Quinoa, Gyoza, and Other Weird Vegetarian Ideas...

My spring/summer menu plan is finally completed (now that spring is over, of course).  But hopefully, it may be something worth using next year as well.  I have loved menu planning since our early years of marriage, but have found using a monthly/seasonal menu plan to be even more beneficial in this time of my life.  Being a vegetarian, I'm already viewed as a little weird, so why not add to that weirdness by adding things like quinoa (pronouced "keen-wha") and gyoza (what I learned to make in 8th grade Home Ec class)  I tried to lessen our carb intake, since that's the easy option when eating vegetarian, but not necessarily the healthiest.  I may try to substitute lentils instead of quinoa on some Mondays for the cost issue.  We've tried some of these recipes, while others are still a guessing game.  Some (esp the salad ones) may have to be accompanied by Annie's Mac n Cheese for the sake of my non-salad lovers.

Monday - Quinoa
1.  Quinoa, Black Beans, and Corn Tacos
2.  Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
3.  One Pan Mexican Quinoa
4.  Sesame Ginger Quinoa Salad

Tuesday - Fish
1.  Salmon Cakes
2.  Tuna Lunch Bites
3.  Baked Salmon with Garlic & Dijon
4.  Fish Tacos

Wednesday - Beans
1.  Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls
2.  Black Bean Soup
3.  Tempeh Chili with corn chips
4.  Bean & Cheese Burritos






Thursday - Salads
1.  Grilled Summer Vegetable Salad
2.  Quick Asian Noodle Salad
3.  Broccoli, Tomato, & Tortellini Salad
4.  Easy Greek Salad

Friday - Family Favorites
1.  Chipotle Black Bean Burger
2.  Pizza (homemade or take-out)
3.  Japanese (gyoza, edamame, yakisoba)
4.  Hot Dogs, cole slaw, chili

Saturday & Sunday - Whatever...
1.  Spinach Quiche
2.  Waffles & smoothies
3.  Grilled Sandwiches
4.  Baked Potatoes

For the days when I just want to throw the menu out the window, there is always take-out pizza!  Mommy's life-saver!

Day 27 - Organizing my "home away from home"

Today has been a day of getting a few things accomplished that I’ve had on my to-do list for too long.  The two main tasks were putting up my “wall of daily do’s” and organizing my car.  We were blown away last Sunday by an incredible group of friends who blessed us by detailing my van, inside and out.  Thank you again to the Fescoe Life Group!  So, already I had a good start to my endeavor. I saw an idea on pinterest (which I’ll link to) that totally inspired me to organize my car.  So here is my copycat of the pinterest idea…

The mesh pocket organizer is from IKEA and cost only $3.99!  It comes in orange or blue/green.  I also bought carabineers (snap hooks) from the Dollar Store to hook the organizer to the headrests.  The pockets contain #1) cough drops, #2) hair accessories, brush, feminine items, #3) office supplies (note cards, note pad, pens, sharpie, tape, and scissors), #4) first aid kit, big band-aids, hand sanitizer, #5) tissues & wipes, & #6) picnic supplies (napkins, plastic utensils, straws, & matches).

In the floor board, I have a portable potty (very important since we are potty training our youngest!), extra towels for wiping off slides & other playground equipment, & picnic blanket.

In the stackable plastic bins, the bottom bin contains, extra clothes for each girl, paper towels, baby wipes, extra diapers, and trash bags.  The open bin contains jackets for each girl, just in case they forget one walking out the door.

For any men who are worried, on the left hand side, I have a set of jumper cables in the van cubbie.  In the front of the van, there is a trash can & the glove compartment has all important insurance info as well as a flashlight, more band-aids, and peppermint sticks from Cracker Barrel (a must in each vehicle!)

There are more things I’d like to add, but forgot about today, such as umbrellas, car activities (coloring, books, etc), & non-perishable snacks.  Here are some other ideas for organizing your car…

     - The Castro family - Junk in the Trunk (original idea from Pinterest)

     - Simply Kierste - a place for everything

     - SC Johnson - 8 Tips to an Organized Car 

Our Wall of Daily Do’s 

I wrote about this back on Day 12, and have finally (almost) completed it today.  The only thing I need to do is print off a 5 x 7 picture of our family to put in the small frame in the middle.  One day, I’ll fix our daily schedule board to look a little straighter/cleaner, but for now, it will do.  Our schedule is written on the plastic part with dry erase markers, so we can erase and reuse it week after week.  The small frame on the bottom has my weekly cleaning schedule (which was not well done this week).  The chalk board has the girls’ monthly verses that we are working on for Sunday School.  The top red frame contains a print of family rules that I hope our family will incorporate into our daily lives.

