Weekly Menu and New Fav Site

As promised....My Menu for the Week of 1/30 to 2/5

Monday - Shrimp Tacos with Citrus Cabbage Slaw, Memphis Style Cole Slaw
Tuesday - Turkey Sausage/Spinach Quiche
Wedneday - Old Fashioned Beef Stew (I'll have leftover quiche)
Thursday - Chicken Cutlets, Smashed Potatoes/Peas
Friday - Salmon Cakes, Roasted Cauliflower
Saturday/Sunday - Turkey Burgers, Oven Roasted Potatoes

I always leave one day open for juggling and I'll be sure to share any winning recipes.  Next up...

I'm very excited to share this website/app with you.   I downloaded this app on my Ipad when I first got it last spring but never realized it's full potential until last week. And for those without Ipads, no worries...they also have a website which is the real beauty of it all!

Big Oven - Online

Big Oven - App

With their free version (both online and app) you have access to thousands of wonderful recipes. You can mark them as Fav, Try Soon...provide reviews and even add your own recipes with photos. You can make your added recipes visible to all or personal just to you. 

The paid version ($15 a year) gives you access to a wonderful meal planning menu. If you go to the calendar you can type in your meals for any given day OR drag and drop recipes from your site bookmarks. You can shuffle anything around by dragging. Hit Save and it's there forever so you can see at a glance what you cooked when.

And best of all? After you've planned your week's menu you can hit the shopping cart icon and it will automatically generate a shopping list for you. Each meal comes up separately. If you already have the ingredient you uncheck the box. Once you finish meal #1 it pops up with meal #2, etc AND your final list is sorted by aisle!!! Plus you can type in other things that you might need. Print it directly from your computer or if on an Ipad, you can email it to yourself.

If you use both the online version and the Ipad app (which I do) it automatically syncs every entry for you so no matter which one you pull up so everything you've done on either device is right there.

But wait! There's more! If you have a handwritten recipe you can scan it and send it to them and they will type it all out for you. So say you're at a friends house and they just made this delicious dish. You snap a photo of the with your phone and send it along. (or your camera/download/send) With the paid version you get 28 for free. After that it's 0.99 per recipe. But it's very easy to type in your own with their pre-formatted form.

My menu this week includes some recipes from their site and recipes that I found elsewhere. I typed in the ones not on their site, marked them as Try Soon, did a drag/drop to my menu calendar and it generated my entire grocery list. I actually did my shopping for the week yesterday because I was so prepared. :-)

The pro version is free for 2 weeks. I'm starting my 2nd week today and will definitely be buying the annual subscription. It is sooooo worth $15.

Give this a try!  Trust me, it's totally awesome!

My New Found FAVS

I wanted to share a few of my favorite discoveries from this week.

Two recipes from last week's menu definitely become regulars....   

First is the Chicken Curry recipe CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE .  (Thanks Catherine for turning us on to this.)  A bit of prep work but definitely worth it...I'm talking a restaurant quality dish.  Make sure to have all items prepped before you start and it's very easy and Super Delicious.

The second recipe couldn't be any simpler.  It's the slow cooker Chipotle Chicken and Pintos....CLICK HERE .  It takes five minutes to prepare and then it's on auto pilot for 8 hours.  It was really hard for me not to open the lid and peek but I didn't.  (The chicken will shred if you stir)  One tip....I love heat in my food but because I didn't take the time to seed the chipotles, it was extremely hot, overpowering hot.  Next time I'll add just one and make sure I de-seed it.  I halved the recipe and still had tons.  After we finished I added the leftover rice to the mixture and gave it a good stir to shred the chicken.  I used it as burrito stuffing last night for dinner and it was scrumptious.  Very easy and very inexpensive to prepare.  

On a side note:  Randy picked the first ripe Roma tomato this morning.  He says something has been out there digging, feasting and destroying  :(  so we'll see just how many of these (and our strawberries) actually make it to our table.  

