Meal Plan Monday

Another week has come and gone, which means another meal plan is ready. Planning what I'm going to eat helps me stay on track, and saves money because I'm not buying a bunch of random things and hoping they'll get used in a cohesive way before turning into the stank at the bottom of the produce drawer that gets tossed out.

On nights that are busy, we often do breakfast for dinner or a crock pot meal. The first two Mondays of the month are when H has Cub Scouts, so it was a breakfast night per H's request. 

Monday: Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwiches on Whole Wheat English Muffins, with berries. I had my eggs over a bed of roasted broccoli and Brussels Sprouts with some feta cheese crumbles.

Tuesday: Thai Chicken Salad (made into tacos for the kids)

This is also a day I'm using to prep some freezer meals during Jack's nap when the big boys are at school. On the menu for freezing are: Skinny Spinach Lasagna Roll-ups, Lasagna with Meat sauce in 8x8 pans, Minestrone Soup, Sweet Potato Turkey Chili and Taco Filled Pasta Shells.

Wednesday:  I'll be out of town, so the boys are on their own...could be dangerous

Thursday: -home late, boys still on their own. I'm sure Chef Boyardee will be involved.

Friday: Lasagna with Meat Sauce.

We're lucky enough to have a great butcher who makes their own sausage. I use a mix of their sweet and hot Italian sausages, along with the roasted tomato marinara I made from my garden bounnty this summer and froze. Adding fresh basil and minimal cheese atop whole wheat noodles makes a very hearty dinner that everyone likes.

Friday is always Family Movie Night and this week we're taking the boys to see the Lego Movie at the theater for Valentine's Day. Also, I'm making these strawberries for their treat, yum!

Saturday: Grilled Halibut with roasted Brussels Sprouts and Quinoa cakes (I make extra of these little cakes and keep them for breakfasts. They are so good under an over-medium egg, with some wilted greens or spicy arugula.)

Sunday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Root Vegetables

Also, for lunches this week I have some really good salads on tap. My friend made one for us when she hosted playdate last week, and I've been thinking about it since, so I bought the extras for it today. It was a kale salad with shredded red cabbage (maybe I'm imagining that part, but I'm adding it anyhow ;)), crumbled feta, pomegranite seeds and a little bit of brown rice that really just added another dimension of heartiness that made it a true meal. It was very simply dressed with and olive oil base and could be made even more filling with some chicken breast, but I liked it just as it was.

What do you have on your menu plan?

A Zig Zag on a Straight Line

From the beginning, H has had a hard time in school. Every year seems to get a little bit better overall as he matures, but there is always a period of time when things have been going swimmingly and nothing significant has changed that, BLAM-O!, I'm broad-sided with a few weeks of behaviors and choices that make me want to pull my hair out. This year, the culmination was on Monday and that evening I noticed he had a little bit of a cold, so I decided I would keep him home the next day to spend some time with him one-on-one. Without going into it too deeply, (that could be a whole blog on its own) he is such a great kid; quirky, funny, wicked smart, awesome imagination, but man is he strong-willed! He'll be a force to be reckoned with as an adult and I just have to keep repeating that to myself. Daily. Multiple times. 

I almost never keep my kids home for a sick day, so this was his first of the year and after we dropped Charlie at school and put Jack down for his nap, we had the afternoon to ourselves. 

I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to make a gift for Charlie; a 'dragon head' bag to take his sharing objects to school each week. After we talked about logistics, I had him pick the fabric for a bag for each of them, and found an image on the computer which we printed on printable burlap. The images aren't super crisp on the burlap, it's probably something I'd use for a big bold letter for a bunting in the future, but I actually like how these turned out. The burlap has a plastic coating on the back that guides it through your printer really smoothly, and negated the need for interfacing. It was H's first time really using the sewing machine alone and he did a great job! He took his time, and it only took about an hour from picking the fabric to proudly holding his finished bag. 

After several attempts to find a dragon image that we could agree was good to take to pre-k, we switched to finding Lego images for Charlie's bag and stumble across what I'm guessing was a party favor label, because there were several names; score! Henry chose this image of a person challenging a dragon for his own. 

For the blue bag, we used a fat quarter and cut it in half so that the bottom edge was the fold. The image was sewn onto the bag before seaming. Both bags were a long, thin piece with just the two side-seams to sew, and then the top was folded over twice and hemmed. I didn't have him pin it, because stopping to take the pins out seemed like it would complicate things for such a simple, straight seam. 

Love those little boy hands against the fabric

I was pretty impressed with how straight and consistent his stitches were! He honestly did this ALL by himself.

All ready to take snacks and sharing to school

Pop Secrets

R-2 is a frequent guest at chez Wutzke

Every Friday night, and sometimes Saturday as well, we sit down for Family Movie Night. The kids get to pick a movie, or we watch the movie version of whatever chapter book we've just finished so they can compare the book to the movie. A big part of movie night is the popcorn and treat, and I've perfected the art of stovetop popcorn making. You'll never go back to that bag of microwave popcorn again! (Unless you're my husband, and then you'll buy it when I'm out of town.)

Step 1: Disregard the directions on the popcorn container. They'll make you use too much popcorn so that there are a bunch of unpopped kernels when the majority of the popcorn is ready, or you'll pop it all and it will be burnt. Ask J how we know this.

Measure out 1/3 c. of popcorn kernels and set aside. Add 3T of oil to a sauce pan, I like to use coconut oil. I know that it's super trendy, but I swear I won't make you serve it with a side of quinoa or sprinkle kale chips over the top. In this case, it really just lends a good flavor and having a healthy fat to boot is not a bad thing. If you don't already use coconut oil, I really like the Nutiva brand, and you can get a big ole container of it at Costco.

