Judge Joe Brown

Justin hates what I named this dish, but I couldn't help myself.  Briana and I took a vote and two against one, Judge Joe Brown won. It is a Sloppy Joe and hash brown hybrid. See how we got there? Are you picking up what we are putting down? It was good. Funston and Peyton scarfed it down. Justin had seconds. That's a success in my book.

What We Did... volunteering is hard.

Our weekend started out with a rare occurrence... no alarm clock. This is such a blessing. We awoke to the sun and Peyton stirring in her room.  It, for us, was a pretty laid back weekend.  It's nice to stop and breathe for a day or two.

I started planning my garden for the season.  I will share more on that at another time. I'm kind of a dud when it comes to planting. It's all about knowing my limitations.

Before

After

These photos were taken by his leader.
I didn't have my camera on me. 

Saturday we attended a service project for Funston's Cub Scout Troop. They volunteered to tear out all of the over grown mess in the "butterfly garden". It required three chainsaws. Funston busted butt. The little guy really has a giving heart. It doesn't hurt that he can make anything into a game, either.

Try either of these cookie recipes. We have given them both a thumbs up! I have two MUST DOS when making chocolate chip cookies. These are two alterations I do to any and all of my chocolate chip cookie recipes. You end up with the perfect chewy cookie.

1. Use 1/2 butter and 1/2 butter flavored Crisco.
2. Double the vanilla.

Obviously, I also substituted Reese's Pieces for chocolate chips. They turned out pretty good.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

We saw Boss Baby. You can wait until Redbox, 

Justin started Funston out on our smaller four wheeler. He did really well. Justin thinks he is ready to take it out next time we go. I don't know if this momma is ready. It is pretty nerve wracking. I got over it with Briana, and I am sure it will be the same with Little Man. It is hard to see them get so big. 

Until the next time I catch you up on what we did... 

Let's Catch Up

What in the world has been going on since July 2015? Well... that is a lot of ground to cover. So here are some quick highlights.

Obviously PeyLay. She has grown, and can walk and talk. Not the greatest at either, but we are giving her some slack. She is sassy and definitely our most opinionated kid. Since I am the world's worst blogger you have missed out on a lot of photo ops.

Her Bubba adores her. He played a lot of baseball and video games in the last two years, and most recently tried basketball. LOVED it. We have the next Michael Jordan in our midst. He is the 3rd grade and now wears some fly specs.

Last dance as a middle school
kid with her bestie,

Raptor 2016

Sissy, as she is now known as, until Peyton can say Banana or Berana, they seem to be the pronunciation of choice for the littles, is in HIGH SCHOOL. I almost died. It was a top ten hardest moments of my life, and I gave birth to our littlest miss au natural on accident. That is a story for another day. Briana plays softball and the piano. She has a core group of friends that are just as awesome as she is. Honestly, when it comes to a teenage girl, I feel we have very little to worry about. She is pretty awesome. 

So from here on out. I am not going to promise anything specific. I was inspired to restart this blog. As I age and grow wiser, I know my limits. I will not try to be the blogger I so obviously am not, but yet tried to be. I love this as a creative outlet, but Martha Stewart I am not. I love the opportunity to catch up my family and friends with one medium. So many loved ones are long distance, and this seems such an easy way to keep them up to date. 

With a new look and ideas, this should be a fun and hopefully inspiring place. 

What We Did will be your one stop shop to all things Warren!

Easter 2016

Typical Summer afternoon.
 Youngest playing together.
Oldest skulking around and reading.

Christmas 2016

Baby Girl is Here!

We have a new addition to our little clan. She is almost 2 months now, but we are finally settling into a nice routine. Thank goodness she is a good sleeper (once you finally get her to sleep that is...) 

Blog Lovin

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Greetings from Alabama

We got to go on our first family vacation this year. It was so much fun. We stayed at a lovely resort off the beaten path, so we had to drive a bit to get to town, but we got the seclusion Justin and I long for when we get away. We have already begun the planning of next year's excursion.

We made a pit stop in Memphis to see my grandma. She was gracious to host us, we visited Mud Island, the Gibson Factory Tour and ate local Memphis BBQ. Such a joy to see her. It had been too long. 

