August Menu

It's time for another delicious menu. Want to know why I think planning monthly menus is the BEST? Click here for my explanation.

August is going to be a tight month for us, so this menu is all about the budget. I'll be using most of the same ingredients and don't expect anything exotic. Simple, nutritious and cheap for August!

August Menu

Pizza Braid (freezer)

Beef Enchiladas (freezer)

Breakfast Skillet (hashbrowns, eggs, ham, green pepper)

Chicken Sandwiches

Hot dogs on the grill

Taco Salad

Hamburgers

Shepherd's Pie

Cheesy Beef-a-roni

BBQ Cups

Teriyaki Noodle Bowls

Salt and Pepper Pork Chops

Homemade Pizza (Make 4 times, each Friday, new toppings)

Spaghetti

Apple Cinnamon German Pancakes (with ham slices)

Beef Stroganoff

Cheesy Texas Bake

Crispy Chicken Strips

Crunchy Fish Tacos

Hawaiian Haystacks

Chicken, Rice and Bean Burritos (make double, serve twice)

Honey Dijon Chicken

Super Nachos

Porcupines

Tuna Alfredo

Blueberry Pancakes and scrambled eggs

Chicken Quesadillas

Primary Program & Activities

Phew, I made it through another month of sharing time. August I will be spending most of my energies on getting our primary program perfect. We've written an outline, it's adorable and I think it will be fantastic. If any of you are interested in the word doc. of our outline, email or leave a comment and I'd be happy to email it to you.

Also, we've scheduled our next primary activity. It's going to be a Primary Talent Show, on a friday evening, and we're inviting the whole ward to be an audience.

Anybody done this before? We're thinking apple cider, popcorn, licorice, stage lights and maybe cute skits by the classes.

Any other great ideas?

July Sharing Time Week 4 - Pioneer Examples

Update July 2015- Hi friends, thanks for finding me!  This lesson was posted in 2010 and is still one of my post popular posts.  I'm in the process of re-launching my blog and transferring over old PDF files and making them instant downloads.  I just finished this one, so jump over to camillepardo.com and you'll find my Pioneer Lesson with printables that actually work.  Check back for lots of great Primary ideas.  Thanks!

Here are my plans for a fun sharing time, tying in the theme with Pioneer Day.
First, I will explain to the children that Jesus Christ is a perfect example for us to follow because He always obeyed Heavenly Father and he showed love to everyone. We are celebrating Pioneer Day this week, the pioneers followed Jesus Christ's example. Today, we're going to try to be pioneers and get our covered wagon all the way to the Salt Lake Valley. To get there, we have to make smart decisions and have Jesus Christ as our example. Each time we make a good decision we will move closer to Salt Lake. There are some obstacles on our way too, but the pioneers will help us get through them.
I am using this link to make a 3D covered wagon. Print and assemble this covered wagon from the July 2001 Friend. Cute eh? I'm only putting together the wagon, not the oxen, but it's up to you. (Print it from the link though, not here, I shrunk them to show you so they would end up tiny!)

I'm using a piece a yarn that will stretch all the way across the primary room. I will loop the wagon through the yarn, and we will slide it along from one end of the room to the other. Don't tape it too high, I want the children to be able to reach it.
Cut and fold word strips and place in the wagon. One child at a time gets to come up and choose a paper, answer the question, then move the wagon forward. There will be 3 obstacles on our way, a blizzard, a mountain and a river. Each obstacle has a pioneer story to match, after we discuss the story and how the pioneers followed Christ's example of loving one another we will remove the obstacle and keep on walking.

Here are the obstacle matchups:

Snowflake: GAK picture 414 - Martin Handcart Company, Bitter Creek Wyoming 1856
Mountain: GAK picture 412 - Mary Fielding Smith and Joseph F. Smith crossing the plains
River: GAK picture 415 - Helping the handcart company across the Sweetwater River

(I will summarize the photo from the back of the picture and discuss who was following Christ's example.)

Here are the cutouts for the snow, river and mountain. To print, clicking on the image, then right clicking and saving to your computer. If the quality isn't good, email me and I'll send the pdf file.

Here are the word strips. Again, if you have trouble printing, just email me and I'll send over the word document. The decisions aren't difficult, but they have a right answer. Some children will need prompting from you and their teacher.

In closing, I will bear testimony that in following Christ's perfect example we can overcome obstacles and reach our ultimate goal - eternal life. We can be just like the pioneers and help others on their way.

