Menu Plan Monday~ 10/11/10

It's Monday again already? The week just flew by and I didn't get a chance to post anything since last Monday's MPM! I really need a blog schedule.

This past week I made my first baby food! (Yay Me for waiting until my 3rd baby to do this!) I baked off a sweet potato and a sugar pumpkin and made a bunch of puree. Noah LOVED the sweet potato and it made a bunch (frozen in an ice cube tray for single portions). I definitely won't be buying any sweet potato baby food! He's not too sure about the pumpkin but I made some awesome Pumpkin Bread and have more puree frozen to make a couple loaves. :) I'm trying to decide what kind to make next!

Here's what we're eating this week!

Monday 10/11- Chicken Picatta (didn't make last week), Noodles, Broccoli

Tuesday 10/12- Tacos/Nachos (Leftover Taco Meat), Salad

Wednesday 10/13- Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Thursday 10/14- Swedish Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Friday 10/15- Lemon Tilapia (again didn't make last week), Brown Rice, Broccoli

Saturday 10/16- Sloppy Joes, Salad, Corn, Mac & Cheese

Sunday 10/17- Chili, Cornbread

Have a great week! Visit OrgJunkie for more menu plans!

Menu Plan Monday~ 10/4/10

So I've been a horrible blogger lately...a full month since my last post? Sorry! I started back to work and the kids started school so things have been crazy! I'll have to start scheduling blog time. :)

Here's this week's menu!

Monday 10/4- Cowboy Casserole

Tuesday 10/5- Tacos (me and Hubby), Pizza Pockets (girls)

Wednesday 10/6- Chicken Piccata, Noodles, Green Beans

Thursday 10/7- Steak and Mushroom Fajitas

Friday 10/8- Turkey Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans

Saturday 10/9- Chicken Sandwiches, Chips, Carrots, Celery, Dip

Sunday 10/10- Leftovers

Monday 10/11- Lemon Butter Tilapia, Brown Rice, Broccoli

Check out OrgJunkie for more menu plans!

Menu Plan Monday~ 9/4/10

We've been making a ton of new recipes the past few weeks and while they've been wonderful, they've also increased the amount I've been spending on groceries. So I thought I'd take a break this week and clear out the freezer. The girls also start school this week and I go back to work on Saturday so I need a bit of a break!

I'm trying not too buy too many prepackaged foods for Hannah's lunches. There is a lot of wasteful packaging not too mention artificial flavors and junk. So this week I made Apple Pie Muffins and froze some for this week. I also made Homemade Granola Bars for her to take for snacks.

Jason got laid off last week so he'll be home for lunches again. He requested Broccoli and Cheese Soup that he can just reheat for himself.

Here's what we're eating this week!

Sunday 9/5- BBQ Pulled Pork (freezer) Sandwiches, Corn on the Cob, Salad, Watermelon

Monday 9/6- Chicken (freezer) Taquitos, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans

Tuesday 9/7- Takeout Pizza (First Day of School!)

Wednesday 9/8- Sloppy Joes (freezer), Tatertots, Green Beans

Thursday 9/9- Tacos, Leftover Spanish Rice

Friday 9/10- Spaghetti (freezer), Salad, Bread

Saturday 9/11- Steak and Mushroom Fajitas (Hubby cooking!)

Sunday 9/12- Pizza Burritos (freezer), Salad

Check out OrgJunkie for more menus!

Menu Plan Monday~ 8/30/10

I'm in a Fall kind of mood today! The weather has been cool and breezy and so very Fall! I absolutely love Fall and will be pulling out my decor this weekend. :)

I'm happy to say ALL of the recipes we tried next week were a hit! I think our fave was the Laughing Cow Chicken Cordon Bleu. Even the kids ate extra servings! We'll definately be adding them to our favorites list.

This is a special week for us. Tuesday is Jason's 39th birthday and Thursday is our anniversary! We've been together for 7 years and married for 4!

Saturday 8/28- Pizza Burritos, Watermelon

Sunday 8/29-Chili Dogs, Mac and Cheese

Monday 8/30- Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich (Adding Mushrooms and cheese), Salad, Watermelon

Tuesday 8/31- Hubby's Birthday! Swedish Meatballs, Potatoes, Green Beans,
German Chocolate Cake (from scratch)

Wednesday 9/1- Cheesy Mac and Trees, Onion Rings

Thursday 9/2- Chicken Tortilla Soup (freezer), Chips, Homemade Guacamole

Friday 9/3- Spaghetti and Crockpot Meatballs, Salad

Saturday 9/4- Anniversary Dinner! Copycat Maggiano's Shrimp Scampi, Artisan Bread, Dessert

Check out OrgJunkie for more menus and a giveaway this week!

