February Menu Plan Makeover

I'm really not quite sure what happened to January, or who authorized it to be February tomorrow, and so help me if that darn groundhog sees his shadow!  Ok, I digress.  Tomorrow is February- that means a new menu for the month.

This month I'm taking a different approach to our menu.  I'm spreading out my freezer cooking throughout the month (more on that later) and  have broken down the meal type by day of the week to see how it works.   My week scheme looks like this:

Monday: Crock-Pot Soup/Stew/Chili

Tuesday: Freezer Meal

Wednesday: Batch Cooking

Thursday: Planned Leftovers (enough of a meal from earlier in the week that we all have the same meal again)

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Grab-Bag Meal (either leftovers, or meals like grilled cheese, mac & cheese or scrambled eggs that we always have on hand)

Sunday: Restaurant day (aka: pick your own leftovers)

Meals on the batch cooking list this month include Chicken and Dumplings, Burritos, Chicken Stuffing Casserole, Minestrone, Spaghetti Bake, White Bean Chili, Beef and Vegetable Soup and Spaghetti Bake.

From the freezer this month: Tortilla Soup, Ravioli Alfredo, Beef Stroganoff, Cowboy Beans, and BBQ Pulled Pork.

I'm hoping to write up some of my batch recipes after I make them.  We'll see how that works out!

Sunday Sunshine: GBaby's Birthday

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This week brought bits of snow, work, help from friends, a play date, and time with other moms.  It also included a date night and a family night out when I picked up a case of "sick-of-dishes, tired-of-cooking and cabin fever".  The latter thanks to a restaurant gift certificate Christmas gift!

This week also brought the celebration of GBaby's second birthday!  We were able to spend it with family and cousins and had such fun watching the kids interact and play together.  I didn't know what joy punching balloons could bring to three pre-schoolers!

GBaby is such a social little girl, but also loves her down time too.  She can be all excited and wildly dancing or playing with balloons one minute, and curled up watching a "mooee" the next.  She is such a joy!  She woke up early on the morning of her birthday and crawled into bed with me.  I looked down at her and said "It's your birthday, do you know how old you are?"  I had not been prepping her for this question.  She looked up at me with sleepy eyes and a question in her voice said "doo".  That's right baby girl.  You're two - and we snuggled a little longer before facing the excitement of a birthday.

I hope you can find a moment to see the gifts in your life this week.

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

It's Really That Good! - Homemade Lotion

Over the holidays there were so many great ideas being thrown around I got overwhelmed, but I did take notes.  Often when I see something that looks too good to be true, half of  me wants to give it a try and half of me goes skeptical.  The dichotomy usually results in me putting the web ideas to the test.  That was the case when I saw this post about making your own lotion.

I'm trying to cut as much chemical stuff out of our household as I can and this idea of making my own lotion seemed like the perfect idea,  if it would work.  I make my own laundry soap and it works great.  I  make my own candles and people love them.


I love the idea of knowing what is in my lotion and am often annoyed when reading the ingredients of commercial lotions.  Why do they put drying agents like alcohol in a substance that is supposed to be hydrating my skin?  And what is all that other stuff in my lotion.  I took to purchasing a natural line of lotions a while back, but they can get pretty expensive.  When I read that I could make my own lotion with four ingredients, three of which were in my house already, I was hooked.  So, I ordered a natural emulsifying wax to use with olive oil, water and essential oils to make my own lotion.

A Sonoma Garden does a great job with her lotion directions.  I followed them to the letter including monitoring the temperatures and the result was a great, thick, creamy lotion in about ten minutes.  I used lavender essential oil and only 20 drops (to the recommended 24-36 drops).  The fragrance is very light and I have no qualms about using it on my skin or GBaby's delicate toddler skin.  It soaks in well and doesn't sit on your skin.  I am so excited about this and can't wait to use up all those other random bottles of lotion that are around my house!

I've read that the shelf life of homemade lotions can vary depending on how you package them.  Since I just made mine this week, I can't speak to that yet.  I'm going to be making small batches frequently.  It took less than ten minutes to mix this up, so replenishing frequently is not a big hardship of time.  When I made about 12 ounces of natural lotion for less than $2.  That totally works for me!

Updated 1/30/2013: We've been using this lotion for the last two years and it's great.  I've only had "shelf life" issues with one batch that I substituted coconut oil for the olive oil over the summer.  Other batches with this substitute were fine.  I wrote it off as a fluke and have been through lots and lots of this great stuff!

Sunday Sunshine: Life on Cruise Control

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This morning I am loving time to reflect on how full my life is.  By full, I don't mean busy or over-scheduled or stressed out.  The fullness in my heart right now is brought by ...

:: A wonderful Sunday morning with loving friends and great, centering worship.

:: The near completion of my year end accounting projects.

:: A warm house and full fridge.

:: An amazing husband and vibrant little girl.

:: Being able to help out with community youth projects, and being supported by others so that I can.  (Thanks Ms. B!)

:: Lunch out with a friend & helper (Thanks K).

