menu plan monday :: week of May 10th

for more menu ideas see here

MONDAY  Breakfast for dinner: Sour Cream Pancakes :: fruit compote (recipe to come)

TUESDAY  cool taco salad

WEDNESDAY  Spring Rolls with Peanut Love Sauce (I am addicted to this stuff)

THURSDAY  Grilled Seasoned Chicken Drummies

FRIDAY  Pizza night :: homemade pizzas on pitas

SATURDAY  leftovers

SUNDAY  dinner at a "colleague's" of HF's.  ; )

cutest finds EVER

Peter Rabbit's Garden Snack at Gourmet Mom on the Go.

Also at Gourmet Mom on the Go, these Apple Surprise Mini Pies. Yum!

These adorable Flower Pot Desserts from Pioneer Woman a couple of years ago. Great for Mother's Day.

Monster Stepping Stool for Kids at Indie Tutes.

I've never been able to let a peeps pass my (or my kids') lips, but I don't have a problem buying them up for this purpose. Peeps Sword Fighting! I think this is by far a better use than eating them. Yuck!

menu plan monday: week of March 19th

for more menu ideas see here

MONDAY  leftovers. we have a lot of leftovers from last week. So really all I have to do is make a pot of rice

TUESDAY  crockpot orange chicken :: rice :: steamed broccoli

WEDNESDAY  Falafel in Pita with Yogurt Sauce

THURSDAY  Pioneer Woman's Veggie Bagel Sandwich

FRIDAY  pizza night :: homemade dough :: kids choose toppings

SATURDAY  Brinner :: whole wheat muffins :: fruit compote :: apple and cheese sausage

SUNDAY Just had to try this once: Ina Garten's Grown up Mac and Cheese :: steamed veggies

menu plan monday

to join in on the action, go here

I did it! I planned breakfast, lunch, AND dinner for the whole week! I also included snacks and desserts as well. And this menu is from everything we already have on hand. I shouldn't have to go shopping the entire week.

MONDAY
breakfast:  granola with almonds and raisins :: grapefruit
lunch:  Spinach and Cheese quiche :: Granny Smith apples
dinner:  Chicken Fajitas on corn tortillas (toppings: avocado, sour cream, cheese and salsa)

TUESDAY
breakfast:  Pineapple Crush smoothies
lunch:  "sushi" surprise :: red grapes
dinner:  wagon wheel pasta with pesto :: salad with vine tomatoes

WEDNESDAY
breakfast:  cold cereal ::  orange-pineapple juice
lunch:  crunchy pb wraps
dinner:  Taco Soup

THURSDAY
breakfast: popeye smoothies
lunch:  leftover soup
dinner:  Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

FRIDAY
breakfast:  granola :: bananas
lunch:  veggie sandwiches
dinner:  pizza night :: side salad

SATURDAY
breakfast:  muffins :: orange-pineapple juice
lunch: leftovers
dinner:  Chipotle Grilled Chicken with Avocado Sandwiches

SUNDAY
breakfast:  popeye smoothies
lunch:  leftovers
dinner:  zesty chicken drumsticks with homemade zesty seasoning mix (recipe to come) :: cornbread :: steamed veggies

snacks on hand
popcorn
celery and carrot sticks
edamame
peanut butter and ranch for dipping
whole wheat crackers
apples

dessert ideas
secret ingredient chocolate chip cookies
swedish fish
homemade apple pie
granola bars
funnel cake

menu plan monday

Right now I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with a weekly menu plan. I see a lot of people include the other meals for the day in their plan. I'm definitely not there yet. My goal is to eventually add breakfast, lunch, snacks, and whatever desserts we might have for the week to mpm.I've been using a blank calendar (I got a set of 2 at the dollar store) to fill in dinners. I have almost the whole month of February complete. Here's my plan for the week of February 8th (click here to see more menu plans at org junkie):

Monday:  Take out: PF Changs (gift card from Christmas)

Tuesday:  Cream of Broccoli Soup and crusty bread 

Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas. Fruit kabobs (kebabs?) for dessert

Thursday:  Slug Salad (from the Happy Medic)

Friday:  Pizza night- homemade individual pizzas on english muffins. Serve with lettuce wedge and dressing

Saturday:  BLTs on wheat with avocado and sprouts. Serve with chips and/or veggies & dip.    

