Meal Plan Monday

Wow, are we keeping busy already this summer! Besides my attempt at freezing and preserving 3 flats of strawberries last week (note to self: in the future, one flat of strawberries at a time, please!), my hubby has been hard at work on a swing set for our kids.  My dad came to visit for a few days last week to help him build, and it looks great, but still needed swings, a slide, some more wood for the sides and the ladder, and sand for the sandbox. Then, we were blessed this weekend with a slide and a ton of wood from a friend's neighbor who had taken down their swing set.  Now, that is frugally green! Free lumber and a slide, and not needing to use new lumber and cut down trees to finish building our swing set! So great! 

 Hubs and dad hard at work!

So, I made the bread pudding tonight and it was really pretty good.  To me it's kind of like a baked french toast dish, but I like baked french toast, so it's all good!  Also, I finally made the homemade crackers.  They are really good, but it does take a little bit to figure out how to know if they are done cooking or not.  One of my batches is definitely on the darker and crispier side, but still yummy!

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Black Bean Burgers (new recipe, excited to try these!) and fried potatoes

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - Hummus with veggies for dipping

Wednesday - Easy Skillet Chili Mac, salad and corn (another new recipe)

Thursday - Quiche and fruit salad
Homemade crust

Friday - Homemade Pizza
Homemade crust and sauce


Saturday - Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken

Sunday - Brenden's First Birthday!! (And Father's Day, that's important too!) - dinner/birthday party at my in-laws house. 

Cooking From Scratch:
After spending so much time in the kitchen with the strawberries last week, I'm not feeling very inspired to cook much extra, besides dinner, this week.  


I'm cooking 2 batches of dried beans today to use in both the black bean burgers and the hummus and then I'll freeze the extras in can-sized portions. It's so great to have cooked beans on hand to use in recipes that call for a can of beans.   


I am planning to brew some cold coffee and tea this week in the fridge following these directions from Simple Bites.  Doesn't that look so refreshing?  I'm hoping to be able to figure out how to make a homemade frappuccino with this. It would be so amazing to make a frappuccino type drink at home instead of shelling out $$$ for one at Starbucks!



I am planning to make Brenden's birthday cake on Sunday as well as some cupcakes to take to church that morning.  It's kind of funny, but for my daughter's first birthday I was really picky about the cake that we made for her.  It was sugar free, and had applesauce in it.  She liked it, but it really wasn't the best cake for the rest of us to eat.  This time, for B's birthday, I think I'm going to make this awesome chocolate cake.  Yes, not the best thing for him to have (I'm sure he'll love it though!), but everyone else will enjoy eating it too! 

What are you making from scratch at your house this week? 

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If this is your first time here and you'd like to learn more about me and what Live Renewed is about, click here. If you like what you've read, and would like to read more, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

June's Change Challenge is Frugally Green Baby Care. You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday! Sorry this post is late - Blogger was having some issues last night and today, but hopefully they got it all straightened out!

How was your weekend?  We had lots of fun around here.  On Saturday, my hubs and I ran a 5K through downtown South Bend, that ended in Notre Dame stadium.  It's pretty cool to run into the stadium and finish on the field, and we ran well, better than we expected!

Then, while I was scoring some great deals on clothes for my kids at garage sales, my wonderful hubby made me another square foot garden bed.  I was having trouble with my tomato plants and some of my pepper plants, so he made me the bed so I could transplant them.  Hopefully they'll survive the transplant and thrive in their new box with organic garden soil and compost.  I'll be sure to keep you updated.

Also, this past week I cleaned out my pantry and freezer to go along with Keeper of the Home's Cook More Real Food event.  It feels so great to have an organized pantry and freezer and to actually know what is in there.  I used the great printable lists from Organized Home to write everything down.  So, now that I know what I have, I'm going to try to incorporate some of the stuff into my meal plans over the next few weeks. 

Okay, onto this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - made Spaghetti and Cheese from More with Less cookbook, Jer was gone for dinner. 

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Cream Cheese Chicken with egg noodles

Wednesday - Hamburgers on the grill, Strawberry Shortcake for dessert!

Thursday - Baked Oatmeal (recipe from a friend that I am making for the first time) and scrambled eggs

Friday - Fish Tacos - (new recipe, but just grilling the tilapia to use in tacos)
Homemade Tortillas

Saturday - going to a World Cup Party!

Sunday - Chicken Pesto Sandwiches
Homemade French Bread (I hope it works - I've not had the best luck with bread baking recently)
Homemade Pesto

Cooking From Scratch:
Also, I want to get back in the habit of including the recipes for other things I'm making from scratch during the week.  I've been a little lax about keeping up in the kitchen, having snacks and other things on hand.  I'm planning to try making these wheat thin style crackers this week. 

I also have some leftover buns in my cupboard, so in an attempt to use up my leftovers, I'm going to try to make bread pudding for the first time.  I'm not sure I've ever had bread pudding, and I'm not sure I even like it, but I figure I might as well try to make it and see if I like it or not.  It seems like a great way to use up leftover bread.

Also, making a batch of granola tonight.  Nothing beats homemade yogurt topped with homemade granola and fruit for breakfast!

What are you making from scratch at your house this week? 

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If this is your first time here and you'd like to learn more about me and what Live Renewed is about, click here. If you like what you've read, and would like to read more, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

June's Change Challenge is Frugally Green Baby Care. You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! We had some great family time, got some work done on some projects, got to hang out with some great friends that we don't see often, and overall had a really busy and fun weekend. 

I spent about an hour today blanching and freezing 10 lbs of asparagus from the farmer's market. My friend Jenica has a good post about how to do it, if you are interested.  I just blanched mine in boiling water in a large stock pot. This is the first time that I have blanched and frozen veggies and I'm excited to begin preserving some of the summer's bounty. Preserving fruits and vegetables is such a great way to support local farmer's, buy in season, and save money all while being able to eat variety throughout the year.   I am hoping to have a very full freezer by the end of the summer!

Last week I made salmon patties for the first time.  They were pretty good.  I think I liked them more than Jer, but he said it would be okay if I made them again.  We are trying to include more fish in our diets, and this is a good way eat wild caught salmon.  The only problem I had is that I didn't realize that the salmon in the can has bones and skin in it and it was pretty tedious, and time consuming, trying to dig through and get all of that out.  I'm sure I didn't get all the bones out though and we couldn't tell at all, so I think next time I won't worry so much about the bones and just make sure to get the skin out. 

Also I just had to mention that we made these cinnamon rolls this morning and they are so amazingly good.  We always make a whole batch and cook half and freeze half for later (after rolling and cutting, but not cooked) and they taste just as good coming out of the freezer.  So even though the rolls are kind of a lot of work, you get 2 sets of cinnamon rolls out of it, and they are so good that it is worth it! 

Okay, here's this week's menu:

Monday -Had Steak with homemade marinade (so good!), mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and grilled asparagus

Tuesday - dinner with our small group

Wednesday - Baked French Toast, fruit salad 

Thursday - Steak Stir-Fry with rice

Friday - Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Homemade Ranch Dressing (I didn't get to make this last week, hopefully this week!)

Saturday - Pizza
Homemade sauce, homemade crust 

Sunday - Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches
Homemade BBQ sauce

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If this is your first time here and you'd like to learn more about me and what Live Renewed is about, click here. If you like what you've read, and would like to read more, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

May's Change Challenge is Decreasing Your Household Waste. You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan um... Tuesday!

After such a great weekend, I'm a little behind on the meal plan this week.  But, I still wanted to post it for my own sake and for any of you out there that like to see how I try to make most of my meals from scratch.  Are any of you out there?  Sometimes I wonder if you guys like to see my meal plan each week, or if it's something that you just skip or skim over?  I post my meal plan because it keeps me accountable and on track, and because I pull up my meal plan post on my Google Reader and click on my recipe each day when I'm getting ready to make dinner. :) That's why I had such a hard time when I didn't have internet for 2 weeks! But, if no one is really reading it or would miss it if I stopped posting it, then I might start posting something different on Mondays - what do you think?

Last week my new recipes went well.  I especially liked the Crockpot Southwestern Beans recipe that my sister gave me, so I'll have to post that recipe soon.  It is a great meal for Meatless Mondays, and Jer even approved, which is pretty rare for recipes with lots of beans and no meat!

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - had leftover Southwestern Beans - Jer had a meeting

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Breakfast Bake with sausage (not using homemade crescent rolls, shhh! But I read the ingredients and they have hydrogenated oils - trans fat! Ahhh! So from now on I will be making them from scratch!)