:: Play dates (thanks Ms. M & A)

:: Jobs and paychecks

:: A lazy Saturday

:: Healthy family

:: GBaby's web-cam visit chicken dance lessons with Uncle J., Granny & Granddad

My life is full, and I am so thankful.

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Sunday Sunshine

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

As  I sit with my feet kicked up in a quiet, warm house and snow swirling around outside, today I am thankful for this time, for I desperately need it to refocus on what's important.  I'm thankful to have a community with which to worship on Sundays and loving nursery and Sunday School volunteers who are providing wonderful examples of kindness and love to my daughter.  I continue to be thankful that we are blessed with work.

I'm rejoicing with friends who welcomed full term twins into their family this week.  Knowing that premature births and NICU visits are common for twins, these little ones made it to 36 weeks and are expected to be discharged within three days!

GBaby continues to grow (yes, even taller) and develop (talking more and more.)  I catch myself chuckling at her antics often.  Like running up to me with the smoke detector (which I had taken down earlier when something burned in the oven) urgently pointing and saying "up! up!"  Indeed, I needed to put the smoke detector back up.  Or when I caught her trying to feed her cookie to her rubber duck, complete with munching noises and asking her ducky, very intently " 's it goo" [is it good?] as she gave it another bite.

Life is full and good and I'm glad to have a moment to adjust my view to fully appreciate all that is around me.

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Veggie Hide & Seek

(photo credit)

There's a lot of chatter on the blogs I follow about eating more veggies.  I guess the glut of nutritionally based New Years Resolutions has brought on a demand for ideas.  So, I thought I'd link you up with some of my favorite ways to pack veggies into our diet.

I enjoy hiding veggies (namely pureed squashes) in my baked items.  From Blueberry Bread to Chocolate cake, mild squashes can replace some of the fat calories of oil and eggs and nobody will ever know!

I also pump my Marinara with pureed squashes, carrots and other veggies.  I usually leave peppers and onions in chunks, but if you need to hide those too, just hit it with your wand mixer and blend it all together.

Soups are a great place to pile in the veggies and when the weather turns warmer, I've even been known to sneak some veggies in the smoothies.

Looking for more creative ways to add veggies to your menu?  Check out the Ultimate Recipe Swap over at Life as Mom.

Monday Sunshine

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

My world seems to be running in fast forward and yesterday blew past me in church, meetings and time with my daughter and work.  As I went to bed, I realized that it had been a Sunday and I neglected my Sunday Sunshine post.  So, here I am - taking a moment in the middle of a cafe, by myself, over a bowl of French onion soup looking back on my week.

Last week brought the great blessing of many paid hours of work.  In order for me to reach that without not sleeping, we called in Granny Nanny. Gbaby had a wonderful time playing with Granny while I worked.  It was a great arrangement and I'm not sure who had more fun, G or Granny.

Last week was one of G's first experiences sledding.  G's buddy was very excited to have us over for sledding and it's always fun to hang out with friends.

The other wonderful blessing as of late is G consistently sleeping through the night and waking up happy more often.  After months with midnight snacks ad grumpy upon waking, this is a wonderful reprieve.

I'm off to enjoy a few more moments of solitude before the mom's night out gals show up...

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Really? Does Your Grocery Bill Look Like This?

So the USDA has a posting as to the average costs of eating meals at home.  You can click here to see what the USDA considers to be average spending on groceries.  I'd be fascinated to know how your grocery spending looks next to their totals!  (The June reports show a yearly average)

Happy New Year! - January Menu

Since I've been posting so much this week about my freezer stash and my January meals being done - I thought I'd give you all a peek at what's going to be on our dinner table in the coming weeks.  Usually I'll pull out 4-5 meals a week and that covers our lunches and dinners.  Because our schedule is a little erratic, sometimes our cooked meal will be lunch with leftovers for dinner.  I am blessed that HandyMan and GBaby have no problem with leftovers!  Meals that are coming up this week are marked.

BBQ Pulled Pork & Hard Polenta Cakes (leftovers from Saturday)

Butternut Squash Soup & Ham and Cheese Rolls (Tuesday)

Lasagna

White Pizza & Regular Pizza

Beef & Barley Soup w/fresh Artisan Bread (Wednesday)

Apple Sausages, Butternut Mashed Potatoes & Veg.

Ravioli Alfredo Bake

Taco Bake (a couple of times starting Thursday)

Beef Soup w/ Grilled Cheese

Chicken Stuffing Casserole (Friday)

Cowboy Beans

Pizza

Sloppy Lasagna

Beef Stroganof

Linked up at OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday Sunshine: Happy New Year!

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

Happy New Year!! Last week was wonderfully low key with lots of time with extended family and wonderful home time.  Just how the week between holidays should be!  I'm blessed by my family and they're willingness to pitch in and help out when they come to visit.   My dad and HandyMan brought to life my brainchild of a mini-construction project this weekend and it turned out great!

Life will be full for the next couple weeks and posts will likely be short, sweet and sparse as paying projects will be filling much of my previous leisure cooking/blogging/project time.

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!