Iced Coffee

Iced coffee is not difficult to make, so you  don't have to spend a weeks pay to make your own. I like coffee, a lot. My hubs and I have date nights based on trying new coffee houses. Here is my version of iced coffee...

1/2 cups of:

Pre- sweetened coffe drink (I use Bolthouse Salted Caramel)

Cold/old coffee (what is leftover from my 5:30 am brew)

Ice

You can simply mix everything and leave it "on the rocks" or you can blend it. I use my stick blender. I feel like it makes it frothier. Also sooo easy to clean up. I like mixing the brewed coffee and the premix because I am a tightwad and this makes the expensive drinks last through 4 iced drinks. I also have been known to freeze my coffee in an ice cube tray and then you don't need to water it down with regular ice. But you will need to add extra liquid, more coffee if you want or some milk. 

Drink up!!

Rosemary, brown sugar, cayenne pepper... Almonds.

My office recently went out to eat for a coworker's birthday to a local sweets shop called Cravings. They had some amazing desserts. One thing we tried and I instantly became obsessed with were these almonds. It was love at first bite. Soooo good.

I searched the internets for a recipe. I found several that seemed about right. I mixed and matched to find something that seemed right to me. You can't even imagine how happy I was. Immediately had to work almonds into my budget. I wanted to enjoy them again very badly. 

Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

2 cups almonds- I used raw, some sites recommended unsalted but roasted. 

1 egg white

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp rosemary dried

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300. 

Beat egg white until frothy and no liquid egg whites remain but stop before you have meringue. 

Combine everything but the almonds into egg whites and mix thoroughly. 

Add almonds. 

Cover a baking sheet in foil. Spray with non stick spray.

Pour almonds onto sheet and smooth into a single layer. 

Bake 15 minutes. 

Stir almonds and smooth back into single layer. 

Bake 10 minutes. 

Let cool. Stirring on cookie sheet occasionally. 

Eat. Enjoy. 

Menu planning- budgeting

Menus! I have been using a meal plan for awhile now. I find it is always evolving. I haven't perfected it yet. I also go through some extremely lazy phases, but a New Year's Resolution for the Hubs and me was to save, save and save some more. SOOOO that means attempting to use a strict budget of $120 per week while grocery shopping. So far, we have had very few weeks go over budget. I am not making as much from scratch as I used to. I know, I know, not the best for us, but honestly, we are not on the super healthy-clean eating- bandwagon. We try to be as conscious as we can, but lets face it, that way of eating can be pretty costly at times. AND our daughter has the strangest food allergies in the universe, so we can't buy a lot of fresh produce, tree nuts, and soy. I can't base a meal plan on salads and snacking that is nut heavy. She can't eat it. So we do what works the best for us, and do the best that we can to provide nutritious and balanced meals to our kids, even if it does include chicken nuggets from the freezer department.

Some things we have cut out to save money:

1. Chips- my husband LOVES to snack, and he has a super human metabolism, PLUS he busts his butt all day for a living. We have gotten him down to ONE can of Pringles a week. It was hard on him at first to watch the amount he is eating, but he is done whining now. We used to buy two or three bags a week. NO joke!!

2. Individually packaged snacks- This is HUGE on saving money. Those little suckers are expensive. Buy in bulk and make your own snack packs. Plus I limit this to one item as needed. Right now it is pretzels. We have been working on the same $2 bag for a month now. Not buying anything else until they are gone. The kids dip them in peanut butter (daughter) and Nutella (little man). Nutella??? Yes, Nutella. We have had the same jar in the pantry for months, and I bought it before we started the budgeting.

3. Sweet treats- including ice cream, aka my weakness- This is where things get a little dicey... I am a dessert addict. I have something sweet every night. I have tried to do it the healthy ways... an apple and peanut butter, that frozen banana "ice cream", yogurt... The thing is, I always end up eating the ice cream anyway. I could just not buy it, but honestly, you have to live a little, even when using a budget. We have just scaled back. I don't go cheap either. I buy Blue Bunny from Walmart. It is the cheapest price for Blue Bunny. I buy the frozen yogurts, any of them, all are amazing. Even the Hubs likes them. We usually get two not-really-a-quart quarts at a time. One "lighter" and one with chocolate. I won't touch the one with chocolate. Not my go to craving. We no longer buy any of the gimicky frozen treats. We have to stick with this and deal. (Oh so sad, I know.) I also buy one store brand container of sandwich cookies and divide into the snack baggies. What can I say, we like sweets.

