What We're Eating 1/30/12-2/5/12

I cannot believe it's almost February!!! And we're still on a roll with the menu planning! A few meals have been missed, but not because we didn't feel like cooking. We had more leftovers than expected last week so we were able to bump a few meals off the menu. We were also able to skip Saturday night's meal thanks to my dad and stepmom - they watched the boys so Chris and I could go on a date to Georgio's with a gift card we got for Christmas. Love cheap (free!) dates!

Charlie is doing well trying new foods. Chris' mom wanted to try a new Chinese restaurant near her work and brought us dinner last night. We were shocked when both boys started eating their chicken fingers with no comments or complaints! That has never happened before and we were so excited.

This afternoon, Charlie asked what we were having for dinner, I told him we were having egg sandwiches. Eggs and ham are new foods for him, so I gave him the option to try one or the other and told him that once he tried the new food, if he didn't like it, he would be able to take it off his sandwich and eat it with just cheese. He decided to try the egg. Compared to some nights, getting him to take that first bite was actually pretty quick! We asked him if he liked it and without thinking, he said yes! Then he caught himself and quickly changed his answer to no. LOL Why is it so hard to admit that he likes something?! Stubborn boy!

On to this week....


Monday
L: English Muffin Pizzas, Pepper Strips, Grapes/Melon
D: Ham & Swiss Egg Sandwiches, Fruit Salad

Tuesday
L: PB&J, Fruit Salad, Cheese Sticks, Chips
D: Coconut Crusted Chicken Nuggets, Egg Noodles, Herbed Green Beans

Wednesday
L: Leftover Nuggets, Veggie Sticks
D: Pork Medallions with Pears

Thursday
L: Leftover Pork Medallions with Pears
D: Honey Sesame Chicken, Brown Rice, Sesame Broccoli

Friday
L: Leftover Sesame Chicken
D: Pistachio Crusted Tilapia, Sweet Potato Fries, Honey-Glazed Carrots

Saturday
L: PB&J, Apple Slices, Pepper Slices
D: Cheese Ravioli with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce

Sunday
L: Leftover Ravioli with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce
D: Pulled Pork with Root Beer Sauce, Veggie Sticks

For more menu-planning inspiration, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

What We're Eating 1/23/12-1/29/12

We're still going strong with the menu plan! We ended up having tons of leftovers from a few of last week's meals so some meals got bumped but that will make planning the next menus easier. ;)

If you're looking for an easy and AMAZING crock pot meal, you need to try these French dip sandwiches. Soooo good and soooo easy! We had them as sandwiches and had some leftovers over mashed potatoes. Amazing both ways. Try them!


Monday
L: PB&J, Cantaloupe, Grapes
D: Spinach & Cheese Quiche

Tuesday
L: Leftover Quiche
D: Pineapple Beef Sti-Fry

Wednesday
L: Leftover Stir-Fry
D: Pork Chops with Orange Sauce, Rice, Green Beans

Thursday
L: PB&J, Apple Slices
D: All-American Chili (Family Circle magazine recipe)

Friday
L: Leftover Chili
D: Blueberry-Orange Pancakes (Parents magazine recipe), Bacon, Fruit Salad

Saturday
L: Leftover Chili
D: Citrus-Crunch Chicken, Couscous, Minty Peas

Sunday
L: Leftovers
D: Rosemary Shrimp Skewers, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Fiesta Corn

For more menu-planning ideas, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie

We roasted a chicken for Saturday night's dinner and had enough leftovers to cook up one of our favorite meals for dinner last night - Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie. I first found this recipe in a Campbell's cookbook I received years ago from my mother-in-law and I tweaked it just a bit. It's quick, it's easy, and it's in one dish so there's not much to clean up.

Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1/4-3/4 cup milk (as needed to moisten chicken mixture)

12 oz frozen corn (or more if you like it chunky)

3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

4 cups cubed cooked chicken or turkey

1 package corn muffin mix

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix soup, corn, cheese, chicken and milk (if needed) in 9-inch pie plate.

Mix muffin mix, milk and egg. Pour over chicken mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Linked up at The King's Court IV: What's Cooking Wednesday.

What We're Eating 1/16/12-1/22/12

We're on a roll with meal planning! I took some time last Wednesday night and planned out another 2 weeks worth of meals. When I don't have a meal planned out, what to make for dinner is on my mind all day; it is much easier to have them all planned out. All I have to do is take a look at my plan the night before, pull meat out of the freezer to thaw if necessary and we're ready to go the next day! Woohoo!

