Menu Monday 8/8

It has been a hectic week in our household.  Last week my dear hubby and I ended up out of town for a night at a wedding without the kids.  Along with a ton of other life things I got super busy.  This week our church is hosting a VBS.  Next week's menu will probably be even less exciting since I'm feeding my kids in the car a couple of days as we go from swim lessons to picking up extra VBSers then to Panda mania.  So here's last week's menu posted for this week.  Enjoy.  If you're looking for something with a little more spunk, check out the menus at I'm an organized junkie.

Sunday-Life Group Black Bean Brownies and Spinach dip with veggies

Monday-Play date with a friend, my contribution was sliced watermelon

Tuesday-Cheeseburger sliders

Wednesday-turkey sandwiches with carrot walnut salad

Thursday-Baked Spaghetti

Friday-Grandma's in charge.  I can only imagine what they ate. 

Saturday-Rotisserie Style Chicken with rice

Menu Monday-Batch cooking

Batch cooking is a great way to have meals ready either in your fridge or freezer.  Having meals at your finger tips helps prevent those impulsive trips through the drive thru.  This is also super helpful when things are really warm and you don't want to heat up your kitchen every night of the week.  Batch cooking is one of the ways that I can survive as a working mom with a husband who does shift work.  It's so much easier to get a home cooked meal on the table when a lot of the prep work has already been done. 

chicken breasts to be used to top salads or for a chicken salad sandwich
meaty calzones
Use this concept I made...
Meaty Stromboli using meaty pizza sauce
BBQ chicken Stromboli using easy shredded chicken
Beer Brats
Brat and Tot Casserole
ABC Muffins
More homemade salsa
peanut butter chocolate chip granola
Lemonade
Homemade Iced Tea

Be sure to check out my menu and others like it at I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 7/25

Thank goodness for central air.  Here's the problem with living in Wisconsin, it's either freezing cold or hot/humid that you can't stand yourself.  Spring and Fall are supposed to be the "reasonable" seasons in this area, however with a blizzard near the end of April and temps still dropping near freezing into late May/early June.  Now that warmer weather has arrived, it's here...mid 90's with a heat index of well over 100 degrees.  I know we are not alone with all this heat.  I'm not complaining, (because we have working central air) but I'm also not working on my tan like I should be.  I did use my oven but it was at a minimal, mostly for some batch cooking.  What are some ways that you try to beat the heat and get a healthy meal on the table for your family?

Sunday- Easy Chicken Tortellini Parmesan

Monday- crockpot pork stew over rice

Tuesday-Little Cesar's $5 pizza with three-bean salad

Wednesday-peanut butter chocolate chip granola with apple/strawberry smoothies

Thursday-rice cooker mac and cheese with hot dogs

Friday-leftovers

Saturday-lentil tacos with chips and homemade salsa

You can see my menu and others like it at I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 7/18

Sunday-Life Group...I volunteered to bring a loaf of bread with garlic butter and JELLO fruit salad

Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday (most of it)-hubby and kids are gone camping with grandpa in his camper, so of course I had to send a few things with them for meals because eating out 3 meals per day is not good on the budget!  Most of the food that I sent was easily prepared at home, stored in a cooler, and could be warmed in the microwave.  My original intention was to prepared a few baked goods like banana bread, puffed carmel corn, or brownie cookie bars, however, our central air decided to have a mind of it's own.  To make a long story short, apparently last winter and mouse and his family decided to make a home in our outdoor unit.  While they were lounging around they decided to chew on some of our wires hopefully resulting in electrocution of those ugly little suckers, that was causing shorts in our unit.  So we got it repaired and now can live happily in air conditioning.  According to the dude (OK he's not just a dude-he's the husband of my husband's partner at work--I know, dude works better), this is a common problem.  Actually, the mice really like it if you cover your air conditioner because it's warmer.  Thankfully, we don't give our air conditioner a winter woobie or it could've been much worse, maybe even a community of mice.  OMG I can't talk about this anymore or I'm gonna tweak.

So this is what I sent along for the camping in a camper event...

Chicken Lo mein (chicken helper)
salami sandwiches
string cheese
flexible Mexican filling  for tacos
brown rice and pinto beans
canned ravioli
cereal with milk
yogurt
variety of pre-packaged processed snacks and beverages

Wednesday- scrambled eggs with ABC Muffins

Thursday-baked spaghetti with Parmesan knots, applesauce

Friday-grilled turkey burgers with homemade salsa, Suddenly Salad, and fruit salad

Saturday-crockpot potato and ham casserole

If you're looking for more menu options, check out I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 7/4

Happy Independence Day!  Whoot Whoot! This week I made several meals that I could "flip" into meal the next day.  I love it when I can do that, I'm always trying to get more bang for my buck.  As we are trying to cut back on spending, flipping meals allows us to throw out less and get a new taste using many of the same ingredients.  Since I am home during the summer and feeding the whole family breakfast and lunch, we seem to eat less leftovers for dinner.  Even though I eat leftovers during the school year for lunch, we always have fewer in the summer.  I don't mind cooking so it's not that big of a deal that I seem to be spending most of my waking hours thinking about, preparing, and cleaning up from meals, anybody else feel like that?  

