Menu Plan "Monday" July 16 2012

I meant to get this up yesterday. I've never really participated in the Menu Plan Monday world, but I've been meaning to post more of our recipes. We get a lot of questions about what we eat, we're not entirely vegetarian but we try to eat meat free most of the time. We know a lot of friends attempting to do the same and we've gotten some great recipes. If you have more to share I'd love to hear about them! For all of these recipes, this is main dish and we usually include a side vegetable or salad and some fruit, lately A LOT of watermelon!

Monday: Eat at friends, also included Broccoli Pasta Salad with dressing made with Stevia instead of sugar and using whole wheat pasta, olive oil mayonnaise and no bacon. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-grape-pasta-salad-50400000115388/
Tuesday: Indian Pizza with more veggies instead of turkey and less mozzarella
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/budget-recipes/indian-pizza
Wednesday: Garden Rice and Red Beans
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/garden-rice-red-beans-recipe
Thursday: Green Bean and Soba Noodles, with dry fry tofu instead of pork
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/kid-recipes/pork-and-green-beans-with-soba-noodles
If you haven't dry fried tofu before, I highly recommend it!
http://melissaraydavis.hubpages.com/hub/How_to_Cook_Tofu_Like_the_Pros
Friday: Black Bean Chili
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1399071
Saturday: Quick Sushi Wraps (no recipe)
Nori sheets, Prepared Sushi rice, mayo and soy sauce, cucumbers, avocados, red peppers, green onions, thinly sliced and all rolled together
Sunday: Chana Masala with Brown Rice
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/chana-masala/

BONUSMonday: Salmon Burgers on Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins. A variation of this recipe, no cottage cheese and dried spices instead of fresh.
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/salmon-burgers-recipe

Happy Eating! Yum!

Copper the Sing-A-Long Dog

Copper would sing with us when we first got him: for Family Home Evening, or before scriptures or when we got silly and started singing camp songs. But he stopped doing it and now when we sing as a family he generally heads off to the other room. But when the harmonica comes out he cannot help himself! Here he is singing a duet with Dad and Mr. Baseball accompanying. I live with funny people (and furballs!)

Cub Scouting and First 5K

Mr. Baseball earned his Wolf Badge in May, it was quite a bit of work, but because May was the last Pack meeting until the fall he wanted to finish. So we squeezed in a few extra things in May and he finished. Notice the "wolf scratches" on his arm in the picture. He was pretty excited. Also last Monday our stake kicked off our annual Summer of Sharing for the food bank with a 5k and 1 mile fun run. Monkey and Little Bruiser and I were in the 1 miler, but the monkster took off sprinting and finished in 8.5 minutes! I let LB out of the stroller to run in with me the last little bit, it was pretty adorable. When we were finished The Student and Mr. Baseball started their 5k. It was Mr. Baseball's first and The Student was worried he'd run out of steam after a bit, but apparently not! He ran the whole time and came in around 26 minutes, several minutes ahead of the Student. It was fun to cheer them on at the end!

Camping in April

We went camping at Caprock Canyon State Park. Here's the proof :) I don't fell like typing much but things are good right now. Summer is nice to the Franklin Family!

Spring means Baseball!

Spring is here and that means Baseball, baseball, baseball! Mr. Baseball has a practice or two each week and two games as well. He's playing center field, short stop, second base, and occasionally pitcher and really enjoying himself. He's busy though. Some days he goes from Piano to baseball, or from Baseball to Scouts, and this past Saturday we got home from a campout at 11:50am and got changed and over to the park by 12:30pm for a 1pm game.

In other news, I'm a few paragraphs and a critical introduction away from completing my dissertation, the QB has picked up some doula clients that are keeping her busy, the boys have started a "commission" program that is allowing them to earn some money that they can save, spend, and give ( a la Dave Ramsey's advice), and we're contemplating the long hot summer with fear and trepidation (and popsicles). Here's a photo dump. Hope you are doing well!

Super fans taking some practice swings behind the bleachers.

At home, Ian often follows the QB and/or I around with a ball, a bat, and a glove and says, "pitch me, pitch me, pitch me," until we give in and throw him a few balls.  Sometimes he says "Be catcher, be catcher," and he'll squat down with the glove in front of his face, ready to go.

Mr. baseball has  been doing lots of very nice "big brother," things for his youngest brother.  Yesterday at stake conference for Church he sat with Ian for about thirty minutes and looked at books with him.  The little one kept patting Mr. Baseball's back and saying, "Pat Brother, pat Brother." It was pretty cute.  Now if we could just get a little more of that between The Monkey and Mr. Baseball, we would be getting some where.  Their current favorite thing to do is fight about Legos.

We're all doing well.  Lots to tell, but little time to write.