I love glancing through cookbooks. I love dreaming about what I'm going to make, and trying to organize healthy meals.
I often take a bunch of cookbooks into the bath with me to read (not always a good idea. Especially if you're prone to dropping things). Then I mark the pages of the recipes I want to try one day, and put them on a monthly calendar. If you're the dreaming and planning kind, I've got some FREE menu plan sheet that you can download and use.
But if you don't have time to fill it out, that's no reason to go without a meal plan! We may think we don't have time to plan, but when you don't plan, you actually waste more time trying to figure out what to make, and trying to get your grocery list together, and panicking because you wanted to make spaghetti sauce but you don't have enough noodles and you didn't figure that out until 15 minutes before dinner!
Failing to plan wastes time. But if you don't have time to plan, either, there are so many inexpensive services that you can use to plan all your meals, and create your shopping lists, for you! I don't think this is for everyone, but I have to admit that there have been times when I've used them because I want to find new recipes, and I don't want to bother thinking. My friend Leanne Ely has written a series of books called "Saving Dinner" which provides great recipes and the shopping lists for each week. Some of her recipes are sure to become favourites, and I've used her book a lot! She also has crockpot recipes once a week, which I appreciate because I love my crockpot. You can check it out here:
If you want something online, Dine Without Whine is a great resource! It will email your menu, with the shopping list, and comes with all sorts of freebies and organizational helps. Best of all, you can try it for free!
I hope that helps!
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This week is my birthday week, and for various reasons a ton of different people are taking me out to dinner various nights of the week. I've got my mom one night, my mother-in-law another night, my best friend and a barbecue another night, and so on. So I don't actually have much to plan. So instead I'd like to share some thoughts I had about eating out and menu planning.
But first I have a little aside that's going to come around to food in just a minute. Just bear with me!
This weekend I watched several episodes of the show "Til Debt Do Us Part", a Canadian show about couples who are in debt up to their eyeballs. A professional comes in and straightens them out, and by the end of the show they at least have a plan and a better sense of reality. I don't always agree with her (she often pushes moms of young toddlers into the workplace, whereas I would push them into a smaller and cheaper place to live first), but on the whole it's a good show. But what always gets me is how far in debt these couples can get in one month. They overspend by $5000, $6000, even $9000 a MONTH! My goodness! And they don't realize at the time that they are doing it. I can't for the life of me figure out how you can be that much in denial, but I guess it's possible.
Her suggestion is always to use a cash budget, and she divides up their budget usually into 5 or 6 jars, where she places money for them to use that week. It's never very much. I've rarely seen her give a couple more than $100 a week for food, which I think is unrealistic if you have a bunch of kids. But I do think food is the hidden budget item in many of our homes.
I'm not sure if we realize how much eating out truly costs us. Sure you grab McDonald's on the run today. And tomorrow, when you're out with just one child, you pick up lunch. And then when you've got all kids at the park, you stop by the ice cream store on the way home.
Add that all up, and frequently you're looking at $100 a week without a lot of effort. That's several hundred a month.
Now it's easy to hunker down and just say: that's it. We're not eating out anymore.
But I'm not sure that's realistic, either. Sometimes, after all, you just are in a hurry. And sometimes you do want to do something special with the kids, like grabbing the ice cream.
So today, on Menu Plan Monday, I want to talk about how we can "plan" for these times when we would normally eat out.
I think we need to be realistic. Some days you just aren't going to have time to fulfill your menu plan. The kids are going to have an emergency and you're not going to be home to cook. The soccer game will go later than planned. You got talking to a friend after picking up your kids from school, and your whole plan got thrown off. These things happen.
So why not realize that sometimes you're going to need something in a hurry and just plan for it? Here are two options:
1. Double meals as much as possible when you cook and then freeze half. Don't include that other half on your menu plan. That way, when you're especially desperate, there's always something in the freezer you can just defrost, even if it's just spaghetti sauce.
2. Buy frozen pizzas or frozen dinners just for that night. I know they're expensive, but it is cheaper to eat frozen chicken kiev or fish sticks with some frozen veggies than it is to run to McDonald's. The trick is to not eat it just because it's there. Save it for the real emergencies! These frozen meals don't tend to be as healthy, and they certainly are more expensive. So keep them for necessities (and we all have those necessities).
Now, what about those times when you just need a treat? How about this?
You know those really cool backpacks you can buy that come all ready for picnics? They have a cloth for the ground, and cutlery, and plates, and all kinds of other stuff? I just love them. Why not pick up such a backpack, or even better, create your own, and then whenever you want to go for a picnic you can just stick some food inside? Then you can go for a bike ride to the waterfront, or to a park, or to a river (put bug spray in that backpack, too!), and it's an outing and an event for your kids.
At our homeschool we often bike somewhere for lunch and then do math there, just to mix things up when the weather gets nice! We all need those special times, but you can create them yourself with some forethought.
So those are my suggestions if you don't want to spend $100 a week on eating out. Plan for emergencies, and have something on hand to make a special outing. Then we don't have to go fast food places, and our wallets will thank us!
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I have my meals planned this week. But rather than posting my plan (it's just pasta Monday, fish Tuesday, meatless on Wednesday, frozen leftovers on Thursday), I thought I'd post my rationale for eating together.
When I was out walking recently, my daughter Katie said to me, "You know what I like about our family, Mommy? We eat together."
It's such a little thing, but when the girls have friends over, it's amazing how many confess that it's a new experience for them. Most people eat in front of the TV, or they grab dinner on the run.
And that's not good. It's over food that we connect, talk, share, and bond.
But I know meal planning takes time, especially when everyone has busy schedules. But it is more important for your family to eat dinner together at least 3 times a week than it is for your kids to all be in soccer, or to all be on the baseball team. Family trumps sports. It really does. As adults, kids will remember sitting with family and the relationships that grew from that far more than they will anything else.
