OAMC part III

We did our OAMC again on November 8th. This time I recruited my sister, Nikki to do it with me. And of course, she loved it and has been asking me ever since, if we could plan another cooking day.

Here is Nikki cooking. We sure did make a mess that day. But messes are easy to clean up. I could not believe t he amount of food we cooked. Lets see if I can remember some of the stuff we cooked (its been well over a month since our cooking day)

Chili - 4 ziploc bags each

beef stew - 3 bags each

chicken roll ups - 12 each

breaded chicken breasts - 15 each

dump swiss steak - 2 bags each

meat loaf - 2 loaves each

meatballs - 18 each

marinara sauce - 3 bags each

seasoned green beans

mashed potatoes

in total we got 18 main meals each and 6 side dishes. So we ended up spending about 7.80 per main meal. That is for a family of four or five. My sister has a family of five, so when we filled all the baggies, we made sure to put enough in for a family of five. That comes out to 1.56 per person. WOW, that is amazing to me. I love it!!!!

I am so thankful my sister enjoyed the cooking day. Cuz, I am totally addicted to it. We are going to try to do another OAMC day the second week of January.

I had to add this pic of my boys, Justin and Jason. They were at the house all day while we cooked. And they were so well behaved and such good helpers. Thanks boys!!

Have a blessed day,
Fran

Menu Plan Monday Dec 1 - Dec 7

So I haven't posted my meal plans in a while, but my laptop is in the shop getting a new mother board. And I am posting on my hubby's PC, which is so much different from my laptop. But thankfully I have this to keep me busy....like two 5 year olds don't keep me busy enough. I still menu plan, even if I don't post it here on my blog. Yeah, I know Nikki (my sister) I am a nut case for doing all this menu planning, but it sure does keep me organized. I will have you converted one of these days.


Monday -

Bfast - cereal

Lunch - noodles, muffins and pudding

Dinner - beercan chicken (this is my first time trying this) roasted potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts



Tuesday -
Bfast - waffles & strawberry jam, oranges

lunch - PB&J sammie, celery with PB and grapes

Dinner - cheeseburgers, garlic fries, corn on the cob



Wednesday
bfast - smoothie and cereal bar

lunch - cheese quesadilla and oranges

dinner - meatloaf, mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, corn



Thursday
bfast - eggs, bacon and toast

lunch - mini pepperoni pizza's and grapes

Dinner - not sure yet



Friday
bfast - pancakes with blueberries

lunch - chicken tenders, chips and fruit

Dinner - order pizza



Sat
bfast - cereal, fruit, yogurt

lunch - blt sammies, homemade garlic fries

Dinner - Asian pork tenderloin, fried rice and broccoli



Sunday

bfast - egg and breakfast meat casserole

lunch -

Dinner - pasta, chicken parm, salad

If you want to get some great ideas on menu planning, check out orgjunkie.com.

Have a blessed week!!
Fran

So bummed

I miss my laptop!!! I had to take it in to be repaired and I am missing her desperately. The guy at the Geek Squad desk said he thinks the video card in the mother board went bad, so the mb will need to be replaced.

Thankfully it is under warranty, get this....I only had 16 more days left on my warranty. WOW, I would have been really bummed if my warranty was up and I had to pay for it myself. I might be paying for an extended warranty because I have had so many problems with my laptop. And I don't want to be in this situation in the future and not have a warranty.

So, now I wait and in the mean time I am using my hubby's desk top. I am thankful to have this, I cannot even imagine what I would do without any computer at all. I wonder what we did, back in the day, when we didn't have the Internet. I guess we kept ourselves busy doing productive things....lol

Those are my thoughts for the day!
Have a great one.
Fran

Cool!!!

Check out this digital scrapbook that I made. This is the first one I have made, and its so much fun. Very addicting!!!!

here are a couple more digi-scrapbook pages that I created tonight.

Menu Planning Monday - Oct 27-Nov 2

Life has been so busy, I haven't had a chance to post my menu plans for the past two weeks. Well I'm back with a couple of new recipes. One recipe I have made once and it was soooo delicious, that's the Bruschetta Chicken bake. My husband, John said it was the best meal I ever made. I was raving about it to my family and my sister made it for a dinner party she had with her BFF Jacqui and they LOVED it too. I even think my Gram is going to try this recipe too. Hope you like it Gram!!! I will post the new recipes at the end of this post.

Breakfasts
cereal, fruit, yogurt
eggs, bacon, fruit
french toast, yogurt, fruit
pancakes, jello, fruit

Lunches
PB&J sammies, bananas
cheese quesadillas, orange, pudding - I might change up these and add ham and cheese
mac n cheese, jello, pears
chicken nuggets, fries, apples


Dinners
bruschetta chicken bake, baked Ziti (from our OAMC day), broccoli
lemon garlic chicken, lemon rice pilaf, seasoned green beans
pasta and meatballs, garlic bread
meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn
roasted whole chicken, roasted potatoes, glazed carrots
asian pork tenderloin, fried rice, roasted Brussels sprouts
Italian style green peppers and pork chops, mashed potatoes


here is the Bruschetta Chicken bake recipe
40 min 10 min prep
SERVES 4 , 4 pieces of chicken
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup egg substitute or 2 eggs
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 pound)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 1 1/2 T dried basil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper



Place flour and eggs in separate shallow bowls. Dip chicken in flour, then in eggs; place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Combine the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over chicken. Loosely cover baking dish with foil. Bake at 375° for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until top is browned.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Spoon over the chicken. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until tomato mixture is heated through. Yield: 4 servings.


and here is the
Lemon Garlic Chicken recipe.

