Menu Plan Monday – Sick Kid Edition

This is going to be quick. Little Dude is sick – nasty cough, high fever. It got so bad that we went to the ER over the weekend. It’s viral they say – which translates to we’re not sure what it is.

So we’ve spent the weekend doing the nebulizer, tubbys and lots of cuddling. Which didn’t leave me any time to coupon and grocery shop. So we’re eating what we have in the house this week.

Breakfasts: baked oatmeal, eggs, cold cereal or frozen waffles

Lunches: cold cuts, left overs, salad, tuna

Snacks: pop corn, celery & carrots with hummus, yogurt, graham crackers, apples, cheese sticks, oranges (check out this pic – LOL!)

Dinners: I’m turning to my freezer to help this week. Plus a little help from my friends Betty Crocker and Campbells!

• Sunday: Hubby made “Meat Turtles” – cheeseburgers wrapped in bacon, then hot dogs used for the head, tail and legs. I call it MEAT OVERLOAD – but hey, Little Dude ate most of his and when he’s sick I’ll give him anything he wants! (all meats were already in our freezer)
• Monday: Bisquick Ham, Spinach & Swiss Strata (left over ham from the freezer)
• Toddler Tuesday: choice of chicken nuggets or fish sticks, mac & cheese and mixed veggies
• Wednesday: Creamy Pesto Chicken and homemade bread (yep – chicken is from the freezer)
• Thursday: breakfast for dinner or left overs (hoping for pancakes – need to restock the freezer supply!)
• Friday: Pea Soup (from the freezer) and grilled cheese on homemade bread
• Saturday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast (the pot roast has been in my freezer)

Now I’m going back to cuddling my sick little boy. What’s on your menu this week? Need ideas? visit OrgJunkie.com for tons of links for Menu Plan Monday!

PS: The giveaway for Free Banquet Family Entree or Meal is open until midnight tonight – head over and enter now!

Menu Plan Monday

Not much going on this week except that I have a ton of work I’d like to get done. So I tried to create a meal plan that would keep me out of the kitchen as much as possible!

Breakfasts:
baked oatmeal, eggs, cold cereal or frozen waffles

Lunches:
cold cuts, left overs

Snacks:
pop corn, celery & carrots with hummus, yogurt, graham crackers, apples, cheese sticks

Dinners:
Sunday: dinner at my Mother-in-law’s
Monday: fried chicken
Toddler Tuesday: choice of ham steak or tuna casserole
Wednesday: Ground Beef Stroganoff
Thursday: breakfast for dinner (probably scrambled eggs)
Friday: Chicken & Gravy Heaven
Saturday: Grilled cheese & tomato soup

So what’cha got on your menu this week?

Menu Plan Monday: 24 Reasons to Gather Around the Dinner Table

How often does your family have dinner together? If you’re like most families nowadays, the answer is probably, “Not very often.”

It’s understandable. Modern families are busy. Both parents work and sometimes get home at different times. Children have activities to go to, and Mom’s got to drive them all over the place. Really, who’s got the time and energy to even cook dinner every single night?

You, that’s who! Eating together is good for you and your family. So you better make time and find the energy to make home-cooked meals and sit down and eat together more often.

Researchers have found many benefits to home-cooked meals. Watch this video to learn about some of them. In my own experience, though, there are many more. Here are 24 reasons I have found to share family meals more often:

1. Families who eat together eat healthier, because home-cooked food is healthier than fast food.

2. Family meals allow busy families to catch up with each other.

3. Young children learn a lot of verbal skills just by eating with their family members.

4. It gives everyone a chance to unwind after a busy day.

5. Having family meals more often forces you to end your working day and other obligations in time for dinner.

6. Home cooked meals are not only healthier, they’re also cheaper than takeout food or eating out.

7. Eating together forces everybody to tell stories.

8. Cooking at home motivates you to be creative with your meal planning and cooking.

9. Children can get involved in cooking meals.

10. Cooking and eating together creates happy childhood memories.

11. Eating together is an opportunity to explore different cuisines.

12. Eating with your family is more fun than eating in front of the television (or the computer).

13. Eating together gives parents a chance to talk about current events from their point of view, injecting their personal values without giving a lecture.

14. Eating together helps family members bond and get to know each other better.

15. You’ll be surprised what your kids reveal when you’re in a relaxed environment, such as a family meal.

16. Kids are less likely to roll their eyes when you reminisce and tell stories from your childhood while eating a meal together.

17. Family meals can be good teaching moments, even for small children. My toddler learned how to count by counting after-meal treats on his high chair.

