Menu Plan Monday - April 30, 2012

The weather is to be BEAUTIFUL this week, and we're going to be spending much of it outside!  With yard projects happening, a few playdates, and a field trip to a baseball game, we're going to make the most of the gorgeous weather coming our way.  Oh - and we're going strawberry picking, too!

With all of that in mind, I'm going to serve simple meals that I can prep ahead of time or pull together quickly to maximize our together time.  Since we ended up eating turkey all of last week, we're continuing our eat-from-the-freezer challenge, too.

So, this is on the menu this week:

Breakfast:
- Strawberry streusel muffins
- cereal, bananas
- homemade breakfast sandwiches, fruit

- Hugs-and-kisses banana bread pancakes

Lunches will be our usual assortment of leftovers and sandwiches with fruit or veggies and yogurt or cheese.

Dinner:
- Sweet and sour meatballs with peppers and onions over brown rice
- A new take on the grilled cheese sandwich - recipe coming May 7th!

- Grilled fish wraps with mango salsa, baked corn, salad
- Mexican lasagna, salad

- Pizza, zucchini cakes
- Family dinner out
- Dinner at church

I think we'll need some snacks for the playdates and a possible road trip, so I think we'll try these semi-healthy bars.  Maybe we'll try these, too.

What are YOU cooking up this week?


For more Menu Plan Monday, visit OrgJunkie.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

This is one of my favorite quick-and-easy meals to throw together.  It smells great, comes together quickly, and it's fairly healthy.  Everyone in my family likes this dish, and it's versatile enough for them to customize it on their own plates.  THAT makes me happy!

Ingredients:

• bone-in chicken breasts, skin removed
• your favorite BBQ sauce

So to make your own slow cooker BBQ chicken, try this:

1. Put your chicken in your slow cooker and add just a bit of the sauce.  Doesn't need to be much - I pour on maybe 1/2 cup or so, just enough to be on the outside of the chicken but not enough to sit in the bottom of the dish.
2. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is done.
3. Turn off the slow cooker and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so.
4. Using forks or a stand-alone mixer, shred the chicken to your preferred texture.
5. Stir in enough BBQ sauce to flavor the meat.  I also add in some of the juice from the slow cooker.  Stir together.
6. Add to buns or tortillas with all your favorite toppings - onions, cheese, spinach, lettuce, tomato, etc.
7. Enjoy!

With some steamed broccoli - or even carrot sticks if you're in a big rush - this is a complete, hot meal that everyone will love!

"Cravings" by Carey C. Bailey

After having children, author Carey C. Bailey discovered that her previous devotional time just didn't happen anymore - and she missed it.  Wanting to find quiet time with God fit somewhere into her day, she created the Craving system - a cute resin cupcake holder with 40 mini devotionals, perfect for on a kitchen windowsill or bathroom mirror.  Each devotional features a scripture reference, a "thoughtlet" to get you started, and then an action step to help you carry that scripture into your day. Cravings.  We all have them.  Usually we think of pregnant women wanting pickles and ice cream or a stressed-out person screaming for chocolate, but we all have another, stronger, yet quieter craving within us: a craving for our Creator.  

I love the premise behind this devotional.  While spending hours with God is priceless, sometimes we moms just can't get up any earlier and still be functional with our families.  Sometimes our schedules is so erratic - with young infants, sick children, being the do-all for our families - that although we want time with God, we're not sure how to make it happen.  This devotional is the answer to that problem.

Because each devotional is so short, it can be read on the run - while brushing your teeth, washing dishes, or waiting in the car line after school.  The scripture references are printed right onto the card so it's not necessary even to have your Bible with you - with each card, you're guaranteed at least one verse with a question applicable in some way to a mom's life.  Best of all, there's an action step, short in time requirement, that you can ponder and pray about as you go throughout your day.

I love the cute, feminine appearance of the holder and set itself.  The fun cupcake shape is something that most moms can relate to, and the resin material is sturdy and appealing.  My set is going onto the windowsill just above my kitchen sink - and I look forward to reading through each devotional again as I do dishes in the weeks to come.

What about you?  Do you struggle to find time to spend with God in your day?

To read other reviews of this product, visit the blog hop schedule.  You can also purchase Cravings here.

Carey Bailey is a recovering perfectionist, wife, proud mama and Family Life director for her church in Surprise, Ariz. On the side she loves party planning, crafting, and pursuing her dream of writing. She has a degree in religion from Westminster College and writes at her blog at www.carebaileyonline.com.   

