Today, I got home from work to find a legal-size envelope in the mail from our foster care agency. I got so excited that I opened it first, even before the free samples and coupon envelopes! Sure enough, it was our official license - yay! This was amusing to me since we have yet to actually talk with our FYS (Family and Youth Specialist) and as a matter of fact, don't even know who that is. But no matter - when I texted B3, she got so excited that she called Pooh's (isn't that better than the Pooping Machine?!) cps worker, who said it was fine, since we have our license, to do an extended respite. So we are respite parents for the next 7 days! This is gonna be fun :-)
Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying making a menu for the week. Not that we follow it religiously (as a matter of fact, I have a hard time getting P-Daddy to follow it at all!), but it's convenient for me when I'm packing my lunch and getting ready for the day. And it helps me to think about what's in the fridge and what we have to eat. This weekend, we made several things: a big pot of crockpot black beans, crockpot chicken (cause Fiesta had chicken leg quarters for $0.39 a pound!), and cilantro pesto pasta. Those things are making up a large portion of the week's menu, which appears below. You'll also notice I added a "C" line to each - that's my attempt to think about cleaning, and to plan at least a quick pick-me-up of different areas on different days.
Monday:
B: SCO w/ peaches, apples, and banana
L: spinach frittata, roasted veggies
D: cilantro pesto pasta w/ chicken
S: applesauce, carrots, watermelon
C: kids' BR
Tuesday:
B: eggs, black beans, tortillas
L: cilantro pesto pasta w/ chicken
D: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, red peppers, cherries
C: parents' BR
Wednesday:
B: SCO w/ peaches, apples, and banana
L: black beans w/ brown rice, avocado, boiled egg
D: out with students
S: applesauce, peaches, carrot sticks
C: bathroom
Thursday:
B: SCO w/ peaches, apples, and bananas
L: roasted veggies, chicken
D: pb&j sandwiches, carrot sticks, red pepper strips
S: yogurt w/ blackberries, cucumbers
C: living room
Friday:
B: eggs, black beans, tortillas
L: chicken taco salad
D: potato nachos
S: popcorn, oranges, jicama
C: hallway, floors
Saturday:
B: fruit and yogurt, cold cereal
L: picnic: sandwiches, finger fruits and veggies
D: out to dinner or order in
S: banana, yucca, cottage cheese
C: laundry
Sunday:
B: pancakes w/ fruit
L: veggie frittata, ww bread; red, white, and blue fruit parfaits
D: brown rice and lentil casserole
S: red peppers, carrots, yogurt w/ blackberries
C: kitchen
Showing posts with label menu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label menu. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
More menus, and an update!
First the update: Last night, P-daddy and I had a lovely talk with the director of our agency, who has to approve all the homestudies. She just had some residual issues to clear up, which we did successfully, and she said she'd approve and pass it on, and we should be licensed by the end of the week if no other issues arrive! Yay - finally!
And now the menus:
Last week, we did...sort of okay on the menu front. It was super-helpful to me to have a menu there on the fridge, so that I could look at it in the morning when I was packing my lunch, and know that I was taking enough food. We didn't always stick to the dailiness of it, and we ended up eating meals on the 'wrong' day, but it was nice to at least have the ideas there for us. On the weekend, not so successful, but that was more due to the fact that the PM was in the house, and he ripped the menu off of the fridge sometime early on Saturday. Note to self: post menu high enough the grabbing hands can't make it disappear!
