Flippin' Frittata

Tonight we had the Bacon and Tomato Frittata from my new Betty Crocker Quick & Easy Cookbook.

Except that it ended up being a Bacon Frittata. And I doubled the recipe to have enough for the six of us.

But, don't faint, I did include the onions.

My recipe calls for 8 eggs instead of using the egg in a carton like the link above (which means I used 16 eggs).

I kept lifting it to let the uncooked egg run to the bottom, but it just wasn't quite cutting it. So I did something the recipe didn't call for. I got out my huge pancake flipper and my egg flipper, and I flipped the frittata.

I used the pre-cooked bacon strips and just cut them up. I did put the cheese on before the bacon which was a good choice. The cheese was nice and melted and the bacon was crisp. I still only broiled it for 4 minutes since I'd used a big family-size pan so the thickness was comparable.

Not so pretty but it was yummy!

The eggs kind of fluffed up when it broiled. It tasted like a breakfast casserole I make without the potatoes. Everyone liked it a lot and cleaned their plates. There were no leftovers.

Definitely a keeper.

To go to Togo

As in Togo, West Africa.

As in Sparky.

As in not with her dad. Or anyone from her church. Or anyone she's known for more than a couple of months.

It's simply called faith.

Now let me back up and tell you the whole story.

I mentioned Missionary Christmas at our church back in November. (We hosted the Baptist Children's Home at our house.) There were foreign and state missions, local missions, multitudes of missionary service represented.

At the dinner on Friday night we sat with a family that we've known basically since we started going to the church about a year and a half ago. They have six people in their family also. Oddly enough, only the mom and one daughter were there, and there were eight seats at the table. Just right.

Then when Maureen (the mom) and I were walking around before the dinner, we met with a missionary couple from Lapeer, Michigan. She has known them for years. She asked me if I thought we'd have room for them to eat with us. Right before we had left the table, unbeknownst to her, two of my kids went to sit with their friends (Chatty and Caboose). Still just right.

We were able to talk with this couple and develop a relationship with them over dinner. Sparky had gotten up to go look at the missionary displays in a different room, and we happened to mention that she has felt the call to be a missionary since she was seven or eight years old. Mrs. Missionary said, "When will she be 16?"

I said, "December."

She said, "She should go to Africa with me in February. I'll be her chaperone."

I said, "Well, you can go ask her." As she walked off to find Sparky, Maureen told me that Mrs. Missionary had chaperoned two of her three girls on trips. I think the world of Maureen and her family, so that was really just the icing on the cake.

Mrs. Missionary found Sparky and asked her. I suppose you can tell from the title what the answer was.

Of course there was prayer and a lot of intervention from God. Sparky went before our church's Missions Board for approval. She is sending out letters for support this week and then will be giving her testimony in front of the church on Sunday morning, January 24th.

Her trip is from February 20th-28th. Sparky and Mrs. Missionary will be meeting the group at JFK and then flying to Ghana. They will drive five hours into Togo. The group is adding on to a maternity ward at a hospital they have previously built. She will be doing primarily kitchen work and will be staying in the guest houses on the hospital grounds.

We are very excited for her.

She is very excited.

I am a little scared for her. I will not speak for her dad. I just know that he always thought he'd go on her first trip with her, so I know at least initially this was tough on him. I think he's just hiding it well right now.

I think I just spoke for her dad. Dang, I do that way too much.

I will update as it gets closer to her trip, but please start praying for her and her safety. Pray for the group and the work they are doing. She is actually going the last (fourth) week, so the first group will be going soon. They are also trying to fill slots for the second and third weeks, so pray for that as well.

Pray for Caboose, too. He's kind of having a rough time with her going.

Secret vs. Play-Doh

I think it's obvious that we have some pretty strange funny conversations in our house. The last few days have been no exception. Oddly enough, they do not include Caboose. At least not this one.

One of my recent CVS bargains was this Secret. Chatty was the recipient.

Somehow Sparky discovered it. All I really know is that she thought it was cool and she discovered it was a gel (like I didn't know that because I bought it).

She progressed to comparing it to Play-Doh. Now I'm the first one to admit that I have fears of permanent damage to my children because I didn't let them play with Play-Doh when they were little. Maybe like once, but that's about all I could handle. It's just too messy. I couldn't even do it outside. And me of all people should understand the desires of children, seeing that I continued to (gently and in a completely funny way) berate my mom for not getting me an Easy-Bake Oven when I was a kid.

Of course I then got it for my 31st birthday just to shut me up.

So Sparky told me all about how the deodorant comes out like the Play-Doh on the hair people.


Of course if I could have actually found a picture of the Play-Doh squishing through it might have been more effective for the visual, but this was the best I could do.

So pretty much for the last two days we've been talking about Chatty's cool new deodorant. Exciting days at our house.

2010 Motivated Moms Planner

Looming in front of me was one of my new lofty goals for 2010, incorporate a successful plan for keeping the house neat and picked up where the kids are helping regularly. Yesterday when I was reading The Happy Housewife, I saw what I think is my answer.

The Motivated Moms Planner.

There are several options, including a page per day, page per week, and others. I chose the Full-sized Page Per Day Planner. But it doesn't matter which one you choose. Each one is only $8, and you can download it immediately and print it out right away. I just love immediate gratification. You can also view a sample of the options.

