Menu Plan Monday....

(image:myhomeideas.com)

I find menu planning so useful for keeping me on track with our food storage and food budget. When I plan meals for the week, I often poke through the freezer to see what needs to be eaten and I avoid unnecessary purchases at the grocery store. There are a more than a few mommy bloggers that are writing great stuff on meal planning, cooking for the freezer and how to get the most out of food storage. One mom with a family of 6 to feed keeps her grocery bill to $160 a month! She is extremely frugal AND creative with her grocery budget...still her family eats very well. So my challenge this month is to keep our family grocery budget to $160 from Nov.15 to Dec. 15. So far, I am making bread since we are out of bread and I refuse to pay $2 a loaf at the grocery store. The bonus is that my kids actually prefer homemade bread over anything else.
Our menu plan for the week will include using up all of our fresh fruits and vegetables so nothing goes to waste.

Monday-Pulled pork sandwiches with a veggies tray & dip. Fresh fruits parfaits for dessert.

Tuesday-Lobster stuffed salmon with wild rice, carrots and steamed asparagus.

Wednesday-Chicken & vegetable stir fry with rice.

Thursday-Meatloaf with baked potatoes, carrots and green beans.

Friday-Casserole. Undecided as to which casserole, but it will be made on Thursday to eat on Friday.

Saturday-Dad cooks.

Sunday-Homemade soup with sausages and lentils.


The Party Dress has done it again with a wonderful take on an "Apple-Picking and Fireside Dinner Party". Her photo collages are such a feast for the eyes...doesn't the party below just look divine?

project life...

I have been scrapbooking for 10 years now and I am super excited about this scrapbooking project. It's called 'Project Life' and it's designed by the fantabulous Becky Higgins. This amazing kit contains all the components for a year of scrapbooking: album, page protectors, 12x12 paper, journalling cards and other decorative pieces. Becky designed a similar kit last year for Creating Keepsakes called 'Project 365'... but it sold out in no time. I regretted not purchasing that kit, so I was so happy when she announced that she was designing a new kit for 2010. Have you met Becky Higgins? I first became a fan of hers through her work with Creating Keepsakes Magazine in 1999 when I was a new scrapbooker. Becky was, at first, a page designer, then a columnist, book author and creative editor for Creating Keepsakes. I have always admired her page designs and her inspirational theme album projects. I have watched her grow from a young married woman to a mother of 3 adorable children. And I have had the opportunity to meet her in person 3 times and take a class from her at Creating Keepsakes University in Boston in 2003.


She is lovely....both inside and out.

Becky wrote this book a few years ago and I really love all of the projects revealed inside. Becky has amazing ideas about how to organize your theme albums and her projects are always very beautifully put together with amazing colors, photos and journalling.

She also wrote this book for the scrapbooker who would like to tackle projects from the family historian point of view. Inside you will find interview questions for gaining more information and anecdotal stories from family members and ideas on how to scrapbook this info.

I last saw Becky in 2007 when she came to my city for a convention. I had her autograph both of these books. I really treasure these and the inspirational ideas inside.

november is for....

preparing for Christmas and December is for enjoying Christmas. I read this amazing piece of advice last year on one of my favorite blogs...Restyled Home. That lovely Linda is chock full of great advice and creative energy!

So far I have finished Christmas shopping for the children. Yes...I said finished. I visited the largest local mall two weeks ago (when it was still October) and hit a home run with my list.
I picked up Santa gifts and stocking stuffers and the whole, darn SHE-bang. What a wonderful feeling! This means I can afford killer-shark traffic, over-full parking lots and slow check out lanes when December comes! Yee-ha!

Over the last month, I have picked up new Christmas wrapping paper, new tags, Christmas cards, and carry-out containers for homemade goodies. Tonight I picked up several rolls of scotch tape for a planned 'wrapping day' next week.

I am also having so much fun visiting some of my favorite blogs to see what ideas for Christmas other people are sharing. I love this photo from "The Party Dress" for an idea of a "Cocktail and Cookies" party. Makes you want to invite all your girlfriends over, doesn't it?

Menu Plan Monday....

Here is our meal plan for this week...even though it's Wednesday already!

I love cooking dinner for my family. Often, dinner is the only meal of the day where we all eat together and I really treasure this family time. Some of our best family laughs arrive at the dinner table with the food as we hear about someone's day. A meal plan, which is a simple task, makes each day go so much better....no fretting at 4 pm about what's for dinner. One thing that really helps is if I do all the dinner prep in the morning so that later in the day I am just turning on the stove and/or oven and mixing a salad.


Monday-I had to work a Bingo for the skating club at 5pm and left the house at 4:15 pm. Hunter made pasta for herself and Ron made mini-pizzas for himself & Tyler. I had a cold salad plate at Bingo.

Tuesday- maple balsamic marinated chicken with rice, oven roasted sweet potato and steamed asparagus.

Wednesday-I made homemade waffles with an sliced apple topping for lunch. Ron and Tyler had hockey in the late afternoon and Hunter and I went to the movie....so we had tuna melts as people arrived home.

Thursday- seafood stuffed salmon with rice, green beans and carrots.

Friday-pork loin with baked potatoes, asparagus and carrots.

Saturday-Dad cooks.

Sunday- shrimp and wild rice casserole with an apple pecan salad.


I also have a rule where I try a new recipe for dinner once a week. This keeps us from getting tired of the same meals and lends variety to our eating habits.

‘Nie Nie' shares story of the crash and her recovery

ksl.com - ‘Nie Nie' shares story of the crash and her recovery

Menu Plan Monday...

It's been awhile since I posted a 'Menu Plan Monday' post...but there is nothing like fall and a busy afterschool schedule to inspire meal planning. I find my day just starts so much better if I have supper made in the morning...both the prep and the assembly. That just leaves cooking time for a meal to be on the table.

Sunday~Shrimp & Wild Rice Casserole (Paula Deen recipe). Since we ate this yesterday, I can report that it was a hit with requests for an encore.

Monday~sad to say...but we ate McDonalds. Just trying to keep it real.

Tuesday~Hamburger soup....light on the hamburger and heavy on the vegetables. Served with cornbread from this month's Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

Wednesday~Roasted chicken breasts in a maple, bbq sauce with rice and green beens.

Thursday~grilled cubano panini sandwiches from this month's Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

Friday~twice-baked pototoes, basa fish and a green salad.

Saturday~Dad cooks.

Baking projects for this week:
~I have lots of frozen bananas in the freezer, so I am planning to make 2 batches of banana chocolate chip muffins for the kids' lunches.
~trying a new cornbread recipe from Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

i love my new warm...

hat! Did a little shopping at Anthropologie yesterday and picked up this hat for myself. A bit of an expensive splurge, but we are being hit with an early winter here. Woke up to blizzard-like conditions this morning with radio reports of lots of traffic accidents on the morning commute. I ran the boy to school and was toasty warm in my new hat. Hats can make you feel so...um....nerdy....to be honest, but this hat is too cute.