Tid bits & Randoms of Last Week

I feel so bad that I'm now doing weekly catch up posts rather than daily catch up posts! We are finally in a routine and schedule and so far, it's working out fairly well. I think Gretchen is well adjusted to the school routine, as is Megan, and Addy is still getting use to things, but it's hard when she's at daycare every other day.

 

Last Monday was the first day that I actually met most of my speech kiddos and started therapy. I think it's going to be a great year!

 

Monday afternoon, I picked up all of the girls, and as soon as we get home, I sit down to feed Adalyn. Megan crawled up in my lap too, and was extra cuddly Monday afternoon. She was also extra whiny because she has had a cold and over the weekend had run about a 99 degree temp. Nothing big, but enough to make her feel bad.

I didn't feel like cooking Monday night, and Gretchen wanted hot dogs. I decided that since it was such a nice fall day, we'd have chili dogs. I'm not ashamed to admit that I opened up a can of chili that had been in my pantry for seriously too long, and made myself a chili dog.

And, it was dang good.

 

I kept Megan and Addy home on Tuesday. I usually go to Bible study Tuesday morning, but since Megan wasn't feeling good Monday night, I decided to keep her home with me. I realized that afternoon, I should've just sent her to daycare. She would have been fine. Man she was whiny all day long.

 

Megan and Addy had school pictures a few weeks ago, and we received the proofs to order pictures from:

I'm pretty sure we won't be ordering any.

 

Thankfully, we had pictures taken over the summer, by the so talented Madison Vining of Madison Vining Photography. so I don't feel bad about not buying these. They're hysterical and I'll keep the proofs just to show Megan what her personality was at age 2. I'm now debating even ordering pictures of Gretchen when her school pictures are taken later this week.

 

Wednesday night, Gretchen had children's choir. Megan was able to play on the playground before we headed home and we let G stay for Wednesday Night Live and DJ picked her up. She's been begging to stay for WNL, and finally on a night where it was a little more convenient, they chose to let the big kids play outside and have sno cones rather than hold worship. G was in Heaven. I think we'll have to let her stay again on a worship night!

Meggie climbed this, and for the record, G didn't climb one until she was 3. Megan's my little monkey climber.

Thursday was TU's home game against Iowa State. I won't even go into details about the game #didnotturnoutwell #welost. But, G wore her "Tulsa Girl" dress and bow that I made her and her chunky necklace from LG's Necklaces (you can find them on facebook).

She also wore her pink Nike's. Bless her.

 

She later said, "Did you get my Nike's in the picture mom?" "No, hun, I did not." "Well, thanks because if you put it online, people would laugh at me since I don't match."

 

#shehasthatright

 

I kind of regret buying her pink nikes, because that's all she wants to wear. Have I mentioned she wears dresses or skirts almost every day?

 

Nikes and dresses just don't go together.

 

Stay tuned for Friday's re-cap with my weekend wrap up posts! It was a great one!

By: Unknown On 06.00

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How Do I? Meal Plan

I thought I'd start my "How Do I?" series with meal planning..... a subject that i'm not particulary fond of, but one that must be done...

If you know me, you know that I really hate to cook. I could bake all day (maybe) but I'm not big on cooking a meal.

I'm also not good at meal planning every week, and now you're probably wondering why i'm even bothering wtih this post......

Thanks to Pinterest, my meal planning has been so much easier! I really wonder how we survived before Pinterest.

I typically try to plan enough meals for two weeks, taking at least one of those days for dinner out, and one for leftovers. If DJ is not planning on being home, or if he has to prepare dinner, I might not plan a meal, but we'll heat up chicken nuggets, corn dogs, or i'll cook breakfast foods for the girls. I also take into account any trips we may have out of town.

We also have two nights per week where dinner needs to be ready when we get home or prepared within 15 minutes of walking in the door. On those nights, I try to use the crock pot, or take something out of the freezer that I've prepared before hand.

