Bacon Wrapped Loins

Bacon Wrapped Loins and Mashed Potatoes with Carmelized Mushrooms and Onions.

I took pictures of the dinner that I made last week. It tasted so yummy!  And Matthew and I do not even usually like mushrooms, and he hates them more than I do!  haha  But here are some photos of the process..

Chopping up Mushrooms:

Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms in the Skillet

Frying the Bacon Wrapped Tenderloins:

Mmmmm what a delightful dinner! (the potatoes were broiled in their skins)

Menu

Here's my menu for this week. Please enjoy!  And also, I am trying to figure out how to reheat casseroles, like what is the best way?  I'm prepping for our 10 day housesitting trip and I do not want to cook there, so pre-made casseroles was the plan. But I want to know the best way to reheat.

Monday - Leftover Enchiladas, reheated

Tuesday - Leftovers

Wednesday - Orange Chicken and Rice

Thursday - Mac N Cheese Casserole (reheated) and Broccoli

Friday - Tater Tot Casserole

Saturday - Grandma DeGhetto's Baked Ziti (mmmm delish!)

Sunday - Leftovers

Thoughts?

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Morning Walk

Matt is always wanting to go on walks and yet we never seem to find time. Plus, I'm a teeny bit lazy (I blame the broken ankle, but it's been over a year now, so I really can't use that as a crutch anymore (haha get it?)). I am also not a morning person, Matt used to be, but slowly he is starting to sleep in also. So you can imagine his surprise when I suggested that we get up at 5 30 am to go on a walk. At 11 pm, we changed it to 5:45, but we still got up and walked, Thursday morning. Just a little 15 minute walk around the neighborhood, but it is something. We tried to do the same today, but somehow slept through the alarm and woke up too late. So we didn't go on a walk this morning (maybe we can get one in this evening?). A realistic goal would be for us to go on a walk at least one morning a week, maybe even 2. but Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are out, cuz I'm at school until late the nights before. But that leaves Thursday through Monday. Iwill keep you all posted on how our walking goes! Man, being healthy and fit is not easy! But we don't want to put on the newlywed 30 lbs....

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Michael Jackson Performance Review

Brooke and I have recently started reading (is that even a grammatically correct phrase?) Stuff Christians Like, a blog. Lauren emailed me about the link awhile back, and I love it! We will randomly text each other things like, "oh my gosh Missions Trip Fanny Pack!! haha" or "Where did the drumset go?" or "\~~~\ (which means I didn't go to church cuz I slept in) or o0o0o (which means I'm throwing skittles at people so they stay awake during the sermon)" haha So those probably didn't make any sense to you, but I suggest you head over to his blog and check out a few entries, try prayer ninja, what happens when you pray, christian emoticons, etc. THose are some of the best ones. (there are links to each post on the side).

I digress. Today's blog was about Missions Trip dances. I remember my first one, from the song in Sister Act. (Which I can't remember the title of, but I know it starts out all slow and people did sign language, then all of a sudden the rest of us are running around the stage haha) We did some of the actual moves, it was pretty funny. The next year it was some Mary Mary songs. And there was always the slow moving sign language songs (I can only imagine always sticks in my mind as this). But Jon (of SCL) did dances to secular music, ours was always Christian. He did one to Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. See his post about it here, along with the video of Michael's 1988 Grammy performance of that song. I have never seen it before, probably because I was about 4 when it happened. haha please watch the video. It will probably make you giggle, and maybe even cringe a bit.

Here is my critique:
-The lights going around the stage look like giant macaroni noodles. I bet they were super hip in 1988 though. hehe
-Is it just me or are his pants majorly flooding? I don't think this was ever in style.
-At one point his mike cuts out, but you can still kinda hear him singing. Sign of a non-lip syncer?
-At another point MJ is doing a weird spinny thing and apparently singing, but it looks like he could not actually do both. Lip sync? You decide. I highly doubt it.
-MJ's dance moves are a little too much for me to handle at times. I mean, his moves in Thriller were really cool and he got everyone to learn that dance (even people younger than me know that dance). But his freestyle is a little lame-o. It looks like he is jumping... like when runners prep before a race, to stretch their muscles. It is a stretch / warm up, not a dance move Michael. And lastly, he skips around a lot when he sings. It's kinda weird. haha
-Kilo dances like this (kinda). And i love her for it (and miss her, hope Germany is awesome)! I know she has most of MJ's songs memorized, so it makes sense that she knows the dance moves too. However, hers look cool and Kelleyish, whereas his look dumb. This made me miss living with Kelley.

Did you watch the vid? What are your thoughts?

