Menu Plan Monday #23

Good morning! Welcome back once again to Menu Plan Monday! I love writing out my menu for the week, it gives me such satisfaction! I didn't get it posted yesterday like I wanted because we were busy enjoying the day as a family and I was reading an amazing book I will share soon!

So, without further ado....

Org Junkie

Breakfast

Monday:	Blueberry Muffins
Tuesday:	Fruit and egg white salad with gluten free bagle
Wednesday:	Cocoa Puffs with banana slices	http://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227965350872/	Prep: Make Sunday afternoon
Thursday:	Egg and cheese bagles with fruit
Friday:	Apple Nachos
Saturday:	Leftover cereal or eggs with bacon and fruit
Sunday:	Blueberry Muffins		No prep, make fresh in the morning

Lunch

Lunch	Cammi	Kate	Mark
Monday	Pizza Buns with cucumber slices	Leftovers	Pizza buns with cucumber slices
Tuesday	Turkey and cheese sub with popcorn	Ultimate vegan sandwich and popcorn	Popcorn with steak slices
Wednesday	Lunch out	Peanut butter and jelly with fruit salad	Lunch out
Thursday	Leftover in thermos	Leftovers	Leftovers ot use up food from earlier in the week
Friday	Lunch out	Lentil hummus with veggies and crackers	Lunch out
Saturday-Everyone eats the same	Homemade subs with side salad
Sunday-Everyone eats the same	Grilled cheese rolls with soup and cucumber relish

Dinner

Dinner	Title	Where it can be found	Prep	Variations for Familial Discontent
Monday	Cheese burgers with broccoli-cheese casserole and homemade fries	http://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227965654860/	When making make extra broccoli for freezing and fries as well.
Tuesday	Paleo baked chicken tenders with corn on the cob and glazed carrots	http://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227965015442/	Make a triple batch of chicken fingers so they can be frozen and remade for "quick" lunches or dinners, make a double batch of carrots and freeze for another day
Wednesday	Pork tenderloin in the crock pot with corn on the cob	http://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227965216201/
Thursday	Steak sandwiches with cucumber relish and roasted mushrooms and onions.		Make a double batch of the steak so it can be frozen and reheated for a quick lunch	Hubby will have just steak and probably have corn for a starch
Friday	New Restaurant Friday		No prep, eating out!
Saturday	Chicken alfredo with garlic bread and side salad		No prep, made fresh	Hubby's will be made with classico sauce and chicken. The kiddo and I will have sliced chicken, spaghetti squash and will make a creamy paleo sauce to toss the "pasta" in, and will top with mozarella. Will serve with garlic bread and side salad.
Sunday	Bourbon street chicken with rice and green beans/carrots	http://www.pinterest.com/pin/114912227964027130/

I tried to include my hints and tips for making the most out of my cooking so I wasn't doing a ton of extra prep on Sunday, just doing as I went when I was actually cooking. 

For snacks and freezer items this is what I'm cooking up today...

Parmesan Crisps

Over on Pinterest I had seen where a woman had done this, but shredded zucchini into it and so that is what I am going to do today to have around for snacks, I'm thinking these with some tuna would be a fab afternoon snack! ;)

Hungry Healthy Girl

I will just make a few changes: I will use 2 flax "eggs" instead of eggs, and I'll be using a cup of butternut squash puree instead of pumpkin. :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

The last two years I've made these every year right around this time. I use enjoy life chocolate chips, I use coconut palm sugar instead of brown sugar, and I use organic, unbleached flour. These are so moist, I usually double the recipe and I use her tip for making break and bake freezable cookie dough. They are a major hit with the kiddo and her friends!

So, those are just a few of the things I will be whipping up for this next week and freezing to make meals easier later on down the line! ;)

What is your favourite meal prep tip that just makes things so much easier?