I meal plan right before a trip to the grocery store. I typically go to our large grocery store twice a month and spend around $200.00 each trip. (more on that to come). Then, I have weekly Target stops where we pick up milk or anything we've ran out of.

Back to Pinterest, and why I love it...... because I loathe cooking; I loathe planning just as much. I have the hardest time coming up with new meals to make, and I fell into a routine of serving the same meals on a rotation. Our meals would typically consist of a taco dish, spaghetti, homemade pizza, and chicken with vegetables. They were just boring, and I had a harder time getting Gretchen to eat.

So, this year, I've really tried to be better with meal planning and coming up with new meals to try. You can find some of my meal planing lists here as well as a few recipes I've tried out here.

I don't usually make a Monday meal plan, followed by Tuesday, followed by Wednesday. I've found that I skip around, so now, I write down meals that I'd like to cook, as well as a summary of the recipe, so I don't have to go back and search for it later. 9 times out of 10, I never find it anyway.

I do tend to stick with a chicken and veggies one night; but I try to change up the way I cook the chicken: oven baked, grilled, or with different seasonings, and we often have homemade pizza at least once, but I've been changing that up too. I've started making my own pizza crust, or i'll use crescent rolls and wrap pepporoni and cheese inside with a marinara dipping sauce. And, if we have pasta, I buy fun shapes rather than spaghetti.

I also refer to my Pinterest board "Dinner Ideas/Main Dishes" and come up with new dishes to serve. After we try them, I may add them into future meal plans, or I get inspired and add new meals with every meal planning session. Some of my pins are a flop, and i'll make a mental note to not try it again.

One of my new favorite blogs is Mix and Match Mama. I've found that it's easier to follow her on Pinterest and just re-pin foods that she has pinned that look yummy!

Now, when do I find the time to meal plan? I often meal plan while i'm on my lunch break at work. I will get on Pinterest and scroll through my DIMD board and then think of what we already have in the freezer, or what I typically cook in a rotation. I grab a notebook and write down a meal with its recipe and then later, I write a grocery list of what to buy.

I also make a note of if i'll need two or more cans of the same ingredients and put tally marks beside that item, so I'll know to buy more than one. If I remember, I'll double check when I get home the ingredients in my pantry so I don't end up with 5 cans of rotel or more!

In the summer, I try to meal plan on Sunday afternoons.

So, now that you know how I meal plan, i'll share with you my current meal planning list!

- Cajun Chicken Pasta

- Doritos Cheesy Chicken

- Spaghetti

- One Pouch Feast

- Tortellini Crock Pot Dinner

- Lasagna Rolls

- Cheeseburger Macaroni

- Turkey burgers

- Homemade Pizza

- Two Timin Pasta Bake

Most of these recipes, I've pulled off my DIMD Pinterest board, a few I typically cook, and the Cheeseburger Macaroni is a dish my co-worker suggested...

You'll see that I do a lot of one pot dishes, or casseroles. I know they're not the healthiest, but it saves me some time, and i'll try to sneak in a few veggies into the dishes (pureed squash or carrots, spinach, or tomatoes).

So, what's your favorite way to meal plan? Do you use a fancy app or website? Are you good at meal planning and thinking ahead?

By: Unknown On 05.00

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Meals This Week

I can totally tell that I needed to go to the grocery store and meal plan.... for the last two weeks! I was finally able to pick up a few groceries at the beginning of last week, but only cooked once or twice. I'm convincing myself more and more that I need to do better at meal planning and that it needs to become a staple weekly activity!

This is what we're having this week.

Sunday: Grilled Pepperoni/Cheese Sandwiches. G will be able to dip in pizza sauce and grapes. I'm having leftover White Chicken Chili.
Monday: Thank goodness for Monday's when we go to football! It's Mexican night with enchiladas, rice & beans on the menu.
Tuesday: Paula Deans Goulash 
Wednesday: Taco Pizza
Thursday: Chicken Nuggets or Corn Dogs with veggies & fruit. I'll be heading to the TU game, so dinner will be easy this night!
Friday: My mom and stepdad will be here, so i'm really thinking we should go out to eat!
Saturday: Soup- but i'm not sure which kind! I may try making something new, or i'll stick with chili!

