MPM Dog Days of Summer

It is really hot out there. Makes things unbearable and makes me irritable.

Today is cleaning day. Last weeks laundry is now folded. I got one load finished and folded and one in the dryer. The dishes were done last night so I need to unload and start reloading. I am also going to get the kitchen tidied and the bathrooms wiped down. I may also dust.

I called a local charity/donation center on Friday. The guy finally called me back today and came on by. I think there were 10 garbage bags of clothes, a few boxes, some furniture and some shoes. I can now take baby stuff over to the consignment shop and see if I can sell the big stuff. After that, I can really start going through the stuff in the garage that can be thrown out. We've sold a bunch of DVDs, CDs and books so that helps a bit. But it still seems like we're not making any progress. I just don't see the "dent" yet.

And now to this week's menu...

Sunday - Pizza (Last time, Ryan made a white pizza. This time it was the norm pepperoni and cheese)
Monday - Hamburgers & possibly oven fries
Tuesday - Buffalo chicken strips with potato salad
Wednesday - Chicken and cheese enchiladas
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Spaghetti and crock pot meatballs
Saturday - Leftovers

MPM is regularly hosted at OrgJunkie. Today it's hanging out at Finding Joy... Find more menus there!

Work is done! & MPM

Our last day of teaching was Friday. The kids graduated yesterday (Saturday). The last two days of school were very relaxed. Culinary arts students handed out their cookbooks to the teachers, we had 'parties' and I finally cleaned out my office. Today begins the first official day of summer vacation. And it seems to be pretty busy: two family visits, three conferences, medical appointments, two birthdays, one anniversary, house hunting (hopeful purchase), hopeful garage sale and a partridge in a pear tree.

Today's agenda... flea market, groceries, laundry, cleaning (I need to find my master cleaning list) and preparing to pack (need to make a packing list) for our trip. I might take Ivy to the pool too.

We will be leaving to visit family on Friday. So there won't be a MPM for next week. Just this week.
Sunday - Leftover lasagna (here. Delish!)
Monday - Hot wings - I use PW's sauce recipe but I dredge my chicken and I'm using chicken tenders, potato salad
Tuesday - Our 8 year anniversary - we're eating out!
Wednesday - Enchiladas (beef)
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Out Of Town
Saturday - OOT

For my previous Menu Plan Monday's, click on my labels MPM

For more recipes: Visit OrgJunkie MPM

Menu Plan Monday: Memorial Day Style

This is the last week of work/school for us. What a relief. The kids have drained me this year. That and all the catering and dealing with The Jerkwad. This week, all I have planned are FINALS. And my finals are 100 questions and I've planned for the classes to take them over the course of two to three days. If there's time available, the kids can watch movies or bring in food for a pseudo party.

I'm really looking forward to having time to spend with Ivy - during the week it's pick her up, feed her, bathe her and send her to bed. I don't get much play-time with her and I'm so excited that I'll be able to now. Problem is, I don't know what to do with Ivy during the summer though. She's only 18 months. Area activities are designed for 3+ crowd, expensive and not entirely local. Sure there are a lot of things we can do at home but... we don't have a backyard for all those backyard activities the internet suggests and... CABIN FEVER.

But I know I do have plans for meals. What a segue, huh?

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday - Fried catfish, mashed potatoes and key lime pie
Monday - BBQ! Sure, we've been using the grill for a few weeks, but still, it's the BBQ holiday that kickstarts the summer. Peak grilling season. Anyway... BBQ sausages and chicken, grilled corn on the cobb and maybe mac and cheese.
Tuesday - Leftovers
Wednesday - Hamburgers
Thursday - Pizza
Friday - Lasagna
Saturday - Early dinner out with family?? Or leftovers

More menus at OrgJunkie.

PS: Since I will have more time on my hands, I plan on blog-hopping and commenting. I would like to make some internet buddies and I know I have to be the one to put myself out there. I'm also hoping to generate some more ideas for my menus. Hamburgers and pizza are weekly dinners and... well, I want something different!

Menu Plan Monday

I was starting to complain about things on here and decided to stop. It isn't worth the hassle. I'm tired and angry and I don't know why. So, there it is.

I'm a bit peeved that I've got students requesting my friendship on facebook. There goes my anonymity. No, I don't intent to return their request until they have graduated. They're on their way out anyway. But still... they will still be in connection with people who are still students and there's that can of worms. Do not want.

I'd like to just shut all the windows and doors and just not come out for a while.

While I do that, enjoy this week's menu!

Sunday - BBQ sandwiches - Ryan's parents were visiting over the weekend and brought us some tasty BBQ.
Monday - LO's; I catered this evening
Tuesday - Hamburgers
Wednesday - Enchiladas (beef or chicken, I don't know which)
Thursday - Chicken fettuccine alfraedo
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Fried catfish and french fries or something

Hit up more menus at OrgJunkie

Mother's Day and a Menu

For Mother's Day:

Free breakfast at one of my favorite places: Chiloso.

