Menus 1/10/11 - 1/16/11

Monday 1/10: BBQ Turkey Meatloaf, Irish Potatoes, green salad.

Tuesday 1/11: Western Casserole (making a second one for the freezer), toasted baguette (from the freezer), green salad.

Wednesday 1/12: Mexican Chicken Soup, Sinfully Sweet Cornbread (from my stash of homemade mixes), green salad.

Thursday 1/13: Goulash, Oatmeal Dinner Rolls (from the freezer), green salad.

Friday 1/14: Simmering Chinese Chicken (prepared in advance and frozen in a Ziploc), Sesame Noodles, green salad.

Saturday 1/15: Mexican Stuffed Shells (making a second pan for the freezer), green salad.

Sunday 1/16: A teacher friend and her family will be visiting from the frozen tundra up north and we'll be hiking in Zion National Park today - wheeeee! Hopefully they'll be able to join us for Shredded Beef Tacos (in one CrockPot), Lime Chicken Tacos (in a second CrockPot), Mexican Slow Cooker Beans (in a third CrockPot!), either Mom's Arroz Mexicano or Santa Fe Lime Rice, homemade mocha chocolate chip ice cream, and Mocha Cocoa Brownies (from my stash of homemade mixes).

A note about veggies: You don't see a lot of fruit/vegetable sides listed on the menu plan. We DO eat green salad almost every night (and usually at lunchtime as well), and the salads are topped with a variety of raw vegetables. We also have fruits/vegetables as sides pretty regularly, but they tend to be mostly un-planned - that is, they consist of whatever we have received in our produce co-op box that week (if we ordered one), or whatever looked good/is in season/was inexpensive when we did our weekly produce/perishables grocery run.  But since I plan the menus a month in advance and prepare the blog posts in advance as well, the fruits/vegetables generally don't make it into the post.

Check out the many, many menu plans at www.orgjunkie.com!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe: Pizza Casserole

I started with this recipe for a pizza casserole, and modified it by making my own pizza sauce, adding pepperoni, etc. We loved it!

Mamie's Pizza Casserole
(Great for a freezer/once-a-month cooking project)

These quantities will make THREE 8” x 8” casseroles – that’s one to eat tonight, one to stash in the freezer for dinner on another night, and one to give away (right now or after it’s frozen – you know, for a friend who just came home from the hospital or some such situation). Of course, you could bake it in a LARGE casserole dish for a LARGE group as well – adjust the baking time accordingly.

And by the way, this is NOT health food – the beef and cheese most certainly preclude that! But it IS “comfort food,” and darn tasty.

Ingredients:
•    1 pound elbow or small shell macaroni, preferably whole wheat
•    2 pounds lean ground beef
•    4 cups (32 ounces) pizza sauce – jarred or homemade (easy recipe for homemade pizza sauce below!)
•    1-1/3 cup milk
•    4 ounces pepperoni slices, cut into quarters
•    4½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese
•    1½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Easy homemade pizza sauce:
•    3 x 15-ounce cans tomato sauce (usually when I make pizza sauce I include tomato paste, but not in this recipe)
•    1 Tablespoon dried oregano
•    1 Tablespoon dried basil
•    2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
•    2 teaspoons dried, minced onions
•    1½ teaspoons garlic powder
•    ½ teaspoon paprika
•    ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer 30 – 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Casserole Directions:
1.    Preheat the oven to 350. Spray three 8”x8” casserole dishes with non-stick stuff.
2.    Cook the macaroni to a firm al dente stage. Drain and set aside.
3.    Brown the ground beef, drain.
4.    Dump the cooked macaroni and beef into a LARGE bowl. Sprinkle the quartered pepperoni slices on top. Stir together.
5.    Pour the pizza sauce and the milk over the beef/macaroni/pepperoni mixture. Stir to combine.
6.    Add 3 cups of mozzarella cheese to the macaroni mixture. Stir gently to combine.
7.    Divide the macaroni mixture into the three casseroles.  Top each with ½ cup shredded mozzarella and ½ cup shredded cheddar.
8.    If preparing a casserole for the freezer, stop at this point and cover tightly with aluminum foil (spray the underside of the foil with non-stick stuff). Allow extra time if baking from frozen (approximately 30 additional minutes).
9.    To bake immediately, cover with foil (spray the underside!) and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 5 – 10 minutes longer, until cheese is completely melted and casserole is bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This recipe is linked to Eat at Home's pasta "ingredient spotlight."

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Poor Mr. Mamie...

