Menu Planning...Part 2

I said before that we have lunch as our big meal of the day.  My main planning rotates around those meals.  To fill in the others, I made a list of breakfast and light dinner ideas.

Breakfast Ideas:

Granola
Waffles
Pancakes
Toast w/ topping
French toast
Green smoothie
Oatmeal
Hot cereal
Muffins
Eggs
Eggs-in-a-basket

Light Dinner Ideas:

Chicken Pasta Salad
Egg Salad sandwiches
Wraps
Grilled cheese
Chef Salad
Omelets, toast
Hummus, fresh vegi, pita chips
Smoothie/Shake
Tabbouleh
Hot dogs
Soup
HM Salsa, chips, fruit
Leftovers, of course!  With all this home cooking we usually can fill in several meals.

Snacks:
HM Crackers
HM Granola
HM Muffins
Veggies
Fruit & cheese
HM Yogurt
Cottage Cheese & fruit

The ingredients for all of these also go on the grocery and pantry master lists.  I am still checking around and experimenting so I will add as I go.

The chocolate chip muffins, though... do not last nearly long enough!

Menu planning and lists... oh boy! Part 1

I like to be organized.  But liking it and living it all the time are two different things right now!  One area that I have just struggled with is menu planning and grocery budget.  I am also learning all kinds of new things about healthy eating.  And it's not always cheap.  So, struggle on struggle.  I am thinking that once a month shopping will be the best bet for budgeting.  A little of the budget will be set aside for weekly replinishment.  We eat lunch as our big  meal of the day.  I needed to have a main meal planned and then just fill in the gaps for each day.  This is what I did:

• I made 5 weeks worth of daily main meals.
• I made a list of dishes to eat for breakfast and light dinners.
• I made a list of things to make on Bake Day (breads, snacks, etc.).
• I compiled recipes for all of the above.
• From these lists I made a master grocery and pantry list.

It was a labor of love, let me tell you.  But definitely satisfying work.

To make it easier some of the meals are repeated during the weeks and I tried to stick with little variety in the meats.  I do not have beef or pork in these meals.  The only frozen meat I got in bulk was chicken, ground turkey and fish.  "HM" stand for homemade in the list.

Monthly Meal Plan- Summer/Spring
Week 1
1. Crockpot chicken, vegi, bread
2. Chicken salad (made from leftover chicken), vegi,  HM bread
3. Taco salad
4. Quesadillas (HM tortillas), vegi, fruit
5. HM Pasta & meatballs, salad
6. Hot dogs, HM bread, roasted vegi
7. Leftover-palooza

Week 2
1. Ham, squash casserole, beans
2. Turkey burgers, HM bread, oven fries
3. Pepperoni roll, salad
4. Beans, rice, salad
5. Oven-fried chicken, quinoa, vegi
6. Fish, vegi, fruit, HM bread
7. Leftover-palooza

Week 3
1. Crockpot chicken
2. Chicken salad, vegi, bread
3. Quesadillas, vegi, fruit
4. Homemade pizza, salad
5. Pate McMuffin, fruit
6. Turkey meatloaf, baked potato wedges, vegi
7. Leftover-palooza

Week 4
1. Crockpot meal
2. HM Pita pizza, salad
3. Mac-n-cheese, w/ beans, vegi
4. Fajita salad
5. Loaded potatoes, salad
6. Quiche, fruit, jello
7. Leftover-palooza

Week 5
1. Chicken Squash Bake
2. Easy 3 cheese enchiladas
3. Turkey burgers, HM bread, oven fries
4. Homemade pizza, salad
5. Lasagna, peas/green beans, garlic bread
6. Fish, roasted vegi, sweet potatoes
7. Left-over palooza

Because I will have most of the ingredients for all of the meals, I can mix and match if I want.  That's the idea anyway. We used the bigger part of our budget at the first of this month, but we are still working that part out, too, so I will have another mini shopping trip after mid month payday.  I have a paper copy of the meal list from when I went shopping.  To keep track I just mark the date by the meal I made.  Since this will be a work in progess I'll tweak it each month depending on new ideas and recipes.

Next I will post the breakfast and light dinner ideas. 
Then the master shopping and pantry lists .
Then Bake day (if the goods last long enough for a picture!).
And finally the notebook that brings them all together.  I love noteooks almost as much as I love lists. 

 

Home Tour (until I change it around- again)

I have been wanting to post a home tour since before I even had a blog (I love them like a crazy person!).  The problem is- I am always moving stuff around.  So, I figured I will just have to do a regular "state of the home" post and just see how it changes.  And the other teensy problem- getting it all straightened up enough to take and post pictures!  When Jeff was in Brazil on  Discovery/Mission trip I did what I almost always do- clean something out or change a room around.  And I figured it was a good time to take pictures.

Here is my kitchen where I spend oodles of time.  It is never fully cleaned and put away, because by the time I get it that way it's time to make another meal.  I used to feel more stressed about it, but now that I am learning to cook healthier, more nourishing meals it is satisfying to have such a well-used kitchen.

See if you can find Luke up there.  :-)

One of my favorite spots because I do not like shoes all piled up at the door!

I can fit a lot onto that counter.  Here is a random action shot:

 

Small, but functional dining room.

Here is the big ol' living room.  One of the selling points of this house, for sure.  We fit lots of students, family, friends and toys in here!

Toy corner.

Sean's room and eventually Luke's, as well.  I am standing on the corner of the second bed, squished up against the wall trying to get this angle.  It is not as big as this makes it look- some good camera work if I do say so myself!

