Preston is 3mo old!!!

As I say all the time, it's going by so fast!!!!  I can NOT believe he is 3mo old today!!!!  Sorry for the lack of updates, our favorite kiwi is in town!!!!

Nikki and I have been friends since I was pregnant with Hayden and talk daily online, ran a forum together and have become really good friends.  Finally after over 4yrs we got to meet!  She lives in NZ and came over here last Thurs and will be here through Sept 14th.  It's been great, the boys absolutely love her!  

But because of that we've been busy and I haven't really had much time to update on here.  

But back to Preston!  He is 3mo today!!  He is about 13lbs 5oz and 24in long!  

He is doing great, smiling loads more, a bit better with the head control he can sit in his bumbo for short periods of time.  He got a new playmat which he really loves.  He's sleeping really well at night and for the most part during the day, he fights his last nap of the day really bad though, but other than that he usually goes down really easily.  He is starting to giggle a bit, kind of a half giggle but adorable!!!  

Some awesome pics that Nikki has taken since being here of him

Lots of firsts!

It's been a great week, so far, for Hayden!  We went on Tuesday morning and signed him up for his first gymnastics class.  We ended up going with the Tuesday 4pm class so he actually had his first class that night.  He absolutely loved it and did a great job.  He was listening and following directions really well.  I took a few videos but they are on my other computer so I'll have to upload them later.  If you are on facebook they are on there already :)

But the older 2 were driving me insane while there so I switched him to the Thursday 11am class so it will be while they are at school lol.  So he goes tomorrow morning again :)

Today was his first day of preschool though!!!!!  He had such an awesome day!  He loved it and can't wait to go back on Friday

His backpack and lunchbox he picked out

In his class

His first ever packed lunch!!!  PB&J cut into shapes, grapes, goldfish, blueberry craisins, crushed mixed berry pouch, mini fruit roll up with water

It's a lot to get used to, suddenly very busy...I'm exhausted!  But it's been great...that time with him at school that I had just Preston was awesome

Busy Monday

Today was Landon and Casen's first day of school.  They both had a great day!!!!  They both really like their teacher and have quite a few kids in their class from last year and made new friends, too.  

Casen outside of his classroom

And at his desk

Landon outside of his classroom

At his desk

They rode the bus home today so Casen had a little sticker on him with his name and bus number.  He pulled it off when he got home and said he didn't like it then said he told his teacher "I'm too old for this stuff"  hahaha I love that kid, he's so blunt, it's hilarious.  But they had good days, it's going to be a good school year :)

Preston had his urology appt today for his kidneys.  We didn't really find anything out, just what we already knew, but his dr ordered some tests to find out which of 3 things is going on.  Most likely it's reflux just based on what they saw in the u/s before, they are doing a test called a VCUG where they put in a catheter and take xrays of the valves inside to see if they are closing properly.  If not, it's reflux and then it's us seeing how bad it is.  If it's mild they will put him on a daily antibiotic to hopefully prevent any kidney infections from the urine backing into his kidneys...if it's more severe we will have to discuss surgery.  Then he is having another test done where they will put dye in through an IV and see how long it takes to pass through the kidneys and into his bladder...checking for an obstruction.  Same thing for that...if it's mild we will just wait and let it resolve itself (no antibiotic though) and if it's more severe he might need surgery.  But then it's possible it's not any of those things and his kidneys are just swollen for no apparent reason so we would just repeat another u/s at about 6mo to see if it's resolved yet then go from there.  He thinks the pain he had a few weeks back was probably a mild kidney infection....which would go along with reflux too.  We will have the appt on Sept 16th then meet back with his urologist on Oct 24th to see where we go from there.  Praying that whatever it is is mild and he won't require surgery.  

On the way home he had a dirty diaper...I know, I know, more poo stories....well I swear this child ONLY poops while in the car...ONLY.  Does anyone else's kid only go in one place??? It's the strangest thing.  And it had been over a week since he had last gone...let's just say...MESS.


