Menu Plan Monday 4/25

Well, I successfully hosted my first holiday. My sister Laura flew in from Chicago on Saturday and my parents and Emily drove in on Sunday. We had a delicious brunch followed by a visit from the Easter Bunny. (Apparently it doesn't matter that we are all in our twenties...) THANK YOU EASTER BUNNY for your Starbucks coffee, Starbucks gift card, homemade bread & candy. You know me too well.

My Mom contributed the ham... and left most of it with us. I usually try to have at least 2-3 meatless meals a week, but the leftover ham needs to be used... so we will be pigging out this week..ha...ha... Seriously though, I really am creeped out by meat that looks like the animal, so at least with the ham it's only a portion of the pig. Also...at the holidays... I don't follow my "food rules," so there are definitely some things below that are not the norm on our menu.

Sunday: EASTER BRUNCH: Honeybaked ham, cheesy potatoes, roasted asparagus with thyme, fruit salad, sticky buns, carrot cake, sugar cookies frosted to look like Easter eggs and peanut butter fudge.
Monday: ham & vegetable soup, cornbread
Tuesday: ham & noodle casserole, green beans
Wednesday: breakfast burritos, hashbrowns, fruit
Thursday: TJs Chicken Sausages & TJs gorgonzola gnocchi
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: date night (using a gift card!)

Perhaps after this week, I will finally feel motivated to eat vegetarian meals all week...

Menu Plan monday 4/18

SO excited this week is a 4 day week... and then a 4 day weekend... which means another 4 day week!! We are super busy this week, since we decided to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement (which is not something we typically do) on Wednesday, and we have stuff at church on Thurs and Fri... and Saturday my sister is flying in from Chicago, and then Sunday, we are hosting my family for Easter dinner!

Sunday: white chicken chili & cornbread... I threw leftover brown rice into it this time and it totally worked... I also omit either the jalapenos or the chilies and cut waaay back on the cayenne
Monday: veggie burgers & mac & cheese
Tuesday: Orecchiette with Italian sausage and broccoli (using broccoli b/c that's what I have on hand)
Wednesday: date at Northstar Cafe with Grant, celebrating our engagement 4 years ago :-) (side note: I LOVE Northstar, but this time, it was Grant's idea!! SO excited he loves it as much as I do!)
Thursday: Asparagus quiche (substituting asparagus for bacon in this recipe) hash browns & fruit
Friday: homemade Stromboli
Saturday: taking my sister out somewhere!!

Naplespalooza threeza!

This blog was initially intended to be about more than what I'm cooking each week... but the school year is BUSY... we ARE doing other things, but when we are away doing something fun, I spend most of the week catching up on school work. I'm going to attempt, throughout the next few weeks to write a few posts about some of our spring adventures!

At the beginning of March, we took a four-day trip to Naples, FL to visit Grant's parents, who have been living there all winter. This was our third visit to their second home- but the first one during the peak season... the past two years we have gone in July... The weather is definitely better in March! We took a VERY early morning flight on a Thursday and a VERY late flight back on a Sunday. Not only did we get to see his parents, but also Grant's sisters, our brother-in-law and our adorable nephews.

I am the palest one in the family, so I purchased a lovely hat from Target for a little protection from the sun... which everyone made fun of. They were just jealous of my style :-) I read the 4th book in the Twilight series... I started reading them because my students were all reading them... not as good as Harry Potter, but they were still entertaining. I don't "get" the whole deal with vampires though... We had a short, but very sweet trip... went out to dinner a few times, played games and spent many hours in and lounging around the pool. It was definitely hard to return back to cold, snowy Ohio. Grant & I rarely think to take pictures together, so it's always nice to have a few updated photos of the two of us :-) And a HUGE thanks to Mimi & Papa for a great trip!!

Menu Plan Monday 4/11

I'm going to be doing a lot of grading this week. My French III classes just presented books they wrote based on the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" series, and while they are SO cute, they take awhile to grade... So to write my own "si (if) clause," "If you give a teacher who likes to cook a lot of grading, she will have to make easier meals for her sanity!" Here's this week's meal plan...

Sunday: Homemade Mac & cheese (I modify the recipe by using an entire box of whole wheat penne, whatever cheese I have on hand, only using about 2.5 cups of milk & 1/2 of the butter, and I just used panko bread crumbs mixed with a tiny bit of butter for the top... and I add in garlic and ground mustard... and I should probably just make my own recipe...) & green beans
Monday: leftover turkey & black bean tacos & our favorite mexican rice... I made homemade taco seasoning- this recipes is great... it's just nice knowing exactly what you are putting into your tacos! (I actually made this Friday night, so this is meal #3 out of this!)
Tuesday: Chicken & Zucchini couscous & pita bread... was supposed to make this one last week, but I had too many leftovers
Wednesday: ravioli & veggie
Thursday: omelettes & hashbrowns, fruit
Friday: pizza & salad
Saturday: potstickers, rice & egg rolls (still haven't made from a few weeks ago!)

We are also becoming slightly addicted to oatmeal... especially on the weekends... here's a great recipe I found for Baked Banana Oatmeal :-)

As always, jump to www.orgjunkie.com for more menu planning ideas.

Menu Plan Monday 4/4

Well, spring break is over. I had a good week, but it was super busy... ran lots of errands, did quite a few job applications and got to spend some time with a few friends. I can't believe it's already the 4th quarter of this school year. My seniors have 37 more days of school. They were freshmen when I started teaching... so weird. Here's the meal plan for this week:

Sunday: lasagna (I always make up my own version... probably should write it down sometime), salad & garlic bread
Monday: veggie burgers & noodles
Tuesday: Tomato & Barley soup, bread
Wednesday: Whole wheat & oatmeal banana pancakes, turkey bacon
Thursday: Chicken & Zucchini Couscous
Friday: planning to go out w/ my sister who will briefly be in town
Saturday: potstickers, rice & egg rolls (didn't make last week)

go to www.orgjunkie.com for more meal planning ideas