Menu - July 12 - 17

Okie dokie, then. Last week was all sorts of fubar for all sorts of reasons. With the husband out of town, the kid and I pretty much just foraged all week. Neither one of us felt like eating much anyway.

So! This week...

The husband is back in town and I have high hopes for this week but, eh, we'll see. It's not even noon on Monday and already my day is scrambled.

I recently borrowed the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois (their website is here) and had hoped to try their method of bread mixing/making today but I don't think I'll get to it. Not today. I'll shoot for Wednesday or Thur...oh, not Thursday. Grocery shopping is on Thursday. Maybe Friday, then, since Fridays are cook-a-thon days anyway. We'll see. When I do get to it, I'll take some pictures and share my thoughts.

Oh, and I'm dropping the chores list from the menu because that's not what these menu posts are about. They're about food. So... menu!

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     cold cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     banana and peanut butter
     hard boiled egg and cheese
     toast
     biscuits


Sunday
lunch: IHOP (after the Minions movie)
dinner: frozen pizza/foraging


Monday
lunch: tuna sandwiches, fruit
dinner: parmesan pasta bake, salad


Tuesday
lunch: chicken legs, rice, random veggies and/or fruit
dinner: fish, broccoli, corn, salad


Wednesday
lunch: chicken legs, rice, random veggies and/or fruit
dinner: hamburger noodle casserole, salad
baking (maybe): bread

Thursday GROCERY DAY
lunch: ---OUT---
dinner: leftovers


Friday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit
dinner: tacos
cooking for weekend: chicken spaghetti casserole


Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches, fruit
dinner: chicken spaghetti casserole (trying for the first time), salad

The chicken spaghetti casserole is finding its way onto our menu for the first time but I've heard such great things about it. With luck, it'll stay in the rotation of weekend meals because I just don't have enough meals in that category. (No, really, I don't. I need more recipes that serve 6+ people.)

So, that's the our meal plan for the week. What's in your menu? (Am I the only one that reads that question and immediately thinks of the Capital One credit card commercials "What's in your wallet? Ugh. I need to go bleach my brain...)

Blue skies, world.

Menu (and chores) - June 27 - July 3

Last week's menu went a little awry around Tuesday. The chicken with honey-orange sauce never got made. Neither did the beans, rice, tuna patties, or hoe cakes. We only resorted to eating take-out once, though, so I still count the week as a win. Sometimes life just gets a little hay-wirey.

The husband left town yesterday morning and won't be back until Thursday morning so Girl and I are happily eating leftovers and not having to put much effort into the feed of ourselves until later in the week. Even then, it's not going to be much effort. It's summer, after all.

So... menu... but first... I'm adding chores and activities to my menu this week as a trial to see how it works out. I'm not adding my daily To Do List; no one has the time (or desire) to see that mayhem. I'm just adding...highlights.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     cold cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     banana and peanut butter
     hard boiled egg and cheese
     toast
     biscuits

NOTE: We still have corn on the cob and peaches in the refrigerator, so all meals will be added to (or not) as desired (or needed). There's also a fairly good chance of me baking some bread this week.

Sunday
lunch: leftovers (oven-fried chicken #2, potato salad)
dinner: leftovers (oven-fried picnic chicken #2, potato salad) warm brownies and milk

chores: none
activity: take Husband to airport in morning, Unnatural History (8pm - Cartoon Network)

Monday
lunch: leftovers (oven-fried picnic chicken #2, potato salad)
dinner: leftovers (oven-fried picnic chicken #2, potato salad), corn on the cob

chores - me: wipe down master bath, clean kitchen (wash small appliances, clear counters, clean oven hood, etc.), work on Emergency Notebook forms, laundry (sheets)
chores - Girl: wipe down main bath, clean all cabinet doors (kitchen & bath), 30 minutes on bedroom
activity: latch hook lesson, mom writing time

Tuesday
lunch: leftovers (oven-fried picnic chicken #2, potato salad)
dinner: ground turkey burgers, baked beans, corn on the cob
baking (maybe): bread

chores - me: sweep and mop tile floors, work on Emergency Notebook forms, laundry (towels)
chores - Girl: clean light switches and door knobs, shake door rugs, sweep outside front door, 30 minutes on bedroom
activity: latch hook lesson, mom writing time

