What We Ate Last Week and other stuff...

Monday we had Chicken Divan and Rice, our son came over and ate with us and then he and Sam headed over to the "other" house to work on the back porch. They are putting on a new roof.
Tuesday, Sam and I went out of town for the day and ate at Chick-Fil-A and just snacked that night.
Wednesday I made Salmon Patties, mac n cheese and green beans from the garden. Yum. Sam really liked the salmon patties, and even he was surprised. I love making things he wasn't fond of when he was a child and he likes them.
Thursday was the day I was putting up squash and got an overnight placement. I had planned on having leftovers but got the call for the kiddos, so I had to come up with something fast. I decided on BBQ chicken in the oven, mashed potatoes I so brilliantly made and froze and fried zucchini and yellow squash. The potatoes were almost thawed, the squash all but done and I check the chicken that I put in the electric roaster. Ok the roaster. I use the roaster whenever I can during the summer because it is SOO hot and the roaster doesn't heat up the house like the regular oven does and it used something like 71% less electricity. Anyway I open the lid and it was still frozen! The kids were hungry....I was hungry. I realized that the lid was letting some heat escape so I grabbed the random random blue towel of my dinning room table and draped it over the roaster.

It looked really bad but worked really well. I jacked up the heat and it was done in no time.
Friday we didn't got out on a date and I can't even remember what we ate so it wasn't anything spectacular!! I do remember there were cookies though =)
Saturday was church work day at church and the women got together to prepare the food that we are going to make for the Women's Conference in September. We are responsible for cooking for 200 women. Its gonna be fun. We are going with Argentinian food. Chicken with Chimi Churry, really yummy black beans, salad and homemade bread. So today we made the food so all the women (and men) can try it and see how it is prepared. So that was our big meal of the day. That evening I made zucchini fries coated in Italian breadcrumbs and panko. Very good. I also fried some green beans, I've always wanted to do that... and I'm not a fan. Black olives, yeah don't bread and fry them. Not so good.
After we were done eating I was doing dishes and Sam was working on tiling our bathroom counter (looks great by the way) and I got a call for another placement. Just one this time.
Sunday we had Ratatouille wraps again, per the request of my buddy Deanna. There that good.

Jen=)

My Yesterday....

This is how I spent my yesterday

Putting up all of this squash.
 (Please excuse my checkbook, the random blue towel  and the creme horn in the zip lock baggie.)

I planned my afternoon around this squash.....

But I only got this far, then I got a phone call from CYFD for a 

new placement of three kiddos.  

(Please excuse the wrinkle in the table cloth, the electric skillet
 and other random things on the corner of my table ;) )

                                                                           
                                 So I quickly cleaned up the massive mess I created while doing this....

Blanched zucchini, summer and patty pan quash  

 It turned out to be a great spot to stop because, as it was, I had to do some rearranging and take a chicken out of the freezer to fit it all in there. Guess what we are having for dinner tomorrow?? The rest of the squash was bagged up to give away to people at Sam's office, except for the four yellow squash and one zucchini, along with an onion I used to make the really tasty fried squash dish my Meema used to make. She started hers off with bacon drippings but since I am having to force myself to get off the couch to do the "couch to 5k running program," because I NEED too, I decided to go with good old Olive Oil.  If you don't think about the bacon fat you don't really miss it.... much.


                                Check this guy out. It got missed, I don't know how, but it did.
                                                           Don't think it looks that big??

                                                                      
                                                                          Look again.

                                        This is the same one put besides a normal sized Patty Pan.
                                                     That sucker weighed in at almost 3 lbs.

             Well it turned out the be a good night even though the bbq chicken I made for dinner took
                                              forever to cook, that story on another day.    

                                                                          Jen =)

What We Ate Last Week

Since the huge turkey recall I have really had to think outside the box for our meals. We don't eat beef and very little pork and you can't eat chicken every night..... And now its just Sam and I. Our foster placement was moved a week ago today. (Our house has been very quiet)  I quickly realized I don't have to prepare near as much food as I used to. Really, 3 to 4 meals a week is all I have to make because of leftovers. So,  the whole meal planning system I came up with and have been using is being put to the side for right now. At least until we get our next foster care placement.  This week I made two vegetarian meals and they went over really well and I'm glad for that because Sam has a lot more of those in his future!

Monday      Spaghetti w/ ground turkey & bread  (pre-recall)
Tuesday      Fend for yourself night (very busy day!)
Wednesday Lentil Burritos with homemade salsa
Thursday    Leftovers
Friday         Date night out Chinese food
Saturday     Ratatouille wraps (mmmmmm....)
Sunday       Ratatouille wraps ( we invited friends over and made them again they were so good!)

 Yes date night. We've had date night two Fridays in a row... its been a while since that's happened! We went for Chinese and saw Cowboys and Aliens which was very good, even though I really dislike anything sci fi-ish. But I guess Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford kinda overshadowed the sci fi-ness of of.   Go see it!

Jen =)