Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Menu Plan for the Week

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For our Marriage Class treat this morning, I decided to make a variation of my Oatmeal Butterscotch Chip Cookie recipe. Instead of butterscotch chips, I used chocolate. And, instead of making the batter into cookies, I pressed it all into a 9×13 pan and baked for 20 minutes. The results were terrific. We have exactly two small cookie bars left. ;)

This week will be a little bit different in that:

  • High School Huddle will be combined with Middle School Huddle, so several of us are combining our efforts to feed the larger group. I feel like I have “the night off” since I’m only taking a few things that I purchased from the store.
  • Our local college has the week off, but some of the sports teams are still in town for a few days. We’re hoping to feed the ladies’ basketball team sometime this week. I’ve “penciled” them into Monday’s lunch, but may need to rearrange this plan once I nail down the extact time with the coach.
  • We’ll be sticking around here for Thanksgiving and have several college students to join us for our big meal.

I’ll try to take a few pictures throughout the week to document our Thanksgiving meal prep – IF I have my act together enough to cook and take pics. I did actually get our turkey baked and deboned yesterday. It’s always great to get that job out of the way! :)

Here are plans for this week:

Sunday, November 20
Marriage class treat – Oatmeal chocolate chip bars
Lunch – Cheeseburger macaroni, steamed broccoli and carrots
Huddle – combined with middle school – taking cheese, crackers, carrots and ranch

Monday, November 21
Multi-grain pumpkin waffles
Bball team? – Sloppy Joes, relish tray (carrots, broccoli, olives, pickles), potato salad, chocolate chip cookies
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Tuesday, November 22
Coconut flour banana muffins, apples
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup
Tacos

Wednesday, November 23
Easy breakfast casserole, oranges
Clean out the fridge while Mom preps food for tomorrow!
Chicken noodle soup, carrots

Thursday, November 24
Cereal, so Mom can focus on cooking the good stuff  :)
Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cream cheese corn, stuffing, sweet potatoes, homemade whole wheat rolls, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, cheesecake
Leftovers

Friday, November 25
Scrambled eggs with cheese, creamy orange cooler
Leftovers
Hamburgers, ranch potato wedges, carrots

Saturday, November 26
Whole wheat sourdough biscuits with butter and honey, fruit
Leftovers (unless we’re sick of them – or have eaten them all – by now!)
Lamb burger patties, green beans, fried okra

What are your Thanksgiving plans this year?

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Menu Plan for the Week and Still Looking for Homemade Vanilla?

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I’d like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who made our morning so much fun yesterday. Our entire stock of Vanilla Extract sold within just a few hours, thanks to you! For those of you who missed out, there are three more options for you:

1. Wait until February when we’ll have another batch ready to sell here.

2. Learn how to make your own vanilla extract. This is so much fun, very easy and cuts your cost down significantly. The vanilla beans may seem expensive initially, but I’ve learned that by making homemade vanilla, my cost is at least half what I’d pay for store bought vanilla. (Plus, you can get a discount on your vanilla bean purchase – read how this works!)

3. Check out this post in which I shared about my friend Jill’s homemade vanilla. She is the wonderful lady who taught me how to make vanilla, and she has some bottles available!

In other news, I baked a few more pumpkins yesterday for pies and muffins. Note to self (and to whoever else might benefit from this advice):  Do not forget your pumpkins and leave them baking for five hours while you visit with a friend and make a trip to the store. Your pumpkins will turn black.

Ask me how I know this.

I’m happy to report that the pumpkins were only black on the outside and still worth using on the inside, even if they were a little darker orange than preferred. Perhaps this is where the color “burnt orange” originated?

