Knitting Zeal

Menu plan Monday, March 31, 2014

March has been a crazy month....winter seemed like it would  never end until this weekend when we now have had over two days straight of never ending rain.  So at least it's warming up enough so that it stays rain and not snow! I started a new "lifestyle change" (ie: diet/exercise plan) this month that has been successful so far.  I've had little time to sit at the computer, therefore the blog absence.  Spending a couple of hours exercising and meal planning daily has been a challenge, but I think the longer I do it the easier it will be.  (More on that another post, maybe!)

I've still been menu planning, but just on paper in the form of grocery lists and recipe notes to myself.  I've been using The Everyday DASH Diet Cookbook that I borrowed from the library for meal planning.  Overall it's been a good resource for cooking tasty meals with reduced sodium and fat.  I had thought I cooked healthy meals in general, but this book has given me ideas of how to tweak them to be better.  

So here is this week's menu:

Sunday:  Carnitas with corn tortillas, black beans and brown rice, salads (Pork was leftover from a previous crock pot meal and frozen!)

Monday: Mango coconut Mahi Mahi (Whole Foods), Israeli couscous, steamed broccoli, salad.

Tuesday: Chinese chicken with Bok Choy and garlic, salad.  (DASH cookbook recipe, p 108)

Wednesday: Turkey spinach meatballs and whole wheat pasta, salad, steamed broccoli. (Meatballs from DASH cookbook, p 120)

Thursday: Salmon and edamame cakes (DASH p 135) and Asian slaw with ginger dressing (p 63)

Friday: Homemade pizza with whole wheat dough, salads

Saturday: TBD

 

I'm linking this post up on MPM at I'm an Organizing Junkie!  

Related articles

Menu plan Monday, for week of December 9, 2013

Menu plan Monday, 6/10/13

Menu Plan Monday for July 15, 2013

Menu planning

Welcome Spring craft: chalkboard flower pots

This may be the most excited I've ever been for allergy season SPRING! This winter really did me in between being stuck in the house from the Polar Vortex hell and all those snow days.  And while I realize technically it could still be cold off and on until the end of March, I am in full spring mode, ready for daffodils, tulips and flowering trees (Achoo!)

Inspired by an idea from Barb of A Life in Balance, I came up with this simple and fun spring craft.  Barbara challenged bloggers to use the tiny terra cotta flower pots in a spring craft.  

I decided to make a series of flower pots in two sizes that could be used as a centerpiece when arranged together on a tray in the middle of the table or  as a decoration in a line on the mantle or as a place marker for a spring dinner party.  I've wanted to try out chalkboard paint for a while, so this seemed like the perfect project for it.  I made chalkboard flower pots!

I purchased supplies at Michael's, Target and my basement (ok, I had a small collection of tiny flower pots already!)  I saw flower pots at Michael's and I think the dollar store might even sell them.  I was excited to find that Michael's sells small bottles of chalkboard paint for under two dollars.  I orignially had seen it by the quart at Home Depot, but didn't want that much paint.  I picked a regular acrylic paint as an accent in Robin's Egg Blue, because it just seemed very spring-like to me.  

Supplies:

• mini flower pots
• acrylic paint
• chalkboard paint
• chalk
• paint brushes or sponges
• jute twine or ribbon
• hot glue and glue gun
• small plants or soil and grass seed

How I did this craft:

I painted the flower pots first, and then added a second coat.  Since I was painting several pots, I switched my patterns with the two colors of paint for variety so the pots are not all the same.  Before using the chalkboard paint, read the instructions on the bottle for how to apply it for the best coverage and finished surface.  Using jute twine I found in the dollar bins at Target, in pink and natural brown, I added some accents to each pot. I used hot glue to secure the twine to each pot so it wouldn't slide off and simply tied the ends into a small bow.  I found a mini pinwheel at home and added that for some whimsy to one of the pots after it was planted.  I also added a little "happy Easter" sign that I had. I wrote "happy spring" on two of the pots with chalk.  