Ok- this is just embarrassing, but I had to include it.  This is the hallway outside of Sean's room.  I stored all our craft and homeschool stuff here.  I have since changed all that.  :-) 

Yeah... another great shot of the dark hallway.  It does not look like this anymore.  This has the makings of a good before and after post!

Because I'm all sophisticated, I had to include the laundery room.  But seriously, I love this little closet- turned- laundry room.  It is right across from my bedroom.

Speaking of my bedroom, I totally forgot to take a picture.  In it is also Luke's sleeping nook.  Not quite big enough to call it a nursery.  And the basement is looking much better these days, although not all the way done.  I will just have to do a part two. 
I think almost all of the rooms have been tweaked sinced the pictures.  I could almost do a whole new tour.  Almost. 
And here is my sweet assistant photographer:

I really do like looking at other homes on blogs, but I have not done it in a while.  Most of them, although gorgeous, used to make me feel less content with my own God-provided home (God has thankfully done a work in my heart about that).  My favorites are the ones that look like every day houses, not magazine pictures.  And I am always a sucker for a good picture of home organization! 

I Couldn't Ask for More

While it can be so easy in my flesh to point out a splinter in my husband's eye, there is one area I cannot even remotely complain or find fault with- the way he fathers our boys.  He is the most amazing daddy I have ever known.  He loves them in word and deed- telling them often and freely giving hugs and kisses.

He teaches them the way of Christ through his example.  He shows them how to treasure women by his love for me.

He doesn't just do his job as a dad, he loves being a daddy.

And these boys sure do love him.  I am so blessed.

Pics from a recent hike in Graveyard Falls.

Feed Me Books- Letters!

One of my very favorite sets of books is the My First Steps to Reading by Jane Belk Moncure.
It was a hand-me-down from Jeff's mom.  Sean has loved them since he was old enough to make requests.  One day we even had a "book picnic" (more on that later) and read them all!

Here is My "b" Book.  We have been working on letter "B" and this has been a great resource.

Each character is called by the letter (ex. Little "b" has a box.)  In each book they all have a box that gets filled with all sorts of items that start with the letter.

Here is Little "t" filling his box.

I like at the end how they list other words with the letter.  We always pick which one we like the best.

Sean likes to put his toe up to the picture and it always cracks him up!

I am linking this up with The Adventures of Motherhood.

Letter "B" working with what we have!

Because my boy loves a good theme, we are doing letters of the week.  Not an original concept at all, but we have not done it all the way through.  We did letter "A" and I wanted to make sure I did a post to remember what kind of activities we used.

I got the pre-K A to Z curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Several things are too simple for Sean (but will be used when Luke is ready!).  I got a couple things from each letter, though.  This counting game below uses Butterflies and numbers.  I'll mix up the cards and let him lay them out in order.  Then using Buttons he will put the correct number of pieces on each card.

He LOVES these letter books.  They were a priceless hand-me-down!  Each book is full of words starting with the letter.  The character always has a box they use to collect the things in. 

We will use this dictionary to give us ideas of things to collect around the house that start with "B."  Sean gets a kick out of making his own box.  Of course, he can gather other things not in the dictionary- I just like him getting practice using it.

After we collected items in the basket, he practiced writing the letter "B" on the board for each thing.  I finished the word.

Here is just a pre-K workbook and a name practice sheet (in a page protector).  We do this almost every time we "work."

Bubbles and lacing Beads (from the Dollar Store) for fun!

An alphabet folder game I made from stickers we had.

Another workbook.

Our Brown color art project.  I had a hard time finding brown stuff! Maybe Sean will have some ideas.

I love this BOZ workbook.  It has great Bible stories and activities.  I got it about 2 years ago at the $5 discount Christian bookstore.

We will take a day to study John the Baptist.  I will not do other activites with this one, because it has several pages to work on.

And here it all is piled up on my dining room hutch.  Guess this will be a main space to store current projects. 

I will do all of these over 2-3 days depending on Sean's interest.  I like having several things planned. 

He is sitting here with me and just said he is ready to work on his "B" stuff. 

Guess I better get going!

*I came back and added the pics of him doing the first of the projects. :-)

Snake lapbook...EWWWW!

Now this is what I get for doing the we'll-study-what-he-wants-to-learn approach.  Snakes.  But it makes a huge difference with Sean.  He really enjoyed anything we did related to this topic.  We started a lapbook.  I did not note where we got the materials, because it was before I thought I would post about it. 

 

 

I finally got a picture of it completed.  I would not have minded adding more, but Sean likes it like it is.  It has already been well-loved.  Even the poor red snake at the top was torn out by the Tot Terror.  :-)

Here he is working on it:

He is looking up the word "snake" in the children's dictionary.

I printed out an "S" letter page and stuck it in the lapbook with contact paper.  He can practice writing over and over.

Here is a sight word folder game.  Nothing to do with snakes, but I snuck it in there!

Here's what I tried to get Luke to play with- a styrofoam tray, puff balls and empty toilet paper tube.

About 2 minutes later...

Oh well!

To my great pleasure we have a black snake living under the house.  The last time pest control came (thanks to the termites!) they rounded up the skins, but left them at the door inside the crawl space.  We told Sean he could investigate them.  The night before he was in my bed at 2 AM asking if it was time yet! 

And imagine his delight when we went to our spring festival and one of the booths had a water sensory table with... rubber snakes!

Looking forward to the next lapbook!