18. Eating together is a good opportunity to teach and model good manners.

19. Family meals give a good transition from work or school to home life.

20. Family meals are also good times to share music together.

21. Family meals teach everyone valuable life skills, such as sharing and taking turns.

22. Stopping and sitting down to a meal gives everyone a chance to quiet down and regroup.

23. Family meals provide an additional occasion for family members to pray together.

24. Eating home is more eco-friendly than eating out or ordering food – less waste!

If you think having family meals is too much work, don’t despair. You can get help for everything from meal planning to putting your weekly grocery shopping list together. Check out Dine Without Whine for kid-tested, quick recipes that will help you put together family meals with less effort. Dine Without Whine’s weekly shopping lists will also help you get food shopping done much faster, and even save money on groceries.

As you can see from the list above, the extra time and effort you spend to have family meals more often are worthwhile.

PS: I posted more about Dine Without Whine here.

Menu Plan Monday

I’ve made a change to my meal plan each week. I now have a new “theme day” – but before I tell you what that is, I want to share with you the story behind this change.

Last Thursday, Hubby worked late. Because he works overnight, he got home around 2pm. He was beat, so went to lay down and nap for a while. In the meantime, I prepared a delicious dinner (If I do say so myself).

Come 4:30, I send Little Dude upstairs to wake up Hubby and tell him dinner is ready. The table is set – my delicious dinner is ready to be eaten – and we all sit down.

“I’m not at all hungry. We had sandwiches delivered for our staff meeting and I ate too much” Hubby informs me.

Are you kidding me? You couldn’t have mentioned this before I went through the trouble of making dinner? Did it occur to you that I could have done something else with my time instead of slaving over the stove?

This may seem like I’m being dramatic, but it’s not the first time this has happened. Hubby works a bit late every Thursday because of his staff meeting. And recently, a few time he just wasn’t in the mood for dinner.

So from now on, I’m going to save myself the trouble. Thursday’s are now going to be “Breakfast For Dinner”. Hubby is not a big fan, whereas Little Dude and I could live on breakfast foods – particularly scrambled eggs. Now if I get “I’m not hungry” from Hubby, who cares – go fend for yourself. Little Dude and I are having breakfast.

And now for this week’s menu. I have the standards in stock for breakfasts, lunches and snacks. For dinners I’ve planned the following:

• Sunday: Football Food (chicken wings, sweet potato fries and fried green beans – yum!)
• Monday: Ham and baked sweet potatoes
• Toddler Tuesday: Little Dude can choose from fish sticks, grilled cheese or pizza
• Wednesday: Sweet & Sour Chicken
• Thursday: Breakfast For Dinner – probably eggs and bacon (so I can make extra bacon for Friday)
• Friday: Bacon Cheese Burgers
• Saturday: Angel Pasta Chicken

So this week’s tip: plan your menus around the schedule of you and your family. If you know a particular day of the week is not conducive to making a full dinner, make it breakfast for dinner day!

PS: As always I’m linking to Laura @ OrgJunkie.com and participating in Menu Plan Monday. Head on over for some great meal planning ideas and recipes!

Menu Plan Monday

I’ve fallen in love with menu planning all over again. Why? Yesterday, when I came home from the grocery store, I found Hubby in the kitchen preparing zucchini from our garden to grill. He also started thawing the steaks I planned on making (more about that in a minute).

I asked him what he was doing. He responded “Starting dinner. I saw your list [hanging on the fridge] and thought I’d help out”. I just love meal planning!! Oh, and I kinda like Hubby too – LOL!

How We Quickly Thaw Steaks (or any other frozen meat)

Typically I get meats out of the freezer the day before I plan on cooking them. But sometimes I forget. So this is an easy way to thaw meat. It’s so easy!

Simply put the wrapped meat in a bowl of cool water. You don’t want the water to touch the meat, so make sure it’s wrapped tight (which it should be anyway if it’s in the freezer). I take the extra step of putting the meat in a zip lock bag just to be safe.

So let the meat sit in the cool water for about 15 minutes. Check the state of the meat, and if needed refill the bowl with cool water. Most times, my meat is thawed in 20 to 30 minutes.

My Menu Plan For This Week:

Breakfast choices: cold cereal, eggs, smoothies, frozen quiche cups, pancakes, waffles

Lunch choices: grilled cheese, PB&J, chicken nuggets, tuna salad, left over pasta salad, garden salad with left over meats*

Snack choices: cut veggies, hummus, peanut butter, crackers, popcorn, apples, bananas, cheese sticks, cereal bars, juice pops (I make my own)

Dinner choices:

• Grilled steaks* with grilled veggies
• Ham steak (I’m going to try grilling this – will let you know how it turns out)
• Bacon cheese burgers (Hubby cooked-up 2 pounds of bacon yesterday morning so it’s ready to go! Today we added tomato and bacon to our grilled cheese for lunch – yum!)
• Grilled garlic & herb chicken breasts*
• Pasta salad (Easy peasy and a full meal on it’s own!  Tri-color macaroni, ranch dressing, chunks of ham, chicken and munster cheese, cut veggies)
• Grilled teriyaki chicken breasts*
• And of course Toddler Tuesday – Little Dude has a choice of chicken nuggets, hot dogs, fish sticks or frozen pizza

Note: each dinner,  does include a veggie side and sometimes a potato, rice or bread. Because I’m trying to loose weight, I personally skip the carb at dinner, but still serve it for the boys.

