A day late and a dollar short

So, I was supposed to post this meal plan yesterday...buuuuuut, my internet and my computer decided not to talk to each other...

So, here's the meal plan, a day late and a dollar short.

And just a warning, it's very carb heavy because we have a swim meet coming up...and you need carbs stored up for a swim meet...

Sunday: Meatball Subs and Country Salad (we used the meatball recipe from Spaghetti and Meatballs; see recipe on friday.)

Monday: BLTs and grilled cheese; what's your favorite way to make this classic? I'm planning to try adding some cut up pepper slices to mine!

Tuesday: Pan-seared chicken, mac-n-cheese and green bean casserole

Wednesday: beef and broccoli stir-fry with rice. I've really wanted to try this and I'm excited. If you try this recipe too, please let me know what you think!!

Thursday: We are headed to out to dinner with my cousin to talk race day prep for my daughter's first Half Marathon!!!

Friday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, green beans, bread

Saturday: This is swim meet day 1, I'm planning on sandwiches and leftovers because we will also be going to a Halloween pumpkin carving party. I'm bringing corn dip.

Sunday: This may also be a leftover/chill day...because Swim Meet weekends make me really tired. (Let's just face the reality of this...I use paper plates to avoid much clean-up and I find making dinner after a swim meet is tiring on top of being tired and I'll probably have a decent amount of clean-up to do around my house. So, yeah...)

What's for dinner? And breakfast and lunch and dessert

Fall break has begun at my house and with it comes LOTS of cooking. The list of recipes in this post will be MUCH longer than usual. You may want to par down if you have a busy week. If not, if love to hear how these recipes turned out at your house!!!

Breakfasts: We have a supply of biscuits, bagels and cereal for the week. Let's keep it simple.

Lunch: Chicken salad, Egg and Avocado Salad, Lunch meat, PB & J or leftovers.

Sunday: I'm hoping to kick our week off with some snuggles, a movie and tortellini soup. We're going to try out making freezer ice cream too!!

Monday: My husband is on the road for a photo shoot, so tonite is meatball stroganoff and country salad, since he doesn't really like it. And why not make an apple pie, but we use a freezer dough instead of making raw dough, to (hopefully) go with the ice cream from last night. 

Tuesday: oven fried chicken, spinach, macaroni and cheese and we're going to try the Martha Stewart chocolate cupcakes. 

Wednesday: By this point, I'm expecting to be a little worn down in the kitchen so this is going to be a simple taco night and as a surprise to my husband, we'll be making a chocolate chip pound cake! This recipe is a labor of love that is so tasty! 

Thursday: This is one of my favorite meals, especially when there are lots of leftovers; baked potato bar! This is a great one for entertaining too; pull out lots of toppings or have friends bring their favorite and set out a bowl of baked potatoes. Cut them in half and allow everyone to dress them as they like. So yummy!

Friday: Dinner out with family

Saturday: I'm hoping by Saturday we have cleaned our house or most of it, so we'll be ordering a pizza for sure! 

What does fall break look like at your house?

No recipe shared for macaroni and cheese because I'm wanting to know what your favorite recipe is!! Share in the comments!!

No grocery list this week, to encourage you to pick and choose what you'll make!

Cheers to a great week!

Before you write a meal plan...or any plan.

It may seem a bit out of order, that last week I would write about how to write a meal plan and this week, I'd write what to do before you write a meal plan...but hear me out!

If you have just started meal planning, it may feel daunting. You may have struggled before and only jumped back in because I suggested it. That's ok! There are always challenges when we are learning new things. Below are some recommendations I have for next week when you sit down to plan your meals..

1. Look in your kitchen!!
Do you have 15 cans of diced tomatoes? Let's plan some recipes that will USE the diced tomatoes! Try to make sure you have at least 2 meals that include half of the ingredients that are already in your house. It will make you use what's there and not build up a giant pile of food that needs to get eaten sitting next to a pile of leftovers that need to get eaten.

2. Make room for leftovers.
If you plan a meal for every night, you will not be able to eat ALL the leftovers! Unless your family eats every bite of every thing that you make,  there is going to be food left. Throwing it away is not economical and you can't always finish an entire lasagna for lunch! With that in mind, leave space in the schedule for a leftover night. Is it the most fun? Probably not. Practical though?

3. Build up to it.
You are not going to be on Master Chef tomorrow. I promise your children will still grow into normal functioning members of society even if you use a microwave! If you'd like to have some veggies and frozen is more practical than fresh, go with it. It's cool.

4. Make habits.
Have you noticed in your own life that you have patterns and habits? Maybe you take 3 sweet-n-low in your coffee? Swiffer the floors on thursday? These are patterns and habits. If they work well in other parts of your life, why would you not incorporate them more often? I try to do some meal prep for the next night, while I'm working on the current meal. Sometimes I even get farther ahead than that.