One grand prize winner will receive:

• $50 gift card to Erin Condren Shop (Your one-stop-shop for all things awesome!)
• $50 gift card to Victoria's Secret® (For something pretty.)
• $25 gift card to Bath & Body Works® (For a little spa treatment.)
• 2 Sets of Cravings - The Devotional (For you and a friend.)
• Scentsy Plug In and 2 Bars (A lovely scent for your space.)

Hurry, the giveaway ends on 5/12/12. The winner will be announced 5/14/12 on Carey’s blog!



Win a Minute-for-Mom gift pack from Carey Bailey! "When I became a mom I lost my God time," says Carey Bailey. "I couldn't figure out how to fit it in, since everything but that time was a priority. So I made note cards that I set around my house with scriptures written on them. Even when my arms were too full of babies, laundry, and diapers to pick up a Bible, I could easily read God's words of encouragement that I was starving for"

And Cravings--The Devotional was born. Celebrate with Carey by entering her Minute-for-Mom Giveaway!

Just click one of the icons below to enter! Tell your friends about Carey's giveaway on FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

I received a free copy of Cravings from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

"The Wedding Dress" by Rachel Hauck

Charlotte Malone owns a wildly popular wedding dress boutique.  Her newfound business success is keeping her shop hopping, but she can't seem to find the perfect dress for her own wedding - or even peace about the groom.  When she inadvertently buys an beat-up antique trunk at an auction, she breaks the lock to find a beautiful wedding dress inside.  Her fascination with the dress and who might have worn it in the past compels her to find the previous owner of the trunk and, ultimately, to learn the stories of the women who wore the dress.  Will this dress, which has stood the test of one hundred years, yield its history to Charlotte's search?  Will this dress prove to be the the answer to Charlotte's own personal questions of life and love, faith and significance?

The Wedding Dress is my very favorite kind of historical fiction - a history mystery that follows a single thread through time, unearthing answers that have been hidden by years of heartache and questions.  Hauck did not write this story in a linear fashion; the story starts in the modern day with the finding of the dress and then zips back and forth through time, bouncing between the dress's troubled creation and the other women who wore it.  While it sounds chaotic, Hauck transitions smoothly between time periods and allows you to see the parallel between Charlotte and the situation of the original wearer.  Because the reader can see both time periods at once, she can at times guess what will happen next - until Hauck adds a surprising and fun twist at the end, wrapping up not only the dress mystery but Charlotte's own historical loose threads, as well.

Ultimately, the characters were fun but real - deep but flawed, beautiful but not perfect, true products of their pasts.  The story itself was fascinating and I couldn't wait to find out exactly who had worn this mysterious dress - and how it revealed itself to each wearer.

I am definitely a new Rachel Hauck fan.  I can't wait to read more of her books!

I received a free copy of The Wedding Dress from Litfuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

If you would like to read other reviews about this book, you can find a listing of some here.  If you're rather go ahead and purchase your own copy, you can do so here.

Rachel Hauck is the bestselling author of Carol Award winner Sweet Caroline, and RITA Finalist Love Starts With Elle, and of the critically acclaimed fiction collaboration with multi-platinum country artist Sara Evans, The Songbird Novels.

She lives in sunny, though sometimes hurricane plagued, central Florida with her husband and their ornery pets.

Rachel earned a degree in Journalism form Ohio State University and is a huge Buckeyes football fan. She is the past President of American Christian Fiction Writers and now sits on the board as an Advisor. Visit her web site atwww.rachelhauck.com to reader her blog, and to follow her on Facebook and Twitter. 

How to Make a Volcanic Dinosaur Cake

Currently Our Little Man is a dino fanatic, and so of course he wanted a dinosaur cake for his birthday this year.

I like to make their cakes as 3-D as possible, so rather than having a flat cake shaped like a dinosaur, I was dreaming of ways to make a gigantic T-Rex head.  Parts of it seemed like fun - cut marshmallows for teeth, layered marshmallows and gumballs for eyes, cut fruit leather for stripes - but how to keep the head from falling over from the weight of the extended jaws?  That one had me stumped.

And so, since he also likes volcanoes, I went with a dinosaur scene.  This was MUCH simpler than scissor-like teeth would have been, and he was fascinated with the dinosaurs in different scenes throughout the cake.

The fact that the dinos were removeable and became playthings after eating the cake - well, after licking washing off the ganache didn't hurt.