Sunday:  Fish n Chips  or this one here. Both look good, but I'm liking the idea of the sweet potato fries.

food updates

I haven't been making any original recipes or anything lately. I've been eating boring ole healthy foods and snacks. I did eat more junk than I would've liked to during the holidays, and have made some big fitness and health goals that I am working on. I am also busy preparing for a local healthy cooking class I'll be teaching at the end of this month. I will be doing a demo on hummus and ways to use it, and talking about feeding our children healthy snacks and lunches, the resources I use such as websites, blogs, cookbooks, etc. to find inspiration for ideas and showing bento products and how to arrange them. It should be fun.

I'm going to start doing Menu Plan Monday again. I have noticed that t helps us with our healthy eating habits, and our grocery budget when I plan ahead and you can find lots of ideas through the links of others doing it.

I did get Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas, which is one of the things I wanted. Here are the recipes I've tried:

Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes. OMG these are good! They melt in your mouth and are just delightful. LOVE these. This recipe has now replaced my Fly Off the Plate pancakes, which are also very good and also use sour cream, but these pancakes are much more simple. It uses 1 cup of sour cream and just 7 Tablespoons of flour. You should definitely give these a try. You can find pictures and the recipe here at the Noshery.

Beans and Cornbread (page 101): This recipe is also on her website. This was good. One of those filling, comfort foods.

Tomato Basil Pizza (page 112): This is one of our favorites! This is also on her website.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes (146): Good golly these were good! And you wanna know why? Because there was almost 2 sticks of butter, and a package of cream cheese. Wow. And then we paired it up with her meatloaf (150). FANTASTIC!! You cover it with bacon. Out. of. control. Next time I make it however, I think I will precook the bacon and then make it in muffin tins and sprinkle the bacon on top of each cup and then cover it with the sauce. Yeah, these two recipes are hard on the ticker for sure!

That's all for now. That's a cookbook to pull out occasionally.

mpm

This baby could be here any day or any minute for that matter, so I'm not sure how this week will actually turn out menu planning-wise. Boring, boring, boring except for Friday, Halloween.

monday
b: cold cereal, bananas, and milk
l: ham or pb and j sandwiches, yogurt, and carrot sticks
d: green chili chicken enchiladas, rice, and black beans

tuesday
b: cold cereal, milk, and oj
l: cup o noodles, fruit, chocolate milk
d: leftover enchiladas, rice, and beans

Wednesday
b: oatmeal with milk and bananas
l: quesadillas, salsa, and milk
d: kung pao chicken with rice, and steamed brocoli

Thursday
b: cold cereal and milk
l: pb and j sandwiches, bananas, and yogurt
d: BLTs

Friday (Halloween)
b: oatmeal with milk, oj
L: hot dog mummies, monster eyeballs, apple bites, and cheese fingers
d: pizza night- Papa Murphy's jack o'lantern pizza, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Saturday
b: french toast, fruit, and sausage
L; leftovers
d: potato and carrot soup in pumpkin-shaped bread bowls

Sunday
b: waffles and juice
l: more leftovers
d: crockpot chicken curry, rice, and naan

More great Halloween food ideas here

menu monday

This week for MPM I am going to try and use up what we already have and eat all our leftovers. Go see what everyone else is doing this week.

