Menu Monday

We're getting ready to hunker down in my parts.  We've been super spoiled with beautiful spring like weather, and now we're preparing for ice and snow.  Only in Oklahoma can we change from 70's to teens within 5 days.  I do love it here though.  Change is always nice.

Since we're having some nasty weather expected to arrive tonight and continue through tomorrow, I thought we needed some major comfort foods.  Nice warm, soupy, casserole-y (yep, I just created that word) foods. 

Monday-Baked Ham, Stuffing, and Corn (carried over from last week's menu)
Tuesday-Tortilla Soup & Corn Saute
Wednesday-Monterey Chicken, Peas, Honey Bread (carried over from last week's menu)
Thursday-Sausage Spinach Pockets & Sweet Potato Fries
Friday-Chicken & Dumplings & Angel Biscuits
Saturday-Turkey Veggie Spaghetti, Cheesy Bread, Green Beans, Salad
Sunday-Family Dinner Out (after being couped up for several days, I'm pretty sure we'll be due for an outing!)

I'll Show You

Guess what?  Someone decided he wanted to write his own name yesterday.  Funny how I've come to terms with Little Man taking his precious time to write his name and then he just sits down to do it.  I'm sure my neighbors thought a tragedy was occurring in our home about 4pm Thursday.  I turned from the stove to see Little Man at the counter with his blue marker in hand, tongue out, and carefully writing the letters to his name.  Not only did he write his name once, he wrote it twice and put down his own age.  I squealed.  Squealed so loud he dropped his marker and said, "Moooommmmm!  You mess me up." 

And because I am one of THOSE moms, here's a pic of his first ever handwritten name...
 

I am so very proud of his determination.  I think I'll kiss the librarian next week for assigning him the 'Me Book'.  Then she'll probably inform me that we are to never attend again.  I don't respect personal space very well.

Now, about next week I've got a bit of a surprise for you in the form of a dessert.  If you're trying to lose weight then maybe you should stay away.  This recipe is a doozie from my BFF Jackie.  She likes to make me fat!

Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Is Your Kid Better?

Anything you can do, I can do better.  I can do anything better than you.

-Lyrics from Annie Get Your Gun 

Annie Oakley.  Now that's a great story of a woman who overcame obstacles in her life.  If I could go back in time and meet someone from the late 1800's, it would be Annie Oakley hands down.  An amazing woman who had an extraordinary talent.  Annie Oakley has little to do with this post, I just thought you'd like to know another little quirk about me.  After all, you already know I sleepwalk.  I can't really disclose too many other embarrassing things. 

Moving on...

I didn't use the above lyric today to prove that I am better than you.  I screw up all the time.  Just ask Steven.  He'll give you a lengthy run down.  Instead, I want to share that sometimes we send this message to our kids.  Maybe not so much as 'we' do things better than 'them', but 'other kids' do things better than 'our kids'.  We focus on what other people's kids are doing that are kids aren't.  

This is all brought up by our weekly trip to the library.  Little Man was selected to do his 'Me Book' for next week.  I was really excited for him because he was excited.  Unfortunately, I started looking around at the other kids in the room.  It's hard not to size kids up academically when you were trained to do so as a teacher.  I noticed there were quite a few kids in the room who were able to do something Little Man has yet to perform on a satisfactory level.  Little Man is bright.  He's got a vocabulary that is pretty abundant for four.  Mathematically he is strong. But, he struggles in one area.  Little Man does not want to write his name, and has yet to do so completely.  He gets too frustrated if the letters aren't made perfectly (I have no idea where he gets this from ;)).  I've tried to encourage him, but to no avail.  We're at a bit of a standstill on handwriting.

When we're working on our daily lesson at home, I always urge him to put his name on it so when his daddy gets home he can see who did all the work.  He gets the first letter on the paper, but after that it's downhill.    That letter just doesn't turn out well enough for him to move on to the others.  Instead of frustrating him any further, we move on to something else.  I know he will eventually get it, but will he get it before his "Me Book" is due?

