Meal Plan For The Week of April 13th

Meal Plan for the week…

Black Bean Soup & Roasted Broccoli (LOVE this one!!)

Shrimp & Asparagus Stir Fry w Lemon Sauce

(**new one**)

Teriyaki Chicken w Vegetables

(**new one**)

Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili

(one to eat & one to freeze!)

Click here for the shopping list!

I’m going to start including the shopping list when I post a meal plan for the week. Right now, I’m just copying & pasting the list Plan To Eat creates for me. This will definitely take a little tweaking to get it just right, so hang in there with me. And please share any comments or suggestions on how to make it easier or more user friendly.

Happy Cooking!

xoxo

Easter Ain’t Over Til The Hambone Gets Crocked

My favorite comfort food of all time…Crock Pot Split Pea Soup!! Both my mother and my father would make this anytime they had a hambone and it always made the house smell wonderful but did I ever eat it?? NO. It looked disgusting AND it had peas in it AND a giant ham bone. No thank you. Looking back, I really wish that I had tried it…at least once, so that I could have something to compare it to.

It’s always around the holidays when I feel homesick the most and it’s usually when I do best cooking. So, this Easter was no different from any other..gotta save the hambone for some home cooked soup. You know, making comfort food to comfort my heart, or at least try.

Split Pea Soup has got to be one the easiest soups to make and it brings great comfort to my heart and also to my belly. It makes a ton so get ready to share with family or friends or stick some in a ziploc bag and freeze it. It freezes great! I recommend freezing it in single portions. That way when the husband is out of town and you don’t want to cook but you are looking for a lil’ comfort…just take a bag out of the freezer and voila! Comfort food without any work.

Rinse the peas and put in the crock pot first. Next, add the hambone. Add the potatoes, carrots, onion, salt and pepper. Fill with water, leaving about 1/2 inch at the top. Cover and set on low for 10 hours.

After 10 hours, your soup will look like this:

Remove the hambone very gently.

Stir the soup. The peas will lose their shape and the soup will thicken. If you want an even thicker soup, mash the potatoes with a fork…I love a thick pea soup!

Shred the ham with a fork and add as much or as little back into the soup as you would like. I like just a bit but to my husbands bowl, I add a bunch!

Enjoy! Happy Cooking!

And please let me know if you decide to try it. I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!

You can also find me on Pinterest & Facebook.

Love,

Mrs. Roemer 😉

xoxo

Easy, Delicious AND Kid-Friendly!

I tried a new recipe this week… Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili from Pillsbury. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to try this one because it seemed too easy but Tuesday nights my oldest has ballet and it’s way too crazy to try to actually cook something. So, I took a chance on this one.

I love dark meat chicken and when I saw that the recipe called for thighs, I was excited! Most recipes call for chicken breast and I have a tendency to cook them too long causing them to dry out. I bought skinless, boneless thighs and just dumped them in the crock. I didn’t bother cutting them. I was looking for easy, remember? Oh, and I didn’t bother to spray the inside of the crock pot with cooking spray either.

Typically, when I cook a crock pot meal, I never put the beans or corn in until the last hour or so but this recipe had me do it all in the beginning. I was thinking the beans were going to be mush but again, I wasn’t going to be home all day so I really needed something easy. In went the corn and beans! What was the worst that could happen? I would eat mushy beans, curse a bit and never cook it again. A chance I was willing to take.

To my surprise, this meal was beyond delicious! I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. The chicken was juicy and the beans weren’t mushy! I served it over jasmine rice (my absolute favorite!) and with tortilla chips. I fed the girls something different because I really didn’t think they would like this but again to my surprise, they LOVED it! Both of them! They practically ate my whole bowl. Now, I love this one even more….an EASY crock pot recipe and one that the kids LOVE?? Win, win all around! This will definitely be added to my meal plan on a regular basis.

I was thinking I would put in a can of Rotel or some hot sauce (I love a lil’ kick!) next time but since the kids love it, I won’t. I’ll just spice up my bowl. Hmmm….maybe that will keep them out of my bowl! Ha!

Next time, I’m going to make two…one to eat that night and one to freeze. It doesn’t take any extra time and you will be so thankful to have a meal already prepared. I’ll freeze it raw, defrost it the night before I want to cook it and then dump it in the crock. The only thing I won’t put in the freezer bag will be the cheese, sour cream and green onion but everything else will even the beans! 😉

Definitely print this one out or save it to your Plan To Eat and make it next week. I promise you will be surprised at how easy it is to make and how delicious it is. Remember to make two and don’t forget to let me know how it came out and if your family loved it 🙂

Happy Cooking!

