Menu Plan Monday

I can't believe another week's gone by. . . It was a great week for food! I was extremely disappointed, though, with Monday's Crockpot Thai Chicken. I forgot to ask Rev to turn the crockpot off at lunchtime (our crockpot cooks most things fast), so by the time he got home with the boys for supper, it was burnt beyond repair, and he had to throw it out. We were really excited to try it, though, because we LOVED a similar dish from a restaurant down in New Orleans when we lived there. Don't be surprised to see it on our menu again in the coming weeks!
We had a very busy week, with the fair, (or, as Skywalker puts it, the "County Fayah") the boys' big birthday bash, and a visit from Rev's Mom "Bubbles".
Here's this week. The days with * are my work days this week. I leave at 6:15am, and don't make it back home until 8 or 8:15pm, I plan a crockpot meal with sides that Rev can fix himself. Otherwise, the boys end up with McDonalds, and I end up eating cereal.

*Monday ~ Crockpot chicken and rice, green salad, steamed green beans
*Tuesday ~ Crockpot black eyed peas, brown rice, green salad
Wednesday ~ Sausage oven omelet, (with somechanges, asparagus instead of brocolli, eggbeaters, and turkey sausage) fruit salad
*Thursday ~ Crockpot Turkey black bean chili, green salad
Friday ~ Spaghetti with homemade meatballs, homemade marinara, whole wheat spaghetti, and green salad
Saturday ~ Grilled chicken, roasted vegetable medley, whole wheat cous cous
Sunday ~ Meatball subs (made with whole wheat sub rolls, and leftover meatballs from Friday), salad


Hope you have a delicious week!

Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz

I found a new quiz while purusing blogs today, and it looked like fun, since Rev is a fan of the new show Mad Men, so I took it. You can find the quiz here.

And, my results:

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz ...
You Are a Doris!
You are a Doris -- "I must help others."
Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me
* Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
* Share fun times with me.
* Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
* Let me know that I am important and special to you.
* Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships
* Reassure me that I am interesting to you.
* Reassure me often that you love me.
* Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris
* being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
* knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
* being generous, caring, and warm
* being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings
* being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris
* not being able to say no
* having low self-esteem
* feeling drained from overdoing for others
* not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
* criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
* being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
* working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often
* are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
* try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
* are outwardly compliant
* are popular or try to be popular with other children
* act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
* are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents
* are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)
* are often playful with their children
* wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"
* can become fiercely protective


Yep, that about sums me up!

Menu Plan Monday

It's that time again, Menu Plan Monday. . .I just love participating in this! If you've never done Menu Plan Monday, check out I'm an Organizing Junkie's blog for lots of other menu plan ideas! Last week, our menu plan went really well. We changed around a couple of days, to make it work better for us, and since we went out to eat after Church Sunday, we postponed the lentil haystacks from Monday and had them Sunday, which means, we'll postpone our taco bowls until this Sunday. We really enjoyed our food last week, though, and had no "bad" meals. The Crockpot Pepper Steak turned out especially good! Here's this week's menu plan, with links to all recipes!

Monday ~ Crockpot Thai Chicken with whole wheat noodles, and steamed snow peas

Tuesday ~ Crockpot White Chicken Chili, green salad

Wednesday ~ Asian Shrimp Lettuce Wraps, brown rice

Thursday ~ Leftovers

Friday ~ We'll be going to the Jackson County Fair, and eat there. They have tons of booths set up selling all sorts of delicious things, like seafood gumbo, chicken & sausage gumbo, fried catfish plates, phili cheese steaks, and all sorts of other stuff! It's going to be great!

Saturday ~ Ahrr, it's Stonewall and Skywalker's buccaneer bash (ie: birthday party) We'll be having Golden (chicken) nuggets, Pirate Ship Planks (fish sticks), Pirate Faces (Smilies Potatos with a ketchup eye patch), Treasure Chest Fruit Salad, and Pirate Punch, with Birthday cake for dessert!

Sunday ~ Taco bowls that we didn't get to last week

Hope you have delicious week!

SOAP ~ Philippians 1:7-11

S: Philippians 1:7-11
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

O: v.7: Paul has great Love (Godly, agape love) for his fellow believers in the church at Philippi. He is concerned for their spiritual wellbeing, even though his live seems to be in shambles at that time. . ."in chains". . .one of the many times he was in imprisoned for his faith. v.8: Paul has lived so that only God needs to testify for his Love. The rest of this passage lays out 4 aspects of Spiritual Maturity: Love, Integrity, Fruitfulness, and Glorifying God.
v.9: Love. . .originates with God, it is commanded of us. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus spells out the greatest 2 commandments: Love the Lord above all else, Love your neighbor. Love is smart / not blind. Love of God will grow and increase with increased knowledge of God and God's word.
v.10: Integrity. . ."Pure and blameless" Integrity is having unity between your convictions and your behavior. . .in other words, NOT being a hypocrite.
v.11: Fruitfulness. . ."the fruit of Righteousness" comes THROUGH Jesus Christ! We can not be fruitful without Christ (John 15:4-5).
v.11: Gloryifying God. . .in everything, Paul brings Glory to God!

