smoothie love

i've found my new fav smoothie.

1 cup water

1 Tb. Flax seeds

1 cup raspberries

1 banana

1/2 cup spinach 

1 Tb. Almond Butter

mmmmm. delish.

grab a blender and enjoy one yourself!  it doesn't disappoint. 

menu Plan monday {it's back!}

I totally fell off the face of the earth in terms of menu planning for like the past month,

or longer (gasp!) but I'm back and I've got some new recipes that I'm going to try out!

Here is what our week is going to {hopefully!} look like in terms of Supper...

Monday:

Spicy Chicken Rigatoni

recipe recommended by my friend Becky

and found via pinterest here

Tuesday:

9 layer Mexican Casserole

My mom-in-law made this while we were back

for Easter and it was super yummy!  

Recipe from their church cookbook...

1lb. ground beef

1 onion

2 T chili powder

8 corn tortillas

1 (15 oz) can chili beans (Chili-ets)

1 lb. Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded

1 can rotel

1 c. cheddar cheese, shredded

1 (10 oz) can cream of mushroom soup

Brown ground beef & onion.  Stir in chili powder.  In greased 9x13 pan, spread 3 T of soup.  Then layer in this order: 1/2 of meat mixture, 4 tortillas, 1/2 of meat mixture, beans, 4 tortillas, jack cheese, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and soup.  Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until bubbly.  

-Janet Nachtigal

Wednesday:

Chicken Milano

Recipe here

Yep we have this quite often, it's so yummy!

I'm taking it to a friend who just had her precious baby girl and so I'll just 

double the recipe and voila! dinner is ready for both families! :)

Thursday:

Chicken and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

This one is SUPER easy and I'm going to try and make it even easy-ER by using Trader Joe's frozen mashed potatoes.  Hoping they work well for this!

Boil chicken breasts 45 minutes, take chicken out and shred.  Use same water to boil noodles and add more water if noodles aren't covered.

Once noodles are done, don't drain the water and add 1 can cream of chicken soup.  Serve over mashed potatoes.  Yum!

-Nancy Goodson

Friday:

Chicken and Biscuits

Recipe from Pinterest found here

Sat./Sun.:

leftovers/eating out

what's for supper?

we have been so blessed to have had meals provided for us a couple times a week since Caedmon

was born.  it was simply amazing and we are so grateful for all our friends who sacrificed their time

and energy to make us a meal.  

so because of that, i really haven't cooked much at all for the past month and am now just getting

back into it and menu planning.  i have yet to go to the grocery store with the two boys, Tyler has been going with a list made by me in hand.  

i've found, over the years that by making a menu plan for the week on sunday evening and then getting groceries on monday morning saved both money and my sanity.  i go through the sunday ads/coupons and make my menu based on what's on sale that week or what i have coupons for.  

and it saves my sanity because i know there is a plan for the week and i'm not scouring through the cupboards at 5::30 praying we have some noodles and spaghetti sauce :)

so i'm going to try and post our weekly menu, to try and get myself back on track.

I'm only posting 5 days worth of meals because we almost always have leftovers that stretch at least one, maybe two days and also on the weekends we usually eat out once.

I'm not including side dishes because those are pretty random.  Usually at least one vegetable and sometimes bread or a salad.  

Monday: we had Chicken Milano (recipe below) and green beans. it's my favorite dish!

Tuesday: Beef Stroganoff - recipe from Lynda.  this is Tyler's favorite dish and it's super easy so I make it for him quite often.

Wednesday: Freezer meatballs - Lynda made these up for us while she was here and put them in the freezer for me!  Love my awesome mother -in-law!  She rocks! :)

Thursday: Chicken and noodles

Friday: Chicken Pot Pie

Sat./Sunday: eat out/leftovers

Chicken Milano 

8 oz. bowtie pasta

2 tb. butter

1-2 cloves garlic

mushrooms

1/4 c. sundried tomatoes

2-3 tb. chicken base

1 c. heavy whipping cream

2 tb. chopped basil

1 lb. chicken breast

boil or bake chicken breasts and shred.  Set aside.  cook pasta and set aside.  sautee mushrooms in butter and garlic.  in a separate pot boil 1 c water and chicken base with the sundried tomatoes and bring to a boil.  boil until tomatoes are soft.  add mushrooms.  add 1 c heavy cream and basil and bring to a boil.  heat until sauce covers the back of a spoon.  Add chicken and sauce to pasta, stir and serve.

trains deliver food? they do here!

