This Week's Planned Menu

Breakfasts will be either cereal or toast and yogurt. Trying to plan meals for Matt while he's working too, so that I'm not throwing stuff together for him to take at the last minute.

Monday (bake bread in the morning)
-Lunch: BLTs [lemon-pepper fish and veggies]
-Dinner: BBQ turkey meatballs with rice and garlic spinach

Tuesday (pick up markdown produce)
-Lunch: garden salads with garlic cheese toast
-Dinner: PB&J and fruit [leftovers]

Wednesday
-Lunch: whole wheat penne and sauce with steamed veggies or salad
-Dinner: cheese pizza and salad [leftovers]

Thursday (make Paneer)
-Lunch: egg sandwiches and fruit [leftovers]
-Dinner: penne with sauteed vegetables and parmesan

Friday (pick up spices)
-Lunch: out? or
-Dinner: Paneer and vegetable skewers

Saturday
-Lunch: away [leftovers]
-Dinner: away [out]

Sunday
-Lunch: sandwiches
-Dinner: mac and cheese and brocolli

Grocery List

• Indian Spices
• Onion
• Green Pepper
• Fruit
• Tortillas
• Parmesan Cheese

Getting there....

This has been one of my major projects lately. And I won't lie. It's been backbreaking. The monkey grass is nearly impossible to divide and all those little trees you see? Many of them had root systems three feet long! It was a lot bigger project than I was counting on, but it looks so much better, even without being planted yet.

After digging up all of it by hand, I added around four inches of composted wood shavings/manure over shredded paper and a little kitchen compost.

Before:


After:
The monkey grass looks a little raggedy here, but it will come back really fast and really full, like it always does.

Princess Hair

Glad Autumn has a lot of patience when it comes to her hair. It doesn't take too much time, but lots of hairspray afterwards if I don't want it to all blow away.

Salsa Recipe (Courtesy of Michelle)

So...I gathered a few handfuls of fresh spinach, lettuce, and cilantro from the garden to go along with the quesadillas I was making for supper. There is something that just makes me happy about using fresh produce right from the garden! :-)

I also made some salsa using a recipe from my friend Michelle. I LOVE this salsa--something about the cilantro and lime makes it taste so fresh and summery. Instead of the tomatoes, chiles, and jalepeno, I used a can of Rotel (I have a ton of it from a Kroger deal a while back). I also added extra garlic and onion, because we really like both of those. :-)

Salsa

1 14 oz. can whole tomatoes

1 4oz can whole green chiles – diced ok if whole not available

1 clove garlic

½ jalepeno

juice of ½ lime

1 handful cilantro

salt to taste

1 teaspoon finely chopped white onion

Toss all ingredients (except onion) in blender. Pulse to desired consistency, and then add finely chopped onion. Serve with favorite tortilla chips

Savannah

Last week we were in Savannah for the state GOP convention.

Pretty cool, because the convetion took place in the trade center on a little island in the harbor. After it was over on Saturday, we hopped on the ferry/water taxi and went over to River street. Had lunch and then stopped for a treat before heading home. Matt and Autumn had ice cream. I had a praline-yum!

The highlight of the whole trip for Autumn was throwing crusts of her sandwich to the pigeons and sparrows while waiting for the ferry back.

Cinnamon Sourdough Waffles...

I had a ton of friendship bread starter that REALLY needed to be used. No desire to make a zillion loaves of bread, so I stuck one cup of starter in the freezer for future use, and mixed up bunches of waffles with the rest of the starter. There are several different recipes online, but this is what I did. All measurements are approximate, since I don't measure much when I bake.

-2 cups friendship bread starter
-1 1/4 cups flour
-1/4 cup oil
-2 eggs
-1 or 2 T sugar
-1 t salt
-1 1/2 t baking soda
-1 t vanilla
-1 t cinnamon

These make really light fluffy waffles. Each batch made 7 in my belgian waffle maker. I'll freeze them for later use. These would be good with nuts added.

Tiny Treasures

Lately we've been finding lots of little egg shells in the yard, leftover from hatching songbirds.

Autumn collects them like the little treasures that they are.

When we picked this one up, there was an extra surprise.
Inside was the tiniest cricket I have ever seen.

Meal Plans for the Week

I'm behind this week after being sick for the last several days. Trying to get a meal plan together though, because it really does make the week a lot easier.

We really stocked up on yogurt over the last couple weeks, so it looks like that will be making up a lot of our breakfasts. :-)

I'm trying to play with a new recipe at least once a week.

Tuesday
Breakfast - yogurt and granola
Lunch - PB&J on homemade bread (Matt gets pasta and meatballs)
Dinner - vegetable red curry with Jasmine rice

Wednesday
Breakfast - yogurt and homemade toast
Lunch - leftover curry
Dinner - garden salad and garlic cheese toast

Thursday
Breakfast - cereal or oatmeal
Lunch -BLTs on homemade bread (matt will get steamed fish and rice)
Dinner - homemade hawiian pizza with salad

Friday
Breakfast - yogurt and granola
Lunch -whole-wheat pasta salad with lots of fresh veggies
Dinner - chicken quesadillas with fresh salsa

Saturday
Breakfast - cereal or soyjoy bars
Lunch -leftovers
Dinner - Chilean chicken and brown rice

Sunday
Breakfast - soyjoy bars
Lunch - out or sandwiches
Dinner - leftovers

can you say precocious?

So, we're leaving the grocery store and the cashier waves at Autumn, "Bye-bye."

Autumn smiles and says, "Goodbye! See you later, Buttercup!"

Where did she come from?

Sick

Autumn and I both have a cold. Yuck. One of those nasty ones that settles into your sinuses and makes it feel like your head is a very very heavy balloon. Autumn is also coughing constantly.

Priscilla's Red Velvet Cake

RED VELVET CAKE

2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of buttermilk

1 ½ cups of sugar

1 ½ cups of Wesson oil

1 teaspoon of soda

1 teaspoon of vinegar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of cocoa

2 eggs

1 bottle of red food coloring (1 ounce)

Sift flour, sugar, soda, salt, and cocoa together. Add the buttermilk, Wesson oil, vinegar, vanilla, eggs, and food coloring in order and mix thoroughly. Bake in 3 layers. Grease and flour the baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.

Frosting

1 stick of margarine

1 box of confectioners sugar

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese

½ teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup of chopped pecans

Soften margarine and cream cheese at room temperature. Mix together. Add confectioners sugar and mix well. Add vanilla and pecans and mix well.

making the day a little brighter

Something that will make even a rough day a little brighter...no matter what.

Beautiful glads from the front yard.

I think I'll go cut some orange daylilies in a bit, too.

Baby Burp Cloths

Digging through Autumn's desk to set it up for an art center and found embroidered burp cloths in one drawer. She wanted to know what they were and how to use them, so we had a lesson on burping baby dolls. Isn't she a cute "mommy"?

Artscow Photo Printing

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