If you don't have time to eat dinner together, you're doing something wrong. You have to change your schedule. No ifs, ands, or buts. And if you don't believe me, read on! Here are 10 benefits from eating together:
It's Good for the Body!
1. When families eat together, everyone tends to eat healthier. People who have frequent family meals consume more calcium, fiber, iron, and vitamins B6, B12, C and E. It could be because home-cooked meals are healthier than fast food and restaurant meals. (Source: Archives of Family Medicine)
2. Children tend to eat more fruits and vegetables when they frequently have dinner with their families. They also tend to eat fewer snack foods. (Source: American Dietetic Association) When we eat all together, we cook meatloaf with veggies on the side or we make stew. When the kids eat alone, we heat up chicken fingers. Not good.
3. Children in families who eat dinner together are less likely to be overweight (Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine). I think this is also because parents are watching what they eat! And when we snack in front of the TV, we eat way more than if we were sitting at a table.
Good For The Brain
4. Children from families who eat meals together get better grades than their peers who don't have lots of family meal times (Source: Lou Harris-Reader's Digest National Poll).
5. When families eat together frequently, children have better language skills compared to kids from families who don't have family mealtimes often. (Source: Harvard University) TV doesn't teach language skills well. When we eat at the table, kids hear their parents talking to each other, too. It's great!
Good For Emotional Health
6. Children of families who eat together report feeling happier and are more optimistic about the future, than their peers who have infrequent family meals. (Source: Lou Harris- Reader's Digest National Poll)
7. Teenagers are less likely to use drugs, smoke, and drink alcoholic drinks, when their families eat together regularly. (Source: Columbia University) I read this study a few years ago and have quoted it frequently. When we eat dinner, we catch up with our kids. They know we care. So they're less likely to give in to peer pressure!
8. It may come as a surprise, but among Moms who work outside the home, those who have family mealtimes reported feeling less stress than those who had family dinners less often. (Source: Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal) When we feel that our priorities are being met, we feel less stress.
9. The more often teen girls had meals with their families, the less likely they were to have symptoms of depression and suicidal behaviors. (Source: University of Minnesota) And fewer teenage pregnancies!
Good For Family Bonding
10. Eating together gives family members the chance to communicate and build relationships, something that both adults and children appreciate very much. (Source: Nutrition Education Network of Washington & Oprah Winfrey's "Family Dinner Experiment")
I hope these reasons motivate you and your family to try and eat together more often. We're all busy - even children have plenty of after-school activities. But as the list above shows, family meals are worth every effort we put into them.
It helps to plan ahead so that we're not scrambling to get dinner ready or panicking because we don't have all the ingredients we need. To make it easier to get the family around the table with a home-cooked meal, check out Dine Without Whine's menu planning service. It cost just a penny to try it out!
And check out Org Junkie every Monday for her Meal Plan Monday! But get eating
Good morning, everybody! I am moving very slowly today because I had an extremely gruelling weekend. I want to get motivated to actually get stuff done today, but I'm not overly optimistic.
One of the problems I have with menu planning is that I have all these plans that don't necessarily come to fruition. It's like vegetables. You buy a whole ton all at once because you realize you haven't had any salad in a few weeks, and then it just sits in the fridge rotting because you can't be bothered to cut it up.
I actually love fruit and veggies, and so do my kids. But too often I don't finish all my veggies because I can't be bothered to cut them up when I'm in the middle of a busy day. So let me ask: what do you all do about snacks? How do you get things going more quickly? I'd love to know!
In the meantime, here is my overly ambitious plan for meals this week. I do hope I follow through!
Monday: This will be an easy one. The girls are in a piano festival this afternoon that doesn't finish until 6, so we're taking them out to celebrate.
Tuesday: Beef pot pie. I have leftover beef and gravy from a roast I made recently, and I'm going to make a beef pot pie. I love these! I just mix beef and fresh veggies together, add the gravy and some beef broth, and then put it in a 9x13 pan. Then I cover with two pie crusts. It's not exactly a pie, but it tastes exactly the same. And it's easier to make! And you end up with proportionally more beefy stuff and less pie crust.
Wednesday: Spaghetti. We haven't had pasta in a while for some reason, and it's time we tried again.
Thursday: Lemon Pepper Catfish. Our grocery store sells this with the seasoning already on, and one of my daughters just loves it. The other doesn't, but I'm a firm believer in eating fish every week. And Thursday we'll be rushed because of part 2 of said piano festival, so having something quick I can stick in the oven will help.
Friday: Whole roasted chicken. I've been waiting for whole chickens to go on sale at my grocery store, and they finally did! So we're having chicken. I just put garlic cloves under the skin, and then cover with a seasoning, and it's really really good. One tip: don't put salt directly on the chicken. It draws out the moisture, and then the chicken isn't as juicy.
So that's what we're doing this week! But I'd still love some feedback: how do you handle the veggie/fruit snack problem? Do you pre-cut it? And if so, how do you keep it fresh?
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And one thing I have realized this weekend is that healthy stuff can take longer to prepare. Not that I am complaining. That is just an observation. I would never complain during Complaint Free Week (going on right now! Want to join?).
But I have had an incredibly busy but blessed week, running around training a 15-person choir from the Kenyan orphanage we support, and speaking all over the place, and having my husband's surprise 40th birthday. And it's in these busy times that you realize it's hard to just grab food that is healthy. You can grab a piece of fruit, but vegetables need to cut up. Other stuff needs to be cooked. No wonder people eat so many chips and cookies, etc.
So what I want to do is to start preparing more food so that I have it on hand for the weeks that get out of hand. I like feeling that I am eating properly, but I don't always feel that. And I want to start eating a little bit better more consistently.
One thing I'd really like to try that I haven't tried much is Smoothies. Laura over at Mad Enough Tips has a great recipe here, and lots more at her site. I want to start reading her more and using some of her great tips!