Homework Box Tutorial

As I've made very clear we live in a really, really tiny apartment. We live in an amazing city, but real estate is at a premium, so our apartment is pretty tiny. The kiddo has had a small issue keeping her school supplies organized in her desk drawer. She does a really good job, but she loves school supplies so sometimes they tend to take over a bit-especially when I find a good deal! :P So, I found a couple of cool ideas on Pinterest and decided to combine them. This is what I came up with:

I used a shoe box from a pair of shoes we had just bought my daughter. I covered it in duct tape and electrical tape (I don't discriminate I use whatever I have! LOL Then, I took some cute little stick on letters I had and stuck them on there!

The tape went on sort of smoothe. I actually had a worse time with get the electrical tape to stick than the duck tape! So, my suggestion is definitely use duck tape for the whole thing. I used some letters leftover from another project. As you can see that are very in season being all bright and neon. Flashback to the '80's anyone?!

Moving on....

This is the inside of the box. on the lid I just used a glue stick and glued on a set of sticky notes for taking notes and marking pages. To get it to stick to the lid I just turned the notes over to the last page and smeared a glue stick all over the back, then stuck it onto the lid. The long paper is for longer notes, or making notes and then marking a page. It is glued on the same way I did the sticky notes. I added the paperclip on the left just so the paper wouldn't be hanging when the lid is closed. The paper clip on the right is just so the design would be symmetrical! (Yes, that's my weird side coming out, welcome to my brain.)

A close up of the inside of the box. As you can see I decorated everything to coordinate in a non-matching way. Anything in a "holder" is from the recycle bin ;)

Here is the right side of the box. Crayons, markers, glue sticks, and paper clips.

I just took a small box out of the recycling bin, covered it in duck tape and "finished it off" with electrical tape. I then labeled it using some leftover letters I had in my craft bin. Both crayon holders were made the same way. These two little boxes fit like 500 crayons or something ridiculous like that!

This is just a cute little pouch I whipped up out of duck tape to hold the pencils and pens. In order to make the pouch just measure whatever you want the pouch to hold and make it twice as long as the item you want to fit in there, plus at least a half inch-two inches if you want it to have a flap so it will "close",  and at last a half inch wider than the object. Lay down the duck tape (for this pouch I just laid two pencils out and measured the tape that way for length) then just used two strips of duck tape for the width. You will have to now cut two more strips of tape and place the sticky sides together. Then, fold the bottom up and tape together with a coordinating tape (just so it looks pretty you could just use the same tape you had been using lol). If you added a top flap add a magnet or some velcro so it will stay down. 

This is the end of the roll of mustache tape. It was running out and so I just took some paper that had been printed on, but we didn't need anymore so I cut it up and stuck it in here so it isn't floating all over the box! This way she can work out math problems or whatever she needs and then just recycle the paper.

These are the markers and coloured pencils. They are being held in toilet paper tubes! I found these in the recycle bin and knew they'd be perfect! I just covered them in duck tape to make them coordinate.

This I whipped up to hold the tape, paper clips and eraser. I did it the same was as the pencil and pen pouch. I didn't really want anything "floating around" in the box to make it messy, so this did the trick! 

Here is the final product: 

I put in there some graph paper, some college ruled paper, some raw hazelnuts, raisins, and jelly beans (have to have something fun). I'll check it every now and again to see when it needs to be refilled.

I really like this because not only does it free up room in her desk and store nicely on her closet shelf, but it allows her to move around the house and do her homework on the porch if its nice, at the breakfast bar while I cook dinner, or even the park if we want to enjoy the sun while it is still shining. This is also nice for parents who have children that do after school activities and sometimes the kids need to do homework at the football field, soccer field, gym or wherever. 

Other supplies you may want to include: calculator, dictionary, other language dictionary if needed, small thesaurus, any special math tools that may be needed. 

If you'd like come check out my back to school board over on Pinterest! I've been pinning some great ideas to get you organized so the school year is off to the right start! We've only been in a week now, but if you've been in longer it is never too late to get organized! I have some lunch ideas posted here. Go check 'em out! ;)

Menu Plan Monday #22: Don't forget about lunch!

