I forgot the breakfasts and lunches!

I typed out the plan for this week's dinners, but I forgot to add the breakfasts and lunches... right after I had just said I was planning those out too! Fortunately I can type up another post and link it to the original. ;) The dinner portions of the weekly menu can be found here.

Breakfasts

• eggs and toast (with butter or butter & Marmite)
  
• Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich (found a few boxes of them from the grocery salvage outlet for less than I could make them from scratch)
• eggs and cereal
• banana bread, eggs, and bacon or sausage (probably Saturday)
  
• repeat one or two
  

Notice a theme here? If I don't have eggs for breakfast, I can really tell later in the day. I'll get tired and cranky, and I need all of my energy right now.

Lunches

• tuna melt, tomato soup
  
• salmon burger patty (frozen), tartar sauce, mixed vegetables
• enchilada (frozen), mixed vegetables
• cheese and crackers, canned soup, fruit
• dinner leftovers
  

Menu Plan Monday -- Back to School Week!

This week I go back to college for the first time since the baby's birth in September. I'm only going to be away from her for an hour and a half, but it's going to be so hard!

Wednesdays are probably going to be my long days; I'll take her in with me on those days, but I'm not sure yet what the schedule is going to look like. Wednesday dinners will probably become my "simple meal" day (like this week). I'm also going to start planning out breakfasts and lunches again (not sure how often besides Wednesdays that I'll need to carry my lunch, but it will make it easier here at the house to have something planned ahead of time).

Monday: Hamburger stir-fry with Bejing Vegetables (frozen veggie & sauce combo from Trader Joe's), mandarin oranges
Tuesday: Hungarian Paprikash (frozen), noodles, beets
Wednesday: Breakfast For Dinner -- scrambled eggs, turkey sausage (frozen), waffles (frozen), juice and milk
Thursday: Chicken enchiladas (frozen), green beans or corn
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: baked beans, macaroni and cheese, greens
Sunday: PIZZA NIGHT!! -- pizza (either frozen or homemade), mixed vegetables

For more meal planning ideas, go to I'm An Organized Junkie!

ETA: I forgot to list the breakfasts and lunches! I typed up a second post and included them here.

things I need to restock in the pantry/freezer/etc.

• vanilla
• white vinegar (although some more apple cider vinegar would be good too)
• bleach
• TVP
• dried chopped onion
• some more canned fruits and vegetables
• nuts
• soy sauce
• ibuprofen
• toothbrushes
• cold/flu meds
• fluoride rinse for the Munchkin
• chili powder (we're running pretty low!)

I'd also love to get some more butter, eggs, and ground beef.

the (usually) posted on Sunday "Menu Plan Monday"

I'm a bit behind this week. We took a long hard look at our finances last night... I won't get into all the ugly details, but we're going to continue to eat more from our pantry and freezer for a while. Our last session at Dream Dinners (for a good while at least) is this Saturday, so that's worked into the this week's menu.

Monday: white chicken lasagna (from freezer), cauliflower
Tuesday: pork fried rice (made with boneless pork ribs leftover from Sunday's dinner), mandarin oranges, green beans
Wednesday: sausages (freezer), sauteed peppers (freezer), butternut squash
Thursday: Soup & Bread Night -- turkey chili (in the crockpot), cornbread, peaches
Friday: Chicken Mirabella (from freezer), broccoli -- the chicken dish contains capers, so our resident non-caper eater will have some leftover entree
Saturday: "Dream Dinners Surprise" (one of the entrees made at Dream Dinners today... possibly Steak and Onions), roasted beets
Sunday: leftovers

For more meal planning ideas, go to I'm An Organizing Junkie!

A few words about Dream Dinners: This is a company that supports the OAMC idea by doing all the shopping and prep work for you ahead of time. You choose which meals you want to make from that month's list, schedule an appointment, and assemble the meals on your scheduled day. It does cost more than if I were to buy and prep all the ingredients myself, but it saves HOURS of time and is still less expensive than going to a restaurant. We first started using them right before the baby was born and found them to be tremendously helpful. Unfortunately we're going to say goodbye to them for a while so we can trim a bit off of our budget, but I'm glad they were there when I needed them!

