Menu Planning

This folder is one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog. I have recipe books, I have a large scrapbook recipe book,etc... what do I use?

Yep all my recipes that I find online or copy down get shoved in this folder. I am going to get a lot of them put on here asap.

Now,I have had a couple people ask me how I do my menu planning. So at the risk of everyone knowing what a dork I am with this, I'm going to share it with y'all.

*I use a Large Yellow Legal Pad

*I do my menu from Monday-Sunday. Breakfast. Lunch, and Dinner.

*A lot of people plan their menus around the sales papers. I don't do this all the time. Just depends on 
  whats in the papers.

* I do all breakfast and lunches first

* With dinners I usually have a few ideas of what I want. After that I ask Hubby if he has any requests.
   From there I go to my recipe folder and online. Sissy also gets a couple days a month that she gets to plan 
   a whole days menu.

*Once I have all three meals I check that day off and move on to the next.

*Once I have all the days done I flip the page over and start a grocery list.

*I write everything down that's on the menu(even if I think I have it).

*Then I go through pantry,fridge,and cabinets to see what I do have.

*Then I make a final grocery list and transfer my menu from the legal pad to the board on fridge.

May not be great but it works for me!  :)

Top Favorites

Everyone has their favorites right? Tonight I thought I would share our top 10 favorite dinners.
These are not my " go to" dinners(thats a different post). These are dishes that the whole family enjoys.


PWs Chicken Spaghetti

Beef and Broccoli with Rice

Chicken Nachos

Stromboli

Stuffed Peppers

Breakfast Casserole

Meatloaf

Lasagna

Taco Soup

Goulash

These are not the best dinners, these are NOT the healthiest dinners...But ALL things in moderation people!  :)

Love

Love is like a butterfly...

                                                         

Kid Packed Lunch #2

Sissy decided she wanted to pack her own lunch again for tomorrow. She picked out all the food and helped arrange it in the box. I did help her with the containers.

Starting in top left corner she has: 
Graham cracker bugs with cream cheese in Hello Kitty container
 Peaches, carrots with ranch,
 Babybel cheese, and Salami.
 And that little stringy blue thing in bottom right corner? Yeah that is a edible silly band. blah...

I would say for the most part(for a 5 year old) she did pretty good. I have given her free rein with these last 2 lunches but, next week its back to my way! :)
  For awhile now she has brought home lunch boxes that still have fruits and veggies in them. She just eats the sandwiches or crackers etc... So I told my husband if she does that tomorrow,guess what will be in her lunch box on Monday?  That's right folks fruits and veggies and nothing else. Something like a banana, apple, grapes,carrots and some water.
 I know I am a "mean momma". (I got this idea from http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/.)

Reading

I love to read! Yes it's true I do love to read! And I read almost anything there is. Some would say "avid reader".  I though tonight I would share with you the books that I am reading right now.I have a bad habit of starting books and then moving on...Let me explain, I will start a book and want to read it but, if it starts getting slow I will move on to something else. Then a few days or weeks later I will pick it back up again.  

The books I am reading now are:

These are all books that I have started to read, some are books I have and some are on my ipod. I love the ipod books because this allows me to read while I am waiting. Waiting at a doctors office, waiting at school to pick up sissy, waiting....you get the picture :)

I also have a couple books on my list to read.

Hubby got me the Freedom book for Christmas.

I have read all of The Pioneer Womans story that is on her website thepioneerwoman.com and loved it. So I can not wait for this book to be put on my ipod next week.

So that is my list. What are y'all reading?

1st Bento

So lately Sissy has not been eating everything in her lunch. And she has had many excuses for not eating.
"I wasn't that hungry"  " I don't have enough time" "You pack too much Momma" "No one else has BENTO!!!" etc....
So last night I thought I would try something...I wish I would have took a picture!
I made a turkey,cheese, and mustard sandwich cut it in half and put in a ZIPLOC(which we don't do). Then I put in a 100 calorie pack of scrabble cheese its and 2 mini chocolate chip cookies(also in Ziploc). And a bottle of water. (YES YAYA I know this isn't the healthiest lunch!!)
But, you know what? As soon as Sissy got in the van today at school she said "MOM! Why did you not pack a bento??" So I explained to her why I had done that....And she decided she would pack her lunch for tomorrow!! HAHAHA!
So here it is in all its glory

She has a ham and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread. Carrots and ranch. Pretzel thins. Grapes and a organic apple roll up. Not bad for a 5 year old :)

Menu

This menu was kinda thrown together.  I had said in my "goals" for this year I wanted to do better about eating breakfast in the morning. However no matter how hard I TRY I am just NOT a morning person. So although these breakfasts are not the healthiest...If I get her to eat something here at home before school(instead of sausage biscuit every day)...I am happy! :)
I also have some meals that I can pull from the freezer this week.
 I will have a Saturday cooking day sometime soon to get the freezers filled back up. I am working on a list of things that I want to do and I may do a post on that as well.

Here is the menu for this week

Monday:
  Grandmas Rice Dish (recipe to follow)

Tuesday:
  Muffins
  Bento
  HM Pizza night

Wednesday:
  Banana and Toast
  Bento
  Lipton Chicken w/ crescent rolls

Thursday:
  Cereal
  Bento
  Home style pork chops w/ Sweet potatoes

Friday:
  Yogurt
  School Lunch
  PWs Chicken Spaghetti w/ green beans and toast (freezer)

Saturday:
  Eggs, Turkey bacon, and toast
  Veggie Soup w/ cornbread (freezer)
  ?

Sunday:
  Biscuits & Gravy w/ eggs and sausage
  L.O.s
  Steak and Gravy w/ mashed potatoes and corn