Just The 6 Of Us

This was so good I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this soup. I made great big fluffy butter biscuits to go with it. Dale loved it so much, he made sure there was enough left so he could have it tonight

Robin shared this recipe and I love her for it!

Thick and Creamy New England Clam Chowder

6-7 pieces diced bacon
1 medium onion, diced
2 (5oz) cans baby clams, with juice reserved
6-7 potatoes, cubed
2 (10 1/2oz) cans cream of celery soup
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 TB butter
1 teaspoon dried dill (I omitted this)

1) Add bacon to sauce pan and cook on med low heat until crispy
2) Add onion and cook until translucent
3) Add clam juice from both cans
4) Add potatoes
5) Cook and cover until potatoes are fork tender, about 15-20 minutes
6) Stir occasionally so potatoes won’t stick
7) Add clams, soup, cream, milk and dill (if using)
Stir
9) Add butter and let melt into the chowder
10) Cook for about 30-45 minutes or until thickened
11) Stir occasionally

For Monday nights dinner I decided to make this chicken recipe from my friend Kris.

Foil-Pack Taco Chicken

4 small boneless chicken breast halves (1lb)
4 tsp taco seasoning mix
1/2 lb red potatoes, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup shredded mexican style cheese
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup sour cream

-Heat oven to 400F.
-Sprinkle chicken with taco seasoning mix.
-Place 1/2 cup potatoes on center of each of 4 large sheets of foil, top with chicken, cheese & salsa.
-Bring up foil sides, double fold top & both sides of packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place in a 15×10x1 baking pan.
-Bake 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Cut slits in foil to release steam before opening. Top with sour cream.

This was a big hit, Dale really enjoyed it and so did I. Plus there is hardly any cleanup. The next time I make this, I have to cut my potato slices a little thicker, mine were a little on the thin side. And maybe use some non stick spray, because some of my potatoes stuck to the foil.

Last nights dinner was Bacon, Eggs & French toast. I believe tonight will be the Clam Chowder and biscuits. I am freezing this morning and hot soup sounds so good right now.

Since we live on a budget and have to really be careful about lots of things. One important thing being our groceries. I always do my shopping 2 weeks at a time. This also helps with the 3 lunches I have to pack everyday for the boys and for Dale. I meal plan for the entire 2 weeks, not including the weekends which are very laid back and fix what you want days. Some of these meals will carry over to left overs for the next day.

I have a nice assortment of cook books that I normal use, because I love to include new meals along with our favorites. About 2 weeks ago I tried a recipe that my good friend Michelle posted on our Moms Group.

Smothered Pork Chops.

6-8 mid thickness pork chops (I used boneless loin chops)
1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
2 C pork gravy
1 whole sweet onion, sliced in rings
1 pkg whole mushrooms, quartered
1 Tbs Sherry (optional, I like it in gravy and always have on hand)
2 Tbs Butter
oil for frying

Coat chops in bread crumbs and pan fry approx 4 minutes on each side depending on thickness. Chops should be almost done. Place cooked chops in baking dish, does not need to be single layer.

In frying pan add butter and onions and cook approximately three minutes before adding mushrooms. Cook another 3 minutes, turn off heat, add gravy and sherry and stir well before topping chops.

Cover with lid or foil (leave small vent) and bake one hour at 350.

This was a big hit at our house, so it made it to this week’s menu again.

On our Moms board we have a whole forum dedicated to recipes. The ladies are really talented when it comes to cooking. I decided to make the next 2 week’s menu a tribute to my friends who took the time to share these recipes.

Our menu consists of the following recipes that they posted. These are in no particular order as to when I will make them.

Michelle’s Smothered Pork Chops

Nicole’s Chicken Spaghetti & her Slow Cooker London Broil

Jennifer’s Chicken Sweet Potato Bake & her yummy recipe for Sticky Buns.

Kris’ Foil Pack Taco Chicken

Robin’s Thick and Creamy New England Clam Chowder & biscuits

Kelly’s Cheesy Volcano Meatball Subs

Shayna’s Beef Sheppard’s Pie

Melissa’s Creamy Crockpot Chicken and vegetables

Angie’s Curly Noodles with Beef

We will also have breakfast for dinner, Grilled Chicken Salads and the kids favorite Fish Sticks & Fries

That is about 13 meals planned, all ingredients bought and ready to go. I will try and remember to post back after I make each one with the recipe and let you know how well we all liked them. I am sure they will be great as I said before these ladies know what they are doing when it comes to cooking.

Now, who’s coming over for dinner?

It seems that Adam thought Roxie’s whiskers were to long and needed a trim. So some time last week he cut them off using his safety scissors. Needless to say he didn’t get into trouble, because well it’s Adam and his is still adorable no matter how naughty he can be.

Check out Roxie’s new do!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ICL43Bx6MU]

They said his name wrong, but that’s ok! He won 1st place in his division of the Pine Wood Derby!