I haven't tried this yet, but it got great reviews on recipezaar.com



3¼ hours 15 min prep
SERVES 6

2 lbs chicken breast halves
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cloves garlic (more or less to taste)
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granule
1 teaspoon minced parsley

Remove excess skin and fat from chicken, rinse and pat dry.

In a small bowl combine oregano, seasoned salt and pepper, rub mixture onto chicken using all of the mixture.
In a large skillet over medium heat brown chicken in the butter.

Transfer chicken to slow cooker.
To the skillet add the water, lemon juice, garlic and chicken bouillon.
Stirring over medium heat bring mixture to a boil, loosening browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Pour over Chicken, cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or on low for 5 to 6 hours until chicken is almost tender.
Add parsley Cover and cook on high for 15-30 minutes more!




Seasoned green beans
15 min 5 min prep
SERVES 6 , 1 side dish
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 chopped green onion
1 sweet pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (20 ounce) package frozen green beans
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

combine everything in bowl, then place in freezer bag. leave cheese out, place in smaller bag. heat skillet to med-high and saute with 2 T water for about 8-10 min until all is bright tender. transfer to platter, sprinkle with cheese if desired.
OR.
roast on baking sheet 475 until browned, about 10-15 min., then add cheese if desired.
I always roast them in the oven. They are so delish!!!

Check out orgjunkie.com for other MPM ideas.

Have a wonderful week
Fran

Twitter

Do you Twitter? Check out Twitter.com


https://twitter.com/shelby1232

Have a great day!!
Fran

Menu Planning Mondays! Oct 6 - 12

This is the second week I am trying this new format for the weekly meal planning. In previous weeks, I would specifically decide what meal we eat when. This time I am trying to be a little more spontaneous. But I still don't know if I like it. I was so used to the other way, but I thought I would try it again this week. Who knows, maybe I will end up liking doing it this way.

Breakfasts
Cereal and fruit
muffins and yogurt
pancakes, fruit and yogurt
french toast, fruit smoothie
eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast


Lunches
Homemade chicken tenders and garlic fries
grilled cheese sandwich with carrots and green peppers
PB&J sammies and bananas
quesadillas and green beans


Dinners

oregano chicken, rice and broccoli
shredded chicken tacos
bruschetta chicken, Brussels sprouts
crock pot lemon garlic chicken, green beans, rice pilaf
chili mac and beer bread
meat loaf, mashed potatoes, carrots
swiss steak, maches potatos, green beans

For more great ideas and to post your own menu planning go to orgjunkie.com.

Everyone, have a wonderful week!!!
Fran

OAMC part Deux DONE!!!

Jaime putting chicken parm in her food saver bags.

We had our second Once a Month cooking marathon on Sunday at it was a complete success. There were four of us this time, me, Lisa H., Anna and Jaime. We recruited my SIL Jaime, and she did a GREAT job!!! I think we have her hooked on this OAMC way of life. I sure know that I am hooked, it makes life sooooo much easier. We did really well this time we made

Chili - 6 batches
Stuffed peppers - 30 (10 each)
Lasagna - 3 pans
Dump lime chicken - 3 batches
Dump chicken w/ veggies - 3 batches
Chicken parm - 3 batches
Dump swiss steak - 6 batches
Beef stew - 6 batches
Baked ziti - 6 pans
Chicken tenders 1 bag of 25 each
garlic fries - one big bag each


Lisa H. showing off her 1/3 of the meals we prepared that day
This didn't even include the 2 pans of stuffed peppers and pan of lasagna

We ended up making about 18 meals each. Again its going to be a huge time saver over the next month to have all these meals just sitting waiting in my freezer.

So you ask, how much did it cost us to make all these dinners??? Well I would be glad to answer that. It was approximately $7.75 per meal to feed a family of four. Some of the meals I will add a veggie and/or a starch to, but most of the meals have everything I need all in the freezer bag or pan.

So, on the financial end of this OAMC, it is a smart way to go. You have the meals all paid for and just waiting in the freezer. So it cuts down on my weekly grocery bill, because I have these meals already prepared. I would say I use the OAMC meals about 4 times a week and three times a week I cook other non-prepared meals.

Whats next for us, well, in December, we are going to have a huge baking day where we are going to bake Christmas cookies and goodies. And we're going to make jams and jellies.

And I am so excited to share my next OAMC day in November with my sister, Nikki. We are going to have so much fun! I will keep you all posted on that OAMC day.

