Menu Plan Monday - 3/19/12

Picture credit: Microsoft Office Clip Art

We continue to have just incredible weather here!! I personally cannot remember a March I've spent in Wisconsin where the temperatures stayed in the 70's and 80's for a few weeks. It is absolutely lovely. The cool evenings that come after the warm weather are just perfect for keeping the windows open at night. Since we've been out enjoying the weather a lot, I just got online here today to post my menu for the week.

Here is what's cooking at our house:

Monday
Sandwiches

Tuesday
Homemade Spaghetti 

My husband loved the sauce this week. I just used our Roundy's brand Chunky Garden sauce with the addition of diced tomatoes and ground beef. I will post soon about these diced tomatoes, as they came from a restaurant sized jar. They were bigger chunks than the petite diced ones I'd been using and we loved the change!

Wednesday
Irish Shepherd's Pie 

I finally found ground lamb! Although at $9.99 a pound, this is a once a year meal for us. I intended to make this for St. Patrick's Day, but we are a week late since it took a while to find the lamb. 

Thursday

Homemade Fish Sticks with Steamed Broccoli 

I've really been enjoying this new blog called The Prairie Homestead. She has fabulous ideas for getting back to the simple ways of life, integrating small changes at a time. I can't wait to try these fish sticks. I've been wanting to add more fish into our diet so I was glad to find the recipe.

Friday

Dublin Coddle

This was a recipe I found on Google the other day. I was searching for recipes with root vegetables and ended up finding this one. I love rich and hearty stews and have been trying to make more meals with sweet potatoes since they not only taste so good, but are good for you. This will be fun to try! I like the name too :o)

Saturday
Leftovers

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to:

SusieQTpies Scraps of Life

 Click the buttons above to see what others are making this week!

Thanks for visiting!

"Tracey's Kitchen" Posts Now Here!!

Picture Credit: Microsoft Office Clip Art

Since I began blogging over two years ago, I've always maintained two blogs. This one has been my main one, and then I have a recipe blog called Tracey's Kitchen. I recently made a decision that it would be easier to keep up with ONE blog instead of two, so I decided to move my Kitchen posts over here for the time being! You'll be seeing my menu plans and recipe posts here in the near future.

Thanks for visiting!

A low-key Saturday

We had a little extra snooze time this morning while J slept a bit later. He could barely wait for me to make the pancakes he was so hungry, so he sampled the batter. L and I read him a few books after breakfast and then he wanted Veggie Tales for a bit.

This morning I continued in Luke 2. Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple to present him to the Lord. There we meet Simeon, a righteous and devout man. The Lord revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen Christ. When Simeon sees the baby Jesus, he took him in his arms and praised God. The Lord fulfilled his promise. Luke also speaks of a woman named Anna who never left the temple but worshiped there day and night. She came up to Jesus and gave thanks to God speaking about him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. We see here the Lord revealing himself to people devoted to him (Anna and Simeon). Beth reflects how God constantly reveals himself to us and we, through devotional time, prayer, waiting and observing will see more and more of him.

This afternoon, J wanted waffles for lunch. We went round and round with all the other options and the only thing he'd eat was waffles. Then he asked for yogurt so I gave him that too. He ended up playing with the waffles and eating 2 yogurts and refusing anything else. Not a good meal. After lunch, we headed to the library to return some things. I ended up finding a cute dinosaur book for J which is one of the things he's into right now (in addition to fire trucks, construction equipment, Thomas the train, Sesame Street, hotwheels cars, Little People).

J's been having a good time playing with the new toys I got from the garage sales and secondhand store. He loves anything that has sound and lights. Most of them aren't too bad noise-wise. The Caterpillar digger though is a bit obnoxious so I'll have to put duct tape over the little speaker. He continues to love "reading" through books. He'll place the book on the couch and stand there turning pages and "reading" them.

Well, we had another exciting Saturday night. We did quick and easy dinner and J ate so well. He more than made up for the yogurt lunch. I gave him a plain cheese quesedilla and I put sour cream with salsa on mine. He asked to try mine (saying J try?) and he really liked it so I put some on his; a lot messier but added dairy and veggies to the meal. After dinner, we picked up groceries for the week. I still plan the coming week's menu so I have everything I need and it gives me piece of mind to not have to plan meals each night. When we got home, J was playing with his trucks and so I told him I was missing my little helper. I asked if he wanted to help and he came right away to help me with the rest of the groceries. We name all the foods as we put them away. Finally, it was time for our bedtime routine and now I have a little free time for my Saturday night.

Oh, I almost forgot. I want to keep writing about my eating program since I need accountability. Neither yesterday or today were "perfect" days, I had sweet snacks both days. When I dropped off the meal the other night, the mom gave me a huge chocolate bar so I've had that as a snack both days. It's not gone yet but close to it. Temptation is so hard since chocolate is really my favorite. Then I was really hungry tonight but had some strawberries which were really good. I have to remember I can snack on fruits and veggies, just not anything else.

Last thing, my camera broke yesterday so for a while I won't have a good photo to match up with the day. I'll be pulling in some old ones instead or finding pics from the internet.