The pumpkin puree still worked great to make Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares this morning for our class, thankfully. ;)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, November 13
Marriage class treat – Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares
Roasted chicken, carrots, potatoes, gravy
High School Huddle – Sloppy Joes (x4), chips, pickles, olives, carrots with ranch dressing, pear slices, butterscotch bars (x3)

Monday, November 14
Mini apple pies, cheese slices
Pizza casserole, tossed salad
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, green beans

Tuesday, November 15
Coconut flour muffins, pears
Chicken burritos, apples, carrots
Shepherds pie, tossed salad

Wednesday, November 16
Crustless breakfast quiches, creamy orange cooler
Baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream, peas
Teriyaki chicken and vegetables with rice

Thursday, November 17
Mini breakfast pizza, oranges
Turkey ranch pinwheels, fruit salad
Turkey sausage and red bean stew, tossed salad

Friday, November 18
Fried eggs on toast, fruit-kefir smoothies
Sub sandwiches, apples, carrots, fruit leather
Popcorn chicken, ranch potato wedges, steamed carrots and broccoli

Saturday, November 19
Multi-grain pumpkin waffles
Leftovers
Easy noodle stir fry with veggies

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Menu Plan for the Week (And a Week Full of New Recipes!!)

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I’ve had sick kids all weekend and a Daddy out of town for soccer games, so we’ve tried to keep things calm and quiet around here. The boys and I watched a couple of Adam 12 episodes on Hulu while they were coughing and resting. (We’ve chosen not to have cable, but I love having the option to watch shows online occasionally.)  Adam 12 was a blast from the past, that’s for sure. I was thrilled with how clean the show was, and how the intensity was quite un-intense. Yep, the worst language I heard was, “Let go of me, you…you big pig!” Ahahaha!! I accidentally chuckled out loud a little bit at that, so as a good mother, I quickly reminded the kids that we don’t call people names. But for that to be the worst thing said in the show? Let’s bring back TV from the 70’s. (This has nothing to do with recipes or a menu plan, but apparently I thought it was worth saying.)

Because we’ve had a houseful of sickies, I made a big batch of Chicken Broth and Chicken Noodle Soup. There’s no better way to get lots of needed nutrients down sore throats than good, rich chicken and veggie broth.

I have several new recipes to share this week, so during the next few days you can expect to see several tasty new dishes and treats. I’ve got an exciting giveaway lined up too – just you wait!! In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of food I made last week that I felt just sure you’d like to see…

We got to go to a pumpkin patch last week with our home school group – very fun! I packed up some homemade Chewy Granola Bars for the boys to eat on the way home. I made two varieties, as you can see in the picture. It seems that each time I add chocolate chips to a batch, they melt and create peanut butter chocolate granola bars. Nobody seems to mind. ;)

I helped provide some of the food for a baby shower last week, making mini sized Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. If you haven’t tried this recipe yet, you’re missing out! (If I do say so myself.)

We won’t be feeding the high schoolers for Huddle tonight like we usually do. There’s an “All Things Pumpkin” fellowship night at church, so I’ve got the “night off”. :)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, October 30
Marriage Class treat – Diva Entertain’s Peanut Butter Apple Bars (adapted), coffee
Lunch – Baked potatoes with sour cream and cheese, green beans
Dinner – Eat leftovers before going to the Pumpkin Fellowship night at church

Monday, October 31
Applesauce bread, bananas
Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches
Beef stroganoff, tossed salad

Tuesday, November 1
Scrambled egg sandwiches, creamy orange coolers
Quesadillas, pears
Teriyaki chicken with veggies

Wednesday, November 2
Honey whole wheat bagels, oranges
Pizza casserole, peas
Meatballs, cream scalloped potatoes, green beans

Thursday, November 3
Mini crustless quiches, applesauce
Taco potatoes with lettuce and tomatoes
Swiss steak over brown rice

Friday, November 4
Giant breakfast cookies, bananas
Chicken tortilla soup, raw veggies
Hamburgers, homemade fries, grapes

Saturday, November 5
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
Venison steak, ranch potato wedges, tossed salad

Stay tuned for an exciting week filled with food and food related posts!!! And if you haven’t started working on your Gifts in a Jar ideas to send me, read the details here, then get started!!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Tonight for High School Huddle, I made three big dishes full of Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole. I also made a big whole wheat chocolate sheet cake plus 24 cupcakes.

