Today, my husband is once again my age. (I have an entire three months on him, so from August to November he gets to brag about how much younger he is than I.)  We don’t typically do much for birthdays around here – unless you consider the food. The honoree gets to choose all three meals for the day. However, today didn’t work very well for me to cook all of Matt’s favorites since we’re feeding so many extras during our morning marriage class and our evening high school huddle. Therefore, it would seem that we are celebrating his birthday all week long, cooking his favorite meals on different days of the week when we can squeeze it in. Sounds like more fun anyway, huh? Bring on the Stromboli!

And speaking of tonight’s Huddle, I decided to do something a little different for this meal. I’ll be making five Easy Breakfast Casseroles and serving them with fruit and muffins. I’ve had so much fun this weekend baking around 130 muffins in preparation. Batter, chocolate chips, flour and muffin papers (which I got for 1/2 price on November 1st, by the way) have been flying!

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, November 6
Marriage Class – Banana muffins
Lunch – Steak fajitas with onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and sour cream (birthday meal #1)
High School Huddle – Easy breakfast casserole (x5), chocolate chocolate chip muffins (x4), blueberry muffins (x2), banana muffins (x3), pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, grapes, orange slices

Monday, November 7
Leftover muffins from Sunday, if there are any left?
Sloppy joes, ranch potato wedges, peas, boysenberry cobbler (birthday dessert)
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, okra (birthday meal #2)

Tuesday, November 8
Pancake sausage muffins, blueberries
Pigs in a blanket, applesauce, carrots with ranch
Lasagna (x5), honey whole wheat bread (x 4), green beans, tossed salad (end of season meal for YC ladies soccer team)

Wednesday, November 9
Scrambled eggs with cheese, creamy orange cooler
Tuna salad on toast, fruit-kefir smoothies
Cheesy turkey sausage stromboli, tossed salad (birthday meal #3)

Thursday, November 10
Homemade beef summer sausage, mini apple pies
Leftovers (because surely we’ll have some after all of those big meals)
Black bean taco salad

Friday, November 11
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Pizza casserole, steamed carrots and broccoli
Nachos

Saturday, November 12
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Clean out the fridge
Venison steak, cream scalloped potatoes, peas

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As I mentioned in last week’s menu plan, our family will be hosting a marriage class each Sunday morning and a high school youth group meeting “Huddle” each Sunday evening. I’ll be preparing a light breakfast for our marriage class (7-8 couples) and a big dinner for Huddle (30-35 people). This week, I decided to make Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches for our Huddle dessert. I made smaller sandwiches than explained in these directions. Just to be sure they tasted good, we all had to try one. They were approved by the whole family. Ah, you’ve gotta love having the job of “quality control”. :)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, September 25
Crystal’s Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (with healthy ingredient substitutions), coffee, juice
Easy chicken burritos, green beans
“Huddle” – Lasagna (x4), tossed salad, bread (provided by my friend), homemade ice cream sandwiches

Monday, September 26
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Pigs in a blanket, carrot sticks with homemade ranch
Orange chicken and rice, peas

Tuesday, September 27
Turkey sausage, hashbrowns, strawberry-peach slushies
Tuna salad on homemade cheese crackers, fresh tomatoes, peaches
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad

Wednesday, September 28
Whole wheat soaked biscuits with butter and honey, pears
Black bean taco salad, apples
Easy breakfast casserole, orange muffins, fresh peaches

Thursday, September 29
Vanilla muffins with cinnamon crumb topping, bananas
Alphabet soup, leftover muffins
Pizza casserole, tossed salad

Friday, September 30
Peanut butter honey toast, pears
Turkey ranch pinwheels, apples
Pizza, green beans

Saturday, October 1
Scrambled eggs, oranges
Leftovers
Potato soup, carrot sticks, sweet peppers

What are you eating this week? And have you tried making Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches before? Then you could also do a little “quality control” before serving them. :)

Last week’s busyness truly was a joy, even though it was very…busy.

