Menu Planning - Not happening

So it's now 3:30 on Monday and I haven't done a weekly menu plan.

Tomorrow is December, and in our house that means just about anything could happen to the schedule. This week in particular is going to be crazy. We have 3 big rehearsals, 1 school project due and 1 major doctor's appointment thrown into an already busy month. Most of our dinners are going to be of the quick fix, quick eat variety. Monday & Tuesday are likely to be the only days I have much time to prepare a meal and we're all home to eat it.

So, I'm thinking at this point, I'm not likely to do a written plan for the week, and I'm certainly not likely to do a full month of menu planning like I've done the past several months.  That doesn't mean we'll be eating out. There's plenty of food in the fridge and freezer ready to prep & use quickly. So I'll be relying a lot on my stockpile this week.

Here's what I do know we will be eating this week:

Leftover Chicken Tettrazini
Chicken Stir Fry
Indonesian Ginger Chicken
Some kind of chicken casserole
Spaghetti

I'm not sure when exactly some of these will be happening. I'll probably decide each morning, depending on what the day's schedule is looking like.


Breakfasts will continue to be of the oatmeal, muffin, pancake, waffle rotation we've been doing recently. And Lunches will continue to be sandwiches & leftovers which seem to work so well for our family.

Sometimes life is busy and you have to roll with it. I refuse to fret over it. Other things are much more important this week.

Turkey Follies

Cooking a turkey once a year is an almost surefire way to be a nervous turkey cook. Some families have turkey several times a year. We weren't one of them. We had turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas and then never again until the following Thanksgiving. And rarely did my mother fix the turkey. Growing up it was usually my aunt who fixed the turkey, dressing and gravy; the rest of us brought side dishes and desserts.

So, when I got married and started hosting my in-laws there was a steep learning curve. The first year I fixed a turkey I planned that dinner for weeks in advance and then made about 6 phone calls to my mother during the course of the day with questions. Where exactly do I put the thermometer? Does this get covered in foil? What about that? I learned a lot from that experience. I learned to prepare early, make lots of lists and time-lines and check them all twice.

One year I went through my usual routine. I didn't have as much to do that year as several family members were contributing side dishes. The turkey was bought well in advance. It was thawed in the refrigerator for several days before cooking. A few days early I checked the grocery list and bought any missing ingredients from my checklist. The day before Thanksgiving I gathered all the various equipment I would need: roasting pan, rack, cotton string, probe thermometer.

I started early that Thanksgiving day preparing the turkey. I unwrapped it, pulled out the neck and gizzard packet which I never use. Rinsed it thoroughly and patted it dry. I stuffed it with the appropriate aromatics and seasoned it well. Placed the thermometer just so and set it in the oven to roast for several hours.

Things were going along very well. The turkey was smelling really good. Our family started to arrive and we began to prepare the side dishes. I kept thinking the timer should be going off soon. I'd go check the thermometer to see how things were going.

"Gee it seems to be moving kind of slowly. I thought it should be further along by now. Hmm."

I'd wait a bit and check it again.

My sister commented, "So, when's the turkey going to be done?"

"I'm not sure. I really thought it would be done by now."

This conversation repeated 2 or 3 times. It wasn't a huge deal as we'd planned to eat early and none of us were in a big rush to go off somewhere else. Several stomachs began to grumble.

My husband, the non-cook, mosied into the kitchen and said,

"Sharon, Do you know this thermometer is set on Celsius?"

"Um... No. As a matter of fact I didn't! I didn't know you could set it for Celsius. How did that happen? How do I set it back?"

"There's a button on the bottom - C for Celsius; F for Farenheit."

"What's it say if you set it to Farenheit?"

"Umm. Yeah. It's done."

Many sighs of relief all across the house.

So, if your turkey isn't done when you think it should be, you might want to check the thermometer. It may not be the oven or the turkey. It may just be a tiny white button on the bottom of the thermometer that got flipped.

Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of Davidlat

Review - Wanchai Ferry & Romano's Macaroni Grill

About 2 months ago as I was browsing one of my favorite money saving websites I came across a post about the General Mills Pssst program. When you sign up, periodically they will send you free products for you to try and review on their site. They also send you coupons for the products to use and distribute to friends. About 3 weeks ago I received in the mail two samples to try: the newest Wanchai Ferry flavor, Orange Chicken, and the newest Romano's Macaroni Grill flavor, Chicken Piccata.  Both retail for about $4.80.

Wanchai Ferry: Orange Chicken

We tried the Wanchai Ferry Orange Chicken first. It comes with rice, seasoning for the chicken, orange sauce and red chilies. You provide water, chicken, vegetable oil and any vegetables you wish to add. In short, my family loved it. It was really delicious and very easy to prepare. My son, the tender tongue, thought it was too spicey (I only used one red chilie, not all 4 that were included.) The directions were very easy to follow, especially if you've ever stir fried before. I added about 1 ½ cups of green & red pepper to it and there was still enough sauce for all the food The package says it contains 4 servings, but my family of 2 adults and 2 young children easily ate all of it. In fact, we were wishing for a bit more rice.

My family gave it 3 ½ out of 4 thumbs up.

Romano's Macaroni Grill: Chicken Piccata

We tried the Chicken Piccata second. It comes with angel hair pasta, cooking wine with lemon juice, seasoned flour and piccata sauce seasoning. You provide chicken, butter, and water. There are no veggies to add to this, but it would go quite nicely with a side alad or other veggies. Again, this was also very easy to make. The directions are easy to follow and clear. My family really loved this one. Hubby wasn't home when I fixed it, but had some leftovers the next day for lunch. It was still delicious. For various reasons, I usually try to limit the cheese dishes we have. This was a great pasta dish sans cheese and without tomatoes. It was so good I went in search of a recipe I could make from scratch! The one suggestion I'd make is to really watch the sauce as it's reducing. I got distracted and let it go too long so the sauce was a bit thicker than it should have been. This box indicated it makes 6 servings. In this case we found we had too many noodles for 4 people, but 1 lb of chicken was just right for us.

My family gave this 4 out of 4 stars.

A few general thoughts:
We really enjoyed these dinners and as long as you remember to pull the chicken out of the freezer the night before, they make a quick dinner. You do need to add side dishes. The down side is that, considering they only contain the grain and seasoning for your dinner, I think they're a bit expensive. I don't think making them from scratch would be that much more time consuming. However, if you find a good sale and can match it with a coupon, it might be worth the money.

If you'd like to try some of General Mills products you can go here to sign up for Pssst.

Menu Plan - November 22, 2009

I'm a bit behind today as several things in our schedule have changed this week. I'm going to quickly get out this week's menu plan. Updates this week may be a bit sparse as Cora is having minor outpatient surgery and Thanksgiving is happening too.


Here's what's on the plan this week:

Sunday:
B - cereal
D - Chinese Take Out

Monday
B - Baked Banana Oatmeal (adapted from this recipe)
D - Parmesan Crusted PorkChops

Tuesday
B - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
D - Chicken Stir Fry

Wednesday
B - Pumpkin Waffles
D - Leftover Buffet

Thursday
B - Creamed Chip Beef over Whole Wheat Biscuits (maybe finally!)
D - Thanksgiving Dinner at SIL

Friday
B - Pancakes
D - Turkey (or Chicken) Tetrazini

Saturday
B - Buttermilk Chocolate Muffins or Cinnamon Rolls
D - Indonesian Ginger Chicken

Side Dishes will include these from my freezer and stockpile: fresh cut pineapple, peaches, green beans, corn, broccoli, mashed sweet potatoes and maybe a few other things too.


 For more great menu planning ideas visit Organizing Junkie.

Stuffing Royale

Thanksgiving is just a week away (I can hardly believe how soon it is!). And I'm working on my grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner. Growing up I never liked stuffing. I think it was the heavy sage my family used. Anyway, a few years into our marriage I found this recipe from King's Hawaiian bread.  As I looked it over, I realized this was a winner in my book. Lots of things I really like and not much that I don't like. This is a fruity stuffing. So, if you're preference is for sausage or oysters, this is probably not up your alley. But, we love it.