Wednesday
lunch: --OUT--
dinner: leftovers (turkey burgers, baked beans)

chores - me: wipe down master bath, balance budget, vacuum, laundry (light clothes)
chores - Girl: wipe down main bath, straighten bedroom closet, 30 minutes on bedroom
activity: GROCERY DAY

Thursday
lunch: leftovers, fruit
dinner: lemon chicken stir-fry, rice, salad

chores - me: dust, work on next week's menu, laundry (gentle cycle load, dark clothes)
chores - Girl: clean bedroom, dust bedroom, vacuum bedroom
activity: pick up Husband at airport (930am), pick up library book(s) on hold

Friday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit
dinner: black bean tostados, salad
cooking for weekend: shepherd's pie

chores - me: clean master bathroom, sweep tile floors, laundry (Girl's clothes, bleach, towels)
chores - Girl: clean main bathroom, sweep and mop main bath, clean toothbrush holder
activity: cook-a-thon (with reading during down times), Merlin (10pm - SyFy)

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches, fruit
dinner: shepherd's pie

chores - me: laundry (jeans)
chores - Girl: clean out car (w/dad)
activity: nothing planned yet


I do believe those are the highlights. I left everything that appears on my daily list out, so there's no mention of my washing dishes (something I do several times a day) or clutter pick-up or exercise or arguing with Girl when she has a Teen Moment or so many other things. You'll just have to trust that it's all part of my day.

Blue skies, world.

Menu - June 20 - 26

Last week had both Girl and kitty on drugs and healing. Both are doing much better. Girl was negative for Strep and Meningitis (both were a concern because both are going around this area) and kitty's blood tests came back with some enzyme or another slightly elevated which could mean a whole bunch of things. Right now it's a "wait and see" game with her, with the possibility of more blood tests in the future. I'm still fighting off whatever sludge monster has decided my head is a great place for its summer camping trip.

I have great hopes that this week will be much different. Or, at the very least, hope nobody in our household will be sick. There are plans for a $1 movie and a free movie (Tuesday and Wednesday mornings), opening the latch hook kits (see post here), and at least one library visit. I have a running list of other activities that might wiggle their way into the week, too. I won't even mention the cleaning/chores.

I've been working on finding fairly simple (and large) dishes that can be cooked in advance to minimize my time in the kitchen during the weekend. So far, it's working out really well. Having the food already prepared for the weekends has got to be somewhere in my top ten list of best ideas. I get days off (sorta) and they get fed something besides tuna; major win for all concerned (well, except kitty, who no longer gets tuna treats on the weekends). I'm toying with the idea of cooking dinners in the morning during the week. The days can get really busy in the summer and sometimes I just don't feel like cooking, especially on low energy days when it hurts to move. Knowing dinner was taken care of before the day even got underway would go a long way toward easing some of the angst on low energy days. Or just days Girl and I spent aaaall day out running around in the Florida heat. Even if all I did was cook the main dish and do the clean up in the mornings, it would help. The vegetables that would need to be cooked at dinner time are a breeze to not only steam but also clean up after. Less after-dinner clean up = major win for mom.

So... menu...

Oh. And the pizza casserole we tried last week was a hit. The recipe still needs a few minor tweaks but other than that, everyone loved it.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     apple or banana and peanut butter
     hard boiled egg and cheese
     toast
     biscuits

NOTE: With about a dozen ears of fresh corn on the cob and a little over ten pouns of fresh peaches lurking about, all meals will be added to (or not) as desired (or needed). There's also the slight chance of me baking some bread this week. Maybe. Or teaching Girl how to make biscuits from scratch.

Sunday
lunch: leftovers (pizza casserole)
dinner: leftovers (pizza casserole)

Monday
lunch: chicken legs, fruit
dinner: easy salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, lima beans, salad

Tuesday
lunch: chicken legs, lima beans, fruit
dinner: chicken with honey orange sauce, rice, green beans, salad

Wednesday
lunch: sandwiches, fruit
dinner: red beans, tuna patties, hoe cakes, salad

Thursday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: leftovers, salad

Friday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: potato bake, salad
cooking for weekend: oven-fried chicken (#2), potato salad,

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches, fruit
dinner: oven-fried chicken (#2), potato salad, baked beans

Blue skies, world.

Menu - June 13 - 19

Last week saw the end of the school year... and my daughter and feline getting sick. My family certainly knows how to kick off the summer vacation. Sheesh.

