Menu Plan Monday - W/O 9/29/09 EIGHT WEEKS Strong!

So ... I am still impressed with this whole menu planning thing. I think the most amazing thing is that I find myself throwing away much less food than I did before. It seems we are able to get things used up BEFORE they go bad. That is good!

I have also added a few more recipes to our menu. I found two REALLY good ones this past week. See my review of last week below this weeks plan.

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What's up for the week of 9/29/09

Monday: Beef and noodles with mashed potatoes

Tuesday: Julie's Chicken Pot Pie

Wednesday: Grilled Steak Kabobs (Outback seasoned)-Potato, veggie, mac n cheese

Thursday: Cracker Crust Chicken, mashed potato, corn, gravy, bread

Friday: Family party at a friend's house. I will take Tortilla roll-ups and Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies.

Saturday: Flank Steak Fajitas w/ mexican rice

Sunday: Baked Chicken Chimichangas (Taste of Home Pg 174)


HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 9/21/09:

Monday: Easy Spaghetti with sauce - Made it, ate it.

Tuesday: Potato Soup - Made the stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy (See Wedensday below) We will for sure add this to the rotation, Carl said that he thought it was the best chicken he as have had! WOW!

Wednesday: NEW RECIPE - (Recycled from last 2 weeks) Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna keep this on the menu until we give it a try! Ended up eating out at a local restaurant.

Thursday: NEW RECIPE - Yakatori (marinated, grilled sirloin steak kabobs), oriental green beans, egg drop soup and rice. (Recipes from allrecipes.com and cooks.com) - Swapped Thursday and Friday of this week. Pizza was good as usual!

Friday: Home made pizza - C'Mon garden! One more round of green peppers and tomatoes! Please?!? - Ok so tonight was the night to try the recipes listed for Thursday above. WOWEE!!! This was gooooood! Found out it is really called Yakiniku (Grilled Beef). Yakatori is chicken. Anyway it was amazingly good!!!

Saturday: Cracker Crust Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn. - Had quick spaghetti with meat sauce and bread.

Sunday: Beef and noodles with mashed potaotes (slow cook roast starting in the morning). - Got stuck out at the lake ... LITERALLY! So we ate a Pizza Hut on the way home. Very late! LOL!

Have an excellent week everyone!!!

Menu Plan Monday - W/O 9/21/09 SEVEN WEEKS Strong!

I would say we have a habit here with this menu planning thing! Whoo hoo!

I committed to making at least ONE NEW MEAL each week.

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(See below for what last week was and what we actually did for supper).

Monday: Easy Spaghetti with sauce

Tuesday: Potato Soup

Wednesday: NEW RECIPE - (Recycled from last 2 weeks) Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna keep this on the menu until we give it a try!

Thursday: NEW RECIPE - Yakatori (marinated, grilled sirloin steak kabobs), oriental green beans, egg drop soup and rice. (Recipes from allrecipes.com and cooks.com)

Friday: Home made pizza - C'Mon garden! One more round of green peppers and tomatoes! Please?!?

Saturday: Cracker Crust Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn.

Sunday: Beef and noodles with mashed potaotes (slow cook roast starting in the morning).


HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 9/7/09:
Monday: Tacos - Planned it, made em. Ate 'em! With fresh salsa to boot!

Tuesday: NEW RECIPE - Grilled steaks, fried potatoes, velveeta mac n cheese, green beans. I used the Outback Steakhouse marinade from a copycat recipe book. It was wayyyyyy yummy!

Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs with french bread - Littlest daughter thought Pepper Steak sounded better. So that's what we did (pulled from Sunday)! Took the opportunity to let the girls help measure chop (w/supervision) and stir. They were very proud of supper that night and ate really well!

Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas - These turned out yummy, even though I left the oven on BROIL!!! (I turn it onto that to preheat and forgot to switch it down! ACK!!) Thank gooness the rack was low enough, just the cheese got crispy, just the way I like it! These rock! Especially the next day for lunch!