It's solid, but melts very quickly in the pan, so turn your burner to about medium and let it melt. While it's melting, sprinkle about a teaspoon of good salt over the oil. This way, the salt gets kind of impregnated into the popcorn to make it perfectly seasoned instead of just salty. While the oil is heating up, put one popcorn kernel into the pan of oil.

When that kernel pops turn off the heat, add the rest of the popcorn kernels to the pan and then count to 30. Seriously. Stand at the stovetop and count to thirty. Out loud if you need to. Then put a lid on the pan, turn the heat back to medium and listen for the pop, pop of the kernels. If you don't have a vented lid, leave it just a tiny bit off-kilter so the steam can escape. Give the pan a gentle shake every 20-30 seconds, and leave it on the heat until you hear a pause between pops of about 2 seconds. Turn the contents out into a large bowl. From here you can doctor your popcorn however you wish.  Plop a tablespoon of butter into the now empty hot pan so it can melt and drizzle it over the top, sprinkle with endless seasoning combinations, add a little shake of sugar to create kettle cornor drizzle with homemade caramel sauce for a really special treat.

Why, yes, I do frequently balance dishes on the edge of my counter. I lead quite a thrilling life!

In addition to the popcorn, we always have a treat on top; some leftover candy between holidays (before I toss it) or York 'pepper patties' that I keep in the freezer because they're always a win. Just a few treats in a bowl of popcorn with a big glass of ice cold 'fridge water' to wash it all down and you've got movie night dessert.

Perfect Stovetop Popcorn:

1/3 c. popcorn kernels
3T cooking oil-I prefer coconut
1/2 -1 t. salt (optional, but really does make it better)

1T melted Butter or preferred toppings

Heat oil in a large saucepan and sprinkle with salt (to taste), add one kernel to the heating pan. When that kernel pops, turn off heat, add the rest of the corn and wait for 30 seconds. Return to heat until 2 seconds between popping sounds and then turn contents into large bowl and season as desired. Enjoy!

It's a Mystery

I have not been remiss in my promise to create, but it has coincidentally been the case that a lot of my crafting has been as gifts for friends or test knitting that hasn't been approved for posting yet. So, in a show of good faith, here are two of the projects that I am working on.  They used some crewel embroidery wool, a canvas bag and about a skein and a half of LB Collection Merino Wool yarn.

As you can see by the mist covering the red wool, this project is d-o-n-e done and is pinned to the blocking mat. More to come on this one later in the month!

Also, my Downton Abbey Mystery KAL shawl is cruising along. It's going to end up being a crescent based on the increases and is a really basic pattern that isn't all that impressive. However, worked in Pepperberry Knits cashmere (handspun by a Boise artist) in a really pretty mix of purples called Mixed Berries that I've had in my stash for almost four years, it is going to be so soft and luxurious. Somebody's gonna love it! There are only a few weeks of this season left, so when it's complete and blocked, I'll post about it again.

What's for Dinner?

One of the things that makes a day that feels too long feel even longer is staring down the witching hour without a plan for dinner. What kids, you don't want fish sticks or spaghetti and meatballs three nights in a row? Weird.

Over the last few years I've relied heavily on meal planning to make my weeks run smoothly, and the menu chalkboard in my dining room is honestly just an ornamental extension of that plan, because I sometimes, okay frequently, go a couple of weeks without changing it. I'll try to share my weekly plan on Mondays from here on out so that might encourage me to stay on top of changing the board. However, my actual plan is written on a magnetic notepad on my fridge that has a column for groceries needed to complete that list, which I also use to write down the meat I need to pull from the freezer one to two nights before, and I try to incorporate a night of leftovers so that we don't have a build-up of mystery containers in the fridge the next time I do the pre-grocery shopping sniff and toss.

When I feel like I'm in a rut, I look through my pinterest boards to get inspiration. I know, I know, those boards are actually meant to be used for something other than time suckage and wishful thinking. I have boards for the crock-pot, for freezer meals, for the battle of the bulge and for nights of comfort. I have found that my kids will eat almost anything if I put it in a taco, so we have Taco Tuesdays which have spanned the range from fish tacos to this week's Pot Roast tacos with horseradish sauce (which I won't put on theirs because it's a) white b) 'Hot like Wasabi!' (in Charlie's words) and c) a condiment other than ketchup). Mondays I try for a meatless meal and Wednesdays are sometimes wheatless, although those nights are for putting variety in our menu more than anything because I heart gluten.

The chalkboard may not be updated, but we do sit down to the same meal as a family every single night, with the exception of nights that J and I have a date night. J's schedule means that I do the dinner, bath, bedtime gig alone a lot, but I've long since left behind my days as a short-order cook with chicken nuggets and pb&j for the kids while I eat a crappy dinner over the sink by myself later. There has been a lot of research on the importance of eating dinner as a family, and I love the books The Family Dinner and Dinner: A Love Story as a starting point for establishing this as a routine in your house.

Without further ado, here's my menu for this week:

Monday: Breakfast Burritos (egg and cheese for the kids, egg, cheese and roasted veggie for me).
Tuesday: Pot Roast Tacos with Horseradish Sauce *
Wednesday: Thai Peanut Noodles with tofu and roasted vegetables. I use brown rice noodles instead of udon or linguine.
Thursday: Spinach Lasagna Rolls
Friday: Family Movie Night (every Friday) Leftovers followed by Stove-top Popcorn (I have seriously perfected this-no old maids!) and treats.
Saturday: Date Night for Us, but Turkey Chili and Cornbread for the kids.
Sunday: Superbowl Pot Luck (Likely will be gluttonous. Not to be confused with, though may also include, glutenous)

*denotes recipes I'm trying for the first time.