Our Nightly Ritual

With a Schnauzer in the house life is never boring. Einstein is a crazy dog that loves to wrestle, run, and play chase. Sometimes when Tony comes home from work, he'll wrestle with Einstein to get him all stirred up. Lately though, right before bed they play chase in our bedroom. It's become a nightly ritual. It's one that Einstein LOVES and one that I beg for because it makes me laugh to see Tony hide behind corners and in our bathroom to scare Einstein.

Here's a video of them playing chase before bed last night. Tony likes to run Einstein out into the hall and then hide either behind the wall into our bedroom or in the bathroom. You can see Einstein totally gets into this and plans out what his next move will be.

This is the ridiculous nightly ritual we have going on at our house right now. Clearly you can tell it doesn't take much to make us laugh!

Baked Penne with Roasted Veggies

I can't take credit for this recipe. I found it here. I have tweaked it though to our liking and of course you could tweak mine and do the same!

This is a delicious meat free meal that doesn't feel like you're going without meat. That's because it's loaded with meaty veggies that have tons of flavor and fiber! Here is what you'll need minus the grated Parmesan and olive oil because I forgot to put them in the picture. Oops!

Ingredients:

• 1 yellow squash
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red bellpepper
• 1 yellow bellpepper
• 1 yellow onion
• shredded Italian cheese
• about 3/4 of a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
• 1 box of penne pasta

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rinse and then slice up all the veggies into bite sized pieces. Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, mixing to cover all sides. You can add some garlic powder or salt to season or leave plain. Place in oven and roast for 10-15 minutes until tender.

At the same time, boil water and cook pasta according to directions until al dente. Transfer pasta into lasagna dish and add in sauce and veggies.

Mix in desired amount of cheese (I did about a full handful). Top with grated Parmesan.

Place in oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden and cheese is melted. This makes for plenty of leftovers.

Enjoy!

Here's a shot with my cheap but delicious romaine!

Grocery Store Money Saver Idea!

So each time I run to the grocery store I always grab salad. The country boy in our house has fallen in love with vegetables and insists on a salad each night with his dinner. After a year or two of coaxing to give salad a try I won't be complaining for the side dish that always appears on our plates.

I tend to like to grab the bagged salad. I always go generic but I do grab one to two bags of romaine lettuce. At $2.89 a bag that's close to $12 a month that I spend on lettuce. Sometimes it's more because I'll throw in a bag of spinach. I don't know why it's taken so long for the saver in me to switch ways!

Last time at the store Tony was with me and I priced bunches of romaine, uncut, unwashed, just plain. To my surprise there was a HUGE difference! I should have known considering the mark up on all other washed and pre-cut fruits and veggies is HUGE! I guess I just figured lettuce was the cheaper of the options. WRONG!

Today at Sprouts I picked up a head of romaine lettuce for .88 cents! For that price I picked up two. Here are the beautiful and fresh heads of lettuce.

When Tony and I got married we registered for a salad spinner. After a couple of uses it took to the bottom of the pantry. Well not anymore!

First I chopped up one head of lettuce into the same small sized pieces that come in the bagged lettuce.

Then I threw it all in the salad spinner basket and gently rinsed the lettuce.

After that I spinned it dry. Time taken: 5 minutes. Money saved for two weeks worth of lettuce: $4.02 (yes I'm that exact!). Not to mention I got sooo much more lettuce buying a whole head. I only chopped up one but after I spinned it dry I put it in a container to keep it fresh.

Tony came home and his eyes lit up at the fresh, green lettuce as well as the amount of money we saved. If you already do this, great! If you don't give it a try!

Snow Day!

So after numerous predictions that it was going to snow today in Austin along with numerous eye rolls it happened. IT SNOWED!

I was one of the few that didn't want a snow day called. At this point, we're already nearing the end and I don't want to give up a holiday to make up for some slush!

As soon as my kids arrived and got settled we went outside and played in the snow. Here's a group shot.

For some reason this shot reminds me of Charlie Brown and the gang. They're trying to eat the snow!

Here is a shot before lunch.

Here is a shot after lunch.

All in all it was a fun and surprisingly super productive day in Kindergarten. Before we went home we got good news that school won't start until 9:45 tomorrow. This means two things: I get to sleep in tomorrow AND 2. No make up day. Tony is on his way home (second day in a row EARLY!) and we're going to fix up some tacos and relax in a warm blanket.

Happy Tuesday and stay warm!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is a special day in our family. Today is my grandma's 79th birthday! Spending time with her you wouldn't think of that number when you're around her. She's sassy, spunky, and always on the move. Today my mom surprised her with a birthday lunch Thanksgiving style.

My uncle and his family came from San Antonio to help us celebrate my grandma's birthday. She was so surprised because she kept wondering why her only son hadn't called to wish her a happy birthday! Little did she know they were on their way to celebrate WITH her!

