March 27 – April 11, 2009

If you haven’t taken the plunge…..start today by planning a few meals for the upcoming week.  Trust me, menu planning will save you TIME and MONEY.   As a working mom/wife I couldn’t function without meal planning.  I never come home and stare at the fridge wondering what to make.  I do struggle with that twice a month when I plan my menus but that is all.   Twice is enough for me!!  

Saving money….my goal is to be debt free.  We hope to have our mortgage and all other bills paid off in 10 more years.  So saving money is important to reaching my goal and FUN!!!   I budget about $200 for two weeks, but never spend that much.  I usually keep my grocery bill to under $80 a week.   I will let you know later how I did as I will be going shopping for this menu today!  

Struggling with what to make for supper???  For more menu ideas go to orgjunkie.com.  Laura at Organizing Junkie hosts Menu Plan Monday each week with 300+ participants!  Many of my ideas come from other Menu Plan Monday particpants!

Friday – French Bread Pizza  (Movie Night)

Saturday – Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole / Cookies and Cream Cake

Sunday – Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing/ Veggie 

Monday – Taco Mac & Chesse

Tuesday – Frozen Pizza

Wed – Quesadillas

Thurs – Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Bake

1 pkg (6oz) Stove Top stuffing mix for chicken
1-1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 pkg (16 oz) frozen broccoli florets, thawed, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
½ lb Velveeta, cut in 1/2 “ cubes

HEAT over to 400.  Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package; set aside.  COMBINE remaining ingredients; spoon into 13×9 baking dish.  Top with stuffing.  BAKE 40 minutes or until chicken is done. 

Fri – 4/3 – Hot/chili Dogs and Chips (Movie Night)

Sat – Lasagna Roll Ups/ Garlic Break  

Sun – Company Chicken Casserole –

Mon – Late = Spaghetti and meatballs/ Garlic Bread

Tues – Egg Bake

Wed – French Toast/Eggs/ Bacon

Thurs – Impossible Cheeseburger Pie /Salad

 Fri – Corn Dogs and Fries (Movie Night)

Sat – Chicken Taquitos – Spanish Rice

Recipes to Try from This weeks Menu Plan Monday:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Pasta-Meatball-Soup  – Orgjunkie
General Tso Chicken  – Homemaker Barbi
Oven Fried Fish and Chips – Homemaker Barbi
Flash in Pan SwissSteak – Homemaker Barbi
Unstuffed Cabbage – Homemaker Barbi
Crockpot Chicken and Dumplings  – AYear of Crockpotting
Kickin Creamy Chicken Crockpot Stew – What’s for Dinner
Tuna Noodle Casserole – What’s for Dinner **Made before and liked!
Bourbon Chicken – What’s for Dinner
Basil Sesame Green Beans – What’s For Dinner
Crockpot Golden Mushroom Pork Chops – What’s For Dinner
Bowtie pasta Bake – Savin It Up
Crockpot Sloppy Joes – Movie Night
Maple Brown Sugar Oatmeal Mix – Grocery Cart Challenge
Biscuit and Gravy – Grocy Cart Challenge
Baked Ziti – The Grocery Chart Challenge
Skillet Taco Macaroni –
Chicken Taco Casserole – My Grocery Plan
Hoisin and Honey Pork Tenderloin – iSalty

Sites to Check Out : 
Heart(h) Management : http://www.hearthmanagement.com/
The Grocery Cart Challenge  Has Recipe Swap for Mixes;  http://grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com/2009/03/grocery-cart-challenge-recipe-swap_26.html

Hello everyone – sorry to be gone so much.   Finally, I am finishing up my budgets at work, but of course now I am getting sick.   Hopefully life will be getting back to normal for a while.   We have alot of things coming up that I need to be planning for.  But right now I just need to relax a bit, take a breath and get my home routine back on schedule.

Since we have the DVR, I have to admit I have started to watch TV.   I love American Idol.  I was really impressed with Adam Lambert last night.  He definitely is my pic to win!   I have been able to keep up with Brothers and Sisters and The Secret Life of an American Teenager.   Tonight there is a new show I want to check out, In the Motherhood.   It looked funny.   I have book group tonight so I won’t be able to watch it until later. 

 I of course have much more to say, but want to see how this posts via email so I hopefully will post more often.  They block access to xanga at my work.   Which is why I post less, I used to post while having my lunch at my desk.   Oh Well…….

Budget for the year… * Calendar organization * notebook idea!!! * Need to categorize my site * Website – need to revamp recipes * Book Group  – update schedule and add ratings * cell phones and kids * money skills – job skills  

Made this healthier version of boxed rice a roni and it was a hit.  Would have been even better if I had some low sodium chicken broth.  

Rice and Roni

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 pound pasta, vermicelli or spaghetti
• 1 cup long grain rice
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 2 cups chicken or beef broth

Begin by placing the oil in a pot and breaking the dried noodles into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces. Turn on the heat and stir the noodles in the oil until they begin to brown slightly. Add the rice, onion, parsley, and broth. Stir mixture, cover tightly, and cook as you would regular rice, approximately 20 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork and serve.

Amy’s Tips:

To avoid an overdose on sodium, make sure to purchase the sodium-free chicken broth for both the rice and the pork chops.

http://momadvice.com/food/slow_cooker_recipes2.aspx

For more menu ideas go to orgjunkie.com.