Girl is on antibiotics and has slept most of the last three days. I expect her to sleep much of the next two or three days as well. Or sleep as well as she possibly can given the extent of her congestion. Her fever is mostly gone but the congestion is just... there. I fully expect her to be even more moody and miserable than her usual 13-year-old self when she is awake. Joy.

Kitty appears to be on the mend. After a visit to the vet, some blood drawn for tests, and a dose of antibiotics, she's eating again. She's also being more social than she was last week and when I woke up this morning (at 4am), she was curled up on my hip. We should hear back from the vet about the blood tests sometime today.

I should update my listed goals, however, finding the time to do that recently has been a little difficult. The thing about doing stuff not computer-related is that I'm no longer AT my computer all day long so finding time to do the dozens of things I was used to doing... a little difficult. Still, I'd rather be doing things and updating less than the other way around. And I seem to be slightly ahead of schedule today, so perhaps I'll be able to get that done later...assuming I maintain this momentum and continue to get stuff done.

So food. Because my family likes it when I feed them.

I will say this first, though: cooking the weekend's food on Friday during the day and having prepared food in the refrigerator has been making a world of difference in our weekends. Oh, we may still eat out... but it's by choice when we do, not because we're too tired to fix anything. The husband noted last night that he really liked the shredded chicken and rice being in the refrigerator. Actually, what he said was "This shredded chicken and rice thing? You can do that again." Yay me!

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     muffins (link coming)
     cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     apple or banana and peanut butter
     hard boiled egg and cheese
     toast
     biscuits

Sunday
lunch: leftovers (tacos or chicken & rice)
dinner: leftovers (tacos or chicken & rice)

Monday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwich, fruit
dinner: pasta, homemade sauce (a variation of this one in which I use tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and a variety of stuff commonly found in my kitchen), salad
stuff to do: get ham cheese and potato casserole out of freezer to thaw

Tuesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: fish, mac & cheese, broccoli

Wednesday
lunch: sandwiches, fruit
dinner: ham cheese and potato casserole (from the freezer), broccoli

Thursday
lunch: ---OUT---
dinner: leftovers
stuff to do: GROCERY DAY! Leave out ground beef for burgers when dividing package for freezer

Friday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches, carrots, fruit
dinner: hamburgers, fries
cooking for weekend: pizza casserole (new recipe!)

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches, fruit
dinner: pizza casserole

And now I need to get moving. It's 6am already and it feels like I'm falling behind.

Blue skies, world.

Menu - June 6 - 12

So far we've been real good about following the menus, with the exception of fish nights. We always work around fish nights for some reason. Maybe because I don't really like fish. I'll have to work on that. We need to eat more fish.

I've not been as good with lunches, but the listed items always get eaten. Just not on the assigned days. I either need to work on that or alter the way I list lunches. With Girl being home starting Friday, I'm not sure which would be best.

Anyway, school releases the animals into the wild kids for the summer this Thursday with an early release time. My schedule is about to get a world of crazier than it already is. My brain is already cowering in fear.

Oh, and the pancakes didn't work out so well for breakfast during the week. I'm not sure what the problem was. Perhaps I'll try it again another week with different execution plans.

So, food... because we always have food. My family is so much more pleasant to be around when I feed them.

Aaaaand, there are no links because my eyes are killing me and I'm too tired to post them then link them. I'll add links later in the week.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     muffins (link coming)
     cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     apple or banana and peanut butter
     hard boiled egg and cheese
     toast
     biscuits

Sunday
lunch: sandwiches
dinner: black bean tostadas (link coming), salad

Monday
lunch: pb&j sandwich, carrots, fruit
dinner: cheese-topped lemon chicken breasts, carrots, broccoli, salad

Tuesday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwich, carrots, fruit
dinner: meat loaf, corn on the cob, green beans, salad

Wednesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: fish, mac & cheese, broccoli

Thursday
lunch: Healthy Choice frozen meal
dinner: ???

Friday
lunch: sandwiches, carrots, fruit
dinner: tacos
cooking for weekend: chicken and rice

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches
dinner: chicken and rice, salad

And now I need to sleep.

Sweet dreams, world.

The coming of summer

There's only four more days of school and with the end of school comes summer. As with every summer, we're planning a variety of activities and some down/free time.

One of the things we always try to include in our summer activities is a craft. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn't. Still, it's especially awesome if I can teach the kid something new and she actually enjoys it. This year, I'm going to teach her to latch hook.