Stuffing Royale

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz loaf King's Hawaiian bread
• 1 15 oz can pineapple tidbits, drained (or use chunks and chop them small)
• 1 Cup chopped celery (2-3 stalks)
• 1 small onion diced
• 1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• ½ Cup slivered almonds, toasted
• ½ Cup raisins
• 1 14 oz can low salt chicken broth (about 1 ½ cups)
  
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp sage
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• ¼ tsp salt
  
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325°
2. Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Place in a large bowl.
3. Add pineapple, celery, onion, water chestnuts, almonds and raisins.
4. Set aside
5. In a small bowl, stir together broth with seasonings.
6. Pour seasoned broth evenly over dry ingredients. Toss to combine.
7. Place in a 2 qt casserole dish. Cover with foil
   
8. Bake 30 minutes, remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

For stuffing: Stuff a 10-lb bird and cook according to directions.

Notes:
This makes about 2 quarts of stuffing which is a whole lot for our extended family of 6 adults and 2 kids.

There are lots more Thanksgiving recipes at the Ultimate Recipe Swap today. 
And you can find more recipes at:
Friday Food  @ Mom Trends

Cleaning Out Peanut Butter Jars

A confession: Sometimes recycling seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

There, I've said it.

Recycling is good. It helps reduce the waste sent to landfills. It gives a few people jobs.  I try to recycle as much as I can. But, sometimes I wonder if cleaning out a bottle or container is creating more water/energy waste than I'm saving by recycling my bottles.

For instance, it takes a good bit of water to fully clean out the bottle of conditioner I use. I fill, shake, dump. Fill, shake, dump. Repeat. I don't know if I'm helping or hurting the planet when I re-cyle my bottle of conditioner. But I do.

The same problem happens with plastic peanut butter jars. Peanut butter is very sticky stuff (as if anyone didn't already know that). And getting the jar clean enough to recycle was always a challenge until I accidentally began using this method. It works very well. It isn't such a chore anymore and I don't think I'm wasting as much water to get the jars clean.

So, here's what I do...
1. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and get out as much peanut butter as humanly possible. You can make at least half a sandwich from the leftover peanut butter on the sides and bottom of a jar.

2. Squirt a small bit of Dawn Dishwasing Liquid* into the jar.

3. Fill 2/3 full with hot water.

4. Replace lid on jar.  Shake.

5. Leave jar on counter overnight. Shake again a few times as you think of it or have time.

6. The next morning the majority of the remaining peanut butter will be floating in the water, not sticking on the jar. A quick swipe with a dishrag and your plastic peanut butter jar will be clean

*I prefer Dawn for this because it is so much better at cutting through grease.

This works for me.

Have a good tip that works for cleaning out conditioner bottles?

Whole Wheat Carrot Raisin Muffins

Ever had too many of something? I recently picked up a 5 lb. bag of carrots, thinking they were 3 lbs. Now, I know carrots keep a long time in the fridge. But, 5 lbs for 4 people is a lot of carrots!  So, I went in search of carrot recipes. And in the midst of my search I found a few recipes for Carrot Raisin Muffins. I tweaked a bit here and there and eventually came up with this very good recipe for Whole Wheat Carrot Raisin Muffins. Next time you're trying to use up some carrots, try these.

Whole Wheat Carrot Raisin Muffins

(printable recipe)

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ Cups whole wheat flour
• 1 Cup unbleached all-purppose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
  
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/8 tsp salt
  
• ¾ Cup milk
• ¼ Cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• ½ Cup honey
  
• 1½ Cup shredded carrots
• 2/3 Cup raisins
  

Directions:

1. Combine flours, baking powder, spices, salt in large bowl.
2. In small bowl, mix together, milk, oil, egg, honey.
3. Set oven for 375°; grease muffin pan.
4. Mix together dry and wet ingredients.
5. Fold in shredded carrot and raisins.
6. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full (about ¼ cup)
   
7. Place pan in oven; raise temperature to 400°. (Here's why)
   
8. Bake 17-20 minutes.
9. Turn out of pan almost immediately; do not cool upside down (they squash)

Notes:
Makes 12 muffins.
Sometimes I've substituted sugar for the honey. Hubby and I really love these. They've been on our breakfast menu several times in the last 2 weeks.
These also freeze very well.