Img Credit

I thought I'd start Monday with a super hilarious (and probably slightly embarrassing) story about my teen. When she was in elementary school she never particularly enjoy school lunch. When we lived in Kansas not all the schools had a kitchen in house so the lunches were made in the morning at an annex (aka another school) and shipped over around 10am and kept safely warm. Well, depending on what they were serving that day the lunch could seriously stink by her gym time which was 10:45 (they ate at 11:30). Well, this particular day they were serving fish and broccoli. So, she goes to lunch and due to the menu the gym teacher holds gym [mercifully] outside. Well, I'm not sure what happened between 10:45 and 11:30, I'd assume it was a bit of a blood sugar drop, but the poor kid walks into the gym for lunch and just tosses her cookies all over the floor. The nurse asks her what happened and she said, "I don't know I walked in and smelled lunch and just couldn't hold it in!" Poor kid, after that she has seriously never eaten another school lunch. So...in honor of my daughter's first full week back and other parents who are dealing with a I don't dare serve my child the cafeteria food school I bring you a series of school lunch ideas....

Hard boiled egg, organic chocolate milk, cherries, and a whole wheat (the bread seriously has 4 ingredients and 1 gram of sugar. Read labels) grilled cheese (served cold). I know it sounds weird, but she loves it! Plus this is very high protein and keeps her full and going and able to think!

Cherries, organic chocolate milk (wrapped in a napkin lol), chicken salad (leftover chicken, cucumbers, and onion), banana slices and raw almonds (her snack), and homemade coconut oil brown sugar cookies. 

Ham and cheese with two local honey sticks, some frozen mixed veggies (they thaw out by lunch), and an organic milk. 

Leftover steak taco meat, organic chocolate milk, roasted fingerling potatoes, and half an ear of corn. For snack raisins, almonds, and cucumber slices.

Snack: Cherries, strawberries, and cucumber slices.

I should note she normally doesn't get chocolate milk it just so happened this was during a camp week so she was being very active and I wanted to make sure she got the extra protein from the milk (5+ hours of tumbling and cheerleading you need it! lol), for school lunch she takes a water bottle, nothing else. I try to make sure everything is high in protein and we use up what we have so nothing goes bad.

What do your kids like to take for lunch? I love this list to help build lunches:

Wendolonia Lunch Box Idea List
I have this printed off and keep it in the menu section of my home management binder! It's fantastic and really helps you think outside the [lunch]"box".

Well, now that you may or may not be set for lunch let's try and get that way for the upcoming week....

Org Junkie Menu Plan Monday Link Up

Breakfast
Monday: Sunbutter and banana quesadillas with berries
Tuesday: hard boiled eggs, berries, granola bar
Wednesday: Granola cereal with fruit
Thursday: banana pancakes or butternut squash pancakes (recipe to come they are wicked high in protein)
Friday: granola cereal with bananas
Saturday: leftover pancakes and coffee before run (they are super high protein lol)
Sunday: homemade doughnut holes with coffee/cocoa

Lunch
Monday: Kiddo: Turkey wrap with strawberries and chocolate milk Me: leftover mac and cheese and mixed veggies
Tuesday: Me: banana pancakes with nuts/Kiddo: leftover potpie with spinach salad and milk
Wednesday: Me: Tuna Spinach Salad/Kiddo: Turkey Salad
Thursday: Veggie pasta with mozzarella and tomato salad
Friday: Turkey wrap and side salad
Saturday: Omelettes, bacon, leftover pancakes if any
Sunday: Croque monsieur with cucumber slices and berries