Surprised how little my local craft supply stores actually had on the shelves, I turned to the internet. After much deliberation (and more than a little frustration) we made our choices.

Girl had a hard time choosing one. There simply aren't any goth-lite kits available. Everything is overly-girly (full of fluff, flowers, and/or rainbows), pure boy (sports related) or too childish or "old-looking" to hold the interest of a 13-year-old girl gothling. The other options were huge, over-priced kits that, while they appealed to her, simply weren't appropriate for a beginner's first project.

But! ...of course there's a but. What kind of entry would this be without a but?

But "mommy do good"! I found her something that really appeals to her. Caron has two pirate-themed latch hook kits. The one Girl squealed at was the pirate skull.

Now, not being entirely goth (hence the goth-lite and gothling terms I use when referring to her) she was attracted to a heart kit. Since I needed a kit to do as well and nothing else was appealing to me either, I decided to get the other one she liked. I'll make it for her. It's one of those things moms do. It's a heart with a glow around it.

Yes, yes, she's a walking contradiction. She's awesome that way.

Anyway, I ordered them earlier this week and both kits should be here by the end of next week so we'll be starting them before the end of the month. (I usually try to give her a few free days of nothing planned and sleeping in before we start with the summer fun.) With a hyperactive hurricane season being predicted this year, I'm sure there will be plenty of rainy days when we opt to stay home and latch hook or read rather than go out. Progress will be posted in my project blog, One Dream at a Time, but I will also post the end results here.

We're still hashing out the rest of the summer plans. There are movies to watch, books to read, places to go, household lessons to be learned (more on that later), and all sort of other mischief to get into fun to be had.

Blue skies, world.

Menu - May 30 - June 5

Last week was an inspiring success, so let's try again. Only maybe not so busy. And with actual writing this week. And more sleep.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     pancakes (trying batter in refrigerator & making 1-2 on demand)
     cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     apple or banana and peanut butter
     toast
     biscuits

Sunday
lunch: leftovers (ham & cheese potato casserole)
dinner: leftovers (ham & cheese potato casserole)

Monday
lunch: sandwiches
dinner: pasta with tangy meat sauce, salad, garlic bread

Tuesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: skillet chicken parmesan, broccoli, corn on the cob, salad

Wednesday
lunch: pb&j sandwich, carrots, fruit
dinner: leftovers

Thursday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwich, carrots, fruit
dinner: fish, baked potatoes, green beans, salad

Friday
lunch: Healthy Choice frozen meal
dinner: pizza
cooking for weekend: sloppy joes

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches
dinner: sloppy joes, oven-baked french fries, salad

And now I need to sleep.

Sweet dreams, world.

Menu - May 23 - 29

Last week was... weird. Girl got up and ate breakfast with me every morning. It got even more weird after that.

Mister returned safely.

The minor trouble spots for this week's menu are thanks to Girl's schedule. She's got all sorts of after-hours school stuff going on that has us not able to sit down at the dinner table at 6pm at least twice this week.

I'm managing to eat lunch everyday but it's not always what I had thought I'd be eating that day. Still... improving. Yay.

This week, I'm adding breakfast, but not in the daily grouping. Breakfast is too likely to change based on the amount of time we have in the morning. Or, you know, how we feel that morning. So instead of the daily 'map', I'm adding a selection of choices available this week. It's my plan to expand and rotate the options.

So... food.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Breakfasts
choice of:
     cereal
     oatmeal
     cheesy eggs (actually egg beaters, but whatever)
     apple or banana and peanut butter
     toast
     biscuits

Sunday
lunch brunch: lemon ricotta pancakes
dinner: leftovers (pink beans, hoe cakes, tuna patties)

Monday
lunch: PB&J sandwich, fruit
dinner: leftovers, salad

Tuesday
lunch: Healthy Choice frozen meal
dinner: golden chicken, broccoli, corn

Wednesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: pot roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad

Thursday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: fish, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad

Friday
lunch: grilled cheese sandwich
dinner: hamburgers, fries
cooking for weekend: ham & cheese potato casserole

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches
dinner: ham & cheese potato casserole, salad

And now I need to sleep. It's been an exhausting weekend and my eyes are refusing to stay open any longer.

Sweet dreams, world.

Menu - May 16-22

Last week was good.

The weekend was...weird.

This week is starting out weird.

I like weird.

