Low-Key weekend + recipes!

We had another nice, slow paced weekend.  Time to get a few projects done, do some planning for future weekends, and lots of time spent in the kitchen! 

 

You know when it's quiet in the house, and you are afraid of what you're going to find?  This is where I found the boys yesterday, getting along, quiet and watching a movie. LOVE:)  They also had a fun playdate outside with some friends.  It was good to get some fresh air!

 



We did lots of coloring this weekend too!



And played "school" to make spelling practice a little more fun!


 

 Lots of time in the kitchen.  As I have mentioned before I like to do my planning ahead for the week on Sundays, and if I can get a little meal prep for the weeknight suppers it's a bonus.  Yesterday the kids and I baked two different kinds of cookies.  Eryn chose Molasses and Nolan and Derek chose Chocolate Chip pudding cookies.  Two staples in our freezer!

Today we started the day with a breakfast of  waffles and bacon.  Extra waffles to put in the freezer for a quick breakfast before school.  Then it was some cheesy potato soup for lunch. Here's a link to the recipe:

http://chicincolumbus.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/baked-potato-soup/

I also whipped up a pan of lasagne for the freezer (made up my own recipe for that one!).  Later in the day, I made this pan of apple pie bars.  Really easy to do since I just made the crust and used the canned apple pie filling from this fall! 

Randy requested some homemade pretzels, ya know, like the ones you get in the mall.  Our joke with that is the dipping sauce (liquid cheese) which I just think is plain gross.  But, Randy likes it.  So, our compromise: made half of them with salt, the other half with cinnamon/sugar for those of us with a sweet tooth.  There's quite a few steps involved with this, but using the bread machine cuts down on a lot of the work.  I think they taste pretty darn close to those you can get in the mall!



Click here for the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/soft-pretzels-for-bread-machines-45567

By the way, the temperatures this weekend were what we Iowans would term "balmy." Close to 40 degrees. Such a swing in the temperatures we had earlier in the week!  Hopefully the kids get back to 5 full days of school this week.  I'd hate for them to have to go too much into summer!