Prepping for School Lunches

Mrs. Q over at Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project is hosting a Back to School blog party and I thought it'd be a great time for me to blog about what we're doing this year!

Hannah will be starting Junior Kindergarten in a week and a half. Lunch will no longer be provided and I've been prepping to start packing her lunches. Last year I started reading bento blogs and decided that I want to pack her lunch instead of buying most of the time. I also want to pack green lunches to save one waste and money.

We're lucky enough to send Hannah to a private school but that also means there's not a lot of extra money for her to buy lunch at school. I remember being excited about buying lunch when I was in elementary school and I think my parents let us buy once a week or so. We just received September's hot lunch menu and honestly, Hannah won't eat most of it. Or she'd eat one of the items but not the others. It's really not worth the $4 a day. However, I do remember how "cool" it was to buy lunch so I'll probably let her get it twice a month or so. (She does love pizza!) They're also not the healthiest options (though not as bad as other schools I've seen!) so packing enables me to control what she eats.

She's also really excited to bring her lunch to school. She's been looking at the blogs with me and seeing the fun lunches other mom's packed last year. (Check out Another Lunch and What's for Lunch at Our House to see what I mean!) And between Facebook Giveaways from Green My Lunchbox and the Dollar Spot at Target, we've gotten some really great waste-free lunch items that Hannah's excited to bring to school.

(Left to Right: Water bottles and dip container, Sandwich boxes, veggie/dip box, Lunchskins bags, Goodbyn lunchbox, snack containers, Lunchpunch sandwich cutters)

I'm hoping she'll be willing to try some new things with all her fun containers and such because she can be pretty picky. I've also been practicing using Fondant cutters to cut out veggie and cheese shapes. :)

Check back to see some of Hannah's great, healthy, waste-free lunches this year!

Mammoth Trip~ August 2010

My family has been going to Mammoth for vacation since I was 5. That's 21 years of wonderful memories! My parents even owned a condo up there for a while and we went multiple times a month in the summers. My siblings and I brought our friends and we went hiking and fishing and just relaxed in the beautiful mountains.






Now it's my turn to help create a second home for my kids. We've gone a handful of times since Hannah was about 2. We try to go with my family for a week in the winter and again in the summer. Noah's first trip was this past week. It was a bit hard to relax with all 3 kids but it was still Mammoth! :)



The girls loved fishing (and so did Daddy!) but Hannah loved splashing in the lake...in her jeans...even more!

We had a great time but are definately glad to be home! It's nice being able to do laundry every day again. (Never thought I'd say that!)

Menu Plan Monday~ 8/23/10

We're back from vacation! We spent the past week in Mammoth with my family so no menu plans or blogging! (Though we did do a few Alphabet Art projects to be posted later!) After a week of eating junk food and takeout, plus a bout with the stomach flu, I'm SO glad to be back to menu planning. And we're focusing on eating healthier so I can lose this baby weight. Though even with all the junk I ate last week, I still lost 4lbs in 10 days! Must've been the flu!

Since about mid-pregnancy, I've been on a Mexican food kick. That meant we've been eating Tacos, Taquitos or Enchiladas at least once a week (usually twice!). Jason's pretty sick of Mexican now so I promised when we got back from Mammoth (and to an empty fridge), I'd do at least a week of new meals. :) So I'm trying new recipes this week! But now I'm craving tacos so they may just end up on next week's menu!

Here's our plan for this week!

Sunday 8/22- Laughing Cow Chicken Cordon Bleu , Noodles, Broccoli (This was a HUGE hit. The girls amd Jason loved it. I'm bumed that I wasn't feeling that great and was only able to eat a tiny bit.)

Monday 8/23- Baked Lemon Herb Tilapia, Brown Rice, Asparagus, Hollandaise Sauce

Tuesday 8/24-Takeout (2 Kiddos have Well Child appts and then we have to go straight to Hannah's CheerBear registration...maybe I should get Subway and put it in a cooler to bring with us. It's at least healthier then Burger King...the only fast food near their dr!)

Wednesday 8/25- BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches (Crockpot), Tatertots, Corn on the Cob (Still trying to decide which recipe to use for the pulled pork. I've never made or even eaten it before. Any recommendations would be wonderful!)

Thursday 8/26- Chicken Piccata, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli

Friday 8/27- Leftovers (Hopefully there are some!)

Head over to OrgJunkie for more menus!

Alphabet Art Alley (C, D, E)

I decided not all of our Alphabet Art will actually be shaped like the letters. Some will be things that start with the letter of the day and we talk about the letter as we do the project. Some are still letter shaped when possible! :)


C for Caterpillar (Avery's on the left. Hannah's on the right.)

