Whew, what a week!

Last week was a doozy! It started with Eli being sick weekend before last. He began with running a fever and having a little congestion. Sunday he sounded worse and had a little cough. Monday he was worse, but I waited. Well Tuesday he woke up and was still worse, and had a little drainage coming from his ears (TMI, I know!) but that's not necessarily a bad thing. His tubes were made to do that. But it did give me a clue that he had a lot of gunk backed up in there! So, I called and set them up an apt for Wednesday afternoon. Well, they both got a shot and zpack. (Bronchitis/sinus infection) I was told to continue breathing treatments, too. I had started them Tuesday after speaking with the nurse. I'm so glad we bought the nebulizer and keep albuteral on hand! On Tuesday, I also started feeling yucky. And by Wednesday I knew I needed to see the Dr as well. I've told you all before when I get a sinus infection, it hits me like a ton of bricks! So by the time we got home Wed afternoon, I was miserable!! The Hubs had his last final Wed night so I couldn't go to the Dr until he got home. So, I got to the after hours Dr at 7pm! Well, I waited and waited and finally went back around 8pm. The nurse took a while getting my pulse and when she took me to my room she told me to lay down and wait on someone to check my pulse again.. because it was up around 120. This of course freaked me out, so I called the Hubs! I asked him to come sit with me! I knew he'd have to bring the boys but I really wanted him with me. I'm so glad he doesn't think my anxieties are silly! I hate going to the Dr by myself. I get so nervous! And that, along with me being a little dehydrated is probably what made my pulse go up. It did drop, still a little high but not as high. Anyway, on the way the Hubs called Gram and Grandad and they picked up the boys. (Thank you!) I just figured they would stay with us but it ended up being better because we didn't leave the Dr until 9:30pm! I got a shot and some strong antibiotics! I'm feeling much better but still not quite 100%! SO.. needless to say we didn't do anything last week! No cooking, no crafts.. just wiping snotty noses.. resting.. and watching movies. And my house.. oh me. It is starting to look better but it just went by the wayside!

Although I didn't cook after Monday night, what I did cook was a new 'recipe'. I made Italian Roast Wraps Monday night. They were so yummy and so easy!! What a great way to use a roast! I love the usual roast w/ carrots and potatoes but you have to admit that sometimes it's nice to do something different! Next time I'll try it with homemade taco seasoning mix for a different flavor!

In weight loss news, there isn't much. I didn't weigh Friday morning but I did get an 'official weigh' at the Drs Wednesday night and it was the same as last week. I'm just stuck but glad I haven't gained any back! With the bathroom remodel and being sick, it's been 3 weeks since I've done any kind of exercising! Hopefully this week I can get some in!!

Menu Plan Monday.. time to weigh in!

Grilled Chicken, Corn on the Cobb, Green Beans

Italian Roast Wraps, Fruit Salad

Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Potato Wedges, Carrot Sticks w/ Ranch Dressing

Homemade Pizza

Tacos, Simple Black Beans

Sloppy Joes on Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns, Homemade Onion Rings

Egg Salad Sandwiches, Fruit

Spaghetti, Salad

Braised Bistro Chicken (maybe I'll get around to this one this week!), Veggie

Pork Chops, Baked Potato, Salad

For breakfast we have giant breakfast cookies and banana muffins in the freezer, cheese and cinnamon toast and of course, cereal. I haven't totally given up on all boxed foods... yet. ;)

BTW, the giant breakfast cookies are really good! The kids love them! I made mine with dried cranberries. They taste like oatmeal cookies! We finished a box of generic nutri grain cereal bars and I'm vowing not to buy anymore!

I'm also attempting homemade onion rings at some point! I'll let you know how they turn out.

Last week I made the Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche. I was blessed by two different people with a dozen farm fresh eggs, so needless to say I had and still have eggs to use (see egg salad above!) and this was a perfect way to do it! It really was yummy! The boys wouldn't even hardly look at it (much less try it!) but the Hubs and I loved it!


I also made the chicken satay skewers this weekend. This was a big hit with everyone. Well, minus the peanut sauce. There is just something not right about dipping chicken in peanut butter! The boys loved the chicken on skewers. They were calling them chicken suckers! I will definitely be making this again. I rarely get Luke to eat chicken without being breaded in the form of a nugget! The marinade is super easy (btw, if you look at the link, it calls for sesame oil and I just used olive oil) and would be a great marinade for chicken on the grill!

Ok, ok. I did weigh in this past Friday. Thankfully, the scales had not moved! I didn't gain or lose and honestly I'm glad for the lack of change because I was expecting a little gain! I'm hoping to get more exercise in this week since the bathroom remodel is finished!

Well, Eli is up.. he's battling a cold and cough! Might be a long night!

Pollen!! (Oh and letter C crafts!)