This week, then, I'm going to do Smoothies for breakfast for myself. And what shall I do for dinner? I need to make things that give me leftovers, so that I have meals in my freezer for next time my week gets out of hand. Here goes:
Monday: Beef in the crockpot. I'm going to use beef with stock, a little bit of red wine, some golden mushroom soup, and some onion mixture in the crockpot. It tastes yummy. Add some potatoes and carrots, and you've got a meal.
Tuesday: Beef pies. With the leftovers, I'm going to make some beef pies that will do us for two meals. One I'll freeze. I usually just freeze the filling and then fill the pie crust when I need to eat it.
Wednesday: Salmon. We haven't had fish in a while, and we need to. I think fish should be eaten once a week for health reasons, though my family doesn't agree. But they'll tolerate salmon. I marinate it in soy sauce, honey, and ginger for the adults, and make it plain for the kids. Put lemon and green onion on top, and it's great.
Thursday: Hummus, black bean dip, salsa. This is my weird meal. I'm going to make a ton of hummus, black bean dip, and other dips for pita breads or vegetables. And that's going to be our dinner. Then I'm going to freeze the leftovers. They all freeze well, and then when I want a snack, I'll have some hummus on hand. Much better than chips. Eat it all with veggies and you've got a pretty balanced meal. I'll probably buy some sourdough bread to go with this meal, too, to make the kids happy. It's not a traditional dinner, but it will fill up my freezer with potential snacks.
This weekend I'm speaking at a homeschooling convention and a women's retreat, so I don't have to cook. But what about you? Have any smoothie recipes you want to share? Or any advice on healthy snacks? I'd love to hear them!
It seems like a never-ending battle with the kids. Vegetables taste good. Vegetables are good for you. But many children think vegetables are the plague.
I haven't had that problem with my kids, and I want to share with you some of the things I did that helped my kids enjoy veggies. Of course, they don't like the ones I hate (parsnips, squash), but they do like just about everything else!
So on this Menu Plan Monday, I'm going to give some veggie tips, and then my menu plan!
1. Serve veggies a lot when kids are young. Introduce them to babies before you introduce fruit. When they're toddlers, and you're going out to the doctor, the library, the gym, or a car ride, pack cut up veggies for them to munch on. A snack always helps them handle trips better, and veggies make a great snack!
2. Keep cut up vegetables in the fridge so they can grab them easily. Make healthy choices readily available and put the sugary and greasy snacks away. This doesn’t mean totally deprive yourselves of these delightful treats, but making healthy eating a normal part of your day goes a long way to helping kids develop better eating habits.
3. Add veggies like carrots or even asparagus to smoothies. Kids love fruit smoothies and they’ll never know you put in a little of those dreaded vegetables in.
4. Sneak vegetables into other foods. For example: Add grated carrots into spaghetti sauce or make a zucchini chocolate cake. I use my Pampered Chef food chopper to chop up carrots and mushrooms in every pasta dish I make, or in shepherd's pie. The kids don't mind them, but often friends do! But they don't know they're there when they're cut so finely.
5. Try dip. You know kids love to dip everything. Just make sure they know they have to eat the dip stick and not just lick it!
6. Take your kids shopping with you. Let your child pick out a new vegetable in the grocery store that they’ve never tried. Then prepare the vegetable together. We tried leeks a while back, and the kids loved potato and leek soup! Now they like me to put leeks in most stews or soups!
7. Let them choose: raw or cooked. Some children may have a definite preference as to whether their veggies are cooked or raw. And if they won't eat the cooked ones, but they'll eat a ton of raw ones, what does it really matter? (True confession: as a child, I munched on bowls of frozen peas. I thought they were good!)
8. Plan your meals. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the veggies when you don’t have a plan…allowing your kids to get into the habit of veggie-free meals. Plan your meals and grocery lists in advance, so you won’t come up short on the greenery. Otherwise we tend to feed them easy, prepackaged things like chicken fingers or fish sticks, with hardly any veggies. Plan ahead, and it's cheaper and healthier.
To make your meal planning a whole lot easier, sign up for you 1 ¢ no-risk trial at Dine Without Whine. They put together your weekly dinner plan and even make a quick and easy printable grocery list for you. Click here to get started. I find them really helpful!
And now, without further adieu, here are my dinner plans this week, complete with veggies:
Monday: Stew in the crockpot. I love starting my week off with a crockpot meal, because it's so hardy, and it gives me leftovers for lunches for the rest of the week! We bought half a cow a while back, so we have a lot of beef roasts. In the crockpot, put your veggies on the bottom so they cook more thoroughly. I always use carrots and potatoes in the crockpot, and then I make broccoli on the side. I'll throw in thawed frozen peas near the end of the cooking time into the crockpot. That way they don't get mushy by being in there the whole time!
Tuesday: Spaghetti. It's Rebecca's day to cook. She'll chop up the vegetables with the food chopper before mixing them in with the meat, but that's okay with me. I always cut up a fresh tomato to add to spaghetti sauce, too.
Wednesday: Salmon. It's been a while since I've made my family eat fish. They're not big fans, but I love it, and I know it's good for you. So we're biting the bullet and eating it this week. This is my day for creative side dishes with veggies. I'll serve asparagus, which is a treat, and then corn, which they also love, and some rice.
Thursday: Chicken Thighs in Asian Sauce. I have a great recipe right here. It's one of my family's favourites, and it works great for potlucks, too! The only problem with Asian meals with a lot of sauces is that typical vegetables sometimes taste funny. I try to go just plain frozen ones with this meal: peas, corn and carrots. And the kids keep them far away from the sauce on their plate. But that's okay!
Friday: Shepherd's Pie. It's the kids' favourite, and it's a good reward to a long week. I mix ground beef with chopped carrots and mushrooms and add tomato soup, beef broth, and worcestershire sauce. Then I add a layer of peas and corn, and top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 400 for 35 minutes, and it's yummy!
Remember, if you find menu planning a hassle, make it easy! Check out Dine Without Whine . And maybe the kids will stop whining about their veggies!
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Every few weeks I say this, but I really am going to start exercising again.
