Menu Plan Monday 7/25

Wow does it feel weird to type 7/25. WHAT? JULY. 25th. I feel like summer just started. I have decided that this will be my last week of "I'm not going to do anything for school." Next week will be busy as we have VBS each evening, but as for this week... I'm having fun and taking it easy...sort of.

Here's what I'm attempting this week:

Sunday: left over mac & cheese from our date night at La Chatelaine with all-beef hot dogs (classy, I know.)

Monday: Black Bean Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce and Spinach Artichoke Pasta Salad

black bean & zucchini cake from tonight's dinner... these were délicieux! 

 and the spinach artichoke tortellini salad... also amazing :-)

Tuesday: Potstickers, brown rice & egg rolls

Wednesday: Pancakes, Sausage & fruit

Thursday: BBQ Chicken, Baked Potatoes & green beans

Friday: Pizza on the grill! So excited to finally try this!

Saturday: leftovers

for more menu planning ideas, go to http://orgjunkie.com/2011/07/menu-plan-monday-july-2511.html

Corn: my current vegetable obsession

sI haven't been in the mood for veggies recently, with one exception: corn. So we have been eating A LOT of it. When I was preparing to leave Montreal last week, due to my desire to have Mexican food, I kindly requested that Grant pick up the necessary ingredients for tacos. We had tacos two nights in a row, and as I was exhausted from the traveling, I didn't make my old standby of Mexican rice, rather, I made corn. Here are a few corn recipes we've enjoyed this summer (#1 & #2 were the new ones I tried last week):

1) Spicy Corn sidedish: Cayenne & Cumin Sweet Corn: I made this the night I got back. I go through more cumin than any other spice, so I figured this would be a winner. We like a little bit of spice, but not too much, so I cut back on the cayenne. I love how spicy food forces you to drink more water :-) I cut this recipe in half and used frozen corn instead of canned, and used basil from my garden.

2) Summer Corn Salad: love a good cold corn side dish. This one was super refreshing & while we ate it as a side dish, it would probably work well as a snack with some tortilla chips. I used frozen corn again & cut this in 1/3, using only 1 tomato.

3) Grilled Corn: this is our first summer with a grill and while we've had grilled corn frequently, we've never been the ones to prepare it. I shucked (such a gross word) the corn, spread butter on it and topped with kosher salt, garlic powder and cracked peppercorns. It was SO good. I think we left it on the grill for around 30 minutes, turning every 10 or so.

and drumroll please.... because dish #4 is my favorite corn dish. Ever. I found it 3 years or so ago and have been making it constantly. Summer, Winter, Fall, Spring. SO GOOD. It combines corn & black beans (another love of mine)... it says to refrigerate overnight but you just have to eat it right away, it's THAT good. I eat it with tortilla chips, like a salsa.

4) Corn and Black Bean Salad: I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil and frozen corn instead of canned. Other than that, this recipe is easy and so delicious. Here's a pic of the last time I made it:

Menu Plan Monday 7/18

Most of you know I love to cook. Like love, love love. I was dreaming of the things I would cook while I was in Montreal (keep in mind I started my days there wearing a cardigan over my tank top...)... and now that I'm back, what am I doing? Eating cheese & crackers, yogurt & fresh fruit. And a few pickles. Basically, anything that I can take out of the fridge and eat. Seriously... this was my afternoon snack:
Greek Yogurt (my new love), mango, strawberries & raspberries.

I need it to be 75 again! This mid-nineties, high humidity is ridiculous. So this week should be interesting dinner-wise, because for once, I don't feel like cooking. Perhaps if our a/c worked just a little better, it'd be easier.

Nevertheless, here's my game plan for the upcoming week:

Sunday: leftovers... the fridge needs to be cleaned out!
Monday: leftover pizza (for Grant)... I might just have more fruit & yogurt.
Tuesday: Whole Wheat pancakes (with the maple syrup I brought back from Canada!) , yogurt & fruit
Wednesday: Italian Wedding Soup (in the crockpot so I don't have to stand over the stove... perhaps I will actually write down the recipe this time & post it), bread
Thursday: beef & onion multigrain enchiladas w/ this sauce, mexican rice, refried beans
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: burgers on the grill, oven baked french fries

More menu plan ideas (probably ones that involve more cooking!) can be found here.

