Seared scallops with jalapeño vinaigrette on Valentines day

Menu plan

Planned out and already shopped for the next week or so of meals.

Starting with tomorrow.
Crockpot pulled porks sandwiches w/ salad and mashed potatoes
Cheeseburger Pasta with veggies
Homemade Pizza (have premade crust, we'll do the rest) pepperoni, mushroom and bacon with salad
Hamburgers (grilled with mushrooms) and sweet potato fries
Beef and Mushroom Dijon
Meatloaf (turkey going to use dried stuffing mix instead of oatmeal or breadcrumbs)

I'll throw in a leftover night and a wildcard to give us some flexibility. So I'm planned through next Saturday. So I have over a week to figure out the following week, gotta get back into planning things out.

Meal Plan Monday

Okay so I spent some time over my winter break and planned out some meals. Trying OVERALL to be healthier most are a bit better for you. But as the man likes his food "fatty" I have a few things thrown in that aren't on the healthy path. But it's all about moderation. :D

Monday - Pizza Casserole NEW
Tuesday - Tilapia sandwiches (gonna pan fry tilapai, with some slaw)
Wednesday - Mississippi Roast NEW
Thursday - Paninis (made with leftover meat from Wed)
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Repurposed beef (not planned yet)
Sunday - ?? (we usually go out for lunch so our appetites vary)

Anniversary Gift

So I decided to make a date jar for my anniversary for my man. As we so often like so many couples cannot decide what to do but at the same time want to do something. So I saw the idea of a date jar on Pinterest and decided to look up more information after looking at a few blogs I began to compile a list of date ideas. Looked up how to dye wooden popsicle sticks, and created the rest.

First I complied a list of ideas from a few blogs, 2 craft 4 my skirt, Life in the Green House, House Girl Haley, and Girl Power Hour. Once I read their list of date ideas I started to compile my own. Here is the finished result:

Sticks drying in bathtub.

$$$ and/or planning 

• Bed and Breakfast
•  Rampage/Spurs game
• Couples massage
• Sea World or Fiesta Texas
• Dinner and a Movie (her choice)
• Dinner and a Movie (his choice)
• Trip to Austin
• Camping trip
• Night of fun at Dave and Buster’s
• Painting with a Twist
• Go see a live band/show

Lable I made in MS Word

$$ little to no planning

• Go on a Picnic
•  Laser Tag
• Bowling
• Putt – Putt
• Play pool
•  Zoo
•  Museum
• Coffee date (@ bookstore optional)
•  Food Truck fun
• Visit a tourist spot in San Antonio
• Go for a scenic drive
•  Wander through the mall
•  Lunch at a new to us restaurant
• Visit a Winery
•  Drive to small Texas town for a day trip, walk around main strip
•  Enchanted Rock for the day
•  Botanical Gardens
• Go to a Hooka bar
• Natural Bridge Caverns or Wildlife Park
• Go to Asian grocery store and get new things to try later.

Free outside the home

• Go hiking at Freidric Park
• Make/put together kites and go fly them
• Play Frisbee/ Throw the boomerang
•  Bike ride
• Visit the Japanese Tea Gardens
• Visit one of the Missions
• Explore a local park



Finished product

• Stargazing

$ At home dates

• Takeout and board games
• Make Ice Cream sundaes
• Homemade pizza’s and an Italian movie
• Accomplish a “home” project
• TV series marathon
• Carpet picnic
• Restaurant at home (recreate a menu)
• Popcorn and a movie
• Pizza and a puzzle
• Asian food and Anime or Kung Fu movie
• Video games and meal of his choice
• Movie Marathon (HP, LOTR, SW, etc)
•  Nerf Gun fight
• Technology FREE night – no ELECTRONICS
• Fondue Night
• Pick a new complicated recipe to make together, shop and prepare meal.

Randomness

Diet Coke deals:
Walgreens: with coupon 5 12 packs for $14
CVS: 4 for $10 with CVS card

Other goals:
Getting to Michael's to take advantage of some deals
Making phone calls to get things done with the house (sprinklers, A/C)

Here we go again...

Okay so I've done Flylady once successfully then moved back in with my parents and thus lost all habits. I started again awhile back but fell out of all that probably due to moving and just to much change in schedule again. But now I'm going for round 3, my plan is to use Flylady principals and ideas but not go full force charging in as I have in the past. She pushes for babysteps as otherwise you get overwhelmed and give up, 15 minutes a day is something I can handle most days at least. And I won't beat myself up if I miss a day of decluttering/unpacking if I worked/was away from the house for 12 hours. I've trained the man to make the bed when he gets up which is ALWAYS later than me.

First step is "shining your sink" I know how she wants it done, I know her method. I just don't wake up early enough to empty the dishwasher in the AM before leaving for work, and the man isn't too good on doing that on his own. He's a great helper but he's not awake before 6am like I am, and I leave the house by 6:20am. I need to suck it up and be mature about going to bed a bit earlier and waking up 10-15 minutes earlier as that's all it takes to get everything put away. And that's step one, so that's the goal tonight. Were going to order delivery, I haven't made it to the grocery store lately nor meal planned since my marathon plan a thon last month. So were resorting to the easy solution, having someone else cook and deliver. :-) Which is another reason for the desire for routine, but mostly I have set hours now, so I can more easily plan and mentally prepare to accomplish x, y, or z but I just don't do well doing it on my own at this point. I'm too ambitious and plan to much then when I'm tired after work I don't do any of it or if I'm lucky a little bit gets done.

