Weekly Meals and Other News!

Tonight we are having RICE BOWLS. I'll post that recipe either tonight or tomorrow when I wake up. They are really easy and something everyone loves around here (well, there's only 2 adults that live here, but you get the point, haha!) 

I think tomorrow we might just have spaghetti. Something simple to make before I run to the grocery. :)

As for next week...

I am getting my wisdom teeth plus one cut out early Monday morning. I would say that I am extremely nervous, but the pain that I feel EVERY day is kind of overpowering that at this point in time. I am terrified of being put under, but I know that (after the few days at first) I will feel tremendous. I have every tooth possible for a human being and with my wisdom teeth all being in, they have created some problems with my other teeth, ESPECIALLY the one right next to my top left, so the doctor said it would be best to just cut it out as opposed to trying to fix it. So, there you have it! 

I typically baby sit two babies a week, but the doctor wrote me off for a week of 'relaxing.' (As much relaxing you can do with a 10 month old, right? ;) haha!) Nah, seriously.. I will have a good bit of help those first few days which I am extremely thankful for! My mom, dad, and husband are extremely generous as our my grandparents. I am one blessed momma! 

Now.. I've said all that to say that I'm not going to have weekly meals those first few days. I'm not allowed to eat Sunday evening, so E will be fending for himself and Monday and Tuesday I doubt I'll be in the 'mood' to cook anything, but I guess one can never tell, right? However, I have planned out some meals for Wednesday-Friday night. I'll probably be pretty hungry by then considering my yogurt, pudding, and jello diet. 

And yes, E will have to suffer through soup (and sandwich for him) those three days. Hey-- why shouldn't I get to enjoy something right? :) 

Here's the menu:

Wednesday-- French Onion Soup (not the can kind.. I'm going to try my hand at making it!) and I'm going to make Swiss Cheese Grilled Sandwiches for E.
Thursday-- Southwest Tomato Soup-- I'm super excited about making this! (and of course grilled cheeses for E)
Friday-- Roasted Red Pepper Soup. I'm not really sure what to think about this one. I found the recipe and it looked delicious, but we'll see after I've tasted it!

I'll of course post a review of all of these so y'all know what I think... if it really matters to you! LOL

The good news about this upcoming weekend? While I'm bittersweet about Monday morning, Friday I get to clean the house (yes, I seriously anticipate this every week. I feel like I get a good exercise in with it and I LOVE having a clean house!!) and I'm going grocery shopping which I love... mostly because I get to do it with my mom and daughter. Perfection! Saturday we are making Tayler's play room which I'm ECSTATIC about, and Sunday I'm getting my hair cut! It's going to be a dramatic change, so get ready, y'all! I'll post pics, of course! :)

Have a great rest of the day ladies!

Cubed Steaks... We Love Our Crock Pot!

We have a good bit to get done today. I have a sick husband, Tayler hasn't been feeling too good, we are trying to get our dining room painted, a closet that needs cleaned out, and errands that need ran... soo today is definitely a CROCK-POT DAY! Don't you just love that thing? If you're busy, you can just throw dinner in and let it cook! Perfection. I'd love to personally meet and thank the person that invented that sucker. He or it is probably a SHE ;) has made my life much easier! :)

Today, I am making Cubed Steaks for dinner. I've already had these before, but I'm pretty sure I haven't blogged about them. They are a favorite around here, so it's about time I put the information down for all of you to see!

I originally found this recipe here if you are curious!

Here's what you need:

 I used a pound of Round Steak.
1 packet of Brown Gravy Mix
1 packet of Au Jus Mix
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can of French Onion soup

 (the pound of round steak)

Take the mixes and soups and mix them together in a bowl.

Put the round steak in your crock pot and then pour the mixture over that! 

Turn it on low for approximately 6-8 hours. We serve ours over mashed potatoes with a little bit of pepper, garlic, and salt :) We also have buttered bread and salads. It is a wonderful meal and SUPER simple! Hope you all enjoy it!

We Decoratin' the House!

We are preparing to do a huge home makeover on our house! There isn't anything it HAS to have done, but we want to spice things up a little bit! :) We want to paint and start working on some crafty decorations. I LOVE our house and I am SO thankful for it, but... I'm tired of bland white walls, haha! Any one else out there have white walls and desire to do something with them?? Please tell me I'm not the only one! 

I have been trying to get my ideas together and I think we have some themes for a few rooms. We are going to focus on 4 main rooms right now and as time progresses, we will move on to the rooms that we feel look 'alright' right now... even with the white walls :)

So, first on the list: THE OFFICE.

We are wanting to go with a soft baby blue and then black and white accents. For the walls, we are looking at something like this:

 Found here

And then thanks to lovely Pinterest, I have our curtain/lamp inspiration

Aren't those just adorable? I am super excited to see how it all looks together. We already have a few things up on the wall that are black. I am also going to take some black and white pictures of Tayler and put those in black frames and make a collage on the one wall in our office. I am really excited to see how it all plays out!

Next is THE DINING ROOM.