Katie

Mrs. Roemer’s Nest

Weekly Meal Plan March 30 – April 3

Weekly Meal Plan

March 30 – April 3

–Black Bean Soup & Roasted Broccoli

–Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Chili

–Italian Sausage Cacciatore

–Stuffed Pepper Soup

–Creamy Shrimp & Mushroom Pasta

Weekly Meal Plan

Meal Plan for the week of March 16-20:

–Crock Pot BBQ Meatballs (freaking LOVE these!)

–Slow Cooker Corned Beef & Cabbage

–One Pan Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta (**new recipe for me)

–Tilapia w Garlic Roasted Tomatoes & Corn (already made a few weeks ago, just have to remember to defrost it this time!)

Who else is cooking Corned Beef on Tuesday? How do you like to cook it? I’ve only ever done it in the crock pot and it always turns out delicious! Yummmm!

I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures especially of the new recipe I’m trying out.

Happy Cooking!

P.S. Would you be interested in a shopping list if I added it along with the meal plan? It’s easy to do. Just let me know, I would be happy to include it!

Crafty Kids & A Frugal Mom

It’s no secret that I have passed on my love for crafting to my girls. The ask me every day if we can do some sort of craft whether it’s painting, cutting, coloring or glueing. They love it all!

Now that the two older girls have quite a list of friends, there is always a birthday we are celebrating. I got tired of buying birthday cards….actually that’s not true. I got tired of FORGETTING to buy the birthday card. #mombrain I have a closet full of craft supplies and those times that I didn’t have a card, I would quickly make one on our way out the door. Then the light bulb went off…why not have the kids make them!! So we starting making cards for all occasions- Christmas, Thank You, Birthday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and this time Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day was fast approaching and I still didn’t get cards for the girls to handout at their parties. I was looking through our town’s newsletter and VOILA! There was a link to the cutest homemade valentine ever- a butterfly with a lollipop for the head and body. All you had to do was print, cut, decorate and stick a dum dum pop inside through the middle. Perfect! Or so I thought… My printer was on the fritz (and still is…ugh) and I already told my oldest we were going to make them. You know those 4 year olds…they never forget a thing! So what’s a mom to do? Cut out the butterfly from the newsletter, trace them on card stock and cut out 40 of them (20 for each class). OMG. I was really wish I had a Cricut for that one!!

But it was totally worth it. The girls had a great time coloring and decorating all the butterflies. Even the 2year loved it! It kept them happy and content for at least an hour and a half. No whining, no complaining and no fighting! Score one for mom!

Next time, if we have to do that many, I have to start more than a few days early. We cut it pretty close this year. The 2 year old had all 20 of hers done in about 30 seconds but the 4 year old was really into decorating each one ever so carefully.

Check out the butterfly cards over at Skip To My Lou. They could be used for any occasion, not just Valentine’s Day and who doesn’t love artwork from kids with a bonus lollipop?! There are a bunch of great FREE printables and activities for the kids. If you stop by, tell Cindy I said hi! 🙂

Happy Crafting! Katie

P.S. Come visit me over on Facebook… Mrs. Roemer’s Nest 🙂

Let’s Bring Back Summer!

In my efforts to “bring back summer” especially for all you northern folk, I whipped up some homemade potato salad while the husband smoked a brisket on the Big Green Egg.

Looking back, I should have stayed in last night instead of drinking wine with neighborhood ladies because prepping for potato salad is a pain in the neck! Even more so when all three kiddos are awake. But I had a blast last night so I’m going to take Elsa’s words to heart and “let it go” because “the past is in the past.”

Anyway back to the potato salad…it’s from Better Homes & Gardens – Classic Potato Salad – a recipe that I fell in love with about 20 years ago. When I’m craving delicious potato salad, this is what I want and nothing else will do.

The potato salad has eggs, mustard, onion, sweet gherkin pickles, celery and of course potatoes and mayo. All of my favorite things!

Happy Cooking!

Katie 🙂

P.S. I apologize for all the Frozen quotes but you do remember that I live with two frozen obsessed daughters. A day does not go by that we don’t sing, watch or talk about Elsa, Anna and Olaf. But let’s save that for another post 😉

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

I think I’ve found yet another site for the most delicious recipes ever! I’ve already tried two of them so far and both have been fantastic! Like restaurant quality fantastic. Like holy hat, I could eat the whole dish before the husband gets home and he would never know I cooked anything. “Sorry, honey, I ran out of time to cook. Frozen pizza ok??” Ha. He’s no dummy. He would definitely call my bluff.

If you are looking for a great and relatively easy dinner to make tonight or this weekend, go check out Julia’s Album. I promise you will find a dish that you LOVE! And make sure to tell her I sent you by 🙂

Last night I made Chicken Mozzarella Pasta w Sun Dried Tomatoes and truth be told…there isn’t any left. Seriously. No joke. And it was only my husband and I who ate it. It was THAT good.