I spent the evening last night going through the huge basket of magazines I've received (and never seem to read) and found several good recipes.  I'll be trying one or two this week.  

Back to Favs....

I've also been exploring Ipad apps.  I discovered that I can read my BH&G on my Ipad now (and will see about eliminating the print version) which is really, really cool.  They've embedded videos and extras into the digital version.  You can save recipes, bookmark pages, etc and the pages are so crisp and vibrant.  I was actually going to let my subscription lapse but have decided to renew because of the digi version.

I also discovered a wonderful site for digi magazines...Zinio.com.  If you type it in Safari it will pull up tons of magazines you can buy either by the issue or through a subscription....all on your Ipad.  (I know there are several magazines that provide their own apps but this site is comprehensive....all topics imaginable.)  I haven't bought any yet but will in the near future.

Something else I discovered last night was an app called Chrome Sync.  I have been very discouraged because the Chrome Browser that I use exclusively on my PC is not available on the Ipad.  Because of that I have never been able to pull up anything from computer's Bookmarks Bar while browsing on my mobile device.  Well, no more!!  This nifty app syncs through Googe Docs and everything I have marked on my computer I can now get on my Ipad.  It's so totally awesome!!!  (You download the app and then install a plug in on your computer and it's done.)  Those of you without Ipads DO NOT know what you're missing!!!  

I'll be back tomorrow with this week's menu and another totally awesome app I discovered.

A Not So Thrifty Moment

As you know, I get great satisfaction from finding a good bargain.  I clip coupons, search the internet for the best prices, never pay retail for any of my clothes, etc.  Unfortunately, you can't always find a bargain when you want/need one.  Which leads me to Meg and her newest pair of athletic shoes.

Meg's old tennis shoes were worn, dirty and very stinky (and I mean very stinky!) so a new pair was in order.  We've always had good luck at Sports Authority so that's where we headed.  Unfortunately my daughter can no longer fit in anything in the youth aisles where I've had some success in the past with decent shoes for decent prices.  (Meg has flat feet, is pigeon toed, is a super underpronator and with her CRMO she needs a GOOD SOLID pair of shoes.)

As we searched the women's aisles I had a deja vu moment.  The only argument/battle I ever had with Jay while growing up was over shoes.  That kid always wanted the latest, greatest, Ken Griffey Jr/Frank Thomas/Michael Jordan model...and trust me, there was no fooling him.  We did buy him one pair when he was young and after that he was told that if he wanted them so badly, "we'd buy the right shoe but he'd have to buy the left shoe."  It was always a battle of stamina.  Inevitably, after hours of shopping and the realization that Mom was NOT going to give in, he'd decide "that this year's model" wasn't worth his money and we'd end up buying "last year's model" with Mom footing the entire bill.  And last week with Meg, I could see those days returning.

I won't say how much these set me back but I will say that it's triple what I normally pay.  I told her the whole story with Jay and laid out the ground rules. I'd buy her one pair and after that, it was 50/50 if she insisted on having expensive shoes when there were similar ones available at significantly lower prices.

So these are the shoes...

*sigh*  Gone are the days of pretty, sparkly, light up sneakers.  Also gone are the days of petite feet.  This one is going to be a tall one.  At 10.5 years of age she's already in a women's size 9 athletic shoe...an 8 in regular shoes. (Her mama is an 8.5 in regular and a 10 in running shoes.)  At some point there will be an overlap, she can wear mine and I'll get my money back on these, right? LOL!!!

Bargain!

I absolutely love finding bargains!  Last week Meg and I were at Michael's and she spied a few Valentine owl things that she really liked.  I went back yesterday to pick them up for her and saw that they had their $2 clearance bins out once again.  I've bought a couple of grab bags in the past and while worth $2 to some, there wasn't really any product in there that really interested me. (They have them bagged and tied so you can't see what you're getting.) But yesterday they actually had bags with Christmas wrapping paper sticking out. Well, that was a deal I couldn't pass up.

I walked out with eleven rolls of Christmas paper that would have cost $54 before Christmas for only $2.00 !  Now that's a bargain.