Friday: Chicken fried rice and crab rangoon - Ended up out shopping. Suprised the girls and took them out to Red Robin. Sat on the patio. It was wonderful! I had a chicken apple salad with goat cheese and walnuts. Amazing how sitting outside, you can taste everthing totallyy seperate really strong. It was cool!

Saturday: NEW RECIPE - (Recycled from last week) Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna give this one a try! - Went out to see "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" Ate real quick at a local burger place.

Sunday: (Recycled from last week)Pepper Steak - Once of our faves this summer because it's easy and our garden is still crankin out the peppers! - Celebrated my birthday with some friends that invited us to their house for dinner. Good times!


Have a great week everyone!

Menu Plan Monday - SIX WEEKS! 9/14/09

I would say we have a habit here with this menu planning thing! Whoo hoo!

So, last week. I committed to making at least ONE NEW MEAL each week. Even though we flip flopped some meals this past week, I plan to pick up with this again this week.


Click here to see more Menu Plan Monday followers.

(See below for what last week was and what we actually did for supper).

Monday: Tacos - Made some fresh salsa Sunday will be good to use for this.

Tuesday: Grilled steaks, fried potatoes, velveeta mac n cheese, green beans.

Wednesday: Spaghetti & Meatballs with french bread

Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas

Friday: Chicken fried rice and crab rangoon

Saturday: NEW RECIPE - (Recycled from last week) Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna give this one a try!

Sunday: (Recycled from last week)Pepper Steak - Once of our faves this summer because it's easy and our garden is still crankin out the peppers!


HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 9/7/09:
Monday: Labor Day - Back home from Camping @ the lake late - Ate at the Marina

Tuesday: Grilled hamburgers and french fries. Need to use lefteover thawed hamburger patties from the lake. I also will pre-cook some of it to make nachos later this week out of the extra pound of patties I thawed so they won't go to waste. - Ended up making Hamburger Helper. Husband had already ate. Kids and I really like HB Helper. :-)

Wednesday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - I just use crushed saltines (with some seasoned salt) to coat chicken cubes that have been dipped in egg and then fry them. (This is the third week of this being on the menu. If we don't cook it this week, I'm taking it off the menu for a while!) - Cooked it and we ate it. Made regular mashed potatoes and corn adn some really great homemade gravy. Gotta put this back on the menu everyone really liked it. (Leftovers were great the next day too!)

Thursday: Home made pizza. Still have alot of good peppers from the garden. Plus, I bought pepperoni on sale for camping (to make pizza pockets over the campfire. SEE NOTE BELOW). We didn't end up using it so, Home made pizza sounds good! - Husband brought home pizza in honor of NFL opening night. OK by me!!! LOL!

Friday: Baked nachos using fresh salsa I'm gonna make this week and the ground beef I cooked on Tuesday night. Didn't make salsa. Ended up going out to dinner with husband, kids and sister-in-law.

Saturday: NEW RECIPE - Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna give this one a try! - Didn't end up making this so it's on the menu for this week. (See above). We had some good friend's kids over and my oldest daughter requested that I make homemade chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes. We had this several weeks ago and everyone chowed down. If that meal pleases FOUR finicky kids, yes dear, I will make that! ;-)

Sunday: Pepper Steak - Once of our faves this summer because it's easy and our garden is still crankin out the peppers! - Had friends over so we ended up having home made pizzas that were planned for Thursday.

Have a great week everyone!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of 9/7/09 - 5th Week! A habit for sure!

So, I am still diggin' on the Menu Planning. Not quite sure why it's working, but I am soooooo glad it is! :-)

I also have a new goal, I'd like to share with you ... If your family is like ours, you have about 10 standby meals that you know everyone will eat and you just make the heck out of them til everyone is just SICK of eating the same old thing all the time! Well, to help combat dinner boredom, I committed to making at least ONE NEW MEAL each week from my many cook books or the unlimited resources on the internet. Of course I know what they may eat and not eat so I use that as a guide. But I'm also not afraid to push the limit of their picky little tastebuds either! LOL!!! So, here's to my new cooking adventures! I will let you know the source of my family's new eating adventures! ;-)

Check on orgjunkie.com to see more Menu Plan Monday followers.

