Beef Kabobs

The men I cook for are going to be mighty excited to find steak on the menu this week arg arg arg (that was my man grunt sound).

Go here for recipe

Sensational Sirloin Kabobs

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 1/8th of recipe
Meal Plan: 329 Calories, 3 meat, 1 starch, 1 vegetable, 2 fats

I am going to serve this with grilled corn on the cob and green beans.

Crunchy Lemon-Dill Salmon

Doesn't this recipe sound interesting. I am anxious to wrap my taste buds around this creation.

Go here for recipe.

Crunchy Lemon-Dill Salmon

Nutrition Information: (according to allrecipes.com)
Serving Size: 4 oz Salmon (4 oz precooked)
Meal Plan: 185 Calories, 3 meats, 1 fat

I am going to serve this with Rice and Green Beans

Spinach Lasagna

I was out of town last time this recipe posted and did not get to try it with you- BUT I heard from enough of you about how much you liked it so I was anxious to get it back on the menu.

Click here for the recipe.

Simple Spinach Lasagna

Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1/8th of recipe
Meal Plan: Calories: 314, 2.5 meats, 2 starches, 1 vegetable, 1/2 fat

I think a side salad would go great with this meal.

Chicken Berry Salad

This is one of our favorite "hot summer day" kind of meals. I'm just hoping to eat it on a "nice non-rainy Spring kind of day" this week. Yum Yum

Chicken Berry Salad

• about 8 oz Grilled Chicken (I marinated in Kens Fat Free Raspberry Pecan Dressing)
• 6-8 cups Spinach leaves
• 1 1/4 cup Sliced Strawberries
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• Green Onions (optional)
• 1/2 cup Candied Almonds (I am using Almond Accents- Butter Toffee Glazed Flavor)

Nutrition Information for above:
Serving Size: 1/4th of recipe
Meal Plan: ~211 Calories, 2 meats, 2 vegetables, 1/2 fruit, 1 fat

Dressing:

• 3-4 packets of Splenda (if you do not like to use artificial sweeteners you can use 1/4 cup sugar)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp. Dry Mustard
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 3/4 cup olive or canola oil
• Recipe also calls for poppy-seeds (I usually leave these out)

Grill Chicken, Add to Salad, Mix dressing. Add desired amount of dressing to Salad.

Nutrition Information: (for dressing)
Serving Size: 1/8th of recipe
Meal Plan: 180 Calories, 4 fats

Mealtime Monday

First let me say I really missed having all my meals prepared last week. I hated that last Wednesday I got home from work really late and I still had to get supper on the table. So needless to say I was happy to get back in the kitchen tonight for my marathon of meal prep for the week.

Second, for Mother's Day, DH and the boys joined me in the kitchen for meal prep. I looooved having the extra help and the company.

With the help of DH it only took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to prepare the following:

• 1 Spinach Lasagna
• 2 sets of Beef Kabobs
• 2 French Dip Porks
• 2 Chicken Berry Salads (cooked chicken, cut up vegetables, prepared 2 dressings)
• 2 sets of Crunchy Salmon
• 5 ears of corn ready to grill
• 2 green bean packets

The "help" of my DC (dear children) contributed at least 10 minutes to our prep time.

This really was an easy prep week so I betcha you could get all 5 meals for 1 family done in easily under 1.5 hours.

Here is the storage and eat schedule for the week:

Monday: Beef Kabobs- To prep I dumped kabob sized sirloin into a ziplock bag with marinade and stored in fridge. I have also washed and cut up all vegetables for the kabobs. I prepped corn for grill and stored in fridge. Tonight I will assemble kabobs for grill.

Tuesday: Chicken Berry Salad- I baked (you could grill though) chicken and sliced and stored in fridge. I also cut up green onions for salad and prepared the dressing to store in fridge. Tuesday evening I will go pull some lettuce from our garden and assemble salad.

Wednesday: Crockpot French Dip Sandwiches. To prep I simply put pork loin in ziplock and added onion soup mix and stored in fridge. Wednesday morning I will dump into crockpot along with 1 can of diet coke and cook on low all day. Wednesday evening I will assemble sandwiches.

