What's for dinner?

Every weekend (usually Sunday morning), I sit down and plan out what we will be eating for dinner during the week.  Thanks to a few food blogs and pinterest, it makes the planning a little easier.  I am still using the menu board that I made over a year ago.  Deciding what we are having for dinner for the week also makes the trip to the grocery store much easier.  I used to find myself buying all sorts of things and spending a small fortune and still having nothing to cook.  Planning ahead really does help, especially now that Lillian is here and she takes up a lot of time in the evening once I am home from work.
This week our menu looks like this....

Here are a few links to the recipes for this week (in case you care to try any of them as well)...

Sunday- I love pasta, especially with creamy alfredo sauce.  Since we are trying to eat somewhat healthy on most days, I decided to try out this healthier version.  I bought some whole wheat noodles to go with the alfredo sauce and blackened chicken.

Monday- We eat a lot of chicken, so I decided to throw in some pork chops when I came across this Paula Deen recipe (she is still a great chef despite all the media hoopla).  The red pepper soup sounds fancy, but it is not homemade.  Campbell's Go soups are so delicious!  You should give one of them a try!

Tuesday- I love stuffed bell peppers, and I love Mexican food!  What a better way to combine the two than with this recipe.  (Just don't tell my husband it's made with ground turkey!)  I also found this cilantro lime rice recipe I think should go perfect with the peppers.

Wednesday- Squash is in season right now, and we love chicken, so what better way to use both than to make a chicken squash bake.

Thursday-  We will join some great friends for dinner for E's night out.

Friday-  I decided to do something nice for my husband and make his favorite meal.  I asked him what his all time favorite was would be, and this is what he said, "steak, my mom's mashed potatoes, and green beans or any type of pea."  My sister came in town when Lillian was first born and made us some incredible steaks using the cast iron skillet, so I will attempt to recreate them.  I don't think I can make mashed potatoes quite like my MIL, but I think I can come close.  The green beans I can handle.  I hope it makes for a happy hubby!

Saturday-  I really like fish, but only if it doesn't taste "fishy."  This is my "go to" recipe for fish.  It is so good!! The fish has a tomato sauce with it, so I decided to make some okra and tomatoes with rice to finish off the meal.  My MIL gave us some fresh okra the other day that needs to be cooked.

Here to hoping I stick with the plan this week...
And as my girl Paula Deen says,

"Love & Best Dishes,"

Our Weekend

via pictures...
**WARNING** picture overload ahead **

I was in the mood to take pictures this weekend.  We didn't do anything super special, but I snapped lots of pics anyway.

Lillian sitting in her daddy's lap at Another Broken Egg.

They were watching us do yard work.

I took a pic when he wasn't looking.

Sweet Charley hanging out with Lillian

I put my sun hat on to weed the flower bed.

Annabelle was following me everywhere and loving the outdoors!

Jon marinated some steaks that he grilled on Sunday night

Lillian played while her daddy grilled

I made a salad with some of our goods from the Farmer's Market.

We ended our weekend with this beautiful rainbow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Ours was not very eventful but it was filled with quality time spent together and you can't beat that!

No Farms No Food

The Shreveport Farmer's Market started yesterday. It's always one of my favorite things this time of the year. It is held on Saturday morning from 7-12 and Tuesday evening from 3-6. This past Saturday we got up and about early and headed downtown to see what we could find. Lillian got to experience her first Shreveport Farmer's Market! It was very crowded and already hot outside. We were wanting squash and strawberries. We did find 2 eight ball squash/zucchini so we snatched those up. I had never heard of them before last year when we found them at the market. We did not see any strawberries that looked good to us, but we did end up with some other goodies. A booth out there called Comfort Food was selling pre-made meals and mixes, so we bought cinnamon rolls from them that sounded delicious. Can't wait to try them! We also came across a dairy farmer's booth who was selling fresh milk, heavy cream, and butter. We were intrigued and decided to buy a half gallon of their chocolate milk. It should go good with a cinnamon roll! We will have to go earlier in the morning next time because a lot of the booths were sold out of things we would have bought. I'm glad Shreveport offers a farmer's market! It is a good thing for people to do with their families, it helps the farmers, and it introduces people to new foods and experiences!

