Menu Plan 3/12/12 - 3/18/12

Yes, it's a miracle - I'm actually posting a menu for the first time in over a month!  Once again, I've just been too busy to post, but meal planning and cooking have definitely NOT ceased to occur.

I'm on Spring Break this week, so I have time to try out a few new things.  The nice thing is, all of the recipe use ingredients that we always have stocked in our pantry/freezer! We're trying hard to eat meatless 2 - 3 times weekly, both because we think it's healthier and because we're only buying organic meats (which is more expensive).

So, here it is:

Monday 3/12/12: Coconut-crusted chicken fingers and spicy sesame noodles (both are new).

Tuesday 3/13/12: Mr. Mamie has a class, so we're eating out at Pollo Loco, which has a $2.99 taco salad bowl deal on Tuesdays.  Pollo Loco is one of the few "fast food" places we eat at.

Wednesday 3/14/12: Cheddar ranch burgers (new) and homemade French fries.  I make a BIG jar full of this French fry seasoning, and we do baked fries at least once a week.

Thursday 3/15/12: Bean enchilada casserole (meatless; new) and Mom's arroz Mexicano (making a double batch). I'm looking forward to trying this version of bean enchiladas; we had these white bean enchiladas a couple of weeks ago and they were FANTASTIC! It would nice to have two really good variations on this theme.

Friday 3/16/12: Lentil tacos (meatless; new) and arroz Mexicano left-over from last night.

Saturday 3/17/12: Buffalo chicken sandwiches (new) and baked beans.  I'm also going to make brown butter soda bread (new) in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

Sunday 3/18/12: Breakfast for dinner (meatless) - sour cream blueberry waffles, scrambled eggs, fruit n' spinach smoothies.

Have a GREAT week; I know I will!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Hike at Red Cliffs 2/5/12

 View backwards (to the south) as we hiked up through the canyon.

 Mr. Mamie and Copper take a break; I'm still coming up the trail below.

 I'm getting closer!

 A wide, sandy spot in the trail.

The weather this day was INCREDIBLE; we hiked in short sleeves - in early February, wow! It's been month since we've been back to Red Cliffs, but I'm sure we'll be both there and at Zion this week while I'm on Spring Break. Yay!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Sunrise 2/7/12

Over our back fence this morning.

Yummy, frugal, green lunch!

My lunch today was so yummy-looking I just had to snap an iPhone pic... it was also frugal and environmentally conscious.  And yes, this IS a "typical" lunch that I take to school.

I had: Grapefruit in a cup (from Costco), Tilamook white cheddar with cracked black pepper (about 2 ounces), a crisp Gala apple, some cut-up celery and carrots, fresh blackberries (in the purple container), eight Crunchmaster multi-seed crackers (no flour!), and two homemade oatmeal cookies.  YUM!

I used a couple of snackTAXI bags for the crackers and cookies, and two  Laptop Lunch bento containers to keep things green (I recycled the grapefruit container and brought my apple core home to compost).  I did use a snack-size Ziploc bag for the cheese, but this was the third day I used it.  Everything got carried to school in my beautiful purple REI lunchbox cooler, and I drank water from my giant Kleen Kanteen.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Hmmmmm...

Should I be slightly worried that there's a drill with a large wood bit on it sitting on my husband's nightstand???

Saturday Hike

Rock scrambling on the Silver Reef trail in the Red Cliffs Conservation Area.

Menu Plan 1/23/12 - 1/29/11

 

 I didn't post a menu plan last week - things had gotten kind of crazy the week before, as we attended a funeral and also spent a couple of days in Mr. Mamie's hometown because his dad was in the hospital (unrelated to the funeral).  That made the plan change, and things got shifted and shuffled.  It really helped that I had a "master menu" for the month to choose from - dinners for which I had all the ingredients on hand in the pantry and freezer. 

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday: Beef and barley skillet dinner, green salad.

Tuesday: Orange teriyaki chicken on the grill, yellow rice, green salad.

Wednesday: Beef stew in the CrockPot using random vegetables we have around and a piece of top round roast from the freezer, green salad, blueberry muffins (from a box mix).

Thursday: Chicken and black bean quesadillas (using filling from the freezer) with lettuce, sour cream, and tomatoes.

Friday: Slow cooker BBQ chicken sandwiches, oven French fries, green salad.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

What I'm reading

This morning I finished

This was a good continuation of the Inspector Lynley story with a complicated mystery and interesting setting.  The ending is a total set-up for the next novel, which will clearly feature DS Havers in the main role. I'm already anticipating it!

