Menu Plan Monday 3/26

Welcome to Menu Plan Monday, hosted by the Organizing Junkie!

I do my menu planning Thursday through Wednesdays, so I've decided to post the menu that we're currently in the midst of. If you are here for ideas, it should work just as well for you!

I like doing it this way, rather than starting with Monday, because make my menu after I get the sales flyers on Tuesday. I buy my things early in the sale, while they still have the products advertised. Also, by starting with Thursday, I'm more likely to cook as planned over the weekend. I spend much time planning my menu, so for the first few days I'm really excited to make the things I've planned. Towards the end of it, that excitement is fading, and I'm more likely to want to eat out. If that happens at the same time as a weekend, we're doomed.

I'm doing pretty good overall. I didn't make the Chicken Cordon Bleu on Friday; we needed to talk about something, and I made the decision that it was a restaurant conversation. Since we ate out too much while dating, we have all our best talks while eating at restaurants. For some reason, chips and salsa make everything better. I'm going to make the Chicken Cordon Bleu on Monday and freeze it ahead. We'll probably have that for dinner on Tuesday, move Tuesday's dinner to Wednesday, and save pizza muffins for next week.


Thursday: kel - "off day" - not working, friend over for afternoon
Breakfast: poached eggs & toast
Lunch: hubs - left over fajita bowl; me - burrito
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie (make 6 servings, freeze ahead)

Friday: Kel: Home - work part-day, make Chicken Cordon Bleu
Breakfast: poached eggs & toast
Lunch: hubs - out; me - burrito w/ friend visiting
Dinner: Chicken Cordon Bleu, salad

Saturday: kel - bsf and fellowship; Church workday for afternoon/lunch; cousin's play in evening
Breakfast: kel - poached egg and toast; hubs - oatmeal
Lunch: free, at church
Dinner: Out - on the way to the play

Sunday: church in am, church party for lunch/fellowship
Breakfast: peanut butter & english muffin
Lunch: free, at church for party
Dinner: tuna melts and chili
Prep: Start oatmeal in crockpot

Monday: kel - work at home, bsf - leave at 5:45
Breakfast: Crockpot irish oatmeal
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - left over shepherd's pie
Dinner: Chicken quesadillas and left over chicken chili

Tuesday: kel - friends visiting am, work at home afternoon
Breakfast: left over irish oatmeal with egg white scrambles
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - free lunch at work
Dinner: ham & cheese grills w/ fries & salad

Wednesday: kel - work at office; hubs - class - leave at 6pm
Breakfast: poached eggs and toast
Lunch: kel - burrito, hubs - Peanut butter sandwich and fruit
Dinner: Pizza muffins

Happy cooking to you!

Menu Planning

My first attempt last week at creating a thorough menu plan worked out really well.

So, I've done it again and am set to go grocery shopping this morning. And again, I shall participate in Laura's Menu Plan Monday at the end of the week. Oh well!

Also, today is a big day of celebration when it comes to menu planning. We found a chest freezer on craigslist that we like for $75. Yahoo! Hubs is on his way to get it now. I'll finally be able to really make meals in advance. This will help so SO much! Yay!

Thursday: kel - At office - home at 5:30
Breakfast: hubs - poached eggs & toast
Lunch: hubs - out; me - brown bag sandwich and apple
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie (6 servings)

Friday: Kel: Home - meetings at 11 & 4, closet organizing w/ friend; hubs work at duplex
Breakfast: poached eggs & toast
Lunch: hubs - out; me - burrito w/ friend visiting
Dinner: French dip, salad, chocolate chip cookies for dessert
Prep: make 3 dozen shortbread cookies for tea party tomorrow

Saturday: kel - bsf at 7:00; Church tea at 10:00, baby shower at 2:00
Breakfast: kel - poached egg and toast; hubs - oatmeal
Lunch: burritos or sandwiches
Dinner: Alfredo pasta with chicken and veggie (broccoli or red bell pepper) (4)

Sunday: church in am, small group at 6pm
Breakfast: poached eggs & toast; homemade lattes
Lunch: out w/ visitors from church
Dinner: tuna melts and chili
Prep: Start oatmeal in crockpot

Monday: kel - work at home, bsf - leave at 5:45
Breakfast: Crockpot irish oatmeal
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - left over alfredo chicken
Dinner: kel - yogurt & granola; hubs - left over shepherd's pie

Tuesday: kel - work at home
Breakfast: left over irish oatmeal with egg white scrambles
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - sandwich
Dinner: Chicken cordon bleu (make extra to freeze) and salad

Wednesday: kel - work at office; hubs - class - leave at 6pm
Breakfast: poached eggs and toast
Lunch: kel - out; hubs - left over white chicken chili
Dinner: Pizza muffins

Meal Planning

What's cooking? I'm a few days late, but you can get inspiration at Laura's site.




Inspired by this gal at Proverbs 31, I made a meal plan yesterday and went grocery shopping. This is the most well thought out and prepared plan I've ever made.