Chicken with Avocado Salsa

Although I wasn't really wanting to, I made dinner tonight. I thawed some chicken and didn't want it to be wasted, so I browsed Pinterest and found a recipe. I tweaked the recipe a little to make it more my style. It turned out great! I highly recommend you make this one night soon! (It only takes about 25-30 minutes)

What you will need...
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 medium red onion
1 avocado
2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil

What to do...
Turn the oven to 350. Prep your chicken (cut off fat, etc.) Mix salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt together in small bowl. Rub spice mixture over both sides of chicken. Heat olive oil in skillet (I used a cast iron skillet) over medium high heat. Brown each side of chicken for about 3 minutes. Place chicken in baking dish and bake for 10 minutes. While chicken bakes, dice onion and place in bowl. Pour lime juice over onion and add cumin, mix together. Chop avocado (keep it pretty chunky). Fold the avocado into the onion mixture, being careful not to mash the avocado.
Spoon the avocado salsa over the chicken (the more the better) and serve immediately.

I paired the chicken with a salad and corn. It was a light but filling dinner! Enjoy! :)

It's Time...

One of the latest trends is to have a party to reveal the gender of the expected baby.  Jon and I debated on whether to have a party or not, and ended up deciding to have one.  I had an idea for the theme right away, but that was changed due to the time when we found out what the baby will be.  I knew I wanted something different, something I had not seen many people do.  I googled and brainstormed and finally came up with the theme of "It's Time."  I used clocks as the main decor and used a cuckoo clock as the reveal.  The biggest challenge was finding a cuckoo clock!  They don't sell those things in the stores, so I went to the internet.  I was shocked to see the price of cuckoo clocks!  I finally found a kids cuckoo clock from a company in Europe.  I told my mom about it and she found it on Amazon and ordered it for us.  I was so thankful!  Once the clock came in the party planning was in full force!  A local invitation shop was able to design and print the invitations exactly how I wanted them.  Then I planned out the menu.  Since it was in the late afternoon we served snack/appetizer foods.  Next, I decided to make clock cookies for the party favors.  (I will save those for a separate post.)  Everything came together really well.  It was a rainy day, but a fun and exciting afternoon.  I am so thankful for all our family and friends who came to celebrate with us!  We truly feel so blessed!

Old Wives Tales Board

Smores & Peanut Butter Cup cookies

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes

Caprese Salad skewers & Rotel Cups 

future mommy & daddy

It's a girl!!! Lillian Grace is due 2/25/2013 and we are so excited!!!

Summer is Here and the Grillin' is Good

I don't know about you, but summertime makes me think of being outdoors and grilling.  Here in Louisiana it can be tough to enjoy the outdoors because it is so stinkin' hot!  Lately, Jon and I have been trying to do more outside, especially before the real summer heat hits.  We went to Hot Jazz on the Red again.  Unfortunately while we were there a bird decided to use Jon at it's port-a-potty.

Me and my handsome hubby @ Hot Jazz on the Red

The other night I was able to get off of work, so we joined some friends at the pool.  I forgot to put on sunscreen, so I am a little on the burnt side now.  After we left the pool we all came to our house, and Jon grilled us some burgers.  They were delicious!   I think that got Jon in the grilling mood, so last night he grilled some chicken and a potato recipe I found on pinterest.  Once again, delicious!

cheesy grilled potatoes via Pinterest

I only have 2 more nights in which I have to work a night shift.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be at home at night and to spend time with my husband.  We always enjoy cooking and eating dinner together, and now we can do that every night!  I see many more grilled dinner nights in our future!  I also see a lot more nights like this in our future...

The three pictures I used in this post make me think of my latest Facebook status...

"Listening to Texas country music, 

dinner is on the grill, 

glass of wine in my hand, 

and my husband by my side...

this is the life!"

fruits of his labor

I should actually have titled it "veggies of his labor."

My husband likes to plant a garden every year, but at the end of "growing season" he swears he's not doing it again.  One year, when we still lived in a tiny duplex, our super tiny porch was overgrown with all sorts of peppers!  Another year he grew grapes and tomatoes.  Our first year in our house he went all out and planted a huge garden with all types of tomatoes, blueberries, peppers, etc.  Last year he went with squash, okra (or so he thought- it ended up being cucumbers), and watermelon.  This year he again said he was not doing a garden because it's a lot of work, but we were at the nursery and he couldn't pass up a few plants.  He decided on 3 tomatoes, 4 sugar snap peas, and 4 kentucky wonder green bean plants.    So far we have had 1 little tomato, a handful of peas, and a TON of green beans!  I don't think the poor snap pea plants will survive the hot summer we are about to endure.

green beans plants

up close

We are enjoying all the green beans!  We have used them for a side dish for 2 meals and have another meal planned tomorrow that will include them.

one of the yummy meals

I know having a garden is a lot of work, and I help very minimally (I can't keep any plants alive), but I think next year I would like to plant things for a salad.  Maybe we could grow some different types of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers...it's just a thought...that I will definitely have to approve with the hubby...because like I said it will be veggies of his labor.

