Halloween Food

Happy Halloween y'all!!! In honor of the spooktacular day I will post some spooky food ideas I have tried the past couple days with my family...quick and fast food free because we all know we're on the go all evening and don't want to have a lot of time to cook & eat.

A skeleton egg (I made these for breakfast this morning-huge hit-you could make pancakes and make a spider web on them with syrup-maple or chocolate!!)

Things I learned this week (Linky Edition)

Welcome to The Things I Learned This Week Linky Edition! I can't wait to see what you learned this week! Here are the things I've learned over this past week:

• Sassy Sis is so brave and stronger than I ever imagined!
• Hospital cafeteria food can be yummy
• The people you need the most are there in an instant when called
• I can make Halloween Costumes for my gals that they love
• How yummy coffee tastes when brought to you in bed after an exhausting week at a Children's Hospital!

Spaghetti & Meatballs Cook-along

Happy Saturday y'all! Are you ready to get cooking? Well here we go! You should have 1 lb of Italian sausage, 1 lb of hamburger, sauce & noodles! If you have them handy one egg and 1/4 cup of oatmeal...but those are optional as are the mushrooms! Be sure to wash your hands!

Mix both the sausage & hamburger together in a bowl ( I use my hands, it seems to work best)! Add the egg and oatmeal (optional) and then mix well-again with the hands!

Form your meatballs-whatever size you want them to be, I usually do various sizes because of the age range of our family.

Back to the Grind

Now that we are home and getting used to having to tell Sassy Sis not to run, jump, dance, pick-up heavy-ish things, & climb it's time for FFF Mama to start cooking again! FFF Hubby made dinner last night-the kids don't eat much when he cooks though, so I better take over! Tonight I will make my famous Spaghetti and Meatballs! The kids love it and so does hubby! It's easy, and fun for the girls to help with. I can make the meatballs in the crock along with the sauce. I will post the recipe tomorrow...although tonight I probably won't use the crock for the meatballs as usual because I just took the sausage out and it's too frozen to make meatballs right now. Scratch that whole dinner idea.

Hospital Week

We have moved FFFF to the children's hospital this week as Sassy Sis needed to "have them cut me open and fix my guts" as she said. It has been a rough week but we get to go home today! I apologize for not posting until now, but we have been busy having fun with taking care of Sassy Sis! This place is seriously amazing! After surgery we were taken up to Sassy's room and the first day we just let her sleep all the meds off and I decorated her room all up. She was ready to be up and moving by day 2! Once she could get out of bed we went to the playroom and played house and did some artsy stuff! We came back to the room and they wheeled in a video game system (daddy was happy) and brought in a Dora game (sorry daddy-it's for Sassy)! I was happy because it's hard to keep a 4 year old down for long! The music therapy came in and sang and played instruments with Sassy and then we went down to Family Movie Night over in Hollywood at the Starlight Lounge (which doesn't sound like a place a 4 year old should be)!

Things I learned this week (linky edition)

Things I learned this week

• Three & a half men left in a house for 3 days will survive, although the house will be worse for the wear
• If you leave one ingredient out of something it really throws off the taste
• Craft stores have all their Halloween & Fall decor on 60% off already
• Every girl needs a tutu-or tu!!!
• Every mom needs an apron with pockets-it's amazing the things that will be in those pockets at the end of the day!!

Friday

It's finally Friday & day 21 of being fast food free! I'm sorry for not posting for a couple days & thank-you for being patient. It's been one heck of a week and I hope I never have to live through a week like this again. It's been an emotional roller coaster and things are getting back to normal in our house. I took a road trip, 5 hours one way, left Tuesday and came back last night. I had the girls with me and it was so tempting to stop and get fast food on the way. I packed snacks and lunches for us and we stopped for drinks, coffee, and the girls picked out a new movie. It was our first successful fast food free trip

Southwest Crock~pot Chicken

Yesterday I tried out a new recipe and I said I'd review it and give you the recipe. I found a recipe online and then changed it and added to it. It's a crock~pot recipe so it's something you can start in the morning and enjoy after a long day at work or out adventuring!

School lunches

Well it's a new week and hopefully one that will be better than last week! I will be trying that recipe I told you about last week and posting the review tomorrow. But this morning I'm thinking about school lunches. Bubba takes his lunch to school because he gets fuller and eats healthier than he would if he ate lunch at school. For instance last week on his lunch menu was

• a fruit and yogurt parfait
• cheese stick
• baby carrots
• teddy grahams
• milk

Things I've learned this week (linky edition)

Here are a list of things I've learned this week:

• Sassy Sis has a Halloween bow but can only wear it to the pumpkin patch!
• How to make tutus
• Kids will always pick out pumpkins bigger than they can carry
• Bubba will only use "man soap" in the shower
• Family is always there no matter what
• How to love a child
• Some friends are family
• Never take life for granted, we aren't promised another day, minute or second
• Hug and love on your children every minute you get

Blessings
 Becky

Be sure to link up or leave a comment so we can see what you learned this week!