Thursday: Crunchy Salmon. I fully prepped this dish using frozen Salmon fillets. I will store in freezer. Thursday morning I will transfer from freezer to fridge to thaw. Thursday night I will bake.

Friday and Saturday- Leftovers or Out

Sunday: Spinach Lasagna- I full prepped this dish and stored in freezer. Saturday morning I will transfer from freezer to fridge. Sunday afternoon I will bake.

Last weeks meals in review

As promised here is a review of last weeks meals:

Chicken Pot Pie- LOVED it!! Seemed pretty heavy but I enjoyed every bite and made for a great lunch the next day.

Jennifer's Macaroni and Cheese- Yummy to my Tummy! I had high hopes for the boys but Colby was having tongue issues (he had an invisible sore that hurt his tongue making it difficult to eat and caused a slight lisp when he talked- better now) and Cohen wasn't in an eating mood. But that just meant more for me and DH. Also made for great leftovers.

Frogmore Stew- Fun and Yummy. No picnic because of the rain.

Tacos- Can't really mess these up.

Crockpot Chicken and Rice- Did not end up having. The boys took me out for Mother's Day today so I did not make a 5th meal. Anyone else give this recipe a try?

Someone Voted!!! I now have 9 VOTES!!! Woo HOO!! Big Thanks to who ever voted- any hints on how you did it?!?! Thanks again for your vote.

Sonday Sunday

It's funny how many different ways motherhood changes you.

Even the bible looks different. Verses I never noticed before now have meaning. Take Luke chapter 2 for example. I had read this chapter of Luke many times concerning the birth of Jesus, but it wasn't until after the birth of my first child that I ever noticed verse 19:

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart- vs 19.

As a Mom, can't you relate? There are just certain things my kids say or do that I just want to bottle up and treasure forever. I like to call these times "treasure chest moments."

Happy Mothers Day to all you Mommy's and may your days be filled with Treasure Chest Moments!

Please Vote!

Can I bug you one more time!!! Regardless of my meltdown in the previous post I still really really really want to win that new Ford Fusion Hybrid and trip to the American Idol Finale, so I know I have asked you to do it before and the link I gave you didn't work BUT I think I have figured it out this time so will you Please, Please, Please take 5 minutes to follow the directions below to VOTE for me. Plus remember you will be submitted in a drawing to win a cash prize just for voting. Right now there are 14 houseparties that have over 100 votes with one having over 800 votes and I have 7 votes.

So here is how I think it is going to work.

• I am going to go over to the house party blog and REsend all of you who gave me your email the invitation or a message.


• From your email you "should" find a link back to my houseparty, which "should" have an oval button with the words "VOTE HERE" on it.


• (I warn you, and apologize to you, you might have to register with house party before you get to vote, I don't know that for sure though. No charge for registering, just annoying if you Have to do it.) Update: So it looks like only registered guests- those that created a house party account- are getting the "Vote Here" button. FRUSTRATION!!!!! I am sorry for all the trouble.... thanks in advance.


• Once you click "Vote Here" just fill out the voter page and hit submit.


• Then, if you don't mind, please have all your family members who have their own email address to also submit a vote.


• Lastly, if you could forward your email evite with the link to any of your friends who might help me out..... well that would be just great.


• IF the evite email does not work 1) please let me know 2) if you could email me your name, address, email, and date of birth and a comment that says "I give Niki T. permission to submit a vote on my behalf because the darn houseparty website is messed up." that should hold up in a court of law if the legitimacy of your vote was ever questioned. Note: You can find my email under "my profile or the about me" tab on my sidebar. Thanks again.

So PLEASE VOTE!!!! Oh and for just a little more motivation... I leave you with this....

This is a picture of "my car's" rear view mirror. It fell off the window this weekend and is now sitting on my kitchen table.............. I'd really like to win that new car!

Confession: I cleared a spot off the kitchen table so I could take a picture of the mirror without you knowing about the clutter, but I just noticed that if you look at the reflection in the mirror you can see all the junk piled up on the other side of the table. That's what I get for trying to hide the truth...

