Menu Plan Monday August 22

I had a great week last week, and only ended up cooking once. My mom was here for a few days and she took care of a couple of meals, and my in laws took care of a couple as well. This week I will probably not cook a lot this week either.

Monday - Chicken Casserole - My Neighbor is actually making dinner and we are bringing it to another friend. I am mainly the transportation :) She is also making a key lime pie and I'm making brown rice.

Tuesday - It's one of my nephew's birthdays, so hopefully we'll see him.

Wednesday - Church

Thursday - Haburger Casserole, salad

Friday - Family Night

Saturday - Chicken something, any one have any ideas?

Sunday - a big pot of spaghetti, garlic bread, more salad :) Any strays are welcome for dinner :)

for more great menu plans check out http://www.orgjunkie.com

Booking it August

This month I read a lot of books, but I haven't been keeping track of all of them (and I wish I had done a better job, because some of them had great points and I totally don't remember the name of the books).

My Favorite book this month was Fiddler's Green by A.S. Peterson. This was the sequel to Fiddler's Gun, and it was really good. I actually think it was better than Fiddler's Gun. I liked the way the ends were tied up and I liked to how Fin Button was transformed from orphan girl to Full Grown Woman. This story follows a crew that have turned pirate through a series of bad turns and are given the option of pardons from the American government if they will just complete a seeming impossible task all the way at the other end of the world. It is an amazing story of daring, friendship, courage and more.

I also read a series of Kathy Herman books called the Seaport Suspense novels. They were all good, although not phenomenal. I was a little annoyed with the second book of the series - it seems like this author uses stories where the married couple isn't one hundred percent honest with each other and lets things get out of control - even when nothing has really happened other than lack of communication - a lot. I am finding that I get annoyed with that story line very quickly and tend to spend most of the book being frustrated by that. I think I will check out another one of her lines of novels, because she does have interesting twists in her book, but I will put it down if it goes back to that story line again.

I also read a book about the lunch system in the US that was really good (and I can't remember the name of it). It was interesting to know how school lunches started and what they have done over the years. The really interesting part to me was what some school districts and schools are doing now to make it better. Some of the districts in NY use all local food, there were schools that grew there own food at the school, and schools that are trying to shake up there old routines.

I'm going to be reading a lot this next month, maybe I should start writing them down :)

Menu Plan Monday - and Crockpot Week 3 :)

Last week I pretty much didn't do anything that I planned on doing, but it turned out ok.  One Caveat - I totally didn't get to my crockpot meal last week so my crockpot focus is already been messed up.  Oh well, I'll try again this week. 

I did make some great finds last weeks - I finally got around to making these "fancy brownies".  They were time and labor intensive, but they were really good.  I also have been searching for great cheddar biscuits (think Red Lobster) and I haven't liked any that I have tried, but this week I think I finally found them!  The thing that was different was these was you cooked the biscuits, pulled out the biscuits and poured your garlic butter over them and then put them back in cooked them some more, and then added butter again as you pulled them out. 

This week I am going to try and stick to a plan :)

Monday - Birthday Party for SIL
Tuesday - BBQ Chicken (Crockpot from last week)
Wednesday - Dinner with Friends
Thursday - Apple Sauce Chicken (Crockpot from last week)
Friday - Family Night
Saturday - spaghetti and garlic cheddar biscuits
Sunday - hamburgers

For more great menu plan ideas orgjunkie.com

Menu plan

I am linking up to
http://www.orgjunkie.com
So glad that my neighbors are feeding me tomorrow, because I am burnt out. None of my family members enjoyed dinner tonight, and that is making it difficult to get motivation to plan. I did do a couple of fun things this week. I made pumpkin muffins and I made some Graham crackers and both turned out really well, so I did have some positive reinforcement.
Here is the plan for this week.
Breakfast -
Pumpkin muffins
Cereal
Cinnamon rolls

Lunch -
Leftovers
Hotdogs

Dinners-
Neighbors
Tacos
Church
Barbecue chicken - this is my crockpot meal for the week
Family night
Spaghetti
Battered chicken sandwich

10 weeks of crockpots

So I have been reading a few crockpot websites and I decided to try a mini experiment of my own. For the next 10 weeks I am going to use my crockpot at least once a week. Nothing like the 365 crockpot websites, but enough that I can experiment a bit with mine and maybe make better use of it in the future.

Week 1- cranberry pot roast

Menu Plan Monday - July 25th

We have been cleaning out the pantry and freezer and this week is going to be the tough week. I went to the store and picked up a few gallons of milk (my family goes through a lot of milk!), flour, oil, and some taco shells. This week we have a lot of chicken left and not a lot of anything else - and to top it off, that's not hubs favorite meal. So - creativity is what is called for.

Sunday - Chicken Rice Casserole - basically I take whatever leftover rice, chicken and soups I have and chuck it all in a pan and cook :) yum!
Monday - Family night
Tuesday - Roast, sweet potatoes, and veggies (I dug it out of the freezer, yay for not chicken).
Wednesday - Church
Thursday - Friends - probably spaghetti
Friday - Family
Saturday - Chicken Mac Bake - Chicken, pasta, cheese - need I say more.

We will survive!
For more great menu plans check http://www.orgjunkie.com

Blogging for Books - Love Food & Live Well by Chantel Hobbs

This week I received Love Food & Live Well from Waterbrook Press. I choose to review this book because I would like to lose a few pounds and I thought I might get a bit of a jump start with the help from the book. Chantel's story is motivating. She has lost 200 pounds and kept it off for ten years all while managing to be a wife, mother, and author. I loved hearing her story and a the few personal stories in the book, but if you are looking for a meal plan and scripted exercise then this is not the book for you. Well over the first half of the book was about getting your head and heart right and then the last 3 or 4 chapters had a few recipes, an interval training plan, and a strength training plan.

The book serves a purpose, but I found it to be more motivational than helpful for planning for weight loss. While I did find useful information, I felt like I there was more reading about general information than setting out my personal weight loss plan.

If you need a broad, informational startup for weightloss then this is the book for you. Complete with motivational stories. If you are looking for a scripted plan, you will find yourself disappointed.

You can read more about Chantel Hobbs and her books at her website http://www.chantelhobbs.com/

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing a free copy of this book for me to review. My Opinions are my own