Menu Plan Monday

So I'm not doing a regular menu plan this week. What I'm going to do is a little bit different - and a lot harder for me. What I'm going to do is make this a sticky post and add to it all week.

My Challenge: I am only allowed to use ingredients that are already in the house. I can go to the grocery store today for bananas, yogurt and coffee filters, since the Mister eats yogurt every day for lunch and we're out... and in this house, it would almost be considered a catastrophe of epic proportions if we ran out of either bananas or coffee filters.

So. I have a tiny pantry, a refrigerator and two freezers semi-stocked with food. What creative ways can I come up with to use what I have instead of buying more?

Menu Plan for Week of May 21:
Monday:
breakfast - leftover quiche and applesauce
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - chicken caesar salad (never had this last week)

Tuesday:
breakfast - oatmeal
lunch - leftover salad for Mister, sandwich for me
dinner - frozen fish, homemade mac-n-cheese (with Sargento's new chipotle cheddar... drool!!)

Wednesday:
breakfast - cinnamon raisin french toast
lunch - leftovers for Mister, at friends' house for me
dinner - wings & salad for Mister, wings & mac-n-cheese for me

Thursday:
breakfast - eggs
lunch - Mister went out with work people, I had mom-lunch-group
dinner - frozen pizza

Friday:
breakfast - oatmeal
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - brats / coleslaw

the craziness that is my life

So. Last week I didn't post much. Want to know why?

Wellll... you have your choice between the broken water heater and the yard sale. I know, I know, a broken water heater isn't THAT big of a deal, unless you want to wash dishes, take showers, DO DIAPER LAUNDRY, etc. When you cloth diaper your baby, a hot water heater is a big deal. The showers weren't so bad, since I'd fill the bathtub up halfway with cold water, and then boil water on the stove and pour it in until it reached a warm-enough-temperature... I felt like Laura Ingalls or something.

And then there was the yard sale. Gosh, they're a lot of work! We had three families selling stuff, three little girls selling lemonade and doughnuts, and as a result, I have NORMAL looking closets (no bulging anymore!) and $500 in cash! We're getting me a laptop with the money... how fun is that? It was a long day, I'm still a little tired, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Stay tuned for my challenge to myself for this week!

wfmw - put de lime in de coconut and mix it up togedduh

maltodextrin... monosodium glutamate... citric acid... lactic acid... dextrose... gum arabic... glycerol... blue 1... red 40... sodium diacetate... partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

if you're anything like me, you're not particularly excited about eating all of those ingredients (and more!) when you're sitting down to enjoy those AMAZING Tostitos chips with the Hint of Lime. but they're just soooo good. plain. with salsa. with queso. did i say plain? with a slice of avocado.

i have a solution, ladies!! for a heck of a lot cheaper, and really with very little fuss.

gather corn tortillas (i buy a 4 inch stack for $1.84), a lime, a salt shaker, a pizza pan or cookie sheet and a pizza cutter. you're ready to go. preheat your oven to about 350. roll the lime on the countertop for a minute to loosen the juices. slice off one end - just enough to expose some limey goodness. rub the exposed surface of the lime on as many tortillas as you like. if you stop getting lime juice, just slice off a little bit and you've got fresh juice! when your tortillas are shiny with the juice, salt 'em. slice them up with your pizza cutter. you can make chips by cutting wedges, you can just do strips, or you can do skinny strips for taco salad (we like those!). for added zing, lime up both sides.

put your pieces on your pizza pan / cookie sheet. i prefer my pizza pan because it has little holes in it, which allows me to skip the step of flipping them. put them in the oven for a few minutes - watching carefully. you'll want to experiment with how crispy you like them.

but that's it. they're so good hot - and really, they're very simple. i get chatty when writing recipes but the steps could have looked like this:

• cut lime
• rub on tortillas
• salt
• cut
• place on sheet
• bake
• eat

that's not too daunting, is it? and they're cheap and WAAAY lower in fat and sodium and all that stuff.

not-so-bloody-mary

I love V8 juice. It seems to be one of those things where you either love it or you think drinking it is worse than eating dryer lint. However, it can get a bit thick-tasting after a while, you know? I usually add a squirt of lemon juice and a dash of pepper to it, which helps a lot.

But today I tried something new. I put about 7 oz of regular V8 in a glass, and then added about 1 oz of sparkling lime water (not sweetened - zero calories) to it. Stir, and enjoy. It's much fresher tasting than regular V8, and because it's slightly watered down, it goes down much smoother. Talk about an easy way to get a serving of veggies!

i feel like a dork

i just pulled up this blog to see what we're having for dinner tonight. :o)

tackle it tuesday

Ok. Today's list:

• mail contract back to company for new WAHM job
• work for 2 hours
• reserve audiobook at library for Mister
• prep grocery list / coupons
• go to grocery store
• go to liquor store to see if i can buy crates to store wine bottles
• go to nursery to buy parsley and ground cover
• organize Peanut's clothes to purge excess 0-6 month stuff
• purge kitchen
• purge hall closet
• purge dining room
• purge living room
• purge office
• purge linen closet
• purge bedroom
• bring all purged goodies to garage for yard sale this weekend
• strip and make bed
• shower
• clean kitchen
• maaaaybe organize the fabric (didn't do it from last week and Mister has started making jokes about the floor being padded in the office / sewing room due to all the stacks of fabric everywhere)
• work on afghan during idol
• watch american idol
• vote a LOT (for JORDIN!)
• feed and entertain Peanut

Update (1:30): Making lunch now. Made up a recipe. I might post it. I'm procrastinating. Big storms are coming through, so I may hold off on the errands. I have enough food to make dinner, breakfast and tomorrow's lunches, so I'm not in any rush to go to the store.

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan for Week of May 13:
Monday:
breakfast - scrambled eggs, bacon and grapefruit
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - taco salad

Tuesday:
breakfast - oatmeal, grapefruit
lunch - taco salad leftovers
dinner - chinese (fried rice, egg rolls, etc)

Wednesday:
breakfast - salsa eggs, bacon, fruit
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - hamburgers and homemade rolls

Thursday:
breakfast - pancakes, bacon and fruit
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - pizza

Friday:
breakfast - poached eggs on toast, bacon and fruit
lunch - sandwiches
dinner - chicken caesar salad

Saturday:
breakfast - fried eggs
lunch - brats & pasta salad (Mister's cooking as I'm doing a yard sale...)
dinner - ??

Sunday:
breakfast - quiche and coffeecake
lunch - wings and man-food
dinner - cheese & crackers, fruit, popcorn