Oh and also on the way home he started making this noise, I can't even describe it but it was obvious that he was having a hard time breathing...I was driving down the highway so immediately started pulling over and then he started gasping a few times then started screaming!  I finally got stopped then and went to check on him and he was crying bad but his color was ok...very red from crying but didn't seem too purple(he is purplish a lot of the time).  But just from the sounds I'm almost positive he stopped breathing for a min just don't know why he would have, it was like he stopped then starting making a weird noise then gasping for breath...it was scary.  But he seems ok right now.  The urologist actually asked about his general health, I told him briefly about his NICU stay so he asked how his lungs were now and I told him how he's often purplish and he has actually turned purple once and his feet bright blue once too and that our pedi just blew me off saying that he's 2mo now that his lungs were a newborn issue and he's fine but that the NICU had told us it'd take around 2yrs and he agreed with the NICU saying that it takes a long time for lungs to fully heal and was very surprised that our pedi blew me off like that...

He's worn out from his dr appt and napping right now, the boys just had a snack and are watching some tv relaxing from school.  Dinner is smelling amazing cooking away in the crock pot (to die for roast...and it is to die for, so good!).  

A big week!

First, a short update on Preston.  He will be 12wks on Tuesday!!!  He's coming up on 13lbs now, he's about 12lbs 12oz or so.  He's becoming much more aware of things going on around him.  He has started following things with his eyes and smiling socially lots more!!!  He seems pretty close to giggling too, it's adorable.  The past few days he's stayed awake a lot longer during the day, up until now he's still slept like a newborn, really only up maybe a couple hours total all day long.  But today he was awake a lot of the day.  Today I think he noticed Maggie for the first time.  He was having some tummy time and I was laying down there with him and she came up to lay with us and he was just amazed by her, staring at her walking around.  I told her "give Preston kisses" so she carefully crawled up to him and kissed his face!!!!  It was adorable!  She totally understands us, it's amazing really lol.  He's been sleeping great too!  He goes to bed around 8pm and then sleeps 7-9hrs then wakes to eat then wakes about every 2-4hrs after that to eat again.  

Now on to our busy week!

Tomorrow is Landon's first day of 3rd grade and Casen's first day of 1st grade!!!!!! They are SO excited!  I'm going to take them to school and walk them to class the first few days, pics will be coming tomorrow of course.  I'm a little sad I won't be home when they get out of school tomorrow because tomorrow is also Preston's urology appt, FINALLY!!  I'm really excited, yet nervous.  I really hope we get some kind of answers, at least some "maybes".  What could possibly be going on, at this point we really have no idea.  

Tuesday I have a breastfeeding get together thing, that should be interesting.  

Wed is Hayden's first day of school!!!!  

Thursday is Hayden's first day of gymnastics!  Then Thursday night I get to go pick up Nikki from the airport...she is finally coming to meet us!!  Can't wait for her to get here, should be a fun few weeks.  

Then Friday Hayden has school again and the boys will be in school so since she will have traveled so many hours the day before we will probably just hang out around the house.  (she's coming from New Zealand for anyone who doesn't know)

Sunday we will be going baby clothes shopping with Dessa, yay!!!

I got Landon and Casen signed up for baseball and Hayden for soccer so those practices should be starting soon.  It's going to be a crazy next few weeks!  Can't wait!

Bring Supplies Night

Tonight was the boys "bring supplies night" at their school.  They get to bring all of their supplies, meet their teacher and see their classroom.  First we looked to see who their teachers were...Casen was hoping for Mr. Bruce but turns out he moved to another school, he got Mrs. Rodriguez.  Landon didn't necessarily want any particular teacher but did NOT want one, he didn't get her so yay!  He got Mrs. Naizer.  We then picked up their school supplies.  We order it at the end of each school year for the next year so they get everything they need.  Seriously, best idea ever.  The boys don't care about what types of things they have, they aren't allowed character stuff anyway it's supposed to be solid colors and particular colors so really it's not even fun to pick the stuff out so this is just so much easier.  