Monday
B: french toast and apricot jam (i use a loaf of french bread cut diagonally into 16 1-inch slices)
L: crackers and cheese, apple slices, chocolate milk, and marshmallows
D: Italian pasta and garlic bread

Tuesday
B: cracked wheat cereal and orange juice
L: leftover Italian pasta and apple slices
D: brown sugar chicken, rice, and broccoli

Wednesday
B: cold cereal and milk
L: peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and orange julius's
D: leftover brown sugar chicken and rice, vegies

Thursday
B: cold cereal and milk
L: turkey and cheese sandwiches, apple slices, and milk
D: White Chili with tortilla chips, guacamole, and pico de gallo

Friday
B: cold cereal and milk
L: leftover white chili
D: pizza night

Saturday
B: Fly off the Plate pancakes with maple syrup and orange juice
L: leftover pizza, vegies and fruit
D: leftovers, vegies, and fruit in the fridge

Sunday
B: waffles, jam, and orange juice
L: leftovers, fruit, and chocolate milk
D: Chipotle Grilled Chicken with Avocado Sandwich and elote (except we use parmesan cheese and sprinkle on cayenne pepper)

menu plan monday

I'm a little late for this week, but I'm joining the organizing junkie along with over 200+ other women who post their menu for the week. I have been awful this entire pregnancy with planning food and now I'm obsessed with being prepared for when the baby is here. I found some great menu ideas while browsing through the other posts on here. Hopefully this will keep me organized and within my budget. For my menu, the breakfasts and lunches are geared towards the kids and the dinners are for everyone. Join me in menu planning if you'd like and help give each other idears.

Monday:

b: cereal and milk

l: quesadillas, apple juice, and carrots

d: rotisserie chicken and pasta. homemade samoas for dessert

Tuesday:

b: cereal and milk

l: ham or pb sandwiches, yogurt, and grapes

d: eggplant parmesan, and salad

Wednesday:

b: cereal and milk

l: egg burritos and juice

d: homemade hamburgers with all the trimmings

Thursday:

b: cereal and milk

l: mixed fresh fruit, tortilla wheels (you can do cucumbers, olives, etc.)

d: brinner (breakfast for dinner) o.j., pancakes, eggs, sausage or bacon

Friday:

b: cereal and milk

l: smorgasbord of assorted fruits and vegies, crackers, and chocolate milk

d: pizza night

Saturday:

b: cereal and milk

l: pb sandwiches, juice, and popcorn

d: green chile chicken enchiladas

Sunday:

b: the usual cereal and milk

l: tortilla wheels, yogurt, and apples

d: leftovers!

menu monday

Another attempt to stick to a weekly dinner menu. This is soup week. Here's the plan. I will be making soup everyday, and freezing half of each recipe for after the baby is here Just 4 more weeks! And I feel like a lightbulb has turned on above my head because I just figured out that you can freeze the ziploc bags flat so you can stack them on top of each other. DUH. I always just stuffed whatever in the bag and shoved in the freezer so it ends up being like a bulky blob. Anyway, I'm probably the only person that didn't think to store them flat. Tell me what you've had success in freezing. I'm addicted to freezing dinner now. For the last few months the only things we've had in our freezer has been frozen juice, waffles, peas, broccoli, and the ocassional ice cream. That's it! It's been a barren wasteland.

M- Chicken Noodle Soup

T- Potato Soup

W- Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden

Th- Tomato Soup

F- We always do pizza and a movie

S- Corn Chowder from Mimi's Cafe

Su- Slow-cooked BBQ pork ribs, salad, crusty bread (2 ingredients. 1-2 bottles of favorite BBQ sauce and ribs. Cook in the crockpot for a few hours. I might even freeze half of this)

I have to say that I love making soup. The kids are pretty good about eating it because they get to make up their own names for it and put things in it like baby goldfish to swim. They call the Zuppa Toscana, "dinosaur soup" because the Kale reminded Daisy of something a plant-eating dinosaur would eat. I love it. The last time we made tomato soup, Daisy was coming up with all kinds of cool names for it, but then ended up getting upset and not wanting to call it anything because I gave it a scary Halloween name like, "bat gut stew" or something like that. She's so sensitive sometimes. Geez.

thursday's menu

The purpose of posting my menu for the day is more of my attempt to stick to a menu plan by "writing" it down.

B: Waffles with homemade raspberry jam and orange juice
L: Leftover pizza, milk, and sliced cucumbers and baby carrots
D: Grilled Lime Chicken with Black Bean Sauce, rice, and red grapes

Daily dessert desire: Concord Grape Sorbet at The Kitchen Sink. Doesn't that look so good?!