Really.
After my bout with the Plague recently that lasted 3 1/2 weeks, I completely stopped exercising. And then last week, even though I was technically better, I didn't have the energy. This week I do!
So that means going to the Y, which means that I have to have dinner ready ahead of time. That's why I'm focusing on my crockpot again this week. If you don't have one yet, you really need to get one. They're not that expensive, and the food is delicious! Plus, you can cook when you have time to cook, since many of us don't have time at 5:00 p.m.
Here goes:
Monday: Crockpot Ham Casserole I made a big ham last week and I have some leftovers, so I'm making this!
Tuesday: Crockpot Lemony Chicken Thighs One of my daughters will actually eat lemons--raw--so I thought I'd try this recipe that uses frozen lemonade in the crockpot. It sounds good! I have a problem in crockpots that I always seem to overcook my chicken, so I may not cook this for quite as long as it says. (Don't worry; I'll still test to make sure it's done). But I'm looking forward to it!
Wednesday: Round Steak in a Creamy Sauce I love beef in the crockpot! So here's an easy one I'm doing with round steak. I have a bunch of it in the freezer, since we bought half a cow last year, so I'm looking forward to using this up. I don't necessarily use the Cream soup that it calls for; I just use whatever's in my cupboard. And I always buy the lower-fat creamed soups. I just can't use the full fat version.
Thursday: Spaghetti. But my daughter's cooking on Thursday, so I don't have to worry about it!
This weekend I'm speaking at a marriage conference, so the other meals I don't need to worry about. But I figure that with all those crockpot recipes, I should be able to get to the Y three times, or at least twice. Let's see if I actually do it!
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This week I need a break. I have had The Plague to End All Plagues for the last three weeks, and while I am technially better, I am still extremely tired. So I don't want to do anything that's going to require a lot of energy this week!
That's why I'm doing easy week! Everything on my menu is easy to make; so easy, in fact, that I may make my kids cook most of it (they're 11 & 14). So here goes:
Monday: Spaghetti. You can't get much easier than that. I'm using a store bought sauce, but I'll cut up some carrots and mushrooms to throw in, along with some garlic. I'll probably make some garlic bread, too. I just mix garlic with some butter, add a spice blend, and then put it on bread and stick it in the oven. I hate buying those ready-made garlic breads from the store. I don't know what that yellow stuff is, but it isn't butter.
Tuesday: Ham and Baked Potatoes. I love ham. And I have a really easy way of making it, too. Just make some deep cuts into the ham and pour a mixture of real maple syrup and dijon mustard over the whole thing. Cover with foil and cook. You have leftovers, too, which are really handy. I usually do scalloped potatoes, but that takes too much work, so I'll just shove some baked potatoes in the oven with the ham.
Wednesday: Roast Chicken and Rice. Again, another easy meal. It doesn't sound like it, because you're making a whole chicken. But it couldn't be easier. Just stick garlic cloves in the body cavity and under the skin, cover with a spice mix, and roast. It doesn't take any time to prepare, and then you can just serve it with rice and veggies. The only thing that takes a while is making the gravy, but that's not too bad. My main aim this week is not to have to chop or cut anything, because it takes too long. So big roasts are the way to go!
Thursday: Pork Chops in the crockpot. I'm just going to mix some pork loin chops with cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix powder, and cook in the crockpot. I'll serve with rice and more veggies, and then I'm done.
We're away this weekend, so I don't need menus for that, but watch this blog next Monday, because my menu next week will have to do with leftover ham and leftover chicken! The nice thing about roasting stuff is that you always have leftover meat, and when I'm feeling more energetic, I'll be able to make it into casseroles!
So that's my goal. Of course, it requires going to the grocery store, and I currently feel like a Mac truck ran over me. But I can make it. I think I can, I think I can.
I'm a big believer in organizing when it comes to cooking. Little is as stressful as figuring out what you're going to eat at 5:30 every night, especially when you haven't gone grocery shopping in a while.
When we are organized, meals tend to be healthier, tastier, and easier! Which means that we have to think about it ahead of time.
I try to plan my meals on Sunday, or Monday morning if that doesn't work out. But there are two kitchen appliances that make my life so much easier: the freezer and the crockpot.
I love the crockpot because I can make dinner in the morning while I'm homeschooling! Often from 3:30-5:00 we like to go to the YMCA to work out, so cooking then is out of the question. But this way we can work out and still come home to dinner!
The other appliance that I don't think we use to its full advantage is the freezer. I don't just mean stocking up on meat (we buy half a cow every other year, and chickens from friends who raise them), but by making meals ahead of time. Whenever I cook, I try to make double (like spaghetti sauce, stews, casseroles, etc), so that I always have a meal in the freezer! This prevents that urge to "order pizza" or go out to eat because you don't want to cook. Heating something up isn't that stressful.
One thing I've never taken advantage of, though, is "cooking parties", which I know lots of women attend! Basically, you buy all the ingredients for five meals, or ten meals, or whatever, and then you get together to package them all for your freezer. It makes cooking much more fun, and you know your meals are ready! Freezer Meals in Minutes offers a great service where they provide the shopping lists and directions for one of these parties. It's really easy--you pick the recipes, and they tell you what to do! And there's no cooking involved on the assembly day. You just measure ingredients and bag them up. Check it out!
In the meantime, here's what I'm going to make this week:
Monday: Rump Roast in the Crockpot. I love roasts in the crockpot. They come out so tender! I wouldn't put a sirloin or tenderloin roast in one, because they're great in the oven, but some of the tougher cuts work wonderfully in the crockpot. Add some onion soup mix and some veggies, along with some beef broth, and it's really tasty!
The best thing is the leftovers that end up in my freezer, divided out so I can make beef barley soup several times. I love soup & salad & rolls for dinner. It's easy, and it's really cheap to make!
Tuesday: Meatballs. It's been a while since we've had this family staple, and I'm going to make double so that I can freeze some!
