A Couple More March Holidays

March 18 was Forgive Mom and Dad Day. The first thing Lucky did that morning was give us both hugs and tell us he forgave us. 

We had to get forgiveness for some other things that day.

But we did not have to be forgiven for dinner. We had sloppy joes for Sloppy Joe Day and everybody in the family likes sloppy joes. The recipe we use is from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner.

The next day, March 19, was Let's Laugh Day. There was lots of laughing. That's not surprising in our family.

It was also Chocolate Caramel Day so I made Olloch the Glutton's Caramel Biscuit Bars from The Fablehaven Cookbook. Nobody complained about that, either. 

St. Patrick's Day 2026

You know we like to get creative with our celebrating.

When planning St. Patrick's Day dinner, I asked my husband for suggestions. Thinking about cabbages, potatoes, he said what sounded good was stuffed cabbage. Mmmm.

At the time, I was listening to an audiobook set in Ireland, and they kept mentioning brown bread. So I figured brown bread would be good and a side of onion roasted potatoes.

As I was looking for a recipe for brown bread, I found one for German Brown Bread, and the creativity light bulb came on. 

So for St. Patrick's Day, we had Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage, German Brown Bread (recipe from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again), Irish roasted potatoes (onion roasted potatoes but with seasonings you would use in Ireland), and Utah lime green jello with whipped topping (because it's green. We did skip the carrot shaving this time).

For dessert we had Shamrock Shakes (adapted from Jordan Page's A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 1).

Yeah. Creativity is fun when it comes to celebrating. 

 

How Did October Start?

How did October start? It started on October 1, which was World Vegetarian Day. We had a salad bar for dinner without meat.

Since it was Homemade Cookies Day, we also had chocolate chip cookies from a recipe by The Food Nanny.

 

Lucky had his "Grand Lunch" at the elementary school. Jet and I joined him. He chose to have me bring him lunch that day instead of eating school lunch. He was very happy that I brought him Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps.

That evening, Jeremy and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences with Lucky and got to see some of the things he's been working on.

October 3 was Virus Appreciation Day. Lucky was sick. We were able to appreciate the timing of it at least.

He got better.

Food Nanny Dinner

March 18 was National Sloppy Joe Day. That meant it was time for The Food Nanny's dinner. Sloppy Joes and Rice Pilaf both from "The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner."

My baking buddy helped me make the hamburger buns (rolls). 

It was also Forgive Mom and Dad Day. I texted my Mom and Dad to say wonderful things about them and as an afterthought, I told them I forgave them. Tee Hee. I also told my kids to forgive me for things I did.

More Celebrating in January

January 16 was Fig Newton Day. We ate fig newtons. Do you remember the commercial way back that said, "It's not a cookie. It's a newton"? I looked at the packaging for fig newtons and it calls them cookies. Ha.

It was also Appreciate a Dragon Day. Dad did some writing about dragons.

January 17 was Museum Selfie Day. Jeremy had some stuff to do at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point so he made sure to celebrate the holiday while there.

It was also Popeye Day. I sang Popeye cartoon theme music over and over to the kids while we ate Popeye spinach.

It was also Hot Heads Chili Day. Let me tell you how I did some shelf cooking those two days, following "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1.

I was thinking of making some spicy chili on Hot Heads Chili Day and the day before I was going to make lasagna soup with garlic bruschetta. Well, Jr. wasn't feeling the greatest that first day and said Ogre Stew sounded good to him. Ogre Stew is kind of like a white bean chili and it was a bit spicy so we had it for Hot Heads Chili Day Observed. 

The garlic bruschetta was supposed to use fresh tomatoes but we were out so I took a can of diced tomatoes, added the other ingredients, and cooked them up to make a sauce. Then I took my homemade baguettes (The Food Nanny recipe), cut them in rounds, and made them into garlic bread to put the sauce on top. It worked.

So the next day I made the lasagna soup to go with spinach salad. I also made cornbread muffins which were suggested in the book but I used a recipe I always use instead of the one from the book. That's another thing about shelf cooking. If I have a tried and true recipe why look for something else?

 

Lucky very nicely took pictures then edited them to make me green like spinach.

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.

I Survived Shelftember!

I survived Shelftember! 

We ended up saving quite a bit of money on groceries for September thanks to this challenge. Yay! Here are a few other things I didn't talk about it before:

 

I mentioned this before but I found a recipe I like and it bears repeating because I'm going to make it a lot. Mexican rice from shelfcooking.com. It's another of those easy recipes that makes for a quick side dish. 

One day, I threw together homemade refried beans (because I'm not a fan of the taste of store bought refried beans so I always make my own from pinto beans with seasonings) on corn tortillas with corn and Mexican rice on the side (or wrapped up in the tortillas with the beans). Quick shelf cooking meal perfect for Shelftember. And it made for good leftovers.

 

We had taco soup in the freezer that needed to be eaten up. Shelftember is a great excuse for that.

 

And of course free food/snacks is always a great way to save money. Nichole got some of The Food Nanny's Kracklin' Kamut from one of her teachers. She was nice to share with us.

Since it's Fall now, I made apple crisp. So good. The only things I picked up at the store for this in September were apples. The rest of the ingredients I had on hand, including the ice cream on top.