Then it hit me.  It doesn't matter if I write his name or he writes his name on the book.  The whole purpose of the book is for it to be about him, and 'him' just doesn't write his name at the moment.  No biggie.  I shouldn't be so concerned with what other kids are doing.  I should be concerned with what my kid is doing.  Little Man accomplishes things daily that make me so proud of him.  Why would I want to spend so much time on what he can't do instead of building on what he can do? 

God created him differently than other kids.  God created your child differently too.  He gave them special gifts that are unique to them.  So what Little Man isn't writing his name at 4?  He's got a whole lot of other areas we can be working on.  Areas where he's been uniquely gifted.  So next week, he's going to rock his 'Me Book' at the library, and I'm going to rock it too.  He's going to have the coolest looking name on the front page, and I'm going to proud of him (and me too-I've got some pretty awesome handwriting)!

So today I want to know what your kid has done to make you proud this week.  I don't care if your child is 25 and learned how to do his own laundry for the first time.  I just want you to be proud of your kid, and for me to be proud of mine.  I'm going to forget what Johnny Jr.'s doing, and focus on what mine is doing!

Beef & Tater Bake

Honesty is key. So let's be honest on this one...I had to 'borrow' the magazine pic, because my Beef & Tater Bake just doesn't look as cute and tasty.  This recipe and pic is courtesy of January/February 2010 issue of the Simple & Delicious magazine.  It's actually a submission from a man.  Typical.  Tater tots and beef.  A complete man meal.  A tasty man meal, but nonetheless a man meal.

So let's get to the down to the nitty-gritty so you can make this for your man...

Beef & Tater Beef Bake

4 cups frozen Tater Tots
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg frozen broccoli, thawed
1 can (10-3/4oz) condensed cream of broccoli soup, undiluted
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 can (2.8 oz) french-fried onions
1 cup shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese, divided
1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp pepper

• Place Tater Tots in an ungreased 13x9 baking dish.  Bake uncovered @ 400 degrees for 10 minutes ( I baked mine for 20 minutes because I wanted a crispy bottom layer).
• Meanwhile, cook ground beef thoroughly (I use real minced garlic instead of garlic powder, so I toss that in at this point). Drain beef.
• Stir in broccoli (I also throw in cauliflower to sneak in more veggies), soup, milk, tomato, 3/4 cups french fried onions, 1/2 cup cheese, and heat through.
• Pour over Tots.
• Cover and bake for 20 minutes longer. Uncover.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and french fried onions.  Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

There you have it!  The Beef & Tater Bake complete with Amanda Torres' commentary and suggestions.  Take 'em or leave 'em.  Either way it's a delicious dish.

Happy Cooking!!!

A True Confession

{Little Man at age 3}

Steven and I dated for nearly six years before we tied the knot.  We met in high school, and despite attending separate colleges for six years, we stayed together through our college days.  Steven played college football at a small junior college for a year and a half until he received a full scholarship at a Division II school.  This really isn't apart of the confession, but it will give a little background information.

In the summertime, Steven and I spent as much time as possible together.  Once his football season started back up in August, he would be busy with playstation tournaments and dorm life workouts, practice, class, and studies.  We spent lots of nights talking until late and accidentally fall asleep on the couch at my house or his dad's house.    On one night in particular, we both sacked out at his dad's.  He woke me up and sent me on my way.  I drove myself home, walked into my house, made donuts, and then woke up.  Yep, you read that right.  I woke up again.  Technically, I woke up for the first time.  I have an issue with sleep talking and walking. 

When Steven 'woke' me up at his dad's house to tell me we had fallen asleep again and it was time to go home, I looked like I was awake.  My eyes were open, and even though I was saying weird things to him, I was talking.  He says now that he should of known.  My mom had told him sleep talking/walking stories before, but apparently I'm so convincing when it happens that you don't realize it.  I even deny that I'm sleeping. 

