Meal Plans Week of 12-12-10

Almost mid-December already.  The days are flying by, and Christmas prep is in full swing.  This week will be very busy getting ready for all of our parties next week.  And what makes it worse is that Justin will be out of town for work all week.  So no help.  Hopefully I have enough energy and time to get things done.

Last week was pretty productive.  I finished my Christmas shopping.  And I have all of my presents wrapped except the last few that haven't arrived yet.  We ordered and got (on Friday afternoon) our Christmas cards.  And I have 30 of them done already.  We put up a lot of Christmas deco and got our tree.  We'll be decorating that today.  I finished up another sewing project.  Sadly the next one will have to wait until after Christmas.  Rebecca started gymnastics (so fun!).  I made noodles, sourdough muffins, chocolate covered pretzels, pecans and walnuts, strawberry bread, scones, Christmas cookies, brownies and sourdough pancakes.

On to this week.  Today is church and decorating the Christmas tree.  Monday morning Justin leaves early for WI.  Rebecca and I are planning to go to Harvest Health, gymnastics and Heffron Farms.  Hopefully the weather won't be too bad to do all of our errands.  Tuesday is groceries and milk.  Plus I have nursery cmt in the evening.  Rebecca will be coming with me.  Maybe she can "help" clean.  Wednesday is Kindermusik...our last regular class for the semester.  Thursday morning a friend is stopping by to get some kefir grains.  I need to stop by Edward Jones.  Maybe I'll do that Thursday too.  Justin comes home that night.  Friday is MOPS.  And Saturday we'll be home cleaning and prepping for next week.

In terms of food, I want to do as much party prep as possible this week.  I've already done a good portion of my baking.  But I still have a few things to do.  I need to make banana bread, hot fudge, possibly more chocolate goodies, bake/freeze sweet potatoes, and ice cream/buster bars.  Plus meals, etc.  My goal for meals this week is easy and healthy.  Since I'm just cooking for Rebecca and me I'm not doing anything elaborate.  I want to have as much time for party prep and playtime :)  Aside from the food I need to finish wrapping a few presents and finish sending Christmas cards.  I left the end of the week a little open for misc. party prep that I think of.

In other news, we're making good progress on potty training.  I think it helped all of us to take a little break while Rebecca had a UTI.  This week and last week she has pooped on the potty quite a few times...and is actually excited about it (and was even more excited to get a Strawberrry Shortcake doll for it :).  She informed me Friday night before bed that she wants to be a big girl and only wear big girl underwear, no more baby diapers or pull ups :)  And she is very excited about sleeping in a big girl bed...hopefully starting in January.

The baby is starting to get more active.  I still can't feel kicks from the outside (probably due to the location of the placenta), but I am feeling more and more on the inside :)  Very exciting.  Only 1 more week until we get to see this little one again.

Looks like the winter is definitely coming today.  Hopefully we won't get too much snow.

Here's what's on the menu this week:
-----------------------------
S (prep lunch, wrap presents, church, nursery, decorate Christmas tree, soak garbanzo and pinto beans)
  B - leftover chili, avocado, yogurt, crispy nuts (me), chewy granola bar, fruit (Justin)
  L - round steak w/ potatoes, carrots, onions and peppers in the crockpot
  D - sausage links, cornbread, beans

M (cook beans, boil eggs, bake banana bread, Justin leaves for WI, HH, gymnastics, EJ, HF)
  B (early) - banana bread, avocado, fruit
  D - egg salad, garbanzo and pinto beans, peas

T (make hot fudge, make chocolate treats, Meijer, milk, nursery cmt, soak lentils)
  B - sausage links, avocado
  D - leftover beef roast and veggies

W (make kefir, bake/freeze sweet potatoes, chop veggies for dinner, cook lentils, KM, make ice cream/buster bars, freeze butter, chop fruit)
  B - banana bread, avocado
  D - lentil burgers, roasted brussels sprouts

Th (prep smoothies, wrap presents, clean, shopping, friend visiting, Justin comes home)
  B - pineapple, strawberry, blueberry kefir smoothies
  D - leftover lentil burgers and veggies
  Late dinner for Justin - leftover beef and veggies

F (clean, MOPS)
  B - yogurt, crispy nuts, fruit, avocado
  D - spinach fritata, broccoli, apple slices

S (make toothpaste, make chocolate covered pretzels, clean, laundry)
  B - leftover fritata, avocado (me), blueberry muffins, pineapple (Justin)
  D - hot dogs/brats, fried potatoes, sauteed spinach