(See below for what last week was and what we actually did for supper). We went camping over the holiday weekend, so stuff switched around a little. Because of the holiday, I am posting on Tuesday.

Monday: Labor Day - Back home from Camping @ the lake late - Eat at the Marina

Tuesday: Grilled hamburgers and french fries. Need to use lefteover thawed hamburger patties from the lake. I also will pre-cook some of it to make nachos later this week out of the extra pound of patties I thawed so they won't go to waste.

Wednesday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - I just use crushed saltines (with some seasoned salt) to coat chicken cubes that have been dipped in egg and then fry them. (This is the third week of this being on the menu. If we don't cook it this week, I'm taking it off the menu for a while!)

Thursday: Home made pizza. Still have alot of good peppers from the garden. Plus, I bought pepperoni on sale for camping (to make pizza pockets over the campfire. SEE NOTE BELOW). We didn't end up using it so, Home made pizza sounds good!

Friday: Baked nachos using fresh salsa I'm gonna make this week and the ground beef I cooked on Tuesday night.

Saturday: NEW RECIPE - Stuffed Chicken Rolls with Gravy from Miss Vickie's pressure cooker cookbook. Page 236. Gonna give this one a try!

Sunday: Pepper Steak - Once of our faves this summer because it's easy and our garden is still crankin out the peppers!


HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 8/17/09:
Monday: NEW RECIPE REPORT- Baked Chicken Chimichangas - Taste of Home Cookbook. Page 174 - Ok, this was something totally new ... And it ROCKED!!! This recipe is worth the price of the entire cookbook. Seriously! Can't believe the chimichangas got crunchy just from being in the oven. This is on my list of stuff to make again.

Tuesday: Spaghetti with italian meatballs and french bread - Made it. Ate it. Family was happy. We hadn't had this for a while because all were burned out on it before. Made the meatballs with a little garlic powder. Carl liked them. (He's usually anti-garlic)

Wednesday: Flank Steak Fajitas - Made them, ate them. Used fresh salsa. Yummo!

Thursday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - What is up with this chicken? Each night I plan to cook it, we are busy out shopping ... Used an email coupon for Carlos o' Kellys and saved a little $$ since we ate out.

Friday: Camping - Eat out on the way there - Pizza Hut according to plan. Called in the order so it was ready when we got there. Wanted to get back on the road FAST! LOL

Saturday: Camp out - Burgers and Dogs grilled - Campfire corn on the cob, chips Dip -Wellllll ... Here's where we get creative! I love camp cooking. It's always a challenge. You have to plan every single meal. There isn't any running to the pantry for cereal and milk ... Unless you PLAN it like that! LOL! So, I ended up with a grat deal on frozen sirloin steak kabobs and tons of fresh veggies from the garden so we took metal skewers camping and grilled marinated steak kabobs. I also took a bunch of corn on the cob (also on sale!) and pulled back the husks, cleaned out the silk, buttered, salted and pulled the husks back up and covered them in foil and then grilled the corn over the campfire. You have to remember to turn them frequently so they don't burn, but they are soooooooo good!

Sunday - Camp out - Burgers and Dogs grilled - Campfire corn on the cob, chips Dip - This we did except we ate the corn a night early. On this night, we did the baked potatoes the same as the corn. (Baked potatoes take longer though! Start them early).

Monday (Labor Day): Back Home Something easy. We stayed at the lake really late so we just took the boat to the Marina and ate supper there. It was REALLY GOOD and not as expensive as I would have thought. Now, the marina grill is closed until next Memorial day, but it was really cool!

