Saying Good-Bye

Once again, my family is going through the impending loss of a loved one. My husband's maternal grandmother suffered a massive stroke on Monday and the doctors have given her little time to live. She thankfully is unconscious, sedated, and hopefully not in pain. Most importantly, she says she's ready to go home to be with the Lord. We can at least take comfort in that.

I unfortunately will not be able to travel to WV to be with family. I do however, have to get 6 other people ready to go at any given moment. Prayers are greatly appreciated.

Plans for the Week

Well, last week was so busy!! I did manage most of my meals though and got all those meatballs made for the teens spaghetti dinner. Hopefully, this week will not be as crazy, though I'm not sure. We have our regular stuff, hubby is working longer hours, I have a meeting at work, doctor's appt., and we hope to attend a couple jubilee meetings at a friends church.

So, the plans for this week will be pretty simple as well.

Monday: homemade chicken nuggets, fries, baked beans and fruit plate (I didn't get to this one last week)

Tuesday: grilled steaks, roasted potatoes, green beans

Wednesday: hamburgers, fried potatoes, corn

Thursday: chicken casserole, mashed potatoes, peas, rolls (meeting at work afterward:( )

Friday: homemade pizza (hoping to go to Winter Jubilee at Trinity Baptist) maybe have a couple of the boys friends over to spend the night

Saturday: grilled chicken, caramelized butternut squash, green beans, crescent rolls

Sunday: steak and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, rolls

At least that's the plan. We'll see!! Hope everyone has a good week!!!!!

Anytime Fruit Plate and YUMMY Fruit Dip

Well, it's a beautiful day and it's making me want spring and summer to come all that much faster. Of course, during that time of year, one of our favorite things to keep around is a fruit plate. All of us LOVE fruit and we will eat it most anytime during the day: breakfast, lunch or supper. I try to keep one together most of the time. I try during winter too, but it's a little more expensive and not as much varity. Either time though, it empties out fast. I try to get whatever is on sale to keep the grocery budget down. It makes it easy on those mornings when I just don't want to get up and "fix" anything (not that I usually fix a big breakfast). The kids will gobble this down in no time flat. Then, just replenish what is missing and pull it back out for lunch. EASY, EASY, EASY!!!!

Now comes my favorite part, the fruit dip. I wish I had a picture, but I'm usually too busy eating it to stop and take a picture. It's very simple, not so much healthy, but DELICIOUS!!! All you need is a jar of marshmallow fluff and a 8 oz container of spreadable strawberry cream cheese. Mix them together and place in the fridge until ready to serve with the fruit. YUMMY!! Stole that little easy recipe from my mother-in-law. I take this to church functions, family parties, anything and it ALWAYS disappears. I think I may have to start making two when I do that cause I always get upset that there isn't any left for me.

Valentine Craft

Well, better late than never. Due to the stomach virus invasion, we didn't get our Valentine craft finished until this week. It started out to be just a simple heart decoration. Then, it turned into a table center-piece.

First, we'll make the heart decorations. All you need is your color choices of tissue paper(we used light pink and pink), glitter, clear con-tact paper(at least two sheets), and red plastic wrap paper (we used valentine treat bags), red or pink ribbon, scissors and glue. Take your tissue paper and wrap paper and cut or tear them into various size pieces. Remove the backing of one of the pieces of con-tact paper and lay it down on the table sticky side up. Place the pieces of paper on the con-tact paper then the glitter leaving an edge around to seal it. Cover with the other piece of con-tact paper and press down to seal the two sheets together.

Don't they look ornery?

Again, more ornery kids having fun in school.
The finished product. Pretty huh? They did a pretty good job. Once we got them finished, the kids asked where we were going to hang them. Well, hadn't really thought about that. But then, I remembered my sister-in-laws blog about her Valentine's Day decorations and she made a Valentine tree. So, I sent the kids over into the neighbors yard (we don't have any trees and she doesn't mind) to find a branch or two to paint and hang the hearts on. They did pretty good. They found two little branches and we happened to have red and silver paint lying around and this is what we ended up with.
The kids were pretty proud of it. We set in on our table as our center-piece. They want to do one for St. Patrick's Day and Easter now. Guess I will be looking for some other center-piece projects to take on for those holidays.