Yesterday evening, P-daddy and I spent a couple hours in the kitchen, in the hopes that we can spend almost no time in the kitchen the rest of the week. We chopped and packaged carrots and peppers for lunches and snacks, sauteed a mixture of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage, cooked a large pot of curried lentils, made brown rice to go with the lentils, and made spinach frittata (well, okay, P-daddy made that earlier in the day). Then I cleaned out and rearranged the fridge so that everything would fit, and we now have most of the week's food ready to go, or at least pretty easy to prepare. We'll have to do some cooking/prepping on the weekend, but I hope to combine that with next week's food prep to keep us out of the 100 degree heat in there! Here's the plan:
Monday:
B: eggs, black beans, avocado, tortillas
L: spinach frittata, mango
D: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
S: yogurt, peaches, cucumber
Tuesday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
D: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks
S: applesauce, red peppers, cherries
Wednesday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: spinach frittata, cottage cheese, bread
D: carrot and potato dumplings, side salad
S: yogurt, celery, banana
Thursday:
B: eggs and beans, tortillas
L: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
D: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, blackberries
Friday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: pb&j sandwiches, cucumbers, carrots, apples
D: eat out or order in
S: applesauce, nectarines, red peppers w/ hummus
Saturday:
B: cinnamon rolls
L: salad w/ tuna, tomatoes, and onion
D: homemade pizza or calzone
S: yogurt, cucumbers, banana
Sunday:
B: yogurt and granola
L: black bean and corn salad, avocado, tortilla chips
D: MSF spicy black bean burgers, avocado, mixed veggies
S: applesauce, oranges, carrots
Anyway, we are trying again
And now the menus:
Last week, we did...sort of okay on the menu front. It was super-helpful to me to have a menu there on the fridge, so that I could look at it in the morning when I was packing my lunch, and know that I was taking enough food. We didn't always stick to the dailiness of it, and we ended up eating meals on the 'wrong' day, but it was nice to at least have the ideas there for us. On the weekend, not so successful, but that was more due to the fact that the PM was in the house, and he ripped the menu off of the fridge sometime early on Saturday. Note to self: post menu high enough the grabbing hands can't make it disappear!
Yesterday evening, P-daddy and I spent a couple hours in the kitchen, in the hopes that we can spend almost no time in the kitchen the rest of the week. We chopped and packaged carrots and peppers for lunches and snacks, sauteed a mixture of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage, cooked a large pot of curried lentils, made brown rice to go with the lentils, and made spinach frittata (well, okay, P-daddy made that earlier in the day). Then I cleaned out and rearranged the fridge so that everything would fit, and we now have most of the week's food ready to go, or at least pretty easy to prepare. We'll have to do some cooking/prepping on the weekend, but I hope to combine that with next week's food prep to keep us out of the 100 degree heat in there! Here's the plan:
Monday:
B: eggs, black beans, avocado, tortillas
L: spinach frittata, mango
D: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
S: yogurt, peaches, cucumber
Tuesday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
D: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks
S: applesauce, red peppers, cherries
Wednesday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: spinach frittata, cottage cheese, bread
D: carrot and potato dumplings, side salad
S: yogurt, celery, banana
Thursday:
B: eggs and beans, tortillas
L: brown rice w/ curried lentils; cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage mix
D: turkey sandwiches, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, blackberries
Friday:
B: SCO w/ fruit
L: pb&j sandwiches, cucumbers, carrots, apples
D: eat out or order in
S: applesauce, nectarines, red peppers w/ hummus
Saturday:
B: cinnamon rolls
L: salad w/ tuna, tomatoes, and onion
D: homemade pizza or calzone
S: yogurt, cucumbers, banana
Sunday:
B: yogurt and granola
L: black bean and corn salad, avocado, tortilla chips
D: MSF spicy black bean burgers, avocado, mixed veggies
S: applesauce, oranges, carrots
Anyway, we are trying again
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Menu planning
One area that P-daddy and I do not excel in is planning menus. We both eat pretty simply, and he in particular is happy to grab some fruit and veggies and make a meal of it. I'm much more of a carb-a-holic, so I need bread, rice, etc., so we've been attempting to find meals that cover both our preferences. This week, we decided to try our hand at menu-planning and see how it goes. Luckily, one of my favorite blogs talked today about just that topic, and even posted some hints and handy-dandy meal planning sheets. So we hope we are off to a good start, though we are not sure how it will turn out due to several issues.
