What’s for Dinner: Our Weekly Menu Plan
I am always glad when I put forth the effort to plan the weekly menu, however, there are days (like last week) when schedules change so you may have to adjust or go with plan B for an evening. Having the menu planned in advance allows me to have more flexibility and less stress in the evenings when the whole family is home. Here is our menu plan for the upcoming week:
Our Weekly Menu Plan
- Monday (Beef or Seafood Entree): Tilapia, Steamed Vegetables
- Tuesday (Kid’s Night to Cook): Everybody’s Choice Sandwiches, Fresh Fruit
- Wednesday (Chicken or Vegetarian Entree): Chicken Noodle Soup, Cornbread
- Thursday (Pasta or Pork Entree): Special Event
- Friday, Saturday, & Sunday: Leftovers, Family Preference, and Hosting
I have a general pattern I try to follow for my weekly Menu Plan (for example Monday we have a beef or seafood entree and so forth). It is my goal, at least in the beginning, to have at least the main dish and one side planned. I will put together the remaining side dishes (veggies / fruits) based on the food items that need to be used up first and compliment the main entree.
Setting a weekly menu plan helps me utilize my time better, thus freeing up extra time to spend with my family. On the days that I am working longer hours I can prep the meal in advance so it will be easier to pull together once I am home. As I go through the menu planning process I will try to share some of our favorite family recipes. If there is a specific recipe you would like please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate (some recipes are a toss together meal and I do not use any set measurements).
As a family of four our life can get busy. What’s for Dinner is our weekly menu planning series and one of the ways to help keep us organized, on schedule, and within budget. Our family typically eats 6 to 7 dinner meals at home a week. We do try to go out to eat at least once a month as a special treat. Breakfasts are eaten at home before work and school, lunches are eaten at work, school, or home, so dinner is our main meal together as a family. Dinner is our time to reconnect, share, and enjoy being together after a busy day. Our weekly menu plan covers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only because the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is our time to spend with family and friends. The weekends tend to be more spontaneous and my husband (who is the better cook) likes pitching in therefore we keep the menu open for variety. We use up the leftovers throughout the week for our lunches and on the nights that we are busy or can’t cook.
Photo by Liz
Intentional Living: Weekly Goals
Last week I spent most of my time with one sweet little girl who was recovering from surgery. We played a lot of games, did crafts, read books, and while she napped I tried to get everything that I needed done in that hour (unfortunately, everything didn’t get done). I did make some headway this past week just most of it happened in the evenings or during nap time.
Last week’s goals
Family Goals
- Read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the girls – still reading (almost through it)
Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before- D
aily School Activities & Homework Completed Attend After School ActivitiesPlan one special Activity with the FamilyTake care of the little one recovering from surgerythankful for my extra time with her and that she seems to be recovering wellWrite Thank You Notes- Finish going over our 2013 goals – working on it, Jake had to go out of town at the last minute for work so some things got postponed
Personal Goals
Exercise at least 5 days this week– I did it (this one is a challenge some days)!!!!Drink 8 glasses of water each day- Start with my new YouVersion plan(s) – enjoying listening to my new plans as I exercise and prep for the families breakfast
- Finish reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp – loving this book, but didn’t have a lot of extra time to read it this week
Home Management Goals
All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one dayWeekly Dinner Menu planned out for the weekPay all upcoming bills
Business Goals
Work on ideas for upcoming blog postsKeep up with the day to day items that need my attentionComplete a current client work project
Ministry Goals
Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or LunchWrite and Send Out Community Group EmailEmail a meeting reminder to the Alms & Legs Ministry Team
Financial Goals
For my January Grocery Budget I am replacing my typical Groceries $40 for 4 with my Life Simplified: No Grocery Shopping in order to use up some extra items in my fridge, freezer, and pantry.- Payoff the Van – making progress
- Emergency Fund – save 3 months worth of living expenses – this one’s going a little slower, but at least we’re moving in the right direction
My goals for the upcoming week
Family Goals
- Read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the girls
- Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before
- Daily School Activities & Homework Completed
- Attend After School Activities
- Plan one special Activity with the Family
- Finish going over our 2013 goals
- Doctor Appointments
Personal Goals
- Exercise at least 5 days this week
- Drink 8 glasses of water each day
- Start with my new YouVersion plan(s)
- Finish reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
Home Management Goals
- All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
- Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
- Pay all upcoming bills
Business Goals
- Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
- Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
Ministry Goals
- Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
- Write and Send Out Community Group Email
- Email a meeting notes from Alms & Legs Ministry Team meeting
Financial Goals
- For my January Grocery Budget I am replacing my typical Groceries $40 for 4 with my Life Simplified: No Grocery Shopping in order to use up some extra items in my fridge, freezer, and pantry.
