November 2009 – Page 2

menu plan monday, the “haven’t blogged in a week” edition

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

How did I let all of last week go by without writing anything? Honestly I am not even sure what I was doing, LOL… I didn’t think I was all that busy but the days do go by and sometimes the computer just doesn’t take priority. Well, I am proud to say that I did stick to last week’s meal plan (pretty much). There were a couple minor changes. For example, we just made the cube steaks our usual way (with Dijon mustard), and I didn’t make Cobb salads — we just had sandwiches with the soup. The spiced parsnip soup was OK. Drew liked it better than I did. I’m not a huge fan of the parsnip, but it was a way to use them up. I probably wouldn’t make it again, but I’m glad I tried it. Now, on to this week’s menu:

Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Chicken Scarpariello with potatoes, tossed salad
Tuesday: Steak, broccoli, tossed salad
Wednesday: Slow cooker turkey and bean chili, tossed salad
Thursday: Chicken fajitas with fresh pico de gallo and guacamole, black beans and rice
Friday: Cheeseburgers, tossed salad, chicken soup
Saturday: Celebrating J’s birthday, so no cooking for me!

Drew is trying to do South Beach again so I’m trying to prepare meals that lend themselves to Phase I pretty easily without having to make something totally different. For example, tonight he just won’t have the potatoes with dinner. On Thursday he’ll skip the rice and use lettuce leaves instead of a tortilla, and no bun on Friday’s burger. I’ll be making my own chicken soup (as usual), so I don’t add any kind of grain until the last minute anyway. Not a very adventurous week, but one that should not meet too many complaints from my peanut gallery. Sometimes that’s important too!

weekend snapshots

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

We had a full, fun weekend. My parents visited and the boys loved playing with them. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we had a lot of fun outside time, too. Yesterday I took advantage of the warm temperatures and planted some tulip and hyacinth bulbs. I don’t have the greenest thumb, but hopefully they’ll come up in the spring! I’ll leave you with just a few peeks from Saturday.

halloween ’09

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Carol — 4 Comments ↓

Wow, what a busy Hallo-weekend! We kicked it off on Friday night with a trip to the local fire house. They put on a free Haunted House. I still bear the scars of a terrifying haunted house I went through in 7th or 8th grade on a trip to Salem, so I was happy to wait outside with the baby. And after getting one look at a guy in costume, Noah came running over to me to wait as well, LOL. Jake and Drew went through and Jake chose the “non-scary” version, thankfully. Drew said that he imagines that if you choose scary it’s really scary. Everyone looked great in costume and they did a fantastic job. Actually, one of the guys ended up sneaking up on Drew and gave him a scare near the end 😉

The rest of the weekend was filled with a Halloween/birthday party for Noah, a Saint’s Day party for Jake, and trick-or-treating at the mall. Since we don’t live in an area where you can walk from house to house, it’s easier (and safer) to take the kids to the mall for trick-or-treating. They’ve gone house to house before, at my MIL’s, so they’re not missing out on anything. And on a rainy day like Saturday, the mall is a lot drier! Though I admit there is a certain “trash” quotient at the mall. People seem to lose their sense of taste and adult pick some awfully, um, inappropriate costumes. It did make for an amusing show. The boys got a decent amount of candy as well as coupons. Most of them were useful, but some were pretty useless for kids. At least the vitamin/supplement store didn’t hand out fat burner ads. I guess every business is doing what it can to get more customers and I can’t fault them for it, especially since they were giving out candy.

Yesterday we hit Target for Halloween clearance and got the boys their costumes for next year. We also picked up two Ninja Turtle costumes just for everyday play. Tomorrow I need to run some errands over that way so I might take another peek, just to see 😉

Hope your Halloween was spook-tacular! I’ll leave you with a couple photos of my boils and ghoul (to quote the Cryptkeeper).

menu plan monday, the wow it’s november edition

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

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November. A new month that I hope is filled with a lot more happiness and joy than October. I need it! It should be good, though. First of all, there’s Thanksgiving — my favorite holiday! Originally we had planned to go to Raleigh, but with the way things have transpired we’ll be staying here in New York. That’s fine. Actually, it’s probably for the best. Things always do work out that way don’t they? Even when you don’t think so at first. Also, my niece will be born 😀 Her due date is next Tuesday. I’m super excited to be a ciocia (that’s “aunt” in Polish and the title I’m going with). There’s also Black Friday sales and Christmas crafts and decorating and hopefully a lot more relaxing in general. Yes, November should be good.

This week is pretty laid back. My parents are visiting over the weekend and there are a couple activities for the kids, but generally nothing that is a big deal. So with that, here’s my menu plan:

Sun: rotisserie chicken, au gratin potatoes, carrots
Mon: burgers, chicken soup, tater tots, steamed broccoli
Tue: leftovers or sandwiches
Wed: cube steak stroganoff over noodles
Thur: spiced parsnip soup, cobb-ish salad
Fri: chicken marsala (per mom’s request), pasta, salad
Sat: Red Lobster (because my dad is Red Lobster deprived)

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.