Wednesday - Carnitas - meat in freezer from the last time we had them
Homemade Tortillas
Homemade Refried Beans

Thursday - Crockpot Chicken Parmesan and salad - hopefully from our garden!
Homemade Ranch Dressing (trying this for the first time!)

Friday - Salmon Patties, rice and veggies (New recipe, I'm trying to include fish in our menu every other week)

Saturday - Hamburgers on the grill
Homemade Buns

Sunday - Grilled Cheese and Homemade Chicken and Noodles from freezer


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

This month's Change Challenge is Decreasing Household Waste! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here. 

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Menu Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a great weekend! My hubby surprised me with a date night on Saturday and it was so nice to get out and have dinner and be able to spend time together and talk without being interrupted by the kiddos - and thanks to my in-laws for watching them! 

Last week I made Homemade Alfredo Sauce with pasta, chicken and broccoli, and it was sooooo, so good! And fairly easy too.  Jer isn't a huge alfredo fan and he even really liked it and said I could add it to our regular rotation.  One piece of advice though, I followed one of the reviews that said they only used 7 Tbsp of butter instead of the whole stick, because that is what I had available, the sauce turned out great, nice and thick.  My younger sister made the sauce the same night and said that she had trouble getting the sauce to thicken and that it was too runny.  So, if you try it, cut a Tbsp of butter off the stick before you melt it in the pan.  I have two new recipes this week that I am excited to try, the one for Crockpot Southwestern Beans is from my middle sister, so I'll post the recipe later if it's a keeper.  Also, my younger sister, Laura, is coming to visit for a few days this week.  We are so excited to see her, the kids always have so much fun with her!

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Baked Potatoes with broccoli and cheese, salad

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Bread in the bread machine

Wednesday - Chicken and Biscuits (New - scroll down for the recipe)
Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup from last week
Homemade Biscuits

Thursday - Crockpot Southwestern Beans over rice (New recipes from my sister)

Friday - Homemade Pizza
Homemade Crust
Homemade Sauce

Saturday - Out of town for Gleek Retreat!  And My sister's bachlorette party!

Sunday - Leftovers or Grilled Cheese and Homemade Chicken and Noodles from the freezer


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

This month's Change Challenge is Decreasing Household Waste! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here. 

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan Monday - I'm Back!!

Wow! It has been awhile, huh?! Sometimes it's good to take a little break from things that you spend a lot of time on, and are important to you, so that you can refocus and re-energize.  I'm glad to be back on the blog and looking forward to where this blogging journey is going to take me.  In two weeks, I'm going to be attending a blogging conference, Gleek Retreat, in Holland, MI.  I am really looking forward to being able to go, to learn some things about blogging, and to connect with other bloggers.  One of my favorite bloggers, Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is going to be there, and is speaking, and I'm so excited to meet her!

Also, tomorrow night my friend and I are going to a workshop at the library on composting.  It's kind of weird that I'm so excited about it, but composting is something that I really want to start doing this summer.  We've planted the first of our garden (post and pictures later this week!) and although we are lucky that we can get free compost from our city's solid waste district, I'd love to be able to reduce the amount of waste that we throw away and turn it into usable, valuable soil for our garden! I love the idea of turning trash into treasure!

Anyway, back to the meal plan. Two weeks ago I shared that I was going to start trying a couple of new recipes each week.  That week, I made Cheese Fondue with crusty bread, boiled potatoes, apples, steamed asparagus, and shrimp, and it was a huge hit! We all loved it! My hubby and I went to an amazing fondue restaurant in Chicago the night that we got engaged, so it's kind of a special dinner for us, but I had never tried making it at home.  We received a fondue pot and forks as a wedding present and had never used it, and it was actually in our garage sale pile.  Well, we pulled it out to use it for this meal, and we're not going to be selling it anytime soon because this was such fun and yummy meal we will definitely be having it again! You don't have to have a fondue pot to make it work though, and I'm sure that it would taste just as good!

 Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Quiche with Homemade Crust

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - I'll be at the composting workshop

Wednesday - Ground Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles and salad
Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup (scroll down a little for the recipe)

Thursday - Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (new recipe - I *love* fettuccine alfredo, I'm excited to try a homemade version!)