Bibles for Congo

The big Bibles for Congo concert was on Saturday and it was a great turnout!  We had around 80 people come, and made enough money to send around 290 Bibles to Congo in just that night alone.  Our total now is about 1000 Bibles that we can send to Congo!  That is amazing!  But we really want to send more.  Adah made some beautiful bags (they range from 13 inches to 16 inches long and 12 inches to 15 inches wide) that were on sale at a local ceramics store (wooo Redlands Ceramics, I love it!).  Now she is going back to college and has passed them on to me.  I took pictures of them, so you can see them.  They were selling for $12 each.  But we are now selling them for as low as $6.  If you want to pay the full $12, or even more, that's great. but our goal is to just get them sold and get those last bibles to congo.  I also have some onesies left. They are each $6 (the pink floral one is $8, because it is higher quality and the materials cost more).  And Adah's sister made some cards.  They are $2 each, or 3 to send a bible.

Please let me know if you want to buy any of these or if you want the exact sizes of a bag.  Enjoy!  Oh and each of the bags is hand sewn and has pockets inside. I have a yellow polka dot one that I absolutely love!

Here are some pictures:

This one is actually already taken (Emily).  But it shows a full size one

9-12 months

12-18 months

9-12 months

3-6 months

6-9 months

6-9 months

Home-made Bread

This Saturday I tried my hand at bread making. I found a recipe on Tammys blog and thought, hmmm that sounds tasty! The process was long, but definitely worth it. I didn't estimate my time right, and we needed to leave the house with 15 minutes left for the bread to cook. So I let it bake until the last possible minute, and then turned the oven off as we left, leaving the loaf in the oven. When we got home 4 hours later, it was done and delicious! Matt has been texting me about how much he loves it on his sandwiches! The mixture of regular and whole wheat flour was great. Next time I may try to make it more whole wheatier, but we will just have to wait and see.

And last night's dinner. If you remember the menu, it was supposed to be BBQ turkey burgers with fries and coleslaw. Well, it turned out a bit different than planned, but it was still tasty. First problem, I called Matt around 5, only to find he was eating leftover enchiladas! But that's for Wednesday I said, I have orientation that day and cannot cook! He forgot that we had the menu up, and was fending for himself because he thought I wasn't going to be home until late, and we both had Bible study. Thankfully, there are still 4 or 5 enchiladas left, and he said he would just eat 2 dinners (yes, he does have a large appetite). The coleslaw turned out tasty (cabbage and green onions in ranch / mayo and parsley and cilantro) and the burgers looked like they might be good. The recipe called for 2 lbs of meat, and i was using 1.3 lbs. But I didn't think about that and put in the same amount of BBQ sauce and cheese and green onions that the recipe called for. I realized, as I was forming the patties, that they would probably not stick together. I tried really hard to keep them in patty shape, on the skillet, but it just wasn't working. So I turned them into Turkey sloppy joes and they were great. Matt loved them (and got over the intial shock that it was turkey and not chicken!). And we have decided to work on planning the menu together, he would like to have more input!

Monday = Menu

So I am slowly turning into one of those blogging Moms (minus the mom part) and am planning on posting a weekly menu on Monday. Right now I can cook every night, but next week, I'm back in school on Monday and Tuesday (meaning I'm out of the house from 6 45 am to 10 30 pm) and won't be cooking those nights. It also doesn't really make sense for Matthew to cook a lot, since it will be just him eating. Ah well, I guess we will see how it plays out next week!

This weeks Menu:
Breakfasts are always Cold Cereal and Milk, or Oatmeal. Saturdays and Sundays are waffles or omelettes

Lunches are leftovers for Megan (and sometimes Matthew) and sandwiches for Matt (usually what he eats). Sometimes I eat hummus and pita chips, and we both have carrots or celery.

Dinners:
Monday - BBQ Turkey Burgers (don't tell Matt it's turkey!), waffle fries, Salada
Tuesday - Chipotle Chicken Rolls, Coleslaw
Wednesday - Leftover Enchiladas and rice (from last Thursday's mistake, thankfully they fit in the freezer)
Thursday - Hot dog Mac n Cheese Casserole, Green Beans
Friday - Pizza and Salad
Saturday - Dinner at the Bonns (night off for me!)
Sunday - Bacon wrapped Tenderloins with carmelized onions and mushrooms

Hopefully it all goes well!!

Failure

I realized I was a failure (not really) yesterday around 2:00 pm. Why, you ask? Well in my menu planning, I had planned on cooking a crockpot meal for that night. Only someone (me) forgot to get out the crockpot and turn it on and get everything in it before work. So I had to go with a plan b. What would have been smart would have been to just swap with tomorrows meal, but that's BBQ, and I like Friday BBQs, makes it seem like the weekend. So I decided to find some casserole recipes and try out one of those. Well, i didn't do a casserole, but I did make enchiladas (which can be prepared in a casserole dish, and then can be frozen, so really, it's like the same thing). And they came out quite tasty. I only had to buy tortillas, I had everything else already! So I have a new tasty recipe (Rachel Ray added cinnamon and chili powder, as well as cumin to the mix, made it have a zing!) that we love.

