Home, Again
Griff and I had a wonderful trip. After having spent seven hours in the car and four hours on two planes with him within three days, I can honestly say he was a delightful traveling companion. I was very impressed.
Griff had lunch with me, Mandy, Josh, and Olivia on Saturday. He looks a little stoned in this picture, but it’s the best one I got of him and Olivia at the restaurant.
After lunch, Griff went to Will’s and spent the entire rest of the weekend. One of the things we miss about Louisiana is knowing the parents of Griff’s friends well. Mike went to high school with Will’s mom, Deanna, and I worked with her when she and I were pregnant with the boys. Will is 10 days younger than Griff.
The boys played and went to see the Narnia movie and went swimming and played games and stayed up late. Griff was exhausted but very happy.
While he was gone, I ate yummy foods… and played with Olivia… and shopped with Aleece (who convinced me to stop buying my fat pants quite so fat… apparently, they were way too big on me despite what I thought)… had dinner with Aleece and Linda… shopped with Mandy and Olivia… delivered a graduation present and got to hold a friend’s granddaughter. In general, I had a happy time myself.
Here’s a quick photo tour of my time…
My favorite pizza ever… and when I picked it up, the owner/manager/whatever guy remembered Mike coming to pick up pizza all the time.
Olivia, Zadie, and G, the hippest granma in town.
Tiny spicy chicken. YumO. After having dinner with me and Linda, Aleece called in a take-out order of TSC to take home to her husband. It’s that good.
Linda and Aleece… women for whom I will always be grateful
Crawfish bread. Not as good as my favorite appetizer, but they were out of it for NO good reason, and this was pretty darned good.
Catfish Acadiana. Grilled. Fabulous. God bless Copeland’s.
Olivia can say Chel, Mike, Griff, and Eliza, but I’m pretty sure she prefers Chel.
Josh, Mandy, Olivia, and Griff. Olivia threw a fit until she was allowed to sit with Griffin. I miss the three of them already.
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Menu Plan Monday
With gas prices here at nearly $4 a gallon, it seems that I picked a good time for us to start trying to eat at home more. We’ve not eliminated eating out - I can’t see us ever doing that! - but we’re doing better at eating at home more often.
Here’s what we’re looking at this week…
Sunday - Spaghetti (We seem to be having this all the time, but the kids are eating it up & it’s got all of those Ninja vibes, so I keep making it.)
Monday - Smoked lemon pepper chicken, grilled zucchini, cucumber salad
Tuesday - Chicken and yellow rice (love that Crock-Pot!)
Wednesday - leftover Chicken and rice
Thursday - Mike, Griff and I are going to see the new Indiana Jones movie while Eliza stays with a sitter. I’ll have Mike pick up something for the girls, and the three of us will have movie food.
Friday - Hawaiian burgers (from Cat Cora’s recipe in yesterday’s Parade magazine … but with ground turkey instead of ground pork)
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Tired Menu Plan Monday
We had a wonderful weekend at the beach this weekend (I took my camera but forgot the memory card, so only a couple of pictures to post later this week), but I’m worn out now. And I’m sure that I’m way behind now since I was out on Friday. But I’m pretty sure the day off was worth the extra work I’ll have to do this week.
Our Menu for the week is mostly going to be easy stuff, so we can concentrate on other things… that textbook I still haven’t read, picking up the house, fourth grade homework, and such.
Monday - We tried to go the IHOP yesterday but the wait was too long for eight of us & four hungry kids don’t wait well. So we’re having dinner at the IHOP tonight.
Tuesday - Ninja Spaghetti
Wednesday - Fried rice with ham and carrots
Thursday - Homemade pizza with leftover Ninja sauce
Friday - grilled turkey burgers with BBQ bananas for dessert
I’m tired just thinking about this week’s menu. It’s those weeks that we really have to work to stay on track and not go out to eat. We’ll see how it goes.
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Hoping for Better this Week - MPM
Last week’s adherance to the Meal Plan was pretty much shot on Monday. We’re hoping for a better week in general this week.
Last night, we had the Red Beans and Rice planned for last week.
Monday - Peace, Love, and Chicken Primavera from My Girlfriend’s Kitchen
Tuesday - leftover Red Beans and Rice
Wednesday - brinner (you gotta love a Scrubs reference, right?) - breakfast for dinner
Thursday - fajitas with fruit salsa (My Girlfriend’s Kitchen)
Friday - Smothered with Love Burritos (My Girlfriend’s Kitchen)
It’s not exciting this week, but it’s frugal. And it’s a good example of why I’m so loving My Girlfriend’s Kitchen. It’s quick and easy and yummy. Who can argue with that?
There are all sorts of other menu ideas over at Org Junkie. Doing this menu each week is actually helping us a lot (last week has to be an exception to the rule).
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Comfort Food - Cajun Style
I had planned to have Red Beans & Rice last week, but our missing child episode last week threw us off altogether. So we’re having it tonight. Val asked for the recipe, and as long as I have it out, I thought I’d go ahead and post it. (You know it’s good because the recipe is all splattered and messy. All good recipes are splattered.. that’s how you know it’s been used a lot.)
Now, keep in mind that I’ve been making this so long that I don’t so much use the measurements any longer.
Red Beans & Rice (Mike’s favorite Louisiana comfort food)
1 lb dry red beans
1 lb sausage or ham
2 large onions, chopped or minced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Tabasco sauce, to taste
2 bay leaves
1/2 c ketchup
1-2 green bell peppers, chopped
1/2 c parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbs Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp thyme
Rice
Soak the beans overnight. In the morning, put all of the ingredients (except the sausage!) in the Crockpot and cook all day. Cut the sausage into slices or small pieces and put into the Crockpot about 30 minutes before serving. Take the bay leaves out. That’s it.
This recipe is from the mother of a friend of mine in Louisiana. I’ve made a few adjustments to make it fit our tastes. I use turkey sausage instead of Cajun because it’s healthier. No one will notice. Camelia brand red beans are the best. They don’t sell them here, so Mandy ships them to us. Now, that’s brand devotion!
It’ll make a bunch. Plan on it for a couple of nights or put some in the freezer for another time. It freezes really well.
Dish into bowls and add a big scoop of rice to the middle. Serve with cornbread and sweet tea. Yum.
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Tagged with: Food • Louisiana • Mike
