Sunday, August 29, 2010

Some Baby Penny & Mama Pictures

She's looking so much older! I need to take some new pictures. Here are a few from a couple months ago.
She loves to cuddle.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

More time for crafts

This week I handed in a paper that has been in the works for two years. What a relief! I am so excited to start quilting on the weekends! I love these prints.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Miss Honey

Today a parent told me her daughter (in my class and new to the school and area) said I reminded her of Miss Honey from Matilda. Best compliment ever. I always loved that teacher. I taught my best ever lesson today on general ways to act in our classroom I wore an apron and brought in my red smiley spoon and we mixed together a fruit salad. I added each fruit and talked about what each one represents (like good attitudes, nice words, helpfulness, etc.) and then I almost put in a rotten banana, but they all yelled "GROOOSSS!" just like I hoped they would and we talked about how one rotten banana will spoil the mix! It was amazing. They were so engaged and listened so well. They just loved it. It's going to be a great year!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Cuban Pork Sandwiches

Two meals in my first two days of school! And even with plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week. We went to One World last weekend and Taylor ordered and loved the Cuban Pork. After searching around for a little while, I came across an article about the One World Cuban Pork Sandwich and derived a recipe from the article. I found a pork roast from Kroger's on Manager's Special (meat that's about to expire, I think) that was only $3.75. It was small, about 1 3/4 lb., but it was great for us! This makes about 7 sandwiches, so again, this is a pretty cheap meal.
  1. Put the pork roast in the crock pot with enough liquid to cover it. I used 1 qt of chicken stock and 1 qt of water. Season well with garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook all day, depending on your crock pot. I had it on low from 7am-5pm, and then I put it on warm until we came home at 7pm. Shred it with forks a little.
  2. Use ciabatta rolls (I couldn't find them at the store I was, so I used sub bread.) and swiss cheese. I should have toasted them, but I didn't think of it.
  3. Mix 2 parts mayo, 2 parts barbeque sauce, and 1 part something spicy. I used spicy mayo for my something spicy. Spread this on the bread. 
I haven't really had this meal at One World, so I don't actually know how close it was, but I'd make this again for sure. :)

Baked Penne Rigate


I usually call this Baked Ziti, but I've never actually used ziti. I like this kind of pasta better for this dish, plus I like to tell Penny that we're making her pasta and so and so. This is a very easy dish and very frugal. It costs about $6 for the three ingredients and serves about 6!
  1. Boil 1 lb. of pasta. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Pour half of the pasta (with just a little bit of the water left in it) into a 9x13 baking dish. I usually use a ceramic dish.
  3. Pour half of a big jar of pasta sauce over the pasta.
  4. Pour half of a bag of mozzarella cheese (4 cup bag or 2 cup bag...the more cheese the better) over the sauce.
  5. Repeat steps 2-4.
  6. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or longer. The cheese will get melty and the pasta will absorb some of the sauce and water, making it pipping hot and delish.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

My Favorite Meal: Snacks for Dinner!


Well, maybe it's not my favorite. But sometimes it is! Here are my favorite quick and cold finger food snacks.
  • Smoked turkey, marbled cheddar, and apple on toothpicks. Toothpicks are so fun.
  • Peanut butter on Pepperidge Farm sesame wheat crackers.
  • Hummus with carrot sticks (real carrot sticks, not the nubs) and flat bread triangles seasoned with olive oil, salt, and Italian herbs. 
  • Apple and marbled cheddar
  • Crispy, crunchy grapes
This kind of food reminds me of spending the night at my good pal Jamie's house one night in high school? or college perhaps. We went to the kitchen late in the night for a snack. I think it all started with wondering what a certain kind of salad dressing tasted like. I hadn't ever had it and Jamie insisted that I should try it. Her parents were sleeping and we tried not to wake them up, but we were also dancing, running, fist pumping, and giving major thumbs up of approval while we ate delicious snack combos like this.  Things like Monical's French with carrots, peanut butter or honey on ev-er-y-thing, and chocolate and butterscotch chips. We were also hysterically silent laughing the whole time. So fun. (Smorgee's Team Cafe!)

