Friday Favorite Finds 1/25/13

I'm linking up to Finding Joy in my Kitchen this week for Friday Favorite Finds.  Things have been busy and I haven't been menu planning like normal, which has created some unnecessary chaos around the dinner hour each night.  I'm looking forward to things slowing down a bit so I can plan our meals, snacks and treats a bit more.

Here are some yummy things I've found on the web and plan on making soon:

One Pot Spaghetti by Stacy Makes Cents - how yummy and EASY is this??

Slow Cooker Chocolate Mud Cake from Spoonful  - my daughter and I will be mixing this up tonight when she gets home from school and it should be ready in time for tonight's dessert!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls by Laura at Heavenly Homemakers.  These are a little out of my comfort zone (rarely do I make anything bread-related that doesn't come out of a bread machine!) but these look delicious and I am going to try to make them early next week for a surprise breakfast.  

All of the above photos are courtesy of the original recipe source.

Check out Finding Joy in My Kitchen for more great (and healthy!) recipes!

Trying hard to love winter.

This picture shows a great day.  We took this picture in our backyard after we received over a foot of snow one day in early December.  It was my youngest daughter Kate's first time playing out in the snow.  All bundled up and unable to move!  The big kids pulled her around on the little toddler sled we bought for her (complete with a seatbelt!) and she lasted about 15 minutes.  Alison and Christopher lasted much longer, sledding down a little slope in our backyard for about an hour with Daddy and then making a Ninja Princess Snowman.  (In case you're wondering, it was holding a stick "sword" while wearing a tiara.  This is the compromise reached between a 5-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy).  It was a fun, beautiful, fantastic winter day - topped off with hot cocoa and marshmallows.

Fast forward nearly two months later.  Here in Minnesota we are enduring days where the temperature never even reaches zero.  (I laughed this morning while watching the Today show and the reporter was in Times Square in New York City holding a thermometer showing how "freezing cold" it was in NYC...a whopping 16 degrees.  Amateurs.)  Our hands and lips are chapped beyond recognition.  My children are slippery from so much lotion and chapstick.  It is too cold to play outside.  We are getting tired of outings to Target, Costco, Perkins and the library.  We just want to ride our bikes, swing, and breathe some fresh air.

But that is all at least three months away.  This is the "hard" time of a Minnesota winter.  Christmas has past.  The joy and delight of the first big beautiful snowfall is gone.  And now you are left with cold, hard, dirty snow and much-too-cold temperatures.  But through all of this, I look at this picture.  The fun and joy of Minnesota's winter beauty.  Snow angels.  Cocoa.  I'm trying really hard to remember this!

Tomorrow I am going to exercise. Really.

I'll put it right out there:

1.  I have gained five pounds since Christmas.
2.  I am completely lethargic.  I have zero energy.  I find it hard to keep my eyes open past 6 pm.
3.  My back hurts.  I feel old.
4.  My underarms have developed that old-lady flabby thing.
5.  From the side, I look like I have a cute little baby bump thing going on.  Without the "baby" part.
6.  In the past two days, I have totally cleaned out every remaining chocolate item from my kids' leftover Halloween stash.  With the exception of the Tootsie Rolls, because those are just hard and icky by now.  I have eaten more Peanut M&Ms and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in the last two days than I have in the last two years.
7.  My kids are having a blast catching me eating ice cream out the carton while standing in front of the open freezer.  Because this means that they get to grab a spoon too and help me out.

So, tomorrow I am actually going to...gulp...work out.  I seriously have not worked out since 1996.  No joke.  I am not kidding.  We have a family membership to the health club near our house.  I have gone there to take my kids to the pool and get my hair done at the salon.  I have never ventured "upstairs" where the actual exercise equipment is.

The people there scare me.  They are all very tan (even in January in Minnesota) and seem to own spandex and sports bras in every color.  The woman look beautiful even when they sweat and wear their diamonds and make-up to work out.  I am amazed how they don't break a beautifully manicured nail while lifting weights.  Everyone shows off their perfectly toned abs and arms, all while smiling and looking cute.