From Fridge to Table in About 30 Minutes

If you're like me, you're one busy mom!! Some days, you just don't have all day or even an hour to get supper on the table. Here's a simple, easy and tasty meal that just does not take a lot of prep or time (esp. if you get your kids helping). First thing I did was get my boys peeling potatoes, doesn't take long with both of them on it. Get your green beans (seasoned to your tastes - I use a little butter, bacon grease, garlic salt, onion powder and pepper), corn (again season to your tastes) and water boiling for the mac n cheese (we prefer homemade, but again TIME). Once you have all that on the stove, smother your pork chops in some bar-b-cue sauce (we prefer Sweet Baby Ray's). Bake those pork chops on 350 for 20-25 minutes. When that's done, your beans and corn will be ready, your mac-n-cheese should be done and your potatoes ready to mash. We try to avoid a lot a bread at the dinner table (esp when we're loaded with carbs anyway), but if you want, throw in some crescent rolls and enjoy!!

This is one of our favorite meals!!! Hubby and the kids love it and I love the simplicity of it.

My father would be mortified at the knowledge that there isn't any gravy on this table with mashed potatoes. However, most of my family either eat them plain or put their corn on the potatoes.

There are only three pork chops cause my girls don't eat them, and I was recovering from the stomach virus this day. The boys gobbled them up though. Absolutely no leftovers from this meal.

Enjoy a simple and tasty meal that's easy to prepare!!!

Plan for the Week

So, last week was a bust. We had the stomach virus go through and it pretty much wiped most of the family out for one day or another. Then, the weekend was a very FUN blur. We headed to Alabama for our nephews birthday and ended up staying to watch hubby's sister in a skit at her church for their Valentine's banquet. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.

Now, on to this busy week. Of course there is the usual; schooling, cleaning and cooking. I've also thrown in a dentist appointment (to take care of a 3 week toothache), making meatballs for a spaghetti dinner for our youth at church on Saturday, and cupcakes for Bible club Wednesday night (was suppose to do that last week). Then, of course, this is my weekend to work:( Busy, Busy, Busy.

Dinner Plans for the Week

Monday: Roast beef, potatoes and carrots in the crock pot

Tuesday: homemade chicken nuggets, green beans and french fries

Wednesday: chicken gravy biscuits, mashed potatoes, corn and cooked carrots

Thursday: vegetable soup

Friday: spaghetti, homemade bread

Saturday: that's up to hubby since I work so we'll see:)

Sunday: Zaxby's

Mostly simple, low prep meals since there is so much going on this week. I'm hoping to get it all done.

Homemade Blackberry Jam

A little late, but better late than never. This past summer, we spent some time in WV with family, one of my kids and hubby's favorite things to do....... pick blackberries. There were plenty at his parents house so, off they went. Hubby made it a competition to see who got to drive the golf cart next. Anyway, his mom made blackberry cobbler and we brought some home and I tried my hand at blackberry jam:) I found a simple recipe that did not use pectin at http://savorysweetlife.com/2009/08/how-to-make-blackberry-or-raspberry-jam/

Here's what you need:

2 cups of crushed blackberries ( I also strained mine before cooking as my family does not like seedy jellies)

2 cups sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

In a small pan cook blackberries, sugar and lemon juice on high heat for 5 minutes and reduce to medium heat and cook an additional 15 minutes.

Skim the foam off and store in a heat-proof container. The jam will thicken as it cools.

Now, here is where I should have a picture of the finished product, and I'm not sure why I don't. But, I can assure you it's too late now. It was delicious and is long gone. I can't wait til summer and pick some more blackberries. Might try a few new recipes with them this year.