So here's how to make your own Volcanic Dinosaur Cake:

• You'll need two cakes - one cake in a 9X13" pan and another half cake in a small oven-safe bowl.  You'll want the cake to come 2/3 of the way up the bowl and for the bowl to be slightly wider at the rim than at the base.  I used a Betty Crocker peanut butter cake recipe for the flat cake and divided my Goofy Cake recipe in half for the bowl.
• Mix each cake as directed.  Line the bottom of the flat pan with a piece of waxed paper.  Spray or butter well the bowl.  
• Bake the cakes as directed until the center is springy.  For the Goofy Cake, this will take between 40 - 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
• Let the cakes rest on a wire rack until just cool enough to handle, then remove carefully from the pans.  Chill.
• Invert the flat cake onto a jelly roll pan to create a flat surface to work with.
• Spread a thin layer of peanut butter onto the top of the cake.  This helped prevent the ganache from soaking into the cake.  (If you chill both the cake and the ganache completely, you won't have this problem, but I hurried a bit.  Ultimately, it ended up tasting like a Tasty Cake - yum!)
• At the point where the bowl cake begins to dome - the part that baked on top - slice this dome off in one flat cut.
• Mix one batch of cheesecake filling - recipe below - and one batch of thick chocolate ganache to use as glue for holding pieces together and for decorating the tops of the cakes.  Tint the cheesecake filling red for lava.
• Put the cheesecake filling into a sandwich bag and cut off one corner about 1/3 of an inch from the end.  
• Pipe some cheesecake filling onto one corner of the cake.  This will serve as glue to hold the "volcano" in place.
• Put the bottom of the bowl cake upside down on top of the cheesecake filling.
• Top with another squirt of cheesecake.
• Top that with the piece you cut off.  This will give your volcano a higher, domed top.  Angle the sides, if necessary, to create the proper shape.  I also cut a small hole in the top of the dome to create the "hole" inside the volcano.
• Pipe some cheesecake filling around the volcano's mouth and in rivulets running down the sides.  Use a knife to create 'flowing' patterns in the lava.
• Add interest to the landscape.  Use marshmallows or other candies in various sizes and shapes as "boulders" strategically placed across your landscape.  If you want to add fossils, this is the time!  I planned to use pretzel sticks to create a dino skeleton under the mud, but I found fossil toys at the Dollar Tree, so I used one of those, instead.  If you look closely, you can see it in the lower left-hand corner of the cake.  My son was particularly excited about this feature.
• The ganache should be chilled and slightly thickened by now.  It will pour well but thicken more in the refrigerator, so keep in mind that it will firm up and not run after you finish.  Begin to ladle the ganache over the volcano and landscape, being careful to avoid the lava-covered areas.  Ladle the ganache-mud over anything that you want to be earth-colored.
• Chill your cake until serving time.
• Add your toy dinosaurs.  Use their feet to make extra tracks across the top of the cake.  Don't forget to place some in fun places, like on the sides of the volcano and on your candy boulders!
• Twisty candles make for explosive volcanoes!  Place a few in your cheesecake-lined "hole" and light for a fun, action-packed cake. 

Cheesecake Filling:

• Mix 8 ounces of softened cream cheese with 1/4 c. of powdered sugar.  Tint as desired.

Chocolate "Mud" Ganache:

• Put 1 c. of chocolate chips into a heat-safe bowl.
• Heat 3/4 c. of heavy cream until hot - but not boiling - and then pour quickly over the chocolate.  
• Whisk until smooth.
• Let cool until room temperature - at least - before using on a cake.

**Both of these elements must be refrigerated!  If using these in a cake, be sure to plan how you will keep it chilled and safe.

Do you make your children's birthday cakes?  Do you do shapes or 3-D varieties?

GratiTuesday - Birthday Celebrations

On Sunday morning My Little Man turned 5.

Exactly five years ago we were in the hospital after a long night of getting nowhere, with heart monitors screaming and oxygen masks necessary for keeping his heart rate under control.  With doctors and nurses bursting into the room, anxiously waiting to see if emergency surgery would be necessary.

All of that after months of waiting to see if the two brain cysts found during a routine exam would remain or dissolve.  If still there, anything from learning disabilities on out could be the result.  What would our baby be like?  Would he be able to learn "normally" - play, learn, develop, grow?  And what is normal, anyway?

Five years later, I remember that crazy night with thankfulness that My Little Man has no memory of our traumatic night - and we played hard to celebrate.

He chose a play day with family at Duke Gardens.

(I think he got a bit frustrated with all of my picture-taking, but he tried to be patient.  Gotta love that.)

I love how curious he is - he wants to explore everything.

The rest of us had trouble keeping up with him - he took on all 55 acres at a run.

When he finally stopped running, it was to play football with Daddy.

And then we hiked some more.

Explored some more.  Mommy took more pictures.

