Sunday, March 15, 2009

Menu Plan Monday- March 16, 2009

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Last week wasn't perfect, but it went pretty well. I made lasagna for my in-laws on Friday night and it turned out quite well.

The Brown Bag Burritos were awesome. I think that's going to be my new go to recipe for burritos. It upped the beans a little and used slightly less ground beef for mine. So so good, I highly recommend them!

I plan on carrying the Pizza Calzones over to this week. I ran out of days to make dinners in last week.

I didn't make the Quinoa Casserole, but I did make quinoa to serve as a side dish with the Chicken a la Mayo. I really like that stuff, but I need to find a new place to get it. The shop I bought it at closed. Rude.

This week:

Pizza Calzones

Pot Pies- I will post this recipe on Tuesday.

Fish Tacos

Curry Chicken Salad on Breadmachine Pitas

Sla vinken and vegetables

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Changing Weather

I didn't close the bedroom door last night, and when I woke up about 7 I thought that the light in the livingroom was on. I got up and realized that the light was not on, something even stranger- the SUN was out.

Perfect! Martijn was helping a friend move so I figured I would busy myself by going to the thrift store and the market. I even decided that I only needed a jacket since it was so nice outside.

Foggy Eyes

Yah, I live in The Netherlands. I really should know better than to count on the weather staying nice for more than 7 minutes at a time. At least my jacket had a hood.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Easter Tree

I loved reading the comments to the post a couple of days ago with the picture of the giant stack of felt. A couple of people said they would make ornaments, and that is exactly what I was making. I still plan on making several more, but I figured if I was going to make a teasing post like that then I darn well better reveal what I was up to sooner rather than later.

Easter Eggs

I'd like to do a few more of the sequined eggs, but I need to get some clear seed beads first. All I've got on hand are the purple ones (hence me doing a purple egg first) and they won't work for everything. I've also got a couple more ideas for ric-rac striped ones as well.

Years and years ago, my mom made a cool Easter tree with a white painted branch (I think a piece of sagebrush that she picked up off of the desert) mounted to a board for a base. Since I am "grown up" now and live away from home, I decided that I needed to make my own easter tree. I had been eyeballing trees and trying to figure out what sort of branch would work for this project when Martijn suggested that we call his parents and ask if we could have some of the trimmings from their curly willow. It's a good thing we called when we did because they were cutting down the tree that very day. If we'd waited to call, I would've been one sad kid.

The next quandary was figuring out some sort of base. On my mom's tree, the branch was one piece so it could easily be attached to the base. Since I had several branches this wasn't going to work. I headed to the thrift store and spent a good half hour or so going through their vases and pots trying to find something that would work. I came up empty, so I started looking at the other shelves of glassware (ok, I admit, I was looking for Pyrex) and saw a cute juice carafe. It looked like it would be just about right for the project so I went ahead and bought it.

Easter Tree

I'm still toying with the idea of painting the branches white, but my last project that involved spraypaint made me want to tear out my hair. I don't have much hair to tear out so I'm leaving it like this until I decide what to do. I put gravel in the bottom to weigh it down and a little bit of fake "moss" in the neck of the carafe to hide the bottom of the sticks a bit. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Picture 2248

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Felty Goodness

Felty Goodness
This is my nice stack of felt. I'm hoarding it because it's so horribly horribly expensive here, but last night I pulled it out to work on something. Would you like to know what I'm working on?

Too bad, I'm keeping it a secret until I'm finished. What would -you- do with a giant stack of felt?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Bourbon Chicken

Bourbon Chicken and Fried Rice


You will need:

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1" pieces
1-2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp oil
2 garlic gloves, minced
1" fresh ginger, grated or minced (1/4 tsp dried will work, but I think fresh tastes better)
1/4 cup apple juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat the oil in your pan. Toss the chicken pieces in flour. Add the chicken to the pan and cook until lightly browned. While the chicken is browning, whisk together the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour sauce into the pan and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat, cover the pan, and simmer for about 20 minutes. The sauce should be nice and thick when it's done, but if you have a runny sauce you can add a little flour or cornstarch. Serve with fried rice.

Check out Tasty Tuesday @ Forever Wherever and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday @ Blessed with Grace for more yummy recipes!

Monday, March 09, 2009

Menu Plan Monday- March 9, 2009

click the banner and "Menu Plan Monday" for more menu planning ideas

Last week almost went without a hitch. I realized on Thursday that I didn't have any chicken breasts in the freezer like I thought, so we just had shoarma pitas again (which I did actually have in the freezer!).

My first experience with Quinoa was a good one. The Cream of Quinoa Mushroom Soup was really really good, and I don't really think I'd change anything about that recipe (which is rare).

The Pasta with Tomato and Tuna Sauce was alright and I'll save the recipe for when I need a relatively quick meal.

Thanks to Jessica and Vonlipi for the side dish ideas!

This Week:

Quinoa Casserole- Following on the footsteps of success with the last quinoa recipe, I'm going to give this one a whirl. I might change the spinach to broccoli, but I haven't decided yet.

White Chicken Chili- I don't have a recipe for this. One of the ladies in a group I belong to is moving and was getting rid of a lot of food so I snatched this seasoning mix for it!

Pizza Calzones- This looks like a lot of work, but if I make the whole recipe then we'll have 6 left over to put in the freezer. Now lets just hope it's delicious.

Brown Bag Burritos- New bulk burrito recipe that I'm looking forward to trying.

Chicken a la Mayo- I really am going to make this this week, chicken breasts are on sale so I can restock my supplies!

My in-laws are coming over on Friday or Saturday this week for dinner. I know what I'm going to make for dessert but I haven't decided on the main course yet. Throw your ideas at me people! I need them! I can't think for myself when it comes to things like this ;)
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