Will You Join Me? October Layout A Day - A Scrappy Buffet

I am part of a group of wonderful scrappy ladies. Scrap Happy Family, we do a layout a day challenge for a month three times a year. I have yet to make a layout each day, but I do create more than I do the rest of the year, and I have a wonderful time!  Each day there is a prompt for inspiration, or you can make whatever you want. We share our pages in a private flickr gallery (optional) and it's a wonderful time of creativity, encouragement, and camaraderie. At Scrap Happy we are gearing up for another Layout a day in October. October LOAD (LayOut A Day) is always fun, it's member run and we always have a great time. Our theme this year is A Scrappy Buffet, I can't wait to see where that theme will take us.  LOAD has stretched me, it encourages me to tell stories I might not otherwise have thought to tell. Scrap Happy has a membership discount running right now until the end of September, just in time for new members to join us for October LOAD.  This is a great group of ladies, I've made wonderful friendships online and at Reunion, our annual meet-up event.

Here is a favorite page of mine from a LOAD past.
From LOAD514 Past Perfect 2
the prompt was, If These Walls Could Talk
My favorite four walls are the fence that encloses my backyard. Journaling: My backyard is my sanctuary. It's the place I go to relax, to escape, to unwind. It's my favorite place to be. Aren't I lucky it's so close to home.
Six of the photos on this page are Instagram photos, the one with the mug was my very FIRST Instagram.
The "Time To Relax" image was edited in the Rhonna Designs App.
Page Created with Close To My Heart Studio J (which has been discontinued)
All products are from Close To My Heart Olivia Collection

Additional LOAD pages that have been shared on my blog can be seen at this link

The Same Moon That's Shinnin' Down On Me Scrapbook Page

This page was created in February 2015 as part of Layout A Day.
It tells the story of how an inside joke between myself and my mother became a touchstone for family across the miles.

Inspired by Load215 Goodnight Moon Challenge.

I had no personal photos to support this story, so I used images from the film. The journaling was created from the text of an old blog post linked here: thefragranthand.blogspot.com/2008/09/same-moon-thats-shin...

Digital Products from Sweet Shoppe Designs
Kit: Stargazer by Studio Basics Design & foreverjoy designs
Kit: Spookilicious Borders by Studio Fergs (moon)
Template: Duo 05 -That's So Wordy by Brook Magee
Font: LittleLordFontleroy
Font: Century Gothic

Thanks to instruction by Traci Reed & Melissa Shanhun which has seriously upped my Photoshop Elements game.

Cook Smart: Prep Once Cook Twice - using your freezer to advantage.

In the interest of more GRACEful living in 2016 I will be bringing you a series of posts which share some of my CookSmart strategies which make it easier to get home cooked meals on the table on a regular basis.

It's almost as easy to prep 2 meals in a marinade as it is to prep one. Tonight I'm making Five Spice Coconut Chicken for dinner, but I purchased double ingredients and I prepared a second batch at the same time as the first. An added benefit of this method is that before the meat freezes, then again as it defrosts it is also marinating so you get very flavorful results.

Label 2 one gallon freezer bags.

Add marinade ingredients to each bag, smoosh the bags to mix, then add chicken to each bag.

Turn the bag over on itself and press out any excess air, then seal.  I place one in a shallow container in my refrigerator, and the second I spread out flat & freeze for a future meal.
I find that things defrost more quickly when they're frozen flat this way, because they are thinner. I also measured my 9x13 baking dish and found that it's max capacity is 1 liquid gallon. So Anything I can freeze in a one gallon bag, ought to fit into a 9x13 casserole dish for baking, this opens up all kinds of possibilities for freezer meals.

Also See: The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority
Preparing Casseroles for the Freezer
Recipes which work well with this method:
No Leftovers Fice-Spice Chicken
Easy Picnic Chicken

The Case For Making Meal Planning A Priority

"Everybody wants to get out to the gym, and that's a good thing too, but if we took as much time in our day to plan our meals and prepare them and maybe bring along a healthy food supply for the day. Then we wouldn't be at the mercy of the grab and go and whatever's out there and it would be so good for our bodies as a whole and we could probably get, (again I'm biased, exercise is great but being a clinical nutritionalist and knowing the outcomes that I have seen over the years) more mileage out of paying better attention to our diet every day."

The above quote is an excerpt from an interview with
Geri Brewster RD MPH CDN, a registered dietitian-nutritionist
from from the Autism Intensive Summit (January 10-18 2016)
I'm getting so much out of this informative online event!
You can register for this free limited time event at the link below.

http://theautismintensive.com/

Meal Planning On The Fragrant Hand

New Slow Cooker

I got a new slow cooker for Christmas. Today I tried it out. I made Slow-Cooker Chinese Barbecued Pork from Cook's Country - October/November 2013 issue.
http://picasion.com/

2016 A Year of GRACE

This year I am choosing a focus word, GRACE I intend to use it as a reminder to keep me on course this year.

One Little Word 2015

My One Little Word for 2015 is cherish.

Menu Plan week of July 20

My son is having issues with his appetite so this week's menu plan is made up of some of his favorite things to eat.

• Monday - Eat Out
• Tuesday - Crispy Crumb Chicken
  with Lemon Thyme Dijon - making just the sauce from the recipe
  & Rice
• Wednesday - Five Spice Chicken
  with Green Pea Salad
• Thursday - Pumpkin Pasta
• Friday - Pumpkin Pasta Leftovers 

Green Pea salad will be a side with dinner on Wednesday & will be eaten with lunches for the rest of the week. I will make extra hard boiled eggs when I prepare the salad which will be used in Egg Salad Sandwiches for Thursday's lunch.

Watch my Instagram for photos of this week's food & activities http://instagram.com/sparrowapril
Instagram Photos of this week's recipes from the past can be seen below.