...woke up this morning with a terribly sore throat. So we started dosing him up with this:

Despite feeling pretty crappy, Mr. Mamie was willing to forge ahead with the day, so we headed out on a long list of errands.

We started at our favorite corner convenience store where we fueled up the car with gasoline and fueled up ourselves with a a big diet Coke/diet Dr. Pepper combo (me) and an overly sweet coffee concoction (Mr. Mamie).

Then it was on to the Animal Shelter in The Village for the annual dog licenses. It was shot clinic day, so it was pretty crowded and noisy. All we had to do was turn in our previously-completed forms and pay our money, so that was done pretty quick. Of course, we did take the time to visit both the doggies AND the kitties, but managed to leave without acquiring any new family members (which wasn't easy).

Next, to the library in The Village to pick up a couple of books I had put on hold. FINALLY I'll get to finish Catching Fire!

Then, to the auto parts store in The Village to get a new battery cable and a new post (terminal?) for my car, as there seems to be tons of icky corrosion on the top of my battery. Got the cable but no post.

Now down the street to the hardware store in The Village to copy the key for Mr. Mamie's truck so that his brother can have his own key for when he uses the truck. Mr. Mamie's brother is ALSO a long-haul trucker working for the same company as Mr. Igor. We got trucker brothers!  Mr. Mamie's brother's home base is in Texas, but the headquarters of the trucking company is here, and a lot of freight transfer occurs here. So he passes through quite frequently, and usually avails himself of our shower and the use of a (normal-sized) vehicle for a few hours. We're happy to oblige. Anyway, he needed is own key, hence the trip to the hardware store. They give out bags of fresh, hot popcorn to munch while you shop, so I'm always happy to stop in!

Off to the Big Town, where we first dropped of some items at the local donation place - a box of books, a bag of clothes, and a few other random things. Yay, decluttering!

Then we tried another auto parts store for the battery terminal, but they were idiots and Mr. Mamie wouldn't buy anything from them. Yes, it did occur to us to call the car dealership, but the parts department was closed for inventory today. Humpf.

Stopped at a local fast-ish food type place. While I made use of the facilities, Mr. Mamie pondered the menu. Nothing looked good to him - he really wanted soup - so we continued on our way.

Next destination was the recycling place - not the stupid "binnies" next to the fire station by our house which are always full and have tiny openings to poke your stuff into bit-by-bit, but rather the REAL recycling place where they pay you money for your cans AND have huge, open-topped dumpsters where you can empty out your small bins in one fell swoop. Finally our car was emptied of all the rattling cans and bottles and rustling newpapers we'd been driving around with all day!

We attempted to drop off some donations to the food bank downtown, but discovered they're only open on weekdays. That got put on hold.

Went to Great Harvest Bread Company, hoping for soup, but no luck.

Went to a local breakfast/lunch cafe - "no soup for you!"

 

Finally went to a local pizza/pasta place where we KNEW they had soup. Had a delicious lunch, and used a FULL "$5 off" punchcard and the recycling proceeds to pay for it.

Stopped at a grocery store that we usually don't visit because it's so far from home. But, we were right around the corner, and I knew from their weekly ad that they were having a case lot sale. Of course, they didn't have the diced tomatoes I was hoping for. Stewed, whole, sauce... yes! But not diced.  We did buy a case of canned chili and a case of spicy Top Ramen, both of which Mr. Mamie likes to have for lunch (SHUDDER!).

We needed to get a birthday present for Mr. Igor, and so went to a fabulous emporium of hardware/hunting supplies/home goods/sporting goods to look for the item we had in mind (which will not be revealed at this time). They had ALMOST what we wanted, but it wasn't PERFECT, so we decided to try one other place.

We the drove even further to the other side of town to go to a hobby store for something Mr. Mamie wanted, only to discover it's gone out of business. Bummer!

After a nice drive over the ridge above the Big Town, we pointed the RAV in the direction of home... but made a few more stops, first.

I really want a different strap for my camera (Canon Rebel DSLR), as I hate the one that came with the camera when I bought it three and a half years ago - it's a bit short, and it's stiff. Of course we got to the camera store exactly one minute after they closed, but the guy unlocked the door and showed me what they carry. Now I can compare to what I've seen online and make a decision.

We went down the road to Sportsman's Warehouse in search of the birthday present for Igor - score! Yay! I'm sure I'll do a birthday post for him in a couple of days, and then you can see the present.  We got some treats, too, which I'll mention in a moment.