How to love a child

My mom found this on-line this week and I thought it was perfect...remember to always make memories with your children!

Blessings
 Becky

Sorry

We had a family tragedy yesterday as well as a family emergency. I didn't try out the new recipe and will post my What I Learned this week linky post tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time.

Blessings
 Becky

Pumpkin Patch

Today we're off to the pumpkin patch so I will be starting dinner in the crockpot. I'm trying out a new recipe and will be sharing it with y'all tomorrow! We will be getting lots of fresh fruits and veggies at the patch today and I can't wait to cook up spme yummy things with them! Today would be another fast food day but I've packed lunch up so we can have a picnic before the corn maze and then we will enjoy an ear of fresh, sweet corn after the maze! This year I'm going to make fresh pumpkin pie, not from a can so I'll need to get extra pumpkins and we have a bunch of fresh apples just sitting in our kitchen so I need to figure out what to do with those. Any ideas?

So far we are on day 13 of our fast food free lives and we are all still alive and happy (and I hear daily how yummy Jack and the Box would be and how it's not fast food)! How are you doing without fast food?


Blessings
 Becky

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Y'all! Linking up today with Angry Julie Monday for Wordless Wednesday!!!

The real reason they are smiling is because I fell backwards in a hole trying to get this pic!!!

Blessings
  Becky

Crock-pot Chicken Alfredo???

On these busy fall days there is so much going on that often we don't get home until dinner time and that leaves no time to cook. Those kind of days made fast food more appealing...we could just swing through and grab something and come home and eat. But everyone knows fast food isn't as comforting or as yummy as a home made meal. I love my crock-pot on days that are crazy busy and will be learning a lot more recipes to use in it. This is the crock-pot we have:

It holds enough for all of us plus extra and it is red!!! I've made a ham in it as well as BBQ chicken and a few other things. My crock-pot recipes need to be expanded though so I will be finding some and trying them out so I can share them with you!! But today I will share one of my families favorite crock-pot meals! It's so good we never have leftovers and hubby asks for it a couple times a month! It's amazingly simple and so easy to throw together-actually you probably have everything you need right in your kitchen now (you need 2 ingredients and spices you like)!!! What in the world could be so simple and yummy you ask? Well let me tell you show you!!!

Yep!!! Frozen Chicken breasts and Bertolli Alfredo sauce!!! Throw them in the crock-pot on low all day or high for half! Add whatever seasonings you like and that's it! When you get home just make noodles, rice or mashed potatoes to put the Alfredo on, make some veggies or open a bagged salad and garlic bread (if you want) and voila...dinner! I told you it was easy! The chicken is so tender and juicy and it will easily fall apart!

It tastes yummier than it looks!!!

We have different noodles every time because Sassy Sis picks the noodles out at the store and then when we have anything with noodles for dinner she'll pick some out for me from the pantry. It gets her involved and makes dinners interesting. This is a great dinner for those pumpkin patch days! For the longest time hubby thought I spent hours slaving away on it and then he saw me make it...and now he will even throw it in the crock!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Blessings

 Becky



PS-FFFF Loves Comments! Be sure to leave one!!! You'll always get a comment back!

Pancake Letters

Around here we love breakfast for dinner! Mornings are crazy so usually it's cold cereal and fruit or oatmeal and fruit...so whenever I make breakfast for dinner the kids love it and I love it because it's easy, quick and delicious! Tonight I made pancakes, eggs and bacon. Except I tried a few different things I wanted to share with you.

I found this idea and pinned it on my Pinterest Board and tried it tonight:

It wasn't as big of a hit as I thought it would be...Hubby even thought it was a fantastic idea, but in the end he said he couldn't taste the bacon.

As I was making up plain round pancakes I came up with another idea:

Pancake letters! I made letters to spell out each kids name for them. The letters were a big hit, especially for the girls! I usually freeze the extra pancakes for future use (Bubba especially likes "making" himself some in the mornings) so this time I made the rest of the batter into letters as well and now have a stock of round pancakes and letter pancakes for the kids for breakfasts!I know you're asking "How'd you do that?" Well I used a batter filled syringe and "wrote" the letters! It was a bit more time consuming but so fun! The girls will enjoy eating their letters for breakfast! And Bubba has some boring round pancakes frozen too! Now I can just pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds and every one's happy!

