Mommiedom

We already made it to day 6 which I find hard to believe because I never eat in this much (okay we ate out on Day 5 but I did cook in the morning).  Today was a informal meal but it was good. I made Potato soup and grilled Turkey Panini sandwiches.

The soup is one I have made many times. I take red potatoes and dice up small. I than take some olive oil and brown the potatoes. Than I add in about 1/4 cup of flour and brown that. I add in one container of vegetable or chicken broth (the veggie broth will make it reddish in color). I than added in some diced ham (we will see the ham again very soon). I let that come to a boil and than add in some milk (about a cup). I eyeball everything and don't really measure much. I than let that simmer until the potatoes are fork tender. I added in some instant potatoes (about 1/4 cup) at the end to thicken it up a tad more. This is optional depending on the consistency you like your soup- we tend to like it thicker. I served it with some shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream. If I had bacon, I would have crumbled some over it as well.

The paninis were so simple as well. I took some nice ciabatta rolls and layered some pesto, co-jack cheese, and turkey. I coated the outside of the roll with some butter and grilled it much like a grilled cheese.  My daughter told me it was better than the sandwich she had at Panera the other day which she raved about all day.

Tomorrow will be a week of finding things to eat in the freezer/fridge/pantry. I think we will be making Ham and scallop potatoes. Stay tuned!

Here is my article this week to appreciate all of the great Labour of Love we all have for our kids.

Have a great day and hopefully it is relaxing!

This is the breakfast edition. I had hash browns in the freezer actually I think there are a few packs in there. I admit to loving potatoes and buying them often in shredded or cubed form so I have them always in the freezer. There is something about them that are so  good and you can do so many things with them.

For breakfast, I was simple but simple sometimes can be so good. I just made some hash browns, fried eggs, and turkey sausage which was floating around in there as well. I think it is always a win when my kids eat it all and I was told that my eggs were goo by the six year old (that is rare because she usually eats eggs in one form- hard boiled).

Dinner well we went out for dinner. We went to the baseball game and was right down the block from this unique Greek Market and Deli so we headed into see all of the unique items. I did buy some groceries but stuff that is hard to find like bulgar (yes the kids might gripe but it is good made the right way) and a Pomegranate  wine which we are excited to try!

At the Greek Grocer they also have a hot bar when you can get food. We all got Greek wraps. The hubby and I had lamb while the kids have chicken. Both were good and how can you argue when it is served with hummus.

I will be back on track for Day 6 though I don't know what I will decide to make. I have ribs I could thaw out which just need to be reheated or even some mushroom chicken might be in there that could be defrosted and put on egg noodles. I might even have some ground beef which means I might have to make the crock pot meatloaf which my daughter has been asking for so we will see!

Paint Chip art seems to be all the rage now with people creating all sorts of things with them. When I was at the home improvement mecca the other day getting paint for Miss O's desk project, I snagged some chips in rainbow colors (this could be done with regular old card stock as well.) I really liked the vibrant colors of the samples that I picked. I instantly thought about how cool it would look punching hearts out of them and putting them with some stark white.

So I headed to the craft store and purchased this frame for 6 bucks (they are always on sale or I use my coupon). So when I got home and after a frantic search for the hearts I had punched out (Mr. L had decided he was going to hid them all over my desk), I got to work. I trimmed down my whisper white card stock to fit the frame, and placed the hearts on them. It got me thinking that it needed something else on so I pulled up My Digital Studio 2 (MDS2) and looked through the offered digital stamps I had in there when the definition set popped up. There is so many of them in that set that I admit I would have a hard time choosing the right one but I finally settled on "together" and printed it up on the card stock.

I than adhered on the hearts and stuck it in the frame. This is one of the those hybrid projects you could make or if you have this stamps set (Define your Life) you could easily make it or even do it all on the MDS2 (I did one using it).

Chicken is on the menu. I bought a huge pack of chicken breasts a few weeks back (enough for two meals for us) and I pulled it out. I also bought like quite a while a go these Kraft Sizzling Salad kits from the dollar store. They have four kinds and at a buck a piece, I though why not have it on hand for dinner. I coated the chicken in the sauce and baked it (you can also cook it in a pan). At the last five minutes I threw some shredded mozzarella on. I also had some ranch potatoes I had in the freezer and made a salad with the lettuce I got from co-op. We had pineapple which was also from co-op for dessert (it was so sweet!). So we had a nice healthy summer meal.

This was really good for our third day. It is a french bread pizza. I was inspired by a recipe off of Relish relish that I saw. I was looking in the freezer and remembered that I had some italian sausage in there so I thawed that I out. I than cut it out of its castings and browned the meat, I than added some mushrooms, and spinach into the mix. I had some french bread loaves that were prebaked some just needed to be finished in the oven.

Once the sausage, mushrooms, and spinach were cooked, I added in a small can of tomato sauce. After letting the oven preheat to 400, I sliced the bread the long way and topped with the italian sausage mix on each half. I had two small loaves so I had four slices. I than topped it with some shredded mozzarella and than some Italian seasoning. I baked for about 10 minutes or until the cheese was nice and melted and starting to brown.

This was so good and it had some spinach sneaked into the mix. You could also add onions to but my kids aren't big fans so I don't push them on them to much. The bread crisped up nice. I also think for the future this would make a good appetizer for a party. You could slice it up in bite size pieces.

We made it through day 1 and I know we will do well for the next few days but I worry about the weekend when I admit I hate to cook and I enjoy going out but we are going to did it especially since we are not going to be around much the following weekend so no cooking will be happening.

Day 2 led me to think what we have in there. I thought about making some panini's and tomato soup though I can't seem to remember where I stuck my panini maker in the house. I think it is in the one cabinet but I have been to lazy to actually look.

As I started working on the tomato soup, I thought I really don't feel like this and those panini's would make a nice lunch on Saturday for us, so I than decided on some homemade spaghetti sauce. I am so the person to just buy a jar and maybe add somethings to wow it up but today, I had everything.

I took one large of pureed tomatoes, one small can of tomato paste left over from my hubby who likes it with his mac and cheese (yeah I know how it sounds). I also diced some onions, tomatoes, zucchini and green peppers up as well. I had diced carrots as well and minced garlic.

I took some olive oil and sautéed the onions and than added in the peppers. As that was cooking, I realized I had thawed out a pound of ground beef, so I added that in and browned the meat. After the meat was browned I added in everything else as well as about 1 cup of vegetable stock and a can of mushrooms. I let this simmer on low for about two hours. I did add also some italian seasoning and garlic salt. I added a lot of garlic because I liked it. I also added some pepper as well but that is up to you. I served it over some thin spaghetti because that was what i had on hand but i thought that those big noodles would be good with it because this was more of a Bolognese sauce. If my cream wasn't bad, I would have added that in to to add some richness to the sauce.

It was really good. My daughter had to servings of it. Now I will need to come pack to this post in the future to remember what I did. The other good thing was that it was cheap. I used all store brands in making it which I find as good as the name brands but way cheaper.