For some reason, I never take into account what is happening that day - and I think this is the reason that my good intentions always fall apart. I thought about: the hours I'm working that day, if I'm working at home or at the office, if hubs has class that night, what our evening plans are, how many new recipes I'm trying, how many things create left overs, what variety in his lunches he will want, and of course...what is on sale at the store.

I managed to get everything I needed for the full week just under budget.... sixty six cents under. I did stock up on a few good deals I found, so I was excited about that. I informed hubs that we aren't allowed to buy any more groceries until next week no matter what. I'm sticking to it too... I realized today that I'm missing cilantro for my soup tonight. Oh well. It will taste just fine without it.

Here's the plan:

Thursday: kel - housework only, no evening plans
Breakfast: hubs - oatmeal on the go (woke up late), me - eggs & toast
Lunch: PB sandwich & lunch out; me - burrito (my favorite - you'll see this a lot)
Dinner: Fajita bowls (make four servings)

Friday: kel work at home, no evening plans
Breakfast: poached eggs on english muffin
Lunch: hubs - left over fajita bowl; me - burrito w/ friend visiting
Dinner: White chicken chili and cheese quesedillas

Saturday: kel - bsf at 7:00; appt at 4pm; b-day dinner for dad at 6pm
Breakfast: kel - poached egg and toast; together - oatmeal
Lunch: left over white chicken chili
Dinner: Out with in-laws for birthday dinner

Sunday: church in am, small group at 6pm
Breakfast: poached eggs & toast; homemade lattes
Lunch: tuna melts or grilled ham & cheese, apples, soup
Dinner: hot dogs and french fries
Prep: Start oatmeal in crockpot

Monday: kel - work at office, bsf - leave at 5:45
Breakfast: Crockpot irish oatmeal
Lunch: kel - out; hubs - sandwich
Dinner: kel - yogurt & granola; hubs - left over white chicken chili

Tuesday: kel - work at home
Breakfast: left over irish oatmeal with scrambled eggs
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - left over fajita bowl
Dinner: Shepherd's Pie (new recipe)

Wednesday: kel - work at home; hubs - class - leave at 6pm
Breakfast: poached eggs and toast
Lunch: kel - burrito; hubs - left over shepherd's pie
Dinner: Pizza muffins

That's it! Phew - that took me forever to do yesterday. I love the process though - I think it will get easier each week. So far, we're right on track!

Need something new

I've been struggling lately to keep a good schedule for my home-tasks and get things done. The next month is going to be even more challenging - we're moving, preparing our home for sale, and enjoying all of the Christmas festivities.

I need to make a few changes...I've got a few ideas but would love any that you have too.

• I'm going to start (well, I started, but then stopped. I'm going to start being consistent!) making a daily schedule the day before of what needs to be done at what time and what chores I need to do. I sort of get stuck during the day and need a prepared schedule to get me on track.
• I'm going to change my work schedule so that I'm working a bit longer, but only four days a week....well, as much as I can do this. I was going to take tomorrow "off" but then two meetings came up that I need to have, so I'll at least take the afternoon off. I think this will help to have a long bit of dedicated home time, especially with the moving and house projects that need to be done.
• I'd like to start making more freeze-ahead meals. Crock-pot meals too, but I think freezing ahead will help the most. Crock-pot meals are great too, but they make so much left overs - that's hard. If anyone has some favorite freeze-ahead recipes or tips on doing this, feel free to send them my way! I found this website today (http://www.momsbudget.com/freezerrecipes/index.html) that I think will help, but I'd like more!
• Finally, a friend of mine had a fantastic idea of helping each other clean our houses for an hour or two each week - alternating weeks/houses. I think this is great and I LOVE that I have a friend who thinks like me and actually wants to do this. We'll hopefully start next week or the week after.

Seriously... I'd love tips on freezing meals ahead. Favorite recipes? Tips you've figured out? What types of foods freeze well and which ones don't? What containers work best? I'd be fine w/ freezing them in aluminum pans and re-using them, but what do you do for a lid...since they don't come with a lid? Do you just put foil on top and then put the next tin on that? I'm confused. I do need help though... HELP!!!

- kel, in the snow and hail. (BTW - I'm such a grouch. I asked two kids today to stop playing in the snow in our yard. I don't mind if they are in our yard by the street, but they were up right by my house, which was freaking my dog out. Mainly though I was just irritated that they were messing up my pretty snow!)

Lunch - Day one

Lunch - day one at the beach.

If nothing else, it's very pretty. Thankfully, it tasted super yummy too.

Going to the beach

Tomorrow starts a new way of eating - hubs and I are starting the south beach diet... well, I am anyway, we'll see how long hubs stays committed. I think he's really doing it so I don't have to go way out of my way to make him different food. I've got a bit of extra fluff that I'd like to remove, and I'm really excited about this plan. It sounds so...reasonable.

I know it will be hard though, especially at first. It will keep me disciplined to cooking healthy meals, and extra planning. I've gotten into a lunchtime rut of PB&J, and now I'll have to prepare real food, which will be good but challenging. Today's grocery bill was a bit shocking (ok, a lot shocking) as I totally over-bought groceries to make up for the looming fear of being hungry and not having any snack food to eat. So, I bought food for a month (perhaps a slight exaggeration). In coming weeks, I'll need to figure how to plan good SBD meals that work economically too. It will come... in time. There's a good likelihood that I'll need to buy nothing but produce for a couple weeks anyway. =)

Related but not.... I am completely and totally tired of the red team winning on TBL. They are whiney and mean. The good people should win out in the end, shouldn't they?? I love Bob and the blue team - go blue!

