Weekend Update {And a Recipe!}

Happy Monday, all!

Hope you had fantastic Thanksgiving weekends and have come out of your turkey comas and made it safely back home from wherever you were traveling!

We actually didn’t do any traveling this year – Dave had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving which made it next to impossible to travel to Michigan to be with his family. I was pretty bummed about that, but as it turns out, it was a very good thing because we’ve spent the better part of the last week and a half trading germs and nobody was feeling 100%. And we were still able to spend the day with my parent’s – it was a nice, low-key day!

I was actually the last one to succumb to the germs – it was somewhat inevitable with all the scrubbing and disinfecting, etc. that I had been doing. I started feeling pretty yucky on Thanksgiving so my mom and I nixed our Black Friday shopping plans. Turns out I was able to do a little shopping in my PJ’s on the couch!

We’ve been needing to replace our printer for about a year now and I found a FANTASTIC deal on this printer at Office Max online! It’s even wireless so we can print to it from our phones! Not that I’ve ever had a need to print from my phone…but, whatever. Now I can if I want to.

I’m super excited about this because I’ve been going to the library to print off Lily’s preschool stuff. Not only is it not as cost effective, but it’s a huge pain in the booty! This will be so much handier.

Dave worked kind of a crazy schedule this weekend. It only happens twice a year but when it comes, it’s a bugger! He didn’t get home until 9:30 Friday night and then turned around to go back to work at 8 am on Saturday.

I always try to plan special things for us to do when he’s gone like this to make the time go faster – more for me, than for the girls But since I wasn’t really feeling the greatest, we kept it simple. I made homemade macaroni and cheese and chicken strips and ate supper while watching a special movie I had recorded earlier that day – Eloise at Christmastime. {Sidenote: The girl in this movie is super bossy and spoiled. Lily kept looking at me and saying, “She’s not really a very kind girl is she mommy?” We were able to have some good conversations about the way we treat other people, but I don’t think it will be one that we’ll watch again }

And for anyone who is interested, here is my go-to easy creamy homemade macaroni and cheese. I’ve tried a lot of different recipes and haven’t found one as good as this.

{Please notice I said easy, not healthy }

Better Than Boxed Macaroni and Cheese

• 12 oz. elbow macaroni noodles
• 16 oz. Velveeta
• 3/4 cup milk
• dash of salt and pepper

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Drain. Add remaining ingredients and cook over low heat until cheese is melted, stirring frequently.

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See how EASY that is? I don’t think the box mix is really any simpler, and this tastes so much better! You can also cook this in a slow cooker on low for 4-5 hours – just be sure to cook the macaroni noodles first!

If you wanted to make it healthier, you could try stirring in a butternut squash or sweet potato puree and use whole wheat pasta. And I saw a recipe floating around on Pinterest for homemade Velveeta. I haven’t looked at it so I don’t know how hard it is but it’s something I’m going to try eventually!

That’s all folks! Hope you have a happy Monday!