Meal Plans Week of 5-9-10

Happy Mother's Day!!  This is a special holiday for me.  Not because I think I need to be celebrated.  But because of the fact that I AM a mother and I CAN celebrate it!  Such a blessing.  No big plans for today.  I'm sure there will be some small gift.  But that's it.  Just getting to spend the day with my wonderful little girl is enough.  This week will be a lot less busy for me than last week in terms of outings/errands.  But it will be much busier for Justin...which means Rebecca and I will be on our own a lot more.  We like it when Daddy is around :)  Nothing besides church today.  Which is nice after a busy weekend.  Monday is grocery day and Justin has council all evening.  Tuesday Justin has his first class of the summer semester.  Wednesday is Kindermusik.  Justin has a meeting at church, but he'll probably skip it so he can have one night at home.  Thursday Justin has class again.  No plans for Friday and Saturday at this point.  If the weather is nice maybe we'll have a family outing or just go biking or something.  Since Rebecca and I have a little extra time this week maybe we'll spend some time at the playground or go to the zoo or children's museum.  We'll see what the weather is like and how we're feeling.  Rebecca is pretty much over her cold.  Still on antibiotics, though.

Last week I did some more grain soaking and baking.  I made oatmeal muffins, soaked quinoa (for breakfast and for a salad), strawberry bread and a large batch of pumpkin pancakes to freeze.

This week I'm going to focus on some other types of soaking.  I think I can tell a difference in my digestion when I soak my grains.  Plus it's a lot healthier.  So I'm trying to expand what I soak.  First, I would like to try making sourdough bread.  So I have to get started on my starter.  I still need to figure out which recipe to try and make sure I have all the ingerdients.  Not sure when I'll make the actual bread since the starter takes a while.  Anyone know what type of container works well for a starter?  I will also need to make a new batch of granola soon.  I eat it almost every day.  I've been addicted to granola since college :P  But I know that the oats are tough on my stomach.  Actually most of the granola ingredients are.  So my hope is to soak at least some oats and nuts to use in my next batch of granola.  And I want to continue this in the future when I make granola, granola bars, etc.  At some point I would like to attmempt sprouting, but that will have to wait for another week.

I also have a few cooking/baking projects on my list this week.  I have some ice cream ingredients in the fridge yet that I want to use up before they go bad.  They're expensive!  Don't want to waste them.  So hopefully I can squeeze in a batch of ice cream.  I also want to try making homemade poptarts.  The recipe was posted on FB by my MOPS group.  Sounds fun to try.  But of course I'll attempt to make a whole wheat version.  And I think I'm going to try a new scone recipe this week too.  It will depend on how much time Rebecca and I spend inside vs. outside/at a park, etc.

I'm working on my food budget for the week.  I guess I'll get to try it out tomorrow.  See how I do when I shop...if I come in under budget :)  I was excited that last week I only spent about $40 on food!

I placed my first co-op order last week.  I can't wait to get my stuff next week!  I didn't get too much this time.  I want to see how it all works with pick up and stuff before I get a big order.  Here's what was in my basket: 2 gallons Mooville 2% milk, 2 gallons Mooville cream line whole milk, real cream cheese, 3 lbs. grass fed ground beef, 1 lb. grass fed ground lamb, natural laundry detergent, 1/2 gallon Mooville ice cream, 2 jars of raw honey and 4 lbs. of organic whole wheat flour.

One of Jusitn's co-workers sells organic free-range chickens.  Orders are due next week, so we have to decide how many to get.  They'll be delivered in September.  They come whole...so I'll have to learn how to break down a chicken!  How many of those can I do???  Supposedly they are really big chickens.  So we'll probably only get a few this time to see how it goes.

The hard drive on our computer died last week.  So I may not be uploading photos this week.  It's kind of a pain with the laptop.  Hopefully we'll get things fixed quickly.

Simple meals again this week.  Our spinach and lettuce might be ready this week, so I could be adding in some side salads to our meals.  Now that the weather is getting nicer we want to do more grilling.  I'm trying to do it once a week.  That will probably be Saturday this week.  But I haven't decided yet what we're having.  Finally, now I have the added challenge of not making dinner 2 nights a week but still having enough leftovers for all of Justin's lunches.  Here goes :)
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S (church, Mother's Day)
  B - toast with peanut butter and flax seed, fresh fruit
  L - crockpot white bean and sausage soup, homemade wheat thins and organic mont. jack cheese
  D - leftover quinoa salad w/ extra veggies and parmesan (me), leftover pork chops, beans (Justin)

M (Meijer, make bread, council, soak oats and pecans)
  B - crunchy granola bars, oranges
  D - italian pasta bake (veggie version), corn, breadsticks

T (dry oats and pecans, make ice cream batter, make ice cream, class)
  B - scrambled eggs, toast w/ jam or apple butter
  D - salad

W (KM, make pop tart pastry)
  B - cereal
  D - salmon pasta, peas, salad?

Th (make pop tarts, class, make sourdough starter, soak grains)
  B - homemade brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts, fresh pineapple and strawberries
  D - lentil burger, mixed veggies

F (library, clean, feed sourdough starter, make scones)
  B - homemade chocolate peanut butter pop tarts, fresh pineapple and strawberries
  D - egg veggie casserole, orange and oat scones, home canned applesauce

S (laundry, clean, feed sourdough starter, make granola, grind flour?)
  B - orange and oat scones, fresh oranges, pineapple and strawberries
  D - grilled steak, grilled asparagus, carrots, french fries