Our final stop was the natural foods store, where we got some more supplies for Mr. Sick Mamie, and a couple of grocery items. I got two new Badger Balm lip balms in flavors I don't already have - Ginger-Lemon and Highland Mint. YUM! I loooooooves me some Badger Balm!

 

FINALLY it was time to go home and fall down on the couch.  Happily, we had discovered some AWESOME treats at Sportsman's Warehouse to munch on:

Tender gummy raspberries for Mr. Mamie, and...

FABULOUS sour cherry balls for me, JUST like the ones at DISNEYLAND, nom nom nom!

And now it's 12:56 a.m. and I am sooooooooo going to be regretting being up this late tomorrow. G'nite!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

This week in first grade: 1/3 - 1/7, 2011

I have a friend who is a psychiatric nurse in a New York City hospital. She used to be a first grade teacher in a school in East Oakland (with me). Her two professions are not as disparate as you might think! Nevertheless, she frequently expresses a desire for MORE DETAILS on my teaching activities, and since I won't get too specific about classroom-related stuff on Facebook, I promised her that I would try to do more school stuff here on the (ostensibly anonymous to the outside world) blog. So, NYC-Nurse, this is for you! And, I'll try to do a weekly classroom post for the rest of the school year.

This week in first grade....

 When I got to school on Monday morning, it looked like this! Monday was a work day for teachers, so there were no kids to disturb the pristine whiteness. By Friday there was still some snow on the grass in front of the buiding, and a nice little skating rink on an area of the playground wood chips that is permanently in shadow.

This is how I left my desk over vacation - not too terrible.

This is what it looked like after I had been working for an hour on Monday!

 The reading table looked like this when I came in on Monday morning. It was actually even CLEAN (as in, WASHED!) thanks to the moms who helped out at our holiday hot chocolate party.

Sadly, before very long it looked like this.

 The counter behind the reading table was in pretty good shape!

 The "finished work" basket was pretty scary, though... no, I didn't review/file stuff before winter break.

 A really nice thing about the Monday prep day was that my team got to go out to lunch together! This WAS a working lunch, as you can see.

 On Tuesday we were back to the routine, exchanging books in our independent reading book bags.  Can you see the snow outside the window?

 Doing "morning work" - typically math or reading review worksheets that give the kids something relevant to to while I do attendance and lunch count, sort out the take-home library books, etc.

The next thing on our agenda each day is the "morning message," where we do shared reading/writing, grammar and phonics practice, etc. One kid is the "helper" each day for the message and for calendar time.   After we're finished we hang the message in the hallway right next to our door.

Our current math topic is on measurement and geometry, so we broke out the geoboards:

We did some shared writing on "Ways We Help," "Healthy Snacks" and instructions for "Riding a Bike":

 Every week we work with data:

 We did a two-way sorting diagram for age and gender.

 We also did a bar graph on our favorite snow activities.

 On Friday afternoons we have "Star Time" where we get out Legos, blocks, board games, Play-Doh, and other fun stuff for a half an hour of exploration and play.

 And there are the highlights of the week!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Six Word Saturday 1/8/11

Sunny Saturday, sick husband, errands anyway!

Be sure  to go visit Cate at Show My Face - lots of good links to other 6WS posts, and Cate's own post today is HILARIOUS!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Receipe Review: Slow Cooked Baked Beans

I have a plethora of recipes for slow cooker beans - "baked," Mexican style, black, you name it. The great thing about these recipes is that you use dried beans, which are super cheap! They are also nice because once the beans are in the slow cooker, they require next-to-no tending.

I have made this recipe for "Slow Cooked Baked Beans" twice recently - once for our Christmas Day mixed-grill dinner, and again last week.  I really like the combination of ingredients in this recipe, especially the inclusion of bacon. The apple cider vinegar adds a nice tang to the finished beans. I happened to have quite a lot of dried Great Northern beans on hand, so I used those instead of the Navy beans called for in the recipe.

I did find that it took my beans a loooooong time to cook to the point of fork-tenderness. I know that the beans were fresh, as they softened and began splitting following overnight soaking.  I think that they probably need more time on HIGH in the CrockPot.  I also found that they required more liquid - at least double what the recipe calls for - in order to have a "sacuy" consistency (which is what we like). If they are cooked longer on the high CrockPot setting upping the liquid will be essential.

Overall, we have enjoyed the flavor of these beans enough that I plan to make them regularly in the future, and hopefully will be able to refine the cooking time and liquid amount. I'm really liking cooking with dried beans lately - they are healthy and inexpensive, and thanks to Mr. Mamie's mom's Chirstmas gift to us (of food storage items), we have quite a stockpile.