Friday - Grilled Tilapia with rice and veggies

Saturday -  Leftovers

Sunday - Black Bean & Corn Quesadillas
Homemade Tortillas


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Last month's Change Challenge was Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here. Check back later this week for May's Change Challenge!

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan Monday

So to combat my lack luster meal planning lately, I've decided that I need to start trying some new recipes.  I love to browse recipes online and on blogs and I have way too many recipes bookmarked and in my recipe boxes on allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com.  Sometimes trying new recipes is hard because you never know exactly how it will turn out (it could be a total flop), but it can breathe some new life into your regular routine and same old recipes in the kitchen.  I'll highlight the new recipes that I am trying each week and will let you know how they turned out the following week.

Also, if you have a favorite recipe that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it! Even though I don't really need any more "to try" recipes, you really can never have too many, can you? Feel free to leave a comment with the link to your recipe.

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Spaghetti with veggies and Cheese Biscuits (from freezer)
Homemade marinara sauce (new)

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - Baked Potato Bar

Wednesday - Cheese Fondue with crusty bread, potatoes, apples, asparagus, and shrimp (new recipe  and can't wait to try this - looks like such a fun dinner!)

Thursday - Hamburgers on grill, baked french fries (from last week) 
Homemade Buns

Friday - Crockpot Asian Chicken and veggies (new)

Saturday -  Ribs on the Grill, mashed potatoes, corn, buttery bread machine rolls 

Sunday - Leftovers, Breakfast for dinner



Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

This month's Change Challenge is Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Menu Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We enjoyed some time with my family in Michigan - two weekends in a row with the fam!  Meal planning is not coming easily to me right now, but it's still important for me to stick with it, even when I don't feel like it, because having no meal plan at all is not a fun position to be in at the beginning of the week.

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Roasted Whole Chicken, mashed potatoes and creamed asparagus

Tuesday - dinner with our small group 

Wednesday - Homemade Vegetable Beef Soup (with leftover roast beef and au jus from French Dip sandwiches last week), Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Thursday - Thai Lettuce Wraps

Friday - Homemade Pizza

Saturday - Hamburgers on the Grill, baked french fries

Sunday - Grilled Chicken topped with bruschetta and cheese, rice and veggies (from last week)

I also need to make some snacks and stuff for Jer to take in his lunch this week.
Black Bean Hummus
Berry Oatmeal Muffins
Granola Bars

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

This month's Change Challenge is Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan Monday

Better late than never...
My family was in town visiting this past weekend and we always have such a great time with them!  We headed to my grandpa's house in Ohio to look through my grandmother's kitchen stuff.  I got some nice kitchen gear - pots and pans, stainless steel mixing bowls, big glass canning jars, and one thing that I am so excited about:

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer.  It was originally published in 1896, but this version is from 1946 and says that it is completely revised and updated. 
In the reading that I've done about real and whole foods, one main theme that comes up is not eating food that your grandmother, or maybe great-grandmother, wouldn't recognize as food - getting back to basic, unprocessed, whole foods.  Although this version is updated and includes some convenience items like cream of chicken soup (or some other cream of soup) or bullion cubes as ingredients, I'm still excited to flip through this and find some good, old fashion, from scratch recipes, especially as part of the Read the Ingredients Challenge this month! I hope that this cookbook will be well used and loved by me, as it obviously was by my grandma.  We also got an old cookbook on freezing and preserving that went to my mom's house as my sisters and I are planning to have some canning parties there this summer.  Doesn't that sound so fun?! Do you have any vintage cookbooks that you love to cook from? 

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Breakfast for dinner


Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Spaghetti 

Wednesday - Leftovers or quick dinner - finishing up taxes - blah!

Thursday - French Dip sandwiches in the crockpot
Homemade Onion Soup mix 
Homemade Rolls

Friday - Grilled Chicken topped with bruschetta and cheese, rice and veggies (from last week)

Saturday - away from home for dinner

Sunday - Leftovers or Grilled Cheese and soup

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

This month's Change Challenge is Read the Ingredients! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan Monday

I missed the meal plan last week and I was feeling it all week long.  I had meals in my head that I could make, but every day around 3:00/3:30 I would think, "Oh no, what are we going to eat tonight?" It was not a fun week as far as cooking and meals go, so I definitely want to get back on board with the meal planning this week!