Menu Plan Monday

This week's menu may get shifted around depending on how soon that turkey finishes thawing so I can roast it!

Similar to last week, this menu is based around emptying the fridge and freezer. We also get veggies from the winter CSA drop this week.

Monday: roast turkey, stuffing (from freezer), green beans
Tuesday: fajitas (from freezer), tortillas, broccoli
Wednesday: turkey vegetable soup with barley (made from Monday's turkey)
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: chicken parmesan (from freezer), rosemary bread (from freezer), CSA veggies
Saturday: ham beans (from freezer), cornbread, CSA veggies
Sunday: teriyaki pork rice bowls -- made from boneless pork ribs (freezer), teriyaki sauce, carrots, broccoli, and rice -- and canned pineapple

For more meal planning ideas, go to I'm An Organizing Junkie!

the best laid plans...

We had planned to roast a turkey today. It was pulled out of the freezer on Thursday and placed in a coolerful of turkey brine.

It's still frozen. :(

things I need to use up in my pantry

Thanks to careful shopping and couponing over the summer and fall months (as well as holiday sales), my pantry is fairly well stocked right now. I also have several things in there that have been sitting on the shelves for a while because I didn't know what to do with them. Over the next few weeks, I need to make an effort to use up these items:

• "cream of" soups
• other soups (vegetable, chicken noodle, etc.)
• stuffing mix
• pie filling
• spaghetti sauce
• baked beans
  
• olives (mostly black, but a few "exotic" ones too)
• dried mushrooms
• crackers
• cold cereal
• boxed macaroni and cheese
• canned fruit
• random sauces/toppings that I don't know how to use (olive tapenade, portabella mushroom relish, red pepper spread, etc.)
  

cheerful girl

Just thought I'd share a few moments of my happy daughter. :)

something new -- Menu Plan Monday

Lately I've been making an effort to rotate the foods in my pantry and freezers. I have a bit of a backstock built up and want to make sure it is used rather than just hoarded. I think planning out the weekly menus will help with this (not to mention it will help to eliminate those "what the heck am I having for dinner?" moments), so I'm going to be participating in the Menu Plan Monday carnival that's hosted on the Organizing Junkie's blog each week.

Monday: Chicken tetrazzini (from Dream Dinners)
Tuesday: Baked beans and assorted sausages/hot dogs
Wednesday: Assorted leftovers
Thursday: Frozen pre-packaged noodle based meals from the freezer (those "just add chicken" things)
Friday: Orange Chicken (frozen, from Trader Joe's) and Bejing Vegetables (frozen, also from Trader Joe's)
Saturday: Assorted "leftover New Year's Eve junk foods" -- mini tacos, flautas, etc.
Sunday: Chicken pie (from Costco)

For more meal planning ideas, go to I'm An Organizing Junkie!

You're probably looking at this list and thinking, "There's a lot of pre-packaged convenience stuff in that menu." You're right. Some of them are things that I found on sale somewhere and then were buried in the freezer and forgotten (except for the orange chicken and the Bejing veggies... we just like them and they're cheaper than going out to eat!) for a very long time. They're taking
up precious freezer space and really need to be used up.

the tradition of resolutions

So here it is... another new year, another new beginning.

At the beginning of every new year, like many Americans, I make new resolutions. I resolve to exercise more, to eat better, to blog more, to read more, to spend less, etc. Somewhere around the 2nd week of February (or even earlier) I get frustrated/bored/annoyed with my resolutions (or rather my lack of resolve) and go back to my old ways.

Will this year be different? I don't know. I hope so. I haven't chosen any resolutions yet, mostly because I want to make worthwhile ones. There's no point in making them if I'm just going to break them.

There's some conflicts between some resolutions I'd like to make... I'd like to live more simply and frugally, and I'd like to make better food choices. At the same time I've got several things in my pantry that are, well, poor choices. Should I throw all of that away? That seems like the wrong idea, yet what's the point of having it take up space in my cabinet if I'm not going to eat it? I could argue that other people in the house might eat it, but do I want them to eat stuff I think is bad? And let's face it -- if it's in the house, I'll end up eating it at some point.

Stuff to think about.

Happy 2009!