While making up my menu plan, and in an attempt to use up some of what I have in my pantry, I noticed that I had two bags of lentils. I've had them for a while now, so I figured: use 'em or lose 'em. I knew I wanted to do a soup with them, so I start my search for a new soup recipe to try. I wanted something low in fat and meatless -- not that we don't eat meat, but we are eating less meat lately.
I ended up deciding to make Ina Garten's Lentil Vegetable Soup. It made a HUGE batch. Of
Visiting Town Square Las Vegas with the Family
We took an outing to Town Square recently - it's one of our favorite places to hang out. It's an outdoor mall in Las Vegas with lots of great shops and restaurants. There is a children's park in the middle where kids can play. During warmer months, there is water play feature at the playground, plus movies in the park. At night, all the trees are lit of white lights and there is music playing from speakers as you walk around.
There's an Apple Store, which the kids love to visit. I think
Cheesy Potato Casserole Recipe
Several years back, family friends of our invited us to dinner and they served this potluck-type side dish, which I called Cheesy Potato Casserole, but they called it Funeral Potatoes. I thought it was an odd name, but they were good and over the years, Cheesy Potato Casserole (or Funeral Potatoes) became a family favorite.
Quinoa with Latin Flavors – First Time Cooking Quinoa
In September, David, Mattie, and I went to the "Not Back to School Party", hosted by our local homeschool group. It was a potluck and everyone was encouraged to bring something to share with the group.
While there was an assortment wonderful things - pasta salad, fruit, chips, and more - there was one item that particularly interested me. It was a cold dish made primarily with quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). The mom who brought it said she found it on the back of a box of Trader Joe's guinoa?
Broccoli and Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells
My 90% off groceries at CVS
Tonight, we took a trip over to CVS to take advantage of a couple items they had on sale. We didn't expect to leave the store with much, but was surprised to find a bunch of food items on 90% off. Apparently this particular store was trying to clear out some of the excess holiday items they had in stock.
For the most part, I don't usually get much groceries at a store like CVS - just the occasional snack item or cereals. But, every once in a while, I can find unexpected deals. I went through
My Soul Food – #Reverb10
I'm a bit late to the #reverb10 initiative, but rather than say I will make time to do it (perfectly) next year (my typical response), I thought why not just start and finish out the last few days of it?
The #reverb 10 prompt for December 26 is titled "Soul Food" and it said:
What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul?
Without a doubt the food that I will never forget is kibbeh. This ultimately sums up my year as a year that I
Coconut Jasmine Rice
Courtney has been requesting General Tso's Chicken. I think the version she was actually requesting was the one in the Walmart Deli, but I was hoping for something homemade, that was a bit lighter. I searched around and found Martha Stewart's Lighter General Tso's Chicken and we decided to try that.
When thinking about a side dish, I was going to make a plain batch of brown or white rice. Nothing fancy. But when checking out the December issue of Cooking Light magazine, I happened to come
Las Vegas Restaurant: Cannery Row Buffet
This past week we had an opportunity that seems to be more rare these days - everyone was home. This means it was both hubby and I, both of the younger kids (Mattie-9 and Courtney-13), and both of the older kids (Wellie-20 and Lil D-18) - all together, no one at work, no one out doing other stuff.
With all of us home, David and I decided to treat them to dinner out. Knowing that we needed to be as frugal as possible, we limited ourselves to a few options. In the end, we decided on trying out
Bountiful Baskets – Week Before Thanksgiving
The Saturday before Thanksgiving, we picked up our Bountiful Basket food co-op baskets. This time around, we paid to contribute to the standard basket ($15), plus the Hostess Pack ($14). As usual, I was pleased with what I received and it does seem that we have continued to receive much more produce in value than what I would get if I bought everything at the grocery store.
There was a few duplicate items (things in the usual basket and then also in the hostess pack), but that didn't bother