Family Briefs

The heat pump is in and cooling nicely, and I’m really enjoying the being cool part since I haven’t received their bill yet. I didn’t even bother to check the mail on Friday or Saturday, just so I could enjoy the rest of my weekend :smile:    .

The guys at Jackson Air were SO professional; I wish the plumbers, cable company, and critter gitters were on the ball like Jackson Air was last Saturday. I’m ready for all the dust to settle with our home maintenance and repair issues. Today starts a new work week, so we’ll see where I am with all these other “professionals.”

Of course, the nice relaxing weekend I had wished for was diminished by getting “lost” in my computer work for most of Saturday. Even now, I cannot remember anything I did (at least outside of changing diapers, changing a few sheets, and bathing the kids - surely that didn’t take ALL day)!

Yesterday I had to rescue one of our Diamond Tetras from “jaws” (an electric blue johannis) who has decided he owns the tank! He has eaten three fish this weekend! He was eating the Tetra alive and I just couldn’t watch “Lil’ Mama” suffer. She’s happily in the other tank with the peaceful neon tetras .

I put the divider back in the big tank (putting “jaws” in time-out) and THREE HOURS LATER FINALLY got the pump started again. I’m not sure the fish are worth it . . . well . . . maybe they are (since I’ve paid for all of them - dead and alive!).

As I settled in to work at my desk, my husband’s laptop crashed. A little research . . . a little discussion . . . a little ebay browsing . . . a trip to Best Buy . . . another trip to Best Buy for THE RIGHT SIZE HARD DRIVE!!! . . . a difficult reassembly (which we realized could have been avoided had we just removed the ONE SCREW that was holding the drive in place instead of the ENTIRE FREAKING KEYBOARD).

He’s now happily reinstalling all of his stuff and cussing under his breath hoping he didn’t lose too much information since his last back up a month ago .

All of this and I’m still expected to cook for our brew! Can you believe it??? Sheeesh! Well, you might like to know what we ate last week anyway. Let me re-phrase that, “I think you’re gonna want to know what we ate last week.” I tried two new recipes that were delish - quite worthy of putting into our regular rotation!

MONDAY
Lunch - ham sandwiches, PBJ sandwiches, chips, orange slices and watermelon
Dinner - Eat with Grandaddy at our favorite BBQ place

TUESDAY
Lunch - Italian Wedding Soup, Pasta Salad, grape tomatoes, crackers
Dinner - Tyson Roast Beef entree, Italian green beans, Lipton herb-flavored noodles, mandarin oranges, ice cream sandwiches

WEDNESDAY
Lunch - Ultimate 7-layer dip (see recipe below), tortilla chips, couple of leftover Beef Enchiladas from last week, sliced apples
Dinner - Spaghetti (with whole wheat angel hair noodles, topped with ground beef cooked in Ragu sauce), Texas Toast (from the grocer’s freezer), Caesar salad (you can get a kit from the grocery store, but it’s cheaper to buy the Romaine lettuce salad bag, top with croutons, freshly grated Paremsan - good on top of the spaghetti too - and Caesar salad dressing), chocolate pudding with cool whip on top

THURSDAY
Lunch - couple of Kids Cuisines for the munchkins and a few assorted leftovers for hubby and me
Dinner - Tuna Helper Creamy Broccoli, cooked baby carrots, lima beans, pear pie from my mom with vanilla ice cream on top!

FRIDAY
Lunch - grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, corn chips, and apple slices
Dinner - Movie Nite!!! chicken nuggets, fries, grape tomatoes, orange slices, OREO cakesters

SATURDAY
Lunch - Broccoli Bacon Quiche (see recipe below), rolls, salad (pre-packaged from produce section with added tomato, croutons, carrots)
Dinner - Leftover Buffet!

SUNDAY
Lunch - leftovers from Thursday night, add some frozen green beans
Dinner - Crunchy Chicken-Cheese Bake (see recipe below), canned Asparagus, cauliflower with cheese sauce (Kroger frozen veggie), pear pie with ice cream and Oreo cakesters

Now, for the DELISH recipes!

I wish I could remember whose recipe blog I was reading that mentioned not being able to count the 7-layer dip as a meal, so she’d be working on her meal planning (or recipes). I immediately thought about our dip night and wondered, “why can’t you count it as a meal????” So, it’s an easy lunch this week, but it could easily be a dinner. You’ll see this one again sometime SOON . Here’s a recipe by Knudsen that I stumbled across:

ULTIMATE 7-LAYER DIP

1 16oz. refried beans
1 Tbsp taco seasoning mix
1 cup Knudsen sour cream
1 cup salsa
1 cup shredded lettuce (I just tore up some of our green leaf lettuce)
1 cup Kraft Mexican style shredded cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 Tbsp sliced pitted ripe olives

Mix beans & taco seasoning mix. Spread onto bottom of 9″ pie plate. Layer remaining ingredients over bean mixture; cover. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled. Serve with tortilla chips or assorted crackers

BROCCOLI BACON QUICHE (this made the house smell SOOOOOOO good!)

(from Great American Recipes)

4 slices bacon (I used pre-cooked)
4 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
2 cups broccoli flowerets (I used frozen)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp lemon pepper
(I added chunks of tomato)

Preheat oven to 350^o. Cook bacon until crisp, set aside. Beat eggs with cream and cheese. Stir in broccoli, salt, garlic powder and lemon pepper. Crumble bacon. Stir 1/2 of crumbled bacon into egg mixture. Pour mixture into a 9″ pie plate or quiche dish. Bake at 350^o for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Top with remaining bacon.

CRUNCHY CHICKEN-CHEESE BAKE

8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 slices Swiss or American cheese, each cut in 1/2 (I used Swiss)
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
8 thin tomato slices
2 Tbsp margarine, melted
1/2 cup herb seasoned stuffing, crushed
hot cooked rice

Place chicken in a 3-qt oblong baking dish and top with cheese. Stir soup and spread over cheese; top with tomato. Combine margarine and stuffing; sprinkle over tomato. Bake at 400^o for 25 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Serve over rice. Garnish with fresh oregano if desired.

Y’all enjoy the eatin’ this week, ya’ hear? And if you don’t like what you see here, head over to Laura’s for more Menu Plan Monday fun!