I often bring something that the hostess can serve/have for breakfast the next morning. Muffins or a sweet bread and juice are my go to if I don't know the family very well; a breakfast casserole is also nice if I know there are no dietary restrictions. As a hostess myself, it can be nice to wake up to something already done, since there are still usually last night's dishes to finish up!

Grocery store run completed (including figuring out what the heck to cook tonight!). Bonus load of laundry thrown in, and now it's time to tackle the kitchen...

Do you have a rice maker? I find a programmable rice maker + a crock pot = readier made meals. Sliced fruit and raw veggies can also round out a meal with very little prep time, even though it sounds cold in the winter!

Green soups! http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/healthy_recipes_for_green_soup Weirdly, even my picky "won't touch green vegetables" eaters will eat some of these green soups (the pureed ones work the best). I start most of my winter lunches with the basic green soup - I actually top it with diced steamed carrots and chopped raw tomatoes for more veggies. I find green soups an excellent way to eat those greens (like chard) that don't appeal to me in other forms. We also do roasted vegetable soups - just puree last night's leftover roast vegetables with a bit of stock (veggie, chicken, beef - your choice). You can fold in a bit of cream at the end if you like, but I find it rich enough without. Our favorite roast-turned-soup mix: carrots, parsnips, and onions. If you are not a huge squash fan, try tossing butternut squash cubes (small!) with a moroccan spice mix and roasting.

DH came home from work last night and let me know he invited some (6!) out of town colleagues for dinner. I feel like Thursday has already tackled me. Borrowing your motivation to throw on my sweats and face the day. First up: fold last night's laundry Then, grocery store, meal prep, vacuum and mop, and tackle the pile of boxes sitting in our dining room so we can actually, you know, sit down tonight.

Baked beans, polenta, twice baked potatoes, any vegetable gratin, rice pilaf, roasted vegetables... I'm making myself hungry!

I serve a hunk of blue cheese and a small bowl of jam on the side. A friend of mine brought me a tiny (adorable) bowl back from travels, and I love an excuse to use it! I figure half the fun is picking your own cheese to jam ratio. :D

If it doesn't need to be meal-y, blue cheese and raspberry jam with crackers is always an unexpected combination and usually disappears. Even people who don't like blue cheese (me!) tend to like this. I usually serve it with Carr's water crackers (or similar store brand).

My dh and I lived in an older home when we first got married, and of course I kept hearing "scurrying" in my walls. DH thought I was nuts, but he consented to putting out traps anyway. Never caught a thing. The first night my MIL spent with us, I heard a "snap" which really woke me up. A few moments later, I heard squeaking and something dragging down the hallway. Never have I woken dh up so fast. And, of course, MIL is a light sleeper and mentioned hearing some noises the next morning. At least she didn't investigate during the night! :D

No teens here, but I'm comparing my adult brother and my adult husband... I remember my brother eating voraciously as a teen, and he definitely went through a few "pudgy" phases, esp. as an early teen. He would then shoot up multiple inches in an amazingly short time. My MIL reports that my DH was the same way. Fast forward to now... My brother is in excellent shape and a very healthy weight for his 30-something body. My husband is less so. The primary difference is the eating habits they were taught, and by this I mean the habits surrounding the activity of eating, rather than whether food was healthy or not. I know my dh doesn't know a calorie from a coconut, and I'm pretty sure my brother is not much better. I also know, having grown up with my mother, that she and I can recite the calorie content of pretty much every bite we put in our mouths. She just tried not to heap her bad habits on my brother (I, on the other hand, didn't escape!). What my mother did do, that my MIL did not, is establish good eating routines with us as children/teens. We ate as many meals/snacks as possible at a table, doing nothing but eating. We helped in the kitchen frequently, and we both learned what goes in to making a meal. We sat down for family meals multiple times a week, or as often as crazy schedules permitted. My MIL never cooked, often threw money at her teens to drive through a fast food lane, and they virtually never sat down to a meal as a family. I think the major difference between my dh and my brother at this point is their awareness of eating habits - not so much nutrition, although both could certainly learn this if it was necessary - but knowing how to sit down and enjoy/appreciate a meal. Granted, this was not much in evidence in my brother's teen years; I'm not sure he chewed from the first bite he took as a wee one until he was actually trying to behave on dates with girls (and this still didn't stop the inhalation of food at the family table!). My dh, on the other hand, frequently snacks mindlessly, and will frequently work through breakfast or lunch and have no idea what he ate, how much, or if he was actually hungry. All this to say, as difficult as it is to not project our own food issues onto children, the outward habits you establish in your family without a lot of comment - primarily the mindful consumption of food - can make a huge impact on teens, especially of the male persuasion. It certainly won't guarantee a life without weight problems, but I do think learning to eat mindfully creates a nice background awareness that can help facilitate healthy eating in a future adult.