Happy Eating!

By: Unknown On 14.45

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Meal Plan Monday

I didn't plan our meals last week and it showed. I don't think I cooked at all! On the bright side, I didn't have to go to the grocery store!

Here are our meals for this week:

Monday- We eat dinner at football, and they'll have Mexican food.
Tuesday- Crock Pot Pork Chops- with Ranch dressing, Cream of Chicken Soup, and a bit of Water. We'll also have green beans and salad
Wednesday- Ham with Sweet Potato Tots and Corn
Thursday- Homemade Pizza- either Pepporoni or Chicken, Spinach, Ranch
Friday- leftovers or something easy!

Hopefully i'll be better about cooking this week!

By: Unknown On 13.00

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Meal Planning

I hate meal planning, but I think that's because I hate cooking. However, I've given up tot he fact that I cannot work full time and not meal plan. I have to. Or, we'd be eating cold cereal every single night for dinner. And while, I might live on that, the girls cannot.

I also think it's harder to plan for dinner when DJ may or may not be home. I have to figure out what left overs he'd like to eat, if I will have left overs, and even if he'll be home in time to eat dinner. Although, with football season, he's usually not home until 7, and the girls and I eat no later than 6.

So, for the last two weeks, I wrote out a meal plan, and even cooked and froze dishes to re-heat later in the week.

On Monday nights, G has gymnastics, so we don't get home until 6. Starting this coming week, we'll have a Bible study at the football office at 6:30, so we'll leave straight from gymnastics to football. Two other nights a week, I provide speech services for two of my early intervention kids, so typically, the girls and I won't get home until 5 or a little after.

See, I just had to break down and meal plan.

Here was my menu for last week and what I cooked ahead:

Monday: Homemade pizza
Tuesday: I used my crockpot to make an Italian chicken, and it was amazing!!! I just threw in my chicken breasts frozen, added carrots that I had peeled, washed, and cut on Sunday, and whole red potatoes. Sprinkle Italian Seasoning, and add 1 bottle of Italian dressing.
Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie- I was able to boil the chicken, add cream of chicken soup, and frozen vegetables, topped with a pie crust. I then refroze this. My only problem was that I forgot to stick it in the fridge in the morning, so it was frozen solid and took an hour to cook when I got home. MC was not happy!
Thursday: We had left overs.
Friday: Baked Ziti (I boiled noodles, added 1/2 can spaghetti sauce, 1/2 can alfredo sauce, and topped with cheese) This was easy to make and freeze for the girls' babysitter.
Saturday: The girls had a frozen pizza because there was a babysitter.
Sunday: Mac & Cheese with frozen peas and cut up hot-dogs.

Here's my meal plan for this week:
Monday- We'll be eating at the football office due to our Bible Study.
Tuesday- Meat loaf and a veggie. I pre-made the meatloaf and stuck it in the fridge. I'll pop it in the oven when I get home.
Wednesday: Mexican Pizza. I pre-made the taco meat, and i'll layer the meat on top of a tortilla, along with enchilada sauce, tomatoes, corn, beans, and cheese.
Thursday: Chicken Fajita's- i'll make these in the crock pot
Friday: It'll just be the girls and I for dinner, so we'll either have breakfast for dinner, leftovers, or sandwiches.
Saturday: Lemon Pepper Tilapia

So, four of these meals were either made ahead or partially prepped in order for me to prepare dinner when we got home each night. Most nights, I was able to get dinner on the table within 30 minutes.

I just hope that I can continue this trend, and that I won't have to feed the girls chicken nuggets and corn dogs every night! Although, they're in the freezer if we need them!!!

What's your favorite make ahead meal?

By: Unknown On 05.30

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