Not a very exciting post… but I hope that each of these areas will help me even in small ways to go from insanity to sanity.

Day 23 - Cleaning

Cleaning!  Ugh!  This is one area that really, really causes me stress (anxiety, nervous tension, constant worry)!  Ok, maybe not that bad.  At least I never lose sleep at night because of it.  Some people clean for fun (and for that I truly admire them).  I only clean when company comes over.  Seriously!  On the occasional day when I clean just for the fun of it, my girls usually ask who is coming over for dinner.  No one!  Can’t a mama clean for her sanity sake?

When we first got married in 2000, we lived on my college campus while I finished my degree.  We had the best corner apartment in the married couples building, and I had it spick and span.  Of course, it was only about 600 square feet (I think?).  Then, we bought our first home, a cute little 3 bed/2 bath ranch about 1200 square feet.  Even then, I spent every Saturday cleaning each room in our sweet starter home.  Still not too hard… With each house, they’ve gotten a little larger though (besides our townhouse in seminary).  

Now, as a home school mother of three, cleaning is not my priority, and why should it be?  I’ll spend hours cleaning and organizing a room and two days later, it looks like a tornado went through it.  In all seriousness though, I really want to do a better job at keeping a tidy (and a little cleaner) home for my family.  It’s amazing how much better I feel when my house is picked up and not full of clutter.  

I have searched other blogs, talked to other wives and mothers, pinned pins to try to find a cleaning schedule that will work for me to make my life a little easier (and cleaner).  Here is what I hope to try:

     Monday - Laundry (change sheets, wash & dry)

     Tuesday - Fold & put away laundry

     Wednesday - Vacuum & dust

     Thursday - Kitchen: floors, fridge & microwave

     Friday - Bathrooms

     Saturday - Work outside, garage, clean out cars.

This obviously doesn’t include everything, but it’s a start.  

I’ve compiled a list of other women who have it a little more together when it comes to cleaning.  

o Iheartorganizing – lists for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and             annual cleaning (I love her site for organizing too!)

o Designfinch – lots of weekly cleaning printables (and other                         printables too!)

o Macheesmo – 4 basic homemade cleaners, recipes easy to read and           understand

o Passionatehomemaking – Cleaning your home in 30 minutes a day

o Keeper of the Home – 10 homemade kitchen cleaners (non-toxic)

Day 13 - A Wall of Daily Do's

 

Being a recovering perfectionist, organization is an area that I am instantly attracted to.   The Container Store, purses with lots of pockets, and organization boards on Pinterest are just a few of my weaknesses.   For months now, I’ve been wanting to put together a wall of frames and pictures that will encompass our family’s daily do’s.  Some call it their family command center, and I’m sure there are other names for it as well.  But, despite buying frames, an adorable letter “M,” and printing schedules and such, I have yet to put our wall together.  So instead of putting it off until I have ours completed, I am going to post some the inspirational ideas that have helped me to one day put ours together.

The transitional Pottery Barn look…

Southern Living’s take on the Family Command Center:  Done in a day!

The newest Pottery Barn system

Black & white wall full of organizational bliss

10 tips/ideas from the TipJunkie

I'm hoping to finish our wall this week in an effort to help our daily schedule run smoother.  I'll try to post a picture when it's completed.

Day 8 - Meal Planning

Today is the perfect day for a nap.  Cold and rainy with an afternoon at home breeds the perfect recipe for a sweatshirt, blanket, and couch combo.  But that was yesterday’s agenda, so this afternoon I am instead stretched out in my recliner with my brown mug of coffee and Pandora playing softly beside me.  Almost as good as a nap...  I was planning on touching on a different topic today, but I wasn’t ready yet.  So I skipped to my next topic… meal planning.

