My First OAMM Guest Blog

I'm a guest blogger on Once a Month Mom today! Check out my guest blog post here. This is a short one, but has pics. There will be a longer one with lots of tips for healthy, easy freezer meals coming up soon!

Top Ten Tuesday

The Favorite Christmas Album Edition

I don't actually have this one yet, but I want it. Sarah McLachlan sings Christmas songs? You know it will be great!
Handel's Messiah is Christmas. Every year my chorus sang this and it was mighty powerful!

The movie elf is what starts the Christmas season for me and there is nothing better than Zooey Dechanel singing Christmas songs!

Who doesn't love Raffi? I love Raffi and play him in my classroom often.

This is one of my favorite Christmas movies. Love John Denver...love the muppets!

Classic Christmas movie...classic Christmas music.

This is another one that I don't have yet, but want! James Taylor sings Christmas??? Yes!!

LOVE this one- do I even need to comment on it? Nat King Cole...chestnuts...fire...

I like this Christmas Harry album better than his new one. It is great!
This is my very, very favorite holiday album. I am a huge BNL fan to begin with. This combines classic Christmas tunes with classic Hanukkah songs with some very funny ones in between. If you own any album, it should be this one!

If you love Top Ten Tuesday, check out the rest over at OhAmanda's!

Cake Wrecks- the tour

Last night, one of my sisterchicks, Staci, and I went to the Cake Wrecks book signing in Atlanta. Cake Wrecks is a hilarious blog about "When Professional Cakes Go Horribly, Hilariously Wrong."

We saw some interesting people, especially this woman, who had the strangest hair cuts I've ever seen.

We ate a yummy cake by a professional cake maker in Atlanta! Yummy mocha filling.

Here is the author and webmaster, Jen Yates and her hubby, John. They were quite funny, quirky and nerdy...just like I like 'em!
Although I tried to watch them and pay attention, it was hard when this was my view.
Yes, this man is popping his girlfriend's back pimples...in a public place...1 foot away from me...
...he kept going and going, and then they'd kiss a little bit...then laugh hysterically...then pop some more.
At each tour, they have a contest where people use cupcakes to replicate some of the wrecks. Here are some of my favorites.

Here's Staci and I with Jen. I shamelessly tried to talk her into coming to Blissdom! We will see.
Next up? The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond's book tour. See you there!

My Once a Month Mom experience

First off, let me say that even with mistakes on my part and on the directions, it was AWESOME! I had to make one trip to the store because I ran out of a few things and I ended up with a few leftovers, but we have a stocked freezer! For the November menu we made the following:

- 2 veggie pizzas

-105 sausage balls

-4 sweet potato casseroles

-4 freezer mashed potatoes (which we struggled with b/c our taters weren't cooked enough)

-32 butterhorn rolls (like a Pillsbury crescent roll, but homemade!)

-2 cranberry upside down cakes (which I forgot to add the oil too- oops!)

-2 frozen peanut butter pies

-16 cream cheese & peach stuffed french toast (I modified the recipe)

-8 bacon brunch bites

-4 broccoli, turkey & stuffing casseroles

-4 turkey shepherd's pies

-4cheesy broccoli & rice with turkey (we ran out of turkey, so two have turkey, two don't)

-4 velveeta cheesy southwest meatloaf

-4 sausage vegetable medley

-4 Turkey and Noodle Casseroles

-4 large bags of spaghetti sauce

-4 asian peanut butter pork loin

Divide that up between two families and you each have 16 meals, 2 appetizers, 2 desserts, a bread, 2 sides and 2 breakfasts. For a total of $180 each.

I cooked the turkeys the night before and I also decided to chop all the veggies, as suggested. By myself (Heather was spending time with her cousin who just came home from the war!) it took about 3 1/2 hours. I was so glad I did this though because today only took about 8 hours, including cleanup. I also decided to make stock out of one of the carcasses. After I picked the meat off the bones, I put the carcass (chopped up to fit) into the crockpot, added half an onion, a few ribs of celery and a carrot, covered it in water and let it cook all night. This morning I had beautiful rich stock, which I needed for the recipes anyways. I'm really into stock lately, as it's practically free! Just add a few veggies if you have them and cook your bones over night. I keep mine in the fridge and use it whenever I make rice or mashed potatoes or anything else that calls for water. Even grits!

We had a great time today and since I did so much chopping the night before, I didn't have as much to do as Heather (she was person A) so I ended up making a lot of person A items too.

The only problem we had was not enough big bowls. Next time I think I may invest in some baby pools or perhaps some large garbage cans for mixing. LOL

We will definitely do this next month!

I'm off to soak in a tub and then enjoy a meal!

My Fat Cat

This is Dexter. Dexter is fat. Can you resist Dexter and his handsome face? I thought not.

What about Dexter's funny little rabbit feet and his large bulging belly? It is so squishy!

Here is a full body view for you. This is his usual way of relaxing.

Dex is so fat that he can't fit on the window sill. God, I love this cat.

Once a Month Mom

After seeing my friends Amanda and Mandi blog about their experience with Once a Month Moms, I had to join in. I'm a teacher and we have a furlough day on Tuesday. It was supposed to be a teacher work day, but now I have to stay home...and not get paid. So, I decided to try theNovember menu with my bff, Heather. We spent $340 total- that is for both families. I bought the two turkeys at Target for 88 cents/lb which was much less than anywhere else. Then, I bought most of the canned goods and produce at Aldi's and then the rest of the stuff at Publix. Here are our groceries:

I will definitely blog about the whole experience and probably tweet throughout the day.