Menu Plan Monthly!

It's SEPTEMBER!  Fall is in the air...Kinda. I have been waking up to 70* temps outside and that is very nice.  I can't wait for it to cool off more so I can wear my robe again in the mornings and light a fire in the fireplace. 

For this month I went ahead and planned a monthly menu and did my grocery shopping all at once. I got lots of questions from the check out clerk. Do you have a large family? Do you live way out of town? Is it like a vacation when you go home? WHAT? A vacation? Don't I wish. Such a strange question. She was really nice just couldn't wrap her mind around why I would shop once for the month.  I planned out 20 meals and there will be 4 family dinners, throw in a few leftover nights and quick meals that I have on hand we should be good for the month other than maybe stopping for milk and some fruit. So, here is the big plan:

• BBQ Chicken in the oven, mashed potatoes and veggies
• Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and green beans
• Chicken pot pie with rice
• Pork steaks w/ scalloped potatoes and a veg
• Crock pot chicken teriyaki with rice
• Green Chile Stew
• Lentil Tacos
• Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
• Italian Wedding Soup
• Swiss Steak
• Homemade Pizza
• Fish tacos (Mahi-Mahi)
• Israeli Cous-Cous Mac & Cheese & Pork Chops
• Garlic Herb Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and veg
• Chicken & dumplings (using leftover chicken)
• Cheeseburger Soup
• Salisbury Steak (in the crock pot--this is a new recipe)
• Eggplant Parm w/ Pasta and Salad

Did you notice the green chile stew and the enchiladas?  It is green chile time here in New Mexico.  The smell of the roasting chile is almost intoxicating. We will be eating lots of Quesadillas for lunch and putting chile in anything else we can think of.  Anyway, some of the meals are carryovers from last month that I never made, like the poor fish tacos, they are so good I don't know why I haven't made them yet. It's not like they are a lot of work or anything. We have decided to start doing family dinners on Sunday nights from now on, it will probably be more like early afternoon since its a school night and all. We plan those meals weekly so I will be going back to the store for meals, if I need to. I am going to try to do some grocery haul videos to post as I go. 

I am going to try to do better with making breakfasts for the family and not buying so much cereal. I made some granola and the family LOVED it so that will be on our breakfast menu often, along with yogurt, fruit, pancakes, waffles and eggs in various ways. 

I hope your September is getting off to a great start! 

Jen

Homeschool, Food and Other Stuff

We started our homeschool year on August 3rd, so we are almost a month in. I am loving this year. This is my second year homeschooling the twins and they are in the third grade. They aren't loving it so much yet because it is a little more challenging than second grade. This year they have a lot more memorization type work and they have a lot of writing to do. Compositions and book reports. They are not liking that.One of them is more hesitant than the other to write when she has to make up a story on her own. I just encourage her the best I can and she has been doing pretty well with it and each time she writes a story she is so proud of herself for doing it and that is so good to see. And they are not a fans of learning cursive. I try to talk it up and show them how pretty cursive writing can be, but its yet to change their minds. I haven't decided how hard I am going to push it. I think they need to learn it but, we'll see it's too early to give up on it yet anyway. 

I homeschooled our son Nick from fifth grade until he graduated, with the exception of the eight grade, and I have never been this excited to teach before. I am not sure what the change is. I'm 12 years older than when I first started, could that be it? I don't know, I am just glad I am excited about it. It makes the days a lot better. 

So, I didn't do a great job keeping you posted on my menu plan for August. August was another month that I just blinked and it was gone. Just like that! Homeschool took up most of my time and I had several out of town appointments, you know how it goes. 

Here is a list of a few things I made:
Chorizo and Potato burritos (Mexican style chorizo)
Homemade Spaghetti Sause (My Grandma's recipe) A huge pot. Froze a bunch of it.
Spaghetti and Rotini with the sauce.
Pazole with pork (One of my favorite meals eva) 
A big pot of Chili Mac ( a new Pintrest recipe) It was a hit, it made so much it almost lasted too long. I froze the rest. 