Recent Pictures:

Matt made us a lovely dinner of chicken, rice, and veggies (sometime last week)

All dressed up for the Seymour Vow Renewal, fun night!

The ants in the corner of our bedroom. It's horrid. We took pictures for proof to show the complex. We also have pictures of the roof leaking into our kitchen.

One last shot of the ants, on the bathroom side of the door. The trap that we have there is now FILLED with ants (it's disgusting) and there are still some alive. It's time to get a new trap. Or tent the building...

Menu Meal #1

Last night went well. Planned menu: Spaghetti, green beans, toasted bread. What really happened: Spaghetti with meat sauce (matt requested that), mixed veggies from a few nights ago, sourdough loaf. Matt and I decided regular bread would be better with the crockpot meal and that sourdough slices would be good with spaghetti. It was very tasty, and the browned ground beef (just a half pound) with spices made it a great meal.

Tonight's surprise: going to a party with a light dinner. I'm just going to do snacks of carrots and ranch before we leave. Pre-cutting and prepping the carrots was a great idea. Matt loves it!

Also

Big Step #3: I made our very own Chex mix. I realized I could save money by making my own snack mix. And we are munchers, so we need snacky food. I can also control how much salt goes in and stuff, so it can be a bit (maybe ) healthier! Yesterday I tried Barbecue Chex Mix (go to www.chex.com for tons of mix recipes). I put a little too much BBQ sauce in it, so it was a little mushy, but hubby still loved it and gave me a big hug. Next week (or the week after, depending on how quickly we got through it), I'm going to try Italian Chex mix! The only bummer is that the directions are for the microwave, and I would much rather do it in the oven, but I could not really figure out how to make it different. Anyways, that's the last little "step" for today!

Groceries

I went shopping yesterday and realized that my goal of only buying things on sale or with a coupon from now on was a little over-zealous. However, I was still very satisfied with our shopping trip.

Big step #1: We walked to Stater Bros. It's not very far, about a block. But it was good to be out and active, and not take the truck, because it's "easier to carry the groceries." I had a backpack and one cloth Trader Joes bag, while Matthew carried the big freezer pack Trader Joes bag and another heavy bag. We arrived home with lots of healthy groceries and feeling healthier about our little walk (Matt wants us to walk more regularly).

Big Step #2: Buying produce. I do not often buy produce, outside of Trader Joes. And everything at TJs is already pre-packaged. So there I was in Staters, weighing out our veggies to figure out the cost and if it was worth it. I also got regular sized carrots and celery (not the bite sized pre-cut stuff) and decided to prepare it at home. Once I got home, I washed all of the produce, and cut the carrots and celery into snack sized pieces, ready for dipping. It's much cheaper this way. I also used some little tiny tupperwares that I bought (last week) to bring ranch and peanut butter to the office. Lunches just got a whole lot healthier!

This week is our first week on a menu. We will see how it all goes. In 2 weeks we will be housesitting for 10 days. That also concides with my 2nd week of school, so it will be a bit of a challenge. I also don't like to cook when I'm at other houses, so my goal is to make some cassaroles in advance and freeze them. Then we won't make much of a mess and we will be able to reheat food quickly. The other challenge will be if I have class at 4, twice a week (I finally get to register tomorrow). When do I find time to eat? Since I will be going straight to school from the office. Any advice? I want to save money by not eating out on those days, that would get pricey.

And I realized I have not put up any pictures from Mike and Sarah's wedding... here are a few:







PS. For those who say we go to lots of weddings. We will be going to a wedding three weeks in a row (Sept 27, Oct 3, Oct 11). Now that's crazy!

I've decided to become frugal

The title of this post says it all! I am determined to save the Nadalet family some money. I think the best way to jump start that is to save money in grocery shopping. For the past few weeks, I have been reading www.moneysavingmom.com for ideas on saving money and eating cheaply. Today I have planned out our menu for next week, and I am planning to go shopping for the items tonight.

But first, I want to share our number 1 rule in finances. God gave us this money and it's really his. So we need to honor that and give him what is His. Right now that is a little over 10% of our income, and we hope to increase it in coming years. That's what my grandpa did, and he left behind a legacy of caring and giving. He was seen as generous, we would both love to be seen in that way. So, as we begin our journey into living cheaply, we want to honor God first, with the money that he gave us. I have no doubt that he will provide for whatever comes our way. Hopefully you can be encouraged by this, and hey, maybe you will encourage me!

Megan

Congo

While researchers have just found a large population of rare Gorillas in Congo, thus raising the known number of this endangered species. The people in Congo still need Bibles. Let me know if you want to buy a onesie. Or if you just want to donate. Either way is good! As Brian Regan says, both good.