I'm ready for fall, y'all!

As soon as school starts, I'm pretty much DONE with summer!  I am ready for cooler weather, falling leaves, the MTSU homecoming parade, sweaters and scarves, soup, and pumpkins!  :-)

And you know what makes this craving for fall 10 times worse???

PINTEREST!

I am ADDICTED to pinterest and am so excited about all the fun ideas for storage and decorating and recipes and.... HOLIDAYS!

 For you non-pinterest users (you need to sign up ASAP!), I'll share some of my fun finds (all pictures in the post are from my pinterest boards and you can visit there to see the sources).

 I have found so many fun holiday ideas that I would have never thought of on my own!

Along with recipes and instructions for all kinds of DIY projects and confections! 

I can't wait to use some of these great ideas to get the house decorated for Fall!!!

I mean, seriously, how cute and easy are these ideas!

So the "moral" of this post is... if you aren't using Pinterest, you should be! LOL!

Let the count down to Fall begin!  :-)

Friday Photos

One of my favorite blogs to read is Kelle Hampton's Enjoying the Small Things.  I never comment because she is one of those blogs that gets hundreds (literally) of comments, but I love her blog.  I like the way she writes and she is a gifted photographer and mom.  Anyway, she does a "Friday Phone Dump" every Friday of pictures she took on her cell phone during the week.  I often find that I have random pictures I'd like to share that don't really "fit" a post.  So, using her idea, I have decided to do a Friday Photos post... some from my phone and some from the camera... just a mix of pictures that I'd like to share - even when they aren't great quality!  So, here ya go... my Friday Photo Share:

 Back to school shopping with LOTS of new outfits...

 This outfit is Lily's favorite and she can't wait to wear it!

 I LOVE the little socks and shoes!

Movie Star glasses... love it! 

 Today after school... wiped out!

 Sweet Cici's... OMG we love this place!

 And last, but not least....

 ...and evening dress up and fashion show!

So, there you have it!  Just some cute pictures

Dinner Deals

As you know, I have been really applying myself to menu planning and trying to stick to it!  As a family, if I am honest, the bulk of our budget (outside the usual household bills) goes to eating out.  A sad fact considering that I love to cook and my family loves a home cooked meal!  In the past, with both of us working, it's just been easier to eat out!  Now that I am staying home that is changing!  It's changing because we want it to, because I grew up eating a home cooked meal at the table with my family every night, and because our budget is undergoing a major overhaul!  :-)  It seems that with each Menu Monday that I learn a new lesson!  The value of dividing and freezing!  The need to make room for leftovers!  And this week... the lesson was that we CAN eat out and stay on a budget (once a week is my plan)!  I have started doing a little research on when/where to eat on a budget.  First of all, the coupon magazines that come in the mail and newspaper have lots of coupons for restaurants!  Just in the last two weeks I have collected coupons for Fridays, Red Lobster, Camino Real, La Siesta, Nobodys, O'Charley's... you get the idea!  In addition, I have been researching and compiling a list of "meal deals" around town!  If you aren't in Murfreesboro, some of these might not apply to you, but some of them will!  I just wanted to share!  Especially the kid's eat free (or really cheap) deals that can cut a meal price by $5 easy!

Sunday:

Steak N Shake - kids eat free for every $8 spent

Toots - $8.59 Half Rack Rib Platter, $9.99 Full Rib Platter (which we split!)/kids free

Monday:

Zaxby's - $0.99 kids meals

Buffalo Wild Wings - $0.99 kids meals

Applebees - kids eat free

The Catfish House - kids eat free

Moe's - kids eat free after 5 with a $6 adult purchase

Toots - $0.35 wings until 3pm,  $3.99 buffalo chicken strip basket for adults/ kids free

Tuesday:

Chick-fil-A - $1.50 kids meal

Applebees - kids eat free

The Catfish House - kids eat free

McAlister's Deli - kids eat free 4-9

Toots - $2.99 half pound burgers, $3.99 half pound burger and fries/kids free

Wednesday:

