Menu Plan Monday: Week of March 8th

This week's menu plan features just a couple of the recipes from my February Once A Month Cooking menu for two reasons: 1) we've almost come to the point of trying each recipe once (too soon to begin eating the same recipe the second time) and 2) I have been craving Chili Dogs and Cheesy Potato Soup for a while now!  Maybe it's a spring thing?  Spring is definitely in the air in our neck of the woods... and I'm lovin' it!

This Week's Menu Plan:
Monday - OAMC Easy Taco Bake
Tuesday - Chili Dogs & French Fries
Wednesday - OAMC Curried Chicken Tidbits & Veggies (didn't get to these last week)
Thursday - Math & Science Night at Marissa's school = Pizza for the family!
Friday - Fish fry at St. John's
Saturday:
Lunch - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & tomato soup
Dinner - OAMM's Chicken Parmigiana
Sunday:
Lunch - Tacquitos & tortilla chips/salsa
Dinner - Cheesy Potato Soup

For more menu plans, visit orgjunkie.com.

February OAMC Day Recap

Man, did it feel great to be back in the Once A Month Cooking saddle again!  After a few months of waiting for my sister to get an extra freezer, she and I planned another large cooking day to cook breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the majority of February/March.  Compared to our first two tries at bulk cooking, this third go-round went incredibly smoothly.  Below is a short list of things we did differently or changed up a bit:

 - We made sure to chop most of the vegetables/potatoes the night before our big cooking day.  This really helped to cut down time spent in the kitchen.  Trust me, if you save all of the chopping for your cooking day, you will have to allow at least two hours for that.

 -  We called in reinforcements.  Our mom and grandma volunteered to come by for a bit to help lighten our dirty dish load and actually ended up getting into the 'cooking spirit' so much they assembled a few meals for us before they left.  We estimated that the 2 hours they were there saved us the same amount of cooking time.
 -  We changed the menu a bit to suit our needs and our families' needs.  My sister really, really.... REALLY liked the Blueberry/Banana smoothies from a previous OAMM menu, so we added those in, as well as Mom's Enchiladas.  In return, we omited  the recipes for Crystal's Lazy Granola and Mexican Style Beef & Lentil Stew. 
 -  We made sure that we took opportunities throughout the day to feed ourselves and sit down and rest.  I cannot tell you how important this is to avoid getting burnt out and too drained. :)  I even took 5 minutes at the beginning of the day to make myself a delicious caramel macciato - it really jump started me and put me in the right frame of mind.

 -  I borrowed my husband's apron to avoid coming home not only smelling like everything that I cooked in the kitchen that day... but also looking like it.  Yes, I am well aware that I might need to fix this no-apron issue. 

To our delight, our third time participating in a OAMC day ended before dinner time.  Yup, we were finished by 6:00pm!  It is so true that the more experience you gain with once a month cooking, the more efficiently and smoothly your big cooking day gets.  It was such a relief to be able to load all of my goodies into the car and prop my aching sore feet up on the couch before the kids were in bed!  My sister and I spent $128 per person and now have a ton of breakfasts, lunches and dinners to show for it - such a great feeling knowing that will save time and money in March food-wise.... and that is what always attracts me to once a month cooking.

Below are a few more pictures from this month's big cooking day.

If you would like to view more February Once A Month cooking stories, visit OnceAMonthMom.com.

Most of the ingredients - Hollie (sis) always does a great job of laying them out on the table the night before so they're ready to go.

Items I brought to get us through the big day - caramel macciatos, gummi worms and chocolate. 

Hollie peeled most of the pears with a potato peeler; it actually worked really well!

Black Bean Salsa Chicken assembled, labeled and ready for the freezer.  (My family had this recipe for Sunday's lunch by the way... and it was amazing!)

Ahhhh...... a freezer full of meals. :)

Menu Plan Monday: Week of March 1st

It was wonderful last week being able to pull prepared meals out of the freezer and pop them in the oven on weeknights!  It saves me so much time.  I'm able to spend more time with the kids and not have to feel like I have to head right to the kitchen the minute I get home from work!  This week's menu plan also features quite a bit of OAMM meals from the February menu.  I can't wait to try them all out!


