A Month In Review Layout and Week in the Life Days 2 & 3

I have been working through my Month In Review (Project 12) layouts. I finished up my February one using a Studio Calico kit and my 2nd attempt at a manual collage. I had to have it printed 2 times, because I messed up my layers and didn't catch it. This one actually had an issue, so I cut the two ones I had printed and pieced them back together to make it work. So we now have February 2010.

A little over a week ago I documented a week in our life.  Here are some highlights that I plan to use for day 2 & 3 (Monday & Tuesday)

Monday

Wake up...

Feed the dogs...

Take all of the books out of the bookcase...

Headed off to first day of pre-school (year 2)...

Listen to my favorite podcast on the way to work...

        

My commute....

A lunchtime errand for new sheets for our bed...

Chick-Fil-A for lunch back at my desk....

The temperature at 7:15 p.m. when I leave work....

Random Thoughts from Monday:

• Happy Nicholas loves school
• Busy getting things done at work to be off later in the week for Mike’s surgery
• Working late
• Mike’s busy cleaning and preparing for being down for a few days

Tuesday

Mike up early to clean the kitchen before the boys get up...

Nicholas MUST be the first one to get Jackson up in the morning....

Blowing raspberries at the mamarazzi....

Our weekday breakfast, fruit smoothies.....

After a long day at work, my drive home at about 7:30 pm, looks like we'll get a storm....

The pups get comfortable after the kiddos are in bed....

Random Thoughts from Tuesday:

• Very busy today
• Worked really late
• Exhausted at end of the day
• Mike’s nervous about his surgery tomorrow

How about more Adventures In Cooking?

Last week Mike had surgery and we knew he wouldn't be doing anything yummy in the kitchen. I took a few days off of work to take care of the boys and him.

I knew the chances of escaping to my scrap room was going to be slim to none (it ended up being a total of 30 minutes in the middle of the night in the past week). I needed some kind of creative outlet while he was down.

We had takeout Wednesday night after his surgery, which was less than exciting. And I had to do some grocery shopping so we could eat. So to plan some meals I flipped through the latest Cooking Light magazine.  I had two missions, something new and minimal food wasted.

My first trip to the store on Thursday morning was a quick run into Super Target for mostly fresh produce.

That afternoon I made my first attempt at Mike's Pico De Gallo, and the cover recipe Chicken and Guacamole Tostadas.  A super easy no bake recipe, that we had for leftover lunches all weekend. It will now be in heavy rotation for Friday night dinners. I didn't do so bad at Mike's Pico either.

I also made the Oreo Truffles (see yesterday's post here)

Friday was grocery shopping and Costco day, so I finalized my weekend meal plans.  Friday night I made the boys a cheese pizza and Mike and I had this Cobb Salad Pizza. It was so yummy it will definitely be repeated.

We had leftover chicken from the night before and I had extra potatoes from the dish I planned to make Saturday night so I did some chopping of that and some veggies and threw it in a skillet with some eggs on Saturday morning.

Topped with a bit of Pico de Gallo and cheese we had a chicken egg hash for breakfast Saturday with lots of leftovers for the coming week.

Saturday night I made a simple Arugula salad with a Dijon Vinaigrette from the magazine...

to go with Chili Espresso Rubbed Steaks with Warm Tomato Sauce. The rub was to die for. Mike manned the grill that night so I could get the boys bathed and ready for bed.

Accompanying the steak was Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Dijon. 

We had lots of leftover potatoes, steak and veggies so I chopped them all up and made a steak hash inspired by one found in the magazine, but I didn't really pay attention to their recipe, just used my own leftovers and scrambled my eggs.

Again, lots of leftovers for weekday breakfasts.

We finished off the weekend with some seafood. Some crab claws

Made the base for this Spicy Corn and Crab Chowder. Which was only about medium spicy which is perfect for me.

I used up the lettuce and veggies  from the previous nights using the same Dijon vinaigrette that I used on Saturday nights salad.

