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!