This week I’ve planned a pretty simple menu because I’m going to be super busy getting everything ready for my daughter’s birthday party this coming Saturday.

Also, since I’m spending quite a bit this week on party supplies and party food, I’m trying to work with ingredients I have in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer.

~Here’s what’s cooking this week~

• Monday:

Breakfast - Cinnamon Raisin Granola with Yogurt
Dinner - Hamburgers, Garden Pasta Salad (It didn’t work out to make this one last Saturday.)

• Tuesday:

Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes w/ Maple Syrup
Dinner - Fried Rice, Egg Rolls, Steamed Broccoli (I’m reheating egg rolls from the freezer.)

• Wednesday:

Breakfast - Oatmeal, Fruit
Dinner -  Crock Pot Texas Hash, Corn on Cob, Baked Potatoes

• Thursday:

Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Turkey Bacon
Dinner - Healthy Chicken Casserole, Green Beans

• Friday:

Breakfast - Oatmeal, Fruit
Dinner - Leftovers

• Saturday:
  

Breakfast - Cereal
Dinner - Party Food!!

• Sunday:

Breakfast - Cereal
Dinner - Sandwiches

Hope you have a great week!

For more menu ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

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I’m so excited to be participating in the Ultimate Recipe Swap this Thursday over at Life As Mom. It’s all about birthday cakes. If you read my printable birthday party planner post, you know I’m in the middle of planning my daughter’s princess party right now.

Obviously, I don’t have her castle cake made yet, so I can’t share that one with you for a couple of weeks, but I do have a cake I did for my son’s race car party when he turned five.

Since I did this cake before I started blogging, I didn’t think to take step by step photos of this one. However, I can tell you it’s a fairly easy cake to decorate, even if you’ve never decorated anything before.

Here’s how I made the race car cake.

1. I baked two 9 inch round cakes using this chocolate cake recipe. (I love this moist delicious cake recipe.)
2. Then I cut a crescent shape out of one of the cakes, so that I could slide the other one right into the first cake’s side, creating the shape of the track.
3. Next I frosted the whole cake in chocolate frosting.
4. Using a grass tip I piped this frosting, tinted green, into the center and around the sides of the cake.
5. Then, I used a small round tip to make the dashes on the road.
6. Lastly, I printed off the computer checkered flags I made using a spreadsheet, glued them to toothpicks and stuck them in the grass on one side of the track. Of course, the finishing touch was the toy cars.

Tip: If you’ve never done decorating before, or piped frosting before, make up a batch of frosting and practice on a cutting board or the back of a baking sheet.

I always practice new techniques this way. I make sure I am pretty confident with the results I get on the cutting board, before piping it onto the actual cake.

Getting the frosting consistency correct is essential when decorating. Once you get the consistency right for the type decorating you’re doing, you are at least halfway to a good end result. It may take some practice getting this right also.

What’s a race car party without fun decorations?

My sewing machine got to work over-time for this party. I found an idea somewhere for doing traffic lights with flags coming out of the top as centerpieces for the tables. In a effort to save money, I bought some fabric I found at Walmart on clearance that was the color scheme for the party.

Then I proceeded to make about 20 little flags. I used skewers as the flag poles and made the traffic lights out of cardboard and construction paper.

To get the flags to stand up, I used little individual sized cookie cups with lids (like you can find sometimes by the registers at Walmart) and poked the skewers down into the lids to get them to stand up.

I also used some of the fabric to make bean bags for a tire bean bag toss and a banner for the back wall.

Here is a picture of the room once I got it all decorated.

It was sure a lot of work, but so worth it. David loved it, and that’s what counts.

For more cake decorating inspiration, be sure to check out the Birthday Cake Round-up at Life As Mom.

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We’re all back in town this week and ready to resume our normal schedule. Well, at least I am. The kids had a blast last week spending time with their grandparents.

They got to do a little swimming.

Then we visited a local petting zoo.

(Sorry about the terrible photo quality. I took the pictures with my cell phone. Obviously, I didn’t have sense enough to pull my good camera out of my purse and take pictures with it. )

Nevertheless, we had fun, but we’re back and ready for a new week to begin.

As far as my meal plan goes this week, I’ve got several new recipes I’m excited about trying.

~Here’s what’s cooking this week~

• Monday:

Breakfast - Cinnamon Raisin Granola with Yogurt
Dinner - Spaghetti w/ Pasta Sauce, Salad

• Tuesday:

Breakfast - Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes w/ Maple Syrup
Dinner - Grilled Salmon, Roasted Asparagus, Brown Rice Pilaf

• Wednesday:

Breakfast - Oatmeal, Fruit
Dinner -  Pinto Bean Casserole, Salad

• Thursday:

Breakfast - Eggs, Veggie Sausage Links
Dinner -  Chicken Tetrazzini, Cucumber Salad

• Friday:

Breakfast - Mini Apple Pies
Dinner - Pizza, Simple Summer Fruit Salad

• Saturday:
  

Breakfast - ????
Dinner - Hamburgers, Garden Pasta Salad

• Sunday:

Breakfast - Cereal
Dinner - Santa Fe Soup

Hope you have a great week!

For more menu ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Related posts:

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