What We're Eating 6/4/12-6/10/12

I don't know where in the world I've been for the past two months!  I've been planning, but not always following my plans, and really, I've been feeling a bit like it just doesn't really matter.  It's been beautiful outside and I've been leaning towards having dinner on the grill.  Plus, it's hard to sit down every few weeks and decide what I'm going to cook ahead of time and it doesn't help that I've been in a bit of a rut and not much has appealed to me.  Whine, whine, whine!  We've had hot dogs and watermelon for dinner more times that I'd like to admit over the past few weeks.  At least the boys have been pleased!

One beautiful day last week, while the boys were playing outside and Chris was doing yard work, I sat on the deck with my recipe binder and a giant stack of Taste of Home/Healthy Cooking magazines and pulled out every recipe that looked good at that moment.  I ended up with 28 recipes.  A few days later, I sat down and plugged all of those meals into a plan for the entire month of June.  I doubt I'll do that again, but at least June will be a little easier. ;)

Monday
L: Grilled Cheese, Veggie Sticks, Watermelon
D: Blueberry Orange Pancakes, Fruit Salad

Tuesday
L: Leftover Pancakes, Bacon, Fruit Salad
D: Slow Cooker Orange Chicken, Brown Rice, Carrots

Wednesday
L: Leftover Chicken
D: Egg Sandwiches, Watermelon (to go - Charlie has an end-of-the-year show for school)

Thursday
L: PB&J, Cucumber Sticks, Cantaloupe
D: Linguine with Walnut Sage Pesto (using sage from my garden!)

Friday
L: Leftovers
D: Homemade Steak & Cheese Subs, Veggie Sticks (quick & easy after t-ball practice)

Saturday
L: Hot Dogs, Macaroni & Cheese, Watermelon
D: Basil-Orange Chicken (using basil from my garden!), Couscous, Sugar Snap Peas

Sunday
L: Leftovers
D: Southwest Steak, Crispy Potato Cubes, Fiesta Corn

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

March Recap

"The habit of judging ourselves severely disguises itself as an attempt to help us to live better lives and to be better people, but in actuality the habit of judging winds up functioning as an irrational tyrant that can never be satisfied."
The Mindful Way through Depression -
Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal & Jon Kabat-Zinn

March was not the best month, and I've been reflecting on the quote above quite often. We began the month with a 5-day visit from the Noro virus. I knew it was coming (we had friends who had it days after we were with them), and my stomach was not right for weeks after we had recovered. The sickness destroyed my exercise streak, which in turn destroyed my positive mental state. There were far too many days without a workout, meditation or fruits and veggies. I've been quite critical of myself in every way possible, and the criticism is not helping me in any way. I've attempted to find some positive aspects of this ordeal. I did lose a few pounds thanks to the Noro and just how much my mood is linked to exercise was also strongly reinforced.

There were a few fun things that took place in March. I was able to pull off a surprise diaper party disguised as a play date for a girlfriend who is due any day now. (And not a single picture was taken!) We had a great family cookout during a week of amazingly warm weather, and a wonderful lunch was enjoyed at Pickity Place in celebration of my birthday and my college roommate's birthday (the day before mine) as we enter the last year of our 20s (not such a positive event!).

We're only a few days in, but April has been shaping up to be a bit better than March. We had a great Easter dinner with family last weekend, and we have a date (love gift certificates) and a family outing planned for this coming weekend. The exercise is back on track, and the boys have been sleeping really well and really late. Chris and I were up before them both on Saturday morning (never happens), and they both slept until 8am on Monday! Woohoo! I so hope I didn't just jinx myself by mentioning this!

I finished four books in March which puts my total at 16 for the year.

Tana French - Faithful Place
Jennifer Haigh - Faith
Joanne Harris - Five Quarters of the Orange (Library Bookclub pick) - LOVED it
Jodi Picoult - Salem Falls

What We're Eating 4/9/12-4/15/12

Last week's meals were pretty tasty! We love the coconut crusted chicken strips - I need to make some ahead of time to put in the freezer. The boys both enjoy them, and it'd be nice to have some homemade nuggets on hand when we need a quick option for lunch or dinner.