The bag also contained a package of batting and two bags of pine cones.  Pine cones?  From someone who lives on an acre lot filled with pine trees it's hard to imagine anyone paying for pine cones.  But have no fear, they will not go to waste.  I just googled pine cone crafts, printed out some photos, and am going to donate them to my first grade class later this week.  As for the paper, I'll keep my favorite designs and donate a few rolls to the school for their Holiday Shoppe and Toys 4 Tots drive.

I left there and went to Target for some groceries.  (They have awesome prices for grocery items.)  I went in armed with my coupons and list and saved quite a bit of money.  My biggest bargain by far though was on Healthy Choice Frozen Entrees.  (I usually eat a frozen dinner for lunch when I'm home alone.)  After their store specials and my coupons I ended up with five dinners for just over $4.00.  That's like buying five and only paying for two.  Now that's my kind of shopping!

Monday, Monday

The start of a new week means a new menu.  (I am doing SO WELL!)

Jan. 23 - Jan. 29

Monday - Sloppy Joes, au gratin potatoes/onions, veggie  (a carry over from last week due to school event)
Tuesday - Curry Coconut Chicken/Sauce with Rice
Wednesday - Pan Fried Pork Chops, sweet potatoes,salad
Thursday - Lousiana BBQ Shrimp with Linguine, veggie
Friday - Chipotle Chicken/Pintos/Rice
Sat/Sun - Ruby Tuesdays White Chicken Chili  (this is REALLY good!)


Jay is super busy now, juggling two nursing programs simultaneously.  He's doing well though and seems to really love his classes.  Time with him will be few and far between for the next two years so we were so happy to have him join us at Christmas.

We are so fortunate and very thankful to have two wonderful, healthy children.

Mommy Moment

She's been ever so close but this is the first time Meg's earned straight As since falling ill last year.  We are so very, very proud of her.

WTG Meg!

Sharing...

It's been awhile since I've scrapped a full sized layout.  I just finished one this morning and would like to share it.  The design was adapted from a Becky Fleck sketch.

You may recognized the photos as those I took for our Christmas card.  She looked so pretty that I wanted to remember it with a layout.

After creating my Christmas cards in assembly line fashion I thought I'd give that method a go for regular cards.   Ordinarily I'll just grab my scraps and wing it, rarely making the same card more than once or twice.  This time I started with design in mind and created six each of the same card.  Not only did this save me a lot of time but it will also help me when make assembling multiple gift packets so much easier.  

I lifted the design from a card created by Cristina Kowalczyk.

And this one was based on a design by Kelly Rasmussen.

Tonight Meg will get her first taste of a baked sweet potato.  This will be interesting....

This Week's Menu

On the menu this week...

Monday - salmon filets/ mashed cauliflower/veggies
Tuesday - BLT/grilled cheese/baked beans/veggie
Wednesday - grilled sirloin/baked sweet potato/salad
Thursday - sloppy joes (ground turkey)/ au gratin potatoes with onion/veggie
Friday - marzetti/salad
Saturday - clam chowder

I made the mashed cauliflower tonight and thought it was delicious.  Randy liked the taste but wasn't that thrilled with the "pre-chewed" texture.  Meg? Well, Meg gagged...but please don't use her as a culinary review.  :-)

Mashed Cauliflower 

cauliflower (one head) 
cream cheese, softened (2T) 
butter, softened (3T) 
grated Parmesan (I used shredded) (1/4 cup) 
salt 
pepper 
chicken stock (to flavor and thin...I probably used 1/4 cup) 

Cut the cauliflower into medium chunks and boil for 6 minutes or until well done. While it's cooking, add all the ingredients (EXCEPT for the chicken broth) to a mixing bowl. Drain and blot the cauliflower to remove the water. Add the hot cauliflower to the bowl and mix until well blended. Add the chicken stock slowly until you get the desired consistency. 

I will definitely be making this again.  

Do You See What I See?

Recognize these?

