Adventure Mondays

This was a summer of "Monday Adventures" for Ed and the kids (mostly Ed and the boys).  In order to spend more time with the kiddos, he planned something for them each Monday...his day off.  Some of the adventures happened to land on other days, but you get the idea.  Lindsay would have gone on more outings with them, but she was busy working much of the time.

Monday, June 3
Six Flags

Monday, June 10
New Bicycles & Off To Ride Them
Nothing fantabulous, but they had outgrown their other bicycles and were really wanting to start riding more often this summer.

I'm sure they're thrilled that dad took the picture with their helmets! :/

Tuesday, June 11
Bonus adventure to the Texas Rangers game!
A friend of Ed's happens to know a Texas Ranger, so he got them tickets to the game.  Cool, huh?

They got to meet Craig Gentry!



Monday, June 17
Bowling at Bowl A Rama in Rowlett

Benjamin

Jonathan

Monday, June 24
Monsters University at Mesquite AMC 30
When the boys were young, Monster's Inc. (Mommers) was their FAVORITE movie in the entire world.  They were pretty excited when Monsters University finally hit the theaters...I thought they were going to pop waiting on it!  All 5 of us went on today's adventure!

Monday, July 1
Go Kart Racing at Celebration Station in Mesquite
The boys had been dying to race go karts and I just happened to find an awesome deal at Celebration Station!  Unfortunately, I believe this is the only picture Ed took that day.  I think they were there racing for over 8 hours!!!  Definitely worth every penny!

Monday, July 8
Junior Camp at Forest Glen Christian Camp in Huntsville, TX
They didn't actually go on an adventure, but they were all at Junior Camp together.  Since Ed was their counselor, I'm sure they spent some time with him on Monday.

I happened to find a camp picture with all 3 of them in it!

Monday, July 15
Olympus Has Fallen at Mesquite Cinemas 10
Lindsay, my mom, and I took the boys to our local dollar movie.  Ed was working at a youth camp called Youth Alive, so it was my turn to take the boys out.  I'm not great at pictures...oops!

Wednesday, July 17
Epic at Mesquite Cinemas 10
We had so much fun on Monday, we decided to go back to the movies on Wednesday.

Monday, July 22
Red 2 at Mesquite AMC 30
And they're back at the movies...yet again.

Monday, July 29
Laser Tag at Celebration Station in Mesquite

Monday, August 5
Jack in the Box
I know this sounds ridiculous for a Monday adventure, so I will explain.  The boys were at school all day helping out with Varsity football, and Ed had an event.  When I picked them up around 3:30, they were pretty and hot tired, but asked what we were doing for the Monday adventure.  I was at a loss, because I really thought they would be too tired to do anything.  We don't eat out much, so I told them they could pick whatever fast food restaurant they wanted and get whatever they wanted (yes, I gave them a monetary limit).  I told them they didn't even have to pick the same restaurant.  I honestly thought Benjamin would pick McDonald's and Jonathan would pick Whataburger (their favorites), but they both decided on Jack in the Box.  So I have to admit, today's adventure was pretty lame, but oh well.  We still did something. :)

Sunday, August 12
FC Dallas MLS Game....and a free t-shirt
Ed wanted to end the summer Monday Adventures with something big for the boys, so he took them to their first MLS game (it was on Sunday, but we can't control the game schedule...obviously).  They loved it! 

Monday, August 19
No adventure today...Ed took Lindsay back to college and the boys stayed home with their momma.  Their adventure was to keep mom from having a breakdown after Lindsay drove away.  And they did their job!  I know some of you moms out there understand me!

Collette :)

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Bites

These are the BBQ Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Bites I attempted to make.  Think I left them in the oven a little too long?  Yep.  I get nervous about potentially undercooked meat, soooo this is what happens.  They were not a complete fail, though.  While extremely crispy, they were still pretty good.  Lindsay and I completely demolished the batch of them.

This is the look I was going for!!

Since mine were pretty much a fail, I'm not going to include my instructions on how to make them.  I am including a link for the pretty ones above.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Recipe

I'm actually going to try this recipe soon.  It sounds delicious!!

Enjoy!