Camino - $1.99 kids meal

Applebees - kids eat free

The Catfish House - kids eat free

Toots - $3.99 Chicken Finger Basket til 3, then $5.25/kids free

Thursday:

Captain D's - kids eat free

The Catfish House - kids eat free

McAlister's - kids eat free 4-9

Toot's - $3.99 Grilled Chicken Sandwich til 3pm/kids free

Friday:

Toot's - $3.99 catfish, shrimp, or clam basket til 3, then $6 chicken skewer platter/kids free

Saturday:

SteakNshake - kids eat free for every $8 spent

Toots:  Rib deal (see Sunday)/kids free

Every Day Deals:

Puleos Grille - kids eat free

Applebees - 2 for $20 menu

Sal's Pizza - kids eat free with adult buffet from 11-2

Demos' - lunch specials changing daily for $4.25 11-3

I would absolutely love to hear any meal deals that you have found!  I know I haven't even scratched the surface, but I'll continue to add to my list!  :-)  My new goal is to never spend more that $15 to feed the 3 of us when we eat out (excluding tip).  :-)  I'd like for us to be able to eat out once a week!  Wish me luck! 

Menu Monday... a little late

Monday:

$0.99 Taco Night at our favorite Mexican restaurant!  Chris and I both ate and were stuffed for a total, including tax, of $12 bucks !  :-)  (4 Tacos, 1 order of cheese dip, and an adult beverage for my Mr. and we were good to go!)  The most exciting part... I am slowly learning that we CAN eat out occasionally and stay on our budget!  Just have to do a little research and plan ahead!  :-)

Tuesday:

Grilled pork chops with green beans and boiled potatoes

Wednesday:

Probably another chicken casserole (his favorite!) because I won't be home... I'll be out with the girls watching The Help!  YAY!  I'll put half in the freezer for a quick dinner another night down the road and eat the leftovers for lunch Thursday!  :-)

Thursday:

Breakfast for Dinner

Friday:

Eat Out - Toots!

$3.99 adult dinner deal and Lily eats FREE!  :-)

Saturday:

Chicken Roll Ups (another Favorite) with Green Beans

Sunday:
Leftovers/hodge-podge lunch and

Chicken Fried Rice with Stir Fry Veggies for dinner!

Ready Or Not...

...Here I Come Stay

Tuesday began my journey into the world of stay-at-home mommy-hood.  It wasn't how Chris and I would have planned it exactly, but sometimes God has things in store for us that we cannot imagine!  So here I am, at home. 

 When the possibility of me staying home first presented itself, I was filled with warm and sweet memories of my Mama staying home with us as kids!  I immediately decided that my little family will begin every day with a healthy and lovingly prepared breakfast!  Tuesday, I started with fresh strawberry, yogurt, and granola parfait.

It is still Lily's "last week of summer" even though Chris has returned to work!  In the spirit of last hoo-rahs I tried to line up some fun stuff for Lily this week!  We left the house a little early on our way to meet Chris on his lunch break so that we could pick up Lily's friend Elizabeth!  We took her to lunch with us at Sal's Pizza Buffet!  YUMMY!  I got to see so many of my teacher friends and catch up on how the first day of in-service went and Lily and "E," as she calls her, got to sit at their very own table!!

Lily, Elizabeth, and I returned home to lots of giggles and the fun commenced!  As any HOT good last week of summer break day should be, it was filled with fun.  Games of Twister, American Girl Dolls, karaoke, and a brief, too hot, game of soft ball in the back yard.

