Me and Martha

Menu Monday, with Ramsay's "Fast Food"

I started typing this just before we left the house to go for supper with my family.  Now I'm back and I'm feeling like I need to fix stuff that I left undone when I rushed out... but I don't know what the problem was.  This whole weekend has felt a bit like that.

Anyway.  Last week in review:

• Mon. May 5: we have lots of leftovers from Sunday supper, so it'll probably be that, maybe with some add-ons from the freezer  it was all leftovers, and we had enough for a couple lunches as well (roasted lemon chicken)
• Tues. May 6: fancy sandwiches, because I never feel like making a big supper after hitting the stores all day  the day was completely chaotic, involving my monthly grocery shop, calling to get our phone/internet reconnected, a trip to the doctor and to the medical lab, and then the girls, who are phasing their naps out, fell asleep at about 5 pm, only to wake up a couple hours later...sandwiches and chips it was
• Wed. May 7: fish sticks, mac and cheese, peas  I also did a frozen shrimp thing for DaddySutra and me, just because
• Thurs. May 8: chicken stir fry  switched this with Friday
• Fri. May 9: burgers and fries (hopefully homemade burger patties and organic oven fries)  as written, but on Thursday
• Sat. May 10: this is my big stretch for the week: I'm going to try to make my own pizza dough (ack!), then...I have no idea what we'll put on it, but we're partial to Mediterranean and Hawaiian  not even close: very low energy day and we had frozen raviolis instead
• Sun. May 11: oh  yeah, Mother's Day...I was just going to do something from the freezer  we're going out as mentioned above

Pretty good for making what I planned.  It wasn't the most ambitious menu.

I broke down and bought the new Gordon Ramsay book.  I really don't need another cookbook, I have many plus a subscription to Everyday Foods.  But, I like ol' Ramsay, and after hearing him interviewed on the radio, and finding the book cheap at Costco, I caved.  So, to get my money's worth, I'm planning this week's menu using my new cookbook.  There's some other stuff as well.

• Mon. May 12: I'm going to try for the pizza again.  I've found crust recipes a couple places.  Not sure what we're putting on it, I'll decide after I get the week's shopping done.
• Tues. May 13: sticky lemon chicken, which is from the book, probably with rice or noodles and green beans
• Wed. May 14: I'm going to try no-knead bread for the first time.  The recipe I found is for a yummy sounding lemon rosemary bread.  We'll have tortellini and meatballs and broccoli with it.
• Thurs. May 15: teriyaki chicken in the oven, rice, veggies, and homemade gyoza if I'm feeling really energetic.
• Fri. May 16: slow cooker turkey chili with noodles or something
• Sat. May 17: fish and chips from the cookbook or barbecue
• Sun. May 18: orange french toast for brunch and probably at my parents' house for supper

I'm noticing now that I've only got two recipes from the cookbook here.  But!  I'm also going to make two lunch recipes: pastrami and cream cheese bagel, and bruschetta with tomato and prosciutto.  The second one will use some of the homemade bread.

Hmmm, maybe I was planning on putting links in.  Sigh.  Links are serious work for me.  Quite sad, I suspect, but I just don't think I'll get them done tonight.  You can always leave a comment and I'll track down the one(s) you're interested in.  Deal?  Okay, good!

Anyway, I crank out the menu plans because I post my link every week at I'm an Organizing Junkie.   There are usually about 200 or more participants.  I tell you, it keeps me motivated to get the menus done, and having menus really pays off.  I can't guarantee that it's cheaper (though it probably is, and I think we're throwing less food away, and definitely eating less ready-made food), but it's made that "power hour" before supper much less stressful.  Especially useful now that my 2 and 3 year olds have given up their naps.  Wah!  Happy week, all!

More May Menus

Okay, tonight I'm way more focussed on crafting than menu planning.  Usually Sunday supper is at my parents' but we hosted tonight and I'm feeling a little fooded-out, besides just being too full.  I made zucchini bread (Smitten Kitchen's recipe...sorry, I probably won't get links in tonight so leave a comment if you want details), plus bought some low fat chocolate cookies to fill out the dessert "cart."  Oof.  Too many treats for me.