D for Dinosaur! (Avery's on the right, Hannah's on the left, Momma's on the bottom.)

E for Elephant! (Avery's on the left, Hannah's on the right.)

Hannah has requested F for Fox for tomorrow...going to need to do a trial run of that one! (Like I did for the Dino!)

Flubber!!

Before Avery left school for the summer, one of her teachers gave be a recipe for "flubber" which the kids love playing with at school. She said she knew I'd have my hands full once Noah was born and this was a great no-mess alternative to Play-doh (which I DESPISE!). We finally got around to making it yesterday and the girls have spent a ton of time (quietly without fighting!) playing with it!





Here's how you make it: (I halved this recipe because a bottle of school glue is 4oz. It made plenty...)





Mix 1: 3/4 cup of Warm water


1 cup of white school glue


Food coloring (We used yellow food coloring gel.)





Mix 2: 1/2 cup of warm water


2 TBSP of Borax (I have no idea what this is or where to get it. They gave me a baggie of it with the recipe. And good thing I decided to make less because there was only 1 TBSP in there!)





Pour Mix 1 into Mix 2 and mix together with hands. (This is a must because it stuck to the plastic fork I tried at first!)





I used a take and toss tupperware container to mix this and now I store it in there. It was a bit watery at first and I put it on a papertowel to get some of the water off. It stuck...oops! So I think if you let it sit for a minute it'll soak up on its own.





This stuff is kinda like silly putty but not as dry. Junk doesn't stick to it if it falls on the floor which is nice!

Late Menu Plan Monday~ 8/9/10

We have a short menu plan this week because we leave for Mammoth on Friday! My mom gets to handle the dinners while we're there. :)



We've gotten on a major Mexican food kick the past few months so I promised Jason I'll do a change-up when we get back from Mammoth. I'm determined to go at least a few weeks without Tacos...LoL Time to break out my recipe binder!




Monday 8/9- Chicken Taquitos, Spanish Rice, Green Beans




Tuesday 8/10- Pizza Pockets, Salad (didn't make last week)




Wednesday 8/11- CopyCat Maggiano's Shrimp Scampi



Thursday 8/12-Turkey Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans


Head over to OrgJunkie for more menus!

Alphabet Art Alley!

The girls have been bored lately (and driving us nuts!) so I decided to start doing daily crafts with them again. My friend, Elizabeth, has a blog post called Tot School that has different learning activities she does with her three boys. Our first two projects were totally stolen from her blog. (Thanks E! LoL) She got the ideas from a great website called No Time for Flashcards. They have great activities and crafts for letters of the alphabet.


Here is our A for Alligator: (Avery's is in her room and she's napping for once so no pic!)


Hannah's

She insisted on a red alligator...and adding rhinestones...and that the teeth didn't go on the inside of the A. Who am I to interfere with her creativity?? LoL

Today we did B for Buzzy Bee!

Hannah's is on the left, Avery's on the right.

Check back for more Alphabet Art Alley!

Menu Plan Monday~ 8/2/10

It's my birthday week!!! I should say that I'm not cooking at all this week and the hubby is waiting on me hand and foot but...umm...this is reality people! :) I love to cook so it's not a biggy! LoL Hubby is cooking on my birthday on Friday though. Yum! I plan on baking my own cake with the girls though...I swear I'll actually let them help...

Sunday 8/1- Turkey Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Monday 8/2- Chicken Parm, Spaghetti, Salad

Tuesday 8/3- Tacos (Freezer), Spanish Rice (Didn't make last week)

Wednesday 8/4- Sloppy Joes, Tatertots, Green Beans

Thursday 8/5- Chicken Taquitos, Refried Beans, Leftover Spanish Rice

Friday 8/6- Happy 26th Birthday to Me! Steak and Mushroom Fajitas, Cake!

Saturday 8/7- Pizza Pockets, Salad

Head over to OrgJunkie for more menus plans!

From the Mouths of Babes...

I just had to post a funny little snippet from our morning. We're all just hanging out in Momma and Daddy's bedroom this morning and the girls are playing on the floor. Out of nowhere Avery sings, "Red Robin...". We were just waiting for the "Yum..." part! It was just so out of the blue and so funny! Someone's seen too many Red Robin commercials! :)

What About Lunch?