We then went and met Landon's teacher.  She seemed VERY nice.  He has a lot of friends from last year in his class, including his best friend.  He is more excited about school starting back now, he wasn't ready to go back before tonight.

We then went and met Casen's teacher who also seemed very nice.  She had a little cup with things for each of the kids, including a pencil, Casen asked if there was somewhere he could sharpen it, he's ready to work haha...so Casen.  She said make sure he brings it on Monday and she'll get it sharpened then and he can use it...he can't wait.  

When we left Hayden got really excited thinking we were going to his school next, but we weren't.  He is very excited about starting preschool.  He's going to be very sad on Monday when the boys go to school and he has to wait 2 days after that to go to his first day.  

Thinking it's going to be a really good school year!

Back to School Shopping!

We have spent the day doing back to school shopping!  I love to shop so today was great haha.  The boys were good and we finished the day with a cookie at Great American Cookie Co and sitting outside to eat it...we only got to around 90 today, it was NICE! 

I set myself a budget this year, for the first time, and I'm proud to say I am still $100 under budget and barely need to get anything else!  I have heard so many times that it isn't worth buying "nice" clothes for kids because they grow out of them too fast that it's just not worth the money you spend.  Well, I will only put "nice" clothes on the boys....luckily my kids grow super slow lol...but even if not it's soooo worth it if you shop sales and use coupons!  I don't think we could have done any better if we had bought everything at Target.  I'm proud of all the sales we got, seriously some great deals so had to post of course!  I'm waiting on an order from Pumpkin Patch and then I'm going to put in an order to finish off the older boys at either 77 kids or PS kids...once it all gets here I think I might come back and add pics to this post, we got so much1!!  But for now I'll list it :)

So I set myself a $500 budget for clothes, not including shoes and not including grabbing each of them a pack of socks.  I'm at around $400 now this is what we've got so far.  Oh and I didn't budget for getting Preston anything, I didn't plan to get him anything until we got back to school stuff done but I just couldn't help myself so this is including his stuff and still under that budget!

Pumpkin Patch:

Hayden 2 shirts that are 2 layer ones, like a tshirt with plaid button up over it

Landon a shirt

Casen a shirt

Preston a pair of shorts, pr of jeans and 4 shirts

Children's Place:

Hayden 4 tshirts, button up and 2 polos

Landon 2 polos and a shirt

Casen 2 polos and 2 shirts

Preston a romper

Crazy 8:

Hayden 3 prs of plaid shorts 5 tshirt and 1 plaid shirt

Landon a pair of shorts, 2 shirts and a button up

Casen 3 shirts, 2 button up and a pair of jeans

Gymboree (my proudest buys lol, only spent $59 with tax...awesome for gymboree, they are usually expensive!)

Hayden 3 shirts

Landon 1 shirt

Casen 1 shirt

Preston 3 shirts and 2prs of socks

So total so far

Hayden 18 shirts, 3prs of shorts-going to get him one pair of jeans and his shoes

Casen 10 shirts and a pair of jeans-going to get him pr of shorts, few more shirts and shoes

Landon 9 shirts, pr of shorts- needs more shirts and shoes

Preston 7 shirts, pr of shorts, pr of jeans and romper

Total 

43 shirts

7 bottoms

romper

$400!  Average of about $7.80 a piece...not bad at all, at least I don't think so!  I'm quite proud of myself haha.  And all good brands that will last many washes.

Oh and I also ordered Hayden's backpack and lunch box, a cute one from Skip Hop the elephant..he is so set on it, he can not wait for it to get here.  I got a package in the mail the other day and he came running to me when I was opening it and said "ooooh I know what that is!!!  It's my backpack!!"  haha poor kid he can't wait for it to get here.  So I finally got it ordered tonight, he's going to be thrilled when it gets here!

