Sunday, August 30, 2009

Menu Monday

grilled chicken, hash brown potato casserole, green peas

stuffed bell peppers, hash brown potato casserole, salad

shrimp scampi, salad

Russian chicken, brown rice, green peas

Mozzarella chicken, pasta, salad

poppy seed chicken, baked brown rice, green beans

white chili, rolls

Hash Brown Casserole
1 bag hash frozen hash browns, shredded or cubed, with or without onions and peppers
1 can cream of chicken soup
8oz. sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 stick melted butter
1 tsp. salt.
Thaw hash browns in large bowl. Add other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place in 9 x 13 baking dish and bake at 350 for 1 hour. You can double this, or divide into smaller containers before baking and freeze it. Thaw before baking.

Stuffed Bell Peppers
4-6 green bell peppers
1 lb. ground beef, browned, drained, and seasoned
1 cup rice cooked
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce.
Half peppers. Scoop out the seeds and boil them for 3-5 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients and stuff each pepper half. Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.

Russian Chicken
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle Russian dressing (I get the Kroger brand at Kroger)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Place chicken in bottom of crock pot. Sprinkle the chicken with the soup mix, then add the dressing and cranberry sauce. Cook on high for 3-4 hours, or on low all day.
Serve chicken and sauce over brown rice.

Mozzarella Chicken
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bag frozen, chopped onion/pepper mix
15 ounce can diced tomatoes
8 oz. tomato sauce
garlic powder and Italian seasoning to taste
1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese

Place chicken in crock pot. Season with garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Add onion mix, tomatoes, and sauce. Cook on high 3-4 hours, or on low all day.
Serve over pasta with mozzarella chicken sprinkled on top.

White Chili
2 (15oz.) cans Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
2 (14oz.) cans chicken broth
3 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 16 oz. package frozen corn
1 chopped onion
1 can chopped green chilies
1 tsp. cumin
3/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 cup milk

I cook chicken breasts in the crock pot with a little seasoning and water until done (usually 2-3 hours on high---first thing in the morning).
Mash 1 cup beans with 1 cup broth (I use the food processor) until smooth. Place bean mixture with remaining broth, beans, chicken, corn, chilies, onion, spices, and milk in the crock pot. Cook on low for 3-4 hours.
Serve with grated cheese and crushed tortilla chips if desired.

Baked Brown Rice
1/2 stick melted butter
1 cup white rice
1 can beef consomme soup
1 can French onion soup.

Combine all ingredients in a 8 x 8 baking dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake at 350 for one hour. Stir before serving.

Visit OrgJunkie.com for more yummy menus.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

My Organized Photos

BEFORE
Last spring I began organizing my photos. Some of them were in various albums, some of which were falling apart. The rest of the unscrapped photos were stored in this plastic box. This box held all of our snapshots as well as professional pictures, Christmas card extras, and school yearbook photos.



AFTER

I have worked on getting those pictures out of the box and the albums and into these photo safe storage boxes for months now! I worked on it little by little--15 minutes here and there. It's finally complete! All of our photos are in these boxes!



Since I began so long ago, Hobby Lobby did not have anymore of the original boxes I began with.....therefore I have 3 different colors of boxes. Yes this bothers me, but what can I do?
The larger white box to the left holds the non 4 x 6 pictures.....the professional 5 x 7s, school pictures, extra Christmas cards, and a zip lock bag of negatives.



I labeled each box with the years that the photos were taken. I simply sorted them by the year. Thankfully, I could still remember which year the pictures were made!



These category boxes are mostly empty so far.

Now, I plan to go through my photos and pull out ones that I would like to scrapbook.....and place them in the appropriate box. I am so excited about being free from the burden of chronological scrapbooking! As I sorted my pictures, I had lots of ideas for scrapbook pages. For example....I found that on each of our 4 trips to Disneyworld, we had many pictures taken in similar places. I want to make some pages showing those same spots, but on different trips.

My scrapbooking supplies are fairly organized and awaiting me......I have promised myself that I will not buy any more scrapbooking paper or accessories until I have almost used up all that I already have on hand!
Now, do any of you have a favorite brand of scrapbooking 12 x 12 album? I began with Creative Memories albums (I have 2 full ones), but I do not wish to use that type anymore. I also have one Close To My Heart album and 50 page protectors. I really like that album because you can make the pages and insert them in any order. I really like that feature. I want to buy 5 albums in 5 different colors (for my new system of scrapbooking)...do any of you have a product that you like better than the Close to My Heart? I looked at Pioneer scrapbooks, but they are available in only 4 colors.
Thanks for your ideas, and Happy Scrapbooking!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Family, Fun, and 40th Birthday Shopping

Saturday, we had a fun-filled day.
It began with celebrating my nephew Wesley's 3rd birthday! He had a "dirt" party, complete with pails, shovels, and a fresh pile of dirt to dig in. Amanda made the cutest dirt cake which she served in a dump truck, and she served all of the other food in pails! It was just too cute!

My Daddy and Rhett


Julie holding her cousin Davis. He wore a cute dump truck outfit for the party!


Rhett and Wesley---he had a cute dump truck shirt too!


Olivia enjoying the party


Me and my Daddy--Clay in the background


Leah swinging in the hammock.
Rhett and Amanda have the best backyard, complete with swingset/fort that Rhett and my parents built, this super hammock and a brand new deck that Rhett just built.


Sam smelling Mama's hair!


Mims and Pops (my parents) They have 9 grandchildren with one more on the way (Rhett and Amanda are expecting #3)


Playing in the dirt pile

Clay sporting a hard hat! See the fabulous deck!

After the party, we visited a friend in the hospital, then Jimmy dropped me off for an afternoon of birthday shopping....for myself! My 4oth birthday is Sept. 16, and Jimmy graciously offered me a child-free shopping excursion. You know how difficult it is to shop for clothes with small and older bored children.....anyway, this was quite a treat! I am not the most fashionable individual, so I texted Megan for help! I was walking from store to store, overwhelmed! Megan told me to begin by looking at the mannequins....great advice. I finally ended up in a petites-only store. I looked at the mannequins and tried on what they were wearing. It worked! I got a very pretty pink dress with matching cardigan and a pair of those denim trouser type pants....they don't even need hemming! I also got a couple of more items, and I asked the saleslady to please gift wrap them all! Happy Birthday to me! I will so enjoy opening them on the big day! Now I am set in the clothes department for the next 10 years!
While I was busy shopping, Jimmy treated the children to a visit to the zoo!

I think they are looking at the monkeys.


Leah and Clay


The whole crew


looking at the giraffes


All lined up!

Sam and Leah


Precious children!