One of the most stressful parts of the day can be deciding what to what fix for supper.  My husband’s solution to this is to simply go out to eat.  In order to avoid our budget going out the roof, a monthly meal plan is essential!  I have done weekly meal planning for years.  I used to gather all my cookbooks, spend an hour or two pouring over them, and make a meal plan and grocery list for the upcoming week.  This worked well in the past, but then I discovered making two meal plans for the year and rotating the meals through a month at time.  This is a meal plan… meaning it doesn’t always happen, but without a plan it is sure to never happen.  

Here is a glimpse of our fall menu (vegetarian/pescatarian) :

Breakfast:

Monday- Cereal or muffins, fruit

Tuesday- Eggs, toast or grits, fruit 

Wednesday – Green smoothie,  muffin or bread

Thursday – Eggs, toast or grits, fruit

Friday – Green Smoothie, muffin or bread

Saturday - Pancakes or French toast, fruit

Sunday – Muffins or waffles (frozen)

Lunch:

- Sandwiches, fruit, veggies

- Yogurt with berries

- Quesadillas or crack wraps

- Mac N Cheese

- Fun Nuggets

Supper:

Mondays – Italian/Ethnic

1. Baked Spaghetti

2. Pesto Lasagna

3. Stir Fry w/rice & veggies or Fried Rice

4. Spinach Spaghetti

Tuesdays – Main Dish Salads/Legumes

1. Quinoa Salad, Tilapia, & Spinach Bake

2. Taco Salad

3. Savory Fall Stew

4. Tempeh Chili & Cornbread

Wednesdays – Sandwiches

1. Cheese & Bean Quesadillas 

2. BBQ Tuna Sandwiches

3. Tuna Cheesies

4. Eat at church

Thursdays – Soups

1. Wild Rice Soup

2. Broccoli & Cheese Soup

3. Mexican Corn Soup

4. Cream of Tomato Basil Soup

Fridays – Special Dinner Night

1. Homemade (or delivery) Pizza (twice a month)

2. Hamburgers, baked beans, cole slaw

3. Date Night

Saturdays & Sundays

- Leftovers 

- Nachos 

- Baked Potatoes 

- Breakfast or Waffles

- Cheesy Wild Rice Casserole

- Stuffed Peppers

Meals for others…

- Creamy Chicken and Noodles, green bean casserole

- Minestrone Soup

- Piggies in a blanket, oven fries, coleslaw

- Broccoli Casserole & Corn Bake

How this works for our family:

At the beginning of each month, I take out a blank calendar and literally fill in the month with these meals.  By having themes for each day, it helps me to be deliberate in making sure we get in enough protein each week.  This may seem boring, but as a home school mom of three, routine is essential in keeping my sanity, the budget down, and well-rounded meals on the table as much as possible.  Another goal is to produce a main monthly grocery list from these meals.  (This is still a goal in the works.)  In my homemaking binder, I have all the recipes that go along with my menu for the season, so I’m not having to waste time looking through cookbooks or Pinterest to find the right recipe.  I really hope that this will help spend more meals at home and less time wondering what to fix for supper.  

Here are a few more resources:

o Keeper of the Home (her seasonal plan)

o Resources & recipes for meal planning

o Passionate Homemaking (her winter meal plan)

Day 7 - Homemaking Binder

A few years ago, I read of the “Homemaking Binder.”  There are many renditions of them among homemakers, but over the past two years, I’ve SLOWLY started putting mine together.  Instead of having my box of recipes, our family calendar, & other important lists in separate places, this has allowed me to put them all together with the hopes of saving a little sanity.

My notebook is broken into these sections:

o Family (our calendar for the year divided into months) 

o Meals & Recipes (monthly menu planner forms, fall menu plan,               & recipes) 

o Homemaking (cleaning checklists & extra forms)

o Personal (books I’d like to read & goals for the year, etc)

Here are a few of my favorite resources that I have used:

o Moneysavingmom (my to-do list – customized for our typical                   day/laminated/reusuable)

o Organizedhome (printable monthly menu planner, lots of printable           lists)

o Donnayoung (free calendar printables)

o Passionatehomemaking (inspiration for me to do the homemaking           binder/video of her binder)

o Time-warp-wife (another resource for ideas for homemaking                     binders)

More details will follow in upcoming days concerning topics like menu plans & cleaning checklists.  But this is a basic glimpse of what my simple binder looks like and it is still a work in progress.  (Sorry for the dark pictures.)