Menu 8/8-8/13

Ok I'm late but here is our menu for the week :)

Breakfast

Easy Breakfast Casserole with sausage...we had this for dinner last night and it was REALLY good with the sausage, we are going to have it again Sat or Sun morning

Brunch Enchiladas

Lunches

Chili cheese biscuit pies (magazine)

Roasted tomato garlic pasta we do it without olives, this is Hayden's all time favorite dish, we add more garlic than it says

Pizza Balls

Sandwiches other days

Snacks

Peachy Muffin-cakes

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pop Tarts

fresh fruit

cheese

yogurt

cucumbers with ranch and crackers

pretzels

Dinners

Ro-tel Chicken Spaghetti with veggies

Ranch Chicken in crock pot over rice with veggies (this was tonight's dinner and it was REALLY good)

Ranch-Parm chicken, I swear I'm really making it this week lol with garlic mashed potatoes and veggies

Beef Tips but serving with mashed potatoes and veggies

Chicken Enchiladas (doing the chicken in the crock pot then will put in tortillas and bake after it's done) with spanish rice and beans

Maple glazed ham steak (magazine) with au gratin potatoes and sunshine carrots

Pasta Carbonara Frittata (magazine) with garlic bread and salad

Tide Stain Release Review!

Ok I don't usually do reviews on products but this product is so awesome all moms need to know about it!!!  When I was pregnant Tide did an offer on Facebook for free samples, I was able to get one and was expecting maybe 2-3 tablets at most in the sample.  Nope it was a full size sample!!  You got the bag you would buy at the store, I was shocked!  So I have been using it on Preston's clothes when he explodes lol.  He has often "exploded" on his car seat insert like 10x..it's ridiculous really.  

This stuff is awesome!  

So there have been 3x that I have had to wash Preston's sheet because he got EBF poo all over it which is bright yellow and hard to get out of certain fabrics (not cloth diapers though how weird is that?) but I've washed it and dried it without the stain release, just forgot to throw it in.  It came out still stained...THAT'S when I remember the stain release of course.  So I put it back in the wash with the stain release and it comes out COMPLETELY stain free!!!!  That's AFTER being washed AND dried once with the stain on it!  I've always remembered to put it in when washing his car seat insert, until the other day I forgot...came out stained really badly still I was really upset until I remembered I didn't use the stain release, so back into the wash it went...again STAIN FREE!!!!  

I only have 2 tablets left before I have to buy some, I will definitely be buying some!  I think I'm going to get the "Free" version of it, no scent, the scent of this isn't bad but it's very strong and covers up his yummy Dreft smell lol so I'm going to get the free one to see if that fixes that...hopefully it works as well!  

If you have kids you definitely need this!!  It is by far the best stain remover I've used...I've tried all different sprays and nothing works this well

Reviews for recipes 8/1-8/6

First!  I'm proud of myself I spent $120 total this week on groceries....that includes everything we ate plus I have 4lbs of chicken leftover for next week's meals because it was on sale at Sprouts so I got extra.  Not bad, my new budget is $150 a week...and up until I just set that I've been spending even more than that so $120 for all of us is great!

 I made most things on the menu for this week.  I was planning to make the Brunch Enchiladas for breakfast this morning but we were out of milk!!  Going to try and make it or maybe the Easy Breakfast Casserole I'm not sure, I'm going to ask Mark and see which he'd rather have.  This time I'm using sausage instead of ham...or maybe I'll use both....I don't have enough ham leftover to use just ham though.

I wasn't able to make it to HEB so I couldn't look there for the wonton wrappers for the Mini Tacos so didn't get those :(  We had sandwiches Mon-Thurs..which BTW the Oscar Meyer cajun chicken breast is really yummy.  On Friday, I wanted to make roasted tomato garlic pasta but couldn't find my garlic ANYWHERE, it was making me crazy because I knew I had some.  So instead I used a jar of alfredo sauce I've had in there for a long time, it was supposed to expire in less than 2mo that's how long it's been in there lol.  I decided I do not like jarred alfredo so I hadn't used it but figured I would before it went bad.  I doctored it up with some ranch dressing mix, ham and peas...it made it a little better but still had that yucky jarred taste, none of us ate much of it.  