Bring on the beans!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Happy Feet Friday 1-7-11

 It's time again for Happy Feet Friday (thanks to Kate at New Life!), and I'm pleased to be stepping out in my trail shoes today. I made a New year's resolution to ONLY wear SUPER COMFY shoes to school in 2011 - which means my friends Nike and New Balance and Keen and Columbia are all going to get to go to first grade!

As soon as I get through bus duty (twice), three spelling tests, editing kids' writing, some reading instruction, calendar time, a lesson on 3-D shapes in math, a lesson on "healthy eating," the chaos that is lunch, the additional chaos of "free time" for a good behavior reward, and a bunch of planning/prep/copying for next week I'll be back here on my couch, blogging away again!  I've got more recipe reviews and a new post on "This Week in First Grade" to share, plus who knows what else.


Have a GREAT Friday! 
~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe Review: Easy Freezable Chicken Tacos

I spent some time during my Christmas vacation hunting for "freezer cooking" or "once-a-month cooking" recipes, in a desperate attempt to make weeknight cooking easier without resorting to unhealthy or expensive alternatives. Happily, there are MANY recipes out there to help you accomplish this goal!

"Quick and  Easy Freezable Chicken Tacos" is a good example of a tasty, easy, from-scratch meal that a working person can get on the table at night without spending an hour in the kitchen.  Before we left on our New Years Day snow hike, I cut four boneless, skinless chicken breasts into small pieces and divided the pieces into two gallon-sized Ziploc bags (I had defrosted the chicken in the fridge the day before). I made double the quantity of marinade from the recipe, and poured it equally into the two bags. One bag went into the fridge to marinate during the day while we were gone; the second went inot the freezer to provide a meal next month.

When we got home from hiking, all I had to do was quickly cook the chicken in a skillet and heat up some corn tortillas on the electric griddle. The flavor of the chicken was great, and we topped our tacos with lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, and sour cream. YUM!

I'm looking forward to pulling the second bag of chicken taco filling out of the freezer for a good dinner on a busy night in the coming weeks.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe Review: Vegetarian Hoppin' John

How fun was it to wake up on New Years Day to the smell of stuff cooking in the CrockPot? Very fun!

I have read in various places that it is "good luck" to eat black-eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread on New Years Day. I'm not too big on collard greens, so I decided to skip those. I figured that if events arranged themselves accordingly, I could make cornbread (didn't end up doing it, but that's OK).  And, I came across an interesting sounding recipe for Vegetarian Hoppin' John, so I figured why not?

"Hoppin' Joh" apparently refers to black-eyed peas that have been cooked with rice.  This recipe called for the black-eyed peas, brown rice, onion, tomatoes, chipotle chili, diced and green chili - so, kind of a southwest flavor going on.

I soaked the black-eyed peas during the day on New Year's Eve, then cooked them (with additional ingredients according to the recipe) in the CorckPot on low over night. When we woke up on New Year's Day we could certainly smell the onion and spices!

I thought the Hoppin' John was OK, flavor-wise, though I definitely did not love the texture of the black-eyed peas - too mealy for me. This is pretty much what I expected. GrandmaT  didn't think that the Hoppin' John had very much flavor overall. Mr. Mamie, however,  liked it a lot! It's interesting how three different people can have three different responses to the same food.

We knew that we wanted to save the remaining Hoppin' John for Mr. Mamie to have for weekday lunches, but just freezing it in containers didn't seem very appealing. He hit on the idea of turning it into burrito filling, which was brilliant! So Saturday night Mr. Mamie filled up a couple dozen (smaller sized) flour tortillas with a combination of Hoppin' John and shredded cheese, with plans to add hot sauce and/or sour cream at the time of heating/eating.  He wrapped each burrito in parchment paper and then filled up three gallon-sized Ziploc bags with the burrito bundles.

Sunday afternoon he tried out a Hoppin' John burrito - heated in the microwave and spiced up with some hot taco sauce. The verdict was a thumbs up, and that is how black-eyed peas found their way into frozen burritos!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday 1/5/11

 Bread pans - essential.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe Review: Eggnog Pancakes

Mr. Mamie looooooves eggnog. I do not, at least not to drink it. However, I came across this recipe for Eggnog Pancakes and though that it would be a fun, seasonal thing to try.