I've been a fan of a lot of bento/lunch blogs like Another Lunch and What's for Lunch at Our House this past year. I'm really excited about packing Hannah fun and healthy lunches when she starts Junior Kindergarten in the Fall. Both of these sites (and many others I visit frequently) have such great ideas and most try to be as Green as possible. We've been trying to use less individually packaged items and things like ziploc bags. I also love the site Green My LunchBox. They feature great green lunch items and I've actually won some great things from their Facebook page! I can't wait to start packing for Hannah!

This is the Goodbyn lunchbox we're waiting to get in the mail right now.

(Picture Courtesy of Goodbyn.com!)

We've also received reusable snack bags from lunchskins and some great sandwich cutters from lunchpunch.

(Pictures Courtesy of lunchskins and lunchpunch!)

Lunches are getting fun around here!

And speaking of lunches, I thought we'd have a little theme lunch today.

An Octopus hotdog with ketchup "squid ink" (Hannah insisted! I said it was water...), Carrot fish, a pretzel stick raft (at least for Avery...Hannah said it's a dock...), celery boats with cherry tomato "people". :) Hannah's super picky so hers had a few more carrot fish and no celery or tomato...

Check back during the school year for posts about Hannah's lunch adventures!

Recipe: Turkey Tacos

A few years ago when I wasn't working, I started getting really into trying new recipes. Before that our meals pretty much consisted of baked chicken (Shake N Bake or Marinaded), white rice and bread...not healthy and not very interesting. When I started looking for recipes and making them frequently, I realized I was pretty good at picking recipes that we would like or that I could tweak to meet our tastes. There have been very few recipe failures. Now I have some great go-to recipes in my recipe binder! (Though it's time to look for some new ones!)

My favorite find was for Taco Seasoning. I wasn't too fond of the taco seasoning packets we always used and I thought we could make our own with spices we had instead. So I found this recipe: Taco Seasoning 1. I found that it was too spicy while I was cooking it the first time and added some Tomato Sauce. I'm still not sure what made me think of that since I'd never used it except in chili. I now have a ton on hand at all times! It made this recipe perfect! (Still spicy though! Just warning ya!)

Turkey Tacos
1 1/4 lb Ground Turkey (You could use beef if you prefer.)
Taco Seasoning 1 (I use the entire amount made in the recipe above.)
Tomato Sauce (About 1/2 cup...pretty much just to your taste)
1 Onion diced
Minced Garlic

1. Saute the minced garlic and onions in olive oil until soft.
2. Add ground turkey. Cook until browned thoroughly.
3. Add Taco Seasoning and Tomato Sauce. Simmer or about 10 min. Add extra tomato sauce or a bit of water if too dry.

Serve in anyway you like your Taco Meat! We originally added a scoop in a white corn tortilla with a small amount of cheese and the pan fried until crisp. They are AMAZING that way but obviously not very good for you. We now switched to just having the meat in a heated white corn tortilla with a bit of cheese and some sour cream (or salsa for the hubby). The meat is so flavorful that it still tastes awesome!

Simple but so good! And it freezes well. I made 3 batches for the freezer before we had the baby and it was so fast to thaw one over night and just microwave when we were ready for dinner.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Next Recipe: Spanish Rice!

Menu Plan...Wednesday 7/28/10

I swore I was going to post more when I started blogging again...but it's been 10 days since my last one! Oops! Need to start joining more daily memes. I got up early one morning (and only the once!) before the girls or hubby were up and thoroughly enjoyed my quiet time with the boy and even took him out for a walk before they were awake. I'm determined to start doing that consistantly. It's such a relaxing way to start the day! It'll just have to be a bit earlier when DH starts work again in a week and a half...




Here's our menu for the week!

Monday 7/26: Frozen Pizza...DH was sick and told me to just make something easy...LoL

Tuesday 7/27: Chicken Stroganoff, Green Beans, Salad

Wednesday 7/28: Boneless Buffalo Wings, Mac & Cheese, Salad

Thursday 7/29: Tacos, Spanish Rice, Corn (Recipes will be posted tomorrow! LOVE THEM!)

Friday 7/30: Chicken Parm, Spaghetti, Salad

Saturday 7/31: Date Night!

Sunday 8/1: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Head over to OrgJunkie for more menu plans!

*~*~*1 Month Old!!*~*~*

Our little boy is 1 month old today!

Time is flying by and I'm trying to enjoy every second. Noah might be our last baby and I don't want to miss anything! He's doing great and sleeping longer periods at night (and wreaking havoc on my milk supply!). The Newborn clothes are getting packed away since he's gotten so tall already!

I'm so in love with my little guy!

Menu Plan Monday~ 7/12/10

We ended up not going to my sister's last week because the weather wasn't great for a beach trip. So we rescheduled for this week. Lunches were hit or miss last week because we kept going to the waterpark etc. Hopefully we can plan better this week!