This is the pretty table setting my mom had ready for the lunch.

This is the delicious food my mom made for the occasion. I now know why we only eat Thanksgiving style once a year. The food coma is a serious one!

These are the beautiful cupcakes my mom made for dessert! I wish I could say that I ate one, but someone over ate and couldn't eat another thing. Tony ate two for me though, so I'm taken care of!

The grandson-in law waiting patiently for the feast to begin!

The birthday girl and her puppy Precious.

Me & Tony with the birthday girl. I love that my mom and my grandma moved so close to us. We are so blessed to have them right down the street to share days like this with. I hope for many more celebrations to come together!

Somehow I didn't get a picture of my mom! She was buzzing around being the gracious host so I must have taken her picture with her camera instead of mine!

We finished up the lunch with a trip to the children's park around the block to throw the football and walk the dog. Tony and I then headed home so that I could sleep off the turkey. Tony read out in the sun while Einstein basked in the beautiful day! We finished off the day with a walk around the neighborhood and some Olympic watching.

I hope your weekend was wonderful and relaxing!

My New Must Have...

OMG. I think I just found something that would make my two week meal planning so much faster/efficient.

I was random blog grazing this afternoon and came across this:

You can buy the magnetic weekly meal planner note pad (for 25 weeks) and a magnetic shopping list pad (50 sheets). I yelled out to Tony who was in the other room that I found something I HAD to have. His response:

"How much is this going to cost me?" <--He knows me too well.

Lucky for him the meal planner pad is only $16.99 and the shopping list is $10.99. I'm so pumped about this because my meal plan list is usually my shopping list but it will be SO great to see exactly what I need for weekend breakfasts, snacks, and desserts. This is taking my planning and budgeting to a whole new level because I can try to eliminate some of the last minute stops to the store for a Saturday afternoon lunch! As a teacher, I think I love this so much because it is a lot like a lesson plan book where you see your week at a glance. When you plug it all in you know exactly what you need to prepare and you know what your days will look like. If you want to purchase it go here.

Here is something I got from a meal planning site that explains why it's so great to meal plan. I can vouch for most of these reasons.

See, while weekly menu planning for non-families is a rare topic around the blogosphere, it’s just as monumentally helpful for post-collegiates, office workers, struggling singles, and young couples. It even offers extra benefits, mostly involving time management. Like:

• You’re saved from 8pm post-work dinner freakouts, because dinner is ALWAYS planned.
• Ingredients are guaranteed to be on hand.
• Cooking goes much faster, since you go in knowing how to prepare a meal (by instinct or through print-out recipes).
• You eat healthier, as home-cooked meals are generally much more nutritious than calorie-laden takeout or heat-and-eat dinners (Hot Pockets, Hungry Man, etc.).
• Grocery shopping goes waaaaay faster. You go in knowing exactly what you want, and don’t have to blow an extra half-hour wandering around. Case in point: last night, using my weekly menu plan, I did all my shopping in 59 minutes, door to door, WALKING. In that time, I hit two stores, the further of which is about a half-mile away. Woo!
• Extra trips to the grocery store are mostly eliminated.
• You can plan for leftovers for office lunches. This is huge, personally speaking, because turkey sandwiches get tired 40,000 times in a row.
• You always have food for those bag lunches (the night before, no less), saving you $30 per week, or around $1500 per year.
• For budgeting purposes, you can pretty much estimate the cost of your bill to the dollar.
• There’s less food waste, because you’re buying only what you need.
• It allows for variety during the week, since you’ve got all the ingredients on hand anyway.

Let me know if you decide to get one of these or give weekly meal planning a try! Happy Friday and Happy Planning!

Crock-Pot Brisket

I'm falling in love with my Crock Pot. It's spent too much time unused and I'm finding new ways to fix this. My mother used our Crock Pot at LEAST once a week while I was growing up. There is nothing like setting a whole meal up in a pot before you leave for work and opening the door when you come home to the most incredible smell. I know that if I plan on being a working mom one day, I will learn to love it as much as my mom did raising me. Seriously, if I can cook a meal while at work AND set my washer to start a load an hour before I come home I can do ANYTHING! :)

My mother in law makes her brisket this way when they don't smoke it outside on the grill. She brought this over for Christmas and it was delicious! This recipe is EASY! Seriously, here are the ingredients:

• 1 brisket (your choice of cut and size)
• 1 package of McCormick Grill Mates Seasoning in Mesquite flavor (or more if brisket is larger than 2 pounds)
• water
• oil as per package directions

Directions:

Place brisket in Crock Pot. In separate bowl, mix together seasoning packet as per directions. Each package is enough to work with 2 pounds of meat so you may need multiple packages. Pour marinade over brisket. Add about an inch of water to the Crock Pot and place lid on pot. Set to "low" and go to work doing what you do. I set it at 6:45 this morning and came in at 4 pm to a perfect brisket.

