Menu Plan Monday & a girls trip to America

Menu Plan Monday with Laura at Org Junkie

Monday: Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu

Tonight I need to get some stuff done around the house so I wanted a fairly easy dinner - voila! 

Tuesday: Greek wraps for 20 ppl.

Normally I would make this recipe as is, but when cooking for 20+ people that's a lot of chicken! So I'm using the sauce from the favorite recipe and the chicken from this easier crockpot recipe. All served with a side of greek rice (rice cooked then tossed with greek spices and feta). 

Wednesday:  Crockpot Creamy Chicken Tacos

This is a house favorite and another easy meal -  I don't use the Sante Fe cooking cream, just regular cream cheese with some tex-mex or taco seasoning added. Soooo good. 

Thursday: Noodles and Veg in Thai Coconut Curry Sauce

I saw this recipe and felt drawn to try it. I think the household will love me.  

Friday: Spaghetti and Meatballs 

Classic.  We have Chapel that night so we need something fast and easy before heading out the door. We have been invited to two birthday parties and this youth worship service that night - I'm hoping we can somehow hit up a bit of everything but we'll see!

Saturday: YOYO (You're On Your Own) 

Saturday is a day to relax and be around the house OR it's a day to go to the states for the morning - not sure yet. Either way it'll be Paul and Tara time. Then it's my cousin's big 25th birthday party - fancy dress affair and I'm looking forward to it! 

Sunday: YOYO (You're On Your Own) 

Sunday we have planned a photo shoot with my family while my mom can still smile for pictures. Big day for smiles and looking good. Paul is going to HATE that day - that man is not a fan of photos. We get to sleep in first though, which will really help. Then it's a big church vision night, which we'll try to make if we get done in time. 

Weekend Recap:

Thursday night after dinner I was sleepy. I had to work late and then threw an easy dinner together and felt the need to cancel with my sister and spend all night reading in bed. Great life decision.

Friday was the start of my weekend now that I only work Monday to Thursday. I met up with my friend Lydia for a bike ride date. We rode down to 49th Parallel at Main and 13th. Best decision ever. 

Then I went out for a dress fitting for Crystal's wedding and then headed to my sisters house to hang out for a while. We had a lovely time and I'm glad we had the visit since I'd been bummed to cancel on her the night before. After that my friend Laura M came over for the afternoon - and that was a treat! Laura is a new friend and I'm very happy to have met her. And then the Whitton's came over, bearing dinner. We ate and laughed and talked and had a great time - and thankfully all felt tired at about the same time, which was good since 3 of the 4 of us had to wake up by 6am the next day! Paul was heading fishing and Ana and I were heading to America. 

Saturday we woke up bright and EARLY. I got up at 5:30am and was arriving at Irene's to pick her up for our trip by 5:55am. We got to Richmond to Lindsay's house by 6:15am to meet up with Ana and Lindsay. We all loaded up Lindsay's car with our bags (look how similar we are!) and headed out. 

[Our row of freezer bags]

I'd been in charge of our route for this trip as we had some very specific plans - this wasn't any standard costco/walmart/winco trip. No, this was for a purpose. A couple purposes in fact. 

Hobby Lobby. World Market. Nordstrom Rack. Need I say more? All of us girls have lived in America (only 8 months total for me and much longer for the rest of them) but we all have a deep love of America and it's shopping. We all miss certain stores a lot - and when I first went to a Hobby Lobby in Texas I was hooked. Also, all the bloggers I love love World Market, so it had to be good. 

Here was our route: I planned it by store cluster

1. Target (Alderwood Mall Parkway, Lynnwood, WA, USA) and Cost Plus World Market (Alderwood Mall Parkway, Lynnwood, WA, United States) were up first. Since Target opened at 8am and we would be getting there around 8:30am. 

Target was win win win for me - the turquoise lanterns I'd been wanting for months were on sale for $4.50 each! You can just see them in the photo below.

I also got two great cardigans to replace cardigans that I love and wore out. I found a black maxi dress for $15 and the other girls had similar good luck. 

World Market was an experience. I'm officially in love. Here are Irene and Ana, happy to be in America and WM showing off a sign I'd like to try recreating. 

I showed GREAT restraint though and just got things on my list: hook & bottle lid opener for the side of my drink stand and a replacement glass beverage jug since mine broke. I am in LOVE with this new one. 

2. Nordstrom Rack, DSW & Old Navy (Alderwood Mall Pkwy, Lynnwood, WA, United States). 

This was my first experience at Nordstrom Rack and DSW. Wow. NR is a bit overwhelming but can be super rewarding and DSW is like heaven. I needed to purchase wedding shoes for Crystal's wedding (metallic wedges) and a rain outfit - I wanted a coat that looked more grown up and not like a kids rain slicker, and boots that an adult would wear, not rain boots that look like I should go jump in a puddle. I always look younger than I am and could use any help. At Nordstrom Rack I found a great black rain coat down from $200 to $80 and fell in love. At DSW I found short black biker books for the rain and the perfect metallic wedges - both at 40% off of their last price ($55 and $35 respectively). Ana also found the perfect boots there - we were both super boot happy.

The metallic wedges are from DSW (Hot, hot hot)

The black wedges were a Payless purchase later that day

And Old Navy had their skinnies on for $19 a pair and I needed two replacement pairs of jeans, so I scooped those up happily. 

3. Olive Garden (196th Street Southwest, Lynnwood, WA, United States) & Tuesday Morning. Olive Garden is a must for all day shopping, $7.99 for all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks at a sit down restaurant - restores sanity to the busyness. 

Olive Garden was a moment of sanity in the middle of the busy day.

After lunch we stopped in for a first visit to Tuesday Morning. Lindsay assured us we would love it and it did not disappoint! Irene had been looking for mason jars with handles for drinking and usually one is $4.99. We found sets of 4 for $6.99! We both got 2 sets. Now I have a set of 8 glasses that match my beverage container - and I'm midway through making a set of mason jar martini and cocktail glasses (more on that to come once I'm done) so I'll have a great party set. We all found a few "win!" purchases including an Oregon Ducks mug for me to take home to Paul - he was stoked. 

4. Hobby Lobby (60th Avenue West, Lynnwood, WA, USA) and Trader Joes. 

I had forgotten how magical Hobby Lobby was. OH MY WORD. I could have spent so much money there. All us girls showed remarkable restraint - I was pleased and surprised, though I did find a few things I want to figure out how to recreate at home.

We hit up a few "usuals" after that - Payless Shoes, Trader Joes and Walmart before heading home. By the time we crossed the border, unloaded and got to our homes it was 10pm. Paul was a walking Zombie but I was on a shopping high. I immediately set about unloading and putting things out. So happy.

Sunday morning we got to sleep in and woke up to a rainy rainy day with no power! It actually made it all that much cozier. Paul and I spent the morning tidying the house up and then just chatting and connecting. We spent the afternoon working on some projects (details to come on that shortly) and then headed off to church where we were having a church service visited by a bunch of Camp friends. It was great. After that we had a bunch of them over for dinner and it was lovely.  

I swear it was lovely, despite what Mike's face would have you believe.

And that brings us to Monday - what will you hold for me this week life?