Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Menu Planning Monday...I Know on Tuesday Again!

OK...I am running a little late again this week. The last two days (or should I say nights) have been tough and I have been VERY unmotivated. And let's just say that my new habit forming has not been going quite as planned.

On Sunday night Aiden woke up throwing up. After stripping him and his bed, getting him cleaned up and dressed and putting him into our bed he proceeded to throw up in our bed. Again with the clothes and bed stripping. Thankfully at this point he seemed to be done and went off to sleep. I finally got myself into bed and doesn't Bennett wake up screaming. Not sure why, bad dream I guess but I was up with him for a while longer also.

And then last night Bennett didn't go to bed until almost 9pm and then woke up again a number of times and was then up both mornings by 5:30am. Needless to say I am feeling a little tired.

Done with the pitty party now! On to Menu Planning.

We were able to stick a little closer to our menu this last week. We didn't do the goat roast because I never got around to taking it out of the freezer. The quiche was amazing. I used the Yogurt Dough recipe from Nourishing Traditions. We put in tomatoes, spinach, onions & a little bacon I had in the freeze. Oh how yummy it was! I also made up a HUGE batch of pancakes from a Nourishing Traditions recipe and have some scones and biscuits soaking right now to make.

I just started picking up a few Raw Milk products in the last few weeks also. The farm (Great Hopes Farm in Brooks, ME) is not far from us but I didn't want to have to go out there ever week so I did some research and found out you can freeze milk. I bought enough for two weeks and have frozen a little more than half. I actually got some cream from them so I am hoping to make something yummy for a treat later this week. Maybe some rice pudding or a custard. I will try to remember to post more about the benefits of raw milk later this week or next week.

And our chickens are laying like crazy so we are trying to remember to do lots of meals with eggs. We made egg salad last week, which was delicious (I'm even starting to develop a taste for it) and I plan to make some more hard boiled eggs this week for my boys to eat as snacks. They LOVE eggs.

I really cleaned out my cabinets this week and made a list of everything in them to try to do some pantry meals. I have a few cans of beans that I would like to use up as I am ordering some dried beans from a local grown cooperative. We are going to try to do the same thing with our two freezers also. Go through and make a list of what is left. Feed to the chickens anything freeze burned and start using up everything else. This will also help us to conserve energy as we wont have to open the freezer to see what is in there and we will just cross things off as we use them. Now when that will get done...who knows. Hopefully this week though.

I also have tons of turkey and chicken carcasses left over from processing our birds last year that I would like to turn into stocks before the weather gets really warm so I am hoping to work on that this week also. I also know we have a bit of broccoli left in the freeze and Erik LOVES cream of broccoli soup. Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home shares a recipe that I think I will try for lunch one of the days.

And did I mention that I accidentally ordered a HUGE bag of quick rolled oats (when I meant to get whole rolled oats) from my coop about 2 months ago. I found this excellent breakfast cookie recipe at Heavenly Homemakers that I think I am going to try to use some of them up. They make a terribly mushy oatmeal so I would really love to use them up and then buy some local grown whole rolled oats!

OK...so now onto my menu.

Tuesday - Pasta, Sauce & Sausages (Erik is working an overnight so I try to make easy things for the boys & I when he will not be home. He will probably take some leftover quiche for his dinner)

Wednesday - Baked cheesy pasta (Erik asked me to make a macaroni & cheese this week. I will cook up some pasta with a little homemade cheese sauce and throw in some vegi's we have in the freezer and maybe some chicken or turkey from the freezer also. And then breadcrumbs and a little Parmesan on top and bake it. YUM!)

Thursday - The Spud Special Soup thanks to Keeper of the Home.

Friday - We are having another family from church over and the weather is supposed to be lovely so we will probably do burgers and vegi's on the grill.

Saturday - Cheesy Beef & Rice thanks to Heavenly Homemakers. I'm thinking I will make up two or three of these to pop some in the freezer. I will also add some more vegi's to it like peppers, maybe spinach, etc. to make it more of a one dish meal.

Sunday - It is mother's day and Erik is working! I will probably let him pick something up for us on his way home for dinner (and some chocolate and maybe a movie for after the kiddo's go to bed. ) And I want to try these Mother's Day Muffin's from Heavenly Homemaker. Yummy!

Share what's on your menu and for more menu ideas check out Org Junkie!



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