Another menu (with grocery lists!!)

Week 1	JAN 28 Cowboy soup	JAN 29 Chicken sandwiches and chips	JAN 30 Cheesy chicken noodle casserole	JAN 31 Breakfast for dinner
Week 2	FEB 4 Chicken tacos	FEB 5 Spaghetti and meatballs	FEB 6 Green enchiladas, using the leftover chicken taco meat instead of beef	FEB 7 Grilled chicken Caesar salads
Week 3	FEB 11 Pasta Faggioli	FEB 12 Breakfast tacos	FEB 13 Crock pot cube steaks, twice baked potato casserole	FEB 14 Make your own pizzas
Week 4	FEB 18 Packet Roast	FEB 19 Fiesta chicken over jasmine rice	FEB 20 Spinach fettuccini alfredo	FEB 21 Hawaiian ham sandwiches and chips
Week 5	FEB 25 Baked Ziti	FEB 26 Chicken tortilla soup from a mix	FEB 27 Baked Ziti leftovers	FEB 28 Frito pie

Grocery lists:

Week 1 : Ground beef – 1 lb Chicken breasts Breakfast sausage patties Chicken patties Onion Celery Garlic Yellow pepper Red pepper Green pepper Carrots Red potatoes (5) Egg noodles Sour cream (24 oz) Cheddar (8 oz) Mozzarella (8 oz) Eggs Ritz crackers Syrup Bisquick Buns Chips Whole tomatoes (14.5 oz. can) Beef broth (4c) Cream/chicken soup (2)

Week 2: Flour tortillas Corn tortillas Chicken breasts (2 packages) Salsa verde Hominy Corn Pimentos Green onion dip mix Canned milk (sm) Velveta Spaghetti Spaghetti sauce Meatballs Garlic bread Romaine lettuce Shaved parmesan Caesar dressing

Week 3: Ground beef (1 lb) Ground turkey (1 lb) Sausage Cube steaks Bacon Onion (2) Carrots Celery Green onions Potatoes Fresh mushrooms Diced tomatoes (2 28 oz) Kidney beans Cannellini beans Tabasco sauce Beef broth (30 oz) Cream/celery Cream/chicken Onion dip mix Spaghetti sauce (2-20 oz) Pizza crusts Mozzarella cheese Parmesan cheese Sour cream Cheddar jack cheese (2) Flour tortillas Egg

Week 4: Roast Chicken breasts (2 pks) Ham slices Ranch dressing mix Italian dressing mix Brown gravy mix Carrots Potatoes Green onions Alfredo sauce Parmesan cheese (1/2 c) Fettuccini Frozen spinach (10 oz) Rotel Black beans Corn Cream cheese Chips Butter Swiss or provolone slices Hawaiian rolls

Week 5: Garlic Onion Italian sausage (1 lb) Ground beef (3 lb) Chicken breasts Tomato sauce (16 oz) Whole tomatoes (28 oz) Rotel tomatoes Marinara (28 oz) Ziti (16 oz) Ricotta (15 oz) Mozzarella (1.5 lb) Cheddar cheese Parmesan (1/2 c) Egg Chili mix Fritos

Five tips for accommodating vegetarians

For a while both of my children were vegetarians, and many times I like to avoid meat for a season just to give my body a break from it. Here are some tips that can be used to adapt many meals to be vegetarian.

1. Instead of beef or chicken broth, use veggie broth. You can even buy veggie broth cubes, and use them like bouillon cubes. We swapped it out many times, and did not notice.

2. The fake ground meat is really wonderful now. There is "meat" made from chopped up mushrooms, and some from soybeans. You can hide it in things like chili and enchiladas, or just eat it straight up like tacos. You will probably not even realize the difference.

3. Anything that uses bacon can  usually be made with the bacon left out, or served on the side for those who want to add it. Same is true for chicken or sausage links.

4. If your recipe needs the meat, leave it in giant chunks. This will offend a strict vegetarian, but many will happily pick out the big chunks and eat the rest of the soup or stew.

5. Breakfast for dinner is a great way to accommodate a vegetarian - with eggs, pancakes, hash browns, muffins, scones, and breakfast burritos.

