What We're Eating 3/26/12-4/1/12

We've got nothing exciting this week. Our menu is almost the same as last week's....last week was so beautiful, we changed up the menu a bit so we could use the grill. There were 5 meals I was able to plug into this week's menu. Ooops. :)



Monday
L: Leftovers
D: Homemade Pizza (dough in freezer)

Tuesday
L: Leftover Pizza
D: Lasagna at Mum's

Wednesday
L: Hamburger Soup (freezer)
D: Simple Sweet Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Fries, Broccoli

Thursday
L: PB&J, Cucumber Sticks
D: Asian Chicken with Gingered Veggies

Friday
L: Calico Beans (freezer)
D: White Bean & Chicken Chili

Saturday
L: Leftover Chili
D: Pancakes (freezer), Fruit

Sunday
L: Leftovers
D: Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna Rolls, French Twists

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

What We're Eating 3/19/12-3/25/12

I almost forgot to post!

Last week was another low-key week apart from a family cookout yesterday with my stepdad's side of the family. And what a beautiful day for a cookout! We had a bunch of appetizers, steak tips, hot dogs, Cheddar Bacon Penne, salad and some pretty amazing cupcakes (an early birthday celebration) that I would definitely make again - Coconut Cream Cupcakes. Yum, yum, yum! The highlight of the cookout (apart from Bruce not having had a cigarette in 5 (I think) days - woohoo!!!) was watching my children (more Isaac than Charlie) eat the same meal as us! Isaac chowed down on the steak tips. So awesome!

The only meal we missed last week was our St. Patrick's Day dinner. We started the day with a somewhat themed breakfast - we had chocolate chip scones with Emerald Mint Milkshakes. Ice cream for breakfast! LOL The crazy part is that the boys didn't even finish their milk shakes! They probably would have eaten more of a green smoothie if I'd had anything in the house to make a green smoothie. For dinner, we had planned to make a Beef & Stout Stew with Irish Soda Bread and Baileys Cookies but were too busy running errands (needed to get some Stout and some Baileys among other things) and got distracted spending some time with my mom/stepdad/sister and then my dad/stepmom and didn't get home early enough to cook the stew for three hours. Oh well!

I ended up getting a little creative and used the stew meat that I had thawed for Saturday today in our French Dip sandwiches. It was a bit of a pain to shred the tiny cubes of beef, but the sandwiches were delicious (as always). Our little meat-lover Isaac ate a bit of his sandwich, too. He was so cute with his little hands and his big fat sandwich!

A mentionable meal from last week was Thursday's Chicken Enchilada Soup. My sour-cream-hating hubby had two big bowls and he requested this soup for our next family night - you'll have to try it before then, Sara and Molly, and see what you think! We'll have to plan a Mexican feast this time. ;)

Jamie Cooks It Up has not failed me yet! The Coconut Cream Cupcakes were from her website, too. Loved them!

This week, we'll be eating...

Monday
L: Grilled Cheese/Cucumber Sticks (boys); Ham & Cheese Sandwich with Leftover Cheddar Bacon Penne (Chris); Leftover Salad and Leftover Cheddar Bacon Penne (me)
D: French Dip Sandwiches, Red/Yellow Pepper Strips, Coconut Cream Cupcakes

Tuesday
L: PB&J, Grapes
D: Rosemary Shrimp with Spaghetti

Wednesday
L: Leftover French Dips with Mashed Potatoes
D: Simple Sweet Pork Chops, Sweet Potato Fries, Broccoli

Thursday - My Birthday!
L: PB&J, Cucumber Sticks
D: Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna Rolls (I plan to freeze half), French Twists (bread machine)

Friday
L: Leftover Lasagna
D: Homemade Pizza (dough from freezer)

Saturday
L: Leftover Pizza
D: Asian Chicken with Gingered Veggies

Sunday
L: Leftovers
D: White Bean & Chicken Chili

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

What We're Eating 3/12/12-3/18/12

We had a pretty low-key week last week with not much on the calendar. Apart from the normal schedule of school and story time at the library, Isaac and I took a trip to Walmart, we signed Charlie up for t-ball and then we spent the majority of the weekend at home (even though I was dying to get out of here) so Chris could boil sap to make more maple syrup. (We unfortunately have nothing to show for all of the boiling Chris did on Sunday because it was so windy that his pot was knocked over and spilled everything inside. Horrible!)

The only exciting thing that happened last week (exciting to me, anyway) was that I did a lot of organizing and some spring cleaning. I cleaned out and rearranged my baking cabinet and several other kitchen cabinets (so excited about the new stands I got to hold all of my pans - LOVE them!), my junk drawer and utensil drawer, the craft/game closet (finally found the bag of Campbell's Labels for Education and box tops that I'd been looking for over the past two weeks), the bathroom cabinets and the rack going down to our basement. I wish I had before and after pictures - what a difference! I also washed the kitchen floor, washed windows and picture frames and cleaned the ceiling fan and lights in the bedrooms. I tossed some junk, re-purposed some items and put a few things aside for if we ever hold the yard sale we've been talking about for a few years now. What a freeing feeling! I have a few more projects in mind for this week. ;)


Monday
L: PB&J, Apple (Chris, Isaac)/Mac&Cheese, Grapes (Charlie, me)
D: Rib Eyes, Egg Noodles, Green Beans, Biscuits (from freezer)