July Week 3 Sharing Time

Every 3rd Sunday we have a special guest in our primary, her name is Sister Friendly. Sister Friendly highlights a few stories from the Friend magazine and reviews, plays a game and reinforces the principles taught in the story. She is super cute and bubbly, and most of the kids don't even know her real last name, she's just friendly:) She chooses stories as soon as the friend comes out and announces it in opening exercises and in the ward bulletin. She encourages them to read the stories with their parents so they are prepared for her 3rd Sunday visit. Our primary has been doing this for about 1 1/2 and the children are excited about reading their Friend, and they're getting their parents to read with them.

Subscriptions are only $8 per year, so it really is possible for every child to receive the Friend. Also, did you know there is a hidden CTR ring in every issue? Our Bishop gives a treat to any child that brings their Friend and shows him where they found it.

Anyway, since Sister Friendly is visiting during Sharing Time my lesson will be really short. Since we've been talking about some stories of Jesus these past few weeks, this week I want the children to tell back the stories to me. I'm going to use flannel boards and several children come up at a time and put the pieces in order and tell each story briefly.

My mom has those awesome flannel board sets with every story from the Bible and Book of Mormon, I will be borrowing hers. For those of you that don't have any, you have to check out this fabulous website Chocolate on my Cranium. She spent the time getting all of these flannel board stories together, and you can print them! Spend some time browsing her site, she has some great resources.

After we retell the stories, I will have the children read John 13:34 with me and give them each a heart to keep in their scriptures to remember to be like Jesus.

We will sing "I'm Trying to be like Jesus" and close.

It's a simple week for me this week, but I'm planning a super fun pioneer sharing time for next week. I'll get the printables up soon!

(For the hearts printable, try clicking on the image and then saving it your computer. If that doesn't print clearly, just email me and I'll send over the pdf!)

Navajo Tacos

You know those days where you have no money to go grocery shopping until payday - more than a week away? And you know you're going to be eating out of your pantry and freezer and try to be creative to make it delicious. Well, we're having one of those weeks, payday cannot come soon enough. Ironically, weeks ago I signed up to feed dinner to our church missionaries, lovely right? I didn't have enough chicken, beef or pork to make something nice, but c'mon, I'm Camille, I can't serve something lame and crappy, lol. I did stare into my pantry for a while before the idea hit me - navajo tacos!! I had 2 cans of chili, milk and eggs for the dough and enough toppings to squeak by, phew. And yes, it was so delicious the missionaries had no idea just how cheap the meal was:) Beats tuna casserole aye?

Note: I make my own dough for the scones, it just tastes so much better. I have friends that use rhodes frozen rolls, it saves time, but consider making your own using my Best Ever Bread Dough recipe, it's fool proof. One recipe made 16 giant scones, I stuck the extras in the freezer for another fast meal, or you could have the recipe for 8. Enjoy!

Husband and Missionary Rating: 5 stars

1 recipe of Best Ever Bread Dough

2 cans chili
1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce
1 cup cheese, grated
Diced tomatoes, olives, onions and your favorite toppings

Oil for frying


Separate your dough into 16 equal portions, they end of being about the size of tennis balls.

Roll out until flat. I like to make my scones thin, they cook faster and you don't run the risk of them being doughy in the middle.

Heat your oil to medium-high. Make sure the oil is heated before your drop in the first scone. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Drain on a plate with paper towels.

Heat up chili (yay for the microwave) and assemble toppings.

Don't they look golden delicious? Mmm Mmmm! Scoop on your chili, then layer with cheese and other toppings. And yes, you're allowed to have seconds.

Linking up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
and Idea Sharing Wednesday at Women Who Do It All

Score at the Thrift Store

I like to go thrifting once a week or so. My favorite junk store has a huge aisle of just crafts. Mostly is tole painting, ceramics or yarn, but occasionally I've found cuties. This week I scored big time, WOOT WOOT!

I use bias tape a lot in my sewing, but I hate paying $1.97 for a package that only has 4 yards. While sifting through a pile of random junk on the craft aisle, I found a bag packed with old packages of bias tape. Now, when I say old, I mean old.

Look at these adorable labels? Can you believe it, 15 cents for 6 yards?

I love how vibrant the colors are. Some lady had good taste when she bought all these bright, fun colors.

So yeah, I got this entire pile for only $4. Totally made my day!