- Payoff the Van
- Emergency Fund – save 3 months worth of living expenses
I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true. When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals. Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick). Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.
Why Share My Goals?
- To keep me accountable
- To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
- To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
- Create healthy habits in my life
- To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn
How did you do this week on your goals? Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.
The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.
Take It All One Day At A Time…
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I just finished reading Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder to the girls. I have an older version of the book (from when I was a kid), but the story is exactly the same. They have a picture every few pages that the girls enjoyed looking at as we read together. Brina and Karlie really enjoy these books and are always begging me to read…..just one more chapter. 🙂
Little House on the Prairie is the second book in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. We read Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder first. In this book the little girl, Laura, that we met in the first book traveled with her family out Midwest to the Kansas area. Her Pa found a place out in the wide open space of the prairie where they built their new home, barn, started farming, trapping, and explored the area. In this book Laura met Indians for the first time, saw a papoose, and experienced many new adventures.
Red Velvet Cake Batter Dip
I made this Red Velvet Cake Batter Dip for several parties over the past few months. It is always a hit! The dip is pretty and delicious. Animal crackers, graham crackers, pretzels, cookies, or even Nilla wafers are a perfect compliment to this delicious dip.
Red Velvet Cake Batter Dip- 8 ounces softened Cream Cheese
- 1/2 cup softened Butter
- 1 1/2 cups of dry Red Velvet Cake Mix
- 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
- Animal Crackers, Graham Crackers, Pretzels, Cookies, or Nilla Wafers
Beat cream cheese and butter until its smooth. Add in the dry red velvet cake mix, brown sugar, and powdered sugar. Blend until combined. Scoop mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and form into a ball. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Unwrap the ball and place it in a bowl or platter. Sprinkle with chocolates or sprinkles and serve with cookies or crackers.
What To Do With 25 Pounds of Fresh Organic Carrots
A few months ago I found this 25 pound bag of Fresh Organic Carrots marked down to $2.99 at our local Ingles store. Yippee!!! I checked to make sure all the carrots looked fresh and good. I was super excited because our family loves carrots, these looked great, and having a big bag could be beneficial for several recipes over the next few of months. We counted the carrots and if I remember correctly there were 76 large (some very large) full size carrots in this bag.
What did we do with all the carrots?
- Eat It – we ate them raw, in salads, dishes, cooked, and a variety of other great ways (our kids love munching on raw carrots or really anything with carrots in it)
- Share It – we gave several bags of carrots away to friends and family to use in their cooking too.
- Feed It – since we have goats they enjoyed a lot of delicious carrot treats over the next few months.
A bowl of fresh sliced carrots
How did we store all the carrots?
After scrubbing, washing, and drying the carrots we did a number of different things with them:
- Dehydrated Carrots – we sliced up a dehydrator full of carrots to use in soups, stews, and as treats for the goats. The goats LOVE crunchy dehydrated carrots as a snack!
- Frozen Carrots – some of the carrots we sliced up or shredded then put into Ziploc bags in the deep freezer to use for future recipes.
- Fresh Carrots – we used some right away for various recipes, ate raw carrots, and stored them in the refrigerator. We put the carrots in a drawer with other vegetables and our BluApple to help keep them fresh longer.
Tray full of sliced carrots ready to be dehydrated
Dehydrating 5 trays of sliced carrots – these are very good in soups and the goats love these as a special treat!
The carrots were still really fresh and I didn’t have to throw any out. These carrots lasted for several months frozen and dehydrated. Even though it is a lot of work when you get a big bag (25 pounds) up front the benefits will last a long time so it can be really worth it.
Travel & Vacation: Parks Near Charleston We Love! (part 2)
Karlie is our water bug. She is having a blast!
One of the girls favorite places to visit is Charleston. We have enjoyed finding a lot of neat parks near Charleston. Several of the parks we found while others were recommended to us by friends and people we met along the way. It is always an adventure hanging out with the chickies at the parks. They have a blast and love getting a chance to play, splash around, and explore!
Playing in the water at the park
A soaked Brina on the run and heading straight for me!
Chatting while Brina holds back a fountain sprayer and Karlie relaxes for a few minutes on the fence
Two little monkeys climbing on the tube slide at the park
Brina loves spinning in these red cups! Makes me almost sick and dizzy just watching them!
