Meal Plan 8/26 – 9/1

Back to school time is insanity.  I like getting into an established routine, but I am not in love with feeling so busy all the time.  My schedule for the fall….I teach two nights a week, Bible study one night, church another night, then the kids have Awanas once a week.  So that leaves two nights a week that I am not out of the house.  Two.  Out of seven.  It feels insane, right?  Meal plans will reflect that…there will be a lot of meals that I can throw together quickly, or have very little clean up.  My first week of work I came home to no dinner on the table, despite leaving clear instructions to hubby on what he needed to do to finish things up.  I ended up just doing it myself, so I guess I’ll prepare for that…I can get any prep done for dinner before I go and be ready to finish it up and get it on the table when I get home from work.

Here’s what we are eating this week….

Monday:  Tandoori Chicken over quinoa with steamed broccoli, homemade naan

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Braised Chicken Thighs (adding potatoes in to the slow cooker, too)

Wednesday:  Pork Ragu, salad

Thursday:  Grilled Shrimp, Orzo Pasta with Spinach and Parmesan

Friday:  Korean Beef over brown Basmati rice  (I’ll add in broccoli, too)

Saturday:  Huge food truck rally!

How does your week look?

The doggies’ beds

Yep, that’s right, doggies, we have multiple doggies.

And all these pups need nice, comfy, plushy beds to sleep on.  But have you seen the price of dog beds in pet stores? Ridic. Really.  So we just make our own! We use the three inch thick foam from Joann’s (make sure you use your 50% coupon!) and some outdoor canvas-sy material.

With the fabric right sides together, pin it around the foam.  You’ll want it a little tight. Then take a pen and mark where you’ll sew.

To make the corner just pinch and fold the fabric so it folds around and draw another line where you’ll sew, like this:

Pull out the foam and stitch it up on the lines you drew. That corner line is a little tricky, but just fold it and sew too.

Before flipping it inside out, I went ahead and hemmed the raw edges so I could stick some Velcro on them. It always makes washing the covers easy when you can just pop out the foam and throw the covers in the washing machine!

Then flip it inside out and marvel at the corner!

Almost finished!! Slide (or shove) the foam back into cover and slap some sticky Velcro on the open edge.

I ran one more line if stitching over the Velcro, just to make sure it stayed in place and that’s it!

Now the doggies can sleep comfy again!  Carson was happy about it, but still doesn’t understand why he has to share with the little one, haha.

Have you made doggie beds before?

Project Sewn: Coffee Date Dress Sewalong

I’m a huge Project Runway fan….and then became a Project Run&Play fan and try to sew along as much as I can….and now there’s Project Sewn, too!  Phew.

When they announced the Coffee Date Dress Sewalong, I knew I had to be in.  I have never made myself a dress, and as evidenced in the past few projects I’ve sewn for myself, I might not have been ready for it.  But I tackled the dress anyway 🙂

 

So it’s not so impressive on the form, but it does fit me quite nicely.  Bonus, the straps actually cover bra straps perfectly.   Actually it looks really sad in that picture….poo.  I went with blue chambray from the Lisette collection at Joanns and used white denim for the facings (I didn’t bother to interface them since the denim was stiff enough as is).  I wanted to use only stuff I had just in case it didn’t turn out at all…also the reason I didn’t do the ruffle.  I might add some embellishment to the bodice later…still thinking exactly what I want.  It is a very comfortable and versatile dress though.

Yeah, that’s the wrinkliest white cardi on earth.

 

I was a little worried that darts coming up that high would make for some awkward pointiness, but it does look nice and lay nice on.  Side note…I think it’s time I broke down and bought a sewing ham…

 

There were no hook and eyes to be found.  I’ll have to raid my mom’s sewing box later and add one.  Ignore that the waistband doesn’t match up perfectly.

 

For the hem, I used some single fold bias tape to make a facing, and then just stitched it in place.

My very first homemade dress for myself!!

 

Pencil Skirt (Mommy Sewing)

My children have too much clothing. Dexter gets lots of hand me downs, Charlotte is easy to shop for and doesn’t size up very quickly…I really only have to wash their clothes like once a month. It’s a little out of hand….so I’m concentrating on filling my closet. I could just not sew, but I could use some new clothes. I’m a sale shopper, so I tend to just buy random items, and not really build a wardrobe. Classic mom move, not spending money on herself, right? I have, however, purchased a lot of fabric with plans to sew something up for myself out of it. It’s time to get moving on that!!