This is what I had planned for last week and how it worked out:

• Mon. April 28: chicken fajita tostadas these were good
• Tues. April 29: mini honey mustard meatloaves these were amazing!!!
• Wed. April 30: tortellini, meatballs, broccoli, sauce  standard busy night supper
• Thurs. May 1: angel hair pasta with bacon and peas  this was quite good, because bacon is good
• Fri. May 2: microwave bbq chicken with coleslaw and oven fries  sort of breakfast for supper: scrambled eggs, broiled asparagus, bacon, toast...good
• Sat. May 3: lemon chicken with dilled orzo and Greek salad  moved this to Sunday supper, made Mexican lasagna instead (great because it used up the leftover tortillas and cilantro from Monday) with an avocado/tomato/corn salad that was pretty good; I also made a new black bean soup for lunch that was wonderful and easy (and used, surprise, bacon)
• Sun. May 4: orange french toast for brunch; something fast food-y from the freezer for supper (pizza, hamburgers...we'll see what I feel like)  brunch was scrambled eggs, the last of the bacon, blueberry pancakes; supper was the Saturday chicken thing-y

I was pretty happy with how the meals turned out.  I strayed from the plan, but the revised menu made better use of the ingredients we had on hand, and I liked that a lot.

I'm doing my big monthly discount shop on Tuesday.  I'm not going to try to plan my menu for the month.  It was hard enough coming up with these seven days.

• Mon. May 5: we have lots of leftovers from Sunday supper, so it'll probably be that, maybe with some add-ons from the freezer
• Tues. May 6: fancy sandwiches, because I never feel like making a big supper after hitting the stores all day
• Wed. May 7: fish sticks, mac and cheese, peas
• Thurs. May 8: chicken stir fry
• Fri. May 9: burgers and fries (hopefully homemade burger patties and organic oven fries)
• Sat. May 10: this is my big stretch for the week: I'm going to try to make my own pizza dough (ack!), then...I have no idea what we'll put on it, but we're partial to Mediterranean and Hawaiian
• Sun. May 11: oh  yeah, Mother's Day...I was just going to do something from the freezer, but maybe I'll get a little fancier...maybe we'll go get sushi (consider that a hint..heehee!)

Happy new week, and Happy Mother's Day to all the menu planning mommies!  You probably got here via The Org Junkie, but if not, that's where all the menu action is!

A new week, a new plan

Well, I tried doing the monthly plan for two months, and I don't know if I'm sold.  I'm sure I have a bunch of reasons for this, but they're not coming to me right now.  I do know that I don't really have the energy to come up with a plan for all of May, so I'm back to week by week.

As it turns out, I had at least a week's worth of recipes that didn't get used in April, so recycling those could form this week's menu.  But those are all new recipes, and I don't know how I feel about that.  I don't know: I'm going to put this menu out there, even though I really feel like I'm just going to be winging it this week anyway.  At least there's a fair amount of stuff in the freezer.

• Mon. April 28: chicken fajita tostadas
• Tues. April 29: mini honey mustard meatloaves
• Wed. April 30: tortellini, meatballs, broccoli, sauce
• Thurs. May 1: angel hair pasta with bacon and peas
• Fri. May 2: microwave bbq chicken with coleslaw and oven fries
• Sat. May 3: lemon chicken with dilled orzo and Greek salad
• Sun. May 4: orange french toast for brunch; something fast food-y from the freezer for supper (pizza, hamburgers...we'll see what I feel like)

I'm off to post this at The Org Junkie...hoping to get in the top 50!

Menu Plan Monday

I'll keep this as short as I can.  I'm tired anyway, but I know that I tend to ramble.

Last week, I suspect my organizing mojo just took a little side trip that it hadn't mentioned to me.  We made three trips to the grocery store and one to Costco: way too many.  I didn't sit down earlier in the week and make a good list, and it seemed like we kept running out of stuff. 

