Bountiful Baskets

I decided to try something new this week. On facebook I've been hearing rave reviews about Bountiful Baskets. So I signed up online with my sister in law. She was kind enough to pick up my basket for me. All this for $15! You don't know in advance what you are getting, but I love the results and look forward to cooking with new things. Check it out!

Menu Plan Monday

Very excited for this week! I visited Smockity Frocks's What's in Your Crock Pot post and found lots of yummy recipes to try! I'll be putting my crock pot to work this week.

But first, what went well last week .... the spaghetti with quinoa meatballs was a big hit with my family. I've been looking for more ways to use quinoa so I will definitely use it again for healthier and more filling meatballs.

The Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from Beauty and Bedlam definitely were VERY close to Cinnabons's. My brother and sister leapt over the back of the couch to get to the last one. Delicious!


Dinner:
1. Cheesy Beef and Rice
2. Ham Cheddar Chowder, Salads, and Rolls
3. Hamburgers with Homemade Buns with Baked Yam and Potato Casserole
4. Crock Pot Black Bean Ham Soup
5. Crock Pot Italian Chicken
6. Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese
7. Asian Pork Tenderloin with Rice and Broccoli

Lunches
1. Hard Boiled Eggs, Toast, Fruit
2. Burritos
3. Grilled Cheese and Carrots
4. Quesadillas and Broccoli
5. Salads
6&7 Leftovers

Breakfasts
1. Yogurt and Toast
2. Scrambled Eggs and Toast
3. Strawberry Crisp
4. Tote in Hole and fruit
5. Pancakes
6. Oatmeal and Smoothies
7. Banana Bread



For later:
Homemade Apple Sauce in a Crock Pot
Rice Cream
Home made Graham Crackers

Giveaways!

Lots of fun giveaways happening right now!

Here are a few of my personal favorites:

$25 Cheesecake Factory Gift Card from Mommiecheapest.com

Julie Taggert Photo Session in Utah

Melissa and Doug Gear

I'm Booking It!

I just found this great Challenge on lifeasamom.com. Since I love to read, I decided to jump on it - even though I am a month late!

My reading goals for 2010 are:

• 15 minutes inspirational reading every day (scriptures, etc.)
• read to my children every day
• read at least one fun book and one learning book each month

Pretty basic, but with two under two - that's what I got.

Here is what is on my book wish list for the year:

• Women of the Old Testament by Camille Olson Fronk
• The Love Dare by Stephen Kendrick
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Abinadi: A Novel
• The Amaranth Enchanment
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Confessions of a Shop-a-holic
• A Curse Dark as Gold
• English Trifle: A Culinary Mystery
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
• The Handmaid and the Carpenter
• The Hourglass Door
• In Praise of Stay at Home Moms

More to be added!

What I love about you ...

I love reading and getting ideas from the Tot School blog. Just recently, I discovered that Carissa also does a blog about her youngest daughter. She posts weekly what she loves about each stage her daughter is in. What a fantastic way to preserve the fun of babyhood. So I am starting to do it with Mini Dude as well.

Here is what I love this week!

• I love this sweet in between stage. Not quite big enough to crawl or walk, but getting more and more independent and excited about the world around you every day.

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• I love how very aware you are of what we are doing and how you want to be apart of it, too. You were a little fussy when I was taking down the Christmas tree for your Nana, but when I gave you a flower to hold - you were content as can be. You just held it and looked at it for about 15 minutes.
  

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• I love that you are such a great little sleeper! You have been since day one! So, so, so nice. Swaddled in a blanket with your binkie - you go right to sleep. Love these mid day snuggle sessions on the couch that you have with your sister.
  

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• It is so fun to see you in your walker. A little man pushing himself around the room. This basketball is your favorite toy. It is squishy and you love to hold it - and eat it as well!
  

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• And I love that you are a fantastic little brother! So patient with your older sister, Mini Diva, when she wants to play with you!
  

• Your favorite new thing this week is eating bananas in the little mesh holder. It makes you so happy!
  

Best Yet Whole Wheat Bread

I have a love/hate relationship with homemade whole wheat bread. Love to eat it - hate to make it. Up until yesterday, my efforts have resulted in less than satisfactory loaves ranging from edible as toasted garlic bread to barely recognizable. Try as I might, I just couldn't get it right.

Then came along this beauty of a recipe! I went to my church's enrichment night for women. It was an informative back to the basics night. I thought I was doing okay (except for the making bread part) in the basics of cooking and food storage, but, boy, did I learn a lot! It is one thing to read a recipe off the Internet, another thing to actually be able to see it every step of the way. Helped immensely!

The second portion of the evening was on food storage. Learned a lot during it as well, but that is another post! Until then - here is the fantastic whole wheat bread recipe! I have been enjoying it's moist goodness all day! Very excited to have it with sandwiches.

Wonderful Whole Wheat Bread

Combine these four ingredients and mix well:

6 cups warm water
2/3 cup honey
2 tbsp yeast
8-9 cups whole wheat flour

Add:
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 egg
2 tbsp gluten (I found mine for 1.85/lb. at Good Earth)
1 tbsp vinegar (optional)
1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp salt

Mix well; then add additional flour until dough pulls away from the sides and begins cleaning off the sides (approximately 9 to 10 additional cups). Be careful not to add too much flour. Let the machine knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes. Roll out on oiled surface and put into four greased loaf pans. Fill half full. Let rise while covered until double (approximately 30 minutes) Preheat oven to 350 degrees). Plae bread in oven carefully with space in between loaves. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden. Remove and enjoy!

Tot School

This week definitely went better as far as our Tot School activities. Unfortunately, I didn't get it all on camera!

One of the activities that we have begun is weekly mommy/daughter or daddy/daughter dates. Mini Diva loves these especially since we are cooped up at the house while Daddy is at work during the day. Our adventure this week was to the pet store where we had a marvelous time counting fish, petting dogs, and looking for the hiding hamsters.

Monsters was also a popular topic this week. She has loved talking about Monsters every since Halloween and watching Monster's Inc. We had a monster breakfast:

And her favorite towel of the week was the monster as well! Pretend playing is fast becoming one of her favorite activities and this towel is perfect for such fun.

As Mini Diva gets older, she is becoming more and more of a help around the house. She helped me take down her Nana's Christmas tree. It was a fun activity to serve as well as sort the different ornaments and flowers into the matching piles. She did quite well and was a happy helper.

Mrs. Potato Head or "Potato Baby" as Mini Diva likes to call her was still a hit this week. Fantastic since it is a toy I have had since my teens! Who knew she would love it so much? She found a new and fun use for Potato Baby's tongue. Looks like it found its way to Mini Dude.

Valentines Day was also central to many of our activities. I printed off lots of the Tot School activities and hope to get to them all. She really enjoyed learning this scripture even more than I thought she would. She would repeat the scripture title and the new word that we added on each day. I think we will do this more often and continue it.

Mini Diva also made a Valentines Box and Valentines for her cousins. It was fun for me to ask her the reasons why she loved her cousins so that we could write it on the card. Very insightful for a two year old!

All in all - a very fun week! Looking forward to more heart and Olympic activities this week.