Zelda Muffins

February 20 was National Muffin Day. We made muffins.

February 21 was the 40th Anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. Some family members played Zelda games. We didn't do anything big to celebrate the 40th like we did with the 35th. 

What we did do was Jeremy, Jet, and I went for a walk at Farmington Bay and got to see some birds. 

February 23 was National Rationalization Day and it was National Banana Bread Day. I rationalized making banana bread and I did.

 

February 25 was National Chili Day and National Toast Day so I made chili and we toasted bread and had chili on toast. 

I Love Birding Challenges

Besides the annual reading challenge I'm doing, it is another year for a birding challenge through Utah County Birders. Books and birds. Aren't they great? And yes, I will sometimes listen to an audiobook while I'm looking at birds.

Jeremy and Nichole (who are also doing the birding challenge), got out one evening for some bonding birding time to the Provo River Delta and saw a barn owl among a few other birds.

Jeremy and I decided to go the next week for a morning birding adventure to see if we could find the owl.

We got there nice and early. You know I love mornings in nature. It was cold, we didn't see the barn owl, but we saw so many other birds. It was worth it.

And somehow I turned the exposure way down on the birding camera so all the bird pictures we took are dark. Sigh.

Oh well. We still enjoyed seeing them... together.

 

I love bonding time! 

 

That day, January 17, was Popeye Day and Hot Heads Chili Day so we had spinach salad and chili on cornbread (I added hot sauce on top of my chili).

The next day, January 18, was Winnie-the-Pooh Day. We had foods with honey: Honey garlic chicken, salad with honey mustard dressing.

It was also Thesaurus Day so we had fun figuring out different way of saying things. Lucky wanted to make Kool-aid. I corrected him and told him it was "Colored Flavored Sugar Water." He needed to put crystalized sweetener in it (aka sugar). The funny thing is the honey I used for dinner was crystalized (crystalized sweetener) so I had to heat it up in order to use it. Heh Heh Heh. 

Catching Up January 2025 part 2

In 2024 both Nichole and Lucky got out for a lot of birding with us, so Jeremy and I took them to the Golden Corral for the annual Utah County Birders dinner there in January 2025. Both Jeremy and I earned Bronze level for the 2024 challenge so we each picked a pair of earrings. Jeremy gave his to Nichole and I kept mine- owls.

Another day, Jeremy, Nichole, and I went to the kickoff event for Orem Library's 2025 Adult Reading Challenge.

January 12 was National Sunday Supper Day and National Curried Chicken Day so for Sunday supper, we had coconut curry chicken and some sort of rice from "A Season of Family Meal Plans," and bread.

We ate dinner early enough that we were able to go over to our friend's for banana splits. 

I love these gals. One is my ministering sister and one Jeremy ministers to and it just so happens that we're already friends.

January 13 was National Rubber Ducky Day. There were a lot of rubber duckies in our home that wanted to be involved in things.

That night, Orem Library had a Winnie-the-Pooh Day event (Winnie-the-Pooh Day is on January 18). Jet, Lucky, Jr. Jr., and I went.

It was definitely catered toward Jet's age group with crafts and activities and stories.

January 14 was Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day. Some of the family members look forward to grilled pastrami and cheese sandwiches for this holiday. We enjoyed them.

January 15 was National Bagel Day. I didn't think we had bagels until I was looking through my pictures to do this post. 

Me: Wait. We had bagels on National Bagel Day?

Jeremy: Yeah. Didn't you make some?

Me (bewildered): Yes, I did.

We had toasted bagels and hot chocolate with fried rice. Mmmm.

 

January 16 was Appreciate a Dragon Day. Nichole usually draws pictures of dragons that day but she was working on another project so she appreciated a dragon she already had.

 

January 17 was Hot Heads Chili Day. We made chili. 

January 18, besides being Winnie-the-Pooh Day, was National Thesaurus Day. We talked about dinosaur related stuff for "The Saurus Day."

A Few More Celebrations and Shelf Cooking

February 21 was the Anniversary of when the first Legend of Zelda video game came out. Jeremy and I celebrated it observed earlier in the month when we watched a special concert online of Zelda music.

 

February 22 was National Chili Day. I made chili and garlic bread. Yumm.

February 23 was National Banana Bread Day. When I went shopping earlier in the week, I bought bananas and hid them when I got home. Bananas don't last very long when Jet knows where they are. I was able to make them last long enough on this occasion so I was able to make Cinnamon Crumb Banana Bread for the holiday. The recipe came from "A Season of Family Meal Plans volume 1."

With the banana bread we also had Pizza Pinwheels and Seven Layer Salad also both from that book. That salad is not something I would normally make (it had peas in it and I don't like peas) but it actually tasted really good.

Speaking of that book, we're still enjoying trying out new tastes. And I'm learning better about adapting, substituting, and repurposing leftovers. Yay, shelf cooking. 

For example, I made Thai Peanut Lettuce Wraps. The recipe called for ground turkey but I used rotisserie chicken. We had Classic Fried Rice on the side.

Later, I used some corn tortillas and a bit of cheese, the leftover Thai peanut chicken, and made quesadillas. Jet and I ate a few and put the rest in the freezer for quick lunches or whatever.

 

Here are some other things we tried.

Hawaiian Pork Sandwiches with leftover Seven Layer Salad.

Sheet Pan Greek Chicken with Lemony Greek Rice. 

Easy Broccoli Pasta. The other recipe for that meal was Tomato Basil Salad. Since I didn't have enough fresh tomatoes, I used canned tomatoes and cooked it all up to make a sauce that we ate on toasted baguettes. #shelfcooking

I already talked about Leap Day but February 29 was also National Toast Day. So for dinner we had BBQ Pork Quesadillas with rice and toast and Lost Mesa Corn Avocado Salsa (that last recipe came from the Fablehaven Cookbook).

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.