Chris got to come home only briefly before he had to head back out to Football practice, so Lily and I were on our own for dinner.  I learned TWO menu plan lessons today!!  Lesson #1: Always leave room for leftovers on the weekly plan!  (Mom, I know you are SHOCKED that I am voluntarily eating leftovers... it's amazing what living on a budget will do to a person, lol)  I had every intention of making those enchiladas tonight, but our fridge is overflowing with leftovers and we literally don't have room for any more!  LOL.  Lesson #2:  Start dividing and freezing large recipes (i.e. Chicken Casserole can feed us almost 3 meals if I would freeze a portion).  (Mom, I know you have been telling me this for years! LOL.  Now I'm ready to freeze, baby, bring it on!)  Very long story, not so short, I opted for leftovers and Lily for one of her recent favorites, "breakfast."  Breakfast means boiled eggs and a biscuit... which is funny because I NEVER fix boiled eggs for breakfast, but whatever makes my little princess happy and gets her eating some protein.

Overall it was a great last Tuesday of Summer for Lily and a somewhat interesting and bittersweet first Tuesday of staying home for me.  :-)

Let them eat cake!

This past Saturday Chris got up early to go float the river and fish with Web.  They started around 7 in the morning, and it takes about 30 minutes to get to Megan and Web's from our house, so you can see how early Chris got up!  The morning was spent with just Lily and I.  In fact, Lily slept until 8:30!!  She NEVER sleeps late!  It was so peaceful.  Shortly after she woke up and curled up on the couch beside me, it started to thunder.  Lily looked at me and said, "I think this would be a good pajama day!"  And so it was.  All day at home in our PJs!

While we ate breakfast we watched a little food network and they were making Carrot Cake.  Lily said, "I've never had carrot cake before, is it good?"  Well, to me that was all she needed to say... the decision had already been made... the girl HAD to have to have some carrot cake and judge for herself... TODAY!

I hopped on my number one favorite website for recipes - allrecipes.com - and looked for a recipes for carrot cake that met the following requirements:  1. We had to have ALL the ingredients already in the pantry.  2.  It had to be a recipe with LOTS of reviews.  3.  The reviews had to be GOOD!  As always on this wonderful website, I found one right away!

 Ingredients: 4 eggs, 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil, 2 cups white sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 3 cups grated carrots, 1 cup chopped pecans (I added 2 very large spoon fulls of apple sauce - I love a very moist cake!!)  Icing:  1/2 cup butter - softened, 8 oz cream cheese - softened, 4 cups confectioners' sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 cup chopped pecans.

1. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, Grease and flour a 9x13 pan (I used 2 round pans and made it a layer cake.)

2. 

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and 2 tsp vanilla.  Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir in carrots.  Fold in pecans.  Pour into prepared pan(s).

3. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes (25-30 if you do 2 rounds instead), or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for 10 min, then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

4.

To make frosting:  In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Stir in chopped pecans.  Frost the cooled cake.

(Note:  Lily doesn't like nuts, so I left them out.)

('nother note:  This was the best carrot cake I have ever had)

You MUST make some!  :-)

Menu Monday

Well!  I tried very hard, and somewhat successfully, to stick to my menu plan this past week!  The only major hiccup was a package of chicken that apparently went bad long before the due date (August 3!!).  Has anyone had this happen before?  When I opened it I smelled a very "off" smell, but my nose is SUPER-SONIC these days, so I figured it was just something that was normal that I usually just didn't notice.  I cooked it anyway.  Did some google-ing, which freaked me out.  Called my Mama.  And then decided to throw the chicken away.  After that the mere thought of chicken made my stomach turn.  It was rather sad because Chicken Casserole is Chris' all time favorite and he was all worked up for it!  He had drifted off on the couch while I cooked and Lily played, so he was a little disappointed when he woke up to spaghetti and garlic bread instead of his favorite!  :-)  He was still thankful for a hot meal on the table though.  So, other than that "schedule change" we did alright.  That accounts for Chicken casserole re-appearing on the menu this week... today!  :-)

Monday:
Chicken Casserole

Tuesday:
Beef Enchiladas
(New recipe for me, from the Pioneer Woman)

Wednesday:
BBQ chicken on buns with oven fries
(another new recipe I am trying)

Thursday:
Sausage and Cheddar Quiche

Friday:
Dinner out

Saturday:
Leaving this day open because I think Chris has a football scrimmage, but I'm not sure!

Sunday:
Chicken Imperial