Wednesday: Salmon. It's time for fish again. I do make my family eat it every now and then, even though they're not particular fans, because I believe the health benefits are important. The problem is that the kids like it plain, whereas I love to marinate it in soya sauce, honey, and other good stuff. So I tend to marinate mine and not theirs. It will be great when one day I'll just be able to make everybody's meal the same!
Thursday: Asian Chicken Thighs. Chicken thighs are often cheaper than breasts, but you can buy them boneless and skinless too! These ones I do marinate in soya sauce and honey and salsa, and then they're yummy!
Friday: Beef and Barley soup with rolls. Here's where the leftover beef comes in. I buy my beef broth (I do make it sometimes, but I'm out of homemade broth). It just makes it so much easier. And then I throw in whatever veggies I want. I have a bunch of the dried soup mix in the cupboard, so I think I'll use that up this week. And I'm going to pull out my breadmaker for the rolls.
What about you? What do you find helps you with meal planning?
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Usually on Menu Plan Mondays I post what I'm going to eat for dinner. But today I'm going to do something a little different. I want to talk about lunches.
Do you ever get sick of lunches? We seem to eat the same thing, over and over again, and it's not always that good. But we don't want lunches to be too expensive, and we don't want them to take that long to make. So what can we do to make them more interesting?
Here are some lunch ideas I have. But I'd love yours, too! So read along, and then please leave a comment.
Sandwich & Veggies
Typical lunch! Not too exciting, and kids often sigh when you announce it's sandwiches. So here's how to spice up that kind of lunch a bit.
Add veggies to the sandwiches. Not all kids will like this, but my daughters will eat all kinds: cucumbers, peppers, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce. So instead of just adding lettuce, add something else. It makes it crunchier!
We also bought a sandwich grill recently, and the kids love to grill ham & cheese pitas. That's another treat, and it turns sandwiches into a hot meal. The grill was a find for $2.99 at a thrift store, and boy have we gotten our money's worth!
Another way to make sandwiches better is to serve them with vegetables for dipping. I make up dip with a dip mix and then sour cream and mayonnaise, and it's great.
Soup & Veggies
My kids' favourite lunch is when I make homemade soup. Not the canned kind; actually make it from scratch. But this isn't nearly as hard as it sounds. Start with homemade chicken stock, which I keep in my freezer. Or, failing that, just buy the cartons of stock. Add cooked chicken or turkey, some macaroni or egg noodles, and some chopped carrots and celery. Near the end of the cooking time you can throw in frozen peas or frozen corn. I'll add a few herbs, too. I make a lot of soup, because we all often have two bowlfulls. And the thicker the better. But it's really healthy, and not too expensive.
Leftovers
I hate this for lunch. Not because it's not good, but because I like saving leftovers for dinner. But in a pinch I'll make them go further. If we have leftover potatoes, I'll often make what we call "hash". I'll throw the potatoes in a frying pan, with leftover gravy or a can of gravy. Add chopped turkey or chicken, some frozen corn, and maybe some carrots, and sprinkle with salt and pepper and garlic salt. Just mash it all together. It sounds gross, and looks gross, but it's good.
Mini-Pizzas
If you're ever desperate for something to serve at a birthday party, these are always a big hit. Buy English muffins and pizza sauce, and have everyone make their own! You don't have to fight over who does or doesn't like pepperoni or mushrooms. Just toast them first in the oven at 400 until the English muffins are slightly crispy. Then add the pizza sauce and the toppings, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 for about 12 minutes.
Tacos
Tacos don't take long to make. You just need to fry up some ground beef and add the spice mixture. Cut up some lettuce and cheese, and get some salsa, and you're ready. Kids love this one, too, but I don't make it very often because it tends towards the more expensive side for a lunch meal.
Bacon and Eggs
Finally, another lunch that works well is breakfast! The kids like bacon and eggs, and we sometimes make Egg McMuffins for lunch, with English muffins, eggs, bacon, and cheese. I just don't do this very often because I don't think it's the healthiest lunch.
The Typical Lunch Fare: Kraft Dinner
Of course, there's always Kraft Dinner. Or those hot dog weiners that you wrap up in those rolls and bake. Kids love that. But I don't. I don't think it's healthy, and I don't feel particularly well after eating them. So I'm always looking for slightly healthier alternatives.
What do you make for lunch? Share it with me, because I'd love some new ideas!
I'm at a loss again this week when it comes to planning menus. I absolutely must eat through my kitchen, because I have too much food at the moment. My freezers are so stuffed I have no room for any impulse buys on sale! Maybe that's a good thing, but right now it's distressing me.
So we must eat! But I also want to eat healthy. One of the things I'm exceedingly proud of is that lately we have eaten all the vegetables we have bought. Maybe for you that's a normal occurrence, but often I buy veggies in a health frenzy and then throw them out when they're liquefied and no longer recognizable.
What do I eat this week, then, that uses up food and eats through my veggie drawer?
Monday: Ham and Bean Soup I have a huge leftover ham from a dinner last week. It was delicious, but I made way too much. So I'm going to make a ham and bean soup. It will use up some of my leftover ham, that's for sure! But instead of the navy beans, I'm going to use that dry soup mix stuff that's been sitting in my cupboard for ages. I really want to eat it up!
Tuesday: Chicken Casserole I guess it's technically turkey casserole, since I'm using up leftover turkey from Christmas (that's filling up my freezer, too), but we always call it chicken casserole. I mix chicken with a bunch of rice, some leftover gravy (I save all my leftovers in the freezer. That's why it's so full). A tin of cream of something soup (whatever you have is fine), some veggies, and then add sour cream. Top with breadcrumbs and cheese. It's good!
Wednesday: Pot roast in a crockpot. I bought extra potatoes last week by accident because my husband moved the bag of potatoes to a new place, and I didn't know we already had any. So I have to eat a lot of potatoes in the coming days! We did scalloped potatoes last week, which helped, but I think I'll make a roast with potatoes. I love roast in the crockpot; it's so tender!
