A Mish Mash on Monday!

Hi!! How was your weekend??  I hope you had some beautiful fall weather and got to enjoy some time outside with people you love the most!

Sooo...I usually post my menu plan for the week on Monday- but I am skipping that today.  I have a menu plan- but it is not anything that needs to be posted for all of the internet to see. HA!  My girls go on Fall Break starting tomorrow and we are leaving on Friday to take a quick trip to see my grandfather in Southern Illinois.  So my mission for the week- was to only get the bare minimum from the grocery store and plan our meals around what we already have in the freezer and fridge.  So- you could say our meals are a bit random.

Anyway- next week- I will be back with our weekly menu plan and hopefully a few new recipes I am going to try out!

Speaking of recipes- I have to tell you guys a funny story.  So a couple weeks ago- I had Shay's Apple Cider Pork Tenderloin on our menu plan.  After reading over her recipe, I got all of my ingredients ready to go and started dumping them in the crock pot.  The pork had been in the crock pot for couple hours when it was time for us to leave to go pick up my daughter from school and my youngest daughter, Celine, said, "What smells SO STINKY?" right as she walked by the crock pot! HA! That should have been my first clue I might have messed up the recipe.  But nope- I paid no attention to her comment and when Aaron got home from work- I told him to turn the crop pot to "warm" and shred the pork up so it would be ready for dinner.  You guys.  He came outside and said as soon as he lifted the lid off the crock pot- his eyes felt like they were going to burn out of his sockets. HA!  Then- he tried to taste a bite of the pork and choked on the "fumes" from the crock pot and couldn't even try the pork. I am dying laughing, but also thinking- what could possibly be wrong with this delicious pork tenderloin recipe?? So- I came inside to try the pork for myself- and totally choked when I opened the top to the crockpot.  Uh oh.  I totally messed something up. 

I quickly pulled up Shay's recipe and and read over it again.  And then I realized what I had done.  Her recipe calls for 8 cups of apple CIDER (or juice).  You guys.  I put in 8 CUPS OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.  8 cups. of VINEGAR.  No wonder it smelled so stinky! Hahaha!! I have no idea why I "saw" vinegar after apple cider and why it didn't register with me that 8 cups of vinegar is not normal in a recipe.  Totally a winning moment for me in the kitchen.

Needless to say- I did everything I could to salvage our vinegar pork and my gracious husband literally choked down a serving of it at dinner (because I refused to let it all go to waste).  

Soooo.....yeah...I still have yet to make the CORRECT version of the apple cider pork tenderloin recipe...have you made it? It looks declicious!

Speaking of pork tenderloin- we made this recipe last night for dinner and it was WONDERFUL. The only change we made to the recipe is that it called for 1 cup of red wine, which we didn't have in the house (we are not wine drinkers).  So, we substituted a cup of chicken stock in place of the wine and it turned out great!  We served the pork tenderloin with a little bit of the juice (which you could easily turn into a gravy if you wanted to) over some mashed potatoes (totally took the easy way out and used these) and some steamed green beans. Only one of our kids didn't like it- so that is a complete dinner time success for us!! HA! 

And finally to end this super "mish-mash" of a post- I thought I would share a few fun pictures from our weekend. 

Friday night- we went to our church's "trunk or treat" event and it was so fun! The kids had a blast running around trick or treating and James had his first lollipop and I have to tell you- I think he is changed forever :)  I attempted to take pictures...but pretty much failed. There was just too much candy vying for the kids attention! HA!

Saturday- we had our friends over- they have 4 year old QUADRUPLETS!!! for a morning playdate!  We had donuts and apple slices for a snack and the kids played their little hearts jumping on the trampoline, playing on the play scape and making huge messes in our playroom.  Aaron and I had a blast chatting with our friends- we randomly met them at the YMCA over the summer and have become really good friends with them!!  Of course, I had great intentions of getting a picture of all 8 of the kids, being super cute and eating their donuts...and yeah. that didn't end up happening. HA!

After our friends left, we loaded up in our van, and headed to Sam's club to walk around and try out all the yummy samples they have on Saturday.  I may or may not have told Aaron that this was going to be everyone's lunch- and that he better fill up! HA!

Sample Time!!!

James was all about the chicken nugget samples...we might have had to go back and get him a second one ;)

 

The "big" girls and I ran some errands while the babies took an afternoon nap and Aaron started on the big job of re-organizing the storage side of our basement.  YUCK. So glad I got to wander around Bath and Body Works- HA!

Once the girls and I got home, we all headed out again to run a few more errands, one of which included a return at Home Depot.  The girls were BESIDE themselves when they saw all the Christmas decorations!! They seriously had the best.time.ever playing in this row of Christmas trees. I know where I am taking them the next time it is rainy and we are cooped up inside! Home Depot for the win! HA!

Sunday we had church and then it was lots of laundry for me and more organizing for Aaron while the kids napped and relaxed.  We had our family pictures last night and let me tell you- I don't even drink and I needed a STIFF cocktail after it was all said and done.  As you may already know....trying to get 6 people to all smile and look at the camera, at the same time, when one of them is a 15 month old baby boy who only wants to run and eat sticks and another one is a 3 year old drama queen...well...let's just say it was a doozy of a time. HA!

But then my friend sent me this "sneak peek" and I melted.  It was worth it!!

So...if you made it to the end of this super random post- CONGRATULATIONS!

Hope you have the best day and an awesome week!!