Little House in the Big Woods

Posted By linda on January 9, 2012

Menu Plan for January 9-15, 2012. This week we will be eating a lot from our freezer. By planning ahead I hope I can make our evenings a little less stressful.

Monday

Breakfast – Egg in the basket
Lunch – Mini Pizza
Dinner – Meatloaf, gnocchi, and garden salad

Tuesday

Breakfast – Pancakes
Lunch – Tuna Melts
Dinner – Spinach Stuffed Shells and garden salad

Wednesday

Breakfast – Omelettes
Lunch – Mac & Cheese with Chicken Nuggets
Dinner – Hamburger Casserole and garden salad

 Thursday

Breakfast – French Toast
Lunch – Bean Burritos
Dinner – Honey Mustard Chicken, rice and broccoli

Friday

Breakfast – Cinnamon Rolls 
Lunch – Ramen
Dinner – Swedish Meatballs and garden salad

Saturday

Breakfast – Waffles
Lunch – Free Choice
Dinner – Shepherd Pie

Sunday

Breakfast – Cereal and Milk
Lunch – Taco Bake
Dinner – Leftovers

For more Menu Plan Monday go to Organizing junkie. 

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Posted By linda on January 9, 2012

Today, I am making Make Ahead cinnamon rolls. I am using my bread maker so I modified the recipe a little. The original recipe can be found here.   I added less flour to the bread machine and used the rest to roll out the dough.

Cinnamon Rolls

Roll Dough

2 cups milk warmed to 100 degrees
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, diced
1 egg
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
4 Cups all-purpose flour

Mix ingredient according to your bread machine. My bread machine says to add the water ingredients first. I put in the butter, egg, and milk in first. Then I add the flour and sugar. Then sprinkle the yeast on top. Set the bread machine on dough setting.

Filling

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix the cinnamon, sugar in a bowl then set aside. Once the dough is done. Punch down and roll out to 10×14 rectangle. Brush dough with melted butter and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Roll up the dough until a long log.Pinch seam together.  Then cut until 2 inch disk. Place in two greased 8X8 pans.

Because my sweet daughter rolled the dough bigger than 10×14, we were able to get 34 rolls.

Following the instruction from How to Baker, which are below. Then top with glaze. I prefer a cream cheese frosting.

Baking the cinnamon rolls: The evening before you want to bake, remove frozen cinnamon rolls from the freezer and place the pan in the refrigerator overnight. On the day you want to bake, remove pan from the refrigerator and let it rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350° F.

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let the finished rolls cool for about 5 minutes. While the rolls are cooling, mix together the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk in a small bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the cinnamon rolls and serve warm.

For Cream cheese Glaze

4 tbsp butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Using a electric mixer, mix the cream cheese and butter together. Using low speed add the powdered sugar a cup at a time. Beat until creamy and smooth. Beat in the vanilla. Pour glaze over the warm cinnamon rolls.

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Posted By linda on January 8, 2012

One of our favorites recipes to eat is pasta salad. We all enjoy it. It is versatile. The ingredients can be change and still maintain it great taste. Here is what you need:

Pasta Salad

4 cups cooked pasta (any short pasta)
1 can Northern white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup sliced black olives**
1 cup diced ham
1 cup diced sharp cheese (any cheese)
1/4 cup Sun-dried tomato and garlic dressing

Mix all ingredients together.

**Helpful tip:
Use a egg slicer to cut olives. It is cheaper to buy olives whole than already sliced.

For more Recipe Swap, click here at Grocery Cart Challenge.

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Posted By linda on January 4, 2012

For the first time ever, I planned a month worth of dinners. I started making them and I learned quite a few things. The first thing I learned was to write down everything I would need before I went the store. I tried to estimate what I needed, but I fell a little short. I found out I needed to go back to the store and buy the missing ingredients, but I did still make a total of 19 meals. I also learned that I could marinate meat in the freezer. So I made up one of our favorite marinates, to test it out. The marinated was Teriyaki Chicken, here’s the recipe:

Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup chunked pineapples
1 tsp. lemon pepper
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp rice vinger
pinch of red pepper flakes

Mix all ingredients. Great on Chicken but can be use of any meats.

For more Works for Me Wednesday click here.

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Posted By linda on January 2, 2012

This weekend my hubby decided it would be nice to replace our old bathroom faucet. It sometimes dripped. What we thought would be a simple project turn it a major plumbing job. As my hubby was removing the old faucet fixtures, he accidentally broke the pipe that is connected to the the wall.

This is what happened in my hubby’s words.

PVC pipe is REALLY not flexible enough to replace the sink drain pipe. Should have just cut the pipe and replaced this, but I tried to bent it and ended up snapping off the 3″ -> 1.5″ T PVC adapter inside the wall, behind the cabinet. Oh joy.

So he had to cut in the wall on the other side of the bathroom and replace that pipe as well.

Here is what he said about that:

And let me tell you this sucked. I had about an inch on the right side to work with, maybe a half inch behind the pipe to the wall, and very little room to work with on the left and front. Took a good hour to make two cuts.

Then he had to put it all back together.

And here is what he said about this:

There was absolutely zero play either up or down from the main drain pipe. So I found a rubber cover that I could slide all the way up the top pipe, then seat and cement the bottom pipe, and then slide the collar down over both pipes and screw it shut.