Goodbye, oh lovely cookie dough. May you lose all power over me.

(But doesn't it look sooooo good?? Drooling on my keyboard...)

Works for Me Wednesday - Frozen Cookie Dough

Making cookies in my house is a bit of a challenge. It is a challenge to keep from eating too many cookies all of the time because we LOVE cookies. If there is cookie dough in the fridge, I'll eat it, and if there are baked cookies in the cupboard, hubs and I will both eat them. Especially me. I can't NOT eat cookies in my house. Too many cookies! I try to only bake cookies when hubs is craving them (or I would be eating them all the time), but even if I only make a batch of cookies when he is craving them, then I'm still going to eat a full batch of cookies. Freezing the cookies doesn't work because he loves fresh baked cookies. There lies my final problem - he loves FRESH baked cookies. So, I came up with a solution.

When I make cookie dough,

I make it like normal, except I make cookie dough balls and put them on a plastic plate (after baking a few immediately, of course) and put it in the freezer.

In a few hours, or the next day, I transfer all the cookie dough balls into a plastic ziplock bag and store them in the freezer.

Then, whenever hubs wants some fresh baked cookies, rather than feasting on cookie dough and cookies for days, I can just take a couple (really - just two or three - no extra) and bake them real quick. I've found that they really don't take any longer to bake (maybe just one minute or so... depending on your recipe) than fresh dough, since butter doesn't really freeze hard.

Yum.

Dinnertime gourmet

Hub's and I had an at-home date last night and it truly was a highlight of success in my new domestic life.

We were at a church conference all day, so although it was long, was a refreshing time of spiritual togetherness. Then came dinner... when I did my grocery shopping earlier in the week, there was a coupon in the paper for $5 of a purchase of $5 or more of steak (a premium line of steak at a local store). I like that kind of math! I bought two cuts of steak that came to about $7... only $2 with the coupon. Hubs grilled the steak, and we enjoyed some red potatoes roasted roasted in dry onion soup mix, sauted zucchini and red onion, and a glass of merlot. We watched a movie, with which we enjoyed single serving containers of Ben & Jerrys' ice cream (each our own favorite flavor) which hubs got on sale a couple weeks ago for $1 each (by the way, those little containers of ice cream are SO cute!).

While all date nights shouldn't center around the food, this one did, and it was delectable. It was better than we could have paid a LOT more for. Success!

Now... if only they would put one of those steak coupons on the paper every week.

Works For Me Wednesday

I enjoy reading all the Wednesday tips on Shannon's blog and today I thought I'd add my own. It's my very first WFMW!


My tip is about salad. I love salad, but only if I have a large variety of ingredients and they are all fresh and crunchy. Hubs will tolerate salad, but will eat very, very few ingredients. I hate left over salad that is already all mixed up. Some ingredients go bad faster than others, then you have to toss the whole thing. I used to not prepare salads at all. It just seemed like they went bad too fast, for just the two of us.

Then I changed how I make salads and the new system works really well. First, I make a big bowl of lettuce. I prefer a mix of romaine and spinach, but will sometimes add other baby greens. I can just pick and choose what looks good and is on sale and mix it up at home. In the TW bowl I keep it in, it actually stays fresh for a very long time, much longer than if it were stored in the bag or with other ingredients.

Then I pre-chop all the other ingredients and put them in individual containers, even the little ziplock/glad containers work well for this. I like to have a large variety: olives, bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. There are only 4 containers shown above, but sometimes there are more.

When we make dinner, there is no extra time spent making salad - it's all already in the fridge. I just get out all the bowls and we each get to make the salad we want, and if one ingredient is looking a little suspicious, you can toss it without tossing all of it. Recently we went to some friends' house for dinner; they asked us to bring the salad. My containers were still pretty full so I just put them all in a bag and headed over. They were so impressed that we all got the salad we wanted, with really gourmet ingredients. When we were done, I packed up my containers, put them back in my fridge, and they still lasted a long time more.

Works for me!

http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/2006/08/works_for_me_yu.html

New favorite snack

I'm an extremely habitual eater. I find a meal or snack that I like and I could eat it daily for a long time...two weeks to two years.

My current favorite snack consists of:

1/2c fat free or lowfat PLAIN yogurt
a packet of splenda
1/4c organic blueberries (for some reason the organic ones I get are smaller than normal)
a few rasberries
1/2c grapenuts
about 12 almonds chopped into tiny tiny bits

It's a crunchy, yogurty, sweet treat filled with a good balance of carbs, proteins, and fats. I have a hard time finding snacks that have protein and fat. This one is a hit! I use frozen berries and combine them with the yogurt in the morning. They thaw out in my lunchbag (w/ an ice thingy in it to keep the yogurt cold) and then I add the grapenuts and almonds right before I eat it. Yum yum yum.