Snack Saturday

My apologies for not finishing my post about the two month menu plan, but my laptop has been temperamental.  The screen only works occasionally. I'll finish it on Monday, as long as my screen turns on.

I'm trying to find easy snacks I can throw in the fridge for the kids when chaos begins.  I experimented with tortillas the other day.  Figured I could make some fun rolls/"sushi".  The ones I made first were with whipped cream cheese, peanut butter and grape jelly.  Riley did not like them, but Ben did.  I think if I can also incorporate nutella, maybe some marshmallow and different flavored jelly.  

I'm thinking he liked it.

I'm also thinking of the normal brownies and cookie bars.  I think I'll experiment with some Chex mix too.  I'm really hoping to be super organized when this all starts in 3 weeks. (!?)

Preventing Monday Madness... Part 1

Happy Monday!

I am sitting here starting to dread our frantic fall.  Our house gets so super crazy once school starts until about November.  My son plays football and baseball in the fall.  My youngest daughter is in cheerleading and gymnastics.  We host Monday Night Football parties and to top it off, my husband works on Sundays and I work home Bronco games.  So to put it lightly, we are crazy once school and practices start.  

I learned some valuable lessons last fall.  First, I'm not sure we sat down for a family dinner once in those 2 1/2 months.  Also, my house was such a disaster that I literally had a cleaning lady quit after an hour in my house.  Embarrassing!!  So I'm tackling this head on this year.  

First thing I did was make up a menu starting on the first day of school.  I made it as simple as possible.  For example, every Wednesday is Hamburger Night.  Whether it is regular burgers or sliders, we're doing hamburger, fries and a veggie every Wednesday.  I think I'll be just buying the preformed freezer hamburgers.  I found an easy oven baked slider recipe over at Reason to Skip Housework.

After I made that executive decision about Burger Night, I figured out most of the Monday Night Football schedule.  I cook for a team every Monday night.  Most of which are easy to figure out:  New Orleans = Gumbo, Green Bay = Beer Cheese Soup, etc.  It's really fun to get together with my friends, eat, drink and hang out.

Then I realized that Fridays tend to be the one day I never want to cook.  But I didn't want to eat out every Friday.  So I decided that every other Friday is going to be French Bread Pizza night.  It's a freezer recipe I found years ago that is not only cheap, but easy.

After that I had to search some of the easier freezer meals that I knew we could eat at least once a month and plugged them in.  Then I tried to find the easiest slow cooker meals I can throw in the morning of and set a timer.  

Here's the list of freezer meals I plan on throwing together this week with links:

Sausage Hash
Crockpot Beef Tips and Gravy
Sloppy Joes Plus
Hearty Black Bean Quesadillas
Pesto Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Club Casserole
Herbes de Provence Chicken
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Chicken Taco Bowls

I'll do part 2 tomorrow and talk about Monday Night Football and Macaroni and Cheese!

Three Thoughts for Thursday

1.  I love HBO on demand.  Since I cancelled it after Sex in the City ended I've missed out on a lot of things.  I've gone through Game of Thrones, which OMG The Red Wedding!!! Holy cow!!!  I've gone through Girls.  Which is Sex in the City in their 20's.  And I'm currently on the final season of Entourage.  I think I've really missed out on all the HBO series.  They put on some great shows.  I'm not sure what I'll watch when I run out of series on this network.

2.  I'm sort of stressed about getting organized for fall and all the stuff.  Back to school, baseball, football, cheer, gymnastics, Bronco season.  Whew.  I'm already overwhelmed with the thought of doing this again.  I'm hopefully going to get as organized as possible.  Trying to get a bunch of freezer meals in the freezer before September.  Also going to try to get a good schedule down for cleaning and house upkeep.  That part was completely neglected last year.  

3.  I'm tired of laying around, but don't like to leave the house because it's such a pain in the ass to get around.  Next foot should be easier since I'll still be able to drive.  Whew.  

Boring today. 

Thrifty Thursday T Shirt Redo

Thrifty Thursday for Thursdays?  Maybe.  Let's see how I can get it to develop.

Since I've been laid up after foot surgery, I've been a serious Pinterest-aholic. I mean, I really should have an intervention, but I think that'll push me further into my Candy Crush addiction.  What's a gimpy girl to do?

One of the things I've really been looking at is how to redo T Shirts.  I am one of the biggest Yankee fans around, so I have a ton of Yankee shirts that I cannot part with, but don't necessarily wear.  One of the first things I made was a bag for my scooter.  I can't see buying a basket for it for 3 weeks.  Besides, I can keep using it well after I can walk.

