Menu Monday...on Sunday

I usually make my meal plan on either Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Here's a tip-Kroger puts their ad online (and on the iPhone/iPad app) on SATURDAY NIGHT!!  You don't have to wait until Sunday for the paper!

Sunday--I didn't get to the store so we just foraged for food. Mostly leftovers. 

Monday--rotisserie chicken (Kroger) with vegetables and couscous. Of course I am adding goat cheese to the couscous.

Tuesday--Good Housekeeping's polenta and spinach gratin

Wednesday--shrimp tostadas with guacamole (I never fixed this last week, so I just need to make guacamole again.)

Thursday--Good Housekeeping's mojo to chicken with pineapple and rice

Friday--pizza night!! We're meeting some new friends at the zoo this afternoon so I don't want to have to worry about dinner.

Saturday--chicken spaghetti. I'll have some regular spaghetti on hand in case the Rotel is too spicy for the kiddos. 

Sunday--taco soup with tortilla chips and avocados. Stella doesn't love soup, so she'll probably have nachos. I got this from my friend, Amanda's blog. I'm typing this from my phone & not sure how to link, but check out Life with the Ledfords!! 

All the Good Housekeeping recipes (including the polenta) came from this cookbook.

Monday Mealtime!

What's on your menu this week. Here's our list.

Sunday-leftovers from my mom's. I have a cold and M took the kids to visit my mom & dad so that I could have the day to rest.

Monday-Skinnytaste's Cajun chicken pasta on the lighter side

Tuesday-macaroni & cheese, broccoli casserole, and okra

Wednesday-pizza

Thursday-grilled shrimp tostadas with guacamole

Friday-sandwiches (We're going to a member event at the zoo.)

Saturday-Skinnytaste's spinach and sausage baked pasta

Happy Eats!

Just Another Menu Monday

I did a quick meal plan for the week before church yesterday. Here's what we plan to eat this week.

Sunday-MIL's house

Monday-Better Homes & Gardens' rosemary chicken with veggies

Tuesday-leftovers or sandwiches

Wednesday-fish and vegetables (including mashed potatoes for the kids)

Thursday-leftovers or sandwiches

Friday-Better Homes & Gardens' shrimp and rice jambalaya 

Saturday-pizza & cake (We're going to a birthday party.)

We might switch Thursday & Friday since M is having a guys night out on Friday. 

Happy Eats!!

Menu Monday

Hey y'all!!

What's for dinner this week? Here is a glimpse to what we are having.

Sunday-Cooking Light's rotini with chicken, asparagus, and tomatoes

-asparagus was $5 a pound at my grocery store, so I used some shredded carrots that we already had instead

Monday-Cooking Light's roasted tomato and goat cheese baguette with parsley aïoli and a side of broccoli

Tuesday-breakfast for dinner

Wednesday-Cooking Light's refried beans and rice burritos over lettuce and a special fruit juice cooler

Thursday-clean out the fridge!

Friday-Cooking Light's green salsa chicken and cumin corn

Saturday-M is working, so I'm fixing pizza. We all love it-even the babies.

Happy Eats!!

What's on My Playlist

I put together my playlist on the iPhone the night before I ran my 5K back in April.  Since I haven't been running lately, I've taken to listening to it as I clean house.  And without further ado, here is my playlist.

"Wonder Woman" theme--really, "in your satin tights, fighting for your rights," why would you not want to listen to this song!!

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" (Whitney Houston)--don't we all miss Whitney, especially her pre-Bobby days.

"Mississippi Girl" (Faith Hill)--I love Faith, was it really 1993 when she released her first CD? I'm old.

"I Gotta Feeling" (Black Eyed Peas)--mazel tov

"I'm A Slave For You" (Britney Spears)--a snake is optional

"On A High" (Duncan Sheik)--anyone else know who this is?

"Sunshine And Summertime" (Faith Hill)--just a fun song

"Dearly Beloved" (Faith Hill)--they'll be together forever, until they find somebody new!

"Milkshake" (Kelis)--it brings all the boys to the yard

"Wake Up" (Hilary Duff)--don't hate

"I Don't Want To Wait" (Paula Cole)--if you really know me, you know my obsession with all things Dawson's Creek

"Island In The Sun" (Weezer)--secret between you and me, I heard this on a Mary Kate & Ashely movie and I just loved it.  Never mind I was 25 or something.

"Beautiful Day" (U2)--this song just gives me chills

"My Humps" (Black Eyed Peas)--and my lovely lady lumps

"Toxic" (Britney Spears)--who doesn't want to taste a poison paradise?

"Suddenly I See" (KT Tunstall)--you know your life has a theme song & this is mine

"What You Waiting For?" (Gwen Stefani)--tick tock, tick tock

"Save Tonight" (Eagle Eye Cherry)--another DC song.  It played when Dawson and Pacey headed off in Pacey's boat after he and Dawson made up after Dawson spent too much time with Joey and forgot Pacey's birthday.  What, you don't remember that??

"Ice Ice Baby" (Vanilla Ice)--word to your mother

"Candy Shop" (50 Cent)--dirrrty

"Good Riddance" (Time Of Your Life) (Green Day)--season ending song of the Real World: London

And one more that's not in the playlist, but it's my favorite song of the summer

"Blurred Lines" (Robin Thicke, featuring T.I. and Pharrell)--don't get me started on the whole Miley VMA performance (which got her exactly what she wanted attention) (why the tongue!!!!), but I still like this song and the dirty bird (shout out to Marianne for that) who sings it


So, what's on your playlist???