For dinners though we stuck to the menu, I cooked every night, yay!  I did cancel the Ranch Parm chicken because it's been SO hot I wanted to avoid using the oven as much as possible.  Monday we had salsa chicken tacos, the meat was made in the crock pot.  It was a huge hit!  Everyone loved it!  I will definitely make this one again...maybe even this next week, very yummy.  Tuesday we had To Die For Roast in the crock pot...again very yummy!!!  Mark, especially, really loved it.  Will be one I make again, for sure.  Wed I was out all day because of Preston's dr appt then seeing people while out in Arlington/Mansfield.  I didn't get home until late so we made the boys oatmeal..at their request.  And I made me and Mark chicken corden bleu...the frozen kind which he LOVES.  I cheated on Thurs too, but it was a planned cheat haha, I made hamburger helper.  Someone told me the cheesy hashbrown was the best...ehhh it's alright, probably won't get it again.  Then last night we had Cheesy Crock pot chicken over rice with veggies.  We've had that one before, good, really easy to throw together and I always have the ingredients on hand.  I had planned to make Ranch chicken in the crock pot but when I made Mark the grocery list, he went shopping on Monday, I forgot to put TWO packets of ranch, I needed it for the roast too.  I thought I had and searched the kitchen, everywhere!   But nope, found out later I only told him to get one...oops.  So we had the cheesy crock pot chicken instead.  Oh yeah and he also was able to find my garlic that I had wanted earlier that day...I felt stupid.  

Ok, I think that was all the new stuff...let me know if you want any of those recipes, they were ones I found just from people or in magazines so there is no link for them :)

Big Latch On Event?

Has anyone heard of the Big Latch On event?  I had heard little bits about it but not really that much until today.  I'm interested in going, mostly to connect with other Moms but don't really want to go alone haha.  Is anyone planning to go in their state?  What about anyone in TX planning to go?  There are 2 in Ft. Worth and one in Dallas, I was planning to go to the Dallas one but if someone I know is going to the other one I would go there instead.  I don't know for sure that I will go...but I'd like to.

You can look here to find locations in your area  

Let me know if you're in TX and planning to go!!

Giveaway for Umi Shoes!!!!

There is a great giveaway going on over at Mom Spotted!!!  You can enter to win a pair of Umi Shoes, just in time for back to school!!!!

They have some very cute shoes for both boys and girls so head over there and enter to win!!!

Preston's 2mo appt

It went pretty good.  I had all 4 boys with me, no help, and they were going nuts!  They kept fighting and had way too much energy. When the nurse came in they started fighting, when the dr came in they started fighting so I was seriously distracted.  

He is 11lbs 10oz (35th%), 23.5in (68th%) and his head is 39cm (25th%)

When the nurse was in there she said "he's smiling and cooing now right?" I said no.  So she put that in her computer (that's what they use for charts).  Then she said "but he is following you with his eyes now right?" nope.  BUT the dr didn't mention it when she came in and I was so distracted I forgot to ask!  So mad at myself for that.  I also forgot to ask about his legs.  Forgot to mention the reflux, but that's ok because I don't want him on meds for it anyway.  I also almost forgot to talk about how his feet turned blue but I did remember.  I told her about it and then said that it really scared us from his past lung issues.  She said not to worry about his lung issues anymore, that was a newborn thing and he's 2mo now and fine.  Umm what???  She didn't see him while he was sick but did get a copy of his discharge paperwork, we gave that to her 2 days after his discharge.  But the NICU drs said the complete opposite.  Yes it's something he should outgrow with time, his lungs are still healing but by 2yrs old he should be normal....NOT 2mo.  And I don't know if she just doesn't remember how sick he was since she didn't see him in that time and we haven't been going there long or what but I'm definitely going with the NICU drs on this one.  I also said that they had told us he needs to be seen at the first sign of illness instead of letting him try and fight it off, especially if it's respiratory....she said that's not really true either.  Yeah, again, going with the NICU drs.  So that really turned me off of her but up until then I've really liked her.  Today she seemed really rushed though.  She said his purple look is his way of showing temp...which I'm not sure I agree with seeing he looks that way when there is just NO WAY he's cold sometimes.  She said she thinks his pain this weekend was some severe gas issues because she could hear it in his belly today and she said some babies get it so bad that if you touch their stomach it really hurts.  I hope that's true and it wasn't his kidneys.  He's better now so that's good, we see the urologist on the 22nd so I will mention it to them too to see what they think. 