We came in 1st on 7 races and 2nd in one. Here are 2 short videos of his car coming in first. Doesn’t he look so shocked and proud?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmuszo4x4Mc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4rWfx2Y8Do]

He qualified to race against 2 other first place winners in the Grand National Prize, but he came in 2nd. He was a little disappointed, but he was very happy with his win. He was so cute, he feel asleep on the way home holding his trophy. I wish I wasn’t driving or I would have gotten a picture of that too.

His car and his 1st Place Trophy

I have not shared my latest pages, so here you go

I had to take Adam to the Dr on Monday, he just was not getting any better. Still have high fevers, sleeping so much and his cough was horrible. At that point I was worried about Pneumonia. My dear friend Erin is in the hospital right now with Pneumonia and it snuck up on her really quick. So after hearing this, Adam had to be seen. He doesn’t have pneumonia or strep, a double ear infection and now is on 2 different kinds of meds.

Last night I could tell he was feeling better, he still slept most of the day, but he finally ate a little and was able to play for a while. I think this is the worst illness my baby boy has ever had. Very scary, to watch him be so sick and all I can do is comfort him. Today is his 3rd day on antibiotics and I just hope by Friday or the weekend he will be back to his grumpy, ornery self. I miss my boy!

Elias was A-Ok. Running around having a ball outside. Adam didn’t get much sleep last night and was moody all day, his fever was in the 100’s all day, but I he did feel well enough to get outside for a bit later on tonight. I got some house cleaning done, Dale potted our 2 spiral trees, worked on our back step and tried to prepare our 2 old cars so we can sell them. I got out and did our shopping for the next 2 weeks and surprisingly enough WalMart was not crowed. Everyone had to be out enjoying this weather.

We decided after dinner to have a little fire to burn up some of the wood stuff in our yard. It was so nice, just sitting with the family and chatting. Tomorrow is going to be nice again, I hope to Adam is well enough to go to the playground for some afternoon fun.

It was a productive but really nice day!

Traffic heading to the light at the end of the tunnel. Elias is better, but didn’t go to school today, because he could hardly stand. His cried when he got up, his legs hurt so bad. I tried to massage his calves but that just made it worse. I kept asking him what he did at last night to make his legs hurt so bad, he said all they did at Royal Rangers was work on their Derby cars and then played a game of tug of war. AHHH, that is why they hurt so bad. He must have pulled muscles in both his legs. Poor guy. He is still limping around but much better. Adam was doing so well today, no throwing up and was actually playing until around 2pm. He is now running a fever of 102 and is in a Motrin induced sleep. My poor boys, they can’t catch a break

At the end of the tunnel Adam has not thrown up in over 5 hours, so hopefully this was a 24 hour bug and Elias has been fever free since about 6am. I am still very clogged up and can’t stand that I am not able to breathe, but I am in a good mood. Mom’s don’t get a break when they are sick. So today I cleaned the house and sprayed Lysol on everything, wiped down all surfaces. Since the weather is going to be nice, I can’t wait to open some windows and let the fresh air in. That way the germies can fly away with the breeze.

You Tube finally got it processed. I love this video because Noah is diving into the snow, when the kids hit him with a snowball. I love to hear them laugh.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG_lWPjgDq4]

Even though we didn’t go anywhere, we had a wonderful time outside together. The boys has so much fun.

And a video of them playing. I have another one but it isn’t processed on You Tube yet. Will post it tomorrow.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUi9WOoO-ww]

Through the whole house being sick a couple weeks ago. But it seems that today, I have started in with symptoms of getting this cold/flu. We all were able to get outside and play in the snow today and I have pictures I will post tomorrow a long with a cute video. Now that evening is here, I am feeling pretty yucky and Elias was looking really red in the cheeks. I took Elias’ temp and it was 101. UGH! I sincerely hope that he isn’t getting sick again. Two weeks ago he was out for 4 days with the flu. Send some prayers over to our house that he and I don’t come down with the worst of this nasty illness.

I took 2 Nyquil and I think that my FaceBook friends were right, it has been about a half an hour and I am ready to go to sleep. Oh I just remebered about Memory Lane Monday, I will get my post up tomorrow. Sorry Erin, I am totally slacking on this

The kids are excited and I am dreading the mess after wards. In about a half and hour we are going outside to have some snow fun. To bad there aren’t any hills near by, I would love to take them sledding. But we will have a ball anyway. Snow ball fight strategy is under way. The think they can take me, but we shall see, Of course I will let them win It is more special today because Jaden is here with us today and so he will be out there with us too.

You all know I will be back later with photos

Boy’s peeing on trees? I get more hits from people doing web searches with those key words. I wrote about my youngest once doing this. And over the past several months I get at least 4-5 blog hits a day from this kind of search. Who knew boy’s peeing on trees was something that people want to know about. Weird, just weird!