After removing from Crock Pot, shred as so:

We like to mix our favorite BBQ sauce with the shredded meat and heat up over stove. Then we serve on top of a baked potato or mashed potatoes. Delicious! The two pound brisket makes enough for about 5 meals if you pile the meat over potatoes.

If you make it, let me know what you think! We're trying a few more new recipes over the next week so I'll post those if they turn out to be keepers!

A Day of Love

Here are some snapshots of our day of love. The roses were personally delivered to my classroom by my sweet on Friday afternoon. We spent Valentine's Day doing all the great things we love. It was a perfect low-key day.

I hope your day of love was all you wanted it to be!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week at our school. I received lots of fun treats and sweet cards from my kiddos. This one in particular was very creative! Of course it had to be made by a teacher mom! ;)

In case you can't read what it says here it is:

Dear Mrs. Estes,

This teacher appreciation week I just want to say thanks. I really did Skor when I got into your class. It has been pure Bliss. Sometimes I know I can be slow as Turtles, and can be an Airhead, but you are an Extra Sweet Tart to me. That's the Riesen I love you. I hope that this PayDay you get at least 100 Grand so you can go on a shopping Spree. Thanks for filling my brain with Smarties. It's Mint so much!

Love,

Molly

I had so much fun reading that I had this huge painful grin as I did so. How sweet (literally)!

Weekend Warriors!

This weekend Tony's parents came into town. We relaxed Friday night, and then on Saturday we ran errands around town. Saturday afternoon Tony bought a large live oak he had been eyeing all week (literally all week-the boy went to look at it 3 days in a row during his lunch break).

I skipped out on the purchasing, but gave my blessing. This tree would normally cost 3 times what he bought it for, so he was pretty pumped! While he and his dad went to buy and haul, Einstein, his mom, and I stayed home and napped! When he came home with the tree I was surprised at how tall it was.

Space before tree:

Pretty baby Live Oak tree:

Here's my boo being a big strong guy digging a hole for the tree. He dug, and dug, and dug... Finally they tore the thing out of the tub it came in and got it in the ground.

Disposing of the excess soil over the fence. They were actually showing the empty lot behind us to a couple while Tony was dumping the soil over the fence. Eek! We stopped and spied through the knot holes until they drove off and then we went back to doing it again. We're going to have to get that huge flower bed dug before they build a house back there. =)

Here it is in all it's glory!

Hopefully this spring and summer will be good to this tree. We've got a long list of projects to do during our Spring Break off. We're going to put a large flower bed that goes the span of the back fence between the two oak trees back there. We'll be aerating our lawn, expanding a front flower bed, fertilizing, and re-mulching all flower beds. I can't wait! After the tree planting, Tony's parents took us to the Salt Lick to celebrate my birthday.

It was delicious!

Today before his parents left, his mom pruned our rose bushes in the front. They were badly in need of it and she said this was the perfect time of year to do it (who knew you were supposed to do it on Valentine's day!?). I held on to Einstein and snapped the pics while Tony took away the canes (learned that) and chopped off the tough ones too.

This afternoon I'm off to one of my co-worker's baby showers. It should be a fun time! Tony and Einstein are planning a snooze fest on the couch. Tonight we're trying a healthier version of manicotti so hopefully I'll post that soon! Happy Sunday!

100th Day Eve & Sugar and Soy Glazed Salmon!

So it is the eve of the 100th day of school. Now if you're in any other grade aside from Kindergarten this is probably no big deal. However, in Kindergarten: this is HUGE! This is the day kids sadly mistake for the last day of school (oh man do I WISH!). This is the day of the world's most awesome number (in the eyes of Kinder kids). This is also the day they wear shirts decorated with 100 things, parade around the entire school in a long line, go to 9 different classrooms to do activities that vary from making necklaces with 100 fruit loops, eating a trail mix with 100 things, and finding 100 ping pong balls. It is a big day!

These teachers have on glasses our kids will be sporting tomorrow!

Between making my shirt (since last year's was so bad that I will not wear it again) and getting everything ready for my little ones I needed a fast dinner. I came across this one last week while meal planning for this week and to my excitement it was a healthy one too! I left my camera at home, so there's no picture of this meal, but man it was delish! I made the marinade the night before and stored it in the fridge in the gallon size bag I was planning on putting the meat in. I do not like mornings so making the marinade before bed worked for me and took 2 minutes. I substituted chicken broth for the vegetable broth because it was all I had. This morning before I left for work I tossed in the salmon into the bag and closed the fridge door and walked away. I love the feeling that I'm working on dinner while I'm at work (loser I know!).

I served it up with corn, some Zatarain's yellow rice (omg is that stuff good!), and a salad. Like I said, it was great! We will definitely be having this again...and soon!

Ok, that is all for now. Let me know if you try the salmon marinade! Hopefully I'll post pictures of the 100th day fun soon! Happy Tuesday!