Travel & Vacation: Parks Near Charleston We Love!
Hanging out at Mount Pleasant. Notice the huge bridge above them, the girls always enjoy coming to Waterfront Park.
Relaxing for a few minutes
Silly Sisters
If you are looking for a great spot to fish near Charleston you can go on the pier of Mt Pleasant next to Waterfront Park. The girls always enjoy seeing pictures of the fish then walking down the pier checking out all the fish the people have caught that day.
Swinging on the pier
Creative Kids: Invisible Writing
The girls love to do crafts and all kinds of fun activities…..(so do I)! 🙂 As I was getting ready to leave for a few hours the other day I left a “secret” note on the girls bar stools. They didn’t realize it was a note because it was invisible . The night before the girls had asked if they could paint again soon so I decided that since the paints were going to be out anyway I might as well leave an invisible note for them to discover the next morning.
These invisible notes were a hit and super easy to do. Take a white piece of paper, write a message in white crayon, and have the kids paint over the letters to decode the message. Once the girls figured out it wasn’t just a plain white piece of paper on their bar stools they quickly decoded the message.
They decided it was pretty neat and the next spent hour writing invisible notes back and forth to each other. I love it when I start a fun activity and they run with it. Thankful that the girls get excited over the little stuff.
These would work really well for younger kids too. You could do a picture instead of a note as well.
Save A Lot: Deals for the week of January 9 – 15, 2013
The Save A Lot weekly ad deals are listed below for your convenience. It is a great time to stock up on some Save A Lot deals. Sign up for the Smart Shopper Club, by doing so you will get a $5.00 off of $25.00 coupon!
Meat and Seafood
New York Strip Steaks – $5.99 lb
Assorted Pork Chops – $1.79 lb
Pork Boneless Chops – $2.49 lb
Boston Butt Roast – $1.79 lb
Hillshire Farms Sausage (12 oz) – $1.99
Fairgrounds Sliced Bologna (16 oz) – $0.99
Fairgrounds Sliced Lunchmeat (14 oz) – $2.99
Sugardale Smoked or Polish Sausage Links (40 oz) – $3.99
Sugardale Jumbo Hotdogs (3 pounds) – $2.99
*Pick 5 for $19.99 promotion on going! Pick any 5 specially marked packages of your favorite cuts or types of meats, vegetables and more.
Fridge and Freezer
Pure Grove Premium Orange Juice (59 oz) – $2.49
Country Crock Spread (45 oz) – $2.99
Produce
California Navel Oranges (8 pounds) – $4.99
Carrots (2 pounds) – $0.99
Green Cabbage – $0.33 lb
Biggins Roast Potatoes (10 pounds) – $1.99
Grocery
McDaniel’s Classic Roast Ground Coffee (32 oz) – $4.99
General Mills Cereals, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cookie Crisp – $1.69
Use $1.00/2 coupon from insert 12/9 Smart Source (Expires 1/19/13)
$1.19 each after couponWylwood Canned Vegetables – $0.59
Save A Lot Today Soda (12 pack) – $2.89
Crystal 20 Purified Drinking Water (24 pack) – $2.99
So Cheesy Mac & Cheese Dinner – $1.69
Del Pino’s Canned Pasta with Meat – $0.85
J Higgs Saltines – $0.99
Panner Peanut Butter (18 oz) – $1.79
Bramley’s Grape Jelly (12 oz) – $1.69
Maruchan Ramen Noodles (6 pack) – $1.19
Kiggins Big Bag Cereal (24 oz) – $2.99
McDaniel’s Coffee Creamer (16 oz) – $1.99
Kaskey’s Soup, Chicken Noodle or Tomato (26 oz) – $1.29
Kraft Velveeta Cheesy Skillets Dinner Kits – $1.99
Chef Boyardee Pizza Kits – $2.99
Dinty Moore Beef Stew (20 oz) – $1.99
Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink (4 pack) – $3.19
Sunny D (45 oz) – $1.00
Herr’s Chips (3.75 oz) – $1.00
Remember you can use the $5/$25 printable coupon to sweeten these deals! Plus you can earn up to 5 additional $5 off $25 coupons for sharing the coupon with your friends. For more information about Save A Lot’s coupon policies go here. If you find additional deals or savings please let me know and I will add them to the list. Please make sure to check with your local Save A Lot store, the ads do vary per region.