I think the scariest part of the whole thing was I drove myself home while I was sleeping.  I woke up in the middle of my kitchen making donuts in a deep fryer at midnight.  I had not a clue how I had gotten home, let alone why I was making donuts.  The last thing I remembered was sitting in Steven's living room talking to him about possible wedding dates.

This is just one of many crazy stories my mom could tell you about me.  At night I used to walk in her room, get inches from her face, and whisper scream, "Mom!!!!"  Then I would coerce her to come perform whatever task I desired for her to do until I would get back in bed.  I know my mom secretly wished for me to have a child just like me.

Sharing my deepest, darkest secret does has a purpose.  Now that Little Man is getting older, he's starting to do unusual things in his sleep.  Last night, I woke up to a little four year old standing inches from my face.  I don't know how long he'd been standing there.  He was completely silent, eyes wide open, and staring intently at my face.  Honestly, it scared the heebee jeebee's out of me. 

I walked Little Man back down the hall to his room and put him to bed.  He never said anything to me and didn't mention anything about it in the morning.  When I asked him if he remembered standing by my bed, he told me he was night-night all night long.  Hmmmm....another freakish sleepwalker in the house.  This can't be good!

Mom, as you're reading this try to contain your excitement for paybacks!!!

Menu Monday

It's been a sad weekend at the Torres house.  We've had a loss.  A big loss.  You see, we're huge Bears fans and they had a humiliating loss yesterday.  I can't even talk about it.  Here's the menu...

Monday-Balsamic Lemon Chicken, Fried Potatoes, Green Beans
Tuesday-Dinner @ the Kueny's
Wednesday-Smoked Salmon, Zucchini Pancakes (thanks Joy), Honey Bread
Thursday-Monterrey Chicken, Peas, Salad
Friday-BBQ Chicken Quarters & Sweet Potato Fries
Saturday-Birthday Party (Happy Birthday Ethan!)
Sunday-Baked Ham, Stuffing, Rolls, Corn

I'm hoping to recover soon.  You are more than welcome to send your condolences.  Flowers and large sums of cash are accepted ;)

Homemade French Fries

I've had a lot of emails about how we make homemade french fries.  It's really not hard, and way better than picking up a pack of preservative filled frozen ones.  Plus, you get to add your own seasonings.

First we start by digging up our potatoes from our organic garden.  Gotcha!  We don't have an organic garden.  It would be nice, but I have yet to tackle that one.  Instead, we have a grocery store that sells a 5lb bag of potatoes.  We use those.  Grocery stores...such a great invention!

I wash and slice the potatoes into french fry size pieces.  I use 3-4 potatoes for my family.  After I slice them up, I drizzle a little olive oil over the top and sprinkle on the seasonings of choice.  In the pic below, we used a little Kosher salt and oregano.  (Alternative choices: seasoning salt, steak seasoning, garlic powder combined with onion powder...whatever we're in the mood for.)  Once you season, toss them around a bit so you can get a good coating...

{Notice the man hands are not mine.  The hubby is getting domesticated.}

After the coating, you'll throw them in a non-stick skillet for about 10-15.  You shouldn't need to spray the pan since the fries are coated in olive oil, but if you're pan has a history of 'stickage' please spray.  You'll keep them in the skillet until they are starting to soften up a bit and the outer part is getting a little golden brown.

Once the potatoes soften up and are a little golden brown, spread them out on a greased baking sheet.  Bake @ 400 degrees for about 15 minutes.  If you like your fries crispy, then crank on the broiler for a minute or two at the end.

I have not one picture of the finished product.  I went to teach my gymnastics class before these were finished.  I felt bad asking the newly domesticated husband to take a pic of his first batch (he had stage fright).  Maybe next time.  I don't want to scare him out of the kitchen.

Happy Cooking!!!