I hope I have inspired you to try this way of cooking, its so much fun, lots and lots of work, but soooo worth it in the end!!!

Have a wonderful week.
Fran

Amish Friendship bread

pics of Jason and Justin mixing the batter up.

Amish Friendship bread (AFB)

The boys and I made our second batch of AFB. This time we made the original Cinnamon recipe, we made them into muffins and we made a banana nut variation into a cake pan. They both are delish!!!

Here is a pic of our finished product, as you can see the boys had two muffins right away!

Here is some information about it. Its really fun to change up the different recipes. I have tried it with the original cinnamon and have tried it with bananas and nuts. they both are yummy!!

This is more than a recipe - it's a way of thinking. In our hi-tech world almost everything comes prepackaged and designed for instant gratification. So where does a recipe that takes ten days to make fit in? Maybe it's a touch stone to our past - to those days not so very long ago when everything we did took time and where a bread that took 10 days to make was not as extraordinary as it seems today.

Amish Friendship Bread is a great bread for the holidays. When you've made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called "friendship bread". It makes a great homemade birthday and Christmas present. Church groups and hospitals have spread a lot of love and cheer by making Amish Friendship Bread for their members. Many people make it regularly just because it tastes so good!

Amish Friendship Bread is a genuine starter bread. If you know someone with a starter, you are in luck. For those of you without access to a starter, we've done our research and found a great option. It's a special starter in powder form that can be activated with flour and water; it's safe, very inexpensive and we can send it to you. (from airmchair.com)

In case anyone was wondering, here is the nutritional information for the AFB
approximate Nutritional Information
Amish Friendship Bread

Servings Per Recipe: 30

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 130

Total Fat: 5.6g
Cholesterol: 22mg
Sodium: 89mg
Total Carbs: 18.3g
Dietary Fiber: 0.3g
Protein: 1.9g

So if one of your friends or family members hands you a Ziploc baggie with batter in it, take it with a smile. Its fun to make. Its not a burden. Take the time to teach your kiddos to bake, learning how to measure, pouring, cracking open an egg and taste testing is so much fun for them and you too!

Have a great day.
Fran
"Live simply, not just simply live"

OAMC part Deux

We are doing our Once a Month Cooking day again on September 28th. I am so excited, we recruited my sister in law, Jaime. She was so interested in it, we didn't even have to talk her into doing it with us. Lisa H. and I are becoming the masters at OAMC. I love the planning aspect of OAMC, there is quite a bit that goes into planning a OAMC day. You have to decide what recipes you are going to make, then convert all the ingredients, as you have to sometimes quadruple the recipes, pick your date, make the grocery list (as in our case, lists, cuz we divide up the list between all the OAMC chefs), and much more.

So, here are the reciepes we are going to tackle this time.

Dump lime chicken
Beef stew
chili
stuffed green peppers
lasagna
dump chicken with potatoes, carrots and zucchini
dump swiss steak (again, we loved it the first time, so this is a repeat)
chicken roll ups (another repeat, yummo!)

chicken tenders
garlic fries
mashed potatoes

At the end of our cooking day we will have over 20 main meals each, approx 40 chicken tenders, tons of fries and at least 3 bags of mashed potatoes. If you ask me that is so worth cooking for an entire day. If you can have at least 20 days of no cooking during the next month....woohoo!!! I love Once a Month Cooking ☺
Wish us luck.
I will post recipes another day, its way past midnight and I am so tired.
Good night.
Fran

Menu Planning Monday Sept 22- Sept 28

Good morning,
Happy Monday!! ☺ This week I am trying a new recipe that looks sooo delish. Organizing Junkie's MPM is Family Favorite edition. So I am also adding my families favorite dinner, and wow, we havne't had this meal in at least a month. I feel like I am depriving my family.

I have organized it a little differant this week. I think its going to work better for me.

Breakfasts
cereal and fruit
cereal and yogurt
eggs and bacon
french toast and strawberries
pancake puffs, fuit and S/F pudding


Lunches
homemade chicken nuggets and fries
cheese quasadillas, veggies and ranch dip

mac and cheese and broccoli
chicken noodle soup with crackers and oranges
grilled cheese

Dinners
Beef Stew with dinner rolls
bruschetta chicken with broccoli and pasta
oregano Chicken - one of my families Fav's
slow cooker swiss steak w/ potatoes and carrots
chimichangas and spanish rice - recipe from Guy Fieri Hot off the Grill on Food Network
pasta and meatballs, salad and garlic toast - another family fav
asian pork tenderloin, rice and roasted brussel sprouts


Well thats all, until next week!

For more great ideas and to post your own menu planning go to orgjunkie.com.

Have a blessed week!
Fran

Our Disney World adventure Part 3

'

The final installment of our Disney trip is finally done.

And its all about our time IN Disney.

The above pics were taken by a Photopass photographer
at the Epcot Character meet and greet

I found these great pics of Port Orleans Riverside - Alligator Bayou section, on the DISboards.com message boards. So I thought I would post them, so you can see where we stayed.

Pic of Alligator Bayou section of Port Orleans Riverside resort.

