What's for Dinner - Week of 3/28/11

I was plagued with one of those Mondays without school.  It totally throws off my week!  That, combined with the two birthdays, two sets of class birthday treats, and two extra boys, just about did me in!  Actually, the extra boys were easy; but boy, oh boy, can seven boys put away food!

In the process of doing the two sets of birthday treats I tried two new things:  edible cake tattoos and cake balls.  The cake tattoos are by Chef Duff of Charm City Cakes.  I was able to find them at Walmart.  They come in lots of cool designs and include a template to cut them into cookie size.  I was able to use them to decorate the cookies for Conor's class treat, and then use the cake topper tattoo to decorate the top of his cake.  Success!

I then convinced Aidan to try cake balls for his class treat instead of cupcakes.  It does take a couple of days for the various steps, but ultimately is an easy baked treat to make.  Here is a great step by step tutorial on how to make them:  cake balls.  Because of his large class size I made two cakes worth which left a lot of extras for here at home.  He chose red velvet cake dipped in vanilla candy coating with sprinkles.  Yummy!

Now for the "real food" . . .

Monday:  Homemade Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
                  I used a recipe for the meatballs that Johnsville Italian Sausage sent me, along with several free coupons for the sausage.  Very good!

Tuesday:  Quiche Lorraine, fruit salad
                  I am still using up items from the freezer.  I had two ready-made pie crusts that I want to get rid of . . . so quiche it is!

Wednesday:  Creamy Chicken Pot Pie, mozzarella sticks, raw veggies and dip
                  I also have a box of rolled pie crust in the freezer and I want to try those new Philadelphia Cooking Cremes, so I will have a go at chicken pot pie.  My friend, Jeni, recently had a House Party that featured this new product.  We all received recipe booklets using the cooking cremes and the pot pie recipe is from there.  The cheese sticks are from the freezer as well.

Thursday:  Leftovers, cheesy potatoes
                  Refrigerator clean-out day!  The potatoes are from the freezer.

Friday:  Creamy Artichoke Pasta, salad, bread
                   Another recipe utilizing the Philadelphia Cooking Cremes . . . I sure hope we like them!  It sounded like a good meatless meal for this week.  The bread is coming from the freezer.

Saturday:  Polenta-tomatillo casserole, carrots
                   This recipe is from The Six O'Clock Scramble.   I have a block of homemade polenta in the freezer that I will use for this recipe.  I will add a pound of ground beef to give it a little extra protein.

 Sunday:  Out to dinner
                   I have a Groupon that I want to use.  This will score major points with the children as well.  Gyros!

Enjoy the rest of your week and all those dinners (especially if they are coming from the freezer, like mine!).

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday over at http://www.orgjunkie.com/!

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Double digits!!

Forced Sporting Events



pre game jitters



After dragging multiple little boys to various bigger boys' sporting events for many years, I always said that paybacks would be in order.  Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.  Usually because the biggers have their own things going on.  More often, though, because Mark and I enjoy the rare opportunity of watching one of the youngers unencumbered.  A lot of times, it is just not worth the "smack talk". 

What ever happened to "brotherly love"?



Liam and Rowan

 



Aidan had a basketball game on Saturday at the very respectable hour of 12:30, ensuring that all boys would be awake for the day.  The bribe was thrown out there that lunch would be "out" if they came to the game.  So we had a full contingent of Quinlans for basketball!






<><><><><><><>

Patrick

Mark and I went to a fundraiser for Patrick's baseball team Saturday evening.  We "won" a spin bike.  It now occupies a spot in our basement.  Mark jokes that it will be good for drying clothes on!  I loved spinning classes before I started running full time.  I may have to work that back in now that we have a bike.







We ate my salmon meal on Friday night.  Yes, Wednesday was too crazy, as I had predicted earlier in the week.  It was a big hit, with even Rowan having seconds!  He did scrape off the topping, which was similar to an olive tapenade.  Very yummy!  I'm so proud . . . I have now gotten the children to add salmon to their repertoire!







Mark



Liam's attempts with my camera



 Why can't I get my pictures to line up?!  Ugh!!







What's for Dinner - Week of 1/24/11

We had an early wake-up call this morning from Aidan.  It seems the stomach flu that has been making the rounds has officially paid a visit to our house.  Yuck!  Despite usually being very good, Aidan was unable to quite make it to the toilet.  He somehow managed to cover EVERY surface in his bathroom, with the exception of the ceiling.  Truly amazing!  I guess he thought that the bathroom needed a deep cleaning, because it got one at 5am today.