Matilda

A couple of months ago, I saw that Marie at Make & Takes had read the book How To Eat Fried Worms with her 5 year old and then they watched the movie and ate gummy worms. Some of the comments left on her post were ideas of other worm-related activities or treats. This gave me an idea. There are quite a few children's books that have been turned into movies and knew this would be something that Daisy would really enjoy doing. We started with "How To Eat Fried Worms" and Daisy liked it a lot and surprisingly didn't eat very many gummy worms during the movie. I wonder if it's because it grossed her out. . .

The next movie/book combo we did was Matilda by Roald Dahl. We read this book together, and even though a lot of it might've gone over her head, she really enjoyed it and was blown away by the awful things that Miss Trunchbull did to little children. We borrowed the movie version with Danny Devito from the library, and decided to make the Chocolate Cake from Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. Incase you haven't read the book, there's a part where a young boy, Bruce Bogtrotter, is forced to eat an entire giant chocolate cake. This recipe is much healthier than regular chocolate cake recipes. It uses pureed beets for added nutrition. It's still not perfectly healthy, but it makes me feel a little better about myself and what I'm feeding my kid, okay?

Anyway, Daisy and I enjoyed reading, watching, and eating "Bruce Bogtrotter's" chocolate cake. We're having computer/camera issues, but perhaps I'll post some photos later.

food links

Inside-out S'mores at Clumbsy Cookie

Toasted Coconut Shortbread at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Wonton Soup at Rasa Malaysia

Kate's Indian Grilled Chicken at Pioneer Woman Cooks

I love making the kids bento meals and I love collecting bento boxes. Here is a great American style bento blog with preschool age meal ideas. Wendolonia.

2 cool new links you will love and/or find interesting:

Cake Wrecks. "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong." That should explain it all right there.

Food Timeline-- a very interesting history of the beginnings of food from the "beginning" of time until today. You can click on many of the foods listed and it will tell you the history of that specific food. Very, very cool. At least I think so. Just check it out and you'll see what I mean. There are some cool links on this website as well.

things that look good to me right now

Pioneer Woman's Onion Straws. I've always disliked onions pretty much. But I want these so bad right now. I've been wanting them for at least a week now. Don't they look good?!

Ice Cream Sandwich Milkshake at Chow. This doesn't necessarily look good to me right now, but I saw it and knew that HF would love to try this. I read the comments underneath and they made me laugh. The first guy said that this was "perfect wife away from home, gonna eat crap food". That's totally HF. He does bad food combinations whenever I go out of town. He's totally going to try this tonight I bet.

I thought this was interesting to learn about green potatoes at Simply Recipes. I had no idea. I've lived this long without being poisoned, but probably something good to know. Now I'm thinking of all those times I've had fries at restaurants and they had a green tinge on some parts. Ew.

Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seed Cookies at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. But where am I going to find chocolate covered sunflower seeds? She's been making some other rather tasty looking desserts over there as well like this Blackberry and Lime Tart.

Now I'm hungry. I think I'll go eat breakfast.

IT'S STILL WINTER comfort foods

image taken from media.canada.com

Peabody did a cool food blog event titled Time to Make the Doughnuts and got over 100 responses. I wouldn't mind trying Orange Drop Doughnuts, Italian Zeppole, Spudnuts (made with potatoes), or baked donuts. There were some recipes from South Africa, Estonia, etc. Pretty cool to see that there are "doughnuts" to be found all over the world.

Soule Mama has a bread recipe that her kids call WHO Bread because of the main ingredients, Wheat, Honey, and Oats.

Pioneer Woman has a few recipes we've tried or want to try. Here are some good ones.

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies

Pico de Gallo and Guacamole

Veggie Quesadillas

Everything Cookies

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Peach Crisp With Maple Cream Sauce

Blackberry Cobbler #2

Simply Recipes Salsa Verde Carnitas. Super YUM.

I want to learn how to make good Refried Black Beans. I found a basic recipe on Food Network, but I wonder if there's a better recipe out there.