NEW IDEA!!! Camp cooking is so fun. I also want to reccommend these little camnpfire irons you can put bread (or anything) into and close them up and grill them over the campfire. Talk about YUM!!! We took sweet stuff to make apple pies (fresh apples, cinnamon and sugar) but we just didn't get to it. We did have grilled ham and cheese one day for lunch and the next morning, grilled bacon egg and cheese sandwiches. They are very cool!

What a fun week made much less hectic by our menu planning! YAY!

Have a great week everyone!

Menu Plan Monday - 4th Week! 8/31/09

Well, last week, I planned the menus and we switched around a lot! I managed to try one new pressure cooker recipe too. This week will be a busy week since we are going camping for the holiday weekend. Check on orgjunkie.com to see more Menu Plan Monday followers.

(See below for what last week was and what we actually did for supper).

Monday: New Recipe - Baked Chicken Chimichangas - Taste of Home Cookbook. Page 174 (Didn't get to make these last week. Making fresh salsa this afternoon so we'll give it a try!)

Tuesday: Spaghetti with italian meatballs and french bread. (Didn't get to make this last week)

Wednesday: Flank Steak Fajitas - Gotta use that salsa! :-)

Thursday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - I just use crushed saltines (with some seasoned salt) to coat chicken cubes that have been dipped in egg and then fry them. (Didn't make this last week)

Friday: Camping - Eat out on the way there

Saturday: Camp out - Fish Fry! (Hopefully!) - Potoato salad (make @ home) Chips, Dip and Campfire baked potatoes.

Sunday: Camp out - Burgers and Dogs grilled - Campfire corn on the cob, chips Dip

Monday (Labor Day): Back Home Something easy. (Raviolis & Spaghettios and lake leftovers.) I went ahead and planned this day too since we will just be getting home.


HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 8/17/09:
Monday: Pepper Steak - Got busy this night so we ate Spaghettios and Raviolis.
Tuesday: BLT's - These didn't sound good, so I made the new pressure cooker recipe for Monster Meatballs. Family liked the meatballs and the potatoes but not the gravy. Said next time put marinara sauce on the meatballs. Maybe smaller and on french bread for a sandwich.
Wednesday: Monster Meatballs. - Made this Tuesday instead. Tonight I made Pepper steak that we were supposed to have on Monday.
Thursday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - Busy out shopping, so I used a gift card to a fast food restaurant I had.
Friday: Baked Chicken Chimichangas - Another busy night so we did Leftovers and raviolis.
Saturday: Spaghetti with italian meatballs and french bread. - Suprise! we went camping! SO we grilled burgers and hot dogs and had chips and dip with them
Sunday: Tacos with cheese dip and tortilla chips. - On our way home from camping we stopped to eat at Pizza Hut.

We only ate two things off of the menu this week and I switched around days on them. LOL! THIS, is a typical week for us. He he! So, I planned another week. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I'm still ahead cause it's just now midday and I KNOW what's for dinner! YAY!

Have a great week everyone!

Menu Plan Monday (3rd week! On a roll!)- 08/24/09

A new routine?!? I am really loving planning the menus for our week. I couldn't ever do it before! For some reason what I found on orgjunkie.com clicks for me and is working!!!

My second week was great. I did switch around alot last week with the days of the week, but for the most part it worked really well. It was awesome knowing what was for supper! (See below for what last week was and what we actually did for supper).

So, here is this week's version for 8/24/09:

Monday: Eating dinner at school function.

Tuesday: BLT's - Our tomatoes have finally begun to turn red. We must take advantage of them for Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches! We will have Kraft mac n cheese or chips with them. Plus cucumbers maybe some squash cooked with some pesto a friend made.

Wednesday: New Pressure Cooker Recipe - Monster Meatballs with "Baked" Potatoes. From Miss Vickie's Pressure Cooker Book Page 174.

Thursday: Cracker Crust Chicken with red potatoes in gravy and peas - I just use crushed saltines (with some seasoned salt) to coat chicken cubes that have been dipped in egg and then fry them.