5. Create patterns.
Some call them theme nights, I call them patterns. My children know to expect chicken mid-week and to expect Italian-type meals on Monday. I tend to grill on the weekends and every 3-4 days, we tackle leftovers. Whatever works, you decide, but look for the things that make the process easier, not harder!

Happy Meal Planning!!

Oh goodness.

It's the first Sunday of 2014. I'm hoping to recommit to me and my family this year. 

I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. Which has been basically the whole time we have been on break. It's been a roller coaster, but I have really been thankful to spend so much time with my kiddos and doing things I love; cooking, sewing and running! 

Our break did not start off well. Geoff's father passed away on December 20. It was the day before his 77th birthday. This was a tough event to have happen so close to my mother's yartzeit and the holiday season. 

On my mother's yartzeit, I made a big breakfast for the kids, had my sister over for a bit and went on a run with my friend Carrye. It was actually a nice day. 

My mother-in-law came to spend Christmas with us. It was a great few days of getting to have her here, spend time together and watch the babies delight at seeing presents under the Christmas tree. 

We took the kids to see Frozen and went to see Starry Nights on Christmas Day. Starry Nights is a local event where our local park decorates a 2 mile strip with Christmas lights. Lissy is finally old enough to get excited so that made it more fun! 

Then my family got together for a belated Hanukkah gift exchange. We all had a great time exchange gifts and having dinner together. My parents bought my kids a trampoline and they have truly spent as much time as possible on it! 

I tried CardioBarre for the first time and loved it! I've also joined in on a quilt along on Instagram. If you'd like to see what in up to my username is @alwaysthinkbigger_rbk 

Tomorrow I go back to work and the babies start their new school at Temple Israel. And if I don't forget, I'll post my recipes from the last two dinners that were both made from Pinterest! 

Until then!

Rachel

Homemade Dinner

So, Annie thought this was super yummy and several friends on Facebook asked...here's what I did.

1. Sautéed chicken in a little butter. Let spinach defrost on counter.sliced mushrooms. Preheated oven to 325.

2. When chicken was done, shredded it and cooked spinach in the same pan chicken was cooked in. Added 2 oz of cream cheese. Cooked pasta. Put rolls in the oven. (sister schubert frozen dinner rolls)

3. Once pasta was done, sautéed mushrooms in a little butter. Added spinach, mixed well. Added chicken, mixed well. Added about 1/3 cup milk and a handful of Colby jack cheese. Annie tasted it and requested a little something else, so we added a little garlic powder.

4. Served over some pasta, it was a little heavy but VERY tasty!

Babysteals!!!!!

So, I was wrong yesterday....yesterday's babysteal was not the Klean Kanteen....that was front the night before! (The babysteal changes at 9am and at 9pm) Yesterday's babysteal was a pack of gdiapers!!! Which I totally took as a sign! And of course I scooped one up!
But then last nite, I couldn't sleep....and for whatever reason, I still haven't figured it out, I don't get the email blast about the 9pm steal...Well, I couldn't sleep so I got on Babysteals and scooped up a super cute nursing cover. (Did I mention that we don't have anything for this baby?) This cover by Andee Lew, is one of the cutest things ever...and one I have totally drooled over on their site! Well, on babysteals last nite is was 50% of it's list price!!!! YEAH!!!

In other kid news...I'm getting ready to make corn salsa tonite, which I will post the recipe for and of course a picture! This is for part of the dinner for Friday nite's swim meet. Annie will be swimming in the Gabrielle Rose Classic, which is hosted by Memphis Tiger Swimming. She is super excited!!! Geoff and I are too, but since she's been really working hard on her times, she's probably a little more excited than we are...especially considering whenever there is a home meet....we have to work! LOL!

Today Jonas is going to the doctor to hopefully be cleared to go to school. He has been home for the past 2 days, and let me tell you, working with him on all of his homework is A TON of work! I don't know how they do it! I thought teaching High School was hard...but last nite, it seemed easier than what I did with my son!!! YIKES!

Here's the Corn Dip:

2 cans mexicorn (drained)
8 oz sour cream (I use fat free)
8 oz mayo (I use real)
12 oz shredded cheddar (I use real)
1 Tbs garlic POWDER (not salt)
1 Tbs Accent
~1 bunch scallions chopped (I use the greens also)
1 small jar chopped pimiento (and I chop finer)
Jalapenos to tasted (chopped fine)

I usually mix the mexicorn and cheese together in one bowl.  I then mix everything else together in a smaller bowl, which allows it all to mix together uniformly. I then add that into the mexicorn/cheese mixture and mix
together.

I make no less than one day ahead - it gives all the flavors time to blend. Anything more than 1 day, and I'd eat it all.

Enjoy and have fun.