Menu Plan Monday 4/11/2011

Confused that today is Wenesday? We had no (or at least very little) internet access over that past couple of days. As you can imagine ALL of my energy has gone into fixing that issue rather than blogging, scrapping, or even cleaning. (the cleaning part I haven't really minded so much) So ... this week Menu Plan Monday is brought to you on Wednesday. :)

MONDAY: Grilled Chicken, Foil Packet Potatoes, Greeen Peas

This didn't happen though, I nixed all meal preparation when the internet went down and kitchen sink began leaking. I am only putting this in to remind anyone who might read this that having a meal plan doesn't mean that things don't ever change. Life happens. We ended up with "fend for yourself night" combined with "don't talk to Mom, she'll bite your head off night." Oh well. we'll try for a better day the rest of the week.

TUESDAY: Beef Stroganoff

WEDNESAY: Greek Chicken Pitas

This will be a new dinner for us - the recipe uses a deli rotisserie chicken, but I am currently slow baking some chicken breasts I had in the freezer instead.

THURSDAY: Green Bean Potato Casserole, Whole Wheat Cresent Rolls

A favorite from my childhood - ground beef, diced potatoes, & green beans all mixed with cream of mushroom soup and baked at a pretty high temp (I like the crispy browned stuff along the edges if I cook it on high). I plan to addd some sliced up carrots in to it as well.

FRIDAY: Grilled Brats, Potato Salad, Tomato Salad

This will be our first grilled brats of the season - if you are not from Wisconsin, you should know that these are fresh Bratwursts rather than pre-cooked. There is no comparison. The tomato salad is one that I saw Jamie Oliver make on the Food Network and I am excited to try.

LAST WEEK"S NEW RECIPE REVIEWS:

Rachael Ray's Cobb Pasta Toss - it was good, but I will not make it again. It made a lot of dirty dishes, and involved a lot of steps. Making it felt like making breakfast, with so many things going on at once. And I never make breakfast for that reason. Anyway, it was good - not great.

Taste of Home's Slow Cooker Steak Burritos - this was good and easy. I can see myself making this again at some point.

Have a good week - talk to you later.

Project 365 Week 5

January 30th - Thankful Thought no. 5: The last whole day of vacation - always a bit sad. Today we went back to the magic kingdom and then late to Hollywood Studios for the night show. I am thankful for vacation and a husband that really understands how important they are.

January 31st - Time to go home, enough said. Just one last picture showing Jamaica at The Caribbean Beach Resort (home for the last week).

February 1st - Back to Wisconsin and yet another snow storm. Grrrr.

February 2nd - I am done with the vaction laundry. Two days must be a record! Oh, and Jimmy the Groundhog did not see his shadow today. EARLY SPRING! We can only hope.

February 3rd - Scott bought the NFC Champions hat at the airport the morning after the game last week. But when we got home he dug out his NFC Champion hat from 1996. There’s a fan.

February 4th - At the beginning of January I selected “OPEN” as my word of the year 2011 and had not featured it yet. That is my motto this year, open to possibilities, change, whatever.

February 5th - Taylor was back for the weekend. She and Stella joined us in bed Saturday morning for some chat & snuggle time.

AND LASTLY, WEEK 5 LAYOUT

Project 365 Week 4

January 23rd - Thankful Thought no. 4: Funny that this week’s thankful thought is the Packers - but today they won the NFC championship against the Bears. That means that when we get home from Florida we’ll get to watch the Packers in the SUPERBOWL! And so, today, all of Wisconsin is thankful.     

GO PACK GO!

January 24th - We got to Orlando in time to go over to Epcot on Day 1. Awesome. last time we were in Orlando one of my favorite moments was Brooklyn meeting Stitch. So it was quite ironic that he was the first character we met this time.

January 25th - There are no words to describe how awesome, amazing and downright unbelievable today was. At Animal kingdom we were asked to be IN the daily parade. Yes, I said IN. We rode our very own float, the Tiger Float through the entire park - waving at spectators. This is one of my favorite memories EVER!!!

January 26th - Today was Magic Kingdom day - and magic is always a good word to describe it there. It was a big character day for us - Mickey & Minnie, the princesses, the faeries and more.    

January 27th - Hollywood Studios in the morning - where Brooklyn got to be in the “Disney Channel Rocks” show. You know she loved that! And then to Downtown Disney in the afternoon, where Brooklyn went to Bippity Boppity Boo. I think Mom loved that the most.

January 28th - Today we went to Universal. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was the coolest thing - it was like we were really there!!! No kidding!  And Mom has a new favorite ride ever ... through Hogwarts with Harry!

January 29th - Early morning at Hollywood Studios just Mom & Brooke. We were able to ride Rockin” Roller Coaster SIX times in an hour and Tower of Terror THREE. Early morning was fabulous! And then we met Dad at Epcot where Brooke learned to belly dance over lunch in “Morrocco”, rode Soarin’ a couple more times (YAY) and met some hard to find characters, like Jasmine & Alladin and The Beast (with Belle, of course). Disney is the best.

AND NOW FOR THIS WEEK'S BOOK PAGE --

 

Thanks for visiting.

Project 365 Week 3

I'm going to need to post more than 1 week at a time if I plan to get caught up with this at some point - sounds simple enough.