Collette :)

Ham and Turkey Melts

Have I mentioned that I love sandwiches?  Can you believe you did not know that about me?  Ed had a late site visit last night, and I napped right through the dinner hour, so we all ended up eating when he got home.  Summers are a time of pot luck for us, so we just dig around in the fridge, pantry or freezer until we find something that sounds good and go for it.

Benjamin had some leftover ravioli that I had made him for lunch and Jonathan had 6 fried eggs.  Yes, these are our weird summer meals.  Please do not panic about Jonathan eating that many eggs in one sitting...we do not eat a lot of eggs around here (less than 1 per week per person), so I'm okay with him doing that every now and then.  And then I made ham and turkey melt sandwiches for me and Ed.

What you will need:

Onion Poppy Ciabatta Sandwich Rolls (I purchase these from the Wal-Mart bakery)
Mustard and/or Mayonnaise
Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Mesquite Turkey Breast
Land O' Frost Premium Old Fashioned Cooked Ham
Provolone cheese slices (I buy the Great Value Provolone slices)
Leaf lettuce
Sliced tomatoes (seasoned with salt and pepper)
Hamburger dill slices

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Split apart the sandwich rolls.  Lay them cut-side up on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet.  Add mustard, mayo, or both to the bread.  I used regular yellow mustard on Ed's sandwiches, and regular mayonnaise on mine; however, you could also use Dijon or brown mustard or herbed mayonnaise.  You can make your own herbed mayonnaise by adding fresh or dried herbs to regular mayonnaise.  Place 4 slices of turkey on one side of the bread and 4 slices of ham on the other.  I do not lay them flat on the bread...I sort of fold each piece of meat in half or bunch it up on the bread.  Lay one slice of Provolone cheese on top of the turkey and one slice on top of the ham.  Leave the sandwiches open.  Place the sandwiches in the oven on the middle rack for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.  I didn't leave mine in as long as I normally do.  Remove them from the oven when they are ready.  Move them from the baking sheet to a cooling rack.  Let them cool for a few minutes.  I like to slice my tomatoes and season them with salt and pepper.  Add pickles, tomatoes, and lettuce leaf to one side of the sandwich.  Top with the other half.

Out of the oven and on to the cooling rack for a few minutes before assembling

Click Here to Print Recipe for Ham and Turkey Melts

ENJOY!!

Collette :)

French Bread Pizza

A few days ago, someone asked me if I ever made any of the Pioneer Woman's recipes.  I believe I have only made three, but I watch her show on Food Network every Saturday, I own her original cookbook, I read her daily blog, and I love her recipes.  Some of my recipes are very similar...such as these French bread pizzas.  I opened an email with her daily blog not long ago to find pictures of very similar pizzas we make in our home.  We made these for dinner tonight, because they are very easy and they're not really in the oven long enough to heat up the house.  I definitely plan my menus around the Texas summers, y'all!  Was that too Paula Deen?

The variety of pizzas we had this evening were cheese, pepperoni and mushroom, tomato, and sausage and green olive.  Because Wal-Mart no longer carries pre-packaged sausage crumbles, I purchased a one-pound package of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage.  I tore the sausage into pieces as I was putting it in the skillet, then broke it up with my spoon as I was stirring it around.  To make ground meat smaller, I mash it with a potato masher.

sausage crumbles

I couldn't find pre-sliced green olives, so I purchased the smallest jar I could find and sliced them myself.  I actually sliced all of the olives from the jar and placed them back in the original container to store them.

I like to use these French steak rolls from the Wal-Mart bakery when I can find them.  I cut them in half lengthwise (horizontally) before assembling.

I use Hunt's Garlic & Herb spaghetti sauce for the pizza sauce.  It's cheaper than pizza sauce in the jar and we prefer the taste.  Believe me, we make these enough that we have tried almost everything.  You will see the tomato pizza has a pesto sauce instead of the tomato sauce.  Yummy!  So, the basic assembling process is 1) cut the rolls in half and place them cut-side up on a baking sheet; 2) spread your preferred sauce on each bread half; 3) top with shredded mozzarella cheese; 4) add your favorite toppings.

Your oven should be preheating at 400 degrees during this process.  Place the pizzas on the top rack in the oven.  It should take about 10 minutes to get all the cheese melted nicely on top.

Print French Bread Pizza Recipe

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!!

Collette :)