Menu Plan Working

We just finished our second week working off a menu plan, and I'm happy to say for the most part it has worked. What has been the hardest to follow is breakfast and lunches. I guess because I'm not a big breakfast person, I generally don't get out of bed until 8, and trying to get school going has a lot to do with it. Lunches aren't quite so bad as I try to keep them simple. I just need to remember to check my schedule the night before to see if I need to cook eggs ahead of time for sandwiches. :-)


I didn't do a day of cooking this past week like I did the week before. I knew we were going to have a busy week so I relied on some of the meals I made extra of, and chose simple meals that wouldn't take long to do.

The grocery bill was much less last week (although I don't know by how much as my hubby did the shopping - with kids in tow - and came home with stuff NOT on my list). Let's say - my list was shorter! The previous week I had much more because we were out of a lot of things, plus I had the extra money to stock up on some of the basics. I was also able to rely on a few meals that I had made extra of from the previous week.

The Excel file I made is working great too. It took a long time to work out the first week as I added most the meals we like to eat and their major ingredients, but the second week everything was there so it took me maybe 15-30 minutes to make out our menu and grocery list. One thing I didn't do last week was to take an inventory of what I have on hand which is something I would like to do this week or next.

So I'm now off to work on this week's menu and grocery list - and I think I'll do the shopping this time! Until next time - have a great day!

Menu Planning

My wonderful husband got my shelves all installed in the closet in the kitchen so at last I have a working pantry. Now I am working on getting a weekly menu together so I can shop smart instead of wasting money like I have been doing as of late.

I set up a spread sheet in excel to help me - I hope. This spread sheet has a weekly meal planner where I list out all our meals. I used to only plan for dinner and purchase a bunch of stuff for lunches for the kids to choose from, but lately they haven't been choosing too good so I'm going to include all meals and see how it goes.

Then I listed all the meals we like to eat which also includes the major ingredients and where the recipe is from so I can quickly locate it if needed (cookbook name and page number). I have picky kids (and husband) so it helps me to have a list of everything they will eat. I'm hoping to try a few new recipes each month and if they like it I'll add it to my list to incorporate during the month.

I also included a shopping list section. So what I did was drop in what we're going to eat each day into the meal planner, then go over to my shopping list and figure out what I might need to buy. Then I print off the planner and post it on my fridge, and print off my shopping list.

I am going to try and do some pre-cooking on Saturday so some of the meals are at least partially ready to go. Hopefully this will save me some time during the week.

I'm in need of some make ahead/freezer type recipes of things the kids can warm up in the microwave for lunches, and dinners on the nights hubby and I might not be home and my oldest is working. If anyone has any recipes - please share! ;-)

So here is my menu for the coming week. We'll be getting groceries tomorrow (Friday), Saturday evening we always have homemade pizza so my plan starts on Sunday.


Breakfasts:

• Cream Cheese Danish
• Breakfast Rollups
• Hard boiled eggs & Muffins
• Cereal/Oatmeal
• Baked French Toast
• Eggs & sausage

Lunches:

• Stuffed Shells/Tossed Salad/homemade bread (Sunday)
• Hummus & Pita or tuna fish/PJB sandwiches
• Grilled cheese & tomato soup
• Canned Pasta or sandwiches
• Egg Salad sandwiches
• Corn Dogs
• Sandwiches
• (veggies, chips and fruit are added to each meal)

Dinners:

• Frozen Pizza (our Sunday after church snack)
• No Peek Stew & corn bread
• Sloppy Joes & veggie side
• Chicken Casserole & veggie side
• Leftovers
• Pancakes or Waffles
• Homemade Pizza

Snacks:

• Fruit & Veggies
• Monkey Munch
• No Bake Snack Bars
• Granola
• Nachos and Cheese
• Popcorn
• Brownies

Items I'll make ahead on Saturday:

• Stuffed Shells
• Sloppy Joes
• No Bake Snack Bars
• Monkey Munch
• Pancakes
• Hummus
• Frozen bread dough
• Breakfast roll ups
• Muffins
• cook the chicken for the casserole
• Granola
  

We'll see how this goes and report back to you next week.

Until next time...

Pantry Overhaul

I need to do some major overhauling to my food shopping, menu planning, and pantry organizing. In our previous house we had lots of kitchen storage and a beautiful pantry with deep shelves that pulled out making it nice and easy to see what we had on hand. Our current kitchen needs some major re-modeling - someday. Cupboard space is okay - but I really miss the pantry.

There is a small 38" wide closet in one corner that my husband had promised he would put shelves in - one day for a pantry, however after almost 3 years of being here I'm still waiting. We put some plastic shelves in it for the moment to serve the purpose - but they really aren't cutting it anymore.

So I'm on a quest to get something done in this closet that will work better. Once I have that I'm hoping I can start building up my food stuffs. I have never been one to "stock up", but really feel the need to start doing this for a few reasons:

1. I never have on hand what I need when I decide to cook something (poor menu planning has a lot to do with this - but I also tend to not have some of the basics on hand either because I forget to buy them or we just run out)

2. I hate grocery shopping, the lesser times I have to do it the better.

3. In today's economy - one never knows what tomorrow is going to bring and I would like to be able to "stock up" on food just in case something happens.

