Monthly Archives: May 2016

menu plan Monday

The menu plan after the music festival

Since we were out acting like fun, youthful people this weekend, I am very, very, very tired today and have yet to go to the grocery store. So this week’s menu is all subject to change.

Monday: Potluck
Our homeschool co-op’s demo night is today, and it’s a potluck. I don’t know what I’m taking.
Tuesday: Beef & broccoli
This Serious Eats beef & broccoli recipe is wonderful.

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner
I have a meeting on the calendar Wednesday evening, and Rockford said he’d like to make pancakes for dinner.

Thursday: Chick-fil-A
I have put off the required volunteer hours for Poppy’s soccer league until the very last minute, so some of us will be spending a few hours at the soccer field on Thursday. I’m planning to pick up something on the way home, and it will most likely be Chick-fil-A because I have a free salad there.

Friday: Spaghetti & meatballs
Again? Yes indeed. They were so delicious last week!

Hungry for more? Check out a whole bunch of menu plans at OrgJunkie.com.

menu plan Monday

A 100 percent chance of meatballs

I usually reserve spaghetti with meatballs for special occasions, but I’m not sure why. They make the meal more filling and 1000 percent tastier, and they’re not that hard to make. I don’t have a recipe with exact measurements, but here’s my basic meatball template:

How to make meatballs

Mix together 2 eggs, a half cup or so of panko breadcrumbs, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning (more or less to taste) and about a tablespoon of milk. Pour over one pound ground beef. Combine. If it looks too moist to hold together, add more breadcrumbs. If it looks too dry, add more milk. Use a 56mm scoop to scoop the meat out in even lumps. Roll them gently into balls. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Our meatballs are simmering in the sauce right now, and I am thoroughly looking forward to dinnertime.

This week’s menu plan

Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner
Rockford made me an omelet for Mother’s Day breakfast-in-bed yesterday, and it was very tasty. I’ll probably make omelets for dinner tomorrow.

Wednesday: Taquitos
Every now and then I get a hankering for Trader Joe’s black bean taquitos. This is one such time.

Thursday: Cheeseburgers
OK, we were supposed to have cheeseburgers last week and the week before that, and I still haven’t made them. Maybe this week I’ll finally make Pete’s cheeseburger dreams come true.

Friday: Pizza
We’ll probably go with Dominos this week.

Still hungry? Check out OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

Art with kids, Bandwagons

The Butterscotch Sundae children are growing tired of the 100-day project

So as it turns out, we have been very sporadic in our 100 days of art project. Rather than 100 Days in Which We Do Art Every Single Day, it’s turned into 100 Days in Which We Do Art Sometimes. That’s an improvement over the number of days we’d been doing art, though, so I’m still marking it down as a win.

A photo posted by Nichole (@nicholebutterscotch) on

Last week we started making some papier mache bowls. We let them dry for far more days than they actually needed, and then when we went to paint them I realized that our paint had all dried out. I tried to resuscitate it with some water, but it was too far gone for me to save. I’ve added Acrylic Paint to my ever-lengthening list of Art Supplies We Need.

So instead of painting our little bowls on Monday, we took our inspiration from Beautiful Hello and made our own geometric watercolors. Pete requested a LEGO Darth Vader, and Poppy wanted to make a cat. I found some silhouettes online and printed them, and the kids started tracing them onto watercolor paper. Pete grew tired of the project pretty quickly (this seems to be a recurring theme), so I took over the Vader project. We made dots and lines on our paper, and eventually it turned into some very cool artwork. This has been my favorite project so far.

Yesterday I wanted to try to do some sketched copies of photos. I put a grid over our photos in Photoshop and measured a grid out onto our papers, then we started to sketch the image square-by-square. Poppy abandoned the project after one square, and Pete never started. I finished mine, though, and then I colored it in with watercolor pencils. It is not terrific, but I’ve never done any portraits at all before so I figure it came out pretty, pretty OK.

This week I discovered that I love watercolor pencils. We only have two packs of them, one in earthy tones and one in primary colors. I’d like to get some more. What’s your favorite art supply?