Tomorrow, I am going to put on my sweatpants and t-shirt and tie my too-short hair back into a half-hazard ponytail.  I will not wear make-up but I will likely brush my teeth.  I will try to walk on a treadmill while staring at my bitten-down non-manicured nails.

And I will do my best to ignore everyone else around me.

Because I'm sick and tired of being so tired.  I need more energy.  I need to feel better.

Oh yeah, and I need that flabby old-lady arm thing to go away, too.

A hug like never before.

"An entire kindergarten class is apparently unaccounted for."

This is the sentence I heard the newscaster say on the car radio as I was driving around running errands with my four-year-old and one-year-old in the back seat.  I heard this sentence as I was at stoplight at the intersection, waiting to turn left to go on to our street, directly across from my daughter's elementary school.  I looked at the clock.  It said 12:32.  I looked at the playground.  It was empty.  My daughter leaves recess to go to lunch at 12:30.  I just missed seeing her on the playground by two minutes.  She is a kindergartener.  

My daughter's bus finally pulled up to our driveway at 4:05 p.m.  I'd been waiting and staring out the front window since 3:45, anxiously awaiting for 4:00 when I go get my coat and wait outside to greet my little girl.  There she is - looking like a giant purple marshmallow in her snowpants, coat, boots and hat.  Grinning ear to ear because it's a Friday, she made a new friend today, and tomorrow she gets to sleep in and help daddy make pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  She has no idea what has happened.  She has no idea why her mom runs toward her even before she takes the last step off the bus, scoops all of her 55 pounds up in her arms and hugs her tighter than maybe ever before.   She hugs me back and tells me that she has a new library book in her backpack to read tonight.  I glance up at the busdriver and he gives a soft smile and knowing nod.  And we go back into our house and start our weekend.

20 little lives taken so early.  I can only imagine what they were doing - listening to their teacher read them a story, working on their daily math lesson, talking about the calendar.  Six brave lives of courageous teachers and staff taken too soon.  May God give comfort and peace to those families affected by the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  I pray for you all.

Using up leftover roast beef: Homemade Burrito Bowls

I finally made an entire roast the other day in the slow cooker.  I have a general to aversion to large, whole pieces of meat but I have conquered my fear in the last few months.  I am even cooking entire whole chickens now!  (The funny thing is, there is really nothing more simple than putting a whole chicken or roast into the crockpot.  What was I so afraid of?)  So this week I had a nice amount of leftover, tender, yummy roast beef to use up.  I decided to play around with it a bit (what?  being creative in the kitchen?  I'm totally branching out these days...) and create a homemade version of Chipotle's Burrito Bowl.

Everyone in my family loves Chipotle take-out.  In fact, we were falling into a pattern of having it about three times a month.  But at about $30 a pop each time to feed my whole crew, that really adds up.  So I dug around in my pantry and freezer and came up with the homemade version of my favorite Chipotle item - the burrito bowl.  My husband took a few bites and said "This is even better than Chipotle's."  Wowzers - now there's a compliment!  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the assembled bowls because they were a thing of beauty.  Really.

Here's what I used, but use whatever you have on hand to suit your tastes and how many mouths you have to feed.  I apologize that the measurements are no where near exact - I just threw some stuff together and now I'm guessing:

Homemade Burrito Bowls:

2-3 cups leftover cooked roast beef
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon (or 1/3 packet) taco seasoning (I used this homemade taco seasoning)
2-3 cups cooked brown rice
1 can black beans
1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin
1/4 - 1/2 chopped onion
Toppings such as sour cream, lettuce, salsa, cheese

Combine water and taco seasoning in small bowl and whisk together.  Shred the leftover roast beef and place in saucepan with the water/seasoning mixture.  Simmer on low for a while.  Add more water as necessary to keep the beef moist.

Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil.  Simmer the black beans (undrained) in a small saucepan with the cooked onion and cumin.  Simmer until heated through and the cumin flavor is really incorporated into the beans.

To assemble your bowls, start by putting the hot cooked rice on the bottom.  Top with a hearty scoop of black beans and follow with the beef.  And then comes the fun part - toppings of your choice!  We used guacamole (I found a packet of Wholly Guacamole in my freezer that I used, otherwise I would've left this out), sour cream, shredded romaine lettuce, salsa, green Tabasco, and some shredded Monterey Jack cheese.  Serve with chips and salsa.

Yumminess and love in a bowl.  And no where near $30 to feed us all.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday at Life As Mom.

Menu Plan: week of 7/16/12

Wow, it's been soooo long since my last post that I don't even recognize the Blogger page to type my posts anymore!  It is next to impossible to find a spare moment to come down the basement (where the computer is) by myself for longer than two minutes to type a post.  I've tried doing it with three kids running/crawling around me and that just leads to frustration and a cranky mommy shouting "Please give me five minutes of peace to type!"  So today I've squeezed in a few moments while all three kids are resting at the same time.  This will be short and sweet.

It is 100 degrees here today (again) so I've planned a menu using my stovetop and slow cookers.  Here is what is on our menu this week:

Monday:  Slow Cooker Roast Beef (my mom's recipe - just throw in two cans of Golden Mushroom soup with the roast and you have instant tender roast w/ gravy), Crockpot baked potatoes (yes, I have both slow cookers going today), corn, watermelon
Tuesday:  Beef and Bean Burritos (making up a recipe using leftover roast beef), chips and salsa
Wednesday:  Mac and Cheese soup (new recipe), fruit salad
Thursday:  Clean out the fridge night!
Friday:  Homemade pizza, Caesar salad

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas!

Yes, I'm still here!

I really do check my blog every day. Almost every day. I log on to read the blog posts from the listing of "my blog list." I love everyone's creativity and inspiration and encouragement on their blogs. But just not mine, I guess. Three and a half months have passed since my last post.
The Family 
We are all well. Hubby is still working hard but took time off to take the two older kids fishing this past weekend. He also has a six-day fishing trip in Canada coming up that will hopefully recharge his batteries and give him some much needed R&R.

My oldest daughter Alison turned FIVE years old in April and we celebrated with a "Hello Kitty" themed party. She also graduated from preschool last week and has been accepted into all-day kindergarten at our neighborhood elementary school!

My three-year-old son Christopher is still full of energy and growing by leaps and bounds every day. His current obsessions are aliens and toy guns and baby dolls. Thankfully not all at the same time.

My baby girl Katie is almost 8 months old. She is a beautiful, happy, sweet little girl that is still very much attached to her mama. I had intended to wrap up breastfeeding by now (six months is my comfort zone) but stubborn little girl hates the bottle and prefers her mama's milk straight from the tap. :-) I am hopeful that she will be weaned by our vacation in August so mama can enjoy some beach time without the hooter hider...

The House 
I still love our new house, which really isn't "new" anymore since we celebrated our one-year anniversary in this house in May. We gutted our laundry room/mud room closet and had a system installed so it's much more organized now. I'm working on cleaning out some closets and getting a few messy places under control. If/when I get back into the swing of blogging, I hope to post some before/after pictures soon.

The Kitchen 
I've been menu planning as usual but rarely does it get followed these days. Hubby's crazy schedule and quite a bit of traveling have left the menu plan a bit ignored. I also haven't cooked anything new in quite a while. I think my family is getting bored with the same old stuff so I am hopeful to try out some new recipes in the coming weeks and hopefully blog about some of it.

That's it for now. Baby needs a diaper change, boy has fallen while climbing up onto the potty without a step stool and oldest girl is desperately crying out for someone to play CandyLand with her.

Such is the life of a SAHM.