Menu Plan Monday

We're trying out some new recipes this week, enjoying some leftovers and dinners with family and friends. To see what others are doing, head over to The Organizing Junkie.


Here's our plan for the week:

• Monday: 4-Cheese Spinach Manicotti
• Tuesday: White Bean Chili
• Wednesday: "The Grammie Meal" at my mom's (she was sick last week)
• Thursday: Leftover Burrito Casserole
• Friday: Dinner at a friends
• Saturday: Leftover Manicotti
• Sunday: Nacho Casserole
  

I'm excited to try the Nacho Casserole. It's vegetarian, healthy and cheap!! We're making an effort to use more lentils as a cheap protein source and this is our first try.

Nacho Casserole
3/4 cup dry lentils
3/4 cup dry brown rice
4 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes (or chicken, vegetable)
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup sour cream ( I use fat free)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 can sliced olives
Fresh diced tomatoes
diced onion (optional)
Corn chips

1. Dump first 8 ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer and cook covered until rice is done., stirring every 5 minutes to keep it from sticking to the bottom.
2. Preheat oven to 350.
3. Spread mixture in the bottom of a 9 x 13.
4. Layer sour cream, cheese, olives, tomatoes and onions on top and bake for 20 minutes.
5. Serve with corn chips.

Free Time

I think most people find themselves saying, "I'd do _____ if I just had more free time." Well, Friday is my last day at Gateway, so I'll suddenly have a lot more free time. It's not exactly how I would have liked to get more free time, but I'm going to try to make the best of it. I've been coming up with a list of things I'm going to try to do next week - some more exciting than others - to keep myself busy, so it doesn't just turn into a big pity party for myself. Here's my list so far:

• Research and apply for every possible legitimate job opportunity. (The Obvious)
• Have lunch with my friend Becky, without looking at the clock even once to see if I need to hurry back to work.
• Go to the chiropractor. My hips have been out of alignment for weeks, but I've been putting it off, knowing I'd have lots of free time coming up.
• Make bread. We've tried making bread twice this week with our bread machine, and it's turned out funky. We can't tell if it's because we're using the delay setting or if something's wrong with it.
• Find the ingredients for and make homemade laundry detergent.
• Get a book from the library on the Bradley Birthing Method and other natural birthing techniques and start loading up on info.
• Perfect my Wii Bowling and attempt to get my first Turkey.
• Go through what has become the junk bedroom and figure out what we're keeping, what we can sell, give away or throw away. Then, organize the rest!!
• List a bunch of stuff on Craigslist.
• Finish and send out our holiday cards. Better late than never, right??
• Put away the remaining Christmas decorations. Sorry love!!
• Attempt to invent "the next big thing" so we never have to worry about money again.

If you're in the area and have some time to hang out, let me know!! I'd be more than happy to put off one of the more productive items on my list for some quality social time!!

Menu Plan Monday

It's Monday again. I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting to find out what Aaron and I will be eating this week. Wait no longer!! And if you need more ideas, visit the Organizing Junkie. Monday - Frozen Lasagna (from the freezer - we skipped it last week)
Tuesday - Parmesan Crusted Flounder w/ brown rice and green beans (We got a great deal on the flounder and it was cheaper than ground beef!!)
Wednesday - Dinner at my mom's; "The Grammie Meal" - Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy and Corn
Thursday - Corn and Bacon Chowder w/ homemade oatmeal bread (We're using homemade vegetable stock in place of the chicken broth.)
Friday - Pork Chops and Rice Bake w/ broccoli
Saturday - Dinner at a friends; we're taking dessert
Sunday - Creamy Burrito Casserole

Tagged by my husband

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 5 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real. . .nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.Have Fun!!