One issue is that we don't always have a ton of variety - especially for breakfast. Both of us would happily eat steel cut oats with fruit pretty much every day, and while we have not yet embarked on once-a-month cooking, we do often cook large portions of things and eat them throughout the week. Plus, we freeze part of that for later use. This week, we are relying on some of these frozen items that we want to clean out of our freezer: black beans that we made in the crockpot, and carrot-potato stew, also from the crockpot. Plus, P-daddy made a delicious frittata today, with caramelized onions, and it smells and tastes delicious!
The other issue is my schedule - I'm teaching a summer-school class from 2-6pm 2 days a week, and even if I eat a healthy lunch before going to class, I'm still starved by the time class ends, as well as so wiped out that there's no way I want to cook (or even prepare) anything when I get home. So we are experimenting with pre-made sandwiches, which I can take to school with me and then eat before leaving campus. So our Tues/Thurs dinners might not look too dinnerish...
But here's the plan:
Monday
B: steel cut oats (hereafter and forever referred to as SCO) w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, mushrooms, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: potato and carrot dumplings, broccoli
S: yogurt, apples, cucumbers
Tuesday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover dumplings and broccoli
D: BLT sandwiches, boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, plums, celery
Wednesday
B: SCO w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: brown rice, kashmir spinach, cauliflower
S: yogurt, apples, squash sticks
Thursday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover rice, spinach, and cauliflower
D: BLT sandwiches (or PB&J), boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, oranges, squash sticks
Friday
B: SCO w/ banana (and blueberries if we make it to the store)
L: Morning Star Farms (MSF) spicy black bean burgers w/ (avocado if we make it to the store), mixed veggies
D: eat out (or order in)
S: yogurt, apples, bananas, green peppers
Saturday
B: French toast w/ fruit
L: PB&J sandwiches, carrot sticks, potato rounds
D: southwestern salad (lettuce, black beans, corn, red onion, avocado)
S: yogurt, apples, oranges, peppers
Sunday
B: toast w/ apple butter
L: taco salad
D: bao buns w/ pulled pork
S: yogurt, oranges, carrots
I'll let you know how it goes!
One issue is that we don't always have a ton of variety - especially for breakfast. Both of us would happily eat steel cut oats with fruit pretty much every day, and while we have not yet embarked on once-a-month cooking, we do often cook large portions of things and eat them throughout the week. Plus, we freeze part of that for later use. This week, we are relying on some of these frozen items that we want to clean out of our freezer: black beans that we made in the crockpot, and carrot-potato stew, also from the crockpot. Plus, P-daddy made a delicious frittata today, with caramelized onions, and it smells and tastes delicious!
The other issue is my schedule - I'm teaching a summer-school class from 2-6pm 2 days a week, and even if I eat a healthy lunch before going to class, I'm still starved by the time class ends, as well as so wiped out that there's no way I want to cook (or even prepare) anything when I get home. So we are experimenting with pre-made sandwiches, which I can take to school with me and then eat before leaving campus. So our Tues/Thurs dinners might not look too dinnerish...
But here's the plan:
Monday
B: steel cut oats (hereafter and forever referred to as SCO) w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, mushrooms, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: potato and carrot dumplings, broccoli
S: yogurt, apples, cucumbers
Tuesday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover dumplings and broccoli
D: BLT sandwiches, boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, plums, celery
Wednesday
B: SCO w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: brown rice, kashmir spinach, cauliflower
S: yogurt, apples, squash sticks
Thursday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover rice, spinach, and cauliflower
D: BLT sandwiches (or PB&J), boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, oranges, squash sticks
Friday
B: SCO w/ banana (and blueberries if we make it to the store)
L: Morning Star Farms (MSF) spicy black bean burgers w/ (avocado if we make it to the store), mixed veggies
D: eat out (or order in)
S: yogurt, apples, bananas, green peppers
Saturday
B: French toast w/ fruit
L: PB&J sandwiches, carrot sticks, potato rounds
D: southwestern salad (lettuce, black beans, corn, red onion, avocado)
S: yogurt, apples, oranges, peppers
Sunday
B: toast w/ apple butter
L: taco salad
D: bao buns w/ pulled pork
S: yogurt, oranges, carrots
I'll let you know how it goes!
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