Recipe Review, Laundry and Routines

In my last menu post here I listed a few recipes I'd found that we were going to try.  Well, as always happens, we aren't actually having the meals listed on the days they're listed for. At least I know I have everything on hand to make all the stuff on the menu though, so that's a good feeling.

Anyway, we have decided not to make the Cheeseburger Pasta dish again.  Zoe liked it, but Christopher and I were less than thrilled with it. Campbells' emails have plenty of other quick skillet dishes I can try in its place.

Everyone raved about the Chicken and Bean burritos. They were super quick and easy to make. Christopher said he'd rather just have MORE.. like more stuff on the side or make them soft tacos with tons of lettuce, tomatoes and cheese and sour cream. It just takes a lot to fill him up, and though he did have two of his own and then finished a couple that the girls were too full to finish he was still hungry. I have this issue with all meals though, it wasn't anything bad against this meal. I loved it and with some corn and chips and salsa on the side it was perfect.

Tonight we had the Broccoli and Cheese Fish Bake. We used a whole bag of frozen whiting fillets, and 7 people ended up eating. The five of us, plus Faelyn's boyfriend and my mother in law. There was still one piece of fish left with veggies and sauce enough to pack for Hubby's lunch. We did also have a big bowl of mashed potatoes as well as green beans. Faelyn didn't eat much, but Austin had brought her 4 candy bars which she ate all of. I ate all of mine.  Thankfully the broccoli and cheese sauce was really good and mixed with the mashed potatoes and green beans I didn't even notice the fish. I asked everyone else what they thought and they all nodded with full mouths LOL.  Zoe is not a big fan of fish either, but I don't recall seeing her plate after dinner.  Not sure how much she actually ate. It's an easy enough dish to make and I really love broccoli and cheese, so I'd make it again if we HAVE to have fish.  It was a more expensive dish only because the frozen bag of fish costs about $7 whereas I can get a roll of ground turkey for $1.29 and make a casserole.  So, still not my top choice for a dinner, but good to have something different at least. At least I know I still don't like the taste of fish. Though... I do LOVE a good tuna salad with saltine crackers LOL.  Maybe that'll be how we get our fish intake from now on haha.

Oh actually we've not had the cold tuna noodle dish yet this week. It's really one I need to make the night before since it needs to be really cold when you eat it. We just cook a box of macaroni noodles then mix in 2-3 cans of tuna, mayo (or Miracle Whip which I prefer), some sweet relish, a few dashes of pepper, and some finely minced onion and celery. Mix it all together and put it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, whatever. I think however, that the celery has all been eaten by my munchy husband. Maybe there's one stalk left I can salvage.  It doesn't need more than that anyway or the celery overpowers it (in my opinion).

Besides the Tuna Noodle, I think the rest of the week we have one more Zippy Chicken Stirfry, the Goulash, spaghetti and chili. Not too bad a selection. At least they're all different and not all using ground turkey which can get old after you have it 7 nights in a row. heh.

Also, wanted to do a little humblebragging LOL.  I mentioned before that I was caught up on laundry.  Well I did wash and dry the sheets and comforter from our bed when the dog peed on them, plus I had faelyn change her sheets and blanket just because I thought it had been a while.  She did actually complain that she'd JUST changed them 3 days ago, but hey clean sheets is always good, so she stripped the bed and I gave her fresh ones to remake it.  Turns out, she had one of the sheets that fits Rhiannon's bed so it was good that I got it back anyway. So I got all of Faelyn's stuff washed and I had her fave comforter washed and dried and ready for her to put on her newly made bed so she was happy about that. I used to be so bad about washing bedding cause I thought IT WOULD TAKE ALL DAY. I don' know why.  It's just like any other load of laundry...  just a throwback from when Mom did washing I guess.  And then... THEN!!!  I reorganized my linen closet again, and this time, I matched up fitted and flat sheets that matched and put them inside the matching pillowcase so the kids can just grab whatever pattern or color sheets they want in one bundle instead of looking for a fitted sheet and grabbing some mismatched flat sheet (or using none at all which annoys me to no end).  I can't stand the thought of sleeping without a top sheet. Weird. Anyway, so that's all done and they're all clean so everything got matched up! And Rhiannon's bed has it's spare set all ready to go (It's a full size.)

I have run out of laundry detergent though, and I had meant to do a couple loads tonight of the stuff we wore this weekend, but it can wait another day.  Christopher said he'll pick up whatever we need on his way home from work tomorrow since he gets off early.

It feels so great but so weird to be so organized and caught up on things. I go to write what I need to do on the dry erase board, and I'm like,.. no, that's done.. or no, I did that this morning without thinking about it... Yay for good habits!!  When Flylady first told me ten years ago that my house would get to where it cleans itself, I thought she was nuts, but I see it happening.  I've been to this point before, and everytime it feels weird.  I hope someday(maybe now!) that I can get to this stage and KEEP it there.  Here's hoping!

Christopher has to open at the store tomorrow (Monday) so he'll be leaving at 5:45am which means I'll have to get Zoe off to school without him.  I used to dread those days cause it meant I had to stay up later and try to groggily get Zoe out the door and I was always grumpy and she'd fuss and end up crying and seriously I can't count the number of times I just let her stay out of school because the drama was too much - she can be a real diva when she wants to be.  World's worst mom here, LOL.  But this school year I've been staying up later and spending time with Hubby and Zoe as they get ready for their day and even cooking everyone breakfast (when I have anything stocked up to cook anyway), so I have no issues with tomorrow... which made it extra funny when Christopher goes, "Honey, I'm sorry but I just realized I open tomorrow so you'll have to get Zoe up ..."  and he stands there ready for me to have a meltdown.  I just said, "I know, I have seen her and you off to work and school every morning, remember? It'll be fine."  He was a tad shocked LOL.  YAY!

Of course the price I pay for this is having to sleep later in the day, but really, the kids don't want to deal with me being grumpy-I-don't-do-mornings-Mom as soon as they walk in the door.  So, this lets me get sleep, and they get to wind down after school without Mom breathing down their neck.  I get up about an hour or two after they get home and by then they're doing homework, have snacks or are out playing.  Then I do my little routine and start dinner. It's working out really well so far, and we're all really happy with it.  So YAY!  again!

Hoping y'all have a great week.
Patty