Can you tell that Mexican food is my favorite comfort food?! What are your comfort foods?

i promise. it's not your food.

The other night I made Southwest Chicken Soup from Real Simple magazine. It was really good, not a whole lot different from the White Chili recipe from Simply Recipes. It seriously just took a few minutes to make. I highly recommend this recipe.


Anyway, HF sat down to eat and ate a bowl of this soup and an orange and just when he took his last bite of orange, he gagged, leaned over the bowl and threw up in his bowl. Immediately, he looks up at me and Daisy, who are staring on in shock, and says, "I promise it's not your food. It's me." Then he proceeded to continue to gag and dry heave and/or vomit into his bowl at the dinner table. It was totally weird. Finally, I said, "Could you finish doing this in the bathroom?" Once I got over being really weirded out/worried, I thought it was hilarious. He has quite a history of vomiting/gagging. I've chronicled many of those stories here before. The best was when we were at someone's house. They aren't the cleanest people. HF was having a hard time eating with ease and when he began sipping water out of his glass, he saw what appeared to be dirt at the bottom of the glass. He set the glass down, excused himself to the bathroom in a hurry, and dry heaved in the bathroom for a few minutes and then came back out as though nothing had happened at all.

What's wrong with my poor husband?

if I were santa. . .

i would want:

Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies from Simply Recipes. In this recipe is a link to make the peppermint bark. I would have to agree with using high quality white chocolate (Wilton's melting discs or chips or other nice white chocolate) . The cheapo almond bark, or whatever that plasticy packaged stuff at Walmart was, not good at all.

What are you leaving out for Santa?

halloween menu ideas

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana in bread bowls shaped and colored like pumpkins. Or maybe Papa Murphy's jack-o-lantern pizza. I've tried a lot of different zuppa toscana recipes and this one was the best.

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Maybe churros with hot chocolate after trick or treating?

creepy things

I've never really been into Halloween decorating or celebrating, but Daisy LOVES all things creepy and scary and has talked about Halloween for the last year. Seriously nonstop, so it's been a blast finding things that we can make or do. The images are mostly from Woman's Day special interest magazine, "Halloween Celebrations" or from assorted Martha Stewart Halloween magazines I have. If you have any fun Halloween ideas or traditions, I'd love to hear about them. I thought these were the funniest werewolf cupcakes. I've seen some really scary ones, but these just looks so goofy and hairy and adorable. Who could resiste a werewolf cupcake like this? Have you seen Martha Stewart's amazing creepcakes? I think they first debuted in 2004 or 2005. They are amazing. She does all kinds. Aliens, spiders, brains, mummies, skeletons. Maybe next year. . .

wacky werewolf cupcake tutorial

hag bags from woman's day

Daisy calls these "gross" bags, but she loves them anyway. All you do is buy those cheapish stretchy gloves in whatever colors you want and decorate them with painted press-on nails. With strong fabric glue, attach some wide black grosgrain ribbon for the handle, and a strip of marabou or feather boa for the cuff. The fingers and hands are lumpy from being filled with candy. Fun little craft for little people.

food finds

snackie cakes at Chow. Their link to Pimp that Snack is kind of funny.

Chicken Chile Verde also found at Chow.

Make your own grape juice at Simply Recipes. I've always wanted to do this!

Mom's (Not my mom's) Peanut Butter Cookies from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I made these. They stay soft. They are really good!

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes also at Culinary Concoctions. Have I mentioned that I LOVE peanut butter? I think Ganache looks fun to frost with.

Eggs Benedict at Pioneer Woman Cooks. I've never had eggs benedict, but I know Jake would love me more if I made this. I can't do raw egg. And I didn't know that Holondaise sauce had raw egg. I think I could change it to more of an egg mcmuffin with cooked white sauce on it for the rest of us? I don't know.

Also at the Pioneer Woman Cooks, a glorified grilled cheese on rye. Looks pretty good to me. I love the pictures she takes for her food blog and her regular blog. Farm pictures. I want a farm but I don't want to clean up the poo.