Menu planning

I got my new issue of Cooking Light yesterday, it's like Christmas for me. Also my People magazine was in the mailbox as well, so it was an AWESOME mail day.

Anyway, I'm so excited to try out some of the recipes in this month's issue. Jason just renewed it for me for another two years. I have to say this magazine has truly helped me stay on track eating healthy and delicious food. Some of it is a little fancy...but all in all it's good, healthy and easy to follow their recipes. Also I haven't tried a sweet recipe from them that I didn't like!

I've always tried my best to do menu planning but now since we're a VERY BUSY little family, I've got to get better. There may be more crock pot or simple casserole dinners now more than ever.

We've been eating out waaaaay too much lately it's not only bad for the pocketbook but bad for the waistline! Mexican food = endless chips & salsa = bad news = Colin needs more time at the gym (which she doesn't have).

That being said...

My week looks like this next week:

Sunday - Crockpot cheesy chicken spaghetti - shrinking kitchen

Monday - Pan-Fried pork chops with homemade applesauce - Cooking Light

Tuesday - Cheesy Pigs in Blankets - Cooking Light

Wednesday - Skinny Salisbury Steak with mushroom gravy - skinnytaste

Thursday - Creamy chicken baked taquitos - pinterest

Friday - * we usually go out - Jacob has late basketball practice*

Saturday - Tex-Mex hashbrown casserole - Cooking Light

Sunday - Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs - Cooking Light

Baking - I REALLY want to try this English Muffin bread I saw on pinterest. It makes 4 loaves so I'm hoping it freezes well.

I may also make some kind of apple crisp as I have a bag of green apples to use up. They are pretty tart, so I'm thinking a crisp may be the way to go to add some sweetness to them. Cooking Light has a "Juicy Apple crisp" recipe that sounds easy and good.

Leaving you with a verse from my favorite chapter from the bible. Romans 8. If you haven't had the chance to read it, I challenge you to this week. It was personally life changing for me.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 NIV

Now if that's not some powerful stuff there, I don't know what is! :)

A little about cooking and a lot about Whitney...

So as we know Whitney Houston passed away this weekend at the age of 48. Someone who I LOVED as a child. I can remember listening to "How Will I Know?" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody". Beautiful woman, beautiful talent.

Here's what gets me. All over Facebook and around the internet, I see people say, " She chose drugs over her kid, career, etc". "What a waste". "She was a crack head".

Breaks my heart.

She was a person. Who had a disease. That disease is called addiction. Until you know the power of drugs, alcohol, pills, food - whatever it may be that takes over you - you have no room to talk. It's only those who have to realize for themselves that something is wrong and by the power of the Holy Spirit get healing and life change.

That's it. Off my soapbox. :)

As far as cooking goes, the baked corn dog mini muffins went over horribly. My kids are used to the frozen ones I think, lol. They wanted them crunchy on the outside, something I totally understand. Pizza roll-ups, they liked ok. I think make-your-own pizza night goes over better here. I made the Cooking Light frito pie last night, which is always a hit. Tonight it's sloppy joes made with ground turkey and tomorrow, I'm attempting shrimp scampi from Cooking Light for Valentine's day.

Speaking of Valentine's and love: this verse sums up love perfectly. It is the true meaning of love.

“For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV

Checking in.

Hope ya'll are having a fabulous week. We've been a little off track with the cooking this week as we had a busy weekend.

A little re-cap of the weekend, I did not cook one bit on Friday or Saturday (but I did eat and eat, and eat..). This weekend included a trip to In-N-Out and some Mexican food. Oh and the Super Bowl included fried pickles. Enough said.

The elliptical and I need to become close friends again.

REVIEWS:

Baking -

The cookies are always great, I have used the Nestle Tollhouse recipe for years, I was going to do a "skinny" version but did not buy the whole wheat flour as called for...so I just made the good ol' fattening kind. :)

The blueberry lemon cake was a just "ok". I was not blown away by it. I thought it could have used more lemon flavor. I may try sugar free, fat free lemon pudding in it next time instead of the yogurt.