Expect More Posts Like This...

Starting Monday!
This was from my first class (two years ago now!), from an absolutely adorable little girl who decided she loved tigers more than any other animal. She made this book about them. On the first page (this is the title page pictured), she drew the momma tiger with four little blue eggs about to hatch.

I can't believe I'm going into my third year of teaching on Monday morning with 21 new boys and girls. The time flies! I'm so thankful for this big job that God has given me. He is so good.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

When in Rome...

Saturday we went to a Roman themed engagement party for Heather and Lance. They were engaged in Rome, so Lance's parents threw an awesome toga party while he was home from Afghanistan. It was so fun!
That's Katie and her fiance, Justin, and Elisha with her bf, Pat.
Us with the engaged couple!

Friday, August 06, 2010

Classroom Tour

I really do have a big amount of work still to do on my classroom this year. A lot of things I have ready but I can't put up until they are done being laminated...which is not going to be for awhile. It's kind of frustrating that I can't just do that myself. But. Here are the areas that are done! I love it!
This is my new desk! I am so excited about it. I got a few lamps this year to make my room more homey like, and I'm incorporating black and white polka dots with my ocean theme. Much of the ocean theme isn't pictured in this post.
I got this board at Hobby Lobby and I painted the wooden letters, also found at Hobby Lobby.
This area will be jazzed up a bit.

Chicken Strips

These were pretty good. I used panko bread crumbs again and followed this recipe almost. I read the comments and changed the oil to butter, and added several seasonings: seasoned salt, garlic powder, and paprika. Mine really didn't look like the pictures, but they tasted good still!

Maple-Glazed Salmon

We like to pronounce the L in salmon. Try it!
This was so delicious. Here's where I found the recipe. This was super easy and only took a few minutes to cook on my George Foreman grill. Even better...while looking at this recipe, I solved the fish scale/skin problem! You take it off after the fish is cooked and it comes off soo easily. I don't know how I didn't think of that. Do you see those brown crunchy looking things on the salad? They are crispy onion things and they are really interesting in a good way. You can find them in the salad topping area of the grocery store.

Paninis--George Foreman Grill Alert!

I forgot that I had a little George Foreman Grill! My brother gave it to me for Christmas when I was in college and I just used it for the first time this week. This meal was Taylor's Ultimate Favorite Meal of All Time. Too bad I didn't take the best picture (actually Taylor took this with his fancy new iPhone)...you can't even see all the goodness in this grilled Panini. I used Panini bread (I don't know what it's really called, I guess it was Sourdough.) from Panera, bacon, turkey, salami, provolone, cheddar, spicy mayo, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. Anyway...I realized how much fun a GF grill is. I used it for another dinner the next night. I love it!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Creamy Veggies and Chicken

This was a clean out the cupboards kind of meal. I started searching for something to cook. We had no raw meat, we had already eaten wraps for lunch, and I almost made pancakes. Then I saw a can of cream of celery soup and looked on the back to see if there was a recipe. There was! And it looked good! So I tried it...and it was good! The recipe was for "Creamy Stir-fry," but I didn't have any soy sauce on hand and really it didn't taste like stir fry at all, so I renamed it. Taylor didn't love this, but I thought it was warm and comforting and great for using up a lot of ingredients we actually had.
  • Boil a half of a box of noodles. I had radiatore.You could also use rice, or none at all.
  • Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium heat.
  • Once the oil is hot, throw in cooked (because that's what I had, use raw though to make it better) chicken and cook.
  • Chop up veggies and add. I had a bag of stir fry veggies (broccoli, carrots, and snow peas), but then I also added water chestnuts and celery. Add 1 tsp. minced garlic.
  • Stir it around until the veggies are crisp and tender.
  • Add a can of cream of celery soup and about 1/2 cup of milk. Reduce heat after the soup and milk have mixed together well.

Mahi Mahi

For dinner a couple of nights ago, I broiled Mahi Mahi after sprinkling on some seasoned salt. I followed the cooking directions on the back of the package...I think it took about 6 minutes. Meanwhile, I cooked couscous on the stove and made a little garden salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, glazed walnuts, and Parmesan cheese. Yum!