New 3 Week Menu and Recipes

March 3 Week Menu and Recipes

       Hey everyone!  I know I am a little early in posting this but I just wanted to get it done early so you have it ready to go.  This time I haven't included a Grocery Shopping List but if you need one please leave a comment below and I can e-mail one to you :)  Here's some little tidbits of information for you to a question that I get asked most often.  "How do you stay so healthy and cook with butter and some of those heavy ingredients."  Here is my little secret...I love cooking because you can always change a recipe!  I use the mantra "Everything in moderation."  I think if you completely limit your body of something...fat, carbs, etc. then your body will go crazy.  I mean there are obvious things our bodies can do without but for the most part I think if you try to completely abolish one thing from your diet then sometimes it ends up having the opposite effect of what you desire.  This is just my belief and I know there are numerous out there.  For instance I already did a little shpill on butter.  I don't use margarine because it is hydrogenated.  Margarine and butter have the exact same fat and calorie content.  That doesn't mean I need a whole stick of butter every single time I cook though right?  If I am cooking, I usually cut my butter recipe in half.  You won't even miss it?  Now if you are baking, that's another story and can become a little bit trickier with substituting in other ingredients for moisture content but that's another post for another day :)  If a recipe calls for heavy whipping cream then I usually try half and half...again this is only with cooking.  Sometimes our experiments are going to fail...sometimes they will turn out amazing but you have to be willing to try!  I actually try not to use a whole lot of "fat free" items in our house other than milk.  My reasoning for this is that a lot of the stuff that they make "fat free" they add in other chemicals and such to do so.  Again, everything in moderation comes in to play here.  So when I am using full fat items I just cut down on them.  Now, not everyone probably uses this method and I am not saying that everyone should.  This is what works for me and my family.  I try to keep a lot of raw snacks around the house for the kids such as almonds, fruit, vegetables, walnuts...all these without sugar or added salt that way it is an easy snack for them to grab and healthy too!  My kids LOVE nuts!  I usually give my readers the recipes unchanged for the most part but if you would like me to add in my changes that I use to cut down the fat content to make them healthier let me know and I would be more than happy to put those in!  I hope you enjoy this next 3 week Menu Rotation!

- Kristin

Menu

Recipe File

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

        Okay so first of all I have to apologize for being a complete and total slacker lately.  I kept meaning to wake up early so I could post these and I could not drag myself out of bed...mornings and pregnancy have not been my friend for the past couple of weeks!  I hope this post makes up for my absence even though you probably have all of your Valentine's written and sent off with your kids to school!  I finally finished my hubbie's Valentine's Day Present!  Total cost??  $1.69...literally...that's buying all the materials.  It did take a lot of time however but hey it was worth it because he totally and completely loved it!  First off go to the Dollar Store and pick up 2 white poster boards for $0.50 each.  If you have a monopoly board you can trace around it or make your square 24x24 inches.  Draw a square in the middle measuring up 3 inches from the sides.

       Next sketch out Lovopoly in the middle with a pencil. I recommend doing everything with a pencil first so that you can erase it and make sure you do it on the non-shiny side of the poster board that way it doesn't  leave smudges when you erase! I made each of my corner squares 3 inches, you know the ones that have Go, Jail, Free Parking and Go To Jail.  So you need to measure a 3x3 inch square on all 4 corners.  Next you need to make 9 rectangles in between each of those squares.  I made mine measuring 2 inches each to give you the right amount of space.  No from your top line measure 1/2 inch down and draw a straight line across, these you will color in with the colors of the properties.  This is where monopoly comes in handy.  I used it the whole time for colors.  Don't forget that Income Tax, Community Chest, Chance, Utilities and Railroads do not have that line across.

       Next I wrote up a list of all the places that had special meaning to us.  You will need 28 special places, preferrably ones that have special memories that you can incorporate into the game.  By the way, I did find the website for the game if you want to purchase it go to www.lovopoly.com. I did use some ideas from there but most of the stuff was fun to just create on my own!  Okay after you have all your memories decide what you want to go where.  Again the board comes in handy.  You will need 2 brown, 3 light blue, 3 purple, 3 orange, 3 red, 3 yellow, 3 green and 2 dark blue properties.  You will also need 4 railroads, I put 4 temples that were special to us.  Then last you will need 2 utilities, I put the hospital and Disneyland.  Now sketch those out and any pictures you would like.  I just tried to think of simple pictures since I am no artist as you can tell :)  I colored in the squares accordingly, wrote the properties and prices.  I also did a 1/2 inch outline of black marker all the way around the outside of the board to make it look more like the real thing.

       Dog House is used in place of Jail

Stop Sign is much easier to draw then that guy from Monopoly :)

Diaper Fund used in place of Income Tax.