The vaccines actually went really well.  Well the lack of vaccines lol.  At every office we've been to before this one we've had to sign a paper that is worded in a way like we are putting our kids in danger and I've heard of some pediatricians turning those papers around on parents and turning them into CPS like they admitted neglect or something!  I have always marked out parts of those papers changing it so it is worded where the vaccines could cause all these horrible things, not not getting the vaccines...to protect ourselves.  This paper was nothing like that though.  It just said that we understand the risks and benefits of the vaccines and our dr explained it to us and therefore we release them from any liability if our kids get sick from these illnesses...just saying they did their job and we still chose not to.  Nothing bad about not getting them!  then we were of course given a vaccine sheet and one full page explained the diseases and why you want the vaccines but then there was almost a full page of all the risks!!!! I've never seen an office actually give equal information on both sides.  Usually they play down the risks big time and act like there really are not risks.  The dr asked if we planned on giving vaccines later and I said no not at this point and that was the end, no pushing, it was great.  

So overall he's doing great :)

After that we met my mom for lunch then went and picked up Dessa and went to the grocery store to get stuff so I could teach her to make baked ziti.  Before we started cooking though we met up with Heather and Alissa for some frozen yogurt.  The boys loved it, they got to pick their flavor and toppings...said it was delicious and they of course loved seeing Alissa.  It was nice spending some time with Heather too :)  We then went back to Dessa's to cook her baked ziti and she did great.  They said it turned out good, we left when we got it in the oven so I could get the boys home.  

Having Preston out past his bedtime is not a good idea.  I have never had a baby that set a routine for himself this early.  But Preston seems to thrive on a sleeping routine, he eats when he wants but sleep, he needs a lot of it.  Every night he goes down between 7:30 and 8...we didn't leave Dessa's until a little after 8.  He was not a happy baby.  He was fussy before we left her house but screamed in the car.  I pulled over and nursed him and he calmed down until we got back in the car...pulled over 2 more times with no luck, he wouldn't stay calmed down.  So I put on this CD I have from our church's band, there is a song on there that I like to sing and sang it a lot at the end of my pregnancy.  I put that on and about 20-30sec into singing it he was quiet.  Just to be sure I sang it 2x lol, but he was out the rest of the way home.  When I got him out of the car he had exploded.  I swear it's like he's trying to ruin the light blue car seat we got him....I"m blaming Christa for saying it was a bad idea haha.  Just about every time we are out i have to bring the infant insert in to wash because he poos out of his diaper.  This one was the worst so far, it was everywhere, he was covered...it was gross.  So I got him cleaned up and into pjs then nursed him and laid him in his bed and he just snuggled into his bed, you could tell that's what he was wanting...gave him his paci and turned out the light and he went right to sleep.  He is seriously such an awesome baby. He puts himself to sleep a lot though sometimes he does want me to hold him and rock him.  He never falls asleep nursing, well he does sometimes in the middle of the night...we both fall asleep nursing lol.  But he does so well with it.  None of the other boys were that good with going to sleep.  Landon slept through earlier than him but he was on formula.  But last night Preston did almost 8.5hrs!!!!!!!  AMAZING!!!  Casen and Hayden (also breastfed) didn't sleep more than 2-3hrs at the very most until they were SO much older (11mo for Casen and 15mo for Hayden).

Preston is great :)  

Waiting for the dr 

The ridiculous temps we've been having...INSANE!!

Trying to cool off at Aunt Dessa's, he was just miserable in this heat

My gorgeous sister, 16wks pregnant!!  We find out what she's having soon!