Mister is out of town this week. He woke me up a little before 4am so that I could be awake to lock the door behind him and also so that I would be up to get Girl up in time for school. I've been up - and productive - ever since. The majority of my task list for today is already done and it's not even 11am yet.

This week's menu presented the problem of him being gone. Girl and I don't eat much or well when he's out of town. We eat like the stereo-typical bachelor or college student, minus the take-out. With that in mind, and wanting to change that, I cleaned out the refrigerator on Friday to see what was still lurking about. As it turned out, not much. A head of cabbage, some pine nuts, some sliced almonds, and about a cup of ricotta cheese. Awesome. Quick look in the pantry (after the husband inventoried it for me); check. Freezers? Check. Time to make a menu!

The cabbage is now cole slaw. The pine nuts and almonds are lurking aimlessly for one more week. The ricotta cheese is hoping to be made into pancakes sometime before mid-June.

I've been playing with the idea of being in the kitchen less during the upcoming summer but still having food for us to eat without resorting to take-out or fast food. We have few objections to "leftovers". That led me to ponder cooking in bulk. Bulk/batch cooking would save time, both in the preparing of meals and cleaning up afterward. From there, I started thinking about the weekends. They're especially problematic when I'm planning menus. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, weekends are problem areas... mainly because we prefer to spend our weekends doing things that in no way even remotely resemble work. Easing into the bulk cooking for the summer seemed like the smart thing to do but I was uncertain how or when to tackle this. Combining my two issues (bulk cooking + weekends), I came up with the idea to try cooking the bulk of the weekend's food on Friday. That starts this week.

As I said earlier, the weekend was weird. This resulted in me having to rework the menu I'd fretted over on Friday. Wee. No problem, though. I was up early this morning. Since I was reworking the menu anyway, I added lunches just so I know what I'm supposed to eat ('cause, you know, I might forget that I'm supposed to eat leftovers this week). Breakfast options... maybe those will find their way into the menu next week. Maybe. I can hope.

So... food.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
lunch: --
dinner: oven-fried picnic chicken, potato salad, cole slaw (this is why I had to alter the menu for this week. The whole head of cabbage made A LOT of cole slaw and we ended up with A LOT of leftover chicken. If Mister was going to be in town, it would be no problem but with just Girl and me, that leftover food will feed us for days.)

Monday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: leftovers, salad

Tuesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: hamburgers, corn, leftovers (we had a LOT of chicken leftover...)

Wednesday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: fish, mac & cheese, peas

Thursday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: breakfast OR leftovers

Friday
lunch: leftovers
dinner: frozen pizzas
cooking for weekend: pink beans, rice

Saturday
lunch: leftovers OR sandwiches
dinner: pink beans, rice, hoe cakes

I guess that's it. I've got some laundry to tend to and some household paperwork to deal with and then... um... hmmm... Weird. I don't know what after that. Probably some writing and crocheting.

Blue skies, world.

Menu - 9 - 15 May 2010

The move was successful. The holidays were crazy. In January, after 18 years of snuggling him day and night, I held my precious kitty in my arms while he slipped from this world. I spent January, February, and part of March either deeply depressed or battling depression. April was...better...ish, yet depressing in its own way. And now we're into May. Wee.

So here we are in May. I'm trying to get my schedule back in place, trying to get back into familiar routines that work for me. That includes crafting, writing, blogging, exercising, and evening cleaning. Maybe there will be better words on future days. I don't know. I can still feel the depression lingering just on the outer edges of my existence; circling, nudging, nibbling. Whenever depression lingers like this, I always think of a shark swimming around something he's uncertain about, testing it, trying to decide if he's going to make it his snack or not. And right about the time the shark analogy starts tiptoeing through my brain, the twisted little twit in me smirks and mutters "We're going to need a bigger boat..."

Anyway... menu! Yay food! I'm just going to list dinners for now. Planning breakfasts and lunch is just beyond me at the moment. With a little luck and by the grace of God, I'll be back to planning breakfasts and lunches by the end of the month.


As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
dinner: hamburger noodle casserole, salad

Monday
dinner: leftovers

Tuesday
dinner: easy salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, lima beans moved to weekend

Wednesday
dinner: fish, baked potatoes, broccoli

Thursday (Mister's birthday)
dinner: chicken w/honey-orange sauce, rice, broccoli - may go out, depends on how Mr. Husband feels when he gets home from work

Friday
dinner: tacos

Saturday
dinner: ???

Much, much to do. Seriously.

Blue skies, world.