       Next you will make your Property Cards.  I apologize that I didn't get pictures for the rest of the tutorial.  For the Property cards I measure them 2x3.  I just colored in a co-ordinating square on the top and wrote the name of each property in the colored square.  For pricing and house information I just used the exact same pricing as they had on Monopoly.  You are almost there!  Next you need to make your Community Chest and Chance cards (I used Feelin' Lucky and Family Treasure).  You will need 32 of these, 16 of each.  You can do more or less but that's what I did since that's what the game had.  This is where your "meaningful places" come in handy.  So for instance I said "Take a trip to Chicho and Cecy's house.  While you are there, steal your first kiss.  If you pass go, collect $200 Love Bucks!"  Or another one was "Head on over to TGI Friday's where you have an awkward run in with an ex.  Pay $50 Love Bucks for emotional distress."  Get creative!  Find ways to incorporate them in, it is well worth it and we all had a good laugh as we played!  The kids loved it too! 

       Okay here is your last part, phew...you are ALMOST done!  Find good pictures of you and your spouse's faces!  Develop them, laminate them and cut them out.  I used the little stands from our Chutes and Ladders game and set the faces in there and that's what we used for our playing pieces!  So fun!  Trust me, your whole family will have so much fun playing this game, especially when they read little things about themselves in the cards :)  I will put some links below to some fun last minute Valentine Printables from other fun websites in case you need a quick fix!  Good luck and enjoy!

- Kristin

Cute "Lovah" Gift Tags From Skip To My Lou

Matchboxes from Inchmark

Elephant Printable from Family Fun

Super Cute Lips from Paper Crafts

Valentine Candy Box (Printable) Family Fun

Valentine's S'mores from Tricia Rennea

Sneak Peek Valentine's Gift Tutorial For Hubby and Free Printable

Sneak Peek Valentine's Gift Tutorial For Hubby and Free Printable

       Hey everyone!  Can you believe it's almost Valentine's??  Seriously??  I feel like the first part of this year went by way too fast.  I know that there are many people out there who don't feel the "LOVE" on Valentine's.  Those who think it is just a way to get people to spend more money...in a way, I agree with those people.  In fact, my hubby and I don't go out and buy a bunch of teddy bears and chocolates or even go out to eat on Valentine's because there are so many people it is kind of hard to make your dinner feel special and private.  However, I do believe that Valentine's does have a great purpose...I won't go into the history of it all, I am sure you all are "google savvy" enough to be able to do that :)  But I will tell you that I seriously think Valentine's Day is a great excuse to do something ridiculously cheesy and over the top fun for your husband!  I love thinking of new and creative ways to do something for my husband without spending hardly any money at all.  We reserve the money spending for birthdays and Christmas so Valentine's Day is basically just an extra bonus :)  So here is my little sneak peek of what I have come up with this year for my husband!  I will be doing a tutorial on this within the next week but since it's not finished as you can see below, I cant quite get everything up yet.  I am sure you have all heard of Monopoly!  There is actually a website that you can go to that I saw a long time ago and they will make you your very own game of Lovopoly but I have searched everywhere and cannot find it for you!  But since this is our "extra" holiday I just decided to do it on my own!  Let me tell you, this is seriously going to cost you nothing if you do decide to do it on your own, but it does take a little time and thought.  Just to give you an example of how I am going to change it up...in the bottom left hand corner where it normally would say "GO" it says "Collect $200 Love Bucks As You Pass The BEDROOM" and I am going to put in different places that are special to us for the Properties.  I will give you some printables and exact dimensions as soon as I am done with everything!  Don't pretend like you're not excited ;) 

       My mom's birthday was recently and as I was brainstorming ideas of gifts to give her I came up with this idea of "A Mother's Prayer".  I often think about how grateful I am for my mom.  I think you can never fully comprehend the sacrifice and love your mother gives you until you become a mother as well.  This is true for me anyways.  In high school when my mom gave me curfews I thought she was just being over protective and silly.  Now as a mother, I realize the anxiety I am going to have when I have a 16 year old out on a school night that shows up 2 hours late without calling to let me know where she is.  The many fears that already run through my head when I only have little kids such as "Will they make the right choices when I'm not there?  Am I raising them to be all that they can be?"  There are so many more that I could list and go on and on and on. I feel so grateful for a Mother who taught me that being a mom was most important, even though it meant not always being popular with your kids.  That values are important and will essentially help you to grow into the person you want to be and help you realize what you really believe in.  I have included the printable with the Saying that I wrote. It is an 8X10 so keep that in mind as you print it out :)  I just sent mine over to Costco and framed it!  I hope you enjoy!  If you display it in your home, I would love to see it!  I am almost done with some fun Valentine's Printables so let me know if you are interested and I will get those up A.S.A.P. to use for your upcoming party :)  Enjoy!

- Kristin

New Menu!!

New Menu

       Here is your New Menu, Recipe File and Grocery Shopping List for the month of February!  Hopefully you all are as excited about this as I am :)  I will have a cute Valentine printable for tomorrow and some other fun recipes coming up for your kids and hopefully your March Menu by the end of this week and then I will take a short break to catch up on some much needed rest :)  Let me know if you have any problems.  Enjoy!

Recipe File

Menu

Grocery Shopping List