Macaroni Salad

When I was posting this weeks meal plan I went to link this recipe and searched and searched and couldn't find it. I thought I had posted it years ago. Come to find out......I hadn't.

We have enjoyed this recipe for many years now. It goes great with picnics or for luncheons or barbeques. Fun and simple and reminds me of the original classic macaroni salad.

Like with most any recipe, don't be afraid to adjust ingredients to fit your tastes and even taking your family's traditional macaroni salad and adjusting it from there. Be sure to give it a try this Summer!

 

Macaroni Salad

1 box macaroni noodles, shells or elbows, cooked
¼ red onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2-4 dill pickles chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh or dried parsley
1 cup olives, sliced
½ cup matchstick size carrots, optional


Cook noodles according to package directions. Let cool completely. Combine the ingredients above in a large bowl. Make sauce and stir it in, mix well.

Sauce:
½ cup water
1 cup raw cashews
¼ cup lemon juice
1 clove garlic
½ teaspoon dry mustard
2 Tablespoons agave or honey
¼ teaspoon celery seed
¼ teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons mustard
1 teaspoon Real Salt
½ cup Vegenaise


Blend everything but Vegenaise until smooth in blender, fold in Vegenaise.

My Weekly Meal Plan

We had a most wonderful weekend and as you can see I didn't even turn on the computer so sorry the meal plan is a day late.

We went south and spent Friday night at my parents house. Ryan worked with my dad on some finishing touches of a remodeling project he has been working on. It looks amazing! My Dad has done a fabulous job with it makes me want to live there again now that it's all fixed up. ;)

We were fortunate enough to have my sister's family there for a few hours that evening too. The cousins had a great time playing. The next day Ryan took our teenagers and went over to the temple for baptisms.

Matt had found a bunch of family names and their youth group help get them all done. Now we have a whole stack of names to finish the work on. I think it's so fun and rewarding to do temple work for family.

Saturday evening my other sister's kids came over and again lots of fun cousin time was had. It's so fun to see what good friends the kids have become with their cousins. We went home that night and had a beautiful, peaceful Sunday.....that is after I spent my 2 hours in the nursery. ;)

Curt turns 12 this week and had his interview with Bishop. He's going to be ordained a deacon next Sunday....It's so crazy! The kids are growing so fast. I'm trying my best to just enjoy every moment.

That evening we went with Grandpa and Grandma Nelson to the cemetery to place flowers on family members graves. Then we came home and enjoyed the beautiful evening and I got excited about finishing planting our garden.

The next morning we were up bright and early and started planting. We planted over 30 tomato plants, 18 Cabbages, a whole bunch of pepper plants some pole beans and some more lettuces to go along with all the other things we planted last month.

I didn't take any pictures with my camera but I do now have an instagram account that I posted a few pictures of the garden too. You can follow me here! It's not much to look at right now but I hope and pray that the wind will be nice and that the garden will be beautiful and productive this year.

Yesterday we made some simple dairy free grilled cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner. After a long day of gardening we didn't want to make a huge mess of the kitchen . We have made these before but it's been years and I don't think I have shared how we make them. I'll have to share the recipe soon.

This week we will have Curt's birthday dinner and then he wants a little luncheon with family on Sunday after church....it will be another wonderful week. Be sure to note that even when I don't always post it there is always a salad and/or fresh veggies of some sort to go with dinner.

My Weekly Meal Plan

Monday:
Dairy Free Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Big Tossed Green Salad

Tuesday:
Mac and Cheese with leftover Salad

Wednesday:
Creamy Cauliflower Sandwiches

Thursday:
Burrito Casserole

Friday:
Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

Saturday:
Leftovers

Sunday:
Crock Pot Sloppy Joes, Crunchy Cabbage Salad, Macaroni Salad (recipe coming soon), Crackers, Veggies and Homemade Hummus, Peanut Butter Bars, Blondie Brownies, Ice Cream

Still one of Charly's Favorite Snacks!

Remember 3 or 4 years ago when I shared this video of Charly munching down on a Kale Chip? Well they are still one of her favorite snacks. She gets so excited when we plant kale because she knows it means we will be making some kale chips.

My Mom is a pro at making them.....but she doesn't just make them for Charly, nope.....all the family likes them. My brothers and sisters and all their kids we all just love and crave them. Except for Ryan! He will eat them but doesn't really care for them.....not really not sure what his problem is. Oh well more for us.

This year I planted 2 kinds of Kale. Dinosaur and Russian Kale both are growing great and it won't be long before we can start making Kale Chips. To be honest it's the Curly Kale that actually makes the best most crunchy chips but I don't like growing it because it is the hardest kind to keep the aphid off.

Anyway if you haven't seen that video of Charly or tried making Kale Chips you can find both the video and recipe here.....it's not to late to get some planted especially if you find starts at your local nursery. Plant it in a fairly cool spot and you should have kale clear till Christmas....maybe longer.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

My Weekly Meal Plan

Last week was a fun week! My Sister and her family came for a short visit on their way up north as always it was so great to see them but the visit was too short.