This Weeks Menu Plan:
Monday -  Leftovers - we have too many in the fridge and need to eat them up!
Tuesday - OAMC Sue Sue's Casserole
Wednesday - Miami County 4-H Recruitment Night for mommy, hubby and kiddos on their own.
Thursday -Spaghetti with garlic bread and salad
Friday - Fish Fry for local Rugby team fundraiser.... mmmm........ :)
Saturday -
Lunch: OAMC Curried Chicken Tidbits & veggies (although mommy probably won't be eating lunch.... she has an afternoon time slot for the Dayton Dragon's national anthem tryouts and might be a little nauseous nervous because of it....)
Dinner:  OAMC Pork Roast w/Apples & Pears and baked potatoes
Sunday -
Lunch: OAMC Sloppy Joes with french fries or chips
Dinner: Mommy has Wicked tickets with the girls! = hubby and Jakey on their own.

For more menu plans, visit orgjunkie.com

Things I Love Thursday: Life Lessons

My daughter received her first life lesson this week.... in kindergarten.  I honestly did not think I would have to worry about Marissa getting in trouble in school until, well, maybe never.  She's always been such a brown-noser people pleaser and teacher's pet. While Marissa can be a challenging kid, she's a good kid.  Well, this week we both received a reality check.  Her teacher e-mailed me and mentioned that another girl in the class returned after school had dismissed with of all things, Marissa's lunch money.  And get this... Marissa had given it to her, as well as two other girls.... all $20 of the money that was to go into her lunch account.  Ugh.  What's worse, when I questioned her about the incident, she denied it.  She's not a good liar.  Double ugh.  It was at that moment when she started stammering about God-knows-what-story she was making up at the time and looking back at me with pleading eyes that I thought to myself... "What do I do now?"
I knew that she was lying, it was obvious.  She knew better than to give away $20 of money that was not hers to give.  I had never had to deal with such a large situation like this one with her and I was kind of at a loss as to what to do.  I started to panic... What would my mother do?  Would I handle it the same way?  What would a good mom do?   Then I gave up and channeled my momma-instinct and went with my gut.  I told her that I was sorry, but didn't believe her story and that I knew she was lying. I told her that it was wrong to give things away without asking permission. Then I told her that she could spend the night in her room with the light off until she was ready to tell the truth.  Then..... all hell broke loose.
According to her, I was a horrible mom for not believing her and she wasn't afraid to scream this at the top of her lungs.. for quite a while.  Then came more made up stories, and more time in her dark room.  After three (or maybe four??) hours had passed she finally came around.  Yes, I am well aware she gets her stubbornness from me...  She cried big crocodile tears when she told me she was sorry and that she did indeed give the money away.  She was sorry that she had lied and she knew that it was wrong to give her lunch money to friends.  In a way I was very proud of her.  She had learned her first major life lesson and understood the mistakes she had made.  I had learned a lesson too.... I think once we "grow up" (heh) we forget about all of the mistakes we had to make along the way to get to where we are, to be the people we have become, to learn from those mistakes and to not repeat them.
So after the confession, it was time to come up with a punishment.  This has equaled out to be a packed lunch for two weeks - she is not allowed to purchase lunch because she gave the money away... (she was allowed to purchase lunch at school twice a week before the incident), no TV or computer use for one week and an apology to her teacher and friends at school today.  Of course, I am second guessing myself with how I handled the entire situation, like I always do.

What do you think?  How have you handled similar situations with your children?  Anything you would have done differently?  I am all ears...

For more Things I Love Thursday posts, visit thediaperdiaries.net

Visitation Schedule Cards

Last week, I was fortunate enough to come across the livinglocurto blogsite.  I am always fascinated by graphic designers... the endless talent and creativity that they possess and that I want mostly.  Amy didn't disappoint.  While browsing her blog, I came across her wonderful morning routine cards.  These cute little cards are sure to be a time saver for me as I get myself and two whiny sleepy children ready and out the door by myself each morning!  I can't wait to try them out this week!

Amy inspired me to create some handy cards for myself.  Marissa (daughter) has been asking for a copy of her visitation schedule that she could read (she's only in kindergarten... and I don't ask much of her obviously.. hehe) for some time now.  So, what easier way would there be than to create cards modeled after Amy's templates that were color coded, picture coded and easily readable?  I'm really happy with the way they have turned out and most importantly of all, so was Marissa.  She loved the purple and pink theme - as well as the picture on the "mommy" cards.

Because I know that resources such as this one for blended families are hard to come by, I'm making them available for anyone and everyone who wishes to have a copy of their own for their children.  Just open the link, print, cut out the cards and put them in the order needed for your child's schedule.  This post will contain a link for the purple and pink cards, while more boy-friendly color-coded cards will be posted soon!

My hope is that these cards will help make you and your child's life seem a little less hectic.  :)  Click on the link below to view and print - it's FREE.

Visitation Schedule Cards (for girls)