Monday 7/12- B: Egg/Cheese/Turkey Sausage Burritos, Oranges
L: Sandwiches, Fruit, Veggies
D: Chicken Taquitos, Spanish Rice, Refried Beans

Tuesday 7/13- B: Ham/Cheese Eggs, Toast, Yogurt
L: Grilled Cheese, Soup
D: Turkey Sloppy Joes, Fries, Green Beans

Wednesday 7/14- B: Oatmeal
L: Hotdogs, Mac & Cheese, Fruit
D: Tacos, Spanish Rice

Thursday 7/15- B: Pancakes, Bacon, Fruit
L: Sandwiches, Pretzels, Fruit (At the Beach!)
D: At my sister's

Friday 7/16- B: Cereal/Grits
L: Take Out (Dr Appt)
D: Ham, Stuffing, Broccoli

Saturday 7/17- B: Eggs, Bacon, Toast
L: Leftovers
D: Steak, Grilled Onion/Potatoes, Salad (Girls at Nana's!)

Head over to OrgJunkie for more weekly menus!

Wordless Wednesday~ 7/7/10

Self Portrait of My Then 3 Year Old. :)

Summer Time!

This is our first official summer vacation. This was the girls' first year of school and they have the summer off. Plus Jason and I are both on leaves of absence. So we've been staying up late and taking are time getting up in the morning. It's actually pretty strange! I haven't had a summer vacation since highschool!

We're spending a lot of our time at the local water park. The girls love it and I can't wait for Noah to be big enough to go in the water too!

Menu Plan Monday~ 7/5/10

We haven't been sticking to a menu plan in a long time...especially since the baby was born. Which has lead to a lot of random grocery trips and wasted food! Plus too much takeout! So we're going to do a full plan for a while since the hubby and kids are all home. Here's a meals for the week!

Sunday 7/4- D: Ribs, Chicken, Mac & Cheese, Baked Beans, Ice Cream

Monday 7/5- B: Blueberry Pancakes, Sausage
L: Mac & Cheese with Hotdogs, Fruit
D: Spaghetti, Salad, Bread

Tuesday 7/6- B: Ham/Cheese Eggs, Toast, Yogurt
L: Out to Lunch (Dr Appt)
D: Crockpot Enchilada Bake, Chips/Salsa

Wednesday 7/7- B: Oatmeal
L: Sandwiches, Chips, Fruit
D: Chicken Stroganoff, Broccoli, Bread

Thursday 7/8- B: Cereal, Toast, Fruit
L: Leftovers
D: Sloppy Joes, Mac & Cheese, Green Beans

Friday 7/9- B: Eggs, Sausage, Toast
L: At my sister, Jill’s
D: At my sister, Jill’s

Saturday 7/10- B: Eggs, Bacon, Toast
L: Take Out
D: Cousin Katie’s Birthday Party

And We're BACK!

I haven't blogged in almost a year! What happened? Well, I got pregnant! And was very tired...and working alot...and had two kiddos in school...but we're back!

How about a little update?

So a baby huh? Yup! Just 6 weeks after we miscarried last year, we were pregnant again! I had a very healthy pregnancy (though I gained WAY too much weight...again!) and we now have a very healthy, happy baby BOY! I finally have my boy and I'm so in love! Noah Gryphon Lindsey was born on June 18th, 2010 at 5:22pm at 8lbs 3oz and 21 inches. He looks just like his big sisters and is a wonderful baby.

Meet Mr. No-No:

Now for the big kids...Hannah will be 5 in November and is acting like a preteen! :) She had a great year at preschool and will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. Both girls are home for the summer while I'm on maternity leave and they're having a bit of trouble adjusting to being home so much. I'm definately looking forward to school starting in September! Hannah's working on sight words and can sound out quite a few smaller words on her own. She'll be reading in no time! She also wants to start cheerleading in the Fall. We'll see how our shy girl does with that!

Miss Avery will be 3 in September. She's definately in the midst of the Terrible 2s. She's even more stubborn then her sister! Our little TomBoy is infatuated with Spiderman and keeps telling us she wants a Spiderman cake for her birthday. :) She had a great year in the 2's preschool class and we're hoping we can send her a few days a week in the Fall. We're just working on the potty training so she can move up to the 3's!

Jason and I are doing well. I'm still trying to finish my prereqs for the nursing program. It's tough to get into the classes which is becoming a frustrating set back. Jason is home for 2 months to bond with the baby. FMLA is a wonderful thing. We're trying to spend as much quality time as we can with the kids since we might not have this amount of time together again. (Maybe in 3 years or so if I can convince him to have another baby!)