And my husband was out of town for a week and I don't know about you but when the husband isn't home I do as little cooking as possible! While he was gone we ate one of those Viola frozen dinner meals, Beef Lo Mien one. The girls loved it, me not so much. I didn't like the texture of the meat. Anyway, I made another chinese frozen meal, cause I like Chinese food, the girls opted for PB&j's which was fine with me. We even had macaroni and cheese and hot dogs for dinner one night. 

I joked with Rab that I was going to be as lazy as possible while he is gone. I really was planning on weeding the front yard because it was horribly grown over with weeds from all the rain. The morning he left I went to turn on our evaporative cooler and it just made a noise and would not turn on. It was 105* that day. My wonderful brother and stepdad came over and fixed it for me. Then I was doing some cleaning and had my phone on the back of the recliner and when I was done cleaning I sat in said recliner and reclined. Yes, I did. I seriously cracked my phone. Long story short and 3 long trips to Walmart I have a brand spanking new phone that took no less than 12 hours to get working. It was a mess. Then the cooler wouldn't turn on again. My poor brother had to come over every day and get it going for me. Some other random chaotic stuff happened that I won't bore you with but I will say that I will never say I plan to be as lazy as I can when my husband goes out of town, again. Seriously, things are so much better when he is home. And when he got home he weeded the front yard because I never got around to it. 

Jen

A Weekend Getaway!

All by ourselves. No kids. No work. No dogs. No cat. No goats. No chickens. Just me and my husband. It has been years since we have gotten away together, just the two of us, on purpose. It wasn't a work trip or some meeting we had to go to that we try to squeeze at least a dinner in. We made reservations people. My mom offered to take the kids for 4 days and 3 nights. A late anniversary gift to us.  I got on the phone immediately to make the reservations. I wasted NO time.  AT ALL. 

We used to try to get away once a year, usually around our anniversary. We would go to a quaint little cabin in the forrest. Really cute, rustic cabins and when we were talking about where to go we immediately thought of those cabins. Then played with the idea of going to Bisbee, Arizona. Then I remembered the Georgetown Cabins.  And we settled on that. It was a pretty quick decision. Bisbee would have been nice too, but we haven't gotten away together for a long time and the idea of just us and a cabin sounded really nice. 

Since we have never been to these cabins before we didn't really know what to expect. They are on private property in the Gila National Forrest. When we were trying to find them we weren't really sure we were going the right way. We decided we would travel another mile and if we didn't find it we would turn around, thinking maybe we missed a turn or something. Then there was a turn in the road and we look up and there they were! I cannot explain how gorgeous it was and the picture really doesn't do it justice at all. But it was a gorgeous site! It's like a little village in the middle of the forrest! There are six cabins total, the one we stayed in was the one at the top right.   

                                                                                            

Here are some closer shots of it. 

It was way better than what we expected. It really was nice! They have a full kitchen, it didn't have an oven but the grill could be used as one, there were plates, glasses and even foil in the kitchen drawers. There was a lovely little porch area with a grill and table. They also have a solar heated soaking tub that has dead see salts in it. Amazing! Another plus to these cabins was the free wifi and directv. They even had a dvd collection and books to read. The owners did a great job with these cabins! They thought of the little details that really make your stay nice. Oh and there was a sitting area with a gas fire pit outside and this was our view.

We had a great time just hanging out together. We went on a little outing, we talked, cooked together, watched movies and played cards. Canasta. 

We had to bring all our own food. For lunch one day we had canned Hormel Tamales. Classy, I know. Rab used to eat them when he was a bachelor and was craving them. It's been 15 years since he has had them and will probably be another 15 till he has them again, they were that good. 

 For dinner we we decided to step up the class a little and grilled some really nice NY Strip steaks. They were so good. 

It rained everyday that we were there. That was nice and refreshing. The clouds would build up over the mountains around the same time everyday. We even got to see the super moon up there.  

It was a great getaway, we loved every minute of it! But it was nice to come home to the kids, the dogs, the cat, the goats, and the chickens. Work...ah not so much. 

Jen