Menu Plan Monday

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. For us, it was quieter than normal. We didn't do any cookouts and we didn't have our typical soccer tournament. But, in many ways, this made for a really nice and relaxing weekend. We joined friends for a homemade pizza dinner on Friday night, so that the boys could do their online fantasy football draft together. It was a nice relaxed evening with pizza, wine and cheesecake - what a great combo! Saturday was filled with some walking, baseball practice, swimming and a family movie night of Muppets Most Wanted. Sunday was filled with some errands and a family game night/movie night rolled into one - we played Ticket to Ride and watched Ratatouille. Monday was a relaxed day with a quick lunch out, fort building and game play - both inside and out. It was refreshing to get the kids to bed before 9 for a change.

This week we are back into the busy life. It is a short week, but we still will have three soccer practices, one soccer game, a meet the teacher night, another fantasy football draft (the husband this time), a concert and likely a baseball game or practice to round out the week.

We are trying out a few new recipes this week and revisiting a few that we have had before.


Sunday
cereal and toast
sandwiches
Chinese

Monday
cereal
CiCi's pizza buffet
leftovers

Tuesday
Corn Dog Muffins

Wednesday
Grilled Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa

Thursday
Chicken Mango Curry

Friday
Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that the kids are back to school, breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal or toast most mornings and lunch will be a mix of the hot plate lunch at school or a packed lunch from home. My husband and I will stick with our standard routines. I do hope to get back to packing more. I seem to eat better when I pack, plus I am hopeful that it leaves me some time to walk at lunch.

This post shared on Menu Plan Monday.

Menu Plan Monday

What a great weekend!

First, let me say how much I am enjoying the return of Summer Hours at work. This Friday afternoon, I was able to sneak in a date with my husband while the kids were still at the sports day camp that they attended last week. It wasn't a fancy date, but we were able to catch a movie without having the added costs of a babysitter. We went and saw Jersey Boys. We really like the music and have seen the show twice on stage. The movie stayed fairly consistent with the stage show, obviously with the added luxury of having actual scene changes. Then, Friday evening - after fitting a quick cleaning of the first floor, we went out to a local Japanese Steak House for dinner with friends. After dinner, we returned to our house and visited for a while, while the kids played together.

Saturday was a complete change of pace from weekends of late, we had no sports until mid-afternoon and we only had 1 game. It was great to fit in a trip to the library to check in for the summer reading program and our grocery shopping before we had to head to the field for my daughter's softball game. After the game, we made a quick trip to Kohl's to take advantage of our 30% discount and redeem our $10 Kohl's Cash that was set to expire. Then, it was an early evening of bumper boats, mini golf and go karts. Aside from my daughter swinging her golf club too far, one time hitting my son in the forehead, it was a good evening. We had dinner at the activity center and then headed to our friend's new restaurant to enjoy dessert - Salted Caramel Cheesecake and Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Sunday was another relaxed day. I found time to get caught up on some laundry, get my hair cut, fill a prescription and do some baking. I made Carrot Cake Cookies, French Bread, Rye Bread, and two batches of Caramel Macchiato Biscotti. I had hoped to make some homemade cinnamon rolls too, but ran out of flour. In fact, I used a gluten free flour mix to make the second batch of biscotti and learned that you really need to use a little more fat with gluten free flours to get the right texture and since I hadn't, they were very crumbly - still very tasty, just more breakage than normal. I also discovered as I finished up my jar of yeast, that I should have been refrigerating the jar once I opened it. I clearly haven't done as much baking lately, because I hadn't had the issue before, but my French bread did not rise quite like it should have. Again, still tasty, just not as fluffy as we were used to. The rye bread seemed fine, but it is naturally a denser bread. Regardless, I was glad to have found the time to bake, I have been considering it every morning for the past week and usually find that I can't quite make the recipe and still get to work on time, so I had been reluctantly deciding not to bake each morning.

We have a somewhat busy sports week, but with only one sport in the mix, it is a lot slower than we have been having. Still, the plans mid-week are definitely quick prep options.

Sunday
Sonora Chicken Pasta

Monday
Tacos

Tuesday
Buffalo Chicken Cheesesteak

Wednesday
Leftovers

Thursday
Hamburgers

Friday
Homemade Pizza

Saturday
TBD

Now that it is summer, the kids are in camp and are packing lunches. Breakfast is generally a bowl of cereal or oatmeal before they head out. For my husband and I, lunch is a quick sandwich, microwave meal, leftovers or something on the go. Breakfast is a banana and a protein shake or bar.

This post shared at Menu Plan Monday on I'm an Organizing Junkie.

New Year's Resolutions

No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. As a Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger, I received suggestions and information from Hormel for this post

The first couple of weeks of the new year have not been very typical. I started the year with a cold, that turned into an infection and left me with a pain in my side. Needless to say, it hasn't helped me in support of any of my goals for the year.

One nice thing is that my goals for this year are primarily a continuation of the activities started last year. I want to continue to prepare nutritious and flavorful meals for the family, maintain a regular workout routine, and hopefully, as a result be healthier and with any luck, lose some weight along the way.

Hormel has provided some suggestions on you can set a resolution to challenge yourself in the kitchen this year:

New Year’s Resolution: Challenge Yourself in the Kitchen

Did you know that 45% of Americans make resolutions each year – but only 8% actually achieve them? This year, instead of making resolutions, try setting realistic goals. Joan Hanson, Hormel Foods Test Kitchen Director has provided the top five tips to help you get started with reaching your mealtime goals this year:

1. Try at least one new, quick and easy, family-friendly recipe each week (check out Hormel Foods’ recipe ideas on Pinterest and Facebook for ideas!)

2. Put ‘family dinner’ on the schedule at least three times a week and commit to those days as a way to connect with your spouse and children.

3. Incorporate at least three food groups into each meal, such as meat, dairy, and a vegetable

4. Get the whole family involved – whether it’s cooking or cleaning, making it a team effort will ease stress and make it fun!

5. Try to meal plan at least one week each month – it means fewer trips to the grocery store (and less impulse spending) and no uncertainty about what’s for dinner.

As I check out these challenges, I am happy to report that they are all part of my routine.

This week, my menu plan included five new recipes actually. That is a little heavy on new, but sometimes you just need something new. (so far they have all been keepers). So, I guess I am over-achieving on #1.

We eat dinner as a family close to 7 nights a week. It has alwasy been a priority and a goal of mine. As we get busier with sports, it gets more challenging and sometimes it is only 3 out of 4 of us sitting down together...but we still sit down. Having dinner together most days can be a challenge, but with creative menu planning and some prep work, it can be done. Sure, it means that sometimes we at 5 pm and sometimes we eat at 7 pm, but we are flexible that way.

I suppose that three food groups might be the one that I sometimes miss. I'm usually good at dinnertime and for packed/purchased lunches. but it is more of a challenge at breakfast or a weekend lunch.

Generally, I handle meal preparation. Even on the nights that my husband starts dinner, I generally do the prep work and he just has to start it. The kids are in charge of helping to get things set up for dinner. Then after dinner, they take their plates to the sink and clean up the crumbs on the floor at their seat.

Meal planning is part of my routine for several reasons, which I discussed here.

Did you make New Year’s resolutions this year? If so, did any of them involve your cooking goals? What is your number one cooking goal for this year?

No compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family. As a Hormel Foods Extended Family Blogger, I received suggestions and information from Hormel for this post.