Our room was in the second building in this pic.

This was the view from our room and my smoking bench

that I sat at every morning and evening. What a beautiful view.

It was such a beautiful place, the landscape and grounds were so beautifully rustic and peaceful. Daily, our boys fed the birds, ducks, bunnies and even tried to feed an iguana one day. POR Riverside has so many fun things to do right on the property: horse drawn carriage rides, boats and bicyles made for four people you can rent and drive them around the resort. So much fun!!

Here is some basic info about Port Orleans Riverside
Total Number of rooms: 2048

Room size: 315 Sq Ft.

The great things about Port Orleans Resort is that your have access to seven different pools and two water slides. In addition to the bus transportation, resort guests can use the water taxi to make their way to the Downtown Disney. The overall southern theme and beautiful landscaping sets it apart from any other moderate resort on Disney property. I have also stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort, which is also a moderate resort and we love it there also. They are two totally different themed resorts with similar amenities. They are both fairly large resorts and there is alot of walking to do between food court or pool and your room. I would stay at both POR and Caribbean again and again.

Enough said about the resort now onto our fun filled 8 days in Disney.

Day one- On our arrival day we just hung out at our resort, got settled in, explored the resort and had dinner at Boatwrights restaurant, the food was delicious.

Day two - We got up and spent the morning and all afternoon at Magic Kingdom. We went through Main Street USA, Liberty Square and Fantasy Land. The boys rode rides (some they rode several times in a row ☺) - It's a Small World, Tea cups, Haunted Mansion, Cinderella's Carousal, Dumbo the flying elephant.
That evening we got dressed and jumped on the boat to Downtown Disney where we had dinner ressies at Capt'n Jacks restaurant, again the food was delish. We shopped at the toys store, Once upon a Toy Store, the Lego store, Mickey's mart (everything is 10.00 or under), and the World of Disney store. We had a great time in DTD.

Day three- As we got up that AM with anticipation to go to Typhoon Lagoon water park, one of our boys had a bad accident in the room. As John and I were walking out the door, the boys were so excited they were jumping on the bed and Jason fell off and hit his little noggin on the wood bed rail. My poor baby was bleeding everywhere, so we took him to a pediatric clinic where he got stitches.

After we were all done at the clinic, we headed back to the resort to relax for the day. But Jason would not have that, we were in Disney and he wanted to be on the run going, going and going. So we asked him where he wanted to go, he said "Magic Kingdom, for sure" So there we went and spent the entire evening until 1:00am there. We went on tons of rides, spent alot of time in Toontown at Mickey and Minnie's houses, rode Goofy's Barnstormer, and all the other rides we had rode the day before. This time we headed to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzzlight year ride, Monsters Inc laugh floor, Tomorrowland Speedway.
We ate at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe, we had BBQ Ribs and chicken, it was very tasty. Really cute set up in there, there was a puppet like character playing music and singing. Jason was really afraid of that, so we ran through that seating area and found a different place to sit.

Day Four- Off to Epcot we went to meet up with John's entire family. We hung with them for a little while and took a few really cute pics of all of us. We parted ways, so we could get to our first character meal at the Garden Grill. We met, Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale. It was tons of fun and the food was good, John LOVED the food. The characters spent alot of time with our boys. Chip came by and tickled Justin til Justin practically fell of his chair ☺, it was so cute. And of course, Justin got up and tickled Chip right back, it made for some really cute pics. Oh and Mickey Mouse was obsessed with Johns tattoos, he could not get over how many Johnny had. I got a cute pic of Mickey pointing at Johns tats. The cool thing about the Garden Grill restaurant is it rotates. We didn't realize it at first and after we were sitting there for about 15 minutes, John said, whoa, the floor is spinning. It was so funny.

After lunch we went on some rides, we rode the Living with the Land boat ride, The Seas with Finding Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush, Soarin, Test Track, and Innovations West. We had a blast at Epcot. And then we ended our time at Epcot at the Character connection and met, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Dale. It was amazing, we got family pics with each character and got pics of just the boys with each character. Fun Fun Fun!!!!! I just LOVE Disney!!

That evening we met John's family at MGM and hung out, had ice cream and did some shopping. The kids played and had tons of fun with these cool Mickey Mouse light sabers.

Day 5 - I can't for the life of me remember what we did during the day. But I remember we had an early dinner at the restaurant, Boatwrights at our resort.
And we went to Epcot in the evening to ride Soarin and Test track again and watch their fireworks. We found a perfect spot and saw everything perfect. This is one of John's favorite things in Disney, he loves the Epcot fireworks.

Day 6 - Was not so great for me, as I was sick with the stomach flu. But Johnny took the kids to Magic Kingdom with his family and they spent the morning and afternoon there, having a great time. Going on rides with their cousins. They got Jason to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a huge accomplishment, since he had been saying for months that he would NOT go on POTC. He loved it!!!!
After a long day at MK, we ended the day by ordering pizza to our room and swimming in the resort pool.