Today starts this new week off with a bang as we had a nice little breakfast to honor our 6th graders at church before worship, plus we had a huge potluck to welcome all the York College students. I was asked to provide muffins for the 6th grade breakfast, so yesterday I made a double batch of both Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins and Blueberry Muffins. I made them into mini-muffins and filled two gallon buckets with the goodies.

I stopped long enough to take pictures of my buckets, because buckets full of mini-muffins – that’s just fun. :)

After not really having a menu plan last week, I was excited to put one together for this week. Here’s what we’ll be eating:

Sunday, August 21
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins, blueberry muffins, fruit
For potluck:  frosted brownies (this frosting, these brownies), chocolate chip cookies, sweet baked beans, baked turkey ham with pineapple, cream cheese corn
Leftovers

Monday, August 22
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Homemade corndogs, carrot sticks with ranch, watermelon
Shepherds pie, tossed salad

Tuesday, August 23
Mini breakfast pizza, honeydew melon
Creamy mac and cheese, peas, sweet peppers
Grilled chicken, creamy cole slaw, angeled eggs, watermelon, coconut flour cheddar biscuits

Wednesday, August 24
Creamy orange cooler, toast
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Thursday, August 25
Coconut flour banana muffins, cherries
Corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, fried okra, milkshakes, peanut butter on celery
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans

Friday, August 26
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, turkey bacon, cantaloupe
Black beans and rice with salsa, fruit salad
Hamburgers, ranch potato wedges, peas

Saturday, August 27
Mini apple pies, sliced cheese
Leftovers
BBQ meatballs, cream scalloped potatoes, tossed salad, zucchini

I wanted to let you know that while this upcoming week is less crazy than last week, I still haven’t found time to get much writing done. I have posts started in my head, but those are undoubtedly much harder for you to read. (Consider yourself blessed, however, not to be able to read the posts I write in my head.)  We’ll see what I’m actually able to type this week, but I’m kind of thinking about re-posting some older posts during the next few days, just for fun – and also so that I can maybe take the time to find my missing flip-flop and to finally put away the rest of my Azure Standard order from last Tuesday. We’ve been in survival mode here. :)  I’m also hoping to simply sit and read to my kids a little bit more this week. The Hobbit is calling our name.

ALSO, I’m working on some very fun surprises for the blog during the week of August 28, and that is taking a little extra time and work. Just you wait to see what next week holds!!!!!!!!!

And so, thank you for your patience here while I play catch-up and get my act together. You are all awesome!

With so many parts of the world experiencing either lack of rain or flooding, we feel very blessed to be in an area where, at this point, we seem to be just right. Our gardens (and weeds) are growing just fine. I thought you might enjoy seeing some updated pictures. The last time I posted any pictures, we only had a tiny bit of lettuce and nothing else. We still haven’t been eating much that we’ve grown, but we’re getting close!

Here are our bush beans…full of little purple flowers!! By the end of the week, we should be picking and eating!!! fresh green beans. I can’t wait!

Here is our raised garden bed of pepper plants. Matt’s actually picked a few hot peppers last week. I’ll be letting him deal with the hot peppers this year. I’m a little bit nervous – go figure. :)

We planted a few okra plants just for fun and are excited to see them doing so well. They like the hot sun, and finally, they are getting their fair share of it.

Corn! Isn’t it all so pretty?

We obviously have more than one tomato plant (so that we can make and can our own tomato sauce and tomato soup and salsa for the year), but I just did a close up picture of one plant to show you the little yellow flowers that will soon be making juicy tomatoes for my tacos!

If you have a garden, please share how it’s doing! I always enjoy hearing about the differences of what grows at what rate in different parts of the world. What are you eating out of your gardens??

Here’s our menu plan this week:

Sunday, July 10
Oatmeal, fruit
Creamy mac and cheese, peas, cantaloupe
Popcorn chicken, potato wedges, green beans

Monday, July 11
Homemade donuts, applesauce
Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, carrots sticks and sweet peppers
Cheddar ranch burgers, creamy cole slaw, watermelon

Tuesday, July 12
Cinnamon swirl bread, cantaloupe
Turkey ranch pinwheels, smoothies
Pizza casserole, tossed salad, zucchini

Wednesday, July 13
Coconut flour muffins, plums
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans, steamed carrots
Pizza, strawberry-peach slushies, raw veggies with ranch dip

Thursday, July 14
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Sweet bean bake, watermelon
Grilled chicken, corn on the cob, tossed salad

Friday, July 15
Peanut butter honey toast, pears
Taco potatoes, peaches
Chicken fajitas with homemade tortillas

Saturday, July 16
Scrambled egg sandwiches, nectarines
Leftovers
Tuna salad on crackers, fresh pineapple

Here’s our menu for the week!

