Meals meals. . I never know how the week is gonna go or what I want to cook each day. So I try to come up with some sembleance of a menu to use up our bountiful basket.   So this is my idea list of meals for a few days this week as we are busy almost every night, but I’d like to have something to possibly make. And most of these foods are already at my house! Yeah!  And extras I will do or have done to get the healthy food eaten.

 

Chicken Divan – use up the broccoli in a meal AllRecipes I will use fresh broccoli, and gluten free cream of mushroom soup and probably a replacement of some kind for the chicken soup. But this quick recipe from allrecipes was an easy base to work from.  I am going to add some desert to this. Maybe baked apples. I have never done them and we have quite a few in the basket. This recipe has cinnamon cheesecake center. Sounds yum.

 

Fish and Asparagus and Red potatoes – need to find something to not make asparagus taste like well asparagus for my little one.  Here is a recipe from Allrecipes. But really I am going to try it because it says it will turn ANYONE on to asparagus. Huh. They must not have a 6 year old in their house. And the fish I have some mahi mahi so I will wrap them in parchment paper with garlic and green onion and bake it in the over to keep the place warm.

 

Crockpot – (probably Scouts Night. So we can come home and eat or eat before we go. )This week is the firestation visit. So I think I am going to try Tex-Mex-Pork from all recipes. It doesn’t use up bountiful baskets produce, but I have most of the seasonings and if we don’t eat it after scouts we can eat it as a left over.  We have tortillas from bountiful baskets still in the freezer. And we have some burger buns that hubby needs to eat up. So this would work for either.

 

And for using up.. I cut up the cantaloupe and put it at eye level. The kiddo will see it and scarf it down. He doesn’t when it is still whole. I saw a recipe for grilled cantaloupe. Hmm I tagged this in my mind for summer grilling.

The spinach hubby will take to work with some lettuce from last week for lunch.

Red Peppers I will chop up in strips and put in baggies. If we don’t use it I will freeze it and save it for chicken chili later in the month.

The apples will get eaten.

I am going to juice the remaining oranges and tangelos and they will get swallowed during the week in liquid form.

I cut up cauliflower so I am going to make some veggie dip so it makes the cauliflower more enticing. We are dippers in this family for sure.

 

I also saw this on a blog today when I was looking for something to do with the strawberries, but then I realized my kiddo had already eaten half of the container that came in the basket. Maybe next time, but wow this recipe for Stuffed strawberries looked yum from blahtota-daa.  And don’t spend to much time on that blog. You will need a napkin to wipe the salivating drool. Or at least I did. They even had a rhubarb and apple crisp. I haven’t had one of those since my summer visits with Grandma in Wisconsin. Yum.

 

*** HELP ***** Any ideas.. I have quite a few pears from last week, a pineapple that has probably bit the dust and bananas that will be overripe by Monday. Any ideas are welcome.  I’d love to use them up. I was thinking maybe pearsauce for the pears.

 

 

And this I thought was cute from Twig and Thistle.. I thought it was cute because my kiddos classroom is having a healthy heart party for Valentine’s day. I know I would get the eye roll if I suggested these stickers with fruit for Valentine’s day. But well ya know. I still think it is a cute and great idea! And this lady had a lot of other inspiring items.  

 

Well I have rambled enough for you on a Saturday. Really I am typing like mad to keep my fingers warm. Any ideas on those pears yet? Let me know I’d be interested in your ideas.

 

I can’t wait for blueberries from Bountiful Baskets! I have recipes at the ready to can! Woohoo!

 

Have a happy super bowl! I haven’t decided yet what to make for the super bowl party. But I am sure something will come to me. More on that later!

Valentine’s Day is about a week away or so… what are you working on!

 

Oh woohoo! My sick kiddo has put transformers in. I love these movies. Why I don’t but I do and can’t wait for transformers 3 to come out. Woohoo

 

Off I go to hang out with the kiddo.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Enjoy!

Chris

 