Funny story (or maybe boring story, whichever way you want to look at it):  As I was planning tonight’s huddle meal (for 35 people), I consulted my high schooler to see what he thought I should serve with the chicken and rice. Because he has two hollow legs, he suggested that rolls would be good, but I got overwhelmed with that because I was already making cakes and casseroles. Brilliant child that he is, my son said, “Maybe you could just buy some rolls this time.” Oh duh. I forget these things are an option. Therefore, everything else is homemade, but I bought rolls to feed the group tonight. This afternoon, instead of baking rolls, I’m going to take a nap. I like this plan. ;)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, October 23
Marriage Class Treat – Apple crisp, coffee
Easy noodle stir fry with broccoli and carrots, grapes
Huddle – Creamy chicken and rice casserole, green beans, homemade dinner rolls, whole wheat chocolate sheet cake and cupcakes with fudge frosting

Monday, October 24
Angie’s pumpkin waffles (can’t wait to try this new recipe!)
Taco corn fritters, applesauce
Three cheese marinera with spaghetti noodles, tossed salad, corn

Tuesday, October 25
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins, bananas
Homemade  beef summer sausage, crispy cheese crackers, carrot sticks with ranch, apples
Roast, carrots, potatoes, green beans, coconut flour muffins

Wednesday, October 26
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, creamy orange cooler
Popcorn chicken, steamed broccoli and carrots, cottage cheese
Bbq meatballs, baked potatoes, peas

Thursday, October 27
Breakfast burritos, pears
Pigs in a blanket, apples or bananas
Chicken noodle soup with carrots, fruit salad

Friday, October 28
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Bean and cheese burritos, raw veggies
Homemade pizza, apples

Saturday, October 29
Whole wheat cinnamon rolls, fruit
Chicken alfredo, tossed salad
Attending a baby shower – taking Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins and Apples with Caramel Apple Dip

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Organize Your Pantry and Shelves with CanOrganizer – A Giveaway!

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Remember my scary storage room clean up and how I like to stare at my bulk food? I’m very excited that my new organizers from CanOrganizers.com help even more to keep my food storage area organized, which makes it even more fun to stare at my groceries. (geek)

I don’t use many canned foods, but I do try to have a few canned items on hand at all times for quick meals. I’ve got my new CanOrganizers stocked with our organic coconut milk, canned salmon and tuna (all from Amazon) and some organic raw honey (from Tropical Traditions). The kids loved helping me put the cans into the containers – you put them into the top, then they roll back and fall to the bottom. This makes it simple to grab a can, then a new can will automatically roll to the front for easy access!

I put my 11 year old on the task of putting together our CanOrganizers. They have a great video to watch which helped us figure out how to assemble them. It was a bit of a learning curve as we figured this out – let’s just say Justus and I bonded a little bit over pieces of heavy cardboard. But, once we figured out the first one, the other three went together fairly quickly!

Here’s some helpful information from CanOrganizer:

The 11″ deep Cupboard Organizer is perfect for smaller spaces like your cupboard where you need to maximize space. This is ideal where a pantry or extra storage may not be available. You can simply use one Organizer or many depending on your needs. Fill up your cupboard so you can easily find what you’re looking for!

The 16″ deep Shelf Organizer is deeper so you can store even more cans! Designed to fit nicely on your standard shelf so it is perfect for storage areas like your garage or storage room.

And finally the 22.5″ deep Pantry Organizer is the deepest of the bunch. This system is optimal for those deep pantries or storage racks where you have plenty of space. You will be amazed how many you can fit in the Organizer and well organized your food storage will be. Now you can hit those canned good sales and stock up for your family, saving money and having food on hand for whenever you need it.

