Cooking rut to a plan

I read Countrified Hicks  very thought out and organized one month menu she posted.  Our meals have been hit and miss during this busy and hot summer.  We have eaten tacos from the freezer, chef salads, homemade pizza, sandwiches- those easy last minute meals- too often this summer.  I am ready for more cooking and more interesting food.
So I took the hint from Countrified Hicks and then looked on my cooking board on Pinterest and picked out enough recipes to keep us fed, I think through most of September.  I don't have to cook every night, because when I do cook a recipe for just husband and me,  there are usually leftovers for at least one more meal and sometimes more.  We are happy with leftovers too.

Here is my plan - in no particular order- except we are having the Shrimp Creole tonight.
I picked recipes and meals that we have most of the ingredients for, either in the pantry or the freezer.

1. chicken and vegetable hand pies with gravy from a mix and a green salad
2. Cheesy bowtie pasta with added veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers and pepperocini, green salad and French bread
3. Hamburger helper night
4. Copy Cat ranch beans with corn bread and cole slaw
5. Korean Been Lettuce Wraps with rice and a green salad
6. Baked Chicken Tenders with baked onion rings and brussel sprouts
7. Farmers Pork Chops, oven roasted carrots and green salad
8. Salsa Verde Chicken, green salad, chips and salsa
9. Smoked pork loin with baked potatoes and roasted cabbage wedges
10. Chicken Almond, green beans and green salad
11. Chicken Lightly Seasoned with fried okra and green salad
12. Beef barley soup- the recipe makes a lot, I make cut it half this first time
13. Crock pot chicken enchilada soup
14. Crumb coated cod-or whatever fish I buy at Aldis- filets with cole slaw and corn
15. Shrimp Creole with rice and a green salad
16.  Beef tips in the crockpot with rice or noodles, green peas and green salad
17. Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings, more green salad and broccoli

Yes- we eat a lot of salad.  Husband loves a big salad to start every meal, or at least 5 times a week.

I also want to try baking some new things
1. Custard Slices - from the Great British Bake Off television show (I love watching British shows on Roku)
2. Almond Tarts
3. Cherry Almond pound cake

sorry, no direct links to these recipes,  but all of them are on my Pinterest cooking board if you want to see them.  I hope to blog and review them as I cook them too

Have you got some Pins you want to try out?  

Home tour part 4

We have 2 hall ways in our home and both got new wall arrangements.

Our daughter in law painted the piece in the center of this arrangement and I really like how this all turned out, with our grands photos around it.  Yes, I am behind on getting good photo enlargements of the youngest grandson, but he is just 4 months old and too young to notice.

The bumper cars stay parked here when the grands are not riding them,

On the other side of this hall, the children's books stay on this shelf- they get used a lot and that is about as straight as they ever are.

A counted cross stitch sampler lovingly stitched by my Aunt Evelyn.  Can you find your state on it? They are in alphabetical order.

The other hall is smaller and just has this little shelving unit. 

Our Bibles are one on shelf, the lunch box on the bottom shelf holds greeting cards and my husband keeps his stuff in the drawer.  

That is a plug on top for charging cellphones, etc. 

The last of our 3 extra bedrooms is a guest room. It got a different bed, different window valance and all different things on the walls.

This room is mostly used by my parents when they come to visit and I try to keep it as empty as possible so they have room for their stuff and it is easy to move around in. 

One of my grandmothers made the star quilt on the bed and I think she used a kit.

The hexagon quilt was made by my other grandmother.

A little portacrib for the rare naps of grand children. Quilts were made by my grandmother.

I made this last summer with my then 4 grands.  I think little hands and feet are just so cute. 

The hall bathroom- I don't think I changed anything in this room except organizing it's big floor to ceiling cabinet.  

Thank you for visiting- I'll show our living room, kitchen and the last bedroom soon. 

Saturday bridal shower

I had the pleasure of attending a bridal shower for this sweet young lady, Christa. Christa and my daughter are kind of like The Odd Couple but they have been best friends since 2nd grade. 

This is not a good photo, but I wanted to share the very special and very low cost shower decorations. 

I really like the personalized weathered wood pallet. In the background is an old window, with photos of the soon to be newly weds hung on old wire with clothes pins. The flowers were sunflowers with a little babies breath. 

It was just a perfect shower for Christa, who grew up in the country and now lives near a Florida beach. 

Betsy's pedicure party

I 

Betsy's pedicure partyLinking up to Betsy's party

Just paint your nails today, take a selfie of your feet and visit Betsy. 

you are serving cookies, aren't you Betsy?

I'll be back with the rest of my home tour soon........

Home tour- front door and dining room part 3

Welcome back to my home.  This is what you would see if you were at my front door.
I just moved the pots of flowers to the front. They had been in the backyard but the backyard is being cleared of anything that would be in the way of the new safe room that will be built soon.

sometimes using what you have works  and sometimes it is just too eclectic- This is for sure not my favorite arrangement I have ever had the front door but it will be fine for now.

Pots with zinnias and moss rose- Grandson Gavin will not like it when he sees his Tonka dump truck holding a pot of flowers but  I will sure let him play with it when he wants to.  It was in the backyard and I don't want the real concrete truck to mess up this old Tonka truck.


The Dining Room

Just inside the front door is our dining room, and it sits on an angle.  It is hard room to make work.  We first had a big round glass top table in here.  It looked pretty but it never felt too homey.   I think I like this older oval wood table, also set on an angle, in here the best.

New additions during my summer long spruce up- I used these patchwork bandannas bought at Hobby Lobby years ago- to make the window valance and table topper.  I really like the colors- red, sage green, a little pink and neutrals and have been using those colors in most all our rooms.

This buffet was in a hall but was a little deep for that walkway so I moved it to the dining room and like it best here.

The stars of this dining room are my husband's Royal Doulton plate collection.  He got 2 of the plates from his grandmother.  Then he discovered they were part of a set.  We shopped at antique malls and Ebay for a few years until he completed the whole set.  They are called "The Professions" and are 75-100 years old.

these are my 2 favorites- the Falconers because I like clouds and birds on the border
and The Admiral, because my dad was in the Navy (but was not an admiral)

linking up with some of these blogging parties