Thursday: Baked Potatoes Same reason as above. Have to eat those blasted things, and the kids like this meal! Just serve a variety of toppings: butter, sour cream, green onions, salsa, bacon, cheese. They'll get eaten quickly!
Friday: Beef & Bean soup My leftover beef from Wednesday + more of that dry soup mix that's in the cupboard. I'm going to eat it if it kills us!
So now hopefully we'll have some more freezer room, and some of my Tupperware containers back. Do you ever buy too much food and then wonder what you were thinking?
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Last week I felt positively gross. I had just been to so many New Year's parties, and we'd had youth over from church all day, and I had consumed copious quantities of finger food--spring rolls, sausage rolls, etc. etc. All those hors d'ouevres that you serve at parties. I had practically lived on them for several days.
And boy did I feel ill. So I did something I thought I'd never do. I decided to just eat fruit & vegetables for a few days to try to bring my system back to normal. I'm not a health food addict. I don't go in for natural remedies (please no comments about how well they work! Trust me; I've heard it). But I do believe that there are times we need to be jolted, and I did feel better. Of course, I only lasted a weekend, but it was something.
When we were in Africa staying at an orphanage there, we hardly ate any meat at all. Everything was veggies and beans. But it tasted so good! Even my kids loved it (though I had lectured them back and forth and up and down on how they had to eat what was served them, even if they hated it, because we were in Africa for Pete's sake, and they better realize that people are starving, so my girls should be grateful for what they have!). Anyway, my daughters did great!
But the reason it tasted so good was that the food was literally picked and then put in the pot. Everything was so fresh.
We can't do that here. But we can imitate it as closely as possible. They just didn't use canned goods, and when I make my menus, I try to steer away from canned goods, too. At times I use a lot of cream of mushroom soup in the slow cooker, etc., but I'm slowly trying to replace that.
I find that fresh tomatoes are much nicer than canned ones. And the best liquid for almost any dish is just chicken stock. So I made a ton of turkey stock after Christmas with our turkey bones, and I'm all ready to go.
Last night my youngest daughter and I had our favourite meal. It was just the two of us, so we indulged in shrimp with angel hair pasta, fresh tomatoes, fresh green onions, garlic, lemon juice, and a bit of chicken stock. It was heavenly. Doesn't take very long, either.
I need to do more things like that, and fewer sausage rolls! And not just because I don't want any more rolls on my tummy. Mostly because I want to feel better!
So here's what I'm going to eat this week:
Monday: Crockpot Stew. I'm cooking a stew with carrots, potatoes, beef stock, an onion spice mix I have, and onions and garlic. I'll add peas at the end of the cooking time.
Tuesday: Baked Potatoes. The kids love them, and I have some green onions and salsa to use up! I put out butter, salt, cheese, bacon, green onions, salsa, and sour cream. I just use green onions, bacon, and salsa. The kids use practically everything. Add a salad and a glass of milk, and its a fairly balanced meal which is really quick to make!
Wednesday: Asian Chicken Drumsticks. I've got the recipe here, and we love it!
Thursday: Salmon. It's our weekly fish dish, which my family manages to eat. I have a white bean salsa I use with my own salmon. I used to marinate it in yummy soy sauce with honey, etc., but my oldest daughter doesn't like that. I think she was switched at birth. So now I just add my own salsa topping, and she eats hers plain.
But the white bean salsa is fresh, too! So that's all good. I don't think I'm using any canned goods this week, and it's my goal to try to minimize those in 2009!
Friday and Saturday we have something special going on, so that's my menu. What's yours?
As I have posted before, this Christmas I cooked Birdzilla. Birdzilla was a 30 lb. turkey. She took 9 hours. She was good.
And she is still here. I have many Tupperware containers in my freezer full of Birdzilla. So let's talk turkey this morning! Leftovers, that is.
First of all, never ever throw out a turkey carcass. That's prize stuff, right there! Turkey stock is very easy to make and very tasty, and extremely healthy!
I simply put all the bones in a stock pot and cover with water. Throw in about 3 carrots, an onion, a bunch of peppercorns, 5 garlic cloves, and 3 pieces of celery (I use the leaves and the tops and all those pieces I don't eat). You can also throw in the turkey neck and other parts you didn't cook.
Now just simmer it for a few hours. It'll taste wonderful, and smell wonderful, and then you can freeze it in Tupperware containers in manageable doses so that you can use it whenever you need chicken stock for soups or casseroles or whatever.
Let's move on to other things with Turkey:
Turkey Soup
4 cups turkey stock 3/4 cup diced chopped turkey 1 cup peas 1 cup diced carrots and celery 1/2 cup macaroni, or egg noodles
Simmer for about 20 minutes, and then add salt and pepper or garlic or whatever spices you want. It's really yummy. I usually at least double this, but you get the picture.
Turkey Casserole
6 cups cooked rice 1 tin cream of mushroom/broccoli/celery soup 1 tin gravy (or leftover gravy!) 2 cups vegetables 2 cups cooked turkey 1/2 cup soup cream Season with salt & pepper, garlic, and whatever spice mixes you like.
Mix everything together and put in a 9x14 pan. Add 1 cup shredded cheese and 1/2 cup breadcrumbs to the top. Cook at 400 for 25 minutes. Enjoy!
Turkey Strogannoff
I use the recipe here. It's great! And it uses up leftover gravy, too!
Turkey Tettrazzini
(Which is a fancy way of saying turkey in a cream sauce with egg noodles and mushrooms. Very, very good.) Again, I use the recipe here.
I'm not making all of these turkey dishes this week, but maybe you can make use of some of these recipes!
Monday: Turkey Tettrazzini
It's just so good I've got to!
Tuesday: Beef Roast
The kids are getting a little sick of Birdzilla. It's time to make Bessie the cow again. We bought half a cow earlier this year, and I just love having beef to make when I need to!