Sometimes Spanish Rice and shredded pork or chicken on corn tortillas make a great quick lunch.

I finished off the month with a quick trip to the store where I spent only a few dollars on apples. The dinner I tried to make that night was failing tragically until I threw everything into a casserole dish and finished it up in the oven. While waiting for it, I had a tortilla with peanut butter. Sigh.

But that's okay. Not every meal turns out perfectly.

Celebrating During Shelftember

I can celebrate with food even during Shelftember.

September 15 was Double Cheeseburger Day.

It was also Agatha Christie's Birthday so I had some fun chatting on Orem Public Library's Instagram about loving Agatha Christie and book recommendations. (Have I mentioned I love the library and the people who work there?)

 

September 16 was Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day.

Some of our family members don't like raisins so I made one loaf with raisins and one without.

To go along with the bread we had homemade pizza (chicken alfredo pizza with artichoke hearts from the fridge and homemade alfredo sauce and pepperoni and olive pizza), salad that needed to be eaten up, and zucchini brownies (recipe from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner Again) using shredded zucchini that's been in the freezer for a while.

 

September 17 was Monte Cristo Day.

I will admit, I did spend money on the raspberry jam for the Monte Cristo Sandwiches. I could have used strawberry jam from the fridge, but it just had to be raspberry. We've been saving money on other groceries this month, though.

Jr.'s been reading The Count of Monte Cristo lately. My oldest two have a thing about thick books.

Bonding Time

Nichole and I went on a Utah County Birders field trip on Saturday, March 26. It was supposed to be warm that day so of course where we met up with the other birders we got strong canyon winds. Brrr. 

Once we were through the canyon and for the rest of the trip, there was no problem. I ended the trip in short sleeves. Nice.

Something fun about the drive- We passed the Manti Temple on the way. Nichole commented, "That's a cool big building up ahead." I commented back, "I think that's the temple. If we're coming up on Manti then that's the temple. I'm pretty sure the Manti temple has a different look than the ones in our area." Then Nichole commented, "I don't see Angel Moroni on top," so of course I second guessed myself. "Maybe it's not the temple but it is a cool building." It's been quite a few years since I've been to that area. As we got closer and closer there were clues that it was indeed the Manti Temple. One of the biggest was that as we were passing, Nichole was able to read on it, "Holiness to the Lord: The House of the Lord." Yep, definitely the temple. 

We talked a little bit about how I thought Manti was one of the older temples in Utah. I looked it up later. Yep. It along with St. George and Logan were dedicated before the Salt Lake Temple even though construction on the Salt Lake Temple began before the others. It took 40 years to build it, though. Wow. There you go- a little bit of Utah/Church history for you.

 

Now about birding-

We stopped by Palisades State Park. Plenty of birds to see there. 

Then we stopped at Ninemile Reservoir where there were so many more birds. A couple people even saw a peregrine falcon. I didn't see it. Man, that was my nemesis bird. I'd seen plenty of peregrine falcons. I even have pictures of me with one.

This was in 2018.

There's a closer picture on my blog post for December 1, 2018. I'd never seen one in the wild even though I'd gone out looking for them enough times. Sigh. One nice thing, though, is we went across the road from where we parked and were able to see some chukars. I haven't seen chukars in a while, either. This is definitely becoming a better birding year for us than the last couple.

click to see Nichole's picture of a chukar larger

 

We traveled through Gunnison, actually along a road that we used to travel for our WAFLS (short-eared owl) survey we used to do. We stopped by Redmond Lake and there were sooooo many pelicans. I love pelicans. There were lots on the lake, lots in the sky. It was great.

The sandhill cranes were very vocal there as well. And there was a long-billed curlew flying around. That was fun to see.

These three are Nichole's pictures (give credit where credit is due)

At one point we were driving along a dirt road when someone in the group called over the walkie talkies that there was a raptor on a fence post near a pond. There was some discussion of what it could be. Someone got out a scope to see that it was... a peregrine falcon. Whoopee! Lifer dance!

It was way out there so Nichole and I couldn't see it so well in our binoculars and cameras but it was definitely recognizable in the scope. I was sooooo happy about that and it doesn't matter that I missed the one earlier in the day. Nemesis bird- acquired.

 Nichole's picture again.

 

We finished the trip at Yuba State Park. There wasn't as much to see there. Everyone headed home on their own after that.

It was a nice long day out and such nice bonding time with my daughter sharing this similar interest of birding.

 

And since March 26 was National Spinach Day, I made Jeremy's request for dinner, spinach quiche. Yumm. We also had rice pilaf from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and French bread rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and pears with cottage cheese.

 

I have to share one more fun thing. While we were out, we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. Nichole noticed a Fast Break candy bar. She reminded me of a random experience we had one time in a store. We were waiting in the checkout line and a lady came up looking for a candy bar and she mentioned to us that the best candy bar is a Reese's Fast Break. I'd never heard of it before. Nichole obviously remembered what it was called because when we were at the gas station, she saw one and reminded me about it. So we got one to share. Yes, definitely yummy. I would eat one again. I'll have to remember that for the next birding field trip pit stop.