Now that I've got your appetites up . . .here's what's for dinner at our house!

Monday:  Baked Artichoke Pasta, roasted carrots
                 A carry-over from last week.  It is supposed to taste like the hot artichoke dip that used to be sooo popular in the past.  I hate cooked carrots, but love when they are roasted.  So sweet!  My new favorite way to cook all veggies.

Tuesday:  Pizza, salad
                 I have a mystery shop assignment which means free pizza!  Bonus!

Wednesday:  Cobb salad, oranges, bread
                 Also a carry-over from last week.  A good meal for tonight, as Mark and I have to run 6 miles this evening.  At least dinner is supposed to be cold!

Thursday:  Pastitsio, salad
                 This recipe was in the paper this weekend.  It is from the "ThreeManyCooks" blog.  Looks wonderful.  Essentially it is a Greek variation on lasagna.  I love lasagna!

Friday:  Leftovers
                 I think the Pastitsio will be calling my name.  I'm sure it is even better the next day.

Saturday:  Spaghetti Dinner
                 Our Church is having a spaghetti dinner.  Darn, no cooking!

Sunday:  Rowan's 6th Birthday!!
                 Check out this menu (chosen by the birthday boy himself, of course):  Raising Cain's chicken fingers, artichokes, french fries and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I had to step in and suggest the restaurant chicken fingers . . .he was making noise about fast food nuggets (ew!). 

It is such NOT good timing to have a birthday three days before I have to put a bathing suit on.  Moderation, right?

Here is a picture of the recovering sicky-poo, complete with waste basket next to the bed!  At least we both got naps today!

Have a good week!

Enjoy!

I am participating in Menu Plan Monday over at http://www.orgjunkie.com/!

Aidan is a Boarder!

Today is Martin Luther King day and the boys (Mark included) had the day off!  What better way to practice peace and non-violent resolution of differences than skiing with thousands of people on a hill.  Truth be told, I had to keep reminding myself of this practice with regards to my own children (Rowan!)!

The big news of the day is that Aidan has officially crossed over to the other side.  He is now a snowboarder.  Sniff, sniff.  Before long it will be me skiing all by myself (insert evil laugh).  Only two more to go!




Aidan initially spent a lot of time on the ground.

Aidan shredding on the mountain!

We had a beautiful sunny day with warmer temps and great snow!

In the second picture, Mark (top right) and Liam (red coat) are in the background.  Rowan, of course, is nowhere in sight!  Oh, that boy!

Seven Springs

We spent the New Year's weekend skiing at Seven Springs.  Great food, great friends, pretty good skiing and lots of relaxing was had! 

I do have to admit that although skiing in the rain has it's advantages (empty mountain, no lift lines, slick slopes), the soaked-to-the-bone aspect was a little less than pleasant.  Thankfully, it was warm!

Some pics from the weekend: 

Top of the mountain

What's a lake doing up here?

Liam navigating the chair lift

Rowan in his favorite position, on the ground!

Conor shredding up the terrain park

The guys chillin'

By the way, a thousand piece puzzle and two OCD women do NOT mix well; we will leave it at that!

Happy New Year!

The Best Day Ever

Spongebob sings a song that warbles  "...it's the best day ever!"  It's not uncommon for me to get that little phrase stuck in my mind.  (It could be the continuous track of Spongebob playing in the background at our house, but call me crazy.)  Aidan, who not uncommonly runs either hot or cold, had one of his best days ever the other day.  A picture to prove it:

We went to the annual "Breakfast with Santa" sponsored by the local Girl Scouts troop and held in the undercroft of our church this past weekend.  When I say we, I mean myself, Rowan and Liam; otherwise known as "the believers".  Aidan and Mark were at Aidan's first basketball game of the season.  The teenagers, Patrick and Conor, still had hours of sleep in them and did NOT want to be seen at the aforementioned breakfast.

Several crafts, face painting, breakfast and petting zoo (which consisted of free kittens - kill me now) escapades later, we were able to accomplish our real reason for being there:  visiting Santa.

        Liam                                                                                 Rowan

Aidan arrived after all of the festivities to let us know that not only had his team won the game, but that he had scored 6 points.  Wow!  He then proceeded to seal the deal minutes later on "the best day ever" when he won the Giant Stocking Raffle!!  Just what every nine year old needs days before Christmas.  Honestly, the stocking ought to be given to the parents to be bequeathed to the winning child on Christmas morning. 

Don't they know how hard I've worked?!