Menu Planning Monday

K - just sat down to plan out the week's menu since I have my order in with the delivery service Peapod and I can edit it until 3pm today.  It will be delivered between 9:30 am and 1 pm tomorrow and I need to be sure that it actually has what I need!!  :)  So I sat down with Bob to plan it out.  Here we go:

Monday - Roasted Tomato Pasta, bread, salad
Tuesday - Helen's Mac and Cheese, salad, cake (Bob's 50th birthday!!)
Wednesday - Boilermaker Tailgate Chili, salad
Thursday - Sauerbraten, Red Cabbage, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Friday - eat out
Saturday - Honey Mustard Chicken, roasted red and purple potatoes, green beans
Sunday - after church - taco soup
               dinner - a nice big dinner salad with chicken, mandarin oranges, blue cheese, craisins and stuff

Now to go add the things I need to my order!

"What's For Dinner??" menu plan

So I sat down to menu plan and I have a plan but my guess is that it's certainly not going to reflect reality beyond, say, Thursday.  But that's OK.  I'm willing to be flexible.  :)

Monday - Taco Soup
Tuesday - Ham, corn casserole, scallopped potatoes, peas
Wednesday - Pasta with a crockpot meat ragu, salad
Thursday - Baked chicken with acorn squash, broccoli
Friday - BBQ Ribs, cole slaw, sliced tomatoes
Saturday - Chicken Pot Pie, salad
Sunday - French dip sandwiches, salad

The reason I'm not sure about the weekend is that we have to see what's going on with "plans & the weather".  I planned the ribs for Friday because I'm out all day between work and homeschool group so that will be quick and easy (the ribs are from the grocery store, precooked and only take about 15 minutes on the grill).  I have the ingredients for the chicken pot pie in the freezer so I can make that quickly and easily.  The French dip sandwiches will find me buying rolls next weekend but the rest of the stuff I have on hand and if we have a change in plans, I can easily bump that to Monday.

I have to say, I love having the menu planned for the week!!

Had our first "Outdoor Service" of Island Christian Church

This week the hotel was already booked so we had to find another location to meet.  Bob went and found a local park that had miniature golf, a driving range, go carts, laser tag and batting cages along with a great covered picnic area.  So we had our services there today.  Two days ago, I was sitting here on my living room couch at 9 pm sweating like a pig and needing to go shower before bed and today for our services, we all should have had our winter coats!!  Brrrr!!  But it was wonderful none-the-less and we had a great group of people there.  Today was Bob's first time preaching for the new church and I think he did a great job.  :)  Here are some photos to share:

Morning Glory Muffins

These are FANTASTIC!!!  Full of good stuff and SO great on a chilly morning.  They should sit for a day after baking to let the flavors fully develop but even right out of the oven, they are wonderful.

Morning Glory Muffins
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 cups flour
4 tsp. cinnamon
4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup raisins, plumped in brandy or apple juice and drained
1 cup coconut, shredded
4 cups shredded carrots
2 cups shredded apples
1 cup chopped pecans
6 eggs
2 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Sift dry ingredients into large bowl (REALLY large bowl).  Stir raisins into flour mixture to coat well.  Add the coconut, carrots, apples and pecans; stir well.   In a separate bowl, combine eggs, oil and vanilla extract then pour into large bowl with other ingredients.  Stir only until combined.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  Muffins should "ripen" for 24 hours for maximum blending of flavors.

Makes about 36 regular sized muffins.

Sandy's Pumpkin Muffins

I got this recipe a few years ago from a woman on one of the boards I go on.  It's a family favorite and in honor of the fall finally being here (it's not getting out of the 60s today!) and for our breakfast tomorrow on the way to church, I'm making Sandy's Pumpkin Muffins.  These are great and make a nice large batch (I just got 36 muffins out of the batter PLUS 12 mini-muffins.  Try them - you'll love them!!

3 cups sugar (I used 2.5 cups)
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
2/3 cup milk
1 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (one 15 oz. can) (**not pumpkin pie filling but regular pumpkin**)
Optional:  1 cup chopped nuts or 1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla well.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking soda.  Add to sugar mixture alternately with the milk until well combined.  Fill greased muffin tins 1/2 full with batter and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Makes 40 muffins

The Ultimate Sacrifice

I knew there would be sacrifices in getting a new church started. There's lots of work, lots of effort involved but I never thought my kids would have to sacrifice so much.

See, we record our services on a small digital recorder. It's been working out great so far but this week, we have to have an outside service since the hotel was already booked for this week. So we realize that if there's ANY wind, it will ruin the recording. This is where the sacrifice comes in.

My husband needs fake fur and he forgot to go to the fabric store (that most likely won't have anything like this anyway). So he called them into the living room where we're sitting. He's asking them to sacrifice one of their stuffed animals.

"Does it need to be a lamb?" my dear son asks.