Home Sweet Home

After being gone 2.5 weeks, there truly is nothing better than your own home. I got asked while I was in Montreal if I was homesick. The answer: absolutely not. My freshman year of college, I was homesick a little at first. But then I learned to love Miami and still miss living in Oxford to this day. When I studied abroad in college, I was homesick for the first few weeks. However, I slowly learned to love and appreciate the differences between the culture of the USA and that of other countries. Taking those leaps of faith of going to college 4.5 hours from home and studying abroad as a 19 year old were life changing. I spent the summer living in Virginia Beach for 10 weeks, and the following summer in France. After college, I moved yet again to a new city. Columbus doesn't feel like my "hometown" and never will... but I am settled in here. The problem though, is that all of the traveling and living abroad has given me the travel bug... when I'm in one place for too long, I feel this strong urge to get OUT. It doesn't have to be far, but I love the change of environment. The only problem is my champagne taste on a beer budget. Thank goodness my dear husband is the one who handles our finances. Otherwise, we'd be leaving for a trip to Venice, Italy and then for a week-long cruise in the Greek Islands. Apparently that is not the typical vacation when you are 26. Someday. We will be visiting New England in a few weeks, for which I am super excited :-)

What do I miss though, if I love living in another place?
1- my husband & family
2- my friends
3- Mexican food

Yup...always those three. Weird, I know. But you just don't eat Mexican unless you are in the USA or Mexico.


So anyways, Montreal... things I liked regarding the culture:

1- people SMILE and say BONJOUR in the streets, instead of just staring straight ahead like in Europe
2- people in general were very polite
3- I have never felt SO safe in a big city
4- they are taking great steps to make the city eco-friendly: they don't give you bags at stores unless you ask... there are escalators that go on a super slow speed when no one is around them and then speed up when you walk past the sensor.
5- like Europe, you were allowed to take your time with a meal... which was great when it was just me, and a hot mess when it was me AND the two children for whom I was nannying.

Menu Plan Monday 6/20

Well, this is officially my last Menu Plan Monday posting until I return from Québec. Hopefully over the next month I will be able to update you via this blog on my life in Montréal!!

Grant's birthday is tomorrow, so we are celebrating this week.

Sunday: caesar salads (with romaine from our garden), baguette slices w/ bruschetta & goat cheese
Monday: using the $30 birthday gift certificate Grant got for signing up on Benihana's website! I keep thinking of the episode of The Office "A Very Benihana Christmas." Here's a link to 48 seconds of highlights from the episode.
Tuesday: out to dinner again with Grant's parents! Happy 27th Grant :-) ILY!
Wednesday: Caprese sandwiches... one of our summer favorites & hopefully some homemade potato chips (if time allows!). Here's one we made last summer... this summer we get to use basil from our garden... and hopefully after I return, we will have tomatoes as well!
Thursday: Rosemary-rubbed pork chops (same ones we had last week)- they were THAT good), pierogies
Friday: grilled steak kabobs, pasta salad, corn & black bean salad
Saturday: off to Canada... Grant will have leftovers and I will have whatever one eats for dinner upon arriving in Montréal!

Menu Plan Monday 6/13

It's officially summer vacation!! I'm leaving for Montreal in less than two weeks... crazy. After eating City BBQ on Saturday and then going to a cookout on Sunday, I wanted to cook vegetarian all week... but I'm leaving Grant so soon, so I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So, we are having pork chops and chicken... and but still 3 days are meat-free. Yum-o.

Here's what's on the menu this week:
Sunday: Spicy Black Bean veggie burgers, mac & cheese
Monday: Rosemary-rubbed Pork chops on the grill (these were SO GOOD... I used extra brown sugar), rosemary potatoes on the grill (I have a lot of rosemary in my herb garden...) & hominy, cumin & cilantro stew (we had never had hominy before... this was also delicious!)
Tuesday: Southwest Salads with cilantro lime vinaigrette and grilled chicken
Wednesday: Brown Sugar Streusel Baked French Toast, fresh peaches (if they ripen in time...)
Thursday: French Barley Salad, hummus & pita.
Friday: visiting my family in Akron
Saturday: out to dinner in Akron

Jump to www.orgjunkie.com for more meal planning ideas!

Menu Plan Monday 6/6

Last. week. of. school. Hallelujah. While I thoroughly enjoyed (almost) all of my classes this year, this year was the most awful emotional roller coaster ever. Due to a levy failure, most of it was spent wondering if I would have a job next year or not. While things look very promising, I am a little upset that I will most likely walk out the doors in a few days without knowing for sure if I am here next year.

On a more positive note, this weekend was super fun. We stayed in Friday night and tried to recover from our lack of sleep from the week before, due to a broken a/c. Saturday we got to see our family visiting from Denver at lunch time and then got to hang out with our good friends Emily and Aaron that night. Sunday we saw the crew in from Denver again for lunch into the mid-afternoon and then tried to get ready for the week. We have a TON of leftovers going into the week, which has made the meal plan quite easy :-)

Sunday: leftovers from our lunch out on Saturday
Monday: leftovers from lunch at Grant's parents' house on Sunday
Tuesday: Greek Pita Sandwiches & pasta salad
Wednesday: TJs Sweet Italian Chicken Sausages w/ grilled onions & peppers, pierogies
Thursday: veggie burgers & noodles
Friday: pizza
Saturday: cookout w/ co-workers... I'm bringing pasta salad!