Meal plan for 10/28-11/3

Fridays are paydays for the hubs, so they are also my official shopping day.  Since he gets paid every two weeks and it's easier for me to do one big trip than a bunch of small ones, I buy most everything on payday.  Obviously some things will spoil before the end of the two weeks, so I still end up making a smaller trip for things like produce and milk.  

It can be intimidating to look at a two week long list. I decided that I would just post my monthly menu at the beginning of each month and get into shopping lists weekly.  I think I'm also going to leave out the breakfast/lunch portion of the menu.  I'm not too sure anyone is really interested in what Bean and I scrounging up for meals that most working people aren't home for. ;)

This week, we're trying out a bunch of new recipes and a few tried and true.

Sunday- 3 Cheese Skillet Lasagna (via Martha Stewart)
Monday- Slow Cooker Hawaiian Meatballs (via Six Sisters' Stuff)
Tuesday- Addicting Chicken (via Food.com) and Sweet Potato Muffins (via My Love for Cooking)
Wednesday- Chicken Crescents (via Comfy in the Kitchen)
Thursday- Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Apple Skillet (via 
Friday- Italian Sausage Soup (via Crock Pot, shared by Family.Go.Com)
Saturday- OMG Chicken Tenders (adapted from The Enchanted Cook)

There are things I do different in some of the recipes, like leaving out the brussel sprouts in Thursday's dinner or using sour cream and chicken tenders instead of mayo and whole chicken breasts in Saturday's.  It's all personal preference.  The shopping list, though, shows the ingredients for the recipes as is, with the exception of Saturday, which shows the tenders and sour cream change. At the end is a second list of things that you should already have in your pantry.  If you don't, you really should invest in them.  They're used in quite a few recipes and quite annoying to run out of. The shelf lives for most of them are ridiculously long, so if you end up not needing it again for a few months, they'll be fine. 

Shopping list for week of October 28-November 3

8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
About 1.5 pound chicken breast tenders
3 slices 30% less fat center cut bacon (recipe used Oscar Mayer)
1 1/2 c Brussels sprouts
2 med sweet potatoes
1 med onion, chopped
2 Golden Delicious apples
7 c reduced-sodium chicken broth
43 ounces canned whole peeled plum tomatoes (from a 28-ounce can and a 15-ounce can)
1 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1 box (12 ounces) no-boil lasagna noodles
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, shredded
2 and 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
32 oz. package of precooked, frozen meatballs (you could use turkey meatballs)
13.5 oz can of unsweetened pineapple chunks
1 large green pepper, diced
1 (8 or 6 jumbo count) package refrigerator crescent rolls
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
½ cup and 4 teaspoons Italian seasoned dry bread crumbs (should be something you already have, but I’ll keep it here)
1 pound mild Italian sausage, casings removed
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup mini pasta shells (or other small noodle)
1 bag (10 ounces) baby spinach leaves

*****Please keep in mind that this list is based on the assumption that you are making the full recipes and following them exactly. If you are cutting them in half or altering them in any way, don’t forget to change your list!***** 

Stuff you probably already have:

Salt

Pepper

Corn starch

All-Purpose flour

Garlic salt

Red pepper flakes

Paprika

Vegetable oil

Olive oil

Vanilla extract (never imitation!)

Milk

Oats

Baking powder

Baking soda

Dried parsley

Dried basil

Dried oregano

Dried thyme

butter

Brown sugar

Soy sauce

White vinegar

Eggs

Cinnamon

Garlic bulb

I really hope this is a help.  I would love some feedback. Any questions, comments, or suggestions?  :)

Meal Planning

Recently, as an attempt to lose weight and save money by not eating out, I began diving into meal planning.  At first I started out planning a week at a time.  It didn't take too much energy to plan and the trip to the grocery store didn't last too long. That was especially nice since the baby was barely walking and didn't like shopping.  Now, almost a year later, I'm planning my meals almost a full month at a time and shopping once every two weeks for the bulk and small trips once a week for milk, produce and other highly perishable goods.


I have an awesome PDF and Excel worksheet that I use, and it usually contains 2 snacks between the meals, as well.  Also keep in mind that my toddler eats everything on this menu, the same as I do.  Sometimes plans change and it gets altered, but it doesn't usually change too often. I make notes when I need to freeze half of the recipe for another night and when what I'm making for dinner that night is from my freezer meal stash.

