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!

chicken salad croissant bento

(I made this bento on April 9, 2008.)

When I got to school, I realized I had forgotten to take a picture of my bento. Even though the contents had shuffled a little, I took this picture shortly before eating it.

Left section: apple slices, chicken salad and lettuce on a mini croissant, and mini tomatoes (yellow and red) as gap fillers.

Right section: Newman's Own hi-protein mini pretzels, a small cup of Pub Cheese, rumaki (water chestnuts wrapped with turkey bacon) on toothpicks, a round of Babybel cheese (hiding under the pretzels), and a few more tomatoes.

Classroom bento

(I made this bento on April 6, 2008.

Left section: teriyaki-pineapple meatballs, steamed broccoli, clam alfredo linguine

Right section: homemade white grape juice gelatin cup with strawberries, grape tomatoes, Babybel cheese round, edemame skewers
I bought the meatballs, the cheese, and the edamame (already steamed and shelled) from Costco.

I made a batch of the juice gelatin cups on ahead of time so I'd have them ready to stick in a bento. The pasta was leftover from dinner a few months before. Using a tip from the Lunch in a Box blog (as well as the tip about the gelatin cups), I froze the pasta into bento sized portions.

yesterday's bento

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/25/06)
Bottom tray: Green beans, 2 pieces of Daim chocolates (Swedish chocolate toffees), foil cup of macadamia/almond/cashew nut mix.
Small green cup (to the right of the bottom tray): Vitamins.
Top tray: Chicken L'Orange, container with extra orange sauce.
Right of top tray: Instant miso soup.

two for the price of one!

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/20/06)

Two bentos today!

Top row: Little green container with vitamins, package of instant miso soup, small blue container with toppings for salad.
Upper tray: Spring salad mix with little container of Garlic Italian salad dressing.
Lower tray: Mixture of cashews, almonds, and macadamia nuts, and 1/2 of an almond butter and blackberry jam sandwich.

My daughter had testing in school today, so she had some snacks to enjoy during the breaks.

Purple tray: Hot dog coins with ketchup for dipping.
Red tray: Goji berry blend dried fruit mixture.
Yellow tray: Roasted peanuts.
Green tray: Hardboiled egg, fig bar, and sea salt (for the egg).
Sitting on the blue lid: Hello Kitty wafer cookies.
Drink: Water.

chicken salad bento

(This was originally posted in a bento community on 4/19/06)

Bottom tray: Smokehouse Almond Thins crackers, a Dove chocolate egg, and some Smokehouse almonds.

Upper tray: Chicken salad on spring salad greens with a flower made from red leaf lettuce, calendula blossoms, and borage blossoms.

Little blue container in the center: Blue-green hardboiled Easter egg.

Sitting on top bento box lid: Packet of sea salt for the egg.

Drink: Bottle of MetroMint peppermint flavored water.

I really liked the way the flower turned out, but unfortunately the close up picture (on the right) doesn't do it justice.

child's bento lunch

(I've been catching up... this was originally posted in another blog on 4/18/07)

This wasn't my lunch, but my daughter's. Her bento box is one of the Laptop Lunch boxes.
Bottom left tray (purple): 2 mini whole wheat pita pocket halves with peanut butter and blueberry jam.
Bottom right tray (red): Honey roasted peanuts.
Top right tray (yellow): Goji berry blend dried fruit mix from Trader Joe's.
Top left tray (green): Purple hard boiled Easter egg, packet of sea salt, a "This Fig Walks Into A Bar..." fig bar, and a packet of Hello Kitty sugar wafers.

She also had a bottle of water (which you can see to the right of the yellow tray).

miso soup bento for tomorrow

(This was originally posted in another blog on 9/18/06)

I wanted something simple but satisfying for tomorrow, plus I've been dying to use my new bento bowl for weeks.

Top section of bowl: packet of miso (foil pouch), blue packet of miso soup seasonings (contains freeze-dried scallions, wakame)
Bottom section of bowl (left): sliced green beans and carrot flowers
Middle lidded compartment: sliced egg, matchsticks of roast pork

When I'm ready to eat, I'll mix everything together in the bottom section of the bowl, add hot water, and eat!

falafel bento

(This was originally posted in another blog on 9/7/06)

It's really difficult to make little brown and green balls look appetizing in a picture, especially when the sun has gone down and the natural lighting is gone for the day.

:(

Tomorrow is my 9am-2pm film class, so I wanted to pack a substantial lunch.

Larger bento box: Falafel with container of tahini sauce, assorted veggies (cucumber, tomato, pickled turnip, oil-cured olives).

Smaller bento box with pink lid: Hummus (topped with chopped parsley and a spicy red sauce), strawberries and kiwi slices.

With the exception of the fruit and some of the veggies, these were all leftovers from tonight's dinner from Falafel's Drive-In. I'm planning to use the veggies as dippers for the hummus and use the tahini sauce (and maybe some of the hummus) on the falafels.

First day of classes bento!

(This post was originally made in a different blog on 9/16/06)

My fall semester classes started today. It seemed like a good time to pull out my Kiddy's Dream bento tray that I bought at the beginning of the summer.

Top left: smoky roasted aubergine dip (covered with Glad Press n' Seal so it doesn't leak)

Top right: whole grain crackers

Bottom left: oil-cured olives

Bottom center: roasted almonds

Bottom right: tomatoes (from my garden) and green beans

Second bento

Lower tray: Carrot pennies and egg salad (made from leftover Easter eggs!) decorated with a flower made from calendula petals, lettuce, and a borage blossom.
Upper tray: Smoked Almond Nut Thins crackers, pepper havarti cheese slices (wrapped in violet colored cling flim), 2 cut up pieces of sugar-free Twizzlers, and one foil wrapped Earth chocolate.
Cup: Raspberry lemonade powder (I wish I trusted the cup to not leak while lying on its side. Anyone ever use one of these?).

The closeup of the flower egg salad turned out a little overexposed.

First bento

I recently purchased my first bento box and packed lunch in it for the very first time.


Lower tray: Cubes of leftover meatloaf and a little bottle of ketchup.
Upper tray: Steamed spinach with sesame seeds and lemon, a little nori maki rice cracker, and Fuji apple slices.
Cup: Instant raspberry iced tea powder (I added water to it at lunch).

The bento box says "Puti Fresh" and has a green grape design (another view of the same bento box). It unfortunately didn't include a band to hold it all together; I've been using a thick rubber band until I can get a real one. Everything came in a cute matching cloth bag, but I have to keep the cup on its side in the bag in order to get it to fit. This makes me a little leary of traveling with liquids inside the cup, but powdered drinks will work for now.

About that blogger o' mine...

I got the account months ago, but I've been terrible about posting in it! Feh.

I'll have to remedy that. No point in having an empty blog.

first post

I broke down & got a blogger account.