I did finally made the Elk Roast, though, last week!  I made it in the crockpot and it turned out pretty well; I was surprised by how much I liked it.  I may have overcooked it a little, so it was a bit dry, but it was so tender.  I could cut it with my fork and it just would fall apart in your mouth, unlike a beef roast which, to me, can often be tough and chewy.  As I am beginning to learn more about real food, this type of meat is like ultimate real food - free range, grass-fed, no antibiotics or hormones - just good, lean meat.  Maybe I'll have to encourage Jer to take up hunting - what do you think?

I do feel like I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately.  Making things from scratch is not easy, but to me it's definitely worth it.  I love serving meals that are free of as many processed foods as possible.  I've come to realize that I have to kind of look at cooking as my hobby.  Something that I am learning and trying new things, and spending a lot of my free time on.  Although it's probably not my first choice of a hobby, I think it's a pretty worthwhile pursuit, to cook my family good and whole food as much as I can. But, since I've been feeling stuck in the kitchen a lot lately I'm going to try to find more meals that are quick and easy, or that I can prep ahead of time.  It may not make a huge dent in my kitchen time, but if I can spend 15 more minutes outside in the beautiful spring weather we've been having - that's definitely a good thing!

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Tuna Salad Sandwiches (Jer's away for dinner)


Tuesday - dinner with our small group

Wednesday - Thai Chicken with rice

Thursday - Crockpot Carnitas
Homemade Tortillas

Friday - Homemade Pizza (all ingredients are already in the freezer)
Homemade Pizza Crust
Homemade Pizza Sauce

Saturday - dinner with my family visiting for the weekend!

Sunday - Grilled Chicken topped with bruschetta and cheese, rice and veggies


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

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Thanks for visiting Live Renewed! If you’d like to read more about my journey to becoming Frugally Green, please subscribe to my blog by clicking here! You can also follow me on Twitter.

Be sure to check back later this week for this month’s Change Challenge! You can catch up on all the Change Challenge posts here.

Are you brand new to being frugally green? Be sure to check out my Frugally Green Fundamentals.

Meal Plan Monday

Just short and sweet today. :)  You'll see the Elk roast on the meal plan again this week - I forgot to defrost it last week and I'm honestly a little intimidated of it, so I've probably unconsciously been putting it off.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me about how I should cook it? 

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, salad and homemade bread


Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Mexican Rice

Wednesday - Elk roast in the crockpot, cheese biscuits (cannot wait to try these, they look too good!) 

Meatless Thursday - Black Bean & Corn Quesadillas
Homemade Tortillas

Friday - French Dip sandwiches in the crockpot (from last week)
Homemade Onion Soup mix 
Homemade sandwich buns

 Saturday - Breakfast for dinner


Sunday -
Lunch - Tuna or Chicken Salad sandwiches, fruit
Dinner - Leftovers


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Another Monday! We didn't follow the meal plan exactly last week, so you'll see a few repeat meals this week. Also, I was feeling a bit unmotivated last night in my meal planning.  I think I'm getting tired of making the same types of meals over and over. I can't wait for spring and summer produce to breathe new life into our meals and meal planning! I know the reality is that it will probably snow again here before spring truly comes, but right now we are enjoying the more mild temperatures and small signs of spring!  I have flowers growing in my front flower beds and am beginning to think about and plan for gardening this summer.  I am a total newbie to gardening and really have no idea what I'm doing or where to start, but I figure I have to start somewhere and just learn as I go, right?!  If I don't mess things up too badly, I plan to share with you what I'm doing and learning with my first attempt at gardening - should be entertaining at least. :) 

Also, as I've been making more stuff from scratch I've tweaked some of my recipes to include homemade ingredients, I'm going to start including those recipe links under each day's recipe.  Hope that helps some of you that, like me, are looking for more homemade and less packaged, processed stuff.

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Turkey Burgers on the grill (from last week)
Homemade Buns

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Chili in the crockpot

Wednesday - Spaghetti w/meatballs

Thursday - Elk Roast in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes (from last week)

Friday - BBQ Chicken Pizza
Homemade Pizza Dough (I have a few different pizza dough recipes that I use, but this is a really good, easy one, I make it with white whole wheat flour)

Saturday - Chicken Chimichangas
Homemade Tortillas

Sunday - French Dip sandwiches in the crockpot
Homemade Onion Soup mix 

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

We had beautiful weather here last week - the sun shining and the temperature rising just a little bit.  I am so ready for spring, I know it's just around the corner.  It's so nice to be able to get outside and get some fresh air and as far as meal planning goes I'm especially excited to be able to grill on a regular basis again! I think I'm going to jump the gun a little and plan to grill this week, hopefully the weather cooperates!