Meal planning has been going so well this year, but I need to start planning something different for the weekends. By the time Friday rolls around, I have little interest in cooking. Maybe I need to start planning crockpot meals that I can start early Friday morning? Any ideas for easy meals? This Friday, we ended up at Friendly's for dinner, and on Saturday night, we cooked up some ravioli with red sauce as an easy option.

Our contributions to Easter dinner were Paula Deen's Pineapple Casserole (sounds so weird, but tastes so good), Coconut Cream Cupcakes and Lemon Cookies with White Chocolate.

Tonight, Master Charles ate a few bites of stuffed peppers. I prepped him ahead of time, telling him that it was a new meal, and he only had to eat a few bites. Same rule as always: if he didn't like it, he could have something else (aka a bowl of cereal). I put four small bites on his plate, and he ate the first one pretty quickly. He hardly tasted it before he told us he didn't like it, but we've learned to read him and could tell he liked it (and he hadn't had enough time to taste it to decide he didn't like it). He ended up finishing the four bites, and we let him move on to a bowl of cereal when he didn't want to try any more. We are so happy that we continue to make progress with this. I'm also quite amused that several of the meals he's liked have been atypical meals.


Monday
L: English Muffin Pizzas
D: Peppers Stuffed with Cranberry Bulgur

Tuesday
L: Leftover Peppers, PB&J, Melon
D: Cranberry Stuffed Pork Chops, Leftover Pineapple Casserole, Broccoli

Wednesday
L: Grilled Cheese, Apple Slices
D: Asian Beef with Noodles

Thursday
L: Leftover Asian Beef with Noodles
D: Split Pea Soup with Ham (so, so, so excited!!!!)

Friday
L: Leftover Soup
D: Ham & Swiss Egg Sandwiches, Fruit Salad

Saturday
L: Leftovers
D: Date Night at Mile Away

Sunday
L: Lunch at the Made in NH Expo
D: Spaghetti with Meatballs, French Twists

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

What We're Eating 4/2/12-4/8/12

I have sad news. We didn't like the Spinach & Ricotta Lasagna Rolls from Jamie Cooks it Up. I've tried several recipes from this site and have loved them all, but this one just didn't do it for us. It wasn't awful, but it's not a meal we'd make again. The recipe didn't specify fresh or frozen spinach, but I had frozen on hand so that's what I used. We like spinach, but that's all we could taste! I like the lasagna rolls idea, but I would use a different filling recipe if I were to make them again.

The rest of the meals from last week were hits. (Although we subbed hot dogs on the grill with a side of frozen French fries for the Asian Chicken with Gingered Veggies Thursday night - I didn't feel like cooking.) We were pleasantly surprised to watch the boys gobble up pork chops and hot dogs (2 for Isaac!). Isaac normally won't touch pork chops, and neither of them would touch hot dogs until a few weeks ago. We're making progress!

In my hurried post last week, I forgot to mention that I will never again buy beets. We used them in the Baked Veggie Chips recipe a few weeks ago and were not fans. Chris said they tasted the way corn husks smell, and I kept taking bites to see if the taste might improve. Sadly, it did not, and the beets tainted the taste of the sweet potatoes and regular potatoes also used in the recipe. I've been told we might like them cooked another way, but after this experience, I'm not sure I'm willing to try. Blech!


Monday
L: Leftover Lasagna
D: Coconut Crusted Chicken Strips, Mashed Potatoes, Snow Peas

Tuesday
L: Leftover Chili
D: Bacon, Cheese & Potato Chowder, Ciabatta Bread

Wednesday
L: Leftover Chowder
D: Apple-Glazed Pork Chops, Brown Rice, Carrots

Thursday
L: PB&J, Apple Slices
D: Easy Beef Stroganoff

Friday
L: Leftover Stroganoff
D: Lemon-Pepper Tilapia, Lemon-Dill Potatoes, Lemon Green Beans

Saturday
L: Leftovers
D: Saucy Parmesan Chicken, Egg Noodles, Peas

Sunday
EASTER

For more menu planning inspiration, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie. After reading Laura's menu plan for this week, I'm going to have to plan to make Shepherd's Pie soon! One of my favorites!

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.