Ford AI Updates

Ok ladies let me level with ya- You know the day I found out I was going to be an official Ford American Idol House Party Hostess and I announced to the World that I was going to have a HUGE Party and I even used words like "Off da Hook" to describe the event......... Well it turns out that was the Adrenaline Talking. Once the adrenaline wore off from the initial excitement, reality set in and I remembered I have never thrown an "off da hook" kinda party before. If you will remember from past posts, I was a real nerd in high school so I have never even BEEN to a "off da hook" party before. To be honest I have no idea what "off da hook" even means!!!!

Can I just tell you that when I even start to think about the party my heart starts racing and I become one inch away from a full blown panic attack. I have NEVER been a procrastinator before in my life BUT I find that I keep trying to ignore the fact that the party date is getting closer and closer with each passing day. It's like subconsciously I keep thinking if I don't think about it, it will all go away. Therefore guess what? I have NO PLAN!!! That's right the President of the DRS support group has NO PLAN. I had Colby's Imagination Movers Birthday Party planned out 6 months in advance for eight 5 year olds but I have NOTHING, NOT A ONE IDEA, for this party with over 90 invites in less then 10 days!!! Calm down.....breathe.......

So with all of that on the table can I just say "There will STILL be an official Ford American Idol Watch Party" AND you are ALL absolutely still invited I just can't promise it will be "off da hook." If I know me you better just go ahead and plan on the party hanging neatly and securely "ON da hook" complete with a label.....sigh, anyways.... What I'm thinking about doing, if your ok with it, is renting a pavilion at a park and having a PREwatchparty cookout. I have already got the "Teal Grill" reserved so you can bring your own meat OR I bought a gazillion hot dogs and buns the other week at Kroger (there the red ones that look really gross but anyways....) and I'll provide the sides and fixens. And we can just eat and fellowship from around 5pm-6:45ish and then all those that want to can caravan over to the OFFICIAL watch party which I imagine will be at UCA- that is IF Kris makes it to the top 2! If Kris doesn't make it into the top 2, I will have to come up with a plan B. Ford has sent me party packs for 15 so I will think of a fun way to give those away. I have also talked to Smith Ford and I believe there will be a Ford Fusion at the party for everyone to check out and/or test drive. I sure hope your not all terribly disappointed and that you will still consider stopping by. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a chance to visit and in some cases meet all of you. It could be a DRS reunion!!!! Anyways.... I promise I will have all the details worked out by next Friday- and who knows maybe one of my "cool" readers will have some ideas on how to coolify the party to make it indeed- OFF DA HOOK!
I better put up a Mr. Linky just in case.

Donna's Debut

Note: I don't really think I'm Donna. I have DRS NOT Schizophrenia. I just thought it was a catchy title. Anyways.....

Now is that a flattering shot or what? Love the face. Love the hair...... In my defense this video was shot just a couple of hours before a huge storm so the humidity was kicking. Also I would like to say that I don't think I really sound like that is real person.... but maybe those that know me can weigh in on that topic. Anyways..... Roll it!

Coming Soon...

At noon today I have scheduled the Ford American Idol HouseParty Video to post on this blog because I never was able to get it to work on the partyblog. Nothing special about it, it just took effort, so I hated for it to go to waste. It is about 12 minutes long so I warn you of that. Anyways...

Then sometime today I am going to try to figure out how to tell you how to vote for my house party. So I would love it if you could check back in later today to help me out with your vote.

Later

Kris Mania

Yesterday was total Kris Allen Overload! Our whole town went absolutely Krazy!!!! Let me just take you on a play by play of our day in Kris Nation.

But first let me set the scene. Everywhere you drive in this little town your going to see Kris Allen signs up in the windows, store fronts, markees, banners, you name it. I tell you I drove down the road yesterday and I saw a "Welcome Home Kris Allen" and I just kinda teared up. It's like I feel I know the guy. I don't know? Anyone out there with me on that one. Anyways...