Most of the stuff I planned was made in some form.  I simplified some stuff, like the pork with rhubarb and cherry sauce became pork with jarred bbq sauce.   I had more fun with the baking, making another new coffee cake (this one with yogurt and orange, yum), and some chocolate sugar cookies. 

Here's the newest plan.  This is still based on what I planned for April back at the end of March, and I haven't looked too closely at it to see if it'll work with what's in the fridge and our activities, and so forth.

• Mon. April 21: mini honey mustard meatloaves with roasted potatoes
• Tue. April 22: microwave bbq chicken with coleslaw
• Wed. April 23: tortellini, meatballs, green beans, tomato sauce
• Thurs. April 24: glazed pork with pineapple, garlic rice, peas
• Fri. April 25: lemon chicken, dilled orzo, broccoli, Greek salad
• Sat. April 26: spicy orange chicken stirfry
• Sun. April 27: brunch: quiche; supper: if here, last minute lasagna

Well, reading it over isn't making me worry too much.  Tomorrow we'll do our grocery shop for the week and hopefully that'll be enough, not counting a milk run later in the week if needed.

The Org Junkie will have the links to all the other menus, and the post previous to the Menu Plan one has a whole bunch of good meal planning sites.  I have enough cookbooks and foody magazines to last me for a lifetime!  Have a terrific week!

April Plan, Week 3

It fell apart this week, kind of.  Almost everything was switched around or replaced.

• Sun. April 6: ham as planned
• Mon April 7: leftovers as planned
• Tues. April 8: was going to make Hawaiian pizzas but did quiche instead: fantastic
• Wed. April 9: did fish sticks instead of tortellini, but those are the two standard Wed. night meals, all frozen, no biggy
• Thurs. April 10: supposed to be pasta with bacon and peas, but I was having my doubts already (too much pig in one week!); plus, I was tired and we went with frozen pizza
• Fri. April 11: moved Sat. burgers and fries to this day, instead of ginger lime chicken
• Sat. April 12: had the buttermilk baked chicken we were going to have last Friday
• Sun. April 13: gingerbread pancakes for brunch, and last minute lasagna for supper, just as planned

Okay, once I write it down it doesn't seem so bad.  I did feel like I wasn't very organized when I did my groceries this week, we're running out of the stuff I usually only buy once a month (diapers, hand soap), and I'm just kind of blah about cooking.

On to this week's menu:

• Mon. April 14: sesame chicken, rice, broccoli
• Tues. April 15: slow cooker bbq beef on buns (from frozen), salad
• Wed. April 16: leftovers from Tues. or tortellini, meatballs, green beans
• Thurs. April 17: pork chops with rhubarb cherry sauce (I love this!)
• Fri. April 18: spicy orange chicken stir fry
• Sat. April 19: pasta with shrimp, feta, spring veg.
• Sun. April 20: croque monsieur bake, don't know if we're having supper here or out

Ta da!  See also The Org Junkie for many menus.  Happy Monday!

April Menu, Week 2

I'm back, I'm tired.  I fell asleep at 8 and woke up a little while ago.  Hopefully I'll be back to sleep again soon.

Last week's menu got mixed up a bit but that was okay.  I didn't manage to try the buttermilk baked chicken, and I made honey mustard pork chops instead of crispy apricot pork chops, and the days got mixed around.  I did make roasted asparagus and loved it (olive oil, salt, 18-20 minutes at 425F).

This week:

• Monday April 7: leftovers from Sunday night ham supper, and I'll hopefully make the white bean salad I'm nuts about.
• Tuesday April 8: ham and something quiche (I bought frozen pie crusts: cheater!!  hahaha!), I think I have broccoli I can use, maybe some fruit salad to go with.
• Wednesday April 9: I had tortellini and meatballs on the list, but we had that Sat. so maybe fish sticks instead.
• Thursday April 10: angel hair pasta with peas and bacon was on the list, but that's a lot of pig in a week, so maybe we'll do the buttermilk chicken here.
• Friday April 10: crispy ginger lime chicken thighs with couscous
• Saturday April 11: burgers and oven fries

I'm looking at it now and I'm not too thrilled about back to back chicken, so I might make last minute lasagna on Thursday or Friday (it's vegetarian, so it won't create overkill conflict with the burgers).