And this accompanied Pan Grilled Salmon with Red Pepper Salsa. We bought our salmon at Costco, so we had big enough pieces to cut in half and save the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Also, I couldn't keep these boysenberries out of my cart at Costco. So we picked up some shortcakes and paired them with some vanilla ice cream cups we had in the freezer. I made a quick dessert inspired by this one in the magazine. I just wanted to keep it simple, since I had already done plenty of cooking for the weekend.

So my past weekend cooking adventures were numerous. I now plan to take a few off, and put Mike back to work in the kitchen. 

Yummy Cookies!

I'll have more weekend adventures in cooking this evening.  But in the meantime I thought I would share something sweet!

I got this super easy no-bake cookie recipe from my awesome "baker" friend Jen.  I'll warn you they are addicting. But nothing could be easier than 4 ingredients (only one to measure) and you don't turn the oven on, which is always a plus in Arizona in the summer.

You need a package of Oreo cookies, a package of cream cheese, vanilla and a bag of chocolate. I know my friend recommends the melting chocolate pieces, but I couldn't find them. A bag of chocolate chips worked fine.

Chop the Oreo cookies in a food processor (or a blender would work) until very fine. Combine the chopped Oreo's, cream cheese and 1 tbsp. vanilla in a bowl and blend with a mixer. Roll cookies in balls, place onto a baking sheet and put in refrigerator. I left them in there for a couple hours, but an hour is probably sufficient.

Melt your chocolate according to the bag directions.  I did mine in the microwave in a glass bowl and it took a couple of minutes.  Dip the chilled cookie balls in chocolate and put back on the baking sheet. When all cookies are dipped put them back in the refrigerator to harden.

I didn't get a prettier picture of the finished product, and they are all gone now. I need to work on my dipping skills. But it didn't matter they were delicious.

You could change it up with mint Oreo's with some mint extract in mixed into the melted chocolate. Enjoy!

Week In the Life - Day 1

A little over a week ago I embarked on an adventure to document a week in our life. I picked an unusual week for a reason. Mike was having surgery. Nicholas was starting back to school. And I was going to be home on 3 of the weekdays, so I could incorporate more of "us" in that week. Who wants to hear about 5 days in a row of my meetings, calls, and work. So while some of the week isn't typical, it is a week in our life - 2010.

Sunday 7/25 - Day 1

First cup of coffee...

Morning baths...

In the news this week...

Sunday breakfast....

That Mike cooks....

Hanging out....

Hungry....

Chips and salsa....

Playful afternoon....

Naptime....(don't love the picture of me, but love the moment)

Maybe a storm?

On the computer....

Takeout for dinner....

Random thoughts from the day:

• Boys tough
• Hoping for a good week with them
• Worried about my friend, hoping she gets better quickly
• Praying for my uncle and his wife’s family - they have been given so much to handle
• Nicholas super excited to start back to school tomorrow.
• Mike anxious about his surgery

Quick Update and ScrapTiffany Monday - Sketch

It has been crazy in our house since Mike had his knee surgery this past Wednesday. Posting on the blog was a luxury I couldn't make time for. He is doing a lot better today, moving around pretty good, just a bit slower than normal. I go back to work today.  He will try to take it easy this week at home, the best he can while taking care of the boys anyway.

This week at ScrapTiffany is sketch week. We got to give our take on this fabulous sketch from Rebecca:

I used the same general design, but replaced the circles with stars. This layout percolated in my mind for several days and when I finally was able to sit down and it came together just the way I wanted.  

I even fixed the sewing machine bobbin so I could stitch my star to the page.

I found the star buttons in my stash. Since starting with ScrapTiffany each weekly challenge I have dug something out of my stash to complete my week's assignment. It has been fun to re-discover things that have been hanging out in my scrap room for a while.

We would love to see your take on the sketch. If you use Rebecca's Sketch, send your layouts to ScrapTiffany to share. E-mail them to: Tiffany@ScrapTiffany.com.  Also visit ScrapTiffany on Friday to see the what the rest of the DT did with the sketch.