Meal Plan

So, far so good over here on the resolution front.

On the baby front let me tell you about my amazing husband and his wonderful parents. My amazing husband last night cleaned out the WHOLE baby room. This is amazing. That room was so cluttered before. He is great. Then today his parents came down and helped Mr. C paint the whole room for us.  YAY! It's a lovely shade named Neptune, very Huntsville appropriate. In case you are down with the latest paint colors from Lowes its a lovely shade of blue. Yup, blue and no we don't know the sex of the baby. 

We have not done terrible on saving money.We have not done amazing at it either but'll work on it next week.

I have not done great on my grocery shopping. 63.27+64.83+4.01+22.61+50ish+20ish= that's only $25.28 to spend on groceries for this week. Eek, it's ok. I can make it.

Saturday:Simple dinner: chicken wings/chick'n, homemade bread, salad, and sugar cookies (for my wonderful husband)
Sunday: Lunch: Quesadillas
Dinner: Bierocks and sweet potato fries
Monday: Moo Shu Chicken
Crockpot day: Jamaican Soup (we never made this last week because we never made the potato soup and Mr. C said he would rather have it.)

Happy Birthday MOM!

 Today is a special day for not 1 lady in our family but 2. Yup, my mom's a twin. So, We say Happy Birthday to my Mama and G.A.G. (not gag but great aunt goof, my mom's twin). These lovely ladies are 29 again today and they are coming to see me tomorrow. YAY!

So, with no further ado...

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to mama and G.A.G,
Happy birthday to you!

Meal Plan Jan. 15-18

Resolution in progress week 2. We are doing well on our budgeting and using up extra random food around here. Now as far as my meal plan you may notice that I do it a little differently. That's because of my work schedule since I work 4 days a week. I cook 3 and crockpot 1 of those. We eat out on Thursdays and "scrounge" for leftovers the other two days. I find that this works for us. Lots of bloggers cook everyday of the week but I was doing this and it was WAY too much food. So here's what works for us:

Saturday: Peanut butter noodles
Sunday: Tacos for lunch, dinner with our life group
Monday: Lentil loaf, potatoes, broccoli
Crockpot day: Tuesday or Wednesday: Jamaican Pumpkin Soup


As far as the rest of my resolutions. Things are going VERY well. We have been snowed in so the house is actually cleaner than it has been since I moved in. And with the help with Mr. C I actually renewed my library books on time yesterday. yay!

How's the progress on your resolutions?

Resolution in progress

So, I just wrote to you about sticking and keeping my resolution. And, one of mine is making a meal plan to use up random foods chilling around our cabinets too long so we don't waste money. I've done a meal plan in the past and I find that I actually do pretty well when I have it set out for me. So here is my resolution in action.

Saturday: Chicken thighs, veggie fried rice, dumplings, broccoli
Sunday:
 lunch- Homemade pizza (dough and sauce from the freezer)
 life group (aka dinner)- hummus with bagel chips, maybe a dessert to go with it if i have time
Monday: turkey/boca burgers with sweet potato fries
Tuesday: Crockpot day! Baked potato soup

Breakfasts: Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

New Years Resolution

I'm a little late on this but who cares really? I am READY for 2011. It's going to be a big year for my little family. I am one excited lady.

And when it comes to resolutions in general I'm a fan.

If you think about resolutions more as goals and actually take then seriously they can be broken down into smaller steps.

So, when I was joking around I thought "I am going to have a baby and survive the first year." But really this is a good, realistic goal for me.

Broken down this encompasses ALOT and so this is my plan.

1. Mr. C and I have to change our spending to be able for me to stay home for 3 months without pay with our new friend and then afford daycare and all the other joys having a new person. Actually, we have been working on this for a while. (actually Mr. C has more than myself). We've found ways to cut back on bills, refinance our house, retweek our budget. But we're not there yet for me to accomplish this I need to do better with my spending. Mr. C says groupon is going to be the death of him so I need to cut back on my groupon purchases. Continue to coupon at the grocery store AND make sure to use the foods that I get instead of them just hanging out in our cabinets forever. And finally this was a resolution last year. I did better with it but still struggled. I need to turn my library books in on time so I don't have to pay fines!

2. Neither of us are OCD about house cleaning. I wish we were but we are messy. That's going to need to change for a new person to come. Clean out the baby's room. Declutter our house in general. If we would organize some more it would probably help with the "surviving the first year" part.

3. We've already started this Thursday but it's still a resolution. Educate ourselves about having a baby. I have accumulated quite a few books/magazines about becoming a parent I'ld like to try to read. Also, We started classes through the hospital on labor and parenting a newborn. We need to continue with those.

4. Finally, I would like to start running again as soon as my friend is here. I had some trouble and quit at the beginning of my pregnancy. Consequentially I've gain WAY too much weight during my pregnancy and some day I yearn to run (but I doubt I could now). The Nashville Women's Half Marathon is Sept. 24 and I am loosely shooting for it to be my return to running. I'm not honestly sure how obtainable this is but I'm going to try.

I say this to you all to keep me accountable. I think it's easy to make a resolution but harder to follow through on it. Thanks for reading. Do you have any resolutions you really want do accomplish?

Pancakes and Syrup

Hi, I have discovered this and decided it's worth sharing.

This morning I really wanted pancakes but we had no pancake mix or syrup in the house.

Well, I know you can make pancakes from muffin mix. So, I made blueberry pancakes.

You may be saying "Yes, Bridget everybody knows that."

(In case you do not know this. I used this recipe but added lots more water. I couldn't tell you how much. Add is small amounts until it's thin but not thin as water.)

Ok, ok but did you know that you can make pancake syrup from jelly?

Yup, if you are like us we seem to have lots of jelly even though I don't buy it and we don't eat it.

So, I found this recipe where Sandra Lee made grape pancake syrup from jelly. Now, I don't really want to eat grape pancake syrup on blueberry pancakes but I do like the idea of strawberry syrup on blueberry pancakes.

I made strawberry syrup. I followed Sandra's recipe but added a lot more water.

I have to warn you that my syrup was VERY thick. Very tasty and in my opinion worth it but very thick. It wasn't jelly consistency but it was thick like real maple syrup is thick. I have two thoughts on this. 1. I only left it on the stove for 5 min because I was hungry and the pancakes were already done. So, extending the time on the stove may help. I honestly don't know. 2. I used earth fare jelly. Earth fare jelly is very thick because it has no high fructose corn syrup. So, you used smuckers or something more traditional I suspect it'll work better.

Crockpot Veggie Stew

So, I said we'ld be talking about holiday food but you can't only eat cookies. We'ld all like to but I don't think it would fly. So, here is a healthy, easy recipe that can accompany your fudge that you'll still feel good about yourself the next day.  With the crockpot during the holiday season it'll free you up to do all of your baking and still eat semi healthy.

1 TBSP minced garlic
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 onion
1 can of diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted but I bet you can use any kind).
2 cans of water
2 chik'n bullion cubes
1 can beans drained (I used pinto but bet any kind would work).
1/2 cup dried brown lentils
3 new potatoes
2-3 carrots
1 bell peppers
2 stalks of celery
1 can of peas
2 cups of rice

Chop all veggies in bite size pieces

Put all ingredients EXCEPT rice in crockpot.

Stir together.

Set on low for 6 1/2 hours.

When timer is done add 30 more minutes and add rice. If you add the rice too early it'll dissolve and be disgusting to eat.

When it's done enjoy!

*This recipe is 100% Mr. C approved who remember is not a veghead. So, it's approved by herbivores and omnivores alike!