Dinners-

Creamy Chicken penne - It was easy and fast. Both kids HATED it. I went easy on the herbs too, thinking it may have been a little strong. Next time, add more cheese for kiddos.

Roasted pepper and sausage - I LOVE it, hubby loves it, one kid ate it and the other said it was "gross". We've had it before and he raved about it so not sure what was up this time. I used a Jalapeno Mango chicken sausage from Costco. The sausage had a kick to it but not overly powerful. A great easy, fast dinner.

Tonight is the mini corn dog muffins! I am so excited to make these. I've seen them all over pinterest and they look really cute, easy and yummy. I went and bought a mini muffin pan just for these. I've always wanted one. I LOVE baking pans. My favorite stores are Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table. There's a great little kitchen store in downtown McKinney too. I love kitchen stores. I think I am the only one who is intrigued by the infomercials on kitchen gadgets.

Ok, off topic. Sorry about that.

More fun stuff -

*Maybe some red velvet, maybe some chocolate covered strawberries coming soon...kind of rolling a couple of things around in my brain. I love that Valentine's day is an excuse to eat chocolate.

*Found a recipe for a non-alcoholic sangria too that I am dying to try. I know you're thinking sangria=summer, but with the "winter" we've been having in North Texas..might as well jump into Spring. You make your own mint simple syrup. I've always wanted to try making my own.

*Looking into cooking classes at either Market Street or Central Market. Thought it would be fun. They are pricey though. Anyone taken a class before? I'm afraid if I go, I may be hooked.

I've been meditating at lot on blessings today. One of my favorite songs is "Blessed be the Name". I could sing it over and over again. Especially the line that goes.."you give and take away, you give and take away..my heart will chose to stay, Lord, Blessed be your name." No matter what your circumstances are, where you may be...you are BLESSED.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3

Welcome friends!

Hey all, please bear with me as I get this thing up and running. Plans are to post menu plans and things that worked great and those that are flops. Believe me, I've had my fair share of those. A couple weeks ago, my 6 year old told me my crock-pot pork chops looked like "throw up". Awesome.

I'm going to try and get good at the picture taking as well. They probably won't be as pretty as Pioneer Woman!

This week started off late, usually I make my menu plans on a Sunday and shop then. I am going from today. Kind of embarrassed to admit my family ate pizza last night because I was feeling lazy but we all have those days, right?

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff. Over half my recipes come from Pinterest. Yes, I am addicted. You can tell because my recipe board has over 1500 pins and the Ideas for the home...25. :)

Pinterest rocks! Words cannot express my love for it. A baker's DREAM come true.

ANYWAY - here's the menu plan for the week.

Thursday - Creamy Chicken Penne (weight watchers)/Salad

* Thursday nights I usually bake something for church - tonight it's Blueberry Lemon pound cake from Cooking Light. I'm so super excited to make this!!

Friday - Shrimp creole - pinterest

Saturday - Skinny Shepard's pie - Skinnytaste (best website EVER!)

Sunday - SUPER BOWL - Frito pie from Cooking Light and Skinny Chocolate chip cookies from Skinnytaste

Monday - Roasted Peppers, Chicken Sausage and potatoes - Skinnytaste

Tuesday - Mini corn dog muffins/Fries - pinterest

Wednesday - Pizza rollups/Salad - pinterest

Thursday - Dinner at church :) - will be baking a coconut cake or lightened up carrot cake.

Friday - Turkey sloppy joe's/veggies w/ ranch

You see the end of next week is a little more "kid-friendly" then usual. Daddy will be in CA for his annual meeting so we're making some fun kiddo stuff.

So there it is, folks. It's a start. I will take any ideas, things you want to see, funny stories...just let me know.

I love this verse, it just inspires me to keep going in my dreams to one day be a pastry chef.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" Ecclesiastes 9:10