School lunches

My kids decided early on that buying lunch at school was a waste of time.  Literally, it sucked up all the good eating time when you had to stand in line and wait to get your lunch.  Since we move a little slower around our house, and we also like to maximize the time we can spend eating, wasting 10 minutes in line for pizza was not worth it.  I am secretly happy that they take lunch instead of buy it because I can watch what they eat and what they do not.  I know school lunches are nutritionally sound, but they are not always as appealing as the fresh fruit or veggies I can throw in the lunches. 

 

I know that Bento boxes are all the rage, but frankly I did not have time to look for where to purchase these precious little boxes, and I was not sure they would be cheap enough for me to have 10 on hand at any time.  So, I bought these Ziploc divided containers, and they are cheap and dishwasher safe, and work well.  Ours have held up for a couple of years, and I am not aware of any leakage issues.  These fit great in the 31 insulated totes, too. 

 

In the big part I put a sandwich, and since I love a fresh sandwich, these are usually made the day of.  However, all other assembly is performed on the weekend, and stuck in the fridge to stay cool and untouched.  In the little parts, we put:  mixed nuts; trail mix; pretzels; yogurt covered pretzels; pickles; carrots cut into little sticks; cucumbers; pineapple; berries – strawberries or blueberries are a hit for us; jello; oranges segments; or cheese slices.  I also add in chips or crackers or something that we have either bought in individual packages or have divided into snack baggies. 

 

I must admit that while a lot of this is driven by my need to make mornings run smoothly, a lot is also driven by the fact that I live with a bunch of snackers, and if I do not pre-package some things, there is a good chance that Friday morning, I would pull out a bag of crackers with one single lonely cracker left in it, and there is no way I would be able to cobble together enough fruit or pickles to fill the little containers. 

Websites with Great Recipes

I love to try new recipes, and get a lot of them emailed to me from:

SparkPeople.com
What I love about this website is you can say "don't email me recipes with fish in them, because I won't make them" and set other parameters, so you don't get a bunch of junk that you won't ever cook.
There are a couple of drawbacks: you can get the same recipe over and over (usually once every six months or so) and some of the recipes aren't that great (not horrible, just lack a little flavor)

Goop.com
This is Gwyneth Paltrow's website where she posts her favorite stuff--sometimes it is stuff she makes, and sometimes it is places to go, and sometimes it is stuff she buys...there are some pretty snazzy recipes in there, too. And you know if Gwyneth is supporting it, they are all healthy and vegan and wonderful.

SugarbustersForum.com
There are some super recipes in there from people who are very talented. There is great whole wheat pizza crust that my family loves, and some yummy chicken dishes that are super, too.

I find great recipes in Cooking Light, Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens (although I don't get this anymore--they have some good stuff that I have torn out from years past), and Weight Watchers (I get these forwarded from friends a lot since I'm not a WW member).

Some Cooking Keys

There are a few things little tools that make my life a lot easier:

1. My Crock Pot Cookbook (a Christmas gift from my MIL last year)
2. My Fix it and Forget It cookbook (a gift from my mom, I think)
3. Homemade gourmet (which I believe any of the recipes can be adapted to crock pot)

I'd say these are the staples for a busy mom who makes dinner a priority. Homemade gourmet is a mix of a lot of spices that really you could do on your own if you were so inclined, but I don't have the knowledge or the energy to measure out a bunch of stuff and keep it on hand. They offer their mixes in "Pantry Staple" size, which is a great value and can be scooped out and added to chicken or ground beef to make something kind of exciting for dinner (and they come with recipes, too!)

Things we always have on hand for last minute dinners:

1. Spaghetti sauce and whole wheat noodles. My favorite spaghetti sauce is Classico Tomato & Basil because it does not have any sugar in it. Sugar hides out in spaghetti sauce (and ketchup, too)--read the labels and you'll be surprised. You can always spice it up with black olives, chopped tomatoes, beef/sausage/chicken, or steamed zucchini or squash.
2. Taco seasoning, tortillas and cheese. You can make tacos, chalupas, burritos, quesadillas, taco soup, or taco salad.
3. Stuff to make Chicken Pie (can of Vegall or frozen mixed vegetables, chicken breasts-cooked and diced, frozen pie crusts, cream of chicken soup)
4. Giant jar of minced garlic (every recipe needs this...you can even sprinkle it over chicken breasts and serve with a box of mashed potatoes or a box of cous cous--which our favorite is whole wheat mixed with pine nut)



And, as I said before, the mountain of frozen meat that we have in the freezer, which I think is essential to making this all work.