I'm hoping with our tax refund I can begin to work on this project. Originally I told my husband I just wanted to get some wire type shelving for canned goods and put them into my laundry room until he was able to do my shelves - but then figured why not just work on the closet first - then if I still need more storage space we can turn to the laundry room.

I've planned out putting the wire shelving along a side wall to put the canned goods on, then shelving along the back wall for the other stuff. I figure I can do four 18"x18" wire racks for the cans (3 shelves each), then five shelves 25"-28" long by 8"-10" deep - 15" apart. I figured this would be deep and tall enough to hold most boxed type foods we use.

My husband was asking what I wanted to do tomorrow (his day off) so I think I'm going to suggest checking out the stores and get some prices on this stuff and see where we are money wise. I'll try and remember to post before and after pictures once we accomplish this project. Then my next project will be building up my food supply and developing weekly menus.

Until next time...

Masterly Inactivity

I'm in the middle of reading an interesting e-book called Masterly Inactivity. For those of you who like Charlotte Mason you will enjoy this. If you are struggling with discipline and homeschooling I highly recommend you download it. Best of all - it's FREE! Check it out HERE.

The Child vs The Medicine

Tell me I'm not the only mother to deal with this.

My 10 year old son woke up this morning complaining he was going to be sick. Not much came up so I was figuring it was just sinus issues. A bit later he's covered in hives. Not good so off we went to the Doctor. Come to find out the poor boy has strep. Out come two prescriptions - one for the strep, one for the hives - however she said we can wait a day for the steroids to see if just being on the other will work.

A bit of info on this son - we believe him to have Asperger's Syndrome, but have opted not to have him formally tested (ie. - insurance won't cover it). With the exception of a few issues, he's doing well. Of course one of those issues is food - a sensory thing.

So we get home from the doctor's and the medicine can be taken with milk - so I mix it in, tell son to go drink up. He gets it all down but the last mouth full which ends up down the front of him. Okay - better than I expected.

Bedtime, he tries to sneak upstairs to bed but I call him back down to take his meds. He's already determined he's going to throw it up (this after throwing up the benadryl I gave him a half hour previous). I give him the choice - the med in the milk OR straight up. He opts for the milk - only not a full cup this time. I comply. Next minute he takes a swallow and makes a mad dash to the bathroom. UGH!!!

I try and reason with him - he just needs to drink it down and he will be fine. Meanwhile he's working himself into a panic. So I told hubby he has medicine duty. He gave him 10 minutes to drink it up or he would be giving it to him directly. I just stuck my head in the other room after not hearing anything and son is not there. I asked hubby if he took it and he said yes. I told hubby he has medicine duty for the next 5 days! lol

Time for son to learn how to swallow pills!!! We'll see how that goes since his father can't (won't) swallow them (2 children can - 3 to go).

To Diet or Not to Diet...

That is the question...

Why do women obsess about their weight so much? My weight used to never bother me. Yes, I'm overweight. I've had 5 children and most of that excess weight is their fault!

However over the past couple years I've packed on more weight that I can't blame the children for. Well, actually I guess I could - as they have grown up, I don't have to chase them around anymore! LOL

Hence my dilemma. I usually eat fairly well. I'm not someone who sits around the house and eats for lack of something to do. I don't use food for comfort. I eat when I'm hungry and because I have to. My main problem is exercise and the lack there-of.

I don't know why making myself exercise is such a hassle. I have good intentions before going to bed for the next day, but then morning comes and I get busy with other things and before I know it, the day is once again gone, and I haven't moved much to save my life.

I did the 3D Diet several years ago with some gals from our church and did well on it. But don't you know once we stopped, so did my loss.

I have several friends who are doing the South Beach Diet and I'm tempted to get the book and take a look at it. Maybe if I start losing some weight through diet, I'll have more determination to start doing some moving. Hmmm....


I hate to say I'm "on a diet" because ultimately I believe that if you just eat right (ultimately following the food pyramid and exercise, the weight will come off. I don't necessarily agree with some of these diets that tell you not to eat this or that. So I'm still not sure what I'm going to do - but I really need to start and do something.

Somebody motivate me - or just give me a good swift kick!

Christmas Shopping Year Round

I am such a procrastinator - but hate it! Every year I say I'm going to start my Christmas shopping early, but never do, then we're hunting around two weeks before Christmas and not finding anything we want. Humph!

So I've decided this year I'm starting NOW!!! We hit thrift stores and garage sales weekly (well maybe not the garage sales THIS time of year) - and find some fantastic stuff. Usually I'm looking with the "eye to sell", not the "eye for gifts" - but I'm going to purpose this year to look through both eyes! I have already decided what I'm going to make for my sisters and nieces. That will require purchasing some fleece - so if I do one a month, I'll have them done long before Christmas. Now I just have to get my hubby to be on the same page as me!

Hold me accountable oh dear blog.

Next time...Garden planning!!!