menu plan monday - 05.19 (a day late)

I forgot to post this yesterday!  Oops!

Monday:  chicken pot pie

Tuesday:  jerk chicken and pineapple salsa

Wednesday:  baked ravioli

Thursday:  BBQ chicken sandwiches

Friday:  hamburgers on the grill

Saturday:  homemade pizzas

Sunday:  homemade chicken nuggets

menu plan monday - 03.10.08

Welp, the Mister and I are starting to count our calories.  As it turns out, we’ve gained a good number of pounds between the two of us during the winter.  We want to look svelt for our summer vacation this year, so we’re getting started now.

We’re also doing some home improvement projects around the house, starting with some new flooring (which I’ll post more about later!), so we’ve been busy busy busy, and I only had a few minutes to try and throw together a low calorie dinner menu for the week.  We’ll see how it works out on our food journals…

Monday:  Grilled Chicken over Salad Greens - calories unknown, will depend on the dressing, but should be low if we use low fat

Tuesday:  Jamaican Jerk BBQ chicken - 188 calories

Wednesday:  Beef Noodle Bowl - 420 calories (but it’s a one pot meal, so no sides to consider)

Thursday:  Swedish Meatballs - 331 calories

Friday:  Creamy Chicken, Vegetable and Noodles - 320 calories

Saturday:  Chinese Chicken Tenders - 113 calories

Sunday:  Fajitas - calories unknown, I’ll be researching this week for ways to make it lower in calories than our usual way.  Maybe with whole wheat tortillas, low fat sour cream, etc.

bourbon chicken

I was about to type up the recipe and then thought to do a google search.  Sure enough, I found the one I’ve been using!  I’ll link it and spare myself the typing.

Bourbon Chicken

I make the recipe as is, except at the end when it comes time to simmer for 20 minutes, I let it simmer for 10 and then toss in a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies and cover it for another 10-12 minutes (until the veggies are heated through).  And right before serving, I add equal parts cornstarch and water (usually a tablespoon of each, just mixed together in a measuring cup and dumped in) to thicken the sauce just a tad.

So good, and easy!

menu plan monday - 03.03.08

Starting to feel like we’re getting into a rut, menu-wise.  Time to explore other peoples’ menus again!

Monday:  sloppy joes

Tuesday:  bourbon chicken (never got to this last week, also I forgot to post the recipe, I’ll try to get to it today!)

Wednesday:  salisbury steaks

Thursday:  spaghetti & meatballs

Friday:  philly cheese steaks

Saturday:  homemade pizzas

Sunday:  pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches & homemade slaw

groceries

Oy.  I’ve been putting off grocery shopping all week, trying to avoid having to take both kids at the same time.  Really, I could take them both and it’d be okay.  I’d want to come home and drink heavily, but I could do it.  I just dreeeeeaaaaad it.  Anyway, we’re getting so low on things - I really just need to suck it up and do it.

As usual, I’m having trouble coming up with menu ideas.  We usually get ourselves in ruts, where we feel like we’re eating the same things all the time.  At one point I tried to come up with a “meal database” spreadsheet where I listed meals, their approx cost, their preparation time and level of ease, and then rated each.  I got a good start on it and kept it up for several weeks, but let it die and now it’s terribly out of date.  Too much work.  I need to do something simple like a recipe box and index cards I guess.

So I need a chicken meal idea.  Doesn’t necessarily need to be really easy or inexpensive.  Just good.  Got anything to share?

On to other news - today is the last weekday of Jag’s winter break!  I don’t know if I’m happy or sad.  He’s already complaining that he doesn’t want to go back.  I wish he hadn’t already picked up the anti-school attitude.  He’s got a long road ahead, it sure would be easier if he had a brighter outlook on it.  I’ve been trying to encourage him to enjoy school, but he says the schoolwork is boring and the only parts of the day he enjoys is recess and his once-a-week music class (he’s been asking a lot of questions about Mozart lately - he’s really into learning about historical figures).  I’m not sure what to do about that, honestly.  Part of me wonders if I should be homeschooling him to keep him challenged, but that is such a huge task to take on.  I’m not sure I’m cut out for it.  I just don’t know…  :-/

Anyway - hopefully we won’t hear too much whining this weekend about school starting back on Monday and we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves.  I’ve definitely decided on the dark strawberry pink for Kat’s room, so I hope to get that paint and some white paint for her dresser so I can get started on that.  I also think I may have found some bedding that will work in our master, I hope to double check with the paint chip and then make that purchase.  It’ll be good to have a pretty bed again!  I haven’t had anything but random quilts and white sheets on the bed since Jag sprayed my wheat-colored damask duvet cover with bleach cleaner 2 years ago.  Little stinker!

(I’ve been rambling on about decor type stuff for a number of entries now - how boring!)

Oh, something interesting (to me!)… I was taking the tree down last night and found a lizard living in the star on top!  Poor little guy was so dehydrated and weak.  I waited for Jason to get home to remove him, but it was too cold to put him back outside so we put him in Jag’s little terrarium to keep him inside until it warms up this weekend.  We put a little water in last night and put him under the under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen to warm him up a bit and he looks so much better this morning.  The kids are having fun watching him.