I'm a little frustrated that I seem to be changing so much around, but the nice thing is that I still have all the stuff I need to make all this because I did my big shops last week and I was ready for them!  Yay!

I've thrown my linky hat in the ring over at I'm an Organizing Junkie.  Seriously, you need to check it out: where else can you see 200+ menus for the week (or at least links to them).  Have a terrific week!

The April Plan, First Edition

Okay, that title is a little over the top, but I am very excited about this month!  I sat down this weekend, several times in fact, and worked out my menu.  Nine new recipes!  I'm bringing back four of the recipes I tried out in March.  I really feel like I'm finally getting my money's worth out of my Everyday Food subscription. 

I didn't just throw the recipes on the page, I looked at our schedule and planned accordingly: easy recipes on busy nights, nothing too tricky for the end of the week when I feel tired.  I will be doing a big shop on Tuesday when the local grocery stores discount your entire order by 15%, and I checked the specials on line to decide where to buy stuff.  It's huge, a little big ridiculous, 10 pages on the printer, but I think it will make a difference in how things will go this month.  I'm hoping to challenge myself in terms of getting healthier, getting creative stuff done, and having fun with my girls.

So, enough said!  Here's what I have planned for this week.  If you'd like some more ideas, check out the Menu Plan Monday Mr. Linky at I'm an Organizing Junkie.  If you'd like to see what I thought of the recipes I tried out last week, go see my recap at MamaSutra.  Happy first week of April!

• Monday March 31: slow roasted Asian beef (from Chatelaine magazine)
• Tuesday April 1: fancy sandwiches (what goes in them depends on what I pick up at the grocery store, but I made a good bbq turkey one with deli turkey last week that I'd like to try again)
• Wednesday April 2: out for dinner: family birthday!
• Thursday April 3: apricot pork chops (from Everyday Food cookbook)
• Friday April 4: buttermilk baked chicken (Everyday Food, can't remember if it's the cookbook or the magazine)
• Saturday April 5: last minute lasagna (Real Simple)
• Sunday April 6: brunch is orange french toast (NIgella Express), supper is ham with...stuff, but definitely the white bean salad I made last time we had ham

(Most of these recipes are online, I think.  Sorry I don't have time to put the links in, but you can check the website, or leave me a comment and I'll try to track it down for you!  Thanks for stopping by my blog!)

Meal Plan Monthly: Trial 1, Final Week!

Well, I don't know if I'd call monthly meal planning my best idea ever, but I think it went really well.  Here are some of the great things about it:

• I built in good overall variety in terms of different meats, challenging and easy recipes, new and old stuff; I saw the patterns more readily in a month long plan rather than week by week.
• I spent way less time at the grocery store, making maybe 2 trips a week, and the second trip was for fruit and milk.
• I bought my meat in bulk, had it all bagged up, froze what I wasn't going to use that week, and I loved it.  I really don't like dealing with the stores meat packaging (cling wrap and styrofoam, etc,).  I put everything into zip lock bags and could dump it in the pan without touching the meat/getting it all over the counter, and then it zipped up and went into the garbage: no nasty surprises there (Sorry, too gross?  Probably, hey!)
• I often read a magazine at the end of the previous month and see a few recipes that I want to try.  I don't like doing too many new things in a week, so I'd usually forget them.  This way, I had a new recipe every Monday, and I discovered some really good stuff!

Here's my plan for the final week of March:

• Mon. Mar. 24: Balsamic Steak with roasted tomatoes and polenta (Everyday Food mag)
• Tues. Mar. 25: BBQ beef on a bun with fresh buns (from frozen dough)
• Wed. Mar. 26: fish sticks for the kids, breaded shrimp with garlicky beans for the grown ups (Real Simple March '08)
• Thurs. Mar. 27: Glazed pork tenderloin with pineapple (Everyday Food cookbook)
• Fri. Mar. 28: sesame chicken (Everyday Food)
• Sat. Mar. 29: chili and corn bread (in a pan or as muffins)
• Sun. Mar. 30: for brunch, oeufs en cocotte (Nigella cookbook); if we stay home, slow roasted Asian beef (Chatelaine magazine, March '08)

I meant to put in recipe links, but I am still fighting a cold and am too tired to do much more on this post tonight.  If you visit and you'd like details, let me know in the comments, and I'll add the link later or email you the info you need!