You can find more great recipes at: 
Cupcake Tuesday @ Hoosier Homemade

Tempt My Tummy @ Blessed With Grace
Tasty Tuesday @ Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
Tuesdays at the Table @ All the Small Stuff

Menu Plan - November 15, 2009

We did a bit better sticking to our plan this week -- no major interruptions in life.

Hubby's schedule has been very busy in the evenings the last few weeks and the result has been a lack of desire to cook on my part. I prefer to not fight the "I don't like thats" when I'm the only grown up home. So, I usually fix a kid favoite. The problem is I'm getting kind of tired of spaghetti, mac & cheese & leftovers. I also need to make room in my freezer for a turkey or two. Turkeys are cheaper now than they will be all year; I'd like to buy 2, if I can find room in the deep freeze. So, I'm going to try and up the ante on dinner this week. We are keeping a friend's child next weekend so I'll be planning the kid friendly stuff for those evenings.

Here's what's on the plan this week:

Sunday:
B - cereal
D - breakfast for dinner

Monday
B - Whole Wheat Carrot Raisin Muffins* & scrambled eggs
D - Roasted Chicken

Tuesday
B - Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal
D - Second meal from Psst (Chicken Piccata, review coming this week)

Wednesday
B - Creamed Chipped Beef over Whole Wheat Biscuits (another hold over)
D - Leftovers

Thursday
B - Pumpkin Waffles
D - "Noodle Thing" casserole (noodles, spaghetti sauce, mozzerella - bake at 350, 30 minutes)

Friday
B - French Toast
D - Pizza (using this dough recipe and this sauce recipe)

Saturday
B - TBD
D - Chicken Nuggets (heldover from last week)

Side Dishes will include these from my freezer and stockpile: fresh cut pineapple, peaches, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and maybe a few other things too as I like to include a few fresh fruits & veggies and we're running low at the moment.

*Recipe to be posted soon


 For more great menu planning ideas visit Organizing Junkie.

Can We Go Home Now?

I have a confession.

I've been in a bit of a funk recently. Sometimes I don't do well with the interruptions life God throws at me. This week I was feeling overwhelmed. After news of a death in the family early last week I knew I would be out of town for several days. I had to quickly pull together meals my husband the non-cook could cook, and get the laundry done so that they weren't wearing summer shorts during the chilly Maryland autumn. That went reasonably well, though very rushed (not a big fan of rushing here).  Then, I came home Saturday evening to a sick child and a bunch of new tasks to get a backlog of projects completed early in the week.All this combined to me feeling kind of sorry for myself.

Then, as I was browsing some other blogs today I read something about staying home, "that's where the kids want to be anyway" and God brought me this memory...

Wednesday evening, I'd taken the kids to Kids' Choir. At the end of rehearsal as I was catching up with friends and we were gathering kids, my daughter said, "Mommy, can we go home now?"

I didn't think much about it at the time. But, today realized something. It didn't matter to her that the laundry was piled up or we didn't have her favorites for dinner. It didn't matter that there was clutter on the tables and furniture wasn't dusted. She wanted to go home.


Home.  That's where she wanted to be. Our home. Not to the store, or a playground, or a friend's house.


She wanted to go home. Having a home where even with all its flaws my children feel safe and loved and want to be is definitely a finer thing.

Chicken Mushroom Lasagna

About 18 months ago my husband was diagnosed with GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease). There was a long list of items he could no longer eat including fried foods (okay, no big deal), citrus (hmm, a bit harder to avoid, but doable), onion, garlic & spicy foods (okay more bland food can be okay), and tomato products of all kinds (oh my goodness - do you know how many recipes have tomatoes in them? LOTS!)

So, I began to make, well, "boring" food. I had to elminate all tomato foods. I struggled with this for a while.  So he ate a lot of Peanut Butter Granola bars and plain fruits and veggies. In the course of finding foods that he could eat I searched out a recipe for lasagna that didn't have tomato. Eventually I took parts of one recipe, added in some parts of a lasagna recipe I already had and came up with this new one.