EDIT: I did a print screen of the worksheet I have, so it should look at least a bit more presentable. ;)

Without further ado, here is this weeks menu, starting 10/21/2012 (click to enlarge):

Recipe Resources: -- Spaghetti Squash Lasagna-- http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/09/spaghetti-squash-lasagna.html --Pizza Pasta-- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pizza-pasta/ --Chicken and Dumplings-- http://eatathomecooks.com/2009/07/homemade-chicken-and-dumplings-its-easy-really.html --Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken-- http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html --Meat Lovers Pizza Pasta Bake-- http://www.theslowroasteditalian.blogspot.com/2012/09/meat-lovers-pizza-pasta-bake.html --Chicken Nuggets-- http://sammyw.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/homemade-chicken-nuggets/ --Yogurt Cereal Bars-- http://www.food.com/recipe/yogurt-cereal-bars-310692 I'll work on making a prettier way to show it on the blog. Until then, I hope this works for you.  If anything is unclear, or you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Upcoming Election

I won't make a habit of this. I try to keep myself focused on crafts and whatnot here, but I wanted to make this note.

As a woman I am TERRIFIED of what will happen to my rights, the rights of my friends, my family, my DAUGHTER if Romney-Ryan is elected. As an American I am fearful that the progress we've made will be reversed. Don't like Obama? I don't agree with your views but I respect your right to have them. I hope everyone can recognize that Obama is the lesser threat to your life. Don't set us back. Send us FORWARD.

Wow!

I have been Biz-Ay!  My sister-in-law got married on July 7th.  I didn't know there was so much left to plan and do a month before the wedding, so I jumped on board and got it all done before the wedding weekend! The wedding was hot pink and black, and we added flourishes as design elements.

I'd love to post pictures of the program I designed, but there's too much personal information on it.  Sorry, loves.

Check out the garter I sewed from scratch.

I'm so dang proud of this. 

She had a cookie buffet for favors, too.  This was the most fun to set up and decorate. The cookies were gone before the cake was even cut.

The bride and groom had their own 6" top cake to cut and had 200 cupcakes made (By the lovely 

Kristina Tavares). That meant we needed 200 cupcake wrappers. That's 400 layers of paper.  My poor Cricut was tired. We went through 6 cricut mats since nothing was working to restick the mats. Of course, after the wedding was over my father-in-law worked magic on them so they're almost like new.

There were 18 big versions of these table centerpieces already constructed from a previous wedding but we still needed 4 more smaller ones.  The books are just 3x5 notecards with Mod Podged covers.

My hair! Thanks so much, Em!

This is getting to be a picture-ific post, isn't it? There's more!

Can you believe I beaded a veil? Who needs to spend $100 on a veil when you can get crafty with a $15 veil from Michael's? Even better, I used a coupon and got it for $7.50.

Onto the jewelry.  There were 2 maid of honors and 5 bridesmaids. The black necklaces were worn by the MOHs. The pink was made for the BMs.

And, finally, the wedding gift (better late than never!):

Glass frame with the back removed, and vinyl letters cut using the Cricut Expression machine and Cricut Cuttables vinyl in pink and black.

I hope you guys enjoy my little mini-gallery.  We had a month and almost nothing prepared and busted out an entire wedding!  If you're in the Stockton/Lodi area and need a wedding planner... ;)

Mother's Day

I have to post this project. I did this for mother's day for my mom  (she hasn't seen it yet).  It is SO cool!  It's an 11"x14" shadow box with vellum and scrapbook paper butterflies and a white LED branch!

Lights off

Lights on

Isn't it cool?!  Now I'm off to figure out how to hide the battery pack. 

Another cake?

Okay, so I did end up making another cake. I couldn't go out like that. The party turned out nicely.  We didn't show up early enough to decorate so we had help as people started showing up.

These fabulous rainbow cupcakes were baked by the amazing Kristina. The cupcake wrappers were made by moi using the Cupcake Wrappers Cricut cartridge, polka dots wrapper in purple, pink, green, and orange.

This sad cake actually was quite tasty.  rainbow layers with Fluffy White Frosting and tropical twizzlers (inspiration found here)

I LOVE this banner. Made it using George Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge and Cricut Craft Room software.

A combination of projects here: rainbow dot sewn paper garland (inspiration here), along with a timeline of Bean from birth through 12 months, and the bottom third tier of the Happy Birthday banner (see above).

I think this might be the only picture I have of the amazingly awesome and fantastical ribbon topiaries I made for the tables.  Each topiary was done in rainbow ribbons and put in a bucket in each color of the rainbow (instructions at Polka Dot Birthday)

This curly ribbon wreath took a beating before guests even showed up. We don't know how it happened since it was hanging on the door.  I was quite sad. But it was still a cute addition. (Instructions right over here)

I'm also pretty sad that our photographer (Hubby) didn't get any pictures of the candy buffet (drowned out by the presents, anyway) or the time capsule, or the fruit tray (which was so good it was gone before anyone touched the candy).

Happy Birthday, Bean! (topiary!!)

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