These CanOrganizers come four to a pack, making them very economical – a perfect way to get yourself organized inexpensively! Plus, through the end of October, CanOrganizer is offering a 10% discount to all of us, by using the code:  HOME at check-out.

Interested in winning a pack of CanOrganizers? Leave a comment on this post letting us know which size would work best for you! I’ll draw two random winners on Monday, October 24.

This giveaway is now closed, thank you!

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Funky Fresh Kitchen – The “Do You Really Need It?” Challenge

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What is all that stuffed crammed in the back of your utensil drawer? When’s the last time you used that fancy Blitzamachoppit that promised to make your life easier? And how many used twist-ties and drinking straws does it take to change a light bulb?

Oh wait. I think I just mixed two unrelated questions.

But still – I do believe it is time for some of us to take control of what is lurking in our kitchen drawers and cabinets. If you took advantage of the Do the Funky Kitchen ebook sale, you may have already started plucking unused items out of your kitchen and worked at finding them a better home (like in someone else’s kitchen – mwoohaha!!). If not, let me suggest to you that your kitchen will be a lot more fun and a lot more functional (funky!) if you get rid of items you are not using.

Here is a check-list of questions to ask yourself as you clean out cabinets and drawers in your kitchen (taken from the Do the Funky Kitchen ebook):

  1. Do I use it often?
  2. How many do I have?
  3. How many do I need?
  4. Did someone special give it to me?
  5. Does it work?

If you don’t use it, get rid of it. If you have too many, the extras need to go. If it doesn’t work, what is it still doing there anyway? And if you don’t even know what it is, you won’t miss it after you say goodbye. Keep only items that you use or items that are special to you.

If you are having a hard time deciding if you should get rid of something, do this:  Put the item in a potential “Garage Sale” box for a few weeks, but don’t get rid of it yet. Next Tuesday, if you’re preparing some food and suddenly remember the reason you had the Ultimate Onion Slicer (with built in tissues for inevitable tears, batteries not included) then by all means, go get it out of your box and put it back into your kitchen for future onion slicing and tear wiping needs. But if in fact you see that gadget in your “Garage Sale” box three months later and have to stand on your head while holding a flashlight so that you can try and figure out what in the world it is, I’m pretty sure you never needed it anyway and you can feel free to give it away or try to sell it.

Your Funky Fresh Kitchen Challenge today is to clean out at least ONE cabinet or drawer. Get rid of all items that are not useful to you. You’ll feel so much better, I promise!!

Leave a comment on this post letting us know one thing you can throw out or give away that will lessen any kitchen clutter you may have. Your comment will serve as your entry in the giveaway for one of five $10 gift certificates to our Heavenly Homemakers Shop.

 

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Funky Fresh Menu Plan for the Week (with a challenge!)

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Welcome to Day One of our Funky Fresh Kitchen series! Make plans to join us for fresh kitchen challenges, new healthy recipes and (hopefully) inspiration for you as we get organized in the kitchen and work our way toward a kitchen full of healthy foods! (And don’t forget about the awesome upcoming giveaways!!)

Since I normally post our menu plan on Sunday, I decided we’d work today’s Funky Fresh Kitchen Challenge around menu planning. As you can see from my menu list below, I typically plan all three meals for each day. I don’t always stick to the plan exactly, but having an outline makes life so much easier for me, plus makes our meals well balanced and healthy.

I know that some people function just fine without a menu plan. But if you are someone who tends to panic at 5:30 because you don’t know what you’re fixing for dinner – and then you just grab something quick and unhealthy to fill the tummies of your family members – let me encourage you to take this small step toward a fresh, healthy kitchen.

First, read through my menu plan for this week to get some tasty meal ideas, then stay tuned for the Challenge stated below!