They're itty bitty, teenie weenie strawberries!  We only have 3 plants so we won't get many but this is very cool.

We've also been snacking on these cherry tomatoes...

But I'm most excited about these....

This is Randy's first attempt at growing Roma tomatoes.  We have lots of them on the vines and I can't wait for them to ripen.   I believe we have some beefsteak tomatoes out there as well.

On the cooking front...

The verdict is still out on mashed cauliflower.  Randy came home on Wednesday wanting to free me from the kitchen so we went to Chili's for dinner.  Meg discovered that she likes Cajun Chicken Pasta so I guess it served double duty. ;-)  Therefore I ended up skipping Weds Grilled Parmesan Chicken/mashed cauliflower and used the chicken breasts for last night's Chicken Parm and pasta.  And tonight, instead of ham/black eyed peas, Randy will be getting leftover glazed pork/black eyed peas which I now have in the crock pot.  Meg and I will dine on leftover chicken parm.  (It was very, very good.)

I will leave you with this photo I snapped on my Iphone last night.  The animals were all looking out for  Meg who has been home sick with a cold for the last two days.

Random thoughts on meal planning....

I realized last week that by actually cooking meals and having everyone ready to sit down to eat around 6-6:15, I'm losing my running window.  Not that I've been doing all that much of it lately but I am hoping to get back into it full force now that things have settled down.  Soooo, it looks like I'm going to have to go back to early mornings again.  It's not that I mind so much but I do find that evenings are much easier for me.  Since I did very little running in Nov and virtually none in Dec I started out today with a brisk 2 mile walk.  My old creeky body wasn't that happy about it but I'll get used to it again.  But my ears were very happy.  :-) Thanks again Clay for my new earbuds.  They're awesome!

I also discovered that meal planning seems to cost a lot of money in groceries. I've spent about $400 in the last two weeks alone!  But thinking about it....we haven't gone out to eat in two weeks, my Sam's shopping trip ($136) will last two to three weeks (I split all chicken/pork/steak/ground turkey before freezing), portions of a few of the already prepared meals have gone into the freezer,  and I've stocking up on pantry staples such as spices/cooking wines/etc.  With that in mind I'm hoping my grocery bill drops dramatically in the next week or so.

The best part of this whole thing is that Meg is actually trying new things.  She ate a big bowl of tortellini and pasta sauce (when I made the chicken tortellini soup), took a bite of oven potatoes and didn't gag, and heartily ate her pork and brocolli last night.  If you know my daughter you'll understand just how much of an accomplishment these things are.   She hates mashed pototoes (I know! right?) so it will be interesting to see how she does with tonight's mashed cauliflower.  :-)

A New Week

The weather in Florida right now is GORGEOUS and very Goldilocks... as in not too hot and not too cold.  We spent the day out on the boat yesterday and had the best time.  We anchored off one of the intracoastal islands with two other boats filled with friends and had a very relaxing afternoon.  The kids roasted marshmallows and explored the island and the beach for treasures, the guys did some fishing and we ladies just hung out and got caught up on our holidays. This was the one and only catch of the day.

 Meg (in the sweatshirt) and her friends...

My new year's resolution to plan and cook a nice dinner every night has been going well.  I stuck to my meal plan last week and all four meals were very good.  Our personal favorite was the Spicy Bean Burritos.  These were absolutely delicious!   I followed the recipe and fixin's exactly with the exception of adding in some leftover shredded chicken.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  I see this as being a 'go to' dish because of it's simplicity.

One of my goals is to reduce meal portions because Randy is not keen on lefovers.  It will take some work on my part.  We ended up with quite a bit of chicken tortellini soup and bean mixture leftover....enough to carry us through Saturday and Sunday.  The remaining soup (yes, there was still enough for another meal) has been frozen away for another day as well as a nice portion of shredded chicken.  (I boiled a 8 lb roaster last week and used it for the soup, burritos and a future meal.)