Stopped by Target and PetSmart.

Put Ivy down for a nap and then put myself down for a nap.

Got to work on some ... work. Ugh. Lesson plans, FCCLA display board and grocery shopping for catering tomorrow.

Once back home, I made hot wings!

And now, Ryan is making some awesome chocolate cookies. Possible recipe later.

Yesterday, we went to Dallas (which we were going to do today instead but changed it around because of my work junk).

Ryan took me to Twisted Root for lunch and we stopped by Central Market too.

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday - Hot wings and potato salad. Buffalo sauce from PW; she didn't batter hers, I did. Ugh SO GOOD.

Monday - I'm catering so Ryan gets leftover wings

Tuesday - Hamburgers

Wednesday - Cheese enchiladas, guacamole and possibly queso. Ryan's brother is visiting and he's vegetarian. Ivy will be so thrilled!!

Thursday - Hot links unless there are leftovers

Friday - Spaghetti and meatballs

Saturday - Fried catfish and french fries

For more menus, hit up OrgJunkie!

Menu Plan Monday - May 1

We are planning on buying a house. In order to help with costs and saving money, I'm planning weekly menus and STICKING TO IT. I do this all the time... Say I'm going to do menus and then let it slide. But this time, I need to get serious. Plus, summer vacation is right around the corner and it'll be so much easier to do this.

This week, there are a lot of things going on at school/work for us. Thankfully, I'm not catering at night this week. I have a thousand cookies the kids need to make and blueberry muffins - but that's easy.

Sunday - Fried chicken and potato salad; I use canola oil to fry because it's healthier.
Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Hamburgers and chips
Wednesday - Pizza
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Hot links on bread and chips; This is a throw-back to my hometown. Organizations regularly have hot link sales on street corners and you're hard-pressed to find an empty street corner during the summer.
Saturday - Steak, twice-baked potatoes; These are both freezer fixers because they are premadend wrapped (well, the steak isn't cooked). So there isn't much prep involved with these.

http://orgjunkie.com/2011/05/menu-plan-monday-may-2-2011.html

Mardi Gras is Tuesady... uh, duh.

I come from a land that is very close to Louisiana - in location and culture. Moving pulled us away from that and I aim to teach about Mardi Gras to my foods classes. I always strive to teach about food relating to holiday traditions. Second to Thanksgiving, Mardi Gras is a big food holiday telling celebrators to fatten up for the Lent season. Now, I'm not a religious person but there was research to be done. And boy did I - mostly to pack in as much information as possible int my students' brains. I also went beyond Mardi Gras to Lent and Easter. Getting ready for the egg holiday!!!

They're (my students) making jambalaya and king cake tomorrow. Yes, on a Monday - the powers that be snaked Fat Tuesday away from me for more important business - state standardized test benchmarking... "practice and placement" for the real thing, come April. I'll be making it on Tuesday. Am I doing it to Fatten Up? Hell no. I like connecting to my roots through food. Come spring break, I'll be doing a bit more of that. Sensible portion sizes, of course.

Menu Plan Monday - options for the week

• Jambalaya and King Cake (recipies after the jump)
• Pulled pork (for several meals - nachos, bbq sandwiches)
• Some other pork meal (16 lb pork shoulder for 2 people, yamahama!)- Conchinita Pibil
• Then the standard standbys: Pizza and leftovers.

http://orgjunkie.com/2011/03/menu-plan-monday-march-7th.html

  Mardi Gras Recipes after the cut!!!

Menu Planning

Husband and I signed up for a fitness contest at work. The person who loses the highest percentage of body weight wins the money (sign up money and 1$ per pound for each person who gains weight). This has been a motivator for both of us to get more active.


I made fried catfish last night. I love to fry foods. It's such a rare occasion and a nice treat. And honestly, I'm good at frying stuff. It was Ivy's first taste of fish and of course didn't like it at first. But she finished her meal. We're trying to have her eat table food but we eat later than she does and what we have is usually not something you'd feed a toddler. And we don't purchase foods that a toddler would normally eat.


The status of our bank account has given me more motivation to reign it in when it comes to eating out. This past week has been so hectic. Food was the last thing on my mind.

This week... some changes.

Here is my Menu Plan Monday. Totally don't want to plan what goes where. Just that we know these are our options.
1. Sandwiches - Been watching a lot of the Cosby Show and Doc Hux eats a lot of hoagies. Was inspired.
2. Hot links - on bread with chips
3. Pizza
4. Chicken - apparently we aren't being specific with how we're making it; but I want to do something with the crock pot.
5. Nachos
Days 6 & 7 are leftovers

Menu Plan Monday (on a Wednesday)

Boo. I've been busy.
Last week's menu was a bit sketchy. Since we made two large crock pot meals, we were stuck eating leftovers the whole week. Glad it's gone!
So here is this week's late menu - Jan 17.