Sunday, August 28
Blueberry muffins, honeydew melon
Spaghetti, tossed salad, fresh corn, green beans
Leftovers

Monday, August 29
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Tuna salad on tomatoes, fresh peaches with cottage cheese
Teriyaki chicken and veggies, fruit salad

Tuesday, August 30
Applesauce bread, bananas
Taco corn fritters, green beans, watermelon
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Wednesday, August 31
Creamy orange cooler, fried eggs on toast,
Turkey ranch pinwheels, cantaloupe, sweet pepper slices
Italian roast wraps, green beans, applesauce

Thursday, September 1
Orange muffins, freeze dried strawberries
Creamy mac and cheese, peas, watermelon
Salmon patties, ranch potato wedges, tossed salad

Friday, September 2
Honey whole wheat bagels, peaches
Sloppy cornbread muffins, green beans, pears
Homemade pizza, cherries

Saturday, September 3
Homemade whole wheat donuts, applesauce
Leftovers
Grilled chicken, stir fried veggies and rice

As you can see, I am not a gourmet chef. I do not cook fancy foods. I do not cook anything “weird”. I simply make very basic, healthy, kid friendly foods that are full of the nourishment our bodies need. I am very intentional about including fruits and vegetables with each meal. I find that if I’m not purposeful about including fruits and veggies, we simply do not get enough nutrients, then we start wearing down and getting sick. Bring on the veggies!

Your challenge today is to plan just one meal. (Of course, you can plan more if you want to!)  Figure out tomorrow night’s dinner, figure out what you’ll be serving Wednesday evening, figure out whatever will help you the most. Base the meal plan around food you already have, or if you need to go to the store, pick up what you’ll be needing for this meal so that you’ll be prepared and relaxed.

Be sure the meal you plan is well balanced and includes vegetables. If you don’t have vegetables in your house GO HENCEFORTH WITHOUT DELAY AND BUY VEGETABLES. No excuses. If you need to start with fruit because your family struggles with vegetables, fine – get some grapes. But please be intentional about feeding your family good, nutrient filled foods. (Read through this series of Simple Steps to Healthy Eating to give you some easy ideas for where to start!)

Leave a comment here sharing your one meal plan. Your comment will be considered an entry for the five $10 Heavenly Homemakers Shop gift certificates drawing. Plus, it will serve as inspiration for all of us! I love reading what others are planning to eat! In fact, after reading through your comments, I may just change my menu plan for this week!

(P.S. There are 0 Funky Kitchen ebooks still available at only $1.50. Once those are sold out, you’ll find the next 200 books at $2.00 each! Still less than half price!)  :)

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Funky Fresh Kitchen – Join the Fun!!

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I haven’t attempted to turn a cartwheel since I was in my early twenties. I actually almost pulled a muscle just picturing myself turning a cartwheel today. BUT, I am so excited about the next two weeks I really am tempted to do some flips. After a lot of emailing, planning, organizing and brainstorming, I have a lot to tell you about. Where should I start?

First maybe I should explain what Funky Fresh Kitchen is all about.

Fall is almost here. I don’t know if you are like me, but this time of year I’m always looking for a fresh start. I want to get into a nice, organized routine. I want to set new goals for my family and for my kitchen. I want to enjoy all the wonderful, fresh food of harvest time. I want to start baking again as the weather turns cooler. I want to try new recipes. And I want my kitchen to be funky.

Funky? Yes, funky. Functional, if you really want to be technical, but I like calling it a Funky Kitchen, mostly because it makes me giggle. (Obviously, I’m easily amused.)

Make plans to join us here for the next two weeks of Funky Fresh Kitchen fun! I have new recipes to share, I’ll be offering up some challenges (are you ready to get your game on?), I’ve got some incredible giveaways and there will be some majorly discounted items in our shop.

I’ve got so many posts and so much excitement, I’m going to suggest that you may want to subscribe to Heavenly Homemakers and/or join my Facebook page so that you don’t miss anything. Trust me, you don’t want to miss anything.

The giveaways I have lined up? Well, you may just want to join me in the cartwheel attempts after you hear about these. Are you ready?