4. Meat- is expensive. Ground beef, forget it. I have almost entirely switched to ground turkey OR (this is huge) I go to Wally World on Saturday mornings some times just for this... The chicken breast packages will go on mark down for the sell buy date, I can get an enormous amount of chicken, approx 8 large breasts, for around $6. I then grind the chicken breast with my handy dandy meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. A huge budget saver is that marked down meat. I swipe it up whenever I can. We also always have hot dogs (gag me) and chicken nuggets.

These are some things I have found work for us. I don't buy a lot of fresh produce, It is a waste for us. It will go bad before I can use it all. I buy frozen onions, potatoes, green beans, broccoli, and fruit. I buy fresh apples and carrots, sometimes strawberries or grapes, and lettuce (heads of it.), oh and bananas. I prep my lettuce myself, I like to eat salad for lunch. Chop and wash, put into a gallon baggy with a paper towel, and I can get it to last almost two weeks.

Here is what our week will look like:

	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
Breakfast	Eggs, sausage and toast	Cinnamon Rolls	Cereal with milk	Yogurt and Granola Bar	Cereal with milk
Lunch	Hot Dogs with mac n cheese and applesauce (I might make a salad for myself or cottage cheese and fruit)	Frozen Pizza	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: "lunchable", gogurt, juice, cheese stick                                   Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple
Dinner	Baked Chicken with Broccoli and Rice	PBJ or turkey sammies, pretzels and raisins	Spaghetti and bread with butter	Chicken Nuggets, Pretzels, and Applesauce	Leftovers
	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Yogurt and Granola Bar	Cereal with milk
Lunch	Kids: "lunchable", gogurt, juice, cheese stick                                   Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple	Kids: PBJ roll up, gogurt, milk, cheese stick                      Me: Side salad, apple with PB2, turkey slices       Hubs: Sammy, chips, apple
Dinner	Hamburgers, French Fries and Broccoli	Ham Chowder (we have it in the Freezer already)

"Lunchables" for us are crackers and salami. Or English muffin pizzas that kiddos can assemble themselves at school. 

    I don't always eat what everyone else is eating. If I have just come from the gym or am going to the gym, I will have a protein shake with a banana. I have fish available to me to avoid the higher fat meats we sometimes have. I just wait for a sale and buy the big bag of frozen fish. We always have tuna on hand for a fast dinner. Let's face it sometime life happens, and I am not cooking. I eat a banana for breakfast everyday with some yogurt, not plain. (Ew, how do people eat that chalky mess?). If you are going to try PB2- I recommend the chocolate. I haven't tried plain, but hear it is gag worthy.

What are some ways you save moolah at the store??

Well now... It has been a hot minute!

I have been quite absent. I found that I was struggling with blog post ideas. I lacked the desire to write them, to be honest. I just wasn't that interested anymore. But I feel the need for a creative outlet again. Here are some things you have missed while I was gone... 

Bri-Bri (as she is called by her friends) attempted to start a duct tape card holder business. Ductastic. She is adorkable. 

Little man lost a tooth. And then another one. Way too big!!! 

I joined a gym!!! It has been fun learning new things and seeing my body make small changes over the last month. I almost have bicep muscles now. Not much, but the progress is there. 

Thanks for reading. 

Shredded Jalepeno Popper Pork Sammies!

I recently discovered the best recipe. I had to share. Even my shy-to-new-things hubs liked it!!! Spicy, creamy, sweet, all rolled into one sandwich. It was very very good.

I found this recipe here...  Just to give credit where credit is due. ;)

I made a few changes to work for our family. Here is my very slightly tweaked version. Oh and this is full fat and wonderfully bad for you.

Ingredients:
Sourdough bread- sliced
Tub of cream cheese (whipped)
butter
frozen Bird's Eye chopped jalapenos
6 lbs Boneless Pork Roast (2 separate roasts 3 lbs each)
frozen Bird's Eye chopped onion (about 2 cups- eyeballed)
2 tsp. chopped garlic from a jar (if you haven't noticed, I buy some things already chopped and ready, I am lazy like that)((I know not as good as fresh, but onions make me cry, I don't like to have garlic fingers, and the peppers are super handy to have around))
3/4 c. Rice Wine Vinegar (recipe called for Apple Cider... I forgot to pick it up while grocery shopping, and had rice wine on hand)
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
2 tbsp chili powder ( I used chipoltle chili powder because I had it, but I think I will cut this down some next time, a little too much spice for my family's taste.)
2 tbsp. Worcestershire (totally used spell check)
One bottle of Cookies Sweet and Smokey BBQ sauce (keep .5 cup divided for later use)
2 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 red onion- fresh
olive oil and salt.

