monthly dinner challenge week 1

Since late in my pregnancy and during the last three months, dinner time has evolved into what ever is convenient. Convenience mostly equals unhealthy, overly processed, fast food of some sort. This is NOT OK with me. I know its mostly my fault, and I do own this completly, which makes this MY responsibility to change. Now dont get me wrong, I do cook. and we have NOT eaten fast or easy food every day by any means, but a couple times a week at least, and really that is just TOO much.

I have a friend who COOKS. EVERY. MEAL. except ONE. Every month, all year, for the past how ever many years. This is just what she does. I once asked her how she keeps up the motovation to this and how she keeps it from being repetiive, She gave me a better answer than I could have asked for, She wrote and entire blog post about it. You can read it HERE! -(Go read it, I promise its worth it, but don't forget to come back and finish reading this one!)

So Im challenging myself for the month of November to cook for the whole month. Now I do realize that Thanksgiving is this month, and so is my birthday, as well as my hubbie being on vacation, So there WILL be days were NOT home at dinner time, and well that is just life. So I might have picked a bad month to start this challenge, but with me its now or never. If I put things off too long I just dont end up doing them! And Im really hoping that I really enjoy the results and will want to just keep this going.

Ive made a list of my regular meals as well as meals Id like to incorporate into our regular rotation, and a few suggestions from friends! Im open to any and all suggestions anyone may have as well!

I started this on November 2nd-  
Tuesday-Pan Simmered Pork chops W/ Rice and veggies
Wednesday-Tostadas
Thursday-Talapia ( from schwans) with Rice and VeggiesFriday- Low Fat Chicken Tortilla Soup- my very own Recipe to come!!
Sat- LowFat Beef Stroganoff
Sunday- Rount tip roast, ovenreasted baby potatoes and salad3

Briar Rose's Birthday Cake

Valentines Day Cupcakes

Brynn wanted to bring Cupcakes to school for her Valentines day party, so at 9pm the night before i set forth to making some......This is what came of it! In the morning when she saw them so was SOOO very excited she looked at them and smiled so big with a shaky voice she said "ohhhh thank you mommy, they are so beautiful!" That alone made it worth staying up till midnight!

Frog Cake

This Cake was Made For my Nephews 4th Birthday which was on February 29th of last year, so Naturally being a LEAP YEAR baby, the theme was Frogs!

There were a TON of people at this party, so I added Mini cupcakes, that have little Flys on them. made out of root beer flavored jelly bellies and frosting for the wings!

Pirate Cake

This was my first attempt at a cake that actually required more than a cake mix and frosting!This was for my step-daughters 4th birthday, DAUGHTER! She at the Time LOVED pirates, and insisted on having a Pirate themed party, so we all wore bandanas and eye patches, her pinata was a treasure chest and we even had a pirate jumpy house! This cake was tons of fun, and challenging but definitly worth all the time it took, she was soo happy with the finished product that she wanted to keep it and not let anyone eat it!
GULP, 4th bday...she is almost 6 now. geeze where does the time go.