Still trying to cool off

He got heat rash

Napping while we had frozen yogurt

Menu Aug 1-6th

Menu time!!  Just finished planning it, I'm doing a lot of crock pot recipes this week for a couple of reasons.  1 because soccer and baseball will start soon so we won't be home until late in the evening on school nights so I will need something already ready for us to eat and 2 because it's SO hot here still (31 days over 100, yay. not.) that I don't really want the oven on if I can avoid it.  Hopefully we like these, they are new to us

Breakfasts:

Easy Breakfast Casserole (we have made this before but Mark wants it again)

Brunch Enchiladas

Lunches:

I'm going to look at HEB this week for the wonton wrappers for Mini Tacos since Walmart didn't have them last week

We will have sandwiches the rest of the week, or leftovers

Snacks:

By request of the boys Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Peach Fruit Leather

Chewy Granola Balls (this week I have cherry vanilla granola and dried cranberries for this)

Fresh fruit of course

We still have quite a bit of the bananas foster crunch mix

crackers and cheese

apple stix (same brand as veggie stix, they love them)

pirates booty

Dinners:

Since yesterday's dinner plans didn't happen we will have Ranch-Parm Chicken with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and pan seared corn on the cob

Then I joined a group on Baby Center that is all about recipes and there were a couple long threads with crock pot recipes so that's where these are from.  If they are good I'll post the recipes at the end of the week with my review...if you want them before then just leave a comment or send me a message :)

To Die For Roast with mashed potatoes and sunshine carrots

Salsa chicken Tacos with spanish rice and black beans (tonight's dinner and it smells so good!)

Ranch chicken with potatoes and veggies

Cheesy crock pot chicken with rice and veggies

Then for a cheap easy meal we are going to do Hamburger Helper...see I cheat sometimes too :)

Recipe Reviews for the week of 7/25-7/30

We tried most of the recipes from last week, most were really yummy too!!!  Since most of the recipes this time were from a magazine and not online I'll post the really good recipes.

No new recipes for breakfast

Lunches:

Sassy Tailgate Sandwiches (we actually ended up having these for dinner last night).  They were ok.  They tasted good but weren't great and the textures were just a little weird for us.  Probably not something I'll make again but was an alright meal.  They definitely weren't bad and are worth trying

12 Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, split

1lb shaved black forest ham (I didn't use quite that much)

12oz Gruyere cheese, sliced (I used swiss because there was only one variety of gruyere at the store I went to and it was VERY expensive...I also didn't need 12oz, probably more like 8oz)

1 8oz tub of Chive and onion cream cheese (again didn't use this much, I used like 1/3 of the tub MAYBE, it would have been wayyyy too much had I used all of it)

1/2c butter, melted

1/4c parm cheese

1Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 tsp. dried minced onion

1. Arrange bottoms of rolls in greased 13x9 baking dish.  Layer with ham and cheese.  Spread each roll top with cream cheese and place on top of cheese.

2. In small bowl, combine the butter, parm cheese, worcestershire sauce and onion.  Pour over sandwiches.  Let stand for at least 20min.

3. Cover and bake at 350 for 20min or until heated through.

That was the only new recipes for lunch...I didn't end up making the mini tacos because I couldn't find wonton wrappers at Walmart.  

For snacks I tried a couple new things with the boys and both were big hits.  One was the frozen bananas I did a blog about a few days ago.  Then they tried the Bananas Foster crunch mix which they loved.  They are still eating on it because it made a lot.

Bananas foster crunch mix recipe:

In a microwave safe bowl, cook 1/3c each of butter and brown sugar on high for 2min, stirring once.  Stir in 1/2tsp each of ground cinnamon, banana extract and rum extract.  Pour mixture over 3c each of Honey Nut Chex and Cinnamon Chex, 2c of pecan halves and 1 1/2c of dried banana chips; toss.  Microwave, uncovered, on high for 3 minutes, stirring after each minute.  Cool on waxed paper.  