1. What is your name: Blakely
2. A four Letter Word: Ball
3. A boy's Name: Bill
4. A girl's Name: Bailey
5. An occupation: Baker
6. A color: Black
7. Something you wear: Bra
8. A food: Buckeyes
9. Something found in the bathroom: Bathtub
10. A place: Bolivia
11. A reason for being late: Bile
12. Something you shout: Bravo!!
13. A movie title: Blazing Saddles
14. Something you drink: Beverages!! (I know, this might be cheating...)
15. A musical group: B-52's
16. An animal: Bovine
17. A street name: Beach
18. A type of car: Bonneville
19. The title of a song: Baby It's Cold Outside

Menu Plan Monday

As part of our quest to save money, we want to become more diligent in planning our meals for the week. We used to do this all the time, but the craziness of moving, the laziness of summer and the unpredictability of pregnancy cravings, we got out of the habit. However, deciding ahead of time really helps us cut down on our grocery bills and lets of take advantage of sales and items we already have. (An added bonus - we end up going to the gym more, because we can plan quick, easy meals for those nights.) So...we're at it again!!

I'm going to try participating in "Menu Plan Monday" to hold myself accountable. You can find out what it's all about and get more ideas by going here.

This week's menu looks something like this:
Monday - Sirloin burgers with chips
Tuesday - Leftover Texas Cowboy Pie (recipe below) w/ mixed veggies and homemade bread
Wednesday - Parmesan Chicken w/ potatoes lyonaisse
Thursday - Lasagna (frozen leftover from the freezer) w/ corn and homemade bread
Friday - Going out w/ friends or attending a housewarming party
Saturday - Munchies (Bock Family Christmas at noon should keep us eating for a couple hours and fill us up!!)
Sunday - Tortellini in a cream sauce w/ veggies

Texas Cowboy Pie
Leftover Roast
2-4 T BBQ Sauce
3 Large Potatoes
Milk or Butter - whatever you use for mashed potatoes
Salt/Pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Boil potatoes and mash.
2. Shred leftover roast and mix with BBQ sauce.
3. Spread mashed potatoes in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish. Next, layer on the saucy meat and finally, top with cheese.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until cheese begins to golden. Enjoy!!

(My favorite part about this meal is that it made enough for 2 meals for us, so we have leftovers of leftovers. I would assume if could be doubled for a larger family and made in a 9x13 dish. Definitely a good way to stretch out meat!!)

Money in our Envelopes

Since last spring, we've been using the envelope method to budget. It started when we were looking at buying a new (more expensive) house and realized how much we were truly spending going out to eat, on clothes, going on weekend trips, etc... and how little expenses like oil changes or a quick fix around the house seemed to throw our money-situation out of whack for a week or two. Just thinking to ourselves that we shouldn't spend quite as much or try to save a little more wasn't working - we needed something concrete. So we tried the envelope method and it's worked pretty well for us. We have 'fallen off the wagon' a couple times - especially since I've been pregnant and often need to eat NOW, not 5 minutes from now - and it has been an evolving system with our envelopes and the amounts changing.

Here's how it works: Every Friday when we get paid (we get paid on opposite weeks) we go to the bank and take out a set amount of money. That money gets split up into our envelopes. (We actually use a coupon sorter with 12 different sections. It's the perfect size and keeps everything in one place!!) The categories are: Aaron's clothes, Beer/Alcohol, Blakely's clothes, Car maintenance, Eating out, Games & Entertainment, Gifts, Household repair, Massages, Running, Vacation and Miscellaneous, which we use for an occasional trip to a coffee shop, a snack from a vending machine, or to cover an extra dollar or two from another envelope. Then, if we want to go see a movie, for example, we use the cash from our Games & Entertainment envelope. If there's no money left in the envelope, then we try to get a free movie from Redbox or hope for something good on TV!!

With my impending possible unemployment and a baby coming in a few months, I'm sure we'll be looking for even more ways to scale back our budget. With the envelopes, we should be able to cut back on the amounts being put in each week for a quick and easy way to instantly cut back on our output of money. I'm also reading up on (and trying to gain inspiration from) this blog. *

Anyone have any great budget/money saving ideas??

*Blogger seems to be messing up my link, so it's www.grocerycartchallenge.blogspot.com if it's not working for you either.

"I grow babies!!"

I thought this deserved to be double posted:

We had people over on Sunday for a cookie exchange (yum!!) and were talking about Christmas trees - real vs. fake, who waters it, how long it stays up, etc... A friend was mentioning that she has a hard time remembering to water their tree, and I said that I never thought about it, but maybe I would mroe often if it was my job. It's Aaron's job though, so it just never even occurs to me. To that, my mom lovingly asked, "What do you do around here?!?" I quickly responded that, "I grow babies!!"

