Fall food

I have mixed emotions about this time of year. For one, I LOVE the colors of fall. I love the food of fall. I love the smells of fall. I love activities related to fall (football, soccer, bon fires). My favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) is in the fall. So, what don't I like about fall? One thing...winter comes right after.

Back to one of my favorite fall things....FALL FOOD!! YUMMO!! Here are some of my favorite fall recipes:

1. Chili
2. White chicken chili
3. Beef stew
4. Broccoli cheese soup
5. Pot roast with sweet potatoes (had last night)
6. Apple pie, apple dumplings, apple crisp
7. Chicken and dumplings (love my crockpot recipe)
8. pumpkin bread (Garrett's favorite)
9. Chicken and noodles
10. Beef and noodles
11. Thanksgiving dinner (fried turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, etc.)

These are just some of my favorites and my family's favorites. I'd love to know what you like to eat/cook during this time of year. Share some of your favorites here.

My daughter, the teenager!

YIKES! The day has finally arrived. I am officially the mother of a teenager. How can that be? Time has flown by so fast. In honor of Maryna's big day, I'll reveal 13 facts about her.
1. She is an amazing soccer player! She has achieved so much in her 9 years of playing soccer and continues to amaze me with her achievements.
2. She is right-handed and left-footed. Weird, huh?
3. Her first word was "Uh-oh" but one of her very first words was "ludicrous"
4. She now wears the same size shoe as I do (big feet on both sides of the family).
5. She loves to shop (I've taught her well). In fact, for her birthday she didn't want a party, just wants to go shopping with friends and get some ice cream.
6. Her grandfather (my dad) call her "boat dock" in honor of her name. It's the only real nickname she's ever had and my dad is really the only one that can get away with using it.
7. Her middle name is Renee - which is also my middle name and my sister-in-law's first name and my niece's middle name.
8. She has been on the honor roll every year at school. We are so proud of her academic achievements.
9. She learned to use a sewing machine before I did. Maryna is taking family consumer science (AKA Home-mec) this semester and sewed a gym bag as a project.
10. Has some of the fastest fingers I've ever seen. She can text message so quickly and does it often. In fact, her grandpa (dad's dad) added texting to his cell plan because of Maryna.
11. Received her first recruitment letter this year. She had a letter taped to the outside of her locker during the first week of school trying to recruit her to the cross-country team. Since she is her mother's daughter, she turned the coach down. He gave her a hard time about it. She said that distance running is boring (I agreed) and yet ran the mile in gym class yesterday and beat one of the top cross-country runners at the school.
12. She has a MAJOR sweet tooth (just like her dad). Fortunately she's athletic and young so it doesn't impact her right now.
13. Maryna was baptized this year at church.

Happy birthday, kiddo. We love you and are so EXTREMELY proud of you.

Happy Birthday, Garrett!

In honor of my son's eleventh birthday today, I decided to write 11 things about Garrett:

1. His middle name is Dennis which is also his dad's middle name and his grandfather's first name.
2. He is a very artistic child. One of his favorite things to do is draw and his drawings typically consist of drawing cars.
3. He has a very large collection of Hot Wheels, model cars and R/C cars. The model cars and R/C cars are displayed on shelves around his room.
4. He loves to run. Our neighbors call him Forrest Gump cause he keeps running and running and running.
5. He has been playing soccer since he was 4 years old.
6. He says some of the funniest things. The most recent one was that his most exciting thing he did the first day of school was go to the bathroom cause it got him out of class.
7. He has decided he wants to work at or own a car dealership cause then he can deal with only cool cars.
8. He is the spitting image of my brother Ben. In fact, many people think Garrett is Ben's son. AND he acts just like Ben did at that age :)
9. He was baptized this past year. Praise the Lord!
10. His favorite subject in school is math. His Gigi (my grandmother) will be so proud.
11. He is not an adventurous child. In fact, up until a few years ago, he was terrified of water/swimming pools. Garrett would much rather watch other be daring then to try it himself.

We love him anyways :)

Happy birthday, buddy! We love you and are so very proud of you.

September menu

Several months ago (March to be exact), I started planning my menu for the entire month. I did this because I found myself cooking the same thing every week and couldn't come up with new ideas for dinner. I have loved the monthly planning and have done some freezer meals that I can use as needed. So, for those who are interested, here's our monthly menu for September:

1 - Baked chicken and rice
2 - Roast
3 - leftovers
4 - pizza
5 - Chicken and noodles (Indiana style)
6 - sandwiches or leftovers (possibly french dip subs)
7 - Labor Day Cookout: spicy honey chicken, grilled corn on the cob
8 - meatloaf pie
9 - hot dogs, mac and cheese (AWANA starts so need something quick)
10 - crockpot rotisserie chicken
11 - loaded tostada bar
12 - pizza
13 - sandwiches or leftovers
14 - crockpot orange chicken
15 - spaghetti
16 - pizza (AWANA night)
17 - chicken tortilla chip casserole
18 - leftovers
19 - beef enchiladas
20 - hamburgers
21 - lasagne
22 - Grilled chicken, beans and rice
23 - leftovers (AWANA night)
24 - chicken and chilis casserole
25 - beef stew
26 - chicken fajitas
27 - sandwiches or leftovers
28 - beef stroganoff
29 - BBQ bacon cheddar chicken (Garrett's favorite)
30 - Parmesan/paprika pork chops
31 - Mexican cornbread casserole

As you can see, I love anything that is remotely Mexican. Also, Sunday evenings are "grab what you can find" night and Wednesdays are "what can we make ahead or make really quick" night due to AWANA. Now that my meals are planned, I need to see what coupons I can clip to help save on groceries for this menu.