Well, we're stuck inside on this beautiful day. Monday and Tuesday we stayed inside mainly to keep away from pollen. We got out yesterday for a while and had planned on today but Eli's running a fever! He woke up last night around 11pm and was warm. So, I gave him some tylenol. Then he was up at 3am, 6am and finally 9 am. Needless to say when my alarm went off at 7am, I turned of OFF! He's stuffy, so my guess is that he's developed a cold from the allergies. It seems like we can't get a break! I'm seriously hating pollen right now!! Maybe we should move! (Yeah, that' show much I'm hating it!)

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer today! I just want my boys to be able to enjoy the weather!

So, while I'm sitting here and the kids are watching Toy Story, I'll share a few pictures of some of our crafts, mainly our alphabet crafts. (Here is the our previous alaphabet post)

At the end of March we worked on the letter C. Our Bible verse was, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 1 Corinthians 5:17. Here is Luke practicing making his C.

We also had a fun caterpillar snack: Peanut butter on Ritz crackers, pretzels for feelers and raisins for eyes!

And from Confessions of a Homeschooler, I downloaded this cute caterpillar number sequence game! Luke had fun putting the numbers in order! He's also asked to play this game several times since then! I wish I had a laminator so we could use these for longer!

I found a cute letter C craft for our alphabet book that went with our caterpillar theme but when I saw this C is for Crab craft from Totally Tots, it was too cute to pass up!

Isn't it super cute?! We did do a few Easter themed crafts but I don't have pictures! It was the week we were staying at my mom's because of the bath remodel. I forgot my camera! I'll share our April crafts later. We're only doing two letters this month, also because of the bathroom remodel. It's technically not finished (just painting the door is left) but the majority of the work was finished yesterday. So, it took longer than expected and kind of threw our schedule off!

Ok, off to get lunch started!

YUM-O

I've been doing a lot of things in the kitchen and wanted to share some of the good ideas and recipes! In my Monday post I shared a link for Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix. Well, I also made Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix too!

These are pint size jars and it's perfect for the ranch mix. But I really needed a bigger jar for the taco seasoning mix. I have already used both mixes and they turned out great. Last week I made Tex Mex turkey burgers. I used a generous amount of taco seasoning mix on both sides of mine and the Hubs burgers. I just sprinkled a little on the boys. Then I mixed about 1/2 tsp seasoning mix into about 2-3 TBS of mayo for a yummy spread! These burgers were sooo good! I'm going to use it this week for tacos! I also made the ranch dressing/dip mix. You use 2 TBS of the mix with 1 c mayo and 1 c buttermilk. I will admit that this dressing is not exactly like the packet stuff but it is really good! And the longer it sits in the fridge the better. I suggest making it a day ahead before using it. I think next time I might use 3/4 c butter milk and 1/4 c milk, just to cut the tang of the buttermilk. I made ours on Saturday night and it was gone after we ate dinner last night (we had chicken finger salads)! Everyone seems to like it, even my worst critic, Luke. Although, I did kind of have to 'trick' him. I spooned it out of the dish I had mixed it in, into a little cup for him without him seeing it. So, he never knew it didn't come out of a bottle! Just making these two little changes have made me feel so much better!

I have another non-recipe to share with you, like the Tex Mex burgers. It's not really a recipe, more of an idea! I made Chicken, Feta and Spinach Quesadillas last week and they were SUPER! Here are the basic ideas, you can really do whatever you like!

Shredded Chicken, cooked
Spinach (fresh)
Feta Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese (shredded)
Garlic/Onion
Olive Oil

I used a rotisserie chicken for these quesadillas. In a pan, I sauteed a chopped onion and a little garlic for a few minutes in olive oil. Next, I added a few handfuls of baby spinach to let it wilt a little. Put it aside and start assembling your quesadilla. I do a tortilla on bottom, layer my ingredients, then a tortilla on top. Some people do one tortilla and put the ingredients on half and fold it over. Either way, place tortilla in hot pan and layer shredded chicken, spinach mix and then cheese. Put another tortilla on top or fold tortilla over. Cook until bottom is crispy, flip and repeat. Let cool slightly before cutting. When I do this, I usually turn my oven on warm and keep the finished tortillas on a sheet pan. These were soo good! The reason I added a little mozz. cheese is because the feta doesn't melt as well. So, the mozzarella is more for melting purposes and the feta more for flavor! These would be good with mushrooms too! You know, you can put anything in a tortilla! I think I've said that before! ;)

Last night I made another Heavenly Homemaker recipe: Banana Cake. I didn't make a cake though, I made muffins! The recipe is already healthier that most muffin recipes, so I just made the recipe and left off the icing! These muffins are really good! I did sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar and cinnamon on top! I made 12 muffins and then had enough to do one mini loaf. I burned the mini loaf though. Long story, that is a result of a 19 month old who still likes to wake up around 11pm sometimes! I left out 8 muffins for us to much on this week and froze 4 for a quick breakfast one day next week!

*Side note about this picture: As I was taking it, Luke asked me what I was doing so I told him I was taking pictures of our muffins. He said, "Oh, well they won't say cheese!" ;)

I also have a yummy chocolate pie recipe to share but I'm going to save that for later! Tonight I'm making Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche with my farm fresh eggs! :)

Happy Eating!