Celebrating Our Little Melons

F & C celebrated their first birthday yesterday.  We had a cookout/watermelon party. This recap is mostly pictures, so enjoy!


The easel wishing the twins a Happy 1st Birthday.  It was a small party-just my parents, M's parents, M's sister-in-law and nieces (his brother had to work), and M's aunt.

For lunch we had grilled chicken tenders, hot dogs, baked beans, corn on the cob, spinach dip and chips, and watermelon.  We also had iced tea and lemonade.

After lunch, we opened presents and played with the new toys for a little bit.  I'm not sure who was more excited--the babies or S!!

After playing, we had CAKE.  We had thought about taking the cake part outside since it was nice, but in the end, we didn't want to drag out all the chairs and high chairs. So we ended up moving the plastic tablecloth that was on the table to the floor & putting the high chairs on it.

Then we lit the candles and sang.  Except I forgot to tell everyone we were singing twice and to which baby we were singing.  So some people said both names (M) and looked at me like I was crazy when I started a second round--and then people didn't know what name to say.  haha  I guess I'll need to be specific next year.  

I made watermelon cupcakes.  It's just a yellow cake mix that I decorated to look like a slice of watermelon.  I used food coloring to make white icing green and red and piped it on with a pastry bag.

I used mini chocolate chips for the seeds.

How cute are these cupcake liners that I found at a local bakery supply store back last April!!

 Do you think they liked them?

C

F

The aftermath--actually not a lot got on the floor.

I took the babies straight to a bath and while we were in there everyone left but my parents.  They wanted to give everyone a kiss before they left.  

I asked M to make sure everyone got a treat before they left--I think a few people skipped them.  Oh well, more for me us! I made Rice Krispy watermelons in a round cake pan. Mini chocolate chips were the seeds.  I cut the "watermelon" and packaged slices in sandwich bags.  I had planned to do some printable stickers, but I started running out of time and I figured that wasn't needed.

About 30 minutes after everyone had left and the babies were in bed we realized that my parents had left some of their bags at our house. They had stayed with us a night before their 6-day vacation and then stayed a couple nights before the party.  They were able to leave from here and their car was safe in our driveway.  The bags wouldn't have been a big deal, but inside was my parents' medication. My dad is a diabetic and has complications from it and Grave's disease.  He takes A LOT of medicine.  So M & S took off on the 1.5 hour trip to return the medicine while I cleaned up the house and got a few minutes to relax before the babies woke up to play and then eat supper.

All in all, we had a great day.  I can't wait to see what happens with these little ones in the next 12 months!

Yummy Greenville, S.C.

I promised a post on the food that we had in Greenville, S.C.  The food we had was so delicious.


Thursday

Lunch-we ate at my parents' house when we dropped of S for the weekend

Dinner-Gringo's
I had a shrimp and avocado salad.  I also had a neon colored margarita.  Not sure what ingredient made it day-glo colored (see it on the top right corner of the picture), but it was tasty.  M had a burrito--some type of chicken and black bean.  I can't remember what it was called.  He was really digging it, but it was so big.  By the time he finished it, he was too full.

Friday

Breakfast-Soby's on the Side
I met a friend there for breakfast.  I had the scrambled egg and cheese sandwich.  Cindy had grits.  And I forgot to take a picture of either.

Lunch-Chipotle
It was my first time.  I had a vegetarian bowl and M had a burrito.  My bowl was delicious.  I'm going to try to recreate at home.  But I'm also looking forward the the new Chipotle going in near my house. Again, I failed at pictures. :-(

Dinner-Tupelo Honey Cafe
I had a Tupelo Elixer (rosemary-peach lemonade with Firefly Skinny Vodka) and M had the Cheerwine Anytime (Cheerwine soda and Maker's Mark bourbon).  Then we were each served a giant biscuit with blueberry preserves and Tupelo Honey.  Delicious.  For my meal, I had Brian's Shrimp and Grits, while M had the Cheesy Grill & ToMAYto ToMAHto Soup (grilled cheese and tomato soup).

After walking off our fullness, we had dessert at a fro-yo place called Blueberry Frog.  I had just a plain chocolate. M had the key lime.  Mine was just ok-kind of grainy, but the key lime was outstanding.

Saturday

Breakfast-cereal bars in the room

While we were walking through the Farmer's Market, I stopped for an iced coffee at one of my favorite coffee houses, Port City Java.  I used to live in Wilmington, N.C., where this coffee shop was founded. We ate many breakfasts, lunches, and after dinner treats there.

Lunch-Smoke on the Water
I had the pulled pork sandwich with baked beans.  M had the crabcakes.  Of course I forgot pictures, but here is my empty plate.  It was so good!!  M said the crabcakes were outstanding--not a lot of filler. They also served us a breadbasket full of cornbread. Yum!!

Dinner-The Cazbah
We went for a tapas restaurant for dinner.  Each of us started out with a nice white wine.  Each plate that we ordered was designed to feed 2-4 people (depending on the plate).

Shrimp tacos

Traditional Cold Caprese

Fire Roasted Pepper Calamari

Free Range Roasted Chicken--this was by far our favorite!!!

After dinner we went to a cupcake shop called The Chocolate Moose for dessert.

 I got a Black Bottom Cupcake (dark chocolate with a chocolate chip cheesecake baked inside with a cream cheese icing)

 M got a deconstructed cupcake-it was a Grasshopper. Chocolate cupcake crumbles topped with a mint mouse and chocolate shavings.

He also got a red velvet cake pop.  And was kind enough to let me have a bite.

Greenville has so many great restaurants.  I wish we had been there longer to try out more.