Category Archives: food

Menu Plan Monday

food, menu plan monday

Want to know the BEST reason for not having carpet in your kitchen?  When you’re replacing all of your carpet, you won’t have to deal with that one room!  While the rest of your furniture lives in the garage for a few days, your kitchen table can stand it’s ground.  Thankfully, that also means we don’t have to eat out every night this week.  Here’s my plan:

Monday:  Chicken Quesadillas, with fresh cilantro, tortilla chips, and salad
Tuesday:  Sub sandwiches, apples, strawberries and potato chips (our busiest night!)
Wednesday: Spare ribs, fingerling potatoes, and salad
Thursday: Chicken Tettrazini (sans mushrooms), salad
Friday:  Homemade spaghetti and meatballs, Great Harvest bread, and salad

Yes, I know, that’s a lot of salad.  It’s my favorite “veggie,” so we have it most nights.  If you need some mealtime inspiration, the amazing Laura has lots of other ideas at Organizing Junkie.  Bon appetit, my friends.

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Light Italian Cream Cake and Menu Planning for a Month

food, organizing

It’s Monday again and you know what that means?  We’re out of apples.  And bread.  But we have plenty of Italian Cream Cake left!

This weekend was my husband’s birthday, and Italian Cream Cake is his absolute favorite.  In the olden days, I made the original version, but many moons ago I found this lighter version of Italian Cream Cake in Cooking Light Magazine and we loved it.  It’s a more than acceptable substitute.  My only change:  I still make the original icing, with full fat butter and cream cheese.  The texture and taste are worth it!
I thought I’d focus this week on organizing life with kids—it’s something we all seem to struggle with.  I love reading Laura’s tips at I’m an Organizing Junkie but I don’t know how she does it.  I just keep trying!
One of the things I have found, without question, to be the most helpful for our family is menu planning. 
Yuck, I know!
For years I have vacillated between having a great weekly plan and going out to eat four times a week because I don’t even look in the pantry until it’s already time to eat.  Last January, I was fed up with the kids complaining about not liking dinner, so I sat down and started making a list of the meals they like, that we liked, too.  When I finished, there were about 17 meal ideas, and I thought, “Hey, that’s more than half of the month!”  I decided to plan the weeknight meals for the entire month of January, which meant I only had to come up with 3 more.  I printed the menu, posted it on the fridge, and lo and behold, it worked!  The biggest surprise was that on the nights I made something the kids didn’t particularly care for, they stopped complaining…because they knew we were having something they liked the next night.  It was beautiful!
I suppose the bigger surprise is that I’ve kept it up.  I took July and August off—we grill most summer nights anyway—but I’ve printed a menu every other month.  I know, shocking, right?!
I keep all of the past menus for future planning, rely on Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday (and her participants) for some new ideas, and love to Google a few ingredients I have on hand to see what ideas pop up.
So if you’re among the many who find ourselves foraging the pantry at 5PM, give it a whirl. 
Other ideas?  Bring ‘em on and post ‘em here!
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There’s Protein

food, sports

It’s the time of year when hot wings become an acceptable dinner food at our house.  I usually try to include a salad, or at least slice a few apples, but that wasn’t happening yesterday.  Instead, to round out the healthy meal, I threw a pizza in the oven when the wings were done.
It was a Sunday in September and the Packers were playing.  And, lo and behold, it was televised here!  That meant, of course, that all of our work had to be done by 4:15 because once the game started…toast.  We were all hunkered down with our hot wings and pizza, cheering for that punk Aaron Rodgers.  (Okay, fine, I like him.  He’s just not Brett.)
So, the four food groups food pyramid went out the window and we taught our kids to eat bar food.
At least they’ll be ready for college.

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