Menu for the Week

Menu for the Week


Chaos of the End of Month at work and a million things that the girls have to do.  Most of the recipes have at least one job each for the girls to assist with.



Monday --  Memorial Day Fare:  Barbque and macoroni salad.

Tuesday -- End of Month both working late:  Japanese noodles and a veggie.
Wednesday -- Berry French Toast

Thursday --  Shrimp Paella  we substitute the pimiento-stuffed green olives with black

Friday -- Eating out prior to Musical performance at school

Chore Chart

There are alot of opinions out there about allowances and chores.  How you should not give your kids an allowance based on the chores they do around the house.  Allowances are for teaching them how to manage money etc.  I do not agree. 

My kiddos are expected to do certain things without monetary compensation: pick up their toys, make sure their clothes go into the laundry basket.  Basic chores of cleaning up after themselves are a given in our household to be done because they live here too.  They are members of a family.  Other chores, however, are compensated.  Dusting.  Cleaning the toilet, sink and mirror in the bathrooms.  Vacuuming.  

I think that in teaching them about managing money we need also to teach them that a paycheck/allowance does not just come to you on a Saturday morning without doing something in return.  We have a chore chart that shows what they can do and what dollar (cents actually) amount they can earn.  My parents actually paid me an hourly wage for chores when I was a teenager.  If it took me 15 minutes to vacuum the downstairs, I logged it on my weekly time card.  Ours are still a little young for that,  but in the future I think that is what we will end up with.

Disney Craft

M will be gone for 5 weeks in the month of July to my parents.  A good time to get to know grandparents she rarely gets to see because of distance.  A time for me and hubby to be on edge because our baby is not home. She has a homework packet to finish to keep her on her toes. Monday's homework is to write a letter home.  She has been given the parts of a letter (greeting, body, closing, signature) now we are working on some fun stationary for her to use.
Disney has a great craft in their teacher apprectiation theme called Fun Fingerprint Stationary.





from familyfun.go.com

 We got some stamp pads in the Target dollar section.  The girls love that section.  And we are going to make little cards to do her homework on.  Will post hers when she has finished decorating.

Coloring hard boiled eggs for Layered Salad

Hey, it is not Easter.  But the requirement of hard boiled eggs for our Monday salad added some fun to dinner.  Post Easter sales had egg coloring kits for 25 cents.  I stocked up on quite a few so we could have fun year round.

We had a phenomenal time coloring our hard boiled eggs for our layered salad. 

SALAD:
2 bags of favorite lettuce greens
8 ounces, Baby Spinach, Washed And Dried
Salt And Pepper, to taste
8 whole Hard Boiled Eggs, Chopped (I use my pastry blender to make slices)
16 ounces, Bacon, Cooked And Chopped
5 tomatoes, Chopped
8 ounces, Cheddar Cheese, Grated
1 bag frozen peas, thawed
DRESSING:
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon Sugar (to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS:
In a bowl (clear glass makes more of a statement), layer salad ingredients in the order above, make sure the ingredients are around the edge of the bowl.  Fill in the center with lettuce, if needed.

Combine dressing ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well. Pour over the top of the peas and spread to cover.

Menu for the Week

Monday --Layered Salad

Tuesday --Turkey Enchilada Casserole

Wednesday --Chicken Fried Steak

Thursday --Migas

Friday -- Peppered Halibut Steaks

Take Back your life – Modern Spring Cleaning

I started with my “social network.” What do you want out of your “social network”? Take a hard look and make a list of what you want. Not everyone needs to have a Facebook, blog, Twitter and My Space account to be happy. Find out where your happiness lies, if you don’t want to spend the time to maintain relationships that do not uplift you, don’t. If there’s one word for your plan to take back your life, let it be ‘flexible’ and go from there.

I removed a variety of accounts and the address lists that went with them. My basic process was if I had not had individual contact with the person in the last 18 months I really did not need to keep the contacts.

Facebook has been delegated to those with whom I no longer am in a localized area: friends from college, friends from Japan, family members. I am adamant about not socializing with those I work with on Facebook. My co-workers do not need to know about what we are doing with kids this weekend.

Next to get my computer to run a little faster.

Get rid of clutter. Start your computer clean up with the icons. Look in your system tray: these icons show what is starting up when your computer boots. It takes time for your computer to open all these shortcuts. Remove or turn off unnecessary one with a right click. Do you have all your pictures and documents on your desktop? You most likely do not need such immediate access to them. Categorize them in Documents, Photos and Music folders to keep them organized and eliminate the clutter on your desktop.

Get rid of old programs. If you’ve never used a program that came with your computer you should probably trash it. It fills up your hard drive space. Use the Uninstall command (under Programs and Features in the Control Panel) or the uninstall that comes with the program. Don’t forget to empty the Recycle Bin in the end.

Defrag. Information gets stored onto your computer on the hard drive in small pieces – where there is space. Your computer looks around to find the file you are looking for and re-assembles it to be opened. The defrag tool (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter -- or see below) puts those small pieces back into larger pieces on your hard drive making it faster to find those pesky files.





Congratulations.  You are now entering the spring with a faster less cluttered life.

Kids Helping in the Kitchen

 I was breezing down the information highway looking for an easy dessert for the girls to make while I cook dinner tomorrow. I had only a few requirements. No heat. Something with fruit. Something that would keep them occupied for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then I saw Cookie Salad. Doubtful that it contained fruit, I looked anyway. Then my curiosity peaked again. Fudge striped cookies and fruit cocktail. Who came up with this?



A trip to Wikipedia to learn the origin:

Cookie salad is a dessert salad from the U.S. state of Minnesota made with buttermilk, vanilla pudding, Cool Whip, mandarin oranges, and fudge stripe shortbread cookies. It is popular with children and for potlucks. Berries can also be added.

They even sell it in the grocery. See below picture.


Huh, who knew? I added buttermilk to my shopping list. Here is the recipe that I used.

Cookie Salad

Ingredients:  

6 oz instant vanilla pudding mix

2 cups buttermilk

9 oz prepared whipped topping

16 oz fruit cocktail, drained well

11 oz miniature oranges, drained well

2 cups pineapple, drained well

12 oz package of fudge striped cookies

3 oz walnuts, optional (not included in our house due to allergies.)

8 oz maraschino cherries, drained

In a large bowl, combine the instant pudding mix with the buttermilk. Mix well. Add in the whipped topping. Fold in the drained fruit cocktail, miniature oranges and pineapple. Add the walnuts if desired. Break the fudge striped cookies into small bits. Fold into the salad. Cover and refrigerate. Chill the salad at least 1 hour before serving. Top each serving with a maraschino cherry.

M was in charge of making the pudding. She can read directions and a measuring cup.
I opened and drained the cans of fruit for B.
B mixed all the fruits together while pudding was being made.
 mixed the pudding and the whipped topping and folded in B’s fruit.
B smashed cookies into bits while M folded. (Thinking that those cookies should not be crumbs but it IS their dessert.)
M folded the cookies into the rest and we chilled for after dinner to eat while playing UNO.