Finally, all the plumbing fixtures were done.

This is what he said about this:

Ugh. I did this right, unlike the previous installer, and put in a swiveling, adjustable P-trap under the sink, so if I have to take it out again, I can just unscrew the retainer from the bottom of the sink and unscrew the right part of the P-trap and remove the whole thing. Phew. That was time-consuming and frustrating!

I am grateful that I have a husband who can fix problems around the house. Finally here is the pictures of the old and new faucets.

Old Faucet

A Beautiful waterfall faucet. Thank you Sweetie!!!

For more Tackle it Tuesday click here.

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Posted By linda on January 1, 2012

This year I am trying something new. I made a menu up for a month. I plan on making as many meals in advance as possible. I am planning to do my grocery shopping on Monday and all the cooking on Tuesday. I already made Monday’s dinner in advance. We are having chicken pot pie. It is a simple recipe and a family favorite. This is our menu for the week.

Monday

Breakfast –  Pancakes
Lunch – Tuna Melts
Dinner – Chicken Pot Pie (see recipe below)

Tuesday

Breakfast – Bagels and Cream Cheese
Lunch – Pasta Salad
Dinner – Teriyaki Chicken with rice and Peas

Wednesday

Breakfast – Egg, sausage on English muffin
Lunch – Mac & cheese with chicken nuggets
Dinner – Shepherd’s Pie

Thursday

Breakfast – French Toast
Lunch – Bean Burrito
Dinner – Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Friday

Breakfast – Egg Burrito
Lunch – Mini Pizza
Dinner – Honey Mustard Chicken, rice pilaf and asparagus

Saturday

Breakfast – Waffles
Lunch – Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
Dinner – Swedish Meatballs and garden salad

Sunday

Breakfast – Cereal and Milk
Lunch – Chili cheese hotdogs and fries
Dinner – Leftovers

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Posted By linda on January 1, 2012

Hello everyone, I’m back!!! I took a year off from blogging. I didn’t set out to do so, but we had a busy year and blogging kept getting pushed aside. Our year started out with our home getting damage from ice dams. We had to replace all the floors and five of our walls, as well as repainting the entire interior of the house. Wow, that was a mess! It took 8 months to complete these tasks, because it was a lot to do.

This was one of the rooms that was damaged. They removed one wall and had really loud fans blowing for week to dry the wall, to prevent molding. We also had to replace the sliding glass door.

We also took a vacation to Niagara Falls this summer.
It was totally beautiful! It was just what our family needed, after a long winter.

We went to Niagara Falls with our close friends. We all enjoyed it greatly, and we can’t wait to do it again. I hope we can soon!

The last thing we did this summer was very hard for us. Our eldest daughter went off to college!
It was long drive to get her there. We had only planned to stay one day once we got there, but ended staying two instead. We wanted to make sure that she was completely settled before we left. She is doing great there and has made lots of friends. It is amazing seeing her grow into such beautiful woman.

Kiani, donning her Liberty sweatshirt.

We also got a special surprise this Thanksgiving: we had three vistors! Kiani was able to come home for Thanksgiving, and we also had her friend Sarah.  Her Dad, Tom, also visited us. Even though I was fighting the flu, it was wonderful having my family back together.

The final thing we did this year was celebrating Christmas. Our home was filled with decorations and gingerbread houses. As a fun activity as family, we decorated gingerbread houses.

The children decorating the gingerbread houses.

As we end this year, I am thankful for my family, and am looking forward to a new year. Even with all the ups and downs, I am very happy with the life God has given to me.

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Posted By linda on October 4, 2010

Today, my son turn sixteen. It is hard to believe, he is already becoming a man. I love seeing how God is working in his life. The funny part of all this, is when I was pregnant with him, the specialists wanted me to abort him because I was losing fluid and there was chance he was going to make it. I figure God gave me this baby, I am going to follow through. I am so glad I did because I have a wonderful healthy son who loves God.

My two favorite men, my hubby and son.

Jason and me when he was 2 years old.

God is amazing that today my devotional was about Mary visiting Elizabeth. How two women had impossible pregnancy and in up blessing the world with their incredible sons. Elizabeth with John who lead the path for Jesus and Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior. Thank you, God for impossible pregnancy. Luke 1:26-45.

Luke 1:45 – Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to he will be accomplished.

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Posted By linda on October 4, 2010

I had the most wonderful weekend. I went to a Beth Moore event on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, I started the day at church helping in elementary age room. I love seeing children getting excited about God’s word. After church, hubby and I went to a Richard Marx concert. This was not just any concert. It was a concert with just him, no band except for a quartet. It was beautiful and personal. He was funny and talked about how some of his songs came about. I truly enjoyed it.

Richard Marx singing one of his many songs. It was totally awesome.

Hubby and I right before the concert started.

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Posted By linda on October 3, 2010

I am glad to say I have been working out regularly. It has been a struggle but I am happy with the results. Working out has become routine and plan to continue. My new goal is a spiritual one. I just attend a wonderful event featuring Beth Moore.  It was a great jump start for my next goal. I have wanting to focus on this goal for a long time and I am excited to begin this journey. I think it is amazing that at the right time God had me attend this event and I found a wonderful book about spending 90 days with Jesus. I was instantly drawn to this book.

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths – Psalm 25:4

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