At the Beach!

Didn't mean to wait until Wed to recap last weeks theme but man there is a lot of craziness going on around here lately! You wouldn't believe it!!

Beach week had a lot of fun things planned but I didn't quite pull them all off.  I already have some postposed for later in the summer.  Monday's are always a bit tricky as I have a Dr appt every week now.  One activity we wanted to do for beach week was take a swim and have a picnic so off to Grandma's pool we went!

That night for dinner we had my mom's famous seafood casserole for dinner and homemade Cheddar Bay Biscuits like Red Lobster makes, yummy. 

 

Cajun Seafood Casserole

 Ingredient

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup red peppers (chopped)

1 cup chopped celery

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 lb margarine

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cheddar cheese soup

3 cups cooked seafood  (I use combo artificial crabmeat and baby shrimp)

2 cups cooked rice

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1 cup chopped green onions

2 tbsp hot sauce (optional)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

Sauté onion, pepper, garlic & celery in margarine until tender. Add soups, parsley, green onions, and seafood. Heat thoroughly. Stir in rice and bread crumbs. Turn into a three quart casserole that has been sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Freeze.  Thaw and Bake 350F for 35 minutes. For the freezer meal we used uncooked rice and ½ cup of broth. 

 

Biscuits were just biscuits made from good old bisquick with cheese and garlic salt added. Yummy!

Oh wait. My kids weren't thrilled. They hate seafood casserole. Even my kids have their limits. They ate it though because I promised we could go to...

 

Orange leaf Fro-yo seems pretty beachy. My kids creations weren't quite this nauseating looking, but close!

Tuesday was one of my work days so the kids did some beachy coloring pages and played outside a lot with neighbor kids.  Then for dinner Dad made them...

Octo-dogs! They were really more of squid dogs because they didn't have 8 legs haha.  But if you split the end of the hotdogs before you boil they will flare out a little.  The kids thought they were cute and ate them right up!

Wednesday I knew I had to kick it in to high gear.  They all got dressed in Hawaiian gear.  In the morning we read lots of beachy books from the library as we were waiting during piano lessons and eye Dr appts.  Two of our favorites were:

We got home from our appts and did a few crafts before lunch:

 

Paper plate, hand print Pineapples and Paper plate seahorses.  We had fun decorating them!

Then after lunch while Charlotte was napping we made shell necklaces:

 

This was mine! It was fun, we watched Teen Beach Movie while making our jewelry. After that the kids went out to play until dinner.  Which was quite festive we had:

 

Hawaiian Pizza Braid

 

• 1/2 cup Canadian bacon or ham
• 2 cups of mozzarella cheese 
• 1/2 cup pineapple pieces (chopped)
• Pizza sauce
• Pillsbury pizza crust (classic)

Pizza Braid Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray cookie sheet with pam or use a nonstick pan.
3. Roll out the pizza crust and with a pizza cutter, cut 8-10 strips on each side leaving about 3 inches in the middle to put the ingredients.
4. Spread the pizza sauce, cheese, canadian bacon, and pineapple in the middle.
5. Braid the strips making a whole bunch of “x’s”
6. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown.

Pool Noodle Chex Mix

I found this recipe here at Betty Crocker except we did Pool Noodles instead of Beach Balls (because we had cheese puffs instead of cheese balls! haha!) and we added oyster crackers too!

We also had Octopus fruit:

Which was just apples and grapes and my 9 year old cut up for each of us. A fun way to have the kids help with dinner is to make the menu fun like this.  To drink we had homemade Sonic Ocean Water.

 

I found the recipe here.  I must say adding coconut extract to beverages may be my new favorite thing!!

For dessert I made Pineapple Coconut Cookies:

Here is the recipe for these delicious morsels! Yummy!

So it was a very festive dinner.  Thursday was another work day.  I didn't plan anything.  I try to not make life too complicated for their sitter and give myself a planning break as well. 

Friday I got to start off the day with this!!!

What says life at the beach more than a luxurious spa treatment! 'Bout time Momma got something awesome for herself! Oh man, I did not want to leave.  But I'm glad I did, we had an outing to Fredrick Meijer Gardens with my extended family which always ends up with the girls splashing in their large great lakes water tables.

It was a beautiful day for splashing. Tuckered out we watched Finding Nemo that night on the way home and off to bed they went.  We had a big event Saturday morning and after that everyone was pooped out.  During naptime (that even Grandma and Grandpa participated in!) Grace watched Lilo and Stitch while using a drawing app to draw ocean animals.

For dinner we ate one of my husbands FAVORITES: Fish Tacos!!

 

Honey Lime Tilapia Fish Tacos

 Ingredients

·         4-6 pieces of tilapia

·         1 Tbsp lime juice

·         2 Tbsp olive oil

·         2 Tbsp honey

·         ¼ cup orange juice

·         2 tsp chili powder

·         pinch cayenne pepper

·         garlic clove

·         cumin

·         salt and pepper

·         Cilantro ¼ cup

·         Lime zest

o    1/3 c flour

o    2 Tbsp olive oil for frying

o    additional honey and lime zest mixed for drizzling

o    Tortillas, salsa, shredded lettuce, diced avocado, tomato, onion for serving

 

Directions

·         Put fish in freezer bag with everything through up to flour. Freeze.  To cook, thaw.

·         Heat a cast iron or a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and add olive oil.

·         Dredge each piece tilapia through the flour until you have a very light coating.

·         Make sure the pan is hot. Add tilapia to the oil and cook until flaky and crispy on each side about 3-4 minutes per side.

·         Remove tilapia from pan and let drain on a paper towel for a few minutes. Serve with an additional drizzle of lime and honey. Cut into chunks for fish tacos

·         Serve on tortillas with salsa, shredded lettuce, diced avocado, tomato and onion

 

These turned out really delicious (which was a relief as I made up the recipe for my freezer meal group!) Along with our tacos we had more "fun with fruit"

 

 

 

After dinner we set up the sand table for the first time this year and Charlotte got to play with her new sand toys she got for her birthday!

Sunday was Father's Day, after church and lunch (grilled brats on Daddy's new grill!) I knew that I had to fulfill one big promise.  It can't be beach week without a trip to THE BEACH!! I however am not in a great shape for schlepping myself and all the beach paraphenalia out to the beach so a neighbor suggested Millenium Parks beach and I am so glad they did.  It was much easier to access and we had a fabulous time!

 

I made it!

 

You are never too young to pick up cute boys on the beach!

 

Loved the vintage quality of this pic, a girl and her Papa. Had to go with Sepia.

 

Happy to be out in the beautiful weather with my family!

 

Sandcastle time!

 

Snack time!

 

Couldn't get her out of the water.  She was giggling and pulling herself along in the sand, deliriously happy!

 

A perfect end to the beach week!

 

Now I am trying to learn how to pace myself.  This week we didn't quite accomplish as much as I had ambitiously planned and not nearly as much as last week however I think we still had some theme related fun!

 

This next week is Nature/Pioneer week.  I know that the baby could come any time so I'm kind of living a day-to-day existence.  Wish me luck!