Chicken Mushroom Lasagna

(printable recipe)

Ingredients (in order of use):

• 16 lasagna noodles*
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/3 Cup chopped onion
• 1 (4.5 ox) can sliced mushrooms drained**
• 3 Tblsp. chicken broth
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/3 Cup milk
• 1 tsp dried chopped basil
• 2-3 Cups shredded chicken (approx.)
  
• 4 Cups ricotta cheese***
• 1 Cup + ½ Cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 Cup + ½ Cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ¼ Cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper

Directions:
Prepare 3 layers: Noodle Layer, Chicken/Mushroom Layer, Cheese Layer

Noodle Layer:
1.  Boil lasagna noodles as directed on package. (or use this fantastic tip from High and Noble Calling). Drain noodles and lay flat on cookie sheets, wax paper or foil.


Chicken/Mushroom Layer:
2. Heat olive oil in medium saucepan. Saute chopped onion until soft and translucent.
3. Add 3 Tblsp chicken broth and mushrooms.
4. Stir in soup, milk and basil. Mix well. Simmer 10-15 minutes to reduce liquid.
5. Add shredded chicken and remove from heat.

Cheese Layer:
6. Mix together ricotta, 1 cup each mozzarella, and cheddar cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.

Assembly:
7. Pour ½ cup soup mixture on bottom of 9x13 pan.
8. Arrange 4 pieces lasagna lengthwise over sauce, overlapping edges.
9. Spread 1/3 cheese mixture over noodles.
10. Cover with 1 cup chicken/mushroom sauce
11. Repeat layers of lasagna, chicken/mushroom sauce and cheeses twice each (3 sets of layers altogether).
12. Top with layer of noodles and remaining chicken/mushroom sauce.
13. Sprinkle ½ cup mozzarella and ½ cup cheddar over noodles.

Baking:
14. Cover with foil. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
15. Remove foil and bake 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.
For refrigerated lasagna: bake 1 hour, 15 minutes
For frozen lasagna: bake approx 2 hours.

Notes:
* I usually prepare 1-3 extra noodles because I usually have a few that break.
** Substitute fresh, thinly sliced mushrooms (~ ½ lb) if you choose.
*** Substitute well-drained cottage cheese if you prefer.

Tools - Not Just for the Garage

Ever been in the midst of preparing dinner, pulled a pan from the cabinet only to realize the handle is about to fall off? Or the knob on the lid is only barely hanging on? If you've been cooking for more than, oh say, a week, this has probably happened to you. This can be abundantly frustrating because nothing says kitchen mess like a dropped pot of sauce when the handle falls off.

If you're standing there trying to get dinner together with a loose lid and you realize the closest screw driver is in the garage, shed or basement workshop, you are probably frustrated. I once had a lid knob come off, leaving the hot lid on the pot with no way to take it off and stir the sauce without burning my hand. Not fun.

So what to do?  Enter a bit oif advice I learned from my mother -- keep a small tool  kit in your kitchen. Mom kept a multi-purpose screwdriver and hammer in her "junk" drawer. I keep this small tool kit in a bottom kitchen drawer. Everyone in the house knows where those tools belong. They look different and are a bit smaller than my husband's tools so there is no confusing them with the real  manly tools of the house.

They work for more than just pot fixing too! Tonight, when asked to remove a Lego from a Bionicle's hand, and when bare-handed pulling didn't work, I sent my son to get the pliers. He knew without asking which pliers I meant. And he didn't have to go rooting around in his father's tools. A few seconds later the task was accomplished.

Personally, I think every woman should be given a small took kit when she leaves home. Keeping tools in the kitchen definitely works for me.


You can find more kitchen tips at Tammy's Recipes and more great tips at Works For Me Wednesday.

