Tasty!

Speaking of food (sorry no pics), Sophia has begun referring to things as tasty. As in, this chocolate milk from Starbucks is too tasty. These crackers and cheese are too tasty. This applesauce is too tasty. And then she proceeds to not eat or drink them. In other words, "too tasty" means it's overloaded her flavor pallet and she's done. It's actually very funny to hear her refer to foods as tasty. Now my question is, where did she get the concept of tasty? Do I say it? Russell? Ms. Melanie?

Baked Ziti

Here's the Baked Ziti recipe I'm using next week. It's from Baby and Toddler Meals for Dummies.

Baked Ziti

8 ounces uncooked ziti
1 pound ground beef
26- 28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the past according to the package directions. Set the noodles aside.
2. In a large stock pot, cook the ground beef thoroughly, drain the excess grease.
3. Stir in the spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Simmer on low for 10 minutes.
4. While the meat is simmering, combine the egg, the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses and 1 cup of mozzarella in a large bowl. Mix well. Toss in the pasta and mix well.
5. Grease a 13 x 9 pan. Spoon a thin layer of the meat sauce on the bottom. Follow with a layer of past, then another layer of meat sauce. Layer until the pan is full and make sure to end with a layer of meat sauce.
6. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Top the casserole with the remaining mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Menu For Next Week

My Menu Plan for Next Week

Sat.- Eating at Uncle Brice's

Sun.- Chicken Scallopine (a new dish for us)

Mon.- Baked Ziti (from my Baby and Toddler Meals for Dummies book)

Tues.- Nachos

Wed.- leftovers

Thurs.- Chicken Pesto Manifesto (sandwiches)

Fri.- Frozen Pizza

A Full Week!

So what did we do this week?

Well,it was full of chocolate. 

 Sophia got a shipment of chocolate (a chocolate bunny rabbit) from her Grandpa and Grandma K, which she thoroughly enjoyed (and I did too, she actually shared his ears).

It was full of drawing, writing and coloring.

I was pretty impressed with Sophia's scribbles. To stay in a somewhat straight line like that takes skill.

It was full of band aids (not actually shown in the pic). Sophia's big toe lost part of a toe nail and nasty fall in a Chick-Fil-A parking lot meant she got multiple Princess band aids.

It was full of cute outfits and hair styles chosen by her.

It's so weird! By the time it hits 8 am on weekends, she demands to change clothes. She no longer wants to lounge in pj's. :( Is she really my kid?? Oh yes, she loves chocolate and art.

It was full of shopping.

 We got a few things that needed replacing around the house like our Rubbermaid containers and bed pillows. Sophia wanted her own pillow. So we indulged. She's been using her pillow pet for a while now in bed, so we figured, what the heck. Why not?

It was full of chocolate goldfish, Sophia's latest discovery.

And yes, they are yummy!

It was filled with lots and lots of clips.

Yep, tons of clips.

It was filled with decorating for Spring, which Sophia helped with (mostly holding things while I put stuff up).

And it was full of Sophia eating vegetables, uncoerced, bribed, or bullied. And she asked for more.

It was full of nature, although it was all indoors at the Mall.

Remember, it was also full of shopping.

And it was full of pictures. Here's a few that Sophia took.

She somehow managed to figure out the timer to take a self portrait.

Like I said, it was a full weekend! And this was just the portion that was photographed. There was still running, cleaning and cooking. :)

Menu Planning

Not much has been going on around here lately. Sophia's eyes are continuing to improve and we're almost done with her drops. Russell's still doing fine with his blood pressure. He goes back to the cardiologist on April 4th (I got the date wrong in my last post). And needless to say, I don't really have many pics this week to entertain you with. So I thought I'd update you on our food struggles/victories.

To start with, what did I want to achieve? We wanted to have quality meals together as a family. I wanted to introduce Sophia to the idea of eating what we do instead of something special just for her. I wanted to save money and time. I mean who wants to go to the store more than once a week and waste so much food because it spoils before we eat it?

Since this is an area where we struggled initially, it feels really good to say that just about every night we sit down to dinner and eat the same thing (well, sometimes Sophia picks at it). But we always have dinner together even if we're not eating the same thing. Sometimes we have leftovers night and so we'll all be eating totally different things. So I thought I would let you know my process of meal planning. It works for me, but it may not work for everyone.

I started out with the whole idea of menu planning from this blog called Sister's Stuff. I tried to do it their way, but it just didn't work for us yet. Sophia was still too picky, so I realized instead of 30 of your top recipes, I'd pick 10 and repeat those.

I found a meal planner that I use to write down our menu for the week(usually on Wed. or Thurs. for the next week) here Menu Planner at cheapcooking.com. I post it on the refrigerator.