We didn't make the peach leather but I think I'm going to do that today if I can stand to have the oven on...maybe I'll do it tonight and give it to them tomorrow.  Also didn't try the fruit gazpacho because we couldn't find a good cantaloupe...sad that it looks like their season is over :(

Dinners:

We tried the pepperoni pizza casserole which I thought was really good.  Mark liked it but said he was expecting something else, more pizza flavor, though I think it tasted a lot like pizza.  Hayden liked it but Landon and Casen didn't because they are trying to be super picky lately and don't like chunks of tomatoes which it had in there, they could have picked them out but apparently they would rather go hungry lol.  

Pepperoni Pizza Casserole

1pkg 16oz egg noodles ( I think mine was actually 12oz)

2lbs ground turkey (I used 1lb and it was plenty, you could also do sausage to make it more pizza like)

1/2c chopped onion (I used dried)

1 jar 26oz meatless spaghetti sauce

1 can 10oz of diced tomatoes and green chilies

1 can 8oz of mushroom stems and pieces, drained (left this out)

2c shredded mozzarella cheese

2c shredded cheddar cheese

1c shredded parm cheese

3oz pepperoni

1. In a dutch oven, cook noodles according to package directions, drain.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook ground turkey and chopped onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink, drain.  Stir in spaghetti sauce and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.  Stir in noodles.  

3. Transfer to 2 greased 13x9 baking dishes (I used 1).  Sprinkle each with mushrooms, cheeses and pepperoni

4. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30-35min or until heated through and cheeses have melted.   Let stand 5min before serving.

Then we had nacho cheese beef bake, again pretty good but not amazing.  Landon loved this though, he ate 2 helpings.  Hayden liked it too, Casen didn't want to even try it, I think he had a couple bites just so he could get down from the table.  Me and Mark liked it, not sure it will e one I make again though....maybe I will since Landon liked it so much.  

Nacho Cheese Beef Bake

2c uncooked egg noodles

1lb ground beef

1 can 14 1/2oz diced tomatoes undrained (I used fire roasted)

1 can condensed nacho cheese soup, undiluted

1 jar sliced pimiento-stuffed olives, drained (left this out)

1 can (4oz) chopped green chilies

1 1/2c shredded cheddar cheese

2c crushed tortilla chips

1/2c ranch dressing

Shredded lettuce, sour cream and/or salsa, optional

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain.  Meanwhile, in large saucepan, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink, drain.  Stir in tomatoes, soup, olives and chilies.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for 10min.  Stir in noodles. 

2. Transfer to a greased 11x7 baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 for 15-20min until heated through.  Top with tortilla chips, drizzle with salad dressing.  Serve with lettuce, sour cream and/or salsa if desired.  

Then we had Cheesy ham and hashbrown casserole for dinner one night.  I really liked it, Mark liked it but said he liked the one we had a couple weeks ago with the stuffing in it better. I tried telling him this was completely different lol, it had no eggs.  The boys really liked it too.  I think it needed a bit more seasoning but otherwise was really yummy.  I will def make it again.  

I think that's about it.  We had planned to have the Ranch-parm chicken last night and have Chris and Dessa over again.  We all seriously LOVED that chicken!!! You have to try it!   But Preston was just so miserable last night that we cancelled those plans.  I was supposed to try a new recipe for pan seared corn on the cob so I'm hoping to make that with another meal later this week, it looks really yummy. 

But Dessa made her and Chris the ranch-parm chicken at her house last night!!!!  She did so great, I helped her over the phone.  It's her first time learning to cook really.  She can do basic things like hamburger helper, spaghetti and other things like that.  But she doesn't really cook much and I'm determined to get her cooking more food for her and Chris that way when the baby is here and ready to start eating she can prepare foods for her family :)  Last night she did GREAT!!!  She made the chicken and then some sweet potatoes glazed with butter and brown sugar and made mac and cheese to go with it too.  Go Dessa!!!!!   

I'll be back with our menu for this week in a little while :)