Soooo to get ready for the BIG homecoming parade and concert I decided to go get the family Kris Allen t-shirts..... easier said then done! I started my quest for t-shirts 3 days ago but everytime I went to pick one up I was told they were out but to come back at X time because they will be getting more. Well yesterday morning I called Ace Hardware to see if they had any t-shirts and sure enough they did so I loaded up the boys and headed over only to be told they just ran out but to come back at noon. Well I had to work at noon so I didn't get back over to ACE until 1:30ish and by this time there was a line stretched outside the door of people awaiting the next batch of t-shirts due to arrive by 2pm. A guy was handing out tickets that guaranteed you first dibs on a t-shirt once they arrived. I took my golden ticket and decided to go home for a few minutes to get the boys a snack rather then wait in the long line with 2 hot, sweaty, fidgety, thirsty boys. After our quick break at home we once again loaded up (3rd times the charm, right?) into our 2 door car and drove back to ACE. We then proceeded to wait in this line for another 45ish minutes!!!

But we GOT the t-shirts..... or I should probably say "I" got the t-shirt! They didn't have kids shirts and I called DH and he said he didn't want one. So yep, pretty much I tortured my poor children and everyone else in line around my poor children to get me, myself, and I a pink Kris Allen t-shirt. Moving on....

Once home from ACE, Cohen went down for a long overdue nap and I proceeded to make Kris Allen posters to hold up at the parade/concert. Can I just say I worked really hard on these posters and even used glitter on one. I was sure the glitter would catch the eyes of not just Kris but also the American Idol TV crew thus guaranteeing me a spot on national television next Tuesday Night. So of course this thought led to me practicing my wave, scream, and overall look for my big debut. Plus I cleverly placed a cross on the glitter poster so I of course had to plan out what I would say if Tom Cruise happened to be a fan of Kris and he decided to fly himself and the rest of the Cruise clan to Conway for Kris' hometown visit. All of this while Cohen napped and Colb watched a DVR'd episode of Micky Mouse Clubhouse.

Well.... once we got to the Parade/Concert we were told we couldn't carry the posters!!! What a waste of glitter!! Oh well.....

I woke my sleeping baby from his slumber so we could secure a nice spot for the festivities due to start at 5pm. Have you ever woken up a sleeping baby?!? I don't recommend it. Needless to say he was not a happy camper and he made sure to let me know he did not appreciate me interrupting his MUCH NEEDED nap the WHOLE rest of the evening.

Soooo after waiting over 1.5 hours in the hot sun with 2 hot, sweaty, fidgety, thirsty boys Kris Allen finally hit the stage. Or at least I think he did, for all I know it could have just been a prerecorded voice because all I saw was.....

But regardless, the voice I heard sounded "Kick Awesome!!!"

I think from the picture below CoCo must have been a little confused.... it looks like he thought it was an Adam Lambert Home Coming!

I promise my children normally wear shirts in public. It was just really hot. All in all it was an exciting day. I did feel rather abusive to drag my children around town and in the hot sun BUT I think come Tuesday Night we will all be glad we got to take part in this historic event.

Learning Time

Ok girls, Mark it in the history books, we actually did some REAL learning time this week. We are 99.9% sure Colby is going to kindergarten next year and so he prefers to call learning time "Kindergarten Time" but anyways... we gotter done.

While in Las Vegas I picked up a little Kindergarten Readiness Activity Book for Colby at the bookstore and so Monday and Tuesday we got it out. It has some simple word flash cards and then a simple addition/subtraction workbook. Ya'll the boy loved em. You should have seen him working those math problems. Well actually you can.....

Isn't that cute!

CoCo (aka Cohen) and I reviewed body parts as well as looked at some animal flash cards. Cohen can now say ball, car, uh oh, dada, and when upset Mama! I am going to fill out paperwork TODAY for a speech therapy evaluation. So I am expecting an explosion of words over the next couple of months.

Craft Time

Oh how I have been slacking in the Craft Department. I am embarrassed to tell you how many times Colby has asked me to do "craft time" and I have answered "maybe in a little while" while knowing full well it wasn't gonna happen. Shame! Shame! Shame! At least I have Jesus and you to confess too. Moving on....



