More Recipes from Six Sisters' Stuff

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. In order to beat the heat and not turn on the oven but still celebrate the holiday, I tried another new recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff.

Easy Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna

I had ground turkey available so I used that instead of beef (and cottage cheese instead of ricotta). It turned out well and tasted good.  

Another day as a last minute dinner because I didn't have anything on the menu plan, I pulled out Instant Cooking by Six Sisters' Stuff and threw Bacon-Ranch Potatoes in the Instant Pot. It was a hit with most of us and I needed to use up potatoes anyway. I need to remember the next time I make it to double it. We could have happily eaten more or enjoyed leftovers later.

 

Six Sisters' Stuff have been great lately for making meals without having to use the oven.  

Air Fryer French Bread Pizza

I've learned some things from Six Sisters' Stuff over the years. Because of them, I am not scared of using my Instant Pot. Instant Pot Honey Garlic Chicken with rice is one of my go to recipes when I'm in a hurry.

I don't have a lot of experience with my air fryer but thanks to Six Sisters' Stuff again, I got to try out another new recipe. Air Fryer French Bread Pizza.

Simple and I like the result. Great crunch. And pizza's my favorite food anyway. I look forward to trying other types of pizza besides pepperoni now that I know this is a thing. 

Fun in July Other Than Celebrating Holidays

We didn't just celebrate holidays in July. We had other fun, too. Some things worked for Summer Reading.

Dressing up (total Harry Potter vibes going on).

He stole my pajamas and put them on himself.

Crafts- it's Dixie Fox.

Bonding time- One day Jr. needed a break so he came into my room. I suggested we play a game so we did... until Jet came and decided to mess up the cards. Sigh.  He wanted to "play," too, I guess.

We brought back some treats from Washington. There were jelly snacks in a frog shaped jar. Jr. and Jet named the jar, "Senor Frog," so at one point Jet said, "Aww. Senor Frog. He's so cute." Jet's so cute.

We've continued to try new recipes. This was BLT pasta salad (big hit with several family members) and Hawaiian baked beans (I was the only one who liked them and I really liked them).

We did one more story trail that they set up on the Provo Library grounds. The Golden River.

Nichole went to a Lord of the Rings marathon at the Orem Library. Jeremy made her a food for one of the breaks.

We weren't able to get tickets for a movie night to watch Wonka at the Provo Library so we checked the movie out and had our own movie night at home with popcorn and brownies.

Nichole and I got out for walks with friends.

A couple family members won prizes from the Orem Library and Jr. won a prize from the Provo Library. Jeremy won a movie night at the Orem Library. Jet won some new Pete the Cat books. Jr. won some play tickets. We all got some prizes just for participating in the Summer Reading programs.

July was busy.

Eat Brussels Sprouts Day

Eat Brussels Sprouts Day was January 31. I tried out a new recipe from The Food Nanny. It had a balsamic glaze on it. After roasting the Brussels sprouts and picking at them while making the glaze, I decided (no offense to the Food Nanny), I like it better without the glaze. There was nothing wrong with the glaze, I just preferred how it was before I put the glaze on.

Pick off the old wilted outer leaves, rinse the Brussels sprouts, dry them and cut them in half. Toss them with olive oil, coarse salt, and cracked black pepper. Bake them (cut side down) in a 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Eat them hot/warm. 

Sooo good. That is funny coming from me because I used to hate Brussels sprouts but I really couldn't stop picking at them before I put the glaze on. Now I can't wait to make more.

It was also National Hot Chocolate Day. Several people in the family had hot chocolate.

S'more Reflections

August 30 was Toasted Marshmallow Day. S'mores for after school snack. No complaints.

Then I had to document this because I made a new recipe again for dinner and I want to remember. It was so good, I couldn't stop eating it. We ate Southwest Chicken Skillet from budgetbytes.com along with onion roasted potatoes and veggies with leftover dill dip. Still yumm.

Jr. said the main dish reminded him of the Southwest Chicken Nachos he gets at school and would love it adapted for nachos. Yeah, we can figure that out. I have made Southwest Chicken Stacks before which are basically nachos. Mmm, now I'm craving nachos.

I remember when I first started really cooking back in my college days, I only knew how to follow recipes. No adapting. No throwing together. I was a very picky eater when I was younger. I didn't like onions. I would only eat them on hamburgers and in onion rings. It seemed like all the recipes I had called for onions, though, so I started cooking with onions. And ever since then I've loved onions. 

Ask my kids how many times they've heard, "I used to be picky... and ever since then I've liked..." stories.

When I met Jeremy, he would just throw things together to make something good. Wow. He could follow a recipe, but he could do this other thing, too. Wow. I have obviously learned since then to throw things together and adapt recipes (including leaving onions out, but why would I now? I love onions).

 

So... yeah... anyway... we can figure out Southwest Chicken Nachos for Jr.

Pictures and Not Pictures

Sometimes you feel like taking pictures of your celebrating, of the food you eat. Sometimes you don't. So often I have pictures of food because a lot of celebrating revolves around the menu plan. I didn't feel like taking a lot of pictures of food this last week so I didn't. So here you go- pictures and not pictures.

 

Thursday, January 28, was National Blueberry Pancake Day. We celebrated it "observed" and had blueberry pancakes the day before. Yumm. One response from Jr. Jr. was, "You should definitely make these again, Mom." Thanks, Jr. Jr., there are plenty of blueberries in the freezer. I think I shall. I made both blueberry and plain pancakes as some of the family members weren't as enthusiastic about the blueberries (I love berries myself).

I shouldn't be surprised that Jr. Jr. loved the pancakes. In years past, he's loved picking and eating blueberries at my parents' house.