I decided I wanted to tackle a peplum top. If When I ever tackle that, I’ll maybe explain why that was such a need, but when I went to cut out the pattern pieces (Lisette 1666), I just got tired looking at it. I didn’t feel like cutting out that many pattern pieces, I wanted to just sew something and have it done. That’s when I noticed that the pencil skirt in the pattern was only two pattern pieces. TWO! I can handle that. So I went with a pencil skirt instead, and got to work.

I made Charlotte this dress awhile ago. I am in love with it, and will one day force it upon a grandchild of mine. It doesn’t fit her anymore, but it’s still one of my favorites.

I didn’t purchase the fabric to make that dress, it just sort of happened that way….the fabric was a clearance purchase from Joanns, with plans to make myself something. I grabbed the extra, thinking pencil skirt in some glen plaid, perfect! Then I went to cut out the TWO pieces…not enough fabric. Darn. I still wanted the skirt out of that fabric….I knew I couldn’t just buy more, so I came up with the crazy brilliant idea to add some black lace panels down the side seams. Lace is totally big right now, right? I used black poplin to line the lace and for sanity’s sake, decided to only add the black lace to the front side pieces, and not make new pattern pieces to create these new side panels and turn this simple skirt into a huge disaster. Aesthetically, I’d probably have preferred that the black pieces wrapped around more, but I’m still happy with it.

I used black ribbon for the top waistband and decided to just leave the ends longer and tie it instead of using a hook and eye. I did a blind hem on the bottom, cutting the lace instead of hemming it in to show the scalloped edge. Subtle, but I know it’s there.

The fit is a little tight…of course, I don’t really know how to make clothes that fit me yet. I’ll get there.

It did only take an afternoon to sew up though, even with me over-complicating it with the side panels.

Up next….dress? Yet another skirt? Peplum top?

We’ll see 🙂

Luau Birthday Party!

Our little bug turned three a couple weeks ago and since she LOVES the pool so much we threw her a Luau for her birthday!

We set up a little table near the front door with the little flower hair clips and we also had some cute grass skirts for our guests as they came in. The dollar store had the skirts and it was fun to see the kiddos (and mamas) running around in their skirts!

For the drinks, we borrowed a friend’s soda stream and added some organic lemonade to the spritzy water.  Morgan also made some yummy mixed drink concoction with coconut cream.  It was tastey!  And to set the ambiance, we my little bro, found a fun Hawaiian station on Pandora.

The craft table was a hit too.

We had two crafts set up: 1) make a paper flower lei (thanks Pinterest!) and 2) create a totem pole mask. Next time, I might make something a little more interactive.

My mama had fun creating a lei with my little bug too.

Morgan outdid himself with his carnitas tacos and thanks to all the guests who brought some amazing side dishes! And a super thanks to Nana Starr for making a yummy upside down pineapple birthday cake.

We also had chocolate cupcakes, not from scratch, but the King Arthur gluten free chocolate cake mix is seriously the yummiest mix ever! And we topped them off with a whipped coconut frosting – to. die. for!  In fact, we had some extra and put it on the side for the other cake too. Nom Nom!

I really enjoyed the photo backdrop too.  This was another Pinterest winning idea. We had tons of help setting everything up and it came out great!

It was so nice to have our family and dear friends with us to celebrate my little bug monkey chipmunk (I think that’s her animal of choice today) as she turned three (eek!). And I can’t wait to see what other fun parties we have in our future.

Have you thrown any parties recently?

Related articles

• the party dress (derivingmommyhood.wordpress.com)
• Sneak Peak (birthday party) (derivingmommyhood.wordpress.com)

the party dress

I made Starr Lily a birthday dress when she turned 1 and was hoping to make it a tradition, but last year I dropped the ball and well, maybe now it’s an “every-other-year” tradition, ha!

I had originally planned on making this dress, but when I went to buy some fabric I just couldn’t find something that fit the luau theme.  (That of course didn’t stop me from buying some fabric anyways.) I was about to use a cute floral print, when it hit me that Morgan has about 10 Hawaiian shirts that he rarely wears.  I rampaged through his closet and found just the one I wanted to cut up.

I love the palm trees and the little bits of red throughout. But this fabric was a bit thick and now I didn’t have enough to make the original dress so I sort-of followed the Ice cream social dress tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional instead.

I chopped off the top portion with plans to make something coordinating for Stone.

And because I wanted to make sure the dress was long enough, I added a 3 inch piece of muslin to the top portion. 

I’ve sewn a few items by now and this is the first casing for elastic I’ve done.  Crazy, right? Crazy easy, is what it was.  I used the elastic to make a casing and then stuffed it through!

