Menu Planning Monday Nov 14-20

Easy, peasy family favorites this week since I have a full schedule and want to save some time and energy to gear up for the upcoming holiday cooking frenzy. I am SO excited. I know, it's shocking that I am excited about food, but really, I am. Sorry if this week is a little heavy on the sandwiches, but I promise I'll make up for it in Thanksgiving leftover yumminess and holiday baking goodies in the coming weeks.

Day #1: Smoked sausage and peppers on hoagy rolls with baked potatoes.

Day #2: Slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches, fried green tomatoes and cole slaw.

Day #3: Tuna melts and roasted butternut squash. I am not even sure how the butternut squash in my pantry got there. Did my mother leave it when she came to watch the kids? Did my mother-in-law leave it when she visited and I was (blessed to be) out of town? Did my neighbor drop off her extras? Who knows? Who cares? I have delicious butternut squash that I will roast with a sinful amount of butter and brown sugar and call it a vegetable.

Day #4: Meatball subs with chips and dip. Yes, I occasionally serve chips and dip. For real.

Day #5: English muffin pizzas. It's pizza night, and I've realized I like pizza from our favorite pizza shop a lot more if I don't have it every single week so I've been trying to mix things up with something homemade at least every other week. Just so happens English muffins were on sale last week, and I have some pepperoni kicking around in my fridge with nothing planned for it.

Day #6: Beef with Broccoli. I can't wait to try this recipe from Rainy Day Gal. It looks soooooooo yummy. I love love love Chinese food, but since we have been eating less and less restaurant food, when we do have it, it tends to not agree with me so much. I am hopeful this is yummy but somewhat healthier version of one of my favorites. http://rainydaygal.com/2011/02/03/beef-with-broccoli/

Day #7: Black bean soup with cornbread.

I share my menus on Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday.

Good Old Days

Oh man, how I miss the good old days sometimes.

When "fall back" actually meant an extra hour of sleep.

When a night out with friends didn't require more pre-planning than a phone call and usually ended closer to sun-up than sun-down.

When taking a "nap" with my husband on a Sunday afternoon didn't require closing the door, locking it, covering the keyhole with a towel in case anyone got curious about what we were doing in there.

When Saturday mornings meant garage sale shopping with my best friend instead of soccer, judo, gymnastics and the Home Depot craft of the month.

When I drove a compact car.

When no one talked to me during Wheel of Fortune.

When getting sick meant lying on the couch and resting.

When I could have a phone conversation longer than 43 seconds without being interrupted.

When I could eat a whole meal without getting out of my chair.

When making a pot of chili meant we'd have leftovers to eat for lunch the whole week.

When the DVR (OK, then it was a VCR) wasn't full of Power Rangers, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.

When a roll of toilet paper lasted more than one day.

When I could clean the house and it would stay clean for a couple of weeks instead of a couple of minutes.

When sneezing didn't mean changing my panties.

When there were only three loads of laundry to do each week.

When white carpet seemed like a good idea.

But then this tiny little girl with big brown eyes wraps her arms around my waist and says, "I wub you, Mommy." And a little boy smiles at me and says, "We have 23 minutes left to snuggle before bedtime, Mommy." And a bigger boy says, "Mom, I'm so glad you got to come on my field trip today. It was nice to have you there." And I forget all about the old days.

Until someone yells from the bathroom, "MOOOOOOOOM, I need HEEEEEEELP!"

Menu Planning Monday Nov 7-13

Tying to get back on the menu planning....er, horse, so to speak. Thanks to a little big batch cooking the weekend before, last week worked out just fine without a plan, but I know it won't be pretty if I try to do that for long. So, here's my plan for this week.

Day #1: I knew today I needed something fast and easy, that I could throw on the table in just a few minutes time since we'd be getting home late, have to to eat dinner, and clean up before I had an appointment later in the evening. Crock Pot to the rescue! Except Monday mornings are extra busy too, so it had to be something I could throw in the slow cooker super-fast, with no prep and preferably no recipe and no need to go rummaging through my cabinet for long, lost spices. It took me five minutes to put together Cheesy Chicken and Stuffing Casserole. I usually do it in the oven, but it worked great in the Crock Pot. Plus, the kids loved. it.

Cheesy Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

2-3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 can cream soup (mushroom or chicken work equally well)
1 8 oz package shredded cheese (I like cheddar, but your favorite would work fine)
1 box Stove Top Stuffing chicken flavor, prepared according to package directions

Place chicken in the bottom of slow cooker. Spread soup on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Spoon stuffing on top. Cook on low 8 hours.