It was super easy, but you should use a sewing machine.  I think hand sewing might be good enough, but I used a zig-zag stitch and went over the bottom seam about 3 times to ensure that it would be sturdy enough for what ever I put in it.  I'm not entirely happy the boxy bottom of it, so I think I'm going to pull it in a little to make it a little more rounded, but that's just me being picky.

Here's the original blog with better instructions than mine.  

The second redo I did this week was to make a tank top out of an old t shirt.  I've been looking on Yankees.com at all the official tanks they sell.  And as much as I could see myself plunking down a cool $100 for a few of them, I just can't afford that right now.  So, I remade one.  And I actually love it!  I'm going to do a few more of my shirts just like this one!

I was thinking I could do these for Riley, my 6 year old.  And use some really pretty ribbon for the straps.  

Here is the original blog for instructions for this redo.  

One of our local thrift stores is having a $0.99 sale on all summer stuff this Saturday.  I see me scooting through that store, with my new Yankees bag, filling a basket (or I should say my hubby filling a basket) with t shirts galore!

If you would like to follow me on Pinterest, you can do it here to see my board of t shirt redo inspiration.

   

Boozeday Tuesday

I have worked in bars my entire life, or what seems like my entire life.  Currently, I do have a full time, Monday through Friday, 8-5, "normal" job.  I went that way for the stability for my family.  And for my sanity of knowing exactly how much money I am making and where it is going.  Don't get me wrong, bartending is very lucrative.   Unless the weather is such that no one is leaving their house.  Or people are in a bad mood and don't feel like tipping.  Or, worse yet, people don't realize that they should tip and how much.  But that is a topic for another post.

Currently I work part time behind a bar for our NFL Football team.  It's only a 10 day commitment every year and it pays for all those wants we have and Christmas every year.  

With that said, I have a passion for booze.  I like it.  I don't like it when I like it too much, but I still enjoy a nice cocktail or beer in the evenings.  I'm hoping to introduce a weekly post about some of my favorite cocktails, beers, wines and gadgets.

Currently I am OBSESSED with sangria.  White wine, pink wine, red wine... doesn't matter.  Love it all!

This is the recipe we made 3 batches of last night.  (Note:  We had a few neighbors over for Monday Funday.  Did not drink it all alone)

Red Wine Sangria:

1 pound strawberries, halved or quartered depending on size of strawberry
2 oranges, 1 sliced, 1 for juice
1 lemon, sliced
1 granny smith or golden delicious apple, sliced
1 bottle of red wine, Pinot Noir, Merlot or Cab, you're choice *
1/2 cup Cointreau
3/4 cup brandy
1 can peach nectar
Ginger Ale, Sprite, Soda Water, etc.  Which ever you prefer.

Prep all the fruit and put it in the bottom of a large pitcher.  I use a 2 gallon pitcher.  Pour liquor, wine and nectar on top and stir.  *I prefer to use more wine.  Last nights first batch started with half of the bigger bottles.  Ideally, you want it to sit and let all the fruit flavors come out and blend in with the booze.  But, it's good that same day too, just saying.  

When ready to serve, pour sangria over ice, filling the glass about 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Top with whichever bubbly NA drink you prefer.  I personally like Ginger Ale.  But if you don't want it so sweet, use soda water.  It would also be delicious with flavored soda water, no added sugar but still a little sweetness.

As the pitcher emptied, I just kept adding all the liquid ingredients on top of the same fruit.  I would probably only use the same fruit for 3 to 4 days before I would start fresh.

Please bare with me while I start this blog and figuring out pictures, how many and where to post.  I promise it will get better!  

Introduction

Good afternoon world.

My name is Michelle.  I'm a 40-something mother of 3 and wife of 1.  I work full time for a nonprofit healthcare company.  

So I'm going to venture into the world of blogging again.  I'm sort of trying to figure out where I want this blog to go and what I want to accomplish with it.

I try to be the perfect mom and wife and do all sort of cool things for my family and I want to talk about those things.  

I also used to write a lot and I want to try to bring some of that back in also.  

I want to share some of the things I've learned in this life and try to ask people to help me learn more.  

I want to share some of the joys of my family, but also some of my failures. 

Eventually I would like to get a routine and have certain topics each day of the week.  But until that happens, I think every day will be a free flow of thoughts and goings on at my house.