Tiny Lunch

I decided to have a little fun with the kiddos for lunch today. After finishing morning school, I sent them on quiet reading time while I tried to decide what to make for lunch. Our usual plan of leftovers for dinner was not doable since we ended up having a last minute dinner elsewhere for our little nephew's 2nd birthday. What fun! He's too cute!

I scanned the fridge and the only thing that stood out to me was about half a pound of ground beef left over from burger night. Mini meatballs popped into my mind. We could have cheese cubes and boiled eggs with mini meatballs. Add some crackers and veggies and we'd have a rounded out meal. As I stood in the kitchen for 7 hours (or so it seemed) forming approximately 97,000 mini meatballs (ok, it was actually only 90), I thought it might be fun to surprise the kids with an entire mini meal.

As the mini meatballs cooked, I cut tiny cheese cubes and cut pieces off the egg putting a wee bit of yolk in the center to look like a half a boiled egg. Then I put it all together! Here is what lunch looked like when my two little redheads came out to eat.

They were quite amused! They said we should have tiny lunch every day.

And yes, my son is wearing one of his sister's old, pink & purple jammies. Hand-me-downs - it's how we roll.

Menu Plan Monday

One of my goals for this new year of 2014 is to get back into menu planning. It saves me time and removes the age old question of "What should we have for dinner tonight?" which is almost always answered with "I don't know." I don't have a recipe for "I don't know." Anyhow, I'm on my 4th week of menu planning now so I thought maybe it was time to blog it and link up with other meal planners (though I suppose I should have checked to make sure the website I used to link with is still hosting). Here is what's on the menu at our house this week!

Monday: Bunless Cheeseburgers, Fried Potatoes, Steamed Carrots.
Tuesday: Chicken Chimichangas, Fried Rice & Beans, Guacamole Salad
Wednesday: Family Table at SLW
Thursday: Grilled Chicken, Pasta Alfredo, Steamed Broccoli
Friday: Out to Dinner for My Birthday!
Saturday: Venison Steaks, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Golden Beets
Sunday: Out to a Super Bowl Party

Sounds like a pretty good week - especially since I don't have to cook so much!

Click the banner below to check out more menu plans at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Muffin Tin Monday - Snow Day Theme

Well, it's been a while, but I finally made it back to my poor, nearly abandoned, little blog. I am really hoping to be able to spend more time here now that we are getting more organized in our home and daily schedule. It's simply amazing how busy life gets as the children grow. Once upon a time, life was busy due to all the things you must do for a baby and toddler, and I thought (silly me for thinking) that once they were old enough to do things like go to the bathroom on their own, bathe & dress themselves and even get their own snacks, then I would be able to sit back and relax a bit. I was wrong. All those baby things have been replaced with homeschooling, homeschool group meetings, Trail Life, American Heritage Girls, Gym & Swim, Uchooz (Wed night kids church), service projects, field trips and social things like play dates and birthday parties! Wow! In the beautiful chaos that is raising children, I sometimes stop and think that maybe changing diapers 10 to 12 times a day wasn't so bad after all! The truth is though, that I wouldn't change a thing. My kids are happy & healthy and enjoying all the wondrous things and amazing people God has brought into our lives. 

Even though we are undoubtedly busy, I've missed the fun we used to have with Muffin Tin Mondays. It takes a bit of time to plan and even more time to put together, but I love seeing the kids' faces when they see their little trays of fun food. Plus it gives me a chance to be creative in a different way. It was a last minute decision to make a muffin tin meal today, so I couldn't put much time into planning. Since the snow is still steadily falling here, I decided to make today's theme Snow Day. 

Top: Blueberry applesauce with snow sprinkles, sliced apples (the center looks kind of snow-flakey) and snowy white milk

Bottom: A snowy white boiled egg (these were meant to be molded to look like bunnies but the eggs were too small for the mold and they just look like eggs), carrots (if you intend to build a snowman on a snow day, you must have a carrot for the nose, right?) and pita crackers with snowflake cheese bits (I thought I had a tiny snowflake cutter but this was the closest thing I had)

Yeah, I know. Some of these are a bit of a stretch but it worked for the kids! Hopefully, we will be back next week with a new tin! I intend to keep up with this since we don't have too many years left before they start to think they are too grown up for MTM!