Cultures for Health has agreed to give away an Excalibur Food Dehydrator!! It’s true. AND (yes, I am screaming here) Paula’s Bread has offered to give away my most favorite Funky Fresh Kitchen item ever:  a Nutrimill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Let us all pause now for a moment of synchronized cartwheel turning and screaming.)

And don’t forget the new recipes I’ll be sharing. Some are chocolate and some include broccoli and all of them are easy and will inspire you to make fresh, healthy changes in your kitchen. Goodness, I’m so excited while I’m typing, I’m realizing that I have forgotten to breathe. You are all still breathing aren’t you? Okay good. We can’t all pass out before we even begin all the fun.

Share this post with all your friends on Facebook and in your neighborhood and tell your sisters and cousins and friends at church and college roommates and your bff and your bff’s sisters and cousins and everyone you can think of who could and should join us as we pursue our Funky Fresh Kitchens.

funkykitchencoversmTo get us started, we are offering our Do the Funky Kitchen eBook (which is regularly $4.95) for only $1.00. Yes, a buck. Read my favorite tips and suggestions for achieving a funky (functional) and organized kitchen, fresh and clean for fall.  But hurry – our discounted price of $1.00 will only be available for the first 100 purchasers. As of now, you can purchase Do the Funky Kitchen eBook for just $1.50 – available for the next 150 purchasers!! After that, the price will creep up little by little throughout the week. Take advantage of this deal while you can!

Watch for specials and discounts like this for the next two weeks during this Funky Fresh Kitchen feature.

Also:  By leaving a comment on ANY post with the above Funky Fresh Kitchen button featured, you will be entered to win one of five $10 gift certificates good for anything downloadable in our Heavenly Homemakers Shop. Because the button is featured on this post, comments right here and now will be added to the drawing for our gift certificates! Let the commenting, the Funky Kitchen eBook purchasing, the facebooking and sharing begin!

Watch for frequent updates, new ideas and recipes, discounts and giveaways – you don’t want to miss a thing. Thanks for joining me! It’s gonna be a great two weeks!

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Healthy Foods for the Freezer

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One of my big Two Week Tackle projects was to pre-make some healthy convenience items for our freezer. This way, on busy days all I have to do is grab burritos or pizza pockets out of the freezer and warm them up quickly for us to eat.

I didn’t do all of this cooking at once. This is the result of 14 days of off and on work in which I simply made one extra batch of food to put into the freezer, whenever I could find a spare moment. Sometimes, I just doubled what we were making for dinner and froze half. This is the best way (in my opinion) to do freezer cooking without stress!

I feel like it’s possible that I’ve broken some sort of tortilla making record during the last few weeks. I lost track of how many tortillas I rolled out and cooked. I think I made at least five double batches, in which we ate or made into burritos. We now have loads of frozen burritoes and around 18 plain whole wheat tortillas in our fridge for easy quesadillas next week! (Just doing some quick math, I think this means I may have made 120 tortillas between last week and this week. Not that you cared. I just felt like multiplying it out. Why do I do these things?)

I was excited to try making Chicken Burritos and will be sharing the recipe soon.

And, not that you can tell them apart, but because I somehow feel the need to prove my tortilla making madness, here is a big batch of meat and cheese burritos. (Are you bored with my tortilla picture parade yet?)

I hate to disappoint you, but the rest of the pictures have nothing to do with tortillas. Instead, we have a pan full of lovely pizza pockets that are now frozen and ready to bake for a quick lunch.

I made a batch of homemade hamburger buns and didn’t let us eat any of them. Buns in the freezer means easy burgers, sloppy joes or even turkey/cheese melts.

I made a quadrupal batch of Whole Wheat Waffles – these are the BEST for toasting in the morning when we need a fast breakfast.

One of my favorite main dishes:  BBQ Meatballs. I intentionally made way more than we needed for one meal so that I could freeze the leftovers. Meatball subs anyone?