Dinner
Monday: Quesadillas with rice and corn
Tuesday: Bacon wrapped chicken fingers with fried apples and broccoli
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner (blueberry muffins, over easy eggs, berries, cucumber slices)
Thursday: Fried beef and cheese with rice, and corn/zucchini
Friday: New Restaurant Friday
Saturday: Surf & turf with corn and acorn squash (will travel over to Granville Island to get some crab and lobster)
Sunday: Burrito bowls/tacos with mixed salad

So, that's my upcoming week in food! How is your week looking, looking forward to anything new? I am looking forward to making the burrito bowls this week! :)

Menu Plan Monday #21

Img Credit

Today I know is a holiday in the US & Canada, so happy Labor Day, Folks! Sadly, that doesn't mean we can take a break from housework. Well, we could, but I'd hate to see what the destruction would be! :-/ We have had family visiting us all the way from Georgia and I have a fabulous weekend wrap up coming once they have left. I have lots great restaurants to share! But, with school starting back tomorrow I thought I would share my daughters daily routine in the even anyone needs some inspiration for keeping their kids on track and productive...

A Day in the Life of the Teen
Morning(wake up time to her own alarm: 6:30 am, 2 hours prior to departure)
Make bed
Get dressed
Pick up floor of room
Have breakfast & 12 oz of water (this is NOT optional)
Grooming (brush teeth, hair, makeup, etc)
Do morning bathroom chores
Gather lunch together, check for Key Fob, Leave for school

After School
Come straight home, unless staying for a pre approved after school programme)
Snack & 12 oz of water (again, not optional)
Talk with Mom about the day, have Mom sign any papers or permission forms
Homework in room at desk where it is nice and quiet
15 minutes of reading
Pack backpack for next day, put on hook in laundry room (which is next to the front door)
Check the next day's schedule to make sure nothing unusual is needed, or no money is needed
Pick up desk and make sure it is ready for the next day's homework
Do any chores that are needed

Evening/Before Bed
Make sure everything is prepped and ready for lunch the next day (if school day)
Take shower
Grooming (wash face, take off makeup, nails, etc)
Do evening bathroom chores
15 min of reading before bed

That is the teenagers routine on a normal school day. It seems like a lot, but the little routines that are set within this routine really help keep her organized, her room and bathroom are never really dirty, and she always has her work turned in on time and homework done early.

Now, onto other things that will help this first busy week back to school....

So, today is yet again, Menu Plan Monday! I know getting into a routine of this is difficult, but even just jumping in and having some sort of general plan can really, really help make the week run smooth and help save you money in the long run! So, without further ado....

Linking up at: Org Junkie

Breakfast

Monday: Elbow Room

Tuesday: Leftover's from Monday's breakfast turned into something cute and fun for back to school

Wednesday: Any leftovers/cereal

Thursday: Toasted granola cereal with bananas and almond milk

Friday: Fruit salad, with granola and yogurt

Saturday: Breka/Farmer's market fare

Sunday: Egg sandwiches with mixed fruit and veggies

Lunch

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Leftovers/cherries/lunch out with family

Wednesday: Grilled cheese/cherries/cucumber

Thursday: Quinoa-veggie bowls

Friday: Lunch out

Saturday: Farmer's market salad

Sunday: Brunch (see breakfast above)

Dinner

Monday: Joe Fortes

Tuesday: Stir fry meat, rice, veggies

Wednesday: Pulled BBQ Chicken/Pulled BBQ Mushrooms, squash, mixed veggies, and corn

Thursday: Pork chops/chick pea patties, fruit salad, cucumber slices, leftover squash & corn

Friday: New Restaurant Friday

Saturday: Traditional spaghetti, vegan spaghetti squash, salad

Sunday: Surf n turf: Local rib-eye, lobster or crab, cheese fries/veggies

Snacks

Granola bars, fruit, leftovers, protein balls/shakes

Dessert

Chocolate chip cookies, figs and goat cheese, frozen grapes

This is our menu for the first week back at school. Mine is going up a little bit late, but better late than never! :)

What are you having this week? Also, do your kids have a daily routine or will you begin implementing one soon?