This week's menu includes -

Monday - Turkey Burgers/Baked Potato Wedges/Corn on the Cob
Tuesday - Parmesan Grilled Chicken (recipe courtesy of Catherine)/Mashed Cauliflower/Frozen Veggies/Rolls
Wednesday - Brown Sugar Glazed Pork/Baked Potatoes/Broccoli
Thursday - Chicken Parmesan/Salad/Rolls
Friday -  Black Eyed Peas with Ham (the fresh peas were BOGO last week so I need to use them up....plus it gives Meg and I an opportunity to finish leftovers)
Saturday - Crock Pot Chicken and Angel Hair Pasta
Sunday - Open

I did my Sam's shopping yesterday morning (with girlfriends which always makes it more fun) and am headed out for the smaller staples in just a moment.  I really loved only having to make one trip to the grocery store last week!  That alone is excellent incentive to keep up the momentum.

As for my December Daily...I  finished it last week but need to clean up my craft room before I can take photos.  It looks like a bomb went off in there.  :-)

Easy Going Week

After all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays it's great to have a nice, slow week.  Meg started back to school on Wednesday so I've had a couple of days to relax, catch up around the house and play in JulieWorld.  I've got three more days to complete for my December Daily album and I'm really liking how it turned out.  I've also spent some time editing photos.  I'm beginning to think I'll never be caught up but I'm still plugging away on it.

On the dinner front I've successfully fixed the first three meals on this week's menu, all of which got a thumbs up.

Happy New Year!

Twenty Twelve.  It has a nice ring to it.  Let's hope it's everyone's "year."

Are you a resolution type?  I am.   I may not always succeed 100% but my resolutions always seem to have a positive impact on my life/goals/accomplishments.  We'll see how I do in Twenty Twelve.

This year I have the usual "eat better, lose weight, exercise more" resolutions that seem to be roll overs for just about everyone.  But to help me  and my family attain these goals I'm vowing to do something that I've never been good at....MEAL PLANNING.

I am such a planner/organizer you'd think this would come easy for me but trust me, it does not.  Dinners, for the most part, are "winged" here at my house which often times means throwing something together at 6 PM or going out to eat because I didn't plan ahead.  I'm hoping to put a stop to that this year by following my friend Catherine's lead.  Every Sunday she plans her weekly meals and makes her grocery list with a trip to the store on Monday mornings.  She's agreed to be my coach.  :-)

The biggest obstacle I will face is going to be to get my entire family to eat the same thing.  My husband hates casseroles and isn't big on pasta which happen to be my favorite types of dinner (he refers to casseroles as "pre-chewed food") and my daughter will not stray from spaghetti, pizza and basic chicken/steak. They both eat red meat.  I do not.  I'm not crazy about the meat/potato/veggie thing (his favorite meal) but thankfully we both love soup. I am going to need a creative mix of menus and some very open minds.   I've explained to Meg that she will be required to take one bite of every food that I think she will/should like.  I know I 'll have to initially adapt her dinner according to the planned menu but I'm counting on an expanding palate.  

I did my grocery shopping for the week yesterday (yay!) for this week's menu....

Tues -  Black Eyed Pea Soup   (Made this last night pretty much according to the recipe but halved it,  no red peppers and substituted chicken breast for the turkey.  We both really liked it. I did not require Meg to try this one.  I'll save my battles for the things I think she will like.)

Wed - Baked Potatoes Topped with Veggies

Thur - Chicken Vegetable Tortellini Soup    (Meg will eat chicken and tortellini so I'll probably start her out with a lesser version made on the side.)

Fri - Bean Burritos  (Meg will get chicken in a hard taco shell...after she tries a bite of these.)

Sat - Turkey Burgers with Oven Fries and a Veggie

Sun - TBD

Randy is already laughing at me, convinced I will fail.  (He knows me soooo well.)  But I'm determined to get my family to eat better, reduce the "what's for dinner" stress and hopefully save some money to boot.  If you have any good recipes please share.

Wish me luck and here's to everyone's 2012 resolutions!