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.