But I thought this was a good time to let you know, for those who aren't aware, that I have an amazing husband. I'll admit, he probably does more around the house than I do. He likes to cook, so he cooks most of our meals. He doesn't hate doing dishes by hand the way I do, so if there's a backlog of dishes, he does the extras. He's okay with folding laundry one basket at a time, whereas I prefer to have a mountain on the bed to fold all at once, so he usually ends up folding. The list goes on and on... That's not to say that I don't do anything, but I know I'm a very lucky girl when it comes to the housework department.

A Sometimes 'Grammar Snob'

I'm not declaring myself an expert on grammar. I'm sure I make plenty of mistakes. However, I have a few pet peeves that I feel like I'm seeing a lot more often. For example:

• "To" and "too" are two different words (oh, I'm funny!!).
  -to: toward a point, person, place, or thing, implied or understood
  -too: in addition; also; furthermore; to an excessive extent or degree
• "There," "Their," and "They're" are also different words.
  -there: in or at that place - opposed to 'here': She is there now.
  -their: a form of the possessive case of 'they' used as an attributive adjective, before a noun: their home
  -they're: a contraction of "they are"
• There's a whole list of others that I see mixed up almost as frequently.
  -It's and its
  -Are, hour and our
  -Fare and fair
  -accept and except
  -all right and alright
  -desert and dessert (when these were on a spelling list, my mom told me that you always want 2 desserts and there are 2 S's in dessert)
  -Your and you're
  -Then and than
• An absolute lack of punctuation and paragraph use.

The thing is, I see most of these in emails and on forum boards. So I assume that some of the errors occur, because people are in a hurry. Sadly, I think the vasy majority of them occur, because people really don't know the difference, when to use commas or start a new paragraph anymore. Hopefully we'll soon adjust to the use of new technologies and figure out how to use the little conveniences in life, such as spell check, but still learn the basics of the English language.

I'm Scrooge.

Aaron L-O-V-E-S Christmas. He loves the music and the decorations and he starts thinking of ideas for gifts in September. A few years ago, we wrapped all the presents in plain brown paper, and then used markers, glitter glue, googly eyes and more to personally decorate each package. My designs were fairly simple, while Aarons spend many, many, many hours on his packages. This year, Aaron was listening to streaming Christmas music on his computer as soon as it became available. A local radio station started playing Christmas music on November 14 at 4 pm and on our way home from work at 5, we were listening to it and have been ever since. He asked if we could start decorating a couple weeks ago. The first time we heard Chrismas music playing in a store, he made me stop and just listen.

So, in contrast to Aaron's gung-ho approach, I end up being a little bit of a Scrooge. I just think that we should wait until after Halloween at least to start listening to Christmas music. Since we have decorations for Halloween, and they don't really go with our Christmas decorations, I think we should wait until November to decorate as well. And even though Aaron comes up with fantastic gift ideas, sometimes they're just beyond our means.

This is our fifth Christmas together. I think we're finding out happy medium when it comes to this holiday (although I'm not sure how the dynamic will change when BabyMort's here next year). I've accepted that I'll spend 2+ months listening to Christmas music, but we won't spend hours wrapping presents this year. We put our decorations out on the 17th, but Aaron did most of the work and was okay with my less enthusiastic attitude.

For Christmas 2008, I think we've figured out our balance.

It's been a while...

I've been neglecting my postings on this blog, because I've been busy over on www.mamamort.wordpress.com. In addition, I've been busy sleeping, eating a dozen small meals a day to try to avoid nausea, and thanking my husband for being amazing and supportive. I'm thrilled to report that we're expecting BabyMort in early June, 2009!!

We told our families and close friends shortly after we found out, but there was still the superstitious side of me that wasn't quite ready to put it out on the World Wide Web. After we heard a strong heartbeat today, though, I felt confident in sharing our news with the world!!

To keep up with all things baby-related, head on over to www.mamamort.wordpress.com. I'll still plan on keeping this blog going for anything non-baby, although those topics might be few and far between for a while :-D