Now that you know what I’m eating, what’s your menu for the week? Head on over to OrgJunkie.com and join the fun!

Episode #27 – Meal Planning How and Why

First, I share my thoughts on Alice.com – a new website to order household goods from.

Alice provides you a better way to manage all of your household essentials online. You tell Alice what you buy—choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work. We organize all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low, and help you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store. And all this convenience comes direct to your door with free shipping included.

I LOVE ALICE! It cut my time in half in the grocery store! That alone is worth a try!

Next, I’m so super excited to be joined today by Laura from I’m An Organizing Junkie. I’ve wanted to talk with her for some time now about menu planning. After all she is the super fabulous hostess of Menu Plan Monday!

Not only does she tell us how and why she began meal planning, Laura provides such useful information on dealing with food allergies. This is a must for moms having a hard time planning menues around someone with food allergies. Bottom line – it’s not as hard as it seems!

You won’t believe how much fun the two of us had discussing meal planning! We talked, and talked, about:

• How we each meal plan
• Planning around food allergies
• Using themes in meal planning
• Getting the kids involved (and the hubby)
• Where we get our recipes

Both Laura and I hope that after this show, you’ll be convinced to start planning your family’s meals!

If you need help meal planning, I have a how-to guide just for busy moms. For less than the cost of a fast-food dinner, you can be on your way planning your menus. Click here for the Meal Planning Guide.

Menu Plan Monday – 6/29 to 7/5

Breakfasts this week can be scrambled eggs, Cheerios, smoothies, or blueberry muffins.
Lunches this week can be chicken nuggets, cold cuts, hot dogs, or left overs.
Plus we have cheese sticks, carrots, celery, blueberries, Teddy Grahams, hummus, and apples for snacking.

This weeks dinner plan is as follows:

• Monday: Spaghetti & Meatballs
• Tuesday: “Toddler Tuesday” – Fish Sticks and Mac & Cheese
• Wednesday: BBQ Chicken
• Thursday: Slow Cooker Pork Chops with Apples & Sweet Potatoes
• Friday: Bacon Cheese Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries (this is my new way to make bacon – so easy!!)
• Saturday: Teriyaki  Chicken
• Sunday: We’re going to ‘A Day Out With Thomas’, so we have dinner reservations.

If you’ve done your menu plan for the week, or you need some ideas, inspiration and recipes, visit my pal Laura at I’m An Organizing Junkie!

Menu Plan Monday

I can’t go a week without planning my meals! Heck, I can’t go grocery shopping without doing my plan first! This week there were some really, really great sales on meats so I actually bought enough for this week and next. In fact, I did so well at the grocery store yesterday that the only things I will have to run out for are milk, eggs, bread and fresh fruits/veggies.

Here is this week’s menu:

Monday: roast chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans
Tuesday: slow cooker pork chops with wild rice and peas
Wednesday: meat loaf with left over mashed potatoes and stewed tomatoes
Thursday: chicken pot pie (using the left over chicken from Monday and a bag of frozen veggies)
Friday: Pot Roast with potatoes, carrots and onions (yep, using my crock pot again!!)
Saturday: Date Night – whoo hoo!!
Sunday: Baked ziti with ground sausage

For breakfasts I have eggs, pancakes (already made and frozen), blueberry muffins, oatmeal and fruit.

For lunches I have soup (several already made and frozen) which I’ll make with biscuits, ham, salami, cheese, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, fruit, carrots and celery sticks, and fresh green beans.

For more ideas on your weekly menu plan, check out OrgJunkie’s post!

If you need help meal planning, I have a guide for you! Meal Planning for Busy Moms

Menu Plan Monday 1/27 – 2/3

Monday: Kielbasa w/ kraut, peas and mashed potatoes
Tuesday: Hamburger Helper and salad (I know, but we love it!)
Wednesday: Cheaters Chicken Cordon Blue, veggie and salad
Thursday: Dinner out with father-in-law
Friday: Skets Parm (aka Spaghetti Bake)
Saturday: Either leftovers or breakfast – we’ll see how the week goes
Sunday: Football Snacks – chicken wings, nacho dip, puffer weenies (aka pigs in a blanket)