Today's School

These are resources we are using today. 

I hope we learn something by the end of it! :)

Menu and Food Plans for Aug 29-Sept 4

Back to Pinterest this week!


I've made several chicken and dumplings over the years and they just aren't like the ones our mothers made.  My dh LOVES the way his mom made them and my mom made them similar to hers.
It's time to try THIS version!

**UPDATE** My chicken and dumplings came out terrible.  Edible, barely. I do not know what I did wrong.  I just have a hard time with dumplings! I might try these again far in the future. :/

• Beef Casserole

***UPDATE*** This casserole was pretty good actually but it was a lot of work (to me) I'm not sure I'll make it again when I have other recipes that are just as tasty, or better and less steps.

• Chicken Parmesan I plan on subbing Panko bread crumbs for the corn flakes because I already have some.

***UPDATE*** I really liked this one!  But I don't think my hubby did as much.  He did not want leftovers of it.  Usually a sign. :/

• Philly Style Sloppy Joes

***UPDATE*** I thought this was yummy! I made mine with colored peppers because the green ones make me sick.  But I don't think the hubby or son liked it that much. Again no seconds or left overs wanted.  What is it with them?  I thought it was very tasty!

Other meals are:

• Buffalo Quesadillas - using some of the buffalo chicken I made last week.

• Turkey Smoked Sausage and Beans

• Pizza from the Deli at Walmart. On Wednesdays I need a no-brainer meal and this is an alternative to take-out.

I'll be doing some food prep to get ahead by:

• cooking the ground beef ahead of time and separating it and freezing it.  
• cooking the chicken in the crock pot with the veggies for the chicken and dumplings then freezing
• making a "freezer pack" with the sausage, beans and other ingredients right in the bag
• chopping the veggies ahead of time and packaging them up to be ready to go

Menu Plans this Week August 22nd-28th

I follow a wonderful blog called Organize Yourself Skinny (OYS for short) and she inspired me to post my plan here.  I often make a menu and an eating/exercising plan but I don't post it here.

This week I really need to use the groceries I have on hand already.  I have a few packages of chicken in the freezer, and frozen fruits for smoothies and several veggies frozen and canned. Along with pasta and tomato products.  I also have several bags of dried beans.  I really need to get those crock pots going!  The problem is you have to be home to cook and I have somewhere to be all weekend.  I'm going to have to get creative if I'm going to continue to eat healthy and still live life!

Okay so here's my menu plan for the week -

Breakfast:
Egg/Sausage/Cheese sandwich (I already have these ingredients)
~or~
Smoothies
I simply use mixed frozen fruit, greek yogurt, spinach and a little flax to make my smoothies.  I add water to get the consistency I want.

Snack:
boiled egg or cheese stick

Lunch: Salad in a Jar or left-over chicken and crackers

Snack:
apples and PB2
or
Veggies and hummus or cottage cheese dip (I'll decide at the grocery store)

Suppers:
Back to Pinterest:
I never made this complete chicken dinner so I'm adding it to the list again~

I want to make this Stroganoff with non-spicy beef! So I'm adding it to the list again too.

Trying OYS Cheeseburger Stuffed Peppers

Also trying OYS Buffalo Chicken to use in wraps with cheese and veggies~

We will have a chopped chef's salad.  

I don't think I can go a week without TexMex sooo....

Added: Just found this recipe for grilled squash and I will be making it with this casserole.

I hope I can use up things in my freezer/pantry this week and stay on plan!

High School 2014-15

I hesitate to put a grade level on this but ds is 16 now (Yikes!) and isn't on a specific grade level in anything.  We just keep plugging away and moving forward bit by bit.  But here is what I have put together for this fall's curriculum.

We follow AO/HEO basically but of course we change it up to meet our needs.  I use the "lite" versions and even then we don't get it all done.  There is so much!  Here's what we have planned.

We are just about in Term 2 of Year 8 at Ambleside Online.

DS has some LD (no labels, we just know this after 16 years ;)) and so we make adjustments to just about everything.  We buddy read, use audible, I read aloud, we work on the white board etc to get it all done.  He's very intelligent and a very deep thinker.  His reading comprehension is wonderful but he just doesn't read fast enough to read all the AO books!  He also has trouble with the act of handwriting so we need to work on that this year as well.  It's painful and we need to build up those muscles.  Copywork is perfect for that and his composition can be done on the computer.

As we finish each book or text, we will insert the next one on the list.

Here's what we are using besides the AO titles right now:
Bible - Hebrews. We are starting a new series at our church and ds will be working on his daily reading and "homework" every day
Science - Apologia Biology (we are more than 2/3 of the way through this)
Latin - Latina Christiana.  It is for younger students but I think it will work for us right now. It'll be his first dive into another language
Math - Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra.  We were into Alg 1, but struggling so we went back for a bit.  He's picking up faster now and we'll be back in Alg 1 soon!
Shakespeare - Hamlet
Plutarch - Crassus
Artist Study - Fra Angelico
Composer Study -Hildegard von Bingen

I will let him choose a book from the earlier years of AO to read on his own just for the purpose of reading fluency, and comprehension building and just plain old reading for enjoyment.  He's never enjoyed reading and hopefully this will help!

We will be starting drivers ed soon as well and I have plenty of other books waiting in the wings.

I also work out of the house two days a week so he works mostly independently on those two days and we do as much together as possible the first two days.  I really hope to get it all done in four days.  We are very busy with other things like our puppet team and other ministries at church so "book work" is only part of our education. Plus some time or other we need to clean, do chores and cook as well as just have some down time. :)

I have so many projects I'd like to do and I just never seem to get around to doing them! Some day!

Recpies From Pinterest I'm trying this week

I've pinned these to my pinterest boards and am trying them this week.  I'll edit and update how they turned out.

Saturday: Cheddar Meatloaf - I had already made a double batch of this and it was in the freezer.  It was just as yummy the second time!

Sunday: Ultimate Beef Stroganoff - Update* I made this on Sunday and it is the best crock-pot stroganoff yet.  I used some steaks that were given to me and they were preseasoned.  I did not know they were HOT and SPICY so that was a little surprise.  I will make this again with plain beef. :)

Monday: There was no name for this. It was one of those "ghost" pinterest pins but I made it just from the description and I used my kitchenaid to "shred" it.  It was easy and good!  We have enough for freezing.  That's always a bonus. :)

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes (no recipe)

Wednesday: Complete Chicken BBQ Dinner in the crock-pot. (Never made this!  I was going to make it but the bag of potatoes was bad!!! Yuck! So I will try again another time.)

Thursday: Crock-pot Pizza Casserole (I didn't make this one either.  My daughter cooked one night and made something else instead.  I will be adding this one back in later to try.)

Side note: So far I have not been disappointed in any of the stockpilingmoms.com recipes.