The batter was VERY think, and I almost added a little milk to loosen it up. I wish I had, as it was hard to get the pancakes to cook all the way through. The rose up wonderfully and browned beautifully, but getting them cooked through was difficult.  If I make these again I will alter the liquid content from 1-1/2 cups eggnog only to 1 cup eggnog + 1 cup milk.  I have a feeling that change would help things a lot.

The flavor of the pancakes was fine - not, according to Mr. Mamie a "WOW, this is awesome, like some of the pancakes you make" - but good enough to try again next Christmastime.

I still want to make eggnog ice cream... wonder how THAT would taste with the eggnog pancakes???

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe Review: Turkey Burgers Two Ways

 A couple of nights ago we had turkey burgers - not the frozen, pre-made patties from Costco (ick), but freshly-made, deliciously seasoned, and pretty healthy turkey delights.

I did the first pound of fresh ground turkey using this recipe for Healthy Turkey Burgers. The mixture was VERY wet, and when I tried to form it into patties, they did not want to stay together. So I started adding bread crumbs until I had a mixture that would "stick" - it ended up being around one cup.  I also used dried parsley flakes instead of fresh chopped parsley, which worked fine.

The second pound of ground turkey was prepared according to this recipe for Southwest Style Turkey Burgers, which DID call for breadcrumbs in the original recipe.  This combination came together perfectly with no alterations.

Both mixtures made 5 good-sized patties (I borrowed the wooden patty-form that GolfDad made for Wombat years ago). You could easily get six patties of a slightly smaller size (but that wouldn't be too small).

We cooked three using the George Foreman Grill (because it was TOO COLD outside to traipse out to the real grill) - two of the "Healthy" flavor and one "Southwest." YUM and thumbs up all around!  We're excited to have a couple more meals' worth of patties ready to go in the freezer.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Book Tease Tuesday 1/4/11

"It's one thing to accept a child as a thinking person, and to grant her every human right you grant anyone else. It's quite another to let them take a risk that because of their youth they might not recognize as dangerous."

~ p. 110 of Hard Christmas - a Cat Marsala Mystery, by Barbara D'Amato

Wanna play?

The rules are:

    •    Grab your current read
    •    Open to a random page
    •    Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
    •    BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
    •    Share the title and author, too.

Head over to "Should Be Reading" on Tuesdays for some more book teases!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Snow again!

Yes, it snowed AGAIN, and yes, I took pictures AGAIN! I can't help myself, I really do love snow. I need to live somewhere where they get a LOT and maybe I'll get over it. In the meantime, I take tons of pictures!

Today was a prep day at school, so only teachers were there, no kids. Because of the road conditions there's a good chance that we would have had a snow day anyway.  I didn't have to be to school until 9:00 a.m., so that gave me plenty of time to take pictures.

This is what it looked like when I got up this morning:

 Front patio.

 A dog who let me know that he was NOT impressed with the cold, wet, sticky patio and yard.

 Vine on the back wall, covered in snow.

 

Globe willow in the back yard.

This is right before I left: 

 

The same vine, a little later.

  

Over the back wall.

The globe willow and beyond to the hills.

My car, in a snow blanket.

 

So lucky to have a nice man to clear it off!

 

Have to wonder about his choice of clothing/footwear, though....

Here are some "windshield shots" as I drove to school: 

 

Driving down the highway.

 

The landscape right after turning off the highway. This is looking to the west.

Here's what the school looked like:

Back (north) side of the school.

East side of the school. Four years ago, when I taught 5th grade, my door was the one on the far right.

 Front of the school.

And then it was time to get some work done... there will be a post on that topic coming on Friday!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Recipe Review: Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread

 Last week Niece and I made this Buttermilk Cinnamon Bread just for fun. I mean, it's NOT like we still didn't have plenty of treats hanging around from Christmas, ya know? But, whenever Niece is over for a few hours while her mom's at work she usually ends up involved in either a baking or crafting project.

This is a quick bread that is easy to make with kids - they can handle the measuring ad mixing, and it goes straight into the oven with no rising.  A couple of notes:

• We used my "usual" bread pans (the ones I use for yeasted breads), which are on the larger side. I should have thought to pull out a couple of smaller pans, as then (a) the filling would have made a more significant swirl, and (b) the loaves would have been taller/larger.
• The topping is made with a cup of white sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon - I think this could easily be halved and still provide plenty! Even with using the larger pans, there was a wayyyyy lot of topping, which kind of spilled all over when extracting the loaves from the pans.

Over all, this made a tasty snack for people who like sweet stuff (primarily Mr. Mamie and Niece), and can be eaten "plain" - it's plenty flavorful, moist, and sweet.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)