 

Friday, January 29, was National Corn Chip Day. Since we have a bigger family now than way back when we first started making taco soup for this holiday, we don't celebrate "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top" holiday anymore. We have to make a smaller batch since we don't have enough freezer space for the extra. When talking about preparing for the holiday, Jeremy was mentioning other things we could fill the stock pot with instead of taco soup. I had to let him know the holiday was actually National Corn Chip Day not Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day. Ohhhhhh. So this year I tried a new taco soup recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It was good.

Since January 29 is also National Puzzle Day, Jr. put on music from video games that have puzzles, especially "Puzzle Plank Galaxy" music from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 

Saturday, we picked up prizes for doing Provo Library's Winter Reading Program. The completion prize for the teens and adults was a cocoa mug that says, "book. cocoa. sweater. repeat." Love it. 

Now I have two Provo City Library mugs. Jeremy and I each got one almost 20 years ago (whoa that's a long time) as a thank you when we did a show there. One of our many shows we've done over the years. It was probably a juggling show. We only have one of those left so it's fun to have new mugs from the library.

Anyway... we also earned packets of hot cocoa as another prize so we were able to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on Sunday, January 31,trying out our new mugs and cocoa.

The younger boys had fun with their prizes as well. Jr. Jr. and Lucky both got marshmallows that they were able to put in their hot chocolate- correction, they got marshmallows their marshmallow/snowball(?) plushies were able to throw in their hot chocolate.

 

 

By the way, I have to mention the sweetness of Lucky. When we went out to the van to go to the library on Saturday, he grabbed the scraper and wiped snow off the windshield for us. What a sweetie and what nice service.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day 2021

This year for Winnie-the-Pooh Day on January 18, I tried out some new foods with honey in them.

Ginger Ale Ham from my slow cooker cookbook and German Brown Bread from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and salad with honey mustard dressing (which isn't something new but the other two were).

We only mentioned Winnie-the-Pooh this year along with the food. We didn't play any games or with any toys or watch any Winnie-the-Pooh themed movies or shows. Oh well.

A Dash of Thyme

I'm cute. Have I mentioned that before? Sometimes I do things and instead of saying how foolish I am, I state that I'm cute. Like remarking how dull the stars seem then realize I'm not wearing my glasses. Cute.

Recently, I was trying out a new recipe. I chopped up the vegetables, the ham, grated the cheese. The instructions were to put the ingredients in a bowl. 

I put in the vegetables, ham, cheese, liquid, and started to measure and put in seasonings. I got to the thyme, measured it out and dumped it in the bowl... of freshly grated cheese. 

Sigh. What can I say? I'm cute. 

I decided the dish was going to be a little more cheesy than originally planned. I scooped out as much of the thyme as I could with cheese around it and decided that the rest of the cheese wouldn't hurt with a little bit of thyme in it. Jr. made quesadillas with it.

Jeremy even told me not to worry too much. "You've still got thyme."

Family Home Evening

One night for Family Home Evening, Jr. gave us a great lesson about avoiding sin. He referenced a talk by President Monson called "True to the Faith," from April 2006 General Conference.

In the talk it talks about fishermen using octopus lures called maka-fekes. They're made from seashells attached to a round rock. The octopus grabs onto the lure and won't let go so it's easy to just flip it into the canoe. We have to be wary of evil maka-fekes, things that look good to us at the time but if we don't stay away or let go once we grab on, we are in serious trouble.

Jr. had us make our own maka-fekes with paper shells and rocks and yarn to attach them to each other. Awesome job on your lesson, Jr.

 

Speaking of how awesome my son is, he's also been trying out recipes from his school food class. One day he made me a "food group" quesadilla.

Yummy. Thanks, son.

Mother Taught, Daughter Learned

Nichole wanted to get some practice with the sewing machine since she's taking a sewing class at school. So we got the sewing machine out and she made a face mask. I gave her the instructions I used to make masks for Jr. Jr. and Lucky back in August and she went at it. She did a good job.

Nichole wanted to learn how to make skillet chicken parmigiana (yumm) so she could add another recipe to her repertoire. I helped her follow the recipe since it's a little more involved and time consuming than some of the things she's cooked before. She did a good job.

What They Missed- August 9

Sunday, August 9-

We watched Music & the Spoken Word then had a gospel discussion about outside and inside influences and watched a fortification video that the couple who minister to us recommended. The video can be found with the Come, Follow Me lesson on churchofjesuschrist.org for August 3-9, Alma 43-52. 

That afternoon the Primary had a Zoom Singing Time. The boys loved it. They were asked something good that happened this week. Our boys said, "Our oldest siblings went to visit grandparents so we have the house to ourselves," and pointing at Jet, "This little guy is crawling and can pull himself to standing while holding something." That's something since the last time I was at church and in Primary with these people was before Jet was born. 

Jet tried out finger feeding himself and he played with water on his food tray. 

It was National Rice Pudding Day so I made a recipe from the May 2015 The Friend magazine. I'd been wanting to do this recipe for Rice Pudding Day for years and I finally did. Hooray!

I also tried out yet another new recipe from melskitchencafe.com and it was a success and so easy that I'll definitely be making it again.

Slow cooker Southwest chicken stacks

Again, Lucky wanted to make sure I was writing down all the things he was doing for me such as refilling my water bottle and holding the baby and bringing me things for the baby.
He held the flashlight for me while I changed lightbulbs in the boys' room and when Jet woke up, Jr. Jr. took care of him while I finished up with the bulbs. 

There was also feeding birds and watering dying plants.
I decided to try my hand at making face masks (even though I really don't have the time) since I have quite a bit of scrap fabric that can be used. I managed to cut out pieces for one mask that day.