Sure fire way not to eat Halloween candy... schedule your glucose test for 8:00 a.m. on Nov 1. :glare: Now, if you had asked who had raided the Halloween candy to decide what NOT to give out so I can finally indulge tomorrow, that'd be me :D

It was a forbidden word in our house growing up! We used "toot" or "fluff". After a nannying job in college, I seem to have adopted "popper" for little ones.

Crock pot french dip sandwiches (chuck roast, can of beef broth, packet of onion soup, two beef bouillon cubes, and a bottle of dark beer), roasted sweet potato fries, and broccoli raw, because no one in my family will eat it cooked but me!

DH says that the Giants scored all their runs in three innings, so the Cardinals can do the same.

My hubby just dug up his "old" Cardinals hat (the hat he wore during last year's Series) and pregnant me just ran to the grocery store for some Budweiser so he could drink a St. Louis beer, all in the hopes of turning the tide. Here's super crossing our fingers at the top of the 4th.

Tea? (I hate using that word on this forum!) My husband, who has been diagnosed with ADD since college, will drink a mug or two of tea on the mornings when he chooses not to take his medication.

I just want to chime in and say that I received a package from my mother this morning, and the contents were three flannel baby blankets with my great-grandmother's tatted lace sewn around the edge of each. I completely remember these blankets - and now I even remember my mother packing them away for her own "grands" some days. Anyway, just letting you know that your girls will be thrilled someday to open their own package with a little bit of family history in it!

It is an interesting concept, and perhaps tenable in the elementary and early middle school years (I'm not familiar with the French system of grade levels, etc.) but once students enter the high school years - and perhaps even late middle school - I'm just not sure it is possible to receive a good education at the secondary (and post-secondary) level without homework. With the exception of math and sometimes science classes - which still followed the traditional lecture-work problems-go home and practice model - most of my high school courses required outside preparation. There is simply not enough time to study several novels in a school year if students are not doing the bulk of their reading outside the classroom, or if all writing happens only in the assigned 50-minute daily blocks. The same is true for the study of foreign language; time for practicing fluency is lost if all studying of grammar and vocabulary is limited to class time. The question of whether or not students will complete said homework is separate to the question of whether homework should be banned. Neither does a ban solve the problem of not properly scaffolding learning so that students are able to complete homework, whether that work is practice of introduced concepts or preparation for lecture/discussion. A ban on homework does nothing to ensure quality teaching.

He might want to check out the work of Neal Stephenson (particularly Anathem). It might not fit the "impress college profs" requirement, but they are enjoyable, challenging, contemporary novels.

Pseudo-classic, but Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca

I don't use a recipe, but generally I use ground beef with assorted vegetables as the first layer. Diced onions, carrots, and peas are the usual suspects, but I have also stuck in chopped green beans, corn, mushrooms, and even diced red pepper. Not traditional, but a yummy use of leftovers. I season the ground beef mixture lightly (salt, pepper, and cumin for us), and then make a gravy with the drippings. I know some people like to put tomatoes in their shepherd's pie, but we prefer without here. I top the ground beef mixture with mashed potatoes and then sprinkle cheese on top of the potatoes. If I'm popping it straight into the oven, it's about 15 min @ 350. If I make it earlier in the day, I tend to bake it for 30 min covered in foil, followed by 15 uncovered. I often double the recipe and freeze half.

:party:

My hubby and I have recently moved to the SF area, but he's a lifetime Cards fan. We're cheering loudly (and at home!) out here on the West Coast. :party:

I like surprise s'more cookies for something like this. Basically bake a chocolate cookie, cut large marshmallows in half and press one half on top of each cookie while it is still warm. Frost the cookie with chocolate icing, hiding the marshmallow "surprise". The treat isn't exactly in the center, but the chocolate cookie + icing look the same, and the marshmallow is definitely hidden inside. http://www.marthastewart.com/356831/surprise-cookies

I have red pumps AND red sandals. The pumps I wear most with jeans, now, but I used to wear them with suits and dresses when I was working full time. They are fabulous with dark jeans and a white button down! The sandals have HIGH heels, so I tend to wear them with summer dresses, but I sometimes wear them with jeans. Oh, and I wear a 9.5. I fully agree that it's the style not the color that can make shoes look "big". Pretty glad my mom talked me out of that red pair of Doc Martens I wanted at age 13. Ronald McDonald, indeed!