DIY Menu Board

Are you like me and tired of trying to figure out what is for dinner?  Jon and I are constantly scrambling for ideas at 6 or 7 at night which inevitably leads to us going out to dinner.  As I had mentioned before, we are trying to learn to live on a budget, and going to out to eat almost every night is not going to work.  I came up with the idea of making out a menu for a week at a time, that way we would be prepared and know what to make for dinner.  My next idea was to make a menu board that was not cheesy looking so that we could hang it in the kitchen.  I turned to google and pinterest and came up with a few ideas which led me to Hobby Lobby.  This is what I came up with...

-all my supplies-

-painted the letters-

-ironed the fabric-

-wrapped the fabric around the frame backing-

-glued the letters to the fabric-

-applied the stickers to the fabric-

-placed it all in the frame-

-hung it on the side of the refrigerator-

So far I have been good about filling it out (I just write on the glass with a dry erase marker) and sticking with the plan.  It has really helped out so far, especially with Jon and I on different shifts and working different days now.  Hopefully I will continue to stick with it and make it a habit!

Oh My Deer!

I know quite a few people who cringe at the thought of eating "wild game."  I, on the other hand, find it a nice alternative to beef.  My husband is not a hunter so we don't always have an abundance of wild game in the freezer.  This year we were given some deer meat from my parents and also Jon "split a deer" with one of his co-workers, so our freezer is stocked a plenty this winter.  I have been trying to find different recipes to be able to use venison as a substitute.  Our first venison dinner we had was fried back strap.  Basically my husband breaded and fried the deer steaks.  They were delicious.  I believe I made okra and tomatoes and fresh pinto beans to go along with the steaks.  Next I made the wonderful chili from Annie's Eats and used ground deer meat instead of turkey.  It turned out wonderful!  Even my MIL, who is one of the ones that does not eat wild game, enjoyed the meal!   I came across the recipe for homemade taco seasoning (at Annie's Eats blog of course) and had all the ingredients, so I threw some of that together.  I then decided to make some tacos with, you guessed it, ground deer meat.  They were good, just your average taco, nothing special.  The latest creation with venison was burgers.  I can not take credit for the burger patties, that was all Jon, but I did partake in the making of homemade buns!  Jon and I had been wanting to make bread, and I came across a recipe for hamburger buns, we were sold!  We had pretty much all the ingredients, so one afternoon we started on the process and by that night we had delicious homemade burger buns for our venison burgers.

I like to experiment with food and try new things, so hopefully I can continue to find new ways of cooking this deer meat, because we definitely have a plentiful supply right now.

Happy Birthday FIL!

This past Saturday Jon and I had the opportunity to have his side of the family over to our house to celebrate his father's 70th birthday.  We invited Jon's two sisters and their families and also Jon's dad's brother and his wife.  Everyone was able to make it and we were very excited about that.  We really enjoyed being able to see everyone and spend time with them.  I know that Jon's dad also had a wonderful time and that it meant the world to him for everyone to be there in his honor.  I was in charge of appetizers so I went to researching some new things that I could make and I came up with the following: Spicy Sausage Dip served with Ritz crackers and pita chips, Crack Dip served with pita chips, Drunk Dogs, and Pizza Bites. (I'll post recipes later.)  They were all a big hit!  Jon's brother in law, Bill, was in charge of the gumbo and rice and it was delicious!   How could I forget to mention that we watched the LSU Tigers beat the Georgia Bulldogs!! Now the Tigers are headed to the National Championship to whoop up on the Bama Crimson Tide again! :)    Overall, it was a really great time and a moment that I know that the FIL (Father-In-Law) will cherish for years to come!

[Jeff, Regina, and Ron (the FIL)]

[Jon with his sister Cindy and her hubby Bill]

[Happy Birthday to you!!]

[Jon's dad with his pretty and yummy cake- doesn't he make 70 look good!]

[Jon's sister Regina with her daughter, Anna Leigh, and Cindy's daughter, Abby]

[me and the MIL]

[the dad with his children!]

Jon's dad is one the kindest men I have ever met.  He has a big heart of gold and is always looking out for what's best for Jon and me.  He is a great man of God and a wonderful role-model.  He even plays tennis multiple times a week! :)

We turn not older with years, but newer every day.  ~Emily Dickinson