What are you're kids' favorite breakfast food?

Blessings

 Becky

PS~Don't forget we love comments here at FFFF!!!

Things I've learned this week (linky edition)

Each Saturday I will post a list of things I've learned during the week!  I'll start my list on Sundays and add to it throughout the week. Each Friday night or Saturday morning I will do a linky post so you can link up with me and make your own list so we can spread the blog love :) Here are the thing's I've learned this week:

• Sassy Sis now calls my brother her "Aunt Lisa's Husband" because he works with piles of dirt!
• It is completely normal for Lil' Miss to drink her milk from her cereal and then dump her cereal on the floor, after saying no to just a cup of milk and her banana!
• Hubby picks salad over fried gizzards these days
• If I don't cook extra the kids will inevitably want seconds, but when I cook extra they won't!
• Bubba thinks it's OK to read Snoopy comics for his 20 minutes of reading homework
• Splenda is way sweeter than sugar (how did I make it this long and not know this?!)
• That you never outgrow needing your mommy
• I'm not the only person with a clean laundry pile!!
• Hubby's way isn't the wrong way...& my way isn't the only right way, either way it gets done :)
• My family CAN live without fast food and be happy!!!

What have you learned this week? Be sure to link up so other readers can follow :)

Blessings
 Becky

Hubby's Dinner

So as y'all know I've been sick, and I'm rarely ever sick, and this is making it hard for me to keep us from getting fast food. There have been so many times this week when I would have rather grabbed a $5 pizza or some other type of fast food for the kiddos and hubby. Well tonight hubby took over and here is his Facebook status

"Becky and the girls were sick today. soooo... I cooked dinner from scratch today. I think I need a new can opener though, I almost didn't get the chile open."

He is so proud of himself! He made home made french fries, cooked some hot dogs and opened cans of chili. And then made chili cheese fries and hot dogs....I have been kicked out of the kitchen because I am a control freak and kept telling him how to do it...so I am anxiously awaiting this yummy dinner and the kids are always happy when dad cooks because he doesn't cook veggies, although he says the fries count this time!

Hubby did the dishes today too and told me if I re-organized the dishwasher he'd never do them again, because usually when he does them I reorganize them "my way." I am trying to not be such a control freak and I think being sick is making it easier to accomplish that task! Thanks to my hubby for making my lazy sick day easier! Sounds like dinner's finished and hubby decided it'd be dinner and a movie night.

Blessings
 Becky

Changin' it up!!!

Hey!! So today has been another sick day...well yesterday was too but I took my mom to her appointment and we went to Olive Garden for lunch and then I had a meeting so Nick cooked dinner. So back to today...All day I've been dreading the cooking of dinner, which is usually all planned out when I get the kids breakfast or earlier. I decided on a great stand-by for sick mamas...Hamburger Helper (doesn't everyone always have a couple boxes on hand)?! Easy, peasy except for I only had steaks unthawed and they needed cooking. I decided to cut up the steaks and cook the meat (not quite all the way) and use that and OMGoodness!!! Our stroganoff coupled with green beans tasted so delicious tonight! I will totally be doing this again, everyone enjoyed it even though Hamburger Helper usually isn't eaten well in our home. So on a night when fast food was so appealing I was still able to whip up a delicious meal and it was super quick, easy and yummy! I totally recommend using cut up steak in hamburger helper to make it delicious and more filling (especially for those men folk)!!!

Now back to Olive Garden yesterday. It was so great to have time with my mom without kids, although sometimes it was quiet because we had no kids to entertain us!!! We enjoyed lunch more than we usually do though, and we always do the soup, salad & bread sticks along with an order of stuffed mushrooms. I will be on the lookout for some mock Olive Garden soups and trying them out for y'all and posting the recipes so we can all enjoy them together!

What are your fall backs when you're not feeling well?

Blessings
 Becky

PS~I have totally been craving a chicken sandwich from McDonalds all day and I will not give in!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone! I'm linking up with Angry Julie Monday today for my first Wordless Wednesday! This was taken on our last hoorah of the summer when we went to Longbeach for a couple days. This was the first time I watched the sunset and it was complete with children, hubby, a bottle of wine and a beach fire!

Blessings

  Becky

Outsourcing

Hey y'all! Well we've made it to day four of our new fast food free life and the thought of outsourcing our meals hadn't occurred to me until this morning. I woke up with the crud and haven't been this blah in a long time (makes me thankful for being able to stay home though)! It's days like this that fast food is just easier and more convenient than whipping up 3 meals and snacks for our family. But along with the convenience comes wasted money and unhealthy eating which we are I am determined to change in our house. My family is quickly and happily slowly and involuntarily going along with this crazy notion of mine but I know it won't be long will take awhile for them to be on board 100% and be as excited as I am about this change.