Tuesday we opened up the craft closet and.... crafted. But only after visiting my favorite SuperMom website notimeforflashcards.com What a Mom! Colby requested an alphabet craft so we visited the "alphabet activities" and Colby chose his favorite letter "W." (The "W" has been Colby's favorite letter since age 2, I don't know.....). SuperMom has cute ideas for all the letters and one of her "w" ideas was to decorate a "W" with winter things. You can go here for specific instructions. But I think it is pretty self explanatory when you see Colby's finished product. Although I totally agree the heart doesn't scream "Winter," Colby insisted the sticker be included and... well you know me.... easy going, go with the flo Joe (maybe if I describe myself like this enough someone will start to believe it), the sticker stayed.

While Colby decorated his "W" Cohen worked on his coloring skills. Cohen- Mommy's sorry I did not post a picture of your art work but I guess I got distracted and threw it away when you started eating the markers.

American Idol House Party Update

Be sure to check in tomorrow for some updates on my Ford American Idol Watch Party. Plus I have given up getting the video to post on the Party Blog BUT I am going to post it here at DRS tomorrow. You've been warned!

Devotional Time

I am soooo excited about the new Devotional Book I found for the boys. It is leaps and bounds better then the last one. I feel bad dogging the last one since it is a book about Jesus and everything but really I was NOT a fan.

The new book I found is called Our Together-Time Bible by Gwen Ellis.

(Picture courtesy of Amazon.com you can't really click to look inside, at least not from here)

Each devotional includes an age appropriate verse, a bible story and/or application story, a "Let's talk about it" section, a "Share God's Love" activity and a prayer. There are 52 devotionals and the author encourages parents to do one lesson per week and then discuss/apply each lesson throughout the week. I totally broke that rule and did one lesson Monday and then another Tuesday BUT I think from now on I will follow her recommendation.

Just a quick testimony of the book: Tuesday our lesson talked about "patience" and I never really know how much the boys are paying attention while we are actually doing the "devotional time." BUT I did get some confirmation that at least some of the lesson soaked in when later that day Colby asked me why Jesus did not make his tongue feel better when he prayed about it (we were having tongue issues that day- whole other story... but anyways). I quickly answered by saying "Maybe God wanted to teach him something." I knew this was not an answer that would suffice but really I just said it to buy me some more time while I could think of a more appropriate answer to provide this barely 5 year old with a genuine child like faith. So I was completely caught of guard when he took my first answer and simply replied "To teach us about patience." All I said was "uh yep, that's exactly right to teach us about patience. Sometimes Jesus does not answer our prayers right away- we have to be patient." I tell you what... this is not the first time Jesus has used my baby to teach me a lesson..... BUT that is a whole other post.

BTW I paid $12.99 for the devotional book at Borders but I just saw that you can get it for less then $9 on Amazon!

Familytime Friday

It's familytime friday here at DRS and lately that means.... well not a lot. Looking back over the last month or so of Friday posts I can see how neglected this day has been. Well NOT TODAY my friends. I officially have something to blog about for all THREE "times" today.

I feel it is only fair to tell you that the devotional time, craft time, AND learning time written about today all actually occurred on Monday and/or Tuesday this week and NOT today. I really don't know what's in store for this Mommy day because I do have to work for a couple of hours and then I also have the important task of rounding up a couple of Kris Allen T-shirts and securing a prime spot to watch the "Kick Awesome" parade and concert tonight. Woo Hoo!!!! (Yes, I realize I have not mentioned anything about my Ford American Idol Watch party in over a week because quite frankly the whole thing is stressing me out- BUT I know eventually I do have to work out the details since I HAVE invited the whole world. Anyone want to join my Party Planning TASK FORCE- aka take over the planning and implementing of the party?)

Annual Budget Countdown

I interrupt Family Day to bring you the Annual Budget Countdown

I shopped 2 times since last I updated the countdown.

Kroger
Total Spent: $67.07 for 38 items
Total Saved: $21.92

Target (8 boxes of Fiber One Boxes!!!!)
Spent: $0.20 oop (used 2 $5 gift cards)
Saved: around $20

Week 18 summary
Total Spent: $67.27
Total Saved: ~$41.92
Total Spent for year: $1686.50
Total Saved for year: $1399.44
Total Left for year: $3313.50

I am officially $41.50 UNDER Budget for the year!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

And know back to your already scheduled familytime posts.......