Day 7 - Animal Kingdom - We got up early that morning to make it to our character meal at 8:30. We went to the Donald's Safari Breakfast to meet Donald, Mickey, Daisy, and Goofy. What a blast that was, it was so interactive, the characters grabbed all the kids and gave them musical instruments and they all paraded and danced around the room. It was a blast!!! We will definitely be going there again next time we go to Disney. The food was great!!! They had this Jungle Juice, it was soooo delish.
We rode some great rides and saw some cool attractions here. We took the Kilimanjaro safari ride, saw its tough to be a bug, rode the Triceratops spin, and played in the boneyard.
We ended our day at Magic Kingdom to see Spectromagic parade. That was amazing, so many lights and you get to see tons of characters. We rode all our favorite rides again, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribbean, the teacups, Its a Small World, and soo many more. It was a great way to finish out our trip as this was our last full day in Disney.

Day 8 - We got all packed up and ready to leave. And headed out to meet the Gottfried Gang at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) to see the Lights, Action, Motor Stunt show. That was awesome, the kids loved seeing the fast cars, cars driving in revise, the motorcycles and jet skis speeding around. It was a nice way to end the trip. After that, we headed back to the resort to grab our bags and get on the Magical Express bus to go to the airport.

All in all, we had a fantastically, wonderful, amazing, perfectly, magical trip!!!! I hope to get back there sometime in the next year and a half. I am trying to convince John, we need to go back next December so we can see all the holiday decorations and lights. We will see??!!!!

That's it!! I am finally done...
Have a great day.
Fran

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON AND JUSTIN

Happy birthday Justin and Jason. I can't believe our boys are 5 years old. It is so amazing how time goes by so quickly. It seems like just yesterday I was rushing to the hospital after my waterbag broke. August 28th was the happiest day of my life!!!

Menu Plan Monday - Aug 25-Sept 1

Monday
B - cereal and yogurt
L - chicken nuggets and fries
D - stuffed green peppers

Tuesday
B - french toast and fruit
L - cheese and ham quesadillas
D - chicken parm, broccoli and garlic bread

Wednesday
B - scrambled eggs and bacon
L - mac n cheese and veggies
D - Dump Swiss Steak (CP)


Thursday
B - pancakes
L - BLT sammie
D - Asian pork tederloin, green beans and rice



Friday

B - toad in a hole and yogurt
L - grilled cheese sammie and fruit salad
D - pizza bread and italian style green beans

Saturday-
B - eggs, bacon, toast, fruit salad
L - homemade chicken nuggets and fries
D- order in

Sunday - Justin and Jason's bday party
Breakfast - cereal and fruit
Lunch - Sammie and veggies
Dinner - BBQ pork sandwiches and Pepperchini Beef sandwiches

For more great menu ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Planning Mondays.

Have a blessed week.
Fran

Lacie Lou of Easy Street

Happy 7th Birthday Lacie!!!!

Isn't she just so dang cute!!!!

She is such a good girl!!!

Our Disney World 2008 Adventure Part 2

Click here for part 1 of our adventure.

I know you all were sitting at the edge of your seats waiting for part 2. So, here we go.

All our planning was done, all three of our huge suitcases were packed, all four of our carry on bags were packed and we were ready to go. We had cut the last link in our Countdown to Disney chain the night before. The alarm went off at 4:00am on that very gloomy and misty morning. Johnny and I got up and got ready, then we woke the boys. They were so tired, but they still popped up out of bed screaming "We're going to DISNEY!!!!". We had put them to bed in their comfy clothes, so they could just get up, go potty and get into the limo. And they were so excited to go in a limo for the first time, they thought that was really cool.

The limo we took was having a little malfunction with the air conditioning. I think it might have been operator error, the limo driver couldn't figure out how to got the air on. But we survived and made it to the airport by 7:00. We checked in and of course one of our pieces of luggage exceeded the weight limit by 10 pounds. So there we sat transferring beach towels and some clothing from one suitcase to another. But at least we saved the 25.00 fee that we would have had to pay for the overage. So on to the security check point we went. That was pretty uneventful, although, we haven't traveled by air since 2000 and we didn't realize what extent they go to. We even had to take our shoes off...wow, that was a pain. But no biggie.




Jason and Justin checking out the Blues Brothers statues at Midway Airport

We boarded our plane on time. We were soooo ready to get to Disney, but we weren't destine to get their just yet. The weather was a bit foggy and rainy in Chicago, but down in the southern states there were some high winds, fierce lightning and terrible storms going on. So guess what...Our plane was delayed. Our plane finally took off after about 2 1/2 hours. The most amazing thing was Justin and I prayed so hard for the storms in the south to clear up and not 10 minutes later, the Pilot got on the loud speaker to say, we were going to take off in 5 minutes. The power of prayer is amazing. So we were FINALLY on our way to Disney World...yay. The plane ride was perfect, the boys loved it (as it was their first plane ride). They kept busy coloring, snacking, and watching DVD's on their little portable DVD players. For them being on the airplane for over 6 hours they were practically angelic, not practically angelic, they were perfectly angelic. They sat quietly the entire trip, unless they got up to go potty.