I'm posting a review of last week's menu on my other blog MamaSutra.
I will be posting this week's menu on the website I'm an Organizing Junkie where there's a weekly Menu Plan Monday round up you can peruse: lots of great ideas.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!  Happy last week of March!

Menu Plan Monthly: Week 3

So far so good.  I'm really liking this monthly plan.  I like that I bought meat in bulk and then bagged it up, as I hate those meat trays from the grocery store.  This way, I deal with them all once, and then I'm just throwing out freezer bags, which I can seal to put into the garbage.  Yay!

Last week went well.  Later tonight, I'm going to post my recipe review at my other blog.

Now for this week.  Yay: spring break is in sight, even if spring isn't!

• Mon. Mar. 17: lemon chicken with orzo and broccoli (from this month's Everyday Food: not very St. Patty's Day, I know)
• Tues. Mar. 18: slow simmered beef ragout with noodles or potatoes...haven't decided yet
• Wed. Mar. 19: fish sticks for the kids and microwaved lasagna for the grown ups
• Thurs. Mar. 20: pork chops with rhubarb-cherry sauce (from Everyday Foods cookbook)
• Fri. Mar. 21: goddess chicken (from Six O'Clock Scramble, a great book for meal planning!)
• Sat. Mar. 22: last minute lasagna (from Real Simple)
• Sun. Mar. 23: supper at my parents', for brunch we'll have either gingerbread pancakes with scrambled eggs, or oeufs en cocotte (baked eggs, from the newest Nigella cookbook)

Sorry I'm not providing links tonight.  I'd be happy to find them for you, just leave a comment and I can email it to you.  I have a ton of stuff to do tonight as I'm planning to "throw" a big playdate this week for some new friends!  Gotta have a clean house for that!

Don't forget, I'm an Organizing Junkie is the place to go to find lots of menu planning ideas.  And if you haven't tried it, I really recommend it.  Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely week!

Monthly Menu, Week 2

Week 1 of March's menu plan went pretty well.  I blogged about it on my other blog, but the short answer is we mixed things up a bit and it all worked out anyway.  I am very pleased that my grocery list for this week is very short.  I will never be able to get away without going to the grocery store at least once a week, as I need to buy milk and fruit for my hungry kidlets, but I'm hoping that my planning will mean I'm just doing a quick run most weeks, and hopefully not spending too much money.

Here's week 2!

• Mon. Mar. 10: Turkey and Roasted Red Pepper Meatloaf (Real Simple, March '08) with peas and potatoes (new recipe for me, and I couldn't find it on the website)
• Tues. Mar. 11: Soy Ginger Chicken in the slow cooker, with rice and broccoli (Everyday Food recipe, easy and good)
• Wed. Mar. 12: fish sticks etc, and a frozen spicy chicken pizza for the grown ups
• Thurs. Mar. 13: Garlic Orange Pork Tenderloin, with garlic rice and green beans (from this month's Everyday Food, also a new recipe for me)
• Fri. Mar. 14: sausage pasta (cut up turkey sausage in tomato sauce with whole wheat noodles and some feta on top, one of my few no-recipe meals)
• Sat. Mar. 15: organic burgers and oven fries with salad or veggies and dip (either frozen patties or I might make the burgers myself, depends on how energetic I'm feeling)
• Sun. Mar. 16: dinner is at my parents', but I'll be making brunch, hopefully Croque Monsieur Bake from the newest Nigella cookbook (you put it all together the night before and bake the next morning, and I have to play handbells that morning, so this should work well for us)

That's my plan.  Please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie for some more yummy menus!