Monday: Fend for yourself. Catered this night. I had Chicken Parmesan.
Tuesday: Lack of planning = no dinner
Wednesday: Fried chicken and mashed potatoes
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Crock pot roast
Sunday: Leftovers
http://orgjunkie.com/2011/01/menu-plan-monday-jan-17th.html

Menu Plan Monday - Jan 10

I'm a little proud of my icon. I like being able to use icons like this on separate posts like on Livejournal. Oh well. To the point, shall we?

We were gifted a crock-pot for christmas this year from my mom. She wasn't sure we'd want it so it wasn't wrapped. We have had a couple of crock-pots in the past but never used them and just gave them away. This was at a point in our lives that we generally had more time on our hands to actually cook a meal on the stove. I made a soup or two in one, but I wasn't impressed and I do a mean soup on the stove anyway. Now with both of us working and having Ivy, we are either too forgetful to pull stuff out in the morning to thaw, too tired or busy to actually cook when we get home or just plain lazy or indecisive. Cooking takes planning. Does it ever!

I wasn't really sure what to make and I hadn't dug around on the internet yet to find any recipes. So my mom suggested pot roast. Okay. Grocery trip later and I had a roast, onions, carrots, red pepper and potatoes (we had the potatoes on hand already). About 5 days go by and we finally decide to do the crock-pot pot roast. I had to call my mom to actually get the dynamics of the whole thing. Here I am, 30 years old, growing up with a mom who religiously used a crock-pot, and I don't know what to do. There's no shame in that. It's just... strange to not know how to do this. I grew up in the kitchen for crying out loud.

The next morning, we have everything ready to go. Prepped the veggies the night before so all we had to do was throw it all together and go. Tried to put the frozen roast in the pot and it wouldn't fit. So I had to quick defrost in the microwave. Once everything was in order, we left for work. Upon arrival, the house smelled gooooooooooood. I was really excited about this!

Ryan made some rice in our new rice cooker. Perfect rice every time! The roast however, turned out mediocre. I forgot to season the darn thing before putting it in the pot. Simple fix though. It was pretty good.

Our following grocery trip, we got another roast. We are determined to get it right. We also got a pre-seasoned pork shoulder that was meant (and we made) for the crock pot. It was labeled as BBQ but smelled and tasted more tex-mex taco-y to me. So we slathered it with BBQ sauce and went on our merry way.

I'm foreseeing a lot of crock-pot use. At least once a week. Speaking of... it's a MENU PLAN MONDAY!!!

Monday: Leftover crock-pot BBQ pork. Er... we need some BBQ sauce STAT!
Tuesday: Possible round of more leftovers.
Wednesday: Skillet grilled chicken and rice of some sort
Thursday: Roast chicken and potatoes (crock-pot? or oven?)
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Steak and baked potatoes
Sunday: Fried chicken and macaroni and cheese

Menu Plan Monday July 19

Got a late start this week. We had been having one of those weeks asking each other what we wanted for dinner and the answer ended up being fast food. BLECH! And we were going to the store pretty much every day. So after debating, it was agreed to go back to MPMs. Plus, we are both wanting to get back into better shape so I think this will definitely help.

Monday 
Dinner: Pizza & salad

Tuesday
Breakfast: Egg in a hole, fruit salad
Dinner: Skillet grilled chicken, rice-a-roni, steamed broccoli

Wednesday
Breakfast: Pancakes
Dinner: Fried shrimp & french fries

Thursday
Breakfast: Granola and yogurt
Dinner: Chicken taco pasta salad and garden salad

Friday
Breakfast: Muffins
Dinner: Tuna sandwiches

Saturday
Breakfast: Eat at Chiloso
Dinner: Hot links

Menu Plan Monday

I used to plan a menu monthly. Yes, thirty days of different meals planned all in one day. I'm fond of the process and have written about it (although not here) quite a few times (I may create a page about this kind of stuff). I'm also fond of how easy it is. Shopping has a direction. We're not eating out every day. The dinner mystery is always solved. The food is so much better for us. However, my husband is not as fond of it as I am and I cannot comprehend why.

Since summer starts today (in a sense), I intend to get back into planning dinners. I don't know how this will pan out while we are on vacation, but I think everyone could certainly benefit from it. Especially if we intend to lose some weight.

Menu Plan Monday, here we go.

• Monday -- Memorial Day Bar-be-que (steaks, chicken & hot links) steak for dinner, potato salad, brown & serve rolls
• Tuesday -- BBQ Chicken, potato salad, b&s rolls
• Wednesday -- Hot links on bread, chips
• Thursday -- Shrimp fried rice
• Friday -- Graduation ceremony = eat out
• Saturday -- Pizza
• Sunday -- Nachos

Inspired by OrgJunkie.