I'm going to use the bias tape, but I hate to throw away all those adorable vintage labels. I want to mod podge them to something . . . I don't know! Any ideas? What should I do with those cutie pies?

P.S. I'm sewing up 4 zebra aprons right now with this vintage bias tape on the edge - up for sale soon for some lucky ladies!

July Sharing Time Week 2

Week 2: Jesus Christ went about doing good.

I don't know about your kids, but our primary kids love rolling dice. I created a cube that matches with pictures of Christ doing good. Children will match the picture on the dice to a story of Jesus doing good. We'll discuss the story and recite the scripture Acts 10:38, "He went about doing good, for God was with him."

I'm using pictures from the Gospel Art Kit and hopefully our library has a picture of Jesus feeding the 5,000. If not, I might print one from a google search. Here are the matchups:

Jesus Blesses Jairus's Daughter GAK 215 - SICK

Christ and children from around the world GAK 608 - CHILDREN

Christ ordaining the apostles GAK 211 - HANDS

Christ healing a blind man GAK 213 - EYES

Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead GAK 222 - DEAD

Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Library) - FOOD

After we've matched up all the photos with the dice, we'll talk about how we can do good on earth just like Jesus. I will have a child roll the dice again, and tell us how they can do good with their hands, eyes, helping the sick, children, someone who lost a loved one or bless others with food. I hope they come up with good examples, the children are very smart and compassionate when it comes to service.

Every time we roll the dice I want to recite that scripture so we can have it memorized by the end. Here is my handout for the children, hopefully they can recite it to their parents and tell them what we learned about.

Clipart from: sundayschoolresources.com, funnycoloring.com, lds.org and thecoloringspot.com

I printed my cube on green cardstock, simply follow the directions in the corner to assemble.

Click here to download the pdf of the dice.

Grilled Chicken Tostadas

Yes, delicious tostadas. This recipe is amazing on the grill, but since we had wannabe hurricane winds outside, I just went for broiling in the oven. Tostada shells are just like hard shell tacos, except round and flat. I love the "Guerrero" brand, they should be right by tacos and tortillas at your grocery store. I covered the chicken and melted cheese with chunky guacamole, but you could go the lettuce/olives/salsa route too.

Note: I used some of my diced chicken that I always keep in the freezer. Makes for some speedy dinner prep! Click here for my easy instructions on getting chicken ready for your freezer. I just chop it, separate in to 2 cup portions, label and freeze. The night before simply place in your fridge to thaw, or if you are super last minute, give it a minute in the microwave and then right to your warm skillet. Simple pimple!

Husband Rating: 4 stars (he said refried beans would have made it a 5, lol, I'll work on that!)

2 cups cooked, diced chicken
1 Tbsp. fajita seasoning
1/2 tsp. favorite Mrs. Dash seasoning
1 1/2 cups grated cheese
8 tostada shells
1 avacado
1 large tomato
1/4 cup red onion
1 tsp. lemon juice
Pinch of Salt
Sour cream, optional

Add fajita seasoning and Mrs. Dash to your chicken. (My chicken was still partially frozen, so I added a Tbsp. of butter to a warm skillet and stirred it around w/ the seasoning.) Heat oven to broil. Layer tostada shells on a cookie sheet.

Spread around 1/4 cup of chicken on to each tostada.

Add a handful of cheese to each tostada.

Broil for 4-5 minutes, or until cheese is melted and tostada shell is warm and golden. Top with guacamole, sour cream and favorite toppings.

Chunky Guacamole:

I threw 1 avacado, 1 large tomato and 1/4 cup of red onion into my magic bullet and pulsed for a few seconds. Stir in lemon juice and a dash of salt. If you don't have a food processor, mash avacado and add in diced tomatoes and onions. Yummy stuff!

Your homework for this weekend is simple, but important. As we celebrate our Nation's independence with good food, fireworks and too much candy, I want you to take a moment to be proud to be an American.

When the flag goes by at the parade, stand up, put your hand on your heart and be truly grateful. Teach your children to stand and show their respect too. When the National Anthem plays sing along.

I love living in America, the promised land, and I'm very grateful for the men and women who sacrificed for our beautiful USA.

And thanks to MarySue for reminding me of the best verse of our national anthem:

Oh, thus be it ever,

when free men shall stand

Between their loved homes

and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace,

may the heav'n-rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made

and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must,

when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto:

"In God is our trust!"

And the star-spangled banner

in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free

and the home of the brave!