Wednesday: Beef Soup & Buns
I like an easy meal on New Year's Eve! We're going to be snacking all night with friends, anyway! For the beef soup, I use the leftovers from the roast, add it to beef stock, and add barley and vegetables. Very good. We're big on soups here, and they're so affordable!
Thursday: Homemade Pizza
I have a ton of youth coming over the afternoon of New Year's Day, and we're going to do homemade pizzas, where they can put on their own toppings. Otherwise everybody always complains!
Friday: Salmon & Rice
This is Mommy's favourite. The kids and the hubby are slowly getting more used to fish, but I do try to cook it once a week.
I'm very fortunate because my family all lives in my hometown. We're doing Christmas Eve at my brother-in-law's, Christmas at my mother-in-law's, and Boxing Day here with my side of the family.
Christmas Eve we always get together with my husband's side and play games all day. Usually the adults have played cards and the kids play on their own, but this year I'm going to get the kids in on our games. They're getting older, and sometimes they don't pay as well alone anymore. And charades is a fun game to do altogether!
My brother-in-law is a single dad, and he's not exactly handy in the kitchen. So even though the Christmas Eve festivities are not at my house, I'll likely be supplying much of the food. My main goal is to bring things that are healthy. I'll bring two huge plates of vegetables with some dip. The dip is fattening, sure. But it makes kids eat vegetables. And I would rather they eat vegetables than chips! Too often at these family get togethers we just eat crap. I make my dip with low-fat sour cream and low-fat mayonnaise, so it's not so bad.
I'm also bringing meatballs, which I'll make in my slow-cooker. I don't buy the frozen meatballs; I make them from scratch.
1 1/2 pounds ground meat (I often mix turkey & beef; no one can tell) 1/2 cup breadcrumbs 2 Tbsp ketchup 1 tsp worcestershire sauce dash nutmeg 1 tbsp dijon 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 egg
Mix all together. Add more breadcrumbs if you think they need it. Then I cook them on a rack over some tin foil in the oven at 425. That way grease can drip off, and it makes them lower in fat.
I mix them in with a homemade barbecue sauce, which is created by combining all my barbecue sauces, ketchups, and mustards that happen to be in the fridge together! It's amazing how good it usually turns out! I also bought a rice cooker recently, that makes up to 12 cups. I'm going to make a ton, because I'd rather they eat rice than french fries!
On Boxing Day I make Christmas dinner. Here's my tip for an awesome turkey: BUY IT FRESH. Seriously. You don't need to do anything to it. I put garlic cloves under the skin and in the cavity, but that's it. Then I just baste it. It has enough flavour of its own, and if you rub it in salt, it can rob it of moisture.
That's what I'm planning for this week! For my baking, I'm making more chocolate frosted sugar bombs. You can find the recipe by scrolling below.
Do you have any tips on how to munch more healthily this Christmas? I'd love to hear them!
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I have a confession to make. I was going into this weekend feeling Blah and Blech and Mad at the world.
You see, I had a perfect plan. I was going to end homeschooling last Friday, assign my kids work they could do on their own, and then spend a week working 10-hour days. I do that; I homeschool for a few weeks and then come back to my writing. I have a book proposal that I want to have finished in a few weeks, and I'm editing all my audio for all the talks I've ever done. I'm about half way through, but the talks are much better now with all the extra stuff that was only relevant for that day taken out.
Anyway, then I found out that family was visiting this week and wrecking my plans. I was mad. I was grumpy.
And then I got a grip. This is Christmas! It's about family! And they're only here until Friday. So what I've decided is that over the next four days I am going to go for hikes with my kids and my family, Christmas shop, finish all my presents, play a ton of games, and maybe knit a lot. All the stuff I was planning to do next week when my work is done. And then I'll just do my work on the 22nd and 23rd.
It's pretty stupid to feel resentful about family when family is what Christmas is about, isn't it?
So I'm also going to make some nice meals this week that my visitors will enjoy, and that my kids will.
Here we go:
Monday: Spaghetti. It's an oldie but a goodie, and the kids can make it themselves. That's a bonus!
Tuesday: Chicken in Honey Mustard Sauce. I made this last week and it was awesome.
Chicken thighs, skin & bone removed
3/4 cup honey mustard (I just mixed dijon & honey together)
1/2 cup orange juice
1 TBSP cider vinegar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic
1/2 can green chilies (the small little cans you buy beside the salsa aisle. Or you can use a jalapeno instead. It really isn't that spicy in the end.)
Cook in slow cooker on low for 5-6 hours. It was so good!
Wednesday: Stew in the Crockpot. I'm big on crockpots. That way we can shop and hike in the afternoon and I don't have to worry about getting dinner ready.
Thursday: Grilled Salmon. The best thing about family visiting is that my family likes fish. My own kids and husband do not. But I can force feed it to them when visitors are here, so there! Ha!
I'm going to marinate it in a soy sauce-honey mixture and top with green onions. I like it better slightly sweet.
Friday: Baked Potatoes with toppings. My kids' favourite meal, and they can make this one, too! Just bake enough for two potatoes each, and serve with crumbled bacon, salsa, cheese, sour cream, green onions, butter, and whatever else you can think of. I choose the lower fat version and do mostly salsa and green onions, and they're really good!
This weekend is our anniversary, so I'm assuming I'm being taken out. The kids can have pasta.
And we will do some baking this week, too, if only because I think my family is visiting because they don't get real "family" experiences very often, and they like being with my kids. So we're going to do lots of family type things to get in the mood for Christmas. Plus I like chocolate!
To celebrate Menu Plan Monday and Christmas, I have a present for you.
I am going to talk about how to teach kids to cook so you don't have to!
Here's my philosophy in a nutshell:
Each year after 10, they learn to make one meal per year.
So at 11 they can make 1. At 12 they can make 2. At 13 they can make 3.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
That way, when they move out at 18, the goal is that they can make seven different meals well, and one meal for company. A more fancy one! Get it?
