What Does It Take...

...to feed 5 (one was missing tonight) hungry college (or recently graduated!) kids?

Well, tonight it took this:

5 pounds of ground beef (that's over 4 dozen meatballs), 2 bottles of BBQ sauce, 1 package of corn, a big bowl of mashed potatoes and a small bag of salad (not many are big on salads! ha).
BBQ meatballs are a family favorite. Ben downed 14 tonight. I'm sure Seth was close behind (or ahead!). Adam probably had 8 or 10. And ya know, even with all the work it takes to make these weekly meals for our "kids", we love it. To me, there's nothing better than sitting down to a meal with "family" and seeing them enjoy what I cooked. That's why I love to cook and bake. Which is probably also why we have 6 "foster" college kids and a weekly "family supper"! This is what God has called us to as a family...and NONE of us would trade it for anything!!!

Cooking with Mama

Anna is my right-hand girl...she loves to help me, especially with cooking and washing dishes (seems like I used to be a lot like that...right Mom?) Anyway, yesterday afternoon we made some more salsa (I had 2 buckets full of tomatoes!). And yes, it's already gone! Binga brought Anna and I some matching Amish-made aprons (thanks!!), so we wore our matching aprons, chopped up veggies, and made salsa! Anna has allergies and they just started in again this week. She gets completely stuffed up-sneezing-coughing-gags on the gunk at night. It's miserable (don't I know!). So she carries a box of tissues around with her and she's such a little old lady about it! She keeps one tissue and uses it several times, tucking it away in a pocket in between! Hilarious. So this day she was keeping her tissue in her apron pocket. It was absolutely adorable to see her tuck her tissue away in her apron pocket!!!

Look at me Mom! -- she calls me Mom most of the time these days :(

Tucking her tissue into her pocket.

Helping Mama chop up the green onions (she likes to use the Pampered Chef chopper)

Since Jacob was already up from his nap and wanting my attention, I put a Berenstain Bears movie on the computer. Anna stood there and watched and stirred for the longest time! In fact, she got mad when it was time to put the salsa into the jars!

This is what Jacob did while the girls cooked (I'm sure it won't be long before he'll be watching ESPN while the girls cook!!). *he didn't actually sit in that chair the whole time--I just plopped him up there for a picture! he's growing up too fast!!! :(

Daddy had Anna bedtime duty tonight. Not sure who fell asleep first! She was watching a cartoon after her bath (remember when I said she doesn't like to be cold? Even in the summer time she likes to stay in her towel where it's "warm". So she usually gets to watch 10-15 min. of a cartoon after her bath.) I was working on the computer and realized after a while it was pretty quiet in there. Like father like daughter! I've always said they have the same sleeping habits (such as they have to be covered with blankets-big ones-no matter how hot they get!). And b/c of her severe congestion right now, she's been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of our bedroom so she doesn't wake up Jacob. She gags multiple times during the night on all the gunk, which makes her half-way wake up and cry quite a bit (who can blame her?!).

Yummy new recipe

We had some friends over for supper tonight and I thought I'd try a new recipe I found (of all places) on the back of the "crispy rice" box. It was so good! And it's incredibly easy to make and doesn't take very long.

Chinese Chicken Bake
2 Tbs butter, melted
1/4 tsp onion powder (I didn't have any so I used garlic powder instead)
2 1/2 c. crispy rice cereal
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
2 c. chopped cooked chicken or turkey (I used chicken)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup
1 1/4 c. chopped celery
2 Tbs. chopped green onion
4 1/2 tsp soy sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Combine butter and onion (or garlic) powder. Gradually add cereal, stirring until all pieces are evenly coated. Set aside. Combine remaining ingredients. Stir in 1 c. cereal mixture. Pour into ungreased 2-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining 1 1/2 c. cereal mixture. Bake 30 min. or until top is lightly browned. Makes 4-5 servings.

This fed 4 adults and 2 kids. So good!! :)