Menu Plan Monday 12.13.2009

For more menus from hundreds of bloggers, head to orgjunkie. There's a link to Christmas cookies made from Ritz crackers. I think I'll make those!If weather in Pensacola has a gender, it would be a girl. One day it's freezing, next it's t-shirt day. My kids' closet is full of two seasons' worth of clothes. But it's a girl's prerogative to change her mind, right? And I can't complain when I get to enjoy a nice breeze without a hat and scarf around my face.

It was nice to enjoy December for the Christmas season and not the cold. To me, it's only right to freeze to death if there is snow to catch your fall. And it hasn't snowed here in 16 years. All this to say, we had a great Christmas dinner at Church. Then we enjoyed the beach feeding seagulls.

I was excited when I signed-up to bring potato salad. Preparing potluck food is one of those "homemaker" milestones for me. Then last week, they gave me this huge, commercial-sized baking pan. I almost fainted. That's 10 times my normal recipe. I put off making it until 7am this morning! It's a pure miracle that it got cold enough to serve by 11am. So 15 pounds of potatoes, 24 hard boiled eggs, and a jar of mayo later, it was a success. Hubs helped peel potatoes and eggs. He even thought of using the cold setting in my hairdryer to speed cool the potatoes. And the kids helped too. I was a little stressed but I could see the love of our family for each other. It was the best potato salad I made and I don't think it was the spicy brown mustard I used. I think it was because it's made with love. Cheesy? It's true.


From this (1olb bag- only $2.50 at Wal-Mart)

To this! It took up the whole shelf in the fridge.

Last week is a blur. I can't remember what we did. I did remember to pack the kids snacks whenever we ran errands. This snack mix came in handy- Kashi TLC crackers, goldfish, Cheez-Its were mixed with a bag of M&Ms, sunflower seeds, raisins and dried cranberries. I separated them this way to keep the crackers crunchy and mixed them together the day we ate it. This is a great way to use up leftover crackers and mix in healthy stuff with kid-approved snacks.

This sweet-potato stir-fry had black beans and pasta. Weird but tasty. We're trying to eat more veggies.
Speaking of veggies, we had another pasta dish for lunch. I mixed a small can of tomato sauce with 1/4c pumpkin for the sauce. Plus a handful of parsley to sauteed onions, garlic and browned beef. It was yummy! And I didn't need to use up a whole jar of spaghetti sauce.


For this week's dinner menu:
Mystery Bake (Frozen casserole w/out labels!)
Chicken casserole
Pork chops and green bean casserole
Chicken with Biscuits and Gravy
Pizza Night
Leftovers
Crockpot Lasagna