From there, i make up my grocery list. I actually made an excel spreadsheet with everything we typically use from food to toiletries to cleaning supplies. And the best part is that it's in the order of our grocery store. So i can usually get all of my shopping done for the week in just 30 minutes. I wish I could post it but I can't figure out how to add a document. Anyone know? Leave me your email and I can email you a copy that you can edit for yourself.

As for recipes, I have a notebook (of course I have a notebook), that I have divided into sections.

The first section is the recipes I'm using for the week, so during the week I don't have to hunt for them. They're all in one place.

The second section is breakfast recipes I LOVE. Not ones that I haven't tried or just kinda liked.

The third section is a collection of my VERY FAVORITE recipes. I'm not sure how many I have in there. If I just kinda like it, I either toss it or put it into my master recipe collection notebook (yes, I have another notebook, actually 2, that contain ALL of my recipes that I kinda liked or wanted to try and it has all my favorite ones too. It has it all).

The fourth section is the collection of the 10 or so recipes we constantly repeat during the week. I'll be adding to that section as I've introduced Sophia to it and she LOVES it too.

The fifth section contains side dishes.

And then I have a completely separate notebook that I keep recipes I want to try in. Like for example there are some from the Pioneer Woman cookbook that I want to try. So I made a copy of it and put it in that section. That way I don't forget about it. If it's in a cookbook, I forget about them. If it's a recipe from the Sunday ads. I make a copy and put the original in my master recipe notebook.

So here's my menu for next week:

Saturday: Zesty Chicken Pot Pie (a new one for us. I'm on the search for the perfect chicken pot pie recipe, The Pioneer Woman's is pretty good.)

Sunday: Can't Miss Red Snapper (a new one, I'm substituting Tilapia we have in the freezer)

Monday: Sandwiches (for Sophia, she gets a grilled cheese and Russell and I add turkey or ham to it, but they're warm sandwiches)

Tuesday: Quesadillas (I saute those pre-cooked grilled chicken slices in the refrigerated meat section, onion, cilantro and tomatoes for the grown ups, Sophia gets just cheese. I use olive oil for all the sauteing and cooking the tortillas), black beans

Wednesday: Omelets (I use ham, green onions, mushrooms and tomatoes for the grown ups and Sophia just gets cheese), toast

Thursday: Bobby's Lighter Baked Spaghetti (a new one, but Sophia loves pasta so i just rotate through any of my pasta recipes for Pasta Night, I'm substituting ground beef instead of the sausage)

Friday: Chicken Pizza Primavera (really good! For Sophia I just make her a cheese pizza using the same process but I just use an 8 oz jar of tomato sauce and cheese)

In the weekends, I usually try to cook recipes that take longer or that are new. Sophia still gets served the same thing but I always give her at least one thing I know she'll eat with it like toast or applesauce. And trust me, at 36 pounds, she's not starving.

I recently discovered Paula Deen's website and she has a ton of tasty recipes. She even has a whole section devoted to lighter cooking....believe it or not.

So what do y'all do to plan your meals? Where do you get your recipes from? Any tips or websites you use are greatly appreciated!

Camera Bag

I saw these great camera bags over at Tatertots and Jello. For posting this on my blog I get an extra entry to win one. I love the Rose Moss bag.

Weekend Update

As for Russell, he's doing fine. The blood pressure meds are working. He started out at 180/100 and now is down to 140/82. He was kinda mad cause I've been checking mine on our new contraption and every time it's super low, 110/72. But it's a good thing cause it's making us more aware of how we treat our bodies and what we put into them. He goes back to the cardiologist on April 2nd.

As for Sophia, she's got pink eye. You can call it conjunctivitis to make it sound better. But in the end, it's still pink eye. It was weird because, we noticed some flakies in her lashes on Thurs. but didn't really think much of it because she's been experiencing allergy problems. But on Fri I got a call from Ms. Melanie saying that her eye looked more red and more flakies. I made a dr. appt for 2:20, left my class with the PE teachers and ran to get her in before the weekend. When I arrived, I thought for sure it was just allergies because it just didn't seem mucousy enough. Of course, I've never seen the beginning stages of pink eye. Just the full blown cases that show up at my school. So when we got to the dr., I felt sure Dr. R would tell me that it was just allergies. WRONG!! But now she's on drops, which are a pain by the way. So we basically did our grocery shopping (Sophia and I). But we've tried to keep her quarantined. She missed a birthday party tonight. :(  We're washing our hands like crazy and washing her bedding, towels, wash cloths, and trying to sanitize all her toys. FUN!!!