Sunday-marinated mushrooms and watermelon for a pool party

Monday- BBQ chicken legswith mashed potatoes & peas

Tuesday-pot roast with rice & broccoli

Wednesday-pot roast Shepard's pie

Thursday-poppy seed chickenwith banana blueberry bread

Friday-blueberry breakfast bake with strawberry syrup

Saturday-cowboy steaks with shallot butter with pepperoni pasta salad,

If you enjoyed my menu, you can find mine and others just like it at I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 6/27

Sunday- Italian sausages

Monday-grilled pork chops with roasted veggies-use the technique and vary veggies if you desire

Tuesday- cheese pizza with peanut butter apple dip

Wednesday-meat pie

Thursday-BBQ chicken sandwiches with chips

Friday-leftovers with puffed carmel corn

Saturday-Jambalaya in rice cooker

If you enjoyed my menu and are looking for more like it, check out I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 6/20 Friends Helping Friends

If it's not apparent, I'm not trying to brag or anything but I'm a giver.  I like to give of my time and of my food.  What I think it boils down to, is that giving keeps me out of trouble.  This past week I ended up spending a great deal of time in the kitchen preparing meals and snacks for several different people, I did still keep my family fed with at home cooked meals but I'll save those for next week since my plan is to eat random food (hamburger helper, eggs, sandwiches, and other simple foods) most of the week so I can work on the 6 credits I'm taking and figure out how to download and use a blogging program to "watermark" my pictures.

So anyway my MIL was heading to visit her brother in another state and was traveling with other family members so I prepared some snacks for them to take on their adventure.

pizza popcorn
protein packed cereal bars
6 week muffins

This week in summer school, we prepared 3 different snacks for a local shelter.  The shelter helps families get back on their feet after life events leave them homeless.  Our students enjoyed preparing these snacks and bringing in other donations for the shelter.  We try to incorporate different community service projects into our life skills instruction.  It was great to give back to the community.  The dip and trail mix recipes were doubled since we were aiming to serve about 35 people.

Carmel Pretzel Nut Popcorn
Caramel Apple dip served with apples and bananas
trail mix


These recipes were made for people in need.  A woman from church was having surgery and in need of meals to feed her family while she was laid up.  The other meal was for a friend who just gave birth to another baby girl.  Recently, I made Bubble Up pizza casserole and banana bread for neighbor who just gave birth to a baby girl something must be in the water. 

sesame chicken pasta salad
pepperoni calzones
banana bread #2 (a different version than listed above)


If you're into giving and are looking for the perfect recipe to prepare for someone in need or your own family, check out my menu and others at I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 6/13

So I am still trying to work through a few kinks on how I want to manage this...I actually think I am going to start with Sunday.  Logical?  Who knows...I'm just trying to figure out this whole blogging thing. 

Sunday-a church luncheon a special request was made for Strawberry Romaine Salad and since I'm a blogging fool (or maybe I'm just a fool) I need have more materials, I also made...fruit and nut tossed salad

Monday-creamy chicken with pasta

Tuesday- leftover buffet with fresh fruit and dip

Wednesday- apple baked french toast

Thursday-grilled turkey burgers with broccoli salad

Friday-grilled cheese with can of soup (super gourmet-open, heat, and serve)

Saturday-You get what you get and you don't throw a fit night (kind of like leftover night but I just figure out what I need to get rid of and serve it) and brownie cookie bar

Check out I'm an organized junkie if you want to see my menu and many others.

Menu Monday 6/6

Happy almost the end of the school year week!  Heading into the final stretch for me.  Then maybe I can work on taking some pictures of the food I cook...just an idea and a maybe...don't bet your paycheck on it. 

Monday-fish tacos with chipotle ranch suddenly salad

Tuesday-breakfast of cinnamon rolls and sausage

Wednesday-leftovers

Thursday-grilled chicken with grilled veggies

Friday-easy turkey casserole

Saturday-Out to Eat

Sunday-stuffed shells with bread machine bread..come on dust it off it's time to start using the bread machine again.

If you enjoyed my menu you can find my menu along with many others, check out I'm an organized junkie.