We arrived in Disney and it was as perfect as I expected. We got to the Magical Express (ME) Bus counter and signed in. Hopped on the ME bus within minutes and we were on our way to Port Orleans Riverside Resort.

We stayed in the Alligator Bayou section of the Port Orleans Riverside resort. Our hotel stay started out in building 17 all the way back right next to the parking lot. I was not too happy with the location and I talked to John about calling the front desk to see if they would move our room. I had always heard that if you are not happy in Disney, ask a cast member, they will do everything they can to make your stay more magical. But he said no, lets just stay in this room. So I reluctantly agreed. But later that night, John noticed the bathroom floor had tons of water on it. We called the front desk and told them about our mini flood and they offered to have us relocated to another room. And I said that would be a perfect idea and I took that time to give the cast member my opinions as to where I wanted to move to. She was extremely helpful in getting us into the building I wanted to be in. And we were moved to building 27 with a beautiful waterfront view. It was spectacular. And I was about 6 steps away from a smoking section, so that made it an even better location...lol

I know I have a lot to say...until next time.
Part 3 coming soon.

Have a blessed week.
Fran

I love "Pucca"

This is my new favorite cartoon.
Isn't she so cute??

Garu and Pucca

The main character Pucca is the 11-year old niece of three Chinese noodle house owners. The Noodle House is located in Sooga Village, a small village in the mountains. Pucca is in love with the ninja, "Garu" (가루 ['garoo], a 13 year old ninja. Pucca always seems to beat him in combat and unintentional competition, simply by sheer wit.

Check her out on the cable channel Jetix weeknights at 7:30pm

First time fishing

This was a great weekend. John took the boys (and their friend) fishing for the first time on Friday. They absolutely loved it!! And they both caught fish. WOOHOO!! He took some great pics. I stayed home and worked around the house. Its kinda nice for the boys to go out do fun stuff with their daddy once in a while. And John just loved taking them out on adventures. He has been doing that since they were about one year old.

Jason fishing at the pond

Justin fishing at the pond

After their fun filled Friday evening, they had their friend spend the night. The three boys woke up Saturday morning with fishing on their brains. So of course at 9:00 in the morning they wanted to go back to the pond. But that wasn't an option, cuz it was my Gram's 75th birthday bash. So the next best thing, was to practice fishing (with no hook of course) in our backyard pool. It was the cutest!!! They practiced fishing for over an hour.



Justin practicing fishing in our pool

Silly face, Jase practicing fishing

I am so thankful John is such a great dad. He makes our boys feel safe, loved and is teaching them great things.

Until next time.
Have a blessed day.
Fran

I'm an organizing maniac!!!!

I was inspired by a couple of other blogs I read, Orgjunkie.com and Passionate Homemaker to get my bedroom closet and linen closet organized. Whew, that was a big job. But I did it!!! And it was kinda fun. I really do love organizing, just ask my mom, she will tell you I am her organized daughter.

















Here is a before pic of my linen closet, I know its pretty bad ☺

and after all my hard work...

















Here is the after pic of the linen closet

And the bedroom closet. Its very small and I really try to shove a ton of stuff that shouldn't go in there. So I took everything out and decided what I wanted to be in there. Put it all back and the rest of the junk that didn't belong in there I either pitched, donated or put somewhere else.

Before pic of our bedroom closet



After pic of our bedroom closet




















I hope I've inspired you to organize your "stuff". So, now go and get to organizing!!!

Have a great day
Fran

Menu August 11-17

Menu for August 11- August 17

Monday
Breakfast: cereal, fruit
Lunch: Homemade chicken nuggets and homemade fries
Dinner: chicken and ham roll ups, rice and broccoli

Tuesday
B: Muffin, Yogurt, Fruit
L: cheese quesadillas
D: Meatloaf w/mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, veggie

Wednesday
B: french toast, Fruit
L: Chicken rings, Fries
D: Pasta, italian sausage, salad and garlic bread

Thursday
B: pancake, fruit
L: Mac n cheese, Veggies and ranch dipping sauce
D: Oregano chicken, Rice, veggie

Friday
B: cereal, yogurt
L: BLT sandwich
D: homemade pizza and salad

Saturday:
B: Breakfast casserole, Toast, Fruit
L: sandwich and chips
D: maybe out to dinner or order in

Sunday:
B: toad in a hole, fruit
L: Pizza bread, Salad
D: Asian pork tenderloin, fried rice and broccoli

For more great menu ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Planning Mondays.

Have a blessed week.
Fran

OAMC Marathon 08/10/08

Me, Lisa and Anna after a hard days work!!!
(Justin, Jason and LouLou too!!)

We finally had our first Once A Month Cooking Marathon on Sunday, August 10, 2008. It was a huge success, we made 24 main meals and 20 side dishes total. It was definitely a marathon, we started cooking at about 10:30 and finally finished at 7:30. That sure makes for a long day, but soooo worth it!!!