Friday: New Recipe - Baked Chicken Chimichangas - Tast of Home Cookbook. Page 174 (What's up with that? Page 174 again! LOL!)

Saturday: Spaghetti with italian meatballs and french bread.

Sunday: Tacos with cheese dip and tortilla chips. I make the taco meat with ground beef and Tone's taco seasoning from Sam's. The cheese dip is On The Border dip also from Sam's.

HOW WE DID LAST WEEK of 8/17/09:
Monday: Fajitas made with flank steak - Made them, ate them!
Tuesday: Sweet n sour chicken - I'm taking this off the menu for a while. It just isn't sounding good to us! So, we ate the Chicken Pot Pie I had planned for Thursday. (Made the gravy on my own though instead of from a packet this time).
Wednesday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls. - My sister in law came over with two roasted chickens and all the fixins ... So no cooking for me! Yay! Plus we had a chicken left over. I froze it to use on Sunday when she comes over again.
Thursday: Chicken Pot Pie - We ate this on Tuesday. Instead we had Chicken Enchiladas I had planned for Saturday night.
Friday: Manwich on buns, homemade Velveeta mac n cheese, cucumber salad and green beans. - Had some time today so I made Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls that we were supposed to have Wednesday. I also tried a new yeast roll recipe I found on Allrecipes.com
Saturday: Chicken Enchiladas - Ate the Manwich on buns, homemade Velveeta mac n cheese, cucumber salad that we had planned for Friday night.
Sunday: Grilled house burgers with home cut french fries and breaded squash. - We used the other chicken my Sister-in-law brought over on Wedensday and made some homemade chicken noodles and mashed potatoes. Had friends over and they brought a wonderful angelfood cake dessert with coolwhip, pudding, pineapple and strawberry frosting. Yummo!

So even though I jumbled it all around, we stuck pretty much to the plans only bumping off things to make way for what my sister-in-law brought over. She can do that anytime! It's fine by me! LOL!

Here's to another week of menu plans! Yay!

One year ago vs. Today

My oldest DD went back to school as a first grader today. It was much easier to walk her in this year. No tears from me. (Unlike last year I bawled like a baby as I drove away from the school!) My husband and younger daughter also went with us. (See photo to the left).

It was sweet to watch the Moms of the new little kindergartners be in the same place I was just one short year ago.

It's amazing how much the kids grow in one year. Last year they were all so small. Another Mom commented on how much bigger the class size looked this year. When I counted kids, the number was exactly the same as last year, just the kids are bigger! LOL!

My daughter loves school and couldn't wait to go back. She got in line and I had turned to chat with another parent and hardly noticed that her line was leaving for class! I had to call her name to get her attention to wave goodbye. It was funny. I am sooooo glad she isn't the clingy, crying type, but she was ready to go without so much as a wave bye! (I'm a Mom, I need a little bitty-eentsy-teensy bit of separation anxiety from her to feel appreciated! At least an extra hug or something! LOL!!!)

After school we checked out her class room. Nice, neat, clean and super organized!

The main thing I noticed about 1st grade vs. kindergarten was the lack of toys in the class room. For kindergarten, there were plenty of "centers" for play during free time. They rotated amongst learning game, and building blocks and a play area called housekeeping.

No toys in first grade. Lots of cool, cute, bright graphics on the walls all geared towards learning. There was a schedule written on the board and so many things on the walls to learn about. I'm pretty sure DD didn't notice the lack of toys. She loves school and learning. Today they counted and graphed M&Ms. Then, they got to eat them! Much better than toys and they were learning math at the same time! LOL!

This year they sit at little desks with cubbies in them to keep their stuff. Last year, they sat at tables with all the other kids. It was so cute to see her in her little desk with her pencil sharpened ready for the next day's work. (All the desks had a sharpened pencil on them!)

I sure hope some of this teacher's organizational strengths rub off on me this year. Lord knows I could really use it!

So, DD is now a first grader and still loves school. That hasn't changed!

Go, grow and learn, baby!