I thought the tutorial had straps that were too wide so I used wide bias tape instead.  Unfortunately, I lost track of our camera and don’t have pictures, but I just sewed them in.

The hubs gave me the idea to make them meet in the back and I think they look adorable!

I love the buttons too.  It still looks like it was dad’s shirt, but now it’s an adorable birthday dress!  My 3 year old little model let me put her dress on for these pictures, but the day of her party she insisted on wearing a purple t-shirt underneath! I’m glad she likes it though, even if it doesn’t have a coordinating shirt. And just look at how cute she is?!

I could just kiss and hug on her all the time! My sweet little babe is three and time is going by oh so quickly.

Do you make your kid’s birthday outfits?

party favors – pretty flower hair clips

These last couple of weeks have been jam packed full of fun! Starr Lily turned three (eek!) last weekend, we went to Pennsylvania for our friend’s wedding this weekend, and our family was able to visit us too.  I’ve been meaning to post these little party favors I had ready for Starr Lil’s party, but well, I’ve been having too much fun, ha ha!

Aren’t they cute! They were easy-peasy to make too! I went to the dollar store and got a bunch of flowers.  Then I enlisted my mom’s help and busted out the old glue gun. I pulled of the flowers from the stems, like so,

And while my mama cut out a ton of little felt circles, I cut two slits in each one and slid the hair clip through.

Once we got the assembly line going, it went by pretty quickly! I love just chatting with my mama while working on something too.  It reminds me of being little and cooking or cleaning while mom shared stories from when she was little. I keep telling her she needs to write them down!

Back to the party favors, mom glued felt circles onto the flowers (and nearly glued her fingertips shut too),

and then I glued the clip part on to that.

We let them dry overnight and that was it!

Starr Lil’s likes to wear them! (And they keep her bangs out of her eyes too.)

I’ll share more about her party soon and her cute little dress too! What party favors do you like to give at parties?

Meal Plan 8/5-8/11

All of these back to school sales create such mixed emotions….Drea and I used to LOVE roaming the aisles of office supply stores, picking out new sharpies and post its and seeing what else is out there (who are we kidding, we still do).  But as any teacher can tell you, there is also the bundle of nerves that comes with starting a new year….what will my class(es) be like?  What will the FIRST DAY be like?!  Even though I’m only going back to teach a couple nights a week, the same emotions are there.  That sense of loss you feel for your freedom…but with school starting, that means the fall season will soon be upon us.  No more mega hot weather….lots of holidays…then you start feeling like time is just flying by and your babies are growing up too quickly and then you cry a little.

And that’s what happens when I see a sale on crayons.  That’s normal, right?

Meal planning is still easy this week, but in a short while we are back to me working some nights and things become a little more difficult.  I’m enjoying it while it lasts 🙂

Monday:  Honey Lime Tilapia with herbed Israeli couscous

Tuesday:  Yogurt Marinated Lamb Kebabs with Lemon Butter over brown basmati rice with broccoli  (we just bought a lamb for the freezer!!)

Wednesday:  Ground Beef Enchiladas (I’ll sub in whole food ingredients, like make my own enchilada sauce), salad

Thursday:  Spaghetti in Garlic Gravy with Herbs, Lemon Marinated Chicken, and Cherry Tomatoes, homemade focaccia, salad

Friday:  Roast pork with quinoa mac and cheese

Saturday:  Subs and a bike ride

 

Sunday is my flex day as always….yesterday I made a pizza out of leftovers we had (some pesto, some chicken, cheese, tomatoes).  Pizzas come together so quickly it’s a great fast meal.  I think I can do the recipes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day in my sleep now.

What are you having?  Any sobbing over pencils and staplers?

Sweet Potato Rolls!!

I am definitely not a master at breadmaking, but have done a lot of research and practice in the past couple of years. Not everything is a winner, but soft, fluffy, almost doughnut style Sweet Potato Rolls are my favorite. I tried a lot of recipes, and did a horrible job keeping track of the ones I loved (this was before my Plan to Eat days….now recipes are much better organized). I found this recipe to be my favorite…..but like many bread recipes out there on the interwebs, it is for a bread machine. Plenty of people swear by their bread machine, but I want to have LESS appliances, not more. I have developed the ability to read bread machine recipes and adapt them as I go since I understand the order of making bread (or at least think I do). So here’s my adapted version, for those of you out there wishing for more counterspace:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast or one packet (I buy my yeast in bulk at the local membership warehouse, and store in the freezer)

2/3 cup warm milk (you should heat until it feels like it would make a great bath, or roughly 100 degrees. Too hot and it will kill the yeast, too cold and…something else happens but I don’t remember what)

1/4 cup sugar, or honey. I think you can get by with about half that if you want to cut back on sugar, but they are super mega delicious with all of it

Start by adding just those three things to the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a regular bowl if you plan to do this all by hand). Mix it up, let it sit for about 5 minutes. It will start to get a little foamy. If not, your yeast might be bad and you might need to start over with new yeast.

