I know ... I know ....

Time flies and my bloggity-blog has been left behind in the dust. Oy. I really suck at this, don't I? Six plus weeks behind now in my weekly updates? Ouch. I have so many pictures, I promise. We've had all kinds of fun days ... and not so fun admittedly, but that's to be expected with 3 teenagers in the house, right? What else can I do?

I swear I'm editing photos this weekend so I can at least attempt to get caught up, but how about in the meantime I share a recipe today as a lame sort of apology? I found this while putting a lesson together for church. It was about cooking on a budget ... and I found a load of great tips and tricks at allrecipes.com. This recipe sounded too easy and too delish to pass up, and I was right. I got thumbs up from all 5 munsters and hubby too. You should definitely give it a try.Sesame Noodles

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package linguine pasta
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons safflower oil
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons chili sauce
6 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a serving bowl.

2. Meanwhile, place a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic, sugar, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and chili sauce. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over linguine, and toss to coat. Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds.

You may want to read the reviews here to see how you'd like to adjust the recipe to your own tastes. I made it as is and threw in a couple handfuls of chopped fresh brocolli to cook with the pasta, but could've easily reduce the oil by half. Play around with it and see what works for you.

Birthday Festivus

The budget conscious birthday fest this year for the big boy consisted of a sundae bar, night games for hours on end, an unexpected fireworks show and s'mores around the fire pit. We did all this at a great local park with supplies we mostly had on hand. Thanks to technology, we didn't even have to buy invites. He whipped up his own info-email and zipped it out to all his buddies. Easy-peasy. The kids all had a blast and had the most fun throwing cups of water at each other towards the end of the night ... go figure. It just goes to show you that you honestly don't have to spend a fortune on these kinds of things. Simple fun goes a long way.