Just yesterday hubby decided to buy his lunch and called me and said I set him up to fail by making sure he had money for lunch and sending him into the fast food obsessed world of a truck driver. He went into the truck stop/diner and was faced with all sorts of yummy, albeit fried, food but he said it took all his will power to get a salad from the deli container for lunch! I quietly cheered and am so happy he is on board with this (even if it is reluctantly)! He loves his fried gizzards (um, yuck) and could have easily gotten them. We hadn't even discussed the diner/truck stop being fast food but he decided it counts as fast food!

So since hubby made a healthier choice yesterday I know I can make 3 meals (one down, two to go) and snacks for this family all while feeling blah and knowing there are fast food joints just waiting for me to come running our moolah and waistlines. So who's up for some shells and cheese and hot dogs? Hey no one said I had to cook gourmet meals everyday! :)

What's the hardest part of the challenge for you so far? If your just joining us it's not too late to start the challenge!!! (Just go here to find out about it and get on board!)

Blessings
 Becky

Things I've been meaning to do (October 2011)

Today will be my first off topic blog post! Each month I'll link up over at I'm a Lazy Mom with other bloggers and do a Things I've been meaning to do post! I've been trying to upload the pics all day and was about to give up...but it finally worked! So here's my first!

I've been meaning to fold all these clean clothes, but I am happy for our pocket door to hide them :) I absolutely do not like folding clothes!!!

Sorry mom!!!

I've been meaning to buy coffee filters and now only have 2 left!!!! I better buy some so I can continue having my homemade lattes!!

Hey, mom...do you have extra for your favorite daughter?!

I've been meaning to go print and frame the girls' pictures and put them up with Bubba's...his looks pretty lonely!

I'm not so good at the picture thing! (Think that comes from my mom)

For that matter I've been meaning to get new family pictures done since our last one I was pregnant with Lil' Miss! But since hubby is in a contest to see who can go longer without shaving with his brother it will be awhile longer before I schedule one....he looks like a mountain man! Here's our last professional family picture-our kids are now 9, 4 and almost 2!

My moms been bugging me for a new one!!

So what things have you been meaning to do?

Blessings

   Becky

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Hey y'all!!! So yesterday I made my own Pumpkin Spice Latte and my sister~in~law wanted an Egg Nog Frappuccino. Both turned out super yummy! Although the first round of pumpkin spice lattes weren't very sweet....it must've been the blond showing through! I added more pumpkin (I love pumpkin) but not more sugar or vanilla...oops! It still was yummy, but I learned and the second time and increased all three equally! This will totally keep me from going to that one coffee place I've been addicted to! You can go HERE to get the recipes I used and make them yourself!

Doesn't that pumpkin spice latte look fabulous!!!! And in my new coffee mug my big sister gave me for my birthday! If you don't personally know me you should know that mug totally fits me and the way I feel about everything!!! I like to be the one runnin' things (shhh...don't let my hubby know)!!! Although there is one downfall to me making these now, I had 3 yesterday and am on number 2 today!!! Must exercise more!!! So it's your turn to go try out those recipes and let me know how much you love them!!!

Blessings

  Becky

Rough Start

Well it's day 1 and things are already off to a rough start! I forgot to take my list of ingredients to the store with me so I could make a pumpkin spice latte this morning. We have a busy day ahead of us and I really want one! But I will not make a Starbucks run!!! I will be happy with my Folgers and Cinnabon creamer and pick up the ingredients after the Home Depot Kids Workshop this morning. Usually I'd run out and grab one after downing my Folgers...but I will succeed and make my own later. Saturdays are always so busy and are usually a fast food day because we're busy all day! Today is the first Saturday of our new, and improved lives!


Oh-one more thing. I realized this FFF (Fast Food Free) thing we've started makes more work for me! What kind of mom would add more work to her plate? Well MY kind, of course!!!! I have to plan ahead better and pack meals and snacks for the day before we leave in the morning and if, by chance, I don't then the kiddos will be hungry and I'd have to interrupt our day to come home, or go to a grocery store, for some healthier fixin's. Sometimes fast food is more convenient but it is NOT the only option. So I will plan better endure more work in order to make my family healthier!!


Blessings
  Becky


PS-Hubby is taking me to Joe's Crab Shack tonight for my birthday dinner-so I will need to prepare dinner for the kids and sitter ahead of time and not just grab something from a fast food joint as I'd usually do...


PSS-I think I fixed the comment section! Happy commenting!!!