Also, one of Jer's best friend's from college and his mom stopped by on their way driving from Colorado to Pennsylvania.  We had a great time catching up with them, and he gave us an elk roast from hunting in the fall.  I've never had any kind of game meat, like elk or deer, so I'm a little freaked out by it, but also excited to try it. So we'll be cooking that up this week as well.

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Baked Potato Soup, salad and buttery bread machine rolls

Tuesday - dinner with our small group 

Wednesday -  Chicken Spaghetti 

Thursday - Elk Roast in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes (not exactly sure how I'm doing this yet, but we'll figure it out!) :)

Friday -Turkey Burgers on the grill

Saturday - BBQ Ribs on the grill (ooh, two days in a row!) and mashed potatoes

Sunday - Chicken Chimichangas



Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

We had a great weekend with my family - it's always so fun to see and spend time with them and we got to celebrate my mom's birthday on Saturday.  And even though it was her birthday, my mom brought me a great present - a new bread machine!  It actually is new, she got it on super clearance at Meijer, probably a returned Christmas present, but I am so happy to have a working bread machine again! Thanks Mom!

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Green Chilis (from last week) making homemade tortillas and homemade refried beans

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Blarney Stone Bread

Wednesday - Gr. Beef Curry with homemade pitas

Thursday -maybe some kind of chicken, or turkey burgers, not quite sure yet...

Friday - Homemade Pizza

Saturday - dinner at friends' house

Sunday - dinner at church



Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Last week's meal plan got changed up a little at the end of the week, and I have food in my fridge that needs to be used up to make sure it doesn't go to waste.  So, you'll see a few repeat meals from last week.

I'm also trying to eat from our pantry and freezer for the rest of the month since that was part of the point of my baking/freezer cooking day.  I'm hoping to just have to pick up a few essentials at the store like milk, bananas and cheese (Kaelyn's favorite foods) for the rest of the month.  So, I don't have a ton of recipe links to share, and my meals might be a little boring the next two weeks.  I'm okay with that.  

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Thai Chicken

Tuesday - dinner with our small group

Wednesday - Spaghetti with meatballs (in freezer from baking day)

Thursday - Breakfast for dinner, eggs, waffles, fruit

Friday - Homemade chicken noodle soup, Peasant Bread

Saturday - Meatloaf (in freezer from baking day), baked potatoes

Sunday - Chili in the crockpot



Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday!  I still can't believe how fast time flies by sometimes, that it is a new week already! 

My bread machine broke last weekend and I am so sad! Bread machines are one of those appliances that people probably buy thinking, 'Oh, I'll make yummy homemade bread all the time,' and then it ends up just sitting in their cupboard or taking up room on the counter, unused.  If you already have a bread machine, I HIGHLY recommend that you take it out and start using it.  It is so easy, it's so nice to have homemade bread, and you can find all kinds of breads and recipes to suite your needs.  If you don't have one, check out Goodwill, or your local thrift store. Because most people don't use them as much as they think they will, this is one appliance I think you can find in good condition pretty easily at a resale store. My machine was one that my mom got at Goodwill for $5, so it's not a huge loss that it broke, and now she is on the lookout for a new one for me.  So, all that is to say that I'm trying my hand at making some homemade bread not in the bread machine this week. My past attempts have not gone very well, so hopefully this week will be better!

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Quiche with homemade crust, and fruit salad

Tuesday - dinner with our small group, making spaghetti

Wednesday -Broiled Tilapia Parmesan with rice and veggies

Thursday - cooking a whole chicken, making homemade chicken noodle soup, Peasant Bread

Friday - Thai Chicken (with leftover chicken from yesterday)

Saturday -Meatloaf (in freezer, from baking day), baked potatoes

Sunday - Chicken Enchilada Soup in the crock pot

Remember, the Change Challenge for February is Personal Care Products.  Check back on Thursday when I'll share my simple and frugal method for washing my hair that saves me tons of time getting ready each day!

