Week of April 14 - 20 Menu Plan

Breakfasts: 

• Apple Bumpkin Breakfast Bake
• Egg and sausage scramble
• Ham and Apples
• Eggs and bacon with fruit
• Banana Bread for the kids
• and who knows... 

Dinners:

• Tuna Cakes  with salad and a veggie
• Creamy Chicken Skillet over Cauliflower and a veggie
• Meat Loaf with mashed potatoes and a veggie
• Caramelized Italian Pork Chops with Sweet Onion Jam with a salad
• Chili 
• Mediterranean Chicken Kebab Salad with some Tzatziki  and pita bread

I am also going to make: 

• Zucchini Brownies

Weekly Menu for October 8 - 12

This is my menu for the next five week days. All the recipes were chosen because of how easy they are to make. I do make a lot from scratch because they are healthier, but you could buy a lot of it canned or already prepared. Weekends are for leftovers and creating something really yummy, if I want.

 Monday: Pizza Casserole with garlic bread and a veggie

 Tuesday: Kielbasa Lentil Soup in the crock pot with rolls

 Wednesday: Easy Chicken Parmesan with a salad

 Thursday: Burritos. Wednesday night I will soak about 2 pounds of pinto beans. Thursday, I will put the beans in the crock pot with this recipe from allrecipes.com.

 Friday: Chili dogs. I will make this chili recipe in the crock pot to put on top of the hot dogs. (But, you can use canned chili to make this dinner even easier.)

Kielbasa Lentil Soup

Ingredients

 • 1 1/2 lbs lentils

 • 2 lbs (approx.) Beef Kielbasa, chopped

 • 4 Tbsp. garlic, minced

 • 1 large onion, diced

 • 4 stalks celery, chopped

 • 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

 • 1 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes

 • 20 cups beef broth (This would equate to 10 cans of broth or 20 cups of water with 20 cubes of bouillon)

 • 4 packets Sazon Seasoning (I found this at Walmart in the Mexican food aisle.)

Directions: 

 Rinse lentils and put them into large stock pot. Add everything else into pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for about an hour, making sure the lentils are soft.

New Year's Resolutions

So, I made a couple new resolutions this year. I have kind of ignored resolutions in previous years because I know the chance of me pulling them off and finishing them are small. This year I had a different feeling about them. I decided it was time to make some of my own and really give them a big chance.

My biggest resolution is to exercise and get healthy. It won't hurt to fit in my smaller jeans again, either.

Without further ado, here is today's (my first) workout. I hope it inspires someone, someday.

Workout:

Day 1 of Couch 2 5K
30 Jumping Jacks
10 Crunches

Paleo Pancakes

Paleo Pancakes (my version)
*Recipe is good for one person

1 Egg
1 Ripe Banana
1 Heaping TBSP Almond Butter

Heat a pan over medium heat. Grease pan. Mix all ingredients together very well. Cook on pan until golden on both sides.

Makes about 3 pancakes.

I also added a few blueberries to each pancake. They were so good! These pancakes were fluffy and felt like normal pancakes in my mouth. This is our new "go to" pancake recipe.

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon

2 lbs brussel sprouts, cleaned and chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 lb bacon, chopped raw

In large skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon. When bacon is half way cooked add in the onion and brussel sprouts. Cook until bacon is crispy and sprouts are nice and soft.

Salt and pepper if needed.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

1 Can Black Beans, drained
1 Can Corn, drained
1 bunch Cilantro, chopped
1 Onion, red or white
Tomatoes, as many as you want, diced (or 1 can drained diced tomatoes(I also added half a can of Rotel tomatoes for a little kick))
1 Tbsp Lime Juice

Dressing:
About 1 Cup Mayo
About 1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tsp. cumin
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together and let marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. Perfect with tacos or as a dip or all by itself.

20 Days Until Christmas

Day 5 - 20 Days Until Christmas

We tried to decorate the tree today, but the day really got away from us and the amount of homework my kids brought home today didn't help. Our tree did get some lights put on it, though. One of my older girls, Brooke, is really good at putting up the Christmas lights, so she worked on that a bit. Unfortunately, it didn't get finished because we ran out of lights. It's so strange how each year we have to buy more and more lights. Where do they go during the year?? How is it we had enough lights last year but we are two strands short this year? After I go to the store tomorrow, we will finish the lights and decorate the tree.

21 Days Until Christmas

Day 4 - 21 Days Until Christmas

Home made ornaments made with pipe cleaners and beads. We twisted the pipe cleaners in different ways to make them look like Christmasy things and then added beads to them. The kids had a great time making them. Unfortunately, I had to put the tree up for the ornaments because they would NOT stop bugging me for the tree!! So, the tree is out, but we ran out of time to decorate it.

Pictures will be posted once we actually decorate the tree.

22 Days Until Christmas

Day 3 - 22 days until Christmas

Today we made our own advent type countdown chain. My 16 year old even got off the computer to make one. It was a lot of fun.



Items Needed:

Saran Wrap
Enough Hershey Kisses to countdown to Christmas. One per day.
Christmas Colored Ribbon
(I picked up the saran wrap and ribbon at the dollar store. I went to Target for a big bag of Hershey Kisses.)

To start, take out a really long piece of saran wrap and put a ribbon at the top to seal the top. Next, take a Hershey Kiss and wrap it in the saran wrap and use a piece of ribbon to tie under the Kiss. Repeat until all Kisses have been used.

Each day the kids get one Hershey Kiss.

Our final product hanging on the wall: