Sunday Meals

During the week, I don't have a lot of time to cook meals because I get home from work pretty late. So on Sundays, I try my best to churn out a few meals that we can reheat for dinners or pack up for lunches. Above is a picture of one of the Shepherd's Pies that I made. Here's the recipe:

1lb of ground beef
Frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas)
Worchestshire Sauce
Salt and Pepper
Garlic
3 potatoes
Skim Milk
Parmesean Cheese

1. Brown the ground beef in a pan. While doing that, cube the potatoes and cook them in boiling water until they're tender enough to stick a fork into.
2. Once the beef is brown, add about 2 T of Worchestshire Sauce, 1-2 smashed garlic cloves, about 1 C of frozen veggies, and some salt and pepper. Continue to cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.
3. Once the potatoes are done, drain the water and add about 1/4 C of skim milk to the pan. Mash the potatoes, adding a little bit of garlic, salt and pepper, and parmesean cheese (I just eyeball all of those).
4. Once everything is done on the stove, transfer the meat into four ramikans or one ceramic baking dish. Plop the mashed potatoes on top and cook at 350 for about 15 minutes until the mashed potatoes become golden and crispy on the top. Enjoy!



I've also been holding on to a bunch of lemons for awhile, so I decided to make Lemonade. I follow the Joy of Cooking Recipe.

Boil 8 cups of water on the stove with 1 1/2 - 2 cups of sugar (brown sugar works too but it makes the lemonade kind of brownish, duh I guess). Add 1 cup of lemon juice to the mixture once all the sugar has dissolved. I like to add 1 sliced lemon. Put the lemonade in the fridge until it's cold and enjoy!

Tip for juicing lemons: Roll them on the counter before you cut them in half. This helps you get more juice out of them.

What the week ahead holds: Girls LAX game tomorrow against our first private school (yikes), parent/teacher conferences (yikes), work on Katie's quilt, start Antigone with my kids, watch Arrested Development with Johnny. That'll do.

A week in the life...

We have finally moved in! Internet is working and all boxes are unpacked. I thought I'd sum up my days being away with a few pictures and recipes.




Sixth and ninth periods finally earned their cupcakes. I have a points system in my room that they surprisingly follow. I start counting down from five, and the response is, "She's counting!!!" and then silence. Usually it works. (Reminder, they are sixteen years old). They earn points every day and one reward is...cupcakes.

Cupcake of the day is Banana Walnut from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Cookbook. Here's the recipe. I used brown sugar cream cheese frosting instead, which is just cream cheese, smart balance, a cup of brown sugar and a cup of powdered sugar. Yum!

The real question, though, is how to get to school on the subway with 48 cupcakes. I present to you, my pride and joy, the cupcake carrier! It's amazing. Go get one. Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

In other news, my girls' lacrosse team is 2-0. Our last game we won 15-0. Little did you all know that hiding down inside of me was a beastly coach. Some of my specialties are the "Boom Dynamite!" cheer and singing "I'm a Single Lady" on the sidelines. I really don't know how we win.

And finally, pictures of our new house! The bedroom and the kitchen are the rooms that are the closest to being finished. I love the fact that I can fit more than half a person in this kitchen.

Notice the framed page from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

Bedroom. The brown walls were inspired by the photographer that I babysit for. She has a living room like this, and it looks really nice. Ours is coming together well.


The beginnings of my craft area. Johnny spent about an hour drilling into a brick wall to hang my shelf. Love him!

For those of you wanting to widen your vocabulary, here's a new phrase I learned yesterday: "Outta pocket" = "Out of line"
Use it in a sentence: "You outta pocket!"

And the week goes on.

Baby Mitchell

Somehow my brother got huge. Mitchell and my parents came to visit us in Philly, and every time I see him, he gets bigger and bigger. He is now taller than I am. I remember holding all ten pounds of him when he was first born...Jessie and I were slightly more delicate as babies. I guess we should have known he'd be huge.



Mitchell and me in Reading Terminal Market where I do most of my grocery shopping. They have a bunch of Amish people selling things; it's very fun.

City Hall. Classic shot. Giant man-child.

Rittenhouse Square. Right by the new house. Eating sweet ending...s. Daddy-o popped in for the shot.

Inside of Barnes and Noble. Notice we are in the games and funny picture books section. Sigh, I always knew he'd love literature.

Mitchell William, never forget who named you. I own you.

Ikea

If you know me, you have to know that I LOVE Ikea. I mean I really love it. I would go there every weekend if I had the choice. I frequently talk to one of my students about how amazed we are with the $0.99 breakfast. So of course, while on spring break, I decided to make the trek out to Ikea in order make the final decisions on furniture for our new house. I knew that I wanted a certain bookshelf for my new craft area that I'm super pumped about (you can ask my students about that too). Luckily, while looking through the "as is" section, I found the exact bookshelf I wanted, 30% off! Only one problem, this shelf would clearly not fit in the Camry. So I decided to take it apart and then put it in the car. After running around Ikea for ten minutes in my yellow rain boots and pink hoodie, I finally found one of those curvy metal things that are apparently called an "Allen Wrench" or something. For the next thirty minutes, I proceeded to take apart that bookshelf in the middle of Ikea, after purchasing it of course. I am pleased to say that it is now sitting in the car...Johnny won't take it out until we move.

A Quilt for Katie

One of the perks of teaching high school English, aside from hearing, "I didn't know we had homework!" ten times a day, is spring break. I've filled the last few days with packing, cooking, grading, and yes, quilting. This next quilt is for Katie. Katie is days away from finishing her student teaching and her college career! I thought she deserved something fun to honor her huge accomplishment.

These are some of the 16 squares that will make up the quilt. You can sort of see how each square works in a spiral pattern. The pattern is called "log cabin." Here's an excellent log cabin tutorial.

Some of the cute fabric I'm using! I love going to the Philadelphia Fabric Outlet on Fabric Row. I got each of these for $3 a yard.

Close-up of the cute fabric. I've used this giraffe fabric on almost all of my little girls' quilts. Katie made it into the little girl category since she's a little girl at heart :).

Pins! I lost these for awhile, and they are crucial for any sewing project.

Heading to Tenth Pres for the Good Friday Service tonight. We're also looking forward to the sunrise service on Sunday in Rittenhouse Square. Brings back memories of camping out the night before Easter on Colonial's lawn and waking up to sing before the sun came up...ah I realize that I did not have the average high school experience.