Wish me luck.

Menu Plans

Here are my basic plans, as I said in my last post we went to a Warehouse store and stocked up on frozen chicken, and other basics. So that helped in my planning. I'm hitting up the grocery store tomorrow after work. Let the games begin.

Week of: Oct 23 – Oct 29

Chicken Parmesan w/ pasta Steak w/ mashed potatoes, green beans Chicken burgers w/ sweet potato fries Chicken meatball kabob's w/ salad Enchiladas – make extras Chicken Marsala - NEW

Week of: Oct 30 – Nov 5

Spaghetti w/ garlic bread Make-ahead burritos - NEW/ making extras Jambalaya Easy Cheese Tortellini Alfredo - make night before Tuna casserole Chicken Cordon Blue - NEW

Week of: Nov 6 – Nov 12

Beer Battered catfish w/ onion rings Chili w/ corn bread Meatloaf Bourbon Chicken w/ noodles Chicken and Dumplings (crockpot)

Some are old favorites, some are new. Some are things I haven't tried in a long time. Lots of chicken obviously, lol. I'm trying to incorporate at least one night a week to "make-ahead" cooking whether that be the crock-pot, or something I make in bulk and freeze some for later, or a casserole that I make the night before to be cooked later. I think there's at least 1 of those a week, so eventually that will lower the amount of cooking. The man offered to make Chicken Cordon Blu so I added that one, and he'll help in the kitchen most nights. Which is awesome. Wish me luck, I only planned 6 a week (will add one to the week of Nov 6) as we all need at least one night for leftovers, going out, etc. I take leftovers for lunch a lot as I work in a school and cafeteria food isn't always awesome. I do buy my lunch sometimes, but it has to be something "good."

Trying to overachieve

Today I've been revisiting menu planning....but not just a little bit. Like a whirlwind, helps that the man has math homework to complete and is busy upstairs leaving me to be with all my cookbooks and mini laptop. ::insert evil laugh:: but seriously after being stuck home for 4 days you'd think I would have attempted this previously and not spent most of Sunday revisiting and reworking my methods. I was home recently due to bronchitis with pharyngitis, which was most likely strep but the doctor didn't want to waste my or his time by doing the throat swab when he was already prescribing me to antibiotics. So I've been not just a little sick, but REALLY sick, per doctor's orders I've been home. Sleeping and spending way to much time on Facebook. But I get to go back to work tomorrow. :-D

Anyways back to the whole menu planning. I decided I was going to menu plan because I got an email that some website had a new planner option. Not wanting to go there. I was like I need to do this, so I carried my mini to the kitchen table and looked at the desk which had been piled high in the kitchen since we moved in...and decided it was time to unearth it. So I went through all the papers and sorted and tossed what needed to be dealt with, so now I sit at my desk with my swivel chair so I can turn and use the kitchen table too. It's not perfect but it's now usable space. Which is pretty awesome I might add. Anyways back to the point. I've been attempting to plan not just one week but one MONTH of meals. My problem has always been that when I plan X for Monday, Y for Tuesday I never want those items that day throwing off my entire week and making me have to rewrite everything as I used the dry erase method before. So I was looking around the internet and like the idea of index cards but not sure I'd use them but I might try a few just listing ingredients to help with grocery list making.

Anyways I came up with a plan I think will work for me, I created a word document that lists just "week of: date" then below I've bulleted meals I plan to make that week. But I make the sheet for the whole month/4 weeks, so it's massive planning but it shouldn't have to happen too often, and I'm basing it upon what's in the house now, what we stocked up on at Bulk store, and what I'll get at the grocery store tomorrow after work. So I can get the pantry staples were running low on and maintain that easier if I'm planning this far in advance that's the plan so far, it's still a work in progress but I'm excited and the man doesn't understand why. :-D So I'm blogging. I'll update on how it goes.

Homemaking, defined

I never really thought about the term homemaking till recently. Having a house now, really makes the term hit home, as it seems we spend every weekend with projects to continue to make the house a home. Today we started out pulling weeds and gardening in the front yard, then rearranging the still box filled garage. Then a trip to his parents as they were giving us their old dining room table. :-)

Then to Lowe's for boards to put in the attic and create a floor, and a few other odds and ends. We were at Lowe's yesterday too, home improvement stores are great, but it's not like grocery shopping where with a list you don't forget things. :-\ We're still learning.

But overall we've been productive. I'm working 50 hours a week right now so the house isn't getting the attention it deserves. Neither is my menu planning or cooking. We've started getting delivery and takeout more than we should. So I need to put forth the effort again to creating a weekly or bi-weekly menu might work better. As it's just the two of us, we can keep more in the freezer and in the pantry to prepare.