The rest of my day has been non-productive in terms of chores of school work, because I immediately got sucked into

I was an early, devoted Cornwell fan, and have read the Scarpetta books since the beginning. However, I have not enjoyed the last few, and was skeptical about this one. Scarpetta is still paranoid, but I'm finding her much less bitchy than she has been recently. The story pulled me in - obviously, since I've read 211 pages today - and I'm enjoying the read so far. We'll see what I think at the end!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Meme

1. Do you live close to where you grew up? Why?

Not really. I was born in western Kansas and moved to southern California 3 months before my eighth birthday, so I mostly grew up in San Diego county. My father was still in KS, and we spent plenty of weeks each year there and then later in TX and OR as he moved.  As a young adult I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost 12 years, and certainly did a lot of growing up in that time! Now I live in the intermountain west, where the desert meets the alpine forest.

2. Have you ever been so angry that you almost lost control?

Yes… I've tried to learn from those situations.

3. Are you a fan of a musical act that slightly embarrasses you?

Not really, other than a small spot in my heart for "Air Supply," the music (if you can call it that) of my 7th grade self.

4. Is there a movie that always makes you cry?

Hmmm… I'm sure there is but nothing comes to mind at the moment.

5. Who is the most famous person that you've met?

I chatted with Brad Pitt at a car wash in Sherman Oaks for 10 minutes in 2004.

6. Before you leave your home, what must you have?

iPhone, Burt's Bees or Badger lip balm.  Wallet and keys also, obviously.

7. What do you miss the most about being a kid?

More time to read!

8. Tell us about a passion of yours that your readers would not expect.

Ummmmm… passions would be reading, cooking, hiking, and dogs and those are all pretty well-documented here!

9. At what age do you think you'd be to think, “I've had a great run”?

To hard to predict. let's just see how things go!

I got this from her.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Exactly!

This is popping up in various places; I got it here.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

This blog has gone dark

Moonset

View as we walked dogs at 7:30 this morning - full moon setting behind a hill.

Menu Plan 1/9/12 - 1/15/12

Monday 1/9: Whole-wheat spaghetti with CrockPot Bolognese sauce, Italian cheese bread, green salad (freezing half of the sauce for later in the month).

Tuesday 1/10: Eat out with a gift card (this did not happen last week; instead we had homemade "Hamburger Helper").

Wednesday 1/11: Chicken patty sandwiches (using frozen chicken patties from Costco), Annie's organic macaroni & cheese, green salad.

Thursday 1/12: Mom's Swiss steak cooked in the CrockPot (tomato version), never-mushy rice, green salad.

Friday, 1/13: Grilled hot dogs (Costco brand, so yummy!) with chili and cheese, oven French fries.

Saturday, 1/14: Navajo tacos (using one lb. ground beef combined with one can of Bush's chili beans). The link to this recipe no longer works - apparently the blog has been deleted.  I will post the recipe on my own blog soon, and credit the source.

Sunday 1/15: Grilled lemon-garlic-pepper chicken, au gratin potatoes (processed crap from a box), green salad.

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Menu Plan 1/2/12 - 1/8/12

Sorry for not posting any menus during December... I did make meal plans for the first part of the month, but school kept me too busy to post them. I've been on vacation since the 21st, and have been SICK SICK SICK the whole time, so I didn't really make a plan.  We tried to eat up everything possible from the chest freezer so that we could defrost it and do a big re-stock during vacation.  I'm happy to report that we DID accomplish that task!

Today I actually made a list of 31 meals for January, all of which use ingredients we already have in the freezers or pantry.  We'll need fresh produce and milk, and that that's all as far as groceries for the month.

Here's the plan for the first week:

Monday 1/2: Kung Pao chicken, yellow rice, steamed broccoli.


Tuesday 1/3: Mr. Mamie and I will be eating out using a gift card. There are plenty of leftovers around for GrandmaT.

Wednesday 1/4: Lemon-herb pork chops, stuffing (from a box), green salad.

Thursday 1/5: Breakfast for dinner - oatmeal pancakes and scrambled eggs.

Friday 1/6: Grilled burgers, oven French fries.

Saturday 1/7: We'll be having combined birthday dinner for GrandmaT and Mr. Igor.  The requested main dish is ham/broccoli/pasta casserole (a recipe I STILL need to post).  We'll have blueberry muffins (an Igor favorite) and green salad with the casserole. GrandmaT has asked - for the third year in a row - to have banana cupcakes with honey frosting. I will also make a batch of Mom's peanut butter chip cookies for Igor to enjoy both after dinner and later in the week on his truck.

Sunday 1/8: Chicken and black bean quesadillas.

There are a whole bunch more meal plans at Menu Plan Monday!

Have a great week!

Image credit

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)