Day 2: Cashew Chicken with Noodles. I'm using a recipe from my new favorite magazine, Simple & Delicious, Easy Meals for Busy People. It has a ton of simple, fast and yummy-looking recipes in it. There are several recipes I can't wait to try.

Day #3: The weather report says our beautiful Indian summer is going to end later this week, and it will be replaced with chilly rain. I think that calls for Sherried Tomato Soup and Cheesy Garlic Bread, both from my very favorite blog in the whole world, The Pioneer Woman.


Day #4: One evening this week is parent-teacher conference night. We usually get a sitter so we aren't rushed or stressed out worrying that the kids are running rampant in the halls, torturing the parents or teachers with their noise. Since we have a sitter, we also make a date night of it. I'm thinking sushi...mmmmm..... yummmm.... Anyway, for the children it will be fish and macaroni and cheese.

Day #5: Sauteed sausage and peppers with oven roasted vegetables.

Day #6: Some friends invited us to pot luck this weekend so I am planning to bring my oft-requested apple crisp. I love pot luck!

Day #7: Taco Roll-ups from Family Fun Magazine. Don't they look delicious?


I share my menus on Organizing Junkie's Menu Planning Monday.

Dream Big Dreams

A week or so ago I mentioned how extremely blessed I am to have some amazing women in my life who keep my attitude positive, my spirit uplifted and my vision inspired. It is one of the best things about the work I do, and I am thankful for it every day. That same week, I got to attend a weekend retreat with some of the top women in our company. I was blown away. So much to learn. So overwhelming to be in the presence of such grace, knowledge, experience, beauty.

I learned a lot over the course of the weekend, many related to business, some related specifically to our business, but many things just about life and how to live a better one. In one of the classes, our teacher talked about dreaming. Not the kind you do when you are asleep. The kind you do about your hopes, your future, your life. She asked us to think about what a kindergartner says when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up. I have a kindergartner (and a preschooler and a third grader) so this was easy for me. They say something like this: "I want to be an astronaut and an artist and a firefighter and a ballet dancer and a singer and a book writer and the President."

What does a kid graduating from college say when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up? What does a 30-something or 40-something say when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up? "Uhhhhhhhhhhh....." Sad, isn't it? At some point we all had a whole bunch of dreams for our life, but somewhere along the way, many of us forgot them or gave up on them. We lost our dream mechanism-our ability to dream big dreams for our future, to see our lives as an amazing possibility, to plan for wonderful things to happen.

So she gave us an assignment. Write down 100 dreams you have for your life. One hundred. Oh, that's easy, I thought. Umm hmm. Try it. No really, I want you to try it. You don't have to show anyone. You don't have to do it all in one day. You don't have to go out and buy a special notebook to write your list in. They don't have to be written in complete sentences. But I would love for you to get busy, take a few quiet minutes for the next few days, and make your list. It's harder than it sounds. I thought I had plenty of dreams. There are lots of things I want to do before my time is up. But honestly, I got stuck around #26. I kept thinking and pushed through to #53. Now I'm stuck again. GASP! I have some more work to do.

Another thing that surprised me was what I think my list says about me. I had very few things on there about me. I want to do lots of traveling and take classes on a bunch of stuff, but beyond that, what showed up on my list over and over are the things I want for the ones I love. Now, it's not that I didn't think I cared about those things or that I think it's bad to want things for your family. I just thought when given the freedom to dream about what I want in my life, that my list would be a lot more about me. In fact, for the next 47 things I need to write down, I am going to try harder to focus on the things I dream for myself. That's the idea, after all.

I was also pleasantly surprised that a whole lot of my dreams were about learning things, going places, and having new experiences. Yes, I am super thrifty, some might even say cheep. I am the coupon queen. I never met a screaming deal I didn't like. The little voice in the back of my mind always said that I would go a little crazy with the budget if I had the opportunity and an unlimited budget. So I was pleased to see that while I could spend a whole lot of dough on doing things, it's not likely I would be piling up a mountain of stylish sweaters, slamming shoes and sparkly jewelry as I secretly feared I would if given the opportunity.

There are two more things I loved about the list. First, not everything was out of reach. Some things on my list I could be and should be working on right now. What am I waiting for? When I grow up? Well, NEWS FLASH, SISTER!! I AM A GROWN UP! I just need to get to it! And the last thing I love about my list is that it reminds me that who I am is very much who I have always been. Once you get past #26, you have to really open up your mind and think some thoughts you probably haven't thought in a good long while. But the same ones are still in there, just like they were when you were fourteen.  It's kinda nice.

I'm still at work on my list. I've given myself only a few more days to finish it up no matter what it takes. I'd love to hear if you start writing your own list and what you learn from it. And remember to DREAM BIG, my friends.