And this applies to BOTH girls and boys. Do not raise your sons differently from your daughters in this regard. First of all, the average boy doesn't marry until 27, so that's 9 years away from home first, unless you want him living in your basement and eating your food the whole time.
Even when he does marry, do you really want your daughter-in-law to have to do all the cooking? So train him for independence! You're doing everyone a favour!
So how do you figure out the meals to make? Let me do a different Menu Plan Monday to demonstrate:
Year 11: Spaghetti. It's easy, and most kids like it. You can start my just teaching them to make the pasta and heat up a can of sauce with some meat. Then teach them how to add some chopped veggies, like garlic or carrots or peppers. Then add some homemade garlic bread (just chop fresh garlic up, add it to butter with some parsley, and spread it on bread. Broil it, and you're done! Just check the timer. I'm forever burning mine).
Year 12: Chicken pie/chicken rice casserole. This is one of my children's favourite meals, so we taught this young. And it's not that difficult:
Add leftover chicken 1 can cream of something soup (whatever is in your cupboard) 1 cup gravy (leftover, or the instant kind, or a can) a lot of frozen veggies, or chopped fresh carrots, etc.
Heat it all up, and then either put it in some pie shells and bake it, or add rice to it, add a bit of sour cream, sprinkle with cheese and breadcrumbs, and cook as a rice casserole. It's great either way!
Year 13: Chicken and potatoes (so they now have the leftover chicken to make the above. But most kids feel very threatened by making a whole chicken, plus they think the meat is gross, so it's best to leave this until a little bit later).
The benefits of learning how to roast a chicken is that your realize how easy it is! And if you teach them how to make different side dishes, from baked potatoes to mashed potatoes or rice, then they're all set. Now no matter which meat they roast they can make a meal! Gravy is a little trickier, but Rebecca's getting not too bad at it right now.
Year 14: Grilled ham. We make ours dipped in maple syrup and then grilled in a frying pan or on the barbecue, depending on the time of year. The kids love it! And we usually splurge on the Lipton's sidekicks for this meal.
Year 15: Shepherd's Pie. Again, it's easy. But I leave it until later because I always find this meal takes a bit of time because of all the peeling of potatoes and chopping and mashing, and the kids don't like doing that work as much. But here's our recipe:
Brown 1 1/2 pounds ground beef. Add 1 tin of tomato soup 1 tsp worcestershire sauce a bunch of garlic powder and salt and paprika
Layer this in a pan. Cover with frozen veggies. Add mashed potatoes on top of that. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 400 for half and hour. If it's not brown on top, broil for a minute or two.
We've started tripling this recipe and making three pans, because the kids love it and we leave it for leftovers.
So there you have five days of meals for your teens and preteens to start learning to make! That's also our recipe plan for this week. But notice that none of these recipes costs very much. They're all very affordable, and the kids like them. And one day, when they're on their own, they'll feel competent!
What recipes do you use to teach children how to cook? And how are they doing at it?
I'm a little depressed this morning, but I'm still going to do a menu plan, because when you're depressed, sticking to your organizational plan helps!
Anyway, it looks like the democratically elected minority Conservative government up here in Canada is about to be overthrown by a coalition that includes separatists. That's right: people who want to blow up our country will be the deciding vote on everything. This is disgusting, and there's not a darn thing I can do about it.
Until today Canada's economy was doing the best of all the developed countries. We weren't suffering from recession yet at all. But our stock market and dollar are about to tumble like we've never seen it before.
So it's time to cook! Luckily I have a full freezer.
Now, onto food. I am a firm believer in making more than you need because you can then freeze half. Some recipes it's a pain to make double: recipes where you have to chop a large number of vegetables, or where preparation takes a long time. But where it really makes no difference, you may as well make a bunch!
Monday: Meatloaf/Meatballs. I'm going to make up four pounds of ground beef and use one pound for meatballs and put the rest in the oven for meatloaf later.
I love meatballs! I just mix 1 1/2 pounds ground beef with: 1/2 cup breadcrumbs 1 egg 3 tbsp ketchup 1 tsp worcestershire sauce 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper 2 tbsp dijon mustard
And I think that's it! For the sauce I just pull out anything resembling barbecue sauce/mustard/ketchup out of the fridge and mix them all together til they taste good. It's a very exact science, obviously! And then you get to use up all those tiny bits in bottles.
So I'll triple it and make some into meatballs, and the rest will go into pans for meatloaf.
Tuesday: Chicken pie. I cheat on this. I buy the ready made pie crusts, and then I mix: 1 can cream of broccoli soup leftover gravy (or canned gravy or instant gravy) cooked chicken frozen peas frozen corn chopped carrots salt and pepper
Mix it all up and then put it in a long 9x13 pan. Cover with two pie crusts. You kind of have to squish them to make them fit, but it works! As long as you have enough leftover chicken or turkey you can make up two pans' worth. Then just freeze the pie part for one pan, make the other, and add the pie crusts to the frozen one once you're ready to eat it.
Wednesday: tacos Another meal that's easy to double! Cook three pounds of ground beef and add the taco seasoning. Separate half of it out and freeze it, and use the other half tonight. I always put salsa, cheese, peppers and lettuce as extras for people to load up with. And remember to freeze any leftover tortilla shells!
Thursday: Spaghetti. You can double this one, too, quite easily. You don't have to add more meat; just bulk the sauce up with veggies like carrots or mushrooms. We just add one can of spaghetti sauce with one can of pureed tomatoes, which is cheaper. Then we add our own spices. And you can freeze the leftovers!
Friday: Roast chicken. I think it's time! I'll roast a whole chicken, which is really easy, and add garlic under the skin. Then I'll add mashed potatoes (the only part of the meal that is time consuming) and veggies, and make some gravy. I'm going to make a big chicken so we have lots of leftovers, because I'm using them all up earlier in the week!
That's my menu for this week. There. I've almost forgotten about politics. What are you doing?
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About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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