Here is the list of meals we made:

meatloaf
sloppy joes
chicken roll ups with ham and parm cheese
sausage, cabbage and potato skillet
Asian pork tenderloin
Dump swiss steak
Cornflake chicken tenders
French toast sticks
Fried rice
mashed potatoes
plain rice
seasoned Italian green beans

Lisa and Anna working hard making Sausage, cabbage and potato skillet

Here are half of the meals, this pic is of just my meals and side dishes.

It was a wonderful day spent making great food and enjoying the company of two great gals, Lisa and Anna.

I will post recipes in a little while.

Have a blessed day,
Fran

Recipes

Here are some of the recipes that Lisa, Anna and I made on our OAMC marathon.

Barbecue (Sloppy Joes)
Serves 7-10
2lbs ground beef 1 bottle (12oz.) chili sauce
2 medium onions, chopped 1 can (10 1/2 oz.) tomato soup
1 green pepper, diced salt to taste
1 C. celery, diced

In a heavy cooking pot add ground meat, onions, pepper and celery. Cook until meat is browned. Drain off fat. Add soup, chili sauce and salt. heat through and serve.

Cook fully and cool off before freezing.

Asian Pork Tenderloin

1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 T. lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 T. dry mustard
1 1/2 t. pepper
1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin

In a small bowl, add first 8 ingredients; whisk until blended.
Place pork in a shallow dish, add marinade, turning pork to coat.
cover and refrigerate for 8 hours
remove pork from marinade, throw away marinade
place pork in a foil lined pan
bake at 450 for 25 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 160 degrees
let pork stand 5 minutes before serving.

For freezing, we just put the uncooked pork and the marinade in a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer.

Chicken and Ham roll ups

4 chicken breasts
2 t Dijon mustard
1/8 t pepper
2 oz thin sliced fully cooked ham
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
non stick cooking spray
1 egg white
1 T skim milk
1/3 C fine dry bread crumbs
2 t reduced calorie margarine
1/2 t dried basil

Rinse chicken, pat dry. pound it to 1/4 inch thickness. Spread each breast with Dijon mustard and sprinkle with pepper. Place ham, cut to fit if necessary. sprinkle with parm cheese over entire chicken breast. Roll up from the short end and set aside, seam down

spray a shallow baking dish with nonstick spray. In a shallow bowl whist together egg white and milk. In another shallow bowl stir together bread crumbs, margarine and basil. Coat each chicken roll by dipping it in the egg white mixture. Place in prepared baking dish with seam side down.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes or til lightly browned and chicken is tender and no longer pink. If desired, garnish with lemon wedges. Makes 4 servings.

For freezing, just cool and put in a freezer container.

Menu planning July 28th - August 3rd

Monday
Breakfast: cereal, fruit
Lunch: PB&J sandwiches, veggies and chips
Dinner: Bacon and cheese Chicken - Crockpot and broccoli

Tuesday
B: Muffin, Yogurt, Fruit
L: Hotdog
D: Meatloaf w/mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, veggie


Wednesday
B: Toad in a hole, Fruit
L: Chicken rings, Fries
D: Italian pork chops - crock pot


Thursday
B: french toast, fruit
L: Mac n cheese, Veggies and ranch dipping sauce
D: Oregano chicken, Rice, veggie

Friday
B: cereal, yogurt
L: Grilled cheese quesadillas
D: Pasta and meatballs, garlic bread,salad

Saturday:
B: Breakfast casserole, Toast, Fruit
L: BLT Sammie
D: Turkey burgers, Homemade fries

Sunday:
B: Pancakes, fruit
L: Pizza bread, Salad
D: Stuffed peppers, Mashed potatoes

For more great menu ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Planning Mondays.


Have a wonderful week
Fran

OAMC

I am FINALLY going to try doing Once A Month Cooking. With the assistance and guidance of my new friend Lisa H. She has done the OAMC several time so she is somewhat of a master at it. Right now we are in the stage of deciding what recipes to make. I am shocked at how many recipes there are out there for this type of cooking.

I found a great website that has wonderful recipes recipezaar.com check it out. You can complile tons of recipes into your own cookbook. Most recipes have nutritional value and you can change the serving sizes and it adjusts the ingredients. Oh and the best part of all, it compiles your grocery list for you....how great and easy is that.

So here are the OAMC recipes on our list so far for our August 10 cooking fest.

Chicken
-Chicken Rolls ups with ham and cheese
-chicken fried rice
-Heavenly chicken
-Chicken fingers

Beef
-Dump Swiss Steak
-Meat loaf
-Sloppy Joes
-zippy chili


Pork
-Asian pork tenderloin
-Smoked Sausage skillet

Side dishes
-mashed potatoes
-garlic seasoned green beans

breakfast
-egg casserole
-french toast
-pancakes

Wish us luck and I will post some of the recipes later.

Blessings,
Fran

Our Disney World adventure 2008 part 1

One of my favorite places to vacation is Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It is such a magical place. I love it so much that John and I even went their for our honeymoon. A few months ago, my mom, who has never been to WDW, asked me what is so magical about Disney. And I just could not put it into words, I told her she would just have to see herself. And I really hope she can experiance it at least one time in her life, hopefully with all her grandchildren.