This room is SUPER bare. Like literally all that is in there are the curtains, our dining room table, and a china cabinet. Ethan is currently working on building a wine rack (yes, we are wine drinkers. Don't let him fool you ;)) And then I want to purchase a wall quote from Target that says, "The fondest memories are made when gathered around the table." PERFECT. We are painting those walls a soft purple like this:

Found here

I think it will go really nice with ours tans and mauves that we already have in there. Next thing on my list is finding decorations for the walls because we have none, but that will probably come in after we paint so I can get a good idea as to what we need!

and after that, we are focusing on the LIVING ROOM.

For this room, we are going to do two tones. Two sides of the room are going to be tan and two sides are going to be a dark brown. Something kind of like this, but our tan is going to be a tad bit lighter.

found here

And I am working on some decoration ideas for that. One, thanks to Pinterest, that I absolutely want to include is this:

I LOVE it. We can just keep adding times as we continue to have children :) Gorgeous!

And the next room is THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM.

It is currently white with hunter green sinks. The hunter green is something that we have to work around to make sure everything matches accordingly. I figured my first task was to find a 'theme' and a 'shower curtain' that will tie things together. I found this one that I LOVE at Target:

So we are going to keep the hunter green sinks and paint the room a soft yellow and tie everything in together. I haven't thought of any decorations yet. We don't have a toilet paper holder or anything like that yet, but it's a work in progress.

So, that's what some of our plans are right now! I am working on something I want to hang in the laundry room and we are preparing to clean out our guest bedroom that is downstairs to make a sweet play room for Tayler, but that will come in time I am sure!

Are you working on any projects around your home?? Care to share??

Two Timin' Pasta Bake.... DELICIOUS!

 The husband isn't feeling very well, so he is taking a nap.. Tayler is playing with her new toys.. so I figured I would get on here and update about the SCRUMPTIOUS dinner we had tonight! I got this recipe from Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour and let me tell you.. we will absolutely be having it again! Ethan LOVED it and I did too! 

I know I was supposed to make Cubed Steak and Mashed Potatoes tonight, but I was totally feelin' this pasta. I'm glad I was!

Here's what you need:

1 box of penne pasta. (I got the Great Value kind.. it was wonderful!)
1 jar of Alfredo Sauce (I used Bertolli)
1 jar of Pasta Sauce (I used Hunt's)
1 cup of mozzarella cheese

First, boil the pasta according to the directions on the box. I always throw some salt and butter into mine to make sure that it doesn't stick together! :)

As you are doing that, take your jar of alfredo sauce and your jar of pasta sauce and mix it together in a large bowl. After, add the cup of mozzarella cheese and stir that around as well.

Once your pasta is done, throw it in the bowl and toss it around until all of the pasta is coated with this lovely mixture!

Then add it to a 13X9 casserole dish or pan.

Bake this at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. After that 20 minutes is up, add a layer of mozzarella cheese and bake for 5 minutes after that :)

We served ours with salads, cottage cheese, and rolls with garlic butter on them. It was WONDERFUL and I am very grateful that we have leftovers! Here's a shot of our meal... not a great picture as I always say, but you get the point ;)

Yum!

Hope everyone enjoys!

Crack and Texas

First... CONGRATS to the Giants on their Super Bowl victory! That was an incredible game. I'm a serious football fan, but when there are blowouts... I could really care less about what is going on. Last night, however, I was on the edge of my seat. I'll be honest. I wanted the Giants to win JUST BECAUSE Eli was playing in his brother's stadium. There was no other reason besides that. I thought it would be an amazing honor for him. And I'm sure it was! :)

Speaking of the Super Bowl...

I made 2 dips for the game and I thought I'd share the recipes with you guys. The pictures are terrible and I apologize for those, but they tasted delicious (at least I REALLY thought so ;)) and I think that's all that matters!

Bacon Cheddar Dip, AKA Crack.

All you need is:

16 ounces of sour cream
1 cup of cheddar cheese
3 ounces of bacon bits (in the bag, not the jar)
1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix

Mix all of that together and refrigerate. I refrigerated it about 12 hours and it was perfect! 

We served it with Ritz Crackers! Perfection! :)

I got this recipe here.

And the other dip I made was a Texas Queso Dip. We served that with tortilla chips and oh my word, I am thankful there were a small bit of leftovers (unlike the bacon cheddar dip, haha. It really was like crack to everyone!)

For this, all you need is:
 

A block of Velveeta Cheese
1 lb of hamburger
A packet of Taco Seasoning
a can of Cream of Mushroom soup
a can of Rotel

First, start browning your hamburger. While you are doing this, cut the cheese up into small blocks. Throw those into the bottom of your crock pot. Next, pour in the Cream of Mushroom Soup and the Rotel. After the hamburger is browned and drained, follow the instructions for the taco seasoning. After this has been completed, dump it on top of the cheese and soups and turn on low. Continue stirring and when the cheese is melted... it's ready to go!!

I found this recipe here.

(Obviously check it on it a bit. My cheese burned on the sides a tad bit... that's what happens with a 10 month old running around LOL)

But everyone enjoyed it including my husband who whined and complained for the first hour because I put tomatoes (from the Rotel) in it. He hates tomatoes. I told him to suck it up. He did. AND LIKED IT.

MUHAHAHAHAHA. It's all in his head about tomatoes. Dork.

So there you have it! I hope you guys enjoy! They were perfect Super Bowl appetizers.. .along with my mom's pulled pork and cole slaw, peanut butter jelly bars, and cheesy bacon bites. We had a scrumptious meal!

Have a great day, everyone!