In all of my 20+ years of cooking, I have never sautéed my chicken in the oil from the sun dried tomatoes. I almost skipped that step and used regular olive oil. I am so thankful I didn’t!! It made a huge difference in taste and adding a little paprika gave the chicken a beautiful color. Of course, I had to take a picture of the chicken because it just looked so pretty!!

I love how Julia’s Album incorporates a variety of flavors all in one dish. The mix of fresh basil with sun dried tomatoes and melted mozzarella is mouth watering delish. My favorite part was sprinkling red pepper flakes on top to give the dish a nice kick!

Another step that I was tempted to skip was reserving 1/2-1 cup of the pasta water. Once again, I’m thankful that I didn’t. The cheese sauce definitely gets very thick and you do need to add the water to make it a creamier, thinner sauce so it can cover all the pasta. And who doesn’t like extra sauce for dippin’?!

Happy cooking!

Katie xoxo

P.S. Check out your local Fresh Market for a great deal on chicken breasts. I promise you won’t be sorry! On Tuesdays, it’s $2.99/lb. Great savings and great tasting chicken!

The “Perfect” Cake

Before motherhood, I was a perfectionist and I had that quality perfected. Now that I’m four and a half years into this motherhood gig, I’ve finally determined it’s not worth all the time, effort, stress and craziness that it brings along.

I’m embarrassed to say that this lightbulb just went off this weekend. I mean really went off. I’ve heard it pretty much all my life but it wasn’t until I took my daughters baptism cake out of the refrigerator that it hit me. Actually, it hit the cake. The top shelf of the fridge hit it…when I pulled it out for the party. Eesh! The old me would have been devastated!! But in all sincerity, it really didn’t phase me. That’s when I realized I’ve changed. Maybe I’m so delirious from the lack of sleep these days or maybe I’m finally coming to terms with motherhood and all its twists and turns. Either way, it’s all good…I created happy memories for my girls that day. And in case they happen to forget, I took LOTS of pictures to show them later.

I’m in the process of storing all of my recipes at Plan To Eat so that I can efficiently meal plan for the entire family (blog post coming soon!). So here’s the link for the buttercream icing:

http://www.plantoeat.com/recipes/3238551

Your Charmed Wedding made Elizabeth’s gorgeous headband for me. Head on over to Etsy and check out this wonderful shop!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/YourCharmedWedding

PS…I’m new to all this “linking” of websites so if for some reason it’s not working, just let me know.

Beautiful the mess I am.

Love & Prayers,

Katie

The Truth Hurts

Today was a hard day. I can’t even pin point a specific event or a list of specific events that made the day end the way it did. All I know is that there was a constant power struggle between me and my oldest daughter from the moment she woke up until bath time.

It was 645pm and I was feeling thankful that this day was coming to an end and then, out of nowhere, I was sucker punched!! As I was getting the girls out of the tub, my 4 year old stood up, squinted her eyes and informed me that she was going to get a new house with a better mom. Wait…what did I just hear?!

OUCH! That stung.

Actually, it ripped my heart in two. I bit my lower lip and with all my might, held back the tears that were ready to flow like Niagara Falls.

Then in the next breath, she started babbling away like nothing ever happened. I looked at her, asked her to be quiet and tried to process what I heard.

I had the husband finish getting them ready. I just couldn’t be in the same room with her. Deep down, I knew she didn’t really know what she said or how hurtful it was but I couldn’t hide the sadness in my face or the pain in my heart.

When we said our prayers before bed, my husband added a few extra. He thanked God for all of Mommy’s hard work for the family and how she always does everything to keep the family together. My baby girl chimed right in and added…”and for all the food she cooks us!”

I squeezed my eyes shut even harder for fear if I opened them the least bit, the water works would be in full effect.

After a glass of wine (or two), I was finally able to talk about it and figure out what’s going on. Could it be possible she’s feeling the stresses we are with all the buying and selling of the houses? Does she need some one-on-one time with her momma? Okay, maybe I need some one-on-one time with my baby.

My plan is to take her out for cupcakes at her favorite lil’ bakery and then do a little shopping on Friday while her sisters and probably her daddy nap.

I firmly believe everything happens for a reason and this is no exception.

Maybe this needed to happen. Maybe it was the only way I could see that she needs me. That she is only 4. Maybe she’s right. She does need a “new” mom. One who will stop multitasking and make the time to be with her…to really be with her.

Whatever the reason, it has opened my eyes and my heart. And on the Eve of Thanksgiving, I sit here feeling blessed and grateful to have learned yet another valuable lesson in parenting firsthand…kids really do speak the truth.

Beautiful the mess I am…
Love & Prayers,
Katie

(Photo from Pinterest http://pinterest.com/pin/A3VMOQAQwDYH3DOgcX8AAAA/)