Missy and I watched Pride and Prejudice one evening with some friends. On Friday night the boys went on a Fathers and Sons camp out. Ryan also took along 3 of his nephews since their Dad was out of town. It sounded like they all had a good time.

Ryan's Uncle gave my boys a old pocket bike that he had lying around. Matt, with his Grandpa's help got it running and the kids where on cloud nine.....that is until they ran it out of gas. But he won a gift card to Ace and the annual kite flight and plans to buy himself plenty of 2 cycle oil to mix with gas to run the bike. ;)

The girls and I enjoyed our time together and went to a baby shower the next morning. The boys were home by the time we got back and we spent most the rest of the day with yard work and house work. We got a few more herbs and flowers planted and will be ready to plant peppers and tomatoes next weekend.

I'm so excited to start getting lots of our food from our garden. Onions, beets, lettuce, spinach, turnips, cucumber, carrots, kale and chard are all coming up! Some of the greens we will be able to harvest soon. I'm looking forward to many dinners this summer made from the garden. But for now we will have to settle for this simple week with plenty of black beans and potatoes.

My Weekly Meal Plan

Monday:
Mushroom Stroganoff

Tuesday:
Tacos

Wednesday:
Sweet and Spicy Cabbage

Thursday:
Baked Potato Bar

Friday:
Quinoa, Potatoes and Steamed Veggies

Saturday:
Leftovers

Sunday:
Roasted Veggies

The DIY Pantry

Once in a while I come across a great cookbook that I think is worth taking up space on my bookshelf and that I'm super excited to try lots of the recipes from.

Honestly I love browsing and looking through recipe books but I don't very often like following recipes. Nine times out of 10 I think of something I would like to try or make then I search through 6 or 8 recipes that are similar to what I want to make and then I write down my own recipe that is similar to the ones I have researched but I've added my own tastes to it.

There are very few recipe books that I have that I will just take the recipe and make it as is and I know that the recipes will be healthy and tasty just how I like them. One of those books I talk about HERE.

And just recently I came across this book and knew it needed to have a place on my book shelf. The DIY Pantry was written by Kresha Faber from Nourishing Joy. Although it's a recipe book it's unlike any recipe book I have ever seen.

You won't find meals to make in this book, no.....it's full of pantry staple items. Kresha has taken things that most people would just buy from the store and stock their pantry with.....like seasoning mixes, boxed items, preserves and all sorts of other packaged goods and she has created homemade recipes that you can make to fill your pantry with.

The thing I of course love most about it is that I am all about making as many things as possible from scratch that way you know what is in them. I was so excited to get my hands on this book and start trying out the recipes.

The only thing I didn't like was that there wasn't pictures of the recipes....but then as I thought about it.....since they aren't meals they aren't really as exciting to have a picture of. So even though I love having pictures of what I'm making, it probably isn't as important for this type of recipe book.

I have been following Kresha's blog for a while now and the recipes of hers that I have tried have always been excellent! I don't have to tweak them they always turn out good....tried and true. I like recipes like that!....It's exactly what I'm picky about with the recipes that I share.

I made the Chocolate Hazelnut Spread the other day and it was a big hit at our house. My kids have never experienced Nutella, I didn't have blanched and peeled hazelnuts and wasn't about to peel each one so it was a bit grainy because of that but we didn't care. Next time I'll be sure to get hazelnuts without the skins on.

Another thing that I really like is that all the recipes in her book take about 30 minutes or less to make. They are simple, comprehensive and tasty pantry items that aren't complicated and time consuming. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves to have a healthy whole foods pantry and loves the simplicity of making things from scratch.

The DIY Pantry: 30 Minutes to Healthy, Homemade Food

The DIY Pantry features 165+ recipes for delicious homemade versions of your favorite store-bought foods. The recipes are crafted to mimic your favorite foods and each recipe can be made with less than 30 minutes of hands-on time.

With The DIY Pantry, you can break free from processed foods and learn to make healthy, delicious meals without spending hours in the kitchen or breaking the bank. From artisan breads and aromatic seasonings to irresistible treats like Black-and-White Sandwich Cookies and Peppermint Patties, this book shows you how to stock your pantry with all the ingredients you need to make all your favorite meals.

Buy now at your local bookstore or buy it at Amazon.

My Weekly Meal Plan

Last week I noticed I was experiencing a bit of blogging/social media burnout. I have been seriously considering hiring someone to take care of all the social media posting....I of course would follow up and still be there to socialize, answer questions etc. but wouldn't have to keep up with all the posting. For some reason it's a stress for me and just get entirely overwhelmed with it all.

When I mentioned wanting to do that to my family, Missy said she would like to try doing that for me. I think I want to start training her soon and I know that she will probably learn and understand it much better than I have. ;) That will take a lot of the pressure off me to focus more on my blog content and just posting here.

I also have other project ideas running around in my head and lists on paper but can't seem be able to focus on them....I think this will help so I can do that too. I guess we will see how it goes.