Meanwhile, I planted some grass seed to grow. (If you plan to grow seeds for your decorations, I suggest starting them in soil a week or two before you need them for the decorations.)  Initially I thought I would fill each pot with bright green grass, but then I found some teeny little flowering plants at Trader Joe's so I added them to the mix.  This was the most simple craft and adds a nice spring touch to my mantle!  If I were to use them as place markers, I would write each guest's name on the chalkboard painted part of the pot.  

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Related articles

December 2: holiday blooms

Family movie night

 

This winter was long, cold and dark!  As a way to have a bit of fun, we started having a weekly "Family Movie Night" every Saturday night.  We planned an early dinner, gave the kiddo several choices of movies and let him pick the flick of the night.  Between owned DVDs, borrowed movies from the library, and free on-demand movies, we have had lots of choices. 

This activity quickly became the highlight of our weekends and my son looks forward to it each week.  He gets to stay up a bit later than usual, enjoy some freshly popped popcorn and see new movies.  We've watched The Night Guardians, Star Wars (the original one,) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Spy Kids (1-4,) Rango and Home Alone, to name a few.  My son wants to continue with movie night year round.  

Here is a list of potential family movies for future viewing:

• ET
• Hugo 
• Goonies
• Mary Poppins
• Sound of Music
• Wallace and Grommit (any of them!)
• Chicken Run
• The Lorax
• The Muppets (2011)
• The Muppet Movie (1979)
• Matilda
• The Incredibles
• Back to the Future
• How to Train your Dragon
• James and the Giant Peach
• Ponyo
• Kung Fu Panda
• The Wizard of Oz
• Frozen
• Despicable Me (the first and second!)
• The Lion King
• Freaky Friday (1976 version)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Babe
• Charlotte's Web
• My Neighbor Totoro

Most of these are new to my son, with the exception of the Wallace and Grommit movies, which are favorites here.  I've had fun finding old movies from my childhood at the library.  What's your favorite family movie??

 

Menu plan Monday, March 3, 2014

 

I'm slow moving on deciding on the menu for the week, so here is my menu plan, a day late!

Monday: Chicken tacos, chips and salsa

Tuesday: Perfect potato soup, salad

Wednesday:  White bean chicken chili

Thursday: slow cooker beef and broccoli with rice

Friday: Mom's night out!  

Weekend: Pizza, Roasted turkey breast, veggies.

 

It's ridiculouly cold here, still, and thankfully the almost foot of snow they predicted stayed too far south and we ended up with just a two hour delay to school and an inch or two of snow Monday morning.  I'm trying out Pioneer Woman's potato soup recipe today.  I love baked potato soup, but when I read just how much milk, cream and cheese is in most recipes, I shy away from it because it just isn't a good healthy choice.  Her recipe is a chicken broth base with just one cup of milk and half cup of cream added, compared to the seven cups in most recipes I found.  

Our new food for this month has been up for discussion in the house.  Fishie February was not appreciated by the child, who suddenly declared mid-month that he was changing it to granola bar month!  He did eat both more fish and more granola bars.  He asked if we could skip this month!  I said no.  My point was to introduce him to a new food each month....he wants it to be a food that is new to all of us.  That just isn't working.  In our discussion of possibilities for March the following came up as choices: cabbage, brussel sprouts, potatoes (non fry types,) sweet potatoes, and eggs.  He settled on sweet potatoes, which he likes in fry form.  I'm not sure how I'll incorporate that ingredient yet.  I think we might start with baked sweet potatoes one night and maybe I'll make sweet potato pancakes some weekend morning. I know I've seen lots of stews and chilis using sweet potatoes on Pinterest, so I'm sure I'll find some recipes there.  I told him that for April it will be eggs.  I'd love for him to eat hard boiled eggs.  He only likes scrambled eggs.  He refuses to eat a sandwich for lunch, so if I could get him to eat a hard boiled egg for lunch, at least he would get some protein.  Currently he eats peanut butter crackers and yogurt for lunch with fruit and veggies.  It gets old.  Even he gets bored with it!

I'm linking my menu plan up to Organinzing Junkie!  

 

 

 

Related articles

Menu plan Monday for October 14, 2013

sweet potato chicken chili