What I love about it is that it gives you a list of daily chores to check off, plus a list of extra chores. By doing these things I don't expect to have to spend a day cleaning before having guests over, like for small group tonight. For example, today's extra chores were:

Clean bathroom mirrors
Clean light fixture — bathrooms
Clean out purse/wallet
Pay/File bills
Dust hallways/entryway
Clean toaster (wipe out crumb tray)

I can assign many of these extra chores to the kids, leaving the pay/file bills and clean out purse for me. I chose the page per day because I want each child to sign or initial on the daily chores when they make their bed, etc. Then I'm going to highlight in their color what I expect them to do for the day, both from the daily chores area and the extra chores.

The Happy Housewife shared a coupon code that Motivated Moms gave her to save $1 on your order through January 14, 2010. I don't know if it's proper etiquette for me to give it out here, so if you plan to order and want to save $1, go here to get your code.

-hyphen-

What are you doing with your hyphen?

We had a substitute Sunday school teacher a couple of weeks ago. During the course of his lesson he mentioned visiting Patrick Henry's burial site and seeing his dates of birth and death, separated by a hyphen. He went on to talk about how that hyphen is what our lives are, that space between when we are born and when we die, however long.

Then this Sunday one of the passages our pastor used in his message was James 4:14 "whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."

A vapor. That's it. It's significant and yet it isn't. Think of the impact it can be though.

So now I'm thinking a lot about my hyphen.

Menu Plan Monday — January 4

In keeping with my 2010 goal of incorporating new meals into my menu plan, I got a couple of new cookbooks for my birthday last week. I got the $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, which I think I will probably end up doubling any recipe I try for the size of my family, and then this new cookbook

which is a dream.

See that little red dot on the front of the cover? I'm a visual person, and a picture of every single recipe is like giving me a piece of chocolate. It's that good. It doesn't hurt a lick that they are quick fixes.

There are a lot of people doing an "Eat from the Pantry" challenge. We wouldn't be eating if I did that. I don't have that much food in my pantry, and what I do have is a veritable hodge-podge. (Another 2010 goal was to organize my pantry better, especially for stockpiled items, which are really non-food items right now. I want that to change.)

I do have some meat in my freezer, so I'll be using some of that this week, and then I looked at the sale flyer for my local grocery store and will be planning my meals around the sale meats.

Monday — Quick Chicken Quesadillas from Betty Crocker Quick & Easy Cookbook, using already cooked and cut-up chicken from my freezer rather than purchasing packaged pre-cooked chicken.

Tuesday — Roast in the crock pot. This is one of the sale meats this week. I'll fix approximately 6 lbs. and we'll have about half left over for the next night for special sandwiches.

To make the roast, I brown it in olive oil in a pot on the stove. I place it in the crock pot and sprinkle it with salt and pepper, pressing it in with the back side of a spoon. I pour 4 cups of beef broth over the meat and cook on low all day. When it is an hour or so before dinner, I put a bag of baby carrots and some cut up potatoes into the crock pot. When the vegetables are tender it is time to eat.

Wednesday — Special Roast Beef Sandwiches. To prepare the sandwiches you will need to slice the roast beef in thin strips. Take deli rolls and butter the insides, then toast them on a griddle pan. Place the meat on the bottom bun, a provolone cheese slice on top of the meat, and then the top bun. You can then place them on a cookie sheet and broil/toast them for a few minutes in the oven or just eat them like they are. If you've saved a little of your juice from the roast you can warm it up for dipping.

Thursday — Nachos. I have some ground beef already cooked and frozen. If the recipe I have works, I'll share it later in the week.

Friday — Bacon and Tomato Frittata from Betty Crocker Quick & Easy Cookbook, probably without the tomato (the link is the same except that the recipe in my book uses 8 eggs). We like breakfast for dinner, so this will be a bit of a twist for us. I might also make some fried potatoes for a side.

Saturday — Steak Burritos.

Sunday — Eat out since we ate in all week.

For lunch this week I'm going to try, try, to have BLT Sandwiches, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Baked Potatoes, Soup, and Breakfast Burritos. This is the first week I've planned lunch. I have high hopes.

Visit The Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday and other great recipe and menu ideas.

This post is also linked to Crock Pot Wednesday hosted by Dining with Debbie.

2010

I have never been one to make resolutions. I think it probably goes back to my dislike for journaling and writing things down. I'm getting out of my box and writing down some goals for 2010. Sharing them no less. That's a biggie for me. I don't usually share important written down stuff with people.

Just stuff that would embarrass the daylights out of me.

Spiritual

• Read the Bible in 90 Days. I started yesterday.
• Pray my daughter to and from Togo, West Africa, in February.
• Do the purity study with the girls.
• Work with all the kids on integrity and character training from Proverbs.

Personal

• Get to bed earlier so I can get up earlier without being so tired.
• Remember to take my vitamins regularly for my health.
• Exercise for my health, with the side benefit being weight loss.

School

• Be more regular about our daily start time.

Home

• Incorporate a successful plan for keeping the house neat and picked up where the kids are helping regularly.
• Incorporate more new meals into the meal planning.
• Get all my recipes organized into one recipe binder system, including computerizing.
• Organize pantry better, especially for stockpiled items.
• Contact friends that we've neglected for the past few years of moving.

Well, that's it. It'll be a year before we know the results, at least for most of the things on my list, but I'm curious. Do you make resolutions or goals?