Menu Plan - November 9, 2009

Well, as life does sometimes, it interrupts the best laid plans of Moms and Men. I had my menu plan all figured out for the week. I was going to do some major freezer cooking on Tuesday and Wednesday. And then Tuesday evening I got a phone call. My 85+ year old uncle had passed away. This was my father's only brother. We had known that he was not well for over a year and had recently been in the hospital, so it wasn't a complete shock. However, it did throw a wrench into the plans. So, we do when life interrupts... I adjusted. I reworked the plan a bit to several things that my husband could fix while I was out of town at the funeral. In the end it worked quite well and I was pleased.

Now that I'm back in town and life has begun to settle down, I've worked out the plan for the week:

Sunday:
B - cereal, milk
D - spaghetti

Monday:
B - pancakes, sausage links
D - First meal from Psst (Orange Chicken, review coming soon)

Tuesday:
B - Eggs & Toast
D - Sloppy Joes (using this recipe)

Wednesday:
B - Creamed Chipped Beef over Whole Wheat Biscuits (holdover from last week)
D - Shake & Bake Chicken Nuggets, corn, peas

Thursday:
B - Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins & sausage links
D - Leftovers

Friday:
B - Waffles & fruit
D - Steak, green beans, sweet potatoes, ?

Saturday:
B - TBD, want to try a new Cinnamon Roll recipe
D - TBD, several scheduling issues unresolved


For more great Menu Plans be sure to visit Organizing Junkie.

Life Interruptus

My apologies to my regular readers. There used to be a post here about Freezer Cooking Day hosted by Money Saving Mom and FishMama. It also informed you that I would be out of the blogosphere for about a week because of an unexpected trip out of town.

Somehow in my foggy brained editing I deleted the original post. A click in the wrong place can really mess things up sometimes.

At any rate. I'll be back to blogging next week. I'll see you all then.

Menu Plan - November 1, 2009

Oh my goodness. Is it really November already? Wasn't it just the beginning of September last week? I'm having a bit of difficulty wrapping my brain around another month of menu planning. It seems like I just did this. I did ask the family about suggestions, got some good ones and a few I rejected outright because I refuse to serve fried chicken more than 2 times per year. We may not be the healthiest eaters, but I do draw the line somewhere!  Included in this month's plan are two meals I received from Pssst. I'll be posting a review when we've eaten them.

Here are the plans for the month:
Hamburgers
Steak
Pizza (requested by Joseph)
Spaghetti x2
Pizza Meatloaf
Grilled Cheese & Soup (requested by Joseph & Cora)
Mac & Cheese w/ Hot dogs x2
Chicken Stir Fry (requested by Cora), probably x2
Chicken Nuggets
Sesame Ginger Chicken in Crockpot
Vidalia Onion Chicken in Crockpot
Indonesian Ginger Chicken (requested by Hubby)
Parmesan Crusted Pork chops
Sloppy Joes
Tacos
Thanksgiving Dinner
Turkey Tettrazini
Meals from Psst x2
Leftovers x4
Twice Baked Potatoes (wondering if these can be done ahead and frozen...anybody know?)

I know that's not a full month's worth of meals, but I suspect our schedule is going to be rather fluid this month so I'm going to stop there and see how things go. I'm also starting to look more into Once A Month Cooking and making meals ahead. I've done this more with breakfast foods than dinner foods in the past. I'll re-assess the menu as the month progresses.

Up for this week at Unfinished Mom's House:
(Breakfasts are mostly the same as last week because it just makes planning easier!)

Sunday:

B - cereal

D - various leftovers

Monday:

B - pancakes, fruit

D - Hamburgers w/ peaches, peas, corn

Tuesday

B - Oatmeal with various additions according to taste

D - Sesame Ginger Chicken in Crockpot w/ brown rice, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans

Wednesday

B - Creamed Chipped Beef over Whole Wheat Biscuits

D - Spaghetti

Thursday

B - Egg in a Hole or scrambled eggs, grits

D - Leftovers

Friday

B - Waffles & fruit

D - Sloppy Joes or Tacos

Saturday

B - going to try again to make this Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

D - Parmesan Crusted Porkchops

Lunches: as always will be dominated by leftovers along with turkey & cheese sandwiches, PBJs, applesauce, cantaloupe, bananas, canned peaches, carrot sticks

Fore more great menu plans, be sure to visit Organizing Junkie.