I needed a batch of homemade rolls for something last week. Therefore, I made bunches. I have no idea what happened to the rolls in the upper right-hand corner. Mysteries like this happen in my kitchen regularly. We may never get to the bottom of it.

I surprised the boys one morning with homemade donuts, then because we had quite a few leftover, I froze them for another breakfast soon.

Last but not least, I shook up a jar each of Taco Seasoning, Ranch Dressing Mix and Italian Dressing Mix. I LOVE having these in my pantry to grab and use in a moment’s notice.

And that, my friends, is the result of the intentional extra cooking I have been doing in an attempt to get ahead before August begins.

What are your favorite ways to get ahead in the kitchen? (Yeah, yeah…I know. Getting ahead in the kitchen is almost like getting ahead on laundry – next to impossible. But still.)

In case you’re curious, here are a few posts that might help answer some of your questions about how I freeze foods and try to get ahead in the kitchen:

 

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Menu Plan + Two Week Tackle Update

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Green beans from our garden!

First today, I’ll share our menu plan for the week. Then below, I’ll give you an update on how my Two Week Tackle is going!

Sunday, July 24

Coconut flour banana muffins, applesauce
Teriyaki chicken and veggies
Grilled cheese sandwiches, chips and salsa, honeydew melon

Monday, July 25
Turkey sausage, scrambled eggs, oranges
Homemade corn dogs, green beans, carrot sticks with ranch dressing
Taco potatoes, watermelon

Tuesday, July 26
Giant breakfast cookies, plums
Chicken veggie quesadillas, tossed salad
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Wednesday, July 27
Pancake and sausage muffins, cantaloupe
Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, peaches, carrot sticks with ranch dressing
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad, zucchini

Thursday, July 28
Smoothies, toast
Turkey ranch pinwheels, strawberry-peach slushies
Grilled burgers, sweet baked beans, corn on the cob

Friday, July 29
Blueberry streusel muffins, bananas
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots
Italian roast wraps, tossed salad, corn on the cob

Saturday, July 30
Easy breakfast casserole, grapes
Leftovers
Lamb chops on the grill, Italian pasta salad, zucchini

And now, my updated Two Week Tackle List:
  • Organize school books and create a schedule for our school year
  • Clean out kitchen cabinets – replace shelf liner
  • Deep clean the entire house
  • Plan and begin to prep soccer meals
  • Make and freeze healthy convenience foods for the month of August
  • Make homemade hand soap and laundry detergent (just because I really want to try)
  • Experiment with homemade white chocolate and butterscotch chips for the Heavenly Homemakers Recipe Challenge
  • Finish creating the Whole Foods Pantry resource list that so many of you have been requesting

~”Deep clean the entire house” is never going to be crossed off the list, mostly because it’s a never ending job. We’ve accomplished a lot, and plan to begin our school year on August 1 with a nice, clean house…but come August 2, there will be more cleaning to do. If only dust understood that once we’ve rid our house of it, it is not supposed to return. Ugly little intruder.

~The Whole Foods Pantry resource list has a small start, and I’m hoping to dedicate more time to it this week. All the extra time I’ve had on the computer recently has been devoted to editing the new kids cooking books. (Watch for an update about those very soon!!!)

~I’ve got a list started for soccer meals and hope to fine tune it within the next few days. I’ll be asking for your help regarding these meals, so watch for a post about cooking for a crowd!

~Books. Books. Books. They fill my living room. I’ve been saving this job for last because I LOVE sitting down and organizing and planning our school year. This will be my reward for checking the other items off the list. But, I can’t wait much longer because we officially begin our new school year in 8 days!

~Throughout the next couple of weeks, you can expect posts showing you how to make butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips and homemade hand soap. I am taking “make homemade laundry detergent” off my list for now – I’ll come back to it when I have more time because I’m really excited to try to make homemade detergent without borax. But not this week. I have books to organize!

What all did you get accomplished last week? Did you cross anything off your list?!

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