A: These verses give pretty detailed directions for how to grow spiritually. Love is dynamic, it is not stagnant, it is either growing or decreasing. . .How does Love for God and others grow? Through study of God's word, deepening of your relationship with Him. I have heard many spiritually immature Christians say, "can I do such and such without sinning"? The right question should be, "Will doing this cause others to sin?" That is a mark of spiritual maturity, and a sign of true integrity. . .not only concern for your spiritual health, but for the spiritual health of others! (And the reason that I don't drink alcohol).
What about bearing fruit: there are several kinds of "fruit" talked about in scripture. The most commonly referred to is "Spiritual fruit", in other words, a Godly attitude (Galations 5:22-23). Good works is another kind of fruit. . .as is leading others to Christ (Col. 1:5-6). Glorifying God should be the end result of EVERYTHING we do! I Corithians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." God's Gloryis His excellence, absolute perfection, His Renown/fame/reputation - live in a way that gives God a good reputation, that spreads God's good reputation.
P: Heavenly Father, help me to become a Spiritually Mature believer. Help me to show true concern for the spiritual wellbeing of those around me. Teach me to Love with your agape love, teach me to love you more every day. . .Mold me into a person of integrity. . .let me be concerned not only for myself, and my own spiritual wellbeing, but for others as well. . .And in everything, let me bring Glory to you! I desire to spread your good reputation to everyone. . .and not do anything that will mar your renown! In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!

We were creamed. . .4-1

Stonewall's 2nd soccer game was this morning. The kids had so much fun. He's in the U-5 division, and it is the whole team's first year to play. They haven't quite figured it all out yet. . .to say the least! For some reason, it is very hard for a 4 year old to pay attention to the ball, run after it, and kick it to their goal. . .but, makes for some great comedy!
I have definately turned into a soccer mom, though. Sitting on the sidelines, yelling, cheering, and encouraging my boy to run after the ball, kick it, etc! We ended up losing 4-1, but everyone had a really fun time! Here's Stonewall sitting down during Half-time. . .(With another players baby brother in the background) Here's Stonewall kicking the ball into play. . .They don't do throw-ins in this age group. They are stress NEVER to touch the ball with your hands right now.

This is Stonewall right after he had a corner kick, running back onto the field. . .Isn't he just adorable in his uniform?

The team really doesn't have a name, but since they are yellow and black, Rev, the other parents, and I have been trying to come up with a name for them. Rev like "the Swarm", but I like the "Stingers" better, it just sounds tougher to me.

Tasty Tip Tuesday

GardenGirl over at the Pressure Crock is hosting Tasty Tip Tuesday, so I'm going to participate! The problem is, I can't think of any kitchen tips that I have. . .

Well, maybe a couple. . .Here's 2:

1) If you are out of eggs and/or oil and are baking, you can substitute some mashed banana or some canned pureed pumpkin. . .and, as an added bonus, they are much healthier alternatives than eggs and oil! (Applesauce is also a great oil substitute, but you probably already knew that!)

2) Whenever I boil a chicken for a casserole or chicken salad, I save the stock that is made and not used in that recipe. I freeze it in ice cube trays, and once frozen, put them in a gallon sized ziplock freezer bag. Whenever a recipe calls for broth or stock, I throw some in. . .They are also great to use when making rice or pasta, or any recipe for a little extra flavor!

Be sure to check out the Pressure Crock for other great tips!

What made me break my Low GI diet today. . .

Tonight, after church, we are having a fellowship, to which we are supposed to bring "finger foods". I couldn't decide what to make, so Rev talked me into making my famous Oreo Truffles. These are delectible, fudgy, chocolaty treats, that are so good you can't even imagine how good they taste. (And the best part? only 3, count them, 3 ingredients!) So, I made them. . .Usually, I will cover half of them with white chocolate, and the other half with milk chocolate. But, Walmart was out of white chocolate on the baking aisle yesterday, so I just made milk chocolate covered ones. (Dark Chocolate would have been even better!)

Anyway, after making these delectible (my word for the day :) ) treats, I just had to sample them. I mean, you can't take something to a fellowship if you haven't sampled them first, can you? What if they tasted bad? or made you sick? I mean, it was for the health and safety of my dear church family that I tasted one. Well, four. . .I know, I'm ashamed. I had 4! YIKES. I'm supposed to have self control, but I seem to have none. Oh, and I also made some yummy Peanut Butter/Ritz Crackers cookies dipped in Chocolate, since there was leftover chocolate. (And I sampled one of those, too. . .Because for somereason, I made 13, and you just can't take 13 of something to a fellowship. . .I had to eat one so there would be 12, a nice, even number. . .)

So, now, I've go to go get on my treadmill, and burn those callories. I promise to be good this week on my diet to make up for it! (except for our Deacon's fellowship on Friday Night. . .) What can I say, we're Baptist. Eating is what we do. . . :)