This past week was a nice week aside from the fact that I'm getting very tired of wind. Things are winding down with the kids more formal schooling stuff, like local classes and online classes. We still continue to "do school" through the summer when we are home just because I like to stay in our routine and it's relaxed enough that it isn't hard to do.

But I always kind of enjoy that things are winding down with the more formal things that have deadlines etc. where the pressure is off.

We considered planting more garden this weekend but knew that we should probably wait at least a week, maybe two. Sure enough we got a good dumping of snow Saturday night and I know tomatoes and peppers would not have made it though that.

Since things have been so weird this year we may put off planing non-cold hearty plants until Memorial Day Weekend. I'm worried about my peach trees....this crazy spring weather has been really hard on them. Very few branches are leafing out. Not sure all of them will make it and I'm really sad about that because they were all 4 or 5 years old. Trees sure take lots of patients.

I just hope we can find out the cause although we are pretty sure it's the cold that got to them. But it's still weird. I know getting fruit every year because of the cold doesn't always happen but I didn't think all the branches could freeze too. I know there are plenty of peach trees growing in these parts.

Mother's Day was cold and snowy but an all around lovely day. Aside from being a wife to Ryan being a Mom is my very most favorite thing. It's the very hardest thing too but that's what makes it so rewarding. I love watching my kids learn and grow and seeing how quickly they are becoming such wonderful young adults and some of my dearest friends.

Okay this weeks meal plan....I'm excited for leftovers tonight from my wonderful Mother's Day dinner yesterday. Missy and Ryan prepared most of it and did a awesome job and I love that there were lots of leftovers so cooking will be a breeze tonight. And of course the rest of the week is fairly simple too. ;)

My Weekly Meal Plan

Monday:
Grilled Veggie Sandwiches, Italian Tossed Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing

Tuesday:
Minestrone Soup

Wednesday: 
Quinoa Stir Fry

Thursday:
Sukiyaki

Friday: 
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Taco Packets

Saturday:
Leftovers

Sunday:
Philly Cheese Steak, My Way

My Weekly Meal Plan

Although with warmer weather we seem to be out and about more I love that things seem to relax a bit. Missy has finished up her writing class for the year and other classes the kids are taking will be done this month. So even though we go more places and get outside more there is just a more relaxed slower pace feeling all around.

Not sure why but I think it has to do with longer days and less pressure of "due dates" just less busy work and more enjoying life. I like that! Speaking of due dates my sister put on a very fun baby shower for my Sister-in-Law who is expecting her first. It was so much fun and I loved going "home" to visit. So many of my Aunts and Cousins that I just don't get to see very often. It was great to "catch up" just a bit.

Beets, peas, onions, and lettuces are starting to come up in the garden. I even have lots of herbs coming up that I seemed to just die last year and/or Ryan tilled them up inadvertently.....but most all of them are coming back even after being tilled! Got to love those herbs that grow like weeds......this herbalist who doesn't have a green thumb can at least grow those!

I start getting so anxious for the wind to stop and to be able to plant the rest of the garden. I know that I really should wait until at least the 15th and probably not until Memorial day to plant because you never know and it has been known to frost and even snow Memorial day weekend....it's true I have seen it happen more then once.

So tomatoes, peppers and things have to wait a few more weeks. I'm just praying that the harvest will be bountiful because I have lots of plans for canning, pickling, drying and freezing. I would love to get our supply of homemade home-grown foods refilled in the food storage room!

There is going to be lots of talk about Moms this week since Mother's Day is Sunday. Although I haven't always been a fan of Mother's Day I'm really looking forward to it this year and I have always loved the idea in general of supporting, loving and helping Moms!

I also know that not only a lot of Mother's follow this blog but many of them are also Mommy Bloggers too!  This past weekend Blogelina let me know about this very fun FREE package that they put together to help support all those blogging Moms.

I know when it comes to blogging there is a lot I have to learn. I was excited and snatched up this pack especially since it's free. There is also a $10 upgrade that I grabbed because I'm very interested in learning about how to maybe switch this blog over to wordpress one day or start another blog using wordpress and I'd like to know more about it. I've been eying Blogelina Blogger to Wordpress kit for a while now and quickly grabbed it when I saw it for such a great price.  Happy Mother's Day to me!

For Mother's Day this year I want to have our Mothers/Grandmothers over for dinner. I have some very tasty plans for dinner that Ryan and the kids are going to make. It will be lots of fun. Note the menu for Sunday on the meal plan below. Doesn't it just sound like a fun Mother's Day meal? Especially if someone else is going to make it.....and clean up after it! ;)


My Weekly Meal Plan:

Monday:
Quinoa Burgers

Tuesday:
Broccoli Cheese Soup


Wednesday: 
Hawaiian Haystacks

Thursday:
Loaded Veggie Nacho Soup


Friday:
Taco Sundays


Saturday:
Leftovers


Sunday:
Mother's Day Meal - Grilled Veggie Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Onion Rings, Italian Tossed Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing, Ice Cream Sandwiches.