Sunday, June 26
Banana muffins, applesauce
Italian roast, potatoes, gravy, carrots
Cheese, crackers, watermelon

Monday, June 27
Crepes with jelly, bananas
Sloppy joes, carrots with ranch dressing, strawberry-peach slushies
Tacos with homemade tortillas, fruit salad, homemade ice cream with hot fudge sauce (company coming for dinner!)

Tuesday, June 28
Fruit-kefir smoothies, toast
Grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches, green beans
Teriyaki chicken and veggies with rice

Wednesday, June 29
Apricot breakfast bars, applesauce
Chicken veggie quesadillas, strawberry-orange smoothies
Lamb chops, tossed salad, asparagus

Thursday, June 30
Coconut flour muffins, pears
Cheeseburger zucchini boats, carrot sticks
Black bean salsa with chips, watermelon

Friday, July 1
Giant breakfast cookies, oranges
Hoagie sandwiches, fruit, carrots
Pasta dinner with family

Saturday, July 2
Big brunch with family
Leftovers

What’s on your menu this week?

If you’ve been wondering if I really was going to plant a garden this year like I said I was, I’d have to say, “You and me both.” Never has the weather been so uncooperative with our schedules like this year. I really was beginning to wonder if we’d have any kind of garden at all since it’s been so cool and rainy this spring, making it very difficult to get anything into the ground. Finally we have now had the chance to get most of our garden planted.

We skipped the potatoes this year – I know…sad! We just didn’t get to it in time. We used our extra garden space to instead plant a few more rows of corn. And, as normal, we have lots of green beans, tomatoes, several different kinds of peppers, okra and lettuce. Here’s our first bit of lettuce that’s almost ready to be eaten:

Matt and the boys worked very hard this week putting a fence around our garden areas to keep out the adorable, but not at all cute, bunny rabbits. I know it’s “just a fence”, but I’m so excited about it that I had to take a picture. There’s nothing I love more than watching my boys work with their daddy (unless it’s eating chocolate while I watch my boys work with their daddy.)

I thought you’d also like to see the volunteer onions I pulled up yesterday. They smell SO good.

In other news, we have a little surprise planned for our boys early this week. I am so excited (even though really, it’s not that extravagant of a plan)!!! The beauty of not frequently taking vacations or not eating out much is that when we do some of these things it is special. I think the boys will be pretty thrilled, especially tonight when we tell them to “pack a backpack and put it by the door to take with you in the morning – and don’t forget your swimming trunks”. ?????!!!

I’ll be filling you in on the surprise too, not to worry. But it just wouldn’t be fair to tell you now since the boys don’t even know yet, would it?!

Here’s our somewhat vague menu plan for the week:

Sunday, June 5
Strawberry orange smoothies, toast
Breakfast for lunch – fundraiser for church youth group
Taco salad, watermelon

Monday, June 6 – Tuesday, June 7
Well, I’m not exactly sure  :)

Wednesday, June 8 (Asa’s birthday, which has nothing to do with the surprise, it just coincided with his birthday!)
Homemade donuts
Grilled burgers and homemade fries, watermelon
Cheesy turkey sausage stromboli, fruit salad, birthday cake

Thursday, June 9
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Chef salad with chicken
Salmon, steamed broccoli and carrots, mock frozen yogurt

Friday, June 10
Fried eggs on toast, oranges
Cheddar ranch burgers, potato wedges, peas
Nacho bar

Saturday, June 11
Whole wheat cinnamon rolls, cantaloupe
Leftovers
Grilled steak, baked potatoes, corn, tossed salad

If you have a garden, fill us in on how it’s doing!