With that said, when John and I had our twin boys, I said to him that I wanted to take our boys to WDW in 2008 which is the year that they would turn 5. I always thought that was a great age to start taking kids to WDW. He looked at me kinda funny and said sure, whatever you think. He was probably thinking, this chicka is nuts already planning our boys first Disney trip and they are only 3 months old...lol If you ask my mom, she will tell you that I had their Kindergarten outfits picked out the day they were born too...that is how I like things, planned out and organized.

Well fast forward to May 2007 and I get a call from John's sister, Jaime and she asks us if we would be interested in joining the entire family (all 14 of us)and going to Disney May 2008 and I said of course we would be interested in going, that is what I was planning all along. It sure is funny how things work out. I thought, at the time, the more the merrier. It would be a great time for all 6 kids on John's side of the family to experiance WDW together.

So for that entire year, we were showing the boys pictures and videos on youtube of Disney and talking about it very often. As you can see I am a bit obsessed with WDW. Right around the end of last year, I started checking for airfare and resort rates, looking into messageboards and websites to learn as much as I could learn about taking two 4 year olds to Disney. We finally booked our airfare and WDW resort in January. It was official, we REALLY were going to Disney for the first time as a family of four. WOW, we were so excited, John too. He and I would sit in front of my new laptop (my Christmas gift from Johnny) and look at pics and plan our itinerary for hours. It was so much fun.

As I said before I am somewhat Disney obsessed. So I started my planning and making reservations for character meals, printed letters from Mickey and Donald Duck and mailed them to our boys and finalized our daily itinerary so we would make sure we got to each of the theme parks while we were there for the week.

PART 2 COMING SOON!!!

Weekly menu for July 21-27

I know this sounds silly, but I love menu planning for my family. It keeps me motivated to cook myself instead of ordering out (which we still do on occasion) for dinner.
So my precious family eats healthy.


Monday
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: PB&J sandwiches with my homemade mango raspberry jam
Dinner: Turkey burgers, homemade fries, green beans

Tuesday
B: french toast with berries
L: mac n cheese, pears
D: chicken fajitas, roasted Brussels sprouts and white rice

Wednesday
B: pancakes with apples
L: ham sandwiches, pears
D: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Thursday
B: french toast, pears
L:
D: Pasta with red sauce, salad, garlic bread

Friday
B: cereal, fruit
L:
D: ground turkey tacos, chips and salsa

Saturday:
B: eggs, bacon, toast and fruit
L:
D:

Sunday:
B:
L:
D: pot roast with potatoes and veggies

For more great menu ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Planning Mondays.


Have a wonderful week
Fran

Peace, Love and Joy

Written on July 08, 2008 posted on July 16th
These past weeks have been a bit challenging. I am trying to live my life the way God wants me to. I want to be a good person, wife, and mommy.

I am Trying to be
peaceful,
loving,
patient,
kind (the Holy Spirit is trying very hard to guide me to be kind in my life)
grateful

Another thing I am trying to implement in our lives is refraining from purchasing items we don't need. Our boys have been conditioned (by us, as parents) to want something everytime we go into a store. And its time this habit has stopped. Spending money on frivolous items needs to stop. I have been staying out of stores to avoid the temptation of buying unneeded items. It has been going pretty well. When the boys ask if they can have something, I just tell them No, we are saving our money in the bank. It has worked pretty good so far.

Yet another thing I am working on is being consistent with the discipline of our boys. It has been a little rocky of a start. They aren't really enjoying it, but are starting to accept it. I really believe that being consistent makes a HUGE difference. I think its going to take some more time, but once they can anticipate what the consequence is, they might just stop and not do the bad behavior or action.

So, needless to say, we are working on our lives, to better ourselves.

Have a blessed day,
Fran

Welcome to my blog

Ohhh....this is so much fun, starting a blog. I never thought I would write one, but here I am. I am not going to be known for using correct grammar and spelling every word correct. I am know for run-on sentences that keep going and going and going ;) ENJOY!!!

So lets get started....

Well...I am married to a wonderful man, John (AKA Bunz) more on that later. We got married March 26, 2000 in VEGAS! We had a beautiful wedding ceremony and reception at the Monte Carlo resort. Most of our friends and family came out to share our special day... could ya blame them, they got a vacation out of it...lol

We lived in Naperville for the first year of our marriage. And we decided, we wanted to move out to the boonies. We love it out here. It is so quiet and peaceful, a perfect place to raise our twin boys.

We had "the boys" Justin and Jason in August 2003. They are our world. Yes, our lives revolve around them...sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. They were born premature at 30 weeks. My precious little (very little) boys weighed in at just over 3 pounds each and 16 inches long. It was a very emotional time.

I also have 3 great sisters, a niece and two nephews they are so important to me. We have such a blast when we are all together. Johns family is amazing, its a world-win of fun when we are all together. We are blessed to have so many kids in the family. There are 6 kids under the age of 6.

Blessings,
Fran