As it began to rain, we ran through the Asian Garden, stopping only for a few more pictures and to check out the distinct cultural elements of this section of the Garden.

He asked for a dino cake, and so this is what I came up with - a peanut butter cake with a chocolate cheesecake volcano.

I think he liked it.  He stopped and studied it for a while before asking to take the dinos off to play with them.

It always feels good to give a present that brings out a smile - and this dino book did the trick.

Watching my Little Man run and play, explore nature and study the science of dinosaurs makes me indescribably happy.  He's truly growing into the (very) young man that God created him to be - and nothing makes me happier than to watch that transformation.

Happy birthday, My Little Man!  I can't tell you how happy I am to be your mommy.

For more GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.

Menu Plan Monday - April 23, 2012

It's been a big weekend around here - My Little Man turned 5!  We've had a house full of company and special birthday foods, and with the freezer still quite full as summer approaches, it's time to make room for fresh summer produce.  For the next few weeks, we'll be eating our way through our own pantry and freezer challenge in preparation for fresh produce.  I can't wait!

Breakfasts:

- Perfectly Pumpkin Pancakes

- Fruit Parfaits with Cinnamon Almond Granola
- Spinach Quiche

Lunches will be our usual assortment of leftovers or sandwiches with cheese or yogurt and sliced veggies or fruit.

Dinners:
- Tomato soup and grilled cheese/turkey sandwiches

- Spaghetti with Easy Bolognese and steamed broccoli
- Turkey enchiladas with black beans, spinach, and pineapple
- Family dinner out
- Black bean burgers, roasted carrots, fresh fruit
- Fish filets, baked potatoes, green beans
- Grab it and Growl

We still have ice cream and peanut butter birthday cake left over for dessert, so I won't be doing any baking in the next few days.  Besides, between Easter and the birthday, I think we need a sugar break!

What are you cooking up this week?

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit OrgJunkie.

Field Work Friday: Virginia International Raceway

I know next to nothing about racing - maybe we should just say 'nothing' and be honest - but My Little Man is really, really into vehicles.  Tractors, building, racing, wheelbarrows - doesn't matter, he likes'em all.

So for this week's field trip we ventured to the Virginia International Raceway.

I expected a big paved circle with some bleachers.  VIR is so, so much more.

The Virginia International Raceway sits on 1300 acres in southern Virginia.  It features a nearly four mile road course that can be 4 separate tracks or one long one, but is also home to three restaurants, three inns, luxury villas, Camp Motorsports, and a spa, among many other attractions.

Our tour began near the North Paddock.  As this is a Stock Car Club of America national race weekend, nearly 300 cars will be participating, and many had already arrived and begun to practice.  In this picture you can see some of their gear.

The kids were enthralled with seeing the cars fly around the track.  My Little Man couldn't tear his eyes away.

There are several outside businesses that operate on VIR's land.  One uses these older vehicles to teach government officials, among others, how to handle car chases and drive defensively.

Another service is the racing "country club."  Like at a regular country club where you can join to play golf, here you can join, reserve garage space for your car, and then come here to race.

After our tour we were permitted to wander freely throughout the North Paddock area, watching the cars practice and checking out their garage areas.  This car was coming off of the track after a 30 minute practice session.

We watched part of the practice from a second-story restaurant deck area which was just beside the track.  I was afraid that someone's head would get stuck - he wanted to be closer!

We were perfectly positioned to watch the cars come off of a long straight stretch and move into these turns.  We even saw a few come off the road and maneuver to return to it.

These cars were patiently waiting their turn to practice - and finally it arrived!  They headed onto the track.

Two drivers graciously agreed to let us see their vehicles up close and personal.  I can't imagine driving that!  They told us that they topped out somewhere above 130 mph on the straight stretch.

My Little Man overcame his shyness at the prospect of sitting inside a real race car!  He was curious, however, about why the steering wheel was so soft ...

and so he asked the driver.  The driver, Frank, told us that the gloves have leather grippers on them, and so the steering wheel is suede.  Together they help the driver grip the wheel well, with less likelihood of slipping.

My Little Man sat in this car.

What a setup!

The kids also asked why the tires had so much gravel stuck to them.  Frank explained that the tires had sticky outsides.  This special coating helped the tires grip the road better and better as they heated from the friction of the race.  Since this car had just come off the track, there was still lots of gravel holding on.

Aren't they beautiful?  I didn't realize we had such racing fans!

I had no idea that there was such a complicated racing venue so close to us - or that there was so much happening there.  While I'm still not a big fan of driving fast or in circles, VIR is a really neat venue.

Are you a racing fan?  Have you ever been to a track?