Tuesday
L: Leftovers (Chris)/PB&J, Grapes
D: Applesauce Glazed Pork Chops, Rice, Honey-Glazed Carrots

Wednesday
L: Grilled Cheese, Carrot Sticks
D: Hawaiian Beef Burgers, Baked Veggie Chips

Thursday
L: Leftover Burgers
D: Chicken Enchilada Soup

Friday
L: Leftover Soup
D: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Egg Noodles, Broccoli

Saturday - St. Patrick's Day
L: Leftover Soup
D: Irish Beef & Stout Stew, Irish Soda Bread, Baileys Cookies

Sunday
L: Leftover Stew
D: Cheddar Bacon Penne, Parmesan Zucchini

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

February Recap

February didn't go as smoothly as January because of a trip to DHMC and a visit from a nasty stomach bug, but I'm going strong with my goals and Charlie's doing well with trying new foods. We had broccoli several times and he just pops it in his mouth!

To start, my goals were as follows:
-Meditate for 20 minutes every day
-Exercise for 30 minutes every day
-Drink at least 2 Nalgene bottles (roughly 10 glasses of water) every day
-Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day (still one of the harder goals)

I've also added two smaller goals:
-Write down 3 things I am grateful for every day
-Write down 1 positive event from the last 24 hours

I attended the Second Sunday Sit at my yoga studio at the beginning of the month and my instructor mentioned a video she had recently seen about training your brain to be more positive. She later emailed us a link to the video (which is pretty funny). The speaker, Shawn Achor, believes there are five ways to train your brain to be more positive: write down three things you are grateful for daily, journal about one positive experience in the past 24 hours, exercise, meditate and perform a random act of kindness (he suggests sending off a quick email praising or thanking someone in your social network).

Exercise (which I can never spell correctly - I always use a z) and meditation are already a part of my daily routine. Keeping a gratitude journal is something I've seen pop up several times in the past year so I decided to make use of one of the old journals I had tucked away in my desk drawer. I've missed a few days, but I'm really enjoying reviewing my day by writing down three things I'm grateful for and one positive event from that day. I do it after I meditate and it takes less than five minutes out of my day. Although my journal is pretty short right now, it's been fun to look back at other days and see what I've written. I'm looking forward to seeing it at the end of the year.

I completed 7 books in February which puts my total at 12 so far this year.

February
Stacy Hawkins Adams - The Someday List (Mommy Bookclub pick) (not a fan)
Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
Tatiana de Rosnay - A Secret Kept
Darien Gee - Friendship Bread (Library Bookclub pick) (fun fluffy read)
Jodi Picoult - Change of Heart
Alexandra Ripley - Scarlett (loved it)

What We're Eating 3/5/12-3/11/12

Our family has been a mess over the past five days.

On Wednesday night, Isaac was fussy at dinnertime. We figured he was tired and Chris was going to bring him down to the bedroom to get ready for bed. Chris stood up and Isaac puked all over Chris and the dining room floor. (Thankfully, we were done eating dinner.) We spent the rest of that night and most of Thursday fighting Isaac to puke into the puke bucket that he wanted nothing to do with and hoping he wouldn't choke during the breath-holding spells he had because he did not like puking. (Not that I blame him.) Isaac and I spent the next two nights camped out on his bedroom floor while Charlie slept in the living room and Chris in bed. We thought we were on the mend until Charlie and Chris came home from a quick shopping trip for supplies on Friday afternoon. Charlie was fine throughout the two stores they went to and was fine in the car. Five minutes (seriously) after they got home, Charlie destroyed the couch and we started all over again.

Chris and I were hoping we would make it through without catching the bug but knew the odds of that were pretty low. The house reeked of bleach, the washing machine had been running pretty much non-stop, and my hands were (still are) red and bleeding from being washed so many times, but we both had the bug on Saturday. We've done a lot of sleeping, reading, watching TV, changing diapers and emptying puke buckets over the past five days. The only good thing to come out of this bug was that I lost almost 4 pounds on my steady diet of toast and Jello! Ha! ;) After four nights on the floor with Isaac, I was finally able to sleep in my own bed next to my husband last night.

And now we go from puking to meal planning..... :)

Times like this make me so grateful for my menu plan and even more grateful that I've been planning two weeks at a time. This stomach bug's timing worked out because I don't think I could have handled looking at recipes this weekend. Even better, I had planned a bunch of freezer meals for this week so I don't have too much cooking to do. And, the next time I plan will be a little easier because we missed a few meals over the weekend.


Monday
L: Leftover Soup/Grilled Cheese, Grapes
D: Macaroni & Tomato Casserole (freezer), Biscuits

Tuesday
L: PB&J, Pepper Slices, Chips
D: Pretzel Crusted Chicken Strips, Rice, Green Beans

Wednesday
L: Leftover Chicken Strips & Rice, Apple Slices
D: Turkey Tetrazzini (freezer)

Thursday
L: Calico Beans (freezer)
D: Chicken & Cheese Rice Bake (slightly modified)

Friday
L: Leftover Rice Bake
D: Baked Potatoes (maybe in the crock pot?)

Saturday
L: PB&J, Grapes
D: Rib Eyes, Egg Noodles, Honey-Glazed Carrots, Biscuits (I froze a few uncooked biscuits tonight - they're best fresh out of the oven)

Sunday
L: Leftovers
D: Overnight Hash Brown Egg Casserole

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