Okay... what I did:
In the Morning: 
 I made a single serving of some jalapeno cream cheese for my sammy, everyone else got plain cream cheese. They don't do spicy very well. I mixed about 2 tablespoons cream cheese with one tsp of the frozen jalapenos, then put into the fridge to meld all day.
I mixed BBQ sauce (remember to reserve half a cup), mustard, sugar, chili powder, Worcestershire and mustard together in a bowl. I placed the frozen onions and garlic in the bottom of my crock pot, put the roasts on top and smothered it in the sauce I mixed up, and poured the vinegar on top of that. Set the crock to cook on low for 10 hours.
After work:
Took the roasts out of the crock- cooled for about 5 minutes while I drained the crock sauce into a bowl using a colander to catch any bits of onion and what not to make a smooth sauce. Reserve this sauce in your bowl for now. Slice your red onion, cook on low to med. low in a sauce pan with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt until soft and golden and yummy. While onion is cooking shred the pork and place back into the crock pot. Remember your BBQ sauce from this morning? Add it to the pork. Mix it up. If needed add some the strained crock sauce until meat is moist enough for your liking. Put the lid on and keep the crock on low.
Okay... here is where it goes from good to down right amazing.  Remove onions from skillet, add a pat of butter and let melt. Take the bread, coat it with your schmere (cream cheese, yo) put some of the onions on the cream cheese, add some pork and put another slice of bread on the top, you know, make a sammy. Place sammy on the melted butter and let it get golden brown. I can fit three sammies in my skillet. Remove sammies onto a plate once golden on side one. Add butter to skillet and repeat goldenization process on side 2. I served our dinner with a side salad with cilantro dressing and corn. Also, my kids did not get any onion, I would recommend extra onion if everyone likes it. I would also go with the jalapeno cream cheese by Philadelphia if everyone likes the heat. It is just less waste to make my own small batch myself.

Try it, I promise it does not disappoint. Thanks to the original poster. We have a new recipe in rotation now. We also have a ton of meat leftover. I plan to freeze it.

Yumm!

Summer and Mini Vacations...

What a busy summer. There doesn't seem to be enough time to fit everything in! Our kids are doing tball/softball, we have church activities, and of course the normal work and house stuff.

Just a run down of the last month...

Father's Day was great! We had a nice weekend, but very busy. Tball and Softball take a lot of our time on the weekends, but the kids love it. Speaking of lots of time... this weekend we have games at the same time, but in cities that are about an hour away from each other. That means each of us will miss one of the kiddo's game. Sad. On the plus, we will only be in the heat for one game. Silver linings.

Bubba and Daddy

Stinky and our niece.

We recently went to Branson. The kids had the best time. Hubs realized he was running a fever as soon as we got there. It stuck around until yesterday. He was diagnosed with an ear infection, but I think maybe the doctor was a small bit crazy. He had EVERY symptom Bubba had a couple weeks ago. Which turned out to be an upper respiratory infection. But what are you going to do... They still gave him meds. Back to Branson... We did so much stuff. We crammed as many activities as we could into 1 full day and 2 partial days: 2 shows (at our hotel, nothing spectacular, but the kids loved them), three museum/attractions, duck boats and the water park at the hotel. Which by water park, I mean kind of big and dark jungle gym inside a building full of water. No Hurricane Harbor or anything like that. But I stress, the kids had a blast. I have realized the older I get the less impressed I am with things as a child I would have been all googly eyed about. You lose the rose colored glasses, and that is sad. Here is an overload of pictures for your viewing pleasure...

This pretty much sums up how he felt the whole time, but he missed nothing. He is an amazing dad.

Stinky loves archery. She was pumped to see this at Bass Pro Shop.

Bubba's "chubby" face. Silly guy.

These posted all out of order, but you can figure it out. I don't have the patience to reorganize them..