Sunday 15th – Chicken Burritos/ Chip and Cheese Dip /Guacomole

Monday 16th – Pot Pies

Tueday 17th – St Patty’s Day – Slow Cooker Corned Beef  & Cabbage  – Green Pudding

Wednesday – 18th – Grilled Cheese and Soup

Thus  19th – French Toast/Eggs/ Bacon

Friday – 20th – Mom in Duluth – Frozen Pizzas

Sat -21st – Seafood Alfredo

Sun – 22nd – Steak/Pots/ Veggies

Mon – 23rd – MPTP – Chicken Salad Crossiants/ Garbanzo Bean Salad

Tues – Northfield – Slow Cooked Pork Chops / Rice/ Veggie

Wed 25th – Chineese/ Egg Rolls

Thurs – 26th – Easy Chicken and Rice

Friday – BBQ Rib Sandwiches – Chip/dip

Sat 28th – Crockpot Chicken and Stuffing

Recipes to Try from Menu Plan Monday Posts:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Linguine-with-Garlic-Sauce – Laura

http://feelingscrappyclasses.blogspot.com/2009/02/chicken-tortilla-soup.html – Laura

http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/taste-of-home/114567/honey-barbecue-meat-loaf – laura

http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/30-minute-almond-chicken-88580.aspx – Laura

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=9836 – Crockpot Cheesy Chicken

http://www.unorganizedmomma.com/2009/03/egg-bake/ – Egg Bake (check out this blog)

http://gettingfreedom.blogspot.com/2009/03/recipe-porcupine-meatballs.html – Cents to Get DebtFree

Saturday – 2/28/09

Well again this week, hubby went to the library without me.  I was feeling under the weather so he went to pick up things from the library.   But I did take it easy all weekend and read alot!!!  I finished 2 books over the weekend.

From Last Weeks Loot – I finished reading Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand (3/5)- This book took me a while to get through.  It wasn’t overly exciting and it was another book about a person with cancer.  I have read a number of books lately about cancer victims/survivors.  

From Publishers Weekly
Hilderbrand’s sixth novel heaps on the trauma as a substitute for realistic connection in this heady mix of beach house, cancer, affair and mom lit. Connecticut housewife Vicki, diagnosed with lung cancer, has packed up her two kids for a chemo-commuting summer at the family’s Nantucket cabin; sister Brenda, a newly minted high-powered assistant professor, has just been fired for having an affair with one of her students; Vicki’s best friend, Melanie, newly pregnant, has discovered her husband is cheating. The three hit the tarmac of the tiny island airport, where they run into home-for-the-summer Middlebury senior Josh Flynn, who has a summer job there that he hates. Hardened cliché Brenda pines for her stereotypically weathered Australian lover. Melanie is a chronic complainer until she romances grim aspiring writer Josh, whom she has run into again and brought on as the house babysitter. (Josh thinks his old girlfriend should “locate her center” and “operate from a place of security.”) Of the three women, only the suffering, stubborn Vicki, who keeps a list of “Things That No Longer Mattered” and cries when she can’t seduce her visiting husband, draws readerly sympathy. There are some tender moments in Hilderbrand’s latest beacher, but others are as irritating as sand in your swimsuit. (July)

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I also started and finished The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle (4.5/5)   Last night before bed I started this book.  I read until after midnight and dreamed about this book all night.  I woke up and finished the book before noon.  It was a disturbing subject matter, but very well written.  It kept me wanting to know what happened.   It was the story an abused child and his journey to recovery and his experience with the legal, foster care and social services agencies. 

From Publishers Weekly
Master caterer Sarah Laden is barely holding her life together as a widow with two difficult sons—recalcitrant teen Nate and troubled fifth-grader Danny—when the unthinkable happens. Her best friend and neighbor, Courtney Kendrick, is arrested in a child sex abuse scandal. Courtney’s husband has vanished; their 11-year-old son, Jordan, is in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt; and across the street Nate is finding, in Jordan’s backpack, evidence of unthinkable abuse. Kittle (Traveling Light; Two Truths and a Lie) crafts a disturbing but compelling story line, as Sarah, Nate and Jordan uncover and come to terms with the horror in alternating chapters. Sarah, for instance, is shocked to learn that she dropped off food for the Kendricks’ sex parties; Jordan must decide whether or not he wants to continue a relationship with his mother—who insists she’s innocent—if and when she gets acquitted. Kittle’s research sits awkwardly in expository dialogue—”One in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before their eighteenth birthdays,” intones the detective who will later become Sarah’s love interest—but it doesn’t slow the momentum. Though the movement is toward healing, there are bumpy roads ahead for everybody in this melodramatic but gripping read. (Jan.)

This Weeks Library Loot – 2/28/09

1.  Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian (CD)

2.  Songs of the Missing – Stewart O’Nan

2.  Lies my Teacher Tol Me – Everything Your American History Textbook got Wrong – James Loewen

To see what other bloggers are reading, stop by the weekly Library Loot Event hosted by Eva at The Striped Armchair. 

Currently Reading………..

Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson (audible.com)

A Father’s Affair – Karel Van Loon  

Our Menu
3/1 – 3/14/09

Sun – 3/1 – Biscuit gravy and scramble eggs

Mon – Ravioli / Garlic Bread

Tues – Pancakes/ Eggs/ Sausage

Wed – Noodle Soup/ Grilled Cheese Sand

Thurs – Teriyaki Chicken Breast/ Rice/ Veggie

Fri – French Dip Sandwiches

Sat – Meatloaf/Mashed Pots/ Veggie

Sun – Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Mon – Spaghetti/ Garlic Bread

Tues – French Toast/ Eggs/ Bacon

Wed – General Tso/ Egg Rolls

Thurs – Monterrey Chicken / Green Bean and Salad

Fri – Chicken Burritos/ Chip and Cheese Dip

Sat – Steak/Baked Pots/ Veggie

As always, thank you to Laura for hosting Menu Plan Monday.  Head over to her site, I’m an Organizing Junkie to view the menus of the other particpants.  It is great way to get ideas for you menu!!! 

Have a great week!!!

Jen C