Menu Plan Monday- November 7th week

I had such high hopes of shopping this weekend, but we basically used the weekend for resting. After our big Halloween bash David and I fell apart. He had a horrible back ache all week and I had a painful neck ache that was still around. So we just lounged around and slept a lot of the weekend, which was much needed and great. We did venture to the mall on saturday afternoon, but it was SO crowded. People were parking on the grassy area where it only gets crowded during Christmas time! Traffic was out of control. Are people already shopping for xmas? I think so and did they realize we are still in a recession? I think because it was so cold this weekend (30's as lows) that people thought it was time to celebrate. I almost put a Christmas Movie in myself this weekend. I tried to go in to the stores to find my cute jeans and boots, but just wasn't in the mood for crowded picked over items. There's always next time. With the extra hour from daylight savings I used it to meal plan and shop while David installed a new garage door opener for us (more on that later).

One other quick note, I added a printer friendly icon to each of my blog posts. This will make it easy to print a recipe. Just click on this button under the blog post/recipe that you want to print.

Here are my meals for the week:

Meal 1- Chicken Finger Subs. Nothing hard about this one, you can definitely make your own chicken strips, but I'm going to use the good ole fashioned frozen chicken strips. Add your favorite toppings and you're all set.

Meal 2- Chicken & Broccoli Stuffed Shells

Meal 3- Beef Lettuce Wraps


Meal 4- Spaghetti and Meatballs or Sesame Noodles

Meal 5- Garlic Lime Tilapia 

Meal 6- Tortellini Sausage Soup- This one takes a little effort to make, but is sooo good. Perfect for cooler weather.

Head on over to Organizing Junkie for more meal ideas!

Skinny Jeans and Boots!

I think I'm going to be brave and purchase a few new items that I have been resistant to for no real reason. It's probably because I have no idea how to pick them out and am not very trendy. I am finally going to give in to the skinny jean! It really makes perfect sense and looks great with boots and flat shoes. I just have never worn them. I have also never worn my jeans tucked in to any boot before. Here is my inspiration

 I mean Lauren is just adorable! She has such great fashion style, you'll see her all over these pics. I don't think I can mix black with brown though.

 I don't think I'd wear fur like this, but the outfit is really cute.

 I don't love the t-shirt look, but the boots, bag and jeans are great.

 I love everything about this photo. Both of their boots and jeans are fantastic.

 Same with this photo. I also don't have a scarf like this. I need a personal fashion shopper (Michelle, that's you).

So we'll see if I'm brave this weekend. I have a gift card that I need to spend.

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween Pumpkin Contest at work

Winner!

Party Recipes

A few people have asked me for some recipes from the party so I will post them here for you.

Witches Brew Punch

• 2 bottles of champagne
• 1 gallon of orange juice
• ½ gallon orange sherbet
• Black peeled grapes (I was too lazy to peel them and they sank so I only put a few in)
• 1 bottle of Sprite
• 1/2- 1 bottle of Vodka (judge based on taste)
• Rubber Glove (optional) to freeze with food colored water

 Orange Jello Shots

This Basic Vodka Jello Shot Recipe is an excellent way to learn how to make Jello shots.
1 (6-ounce) box of Jell-O, flavor of your choice(ORANGE) 2 cups boiling water 2 cups vodka, 1 oz jello shot cups (the best ones are the ones at party city).

Directions: In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the Jello and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Cool to room temperature, then stir in the vodka. Pour the mixture into shot glasses or Jello shot cups. I added 1 gummy worm to each cup. Refrigerate until well-set, at least 6 hours.Using the large box of Jello makes about 32 1-ounce Jello shots.