January 16th - Thankful Thought no. 3: I am thankful for our beautiful home. The recession has  really taught me to count my blessings -  Yes, I am still looking for a job at this point, but there are so many people who have been affected so much worse than we have. I am thankful for that perspective. (This is a picture of home. It is Brooklyn & I on the master bed all set up to watch “Worst Cook in America”.  We are here every Sunday night.)

January 17th - Today was a laundry day ...  so I have included a picture from the internet of what I wish my laundry room looked like. A doable goal for 2011.

January 18th - Home on spring break, Taylor has enjoyed seeing some of her “old” friends, Like MacKenzie Bornick.

January 19th - Ericka reminded me about the apple dip I used to make when she & Brad were little. So, today I made some of it. It is just as yummy as we all remember.

January 20th - Packing for our trip has begun in earnest!

January 21st - We had the girls tonight - Stella is such a darling! 

January 22nd - Weekend days at home often look like this now that Brooklyn has her own computer.

AND THEN THERE IS THE LAYOUT FOR WEEK 3

Project 365 Week 2

January 9th - Thankful Thought no. 2: Taylor’s good friend Matt O’Rourke is back from a semester in Africa. Today I am thankful for their friendship & for his safety while in Africa.

January 10th - Ericka, Taylor, Nahdia & Stella go down to spend a couple of days in Dodgeville.

January 11th - Mom (meaning me) makes homemade cookies today.

January 12th - Wednesday means AWANA night for Brooklyn - both Travis and her friend Kate also go.

January 13th - Brooklyn helps make homemade pizza for dinner. We have lots & lots of mozzarella to use up from a semi accident this past weekend. Brad & Serina stocked us all up!

January 14th - Our abandoned swingset all alone for the winter.

January 15th - The Packers played the Falcons in the playoffs today. Scott went to Greg’s for "lucky" lasagna, and the rest of us went to Lana and Chad’s. Packers win. GO PACK GO!

AND LASTLY, THE LAYOUT FOR WEEK TWO

Project 365 Week 1

I have actually kept up to date with this project so far this year - just not with sharing the pictures and layouts. This year my goal with it is to have it be a weekly representation of "who we are" - sometimes that means pictures from the internet that represent our day and/or life better. It also means that I am not stressing about getting the picture each day. If I miss a day - no sweat.  And so without further ado, here is week 1.

January 1st - For the 2nd year in a row Paige spent the night for New Year’s.

The girls have declared it an official “tradition. Love that.

January 2nd - Thankful Thought no. 1: I am thankful for Brooke’s age right now - 8 is wonderful. I am her very best friend and she wants nothing more than to spend time together.

Today we made super awesome banana cupcakes.

January 3rd - All the girls and I went to visit Grandma Brickwell at Tivoli today.

She was so happy to see the little ones ... Somehow we all need to get there more oftten. A little thing that means so much to Grandma.

January 4th - My good friend Jen Carpenter’s chicks. Her daughter Abby hatched them in the laundry room for a school science project.

What a good mom!

January 5th - Today the Christmas tree came down. This is just a close up of some of Brooklyn’s new funky decorations this year. Taylor calls them Easter decorations. Too funny.

January 6th - New phone day (I lost my little pink clam shell one). This was HARD because I did not want a smart phone and there are like zero choices anymore without being one. I need a full keyboard though to text so that pretty much narrowed it down to this one. I hope I like it.

January 7th - We have the girls this weekend - just a shot of our pretty Nahdia.

January 8th - The three girls talked me into pushing the couches together in the living room for a ”cool” place to watch a movie. They thought it was the greatest thing ever. Pretty easy entertainment, Huh?

AND LASTLY, THE LAYOUT  

Menu Plan Monday 4/4/2011

DON'T ADJUST YOUR MONITOR! It really is me blogging. Recently I have been adding a daily thread to my facebook wall asking simply "What's for Dinner?"  It has been really fun to see everyone's responses and their enthusiasm for the daily thread. I have really noticed that the need to write down our daily meals has "forced" me to think about the choices I am making for my family. A much appreciated side effect.

I also have been following a number of blogs for a while now that do weekly meal planning. The most notable of them for me is   MB   by Melanie Bauer that used to run the digital creative team I was on at Two Peas. I started following her at that time and have often considered following in her meal planning footsteps. Well, this is the week I officially go there.

MONDAY: Grilled Ribeye Steaks, Steamed Asparagas, Jasmine Rice &  Tossed Salad   

This is definitely a menu designed to make Scott happy, minus the rice at least. He tends to complain about rice, although I believe it is more to bother me than anything else.

TUESDAY: Cobb Pasta Toss 

This is a new recipe we will be trying from a Rachael Ray cookbook that Brad bought me for Christmas.

WEDNESDAY: Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese

This is a busy night for for us - Brooklyn has both Jump Rope Club and AWANA, so easy is always the word of the day.

THURSDAY: Slow Cooker Steak Burritos

Another new recipe - this one is from Taste of Home magazine.

FRIDAY: Fish at Trapper's Turn Golf Club

Golf started for the season last Saturday, and they have my favorite fish fry of all time. Can't wait!

SATURDAY: Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches and oven fries

Pretty sure this isn't the healthiest choice we could make, but Brooklyn is having a friend over and this is at her request.