Meals at my house

My sister's here! My best friend, little sis and person I'v had to share a birthday with since I was 5, is here! Her and her son arrived last Tuesday. Her son is 4 so we now have 3 four year olds up in this Casa. Then on Thursday I got a foster placement of another 4 year old!! She was only here for a night and part of the next day. She looked like Dora the Explorer, no joke, very cute. It was interesting to have 4, 4 year olds in the house.
So on to the reason we're here--the food.

Green Chile Enchiladas

• Monday- Turkey brats and chips
• Tuesday- Hot dogs and "Welcome" burgers with all the trimmings and chips
• Wednesday- Chicken Crescent roll casserole (new recipe from Pinterest)
• Thursday- Leftovers 
• Friday-Green chile chicken enchiladas
• Saturday-Leftover enchiladas and the kids had chicken tenders with veggies
• Sunday-A Pasta dish I made up in my head. It had really good pepperoni sauted in evoo with red pepper flakes, lots of garlic then a mix marinated olives, sliced. Tossed with a fun shaped pasta and topped with Parmigiano-reggiano. And crusty bread. Really yummy.

So this was a pretty good week for the kids. They ate everything and ate it well, except for the enchiladas, but frozen chicken tenders saved their day... I mean made their day!!

What we've been eating lately...

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
via Pinterest..Get off your Butt and Bake

I love to cook and cook different things all the time. I love a new recipe. But the four year olds that I have to feed just want to eat peanut butter and jelly everyday. Well one of them likes just peanut butter and the other just jelly. For them being twins they couldn't be more different!! So dinner time at our house has been "fun" lately. There was even a night of going to bed right after dinner when the "skun" was still up. So, though I am not going to change my cooking style to making kid friendly meals everyday I have looked for cheesy, noodley goodness type of recipes to make dinner time a little more enjoyable for all. For last week this is what I made:

• Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
• BBQ Chicken in the oven with brown rice, corn and green beans
• Vegetable penne
• Pork chops with scalloped potatoes and green beans
• Pork chops with leftover pasta, potatoes and veggies

The chicken and broccoli casserole was great! It was rich and yummy. It was a new recipe and the girls were not a fan of it. We loved it and I'll make it again. Someday. The vegetable penne was a new dish too it was really good, a little bland so I added pickled jalapenos to mine and it was even better. The girls... not fans. So both of those were slaps to the cheesy, noodley goodness, face.  That was the night of going to bed right after dinner. The chicken they gobbled up and all was well in our home. The pork chops they gobbled up even faster and even asked for THIRDS, yep they dug the pork chops. So did my husband. He said they were the best porks chops he's ever eaten. Wow. So at his request I made them again. In the same week. I roll like that sometimes. The girls ate them up again, so it just wasn't that they were extra hungry from not eating more than two noodles for dinner the night before. So my conclusion is that they prefer their food to be not of the casserole family, in any shape or form. This week anyway. I'll keep trying. Though tonight I may give in to the just peanut butter and just jelly.

Questions from my four year old.....

• Why do moths have wings?
• Why do butterflies have legs?
• Why do I have legs?
• Why is my wrist bone connected to my arm bone?

Why? Why? Why? That was my day yesterday. Lots of questions! Some of them were really funny but I just can't remember them all.  I am glad it was just the one four year old and both of them weren't tag teaming me with questions.

Smarty Pants Chickens!

                                                            

The Great Rooster Escape of 2012

I was having a great day at home just hanging out with my girls.  While doing dishes I look out my kitchen window and do a double take....and ask myself "Was that a green rooster tail!!??"

It sure was.

                                 Our freedom.... gone.  The gang had flown the coop.

So ya know I had to go outside and see how they managed to get out of the chicken trailer they were in.  It looks like they put their little chicken brains together and devised a plan....In my mind I see a band of medieval warriors with a battering ram ramming in a castle door...

                                                 Photo Credit
Except with roosters, minus the battering ram. Can you see it?
Or maybe they had some outside help, who knows.  Either way they are out. They escaped the big house. And the lone "front yard" chicken resumed his duties.

While I was outside I thought I'd better go check on Thaddeus, our pig. NOT the best idea.

To say that these roosters were not rehabilitated during their time in the lock up would be the understatement of the year!!  

The ring leader ran at me from the other side of the yard and came at me with a vengeance! 

I was trapped. And my four year olds were inside coloring... hopefully not on the walls... and I am out in the yard yelling like a crazy women for my dogs to come and save me. Were they anywhere around? No. They were probably in the house taking a siesta. 


So I kicked the rooster about five times, once after each attack on my leg....he decides to back off and not come at  me again. But does he leave? No. He hangs around waiting for me to move so he can strike again. He even had the nerve to hop up on the railroad tie I am standing on and look at me...

I know he was singing in his head... "watcha gonna do when they come for you, bad...." I just know it. 


I wasn't gonna move, I waited him out. I guess he got bored or his tiny chicken brain got distracted cause he started to walk away. A perfect time to make a run for it.  And I did. 


Poor Thad, he just wanted some grub. That rooster wants everyone to pay. 

When my hero of a husband came home from work we went outside to take care of the animals. And here comes the brazen white rooster.  But our doggy decided he'd be of some help an keep the dang rooster in his place.

                                                    But he still got a chance to strike.

                                                             He even got my doggy. 
\

                                   His day is coming. It is. Just not soon enough for me

                                                                "You want a piece of me?"




                                                                         Uh huh

wordless Wednesday

When Roosters Go Bad

We have a gang of roosters around our yard. They are an unruly bunch.  They move around in packs causing terror in children and adults alike.  I think I saw some of them wearing wallets with chains, bandanas and dark shades. A real devious crew.

He is the worst of them all
the ring leader

                                    
We raised them from chicks. We hand fed them with eyedroppers when they got pneumonia. Let them live in our living room in a box while we nursed them back to health.

Where's the thanks.

We held them in all their fluffiness, telling them in baby talk just how cute they were.  And kids, the kids  loved them, they would watch them and play with them and laugh with excitement over  the cute little baby chicks.



Then they grew up.

Just look at that face!

Now they lurk. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. They can sense your fear. Oh yes, they can.

They have every area of our yard guarded. We have one lone "front yard" rooster who waits for visitors or the hands that feed them to step off the final step and walk, catching them unawares. The other eight no good roosters hung out around back in a mob. Just waiting for you to bring them their sustenance.......To get ya.

The kids screech in horror if they see the "white chicken" even 100 ft away. (They're four and don't know their colors all that well yet)



I had enough. I was assailed for the last time.  Now they're in the hoosegow. Every last one of those obnoxious and malicious fowl.

Bad boys, bad boys
watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do
When they come for you
Bad boys, bad boys
watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you

In a few weeks were gonna have a Chicken fry... and bake, and broil, braise, grill, saute......

And now we have freedom to walk in our yard without watching our backs. We can walk at a normal pace. The kids can wander unafraid of what might lie in wait out of view. Visitors have no need to have their purse ready to strike back.

Oh happy day!
Thanks Sam.
Love ya. 

Wordless Wednesday

                                                     Good thing Daddy has two pairs!