure that her list is great but it is not in the list format that I need so badly. Here is the fly lady shopping list. back in those beautiful and peaceful flylady days.

I have made copies of each of these for my kitchen clip board. I have also started a master list that I hope to finish over the weekend. Baby steps, right? What I have done is found my old shopping list and I am using it. Yeah balance will come!