January Recipes

As you know, each child plans a meal once a month and makes a shopping list for the meal. Jessica cooks much more often because she enjoys it. No one is forced to cook but the kids made up a rule that if you don't cook one month, you don't get to try what everyone else makes the next month. Out of the mouth of babes..

This month Tyler made a very easy chicken recipe:







































Zesty BBQ Chicken
21/2-3 lb chicken cut up or chicken pieces
2/3 c brown sugar
2 T vegetable oil
½ c honey
1 tsp seasoned salt
2 ½ c bbq sauce
½ c onion chopped

Preheat oven to 300F. Coat chicken with cooking oil. Season with salt. Mix onion, brown sugar, honey, and bbq sauce together. Pour over chicken. Bake uncovered for 2 hours.





Jasmine made a recipe we've done several times before. Tyler for some reason does not like this dish at all even though he likes everything in it. If someone doesn't want to eat something we don't make a deal about it. They just make something else for themselves. If they don't like a certain vegetable, they just get another one. We don't do food battles. (We have enough bigger issues to deal with!)

















Jasmine's Frankfurt Noodle Bake
1 lg can tomato soup
1/3-1/2 c water
1 can drained corn
1 tbs sweet relish
1 tsp mustard
1 pkg hotdogs sliced
4c cooked spiral macaroni

Stir ingredients together. Pour into baking dish. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes.








































Jessica repeated the taco bake which she made a few months ago. This has become a favorite. (I suggest Gas X as a side dish!)















Taco Bake
2 lbs hamburger
2 tomatoes
lg onion chopped we skip)
2 tsp chili powder
15 oz can tomato sauce
½ tsp salt
pkg taco seasoning mix (mild)
½ tsp pepper
15 oz can kidney beans
12 hard taco shells
2 c grated cheddar cheese
1/3 to ½ head lettuce shredded

Brown beef, add onions, cook until tender/brown. Add seasonings, tomato sauce and beans. Break shells into 1/4ths and place in bottom of 9x13 pan. Spoon meat over shells. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top with lettuce and tomato.

Twins

Jessica

It was really fun walking Jessica to the teen building last night. I had her take her glasses off because it makes her look totally different. Her SS teacher walked by and Jessica said, "hi." The SS teacher said "hi" but in a way that you could tell she didn't think she knew Jessica. A few yards later she stopped, turned back and called, "Jessica? Is that you?" We had this happen at least six times where people didn't recognize her at first but then all of a sudden they figured it out. It was too fun!!

Jessica's New Look!

First, Happy half birthday Ty on the 23rd.













Jessica before:












At SuperCuts:




















Hair going to the place that does the wigs for kids with cancer.

Totally Random

Random:

You just got a mall gift certificate. Where do you head first?
JC Penneys. There's always something on sale.

You're on amazon.com. What's in your basket? (Use your imagination if you've never ordered from them.)
The Oxford English/Creole picture dictionary, Kote Ti Chat La Ye? (Where's the Kitty?), Double Minds by Terri Blackstock and The Face by Angie Hunt.

You go to the video rental store. What are you looking for?High School Musical 3 or Madagascar 2 but I don't think they are out yet.

Where's the marker in your Bible?
I have an NIV that stays in the car and is for church. The marker is at John 17 because the pastor is preaching through John. I am reading a chronologically Bible daily and the marker is in Revelation 3 because I didn't get done last year! Still have about 2 weeks to go.

What are you hiding from your family?
Mint flavored chocolate kisses.

What's your game?
Before this week UNO, Rummikub or Catch Phrase. But lately I've gotten hooked on pool on our little game table.

What's the last movie you saw at the theater?
Madagascar 2 (High School Musical 3 before that)

You're next up at Starbucks. What do you order?
Soda. I don't drink coffee but I threw this question in because most people do.

What's in your CD player?
FFH, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jana Alayra, Nicole Mullins

You're packing. Where are you going?
Three trips in a row!! Feb 5 Mother-daughter cruise, Feb 26 Florida Christian Writer's Conference HERE, Mar 19 (I hope!!!) Haiti.

What's your biggest goal for this year?
Get our adventure book contracted.

What's your biggest event this year?
Lots. Ty's graduation, the above mentioned trips, and hopefully the twins home!!

I'm making all this up to procrastinate on my writing. What should you be doing instead of reading it? : ) (Feel free to answer that in the comment section. And please feel free to do this on your blog. Add your own questions too.)

Highlights from Adam's birthday

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Happy birthday Adam

Adam is 14!!!

About five days old.








Dedication day




With Bethany case worker on adoption day

December Recipes

In December we went back to some of our favorites from the year.


Tyler made a hobo dinner.


















Hobo Dinner
1 ½ -2 lb lean ground beef
½-1 cup ketchup or tomato sauce
1 egg beaten
½-3/4 cup uncooked oatmeal
2 yellow squash sliced
2 -3 lg. potatoes peeled and thinly sliced
4 carrots sliced
2 lg. onion thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix ground beef, ketchup, egg and oatmeal. Form into six patties. Place each on a square of aluminum foil. Place vegetables on top of each patty. Add salt and pepper. Wrap foil tightly around each patty. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 375F for 1 hr to 1 hr 15 min.




















Crock Pot Roast
3-6 lbs beef roast
2 cans cream of celery soup (we actually use cream of chicken)
2 packs Lipton Beefy Onion Soup Mix
2 c water
1-3 c each carrots, celery, potatoes cut into 3” pieces

Mix celery soup and beefy onion mix and water in crock pot. Add meat. Cook on low 6- 8 hours. Add the vegetables. Turn to high and cook 2-3 hours more. You can speed it up by turning it to high earlier.






Adam made lasagna. I don't have a real recipe for it. We combine one egg and ricota cheese. Cook the noodles then layer noodles, ricotta mix, moz. cheese and sauce. Keep going until you're out of noodles. Add parmesan to the top. Adam didn't put enough sauce and cheese on his top layer but it was good anyway.




Jasmine made Spaghetti!

One last project and BIrthday

The girls decided to do one last Christmas project which they got at Walmart for 75% off.

It was a bit more complicated than they planned. You were suppose to roll some of the gumdrops flat to make a bigger flat piece of candy.

Birthday

Happy birthday to me!

About 6-7 mo old.


Don't I look thrilled to be there? And probably equally thrilled to have my hair curled!!

Happy Three Kings Day!

Okay, so we aren't hispanic but we borrowed their holiday. Here is what the web says about it:

What is Three Kings Day?

This is a Christian holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the three kings who followed a bright star of Bethlehem to bring gifts to the Christ child.

In the story of the Bible the three kings, named Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, brought gifts to the new baby. They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Three Kings Day is also known as The Epiphany. In Spanish and in South America it is referred to as- El Día de los Reyes.

The night before:

On the night before three kings day, traditionally, there are prayers, blessed dried herbs would be burnt, and the aroma would fill the house with wonderful smells. Doorways are sprinkled with holy water and in some homes the head of the house would write with chalk above the doors C+M+B (the three kings names) and the year.
Children would put their shoes out and wake up early the next morning in hopes of finding gifts in their shoes. The aspect of shoes is similar to the American tradition of leaving cookies for Santa.


Here are the shoes (but the kids only get half price after Christmas candy!)

Jessica reading about the Magi from Matthew 2.









For us, this is also the day between my mom's bd and my birthday, so easy to remember.

I hope to work in some Haitian holiday customs in the coming year. Any ideas???