Menu Monday 5/30

Happy Memorial Day!.  If you enjoy my menu, you can enjoy mine as well as others at I am an organized junkie

Monday-In hornor on Memorial Day and my neighbors birthday...I went to a fish fry (we did this on Sunday).  I contributed Suped-Up-Cole-Slaw and Jello salad

Tuesday-grilled hamburgers and chips with Olive Dip

Wednesday-Leftovers

Thursday-breakfast

Friday-Family Pizza Night

Saturday-Simple Joes Open Faced Sandwiches with veggies and ranch dip

Sunday-Taco Salad

Menu Monday 5/21

Happy Monday (or Sunday night) to all!  As I stated earlier I'm tyring something new and posting tried and true recipes that we ate last week.  I ended up with some rhubard from our teachers lounge.  My friend Michelle is supposed to give me some more.  I'm going to post a link to last week's menu which has another great rhubard recipe.  I wonder what I'm going to make with my next batch...Menu Monday 5/16.  Have a great week!

Monday-ham sandwiches with veggies & Dill Dip

Tuesday-eggs with Streusel Rhubarb Bread

Wednesday- Orange Marmalade Gazed Chicken

Thursday-leftovers

Friday- Easy Baked Pork Chops with rice

Saturday- grilled chicken and Crash Hot Potatoes

Sunday-Kids and my-favorite tator tot casserole

You can find my menu and others like it at I'm an organized junkie

A twist to menu Monday

So you know the scene in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when the super "hip" teacher comes in the room and makes this statement?

(who would've know this was his name)  Mr. Turkentine: I've just decided to switch our Friday schedule to Monday, which means that the test we take each Friday on what we learned during the week will now take place on Monday before we've learned it. But since today is Tuesday, it doesn't matter in the slightest. Pencils ready

That's how I'm feeling about Menu Monday.  I post a menu that I intend to follow, at times life gets in the way.  When planning a menu for my family we are the guinea pigs.  Sometimes my neighbors or friends end up as the guinea pigs too.  I can change things and do whatever I need to keep us fueled.  Now that I have others counting on my mad menu planning skills, as a mom who's got it all (un)together I feel like I should give you a solid menu.  So with that being said, when I post my menu it will be what our family ate the week before or tried and true recipes.  This will ensure that we have tried the recipe and I can provide with the links and recipes when I post my menu.  It's really no fun to look at my menu and not have a recipe link.  It's also a lot of pressure to be sure that I am posting recipes so my loyal readers can prepare those meals for their families.  I mean I am sure people are waiting on the edge of their seats to know how I am going to make tacos.  My job here is to please.  Please be patient as I work out how I'm going to manage that along with creating enlightening, magical posts about my life to keep my readers at the edge of their seats.  Remember I've only been blogging less than a month, I'm a work in progress!

Menu Monday 5/16

I have scored it big time these day.  My grocery budget is thanking me.  On Friday at the end of  a picnic, I scored a some hamburgers, hotdogs, and a few brats. Even though I had Easy Crockpot Roast cooking away, my family preferred the leftover grill food...hmm imagine that.  Then I attended a spaghetti dinner last night and scored some leftover sauce from the event.  I'm going to tell you what I did with that this week.  In an attempt to not overwhelm everyone involved, my menu may not be exactly what is being served at our home this week...so if you stop over just randomly thinking you're going to get what's on the menu you may be saddened when it's nothing more than leftovers from my plethora of food.  So without further hesitation...here is what we may or may not be eating

Monday-breakfast with banana bread

Tuesday- Bubble Up Pizza Casserole

Wednesday-chicken pot pie

Thursday-leftovers

Friday-tacos using flexible mexican filling

Saturday-I think Scott's grilling chicken or out to eat not sure

Sunday- Life group (a church event) I'm bringing dessert and I don't know why I keep volunteering to do this...I hate baking.  I'm not sure what I'll make yet.  I ended up making Rhubarb Sour Cream Pie

You can find my menu and others like it at I'm an organized junkie

Menu Monday 5/9

Well it's Monday again.  Finally, things are much better here, Kenley and I feel like new again.  Since last week was a little crazy with sickness and I had forgotten it was "teacher appreciation" week (I ended up with lunch a few times).  We ended up with extra leftovers and ate sandwiches...well we actually ended up going out to eat a few times: Thursday was "Cinco de Mayo" somehow turned into a ladies dinner, Friday night to celebrate my mom's birrthday and Mother's Day and Saturday I went to a benefit which led to eating a late lunch.  So I am recylcing a few items that didn't get eaten last week.  And also relizing that I need to learn to say "no" to going out to eat!

Monday-Going to a baby shower, Congrats Michelle=)...I'll be bringing strawberry spinach saladand mixed berry trifle

Tuesday-breakfast

Wednesday-baked crab and broccoli; kids will eat pizza or something?

Thursday-leftovers

Friday- Easy pot roast

Saturday-pasta dinner at church

Sunday-turkey cutlets with oven fries

You can find my menu and more like them at http://orgjunkie.com/blog