 Slow Cooker Meatballs (thanks to Darrin for demonstrating for us)-
I always get so many comments on these and they are so easy.
-1 bag frozen meatballs (I got the Italian style ones from Sams Club) Pour them in your crockpot until you think there's enough, this bag is HUGE so you won't use all, probably half the bag.
-1 can spaghetti sauce (I used Kroger tomato and basil and Ragu) Since I had so many meatballs I ended up using 1 can and a half of pasta sauce
-1 bottle of BBQ sauce (I used sweet baby rays)
-All you do is stir it up. I cooked it on high for 3 hours and then turned it on warm once the party started.

Mummy Hot Dogs

Spider Cookies-
-1 pack orange filled oreos
-Red hots for eyes and I used a little frosting to stick it on
-Licorice for legs (Shoestring licorice is hard to find these days, but I found Twizzlers "Pull-Apart" candy)

 Pumpkin Cupcakes- 
I used wrappers I found at Michael's to put them in. The frosting is funfetti frosting that was already orange.

Spinach Artichoke Dip-

• 2 cups parmesan cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Mix together Parmesan cheese, spinach, and artichoke hearts.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and mix with spinach mixture.
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes.
5. Serve with crackers or toasted bread.

 Carmel Apples- I had the hardest time finding cellophane bags to put them in, so I used treat bags that we had to cut to fit the apples. We had fun dipping them in Snickers, Twix and Peanuts.

I also served southwest egg rolls from Sams. I just love those and they are always a hit. They make a great appetizer for any party! Can you tell how much I love food by all this!

Nightmare on Jen and David Street- Halloween Party Extravaganza!

Saturday night we had our big Halloween party that I have been planning for a while now. I took a half day off work Friday to start making all the goodies. It was a lot of work, but worth it. I'd like to thank David who not only altered my costume, but helped cook, clean and decorate the whole house with me. What a trooper. I have a feeling this will be a long post so if you want to just look at the pictures that's fine by me. Let's start with the details.

Here is our outside display.

The walkway up to the door.

Here are some of the inside decorations

I even used Martha Stewart labels for spooky beverage labels

 

Here is the treat table. We have pumpkin cupcakes, candy necklaces, carmel apples, spider cookies and lots of candy.

 Close up of the spider cookies

Carmel apples. We dipped some in peanuts, twix and snickers.

 Pumpkin flavored cupcakes in decorative packaging.

We also had jello shots with gummy worms inside.

 The food table!

Amber brought over her beverage fountain and I filled it with a witches brew punch (OJ, sprite, vodka, champagne and sherbet)

 Our food consisted of Mummy dogs, bbq  meatballs, spinach artichoke dip, and chips and guacamole. And now the reveal of our costume!

We are the Chiquita banana girl and a banana. Even molly got a banana costume.

My costume was a one size fits all so it was so bunchy that David cut off material and sewed back on the elastic band! He's so talented.

Aren't they adorable! Here is a photo montage of everyone's costumes.

Everyone did a great job dressing up.

 Davids family showed up for a little while as they were party hopping. Trying to get a family photo was nearly impossible. His parents had already left by the time we tried to get this photo. I will demonstrate why it was so hard (this photo is the best one) to get just 1 nice photo of everyone. By the way, where's waldo?

Gina was a roller derby girl and she skated her way through our house and was showing off. She was skating backwards while taking pictures at one point in the night. 

Here we are still waiting for her to stop dancing and skating. SO funny though, I'm sure people thought we were all nuts, but thats okay they were great and I was glad they all stopped by for a while.

David also hooked me up with a microphone so I could announce the winners of the costume contest. The best male and female costumes goes to:

 Lacey and Jared for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turle and Waldo! Close seconds were Carmen Sandiego and **** in a box. I will end this post with a few shot outs and highlights.

 Thanks to Amber for providing all of our adult beverages for our punch and jello shots!

 How adorable is baby Madeline!!!

 Work Girls. Poor Leah and her "bun in the oven" costume. She could barely walk around in it! It was awesome though.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Erin, my beer pong partner. We were champions and could not be beat for 4 rounds. Everyone gave up after that.

End of the night photo. I think David and Kyle were having a little too much fun. Hope you all had a great Halloween!