Menu Plan Tuesday! September 27, 2011

The very first recipe I made with my kitchen aid mixer was this french bread recipe. It turned out quite well and we really enjoy it. Unfortunately, I tried making it a few more times and it didn't turn out as well. The last time, when I went to cut slits in the bread, the bread deflated and was very thick and chewy. So, this week, I thought I'd try this french bread recipe at Amy's Finer Things. We already enjoy her hamburger buns and smothered burritos, so I figured it was worth a shot. I'm glad I did. It looked picture perfect and was delicious! It is now my new french bread recipe!

Sunday: French toast (with the leftover french bread!) Update: My bread was moldy :(, so we had pancakes instead.
Monday: Crispy Baked Chicken. (I wanted to make this last week, but we had a warm, hot fall day and I didn't want to turn on the oven. It promises to be quite rainy this week. I'll make it with mashed potatoes and I'm toying with the type of bread I'll serve with it. Perhaps corn bread?
Tuesday: Spaghetti night
Wednesday: Twice baked potatoes from the freezer with fruit, and veggies.
Thursday: Not sure. I'll look for inspiration from this week's menu plans....
Friday: Eating out!

For more menus visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Little Finds

I already loved Nony's blog over at A Slob Comes Clean. Now she is featuring weekly decluttering webinars. They are informative and very entertaining!

These magnetic dress up dolls from A Heart for Home are a great gift idea!

Did you know there are less than 100 days until Christmas?

Mandi Ehman from Life Your Way has a new feed Christmas Your Way. She's offering, 101 tips, recipes, and DIY projects until Dec. 25.

Toni at Happy Housewife is offering 100 Days of Homemade Christmas Gifts.

And, I've bookmarked Andrea's Clutter-Free Holiday Countdown she created last year. Besides expired giveaways, the tips are still good!

Menu Plan Monday, September 5, 2011

It's still Monday, so the title still counts ;-) We had a wonderful day off today. My husband took my daughter out for the morning, so I was able to catch up on a lot of work. It feels good to have those things out of my mind. I still have plenty to do, but at least I'm not behind!

We're going to have warmer weather again this week, so I think I'm going to do more dinners on the grill. I will not be making kabobs. The other week, I posted about cooking chicken souvlaki on the grill. For convenience, I was going to grill it as a kabob. I defrosted the chicken, cut it into little cubes and marinaded them all day. Then, I went in search of my kabob sticks. And I searched and searched, but couldn't find them anywhere. I found my marshmallow roasters, I found plastic straws, but no sticks. I think I got rid of them when we moved. So, I placed the many cubes of chicken on the grill. It was very delicious, but it was too tedious to have to flip each little piece!

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday: We had hot dogs with chips and grapes. The baby had leftover pasta with nectarine.

Tuesday: Chicken on the grill. Both Ben and I liked this marinade, but he wanted less soy sauce. I'll try it with half the amount this time. I'll make cooked carrots with this and garlic bread.

Wednesday: Taco pinwheel. Ben really liked this the last time. I'm going to reduce the spices just a bit because it was a bit too hot for me, but he asked that I not reduce them too much.

Thursday: Chicken Sandwich....I was supposed to make this last week. I did make it, but I didn't have quite enough oil left and I burned the other side of the chicken instead of cooking it. So, this is take two. I need to make hamburger buns too.

Friday: I have the buns, might as well make burgers on the grill!

Saturday: I'm torn between this Lemon Ginger Chicken and this Lemon Chicken recipe. It probably depends on how hot it is.

For more menus, visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie.com.

Little Finds

Crystal at Money Saving Mom has been posting these great Busy Bag Ideas for toddlers. I want to put together a few of these for my daughter to play with.

These snickerdoodle cupcakes from Stephanie's Kitchen look so delicious. I have cream cheese frosting in the freezer, but I'm going to wait until I make a fresh batch of frosting with cinnamon!

JessieLeigh at Parenting Miracles shares great wisdom for communicating with her husband in this post "Tell Him About It."

I'm looking forward to trying this Traditional Chicken Divan recipe made with out mayo or cream of soup. I'll omit the broccoli for my husband's preference, so it won't be completely traditional, but it still looks tasty! (Hat tip, Grocery Cart Challenge)