It has been an adventurous morning for sure in the heat of the desert. Scrowl back. The freezing of the desert. Today the temperature according to the truck was 12 degrees and the wind according to the news was 20 miles an hour. Putting us somewhere at… to darn cold for me (some may say that’s nothing. I say I live in Arizona. I deal with 110 degrees heat. Why I am I dealing with the other end of the spectrum? Hmm.. well Mother Nature’s joke) … So hubby left for school with the kiddo and I went on to sledge the water troughs for the horses. Oh but wait our well froze. So we had a flat of bottled water in the fridge in the tack room. So those came into the house. So now I am outside in my sweater with sweater with shirt with carhart with green bay packer stocking cap, gloves, pajama pants and old shoes. I have earned that Packers hat after living in Wisconsin. So I head out ready to go. At first I didn’t have the sledge hammer. So I was out in the arena letting the 4 horses out I know will play well together so they can stand next to each other and retain some heat. Which they did immediately. So I have the end of the rake and I am using the handle to crack the ice. I got the first few done. And I had a horse almost topple me into the water trying to get to it because they had eaten and needed to drink. So I shooshed her off with the rake. A bath out in the water trough not on my list of possibilities for today wow. So I get to almost the last one. A horse inside their stall. I am to short to maneuver a rake through the slots of the fence. So well I stick my foot through and slam it down on the ice.. and right then… I saw that light bulb above my head… ting… and that oh man… yep foot in water. Pant leg soaked. In the house I go. So now that I have changed my pants. Found different shoes. Thrown the blanket again over my Nala (the old curmudgeon that rules the roost at our home) she hasn’t stopped vibrating with chill since yesterday and has earned a blanket and one for over top over her little four legged body. Anyways I am out back again in the arena. My fingers are just froze I close the gate. The wind is howling. I am ready to go. I have the sledge hammer this time this means business. Oh it took me an hour to change and try to warm up a little so no the waters are frozen over again and I break them all. As I am working on this the wind whips and something makes a noise. I look up and my nemesis… hubby’s beautiful mare.. has decided to push on the gate out of fear and because my fingers were freezing and gloved I must have not clipped it right. Because now as I stand there with a sledgehammer… 4 horses are running out into the yard. Lovely. I walk out put the dogs up so they don’t chase them. I change my gloves. Head back out. Grab the lead rope and hit the hay barn. Grab a flake of hay and walk back towards the arena. My paint horse Fleet sees me… he knickers. He runs around the arena towards the open gate. Full blast with my sons two little ponies right on his tail. He is going going… he hits the hay and is happy. He is chomping. The gate is closed. 3 out of 4 isn’t bad. So now my 1200 lb competition in life is staring at me. I show her the hay she walks toward me and I stand there. Call her name and talk to her she looks at me and bounces off the ground and takes off running tail in the air opposite direction. Prancing pain in the butt quarter horse. Does she not remember when I helped bring her back from pigeon fever hell this past summer. Whatever. I throw the hay on the ground by the gate. If she gets that way at least she’ll stop. I watch her run around and then bolt down towards the wash. (dry river bed… where water travels when freak water storms happen during the monsoons and the water doesn’t soak into the hard ground.) Anyways. She bolts. I just stand and watch. I decide I have had enough. The property is fenced in as a whole. So she can run around with her tail in prissy mode. Really she can get a cactus stuck in it. Oh wait I don’t want that I will have to get it out. Well back to the house I go. Call my hubby to catch my breath and calm down and change my mood. I really don’t want her to “feel” me ready to strangle her neck.. because then she definitely won’t come. As usual my phenomenal hubby is good to calm me down. Talk me through it. I am good. I put on my jacket again and head back out. She has walked up close the arena. Looks at me like. Hey oh your back! Wanna play. I walked wide around her. She doesn’t realize this but effectively as I come at her I have pinned her against a mesquite tree with huge thorns and no leaves. So I walk towards her with the lead. Talking the whole way. She backs up, hits the tree, bounces forward.. .she isn’t gonna run me over. Truly we have a love like relationship. I love to watch her run. I love to see her ridden. I love to just watch her every move. She is beautiful. But sometimes I like to strangle her neck. But she also knows, I think, that when Dad is away. Mom does the feeding. And oh you don’t want to run over the lady who is handing out hay like she bought a hay field because it is cold and she wants everyone to keep warm. So I walk up to her throw her lead of her neck, pet her neck, and whisper… “YOU ARE A PAIN IN THE A**. Let’s go.”  She prances back into the arena and runs the other horses around for good measures. Throws her head and snorts at me. And no whisper this time I say.” Yeah Whatever”.  So now we are back to organized chaos as we wait for a well to thaw. My hubby is on the way home and we will be loading up and heading to the neighbors who has to work all day and breaking all their animals waterers free of ice and working on the well. And splitting some wood in case my sister needs it because the natural gas has come up short and is home with her kiddos because the day care ran out of gas/heat. So what is this all about… well all in all. I love it. I wish I could have gotten a few more other things done today, but there is always tonight when I can’t sleep because of the wind. But going to help neighbors and help family and keeping it all together. That is the awesome part. My son will get to see that you help others when they need it and it makes the world spin to be a better place. Oh and really it’ll be all right.. Supposed to be 60 degrees on Saturday and 73 on Tuesday. So our two days of winter for the year will be over. The well will be thawed, we can shower and ride horse and enjoy life…. I so do…. Love my life.

 

Have a great warm day!

Enjoy!

Chris