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Menu Plan Monday and Baking Day Wrap-Up

I know, it's not Monday, but I haven't actually had to cook yet this week. :) So here's my menu plan for the rest of the week:

Monday - dinner at church

Tuesday - Taco night with our small group

Wednesday - BBQ Chicken Pizza, salad and corn

Thursday - Italian Baked Chicken, veggies, rice

Friday - Tuna Patty Burgers, homemade french fries, salad

Saturday - Leftovers

Sunday - Superbowl! Going to a party at a friend's house - I do live in Indiana, so even though I'm not usually a Colts fan - Go Colts! (That's for my sister Rachel too!)

So baking day, freezer cooking day, whatever you want to call it day, was more of a flop than a success.  There were two things on my list that I didn't get to make, apple squares and chimichangas.   I probably could have made them, I just completely ran out of steam.  I feel like I learned a lot of things from the experience, probably the main one being not to do it again! :)  Maybe I am a wuss in the kitchen or something, but I feel like I am still recovering from those two days (that's one reason why this post is late). Yes, I have some food in my freezer that will be nice to have on hand over the next few weeks, but I don't really know if it was worth it.  I just felt like I spent my entire days in the kitchen and didn't get anything else done, I was super tired, and there were SO MANY dishes.  And I despise dishes, I mean, I really hate doing dishes.

I think for me, it would work better to do one or two tasks in the kitchen each day, besides dinner, and make extra food that way, rather than trying to do it all at one time in one day. At least I've tried it and now I know.  If I were ever to do it in the future I would not try so many new recipes that I have never made before, that was a big mistake, and made the days harder for me than they could have been if I had made some of my tried and  true recipes instead.  It will be nice to pull stuff out of the freezer already made and ready to eat though, so I won't complain about that part of it.  Alright, enough about that, I just wanted to give a little update and share a little of my experience. 

We're starting the February Change Challenge this week - check back tomorrow for the area of change we'll be taking on this month!

Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Sorry for the lack of recipe links this week.  I originally posted my weekly meal plans as just a way to hold myself accountable and make sure that I planned meals each week and stuck to my plan.  That's still the main reason that I post my meal plan - so this week it's mostly for me. :) I'm planning a baking/food prep day next Friday the 29th, and I'll try to post lots of links to things I'm making as well as my plan for the day to, again, keep myself accountable.

Here's this week's menu:

Monday - Baked Salmon, rice & veggies

Tuesday - Pizza with our small group

Wednesday - Breakfast for dinner

Thursday - Spaghetti and Buttery Bread Machine Rolls (meatless meal)

Friday - Baked Teriyaki Chicken with homemade chicken rice-a-roni

Saturday - Ribs, cheesy potatoes, corn and rolls - having friends over for dinner

Sunday - Taco Soup and homemade bread


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

We got back late tonight from a great weekend in Michigan with my family.  It's always so great to spend time with family, but getting back late means I'm not feeling on top of things for this week.  The weather here has been super cold and really snowy and it makes me want to just bunker down and leave the house as little as possible and eat lots of easy, warm, yummy comfort food, so that's what this week's meal are mostly about. 

Here's this week's menu:

Meatless Monday - Homemade Mac & Cheese and homemade bread (I'm looking for a good baked Mac & Cheese - does anyone have one they can share or link to?)

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Cheesy Potatoes

Wednesday -  Lemon Garlic Tilapia, veggies, and rice (didn't make last week) 

Thursday - Creamy Chicken Caesar Pasta Bake

Friday -Chili, cornbread

Saturday - Leftovers or Fried Rice

Sunday - Crockpot Chicken Parmesan (from a few weeks ago - I never actually made it)


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Monday

Is it just me, or does time seem to keep flying by faster and faster?! I really still can't believe that it is 2010!  One thing I know is that I'm going to continue meal planning this year and continue to tweak it and figure out the best way to make it work for me and my family.

If you don't already meal plan, I would really encourage you to start trying it this year. It is such a great way to plan ahead, know what you're eating every night for dinner, save money, eat healthy, and I'm sure there are lots more great things about it, I just can't think of them right now. What's your favorite reason for meal planning?

Here's this week's menu:

Monday -  dinner at church

Tuesday - dinner with our small group - making Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup in the crock pot

Wednesday - Pasta in Garlic Sauce with veggies, and Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Thursday - Lemon Garlic Tilapia, veggies, and rice

Friday - Sunday - visiting my parents for the weekend!


Check out more great meal plans at Organizing Junkie!