So, for this week, we've got:

Monday
L: English Muffin Pizzas
D: Spinach & Cheese Lasagna, French Twists

Tuesday
L: PB&J, Cucumber Sticks, Grapes
D: Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie (recipe coming this week)

Wednesday - Nana's Birthday
L: Leftover Pot Pie
D: Balsamic Glazed Filet Mignon (with leftover Beef Tenderloin from our Christmas Eve fondue), Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Velvet Cake

Thursday
L: Leftovers/PB&J, Fruit, Cheese Sticks
D: French Dip Sandwiches, Cucumber & Carrot Sticks

Friday
L: French Dip Sandwiches, Carrot Sticks, Melon
D: Pork Medallions with Pears

Saturday
L: Leftovers
D: Loaded Potato Soup

Sunday
L: Leftover Soup for boys/Lunch at Pickity Place with Nana, Jenn & Aunt Linda for me!
D: Spinach & Cheese Quiche, Fruit Salad

For more menu-planning ideas, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

2012 Reading Challenge

No matter how tired I am when I climb into bed, I have to read before I can fall asleep. There is always at least one book on my bedside table and a few more tucked away under the bed next to my enormous pile of magazines. And now, thanks to my Mom and Brucey, my Kindle is on my bedside table as well!

My goal for 2011 was to read 30 books and I surpassed that goal by reading 46! I attempted to track what I read last year on the blog, but I had some severe issues with the formatting that left me beyond frustrated every time I tried to update and I eventually gave up trying to update. Luckily, I did manage to keep my Goodreads account updated so I have a list of what I read.

In 2011, I read the following:

January
Alexander McCall Smith - 44 Scotland Street
Alexander McCall Smith - Espresso Tales
Tana French - The Likeness (Library Bookclub pick - LOVED it)

February
Jodi Picoult - Keeping Faith (LOVED it)
Jodi Picoult - House Rules
Sunny - Mona Lisa Awakening
Kathleen Kent - The Heretic's Daughter (Library Bookclub pick)

March
Amy Weintraub - Yoga for Depression
Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol
Pam Jenoff - The Kommandant's Girl (Library Bookclub pick - LOVED it)

April
Diana Gabaldon - The Fiery Cross (reread - finally!!!!!)
Peter Arenstam - Nicholas: A Massachusetts Tale
Peter Arenstam - Nicholas: A Maine Tale
Sara Gruen - Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen - Ape House
Kristin Hannah - Winter Garden (Library Bookclub pick)

May
Alan Brennert - Honolulu
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird (Library Bookclub pick)

June
Gretchen Rubin - The Happiness Project
Stieg Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (LOVED it)
Adriana Trigiani - Lucia, Lucia (Library Bookclub pick)

July
Annie Barrows - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (LOVED it - highly recommend!)
Danielle Trussoni - Angelology
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (LOVED it)
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played with Fire (LOVED it)

August
Ian McEwan - Atonement
Kathryn Stockett - The Help
Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
Tatiana de Rosnay - Sarah's Key

(Our summer Library Bookclub pick was John Treadwell Nichols' The Milagro Beanfield War. It's rare for me to not finish a book, but I just could not get into this one. I found it funny when I picked it up to read it, but I had to force myself to pick it up and I wasn't able to read much before our meeting.)

September
Lynn Sheene - The Last Time I Saw Paris
Mark Williams - The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness
Nonna Bannister - The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister
Abraham Verghese - Cutting for Stone ( Library Bookclub pick - LOVED it)
Todd Burpo - Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back (Mommy Bookclub pick)

October
Brian Weiss - Many Lives, Many Masters
Paula McLain - The Paris Wife (Library Bookclub pick)
Emma Donoghue - Room (Mommy Bookclub pick)

November
Michael Pye - The Pieces from Berlin
Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Lisa See - Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Library Bookclub pick - LOVED it - highly recommend!)
Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games (Mommy Bookclub pick - LOVED it)
Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire (Mommy Bookclub pick - LOVED it)
Suzanne Collins - Mockingjay (Mommy Bookclub pick - LOVED it)

December
Diana Gabaldon - Lord John and The Scottish Prisoner (Jamie! *swoon*)
Sammy Conner - The Dirty Parts of the Bible
Steve Thayer - The Leper (Library Bookclub pick)

Feel free to pass along recommendations for 2012! My goal is to read just as many, if not more, books as I read in 2011, so let's see if I can hit 46 again! I've already finished one and have a few in the works. I'm going to attempt to update a list of what I've read every month. ;)