Next, add the following

1 egg (room temp is best, but not crucial–and whip it a little before adding)

1/2 cup mashed sweet potato (I bake my sweet potatoes the day before I want to make rolls. I also never measure the sweet potato and just throw in about 1/2 cup…but it’s likely more)

1/4 cup melted butter (mmmmmmmmm….unsalted, since baking always means unsalted butter, right?)

Mix all of that up, either by hand, or using your dough hook or paddle. You just want it all nice and incorporated. I think it’s good to use a silicon spatula for this step, since the dough hook doesn’t really ‘mix’.

Now we are ready to add in flour. I’ve learned that it’s best to add flour little by little when making bread so you add just the right amount. Adding too much flour can be very bad…and by very bad, I mean I have no clue how to fix it. I did mention I’m not a professional, right? Anyway, I add 1 cup flour (bread flour, all purpose, or white wheat will work here) along with 1 tsp of salt, and start mixing with your dough hook.

Once the flour is no longer all over the sides of the bowl and looks like it’s almost all added in, add in another 1/2 cup.

Keep going until you’ve added about 3 cups (you might need to use your spatula to wipe down the sides of the bowl). But…it might be a little less or a little more (this one probably took a little over 4 cups).

^ not quite ready, but close!

How do you know when to stop? Once all the flour is incorporated, it will be not super sticky if you jam your hand in there. I know, not super scientific. But, you should be able to stick a finger in and pull it away and it will feel more like dough, less like a sticky glue pit.  It will also pull away from the sides of the bowl while mixing.  This dough is a little on the wet side, so best to err on that. If you use extra sweet potato like me, you might find the need for extra flour….or if you use the white wheat instead of all purpose, you might use less…

After you think you’ve got the flour thing figured out, turn your mixer up a little and let it knead the dough for about ten minutes. You might need to stop and scoop the dough ball off of the hook a couple of times since I find it just gets stuck and doesn’t seem to move around at all. That’s normal, right? Anyway, after it kneads for awhile (which you can knead the dough by hand on a floured counter too if you don’t have a mixer), the dough should be not sticking to you at all, and when you pull it apart lightly, it doesn’t break.  You might find that you need to add a little flour again along the way, but a couple tablespoons at a time, tops.

Okay, once the kneading step is all done, form it into a ball. Just grab the dough and keep pulling around to the bottom so the top is nice and smooth. Hold it in one hand, oil your bowl with another (I just use the mixer bowl), plop your ball in pretty side down to oil the top, then turn it over (so all sides should be oiled now).

Then cover and let rise for about an hour. If you live in a particularly cold place, you might let it rise in the oven (you can turn it on to like 200 and then shut it off). I live in Florida, it’s never cold. The countertop works great for me. You can cover with plastic wrap, but I use a tea towel that I get damp first.

After an hour, your dough should have doubled in size roughly. It will be nice and pillowy soft. Resist the urge to just eat it.

Divide it in half, then divide each half in half again, then divide each quarter into three….so you should end up with 12 pieces. You can use a 9×13 pan, or two pie pans, or two 8-9″ cake pans (lightly oil first). Take each piece, form into a ball like you did with the big ball, and put them in your baking dish of choice.

Cover again and let rise for about another 30 minutes to an hour.

After that, they should plump up and fill up all the space between them.

They are ready to bake!

Preheat the oven to 375 and bake for about 12-15 minutes, until golden brown on top and you can’t stand the smell them baking anymore because you fear you might ingest your own stomach. Don’t burn your tongue, it’s tough, I know. You can make the glaze in the original link, but they come out tasting identical to doughnuts if you do. I prefer without, since it seems less wrong to eat with dinner, or sneak them after the kids go to bed. Plus, any leftovers will be a little gross and gooey if they have the glaze.

And for the record, my hubby hates these because they have sweet potato in them and he hates sweet potatoes. That’s okay, more for me.

Enjoy!! These keep well to eat the next morning. Beyond that, I have no idea since they’ve never lasted. I’d love to hear about how yours turn out!!