We got to eat at a restaurant called Fritz's for the first time.  It's a "diner" type of restaurant (with very yummy chocolate shakes!) but the really fun part is that a train delivers your food to you.  You sit at the booth, call in your order and a train makes it way around the track with your order and drops it on your tray.  I wasn't quick enough with my camera so I didn't get the actual "drop off."  Lincoln was in heaven.  He loved watching all the trains.  Not surprising to anyone, he didn't get more than two bites of his meal he was so distracted :)

we all enjoyed wearing Lincoln's engineer hat 

And the train ride that Lincoln didn't like....

yummy salad goodness

lately I've had this salad obsession

which is both good and bad

good that it's healthy for me (until I add ranch!)

bad that it doesn't keep preggers here full for very long

'cause I eat like constantly all day 

my current favorite is a spinach salad with lots o' yummy goodness on top.

ingredient list:

organic baby spinach

sharp cheddar cheese (just 1 or 2 slices, diced up)

1 hard boiled egg chopped up - thank you pampered chef for making this easier!

avacodo - I cut a couple slices up and save the rest for more salads

bacon bits

ranch

chop, slice, dice and toss everything together and you have this amazing-ness..... 

(pre-ranch dressing so you can see everything before it's coated!)

It's so yummy and besides the dressing and the bacon bits, it's got lots of fantastic things in it for this growing baby and for me! :)

Oh and I found out that once the avacado pieces are covered in ranch, Lincoln thinks they are egg pieces and will eat them up!  Here buddy, eat another egg!  muahahahaha!  I love it when I'm able to get him to eat things without him knowing it!  Especially an avacado with all it's good fat in it!  Yes I'm that mother that will lie about food to get my son to eat.  I'm really praying that this next boy will eat like a horse.  That would be a great problem to have.  

So go make yourself a salad

you'll love it, I promise.

Ok so maybe my sister won't - cause she despises eggs, she's a crazy woman

but everyone else will like it

trust me.  

that's all for now.  have an amazing day!

Easiest. Dinner. EVER

Lately I've been feeling pretty decent throughout the days (as long as I stay on top of eating every hour or so) and then around supper time I get SICK.  Major Nausea.  Yuck.  So I've just come to the conclusion that dinners around here are low key and lots of calling Tyler to pick something up on his way home from work.  So while I was feeling good during the day I threw this crock pot meal together and it was ready as soon as I started feeling not so great.  Perfect timing.  I got the recipe from over HERE.

Here's what you'll need:

- Bag of frozen Chicken Breast Tenderloins (2.5-3lb bag)
- 8 oz block of cream cheese (don't use Fat Free! 1/3 less fat or regular is fine)
- Can of Black or Pinto (I had pinto on hand so that's what I used) Beans, drained & rinsed.
- Can of Corn, drained.
- Can of Rotel

Directions:
Put frozen chicken in the crock pot.
Put Cream cheese on top of the chicken.
Dump in the Black Beans (make sure they are drained & rinsed!!!)
Dump in the drained corn.
Dump in the Rotel,

Cover & cook in your Crock Pot on low for 6-8 hours.
Every 2 hours, I stir the ingredients.

You can shred the chicken when it is done, or just leave it as tenderloins.

This is what it looks like after 6 hours:

I turned the crock pot off & let it sit for about 30-45 minutes.
It is a little soupy, but letting it sit causes it to not be as soupy.

Serve over rice (the rice absorbs some of the soupy-ness.

It makes a lot and it was DELISH!

I love easy meals.  Do you have any easy recipes to share with this nauseated momma?  I'm open to suggestions! :)  Enjoy!